New York Mets Baseball Blog » Carlos Beltran

Mets Drop Two of Three to Braves

Bernalda — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:54:45 +0000

Game 1: Braves 8 Mets 3 After a three game sweep against the Pirates, the Mets faltered against the Braves. It is no secret that the Mets have always struggled against the Braves and I was hoping the would not lose momentum especially in the first match up between Johan Santana and Derek Lowe. The game was a nightmare. Pitching, outside of Santana was terrible, the bats were dead and the defense was dreadful. I know that when Santana is on the mound the Mets don’t score a lot of runs, I don’t know why that is; but I do think it is worth noting that when Santana is on the mound the Mets face the other team’s ace as well. Plus, it seems that everyone steps it up a notch against Santana, of the two runs that scored with Santana on the mound, none were earned; actually of the eight runs the Braves scored, only three of them were earned. David Wright and Jose Reyes have got to step up their defense-they have had periods of times where they have played well, but too often they make errors in big spots they have caused the Mets some games. The Mets were without Carlos Delgado who sat because of a sore hip.

Game 2: Mets 4 Braves 3 (10 innings) Mike Pelfrey pitched seven strong innings, he allowed just two runs on six hits, he walked only one. JJ Putz came into the game in the eight and stunk up the joint-he allowed one run on one hit while walking two. Amazingly, after saying in spring training that he had no problem being the set up man Putz has changed his tune; apparently, he has admitted that he is having trouble getting excited to pitch the eighth inning-the adrenaline isn’t there! This is the kind of crap that annoys me to all hell. Seriously, just shut up and do your job-by the way-I think it is worth noting that when you did have some adrenaline last year in Seattle you still weren’t all that great. He claims that he is healthy but that, I believe will remain to be seen. This was a great extra innings game; the Mets had not scored a run until they scored two in the bottom of the eighth off a Jose Reyes double-too bad Reyes was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple. In the ninth, the Mets tied the game, Carlos Beltran hit a double and with one out stole third-Chipper Jones was very unhappy with the call-but early in the game David Wright thrown out at second on stolen base attempt earlier in the game (and he was clearly safe) so I guess the game sometime hinges on bad calls, Chipper. Oh and by the way, he was safe. Anyway, Beltran scored on a sac fly by Luis Castillo. In the bottom of the 10^th the Mets loaded the bases on a single by Reyes who stole second, Alex Cora was intentionally walked, Ramon Castro walked to load the based. Carlos Beltran came to bat with the bases loaded, Braves reliever Jeff Bennett walked him which scored the winning run. For a second straight night, Delgado was not in the lineup.

Game 3: Braves 8 Mets 7 (12 innings) This was a classic Mets Braves battle. The Mets had Jonathan Niese on the mound and lets just say, he didn’t pitch as well as the Mets would have liked. The Braves put up a two spot in the top of the first, but, the Mets came back and scored two in the bottom of the inning. The Braves would take the lead to make it 4-2 but in the bottom of fourth, Fernando Tatis hit a Grand Slam to put the Mets ahead 6-4. The Braves scored the go ahead run in the top of the eighth but the Mets fought back and tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on a homerun by Gary Sheffield. The game went into extra innings but in the end the Mets couldn’t pull it off. Ken Takahashi gave up a solo homer to Martin Prado to lead of the 12^th. The Mets had a chance, Reyes lead off with a double and Castillo moved him over with a sac bunt, but with a guy on third, both Beltran and Sheffield stuck out to end the game.

The worst part about dropping two of three to the Braves is that the Mets could have won all three of these games. I think Jose Reyes had the worst series of his life. His defense, his base running, his show boating…this kid needs to get his head on straight.

Also worth nothing, for a third straight game, the Mets were without Carlos Delgado. The Mets have come out and said that if Delgado isn’t feeling better by Friday they will put him on the DL. This could spell trouble for the Mets. Delgado’s power can’t be replaced by a platoon at first; as much as I like Tatis, I would be remiss to believe that he could take over for Delgado.

