The Most important thing about the Mets 9-8 loss to the Cards yesterday was the first two pitchers. Before the game even started, these two pitchers were vital for the game. Why? Well the first pitcher was fifth starter hopeful, and longshot, Livan Hernandez and the second was the new favorite for the fifth starter spot, Freddy Garcia.

Well, if t the rankings of the starters was murky before the game, now it could be a wide competition.

Livan went out there and had really good stuff. His breaking stuff was spot on. Even though he had only one strikeout, he was getting hitters to swing at bad pitches. If that is the form he is going to be in this season, then I can easily see him being the fifth starter on this squad. Then it was Garcia's turn. He has already been scrutinized over his intrasquad performance with his flat fastball, and he didn't impress anyone yesterday. He was just bad pitch after bad pitch. Granted there was an error in the inning, but he could not pull it together. Before further analysis, lets check out some highlighted good and bad boxes from yesterday:
The Good:
    Hernandez 2.0 IP, 0ER, K
    Church 1-3, R, RBI, 2B
    Kielty 1-1, HR, R, 3 RBI
The Bad:
    Garcia 0.2 IP, 4R, 2ER, 3BB
    Knight 1.0 IP, 4 H, 3ER, BB, 2K
Garcia's line is really terrible and it is a good reflection on how he performed yesterday. Althought Knight had some K's, he really struggled yesterday as well. He is a really longshot to make this team, but if he wants any chance at the bullpen, he has to perform every chance he get. On the other side of the plate, the Mets didn't have too much to write home about. As a team they got a lot of walks but they couldn't do anything with it (including twice allowing the bases to get loaded via walks and hits). However, Church continued to impress this Spring and Kielty came up in a situation where he needed to perform and just knocked one out of the park. Next up for the Mets is the Tigers today, the only way you can really catch it is Game Day Audio, or if you live close enough to Detroit to pick up their AM signal.

I've had a lot of baseball thoughts over the last few days, but nothing substantial enough for one per article, so this is going to be basically a tour through my mind right now. The other day, I saw a WBC commercial for the first time, and once again I thought ESPN did a good job getting the fans pumped up for this tournament. I'm very excited and that commercial got me even more ready. Last Classsic, ESPN and MLB put together a good advertisement campaign with the players flags over their faces. On the topic of the WBC, how nice was it today to see Mike Piazza as a coach. I had no idea he was the hitting coach forTeam Italy until today and I'm glad he's doing something in baseball again. Let's hope he starts a coaching career.

More on the WBC, Davey Johnson has decided to take the route of the Mets and the Phillies over the last few seasons and had declared Team USA as the team to beat in the classic. That wasn't really a bold statement when you look at the roster and the way the team has formed. The roster looks amazing and on top of that everyone on Team USA wants to win, not just play, but wants to win, and they want it bad, they are willing to bat ninth. Next week starts some great games, and I can't wait to see how things pan out.

On an unrelated note, I wasn't originally going to post this, but my friends in the Lab this afternoon convinced me it was worthy of typing. Everytime Rocky Cherry starts to pitch I think about how the Mets could stand to capitalize from naming some desserts after him. Like the Rocky Cherry's Rocky Road and Cherry Ice Cream Helmet. Its just a thought.

The Mets played their second Spring Training game today against the Marlins, and there was nothing to complain about at all in the game. They just played a great game. They won 9-0, had the hitting, had the pitching. Before we get to the analysis, lets see some Box highlights of the Mets Amazin' day:
    Beltran 1-4, R, 3 RBI
    Reyes 2-4, 2R, 6 RBI, 2 HR
    Castillo, 1-1, 2R, 2BB
    Delgado 2-3, 2B, 2R
    Wright 2-4
    Perez 2.0 IP, BB, 3K
    Gee 2.0 IP, H, 2K
The star of the day has to be Reyes, who in his first AB had a ground out to get the RBI, playing some good smallball, then went with the biggest of the long ball, the grandslam in his next AB and later had a solo shot. It was a joy to see him perform so well. More important for Spring, Castillo and Delgado both had great games as well. Castillo built off of yesterday with getting on base in all three trips and Delgado got his extra base and a single to cap off a good day for him. On the pitcher side, Perez, who I will admit I was iffy about in the offseason, impressed today with great control over his two innings of work with three K's. His first two K's looked really good. I was also glad to see Gee in the game. He is a really underated prospect in the Mets system, and he deserves some attention. Tommorow the Mets play the Cards.

