It's time for...

Mets vs. Phillies! I love a good baseball rivalry and this weekend, we're finally going to get Mets/Phillies baseball like it was meant to be played. I've said before that I don't hate the Phillies nearly as much as I still hate the Braves - even though they've been irrelevant recently - but that doesn't mean I don't want to go for the jugular here. I believe that this series is much more important for the Mets than the Phillies. Sure, the Phils have some bullpen problems (ok, maybe a lot of bullpen problems..) but they're the defending NL champs until someone dethrones them. It also seems like they make the right moves when necessary, so I have no doubt that they will magically find some relief pitchers to help them out and all will be right in the City of Brotherly Love. Again. ugh.

The Mets, on the other hand, have some convincing to do. I know, I know - we just finished a 10 game home stand at 9-1. I like Ike, and so does everyone else. Jose Reyes is being Jose Reyes. David Wright and Jason Bay finally remembered how to hit a baseball. The starting and relief pitching has been absolutely incredible, with John Maine and Oliver Perez being the exceptions. (That's right - unlike the rest of New York, I'm not letting John Maine off the hook because he had one solid start where 30 MPH winds aided the natural movement on his 87-MPH fastball).

But here's the thing about being a Mets fan: we're still not convinced. Believe me, I wish I wasn't conditioned to wait for the other shoe to drop. It's stressful to constantly wait for bad news. The term I've seen being used the most on Mets blogs is "cautiously optimistic" - as in, we love what is happening right now.... but we know all too well how tenuous this success can be. Realistically, the Mets can take two out of three this weekend:

Friday - LHP Jon Niese (0-1, 3.68) vs. RHP Kyle Kendrick (0-0, 7.71)
Saturday - RHP Mike Pelfrey (4-0, 0.69) vs. RHP Roy Halladay (4-1, 1.80)
Sunday - LHP Johan Santana (3-1, 2.08) vs. LHP Jaime Moyer (2-2, 5.25)

I'd like to think we can beat Kendrick - Jon Niese has pitched fairly well so far this year, but he is also still developing as a pitcher so there are bound to be some bumps in the road and Kendrick has not been on form. As phenomenal as Mike Pelfrey has been, the edge goes to the Phillies in game 2. We can also beat Jaime Moyer as long as we don't beat ourselves (translation: Santana needs run support). All in all, I'm excited for this weekend. Baseball hasn't had this much meaning for Mets fans in nearly a year and I'm enjoying every second of it.

Since yesterday's game was rained out...

I don't have any recaps. Instead, I'll be playing around with a new gimmick: Mythbusters. Today's myth - Chicks dig the long ball.

Now, don't get me wrong - home runs are great. They are exciting, give you instant runs, and generally get the crowd even more pumped up or bring them back to the game. But where the hell did this urban legend COME from?!? I don't understand how the art of the infield hit and scratching out runs got lost in the baseball shuffle. It is clearly more stressful when your team relies on such things to score runs, but isn't it also more exciting in its own way? I appreciate the hustle and determination needed to piece together runs. Shouldn't we expect (or even demand) these things from every player on our teams? I know I do. Nothing makes me happier than Jose Reyes beating out a throw for an infield single... and then watching him wreak havoc on the bases. You're trying to tell me Jose "stealing" a run against the Braves on Sunday wasn't exciting?? (Side note here - I'm aware that Jose is not always playing alertly when he makes these plays... I've said before that he really just has the ability to outrun his mental mistakes, which is fairly impressive considering he seems to make a lot of them.)

I'll leave you with this quote from Ichiro, probably the coolest (or at least most quotable) player in the majors today:
Chicks who dig home runs aren't the ones who appeal to me. I think there's sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I'd rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out.

The chicks who dig infield hits are out there, Ichiro. I promise.

Get the brooms out!