Mets Blog

Mets Sweep Bucs, Run Winning Srteak to 7

Bernalda — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:53:40 +0000

Game 1 Mets 7 Pirates 3 Carlos Delgado knocked in 5 runs to pace the home team in a 7-3 win over Pittsburgh. Jonathon Niese started for the first time this year in place of Oliver Perez and looked good. Niese tossed a solid six , only giving up two earned. In fact, he shouldn’t have even given up those two. The Mets looked like they were playing with iron gloves early on as balls ricocheted off of Reyes, Wright, Beltran and Reyes again. Can’t anybody catch? Beltran and Church also lost a McLouth pop-up in the lights resulting in a run scoring double. The Mets pulled away late with 5 in the eighth to to earn Bobby Parnell his first big league win.

Game 2 Mets 10 Pirates 1 Jerry Manuel served a one game suspension but his managerial expertise wasn’t needed today. The Mets set a season high with 17 hits and cruised to a 10 -1 win. John Maine gave up only one run in six but it annoyed him. Know why? Because Pirate pitcher Pat Maholm took Maine deep. The look of disgust on Maine’s face afterward was plain to see. It’s alright John. Everybody gets lucky sometime. Jeez..even YOU have a HR. Speaking of HR’s Beltran became the first player to reach the second deck in LF. A BOMB. Manuel was suspended one game by MLB for making contact with Bill Welke over the Victorino incident. It’s not like he chest-bumped him or anything. The bill of Manuel’s cap touched Welke’s nose. Sandy Alomar Sr. had control of the team and obviously, the only decision he had to make was where to eat after this laugher.

Game 3 Mets 8 Pirates 4 With Livian Hernandez on the hill the Mets fell behind early 2-0. Livian had loads of trouble early and couldn’t locate his pitches well. But he managed the game, never let an inning get away from him. The Mets took the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a run scoring single by Wright and a two run single by Omir Santos. Santos has played well and shouldn’t be sent down. When Brian Schneider comes back, the team will have a decision to make. The Mets blew it open with a single run in the seventh and four more in the eighth. This is what the Mets are supposed to look like. Score early, pile on late and beat up the teams you’re supposed to. With Mets now at 17-13 and in first place let’s hope they stay there.

Mets Blog

Mets Complete mini-sweep of Phillies

Bernalda — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:48:28 +0000

Game 2 Mets 7 Phillies 5 Mike Pelfrey tossed 7 strong innings as the Mets sent Jamie Moyer to the showers in the third to finish up a two game sweep of the Phills. Two run homers in the first by Carlos Beltran and David Wright gave the Mets a 4-1 lead after one. Another homer from Jose Reyes in the second and a two run double by Ramon Castro in the third put the Mets up 7-1 and chased Moyer. Pelfrey had given up a run in the first on a double to Howard but limited the damage. This is what good pitchers do, not let innings get away from them. Remember when I told you to keep an eye on Pelfrey’s groundball to flyball ratio? Are you paying attention? When Mike is on, the ratio is 2 (gournders) to 1 (fly) or higher, Mike’s ration was 14-7 in his last game and 16-8 on Thursday against the Phills. There you go. The Phils scored single runs in the 4th and 6th to close the gap. However, in the eighth things started to heat up a bit. Pedro Feliciano was on the hill, he got Shane Victorino to swing and miss to strike out; only too bad for the Mets as our good friend, home plate ump, Angel Hernandez (who has a long, contentious history with the Mets) didn’t think so; he ruled the third strike on Victorino a foul tip, replays clearly showed otherwise. Jerry Manuel discussed it with Hernandez but,of course, to no avail. Victorino then ends up reaching on a slow roller to third. Here is where things get really interesting; Chase Utley grounds to Luis Castillo, who throws to first to get the out and hang up Victorino in a rundown. Throws go back and forth and then Victorino clearly goes out of his way to make contact with Reyes throwing a forearm shiver. It was so blatant that I expected Terry Fraser to give him two minutes for elbowing, sending the Mets on the powerplay. But again, our friends the umps, disagreed. This time it was Bill Welke at first that ruled Reyes interfered. This time Manuel got his money’s worth and was ejected. In the course of the argument the bill of Jerry’s cap hit Welke in the nose. We’ll see if that becomes an issue. As for Victorino, that was a dirty play and the next time he comes to bat, well let’s just say don’t get too comfortable.

