Author Archive

It’s not just Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya that have to worry about fast starts to the season or their jobs being in jeopardy.  The same case could be made for Jeff Francoeur, Daniel Murphy, and Rod Barajas.  The way Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, and Josh Thole have been playing in a way this spring that makes you suspect they’ll be knocking at the door to Citi Field sooner rather than later.

With Reyes possibly being out some, or all, of April the pressure on the starting pitching has just doubled.  The most recent report on April suggests that he may be back closer to mid April, but that’s still a rough estimate.

We’ve known for a while that the season was going to hinge on the starting pitching.  The offense was projected to be one of the top in the league, and surely would’ve won some games on it’s own even when the pitching struggled.  With Reyes and Beltran out, they may not have that cushion for a while, but this doesn’t mean the Mets are doomed to a 9-13 type record to start the season.

The fast start is more important than ever, and if Maine, Perez, and Pelfrey can have a good month of April the Mets will still win games.  We all know they’re each capable of pitching good games.  It was expected before the season that they could definitely pitch competitively and keep us in games, but now they may be pressured to actually win the games.  Instead of quality start performances and limiting the opponents to three runs over six innings, stepping up and going seven innings and occasionally limiting the other teams to merely one or two runs becomes important to the Mets early success.

This isn’t to say the Mets lineup is useless, and that they won’t occasionally put up a crooked number, but Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are two of the most irreplaceable players in the game today.  The season is never won and lost in April, but if the pitching can step up and win more games than they lose, not only will it minimize the damage caused by losing Reyes and Beltran, it will set them up nicely once they return.

This post brought to you by the self-proclaimed Optimistic Mets Fan.

The 2009 season for the Mets was a disaster. After careful review, it appears that the specific type of disaster was earthquake. Even after the disastrous season ended we’ve been hit with aftershocks. Aftershocks are known as smaller earthquakes that follow after the original quake, not to be confused with the alcohol beverage that was needed for us fans to get through the season. They can still be dangerous, but generally get smaller and farther apart as time goes on.

Carlos Beltran’s scoped knee surgery was the first aftershock of the 2009 disaster. While final damage totals are not yet in for this one, it’s expected he’ll miss up to a month of real time. The last report I heard suggested that he’d be cleared to resume baseball activities right around the time the Mets head north for Opening Day.

The Jose Reyes Thyroid aftershock hit last week, when blood work revealed that Reyes has an overactive thyroid. The results and treatment for this are still being determined, but many opinions suggest that it shouldn’t be a big deal and he can get back to playing soon. This smaller aftershock was still upsetting, but it seems like it won’t be one that did much damage.

Other smaller aftershocks have occurred throughout Spring Training for the Mets. Francisco Rodriguez came down with pink eye, but didn’t become a zombie. Fernando Tatis is batting some knee issues, and Nick Evans strained his forearm. Neither is considered serious and Frankie is back and pitching again.

The big thing to remember here is it’s not 2009 anymore. You can check the calendar if you don’t believe me. Every tweak or setback or injury is not indicative of disaster, and the bad luck that plagued the Mets in 2009 was just that; bad luck. The way Reyes did not adequately recover from his hamstring injuries has nothing to do with what his thyroid may or may not be doing right now, and the bone bruise that Beltran had does not relate to his recovery from having his knee scoped in the off season. Right now we’re still in limbo waiting on how Reyes will be treated by doctors and when he’ll get back down to Florida to continue Spring Training, but once he does everything will be alright. Soon it will be time for baseball to count, and we can start obsessing over wins and losses and pitching performances and home run totals instead of thyroid levels and pink eye symptoms.

Visit Optimistic Mets Fan for more of Ceetar’s posts.

Optimistic Mets Fan presents Unsuccessful Franchises.

From MetsStuff

There are eight teams remaining in Major League Baseball that played in the National League in the 19^th century through to today: The Atlanta Braves, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the San Francisco Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Even though I’m not a basketball fan, I find myself routing for the New Jersey Nets.  They’re on pace to break the record for worst NBA season this year, surpassing the 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers.  It’s my feeling that I want to keep the city of Philadelphia associated with failure.  Prior to the Phillies winning in 2008, the city had gone 25 years without a championship in any major sport.  The Phillies are the only professional sports team to have lost 10,000 games: an unprecedented level of failure.

This got me thinking about the other older teams that have been around as long as the Phillies.  How are those teams doing?

The Braves will be the next team to lose 10,000 games.  They have a record of 9854-9883.  That’s good for a .499 winning percentage, which is pretty decent.  They actually have a shot at reaching 10,000 wins first.  They need to win 96 games next season to get above .500 for their history.

