The All-Star break is upon us and it’s natural to look forward. The Mets at 48-40, four games back of the Atlanta Braves in the NL and one game behind in the wild card race. Below is a list of Mets players with a grade given to each hitter and pitcher on how they have [...]
Johan Santana was not at his best Saturday afternoon against the Minnesota Twins. He surrendered five earned runs on eight hits and two walks in six innings. Usually you can brush off a bad start by Santana, but today was different. Now every start will be put under the microscope as Santana is now in the [...]
New York Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez has been confused lately. While he knows he gets paid to close games, on many days he doesn’t know if he will have to pitch more than one inning, which impacts his rhythm and the bullpen as a whole. “It is tough because in preparation, you don’t know if [...]
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 [...]
After Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey, the Mets have struggled to identify secondary starting pitchers to feel confident about to fill out the rest of the rotation. When Jon Niese returned from the disabled list and pitched effectively this past Saturday, it’s apparent his spot in the rotation is safe. After those three, the back end of the rotation [...]
Just the other day a friend of mine asked me why Jerry Manuel still has a job. I said it's because he wins at home. I also joked that perhaps the Mets need to have co-managers, one for home and one for road games. While the thought of two managers is clearly a joke, their [...]
According to New York Daily News Mets beat writer Andy Martino, Mets manager Jerry Manuel has indicated that talented rookie Jenrry Mejia’s role will not include pitching in the 8th inning going forward this season. So where does Mejia go from here? It’s a dilemma that the crosstown Yankees have battled too. Their prized prospects, [...]
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 [...]
“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 [...]
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 [...]
Something did not seem right about last night’s rain-shortened win against the Braves. Yes, it was odd to see the Mets sweep the Braves after dropping 13 of 18 games to them last season. But what was really unusual was that the bullpen threw just one pitch. The Mets lead the majors with 67 calls [...]