Jon Springer – Page 47 – Mets by the Numbers

Feeling a Draft

The MLB Draft begins tonight at 6 p.m., and thanks to Brian Cashman’s fetish for abused lefthanders, the Mets have the 44th pick as well as the 13th (the first one they earned on merit). I don’t pretend to have any idea who the Mets will wind up with — the so-called “experts” appear not to either — but purely for rooting purposes there’s a UConn outfielder named George Springer I have my eye on. I’m just as excited to see who the 44th pick will be: Such so-called “compensation” selections have netted the Mets guys including Bobby Jones (No. 36 overall in 1991, compensation for Darryl Strawberry) and David Wright (38th pick 2001 draft, compensation for Mike Hampton).

My friend Alex G., who previously blogged about the Mets at Bleeding Orange and Blue, is now looking at this kinda stuff at a new site, Legends of Tomorrow. Check it out!

Enjoyed a cool early-summer night at Big Shea Sunday, watching almost too comfortably through the middle innings until Manny Acosta and his new No. 46 jersey made things uncomfortable. Mets bloggers at the Daily Stache are destined for a similarly dicey negotiation when their Best-Mets-By-Uniform-Number countup reaches its 46th inning. When Oliver Perez is the right answer, it’s time to reevaluate the questions.

He’s All Manny

Quick note to acknowledge that Manny Acosta is bringing the high heat from Buffalo, demanding the dreaded No. 46 upon his return to the big squad. Dale Thayer, a recently arrived tomato can who had 46, agreed to a swap and took Acosta’s previously assigned 36.

I didn’t know this offhand, but Acosta is a former 46 with Atlanta. I guess this indicates he was always first in line for 46 following the departure of Oliver Perez.

Help Identify the Mystery Met

OK Holmes (Sherlock, that is), time for another Met Mystery, courtesy of the following exerpted note from MBTN reader David:

At a baseball card show last month, a man approached me with an interesting photo that appears to be from a legends game. He asked if I knew anything about it. I was able to identify some of the participants (Earl Weaver, Don Zimmer, Lou Brock, etc) but really want to place the location and date. Since I didn’t have a scanner I took several pictures on my phone. You can see the (larger) picture here.

Crazy as it sounds I think one of the keys to unlocking this mystery is the Met in the lower left.Close up is here. He doesn’t seem tough to identify – older, wearing glasses. His number is partially obstructed but it appears that it would have to be #7. However, no #7 that I find lines up with this man. It isn’t Ed Kranepool and many of the others are easily eliminated based on skin color, hair color, and so on. I simply cannot find a match for this man. I thought maybe it could be a seventy number, like 74 or something, but that number appears too far to the man’s left for there to be another number after it.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. I know that #11 is Wayne Garrett thanks to your great site.

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As I told David privately, the photo is a little too blurry to identify anything for sure, but with young and old players in home and road uniforms, what looks like a minor-league setting (maybe Florida, note the ads on the fence) some kind of Old-Timers exhibition seems likely. The Mystery Met in the corner bears some resemblance to Mike Cubbage, no, but given the weird jersey sleeve-stripes, it could be anybody. There is one (Stearns?!?) or maybe two more Mets in that shot as well, not to mention some guys dressed in what look to be softball jerseys. Weird pic at any rate. Can you help identify the time, place and players in this shot? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks!

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Ike Davis, who looked like a veteran the day he stepped on the field for the Mets — barely a year ago — is looking like a veteran off the field too, exhibiting all the bushy-tailed bounceback of a 44-year-old, not the 24-year-old he is. News today is that its another three weeks in a boot and plenty of Geritol for Old Ike before we see him again.

The team we have out there today is barely hanging on: It’s a real credit to Terry Collins that they’ve managed to not get killed out there most nights, much less put a few wins together. But it’s not the kind of thing that’s likely to last, and when the team’s only living power hitter misses a couple of months with a bruise, that’s bad.

With Jose Reyes out, Bobby Parnell returned but didn’t pitch well. We just lost to the Pirates.

Thayer He Goes Again

The Mets today recalled a guy I never heard of, Dale Thayer, from Class AAA Buffalo and designated Pat Misch for assigmnent. Thayer is a 30-year-old righthanded journeyman reliever (is there any other kind?) who appeared briefly with Tampa Bay in 2009 and 2010. He signed as a minor league free agent with the Mets in February and was doing a pretty nice job with the Bisons (25 Ks in 26 innings, 4 saves and a 2-0 record). The Mets have assigned him the dreaded No. 46, last occupied by our friend Oliver Perez.

