There is talk that Jerry Manuel will attempt to use Jose Reyes in the three hole in the beginning of the season at least until Carlos Beltran returns from the DL.

Jose is one of the best lead off hitters in the game. As I have documented before, as Jose Reyes goes, so go the Mets. Personally I think Reyes is best suited to leading off, getting on base, and causing havoc on the base paths, batting him third can only mean that in a good situation, other runners ahead of him will prevent him from stealing bases. That being said, I think I understand Jerry's logic.

The way the lineup looks with Reyes batting first is a mess. Assume you bat Reyes first and the combination of Wright and Bay in the 3-4 slot or the 4-5 slot. In those cases the Mets will have to either bat...
1) Luis Castillo, Angel Pagan, or Daniel Murphy in the 3 hole, or
2) Daniel Murphy or Jeff Francoeur in the 5 hole.
both options are bad.

Reyes
Castillo/Pagan/Murphy
Castillo/Pagan/Murphy
Wright
Bay
Francoeur
Castillo/Pagan/Murphy
Catcher
Pitcher

Reyes
Castillo/Pagan/Murphy
Wright/Bay
Wright/Bay
Francoeur/Murphy
Francoeur/Pagan
Castillo/Pagan
Catcher
Pitcher

If you slide Reyes down to number 3, then you lead off with Castillo and Pagan 1-2, Reyes third, and bat Wright/Bay in the 4-5 spot, you can then put Francoeur in at 6, Murphy at 7 the catcher and pitcher at 8 and 9.

Castillo
Pagan
Reyes
Wright/Bay
Wright/Bay
Francoeur
Murphy
Catcher
Pitcher

The other benefit of this is to lead the game with three switch hitters with a little speed, and plus Castillo taking pitches at the top...

So I see where Jerry is going with this, but I don't know whether screwing around with Reyes in the lineup coming off the injury is such a good idea. Read More...

A few chosen minor leaguers will begin (or have begun in the past day) their trek of finishing off the 2009 season on a high note at a higher level. The 3 main players to note are catcher, Josh Thole, centerfielder, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and third baseman, Zach Lutz.

-Josh Thole was added to the New York Mets active roster today on the final leg of the road trip in Colorado. Thole is not in the starting line-up tonight (due to Rockies' southpaw, De La Rosa) but will get playing time against opposing right handed pitchers. The Mets have been very high on Thole especially since Thole flew under the wings of Brian Schneider this Spring Training. Jerry Manuel is very pleased, yet not surprised by Thole's offensive success at the plate saying, "I always thought he'd hit because of his approach." When the Mets return home to Citi Field this weekend to take on the Cubs, it will not be Thole's first time playing in the new stadium, however, I'm sure being in the starting line-up at home during the regular season will taste a whole lot sweeter than a 3 inning appearance in the Mets, Red Sox pre-season game earlier this April.
-Kirk Nieuwenhuis was added to the Binghamton Met roster August 31. The B-Mets are hoping that Nieuwenhuis can give them enough offense to keep from suffering their worst record in Binghamton history. This task is right down Kirk's alley seeing that he crushed 16 homeruns and drove in 71 RBIs with the St. Lucie Mets over the course of this season as well as went 3-5 in his B-Met debut last night.
-Zack Lutz will get a shot at the AA level this September being added to the Binghamton roster along with Nieuwenhuis. Lutz had a nice year with the St. Lucie Mets hitting .284 with 11 homeruns and 62 RBIs. Zack Lutz did go 0-5 last night in his B-Met debut but will look to bounce back tonight against Bowie.

A couple players in the Mets minor league system will not be called up to the big leagues just yet, but will instead represent their countries in the 2009 IBAF World Cup. Ike Davis will join the USA team while Davis's B-Met teammates, Shawn Bowman and Jonathan Malo, join the Canadian national team. The first round of the World Cup begins September 9th.


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Well this must come as a big shocker to all Met fans. We suck this season. But through no fault of anyone. Sure we all wish there was someone to blame for this horrendous season, but I can not for the life of me find anyone to blame it on.

Sunday (if all goes right) The Mets will face the man whom many (including myself) dubbed as the savior of this Mets franchise. That person being Pedro Martinez. Now obviously he didn't do much on the field but his off the field contributions made him worth the contract that the Mets gave him back in the winter of 2004.

For all of you that know me out there, you know there are two things that I just fully cannot stand. The first being Radiohead, and the second being the New York Rangers. Well you can now add the handling of pitching staffs by all Major League teams (especially our beloved New York Mets) to that list.

