The Mets are getting in on all this social media stuff. Check out their Google+, Tumblr, and Pinterest pages.
In a pretty logical move (every other team in Major League Baseball is going this way, too), the Mets have gone and made their presence known on 3 of the hottest social networking sites going. This reblog is from the Mets’ Tumblr blog. Just below, their Pinterest page:
And last, but not least, their Google+ profile:
Click the links to check them out.
Oh yeah, just the ole fake to first, run down the very fast baseballer and tag him out move. Yeah, seen it a hundred times.
If you sped this up and looped it, you could almost hear Yakity Sax in your head. Just awesome. Sorry Maybin.
One heavily discussed topic of late is how a number of players on the Mets have something to prove. If not something to prove, they are in a nebulous area where it is unclear whether they deserve to be starters, platoon players, bench players, or some combination of the three.
Unfortunately one of those is Daniel Murphy, who regularly looks uncomfortable in the field but was showing why he belongs in the bigs with his bat this year, hitting .320 in just under 400 ABs prior to going down for the season with a leg injury.
Another one is Mike Pelfrey. Once a top draft pick and an annual tease on the hearts of Mets fans, he sometimes looks like he could be a very good middle of the rotation starter and innings-eater, while sometimes the 6-foot-7 righty looks more lost than talented.
A third is Angel Pagan who had a miserable start to the season hitting .159 in April prior to hitting the disabled list. He has been inconsistent since but has the potential to hit well from both sides of the plate, be athletic in the field, steal bases and provide pop as he has shown with long balls in two consecutive games entering play yesterday.
Which directions could these three guys go? Below is a career comparison - a favorable one and an unfavorable one - for each of these three players, showing how these three players with their skill-sets could head in such different directions.
Daniel Murphy
Jason Philliips (unfavorable) - Remember him? He played the majority of the Mets’ games at 1B in 2003 and catcher in 2004. At 27 years old in 2003, he batted 5th in about half of his plate appearances and finished the season hitting .298 with an .815 OPS. Middle-of-the-order linchpin of the future, right? Wrong - in 2004, he hit .218 with a measly amount of power and was subsequently traded to the Dodgers for the man, the myth, Kazuhisa Ishii. Like Murphy, he was never particularly deft in the field but led fans to ignoring that through his strong 2003 season that seemingly showed he was a good enough major league hitter to make up for it. Hopefully Murphy is a better hitter - and he probably is - but the risk still exists for putting too much faith in a guy who hasn’t played a full season and doesn’t have a definite position.
Dmitri Young (favorable) - Now, not everybody would like to be favorably compared to Dmitri Young, the man who is listed on FanGraphs as weighing 298 lbs. Realistically though, if Murph’s career ends up like Young’s, he and fans should both be happy. In the 10-year span from 1998-2007 with the Reds, Tigers and Nationals, Young played above 100 games in eight of those seasons. Twice, he was an All-Star and regularly hit near .300 with an OPS above .800. In the 2003 season with the Tigers, he hit .297 with 29 HRs and a .909 OPS - numbers I think any fan would take from a full season of Murphy. Like Murphy, Young was a poor fielder with no clear position, playing 1B, 3B, LF and RF but made up for it by being a consistently good hitter.
Mike Pelfrey
Kris Benson - Once upon a time, Kris Benson was the first pick of the MLB draft. With an ERA lower than 4.00 just once in his career, he was still always able to sell teams on the fact that he had potential, and stayed in the league through last year because of that. Every time he made a good start, he was finally starting to scratch his potential but every time he pitched poorly it was some catastrophic regression. Realistically, it probably just meant he was mediocre through and through. Pelfrey as he is now is a servicable Major League starter, just like how Benson was for the majority of his career. But people always expected Benson to be more because he was a top pick and the same has happened to Pelfrey - even if he may be a decent back of the rotation starter, he may never be the opening day front line guy that the Mets once expected him to be.
Derek Lowe - Lowe’s career has been many places, and Pelfrey’s career path will never follow it exactly. Lowe was an elite closer in 2000, and transitioned to being a full-time starter afterwards. That said, as a starter Pelfrey ideally could end up like Lowe. He has had his ups and downs as a starter - 21 wins in 2002 with a 2.58 ERA with only 14 in 2004 at a 5.42 clip - but has always been a reliable rotation piece since then even if he hasn’t been an ace. I don’t think even the most ardent of the Big-Pelf-Optimists expect him to be an ace, but if he could be the type of sinker-balling-innings-eater-who-gets-the-job-done-even-without-striking-guys-out type of pitcher that Lowe has been for the Dodgers and Braves since 2005, he’d be an important part of any winning Mets club.
