Category: Uncategorized

Let’s Go 49ers

One desperate final shot at relevancy begins Tuesday when the Mets get back Jose Reyes (hopefully) and Carlos Beltran (maybe) and David Wright on Friday (please) for what’ll be a week-and-a-half of steadily increasing pressure and speculation culminating (I predict) in trades of Beltran, Jason Isringhausen, Chris Capuano and Tim Byrdak and the Mets maintaining their hold on 4th place. It’ll all be for the good!

49Meantime, this team can still accomplish something. Just the other day in fact, Jon Niese became the all-time winningest pitcher to wear No. 49 for the Mets. His 20th career win in No. 49 came Saturday against the Phillies, breaking Walt Terrell’s 27-year-old record. Niese like Terrell is a bit of a bulldog with Midwest roots who debuted as Mets (Terrell was from Indiana and Niese from Ohio). Terrell reached 19 wins (against 23 losses) in three seasons and 57 games; Niese thus far has fashioned a 20-19 mark in 58 games over four seasons. And at age 24, there’s presumably more to come for Niese, while Terrell’s career began at 24. While Terrell posseses the better Met ERA (3.53 to Niese 4.15) there’s little difference with regards to the era they played in, while Niese is a far superior strikeout pitcher with better control.

Following are the all-time leaders in victories among Mets who wore 49. Thanks to MBTN reader Shorty for bringing this to my attention.

Met Year(s) Victories
Jon Niese 2008-present 20
Walt Terrell 1982-84 19
Armando Benitez 1999-2003 18
Kevin Kobel 1978-80 12
Joe Crawford 1997 4
Orber Moreno 2003-04 3

Frankly, I Don’t Give a Damn

75I don’t care much for the Brewers, so I’m glad it’s them and not us who will be sweating out the 55-game timebomb. That we’ll also collect two of their prospects — however long their odds may be — makes the trade of the first and probably last No. 75 in Mets history a winner in my book.

And the Mets? They’ll be fine. Let’s see Jason Isringhausen get a few saves and parlay it into a return engagement with St. Louis, then turn over the closer role to Pedro Beato, who as far as I’m concerned already has closer pedigree — that is, he gets  whiffs and groundballs, possesses distinct body language, and has made a few confident remarks in the press. Bobby Parnell may have wicked heat, but his laconic demeanor and country-music theme music need work before he ascends to the role. And that will be that.

I actually admired the contrition and the skills Rodriguez brought with him to the field this year but his contract was recklessly outrageous and a bad deal even before he arrived: You read it here first. Relief pitching just ain’t worth that kinda money, and I’ve always hated how unimaginatively the Mets pursued it.

I’m sure emotions will run higher if and when it comes to moving pieces such as Carlos Beltran, but as said before if he’s going to bring back some real prospects they’d be fools not to investigate, irrespective of where we are on July 31. I think I would be totally OK if the Mets took a few prospects from Pittsburgh for Carlos, because as I said above, I don’t much care for Milwaukee.

By the way: Ryota Igarashi takes Frankie’s roster place, speaking of overpaid relievers.

Toppermost of the Poppermost

I was in Pittsburgh over the weekend where I attended my first Pirates home game in more than 20 years. To say they improved the stadium since then is an understatement: PNC Park is even nicer than it looks on television. The scale is just right, the atmosphere and views and neighborhood and service are terrific, it doesn’t appear to radically alter the balance of offense and defense in any way, it owes more to history than gimmickry, good seats were affordable and the scoreboard doesn’t come off as an anchor for surrounding ads. In other words, it’s just about everything CitiField is not. And I might be dense but never realized until I sat there what a ripoff of Pittsburgh the “Shea Bridge” is. I know the Mets admired this park and endeavored to use it in some ways to inform their park, but boy did they swing and miss.

Here’s something I liked. Whenever a Pirate batter first came to the plate, the scoreboard graphic introduced him by panning across a “mural” of former Pirates (and Homestead Grays of the Negro League) in period unis, from which the current batter appeared to “step out” from. While I was running downtown the next morning, I came across the actual mural, which I since learned is a billboard-sized reproduction of a painting by a local artist.

You’ll recognize Willie Stagell in the gold jersey and in the shot of a statue outside the stadium I snapped here. The Pirates rightly retired his No. 8 jersey, which brings to mind another contrast getting a lot of sudden attention recently, and that’s a well-intentioned but ultimately wrongheaded campaign for the Mets to retire No. 8 in honor of Gary Carter.

The news about The Kid’s health is heartbreaking and tragic. But it doesn’t make him the Mets’ equivalent of Willie Stargell, much less Tom Seaver, the only Mets player to have been honored with a retired jersey. As argued here before, retiring No. 8 — obviously a topic the Mets have long considered given their reluctance to have issued the jersey since Desi Relaford last wore it in 2002 — would surely require an accompanying retirement of 17 for Keith Hernandez, 16 for Dwight Gooden, 18 for Darryl Strawberry, 1 for Mookie Wilson and perhaps, 5 for Davey Johnson and 50 for Sid Fernandez. That’s before considering what it will say about Jerry Koosman, Bud Harrelson, Ed Kranepool, Howard Johnson, Jerry Grote, Edgardo Alfonzo and other players who played more than Gary Carter’s five years for the Mets, and had more than Gary Carter’s two good years for the Mets.

The Mets have appropriately enshrined Carter in the team’s Hall of Fame, which if they’d only made an effort to promote all these years, could serve as appropriate salve for those determined to interpret a failure to retire a uniform number as an act of disrespect (and to a cancer patient at that). Subjective it may be, but its long been our stance here that retired numbers should be reserved for the true greats and not the Hall of Famers who pass through, no matter how charasmatic (or tragic). Stargell for the Pirates? a No-Brainer. He spent his entire career with the Pirates and is most closely associated with them. The best way to honor Carter — and his teammates — might be a symbolic retirement of the never-worn jersey No. 86, and for them to honor Carter’s memory by issuing No. 8 to the next energetic, powerful catcher who comes along.

Stuff I missed until now: The return of Lucas Duda and No. 77, DJ Carrasco and accompanying reassignments of Nick Evans and Dale Thayer.

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.

Thayer He Goes Again

46The 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!

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.