On a cold damp Tuesday night, the Miami Marlins made their debut at Citi Field with former Met Benedict Arnold Jose Reyes in tow. But what was supposed to be a homecoming was largely overshadowed by what quickly turned into a pitchers duel between two aces.

After the shortest outing of his career last Tuesday against Atlanta, Johan looked to return to signature form against the Marlins, and return to form he did. After a nice play by Kirk Nieuwenhuis to rob Reyes of an extra-base hit, Santana settled down. But Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson seemed equal to the task. Both pitchers went 6 2/3 innings, Johan throwing 105 pitches (67 for strikes). But runs were scarce to come by. It wasn't until the 7th inning that either team scored a run.

In the top of the 7th after not allowing a hit since Omar Infante's single as the second batter of the game, Mike Giancarlo Stanton singled with 2 outs. That was then followed by a double by noted Met killer Gabby Sanchez and a bad relay throw which allowed Stanton to score, putting the Mets in a 1-0 hole and knocking Santana out of the game. The bottom of the inning was better for the Mets, walking the bases loaded for Josh Thole who also drew a bases loaded walk, tying the game.

After a Nieuwenhuis single, Ruben Tejada failed to lay down a bunt (leaving him hitless on the night). Daniel Murphy followed with a single that advanced Kirk to 3rd with only one out. David Wright proceeded to strikeout looking on three pitches, when Lucas Duda, who has been in a slump to start off the season, hit an infield single off the pitcher which allowed Nieuwenhuis to score what proved to be the game winning run.

Notes:
Jose Reyes went 0-4 in his return to New York. His first AB was greeted with a mixed reaction of cheers and boos as with his video tribute.

Jason Bay was placed on the 15-Day disabled list with a fractured rib, which is not thought to be serious (we'll see how that plays out).

Mike Pelfrey was also put on the 15-Day DL. Unlike Bay, it appears that Pelfrey's injury is very serious. The early diagnosis is a partial tear of his ulner collateral ligament in his elbow, which if true, will require Tommy John surgery, thus ending his season and possibly even his Mets career. Read More...

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What began with glimmer of hope, that sank to the deepest spots, has now began to climb out of the hole that was dug. The rough offseason for the New York Mets began with the loss of Jose Reyes to the newly christened Miami Marlins. Instead of siting idly by, General Manager Sandy Alderson used that money to acquire some new pieces to help sure up a bullpen that struggled mightily after the trade of closer Francisco Rodriguez during the All-Star break. None of the pieces that were acquired were quite as flashy as the man they replace but still effective. Jon Rauch, Frank Francisco, and Ramon Ramirez all have the task of strengthening a 'pen that consists of Tim Byrdak (aka Hulk Hogan), Pedro Beato, and Manny Accosta.

In January the Mets waived the once highly touted outfield prospect Fernando Martinez, after struggling to stay even remotely healthy for the past two seasons. Later in the month it was revealed that the team's financial struggles were even worse than previously thought. It seemed as though the team would be caught in the middle of a tug-of-war that would cost the Wilpon and Katz family millions of dollars.

February started out quiet but soon became tragic with the passing of Hall-of-Famer Gary Carter after a long battle with brain cancer (on a side note, please buy the "RIP Kid" t-shirts from our good friends at The 7 Line. All proceeds go to the Gary Carter Foundation). Things soon took a turn for the better with the first bullpen session Johan Santana threw. It marked the beginning of his comeback attempt since his last major league appearance in September of 2010. The diagnosis of Valley Fever for Ike Davis came as a shock to all. Many believed that it would be a similar situation to Conor Jackson. Jackson contracted the disease back in May of 2009 and has yet to reach the potential that he once showed. It still may affect Ike but after a full and successful spring it shows no signs of the disease.

It was not that successful of a spring for the Mets record wise. But with the successful springs of most of the starting rotation (outside of Mike Pelfrey) and a many of the lineup (except Jason Bay), the Mets may do better than many have predicted.

COMING SOON: Mets 2012 Season preview. Read More...

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After another disappointing season for the New York Mets, it is time to continue the rebuilding process in an effort to get better. In order to do so, I believe that the Mets must make these moves during the offseason.

