Let me start off by saying I HATE SNOW !! I HATE IT!! I hate shoveling that cold wet white powder that impedes my progress when it just lies there on the road, making grown men drive like elderly women on their way to Sunday mass. I hate the fact that these little snot nosed punks with their Yankee gear on try to extort me to shovel my walkway and when I say thanks but no thanks in a polite manner I can hear them ridicule the Mets hat that I am wearing. And then I thought to myself this is a kind of a metaphor for being a Mets fan. You see to be a Mets fan is for the most part akin to be stuck in a blizzard, You are being beat down by the elements ( the wind, the snow, the freezing cold ) and when you are in the middle of white out conditions, you don’t know which direction will lead you home ( just ask Ryan Church! ). But there is a positive ray of light tucked into the avalanche of negativity that started with a promise to construct a winning team, to missing out on some much needed free agent talent, to injuries and yesterdays icing on the cake moment of Citi Field bonds being downgraded to junk status ( Gordon Gekko where art thou?). The little germination of hope is that we are only a week away until pitcher and catchers report to spring training. Oh yeah and they expect snow to hit us here in New York again on Monday !!!

            ” Will the Mets embrace their Underdog status - and can they help me dig my Jeep out?”

And on that note …. HERE’S COMES THE INFAMY !!!

Happy Birthday to “Jack of all Trades - Master of None” utility infielder - Tom Veryzer (1953) .
Utility infielder ,Steve Springer is 49 (1961) .
Back up first baseman for the ‘05 team, Brian Daubach is 38 today (1972) .

New York Mets traded catching prospect Stan Hough and third base prospect Randy Rogers to the Houston Astros for catcher Bruce Bochy on February 11, 1981. Bochy wouldn’t stick on the Mets roster that long, only playing 17 games with the Mets until being released in ‘83. He later on became a successful manager of both the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.

New York Mets signed free agent utility man Jay Bell on February 11, 2003.He played in 72 games that year for the Mets at hit to the tune of .181 !!

New York Mets signed free agent reliever Ricky Bottalico on February 11, 2004.

New York Mets signed free agent Tony Armas Jr. of the Pittsburgh Pirates on February 11, 2008. They shoulda signed his father instead - you would have gotten the same results, only Tony Armas Sr would have come cheaper !!

And while you are digging your car out dreaming for warm weather , just remember - there are just 53 days until the Mets open the 2010 season against the Florida Marlins at Citi Field.

But can he hit?

Today’s installment of loosely Mets related news:

• Yesterday we learned what we already knew about Mark McGwire.  Today we learned what we already knew about the Florida Marlins:  they’re cheap.  They’ve been publicly called out by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association for not putting their piece of the revenue sharing pie back into their product.  As Billy Wagner might say, f’in shocker.

• Old friend Ramon “Darth Catcher” Castro has re-signed with the Chicago White Sox, giving him another opportunity to catch a perfect game.  Yesterday just as In Other News… was going to press, another old friend found work as well when Ryan Church agreed to terms with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  I couldn’t help but wonder if Church’s Met career might’ve worked out differently if only he’d had Ramon Castro’s head.

• The Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the two teams named most recently in pursuit of Joel Pineiro.  Some snappy commenters at Sons of Steve Garvey don’t seem to like the Mets much, but then again why would I expect the illegitimate offspring of the man formerly known as Mr. Clean to like the Mets?

Now that all three participants of the Milledge deal back in 2007 are no longer with their respective teams, I thought it was a good time to look back at a deal that at the time stirred up alot of debate and controversy. In 2005, Omar Minaya deemed Lastings Milledge as one of his “untouchable” minor league players after Milledge post up a .318 batting avg with 8 home runs and 29 stolen bases (for single A advanced and AA). In 2006, Milledge continued to show promise in AAA with a line of .277 avg, 7 home runs, 13 stolen bases and a .388 on base percentage in 84 games until being called up to the majors on May 30th.

