The Orioles are not very good. But it counts when the Yankees and Red Sox beat them and it counts when the Mets do the same. And given the team’s poor road record this year, the three-game sweep in Baltimore was met with open arms. Perhaps most encouraging was how the sweep was a total [...]
Is the cup half empty or is it half full? That simple question is supposed to provide some insight into one’s personality. How you describe the cup will tell if you are an optimist (half full) or pessimist (half empty). Well, we can forget the cup. Just ask your favorite Mets fan – or even [...]
The question on everyone’s mind regarding the Mets is why the team plays so much better at home than on the road. Everyone has a theory, including manager Jerry Manuel, who recently claimed that the players are trying to pad their stats, especially their HR totals, away from Citi Field. The Mets are 22-9 at [...]
Let’s pretend you are the GM of the New York Mets, your team is on the fringe of playoff contention, your job is on the line and you have decided to acquire a pitcher to help the team get to the post-season and save your hide. You have identified three pitchers who can be had [...]
Six times so far this season Johan Santana has pitched at least seven innings and allowed two ER or fewer, yet his record in those games is 1-0. It’s poor support from his teammates like that which prompted Fox Sports columnist Bob Klapisch to write: “You could be conservative and say the Mets have cost [...]
For Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya it is a case of better late than never. Slowly but surely the Mets are making moves that should have been obvious in either Spring Training or even the offseason. Gary Matthews opened the season getting regular at-bats. Now he is chained to the bench. Angel Pagan, despite excellent [...]
After his blowout loss in Philadelphia, the whispers started that Johan Santana was done as an elite starter. And following Mike Pelfrey’s strong outing Saturday night against the Yankees, there was even talk about how Santana was not even the ace of the Mets’ staff. Sunday night, Santana showed that both of those ideas were [...]
“Serenity Now!” This was the mantra of Frank Costanza, a phrase he said to keep his blood pressure down. The problem, of course, was that Frank would scream the phrase at the top of his lungs. And that is pretty much my reaction with Jerry Manuel’s bullpen deployment. There may not be a baseball fan [...]
Back on April 16th, the headline that accompanied David Lennon’s piece in Newsday read, “Francoeur to Moneyball Gurus: How ya like me now?” Jeff Francoeur was great the first 10 days of the season but since then he has been horrible. And when I say horrible, I do not mean average, run of the mill [...]
During the middle of Spring Training, if you asked 10 different people to predict who would be in the Mets’ bullpen on Opening Day, you might have gotten 10 different answers. Manager Jerry Manuel did not go for either the popular or conventional way when he constructed his bullpen. Manuel opted to look elsewhere besides [...]
The bench for the Mets is comprised of Henry Blanco, Frank Catalanotto, Alex Cora, Gary Matthews and Fernando Tatis. Blanco and Cora are fixtures, there as much for their ability to play key defensive positions as anything they do with their bats. The other three players need to produce more offense to justify their spots [...]
This offseason everyone criticized Omar Minaya for not picking up at least one starting pitcher. I advocated for the club to sign John Lackey, and after he inked a deal with the Red Sox, I suggested the club pick up Jon Garland. Some people thought that the Mets needed to add two starting pitchers but [...]