Excited for Spring, Rooting for The Mets
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| From Mets |
20 Days until Pitchers and Catchers and Injured Players report to Port St. Lucie. I’m excited. To me, it’s hard not to be. It’s still Mets baseball, and no matter how you feel about the Wilpons, the front office, or the team, there are still fun games to be played this season, and fun players to watch.
Johan Santana’s due to make 33 or so starts, and every one of those games is worth watching.
Jose Reyes is reportedly healthy and is always a joy to watch play the game. He’s due to be out there on the field at least 155 games or so.
David Wright, Jeff Francoeur, and Daniel Murphy may have varied amounts of upside or talent, but all three of them play their hearts out. You can’t ask for more out of a baseball player. You can truly believe that these guys want to win at least as much as you want them to.
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| From Mets |
Exciting rookies like Josh Thole, Jonathan Niese, Fernando Martinez, and maybe even Ike Davis are candidates to make appearances this year. It’s always fun to watch homegrown guys try to break out and become major leaguers.
You may be down on Mike Pelfrey a little, but he’s going to work out to do better this year. He’s still a young, talented, homegrown pitcher who will hopefully have a bounceback type season, and there is a good chance we see Niese come up and pitch this year.
The 2010 season won’t be won in January, it won’t be won on paper, and when April 5th comes and the Mets take the field, they’ll do so tied for first place. This is small consolation right now, but anything can happen. There is still time for a trade to happen for another pitcher. It’s entirely possible that one of the Mets starters has an excellent season and pitches great to compliment Santana. The offense isn’t bad, and it’s entirely possibly Beltran is back and healthy by May and Francoeur continues his resurgence and everyone plays well. If some of these things happen, the Mets will be extremely competitive and rather than berate the players I think will fail I’m going to focus on rooting for them to succeed. Isn’t that the point of being a fan?
Tags: Baseball, daniel murphy, David Wright, fernando martinez, jeff francoeur, josh thole, Mets, Mike Pelfrey, new york, New York Mets, optimism, pitchers and catchers, Spring Training
Favre and Unwritten Rules
Disclaimer: Football is my third sport, behind Baseball and Hockey. I’d classify myself as a Giants fan, and a bandwagon one at that. (I thought I was rooting for New England and perfection because I found the Dolphins attitude towards their perfect season pompous. When the Super Bowl started though, I found I was rooting for the Giants. So I wouldn’t say I jumped on the bandwagon so much as got dragged under by it, but it’s too late now. I’m a Giants fan, and I don’t switch allegiances easily.) I’ve written about this topic before, under the title of the Unwritten Rules of Sports.
One of the oft-repeated stories of this week is people’s reactions to Bret Favre and his scoring the extra touchdown at the end of the game against the Cowboys. This is one of the reasons I like baseball, there is never a point before the game is over that the game is over. In football you get situations like the Vikings game the other day where they are up by so much with so little that it’s impossible, barring something completely stupid on the Vikings part, for the game to be decided any other way.
Favre ran up the score, but I say, “So what?” It’s a football game, and that’s what you do when you’re a Quarterback on offense; you try to score. If the clock is still ticking, then the game is still live and I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t play with the same goal as the rest of the game. Why should teams turn it off just because the other team is playing badly? By standing on the field you are saying you are going to play football. As they say, “If you don’t like it, stop them.” Maybe they should just call the game when it gets obvious that it’s over. Why go through the motions if it’s a done deal? Maybe the defense shouldn’t take the field. Just declare it over and go into the clubhouse. These are all absurd options, which is exactly what being upset that the opposing team played football against you is.
This is similar to the debate in Baseball about styling after hitting a home run. If you’ve got a problem with how someone behaves after hitting a home run, don’t give one up! If you’re upset Joba Chamberlain is pumping his fist after he strikes you out, make contact next time! If you don’t want Brett Favre throwing a touchdown pass, block it! Complaining about the other team is just one way of complaining about losing.
In competitive sports, there is never a reason to get upset when your opponent is behaving competitively. Everyone goes into each game as equals, and if you have a problem with how the other team is behaving, you have every opportunity to shut them up and win the game yourself. As I see it a team can behave however they want, and score as much as they want. If it’s legal within the rules of the game, then it’s fine by me. Don’t worry about how the other team plays or acts, that should be reserved for yourself, or your own team.