I was very surprised to see how many good things came from today's game. When only a few starters were going over, it didn't look like too many good things would happen. All of the position starters had good games and really no one had a terrible day. I listened to the first 30 minutes of the game before I had to leave but I have some notes from what I heard before we get to some box scores. First off, the Orioles have 67 players in camp this Spring, and 37 of them are pitchers. The Oriole announcers were commenting on the 17 lbs that Castillo lost. Green would have had a much better outing if Wright was starting. The first batter of the game hit a slow roller to Valentine at third, it was that play that Wright really has perfected. If that out was recorded, then not only does Green get a 1-2-3 inning, I don't think he gets injured. So he gets the unlucky award of the day. Anyway here are some Boxes:
The Good:
   Castillo 2-3, 4 RBI, R, 2B
   Murphy 2-3, 2R, BB
   Pagan 3-4, R, BB
   Church 2-3, 3 RBI, 2 2B
   Evans 3-4, 3R
The "Bad":
    Valentine 0-3
    Sanchez 1.0 IP, H, ER, 2 BB
Pagan's walk was a really good one because he actually started off down 0-2 in the count then got the walk. Castillo, Murphy and Church, all starters with stuff to prove all went out and did it in a big way They got hits, they scored runs, they got RBI's and it feels great that they were able to perform so well. Pagan and Evans also had big games. Both of them are trying to get on the bench and if they keep this up, it will be hard to ignore them. Its hard to say anyone had a bad game, but if I had to pick two I would pick these two. Castro also went 0-3, but Valentine is trying to make this team, and its a long shot, so he needs to perform every chance he has. Same goes for Sanchez, who could be cut, so he needs to perform.

Baseball America released their top 100 prospects going into this season today, and while the order is not really surprising, I want to point out the four Mets that made the list this year. The list started off with Wieters from the Orioles system and he was followed by David Price in Rays system. I had the opportunity to see Wieters play a few times last year since he played for AA Bowie, which is fairly close to where I live. This kid is the real deal. Those of you who have been to Minor League games, and have seen future stars come from them can tell when someone is the real deal, even when they have an off night. He wasn't the star the night I saw him but every hack he took with the bat looked good, sounded good and when he made contact, he made good contact. I believe he went 2-4 on the night with a double and a single, but his two outs where hard line-outs. Anyway back to the Mets, here are the Mets that made the list:
   30- FMart, ETA 2010
   47- W Flores, ETA 2012
   77- Niese, ETA 2009
   94- Holt, ETA, 2010
They had an interesting note for both Fmart and Flores. Fmart was the youngest player last year in AA and Flores was the youngest player in all of proball last year. With Niese they talked about his innings pitched and Holt they talked about his dazzling 1.87 ERA last year. These names are not surprsing. These are the guys that we are starting to hear about. Flores is interesting because he is so young, only 17, we will really get to see this guy develop. I look foward to reading about him this year in the minors. With Niese's performance yesterday, he is not completely knocked out of getting that last starting job. Young players are exciting, and we might have some coming up soon.

Those of you who have followed the Intrasquad game know that it was an intrasquad game and not that exciting boxscore wise (I'm writing this after only 5 innings).The Mets loaded the bases once against the Mets, but the inning ended before a score because Figueroa reached his pitching quota. Despite these goofy rules, it is really nice seeing or reading about live baseball again.

I don't know about all of you out in Mets world, but there is a new feeling this year. Yes we were optimistic in 2006 and 2007 and 2008 but there is something different about this 2009 season. There is sense that things with the team are more complete, that things are more packed. This is being joined with this feeling of team mentality that has been fostered during the Spring so far. Normally I don't get too excited about Spring Training games. But this year I am. I am very excited about the games this year, I'm very excited that baseball is back period. Its going to be great getting scores, watching plays, strikeouts and homers again.

I think the WBC also has a lot to do with that this year. Last time it was very experimental but this time around the players are all very excited about representing their countries. The lineups look much better on the whole than they did last time around and lets see what happens. Obvisously I'll be rooting for team USA, but thanks to the Mets being all over the world, we pretty much have players to root for and against on almost every team.