Also tonight, the Mets welcome back Angel Pagan, and hopefully, his bat too. His return means Fernando Martinez heads back to Buffalo.

Phillies for three. Ready or not!

A Tough Loss

Well this was a crazy week even by Mets standards, one that began on a promising note when R.A. Dickey shook off his own poor start, and pitched a scrappy overachieving team to a respectable .500 mark and an upset of the Yankees, and ended seven days later with the Mets just as embarrassing as ever, with Dickey on the way to the disabled list and the overachievers badly exposed.

In the middle of it all was Fred Wilpon, whose show of pathetic self-pity and delusion in the pages of The New Yorker seemingly sapped whatever energy the Mets had exhibited on their long journey back to .500. Poor Fred: Doesn’t matter who gets dragged through the mud in his rush to clear his name and prove his own ignorance, while at the same time he’s got his hand out for new investors so that he won’t be hurt by his money-losing Mets. Fred doesn’t appear to understand that he’s in the image business, or that players and fans will get along just fine were he not around, but we can hope that’s something David Einhorn will teach him the hard way.

Einhorn was a name Met fans had barely known before this morning though by the time this afternoon’s loss to the Cubs began most of us already knew the story of how the tiny Dave Kingman fan grew up to become one of the hottest and most feared sluggers in the hedge fund game. I’d be awfully suprised if he doesn’t wind up going Barbarians-at-the-Gate on his new partners before long. Wouldn’t you?

Sadly, this week also included the sudden death of Dana Brand, an intelligent, sentimental and friendly Mets fan who wrote about fandom with passion and insight in books and on-line and who was at work organizing a scholarly symposium to coincide with the team’s 50th anniversary next year. I’d spoken last to Dana only a few months back at the SABR meeting in New York, where the two of us shared a mutual anticipation that the Wilpons would go Chapter 11 at some point this year. Dana was a guy who clung hard to his fandom in such challenging times, who understood he could love the team in spite of its seeming indifference to fans, and it’s sad to lose him.

Please see Matt Silverman, Greg Prince and Steve Keane for their memories of Dana.

Do the Freddie

You gotta give it up for the New Yorker and its stunning article this week capturing Fred Wilpon as the loving-but-clueless father of Everything That’s Wrong With The Mets, from its lukewarm support of its own players, to the dumb stadium, to the spoiled son playing with private jets, to the mismanaged finances, to ownership’s overinflated confidence in its own baseball smarts, to the tin ear for fans and good media, to the stupid patriotic hats.

Your take might differ but I’ve come to the conclusion there was no way the Wilpons could have been aware enough to have realized their friend Bernard Madoff was a fraud, and no way the team today could lose any of Wright, Beltran or Reyes and not look they were invited to walk by the owner himself. Another brilliant Mets PR disaster and hopefully another reason for these well-meaning but incompetant owners to move on to something less challenging.

All we can do is dance.

Terry Collins vs. History

Hello again from sole possession of 4th place. These banged-up replace-Mets are impressing me with their drive, even while disaster forever lurks nearby.

Longtime MBTN contributor Shorty in New Jerseydelivered the following awesomeness to the mailbox the other day. Check it out.

After his first seven games as the Mets’ manager, TERRY COLLINS’ record was 3 wins and 4 losses to show for it. That matched exactly the entire Major League managerial career of MIKE CUBBAGE, who managed the Mets for seven games and went 3-4 in 1991.

After eleven games, Collins’ record was 4 wins and 7 losses. This matched exactly the entire Mets managerial career of SALTY PARKER, who managed the Mets for eleven games and went 4-7 in 1967. (He entire Major League managerial career record was 5-7 after he went 1-0 as the Astros’ manager in 1972.)

Next on the list would be ROY McMILLAN, who managed the Mets for 53 games in 1975 and had a record of 26-27. Believe it or not, if the Mets go 5-5 over their next 10 games, Collins will match McMillan’s record exactly!

I don’t know about you, but given the 2011 Mets so far, 5-5 in their next 10 sounds like a pretty good bet, after which Collins will aim for and hopefully miss badly the managerial career of Frank Howard, who in 116 games managing the Mets won only 52 of them. For Terry’s crew to match that record, they’d need to stink up the joint to a record of 31-42 over their next 73.

