Ex-Met shortstop Jose Reyes made a small bit of news this week when he was critical of Ruben Tejada's inability to lock down the starting shortstop job. Specifically, Reyes insinuated that perhaps Tejada simply had not put in the required work to hold it down long-term. This is mostly of note because Reyes isn't very [...]
Sometimes it seems like fate doesn’t want some people to succeed. Nick Johnson could have been great but each year some random injury would come up and sideline him. Rick Ankiel looked like he was going to be an All-Star pitcher for a decade or more and then his ability to throw strikes just left [...]
Unless there’s some sneaky underlying scheming occurring, Sandy Alderson just put the Mets in hot water about Daniel Murphy. Word broke Thursday morning that Murphy has yet to speak with Alderson and co. about extending his contract. The beloved second baseman will pull in $8 million this season as a 30-year-old with six prior seasons [...]
At the conclusion of the 2011 season, General Manager Sandy Alderson was faced with what still stands as the biggest decision of his Mets tenure. David Wright and Jose Reyes were both 28 years old and set to become free agents. Alderson only had the budget to resign one of the team’s two homegrown, fan-favorite [...]
Our friend Greg Prince, the grand guru of Faith And Fear In Flushing -- and the nearest thing the Mets’ blogging community can get to its own Roger Angell or Red Smith, for my money -- had a terrific post today, recapping Old Timers’ Day at Shea Stadium in 1977, complete with video. This was [...]
The New York Mets have a log jam in the starting rotation. This is not news. They failed to trade anyone in the offseason. Also, this is not news. What is news, however, is the report on Tuesday that the team is leaning toward pitching Zack Wheeler (3.54 ERA, 11-11 in 2014) on Opening Day. [...]
The outfield has been a sore spot for the Mets for years. Following the 2013 season they addressed it by signing free agent outfielder Curtis Granderson to a four-year deal. Early returns have been less than overwhelming. This offseason, they inked free agent Michael Cuddyer to a two-year deal. Juan Lagares will more than earn [...]
2015 TOPPS DANIEL MURPHY A few weeks back I bowed out of an online auction for this card when the price hit $10. By the time the virtual hammer fell, the price stood at just over $25 with shipping. So why is a 2015 Daniel Murphy card going for the price of a well-worn T206 [...]
For the first week of spring workouts and meet-and-greets, the excitement factor at the Mets’ Port St. Lucie home-away-from-home ratcheted up fairly quickly. Considering that a good chunk of the team was already there, it should come as no surprise that the annual spring time good timin’ machine was already in full swing when the [...]
Sandy Alderson has always considered himself somewhat of a jokester. He recently poked fun at the current Mets shortstop situation, has always provided a (surprisingly) clever rebuttal to Scott Boras’ Mets jokes, and is famous for his quote following the 2012 season: “What Outfield?” At the time, the outfield consisted of three lefties: Lucas Duda, [...]
Much is often made of good defense on championship teams. But defense is hard to quantify. Take for example the drastic difference between the 2014 Champion San Francisco Giants who had a team DRS of -5, versus the runner-up Kansas City Royals, who scored a 40, the fourth-best team DRS in baseball. The Cincinnati Reds [...]
Many people around the Mets believe that they are at least in contention for a spot in the playoffs this year. They need a few players to prove that they are capable of playing to the level that gets the Mets to the playoffs this season. Last year was not a great year for the [...]