I can't think of many things that make me happier than the Mets sweeping the Braves. Sure, the Braves got themselves into trouble committing a ton of errors and not coming through with runners in scoring position throughout the series. And yes, last night's game was called due to rain after 5 innings and one pitch. But you know what? I'm a Mets fan and I'll take those breaks any day of the week and twice on Sunday. We're one game over .500 and on a four game winning streak. Given the way April started, that's exciting. Some things to consider:

• The Mets haven't lost a game since Jose Reyes started hitting third. If I learned one thing in college, it's that correlation does not imply causation - but Jason Bay is finally starting to hit so I'd like to think it's a combination of seeing some better pitches because of Reyes and Bay just finding a groove.
• Mike Pelfrey didn't have the best stuff last night... but it was good enough to improve to 4-0 on the year, extend his scoreless innings streak to 24, and lower his ERA to 0.69.
• Memo to David Wright - sometimes you'd rather be lucky than good. DW needs some breaks in the worst possible way.

Finally - and this really has nothing to do with the weekend series - I absolutely love it when Ralph Kiner makes guest appearances in the booth. He has great stories from his playing days, isn't afraid to call out today's players for anything, and is at a point in his life where he can say whatever he wants. It's amazing and highly entertaining. I wish ESPN and FOX would let him visit.

A win streak?! No way!!

That's right, our Mets actually have a win streak going! Mike Pelfrey showed no ill effects from his stint as a reliever, tossing seven scoreless innings against the Cubs last night and lowering his ERA to 0.86. He has now thrown 19 consecutive scoreless innings. He looks like an entirely different person from last year and I love it. Did anyone see this coming??

For the first time last night, Jose Reyes appeared to be ready to play baseball again. After a day off on Monday, Reyes picked up 4 hits including a 2 RBI triple. It was good to see Jose running without looking like he was afraid of tweaking something. Other than that, it's a good thing Pelfrey was able to dominate the Cubs because the middle of the batting order - David Wright, Jason Bay, Jeff Francoeur, and Ike Davis - combined to go 0-13 with seven strikeouts. Francoeur seems to have lost some of the plate discipline we saw him exhibit over the first week and a half of the season, which would explain his recent cold streak. And as nice as it would have been, Davis was not going to continue to hit .500 at this level. But oh man, what is going on with Wright and Bay?? I said yesterday I felt there was something just off about David's swing and whole approach, but it's really standing out at this point. I know Bay is a streaky hitter, and he did have a couple of hits on Monday, so I'm just waiting for things to click with him. We really need him to step up and be the power hitter Omar signed.

For now, I'm adopting a "glass half full" mentality and giving the line up some time to click. I mean, the construction really only started making sense within the last two games. And quite honestly, while we're winning games I don't see the need to harp on the negatives (key words - "while we're winning games"...).

Funny how things change...

I know that in this day and age of constant media coverage and outlets for fans to spew venom/sing praises, things change quickly. But it seems like there are some positives surrounding the Mets for the first time this season.

Over the past 5 days, the pitching - both starting and relief - has been phenomenal. Well, with the exception of John Maine anyway. The Mets came away with a hard fought, 20-inning win in St. Louis (sure, they went on to lose the series, but hey a win's a win). Mike Pelfrey showed me he has the potential to be a serious big timer when he told Jerry "I can do this. I want the ball" and picked up a save in that ridiculous game. Pelfrey is 2-0, with 1 save and a 1.29 ERA. I'm curious to see if/how his relief appearance affects his performance tonight... but for the first time in about 1.5 years, I have some faith in Big Pelf.

Ike Davis gave the anemic offense a much needed boost last night, going 2-4 with an RBI in his major league debut. I'm praying Davis is the real deal - partly because we're in desperate need of a true first basemen, but mostly because I just want to see the Mets launch an "I Like Ike" campaign complete with pins and t-shirts.

Jason Bay showed signs of breaking out of his slump which is great to see. Hopefully Bay's production will increase and take some pressure off of David Wright, who seems to be struggling at the plate again. I feel like his swing has changed... I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but David used to be his own version of a hitting tutorial video, and I'm not seeing that same muscle memory-type swing with him anymore. Fans seem to be getting frustrated with him, which I don't think is fair because Wright has been one of the most consistently good players in our line up. His defense has never been perfect and throws to first are an adventure sometimes... but I think this makes Davis's impact even more important because good defensive first basemen make the other infielders better.