The Giants were the first team to 10,000 wins and the Dodgers, Cubs, and Cardinals have joined them.

The Pirates and the Reds both have winning records.  The Reds have 9824 wins to 9548 losses, and the Pirates, even after being a joke for the last two decades, have a record of 9753-9579.

The other old team, the Philadelphia Phillies, are in another class altogether.  They hold a record of 9038-10,167.  That’s good for a .471 winning percentage which is 26^th of active franchises.  Only the Padres, the Rangers, and the expansion Rays have a worse winning percentage.  If the Phillies went 96-66 every season it would take them 38 years to get over the historical .500 mark.

The Mets aren’t exactly in great shape either, although they’ve won as many championships as the Phillies in roughly a third of the time.  They only have a .479 winning percentage and a 3655-3981 record.  They have a losing record in all three stadiums they’ve played in, but hopefully they can fix that this year.

Many Mets fans would fall into a more doom and gloom mindset than a positive one. Whether that’s because of persistent disappointment, a “younger-brother” mentality associated with the Yankees, the attitude of talk radio hosts, or something else, Mets fans tend to approach the team waiting for the other shoe to drop and the team to fail.

From Baseball

As the self-proclaimed Optimistic Mets Fan, I tend not to take this approach anyway, but I’ve found that this rule is not true across the board. Oddly enough, there are two Mets players that never fail to bring out smiles and optimism; Johan Santana and Jose Reyes.

From Baseball

These two Anti-Mets, more than any other player, bring out positive vibes from Mets fans. Carlos Beltran, despite being very clutch, has the cloud of his strike out against the Cardinals in the 2006 playoffs. David Wright has been considered almost un-clutch by many fans.

Even if it’s not true, when David Wright comes up with a runner on third, many are expecting a strkeout. When Oliver Perez lets up a leadoff double, most fans expect him to walk two following that. Jason Bay hasn’t even played a game yet and you just know many fans are already expecting every opposing runner to score from second on a single to left field.

Reyes is different. When Reyes gets on to lead off an inning, Mets fans give him second base like it’s a foregone conclusion. They expect him to score on any ball hit to the outfield. They expect opposing pitchers to get nervous and possibly balk in runs.

It’s similar for Johan Santana. If it’s an Oliver Perez start, fans are betting the over/under on how many walks he gives up. Or how many foul balls John Maine has. If it’s a close game in the 6^th or 7^th inning and Pelfrey is pitching and lets up a leadoff single, Mets fans think “Here we go again.” If Santana lets up that same leadoff single even many of the pessimistic fans are just thinking about double plays and are recalculating how many pitches it’ll now take to get the next three guys out to see if Santana can pitch another inning afterwards.

This is the true meaning of the phrase, “As Reyes goes, so do the Mets.” Mets fans expect winning results from Reyes and when they get it they feel the Mets will win. Johan is such a fierce competitor that as fans we’re surprised when the opponents’ bats don’t literally explode under his gaze. It doesn’t matter that the Mets have never pitched a no-hitter; when Johan strikes out the leadoff batter, the first thing we think of is “26 to go.”

This post also viewable at Optimistic Mets Fan.

Metsblog made a post about the possibility of the Mets doing a Citi Field race, similar to the Presidents Race in Washington or the Sausage Race in Milwaukee.  I think since Citi Field was built with New York City in mind and the name of the park implies New York City, that it should have the entire city in mind.  After all the Mets represent New York baseball and all its history.

My idea, which was inspired by a segment I heard Joe and Evan do on the midday WFAN show, is to have a 5-party race including something from each borough of New York.

In this Borough Race:

Queens would be represented by Mr. Met.

Staten Island would be represented by the Staten Island Ferry.

Manhattan would be represented by a yellow taxi cab.

Brooklyn would be represented by the Brooklyn Cyclone’s mascot, Sandy the Seagull.

The Bronx would be represented by a Zoo animal.  An orange Cheetah would work well.

The alternative would be to represent the Bronx with a pinstriped New York Highlander baseball player that would play the Teddy Roosevelt role and never, ever, win the race.

This article can also be found at Optimistic Mets Fan.

I came across some old Mets (and generic Hall of Fame and Yankees) stuff this off-season. I scanned a few of my favorites to share. This is the first set. Here’s the scoreboard shot after Seaver set the NL record with seven consecutive 200 K seasons.

Here’s the back of the 1974 Mets schedule. Box Seats for $4? I’ll take it.

Here’s the front of the schedule, with the rarely seen Lady Met.

Wayne Garrett and his wife Donna scouting the competition. Apparently the Mets and Phillies used to have their wives play a couple of innings of softball occasionally. Seems like a cool idea.

This post also viewable on Optimistic Mets Fan