Milledge saw very limited plate appearances in 2006 but his most memorable was in the game versus the Giants on June 4th. Milledge hit his first career home run against former Mets closer Armando Benitez to tie the game 6-6 in the bottom of the tenth. On the way back to the out field the next half inning, Milledge high-fived several Mets fans in attendance. This drew the ire of several veteran Met players, most notably Billy Wagner who posted a sign “Know your place, rook” on Milledge’s locker. In 185 plate apperances in 2006, Milledge finished with a .241 batting average with 4 home runs and one stolen base.

Milledge made the opening day roster in 2007 and played about the same amount of time he did in 2006, Milledge spent some time between the majors and minors to make room for players but finished with a .272 batting average with 7 home runs and 3 stolen bases in 206 games. However, that same year under his rap name “L-Millz”, Milledge recorded a song that included…lets just say language that gave Mets public relations personnel a headache. The “hype” of Milledge was clearly dying down from where it was in 2005 and Omar sought to cash in before it was too late.

December 1st 2007

“Not long ago, the Mets considered Lastings Milledge their top positional prospect and untouchable in trade talks. Friday they dealt him to the Washington Nationals for two veterans GM Omar Minaya called “not known names,” but who he said would be everyday players. The Mets got Brian Schneider, a solid defensive catcher who ranked fourth in the NL in throwing out base-stealers, and Ryan Church, an outfielder who hit .272 with 15 home runs and 70 RBI last season”- ROGER RUBIN DAILY

Reactions from some Metsblog members…

“…As for the Milledge for Church/Schnider deal, I would have liked it to have been expanded to get a quality reliever. Maybe Milledge and Humber for Church/Shcnider and Rauch?
We really have no idea how much Milledge’s stock had fallen. I for one am content right now with Church in RF.” - therealsince86 December 7, 2007 at 12:13 pm

“Milledge continued to make the same (baseball) mistakes over and over (not hustling, swinging at horrible breaking pitches) and showed little sign that he was correcting his mistakes, which made him a hard guy to root for. Church made one (non-baseball) mistake, apologized for it, and has not repeated it. IMO unless it comes to light at some point in the future that he has continued his bigoted thinking, the guy who admitted the error, apologized for it and didn’t repeat it is the easier guy to root for” - GravediggerHebner December 10, 2007 at 11:34 am

“But Church is just as likely to go .280, 20, 85, and probably play better (if less impassioned!) defense. That trade was personality driven, not talent, anyway. Other than a few hot weeks in September, LoDuca stunk most of the year, and was hurt a lot. No loss. Schneider will be an improvement overall. The key is how Omar builds the bench, and how Willie uses it. If Castro gets 50 or so starts, and plays against most lefties, then the platoon will be solid. Castro + Schneider platoon (he actually hit fairly well against righties) should be much more productive than LoDuca as a FT catcher, with occasional days off (and when he is hurt and can’t go). Same with RF. They just need that strong RH bat with some pop (Nady, Mench) so they can sit Church against the tougher lefites. Mench + CHurch should give them as much as Green + Milledge did.” - stickguy December 12, 2007 at 11:50 am

The Mets traded Lastings Milledge for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. Those that were for the deal saw it as a way to “kill two birds with one stone” by filling two holes the Mets had going into 2008 with a defensive catcher and a serviceable right fielder. Milledge was becoming more of a headache to deal with and the Mets could not afford to keep defending or talking their way out of controversy surrounding him. A change of scenery to a team with less media hype was the only logical news. Those against it, saw Milledge at worst another Rickey Henderson personality who had incredible upside but just lacked the maturity. The sky was the limit for Milledge and some fans just saw a home grown star in the making shipped within the division for a right fielder who never played a full season and a light hitting catcher.

Fresh off the collapse of 2007 and the most controversial trade since Scott Kasmir, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider had alot to prove in 2008. Ryan got off to an extremely hot start in 2008, hitting .307 with 11 home runs and 36 RBI’s in the first half. Unfortunately, another freak concussion (Ryan suffered a grade 2 concussion in spring training) in the middle of his hot streak on May 20 against the Braves turned him ice cold when he came off the DL in June. Ryan ended the second half batting .219 with 2 home runs and 13 RBI’s. Brian was touted as a “light hitting defensive catcher” and defiantly lived up to the bill. Brian finished the year hitting .257 with 9 home runs and 38 RBI’s. While his CS% was better than Paul Loduca in 2007, Brian did not improve much from his 2007 percentage and finished with a 34% CS%. The pitching staff under Brian Schneider were charged with 37 wild pitches, just about the same he had in 2007 with 38.

