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New York Mets Oktoberfest

The Mets are having their annual Oktoberfest on September 23rd. It looks like decent fun, although I’d pass on the lederhosen.  If you pay attention at all, I’m almost as big a beer fan as I am a Mets fan, so things like this are right up my alley.

 

The Mets Oktoberfest is pretty good.  The food menu features Wiener Scnitzel, Beer Braised Bratwurst & Onions, German Style Fried Potatoes, German Potato Salad, Coleslaw, Soft Pretzels and a delicious Cookie Platter for dessert.  Of course, it doesn’t list the beer menu.   It’d be a shame if it was just the normal stuff off the Citi Field Beer List.  There needs to be at least a couple of Oktoberfests there, and a local variety like Brooklyn Brewery’s would be a great place to start.  Unfortunately, I’m busy next Friday and will be unable to go.  If someone is going and doesn’t mind reporting back to me, send me an email at ceetar@ceetar.com.

 

The price for the Oktoberfest party at Citi Field is $54 to sit in the Big Apple Reserved and get a free ticket lanyard.  I’m not going to quibble too much about something that includes free beer, but that’s $12 more than the Big Apple Reserved seating is for Premium games.   Normally, group sales get a discount on pricing.  The Social Media night the Mets held was $41 for the same seats, and including $18 of food and beverage credit.

 

I think the Mets could make more of this event.  This is New York, and as Sandy Alderson said about our farm systemeverything should be top of the line, not middle of the pack.   One example to follow might be the Houston Astros Oktoberfest.  The Astros event is two hours prior to the game, whereas the Mets event starts an hour early and goes until the 7th inning and conflicts with the game.   It’s a full-fledged party with polka music, folk dancers, and your own Astros beer stein!  Included are 12 2oz pours of 12 different beers available; many of them Oktoberfests and pumpkin ales.

 

The Astros event is separate from the game, so they allow you to buy a ticket to any section.  Obviously tickets in Houston are much much cheaper than tickets in New York, but they even discount them for you by about 40%.  They do tack on another $20 for the Oktoberfest package, but that’s still a great deal considering it’s an admission to a two hour party and you get at least a pint and a half of beer, and your own stein.  You could get all this, AND a baseball game, for as little as $27.

 

I’d love if the Mets followed the Astros example in 2012.  I know the Bullpen Plaza isn’t big enough for a full on party, but there are other options.  They could close off the Caesar’s Club for one day before the game, or block off a suitably sized section of the parking lot.   Another option would be to have a Mets Oktoberfest away game viewing party.  Have the event when the Mets are on the road.  The Caesar’s Club certainly has enough televisions to  tune to SNY.   I already own a Mets beer stein purchased the conventional way, but if a 2012 design was created, I’d certainly buy another one.

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New York Mets Episode ’11: The Nats Strike Back

As you’re likely aware, the Mets had Star Wars night last night to celebrate the release of the 6-part series on Blu-Ray.  They did a very good job with it, considering they only announced it a week or two ago.  I started a hashtag on Twitter yesterday called #MetsStarWarsQuotes, and I’ll mix in some of the funny ones between the pictures below.  Also check out Mediagoon’s coverage on the event over at Metspolice today. 

The free T-shirt pick up was in the bullpen plaza, so that’s where I headed first.  The Star Wars guys were doing a costume contest with kids, and were there when I arrived with Mr. Met. 

Aren't you a little short to be a relief pitcher? #MetsStarWarsQuotes

More after the break.

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2011 Mets fading into the Sunset

The local football teams played Sunday night, marking the beginning of the end of baseball.  With the Mets eliminated from the NL East and almost eliminated from the Wild Card race, Mets related traffic and discussion has slowed to a crawl outside of the die-hard in Metsopotamia.

 

But we’re going to miss them when they’re gone.  The New York Mets now have as many games remaining as the New York Giants; another sign of the end.  Time is ticking down, the Mets are playing poor, sloppy and uninspired baseball and even Reyes isn’t hitting like he was for most of the rest of the season.

 

As much as it’s not much fun to watch lately, I’m going to watch.  You never know when something crazy will happen, and this team probably still has a couple of fun wins in them.  I’m going out to Citi Field tonight for Star Wars night, which should be interesting at least.

 

Much thanks to the Mets for including Optimistic Mets Fan in the final issue of Mets Magazine. It’s very cool to see this blog in the Mets program. If you happen to buy the final issue of the season, flip over to page 153 and check it out. Then turn to page 154 for Faith and Fear in Flushing‘s entry. I love that there is a Spanish translation as well, although anyone that needs it isn’t going to find the site too readable. Maybe I need a ‘translate to Spanish’ widget for Fanáticos Optimista de los Mets?

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What Do You Need To See From Jason Bay?

Last week I posed a tongue-in-cheek relationship between how many home runs Jason Bay hits this season, and what record the Mets will be predicted to finish with next year.  He’s up to 12, good for an even 81-81 prediction.


He’s on another hot streak, where he’s actually driving the ball.  It’s good to see, but we’ve also seen it before.  He still seems to find ways to go into 0-30 stretches after getting hot, although the length of time between hot streaks seems to be lessening.  I can’t help but wonder if there were lingering effects of the concussion that even he wasn’t, or isn’t, aware of.


