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A (non-blank) post about some good things on the Mets

photo by CeetarDavid Wright.

 

The Mets are not this bad, nor were they as good as they looked against the Yankees, although in my opinion they didn’t look that great in that series.

 

Daniel Murphy. Yes he made an error at a costly point in the game, but he’s played pretty solidly all around this year.

 

They’ve already started rectifying some of the problem by getting rid of Rick Ankiel, a bad player. Kirk Nieuwenhuis showed some promise last season, and it’d be silly to give up on him at this point. He looked good in the minors this year, limiting the strikeouts and drawing a fair share of walks. Him bringing this improvement to the majors would go a long way towards the Mets scoring runs. Ike Davis has been sent away to figure things out, perhaps he’ll also return with less strikeouts.

 

Lucas Duda. He’s not perfect, and he’s not the prototypical slugger his build suggests he is, but he’s drawing walks and hitting the ball hard.

 

Juan Lagares has shown some signs lately of shaking off the struggles he showed when he first came up. Perhaps he’s gotten settled in and will start driving the ball and contributing to the offense. He’s a good defensive center fielder, so some offense would go a long way towards adding value.

 

Bobby Parnell, despite being a bit off recently, has been a very solid reliever for the Mets for at least a year and a half now.

 

Zack Wheeler is eminent. Whether development, arbitration status, or outstanding debts at a Vegas casino was keeping him down, Wheeler’s time in the minors is coming to a close. It’d be unfair to hold him to the standard Matt Harvey set on his debut last year, but all accounts have Wheeler as an extremely talented pitcher, and slotting him into this rotation will have a positive effect.

 

Matt Harvey.

 

Travis d’Arnaud is out of his boot and ready to being the rehab process towards getting back into games. He’s missed a lot of time over the last two seasons, so likely he’ll need some time in the minors first, but the Mets have a huge hole at catcher that he will fill quite nicely.

 

There are a lot of problems, but don’t let them blind you. There’s some good things too. Sure, they don’t make up for the issues this team has, even if all goes right from here on out. Still, the Mets are taking further steps towards identifying the problems, and knowing the problems is the first step towards finding a solution.

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Mets Meet And Greet With Tuesday’s Children

I was in the park early Thursday to watch the Mets have a meet and greet with some of the families affected by 9/11 via the Tuesday’s Children charity.  A bunch of the Mets players came in to sign and chat and take pictures with the kids.  (This was the 5th time the Mets have done it this year)  Here’s a couple of pictures of Nick Evans, Mike Nickeas, Lucas Duda, R.A. Dickey, Chris Capuano, and Bobby Parnell.

Additionally, I’ve recently agreed to help out with a post or two over at Metspolice.com.  So hop over there from time to time and see what’s up.    There will probably be a post or two from last night’s game.

 

 

More after the jump, to save on load time.

Continue reading “Mets Meet And Greet With Tuesday’s Children”

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Give Carlos Beltran Your Love

Carlos Beltran is one of the all-time greatest Mets.  I know he doesn’t have a ring, but it’s not for lack of ability or clutch hitting.  He’s got a 1.3 career post-season OPS over 21 games.  He’s near the top in almost all franchise leaderboards.  He’s a leader in the clubhouse and cares about his team, and the community.  You couldn’t ask for a better guy than what we’ve gotten from Carlos Beltran over these last seven years.

It seems practically inevitable that he’ll be traded by the trading deadline even if many of us, emotionally, don’t want him to go.  With just two home games remaining before the trading deadline, time is growing short to thank Carlos Beltran for all he’s done.

So cheer when he’s announced. cheer when he makes a great play.  Cheer when he gets a hit, and when he draws a walk.  If he hits a home run, give him a curtain call that lets him know just how much he’s meant to us over these years. 

And if August first comes and he returns to Citi Field with the rest of the Mets?  Keep cheering, because he deserves it.

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Mets Players, and Owners, Eat at Duffy’s

After returning from Fort Myers to Port St. Lucie on Thursday, we went to Duffy’s for dinner.   One of the waiters there noticed our Mets stuff and mentioned that all the Wilpons were in earlier eating dinner.  He said they didn’t tip as well as in years past, but it was still a lot of money.

 

Halfway through our meal my wife noticed five athletic looking guys walk past us to a table in the back.  I recognized Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and I suspect the others were also just returned from the Red Sox game and were getting a late dinner.   I think Lucas Duda and Russ Adams were there.

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Will a Reyes Extension be Announced Today?

Yesterday the Mets announced that they will today announce the hiring they leaked to Jon Heyman Tuesday.  Sandy Alderson will take his place as Mets general manager in a press conference at 2pm.

The Mets suggested after the season that John Ricco would handle anything that needed to be done in the interim.  Takahashi had a clause in his contract that suggested he needed to be talked to before the end of the month, and there are a couple of options on players that can be considered.

I don’t think Ricco did very much, but I do wonder if he negotiated with Takahashi the basics of a contract.  I also wonder if he talked to Jose Reyes about signing an extension.  Such decisions usually take some back and forth on years and money, and it probably makes sense to have had John Ricco start the ball rolling in that direction.

So if that discussion has started, is it possible they came to a tentative deal pending the final approval of a general manager who has basically had the job for three days?  Is it possible Alderson will surprise us with a Reyes signing? Probably not, the Mets haven’t managed to keep much secret from the media the last couple of years, but it would certainly be interesting to see happen tomorrow.