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After a long day at work on Tuesday, I come home only to hear that closer Francisco Rodriguez has been traded away to the Milwaukee Brewers. My initial thoughts consisted of "Why would we do that? We're still in the Wild Card hunt." and "Uh-oh, here comes the fire sale." But after a few days of thinking about the deal, it actually makes sense. Here's why.

With Jose Reyes becoming a free agent and given the current financial situation that the team is in, the Mets could not afford (literally and figuratively) to pick up the option of $17.5 million if he had finished 55 games this season. Having already finished 34 games, it seemed in all likelihood that the option would be picked up and the Mets would lose Reyes.

Reyes has become invaluable to this team in what could possibly be an MVP type season. Hitting .354 with 30 stolen bases, 15 triples, an on base percentage of just under .400 (.398) [that's a good thing], and slugging a shade under .530 (.529) Reyes will likely land a big contract somewhere including with the Mets now that there is no worry of K-Rod reaching his mark.

With the contracts of Rodriguez, Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran all coming off the books, the organization can make a legitimate offer to Reyes.

But, the risk with that comes with this trade is that the bullpen becomes unsettled with no roles set for players like Bobby Parnell, Pedro Beato, Ryota Igarashi, and Jason Isringhausen. This could mean that the team falls out of contention and the fire sale begins. This is something that no fan ever wants to see. If that happens then the already slim turnout at Citi Field will become an empty cavern.

The K-Rod trade makes sense, but it will not be worth it if there is no payoff.

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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...

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Bhahahahahahahaha

Ok now that that's out of my system, for the second time, the Dominican team (made up of all stars like Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Edison Volquez, Robinson Cano, Miguel Tejada etc.) lost to the team from the Netherlands (who's best players are Sidney Ponson and Rick VandenHurk, and all but three have no major league experience).

The good news of course, is that Jose Reyes and Fernando Tatis are now out of harms way and wont be over exerting himself for a pointless tournament.

The other upset is Team Italy defeating Team Canada.

I was actually kind of surprised to see the talent the Canadian team had assembled this year. Justin Morneau, Russel Martin, Jason Bay, Joey Votto, Matt Stairs, Corie Koskie, and Pete Orr are all Canadian? who knew?

But Team Canada lacked pitching talent, and lost to Italy's powerhouse of Nick Punto and Frank Catalanotto. Lets be real, the best player Italy has in that dugout is hitting coach Mike Piazza.

You know, as funny as it is to see these star studded teams lose to teams with just a few major leaguers, I think it highlights an important problem with the World Baseball Classic. The fact of the matter is, the teams with less major league players should win most of the time.

Seriously, to these single A, Japanese league and Latin league players the World baseball classic is like their World Series, it is their opportunity to show the world what they can do, and why a major league club should take a shot on them. So naturally these guys are preparing themselves from months in advance, they are giving 110% for every game. Of course they are going to beat these major leaguers who A) don't really care about the tournament, B) Use the tournament as warm up for the regular season, and C) Aren't playing 50% let alone 100%.

There's really nothing they can do to fix this problem, no major league player is ever going to put the WBC before the regular MLB season. And if they only used amateur players or minor leaguers, it wouldn't garner enough interest from the fans to even warrant having the tournament in the first place.

Of course, the Commissioner wont admit this publicly, but Major League Baseball secretly wants these teams from the Netherlands, Italy, China, Australia, Panama, and South Africa to upset the powerhouse teams. That helps to promote the sport world wide. If team USA, Japan or the Dominican won it every year, it doesn't do much to promote the sport to other countries in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Read More...

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Sometimes baseball is a weird game. After dropping 7 of their previous 8, the Mets finally looked like a Major League Baseball team the last 3 games, taking the last 2 out of 3 from the Marlins, and winning tonight against the Dodgers.

I was fortunate enough to score last minute tickets to Tuesday's game, and decided to go in the hopes of trying to get this team's luck turned around. I have to say for the first time this season, the Mets and their fans actually looked like they were in the game.

Since the dog days of summer of last year when the Mets suddenly became a sub-par .500 team, the players have just been going through the motions, the fans have been quiet in their seats, and the excitement of 2006 seemed dead and buried. However we saw flashed of that excitement these last three days at Shea.