All in all, I'm happy we're showing signs of life. Even though pitching was the big question mark going into this season, it's turned out that the offense has been the bigger problem. It's tough when the guys you pay to be your big bats are slumping simultaneously. And Jose Reyes looks like he's half a step behind everything that's happening on the field. I think these things will work themselves out, but really only time will tell. Another win tonight would certainly go a long way in lifting spirits - particularly those of the fan base. Let's Go Mets!

New and Improved Mike Pelfrey?

If I didn't know it was Mike Pelfrey pitching yesterday afternoon, I might not have believed it. Not only did Big Pelf become the first starter to get an out in the 7th inning, he looked great. I mean, really great. He didn't allow a run - bringing his ERA to a team-low 1.38 - and even though he committed a balk, he didn't let it derail his concentration. On top of that, he also helped himself out with an RBI single.

This is almost a complete turn around from last year and I'm thrilled with it. Who would have thought Mike Pelfrey would turn into a stopper? The Mets desperately needed a pitching performance like that (you know that the bullpen and Jerry Manuel breathed a collective sigh of relief when Pelfrey actually completed seven innings) and it seemed to spark the team a bit. I said that I considered Mike Pelfrey to be the X factor of the starting five... and if he continues to put together outings like that, it will be everything I could have possibly hoped for coming from him. I don't know if the fact that he was dropped to the number 4 starter in the rotation took some pressure off of him or created a challenge to prove himself, but regardless he seems to be in a really good place.

Last thing - I know I complained about signing 5 different catchers this off season, but Pelfrey gave Henry Blanco a ton of credit yesterday:

“He’s pretty unbelievable back there. I’m probably not as good as he made it look, but, he did a good job. Another thing about him that was huge is he came over to me between innings… we communicated, and I think that’s huge for learning.” (excerpt posted by Matthew Cerrone and taken from metsblog.com).

I still don't believe there was a coherent plan in place this off season, but it seems like the Mets did at least one thing right.

Armchair GM - Session 1

Another tough loss last night... I don't have the energy to rehash, so instead I'm going to focus on something else. Yesterday on WFAN, Jerry Manuel had his weekly spot with Mike Francesa. I'm not a Francesa fan - I think he's arrogant and a borderline bully. But Jerry made some comments last night that I thought were interesting and sparked a little Armchair GM in me.

Comment #1: "We haven't gelled as an offense yet."
Well, maybe that's because the line up that Jerry has opted to put on the field has not been maximizing the talent that we have. I'm tired of "splitting up the righties" with Mike Jacobs - what good is splitting up the righties when you have a lefty like Jacobs in between? Who would pitch to Wright or Bay when they know that Jacobs is a strike out machine? Additionally, Gary Matthews has been awful. I don't think Angel Pagan is a starter... but he not only outplayed Matthews in spring training, he has outplayed him in what little playing time he has had since the season started. And with Beltran out, shouldn't we really be doing everything we can to compensate?

Comment #2 (RE: John Maine and his awful starts): "I don't think two starts is enough time to make a decision like that."
Ok, fine... but it hasn't been two starts. The writing has been on the wall with Maine for the past two years. He's been able to escape some criticism because of injuries, but now he's healthy for the first time in awhile. He got lit up during spring training, and like I said - it's not as if Opening Day flips a switch and turns these guys into something special. Jerry made it clear that Maine will get his next start. After that, I suppose some decisions will have to be made.

Comment #3 (on Minaya's decision to leave Ike Davis at AAA): "I'm gonna leave that one alone."
I'm taking this to mean that Manuel disagrees with the decision. Who can blame him... Davis is producing more by himself at AAA than both of the guys currently platooning at first at the major league level. Also, I know you can't always cater to the fan base, but Davis is someone we can at least get excited about. Did you see the attendance at the Nationals weekend series? Citi Field is going to be empty if they don't do something to inspire some confidence or at least hope in the fans.