Baseball is back. I'm ready, are you?

According to MLB.com, Jerry Manuel today released a big decision about the Outfield. Instead of having a platoon of Murphy and Tatis in Left, he will now have Murphy be the starting left fielder with the a platoon of Tatis and Church in Right. Murphy has a .400 against Lefties, but that is from 4 hits in 10 AB. Manuel believes because of his hitting skills and work ethic that Murphy will be able to produce regularly against lefties which is why he will have the starting job. Overall last season in the majors, in 131 AB, Murphy posted a strong .313 BA, and also showed a strong sense of hitting.

The other reason why the platoon was switched was Manuel sees overall Murphy doing better against righties and lefties rather than Church against righties and lefties. Of course, if Church produces a strong Spring and strong start, then he will also have a starting job in Right which will make Tatis just a pinch hitter.

Murphy really has been impressing so far this Spring with his work ethic in the 80-pitch drill and if he can produce good results on the field, then this is a good move for the Mets to make. Hopefully Church can return to form before his concussion, and then having Tatis on the bench just as a PH will make the Mets bench that much stronger

Redding hurt his arm trying to get back into form to make the Mets roster as a starter this season. He's claiming that the injury will delay him only a week because it just pushes him back to long toss, and then in a week he can go back to the mound. Although the Mets would like to have the world believing that they had all confidence in Redding, that he was going to be the Fifth starter, the actions the Mets have taken speak louder and with signing Garcia and Hernandez, it was going to be open season this sprign to get that last starting spot. With Redding out for a little bit, it is really on as the playing field is leveled,  only if it wasn't for Redding, because I still feel that going into Spring each of these pitchers had an equal chance, well maybe not Hernandez, to get that last rotation spot.

Like most Mets fans, I would prefer to see Garcia in that last spot. He's more risky but when he's good he is good. Redding is more consistent, but he is also consistently below average, and although the Mets have a good bullpen this year, its still nice to only have to use the bullpen 2-3 innings a game, not 4+ which it would more than likely be for Redding consistently. The Games start next week and its exciting because that means these races will be on.

In other Baseball news the Athletics and the Phillies are both interested in Garciapparra for the bench, Hudson passed his physical, and the Astros and the Mets are both not interested in Pudge, leaving the Marlins on his list, but they don't really have aviallbility.

So far this offseason, we have seen two Citi-Field Patches, a new Yankee Stadium Patch, and a special Padres patch. While searching the internet, I have found some more teams that are celebrating anniversaries and other events this year and have patches for those events. First up is the Kansas City Royals, who are celebrating thier 40th anniversary:

This is a nice, classy patch, using the colors of the Royals well and it just looks nice. Next up is the Twins, who are leaving the Metrodome this year, and have patch celebrating their time there:

Classic Stadium closing patch. Has the name of the stadium, the years there, and a picture of the stadium with a logo of the team. To bad the metrodome doesn't look that appealing, otherwise this patch would look better (the other way to view that statement is if the stadium looked better, they might not be leaving.). Next up is the Cardinals, with their patch celebrating the All-Star game this year:

Nice, classic logo. Has the name of the event, the year, the MLB logo, the Cards logo, and part of the city in the patch. Good job St. Louis. All images came from Patch Collectibles, a great place online to get classic patches from over many years of Baseball events and other sports events.

Another patch is starting to circulate around the internet. Apparently, the Mets will have two patches. They are still going to wear the ugly citifield patch on their sleeves. But there is another patch that has surfaced that will be on official items for the Mets this year, like hats, T-shirts, and I would assume booklets and pins and such and it looks like this:

Image from Mets Guys In Michigan

This is purely speculative but I would assume that this patch was not the original plan and might have been made after the uniform disgust that literally everyone head off of the old the Citi Field Patch. This one looks quite nice. They already have produced the other patch on a number of items, so I don't think they will switch, but at least the Mets have a logo for this year that is pleasant to the eye. As a side note, this patch is sort-of on the uniform, its actually going to be on the hat.

There's a lot to report today, mainly being some signings here and there and some other news. Specifically to the Mets, today marked the day when the last section of Shea fell to the ground. the remaining piece of Shea that was left yesterday was basically a section of the ramp. Now all thats left for Shea is to become a parking lot, but news has come out saying that on the parking lot, there will be marks that denote where the plate, bases, and pitching mound was at Shea. Thats a nice mark. The other Mets news, which can be read all over the net today was that the Mets had their vertical jumps today, where Wright impressed with a 34 mark, but Pagan got the high with a 39.