Could it be the resurgence of Jose Reyes has finally kicked in? Was Fernando Tatis really all this team has been missing? Can it be the bullpen which has been brilliant the last few days? Or is it the orange suit jacket being donned by Mets VP of Media Relations Jay Horowitz?

Whatever the reason, the excitement is back in Queens, the Mets just need to take that excitement and translate it into some wins so they can get back in this race for the NL East.
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This weekend the Mets took both games from our crosstown rivals the New York Yankees, during a rain shortened series in what may be the most important series of the year thus far. I refuse to call a two game series win a sweep, so we'll just say the Mets won this weekend's series, reclaiming bragging rights for the time being.

Of course to the Mets this weekend's series was bigger than the rival Yankees and the subway series, it was a make or break series to see how the team would react to the Billy Wagner Saga. See my thoughts on that here.

Saturday the Yankees jumped on Johan Santana early with a two run homer from Derek Jeter in the first inning. The Mets struggled early against Andy Pettite before finally breaking through in the 4th inning, batting around and scoring 3 runs to take the lead. From that point, Santana was brilliant retiring 10 straight batters at one point. The score stayed 3-2 until the 7th inning when Kyle Farnsworth came in for the Yanks, and gave up home runs to Jose Reyes and David Wright, giving the Mets 3 more insurance runs making it 6-2. Santana gave up solo home runs to Giambi and Abreu, before Willie turned the ball over to Wagner in the 8th inning for a 4 out save. The Mets would tag on one more run in the top of the ninth to make it 7-4, and Wagner once again stepped up, and shut the door on the Yanks in the 9th for the 7-4 victory.

Sunday the Mets went for the Series win, and they didn't disappoint. The Mets manufactured 4 runs off of Yanks ace Chien-Ming Wang in the top of the 4th around a controversial home run hit by Carlos Delgado which was over ruled by the umps (more on that in the next post). Then Oliver Perez gave up a single to Derek Jeter and a 2-run homer to Hideki Matsui, putting the Yanks right back in the game. But Perez settled down after that, allowing just 1 more hit to Jose Molina in the 5th. Perez was dominant, going 7.2 innings, allowing 2 runs on only 3 hits and striking out 4. The Mets went to town on Wang after that, Ryan church hit a monster home run in the 6th inning, and the Mets would bat around again in the 8th inning, off of Wang and Ross Olendorf, putting together a 6 run inning capped off by a 3 run homer by Jose Reyes. Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis sealed the deal, Mets win 11-2.

These were two big wins by the Mets in this series, they definitely showed up and did what they needed to do. The Mets came out and reclaimed some bragging rights for Mets fans, now they just have to go out and continue this good play in Atlanta and Colorado to try and turn this season around.
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Before I even get into this non-sense, I want to go back to Monday's 10-4 loss to the last place Washington Nationals. The expectations were high for the Mets to take at least 3 out of 4 from the pathetic Nats. However, the tables were turned, and the Mets dropped 3 of 4 instead and fell to a mere 20-19. Then we saw the New York media once again calling for Willie's job, pointing out that the Mets have been just a .500 ball club since last May, resurrecting the the epic collapse... again. Some serious questions were surrounding this team's troubles.

Then, the drama began following Thursday's 1-0 loss at the end of Billy Wagner's post game interview with the press...

“Can somebody tell me why the (bleep) the closer being interviewed and I didn’t even play, while they’re over there not getting interviewed? I get it, they’re gone. (Bleeping) shocker.”

In all honesty, I don't see how could any Mets fan could disagree with Wagner on this one. We've all seen the Mets lackluster play this season, and for any of these so called "team leaders" to be missing in action after dropping 3 out of 4 to the Nats is unacceptable.

How stupid is it that reporters have to ask the closer questions about why the team is struggling, when not only did Wagner not even play in the game, but the pitching staff and the bullpen which you could say Wagner is the leader of did its job during the series. Just in case anyone's forgotten, Wagner has given up only 9 hits in 17 innings this season, and has still yet to allow a run. Wagner is far from responsible for the Mets woeful play.

