Bob Klapisch of The Record, posted a strong rebuke of the current Mets team and says that the team was “built to fail.” “Niese’s masterpiece aside, the Mets have been careening toward disaster for most of May and are now on pace for 100 losses. No one should be surprised; this roster has been badly flawed from the outset. Still, it’s disturbing how quickly the season has unraveled, leaving in its wake the sense that [...]

We are getting perilously close to the time in the baseball season where free-falling clubs tend to fire their manager. Should the Mets sack Terry Collins in the wake of his ripping the fans – who by the way, aren’t coming out to Citi Field these days – they can claim justifiability, but would be making a mistake. Like many quick-fixes, it will not work. Despite Collins’ outburst, firing him is not the answer as it screams panic. [...]

The Terry Collins era was always going to go down as the bridge to brighter days. How else could you explain Sandy Alderson making Collins his first manager with the track record he possessed three years ago? Collins oversaw teams collapse in Houston and Anaheim, with the latter resulting in a mutiny. He was well-placed as a minor-league field coordinator, and could still be valuable in such a role for an organization going forward. The [...]

It must have been fate that I happened to be in my car at 1:00 pm yesterday. After listening to WFAN’s Mike Francesa, I see the other side to this Valdespin issue – in fact it goes beyond Valdespin. I only was in the car long enough to hear his opening monologue, but you know what? He was dead on. Look, Valdespin is a jerk – he’s an immature bench player who constantly finds himself [...]

Last Night’s Quick Scores Las Vegas dropped Albuquerque, 4-3.  Binghamton split a double header with Harrisburg, 3-1 and 9-3.  St. Lucie had an off day. Savannah lost to Rome, 4-1.  Prospect Pipeline Wheeler Watch: Joe D. thinks the timing is right, everyone likes what they see (including Wally Backman — see below), and the Mets could us a jolt…one more solid start and Zack Wheeler may be packing his bags for Queens. What’s that? You have nothing [...]

How many of you are sitting at home tonight, wondering and asking yourselves how long it will be until we finally see Zack Wheeler wearing that uniform and hurling 98 mph fastballs from the mound at Citi Field? The question is not an easy one to answer and in fact it’s a perfect paradox by virtue of the logical arguments one can make for either side. It’s a conundrum, that much is true, but it’s [...]

Las Vegas manager Wally Backman believes Zack Wheeler‘s big league promotion could be about two weeks away, according to a report by Adam Rubin on ESPN New York. “Personally, I think if he has a couple of more starts like his last start he’ll be headed to the big leagues, and rightfully so,” Backman told Las Vegas’ ESPN radio affiliate. We’ll have our Las Vegas beat writer Rob Silverman on hand Saturday when Wheeler takes the mound [...]

Zack Wheeler had a test of fortitude staring him in the face today when he took the mound against the Reno Aces. The good news for Mets fans is that the young Wheeler stared adversity in the face and punched it in the mouth. He ran into some trouble right out of the gate, as lead-off hitter Tyler Bortnick singled and stole second base. Wheeler then induced two ground balls, one which moved the runner [...]

About two weekends ago my church had a men’s breakfast meeting, and the guest speaker was none other than Dwight Evans, the very productive right fielder for the Boston Red Sox from 1972-1990. Listening to Evans speak about his life in baseball and the many things that affected his game, brought me back to the only game that mattered in my life when I was a kid. Dewey didn’t mention the 1986 World Series, but he didn’t [...]

Tacoma 10, Las Vegas 1 The Las Vegas 51s managed just four hits Friday against visiting Tacoma in a 10-1 loss at Cashman Field. The 51s allowed double-digit runs for the second straight game and dropped their third straight overall. Partially responsible for that huge run total was starter Carlos Torres, who was rocked for six earned runs over five innings. Dylan Owen struggled as well, allowing three earned runs over his two innings of [...]

Last night, in the Mets 7-2 loss to the Dodgers, Juan Lagares entered the game in the top of the fifth inning to play center field as part of a double-switch – officially marking his major league debut. Lagares led off in the bottom half of the fifth with a hard hit fly to the warning track in left field against Dodgers’ ace LHP Clayton Kershaw. In his next at-bat, Lagares singled against left-hander Paco Rodriguez in [...]