2012 Mets: The Big Tease Tweet This Post
How’s that for a slogan? This was inspired by the Mets tweeting pictures today of Johan Santana throwing in Port St. Lucie. It was good news in the sense that his arm didn’t fall off, but throwing in January tells us little about what he’ll do in April.
It’s still over a month until pitchers and catchers report, and closer to three until the first real game. I’m thankful for the Mets sharing these types of things, and love seeing Johan on a baseball field, but ultimately this is a big tease. There’s still plenty of uncertainty with how Santana’s shoulder will hold up to a full Spring Training and following that, the season.
In a way the whole 2012 Mets season may be a tease. With the finances and roster turnover it very much feels like the Mets are in a holding pattern. That’s not to say things won’t ultimately turn out good, but there are plenty of question marks we need answers to and a lot of time before we can start finding them. 2012 may be one long quest to find the answers. What do we really have in Lucas Duda, Josh Thole, Ruben Tejada and Ike Davis? To what extent can David Wright and Jason Bay rebound? Are any of the touted pitching prospects going to be knocking on the rotation door for 2013, or sooner? Is second base the anti-matter to Daniel Murphy‘s matter, causing explosion whenever they come in contact?
Stay tuned, because 2012 may be the big tease before we find out where this team is going.
The Difference Between Prudence and Pessimism Tweet This Post
Sandy Alderson was quoted recently as viewing Johan Santana as a question mark for the rotation to start the season. This comment was a statement on being prudent and building depth, not a dire prediction about Santana’s health. Still, it was misrepresented and reported as a medical update instead of simply an extension of previous comments of Alderson’s suggesting it’s a good idea to have lots of depth in the rotation. Johan Santana has not had a setback, and is on exactly the same path he has been since early October; Opening Day. He’s begun offseason conditioning, but it’s way too early to start throwing a baseball. Certainly there’s a possibility when he starts throwing that his shoulder will struggle to respond the way a pitcher’s needs to, but that’s merely a possibility, not a prediction.
Expecting Santana’s body to respond like Mark Prior’s, or Chien Ming Wang’s, is probably as silly as me expecting my body to respond like David Wright’s when I go to the gym. It’s even possible Santana and his doctors could use Wang and Prior’s experience as guidelines to improve on the rehabilitation process. Santana is a different person, and everyone’s body responds differently. There is a thought out there that because of copy number variation in the human genome, and other in depth biological stuff outside my paygrade, that there is some difference in the way different racial populations across the globe adapted over the last 200,000 years or so. Basically expecting Santana’s body to heal and strengthen like Mark Prior’s may be like expecting your Ford Fusion to break down at the same odometer reading your neighbor’s Focus broke down at.
They estimated Tommy John’s odds of recovery from his procedure at 1%, but nowadays 83% or so of the operations go as planned. Practice makes perfect, so to speak. A lot of that has to do with the regiment and rehab schedules and learning what’s the best way to get the elbow or shoulder into game shape again. This isn’t to say that that Santana is a lock to make even 25 starts next season, or that he’ll be successful if he does so. It simply means that Sandy Alderson is aware of the severity of the surgery Santana had and knows the importance of pitching depth. That’s it.
Tags: 2012 mets, Johan Santana, johan santana update, Mets, mets injuries, mets medical updates, New York Mets, shoulder capsule
Biggest Week of Mets Baseball in Years Tweet This Post
This next week or two may be the biggest games the Mets have played since the last week of 2008, and they also might be the biggest games they’ll play for years. The Mets record, as well as the Phillies and Braves, will greatly determine the look of the team going forward this year, and maybe even next year too.
Sandy Alderson has said he would consider trading Carlos Beltran right now a white flag, but if the Mets play poorly over the next two weeks, that white flag is inevitable anyway. It’s probably not just Carlos Beltran either; The Mets won’t get a ton for guys like Chris Capuano or Jason Isringhausen, but if the chances of contention plummet there will be little reason to keep them. If they manage to climb closer in the race, the small return from trading those guys won’t be worth gutting the team. In a way, the Mets could finish a handful of games above or below .500 based on how they do in these next bunch of games.