Angel Pagan
Coco Crisp - Crisp is far cry from a bad player, but he is also a distance away from what many expected he could be. Once a big up-and-comer for the Red Sox and then the Indians, he has never turned out to be more than talented, athletic, but mediocre. He hasn’t hit more than 10 HRs since 2005 or knocked in more than 60 RBIs. He’s a very good defender, which makes it worth putting him in the lineup everyday. Pagan isn’t quite there yet defensively - he often takes bad routes and misplays balls - but he may get there with his athleticism. Yet, in terms of skills at the dish Pagan will ultimately be a disappointment if he cannot have a better career at the plate than Crisp. He showed the potential for being better last season, but with his regression in 2011 it seems far from a sure thing.
Shane Victorino - Love him, or more probably hate him because he’s on the Phillies, Victorino embodies a lot of qualities that Pagan could and should if he reaches his potential. Although Victorino had a down year last year at the plate, from 2006 though this year he has effectively used his athleticism at the plate and in the field. He won a Gold Glove the last three seasons and consistently seems to hit a touch below .300 with some pop and speed - 10 or more HRs and 25 or more SBs every year since ‘07. Ignoring their differences in grit and intangible qualities, if Pagan could become the type of defenisve and offensive threat that Victorino is, which he seems to have the tools to do, Pagan would have a great career.
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Fair or unfair, couldn’t Murphy, Pagan and Pelfrey go in those respective directions? Maybe through moves (or lack of moves) by the Mets during the 2011 off-season, we’ll see which direction Alderson and the front office thinks these players will go.
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Mets fans, this may be a special week. A sad week.
No, not because the childhoods of many feel a void without a Harry Potter movie to look to in the future. But, this in some sense is the end. The end of The New Mets.
The Mets trotted out a sad lineup yesterday, that included none of Jose Reyes (hamstring), Carlos Beltran (flu) and David Wright (back). The first two are expected to be back today, while rumors have been that depend on how the rest of the week goes, Wright could be back as early as Friday.
Friday is July 22nd. The trade deadline is July 31st.
The Mets play a game every day in that span. Soak it in, or at least I’m going to, because depending on how those games go and whether or not the Mets make a surprising run and convince the front office they’re contenders, it looks like Beltran can (and probably should) be traded.
It’s sad, it really is. With Beltran’s signing came a wave of optimism. He wasn’t just an All-Star centerfielder, he was a vision and hope for this organization’s future. He said it himself in his introductory press conference. He wanted to be a part of the “New Mets.”
2006 was, indeed, new. Although it ended prematurely in the NLCS, it was magical. The craziest part of it was that when it was over, Mets fans seemed to look at each other and say, “Oh well. At least this is the sort of team that will be making it this far for the next five years, we can wait.”
Wait we did, wait we have, but obviously these last five years weren’t what at least I envisioned after watching Beltran buckle at Adam Wainwright’s curveball. Two collapses and two middling seasons later, the Mets haven’t made the playoffs since 2006 and are now preparing to say goodbye to the centerfielder who joined them along with an ethos of optimism and confidence.
It’s weird to think that these next few days could be the last time Wright, Reyes, and Beltran put on a uniform together. That optimism and that confidence have long since faded, but they still make up the famed “core” that everybody knew would eventually bring us a ring.
And sure, Beltran being traded is far from a foregone conclusion. If Sandy Alderson isn’t offered a decent return, I sense he’ll keep him for the season and maybe even consider resigning him. Because, if he’s not getting a decent return, then Beltran is being undervalued. The Mets front office is all about value.
So, maybe I’m just a fan clinging onto a long-since faded dream of optimism. Maybe the New Mets are now the Old Mets and romanticizing it is foolish. But, in the nine games from July 22 through July 30th, maybe something magical can happen.
Maybe they’ll win eight and recapture the hearts of Mets fans. Maybe they’ll win nine and move from sellers to contenders. A lot can change in a week. The New Mets have unfortunately been victims of that, rather than the victors in those situations. In 2006 - and even to some extent 2007 - the Mets sat as comfortably atop the NL East as the Phillies do today. The Phillies look insurmountable right now.
But, so did the Mets, we know how that turned out.
Yes, the odds are low, percentage points small and faith probably smaller. But when Wright, Reyes and Beltran put on a Mets uniform together - hopefully this Friday - I won’t be ready to call it the end of an era quite yet. At least until I watch all the games, enjoy every last moment of it, I’m not going to admit it is over, even if it seems like an inevitibility.
And then, there’s here’s to hoping they rekindle some of that magic…because as long as these three are still together…who knows…I sure don’t…but I can’t wait to find out…
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With the Mets having traded Francisco Rodriguez this week, the major question people seem to be asking is, “Are the Mets sellers?”
“Buying” or “selling”, however, is a false choice.