A lot of fingers were pointed at Carlos Delgado, who Wagner was most likely referring to in his comments. Certainly Delgado with his .230 batting average, .310 OBP, only 5 home runs and 19 RBIs has contributed to the Mets sub-par play, but the truth is most of our guys haven't been earning their paychecks.

Reyes' OBP is only .332, and thats including the Yankee series where he played well. Carlos Beltran is only hitting .250 with only 3 home runs, and let's not even talk about Luis Castillo who can't hit the ball out of the infield. We're hitting only .257 with runners in scoring position, and we simply cannot win unless Reyes gets on base.

Our team leaders in innings pitched in relief have been Aaron Heilman and Jorge Sosa who have pitched to a 5.82 and 7.06 ERA respectively. Whereas our guys who have been lights out; Wagner, Feliciano, Smith and even Schoeneweis, have been used in limited roles like lefty-lefty or righty-righty matchups. Thank god Sosa got DFA'd the other day to make room for Wise.

So tell me why was Billy Wagner wrong in what he said? When was the last time you heard an explanation from Reyes or Beltran or Sosa after they sucked it up on the field?

Thankfully Willie called a team meeting over this non-sense prior to the Yankee series, and seemed to smooth it out and get everyone's heads screwed on straight again. And like Keith Hernandez said, it was good that someone got this out there in the open rather than let it fester for the whole season.

Hopefully the mets winning both games of the Yankee Series has put this issue to bed, and maybe the mets will turn the corner in the coming weeks.
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Sorry everyone that my daily feature has been a bit scarce. I'm in the process of moving and working like a mad woman; neither are helpful in keeping up with blog posts. It is time to stop in and distribute a few of my XOXOs though. The Mets returned to Arizona tonight and I am all for possibly relocating the entire organization to Phoenix. Tonight was a great effort from the team. I love the Mets team we see every year at the BOB. XOXOs tonight must be shared by the left side of our infield. Reyes and Wright had absolutely phenomenal nights. Reyes may have been able to steal all the XOXOs until D-Wright's over-the-shoulder catch. Awesome. Period.

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So when we last spoke, I called out not only the Mets line up, but the Mets bullpen to step it up in this week of games against the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies. A week later, it seems that my challenge was answered by David Wright and company, as the Mets just completed an impressive week of baseball that included a sweep of Washington and a series victory against Philadelphia.

On Tuesday night Mike Pelfrey took the mound on yet another Jackie Robinson Night at Shea (and yes that was said in a negative way). I'm just going to make a quick public service announcement about Jackie Robinson, that I know some of my fellow bloggers share with me. Jackie Robinson was a great player, he was a great American for his contributions to not only baseball and society, and he was a great BROOKLYN DODGER. Listen I am a fan of history, and the Brooklyn Dodgers for that matter, but it seems with the pending opening of Citi Field, Mr. Wilpon is kind of forgetting that we are the NEW YORK METS. My point being, it would be nice to see some more Mets history invovled with not only this ballpark, but the organization in general. Instead of celebrating the last season at Shea with another Robinson Night, let's have a Seaver Night, or a 1969 Night, or something Mets related. I mean, we are the Mets for God's sake, not the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Now back to Tuesday's game. Ladies and gentlemen can we have a standing ovation for Mike Pelfrey please? Where has this Pelfrey been all of the past two seasons. I mean seven shut out innings from him was just what the doctor ordered on Tuesday night. That was the type of start the Mets needed, and the 6-0 victory was the game the Mets needed to kick off the new week. Pelfrey is starting to earn the respect that I so have wanted to give him for the longest time. Even though he didn't pitch as well on Sunday night against the Phillies, he still got himself out of some tough jams. Can you really fault the man for getting burned by the best second baseman in the league. I'm critical, but not that critical.

After a come-from-behind win on Saturday, the Mets and Nationals played themselves a half marathon of a baseball game on Thursday night. Just to put things in perspective, I was already at my third bar of the night once the Mets finally "pushed" across the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning at Shea. Trailing 2-1 in the eighth inning, Carlos Delgado did something correct for the first time all season by pushing across Ryan Church to tie the game. In the 14 inning it wasn't even a heroic RBI base hit, but a wild pitch by Washington's Joel Hanrahan that ended the game. The Washington reliever, already in the midst of a sloppy inning let one get away allowing Damion Easley to score the winning run.

