NY Mets 2013

[syam24]

Solid game from the Mets and Dillon Gee in particular on SUnday. Gee kept the Nats off balance with a great change up into the 6th inning. THe bullpen came thru, even though Scott Rice got into some trouble during his one inning of work. He walked the leadoff guy, gave up a hit, but then got Werth to hit into a double play before striking out Bryce Harper. Parnell closed it out with a good save performance. John Buck slammed a monster homerun for one run and Mike Baxter got the other run home with a bases loaded sac fly. Enough runs on this day of shutout pitching. (as an aside, I just hope Mr Buck is not juicing. His start seems a bit out of character, and in light of issues with other players in the past, this thought has popped into my head) I know he has showed power in the past in KC and Toronto, but it seems a bit too good to be true for the Mets to be this lucky with a player. Enjoy the off day, Mets! Let's go Mets!!

[Sausy]

Glad to see Dillon Gee going like his old self again and the relief effort was terrific. John Buck has had a tremendous April now leasding the Mets with seven home runs and so nice to take a series from Washington. Got back from Las Vegas after midnight Sunday morning so missed both Bryce Harper's big game against the Mets and even more unfortunately missed Matt Harvey's terrific effort Friday night against Stephen Strasburg. I did see the highlights on Sportscenter which showed the crowd chanting" Harvey's better!" and goodness like sonny described it brought chills up my spine how awesome it was. Syam, I have full faith a guy like John Buck is totally legit... he worked a lot on his swing, always been a big guy and just is off to a great start.

Totally bummed to read that Travis D'Arnaud will be out until late June with that fractured foot, though fortunately he doesn't need surgery. His injury last year and this one were flukes though he did have a back injury a couple of years back, so understand how there is a concern about his being prone to injury but hopefully he gets back and is fine and gets called up before September. Terry Collins is a little concerned about Zach Wheeler's wildness in AAA which is uncharacteristic of his time in the Mets minor leagues so far. He may be compensating because of how AAA Las Vegas is NOT a pitcher's friend because of the dry desert air but it's essential he stay within himself but he definitely isn't ready yet for a promotion to the big club. Buffalo was such a bettter place pitching wise but I guess it helps if you are challenged earlier than later with adverse conditions. Hoping we'll see Zach sometime after the All Star break and he gets things together in the meantime.

Coming in for the next three games are the Los Angeles Dodgers..... "Let's go, Mets"!

[Sausy]

Tough break with Jonathon Niese getting hit by Mark Ellis' ball up the middle and causing a bruised knee that took him out of the game
as ironically Ellis bedeviled Mets pitching with two big home runs tonight. Relief wasn't so good and while Niese wasn't badly injured it's still possible he may have to skip a start for precaution he heals correctly. Mets go down to the Dodgers in the home series opener 7-2. Hopefully the Mets can get things moving again with a win tomorrow night... as syam cheers on, "Let's go, Mets"!

[Sausy]

My bad...damn that's why I hate working late and quickly trying to catch up with Mets games when I come home....Jonathon Niese was struck in the foot last night by that shot by Mark Ellis, not the knee. Still looks like he'll make his next start but the Mets are watching just to make sure. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who hasn't done much so far in the opportunities he's gotten has been demoted to AAA Las Vegas and replaced on the roster by Juan Lagares. Know VERY littler about him, sure sonny has a better handle on him and hoefully can give us some info on him. Hope Captain Kirk can get back in the groove that marked his first couple of months last year when he was a strong contributor to the Mets fast start early last year.

Matt Harvey goes tonight! Let's go, Mets!!!

[sonny10305]

Jon Niese is fine no problem this morning at all. A little scary at first cause he felt numbness there just after it happened but by the time the negative X-rays came back he had full feeling again. He is gonna throw tomorrow and if all goes well with that he will make his next start.

As Saucy wrote The Mets sent Nieuwenhuis to AAA to work on his swing and promoted outfielder Juan Lagares who you got a glimpse of in last night’s game, no, I don’t know him yet workin on it. but looks like really nice and very talented kid should help us out a lot especially from the right side of the plate. He is the lineup tonight batting 8th and playing center field.Meantime Kirk will get the at bats he needs in AAA to get his swing back with the very talented hitting coach and of course Backman.

Shaun Marcum is still up for his start Saturday.

Matt den Deckers cast some off Monday then two weeks rehab and prolly off to Vegas. Good chance we will see both those guys back in Flushing soon.

All excited to see Harvey again tonight. Matt is tied for the ML lead with 4 wins, is 2nd in the majors with a 0.93 ERA and 1st in the majors with 0.652 WHIP. He is a pitcher that can go deep into games; actually he has gone at least seven innings in every start this season. And in those four starts, he’s had only one inning last 20 pitches or longer.

The rest of tonight’s lineup will be Ruben Tejada SS Daniel Murphy 2B David Wright 3B John Buck C Ike Davis 1B Marlon Byrd RF Lucas Duda LF Juan Lagares CF

Kirk wanted everyone to meet his new puppy. Come on, how cute is that

[Sausy]

Adorable pic sonny, of Kirk and his new puppy!
Kirk definitely needs work and playing everyday at Las Vegas will be very beneficial for him...not getting enough work right now to correct his mechanical problems at the plate and he needs the at bats and practice to get into a good rhythm again. I don't think Lagares is a huge prospect but anyone who can contribute will be helpful at this point. Matt den Dekker getting healthy fairly quickly and being about two r three weeks away from playing is good news too. Hopeful someday we may see Matt and Kirk as part of a Mets outfield rotation. Certainly currently the two best defensive players out there, and all out grinders as well.

[syam24]

AMAZIN' win by the Mets last nite!! Matt Harvey pitched adequately, did a good job, biggest issue was a pitch Matt Kemp hit just over the right field fence at the foul pole. Other than that he was in command. Have to give Kemp his props for hitting that pitch out. The Mets came back with a run on a sac fly by Justin Turner, and a two out run scoring hit by DWright in the bottom of the ninth, driving in Mike Baxter, who had a hustle double off the glove of Carl Crawford. Then in the tenth the Mets loaded the bases and Jordanny Valdespin cracked a GRAND SLAM to win the game. A very nice victory when it seemed the Mets might lose a Harvey pitched game. Afternoon game today, Let's go Mets!!

[sonny10305]

I think one of the funniest thing I have seen in baseball was last night when Mattingly held up the game to take his sweet ole time repositioning the infield to 5 cutting the outfield to two then Jordany comes up to the plate and they all had to turn their heads and watch that grand slam go “outta here”

Rubber game today at 1 lineup will be Ruben Tejada SS Daniel Murphy 2B David Wright 3B Lucas Duda LF Marlon Byrd RF Ike Davis 1B Anthony Recker c Collin Cowgill CF Jeremy Hefner
Notice that Duda moves to cleanup, I presume to protect Wright

[sonny10305]

^^^I should have also written regarding the move for duda to cleanup it will also take some of the pressure off of Ike and I like that thinking on Collins part always looking out for Ike and trying to do what he can to help get him going

[Sausy]

"Amazin" win last night...saw the clips earlier this morning and was so happy after checking the scores occasionally at work last night and seeing bases loaded, one out and Jordanny Valdespin up...then seing the final score and knew it was a grand slam to win the game!Matt Harvey the competitor he is would have none of the "quality start" business even though he was great except for the one mistake to Kemp after getting hit for a run in the first... he really is driven to excelllence and was tough on himself for the home run. It's a quality the great pitchers have, to have that mentality to lock down the opposition but truth is no one is going to be near unhittable every night, or avoid a bad pitch or two ALL the time. But I do love Matt's drive.... he'll never stop looking to always keep having the edge over the hitter and is in that respect like a throwback to the Bob Gibson type greats of the old days.

Great hustle by our hometown boy Mike Baxter getting to second on Crawford's misplay and the Captain DWright lacing a single to score him to tie the game and get it into extra innings for Jordanny's heroics.We know Jordanny loves to get the big hit and this one was the biggest yet. Afternoon game today,"Let's go, Mets"!