Mets Blog

Mets Sweep 2 Game Set In Atlanta

Bernalda — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:04:31 +0000

Game 1 Mets 6 Braves 4 John Maine evened his record at 2-2 as the Mets edged the Braves 6-4. Maine pitched fairly well as he only had a one inning meltdown, much like Pelfrey did two nights ago against the Phils. Maine imploded in the second giving up three runs on three walks and an error by Luis Castillo. John threw much better afterward seemingly relying more on his fastball. Maine had to be grateful for Jordan Schafer though; the rookie CF for Atlanta leads the league in K’s so far and every time Maine needed a big out, guess who was up? Maine struck out Schafer swinging twice in big spots to keep the Mets in it. The Mets trailed 3-0 going into the sixth when Carlos Beltran and David Wright each hit two run HR’s to give the Mets the lead. Beltran added another two run shot in the seventh. Javier Vazquez had only given up one HR so far this year before giving up three tonite. Bobby Parnell, JJ Putz and Frankie Rodriguez closed it out. Parnell has been awesome so far. Putz gave up a HR to Chipper, what else is new? It’s only his 40^th HR against the Mets. And Rodriguez notched his 6^th save in 6 chances.

Game 2 Mets 4 Braves 3 Livian Hernandez tossed 6 1/3 strong innings to pace the Mets. Ramon Castro had three hits while Carlos Delgado, David Wright and Carlos Beltran had two each. Beltran is now hitting .404. Please keep it up there Carlos. The game was closer than it had to be. The Mets took a 4-1 lead into the ninth with Rodriguez on the hill but a dropped pop up by Delgado lead to two unearned runs. K-Rod refocused to close it out to preserve the win. Kenshin Kawakami started for Atlanta and definitely caught Keith’s attention in the booth. Everything Kawakami threw was outside. One after another. Outside, outside, outside. Keith was explaining that the players should be watching this from the bench and adjusting as they went to the plate. Castro seemed to do this as his three hits were to the opposite field. At one point Keith even was counting how many pitches were outside as opposed to inside. When a graphic appeared onscreen stating Kawakami had thrown 89 pitches to that point, keith exclaimed..” and I bet 81 of them have been outside!”. I miss Keith when he’s not there.

Mets begin a set with the Phillies at Citifield with another segment of must see TV because Santana will be on the mound against Chan Ho Park.

Mets Blog

Met’s New and Improved Bullpen drops 2 of 3 to Marlins‏

Bernalda — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:44:05 +0000

Game1 Mets 7 Marlins 1 The Mets got 6 in the first off Anibel Sanchez and that was the ballgame. Omir Santos, starting over Castro, again, slugged a grand slam for his first career homer. John Maine was able to over come the dropped routine fly to left by Gary Sheffield in the first inning going on to pitch his best game of the year. Sheffield reemed himself in the bottom of the first hitting an RBI single to tie the game. Maine looked sharp and was able to put hitters away when he got ahead. Six strong innings, allowing only one hit. Nice job John. Also, hitting Hanley Ramirez on the hand in the first? Knocking him out for the remainder of the series? That WAS an accident, right?

What is it with LF in Citifield? We already know about Murphy’s misadventures out there and now Sheff drops a can of corn. And Hermida almost let one get over his head too. Lights? Wind currents? Ghosts of leftfielders past? Stay tuned.

Game 2 Marlins 7 Mets 4 Mets had 3-0 and 4-2 leads before Sean Green came in to pour gasoline on the fire, giving up 4 runs in the 7^th. Green is now sportin’ a stellar 8.49 ERA. Nice. This makes four games so far where the Mets have had leads of at least 3 runs and lost the game. Not only was the bullpen to blame, remember the 4-0 lead over the cards that Ollie gave up? Sheesh. On the positive side, nobody can get Beltran out right now. I hope he keeps it up. And how about Bobby Parnell? Looking very good. Maybe he needs an increased role in the grand scheme of things.

Game 3 Marlins 4 Mets Another installment of the Johan show. After giving up two in the first on a triple by Maybin and a homer by Cantu, Johan shut the Fish down for the rest of the day. The Mets chipped away and went ahead in the 6^th on Fernando Tatis’ first HR of the year. In fact, the first video review for Citifield. And lo and behold, the umps had it right the whole time. And remember when we diagrammed the so called “chalkboard game”? Well, JJ Putz busted the chalkboard over his head blowing the lead in the 8^th after walking the first two hitters he faced. Are you kidding me?? It kills me when relievers come in and walk guys like that. Kills me.