Pagan is starting as a long shot to make the team thanks to Murphy and Tatis, but don't be surprised if he makes his way on the roster some way. He did it last year, impressed in April, then after injury in May could never get back. If his bat looks nice, he will find his way to the bench, and possibly make things really confusing in the Mets outfield.

First, it looks like the Orioles have reached a four year extension with Roberts, at around 10 million a year. This has been rumored for a while that it would eventually happen. Living in Baltimore, I know that Roberts really is the most loved player right now on the roster, no matter what he does, so this is a good PR move for the Orioles. On the Baseball side. Right now Roberts is abover average as 2B go, the issue is how will he be in 4 years. The Orioles have little in the system at 2B, so I think this is a good move on the baseball side as well. This morning, it seemed that Griffy was going to be a Brave according to the Braves Press. The Braves Brass think that Griffy is leaning towards the Mariners. One thing that has been thrown around a lot is that the loser of this will get Garrett Anderson. Hopefully a resolution will be reached soon, because I am tired of reading about Griffy.

Jerry Manuel made a very casual comment the other day that he was going to try changing things in the order to not only give Castillo more confidence but also to make Reyes a better player, because really, you are only the leadoff batter once a game. If only there was a way for Reyes to bat leadoff, and yet still feel like he is batting second sometimes. Well there is a way, its sometimes controversial, but if we are trying new things in Spring, why not try this. Let's bat the pitcher 8th and have Murphy or Castillo bat ninth. Now, in certain situations, Reyes is like the number 2 hitter and he is still a table setter. So a proposed line up could look like this:
   1. Reyes
   2. Castillo/Murphy
   3. Wright
   4. Beltran
   5. Delgado
   6. Church
   7. Schnieder
   8. Pitcher
   9. Castillo/Murphy
(As a note, I would prefer Murphy second, and Castillo 9th only because I think Castillo would be better hitting in front of Reyes because he is more experienced). The downside of a lineup like this is the after the heart of the lineup, the there is a soft spot, but the soft spot gets broken up. What I mean by that is lets assume the Mets get no hits for 2 innings, then 7-8-9 looks terrible usually, but now, there is some hope with 9. Its something that should be tried in Spring Training.
There are other ways to do this as well. For example, if you really want Castillo batting 2nd, you can also put Church 9th and have Murphy go 6th. When Tatis is in the lineup, then he would go great in the ninth spot because he's a veteran and then Castillo would go 2nd. The other benefit of a lineup like this is when you take the pitcher out, you go PH, then 9-1-2, the offense options seem a little more open. Its something to think about.

Over the last few years, a problem the Mets have had to balance in some weird, almost counter-intuitive way was the amount of swagger, confidence, cockiness that they put out on the baseball diamond. Some say they have too much, some say they don't at all. The Phillies say they the Mets play with it and should be punished for it (Jose Reyes) but then the Phillies turn around and it act it out themselves (this whole Team to Beat Drama). The Mets did in 86 and it worked for them. The Mets didn't do it in 69 and 06 and it worked for them. So what is the resolution?

Well besides the age old, cliche, just be yourself. The Mets are going out there with a little more attitude as it was discussed on Mets Merized Online a few days ago. They now have a sign above their club house door that reads "Through These Doors Pass the Best Players in Baseball. New York Mets." And of course there is Krod who seems to be saying every day that the Mets are the team to beat in the division.  Is all of this good? Is all of this bad? What should we make of all of this nonsense?

Personally, I am a fan of hte sign but not a fan of Krod's comments. The sign is directed at the players and gets them pumped up. When you play in a clubhouse with that sign, you represent that sign, you become the best players in baseball. The Mets have to go out there every day and practice and play with that mentality. With Jose Reyes, his antics usually gets people upset and people say he should tone it down. Thats how he plays. its the joy and excitement of the game, turn that up. With Krod, saying that once was good, saying it twice is questionable. While you want to say you are the team to beat, there is no reason to say it every time. But please, get the troops riled up. Get the Mets angry, get them together as a team. Its us against the world. Every day is a fight. Thats what the Mets need, thats going to get us into October and beyond.