Sloppy was the only way to describe the game, but if there is one positive we can draw from it, that would be the bullpen. Six Mets relievers threw seven scoreless innings to keep the Mets in the game. The bullpen in general looked pretty damn solid this week. Billy Wagner looks dominant as usual (along with his awesome wad of dip), we welcomed back Duaner Sanchez, and Aaron Heilman has seemed to settle down. Once again Joe Smith is having another solid start to the season, we can only hope he keeps it up for the whole entire season this year.

So after making waste of Washington it was off to Philadelphia for another round with the Phillies. Johan Santana made yet another important start in this young season as him and Phillies ace Cole Hamels met up for a highly anticipated Friday night showdown. Seven innings later Santana had struck out 10 Phillies and only gave up 3 runs as he led the Mets to a critical 6-4 victory, extending their winning streak to four games. Oliver Perez had himself another great start on Saturday, but in typical Mets fashion the bullpen went and made things interesting. After Scott Schoeneweis and Smith each gave up a run, Billy Wagner put the meat of the Phillies line up in their place and the Mets walked out with a 4-2 victory. Sunday night as I stated ealier Chase Utley made Mike Pelfrey look normal for the first time this season. Utley drove all of the Phillies first four runs. A solo home run in the first and a three run job in the fifth. The Mets made it interesting by tieing it up in the sixth, but the long ball was our downfall all night as Pedro Feliz hit the go ahead home run to give the Phillies a 5-4 win and end our hopes of a sweep in Philly.

This week was exactly what the Mets needed. Jose Reyes has returned to classic Jose form, Wags looks good, Wright is awesome, and even Beltran is starting to come alive. With road games against the Cubs and Nationals, and a three games series back at Shea against the Braves, it has been the perfect time for the Mets to wake up. If the Mets can win two at Wrigley, it would be a huge momentum push coming into the huge Atlanta series this upcoming weekend. Once again I would like to think that we will steamroll the Nats. All-in-all the Mets get a solid A for their efforts this week, and hopefully the effort they have put forth will continue this week.

P.S. As much as I hate to say it, well done to the New York Rangers. I still hate you though.
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Some nights it's time to drop the funny business.  Thank god the Mets won that game tonight. For the sake of Carlos Beltran & Aaron Heilman...it's a good damn thing they won that game.

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Yada, yada. Everyone heard the news. The Mets lost to the Phils today. 3 straight losses. We can all say it's early, but I have my own opinions on this season's squad. The Mets could not find a way to beat their division rivals last season and right now, it's beginning to look a lot like '07. I'm rather numb to today's home opener. Nothing really felt right about it. Citi Field in the background. No camera shot of the subway platform. Unacceptable amounts of booing. No Professor Reyes. I just felt very dejected today.

On top of that the last opener at Shea is subjected to Rick Astley. Are you serious??!! Could have made more of a farce out of a day that should have been historic & heart-warming. Weird to see the Mets promo. department dropped the ball, yet again.

Hats off to them. The ass is on you. Sigh, Let's Go Mets. Read More...

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The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Sunday afternoon. It was the second straight defeat at the hands of their division foes as the Mets fell below .500 for the first time this season.

It was over when: Mark Teixeria killed the Mets twice, first with this homer in the bottom of the eighth and then with his glove in the top of the ninth. I have a feeling that I'm gonna start to hate this guy very quickly.

Good: This Johan Santana kid is pretty good. Santana gave up one run over seven strong innings but was the hard-luck loser as the offense and Aaron Heilman gave him absolutely zero support. For the second consecutive game, though, the Mets refused to go down without a fight. They brought home a run (finally) in the top of the ninth and had the tying run on first when Brian Schneider hit a bullet down the first base side. Unfortunately, Mark Teixeira made a fantastic play, stopping the ball and making the flip to Soriano to end the game.

Bad: I already mentioned them both. The offense was dead for eight innings and by the time they showed up, Heilman had already given a two-run homer to Teixeira the inning before. You have your ace on the hill and you don't manage to give him a single freakin' run? Maybe the Mets wanted to give Santana a reminder of his days in Minnesota. Right now, Santana is the best 1-1 pitcher in baseball.