I think there is a good chance the Mets trade Carlos Beltran. To whom, I don’t know and more importantly we don’t know for what. What I think is most important to note is - a trade doesn’t have to just be be a “buy” or “sell”. A trade isn’t always just trading a proven player for unknown prospects, or vice-versa. There are other options, other players who can to be moved, and would be good fits on the Mets for the next two to three years, rather than two to three years from now.
So, here is some pure speculation as to some players I think would be fun for the Mets to look at in a trade involving Beltran, or other pieces they may look to move at the deadline (such as perhaps Jason Isringhausen):
Now, to be clear - this was just all speculation from a guy who would be interested in making a deal that isn’t neccesarily labeled under “buying” or “selling”, because moving Beltran and/or other pieces for players like these isn’t morgating the now, but it’s helping the team adjust its priorities to win over the next few years rather than only having a great talent who can help now. I’m not a GM. I’m not saying teams could do these deals straight up, but it’s fun to think about because players like these can get dangled at the deadline and could be right up the Mets alley, especially when they have arguably the best trade chip on the market.
The great announcer shuffle on SNY. It’s the first time Michaels and Costas are together since BASEketball. Will they ever be able to recapture that chemistry?
Before the season started, Jose Reyes was coming off two seasons in which he played a combined total of 169 games.
Conversations (in the media) about signing him to an extension floated numbers like 5-years, $75 million, maybe a bit more. Nobody knew his exact value because of his streakiness and injury history, so some speculated it to be around there while some placed it a bit higher.
But then, the season started. What did Reyes do? Reyes hit. And hit. And hit. His MLB-leading .354 batting average is 26 points higher than Hunter Pence’s whose is second in the NL at .328. With every tick up in the batting average, his speculated free-agent contract followed suit.
Yet, there was a pop.
A pop in his hamstring, and a pop in the dream of Mets fans who were seeing one of the most dominant seasons for a leadoff hitter in recent memory. And now, whether or not the Reyes or Mets camp is willing to admit it, the conversation has changed. (And I’m not talking about “secret negotiations”)
The injury doesn’t neccesarily devalue him on the open market (though, I suspect it does on a small scale), but it’s a crude reminder of the inherent risks that go with contract negotiations. In a now-regular poll on Mets Blog, Matt Cerrone asks fans whether or not they would top a 7-year, $140M contract offer to Reyes. This offseason, Reyes and his agent probably would have accepted one year and $40M fewer in a heartbeat. Two weeks ago, they would have sneezed at such an offer.
Nonetheless, we’re here again after another Reyes injury unsure as to how much he’ll command on the open market.
The issue isn’t that Reyes is injury-prone - he’s had trouble staying healthy, but that isn’t a fair label for him; some of the injuries such as the Thyroid one have been freak in nature. Yet, it serves as a universal reminder of why it is so inherently dangerous to offer somebody a giant contract, regardless of how good he is. There can be a good case made for Reyes being the NL MVP to date, but baseball is a game with injuries, and nothing is worse than paying the big bucks to a guy who can’t play. The Mets, just as much as any franchise, have been victims of financial dead weight either due to over-valuation or injuries.
To reiterate - it’s not because of Reyes’ injury history in particular that they should be wary, just the fact that general fiscal prudence warns against signing anybody to that large of a contract. Just look at Johan Santana. From 2004-2008 he was the epitome of consistency and good health, starting in 33 or 34 games every season, only to now have his career in question.
The trade for Santana prospect-wise was still definitely a steal, but the long term contract the Mets gave him and fans didn’t think twice about questioning now is a major albatross.
The Mets and Sandy Alderson are unfortunately stuck in a tough situation. On the one hand, the fan base so clearly wants a change in philosophy from the Omar Minaya years in which handing out expensive, long-term contracts was the status quo. Yet, now, we sit here praying Alderson does just that in order to keep Reyes around, when (as good as he is, which is very good) it is likely he will be overpaid. That’s not a knock on his skill, just that the great majority of expensive, long-term contracts in baseball end up being very player-friendly.
And, the last thing the Mets need is more dead-weight on the books. Signing any player to a long-term contract, no matter how good he is, poses the chance for that.
This is not to say the Mets’ shouldn’t resign Reyes, because I hope they do just as much as the next person. It’s just that an injury, even a minor one, serves as a cruel reminder as to the realities of the game. It’s tough to think about because Reyes’s season has hardly seemed like reality; after all, when was the last time Mets fans could sit down and watch a player, and expect him to get multiple hits in a game? On some level, it feels like regardless of the money and risk, the Mets need him for those hits, that energy and the excitement he generates in the fan base.
Fortunately, this is also a cruel reminder to Reyes. Whether he’s worth $75M or $150M, one bad crack of a bone or snap in a muscle makes him worth $0. So, here’s to hoping he and the Mets find a reasonable middle-ground, because taking risks in life is only worth it when you’re doing it with the right people, right?
