New York Mets

I am as optimistic as anyone wants to be when you think that the Mets can turn this ship around, put together a run that can make this team worth watching again. When you go through years of not much promise, you just hope that maybe, just maybe this year could be different. I thought that in the first two weeks of the season when we had a good start and then just as fast as we started, the team started to spiral out of control. Injury to Travis d’Arnaud pushed plans to the side of having him man the backstop, Jon Niese going quickly from Ace to struggling to get a win and a bullpen that has had a hard time getting anyone out and actually even holding a lead. Not to mention the many struggles that Ike Davis has had this season which has Mets fans wondering if he will ever recapture his stroke. We wonder nowadays if the team will ever score more than 5 runs a game, which they have not done in the last 15 games or who will be in the lineup for each game and will those players actually produce. Rick Ankiel must have read my last post, “Will Ankiel Answer the Mets Need for Their Powerless Outfield?” Since joining the team, he is hitting .304, 2 HR in 7 games, but the verdict is still out on this move and it will take sometime to see if the move was worth the money spent. Without including Ankiel’s numbers the Mets five outfielders combined are hitting .224, 16 HRs, 50 RBIs, which I am sure that Ankiel can top that alone if he continues to get comfortable at the plate. The team may not have the talent us fans have been accustomed to watching and as the players are aware, Mets fans are very passionate about their team, which Terry Collins recently eluded to when he went after the fans in the media. He chose to take out his frustration on the fans recently by saying, “They (fans) have no idea what goes on in there. They have absolutely no idea what it means to be a professional teammate at this level.” That may be true to some extent, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t see the writing on the wall. It doesn’t mean that we are not educated baseball fans, plus we feel we understand the game better than most that actually play the game. We may be fooling ourselves, but we just want what other successful teams and organizations have, and that is a chance. A chance to watch our team go out each day and play the game the way it is supposed to be played. I hope other fans feel the same way I do, but I can do without all the drama. If you have a good player on the team, play him and if you don’t care to then don’t, but make a right decision and leave it out of the news. Give the fans hope that maybe just maybe this team, our team will turn it around. This is baseball, a game we all grew up loving and some playing and we just hope that ownership gets the concept that in order to keep the fans happy, you have to put together a team worth rooting for. They won’t win all the games but have something to build on. In a recent NY Daily News article, Collins actually said he regret his remarks about the fans, “Of course I regret the choice of words. I certainly respect the New York fans; they’re the most knowledgeable fans I’ve ever been around.” See Collins even admits how smart we are and he goes on to say “They know the game. They know the people.” We know what we expect and we know that unless there is some sort of hope, this ship will continue to sink and when it finally goes down, usually the captain goes down with it and I am not referring to David Wright.

Tyler Kepner of the New York Times, had an article this morning suggesting the Mets should make a strong attempt at signing Reds center fielder Shin-Soo Choo if they are serious about contending in 2014. Choo is a free agent at the end of this season. Choo, 30, was acquired by the Reds in the offseason for highly regarded shortstop prospect Didi Gregorious and outfielder Drew Stubbs. According to Kepner, Cincinnati Choo was charged targeted Choo to fix their problems in the leadoff spot, which produced a .254 on-base percentage last season. So far, Choo has delivered in a big way, ranking second in the National League with a .455 on-base percentage. The Scott Boras client has always been able to hit for average and get 0n base as his career .386 OBP would attest. Going into this season, he has averaged 38 doubles and 90 runs per season in his career. He also can give the Mets power and speed while providing solid range and defense in center field. The left-handed batter has averaged 15 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a typical season for him and is on a pace to smash both of those marks in his walk year with the Reds. “He’s the big reason why we are where we are right now,” said Brandon Phillips of the Reds, who hold the second-best record in the National League. “Playing against him when he was with the Indians, I always told everybody he’s one of the best all-around players in baseball — underrated. Right now he’s just being himself. It’s a blessing to have him over here.” Kepner also adds that the South Korean native, might be a sensation in New York, whose metropolitan area has the second-largest Korean population in the United States, behind Los Angeles. Obviously, I love Choo and had wanted the Mets to go after him last offseason, and even though he’ll be a year older I would still have no problem bringing him on board for the 2014 season and beyond. I’m assuming it would require at least a four-year commitment and the bidding from other teams will be aggressive. That’s the part that frightens me – or should I say frightens Sandy Alderson. You see, I’ll maintain what I’ve been saying all along about him and that is that he doesn’t have the stomach for these types of negotiations. To quote myself from last October, “Alderson doesn’t have the ability to go after a desirable and marketable free-agent, it sin’t in his DNA.” There will be other outfield options out there next offseason, assuming they are not re-signed. Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Gomez, and my favorite - Carlos Beltran - will all be free agents after this season. The problem is will Alderson be willing to spend and come out strong? Or will it be another Winter of waiting for the market to settle to his liking, which of course never happens leaving him to scamper and pick the bones of whatever carcass he can find on the scrap heap?

