Tuesday night Jason Bay had a triple and a home run in the same game. It was the first time all year he had two extra-base hits in a game. Of course, you have to have at least two hits in a game to have a shot at that and Bay has had multiple hit [...]
You would think that after 40 years of watching the Mets’ brand of baseball, I’d be used to it by now. I was about six-years-old when I finally kind of caught on to what this “base-ball” thingy was. Since then, I’ve seen some seasons where it’s been awful from Jump Street: 1974, 1977 through ’79 [...]
There is only so much that can be done with a slumping player. You can send them to the batting cages. You have them work with the hitting coach. You can give him advice until his ears bleed or his brain explodes. However, at some point, you do have to realize that maybe the player [...]
It’s easy to overlook with his 4-6 record and 4.86 ERA but Chris Capuano has been a nice addition to the Mets’ staff. In his last 10 games, including nine starts, Capuano has a 3.98 ERA and is giving the Mets a chance to win nearly every time out. Not surprisingly, the only run he [...]
Every now and then, even in a ghost-season like this one – ephemeral, amorphous, in flux, would-frighten-Scooby-Doo, “are they really there?” – following the Mets can be most entertaining. Take Sunday night (6/5) for example. Wonderful pitching from our friend R. A. Dickey, scoring like a Chicago election (early-and-often), even giving the Atlanta fans a [...]
The Mets salvaged the final game of their three-game series against the Phillies as the bats finally came alive. The first two losses were tough to take, as the Mets held leads after seven innings in both games. They both fall into the category of toss-up games that I mentioned how the Mets are struggling [...]
It has been a tale of two seasons for the Mets so far in 2011. The sharpest breaking point for this is the return of Jason Bay, although it is an oversimplification to say that Bay is the cause of everything. But while Bay was on the disabled list, the Mets were 5-13. Since his [...]
The return of Jason Bay has widely been considered a major reason why the Mets have been playing better baseball of late. (Notwithstanding last night’s 10-3 drubbing at the hand of the Phillies). Prior to last night’s game, the Mets had gone 6-1 in Bay’s return and raised their collective batting averages from .238 to [...]
"I love the competition," Jason Isringhausen said. "There's a lot of the stuff that goes along with the game I don't enjoy, all the politics, the business part of it. But I enjoy the 1-on-1 competition with a hitter, and it's hard for me to find that anywhere else. I'm just trying to compete with [...]
Fans tend to be either overly optimistic or pessimistic. That is why it is important to look at unbiased, systematic approaches to projections. One of the best sets available are the ZiPS projections from ESPN Insider and Baseball Think Factory Editor-in-Chief Dan Szymborski. Recently Szymborski, an Orioles fan, agreed to a Q&A about his projections [...]
When the Mets signed Jason Bay, he was going to be the slugger in the middle of the lineup who essentially replaced Carlos Delgado in the lineup. Then he didn’t hit for power and had his season cut short due to a concussion. Now fans are looking for any reason to feel confident about a [...]
Some people blame the poor season last year by Jason Bay on his move to Citi Field. Others blame it on the season-ending concussion that knocked him out of action before he could turn things around. Me, I have a different theory. Bay’s poor first season is a direct result of his uniform number. While [...]