Tags: Brett Favre, football, rules, rules of the game, running up the score, sore loser, sports, unwritten rules, vikings
Staying Positive on Beltran
Everyone’s down after the news that Carlos Beltran had surgery on his knee and will likely miss Opening Day, and probably most of April. The one thing we were all hoping for in 2010 is that we could go into the season healthy, with a full team on the field, and start feeling good about the Mets again; Positive about the Mets again. This doesn’t help that cause.
I’m going to ignore most of the off-field drama for now. There is a still a lot that we don’t know, about who knew what, what the doctors said, how much the Mets knew or didn’t know, and when Beltran started feeling pain. We know he told Kevin Burkhardt in November that he felt no pain. His knees started acting up again and he had surgery. We’ll go from there.
We haven’t gotten a solid figure on recover time yet. The common figure seems to be around 12 weeks to baseball activity, whatever that means. Is that another month past the 12 weeks to be on the field with the Mets? It’s roughly 12 weeks to Opening Day, so we’re basically talking about most or all of April. If the prognosis is closer to 8-12 weeks, maybe he can be back sooner. Maybe it’s not as serious as all that. I don’t think we’ll really know until we see how Beltran feels in March.
The events of 2009 have given us no reason to believe anything the Mets, or anyone, says about recovery time and return to action. I don’t see how we can do anything else right now. Beltran is irreplaceable and if he’s out for longer than April, things could get murky. Angel Pagan has played very well with the Mets, and while he’s no Beltran, the team can be successful with him in CF temporarily. Fernando Martinez could become a factor too, if he shows something amazing in Spring Training. Of all the possible contigency plans, that has to be the most exciting one.
For now, I’m going to stay upbeat and cross my fingers about all things going well from here on out, and Beltran being on the field by May 1st. A-Rod missed April for the Yankees last year. Championships aren’t won in April. The Mets need to get another solid pitcher, and it looks like they should find another solid lefty OF bat for the bench. I have good feelings on Mike Pelfrey and John Maine based on some stuff I’ve heard from them, and if both of them pitch well in 2010 it would actually overcome the lost offense from Beltran to Pagan.
Tags: 2010, Angel Pagan, Baseball, Carlos Beltran, centerfield, fernando martinez, front office, injuries, knee, Mets, surgery, winning
A Healthier Orange and Blue 2010
Last night a player, wearing Orange and Blue, returned to play after an injury-plagued 2009. I’m going to take this as a sign of good things to come for those other injured orange and blue wearing professional athletes, even if it is a different sport. Last night Rick DiPietro made his first start in goal for the Islanders in over a year. He’s one of their franchise players, and having him back with the team means a ton to their long term success.
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| From MetsStuff |
In 2010 the Mets will be getting Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, and John Maine back from injuries in 2009. Even David Wright missed time in 2009. Maine and Beltran actually returned before 2009 was over, and the others are all on schedule to be healthy by Spring Training, with Oliver Perez already working out.
Of course, this doesn’t guarantee anything. Filling out the lineup card doesn’t count as a win, but the Mets had been competitive the three years prior to 2009 and with these guys back it’s hard to expect they won’t be again.
We could spend time breaking down lineups, breaking down the Phillies lineups, analyzing trades and offseason acquisitions, evaluating players and prospects and predicting what 2010 will bring. We can and will do that, but the rosters aren’t set yet, and Spring Training is not quite here. There will be time enough for everyone to declare who the favorite is, and why. There will be time to document what the Mets need to do, and what the other teams need to do to get to the playoffs. Right now it’s about formulating the roster that will take the field on April 5th. Omar’s working on a catcher and a pitcher, and time is working to get those players we already have healthy and back on the field.
I’m going to take Rick DiPietro’s return as a sign that the 2009 orange and blue injury bug is over, and that 2010 will bring much success.
Tags: 2009, 2010, Baseball, goaltender, health, injury, islanders, Mets, orange and blue, rick dipietro, Spring Training