Few things beat an easy walk to a baseball stadium. It’s even better when I can take a short stroll to see my team play. So this past weekend I took in three Mets-Cubs games at Wrigley Field. The team won on Friday, lost on Saturday and won again on Sunday. Friday May 17, a 3-2 win: Not much more needs to be said about this game than the name Matt Harvey. Harvey rebounded from a rough first inning to win the game from the mound (no walks and six strikeouts) and from the batters box, hitting an RBI single that scored Rick Ankiel from second base for the go-ahead and game-winning run. Other highlights included solo home runs from David Wright and Daniel Murphy. The weather was a bit cooler than preferred, but the view from section 425 was great. Selected pictures below, click on the images for a larger view. Full picture set is here. Saturday May 18, an 8-2 loss: Well, the weather was better on this day, but the game was not. Nik and I scalped some cheap 500 level seats but sat in empty seats in section 234. The seats were great and being under the overhang to block some sun was good too. Jeremy Hefner got the start and did ok for the most part. He did give up four runs, but he wasn’t getting much run support either. Rick Ankiel went deep in the ninth, but it was too little too late. Selected pictures below, click on the images for a larger view. Full picture set is here. The 7 Line from NY organized a big group outing for the game, complete with awesome-looking orange shirts. They took over a whole section in the bleachers and the pictures looking towards them were great. It was a really awesome sight to see. Sunday May 19, a 4-3 win: Another lovely day weather-wise and the game was touch and go as the Cubs led 3-1 until the seventh inning when Juan  Lagares hit his first MLB home run, a two-run shot to tie the game. Daniel Murphy hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth to give the Mets the lead. The Mets relievers did their job to help seal the 4-3 win and take the series from the Cubs. Views are from section 237. Selected pictures below, click on the images for a larger view. Full picture set is here.

COMMENTARY | The trials and tribulations of the New York Mets’ outfield has been well-documented. Looking ahead to 2014, who could Sandy Alderson target in the free agent market? The salaries of Johan Santana and Jason Bay are coming off the books, giving New York more financial flexibility. While some want the Mets to go after Shin Soo-Choo and Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran should be given heavy consideration. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – New York Mets News

‘Sometimes’ for Mets fans equals since the bottom of the 9th of the 2006 NLCS. "The game is very cruel sometimes, and right now we’re experiencing kind of the cruelness of it." -David Wright [ESPN] Agreed with Jose, This Week in Mets Quotes also does not want to touch that. "I talk to Valdespin almost every day. He’s a very good friend of mine … I don’t know what’s going on over there. I don’t want to touch that. Valdespin, I support him in everything he [does] because he’s a good friend of mine. Other than that, I don’t know what’s going on over there." -Jose Reyes [New York Post] Well, except for this quote, which really applies to life in general. "If you're going to pimp it, you're going to suffer the consequences." -Marlon Byrd [USA Today] Wouldn’t hurt to also have guys behind David Wright, but baby steps, people. "I'll see how it goes. He's swinging good. He's swinging great. And we've got to get guys on ahead of David [Wright]. ... I figured I'd give it a shot and get him up there enough times and maybe he can do some damage." -Terry Collins [ESPN] Leadoff batters should be able to get on base, what a novel idea. "I thought about it in spring training, to be honest, whether or not to lead Murph off. We'll just see how it goes. It might be something we've certainly got to consider as we get deeper into the season, because he can hit. He gets on base. If he does that, certainly we've got to keep our options open with Murph being the leadoff hitter." -Terry Collins [ESPN] We all know Harvey is special, but I need some insight from Jesse Hahn, high school teammate of Harvey. "What’s special about Matt, and he’s doing it right now in the big leagues, is the way he attacks hitters," Hahn says. "He knows his strengths and doesn’t care what the hitters’ strengths are. He’s going to come after them." -Jesse Hahn [New York Daily News] "To this day, I’m not sure if any hitter I’ve seen in pro ball has a hit a ball harder than the balls Matt would hit." -Jesse Hahn [New York Daily News] Hefner is correct, it’s in the rule book. "Anybody with a bat in their hands can be a hitter. So I need to make a better pitch there." -Jeremy Hefner on giving up a two-run double to opposing pitcher Scott Feldman [ESPN] Can those adjustments include having your teammates hit better? "I wouldn’t say it’s weighing on me, but I want to win, I want the team to win, and obviously we didn’t do that today. I still need to make some adjustments and be better next week." -Jeremy Hefner [New York Times] 2013 Mets Starting Rotation Motto: Just keep pitching. "If wins don’t come, you’ve got to keep pitching, you’ve got to grind it out, and he knows that. It’s what got him here. It’s the kind of pitcher he is. He just works hard. He’ll be O.K. We’ll get him some wins when we start swinging better." -Terry Collins [New York Times] I like the sense of urgency Ike is expressing. "I probably have a month or whatever to figure it out, and then they’ve got to do what they’ve got to do. But it’s not a day-to-day thing. As long as I start having good at-bats and start performing better, it won’t happen." -Ike Davis [New York Times] In general, if a third-base coach is being quoted, he probably did something wrong. "Obviously it is disappointing. It turned out it wasn't a very close play. I just watched the replay again and it wasn't close. As a third-base coach you always want to make the right decision, and that clearly wasn't the right decision." David Bell regarding Marlon Byrd throwing out Darwin Barney [ESPN] Wait, you’re saying the media misreported a story in order to make drama where there was none? "Sandy Alderson handled the situation as best he could. There were some reports where he mishandled the situation. I don’t thi

