Here we sit, on the eve of the 50th Opening Day in the history of the New York Mets. Much has been made of openers in Mets history, the bad (never winning one from ’62 through ’69), the good (hardly ever losing one from ’70 until now) and the foreign (Japan in 2000). On Opening [...]
Remember when David Wright opened Grapefruit League play with an 0-for-13 mark? Well, after Tuesday’s two-hit performance, Wright now has a .347/.382/.633 line in 49 ABs this Spring. I think it’s safe to say that he’s ready for the regular season. In his last 36 ABs, Wright has 17 hits, for a .472 average After [...]
1976 TOPPS FELIX MILLAN Fans today are amazed by how far Josh Thole chokes up on the bat. He had nothing on Felix Millan. If you take a look at Millan’s 1976 card, you might think he was fooling around for the camera. But this was actually how he held the bat when he was [...]
Welcome to this week's edition of Mets360 chat. This will begin today at 1:00 Eastern time and run for at least 30 minutes. Ask any question about the Mets and we'll do our best to get it answered. Sometimes Firefox has some issues with the chat software, so if you are having troubles viewing the [...]
In a recent chat with Mets bloggers, Sandy Alderson was asked about Spring Training roster decisions, particularly the bullpen. Here was his response: “I think the career body of work is normally what gets a player into camp who is under consideration for the first time or who is put into a competition. I think [...]
It’s often said that having too many good players is a nice problem to have. Judging strictly by Spring Training results, that is exactly the dilemma the Mets have in figuring out who makes their bullpen. Through games of Sunday, the Mets have three relievers who have not allowed an earned run, one with an [...]
Former Mets pitcher Mike Hampton announced his retirement Saturday. Hampton played only one season in New York but it was a memorable one, as he won 15 games and helped lead the Mets to the World Series. His shining moment(s) with the club came in the League Championship Series, when he hurled 16 shutout innings [...]
We all have our blind spots. Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog wanted to put Chris Capuano in the bullpen. Manager Terry Collins wants to start Luis Hernandez at second base. And I have never been right about Mike Pelfrey. He was the ninth overall pick of the 2005 Draft with a fine college resume so I [...]
When you hear the name Josh Thole, an image automatically pops in your head of the pudgy lefty-hitting catcher who chokes up on the bat. You probably think of him as a pretty good hitter, one who does a nice job of getting on base. The only problem is that because of his batting style [...]
With Opening Day nearly a week away, one of the Mets’ pressing questions heading into the spring seems ready to be answered. And that is who was going to be the Mets everyday second baseman? The question cast an ominous cloud all spring long. The position battle led to many fabricated, exaggerated stories (Luis Hernandez [...]
One of my favorite quirky things about the dawn of a new baseball season is the release of the over/under wins numbers by “Las Vegas.” Not that I’m any kind of gambler – I probably would enjoy it more if I were better at it. This is the fearless prediction by consensus of the various [...]
1977 TOPPS JOE TORRE People like to attach themselves to greatness by claiming to be at epic sporting events. I don’t know if greatness is necessarily on the table here, but I actually was one of the 6,505 fans who saw the managerial debut of Joe Torre in 1977. Of course, we had no idea [...]