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Jason Bay Toggles His Awesome Switch

Jason Bay hit the wall in Dodger Stadium hard and made a great catch.  A couple of days later he was done for the season, and when he returned this year it was like someone had switched him off.   He struggled, was dropped in the order, failed to have an extra base hit for weeks, and watched his average plummet.  Then he started to get some more hits, and the occasional home run.  He was drawing more walks.  Then he made another amazing catch and hit the wall in Dodger Stadium.

One of the first things they ask you when you call a tech repair shop for service on your computer is, “Is it switched on?”  No one thought to ask that of Jason Bay this season.   Then Bay hit the wall, and his switch went back on.  Guys back in the clubhouse hung their heads in shame and said to themselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?” and Jason Bay hit two home runs and drove in four runs in a 6-0 rout of the Dodgers.

It was also Jason Bay’s 155th game as a Met, which would probably be more than he would’ve played in his first season as a Met.  Perhaps he’s just safely past his ‘first year in NY’ slump, and back to being a good baseball player.

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NL MVP vs AL Cy Young, Vote Reyes, DePodesta Recap

Couple of noteworthy things to look at today.  The first is the Mets are playing a day game today at 1:05.  The potential National League MVP, Jose Reyes, will leadoff the game against the potential American League Cy Young, Justin Verlander.  Should be a fun day.  The Mets won the first game on a blowout, the second on a slugfest, could the third be a pitcher’s duel?  Is Mike Pelfrey up for it?

Secondly today we need to get #votereyes trending on Twitter and also to vote for Reyes as many times as we can.  It would be a travesty if Reyes was not the starting shortstop for the National League.   While you’re voting, throw in some votes for Carlos Beltran too.  On the American League side Asdrubal Cabrera deserves your vote, especially as he’s currently being led by a player having a poor season that’s on the disabled list in Derek Jeter.  Mike Francesa thinks the All-Star Game should be Jeter’s personal 3000 hit celebration, which is even more fodder.  Also, Alex Avila deserves your vote for AL Catcher. 

Thirdly, last night a bunch of bloggers talked with Paul DePodesta and Michael Baron of Metsblog kindly put up a transcript.  I’m sure there are couple of other breakdowns out there too.

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Let’s Keep It Rolling Rolling Rolling..

Well that was fun wasn’t it?  After a ridiculous amount of games without a grand slam, the Mets hit two in one trip through the lineup last night.  Jose Reyes had ANOTHER 4-hit game, his second in as many days and he’s reached based nine of his last 10 appearances.  Bay had one of those grand slams, Dickey gave the team length and the Mets climbed above .500 baseball on the season.  They remain five games out of a playoff spot, but there is a lot of baseball yet to be played.  Jose Reyes has as many triples as 17 other major league clubs and still hasn’t gone two consecutive games without reaching base. 

What’s not to love about this team right now?  The Mets schedule is still tough in the immediate future, but they have a chance to put .500 behind them for good.  The way they’re playing, I believe they can do that no matter who’s in the other dugout.   Being able to add David Wright to this mix is going to be a nice bonus as well. 

Whereever this team is going, the ride sure is fun!

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Vote Reyes: Meet Reyes, and My Ballot

If you vote for Jose Reyes for the All-Star Game, and select the Mets as one of your favorite teams on the form (Why wouldn’t you?) you’ll be entered in the contest to win two tickets to a future Mets game and the chance to meet the National League leader in Hits, Runs Scored, Triples, and Average, Multi-Hit Games, and the hardest player in the league to strikeout.

 

You’ve got until Thursday and you can vote up to 25 times per email address so let’s get Jose Reyes that starting spot that he both wants and deserves.  While you’re at it, give Carlos Beltran your vote too.  For the American League I usually just look at the most recent standings and vote for the player that has the best chance to unseat a Yankee.

 

If you’re able to get to Citi Field on a weekday, the Mets annual summer blood is Thursday the 7th of July from 10 to 5.  Do a good deed AND get Mets tickets for it.  As a working resident of New Jersey I won’t be making this one, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t!

 

So while you’re waiting for the game to start, hop over to Mets.com and #votereyes.

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Jose Reyes: An Easy Decision

This was originally a comment to a Mets Police post about ripping the Trade Reyes bandaid off, but I decided it deserved a post of it’s own. 