I’m sure Johan ain’t feelin’ it either. Mets should have swept this series and now are 9-12. Uh-oh. David Wright had a particularly tough day. Struck out in the first with a runner at second, two out. Grounded into DP with runners on first and third and one out in the 3^rd. Struck out, looking, with two on in the ninth. And, oh yeah, an error in the 4^th after which Johan had to pitch his ass off to get out of the jam. And speaking of asses, Wright better get his head outta his.

Side note. Have you ever seen more triples in your life? There’s, like, two a game. Gonna tire out these guys.

Mets Blog

Mets Disappoint Taking 2 of 3 Against Nats‏

Bernalda — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:35:34 +0000

Game 1 Mets 4 Nationals Johan Santana was great again. Santana gave up only a 6^th inning HR to Nick Johnson while striking out 10. Mets scored single runs in the 3^rd, 4^th, 6^th and 8^th innings to get Johan his third win. Jesus Flores homered in the ninth off K-Rod to make it close. Uh..with our stellar catchers, how did we let Flores get away?

Game 2 Mets 8 Nationals 2 Three errors and five walks by the visitors helped the Mets win going away. Carlos Beltran had three hits and Ryan Church knocked in three to pace the Amazin’s attack. Mike Pelfrey was much better in his return from tendonitis in his forearm. I knew only one other guy who developed tendonitis in his forearm but that was from…uh, nevermind.

Game 3 Nationals 8 Mets 1 Oliver Perez reverts to form giving up 7 earned in 4 1/3. Manuel says Perez will get one more start in the Phillie series before a decision is made on his immediate future. Ollie is now sportin’ a 9.31 ERA. Nice work if you can get it for $12 million per. Jesus Flores homered again. He was 5 for 8, 3 runs scored, 5 RBI and 2 HR’s in the two games he played. Think he might get up a little more against the team that let him go?

Mets Blog

Mets leave 40 Guys on Base in 3 Games with Cards

Bernalda — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:56:55 +0000

The Cardinals swept the Mets in a three game series in St. Louis. For the Mets, it was much of the same. Terrible starting pitching and not hitting with men in scoring position. The Mets left 41 men on base in the three games. It was a piss poor effort by the Mets and I know we’re just one month into the season but if this is the product the Mets are going to put on the field, this is going to be a long season. By the way, is now the time to thank Sport Illustratred for jinxing the Mets?

Game 1: Cardinals 6 Mets 4 Another poor outting by the overpaid Oliver Perez. Perez pitched 4.2 innings allowing four earned runs on six hits. He walked five and stuck out four. I know that Perez has good numbers against the Phillies, Braves and Yankees, and yes, those are big games for the Mets-games the fans really want to win, but if Perez can’t pitch to the teams in between those series, then he is useless to the Mets. Really though, the Mets had this one and again, scored early and the bats died late. Also, I’d like to stop hearing how the Mets should have signed Derek Lowe-I really believe that he didn’t want to pitch in New York; the only problem now is that the Mets will have to contend with him in their division-and it seems that Lowe is the only good thing the Braves have going for them at this point in the season. This is also a game that Daniel Murphy would like to forget; terrible base running and even worse fielding did not really make this one of Dan’s best days. I know the kid is playing out of position and at the beginning of the season, I felt the Mets were hoping that Castillo would get off to a good start so that they might have the possibility of moving him by or before the trade deadline and actually moving Murphy to second base, there is no indication that the Mets are going to do that it is merely wishful thinking on my part! You can now point to two games that poor defense by Murphy has cost the Mets a win-I’d like to not have to hold my breath every time a ball is hit in his direction, it has become quite an adventure out there in left these days!

Game 2: Cardinals 5 Mets 2 Oh look, more of the same. Putrid pitching by John Maine put the Mets in a hole early, Maine gave up one in the first, two in the third and two in the fourth inning. Maine walked five while only striking out two. Again, the Mets left 11 guys on base; Carlos Beltran continued to swing a hot bat, but David Wright seems to night be able to do anything at the plate when there is a guy on base-if the Mets are going to do anything, Wright has got to pick it up at the plate.