[Sausy]

Disappointing follow up to last night's exhilirating victory. Mets fall 3-2 to the Dodgers as Jeremy Hefner was terrific, one run and only three hits with four strikeouts in seven innings but Scott Rice faltered in the ninth allowing two runs after giving up a couple of hits...infield hit off of Bobby Parnell scoring the winning run. Ike Davis did hit his fourth homer to open the ninth but Mets were sent back quietly after that, and missed a number of opportunities to expand their earlier lead, a problem that frequently shows up in recent years..getting some runs early but not capitalizing on them. Sorry to see especially because Jeremy Hefner was doing everything he can do, focused and in command, which gives you optimism he can be a very solid fourth or fifth starter even with his early season frustrations.

[Sausy]

Zach Wheeler is not doing too well right now, seems to be regressing and I don't know if he just doesn't like pitching in Las Vegas.
Had another frustrating start where after getting hit around a bit to start the game he was fine the next four innings, and completely unraveled in the fifth....giving up five runs , six hits and though he struck out 7 he could not hold on to a six run lead and Las Vegas lost the lead and the game to Tacoma 13-12 as the relief was just as lacking. Also Kirk Nieuwenhuis returned to the starting lineup and had an RBI hit but struck out four times as well. No one is pushing the panic button for Zach but his performances are distressing, he isn't showing a mature approach he needs to withstand the disadvantages of pitching in such a hitter's park. He needs to figure things out soon but at this point doesn't seem to have the mental toughness and ability to mix his pitches and bulldog determination Matt Harvey has, and yet almost all so called experts were saying Wheeler had a higher upside as an ace than Harvey. I was buying into the hype, but dealing with adversity has proven far more difficult for Wheeler than anyone anticipated. Well, he better start to show it or the Mets would be well within their rights to hold him back til next season.

[sonny10305]

Yeah Saucy I think I predicted problems for Wheeler going to that climate in Vegas and although he has been pitching well in fact his advanced will show you that he’s dealing with that hitter friendly environment out there. I just hope it does not impact how soon he is promoted to the bigs. What we have seen however is he has walked too many batters and has work yet to do on his control which was the biggest concern for him early on and prolly his biggest obstacle. Still I don’t want for him to develop bad habits in a ballpark the likes of which he will not see in the majors. Get him outta there before it screws with him not just physically but mentally as well. Let him develop his skills where even thou he will face better hitters he will also have the advantage of having all the veterans and big-league coaches around him. Stop the BS about the arbitration and free agent clock issues bla bla bla, he needs to be promoted and get the Hell out of Vegas he needs to develop elsewhere.

As to Nieuwenhuis too soon to comment or worry about him he just got there and needs time to improve his game. He is on a mission and is committed to get it right this time.

I am beggin Justin Turner not to let anyone else do the pie in the face thing after what happened to Spin the other day. I did not appreciate the macho totally unnecessary force that Buck used it damm near knocked Jordany over, I mean what the Hell was that. Had that been me I can tell you that after the game I would have dealt with that jackass. JT has promised to take back the pie throwing; actually Buck beat Justin to the kitchen the other day which is how that happened.

I was not surprised not to see Jordany Valdespin not in the lineup the day after he hit that grand slam. When Spin played every day for a while there were times when he had major lapses in focus I noticed how he reacted badly to a lot of different situations he just is not ready for that everyday role… not yet, plus those late day at bats off the bench are gold for us and for him . When I first saw him in Brooklyn I went out of my way to avoid him did not like that kid at all I thought he was a total jerk. But now the last week or so I have noticed how he has improved and matured, lately he seems much more calm and cool now and if you ask any of the players they will tell you how he thrives on being in a spot like the one the other day, just walk up to the plate and get er done. With his great speed he will in time be a great leadoff man and if we can figure out where; a productive outfielder as well. I like the way he is learning from his mistakes both on the field and in the clubhouse as well, for sure there has been a change for Jordany of late and it is for the better to be sure, and that is something I have been waiting and watching for ever since I first saw him in Brooklyn with the Cyclones. Like I said did not like him he was an absolute mess but a mess that you could see clearly had talent he just need to grow up and over the last few weeks I am beginning to see encouraging signs of that.

Jordany will be in the lineup tonight batting 8th rest of the lineup Baxter, Tejada, Murphy, Wright
Duda, Buck, Davis, Valdespin and Gee on the mound.
Interesting change with Murph batting 3rd moving Wright to cleanup. I like that!

There will be roster move after tomorrow’s game for Marcum activation. Who do you wanna see go? Stay tuned.

[Sausy]

Always good stuff, sonny. Didn't see the Buck attempt the cream pie but no one does it like Justin, and no one really should do it but Justin. Great stuff about Jordany Valdespin, at least he's not Millings Lastedge, who had the talent too but was nothing but arttitude and stylin' and see where that's left his baseball career...down the toilet! Hopefully he continues to mature and develop as a player and a person, and also importantly, ALWAYS wears a cup!

I like the new batting order and would like it to be given a few days at least to be tried out. Dillon Gee pitched fairly well yesterday allowing four runs in six innings but just got no offensive support, however as Mets lost to the Phillies 4-0.


Don't know what the answer is with Zach Wheeler but like you said the key is he must improve his control and command... it might be better for him to skip Las Vegas and just get called up here but I don't think the Mets are going to do it right now. I do hope the Mets get out of that Las Vegas affiliation after the provisional two year agreement expires after next season.... Las Vegas is an awful fit for a Eastern, pitching oriented team and just sucks that Buffalo didn't work out with the Mets. Hopefully when you make your visits there in support of the guys you can bring back when you post a lot of interesting perspectives into the mindset of the guys, the coaches,etc. about how they perceive Las Vegas.

[Sausy]

Shaun Marcum's first regular season effort for the Mets was fairly mediocre, getting back in playing shape only managed to go four innings allowing three runs on five hits. Robert Carson was horrible allowing five runs and effectively placing the game out of reach for the Mets, losing 9-4 to the Phillies...doubles each by Jordany Valdespin and David Wright , John Buck's 8th homer and Ike Davis' sacrifice fly were responsible for the Mets scoring. Not a great feeling losing two of three to the Dodgers and facing a Philly sweep of the Amazin's at home.. we gotta wake up, boys. Let's go, Mets!

[syam24]

Well, I guess I was fortunate enuff not to have seen any of this weekend's debacle at the hands of the Phillies. Seems like a team batting slump added to shakey pitching led up to this disaster. Let's hope a trip to sunny FLA will snap the boys back into a hitting/pitching formula that adds up to some victories! Let's go Mets!!!

[Sausy]

Yeesh... Jonathan Niese deserved MUCH better. Can't take too many more of the poor ass middle relief that fails to stem the bleeding, indeed makes things worse. The Mets have got to do a better job at developing natural hitters who don't get into long bouts of trying to pull everything or get long swings, or have little plate discipline. We had Cole Hamels off his game yet he still was able to out think and outwork our hitters... not that it should be surprising because Hamels is a very good pitcher, but the fact Mets batters often let far less skilled pitchers dominate them is very depressing. And our relief staff has to step in and stop any runs by the offense, because our hitters aren't very selective and if we get into some trouble, good luck coming back even with that great Jordany Valdespin grand slam game winner a few days back. I am tired of predictable offense and lousy relief. Also, they sent Josh Edgin to Binghamton rather than Las Vegas to work out his kinks... get Zach Wheeler the hell out of Las Vegas and put him back at Binghamton as well. Sandy Aderson mentioned Las Vegas was the last place you want to send a pitcher who needs confidence boosting...well fuck if you're going to send at best a potential eighth inning set up man like Edgin to Binghamton for that reason, send your god damned future ace Wheeler there too!!! Damn Las Vegas was such a bad choice for this organization as an affiliate, ESPECIALLY an AAA one.

Like syam says hopefully this trip down to Miami can get the boys going, though with our luck it will just provide the spark that wakes up the Marlins! Sorry to be this cynical this early, but I'd love to see more signs at least some players are going to get going on a consistent basis.... and at least some will pick up the slack until others get started.

[Scrub]

Well, well, well

Can you believe those PHILLIES?