Now I know that the bullpen is an integral part of the Major League game nowadays, and that in the minors pitchers are groomed to only go seven innings. I also know that in this age of the high priced bullpen and the evil pitch count complete games are a pretty much a rarity. But let's be realistic, there is no excuse for the Mets to not have one complete game this season. None. There have been times this year where I have been watching games and Willie or Jerry (pending on time of season) would come to take out a pitcher and I would just ask myself...why? I'll tell you right now, you would have never seen that with Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, or my boy Ron Darling (keep in mind one of my ultimate goals in life is to be "boys" with Ron Darling...he just seems like such a cool dude). Seaver probably would have actually flipped off whoever it is that was trying to take him out of the game. It would have been a slap in the face of a pitcher to take him out of the game as he was pitching a shut out back in the 70's, 80's, or even the early 90's. But recently it has become an all too common trend.

There have been two games this season that I can think off of the top of my head, where both Willie and Jerry have removed Johan Santana too soon. Now I know Santana has a history of never throwing complete games, and taking himself out of games, but this is where Jerry needs to now step up. We are going to pay this man $150 million and he can't throw us a complete game shut out every now and again. I was down in Philly for the 4th of July game where Duaner Sanchez decided that you only need two outs to complete an inning. Santana had under 100 pitches going into the ninth, and was still mowing down batters. But at the end of the eighth the doors to the pen opened, and out trotted Mr. Sanchez. JD=stunned. Of course that is the only game we lost in the series (thanks guys), and in the long run its not too much of a big deal anymore, but it really makes you wonder where this non complete game mentality that the New York Mets have came from. I would also like to think that Jerry would want to use this as an opportunity to show the players that this is HIS show. Putting his foot down on his ace (who coincidentally is the best pitcher in baseball) would show me a lot, and make the Willie firing more justified.

Before I get back into this art of pitching discussion, I must make a quick comment about our new manager. Now, I had problems with the ways Willie ran things at times, but I wasn't calling for his head. But I read Jayson Stark's Rumblings column today over at ESPN, and Billy Wagner basically set me straight about Willie. In short he basically said, it is nice having a more "Met-like" clubhouse under Jerry. Wagner also said that it was a nice change from the "Yankee-like" clubhouse that Willie ran. Wags also went on to say that the players have been more relaxed, and the clubhouse has been a better place in general. Now he never trashed Willie, as he likes Willie as a person (and how could you not). But if the Mets continue these winning ways under Jerry and make a run in the playoffs, I Jersey Dan, will feel like a huge fool for supporting Willie for as long as I did. I'm already starting to feel like a huge fool with the way our bats are starting to wake up. Though I can't stand the way Jerry handles his pitching staff at times.

Back to that pitching thing. Oliver Perez on Sunday. Even before the rain delay he was going to take Perez out. Why? He's young, he was actually pitching well, let the man throw until he can't throw no more. Perez needs as much time on that mound as possible. If he is to ever get consistent on the hill, that is the way he is going to do it. Same with Pelfrey on Tuesday. People will say his pitch count is high and what not. Who cares, pitch counts are the dumbest, most useless, overrated stat in baseball. The problem is pitchers need to learn how to pitch better again. Pitchers just aren't as good nowadays. They don't have as many good pitches in their arsenal, and as the great Ralph Kiner said a few weeks back during a game "they don't pace themselves." The reason all the great pitchers could go nine innings was because they paced themselves and they only threw hard when they needed to. Let's face it, Santana is great, but he can't stand up to Seaver, Doc, Ron, Jerry, or El Sid. Those guys were workhorses. I'm sure there are times when Ron is up in the booth just laughing at the fact that Mets starters are being taken out of games that they are throwing shut outs in. I think Ron understands this new age of pitching, but at the same time I'm sure Ron thinks its weak (that's just me assuming though).

What can be done? Well it starts in the minors. Pitchers should be groomed to go nine innings. Not six, not seven, not 100 pitches, but nine innings. Nine innings should be the goal. Now obviously on some days pitchers won't have their best stuff and they will be taken out, and that is fine by me. But if a pitcher is on, he should be staying in the game and giving his bullpen a rest. And let's face it, the New York Mets bullpen could use a rest every now and again. I mean it's nice to see Jerry bring stability to the pen by giving guys certain roles, but that doesn't mean you have use those guys every night. The only guy I have seen Manuel use less is Wags, who doesn't come in nearly for as many non-save situations as he used to.