It’s really a simple decision.  Franchise players like Jose Reyes are very valuable, and it’d be especially silly to let him get away for anything but an absolute steal of a package, and even then I’d be reluctant.   This isn’t fantasy baseball; I, and other fans, develop emotional attachment to players and there is value and revenue in that.

Sign Reyes, and you keep a franchise player that the fanbase loves and will define and promote your franchise for, and this isn’t an exaggeration, 60+ years.  Keep one of the best players in the game at a premium position of which there is nothing close available on the market or in the minors. Finish the season at or above .500, regardless of if they can make a playoff push or not.   Have people believing 2012 will be better, that we’re already into year two of the ‘rebuilding’ process and things are good and people are buying season tickets.  The Mets (not the Wilpons) problem is not so much debt is it trying to get the revenue stream back above the level of what a competitive payroll is.  To do this they have to keep people interested in the Mets and coming to the park.  Who’s more interesting than Jose Reyes right now?

Or you can trade him or let him walk away, and finish below .500.  Show people that this is year one of the demolition process before rebuilding starts. Watch no one pay any attention to the Mets all offseason, and no one buy season tickets, or renew season tickets.  2.5million fans this year becomes 1.5million fans next year, and in 2013, and in 2014.. prices come down because no one’s going, revenue drops as a result, less demand on advertising space drops revenue there as well.  SNY becomes the Food Network; sure you’ll flip it on once in a while and see what’s cookin’, but it’s not worth DVRing.  In an age when it’s so very very easy to watch any team in the league, and with the Mets unwatchable, many fans start half-following the Giants or wherever Reyes ends up playing.  If MLB.TV existed when the Mets traded Seaver, how many Mets fans do you think would’ve purchased it to watch him pitch?  In 2013 the Mets sell out the Giants series at Citi with the stands awash of really faded Black Mets 7 shirts. The next series against the Phillies is empty, no one wants to see two bad teams play.  Citi Field feels empty without #7.

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Gary Cohen’s Interleague Joke

Gary Cohen is not a big fan of interleague play.  During one of the broadcasts this week SNY showed the out of town scoreboard and Gary noted that SEA WAS looked more like an address than a rivalry.

 

Certainly true.  He did miss another one though.

 

Another one not from this weekend would be TB FLA.

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Going to the Game to Make the Mets Win

Headed out to the game tonight alone.  Which means I’ll be roaming around the park aimlessly watching the game from all over the place.

I’m thinking of hanging around the outfield tonight.  Checking out the pitchers warming up, watching the game from the Shea Bridge, and maybe climb up to the Pepsi Porch for an inning or two. 

The Mets really need to win tonight.  They’ve had one bad week every month that keeps them from getting above .500.   In May they got to .500 and then lost six of seven.  They got back to .500 again last week in Atlanta, lost a crushing game and have now lost four of their last five.   If they can minimize that damage and start the climb again now, they’ll hopefully be able to climb above .500 and keep going.   Maybe Bay is going to start being Jason Bay again after a big game last night, and maybe Wright and Davis get good news this week and make their way back to the team.  Otherwise this Mets season feels a lot like Sisyphus.

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Celebrating Enemy Milestones

For some reason there is a lot of talk about how Mets fans should treat Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit on the off chance it happens at Citi Field. (I’ll be there Saturday, I doubt Jeter will) I’ll boo. I boo when opposing players get hits.  They’re the enemy.  I’m not a gentlemanly opposing player in the same ‘fraternity’ of baseball players.  It’s more important to me to see my pitcher’s WHIP be slightly lower than it is to see Jeter get a hit. 

Let’s get real here, this isn’t some historic achievement.   He’s not setting a record, he’s not even climbing into the top 10.  He’s looking to become the 28th player to reach 3000 hits, and just because he’s the first to do so as a Yankee doesn’t mean anything outside of the Yankees.  He’s not some all-time legend.  He’s not Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig, or the best player on his team.   There is nothing inherently more special about Derek Jeter, or the Yankees.  He’s one player of 750 and the Yankees are one team of 30. 

Jeter doesn’t transcend the sport in any way.   Not at his position, not as a hitter, not as a fielder, and not even as a clutch hitter (which is simply a matter of being there a lot, he doesn’t boast better numbers in clutch situations).   His claim to fame is longevity and being a good player on a lot of good Yankee teams.   I hate the Yankees, therefore Jeter collecting a personal, or franchise, milestone means nothing to me.   Absolutely nothing.