Who would have thought they would sweep the Mets.

for Sonny and Sausy

[Sausy]

Thanks, Scrub.... great to see you hear even though you love your Phillies
Our Mets have been pretty crappy lately

Last night was beyond depressing going against the Marlins.... 1-18 with runners in scoring position, and the 1 hit was an infield hit by Ruben Tejada. Daniel Murphy got out of his slump a bit but of course the only scoring we got was coutesey of a two run moon shot by John Buck....ninth homer this month and other than David Wright the only hitter doing any kind of damage on the Mets, and he was so awful last year the Marlins traded him back to the Blue Jays in that Johnson-Reyes- Buerle trade. We need Ike Davis to wake up,I was reading a Mets fan blog I often look at" Hot Foot" and one reporter on the Mets beat sees that Ike has fallen back inmto the really bad habit from his atrocious first two months last year of having way too long a swing, and of course despite some walks he does swing at the worst pitches at times....you can almost predict when he's striking out. Duda hasn't done that much better and the lack of any real production from anyone other than Buck or DWright gives our starters almost no room for error and when our relief holds up someone makes a defensive lapse like Cowgill did last night and misplays an easily catchable ball at the worst time. Not defending Bobby Parnelll though who did blow the save for Matt Harvey last night...setting the stage for 15 innings of torture where the Mets scratch out a run finally in the 15th.... and Shawn Marcum just gives it away being the only pitcher available after the bullpen was used up for a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in a 5+ hour epic game of runners on base futility for the Mets. Seems this year the Mets are foregoing even their customary first half competitiveness( last couple of years by the All Star break, Mets had plus .500 records.... of course second half injuries and shitty play resulted in far less heartening second half failures). I read an article by Daily News reporter Matt Harper on phenom Zach Wheeler's disappointing start at Las Vegas and at least for Zach and LasVegas manager Wally Backman there isn't so much concern for his physical skills( still throwing 98 on the radar gun) but Zach's really tough adjustment to the dry desert climate, and inability to get comfortable with his grip causing far more control problems then Zach has ever experienced causing his ERA to be at a far from expected 5.79. Why keep him there, bring him to Binghamton like I mentioned previously....I feel the Mets have to drop Las Vegas as an affiliate as soon as their contract permits (think it's after next season) and get their future ace back on track ...he knows what he has to do to get his mojo back and is not complaining or panicking but the Mets need him to get back on track and get comfortable on the mound, and consciously or not Las Vegas has really given him fits with the dry air, and his feel for the ball.

Mets need some good news soon... someone on the current club to start helping out the offense or more consistency from our poison pen. Something, please

[sonny10305]

So here we are Mets fans we stared out the season fill of hope and promise a fresh look at a team that was going to bring us exciting hard tough baseball and even thou we never expected to go all the way at least we had the expectations of a fun and exciting year. So how’s that going for us

I dono Saucy what to tell you, after a promising start all of a sudden our bats have for the most part gone cold, AGAIN! Our bull pen has started leaking AGAIN! With the league-worst Left on Base Percentage for the last couple of years and has been painfully bad at stranding runners which of course also kills pitchers ERA.

We have players who have trouble doing basic fundamentals like catching balls AGAIN! Yes I mean you Cowgill and you Buck. But still we watch every day for that bounce back, our guys putting bat on ball and driving in runs our starters going deep into games and maybe even a bull pen who can hold onto leads. The New York Mets were three outs away last night from putting a stop to their four-game losing streak, but a blown save by Bobby Parnell helped extend the game to 15 innings, and then we lost TO THE FREACKIN MARLINS!!!!

Monday night’s game or was it Tuesday morning was another example of the lack of ability to put it all together. I loved KBs reaction as the night grew longer when he said off air “I could use a huge bag of peanut M&Ms right now. I stopped keeping score after the 9th. Oh wait…so did the Mets

What we also, learned that Matt Harvey is human after all he is capable of having less than perfect outings which may have humbled him a bit, and as my boy Murphy has said many times humility is a good thing. Harvey struggled with command of his fastball it was either right down the middle or he couldn’t get it over at all and wasn't able to locate everything as well as needed, he also had an usually high pitch count it just seemed unusual to see Matt battle right from the beginning, The fish had some very good swings against him and were able to get on-base against him. All that lead to that very high pitch count I mentioned which was right from the start. But it wasn’t all bad, not at all, he did have good control of his breaking pitches and had some nasty movement on his slider to get outs, trouble is it’s hard to get ahead of hitters using those pitches as his primary pitches.

So here we are we wait we hope we pray cause you see as Mets fans that is what we do it’s what we are accustomed to doing and so once again we hope that maybe this year will be different and his year we won’t be ashamed to answer that question “So who’s your baseball team? and quietly sheepishly almost embarrassing ay “mets” and wait for the laugh or the “OH….I’m sorry”

It’s not that the guys don’t work hard or care cause OMG do they ever, it’s not cause they don’t have a hard working manager or staff cause they do, so what is the problem? Hey, it beats the fuck outta me but they will find their way out of this most of them know where the problems are at the plate I know for an absolute fact that Ike Davis and Lucas Duda have yet to find the right formula but continue to work at finding it. Problem for Ike is he tries too many things, it just seems that every at bat is different the way he holds the bat his swing take back positioning all changes constantly with way too much tinkering and yes kiddies he is aware of that. In yesterday s game Keith Hernandez took the time to talk about what he sees wrong with Ike at the plate it made a whole lot of sense and yes, Ike saw that later and hopefully learned from it. Last year Keith did a similar thing one on one with Ike in a conversation that began on the plane and continued for several days after and Ike bounced back and had a great second half so we are hoping for repeat of that this year.

Good seeing Scrubs in here again gloating about her Phillies. Word of advice hun, it’s very early in the season for you to get too excited about that team, not this year sweetie

Not sure about these pics from den Decker’s phone taken just before he was to have had the cast removed from his hand yesterday still waiting to hear how it all went, more tomorrow. I know he’s pretty excited about getting back to baseball, see ya in Vegas kid

[syam24]

Well, Sausy and Sonny, your comments from Monday's game will fit well with the results from Tuesday's game. A lack of timely hitting, a blown ninth inning save opportunity, a couple of fielding miscues, and voila! another Mets defeat. Jeremy Hefner pitched a wonderful game only to have it come undone in the ninth. Recker with a passed ball certainly mucked things up, and it just imploded when his attempt at getting the guy at third on a sac bunt failed (even though he should have been called out when he overslid the bag). THis is a disappointing way to start a road trip.....Let's go Mets!!

[Sausy]

Yep syam, I was as pissed as Terry Collins was after last night's debacle.. was going to post but just so frustrated. Jeremy Hefner pitched a great game and just ran out of gas in the ninth a little.... but the Mets offensive offense gives so little room for error mistakes and bad calls like that just kill us... we can't seem to put teams away and a club that's so troubled as the Marlins shouldn't be looking at sweeping us even on their own home field. The guys aren't dogging it, it's not they don't care or aren't trying but we need something from these guys in putting things together because they just aren't taking advantage of the weak teams, and losing three straight series at home as the Mets did last home stand and looking at a second straight three game sweep.... it's unacceptable, plain and simple.

Good news from Las Vegas though as Zach Wheeler pitches great.... six and two thirds innings, five hits, one run allowed, eight strikeouts and most importantly for him only walked one. Three or four quality starts like that we should get his ass right up to the Mets... the future is now and though we may not contend this year the Mets owe it to their fans to start showing there is something really worth rooting for here. Let's go, Mets!

[sonny10305]

There are no words for yesterday’s loss

Anthony Recker is very down after that game he feels that he gets so little playing time and then to get in a game and mess it up. Poor kid really needs a hug today. I am not blaming Tony for last night’s loss I am blaming the offense that continues to be lost at the plate

Oh well, today we try and avoid the sweep, line up Tejada , Murphy , Wright, Buck , Duda, Byrd , Davis , Lagares ,and Gee on the mound. Murph returns to the 2 spot

You may have read that Turner would replace Ike today at first but not as of now cause Collins likes that Ike has been hitting lefties oddly enough better than righties and we have a lefty on the mound for the Marlins today. Collins also wants to give Turner a shot in the outfield which is something he has been saying since spring training, but he won’t do it in a space as big as the Marlins park but expect JT to show us what he can do out there very soon, which by the way he is anxious to “give it all he can”

I turn to my boys in the minors for comfort with Wheeler figuring it out and then yesterday Danny Muno who went 3-for-3 with a run scored and two stolen bases in a win for the Binghamton Mets. Atta boy!