So here is my Armchair GM analysis. If you want to leave Ike Davis at AAA, fine. Cut Jacobs and give Chris Carter, who killed the ball all spring, a shot. If Jerry is really sold on Jacobs, and he seems to be, then put Kelvim Escobar on the 60 day DL (retroactive to March) and open up the roster spot that way. Give Ruben Tejada more starts at second base, because I don't care that Luis Castillo is making $6 million this year, I'm tired of seeing him bunt and hit slap shots to the middle infielders. See what Fernando Nieve can do in the rotation because 1. he can't be worse than anything we have right now and 2. If Maine gets shelled in his next start, he should be put on the 30 day DL to buy some time to work things out in the minors. (as a side note - did anyone else see Nelson Figueroa's line from last night's Phillies/Nationals game? He is not necessarily a game changer, but I bet Jerry Manuel is missing him in the bullpen right about now given that his starters are lucky to get to the sixth inning.) That's my take on the first 8 games. Notice how that number keeps going up... pretty soon we won't be able to say "it's still early."

Rox have their way with Maine

The Rockies knocked John Maine around last night en route to an 11-3 victory. Maine left the game after just 3 innings during which the Rockies scored 8 runs (helped along the way by a throwing error committed by Maine). Now there were a few bright spots - David Wright went 2-2 with two walks and a home run, Jeff Francoeur has hit safely in all seven games this season, and there was even a hit with men in scoring position last night. Considering the bullpen was used for 6 innings, they technically combined for a "quality start", giving up only three additional runs.

I have to say that I can not complain about our bullpen. They have been consistently solid. However... I am very concerned about overuse. There is something wrong with the Mets starters. I don't know if there is such a thing as a "mental toughness" gene - but if there is, these guys don't have it, with Johan Santana being the exception. Our starters can not get it together if one thing goes wrong. You can actually see the meltdowns progress as the starters continue to walk batters, give up hits, miss the strike zone, and perpetuate the cycle. Santana is the only starter who can settle himself down, as evidenced by his last start, and even that was too little too late. (Side note - this isn't even just about the starters. It's about the fact that if the Mets get down early they seem to be incapable of making a comeback. That is demoralizing to a baseball fan, but it is also a topic for another day.)

This morning, I did some math. Out of a possible 64 innings of baseball (7 games plus one extra inning) do you know how many of those innings have been pitched by starters? 36.2. That is ridiculous. We haven't had a starter make it past the sixth inning this season. In those 36.2 innings, the average ERA is 6.2. This number is skewed because of Maine's horrific start yesterday - 8 runs in three innings pitched will do that - but even if Maine is removed from the equation, the average becomes 4.69. For a team that seems to be unable to hit with runners in scoring position, this is WAY too high.

I found it interesting that during the broadcast last night, Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez discussed the fact that Maine, Perez, and Pelfrey were essentially handed starting spots even though they were out-pitched during spring training. It makes me feel better that rabid fans are not the only ones questioning this rotation or the decisions made during spring training.

Bueller? .... Bueller?

This is how I feel about the New York Mets. They simply don't show up for games. At least Ferris Bueller was creative about it... in this case, the absence is glaring. This is a problem for a few reasons (the most obvious being the end result - we are not winning games).

Let me first confess that I did not actually see any of this past weekend's series with the Nationals. I caught up on box scores and reports late on Sunday and a little bit this morning as well. From what I can gather, it was ugly. The Mets are reverting to their 2009 habit of leaving small towns on base every night - which clearly does not translate into wins.

During the yesterday's post game interview, Jerry took the blame for the loss and made a few comments about the team being unprepared. I never understand this - these guys are professional athletes. How is it possible for them to be unprepared and/or unmotivated? I have no idea what Jerry is like in the clubhouse, but if he is anything like his interview persona, it's really not a shock. He doesn't seem to get fired up about anything. I've never really been on the "Bring back Bobby V." bandwagon, but I understand the concept. Our Mets constantly seem to need a kick in the ass to bring them back to the levels at which they should already be playing. I think there should be a 1986 resurgence - bring in Wally Backman and Tim Teufel to run the show. Gary Carter has made it clear on numerous occasions that he would accept a job. And really, would anything be more entertaining that Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter working together in any capacity??

Back to yesterday... I'm still not throwing in the metaphorical towel on this season. After all, it is only 6 games. I understand that our opponents were the Marlins and the Nationals and that Santana had two starts, but the sky isn't falling (not yet, anyway). Santana's velocity was down yesterday so his change up was not very effective and that is worrisome. But at the same time, your ace should be able to have an off day without it being a crisis. The problem is that when the remaining 4 starters are Maine, Niese, Pelfrey, and Perez... suddenly every game Santana takes the loss in becomes an issue (Side note to this - I know that Perez had a decent start this weekend, but why wouldn't we skip him in the rotation? We could have gotten away with not having him start until next week. Isn't it better for the team as a whole if Perez has as few starts as possible?).