Despite a major league pedigree and respect for his tools (Baseball America Top 15 organizational prospect three years running), Binghamton Mets outfielder Cory Vaughn had yet to put all his tools together. His power and speed didn’t show up until 2012, but he hit .243. In St. Lucie in 2011, Vaughn hit .286 before his promotion, but only four home runs. After the promotion, he more than doubled his home run total, but the batting average dipped to .219. That’s all changed, however. Vaughn’s tearing it up to the tune of .307/.392/.500 with five home runs in 130 plate appearances and is fresh off an Eastern League Player of the Week award. He’s got five stolen bases in six chances, and this is all in his first season at AA Binghamton. One would expect an adjustment period after the jump from High A, and even though you couldn’t tell by the numbers, Vaughn has had a lot to adjust to. “There’s been a lot of adjustments going on, from the weather to this past off season to working with our hitting coach Luis [Natera],” explained Vaughn. “Basically just go out there and play the game hard and never stop working and never stop grinding, you know? So it’s been paying off, but you still have to work hard no matter what.” Binghamton Manager Pedro Lopez agrees. “I would say that he’s been making adjustments as he goes along. I think he’s got the right mindset right now in order for him to get better. You’re looking at somebody who’s on a mission right now. Every chance that he gets, he’s making the best out of it. The thing is, especially when you get to this level, is to make sure that you got your ears open for any suggestions.” Vaughn also made an adjustment to his batting stance. He attributes a mechanical adjustment he made to the placement of his hands to his success. The bat used to stand straight up with his hands by his ear, but keeping the bat flatter and lower has helped him stay through the ball. “I really just kind of sit the bat on my shoulder so my hands would be more in the slot. You know, A to B,” explains Vaughn. “The quickest way to one point is a straight line. So I just try to “A to B” it and it’s been working out pretty well.” Hitting Coach Luis Natera explains that with the longer swing, he was in an out of the zone too quickly and tended to hook everything. “Now he’s working to stay through the zone a little longer and his lower half is working much better. He was landing with his front foot on his heel. It made him pull off everything. Now he made that transition to landing on his toes and it leaves the front heel up that keeps him through the zone a little longer. Now those balls that he hooked foul are in the left-center gap.” Both Lopez and Natera also commend his approach at the plate. “One thing he’s doing well to this point is trying to get a good pitch to hit and when he gets it, he’s not missing many,” said Lopez. “That goes with our whole hitting philosophy. Try to get a good pitch to hit and right now he’s doing a good job at it.” Coach Natera has also been impressed with his new student. “He’s got a lot of confidence. What I hear from other coaches is that he was afraid to hit with two strikes. Now he’s not afraid to take a borderline strike to get to his pitch.” When asked directly if looking to take borderline strikes detract from Vaughn’s natural aggressiveness, Natera refutes the idea. “Any hitter, if he’s afraid of hitting with two strikes, is going to swing at a pitcher’s pitch [early in the count] and that’s tough to hit. And now he’s not afraid to take those pitches on the corner and wait for that pitcher to make a mistake.” And despite the fact that Vaughn has improved his slugging percentage steadily over the last three seasons, Coach Natera is still being patient on that front. “Power in young hitters is the last to come,” he explains. “Now he has to work on being a hitter. The power is there. He just has to work the strike zone like he’s been working and keep his hands back through the zone

