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MyTriState.us Mets 2009 Season
Welcome to our blog on the 2009 Mets and their season!
Mets Update, September 2009
Dum dum da... Dum da dum... Come on, you all know the melody to taps, hum along! Dum da dum... Dum da dum... OK, so our hums start with Ds instead of Hs, you got a problem with that? Sorry, its easy to start thinking about the Mets and get in a bad mood, because there is plenty of bad news. Now with season ending surgies for Johan Santana and Oliver Perez, the worrying has leaked into the 2010 season, too. We believe the Mets are poorly constructed from the minor leagues up to the starting lineup, but jeez, can't these guys catch a break? If one more person o that team gets surgery before October, Mayor Bloomberg out ot have Queens water supply tested... or something!
"Let's go Mets! Go play golf! Da da dum!"
Mets Update, August 2009
Francoeur doesn't like new batting helmet
In a recent article on the NY Times website, is quoted saying“No, I am absolutely not wearing that,” Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur said with a laugh after seeing a prototype, as if he were being asked to put a pumpkin on his head. “I could care less what they say, I’m not wearing it. There’s got to be a way to have a more protective helmet without all that padding. It’s brutal. We’re going to look like a bunch of clowns out there.” [].
Guess what, Francoeur? The Mets already look like a bunch of clowns. When Johan Santana is on the mound, the team looks OK - the rest of the time, they stink up wherever they play. Get real, Francoeur - fashion should be the least of your concern.
Mets Update, July 2009
The New York Mets come out of the All Star break trailing the division leading Philadelphia Phillies by 6.5 games. This isn't an insurmountable lead, but if you've been watching the Mets of late, it sure feels like one. In the next few weeks, the Mets may be begin to get their ailing position players back, like Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Mike Pelfry. Between these injuries and the terrible performance of Oliver Perez and JJ Putz (Putz is also on the DL), the Mets just don't look like a contender, unless the mount a 30-0 August, which seems unlikely. We know there are some good players on this team who have played well - signing Francisco Rodriguez at a basement price compared to the original asking offer is a good move and his deal is short; Johan Santana has been very good as well. Gary Sheffield has managed not to injury himself and leads the team with 10 home runs - which says a lot about the Mets injuries and under performance. For us, we put the blame squarely on Omar Minaya - he's an extremely average executive in an above average market who's team plays in the best division in the National League, and the team is not competitive. He's made some good move and some bad moves, but Mets fans deserve better, and the Mets ownership deserves more value for their dollars. True, injuries are tough, but all teams have them, and good teams some how manage to limp through it and be competitive, but the Mets can't, because when it comes down to it, Omar Minaya put together a flawed team when everyone i healthy, but with injuries to the Mets biggest stars, they're a .500 team at best.
Mets at Yankees
The Mets are decimated by injuries and FYI - help is not coming via trade. This is your team until the wounded return. The series against the Yankees was so troubling because they scored 1 run in the first game, only mustered 1 hit in the second game and those three bad plays in the 3rd game were REALLY bad. Daniel Murphy tried to gun Derek Jeter down at 3rd on a ground ball with no outs in the first inning... he had an easy out at first, but he didn't take it. Then he dropped the ball on a routine double play. A first baseman that can't catch? Then Francisco Rodriguez walked Mariano Rivera to widen the deficit to 4-2 in the top of the 9th. What the hell was that? Doesn't matter how good a cut Rivera might have taken (and it wasn't that good) on that ball he hit foul - he's an American League CLOSER - it was his 3rd professional plate appearance EVER! He's 38 years old! Throw the guy a strike, right down the middle! But KRod couldn't get the best of his emotions and he over threw his fastball a few times. Just. Terrible. Then the grand slam the next day against the Brewers... these guys don't need a manager, they need a dad. Good luck, Mets fans: it's going to be a long July.
State of the New York Mets, May 2009
If you look in the standings and see that the New York Mets are over .500 and around the top of the division, you might feel good about the Mets if you are in fact a Mets fan, but not so fast. Carlos Delgado had hip surgery, and there's no way to know if he'll come back as the same player as he's an older guy. The Mets have all kinds of players on the 15 day disabled list and Jose Reyes is listed as day to day. The NL East is a lot more competitive than it looks, although most of these teams won't apply serious pressure to the Mets. OK, the Nationals stink, but the Marlins are scrappy and they have good starting pitching. Atlanta has a lot of good players and they are not going to go away, and there's always Philadelphia to contend with, who we see as the division winner. The Nationals would probably part company with Nick Johnson for little in return just to get rid of his contract, so that seals up the first base situation, but he's a guy who gets hurt a lot, and Gary Sheffield is another guy with a history of injury that the Mets are playing way to often and is bound to get hurt as he's also a surviving contemporary of Methuselah. You also have that fantastic 5 error game against the Los Angeles Dodgers that also featured the fantastic base running of Brian Church, who missed 3rd base on his way home and got picked off of first base but for some strange reason wasn't called out... So we don't have a lot of confidence in the Mets, but the National League is weak over all, so they might sneak into October, but even if they do, don't get your hopes to high.
State of the Mets after their first 15 games
The New York Mets are now 6 and 9 after their first 15 games. It's not time to hit the panic button, by Omar Minaya better sit up and pay attention. Since Minaya didn't make changes to the core of this team during the off season, we aren't really expecting a different result than the last two years. Carlos Delgado has virtually no range at first base and offensively, we feel he's getting to be a bit of crap shoot. David Wright makes Alex Rodriguez look like Jorge Posada when it comes time for a big RBI and Jose Reyes has not been aggressive on the base paths in the young season. Daniel Murphy is looking like a defensive liability, but he has the makings of a good hitter, but you have to wonder where the Mets can stick him as a position player if he can't handle left field.
And then there's the starting pitching... can you imagine where this team would be without Johan Santana? If you have confidence in the other 4/5 of this rotation, then you are indeed one of the Mets faithful and they need to send you a free hat. Oliver Perez is unpredictable, Mike Pelfrey is on Tom Verducci's list (and he's almost always right with the Year After Effect of his), Livan Hernandez is probably 50 years old and John Maine is holding off Chien-Ming Wang for the worst start of 2009 award with 13 earned runs in 15 innings pitched. The Mets have problems here; the back end of their bullpen looks good, but that's about it. The position player core of this team needs help, and they might find it (it's not Gary Sheffield; he can DH in interleague games played in AL parks, but he should only pitch hit otherwise) via trade, so that's not an impossible fix, just a hard one. The New York Mets starting pitching is much more troubling and it's going to be very difficult to fix. Livan Hernandez has given up 22 hits in 16 innings! Starting pitching is what wins games, and the Mets need help here... we just don't know where they're going to get it. On the bright side, Carlos Beltran is hitting the cover off the ball, so that's something. It's still early, but the Mets don't want to dig themselves too big a hole, otherwise, it'll get late early, as Yogi Berra used to say.
Mets 2009 Preview
The Mets added key pitchers to their bullpen in the persons of JJ Putz and Francisco Rodriguez, but we don't like the looks of their starting rotation. Omar Minaya also didn't find the right handed power bat for the outfield that we thought they desperately needed; we tend to agree that Manny Ramirez isn't the right solution for the New York Mets, but they needed to make something happen and they didn't, so we'll have to see how it goes.