Ugly: Reyes: 0-4. Castillo: 0-4. Wright: 0-2, 2 SO, 2 BB at least. Beltran: 0-3, 1 BB, 2 SO including a pathetic at-bat in the top of the ninth in which he didn't take the bat off his shoulder once. Hey Carlos; I'll stop riding you when you start to earn your ridiculous paycheck. Oh yeah, Delgado went 2-4 today but he also left three men on base. I'll just sum all of this up. The Mets sucked at the plate for 8+ innings today. Yeah, they were facing John Smoltz today but Blaine Boyer, Will Ohman and Peter Moylan all held the Mets scoreless today. Are you kidding me?

Overall: Thankfully, I missed over half of this game. Once again, the Braves were the better team and they deserved to win. The bats better show up against the Phils this week. Performances like this at Shea will not sit well with the home fans, boys. Then again, playing like this in Atlanta angers me just as much. If we're going to be excited when the Mets beat up on the AAA-quality Florida Marlins, we have to be annoyed when they play like a Little League team against the Braves.

Grade: D. Which is sad because Johan Santana deserved better.
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The New York Mets won yet another Opening Day contest, defeating the Florida Marlins 7-2.

Good: Where to start? Johan Santana pitched like an ace, giving up two runs and striking out eight in seven strong innings. David Wright began his 2008 MVP campaign by going 2-4 with a walk and 3 RBI. All of Wright's RBI came on a two-out base hit int he fourth. Jose Reyes also came through with a clutch two-out base hit that brought home a run. You have to like how Aaron Heilman looked in the ninth, as well. Heilman sat the Marlins down in order, striking out two in the process.

Bad: Not much. Santana gave up a two-run home run, something that Mets fans may just have to get used to. Face it. Johan gives up the long ball. The bullpen created a Maalox moment in the eighth but didn't give up a run thanks to Jorge Sosa.

Ugly: Carlos Delgado and Brian Schneider. Neither had a hit on Opening Day but it really didn't matter. It's always nice when you have to be picky in this portion of the post.

Overall: This is what you like to see. Strong starting pitching, two-out base hits that drive runs home and a bullpen that doesn't give anything up. Every Mets fan is happy with this contest and it's especially nice to beat the Marlins after the final series of the '07 season.

Grade: A
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I've been extremely busy the last week, hence the inactivity at this site, but now that I have some time, lets continue with our breakdown of the 2008 Mets by looking at the situation at Shortstop.

Shortstop

First String:
Jose Reyes
This one is obviously a no brainer, the Mets' All-Star shortstop has all the tools to once again be in the running for the National League's MVP, and he's still only 24. The classic lead-off hitter; Reyes has blazing speed, a good OBP and scores a lot of runs. He's a safe bet to swipe 60 bases, have an OBP over .350 and score 120 runs. Did I forget to mention he'll most likely have 15 triples and 15 home runs? It's pretty much understood by Mets fans that as Reyes goes, so goes the team. For you statisticians out there, I recently ran a regression of Reyes' 2007 numbers to test this theory. A regression showing the relationship between the number of times Reyes is on base and the outcome of the game, yields a coefficient of .10139, which basically means each additional time Reyes reached base in any given game, the Mets were 10% more likely to win that game. So if Reyes reached base 4 times, the Mets would be 40% more likely to win than had he not reached base. Conversely, if Reyes didn't get on base the Mets would be 10% more likely to lose than had he gotten on base once, or 20% less likely than if he had gotten on base twice. This coefficient was by far the highest of all the Mets regulars last season. To see the data for this analysis, you can download the excel file here. Expect Reyes to start and play almost every inning of every game this season.