Long time readers of this site probably remember a series of posts last fall where I talked about my experience reffing and working at Raven's M&T Bank Stadium. Well today I had that opportunity again to work in Sports, this time at the Comcast Center in College Park, MD, for a NCAAW basketball game, Rutgers at Maryland.

My job today was working in the concession stand, really no surprises how they day went, but might as well share my experience anyway. The tip-off time was set to be a little after 1:00 and we arrived at the stadium at 10:00. Like most Sport Jobs, we provided shirts for the day (with the Maryland logo on them of course) and paper hats. For the first hour, we got things ready. We got Ice for the soda machines, set up the condiments outside, got the grill and fryers ready to go and stocked every cashier area with lids and straws. Starting about 11:00 is when the cooking got going, which was 30 minutes before the game started. My job for pretty much the majority of the day was a combination of fries and getting hamburgers/cheeseburgers/etc ready to go. As the they came off the grill, I put two pickles on each one, some diced onions, wrapped them up and sent them out.

One of the things I was amazed with is over our 3 hours of serving, I think only a few people brought back their food because something was wrong.Now cooking this stuff isn't rocket science, but none of us really had experience. I have never used a fryer before, but its pretty simple. After the halftime rush things started to slow down and then we started to clean up, scrub and mop.

The more interesting aspects of the day though were leaving and exiting because at Comcast, pretty much all "employees" use the same door. So when I left, after taking out the trash, I was leaving (still with the trash in my hand) with not only the security guards but also the players, coaches, etc. Because Comcast is not as big as an NBA arena (but still large for College, it can get up 18,000 people), when you exit on the ground floor, you can see right on the court. Its the same tunnle that the people who have floor seats who are famous use (for exmaple, yesterday I was there as a fan, and three rows in front of us on the floor was Jon Harbaugh, the head coach of the Ravens). All in all, it was an interesting day. My next assignment I believe will be being a walking vendor at Nationals Park if the group I am with gets a spot, that will probably be the most interesting out of all my perspectives. I might have pictures of this later, with links to my old ones.

The Mets, according to the Daily News, are set to sign Livan Hernandez to a minor league deal for about a million dollars with a million in incentives. This means a few things but first off, the Mets have finally gotten to the point where they are ready to sign Hernandez. The reason I am making a big deal about that is because it seemed like ever since the Mets picked up El Duque in 2006, the Mets were connected to Hernandez so the pitchers can pitch together. Well, they won't get to pitch together this year but the saga of chasing after Hernandez is over.

The real fall out of Hernandez is that no matter how good Pedro does in the WBC, I think this really closes the door on the Mets bringing him back. This is a committment to either Garcia or Redding then either Niese or Hernandez. The Mets had ton of rotation issues last year due to injuries and this is a committment to prevent that from happening again. You have to like the arms race the Mets are in. They aren't racing against anyone, yet, but the more they have, the more legitament options they have to fall back on.

Roto Authority posed a great read today in their article, Spring Training Cliches. This article looks at, so far, who has lost a lot weight, or tried a new work out routine. Its pretty funny because it just lists all of those ridiculous claims that we hear all the time, and who said them. As of now, there are no Mets on the list but there are some familiar faces. For example, Kazmir gained close to 20 pounds. Utley also might have gained about 10 pounds.

If you have a moment today, you should really check out this article.

I am sitting in College Park Maryland right now and it was 70 yesterday, I feel like it will be that way again today. In short, it feels like Spring in College Park and it feels like Spring in baseball land as well as today is the official start for several teams for Pitchers and Catchers. A few Mets pitchers have already taken the mound including Putz and Holt. Before getting to Putz, there has been a buzz around Holt. He really impressed last season in Brooklyn with over 90 K's and an ERA around 1.87. From St. Lucie, it sounds like he is impressing again. He is only 22, so I can't see him making the team this season before September, unless he is lights out during Spring Training. The Mets will want to use him as a starter, which is why he will be spending the vast majority of the year, if not all of it, in the minors. Keep an eye on him though, because people will be talking about him.

Putz threw yesterday as well and he is also impressing. There is news that he is a big upgrade over last year, which makes sense because he's a closer in the set-up role. I have feeling in my gut that as the season progresses I think Krod and Putz will start to be used in tamdem for closing. Its just nice to know that we have these options now (and to thing that in August, we could be getting Wagner back as well). The First Spring Training games are in slightly over 13 days, and we finally, after several long months, have some box scores and stats to sink our teeth into.