Either way this season will likely be viewed as a step in the right direction, but if the Mets fall out of it here and restructure the team with next year in mind, the record and excitement levels will fall. That probably won’t be enough to prompt many to invest in this team, raising projected income and in turn, payroll. As the memory of the last Mets game fades, we’ll be subjected to more financial news regarding the Picard lawsuit and the Madoff mess. Their will be speculations about Einhorn’s control, about how much the payroll can possibly go up, and if the Mets will actually field a competitive team. So the only real news will be mostly doom and gloom again, which won’t help sell tickets. Just today someone called into WFAN in the brief 20 minutes I had it on proclaiming there is no way the Mets compete for five or six years.
If the Mets climb back into the race and get closer, Sandy Alderson will be more likely to keep players like Beltran, and may even look to add a reliever or someone, especially if the player can be helpful beyond this year too. Whether or not they can or will win a playoff race is not the point here, the point is that if they stay close and prove that they can play with anyone it suggests that the Mets may not be years from competing. They could go into the offseason with fans thinking they’re getting close and with the right moves, including resigning Jose Reyes, the Mets could be a very good team next year.
There’s going to be a lot of stuff to watch with this team this year, and if they remain competitive and winning games they’ll bring in fans to watch versus fans switching gears to what could be a returning NFL season or something else. Jose Reyes could have a record breaking season, as despite spotting the opposition 11 or more games, he’s still got a commanding lead in base hits. David Wright will be returning, one of the Mets franchising players who they’ve sorely missed. Johan Santana may return, and while that’s still up in the air, as is his effectiveness, it will be nice to see him on the mound again. I would like to be at his first game back if I can at least.
It all starts tonight against the Phillies with your hero in attendence. The Phillies aren’t taking the Mets seriously, opting to give Halladay and Lee some extra rest coming off the break and pushing them back until after the weekend. Facing Vance Worley, Cole Hamels who the Mets routinely beat, and Kyle Kendrick is not a daunting task. Hopefully the Mets can get a hot start to the second half, while exposing the Phillies pitching depth, and start catching both them and the Braves who are playing the Nationals this weekend.
Tags: 2011 national league hit leader, 2011 new york mets, 2012 new york mets, are the mets in it?, believing, beliving, big games, big two weeks, Can the mets compete?, Carlos Beltran, carlos beltran trade, David Wright, fans, Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, Mets, mets fans, mets optimism, New York Mets, nl hit leader, optimism, optimistic mets, pennant race, playoff races, records, Wild Card, ya gotta believe
Johan Santana to the Bullpen? Tweet This Post
The Mets starting rotation has been performing pretty well. No one’s an ace, but mostly they’re keeping the team in games and pitching pretty well. Johan Santana appears to have taken the next step towards return, but there are a lot of questions revolving around that. Will he be the dominant Santana we’ve come to know and love, or some lesser pitcher while still recovering from the shoulder surgery? Which pitcher would he replace in the rotation, and will he be able to go deep into games, or will he be on a strict pitch count?
Maybe it’s Johan Santana who should go to the bullpen. In the best case we’re talking about five weeks of games, and maybe six or seven starts. He’ll barely have time to really get into a routine and build up some arm strength. Pitching out of the bullpen would allow him to work on his game and proving his shoulder is repaired without having to really push it. He’ll be able to build muscle and arm strength and work on his mechanics without the strain of 100 pitches at a time. They could work out a schedule and not pitch him too often or back to back days or whatever works best for him.
He has done it before. When he first came up with the Twins he spent a lot of time in the bullpen, and while that was before he was established it’s not exactly a foreign concept to him, he’s pitched 77 games out of the bullpen in his career. Let the beat writers joke about the Mets 23 million dollar middle reliever, it’s still better than the Mets 23 million dollar Ace who’s still experiencing soreness in his shoulder. Or..
Many feel Francisco Rodriguez is a lock to get traded before his option vests. It’s certainly possible, and it does seem like the Mets have a plan in mind with him as they certainly don’t seem to care about his option or use. What about using Johan Santana to close? Closers don’t have a whole ton of value, which is part of the reason you don’t need an overpaid closer clogging up the roster, but you do still need to replace the quality innings Rodriguez gives you and what better way than someone like Santana? You could say that Santana is not used to getting ready to pitch that fast, but he’d have all of “Spring Training” to get used to it, and with a closer you often have a couple more minutes.
After all, the goal with Johan is to get him pitching again. He needs to build up his arm muscles again and recover from having his shoulder sliced open. He doesn’t necessarily need to throw 40-50 innings to do so, 20-25 in a more limited capacity could be just fine. He’d be able to test out his shoulder, get some time under his belt with major league innings, and shut down at the end of the season healthy and ready to rev it back up in Spring Training like normal.