Game 3: Cardinals 12 Mets 8 Guess what happend in this game? Oh-right, more awful pitching, more guys left on base, 20 to be exact. Albert Pujols punished mets pitchers by hitting two homers (but what Cardinal didn’t get a hit?). Not only did Livian struggle but Sean Green, who has been less than impressive stunk too. The best thing about this game is, it was the last of the three game series which means the Mets return home to start a three game series with the Nationals. Not that that will be a given for the Mets as they’ve had trouble with the Nats in recent years.

Mike Pelfrey will return to the rotation on Saturday after resting a strained forearm-I can’t even predict what we’ll see. There is talk that Mike Pelfrey (and possibly Oliver Perez) could be sent down if they don’t perfom well. I’m sure it is just talk because what other options do they have?

Mets Blog

Opening Day 2009

Bernalda — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:34:18 +0000

Well, here we are. Can you feel it? The beginning of another season, where hope springs eternal. Yeah, right! Gary Sheffield? Are you kidding me? More on this later…

Let’s look at our team shall we?

Infield…as we’ve discussed, all four familiar faces. We need David Wright to get some clutch hits so that he can quiet some of his doubters here in New York. David had a good statistical season last year, but really, can you come up with one clutch hit last year? Can’t say I’m thrilled to see Luis Castillo back at second. Bring the earplugs if you’re not hitting .350, Luis.

Outfield..Carlos Beltran in center of course. Truly can’t appreciate this guy unless you see him every day. Murphy everyday in left. Manuel has some Man-crush on Dan Murphy, can do no wrong. Forgive me for being cautious, we’ll see how this develops because as we have seen it is going to be a circus in left field. Up until two days ago I figured Ryan Church would be in right. I think, Church did too. But now we have the specter of Gary Sheffield hanging over us. I just don’t like good old Gar’. He’s a cancer. Doesn’t anybody realize this?? I know, I know right-handed bat. I ‘m tired of hearing it. Not worth the risk. The only reason this even makes sense at this point is that he isn’t on the Phillies-because with the Mets he’ll just kill the chemistry, have some outrageous quotes for Joel Sherman and basically just pull the Mets down with him. But, you know if he was in a Philly uniform he would single handedly beat the Mets every time they faced ‘em. I was puzzled about why they would do this until my husband (who is the most brilliant guy EVER) pointed out that Church’s great first few months last year were when Randolph was manager. What did Manuel get out of Church? Nuttin’ honey.

Catcher. same old, same old. Ramon Castro, Brian Schneider.

Bench..Jeremy Reed looks good. Fernando Tatis will play all over. Hope he’s still rockin’ that good karma from building that church. Yay God! How long does that last anyway? Alex Cora..how much is he gonna play? And don’t get me started about Marlon Anderson still bein’ here. Geezer.

Starters..Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Livian Hernandez. Two sure things and three question marks. Uh..the sure things are NOT Santana and Pelfrey smart guy but Santana and Hernandez. Livian will pitch and pitch and pitch. As a fifth starter he’s gold as an innings eater and on a “good” club will win 10-12. The question marks are Pelfrey, Maine and Ollie. Pelfrey because we need to see it consistantly. Maine because he’s coming off the surgery. Haven’t heard anything more about that curveball, John. Shortlived wasn’t it? And Ollie because, well he’s Ollie and you never know which Ollie is showing up.

Bullpen..K-Rod in the ninth. JJ Putz in the eighth. Brandon Stokes in long relief. Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell and Darren O’Day (wasn’t he in Animal House?) are the situational pitchers.

So where does that leave us?

Winning the East 90-72. I don’t believe the Phillie bullpen can possibly be perfect again. They ALL had the year of their lives last season. Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part-but did I say when I opened this blog that hope springs eternal?

Mets Blog

A Look Back At the Year End Review

Bernalda — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:13:45 +0000

Welcome back!! It’s spring time and the World Baseball classic is in full swing. Who would have thought that the Netherlands would be such a force? At least we know that Jose Reyes (and the rest of the Dominican team) won’t wear themselves out!

