The Mets have a lot of questions marks coming into the 2012 season. If you look at their starting line-up, every player either had an injury riddled year and is a young talent trying to live up to what they did in 2011. There are some guys on the team who need to be their [...]
1972 TOPPS ED KRANEPOOL IN ACTION ACETATE Welcome to a special feature here on Card of the Week: How the 1972 Topps Set Looks to a Dog. No? OK, how about this: And now, as a tribute to the Academy Award winning film “The Artist,” we present a black-and-white, silent edition of Card of the [...]
On the old Late Night With David Letterman show, they used to do a bit called “Brush With Greatness,” where audience members would recount chance meetings with celebrities. That was kind of fun, as I recall. For a reason you’ll see soon, I was reminded of this and thought I’d do a column, recounting various [...]
Greetings and hallucinations to all the Met maniacs in cyber space. My name is David Groveman and I’ll be taking over a weekly column here on the Mets Minor League System. You may know me from other blogs I’ve written for, articles that made their way into the mainstream or because we went to Hebrew [...]
In today’s New York Post, Mike Vaccaro weighs in on the little spat over Ruben Tejada reporting to camp. Here’s a short excerpt: “As a parent might, Collins wants Tejada to know he’s not furious at him, he isn’t angry that he didn’t settle his visa issues early enough to be here sooner. No, he’s [...]
During the offseason, Ryan Braun failed a drug test and was suspended for 50 games. He immediately appealed and this week his suspension was lifted by an arbitrator, supposedly over chain-of-command issues. After the decision, Braun issued the following statement, as originally quoted by AP writer Ronald Blum: "We provided complete cooperation throughout, despite the [...]
On Tuesday, Charlie Hangley took a look at the revamped Mets’ bullpen. He pointed to all of the blown leads by the 2011 relievers and speculated that “a quality bullpen could have been the difference between a 77-win year and an 89-win, contending-for-the-wildcard year.” On first reading, that seemed optimistic to me and I wanted [...]
"The main focus is positioning. We both feel I’m athletic enough to play the position. Part of my struggles have been due to poor positioning, especially on the double play. I’m not good enough yet, and we both know this, to get to the bag late and still turn the double play. What we’ve decided [...]
As Spring Training begins in earnest, several Mets’ players have a lot to prove before the 2012 season commences. The Mets have a laundry list of players with something to gain this spring. So, where do you begin? Let’s first break down the starting lineup. Andres Torres- Can he stay healthy and give the [...]
When Mets fans hear the name “Scott Kazmir” a lot of emotions are felt. Some get depressed, some get confused, some get carpal tunnel, I for one get that feeling that comes right after I’m done throwing up everything I’ve put into your body for the past two weeks. Even now looking at where Kazmir [...]
2012 TOPPS NL BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS (JOSE REYES) From my perch on the kitchen floor gazing up at a large-knobbed black-and-white Sylvania, I saw Armstrong walk on the moon. In the spring of 1986 I spied Halley’s comet, carrying with it the dim portent of a Mets' World Series victory that October. I watched the [...]
“If you ain’t got a bullpen, you ain’t got nothin’” – Yogi Berra, 1973 In 2011, the Mets didn’t have nothin’. Unless you’re a dominant team (like ’86) or a hapless collection (like…oh, never mind), the difference between being over .500 and under is a matter of a couple of wins. Last year, the Mets [...]