Lastings Milledge had some parting words for the Mets on the way out in 2008:

“A lot of veterans didn’t like the way I play the game. They thought I didn’t respect it, but the vets here(Nationals) have no problem with me. They know I respect it. They know I work hard. I can’t go through anything worse than I went through in New York. It only gets better from here. I don’t have anything to prove to nobody but my manager, my front office and my family. I don’t have anything to prove to them. Everyone knows what I can do.”

This did not rub to well with the Mets, including the usually quiet David Wright who had this to say:

“Enough is enough. You’re a Washington National now. Don’t worry about what happened last year or the year before that. Just go out there and try to help the Nationals win. It makes no sense to bash your former team. He just needs to turn the page and worry about helping the Washington Nationals. Forget about what we’re doing over here. Forget about the New York Mets.”

Lastings took Wrights advice to heart and entered 2008 as the Nationals starting center fielder.  He was doing well, hitting .245 with 9 home runs and 32 RBI’s until he strained his groin in late June. Lastings came off the DL in late July and went 2-18 until the month of August where he batted .336 with 6 HR and 16 RBI. Lastings finished out 2008 with a .268 batting avg, 14 home runs and 61 RBI’s.

Unfortunately, 2009 was not a kind year for any of these players. Mets fans were hoping for Ryan to repeat his 2008 early season success and he did in April by hitting .313 with a homer and 8 RBI’s. Ryan however went ice cold in May, hitting .224 and costing the Mets a go ahead run in a game against the Dodgers with the infamous “missing third base” incident. While increasing tension between Mets manager Jerry Manuel and Ryan Church were debatable, Church was ultimately traded for Jeff Francoeur in July. Ryan finished the year hitting .260 with 2 home runs and 18 RBI’s for the Braves and was later non-tendered, making him a free agent.

Brian would not face any better luck. Brian spent most of the year injured and a spectator to a “breakout” year from Omir Santos. Brian only played in 59 games in 2009, hitting .218 with 3 home runs and 24 RBI’s. Brian’s CS% was a percent better than 2008 but there were much less base runners for Brian that year. The Mets did not resign Brian after 2009 but the Philadelphia Phillies did for 2 years.

Milledge started 2009 hitting .167 with 0 home run and 1 RBI in April, which lead to a demotion to AAA. Milledge suffered through various injuries and was ultimately traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 30th. Lastings spent most of the year in AAA for the Pirates as well but managed to play 58 games for them to finish the year hitting .290 with 4 home runs and 20 RBI’s.

Im sure with reading this, you can remember your position with respect to this deal. Do you think its too early to judge the winners of this deal or if you can choose a winner, who would you say won out? The Mets or the Nationals?

This is the final installment of the Mets Need series. If you haven’t done so already take a look at the first two articles, Mets Need: Defense! and Mets Need: Pitching! In those posts I explained why the Mets must improve their defense and what kind of pitchers the Mets need to improve their pitching. Today, I’ll discuss what kind of hitters the Mets need to improve their hitting.

Mets Hitting Coach Howard Johnson

Before I dive into that, let me just say that although I would’ve liked the Mets to have signed hitting coach extraordinaire, Rudy Jaramillo, I’m glad to have Howard Johnson as the Mets hitting coach. I know some Mets fans partially blame Johnson for the Mets poor situational hitting or David Wright’s increased strikeouts and drop in homeruns in 2009. However, HoJo has been a winner all his career, especially as  a coach in the Mets system and if the best and most important player on the team is taking time off this winter to work on his hitting with HoJo, then I need no other vote of confidence.