It’s been said many times before, but it bears repeating: Memorial Day is not a day for celebrating the military. It’s a day for honoring the military dead. A more appropriate gesture would be an MLB-wide black armband. An even better gesture would be a pregame moment of silence, without anything on the uniform. But as is so often the case nowadays, merchandising and pandering trump common sense.via Uni Watch.General Lukas also tells us there will be three “Stars and Stripes” caps this season – the camo is one, then others on July 4th and September 11th.Remember kids, September 11th is a day for merchandise.  But heaven forbid you wear a first responder cap.The post Uni Watch on the Memorial Day camo uniforms appeared first on The Mets Police.Related posts:Uni Watch doesn’t like David Wright’s orange undershirtTerry Watch Watch: Not Right How Mets Are Judging Terry Collins | The John Delcos New York Mets ReportMets bat weights are now logo wrapped and look like this

AGBAYANI: THE METS’ “BENNY-FACTOR” SLAMS THE CUBS Did you ever notice that certain players that have toiled in the minors for a while tend to exhibit surges in production when they finally get a crack at the big time? It’s as if they had those hits stockpiled for the Show and can’t wait to get them out of their systems once fortune and the front office permits. So it seemed to be with Benny Agbayani, a stocky outfielder who physique evoked the same comparisons with a pineapple that were applied to his predecessor as the resident Hawaiian Met, Sid Fernandez. Benny flaunted a somewhat more athletic build however, and for a time looked to be a greater source of batting power than his record on the farm had indicated. A 30th round draft pick by the Mets in 1993, Agbayani spent the better part of 6 seasons moving up the rungs of the farm system with stops at Pittsfield, St. Lucie, Binghamton and Norfolk before getting a 15 AB cameo with the big club in 1998. However, he failed to make a good enough showing to remain, going 2 for 15, and was returned to AAA where he found himself assigned once again the following season.  Never a major power threat, Benny had nonetheless endeared himself to Norfolk manager Bobby Valentine during his tenure there with a combination of hustle and timely hitting. When Bobby V moved up to take the reins of the varsity squad, he lobbied for Benny’s promotion when a wave of outfield malaise necessitated a call up. And so, in May of 1999, Agbayani was given another shot at the majors. At this point, Benny was a 27 year-old spare part who was generally regarded as a non-prospect by much of the baseball intelligentsia of the time. Prospect or not, he seized the chance afforded by this second go-round and went on a power binge that was so out of character with his past performance that it amazed even him. Inserted into the lineup against the Colorado Rockies (in a weird instance where both starting pitchers that day were named Bobby Jones), Benny collected two hits including his first big league home run. He continued to mash after that, collecting 6 more bombs over the next 2 weeks and an amazing 10 in his first 73 at bats.  He reached the All Star break with a total of 11, but came back to earth in the second half of the season and finished the year with 14. Still, he had put up solid numbers for the year, batting .286 in 276 at bats while knocking in 42 runs with an OPS of .888. More importantly, he had played a not-insignificant role in helping the Mets reach the post-season for the first time in 11 years.  He would save his playoff heroics for the following year however, and batted a soft .235 between the Division Series and LCS in ’99 with only 1 RBI. The 2000 season began with the Mets facing the Cubs in the Tokyo Dome in the first major league game played on a continent other than North America. Benny hadn’t had a particularly glorious showing in spring training that year and was lower in the club’s pecking order of outfielders.  In the opening series, Valentine had opted to go with Jay Payton, Darryl Hamilton, Rickey Henderson, and Derek Bell, the latter coming over in the trade that had netted new rotation ace Mike Hampton. Agbayani was relegated to the bench, the vantage point from which he watched the team drop the first contest by a score of 5-3. The next day found him there again as the teams took a 1-1 game into extra innings. As the game moved to the top of the 11th inning, the Mets looked for a chance to push the go-ahead run across and avoid a sweep. Cubs reliever Danny Young was brought in to start the inning, the seventh pitcher used by manager Don Baylor that day.  After getting two out, he surrendered a single to Mets first baseman Todd Zeile and then issued back-to-back walks to load the bases. The pitcher’s spot in the lineup came up and Valentine tapped Benny as a pinch hitter. After tossing his first pitch to Agbayani wide of the strike zone, Young made his next offering a little too