I can’t think of a better way to prevent .425 baseball this summer than to see R.A. Dickey turn things around, and soon. Whether it’s his book deal and erudite interviews, his control of the knuckler, or what, he’s got to be better than the guy he’s pitching against for these Mets to win his games — the offense just isn’t there to take back all the leads than he’s surrendered. Tonight’s game at MFY Stadium is a big moment then for all of us, so Let’s Go Mets.

Meantime, I got another message from a reader named Josh, who’s looking for information on uni numbers for the Tidewater Tides, particularly in the Todd Hundley Era (early 1990s). If you can help Josh, feel free to write him at swishagency (at) gmail (dot) (com). Thanks in advance for the help!

I swiped the accompanying image from Mets Gazette, I think it lends an appropriate gravity to all that’s going on these days.

My Spine is the Baseline

Always a bummer when one of your key guys breaks his back, but what’s Jason Bay’s excuse? His failure to put the ball in play last night loomed large in a revolting 2-1 extra inning home loss to the Marlins last night that was followed by the announcement that two additional culprits — noodle-batted reserve infielder Chin-lung Hu, and hopeless relief hack Ryota Igarashi — would be headed to Class AAA Buffalo. I know it’s impossible and counterproductive, but I’d send Bay there with them just to punish him. In a bus.

Recalled to take the places of Hu and Igarshi are Ruben Tejada and Pedro Beato, respectively. Tejada was with the Mets last season assigned No. 11; Beato will retake the No. 27 he wore earlier this year.

As for David Wright, he has a broken back requiring at least a few weeks of rest. Met officials say it’s likely he’ll hit the disabled list today and be replaced on the roster by perpetual tourist Nick Evans and his trusty No. 6 jersey.

Bonus for the first commenter to recognize the obscure headline reference!

Ike-illies Heel Revealed

In what was probably the lamest-looking Met injury since Mike Piazza ruptured a groin on an inside pitch in 2003, Ike Davis hit the disabled list today with what officials are calling an ankle sprain and bone bruise suffered while waiting for a pop fly to come down from the sky the other night. Couldn’t he have have gotten hurt diving into the stands or legging out a triple like a real jock? Whatever else is wrong with the Mets these days, Ike wasn’t ever part of the problem and his absence, even if it’s only for a few weeks, is going to hurt whatever expectations you had for the Mets. Fernando Martinez, who isn’t currently injured, was recalled to take his place and reportedly in Denver in his No. 26 jersey.

In case you didn’t see it, revealing article by the incomparable Paul Lukas of ESPN today examining the tossed-off manner with which the Mets adopted the ugly black uniforms they’ve been wearing for 13 years now. By all means read the article but don’t let me spoil the secret that it was motivated by a combination of greed and Yankee paranoia, poorly thought through, and carelessly executed. Given the fact that the man seemingly most responsible for this debacle was arrested the other day and charged with stealing from his bosses — you can’t get away with that in Flushing anymore — and otherwise brought shame and disrepute to the organization given his alleged involvement in an illegal sports gambling operation, you’d think the Mets would move to distance themselves from the literal and figurative darkness the whole black jersey represents, but the Mets never learn.

My friend and frequent MBTN contributor Paul the other day suggested he was rooting for Francisco Rodriguez’s option to kick in with the idea that it could represent the obligation that triggers the Wilpon’s ultimate financial ruin and forces them to the selling block and poorhouse. He wasn’t joking and I’m beginning to see the light myself.

Who Are You

Hello, got the following the other day from longtime MBTN contributor Gordon:

When the Mets came into the clubhouse after Saturday night’s victory over the Dodgers, WPIX had a camera set up showing the high 5’s. Greeting the victors was uniform number 60 with the name Castro. I can’t find him on any of the Mets major league or minor league rosters. Any idea?

Actually, Gordon, I don’t, and the photo you provided (posted above) only makes things more mysterious. A google search for “Castro 60” reveals that the man pictured should be Lilliano Castro, who was photographed along with the rest of the Mets at spring training. But that’s the only clue to his identity, the google trail goes cold after several pages noting this photograph. I’d guess Mr. Castro is an organizational instructor of some kind, probably a catching instructor. But if there was a press release noting such, I missed it. A look back at our spring training rosters shows No. 60 as “vacant.”

Hard to believe in this day and age of media saturation and web sites obsessively chronicling the mundane that stories like Castro’s escape our attention but I guess some always will. Anyone know who this guy is? There’s probably a good story here.

To keep updated on the roster situation, it appears No. 55, Chris Young, has thrown his last pitch as a Met and lefty Pat Misch, No. 48, is up again.