Read the rest of this entry »

Can somebody please explain to me why if both the A.L & the N.L divisional series ended early why don’t they just start the ALCS & the NLCS already !?! I mean it’s bad enough that we are going to have baseball in the frigid month of November ( thanks for the WBC Bud Selig !!) I’m sorry I just feel that they could’ve started it last night . Anyway on a positive note, there are only 173 days until the Mets open the 2010 season against Florida at Citi Field. And now on with the Infamy !!
Happy Birthday to one of the core members of that Amazin “69 Championship team - Art Shamsky (1941)
reliever from the ‘72 team - Brent Strom is 61 (1948) Strom pitched in three games for the Mets as a late season call up going 0-3. He was traded tot he Indians that off season.
Happy Birthday wishes go out to the much maligned Ryan Church (1978) , We all know General Jerry had it out for him but Ryan missing third base in that game against the Dodgers punched his ticket out of town.
Reliever Duaner ” Dirty” Sanchez is 30 today (1979) Talk about being dealt a bad hand - pitched great exeptionally well during the ‘06 season until a car accident just before the trade deadline knocked him out of commission for the rest of the season and a case can be made that that is what lead to the downfall against the Cardinals in the post season. He tried coming back the next spring training but showed up overweight and out of shape and fractured his arm during a bullpen session. He was adequate during most of the ‘08 season but totally melted down during the September stretch run, and was released this past spring training when he proved to be ineffective.

New York Mets purchased pitcher Jack Hamilton from the Detroit Tigers on October 14, 1965.

San Diego Padres drafted pitcher, Dick Selma from the Mets on October 14, 1968.
So all I can now say is GO DODGERS !!! & GO ANGELS !!

ITS A TIE!!!

David Wright and Daniel Murphy both have amassed 16 MUA’s a piece. After days of deliberation and bribes(i kid…kind of..), I have decided that real men hit home runs and stay on the field. Since Murph finished with 12 home runs(Wright finished with 10 home runs) and never hit the DL list, your 2009 Man Up Champ is…

Dan "The Iron Man" Murphy

Daniel Murphy finished with 12 HR’s/.266 avg/63 RBI’s/.417 SLG. Since his first at bat in the 2nd half of 2008, Murph has always been talked about as having an outstanding work ethic. That work ethic showed up every time he stepped into the batters box and earned him a starting spot in 2009. Murphy didn’t waste any time from the close of 2008 with a home run in the season opener of the 2009 season that accounted for the only offense in the game. Unfortunately that high did not last as his defensive short comings began to take center stage. As if on cue, the classic cliche “Things happen for a reason” reared its head in the form of what would turn out to be a season ending injury to Mets 1b man Carlos Delgado. The Mets eased Murphy into the infield where he spent most of his time in AAA. Murph took the bull by its horns and improved at 1b almost on a game basis. Murphy would be only one of two players to play the whole season without hitting the DL, as most of the Mets lineup did. Murph(unexpectedly) would finish the 2009 season as the Mets home run leader. Daniel manned up more than anyone on the Mets this year and is a deserving winner of the 2009 Man Up Championship.

A look at how the other Mets fared in 2009:

David Wright-16 Mua’s

Francisco Rodriguez-14 Mua’s

Jeff Francoeur-12 Mua’s

Angel Pagan-11 Mua’s

Omir Santos-8 Mua’s

Sean Green-8 Mua’s

Luis Castillo-7 Mua’s

Pedro Feliciano-7 Mua’s

Johan Santana-6 Mua’s

Gary Sheffield-6 Mua’s

Carlos Beltran-5 Mua’s

Ryan Church-5 Mua’s

Mike Pelfrey-4 Mua’s

Livan Hernandez-4 Mua’s

Brian Stokes-4 Mua’s

Bobby Parnell-4 Mua’s

Anderson Hernandez-4 Mua’s

John Maine-3 Mua’s

Tim Redding-3 Mua’s

Fernando Tatis-3 Mua’s

Fernando Nieve-3 Mua’s

Pat Misch-3 Mua’s

Josh Thole-2 Mua’s

Nelson Figueroa-2 Mua’s

Wilson Valdez-2 Mua’s

Cory Sullivan-2 Mua’s

Nick Evans-2 Mua’s

Jerry Manuel-2 Mua’s

Fernando Martinez-2 Mua’s

Alex Cora-2 Mua’s

Oliver Perez-1 Mua

JJ Putz- 1 Mua

Jeremy Reed-1 Mua

Brian Schneider-1 Mua

Jon Niese-1 Mua

Angel Berroa-1 Mua