[syam24]

Was happy to see Zach Wheeler pitch effectively. I was not really concerned about him, but glad to see him throw a good game. He'll be in Queens in no time, especially with the way things are going. I think if he strings another 3 good outings together, he'll be brought up. Let's see if we can score a few runs today!!!! Let's go Mets!

[Sausy]

Such a great win yesterday! Jordanny Valdespin strikes again!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mets got off to a slow start as Dillon Gee gave up three runs early but he held firm and got the win giving up only one more run in five innings, allowing nine hits but showing great determination not to let the game get away from the Mets. David Wright started off with a solo home run bomb and had three hits and was instrumental in several key offense plays and a crucial defensive play late doing his trademark barehand runner coming in at third and delivering it perfectly for Ike Davis to scoop up easily at first.He also scored on a Marlon Byrd single and on a screaming line drive pinch hit three run homer by Jordanny Valdespin that made a 4-2 Miami lead 5-4. John Buck added a clutch double scoring two runs for a 7-4 lead. Lucas Duda misplayed a single with runners on first and second when it hit something or just took a really weird hop but was unable to keep it in front of him and skidded by him and two runs scored making things perilously close at 7-6. Bobby Parnell came in with a bit of a chip on his shoulder for not being called on to pitch the ninth inning on Tuesday's terrible meltdown and closed em down easy for the Mets avoiding a sweep in Miami and giving them a satisfying, emotional victory.

[syam24]

After a much needed win on Wednesday in FLA, let's hope the boys are ready for their trip into the "house of horrors" that Turner Field has been. Hopefully a day of rest has give the bullpen some time to lick their wounds and be ready to support our starters with some genuine relief. The bats seemed to awaken a bit on Wed, with DWright and John Buck continuing their assault on opposing pitchers. We need some help from Ike, Murph, and any of the outfielders...HELLO, are you out there??? Duda has been the best of the lot, but even he has been very sporadic. Valdespin's pinch hit 3 run homer was timely, indeed, let's hope he can get on a roll with some of the others. Nice to see Matt Harvey get National League Pitcher of the Month for April. CONGRATS!! Let's go Mets!!

[Sausy]

Really big win in Atlanta tonight as our boys beat the Braves in 10 innings, 7-5... big offensive heroes tonight were John Buck who hit his tenth home run of the year, Lucas Duda slamming his fifth... David Wright powering his fourth after the Mets were behind 5-4 in the ninth to tie it at 5 and send it to extra innings ... Daniel Murphy and Ruben Tejada coming up big in the 10th responsible for the winning runs. Shawn Marcum again was okay but didn't go deep into the game, out after five innings. Got home late from work trying to follow the score on my cellphone but no doubt ne of the most satisfying wins the Mets have had so far, especially doing it against their longtime nemesis, the Atlanta Braves.Nice to hear syam about giving the award of pitcher of the month for April to Matt Harvey..4-0 and shows so much of a modern day version of Met's icon Tom Seaver! Keep it going tomorrow...Let's go, Mets!

[syam24]

Exhilirating win by the Mets on Friday!! CLutch performances by several folks, not the least of which was DWright's game tying homer off of Kimbrell in the ninth. Great relief effort from Bobby Parnell, coming on with a runner at third and one out, and getting the Mets to the tenth inning, where Tejada and Murph supplied run scoring hits, and Familia closes out the Braves with a one, two, three relief effort. The Mets made the Braves bullpen, normally unshakable, look rather ordinary. Lets hope for more heroics over the weekend. I read where Cowgill was sent out to Vegas with Andrew Brown being brought up to the Mets. Any offense from Brown will be welcome. LEt's go Mets!!

[sonny10305]

Love reading those posts from Saucy and Syam so full of joy for a change feeling good over last nights win, well said guys!

Well last night we finally had some game ending excitement with those last two innings giving us Mets fans some welcome crisp and very fun baseball. Ya see it doesn’t usually works out that way we Mets fans are accustomed to a whole different ending with the opposing team sending us to the showers with a loss. But last night we showed what used to be what we lovingly called “The Amazins”. And how about those relievers last night, nice seeing one of the worse bull pens in baseball showin what for to one of best pens. My my and chop chop the Mets pitchers out pitched the braves pitchers in fine style. The fun really began Jordany Valderspin and that steal and scoring from second, that kid is so much fun to watch he so often brings the spark and gets us going ya have to love that dude. And like I said the other day that role of the bench is where he needs to be and not play a position every day at least not until he stops acting erratic and out of focus as much as he does when he plays a position. I like that he is beginning to gain a lot more respect from the team and the fans he still insists on doing selfish things like not showing up early batting practice Friday, his explanation did not fare well when he said he felt he was not required to attend, above all that I guess. Seriously that shit has to stop.

Then of course there was Daniel Murphy bringing us the insurance run with his RBI. I guess the Atlanta relievers did not know he was a line drive hitter and thought they were so cleaver pitching him that breakin curve expecting him to be fooled by it, well, how did that work out for them Murph also treated us to one of his hop and throw plays, Just Murph murphing around out there

Parnell continued to show us he is the man for the save job and Jeurys Familia came on for an impressive 1-2-3 save, the first of his big league career. And yes kiddies that was the Mets responsible for that Rare blown save for Atlanta’s Craig Kimbrel. Chop freakin chop

Great to see Justin Turner in the lineup at first base job last night over the struggling Ike Davis, Justin is such a great asset to the team, he not only can play all four infield positions well but he is a clutch RBI machine when we need it. He is a great kid in the clubhouse as well keeping it loose and fun there and getting the job done on the field. JT has been working in the outfield the last week or so with the intent of showing us what he can do out there as well. Justin in fact thinks he is ready to play it will be up to Collins to green light him for an outfield spot which will hopefully be soon. The outfield is a crowded place right now with so many payers workin out there so why not one more. I really want to see JT out there; imagine his worth to us if he can handle all four infield positions and play the outfield as well add to that his hitting and he is the whole package for us.

Speaking of the outfield; as you know Collin Cowgill was sent to AAA the other day he just could not seem to get it done for us after starting off really well; but it’s ok he will join Nieuwenhuis and the boys fine tuning things and hopefully we will see him back soon he is good hands out there with Backman and I think it is just what he needs right now. Andres Brown did not impress us much as Cowgill’s replacement going 0-for-3 with a strikeout in his first game but let’s give him a chance. Meantime Kirk Nieuwenhuis has already made improvement in his game he has raised his batting average to .184 with one homer, four RBIs and six walks in nine games, Strike outs still a work in progress striking out 12 times in 38 at-bats which is an improvement for Kirk and something he is working on. He also continues to make awesome catches in the outfield, check this one out from the other day




I also want to mention that if you pay attention to these kind of things as I do I had to have noticed what an outstanding job Buck did calling last night’s game on target all the way and of course you would have to say acknowledge Collins for the way he managed the game as well, those things cannot be overlooked and attention must be paid.

A lot of contributions to last night’s game Wright of course coming in and doin what he does and The Dude and Buck making it look so easy.

Fun game and of course anytime we beat those Braves and their annoying chop chop fans is something special.

[sonny10305]

I was not sure when I wrote my above post but now it is official tonights game has been rained out it has been raining since around midnight last night and is not expected to stop till around the same time tonight. No word yet on a makeup date.
Jonathon Niese, was to pitch today but will pitch Sunday opposite Tim Hudson.
Matt Harvey moves to Tuesday against the White Sox.
Not looking good for a double header Sunday cause the Braves are leaving leave town early Sunday night for a 10-game trip that starts Monday at Cincinnati and we wouldn't want to tucker the little dears out

[Sausy]

Today's game was an embarassment...Jon Niese wasn't sharp at all but got no help from his fielders(specifically Lucas Duda and John Buck) and his relief. David Wright hits a big two run home run to spark a comeback in the middle of the game when the Mets were down 5-0 but everything went downhill from there. Freddy Freeman's two run double in the third off Jon Niese and opposite field homer off of of shellshocked rookie Jeurys Familia was the topper as the Mets lost 9-4 in Atlanta. They will need the off day tomorrow to regroup. Losses will happen but games like this just are inexcusable but hsave happened too often to our boys in recent years.