A lot of this could depend on how the Mets are doing in the playoff picture when Johan Santana comes back. On the other hand, it’d be foolish to rely on Johan for anything this year at this point in his rehab, so if he does indeed come back, the Mets don’t need to desperately shove him into the rotation and demand he win every game. Let him ease himself back into pitching, and take what value you can get while keeping him healthy and strong. He’s too valuable to future years to push him too hard coming back from surgery.
Tags: 2011, 2011 mets, Baseball, Johan Santana, johan santana in the bullpen, johan santana to the bullpen, Mets, mets blog, mets bullpen, mets johan santana, mets rotation, New York Mets, shoulder surgery
The Mets: Good Lately Tweet This Post
The Mets got off to a poor start in 2011: The bullpen looked pretty bad and the starting pitching was struggling. The weather was cold and rainy and they couldn’t buy a clutch hit. Over the last month the Mets have made some roster tweaks and been faced with some injuries, but they’ve also played pretty well.
They are 9-6 in May. They are 16-11 since the seven game losing streak that was over a month ago. If they were to continue at that 16-11 pace they’d actually end up winning 91 games. It’s not a torrid pace in any way, but they win more than they lose. They keep themselves in games, and by extension, in playoff races.
It is probably unrealistic to expect the Mets to continue this pace without David Wright and Ike Davis, but there are a lot of other things not going the Mets way either. Will Jason Bay ever start hitting? Will Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy, or a year older Ruben Tejada provide adequate production for a stretch while the other Mets are on the mend? Will Dickey pitch better, get a better grip on the knuckleball as the weather warms up, and at least keep the Mets in the games? Did Mike Pelfrey get his “one bad month” out of the way in April this year?
There are also many unknowns. I don’t buy into speculation about what the Mets are going to do, rosterwise, with this team. Personally I’d be more shocked of Reyes was traded than if he wasn’t. Alderson has to recognize how good Reyes is, how hard it is to find a good shortstop, and how much the fans love him. Alderson has also claimed that he’ll be able to do what needs to be done around the trading deadline to add players, and the potential for the Mets to get better there exists. Then there is Johan Santana recovering from his capsule tear. It’s unrealistic to rely on him coming back, but that doesn’t mean we can’t hope and wonder. He’s on track for recovery now to return in July or August. Whatever the chances are that he doesn’t experience any setbacks, the possibility that you could add a pitcher of his talent and intelligence to a rotation in September is enough to make me smile.
The Mets look and feel like a team. They’re probably not the best team or most talented team in the league, but lately they’ve been winning games, playing good defense, getting some hits when they need them and capitalizing on mistakes made by the other clubs. No team looks all-powerful in the league and if the Mets can continue playing good baseball, get guys healthy, and make some good roster moves there is no reason why they can’t remain competitive all season.
Maybe they’ll even hit a grand slam.
Tags: extend reyes, Grand Slam, Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, keep reyes, Mets, mets health, mets record, New York Mets, NL East
Ceetar’s Mets Prop Bets: Make Your Picks Tweet This Post
1. over/under .345 OBP (I suspect this may be over/under Met in 2012)
2. over/under 142 games played.
3. over/under 60 SB
Wright
4. over/under 30 HR
5. over/under 150 Ks
Bay
6. over/under 25 HR
Beltran
7. over/under 130 games played
8. over/under 25 HR
9. over/under 10 SB
10. Will Beltran or Chase Utley have more home runs this year?
K-Rod
11. over/under 55 games finished
Ike Davis
12. over/under .275 avg
13. over/under 23 HR
Jon Niese
14. over/under 200Ks
15. Who will start more games?
a. Johan Santana
b. Dillon Gee
c. Chris Young
16. Who has a better year, R.A. Dickey, or Cole Hamels?
17a. Will Emaus be the starting second baseman all year?