You can call me old fashioned, but I just wish we could bring back some semblance of old time baseball from the 1970's and 1980's. I mean from what I've been told by the old timers, the quality of play in todays game is nowhere near the quality of play of yesterday's game. The Mets need to start pushing their starters more, start getting them ready for the post season where they might need to throw 125 pitches in a game. If the starting pitching doesn't toughen up and start pitching more innings, this team will not go far in the post season. Not with the way the bullpen has been overworked. You could see the bullpen tiring out in May, so can you imagine what it would be like in October? Read More...

Get Over It.

(Thanks to Pensblog for first introducing me to this wonderful link) Read More...

So by now, you've probably all seen the home run hit by Carlos Delgado which was called a foul ball by the umpires in Sunday Night's Mets-Yankee's game. If you haven't, you can see it here.

This type of play is the kinda thing that makes me think about the rules and unwritten rules of baseball, so I thought I'd go over a few things about this call that were running through my head when I was watching this.

Now third base umpire Mike Reilly made the correct call calling the ball fair, and a home run. He was then over ruled by home plate umpire Bob Davidson, who was at least 90-100 feet further away from the play than Reilly, and the ball was incorrectly called foul.

First, how does this even happen? The other umpires are only supposed to "help out" if the umpire who is supposed to make the call doesn't see it, isn't sure, or needs a rule clarification. Davidson shouldn't even have any say on this play unless he is 100% positive that it was foul, which as Joe Morgan pointed out, could not possibly be, because the replay showed the ball clearly hit the foul fair pole.

Second, on a play like this, Willie obviously has to come out and argue, which he did. But, when we're talking about a 3 run homer getting overturned, it is the JOB... nay the RESPONSIBILITY of the manager, regardless of whether the call was right or wrong, to argue and get thrown out of the game. If this was Lou Pinnella or Bobby Cox or Joe Torre, there is NO WAY they aren't getting thrown out of the game over this blown call by the umps. It's almost like an un-written rule of baseball that's part of "the book". In a situation like this, you expect your manager to go get thrown out of the game. Apparently Jerry Manuel knows of this rule, because he made sure someone from the Mets was gonna get tossed over this call, so he went and got himself tossed, and took one for the team. This is a perfect example of Willie not doing the manager's job, this is part of the reason why some Mets fans want Willie to get fired. I almost feel more confident entrusting this team to Jerry Manuel, should Willie get fired, because he did the right thing here and got thrown out.

Third, it's this type of play that once again emphasizes why we need the instant replay in Major League Baseball. And I'm not talking about instant replay for any play, I mean we need to have instant replay for questionable home run calls, that only the umpires can challenge, and nothing else. Here's the justification... In a regular season game, there are only 4 umpires on the field, and they are all on the infield at least 200+ feet from the outfield fence. In addition, with these new stadiums putting fans "closer to the action" we've had more fan interference calls on questionable home runs than ever before. This is all the more reason to make sure you get the call right. There is no way an umpire 200 feet away can tell if a fan reaches over the wall by 3 inches, or if the ball hits the bottom of the foul pole or the first seat in foul territory. There are only two ways in which MLB can make sure they get the call right with more accuracy than they currently do. First, they can have 6 umpires for every game like in the playoffs, and put an umpire down each foul line, then a proper decision can be made about questionable home run calls. Since there is simply not enough umpires to do this, and because it doesn't solve home run problems to center field, this isn't a feasible solution. Leaving the other option which is to do what the NFL, NHL, and NBA all use... instant replay for questionable home run calls.

Fourth, since there is currently no use of instant replay in MLB, why didn't the umps make sure they got the call right by taking a lesson from the famous 1969 Cleon Jones "shoe polish incident"? Would it have been the end of the world if the umps looked at the ball for a black mark from the foul pole, or looked at the foul pole for a white mark from the baseball? ESPN showed over and over the mark on the ball, and the spot on the pole where it hit, so even without the use of the instant replay, they could have gotten the call right. Willie should have suggested this, because then there would have been a legitimate chance to change the call back in the Mets favor.

Fifth, I'm not sure if this is the case everywhere, but there was an obvious alignment issue of the foul pole and foul line at Yankee Stadium. I understand the wall is angled so the pole want right behind the line, but, I did notice, that the outer edge of the foul pole at Yankee Stadium was actually inside the foul line that runs up the outfield wall. Now if a foul ball hits the line, its fair, therefore, shouldn't the outer edge of the foul pole line up with the outer edge of the foul line? It appeared to me that this was not the case, at least at Yankee Stadium.

So even though the Delgado home run didn't count, I think we may learn a lot about the rules of the game of baseball from a play that just goes down as a long foul ball for a strike in the record books.
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