[sonny10305]

So last night a bunch of my boys and me went to the Garden to see the Rangers play and man oh man I am not as big a hockey fan as I am of baseball but that game was of the charts. If you have ever been to see them play you know what I mean; the feel of the crowd and the excitement is something I have not experienced in a sporting event in a long time. It made me forget about baseball for a few hours that’s for sure. Hero of the game was Derek Stepan who redirected a pass in the slot from Rick Nash.
It reminded me of a Mets game when they can win a back-and-forth game. Damn that was a hell of a lot of fun.
Matt Harvey was there last night as well and as a big big Rangers fan he was bouncing around like a kid in a candy store big hockey fan that Harvey.
Interesting what Matt said about Niese and the loss and how some have said it was casue Jon had not pitched on schedule, Matt does not play into that and sees the fact that he will be pitching tonight on longer rest he sees it having no effect at all on how he pitches.Well we will see inn a few hours maybe that Rangers win will still have still pumped up as he was last night; maybe even Ike Davis who almost lost his voice yelling last night will be effected by the game last night win. But it will all about Harvey tonight, he has allowed one run or less in 10 of his first 16 major league starts and has not allowed more than one run in seven of his last eight starts. Matt ranks fourth in the majors with a 2.26 ERA and is 4-0 this season and was voted the National League Pitcher of the Month for the month of April. Go get em Matt.

Lineup tonight’s against the White Sox, Tejada – SS Murphy – 2B Wright – 3B Buck – C Duda – LF Brown – RF Davis – 1B Lagares – CF and of course Harvey

[Sausy]

Speaking of Matt Harvey, what a game for the ages he pitched last night at CitiField against ole friend Robin Ventura's Chicago White Sox! Bloody nose early on? Fuck it, he's going to pitch an almost flawless nine innings...no walks, 12 blistering strikeouts and only one infield hit that just so teasingly might have been payable but the runner was too fast and Ruben Tejada had to go deep in the hole and fire an incredible strike to get him, which was almost impossible...just missed him as it happened as Ike Davis deftly handled the deep throw. Such incredible command of every pitch, and Matt was just so pumped you can tell...he wasn't down on his teammates for not scoring as much as determined to keep his teammates in the game. And oh goodness did he ever!!!! Bobby Parnell struck out two in the ninth and got the win as pinch hitter Mike Baxter ripped a single to right to score Ike Davis who had started the tenth off with a walk and was moved over to second for a thrilling 10 inning combined 1 hit shutout. Newark native Hector Santiago, the Chicago White Sox pitcher, was almost as good for seven innings, allowing no runs on just four hits...another potential stud for his franchise as Matt Harvey is to the Mets. Matt's a Connecticut boy himself so we had two fairly local young studs showing off their best and Matt was simply terrific...a modern day Tom Seaver may be a justifiable comparison. Just an "amazing" game that will live on as a Mets classic for generations!

[syam24]

Not much I can add to Sausy's comments, just another magnificent performance by Matt Harvey. He was in complete control. A shame the Mets couldn't get him a run to get the win, but at least they did finally score to get the victory. Losing that game would have been beyond heartbreaking. Speaking of the Rangers, Sonny, that was a memorable win against the Caps. I'm also a die hard Rangers fan, and they give me as much agony as a fan as the Mets do. Let's go Mets!! Rangers!!

[sonny10305]

Sausy and Syam summed it rather well and clearly Harvey was as he predicted not at all effected by the extra days rest. He is the only player over one hundred years to pitch nine innings with at least 12 strikeouts allowing no walks and only one hit with no decision. Matt got 20 of his 27 outs, including nine strikeouts, on pitches on the outer third of the plate or further outside, a career high just over 60 percent of his pitches were on the outer third. Of the 12-13 right handed batters he retired, at least 10 came on outer third pitches. Just for those who missed the game Harvey retired the first 20 hitters he faced and threw a first pitch strike to 16 of em. He started ahead 0-1 to better than half of the batters and threw first pitch strikes to at least 20 of them. The White Sox put nine of Harvey's off-speed pitches in play and hit eight on the ground. Better than 65 percent of his off speed pitches were down in the zone or below it.
Harvey is a bull never gets rattled, his fastball is so strong, and he uses it so well, letting him use his secondary pitches in strategic spots. I hope you guys saw those hitters to shaking their heads, dazed and confused maybe even a bit frustrated walking back to the dugout. Tonight was one of the best I’ve seen and ya could say one of the best regular season games ever thrown by a Met starting pitcher. He was in complete command right from the beginning, and totally dominated the White Sox for nine innings. Harvey only missed his perfect game on one infield hit, if only that ball was hit a little more up the middle.
As to the batter who hit that ball, may a rabid holy man bless his nether regions with a power tool

I looked at the pitch a second time and it was not a bad pitch, after a fastball strike Harvey tossed a slider away which and the batter took made it work got on it and hit, so no mistake on Harvey’s part there. But yet again the boys didn’t support him at the plate, and so he doesn’t have a win to show for this amazing performance. I think everyone of those guys owes Matt an apology for letting him down come on boys one by one bring your sorry asses to Matt’s locker and beg his forgiveness. I also know in talking with the guys that they are a bit out of sync with all the days of bad weather and all those cancelled games and postponements, it can affect them. That’s about to change cause they soon will have 30 games in 30 days coming up to make up some missed games and no one is complaining perhaps they will start working better together to get this team back on track. To that end I would imagine the only players who mighty be adversely affected by 30 games in 30 days would be the pitchers, perhaps that would be a good time to go to a 6 man rotation and bring Wheeler in. After a few shaky starts Zack’s last two outings for AAA Vegas have improved dramatically. Unfortunately there is still the issue of the Super 2 cutoff date If they wait they can avoid an extra year of arbitration and instead get that extra year at the league minimum. But that gets kinda confusing to say the least and changes from what was last year and what will be in 2015. Of course the primary considerations making the decision on when to bring him up will be his development and readiness as well as our needs. I just wonder how much that will mean as opposed to how the Super 2 changes over the next couple of years.

I get that Harvey’s pitch count was high after a 100+ count on his last outing but it was too bad that Collins did not allow Harvey to pitch the 10th giving him a shot at winning instead of a no decision. Of course Terry could not have predicting that in the 10th that Davis and Baxter would finally get the job done.

Yup it was all Harvey bloody nose and all, actually Matt has suffered the bloody nose thing since he was a kid it used to be a lot worse and happened more frequently than it does now seems to have started up again when the Mets were in high-altitude Colorado last month.
Kevin Burkhardt said, “Harvey has started the game with a bloody nose. Makes him look intimidating!” later when KB at the post game said to Collins” Ya think Harvey was rusty on eight days rest bringing a smile to Terry’s face and laughter in the room.

I loved seeing it was Baxter who got the hit that scored Ike for the win the hometown boy making us proud. I am doubly happy that Justin kept his word and took back the pie throwing duties. How fun was Mike when he told KB he was glad it wasn’t Buck, you will remember Buck nearly knocked Jordany over last week with the pie hitting him so hard. If you saw right after the boys celebrated on the field Turner and Baxter were walking off the field together when Justin suddenly started sprinting towards the dugout it was then I knew, ok, he’s headin to the kitchen for some whipped cream.

[Sausy]

Thank God Justin is back doing the pie throwing duties...as we're all aware( and Jordanny Valdespin had to unfortunately experience,lol)Buck doesn't have the light touch needed, he was far too enthusiastic!

Love your perspective as always sonny...being a pitcher yourself no surprise about how you were drawn to how well he was using his pitches and hitting certain spots very effectively(outer third of the plate primarily). This was just such a pleasure to watch Matt just being so dominating...also seeing him smile which he often tends not to do in his starts, so focused and always self critical but even he was loose last night it just felt so perfect and he was going to enjoy it.

