With all three of the Mets’ starting outfielders on the shelf, Willie Harris has received regular playing time the final week-plus of the season. In fact, Harris is tied with Jose Reyes for most games played for the 2011 Mets, something that no one saw coming when he inked a minor league deal back in [...]
Back-to-back multi-hit games have Jason Bay’s OPS up to .651 for the season. Earlier I wrote that it was time for the team to move on from Bay. I still believe that’s the direction the Mets need to go but right now Bay should continue to play to see if this is the beginning of [...]
Last year Willie Harris posted a .653 OPS (a drop of 104 points from a year ago) and it looked like his career was in jeopardy. He hooked on with the Mets and got off to a hot start in 2011. But by the third week of May, Harris was back to his 2010 ways, [...]
Fans often make big deals about who bats where in the lineup but in the overall scheme of things it does not matter very much. Now, that does not mean teams should pull their lineup out of a hat or start batting their pitcher leadoff. But the standard lineup does not come out much worse [...]
Most Mets fans are counting down the days until Ike Davis and David Wright return from the disabled list. This seems innocent enough, as you always want your middle-of-the-order hitters in the lineup. But seemingly the fans want them back just as much for the accompanying removal of players from the current roster. And fans [...]
Justin Turner and Jason Pridie make me happy. They do just what they were hired to do: provide steady defense and the occasional surprising big hit. You can’t really ask more than that. I LOVE Ronny Paulino. He’s a lefty masher and used correctly – i.e., by anyone NOT named Willie Randolph or Jerry Manuel [...]
When the Mets placed Angel Pagan on the disabled list, they surprised some by recalling Jason Pridie to take his place. Pridie was not hitting early in Triple-A, and some thought Nick Evans deserved a shot for getting the short end of the stick in the past or that prospect Kirk Nieuwenhuis merited a promotion [...]
After four months without MLB, Spring Training is always a welcome sight. Even though the teams never have full lineups, the pitchers rarely throw at peak form and managers make moves they never would during the season – we can’t help but to look at the stats and look at things that jump out. There [...]
The Mets have played 16 Spring Training games so far and have 18 to play heading into Sunday’s game against the Cardinals. We know that Spring Training stats are “useless” and we also know that clubs make decisions based on them all the time. So, who makes the Mets based on Spring Training results so [...]
"I was nervous as heck,” Willie Harris said. “I’m nervous at times when I take balls in the outfield. But when you’re nervous, that means you care. I got my confidence back as soon as we turned the double play. The confidence was there all of a sudden. Once you get that first one out [...]
The Mets will likely carry five outfielders on their Opening Day roster and four of them are set in Bay, Beltran, Pagan and Hairston. The Mets signed Willie Harris to a minor league deal and at the time it seemed as much to keep him off other teams, as Harris has a history of making [...]