The Mets flew to Colorado yesterday and open a three game set with the Rockies starting tomorrow. Maybe the Mets can find some magic in the Mile High City.

It's always the Marlins...

Last night was tough. I'm not sure which part was worse - watching Maine struggle through 5 innings, being down 6-1, or losing 7-6 in extra innings. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that games like last night's are going to be the norm for us this year. The Mets were lucky Maine only gave up 4 runs since he was essentially putting the ball on a tee for Jorge Cantu (aka the newest addition to my baseball shit list). Maine was frustrating to watch and labored through his 5 innings - I suppose the silver lining here is that he made it through 5 innings. Also in his defense, he only walked one batter while striking out three. Other things of note from yesterday:

• Mike Jacobs is now 1 for 8 with 4 strike outs in two games. Remind me again why he is getting more at bats than Jason Bay, who was signed to be a clean up hitter?
• Alex Cora is also 1 for 8 from the lead off spot. At least he has an RBI though, which is more than we can say for Jacobs.
• Fernando Tatis still thinks he is a rookie. If you're going to try to make it home on a passed ball with 2 outs, bases loaded, and David Wright at the plate.... you better be 150% sure you're going to be safe. Fernando was not.

Anyway, the great thing about baseball is that there is an immediate chance for redemption. I'm excited to see what Jon Niese brings to the mound tonight. I have more faith in him than I probably should, partially because he's young but mostly because he really is an unknown entity at this point. With John Maine, you know what you are going to get: 5 somewhat shaky innings, after which the team is hopefully in a position to win. I'd like to see Niese go 6 innings - this will most likely depend on his pitch count though because it's not only his first start this year, it's his first start after a season-ending injury in 2009. Maybe Mike Jacobs will even get an RBI tonight to help him out.

Back to reality?

I kind of feel like baseball season actually starts today. I think it was Joe Beningo who said on Daily News Live that managers treat Opening Day like it's game 7 of the World Series. I agree with that... I mean, really, were we expecting Jerry Manuel to experiment in the later innings of Monday's game and potentially put not only an Opening Day win but a Santana win in jeopardy? So in that way, Opening Day is kind of a fake-out.

Tonight though - that's a whole different story. With John Maine on the mound, the bullpen might get a lot of use because Maine could easily be knocked out after three innings. I really want Maine to step up tonight. There has been so much negativity surrounding the starting rotation (from myself included) that it would really help our Mets fan psyches if Maine put together a solid outing. At 29, I consider him past the point in his career where "dead arm" phases and injuries just occur constantly and can be used as excuses. It's time for Maine to show us what he's really made of - and hopefully, that means 6 innings and leaving with a chance for the team to win the game.

In other news, Jose Reyes played a full nine innings in extended spring training. I want to read into this so much and proclaim that he is absolutely ready to rejoin the team this weekend... but I can't. Extended spring training is not major league talent by any means. So for now, I'm going to content myself with being REALLY happy that his legs are still attached to his body and his thyroid levels are normal. Come back soon, Jose.. we miss you!!

The promise of a new season

"A big part of the new season is letting go of the old one - forgetting the losses, or the injuries - and focusing completely on the future." - My Boys

It's Opening Day, and I'm excited. For this one day, I don't care that our pitchers have been getting shelled or that we are missing two of our most important players. There are still questionable things going on - for instance, why is Mike Jacobs batting behind David Wright today? What pitcher in his right mind would pitch to Wright when he's got a strike out machine batting behind him in the order? But it is time to let some things go.

Everyone can agree that 2009 was a horrific season and a complete disappointment. But you know what? It's not 2009 anymore. Part of this is just an Opening Day high and part of it is that I have faith in Johan regardless of how his spring training ended. The important thing here is that I love baseball, and I'm pumped up for this. Remember - you don't mess with the Johan and let's go Mets!