[sonny10305]

No question Saucy that Justin is the man for that pie job Jt is always the go to guy for a laugh.



Of course there is also Ike Davis and Daniel Murphy, if you Google Goofballs their pictures pop up
Then there is Anthony Recker I know you guys may not know much about him casue he plays so little and you have little exposure to him but he too is a terrific kid. Tony also has very little time under his belt as a Met for the pie throwing job hopefully he will be around a while and can fill in from time to time.

Anthony and Kelly picking out cakes recently.





So last night it was more of the same, as my Uncle Joe would say “New day same old shit”
After watching Terry Collins in the post game show I get the feeling he is in some sort of denial about how poorly the guys are hitting. Once again we heard him say the same ole excuse with “When you have good pitching you don’t get pitches to hit” Sorry dude but that excuse is getting old a fire has to be put under Dave Hudgens to make more happen at the plate. Most if not all the guys really like Dave but clearly he is not doing enough to teach and make adjustments and be more creative and figure out a way to get some offense out of his position players

It was nice however to see JT finally get a shot in the outfield which as I have told you guys is something he has been working and hoping to do for a while now. He did not get a chance to make any plays the only ball to come his way was a homer that went way over his head. I wanna see more of Justin out there

I thought Hefner did a fair job of it but is still not a reliable starter yet he is still winless on the season, dropping to 0-4 with a 4.63 ERA. But he did pitch a little better last night and was of course a victim of some bad luck. The White Sox hot him early with a homer but I thought the Sox had a bit of luck on their side to score three runs in the third inning. Of the four hits in the inning only one was hit well with a bunt single, an infield single, and a pop-up that landed in between three Mets which drove in in a pair of runs. Hefner simply needs to be more consistent in his starts Like I said he wasn’t bad last night, I thought he mixed his pitches up nicely and for sure he was centering a lot of his pitches, which led to the Sox taking advantage of Hefner’s poor location. Let’s not forget that Hef throws a lot of strikes and really does not walk many batters. I had a problem with his fastball he needs to work the corners with that pitch. To be fair I thought he did an outstanding job in the fifth inning working around a leadoff single and a John Buck throwing error to get out of that mess unharmed. Too bad he got no help from his offense.

[Sausy]

Thanks for the pics, needed to smile after last night's sad "same old same old". Justin is a guy who knows how to approach at bats and the only thing Terry said though was he really wasn't going to run Justin out there a lot as there are too many people out of position already.(cough cough Jordany Valdespin who should have more aggressively called for the pop up that fell in for two runs). Too many defensive mistakes cost the Mets and with their inability to consistently generate offense we need the pitchers and defense to be in near perfect synch.

Jeremy kept the boys in the game and to his credit he really owned up to not always hitting his spots and giving the batters more comfort than they should have covering the plate. I really like him and think he can be a solid fourth starter, maybe a 12-15 game winner with no worse than a 4.00 ERA in his best seasons if they have the patience and he gets more consistent in his command like his prevuious two strong efforts.

Ike and Luke in particular look lost.... Luke hits a home run and it may be his greatest enemy, striking out far too often than his production can be considered acceptable. Ike just hasto get on the ball...no doubting his character as a person and defensive strengths but he has to be that gap to gap threat he's shown he can wonderfully provide when he's going on a tear.

[syam24]

Well, despite not hitting a whole lot, the Mets found a way to scratch their way to victory agains the Buccos last nite. Another walk off hit from Mike Baxter was the game winner, driving home Marlon Byrd. Earlier the Mets had gone ahead on a booming double by Ike after he came in the game on a double switch. THe lead was shortlived as Latroy Hawkins gave up a monster shot to Alverez to tie the game at 2. Bobby Parnell pitched a scoreless ninth thanks to a great catch by Lagares in center field robbing McClutcheon of an extra base hit and at least one, if not two RBI. Let's hope the bats wake up soon. Let's go Mets!!

[Sausy]

Syam catches the essence of the game very well and so happy to see hometown boy Mike Baxter again come through with a game winning hit and Ike doing something big to contribute(hopefully the start of a big turnaround for him). Gee went five solid innings giving up just one run on five hits and other than the shot by Alvarez given up by Hawkins our boys held on until Baxter's game winning hit (this time in regulation during the bottom of the ninth, instead of going an extra inning as during the Harvey classic win). Let's go Mets!!!

[sonny10305]

So what do if you have a couple of players that are struggling? Well if you are Terry Collins you sit them, yeah, that will fix the problem take Ike and Murph and keep them off the field that I’ll make em better,
when you've got a player like Ike who is struggling, you've got to get him in the lineup to get him going.

I understand Turner needs paying time I want that as well he is a .380 hitter right now, but not at the expense of your regular position players, JT is a bench player and that’s what he should be doing if you wanna play him more do what he has been asking you to do for a while now and that is put him in the outfield It’s already a merry go round out there anyways with only Duda as a regular so let’s see what Justin can do for us put there and stop fucking withy the infield. While I am venting about such stuff how about Anthony Recker? I see Collins finally played him last night and he had a damm good night at the plate although we could not see enough of what he can do behind the plate all that much cause that idiot Marcum shrugged of most of Reckers pitch selections and called the game pretty much himself. Recker, you do remember him right Terry? he Is our second catcher but is almost never used how is he going to be there for us if he sits practically every game. He did struggle to get on the same page with Marcum last night, but that was Marcum’s fault not Reckers

I missed a lot of the game choosing to catch the hockey game instead but when they played as badly as the Mets did last night I found myself switching back and forth. I was happy to have seen Reckers homer that felt good but as to Jordany Valdespin not so much because the little punk is at it again and flipped his bat and slowly rounded the bases last night. Worse than that is Collins and his Oh well what are you gonna do attitude about it. What are you gonna do? You bench him and try and teach him a lesson you give him a little grief and what for. I’ll tell ya a lot of folks both players and fans are getting feed up with Spin’s and I would be very careful using him in the pirates series cause somebody is gonna get plunked.

Marcum just isn’t getting it done, he had a couple of good innings but the Pirates hit him hard in the second and the fifth inning, and he could not adjust and get his crap together. He has been ineffective since he got back from the disabled list, we keep hoping it is cause of the lack of work in camp, and his limited innings during his rehab but whatever it is he needs to figure things out cause right now the opposing teams have him figured out and he aint foolin anybody.
Better yet bring Wheeler up now we need his arm in the rotation I don’t wanna wait till June I want him now, I have seen him pitch a lot of times and have been waitin and waitin I don’t care what happened in that dry air in Vegas cause he adjusted to that bring him up NOW!

If the rain holds of today will be banner day and our own Kevin Burkhardt will be one of the judges.
And speaking of KB how awesome was that segment he did on Sabermetrics which of course is a look an analysis on a player, listening to Kevin, Gary and Ron break down all those tools to evaluate players if you wondered about WAR, WOBA, OPS you got an outstanding lesson in what that all means and how it used to evaluate players, the back and forth discussion between Kevin and Gary was both instructional and enlightening and I thought I knew a lot about baseball but the boys put a lot of that into perspective last night.
Very very well done

Ya had to love Kevin’s lab coat for that extra touch, yeah…he loves to pay the nerd sometimes and he will be the first one to say it and we love him for it. I told him all he need was one of those ball point pen holders in his pocket leaking ink

I may not be around much this weekend going out to MCU Park with the Brooklyn Cyclones for meetings and to check out the changes improvements and repairs that were made to the park after Sandy. Really looking forward to seeing how the park came out including the new state-of-the-art playing surface put down after the salt, chemicals and crap from the ocean water left the green grass surface contaminated and unplayable.

If the rain holds off and we have a game today it will be Tejada, Murphy, Wright, Buck, Turner, Byrd, Brown, Lagares, and Niese on the mound. No Ike again!!!