Regardless, the Mets could really use Jason Bay to be at least a contributing power threat next year.  I think if he can reach 15 home runs, and finish out September with numbers approaching his career averages on the month, that we can at least have some faith he’ll be useful next year.  His career line stands at

Year G PA AB H 2B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
9 Seasons 1127 4758 4065 1113 227 202 705 583 1086 .274 .368 .493 .862 125
and his September numbers so far.
 
Split G GS PA AB H 2B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
Sept/Oct 7 6 25 24 7 2 2 4 1 5 .292 .320 .625 .945 15 .294 175 150


What do you need to see from him to not go into 2012 feeling he’s a black hole in the lineup? Is it completely hopeless?  Do you need him to rack up a couple more doubles? Five more home runs?  Less strikeouts? Avoid any double-digit o’fers?
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Jose Reyes and the Gold Glove

Jose Reyes has really played some terrific defense this year.  He’s showed great range, often diving to his left or right to grab balls that seem destined for the outfield.  Often he’s even able to then pop-up and throw the guy out at first with his great arm.  He has made 15 errors, but errors rarely tell the whole story.

The problem with him being awarded a Gold Glove, or a Silver Slugger, is that he hasn’t played the full season.  He’s projected to end the season with right around 125 games or so.  That’s about 77 percent of the season, which isn’t horrible, but there are shortstops that have played more than that and have played good defense.  Of course Troy Tulowitzki played in only 122 games last year, made 10 errors, and won the Gold Glove.  You never know exactly what voters are looking for, and how they judge all 16 or so shortstops without easily being able to watch every game each one of them plays.

 

Tulowitzki will probably win both the Silver Slugger and the Gold Glove award for NL shortstops, but Jose Reyes has certainly played defense worthy of the award.   Perhaps if he had stayed on the field for the whole season, he would’ve had a better case for the Silver Slugger, but as it is Tulowitzki has a 60 point lead in OPS, mostly in SLG, and has played nearly every game of the season.   One day Jose Reyes will win a Gold Glove, because he does deserve one.

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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.

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Does The Mets Organization Only Have Five Starting Pitchers?

With the exception of Chris Young, who was quickly replaced by Dillon Gee, the Mets starting pitchers have stayed healthy all season and not missed a start. (In fact, they’re the only ones to not miss time)  Now that Niese will need to miss a start or two, and doubleheaders galore will force the Mets to use some more pitchers, where are they?

 

Rosters expand on Thursday, the first day they’ll need another pitcher, and yet first we’re going to see 40 year old Miguel Batista, and then R.A. Dickey is going to come back on short rest to pitch Friday.  No Chris Schwinden, no Mark Cohoon.   I know there aren’t a ton of healthy starting pitching prospects in the higher portions of the minor leagues, but why do we have to be subjected to fodder like Batista?

 

On the other hand, I’ll be in the ballpark Thursday to see Batista’s first, and perhaps last, Mets start on what’s his 11th team.  He’s actually going for his 100th win and 1200th strikeout, which I guess is something.

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The Math: Optimism For .500

The Mets struggled a bit and saw their good season start to crumble as they lost game after game to fall well below the .500 mark.  Now they’ve picked it up again, it’s worth taking a look to see what they need to do to finish at 81-81.

 

There are thirty games left.  The Mets are 64-68, and need to go 17-13 the rest of the way to hit .500.

 

There are good reasons to expect that the Mets can do just that.  One is that Jose Reyes is back.  Having him in the lineup at the expense of either Tejada or Turner will make a big difference, especially once he’s got a game or two under his belt to get warmed up.  It’s not just Reyes; Duda has been hitting the ball well and making a case for 2012.  Nick Evans has put together a nice little stretch here.  They haven’t been scoring a ton of runs, but they’re getting the job done and most everyone is contributing.

 

Another is that rosters expand on Thursday.  If you look closely at this season, you’ll see that the biggest stretches of losing coincided with the bullpen pitching poorly.  Usually that was closely correlated to the bullpen being overworked.  With an expanded roster and a couple more relievers floating around, that shouldn’t be a problem.

 

The Mets have stumbled a couple of times, but for most of the season they’ve played slightly above .500.   All it takes is a little bit of a streak, a couple of hot bats, and some timely hits.  17-13 is certainly doable.   The competition is certainly not going to be a problem.  The Mets have a lot of games against some sub-par teams that are as far out of it as they are, and there is no reason they can’t win those games.

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Some Random Math About Bay and 2012

The Mets offense has the potential to be pretty excellent next year.  That next level to ‘really excellent’ depends a lot on Jason Bay.  He’s shown some improvement lately, perhaps there were lingering effects of the concussion that he didn’t even realize.  Still, he’s been pretty bad overall.   I think how well Jason Bay plays the rest of 2011 will go a long way towards how the media feels about the Mets in 2012. I’m proposing a direct relationship between Jason Bay’s home run total through the rest of the season, and the Mets predicted win total in 2012.

 

He’s got 9 right now.  11 seems a stretch, but if he got to 20 I feel like people would proclaim him ‘back’.  I’ll set that as the absolute ceiling, and say it equates to 89 wins.   Each home run less than that will be worth 1 win.  If he doesn’t hit another, the Mets will be predicted to win 78.  If he hits 5 to finish with 14, 83 wins.