NL MVP vs AL Cy Young, Vote Reyes, DePodesta Recap

Couple of noteworthy things to look at today.  The first is the Mets are playing a day game today at 1:05.  The potential National League MVP, Jose Reyes, will leadoff the game against the potential American League Cy Young, Justin Verlander.  Should be a fun day.  The Mets won the first game on a blowout, the second on a slugfest, could the third be a pitcher’s duel?  Is Mike Pelfrey up for it?

Secondly today we need to get #votereyes trending on Twitter and also to vote for Reyes as many times as we can.  It would be a travesty if Reyes was not the starting shortstop for the National League.   While you’re voting, throw in some votes for Carlos Beltran too.  On the American League side Asdrubal Cabrera deserves your vote, especially as he’s currently being led by a player having a poor season that’s on the disabled list in Derek Jeter.  Mike Francesa thinks the All-Star Game should be Jeter’s personal 3000 hit celebration, which is even more fodder.  Also, Alex Avila deserves your vote for AL Catcher. 

Thirdly, last night a bunch of bloggers talked with Paul DePodesta and Michael Baron of Metsblog kindly put up a transcript.  I’m sure there are couple of other breakdowns out there too.

Mets New Fundraising Plan: Sell The Blogs

Much has been made of the Mets current financial woes, but I’ve recently learned of a new plan they have to raise some money.  Starting on Opening Day the Mets are going to start a new concession booth at Citi Field out in the center field concourse.  This new stand will sell new and used Mets blogs at a reasonable price.

 

First up is the esteemed blog, Read the Apple.  In what is perhaps a misinterpreted understanding of common adages, the Mets believe if they sell an Apple a day, it’ll keep the doctors away.  Health is a key component to a successful Mets season, and they’re doing everything they can.

Eat The Apple

 

All articles featuring The Apple are fictitious. No Mets were harmed in the writing of this story.  Optimistic Mets Fan would like to thank The Apple, and the Academy, for awarding us a prestigious Fonzie award.

Will You Second Guess Sandy Alderson?

The general consensus about the Mets new general manager is that he’s a great hire and going to do great things for the franchise.  That he’s capable of advanced analysis and really understands the game.  Sure, some fans are skeptical, but for the most part we’re happy that he’s leading this club.

He’s already joked that the honeymoon is over, but how long will we truly give him until we second guess his decisions?  Will we ever give him the benefit of the doubt or will we insist we know better if he chooses someone for the roster we disagree with?

Specifically, if Sandy Alderson watches Oliver Perez throughout Spring Training and determines that he can add value to this team by being on the roster, will we be okay with it?

I doubt it.  A recent poll on Metsblog suggested that more fans would rather Perez fail than succeed.  I find this disturbing.  Oliver Perez is on the Mets, and when players on the Mets do good, the Mets do good. The Mets doing good is what matters the most.

So while I certainly have favorite players and guys I would like to see make the club like Nick Evans and Daniel Murphy, ultimately what I want is the best 25 guys that will lead to the Mets having the best possible club to start the season.  If that means Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, or even Jose Canseco, I’ll root for them to do well.

No John Maine in the Bullpen

A popular opinion on the handling of John Maine over the years has been to suggest he’d be better in the bullpen.  Metsblog has a post on this topic today as well.  Maine has occasionally struggled to get through 6 innings, although I would emphasize that this isn’t always the case, and some theorize that he’d have more success with being able to go all-out in one or two innings without worrying about a second time through the order.

I disagree.  I’m not saying Maine usually gets far into games, but I don’t think he’s ever a risk to throw three innings and completely task the bullpen.  In April and May of 2009 (throwing out the first June start where he was injured and went on the DL), he averaged around 5.2IP and went 5-3 with a 3.75 ERA.  This includes the first three starts of the season, where a pitcher is normally on a pitch count.  Without those he averaged 6IP over the next seven starts.  He made one bad start over that stretch, allowing five runs (four earned) over 5.1IP.  Every other start was a quality one.  So it’s not that long ago that John Maine both pitched six innings regularly and was good at it.  I know six innings isn’t amazing, but it’s more valuable than a couple of innings here and there out of the bullpen.  2010 was less pleasant for Maine, but he did have three of four quality starts after he redid his mechanics. 