With Spring Training so close, and with players already arriving at camp, its time to focus down on a few battles that probably will go on during Mets Spring Training. These are not the only battles, this is more of a taste of what could and will probably will unfold this Spring. The first battle is that last rotation spot. With the rotation set with (but not in any order) Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, and Perez there is one last spot. Originally Redding was signed for that spot, and he is still the front runner for that spot but there are a few people that could take it away from him. Most notably would be Freddy Garcia, who could be a sleeper signing. The other is very young Jon Niese with his devasting curveball. The three of them will be watched closely. I still feel at this moment in time Redding wins out, but he will probably be on a tight leash, especially if Garcia impresses. Niese will most likely start the year in the minors, which is alright because he can still use some time to develop.

Second base shouldn't be much of a battle, but it could become one. Castillo has been getting in shape all winter and hopefully will do really well in Spring and have a good year at second. However, if he starts off slow, and stays slow, the Mets will have to see what are their other options at second. Although Murphy can play second, unless the Mets sign someone else to play OF, he will probably be staying there, so really, this is Castillo's job to lose.

The final battle is a battle on every team and that is filling out the bullpen. The Closer and Setup are assigned, which is nice because last year we started off setup by committee and ended with closer and setup by committee. Feliciano has sure spot and more than likely Sanchez will too, but who will fill it out? The Mets have signed a bunch of pitchers that havn't been making much news, and they will go for these last spots. Sean Green is one of the favorites and then come the younger guys vs the older guys. There will be attention on young guys like Parnell and Kunz, so we will have to see how it goes.

Three of the big names remaining on the free agent market are Manny, Hudson, and Abreu and things could be falling into place for all of them now. There is a rumor circulating, and being reported on MLBtraderumors.com that the Dodgers are prepared to get very active right now and possibly within three days will be signing not only Manny, but Hudson as well. This is a big deal because we know that they have been after Manny for a while, put the the Hudson part is new. The Dodgers have been linked to Hudson so far this offseason, but nothing hasn't really materialized, mostly because of the New York teams. This is a huge offense boost for the Dodgers because in reality, Manny was the bat in the lineup last year, and Hudson would add a lot of pop as well. (Remeber at this point in time both signings are still real rumors). This also puts the Dodgers back on top for becoming the winners of the NL West.

The other big story is that the Angels have been making some room on their roster, and all signs points to them pursueing Abreu. There are rumors that they are in serious talks for him and really although there are a good number of teams after Abreu, no one is pursueing that hard right now. People keep on saying the Mets, but they keep saying that they are not interested. If the price is below four million then the Mets might interested. Abreu got sixteen last year, so I think for the Angels to get him withough any other competetion, they are probably looking at a one year deal, probably around five to seven million. Lets see what happens.

This site is one of the worst forums for politics because its a baseball site. Baseball should not have to have interactions with the US government, but it does. The two should never be mixed and for some reason people push them to be mixed. Of course the issue I am referring to is steroids. Now that baseball has gotten on its game and is policing its self, there is no reason for politics to not only get involved, but given the times (an economic recession, multiple wars abroad, and the elephant in the room which is the energy crisis), politics should not even have time to comment on the steroids situation.

During last night's television address, a reporter, seemingly out of the blue, asked President Obama about how he felt about the Arod confession. The President handled the question very well saying he was disappointed, talked about children and ended the baseball talk right there. Which was great because the last thing we need right now is for the country to get involved in the steroid era. I really wish I knew though what that reporter was thinking. Everyone else was asking serious questions about very serious issues. Next to the failing economy, healthcare and wars abroad, the issue of sterioids in sports is just seems, and I hate to say this, but juvenile.

Baseball is so important right now because it is a way of relieving oneself of stress, and thats the way it needs to be. If have to go through another Mitchell Report and another Congress hearing, we could really lose that. Even if that happened, I know for me baseball will still be a way of getting rid of stress, but maybe not for other people. Lets take a lesson from FDR, who kept baseball going in times of war because the American people needed it and just hope that this Congress chooses to avoid steroids in baaseball, and lets baseball police itself.