See you guys Monday

[Sausy]

Just ugly yesterday.... Jon Niese has yet to really show the form he displayed last year andgiving up eight runs like that was inexcusable. On Banner Day yesterday the Mets delivered a true stinker losing 11-1 in a game which also saw Jordany Valdespin get plunked for his antics the other night watching his home run and stylin'. Well, eventually he has to grow up and while he does have attitude and passion the Mets could use on offense he has to drop the team-second, me first stuff. The guys denied they were not supportive of Jordanny, who dd not seem to get much of a welcome by his teammates when he went back into the dugout and seemed pissed. David Wright, the real leader he is is still trying to be supportive and said he didn't want Jordanny to lose his edge but also he and others talk to him about toning down the stuff where it's not appropriate and always remembering to be a team player.. David is never going tear down a teammate in public but I'm wondering will even someone with the ability to communicate and reach people as David will sooner or later realize Jordanny may not have it within him to grow up...or maybe David can reach him, but it's getting old especially as the Mets need him to redirect his passion when he plays to the team rather than himself. TC is the same way.. realizes Jordanny sometimes just makes things worse but also he brings things to the table the Mets don't have an abundance of at the moment.

Jonathan Niese has to get back to the rising top of the rotation stud he displayed throughout last year, he's shopwn very little of it this year and his performance yesterday just was unacceptable. And goodness knows with the Mets inability to really take it to other clubs with their offense when they start getting behind 4-0, 6-0, they ain't coming back. The starters have to give the boys a chance to win and following the dreadful effort of Shawn Marcum they needed MUCH better from Niese and indeed his effort was in many ways even worse. I know Marcum when healthy has been a pretty damn good pitcher but that's the reason so many clubs shied away from him...he has problems staying healthy. And now that he apparently is healthy, he's rounding his arm up to shape after all the time this spring he missed and he's not ready.

Apparently TC has decided best thing for the Mets lineup is a constant 3-4-5instead of moving around the lineup so much and DWright will remain batting third and Ike Davis will be restored to cleanup and Lucas Duda will be fifth. Now just to get Davis and Duda to show SOME kind of consistency out there...please!!!!!!!!!!!

Mets Banner Day did go forth as the rains held until late in the game... as usual some incredibly well developed themes , very creative banners made by the fans.The winner put the Mets home run big apple( boy would we like to see it celebrating a lot more often!) in between fashionings of Shea Stadium on one side and CitiField on the other, rising in celebration. One thing on Murph's slump...on the broadcast the boys in the booth were mentioning he gets in trouble when he tinkers too much with his stance and swing andwhen he came back cold from the oblique injury his fast start came out of just going out and not overthinking. Now batting average has dropped 100 points and his swings indicate he's back to the tinkering...one bad day and it starts getting to him and when he's fee and easy and not overthinking he is far more effective. Hope Murph is alerted to that, and eases up so he can just be the free and easy Murph that is an outstanding hitter.

Very interesting on KB and the boys...I tell ya that even with our troubles over the last few years our broadcasting team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling with suport by KB is among the very best in baseball and one thing worth appreciating for Mets fans.

I hope you have a great weekend in Brooklyn with the preparations for the new season. I know they were forced to move to an artificial turf because like you said sonny the storm surge brought in so much crap and contaminated the soil but I saw pics f the new field and it looks tremendous!

[Sausy]

About Anthony Recker, the more I've seen of him just seems like a nice young man with some lovable goofiness and sense of fun as those great pics show. He's been in the minors a very long time( he does have fame on the internet for something "behind" him, but we'll keep it clean here!) Yep he's a Pennsylvania boy, good defensively with a lot of power, I believe half Italian(sonny mentioned him being Italian once...checked and saw his middle name is Vito, and he looks like a paisano)!

What impressed me most about him was that when Jason Collins of the NBA came out recently one of the strongly supportive tweets he received came from Anthony Recker... it's great to have in baseball some guys who while straight are happy to show solidarity with gay professional athletes and aren't reluctant to make it known. His parents obviously taught Anthony well!

[sonny10305]

I have just a few minutes and Wanted to make a couple off comments

First of all Rick Ankiel?? What’s up with that why why is the question. Are we trying to get better or have we decided, ok, let’s do anything no matter how stupid to improve the team. So again I ask how does Ankiel help us. As if we did not have enough turkeys romming around the outfield as it was they add one more who I am guessing will be in a centerfield platoon position with Juan Lagares. They were so anxious to get him in the game they practically rushed him from the airport to the stadium I mean he did not even have his gear yet it which was still to arrive on another flight from Houston. No matter, he can always borrow someone else’s glove, bat and underpants I guess as well. and what a surprise he did not disappoint going 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. He even told the trainers during workouts before yesterday’s game that he was uncomfortable borrowing other players equipment it did not feel good to him. First it was Scott Rice's glove and when that did not work he went to jonathon Niese, that is the glove he was wearing when he dropped Ty Wigginton's ball while what looked like a desperate lunging forward kinda move which ended up popping out of Nieses borrowed glove. The Mets optioned Andrew Brown to Las Vegas and moved Jenrry Mejia to the 60-day DL in order to clear a spot for Ankiel. Mejia will continue to pitch in the minors till prolly early June,

One of ten reasons the Cards are so successful is their ability to see the talent they have on the farm and are not afraid to move them up quickly and get them in the game it has worked for them time and time again but the Mets seem to prefer to bring in tired players who are no help at all. The position the Mets are in today screams out for them to experiment with young players, we are not contenders this year or maybe not even next so get those kids experience for when the Mets again are relevant. I have always been a major supporter of the kids in the minors spend much of my time watching them develop and grow they are our future, USE THEM! I guess there is hope especially with that mess of an outfield when Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Matt den Decker return. Matt is still on track to be back on the field around the first week in June and we all know what an outstanding outfielder he is. Kirk had a mishap yesterday when he got hit by a pitch, it hurt pretty bad and he left the game I will get more from him tonight and let you guys know how he is So let’s just call Ankiel is a placeholder just hangin out waitin for better payers to heal and get back shall we?


A couple of things Saucy wrote about, first of all Valdespin, I am fuming over the way that is being handled. Collins continues to coddle him and make excuses rather than sit him down and read him a riot act or two which is what he needs. Collins actually said after Jordany got hit that he was proud of the way he handled it going to first base, HUH!!! Did you see the reaction in the dugout when he slammed his helmet cause he felt he go no support from his teammates? He is “proud” of the way Spin acted? Everybody knew he was gonna get plunked after that disgusting display of I am the greatest and the rest of you suck it I did that for me and not the team display after that homer the other night. I even warned of it in this thread earlier that day. And oh yes Spin knew it to I read somewhere that he did not expect to get hit but that is BS in fact he tried to get out of hitting telling trainer Ray Ramirez to please tell Collins that he was “unavailable,” Which by the way really went over well with the other guys who few want any no part of as it is, they were not amused.
The crowded outfield is keeping Spin from getting much playing time which is fine with me I have gotten to the point whenever he comes up to bat I wanna yell at the opposing pitcher to “Strike me out, no, I don’t do that but a little devil inside me wants to Now that the outfielder got more crowed we might see Jordan play a few games at second when Murph needs time off or gets into some kind of serious struggle but other than that he will just pinch hit until we can get rid of him which prolly aint gonna happen but would be fine by me. I would like to see him sent to Vegas for some growing up. I can tell you that no one on the team can handle Jordany as well as Sargent Wally Backman can. DWright said all the right things but David is too nice a guy and not the man for the job of fixing Valserspin. Wally is, he will force Spin to put his big boy pants on grow up and behave like a pro should act Wally takes no crap from anyone and I am sure he is thinking just send that little punk over to me and let me have a crack at him. Maybe even turn him into a man. I got to know Wally pretty well in all my dealings with the Bisons and of course the Cyclones. I recall one day when the team had just lost their fourth in row, I was in the locker room when the door opened and in walked Wally with smoke coming out of his nostrils, well, it seemed that way He turned to me and said “I need you to step outside for a few minutes son” what followed was described to me as a nice message of disappointment and ass whooping that the boys need. The next day they won Oh, and how bout we post this old linup picture of Wally (he got arrested once nothing major)on Valdespind locker with the message “this is who is waitin for you”



Jordanys is a poison in the clubhouse a place which is normally full of fun excitement and guys rooting for one another and being brothers, but then there is Valderspin who can be found in a corner somewhere with this dark cloud over him, and wait…is that rain falling on him

The other thing I wanted to mention was Saucy thinking that Murph was tinkering which is not Daniels style at all the tinkerer on the team is Ike whom does it constantly. No, Murphs troubles begin with a swing that has gotten a bit long not much but enough to make a difference he is also getting hit hard inside by the opposing pitchers who have learned to respect and fear him a little. We are all hoping that last night’s magnificent 3-4 performance o the beginning of the return of the Irish hammer.
Happy to hear that Saucy as he often does agrees with me on a lot of things including the lineup mess let’s hope that little failure of an idea has been put to rest. And yup Anthony Recker is funny dude, and he wears that Vito name well proud of his heritage and cooks some mean Italian food as well

I did not spend as much time in Brooklyn as planed this weekend first of all the place was pumpin with fans and visitors making it impossible to get anything done, then someone finally realized that Sunday was Mother’s Day and most of us had somewhere else we needed and wanted to be that day, we will hit it again Friday and Saturday.