This past weekend a cadre of Mets fans led by Darren Meenan of The 7 Line converged on Wrigley Field for a fine weekend of baseball. Shannon from The Mets Police was there as well and today he has a post on his site that is a must read for not only every Mets fan but for Mets management as well. Shannon writes about the wonderful experience he had at the Friendly Confines. As someone who has been to Wrigley Field I am not surprised at all. A day at Wrigley Field is unlike any at Citi Field. In fact a day at any other ball park is unlike a day at Citi Field. A few years ago I went to Chicago with a bunch of guys, mostly cops and firemen for a weekend series of Mets and Cubs. We had spilt the group up where five of us would sit in field level seats for the Friday game and five would sit in the bleachers for the Saturday game.  My group of five sat in field level for the Friday game. An usher greeted us as we entered and saw that we were dressed in all our splendor in Mets gear. He said welcome to Wrigley Field “youes guys” and laughed. So did we. He showed us to our seats, wiped them down told us to enjoy the game. We handed the guy a 20 dollar bill and he gave us a big smile back and said, “That’s why I like you New York guys, you know how to take care of people”. Yes sir we do as long as you are nice and pleasant we take care of you. If you’re nasty and surly and act like you hate your job as the ushers at Citi Field seem to, we give you our ass to kiss. As we sat, we were taking pictures of the field and the ball park when a guy with the game day staff at Wrigley saw us taking pictures came over and took a group shot of us. When he took the picture, we thanked him and he said “No, thank you guys for coming to Wrigley Field” you could have knocked us over with a feather.   It’s not just Wrigley Field game day personnel that treat people the way people should be treated. First time I went to Camden Yards, my son was three years old so we still used a stroller to get around. As we entered the ball park my son was fussing so I took him out of the stroller and carried him, my wife took the stroller along with a backpack we had with food for him, jacket, toys all stuff you need to bring when you have a toddler. An usher came right over to us and said “please let we give you a hand” he looked at the tickets, which were just down the left field line and took the stroller and said “follow me please” walked us to our seats and got us situated. After saying to us “enjoy the game” I went to give him a tip the usher looked at me and said “oh no sir we do not accept gratuities, put thank you.  WHOA! Every Mets fan who has traveled to another ball park to follow the Mets have the same kind of stories, whether it be Wrigley Field, Camden Yards, PNC Park, AT&T or even CBP , Mets fans have a better game day experience away from Citi Field that at our own home park.   There is no reason whatsoever that a fan coming to park early to watch batting practice has to be held back by a big hairy arm telling you if you don’t have a ticket you can’t go down there. Same thing if you want to visit someone in another section. How many times has a friend been at a game you get a text “hey I’m in section 207 come down and we’ll meet up” you go to the section see your buddy and make an attempt to go to the seat when your stopped and interrogated to see a ticket?  That’s why the Shea Bridge area of the ballpark is popular it’s the Guantanamo Bay of Citi Field. Mets fans don’t want t-shirts, bobble heads, lunch pails or other gimmicks to lure us to the ball park. Just give us a competitive team and show us the respect we deserve when we enter the ball park. Kindness goes along way with Mets fans. Share this:

The Mets continued their recent run of not quite good enough play yesterday, coming up on the short end of a 4-3 game with the Reds. Shaun Marcum was ok, but some bad luck and poor defensive positioning in the first inning left him with a record of 0-5 on the season. The full box score can be found here. The Mets added another interesting arm to their bullpen mix on Monday, signing David Aardsma to a minor league deal. He doesn't throw it as hard as he used to, but he's still an interesting guy to take a look at given his track record in the majors. He'll be reporting to AAA Las Vegas. Fleet Week may have been cancelled due to budget cuts within the government, but that doesn't mean that there won't be any military celebrations going on at Citifield this weekend. The team will still be running their military appreciation night on Sunday, and are expecting about 4,000 participants. Yesterday at AA Monday's usually see the updated performance meters at AA, and yesterday saw new editions for both hittersand pitchers. The player performance meter just isn't enough for Matt Harvey, so we took an in-depth look at his 9th start of the season. This date in Mets history belonged to Robin Ventura, who hit a grand slam in both games of a double header against the Milwaukee Brewers. Finally, we had a series preview for the Reds with Red Reporter, SB Nation's Cincinnati Reds community. Around Baseball The division leading Braves maintained their winning ways, defeating the Minnesota Twins by a 5-1 score. We had another 5-1 score within the division, as the Phillies lost to the AAA AA team from Miami. In the most lopsided game from the NL East on Monday, the Nationals got pounded 8-0 by the Giants. The news got worse for the Nats, as both Ryan Vogelsong and Ryan Mattheus suffered broken hands. Dave Cameron took on the idea that sabermetrics are to blame for the increasing number of strikeouts in baseball today. Rob Neyer also gave his take on the theory. The 2013 draft is rapidly approaching, and over-slot guys are always worth watching as teams decide how to distribute their funds. Minor League Ball took a look at some potentially tough signs yesterday.