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Today’s resignings

I have no problem with resigning Alou. In fact I wanted someone like him for next year. I want Alou, Beltran, and Milledge opening day. I wonder if this move was made with the thought of trading Gomez, but if not, Gomez(and Endy) can get a fair amount of left field time in when Alou is out.

I’ve never been a big fan of Easley, and while he had some moments last year, i’m not sure where he fits with this team. Unless they’re thinking of trading Gotay, this puts us in exactly the situation as last year with an overload at second base. Unless they’re thinking Easley off the bench, a job that he’ll hopefully play second-fiddle to Marlon Anderson. Does this effect the possibility of resigning Castillo? I hope not. (or the possibility of the A-Rod, Wright to second stuff?)

Good to see the Mets start making some news. The 2007 is officially over, and it’s time to forget that, and focus on the future and stop letting the Yankees take all of the attention.

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Continuing to Roll

I strongly feel that John Maine got snubbed, but I’m not surprised. He suffered because Billy Wagner deserves to be there too, is a bigger name, and was the 4th Met selected. I feel bad for Kevin Youkilis too, who certainly deserved to be there. I really feel baseball should attempt to honor guys like this, who would go to the game excited, and not guys like Manny Ramirez, who will go reluctantly, if at all. To make the All-Star game more meaningful, fill it with players that want to be there. We don’t necessarily need guys playing all out, colliding with catchers and getting into fights, but these young guys that want to be there will play hard, and enjoy playing. That’s what would make it watchable.

The Mets dropped the finale, missing out on sweeping the Phillies. It doesn’t matter, they had a bit of a sloppy day and left the Phillies with a little bit of hope. It’s misguided hope, as the Mets now have won eight of their last 10, and now hold a five game, six losses, lead over the Phillies. The Braves are four games back and five losses. I’d be happy with picking up one more game on each before the All-Star break. Colorado has been playing badly since sweeping the Yankees, and while they’re due to start winning some, the Mets can take two out of three easily, even with Vargas pitching one of the games.

Mike Pelfrey looked good, I’ve thought he looked good all year long, just not quite ready. He looked more ready this time, if not quite there. I feel like one of these days he’s suddenly going to develop some confidence, make a small adjustment with his pitching, and suddenly will start winning. I’d like him to start throwing more innings, but even three runs in five innings at a ballpark like that keeps the team in the game. Maybe if he keeps pitching like that, the offense will feel last pressured to score nine runs to win for him, relax a bit and just start hitting, and making plays behind him defensively.

I don’t know what’s up with Oliver Perez. We all know he’s pretty much a head case, and when he’s made such good progress this year I’m not sure I want him pitching injured either. We’ve in a good situation right now, with a good lead. If he’s really hurting, we could DL him retroactively, he’d be eligible to come off by the games after the break, and we could get some help up here in the meantime.

Carlos Gomez has picked up a bit of a reputation as a hot dog, which is why Joe Smith asked Carlos Beltran how to say “hot dog” in Spanish. “Perro caliente,” Beltran replied. Gomez seemed to like the new nickname. I like it too.

Speaking of the All-Star break, I hope Ricky Ledee doesn’t see the other side of it. Lastings Milledge has starting playing rehab games, and I see no reason why he shouldn’t be with the team by then. Whether to try to contribute, or to showcase to be traded. Willie seems to be alternating Ledee and Gomez anyway, and I don’t know anyone that looks forward to seeing Ledee’s mangled picture up on the scoreboard.

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Good Signs/Bad Signs

When worry over the Mets ability to beat the Braves resurfaced recently with them dropping the series in Atlanta, I didn’t panic. I’m still convinced Atlanta’s not a great team, nowhere near as good as the Mets, and it’s just coincidence that they’ve played badly when we’ve faced them. Call it a let down from the Yankee series or whatever you want, but they can’t win them all. Two days later and the Mets are already further in front then they were before they faced them, so they can just keep winning series and widening the distance.

When the Braves get into a funk, it’s different then when the Mets do. The Braves have now lost three of their last four series, and sure they’ve run into some teams playing well, and some teams that are just good, but when a good team would still be able to beat the Nationals when they’re playing well. The Phillies on the other hand, haven’t been playing that well and recently lost their second closer of the season in Brett Myers.

So again, I’m not worried. To reinforce my not-worryingness, some good signs came out of this series with the Marlins. Carlos Delgado remembered how to hit the ball, hard. Jose Reyes had some hard hits, and was robbed by Miguel Cabrera. David Wright didn’t get hits, but he did get three walks with no strikeouts, and finally John Maine started pitching pretty well again. He did walk some people, but I think he’s making a case that May, not April, was the aberration.

Of course, there were bad signs too. Shawn Green and Carlos Gomez hurting themselves would be up there. Gomez was fun to watch, but even if his injury’s minor, you’re not going to keep a guy with that much speed up in the majors with a hamstring pull. There has been a lot of calls for Shawn Green’s head, mainly because of his defense, and Endy Chavez should continue to get a lot of playing time, especially before Moises Alou returns in the near future. David Newhan will be getting some more chances to prove he’s valuable here, with a couple of starts. Otherwise it’s likely we may see Ben Johnson from New Orleans up here in the near future. Hopefully Newhan can come through, Shawn Green and Moises Alou were big parts of the Mets offense, and even though they can get by without them, it’s never good to lose that production. Hopefully Endy Chavez and David Newhan can have some good games and some consistency as the Mets continue trying to widen their lead in the NL East.