17b. If no, is his replacement
A. On the team
B. In the minors
C. on another team
D. Not currently playing baseball
E. Luis Castillo
Tags: baseball prop bets, baseball wagers, brad emaus, Carlos Beltran, chris young, Cole Hamels, David Wright, dickey, dillon gee, francisco rodriguez, frankie, ike davis, jason bay, Johan Santana, jon niese, Jose Reyes, k-rod, Luis Castillo, Mets, mets prop bets, New York Mets, prop bets, r a dickey, wagers
These Mets Are Scary Tweet This Post
Mets Win
This Mets team can be pretty scary. I certainly thought they had a chance to be very competitive coming into this year, but it would’ve been hard for anyone to predict it would evolve the way it did. The team may be the team you’d least want to face in the National League, because you never know what you’re going to get from them, they can hit you from all angles. People talk about Philadelphia’s offense being scary, but when you get down to it the Phillies are a team built on offense; if you pitch well against them you can win any of the games.
The Mets can baffle a team’s offense on any day. It could happen via R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball dancing towards the plate, or it could happen with Pelfrey’s dominate sinking fastball. The next day Jon Niese could unleash his curveball, or Johan Santana could be on the mound with his two Cy Young awards. The bullpen has also been very good, regularly racking up scoreless innings. They’ve got some hard throwers, some specialists, and Frankie Rodriguez.
Offensively the Mets have the talent to beat a team in a couple of ways. They’re capable of hitting big home runs one day, and the next day battering pitching to a tune of 14 runs without a long ball. They’re aggressive, steal bases, take extra bases on base hits, capitalize on errors and play hard. They’re capable of coming back from deficits, don’t quit until the game is over, and even if a starting pitcher is shutting them down, they’re capable of waking up against a reliever and winning a game.
They seem to have the right mixture of confidence and cockiness, and all reports suggest they have great clubhouse chemistry. (Winning will do that) Even if they don’t make a trade, it looks like they’ll be getting Carlos Beltran back to the lineup which would be about as big a mid-season acquisition as you can find. They’re already in prime playoff position, and they’ve got plenty of guys looking to have a better second half including Johan Santana, Jason Bay, Luis Castillo, and Jose Reyes. This is a team to look out for, and it’s looking like the final series before the All-Star break against the Braves is going to be a big one.
Tags: Baseball, bullpen, good teams, great teams, Home Runs, Johan Santana, jon niese, Mets, mets are scary, Mike Pelfrey, New York Mets, NL East, offense, phillies suck, Pitching, r a dickey, scary mets, starting pitching, winning, winning baseball
Why Santana Will Be Just Fine Tweet This Post
I wonder how people back before pitch counts and speed guns were able to tell when their ace pitchers were in decline?
Statistical analysis and all the technology of present day definitely enhance the game and our understanding of it, but they also allow us to jump to premature conclusions.
I was in Baltimore over the weekend and I was listening to the post game show after the Saturday game when the Orioles announcers described the next day’s pitching matchup as “Pelfrey, the Mets ace.” There wasn’t a pause. It wasn’t qualified by “this year.”
Santana came out this spring and proclaimed himself (when asked to name someone) the best pitcher in the NL East. So is he a washed up ace trending downward and not even the best pitcher on his own team?
I’d say no. Of course Pelfrey has been the better pitcher this year so far, but Santana is far from over the hill and washed up. Actually Santana has a slightly higher ERA, but they have almost identical WHIPs and Ks. The different result is mainly due to run support, and Pelfrey’s pitches trending more towards ground balls. It just seems so different because Santana is a Cy Young caliber pitcher and Pelfrey has been a struggling prospect prior to this point.
The case can be made that Santana is merely slumping, not declining. For one he’s always been a second-half pitcher. He had surgery last year and had a longer than normal layoff between his last start of 2009 and his first of 2010. There’s something to be said for building arm strength over a couple of months, and surgery and time off sap that. You can already see that the velocity is starting to come back up a little bit. Pitching is a game of adjustments, and right now Santana is having some trouble with control of his pitches. This is leading to more walks and less strikeouts. Santana’s track record says that he’s a smart guy and knows what he’s doing out there. You have to trust that he can make the adjustments needed, and that he’ll be able to do it faster than batters can adjust to him.
The Mets are fighting for first place and arguably Santana is only going to get better. He’s a big game pitcher, a fighter, and a great ace of this staff to have. As his game rounds into form, the weather heats up and he builds up arm strength as the Mets march towards October all worries about him being in decline will vanish and we’ll be talking about the Mets having as good a 1-2 punch as anyone else in baseball.
