You can root for the Mets without being convinced of their doom
He’s here…and It’s going to be great.
I’m going to buy a Johan shirt at the Bryant Park Mets clubhouse shop on monday afternoon. Look for me. Who cares if I have ~10 other Mets shirts, I can always use another! (Still looking for a Maine jersey too..)
I still have on extra seat in my 13 game Saturday Plan if someone out there is interested.
I think Johan Santana can cover those 13 wins from Glavine, don’t you?
And we didn’t have to give up Pelfrey, or F-Mart. It seems to good to be true. Let’s get this contract done and hurry up and get to Spring Training.
This season is going to be sweet..
Over/Under on how long it takes someone with the Phillies to complain about the Mets having the money and advantage, salary cap, buying championships..etc?
It’s a good day to be a bartender in Philadelphia.
I’ve been thinking about this, and it has a lot to do with David Wright and how he’s easily the captain of this team.
The Mets maybe be an 85 win team next year, but I don’t think so. I think they’re going to be angry about last year, angry and ashamed.
You know how the the Patriots played after being caught cheating in week 1? That’s how I see the Mets next year. Up 9-2 going into the 9th? Why not go for another run? There will be no ‘taking it for granted’. And I don’t care if it pisses off Hanley Ramirez or anyone else. I want them to take the confidence of 2007, but not think they deserve anything. They should go out and play the Phillies(and the Braves and Marlins and Nationals) like they punched their mothers.
Last year they had what I felt to be a good attitude, but they seemed to lose it on the field. 2008 is going to be a good year.
All quiet on the Mets front. They raised ticket prices, which is no surprise. I hate that so many sports franchises seem to treat it solely like a business and forget the working class little people that love and enjoy the game. My last TOTK.com article was about this.
There are still rumors floating around about Johan, and I doubt there is a prospect I would miss past Santana smacking around the Phillies on opening day. We’ll see what happens. It’s not 2008, 2007 is in the past. The holidays are over, and if your not that big a football fan like me, it’s time to start counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report.
Btw, I still have a fourth seat of my Mets Saturday Pack available, if you happen to be one of those fans that wants to go, but has no one to go with regularly. It comes with a nice 27% price increase over last year!
“To me, it’s about quality. It’s not so much getting a guy. We will not be afraid to give our young kids a chance to pitch instead of going out there and paying a lot of money for a guy who gives a lot of innings – but they’re not quality innings. There’s a lot of demand for those guys. I’ve gotten a lot of hits on our young guys.”
This quote from Omar Minaya means a lot to me. Despite some issues I’ve had with him and some of his decisions, I’m actually pretty comfortable with him as a GM. I’m not afraid of starting the season the way the Mets are now. Pedro, El Duque, Maine, Perez, Pelfrey is fine to me. I think Pelfrey continued to grow last season, and his September was good. I think he’s a good player with confidence being one of his bigger issues last year. Maine, in my opinion, is excellent, and I’d actually lean towards him as being the 2nd starter, as little as those designations really mean anything. It’s not even so much talent, as it is that El Duque’s not going to pitch 33 starts next year, he never does. Maine could, so it makes sense to designate more starts to him before the season, as he’s more likely to meet the expectations.
Billy Wagner, among others, questions the replacement of Tom “I wouldn’t call it devasting” Glavine’s win total from last year. Number one, I don’t think Glavine is the one that’s going to match that total anyway, and number two, I think Pedro is capable of that. Even being babied, he showed me a lot last year near the end of the season, and I really feel he has a lot left. If I could put money on Pedro having a better season than Glavine, I would.
So do we need that Livan Hernandez type guy, who would be able to pitch a good amount of innings to relieve our bullpen? I still think so, but I’m not sold on overpaying these guys either. I think it can be done with what we have.
On another note of confidence in Omar Minaya, has anyone noticed how many second-hand pitchers he’s signed? He’s gotten a bunch of guys who have fallen out of favor, for almost nothing. Maybe we find that diamond in the rough with one of them, or maybe one of them really gels with how Peterson teaches. If not, it’s so easy to cut them loose, you may not even remember they were Mets.
Still over two months until spring training…
P.S. Would it kill the Mets to actually market and make John Maine and Oliver Perez Jersey’s? I want a Maine Jersey, but it requires actually getting a custom one made with 33 and Maine on the back, unless someone has seen one somewhere? I certainly haven’t.
I currently own 4 saturday plan tickets for the Mets. Next year one of my friends has decided to pass on this. 3 seats just seems a weird number, so rather than trying to condense my plan, I’m looking for a 4th person that wants to buy the seat. I figured it’s always fun to meet new people, and maybe there’s someone out there that always wants to go to games but never has anyone to go with.