Catcher Travis d’Arnaud has an exam scheduled for Friday in New York. He hopes to be able to get the boot off and begin weight-bearing activity.

[sonny10305]

So no soon after I posted my posted above than my phone rang and was told that even though the Mets could not even wait till his equipment arrives to rush Rick Ankiel into the linkup last night and tonight he’s NOT EVEN THE LINEUP!!! Ahh what a morale booster that Collins is
Ike Davis has already been pulled from cleanup and will bat seventh. Buck will bat cleanup. Collins does not trust Ike against the lefty. Soooo here we go again.

And finally the dreaded news that Zack Wheeler is flying into NY tonight to check on a sore clavicle, he will be examined by team doctors tomorrow at the Hospital for Special Surgery,
Hopefully it won’t be a big problem and I don’t blame the Mets for being super careful about this and having him checked out quickly and that the chances are good for minor injury and Wheeler will be back to pitch in a week, he will miss his next start for sure. I don’t want the Mets delaying anything here and risk screwing with his mechanics because he’s sore, we have all learned what that can lead to… But still

Collin McHugh has arrived in St. Louis, replacing Scott Atchison, who had developed finger numbness Monday he is also going to be examined in New York on Tuesday afternoon. I’m guessing the Mets are hoping for some long relief from Collin

[syam24]

Boy, oh boy, what a mess things are becoming. Sonny, right on about Ankiel, what the hell for???? He will add very little. I'd rather watch Lagares or Baxter ply their trade and learn. Ankiel has had his shot, has peaked and will only degrade. The bullpen is falling apart from overuse, the starters can't get to the sixth inning most nites. Of course, that does not include Matt Harvey, but the others have been awful this turn thru the rotation., and some for longer than that. My guess is it will straighten out a bit, but geez, hate seeing the current results. THe lineup is struggling. DWright has no protection behind him, especially with John Buck cooling off and coming back to his "normal" numbers. Ike has never got started, Duda is ok, no great guns, the rest of the outfield has been more off, than on. Murphy appears to have come out of his recent slump, which will help, but it's been a lousy run of games for sure.

[Sausy]

Of all the players to add, I triple co-sign on the fact Rick Ankiel is absolutely NOT a good addition...a good club needing an extra bat off the bench and good defense, maybe but not here.Don't need another strikeout machine and whose better days appear already gone. Add the total mess of last night's game and the setback to Zach Wheeler regarding having a sore clavicle, which supposedly isn't serious but with the Mets recent history, you've got to cross your fingers, arms, legs, toes, and eyes too that it's just going to result in one missed start and go fine from there.... would be nice if the Mets and Mets fans could get a nice stretch of good news for once.

I was going to comment more from sonny's recent expansive post but the play last night in St. Louis just disgusted me. 14-21 now??????????? Last season we had a strong first half before the usual Mets fall.. they ain't even giving us a fig leaf of hope now.

[sonny10305]

Well thanks God that happened there was a big load off going to Chicago last night some of the boys were reported actually smiling which is something they have done in a while. It all begins with a very very important outing from Jonathon Niese who came back and started to show us maybe he is gonna be ok after all. He took an extra long pen session with Warthen and was determined to fix his problem. He knew he had developed some unusual habits almost since the season started which was fortunately recognizable by the coaches. Jon had some discomfort and without realizing it caused him to lower his arm angle, which changed his pitching dramatically, well not any more Jon fixed that and all be well again. Before last night he allowed 15 runs in 8 innings over his previous two starts, but last night he kept the St. Louis Cardinals to two runs on six hits and two walks in 7. It was all about that arm positioning he once again started throwing from a higher arm angle and son of a gun if that did not make a huge difference. Murphy noticed it early in the game last night he noticed Jon was throwing his fastballs at a higher velocity something Daniel says he has not seen Jon do in a while, then too was that cutter which made it possible for him to go back and get those groundballs he needed. Murph saw improvements in Jon’s two-seamer as well.

Watching Niese pitch excited Murph to the point that he too had figured it was time for him to get out of that slump he has been in and man oh man did he ever reaching base in all five times at the palate (one walk) he scared that cards fella to death and worked out an easy walk. Daniel went 4-for-4 with two doubles and a walk, scored twice and drove in a run. For Murph it was just time, he needed to figure it out once and hopefully for all part of it was his ability to fix a little anxiety he had stated tom feel. In a fun at bat Daniel got what he said he would someday have and that is a hole in one of course he was talking about golf but yesterday he got the next best thing hitting that ball thru that little opening in the backfield fence, what a shot right thru the fence. When he got to second he joked with the second base umpire saying If you can’t see it it should be a homer right? The ump did not agree but laughed along with the Murph.

I wish the news was better for Ike Davis who continues to be hopelessly confused. He has not lost confidence I am happy to tell you but it is getting very hard for him to understand what the heck is going on. Well for one thing he knows now that he has to stop listing to so many people telling him what he needs to do to improve I mean he has it coming at him from all directions and it has become counterproductive. What Ike has decided is that it is time for him to study the videos and figure it out for himself with some but less help from all those lemme help you fix that people. Ike needs some room to breathe and work this out he has done it before. Collins said that he would leave Ike in the cleanup spot through the weekend; just not sure about Sunday against the lefty all depends on how Ike does the next 3 days. Ike is hitless in his last 22 at-bats, dropping his average to .157. Ike felt that in spite of that he feels that as far as this trip goes it’s probably the best he has hit the ball not counting last night of course. Sportscasters and even Collins has said that Pitchers are giving Ike a ton of off-speed pitches but that’s not really true, yes he gets a lot of em just not as often as some are saying. It is more about his missing fastballs early in the count, and for off-speed pitches with two strikes not the off-speed that he is missing, he is also missing the fastballs and the thing is when you miss the fastballs you get off-speed pitches and when you have two strikes you gotta protect against the 95+fastball. What Ike will tell you is he needs to hit the pitch earlier in the count that's over the plate, and of course hit it in fair play. Don’t give up on the Ike man.

So let’s keep the good times a comin today and give Harvey some run support and a win

[sonny10305]

All of you Ike Davis fans keep happy thoughts for him this weekend, he needs to show improvement to hold onto his job.He is beginning to let the struggles effect his defense now. I am getting more concerned for him.
Here in Brooklyn with the Cyclones this weekend where a lot of his old teamates and friends are working on keeping up his spirits.
Any change may not be in Terry Collins hands any longer preasure is begining to build.
I will be back on Monday hopefully so will Ike

[syam24]

Well, two wins in a row!!! Break 'em up! Another typical Matt Harvey pitching performance, enhanced by his game winning RBI single. Great job! Additionally, DWright and the suddenly hot Murph hit solo HR's to support Matt's pitching. After giving up two first inning runs, Matt was LIGHTS OUT. The Cubs didn't get a sniff of a rally until the eighth and Marlon Byrd threw out a runner at the plate to preserve the one run lead. Ike got a hit. He has got to get it going. I read Sonny's not above, read Terry Collins comments in the media about possible going to a platoon if Ike doesn't snap out of it this weekend. Maybe he needs a kick in the butt to get going??? Let' go Mets!!