Tags: ace, ace pitcher, Baseball, decline, Johan Santana, Mets, mets ace, Mike Pelfrey, New York Mets, pitch count, Pitching, pitching staff, second half pitcher, speed gun, velocity
Upcoming Expections For The Mets Tweet This Post
I understand the season has been hurtful so far. I also understand that even the worst teams in baseball don’t play this badly, and that they will win more games. So how do we shake this feeling of doom?
I’m pretty confident in Pelfrey throwing a good game tonight. I think what he worked on this Spring is going to help a lot, he’s getting less distracted on the mound, and has that cocky confidence that this team needs.
You never know with Perez, and I worry that the stupid tinkering that Warthen did with Maine was also a failure for Perez, but I think the Mets will have a chance to win the game tomorrow when he pitches.
Santana is due to bounce back and win one on Saturday. He’s Johan Santana after all.
Then Maine, who I think gets a huge boost being out from under Warthen’s shackles. Doesn’t mean he’ll be successful though, especially the first time going back to what’s worked for him, but the numbers are there if you choose to believe. (those numbers being a 4-1 2.75 ERA May last year before surgery in June. Those numbers being that he was hitting 93 last year, and was 91-92 in the return from surgery in September) I’m hoping being able to be comfortable will be like a weight off his shoulder and he’ll do just fine. I’m certainly not ready to believe Maine’s career is over.
Maybe they drop one of those, which would put them at 5-7. Then they go home for a 10 game home stand where if they go 6-4 they’re back at .500 and go to Philadelphia, a park the Mets love to hit in with hopefully the offense finally clicking, and knock the ball, and 2009, out of the park.
That’s the formula to shake these bad feelings away. If the Mets can get to Philadelphia near .500 and play well there against an injured Phillies team and assert, even if it’s just for one series, that they’re the better team it will go a long way to returning the confidence to this team, and to it’s fans.
Tags: attitude, Baseball, Confidence, dan warthen, fire manuel, fire warthen, Johan Santana, John Maine, Mets, Mike Pelfrey, mop, New York Mets, Oliver Perez, optimism, phillies suck, recipe for success, ya gotta believe
The Anti-Mets Tweet This Post
Many Mets fans would fall into a more doom and gloom mindset than a positive one. Whether that’s because of persistent disappointment, a “younger-brother” mentality associated with the Yankees, the attitude of talk radio hosts, or something else, Mets fans tend to approach the team waiting for the other shoe to drop and the team to fail.
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| From Baseball |
As the self-proclaimed Optimistic Mets Fan, I tend not to take this approach anyway, but I’ve found that this rule is not true across the board. Oddly enough, there are two Mets players that never fail to bring out smiles and optimism; Johan Santana and Jose Reyes.
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| From Baseball |
These two Anti-Mets, more than any other player, bring out positive vibes from Mets fans. Carlos Beltran, despite being very clutch, has the cloud of his strike out against the Cardinals in the 2006 playoffs. David Wright has been considered almost un-clutch by many fans.
Even if it’s not true, when David Wright comes up with a runner on third, many are expecting a strkeout. When Oliver Perez lets up a leadoff double, most fans expect him to walk two following that. Jason Bay hasn’t even played a game yet and you just know many fans are already expecting every opposing runner to score from second on a single to left field.
Reyes is different. When Reyes gets on to lead off an inning, Mets fans give him second base like it’s a foregone conclusion. They expect him to score on any ball hit to the outfield. They expect opposing pitchers to get nervous and possibly balk in runs.
It’s similar for Johan Santana. If it’s an Oliver Perez start, fans are betting the over/under on how many walks he gives up. Or how many foul balls John Maine has. If it’s a close game in the 6th or 7th inning and Pelfrey is pitching and lets up a leadoff single, Mets fans think “Here we go again.” If Santana lets up that same leadoff single even many of the pessimistic fans are just thinking about double plays and are recalculating how many pitches it’ll now take to get the next three guys out to see if Santana can pitch another inning afterwards.
This is the true meaning of the phrase, “As Reyes goes, so do the Mets.” Mets fans expect winning results from Reyes and when they get it they feel the Mets will win. Johan is such a fierce competitor that as fans we’re surprised when the opponents’ bats don’t literally explode under his gaze. It doesn’t matter that the Mets have never pitched a no-hitter; when Johan strikes out the leadoff batter, the first thing we think of is “26 to go.”
This post is also visible at The Real Dirty Mets Blog.
Tags: anti-mets, attitude, Baseball, Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, Mets, optimistic mets fan, positive, Spring Training, winning