Time to look back at my year end review; wow I wasn’t even close! No Lowe (in case you missed it he is with the Braves), No Hudson-instead we are going to stick with Luis Castillo! Ollie’s back-but I was sorry to see Joe Smith go; however, I couldn’t be happier that Schoeneweis and Heilman are gone. The Mets chucked Duaner Sanchez too. So, what will the Mets look like in their new digs? For the time being it’s named Citifield, but we’ll have to see how Obama digs that since the gov’t owns Citibank now…can you imagine-”Please welcome, the New York Mets brought to you by the United States of America!” Wow-that gives new meaning to the words, “America’s team”.

Infield..scarily familiar. Delgado, Castillo, Reyes and Wright. Who could have a problem with SS and 3rd? They’ll be there for another 10 years. It was rumored that the Mets shopped Delgado, but no takers- one can only wonder, will he be as happy this year as he was when Willie was fired last year? And Castillo, losing 20lbs makes those achy knees feel a lot better, eh Luis? The way the Mets are praising this guy so far you’d think he was the second coming of Rogers Hornsby. At least the B.S. of him hitting lead off is over, I guess that was Jerry’s way of keeping the press from talking about the end of last season.

Outfield..Church, Beltran, Murphy/Tatis..right to left. No surprises here. Maybe the LF platoon but not really.

Catcher.. no news..Schnieder and Castro with Cancel in the wings. Snooze

Starters..Santana (who has already given us Mets fans a scare but will be ready to pitch opening day), Maine, Pelfrey (the calf injury doesn’t sound serious). Perez (head case, but usually pitches well against the Yankees and Braves) and who knows who’ll take the ball on the fifth day; Tim Redding looked like Schoeneweis and Heilman together when he gave up those homeruns in that preseason game against the Marlin’s the other night, as it turns out he has a bum shoulder …no worries with Johan’s ability but of course we’ll all wonder about the elbow-and I can only imagine the calls to the Fan when he has his first bad outting; Maine says he’s pain free and messin’ with a curve to give hitters something else to think about, Pelfrey, please don’t let last year be a fluke, Ollie, please don’t be a flake and will the fifth starter please stand up? From among Jon Niese, Tony Armas Jr.,Elmer Dessens, Nelson Figueroa, Freddy Garcia and Livian Hernandez somebody HAS to grab the spot right? Please? Somebody?

Bullpen..K-Rod is the closer and J.J. has the 8th, this we know. Sean Green, Feliciano. That leaves one or two spots depending on if the Mets carry 11 or 12 pitchers. Carlos Muniz, Brandon Knight, Eddie Kunz, Bobby Parnell, Brian Stokes or somebody we don’t know yet will have a big spring to grab those slots.

Bench..Alex Cora seems to be the backup infielder so far. Nick Evans and Angel Pagan are back to battle for outfield spots. Evans plays first too so a plus for him. Marlon Anderson is in camp again. Really? Sheesh. But so is Jose Valentin, can he channel 2006 again? And isn’t it about time we stop hearing about what a great player Fernando Martinez is and start seeing it? Really, what is he like 45 now, feels like I’ve been waiting for him for 25 years already. Seriously, Martinez won’t be 21 till Oct. Just in time for the World Series, right? Let’s hope.

Mets Homeplate

End of Season Wrap Up

Bernalda — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:02:23 +0000

Well, it’s been awhile. I guess I’ve calmed down enough from Schoeneweis to finally write an ending to the season. My first thought is how could they possibly have done this again? Are you kidding me? And of course, this was only worsened by the fact that the Phillies won the world series. My Sports Illustrated arrived in the mail with them on the cover and I felt that sense of dread-can you imagine what it will be like when the Mets play the Phillies next season? You would think that would be enough alone for the Mets to want to rise to the occasion next season, but then again, isn’t that what we said after the 2007 season?

How is it that the 2008 season ended just like the 2007 season? The Marlins spit in their eye two years in a row and laughed about it. The Mets? Instead of fighting, instead of taking a cue from Johan Santana (who it turns out was pitching on a bum knee)-the Mets laid down and died. This Mets’ team has no guts. How is it that nobody stood up and punched Hanley Ramirez in the mouth (figuratively speaking of course)? As much as I hate to say it, and I REALLY hate to say it, Shane Victorino (doesn’t he sound like a grade “B” gangster, Vic Torino, polyester suit and all) would not take this BS from anybody. And that’s basically what’s wrong with the Mets.