Second String:
Ruben Gotay/Anderson Hernandez
Because the Mets figure Reyes will play almost every game, barring injury, there really isn't much of a need to have a full-time backup at shortstop. Officially, the Mets depth chart lists Ruben Gotay ahead of Anderson Hernandez to back up Jose Reyes, probably due to the fact that Hernandez has little chance to make the team this year, and Gotay is a much better hitter. Gotay has only played 20 innings at shortstop in his career because he is a natural second baseman, whereas Hernandez is a natural shortstop. If Reyes, for one reason or another, needs to come out of a game, or is out for a very short period of time, the Mets will probably just use Gotay. However, if Reyes is placed on the DL or out for a prolonged period of time, the Mets may want to go with a sure handed defensive shortstop, and bring up Hernandez.
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It was the day a lot of us were waiting for. We all knew that A-Rod had until 10 days after the World Series to “Opt out” of his huge contract and claim himself as a free agent. Well sure enough around 10:15 last night, conveniently in the middle of Game 4 of the World Series, everyone in the baseball world got word that it was true. Mr. Rodriguez is now a free agent.

With that being said, there has now been wide speculation on where he will go. Obviously there are very few teams who can afford a contract that he will be asking for, roughly 30 million a year for at least 7 years. Brian Cashman, General Manager of the New York Yankees, has repeatedly said that he will not negotiate a new deal with A-rod should he opt out of his current deal. Well, only that remains to be seen. Could it be the Cubs who play in a big market and looking to do anything at this point to snap the “Curse of the Billy goat”? Could it be the Red Sox who could let World Series MVP Mike Lowell go and decide that they want A-Rod instead? I can leave that thinking up to you, the reader. However, here are some reasons why the Mets will NOT have A-Rod on their team next year.

Number 1: The 24-1 effect. Remember what happened last time A-Rod was a free agent? He had outrageous demands which created a 24-1 effect. I doubt the Mets need anymore egos on this team being that they already had someone who had one of their worst seasons proclaim “Sometimes we are just so good, we get bored”.

Number 2: Money Money Money. With the new stadium coming and the Mets lacking PITCHING, I doubt the Mets want to throw a ton of money at one player. With Lo Duca, Castillo, amongst others, who are free agents, there are more important things to worry about than getting the best player in the game. Yes, he is the best player in the game and one of the best ever, but I am a firm believer that one player will not solve 5-6 issues.

Number 3: Let’s review what positions David Wright and Jose Reyes play. Third base and shortstop. Hmm. What positions has A-Rod played? Third base and Shortstop. Obviously, the left side of the Mets infield is taken up for the next 15 years (I sure as heck hope so). With that being said, David Wright did say during the season that he would “gladly move to Second Base” if A-Rod wanted to play for the Mets. With that being said, Dubs you are a nice guy, but Mets fans want you at Third Base, case closed.

So here you have it Mets fans, one perspective of how a Mets fan sees things. I know it will be a huge debate on our facebook group, and a quite interesting one to say the least. Needless to say, there isn’t much need, because A-Rod will not end up on the Mets next year, hell or high water.

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Jose Reyes tied a Mets record with three doubles Tuesday versus the Braves. Read More...

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The Mets seemed down and out after being swept by the surging Phillies on Thursday, three days later, things couldn't look brighter. The Mets headed into Atlanta over the weekend knowing they had to come with their A game, and they did. Turner Field has never been kind to the Mets in the month of September, but the "new" Mets we're up for the challenge.

The Mets outscored the Braves by a score of 3 to 2 in the final game of the series on Sunday to put the Braves back an insurmountable 7.5 games with only 25 games to play.

The Mets pitching was superb, allowing only 4 runs the entire series, and keeping the Braves big bats of Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira and Andrew Jones in check throughout the series. The Braves only got one extra base hit the entire series, which was Brian McCann's double in the 9th inning Sunday against Billy Wagner. The highlight of the weekend had to be the fantastic outing by Mike Pelfrey, who earned his first win of the season on Saturday allowing just 1 run on 1 hit over 6 innings. We hope to see more of this in the future from Pelfrey.

The hitting was equally as good, scoring 15 runs on 28 hits, with 2 home runs from Carlos Delgado, who seems to have his swing back, as well as homers from Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Lastings Milledge and Jose Reyes.

The Mets will look to keep the hot streak going, as Pedro Martinez will make his long awaited season debut tomorrow in Cincinnati, he will be faced by Reds ace Aaron Harang.
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SS Jose Reyes, who stole his 60th base Thursday night, is the first infielder to nab 60 or more in three straight seasons since the modern stolen base rule came into effect in 1898, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Kenny Lofton (1992-94) is the last outfielder to get 60 in three consecutive seasons. ... Read More...

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