My biggest problem with the idea of moving Maine to the bullpen is injury.  Maine’s injuries have always been injuries that seem fatigue and wear and tear related.  Putting him in a position where he’d possibly pitch, or get ready to pitch, every day would negate days of rest where his shoulder can just recover.   Especially with the way Manuel works the bullpen, I’d be worried this would be cause for further injury.

Magic Number Mojo

Obviously baseball is a very superstitious sport.  That doesn’t mean jinxes are real, or that some things don’t have to happen the way they do.  There are some things you just can’t wait until the last minute to plan for.  The playoffs are one of them.  Many Mets fans out there don’t want anyone mentioning the magic number for instance, but if these fans got their way the Mets would wake up on October First having made the playoffs, but having even more issues.
A. They already sent the groundscrew home for the winter, so the field isn’t ready, the grass isn’t cut, the trap hasn’t protected the field, (They’re knocking it all down anyway right?), and the lines aren’t drawn.
b. No one’s showing up to see them play, since they never printed or sold the tickets.
c. The vendors and ushers aren’t there to escort anyone to their seats or sell them hot dogs.  There aren’t any hot dogs anyway, since they didn’t reorder from Aramark past September 28th. (Would anyone be surprised if the concessions are out of virtually everything that day, clinched or not?)
d. In fact, the wrecking ball is already dismantling Shea, because everyone told them to assume the season was over October first until told otherwise.  Can’t play at Yankee Stadium, since that’s meeting the same fate.   
e. If they did manage to play, it wouldn’t be on the radio.  Fox has the tv covered, but Howie Rose is already in Uniondale and Wayne Hagin went home. 
f. Mr. Met is off doing weddings and other apperances, unable to man the Pepsi Party Patrol Cannon.  

In all, the number (and not just on Metsblog) has been posted before.  ’06 as well as ’07.  Would Glavine and Mota have pitched better if the number wasn’t up there? no.  Even without it on the main page, it’d be mentioned in every thread.  Everytime you look at the standings and the Phillies score, you’re thinking “how many more Mets wins and Phillies loses before we’re in?”.  So posting it is merely giving us the info we want, which is what the blog is for.  I’m too lazy to come up with a proper auto-updating widget (and don’t know javascript well enough) to put up the Magic Number, but it stands at 13 with I believe 26 games left.  

Angel in the Outfield

Everyone else is doing it, so why not me?

I’m actually surprised that Angel Pagan, Joe Smith, and Mike Pelfrey made the team over the veterans that have a combined age approaching infinity. I hope it they made it for themselves, and not because of injuries or failures on the part of the older options. At least now we have an Angel in the outfield as well as a Church. (And as I’ve mentioned earlier, how many variations of those headlines do you think the papers are going to use?)

I liked Gotay, but truthfully he didn’t have a lot of places to play on this team. You can argue about sign Castillo, but they did so Gotay really was only going to be a pinch hitter and he didn’t do amazingly in that role last year. However I wish they could’ve traded him for something rather than gifting him to the Braves. I wonder what it says about the Braves confidence in their guys that they felt the need to pick up Gotay though?

I think Pelfrey will turn it around, maybe Perez can give him some head-case advice.

Only about 24 hours until this is all secondary stuff to the actual baseball anyway, and I can’t wait. I’m planning to attend the Metsblog.com happy hour in the city to watch the game, even though I expect it to be a zoo. If you come, look for me. I’ll be the one in the Santana shirt. Can’t miss me.

Look for my 5th “Letters to the NL East” letter late tonight or early tomorrow, which will basically be a rallying cry for the Mets.

Oh, and if you know anyone that is looking for a single ticket to all 13 home Saturday games..send them my way, I probably don’t need to spend $300 to have a seat to put my bag on.