After Santana went out there on Saturday and pitched his guts out on one leg the Mets did almost nothing on Sunday. That’s why your leader can’t be a pitcher; he’s only out there every five days. The Mets need a fiery everyday player. The Mets need Keith Hernandez again. In the ’86 playoff against the Astros the Mets HAD to win game 6. There was no way they were winning a game 7 that year against Mike Scott. He was in their heads. So when the Mets had the lead in the ninth and Orosco on the mound, the story goes Keith went to Orosco on the mound and told him” If you throw any fastballs, anything but a slider, I’m going to kick your ass right here on the mound”. Is this true? Who knows? No one would admit it now. Not pc enough for the Pollyanna’s in the game today (of which Keith makes mention of almost every game…”It’s become such a gentlemen’s game” said with much disdain.) But this is exactly what they need, a kick ass, ask for names later leader. Where to get one? I don’t know. And it’s hard to admit that. I don’t know who they need or what they need to give up to get this mystery leader.

I can tell you that Scott Schoeneweis..GONE. Aaron Heilman…GONE, he can go pout about being a starter somewhere else. Can’t you just hear him? (whiney voice..”But I want to be a starter…”) Luis Castillo…Gone Baby Gone! Duaner Sanchez-Gone, go get arroz con pollo at 2am with someone else. Moises Alou…can still hit, older than Ty Cobb…Gone. Marlon Anderson…gone pleeeese. Pedro Martinez..thanks for the memories (of Takin’ the money, not for big wins. By the way Pedro’s 32 wins as a Mets cost $1,611,424.00 each. Nice work if you can get it. ). Ollie…probably gone with Boras as his agent. We all know that we won’t see Billy Wagner as a Met again.

I waited to deal with the so-called “Core” players: Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado. There is a lot of talk here in NY of breaking up them up. I don’t think Reyes, Wright or Beltran are goin’ anywhere. Carlos Delgado is a different story. The Mets picked up his $12 million option. It would have cost $4 million to buy him out, so an outlay of $8 million. There has been rumblings that they would move him if they could create a package with Delgado and assorted other pieces. Remember he didn’t want to come here anyway. He signed with the Marlins.

Now the others:

Joe Smith-can be useful. Stays. Pedro Feliciano…gotta get a couple a’ righty’s out once in awhile there Pedro. Stays. Luis Ayala…looked good at times. Don’t think he can be full time closer but valuable. Stays Ramon Castro…useful back-up-then again, he has to stay health-the past two years he’s missed significant playing time, he stays. Nick Evans…young OF. Stays-Omar has said they think he can hit for power-I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Ryan Church… him before concussions. Stays. Brian Schneider…ok, can we upgrade? Stays- But, rumor has been that Pudge is an idea for the upgrade-NO THANKS! Daniel Murphy, you can hit, can you play second? Stays. Argenis Reyes…like him. Hit .283 in AAA, how about here? Stays. Fernando Tatis…came back to MLB to build church in hometown. Now that it’s built, will God still be smiling on him? Stays. Endy Chavez…was he still on the team after Manuel took over? Stays. Damion Easley…like him, wants to be a gamer, hurt too much, old. Probably stays if healthy. Mike Pelfry…Duh! Johan Santana …Like there is a question about this. John Maine…Serious John though, can you put a guy away after getting two strikes and not let him foul off 30 pitches? Stays.

So, where does that leave the Mets? The Mets are in need of a left fielder, a second baseman, a starter and a closer. I think Derek Lowe is a gamer and Orlando Hudson would be a welcome addition at second. Can Evans and Murphy split left? Did you see some of those fielding adventures they had out there? Can you say Arizona Instructional League? Will the Mets try to make Maine the closer? He has the stuff. Can he pitch multiple days in a week? He seems to get frustrated easily; can he handle the mental aspects of closing? Uh…I guess there are a few questions the Mets need to answer right now.

Here is my best guess:

Starting Rotation: Santana, Pelfry, Lowe, Maine and Niese. Relievers: Smith, Feliciano, Kunz, Stokes, Ayala, and…your guess is as good as mine. Infield: C Schneider and Castro, 1B Delgado, 2B Hudson, SS Reyes, 3B Wright Outfield: LF Evans /Murphy, CF Beltran, RF Church

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