If anyone out there is actually interested in this and/or wants more details feel free to email me at ceetarsnose@gmail.com. Last year are seats were UR section 15, row G. which were decent seats.
Enough with A-Rod. I actually like A-Rod while he’s not currently employed by those people, but I’m tired of the crazy rumors and speculation. Would he just sign somewhere already?
As for the Yankees supposedly willing to talk again? It’s such a joke.
They’ve gone back on their word.
They’re staging a one-man boycott of an agent, which will only hurt them in the end. You can’t arbitrarily not deal with players because of who their agent is.
They expending quite a bit of effort and attention on basically keeping together a team that won one postseason game last year. They’re putting an awful lot of faith in those young pitchers, which is the only real area you could expect improvement.
They just barely stopped short of asking A-Rod to crawl back to them, beg for his money, and apologize for opting out. Real classy.
As for the Mets, It’s still a long offseason, but I’m getting antsy for some sort of real move, involving hopefully a bullpen guy or a starting pitcher.
Rumors abound!
I like all the rumors, because it keeps baseball talk alive, and I can only take so much of the same football stories all week since nothing happens between Monday night and Sunday afternoon, but I do hate chasing around rumors. There are so much unsubstantiated stuff, so many halfway-educated writers decided what the Mets just HAVE to do to be good next year, and so many little things to keep track of.
I’m happy with what the Mets have done so far. I don’t think we needed Easley, but I like Anderson and Alou. Let’s see what happens for the rest, but I don’t know that I’ll have a good sense until April, after I’ve seen and heard about all the bullpen prospects the Mets have for the season. Because I think the bullpen is the biggest issue, as much as I would like another starter. I wouldn’t be panicing with Pedro, Maine, Perez and Humber, Pelfrey and El Duque. Maybe pick up a marginal guy now or later or both and see what happens. I want them to resign Lo Duca, and Castillo, and I think they will.
So let’s see where this goes, I just can’t take real interest in the zillion of rumors and trades that are suggested every day. Too many writers, not enough stuff to write about.
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Billy Wagner. These are my first tier of players, the ones that I feel should go under no circumstances.
Luis Castillo, Pedro Feliciano, Lastings Milledge, Mike Pelfrey, Joe Smith, Philip Humber, Endy Chavez, Marlon Anderson, Ramon Castro, Ruben Gotay. These guys are the next tier. I really don’t want these guys to go anywhere, but they’re not as completely vital. Some of them I’d miss, but would be glad to see value come from them in a big trade.
Carlos Gomez, Moises Alou, Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado, Scott Schoeneweis, Orlando Hernandez are the guys that I think could succeed in certain roles with the Mets, or I think are due for a decent year and should be held while focus is placed on other areas. I think we can get good years out of Delgado and Lo Duca, leaving Omar(or whoever) free to search for a more long term solution in these positions while focusing on more immediate pitching concerns. I think Schoeneweis might be a tolerable addition, and his contract probably brings him back anyway. I’m not sure if guys like El Duque, Gomez or Alou can contribute reliably, and while I wouldn’t mind keeping them, I also wouldn’t mind exchanging them for value. One concern of mine is power, something I felt the Mets were missing when Delgado was slumping and Alou was missing. I found the Mets stringing together hits but failing to have big innings that a home run can bring.
Tom Glavine, Guillermo Mota, and Aaron Sele are the only three players that I’m ready to toss completely.
Everyone else is either too minor to make a decision on(Muniz, who looked real good. Ben Johnson, who barely factors in), or really doesn’t seem to have a place in the future(Shawn Green, Aaron Heilman, David Newhan, Jeff Conine, who I believe was going to retire, Dave Williams, Mike Difelice). Guys like Jose Valentin or Duaner Sanchez or Damien Easley may or may not be done with the team, and certainly have to prove themselves again.
I’m never one to get too caught up in coaches. I think Peterson may have worn out his welcome, but I really don’t know how much impact he has, or how much guys like Maine and Perez might rely on him. I like Howard Johnson, I could care less about Rickey’s card playing habits and think he some valuable assets. I like Willie, Omar seems to be pretty competent, I don’t know that I have much to say about Sandy Alomar at third base, and the other guys barely register.
I generally don’t like to speculate and chase rumors about getting this guy, or getting that guy. Obviously trying to get a guy like Johan Santana would be awesome, but would it be worth Humber and Pelfrey? Probably, but it’s a tough thing to judge. I’ve said this before, and I think Omar should just invite 18 middle relief guys to spring training, and hope to catch the guys that are going to have good years, or match well with Peterson’s(or replacement’s) style of pitching.
I’ll be there. I was there for game 7 last year, hopefully this isn’t similar. I still believe the Mets can win this. I don’t think the Phillies will win both these games, they just aren’t that good, and I know the Nationals suck, but…All the Mets need to do is remember what it’s like to win..and do it.