Daily Archives: October 11, 2007
...watching baseball coverage over the past ten days, there’s a perception that Mets fans are upset that Kaz Matsui is hitting out of his mind in the playoffs…personally, nothing could be further from the truth…i always rooted for Kaz, even in his worst moments here…i still root for him…whether by virtue of media pressure, bad luck or injury, Matsui only showed flashes of the player he was hyped to be four years ago…however, i never doubted his passion for the game…i think we can all agree that Kaz had more than enough chances with the Mets, including a final one when Anderson Hernandez went down early last season…eventually, Jose Valentin emerged and Matsui never saw the field again…simply put, Valentin was a better fit to the mold of the 06′ team, providing veteran leadership and outstanding defense at second base…most importantly, Valentin could hang in there when turning a double play, which is something Kaz could never do consistently…
..i look at it this way…Matsui was essentially sent to baseball exile last June…he had to earn his way back to the majors last season by playing with Triple-A Colorado Springs…he signed a modest one-year deal with the Rockies last winter to be a role player with the club, not the star, a key distinction from his early days with the Mets…i can’t help but feel good for the guy today, no matter what uniform he is wearing…the fact that he was instrumental in sweeping the Phillies last week, even more so…
Tagged Kaz Matsui |
Last week in Time, political columnist Joe Klein, who is a big Mets fan, explained to outsiders how Mets fans have grown used to dealing with disappointment, if for no other reason then the organization was essentially created out of this very emotion.
…actually, like so many people, i was recently asked the following question for a Q&A…
“In your opinion, where do the 2007 Mets rank amongst other ‘historic’ baseball collapses?”
…my response was as follows…
“Of teams with seven game leads with 17 games left, yes, the Mets are most disappointing. However, to rank one disappointment over another is just silly. I mean, look at the Padres from this season – they had a two game lead with three games left and they lost it. I imagine those fans are as disappointed as Mets fans, if not more – and now people want to go back and compare other disappointed fans from a 100-year span. Good luck. Go ask a Cubs fan about being teased and jerked around or let down in the face of hope. The whole idea of sports is sustained by disappointment. It’s a bizarre relationship. And, frankly, I don’t care about other fans. I only care about my fellow Mets fans, and right now we’re not happy. That’s all I know. How that stacks up against others, I mean, who am I too judge?”
…i’m not saying that the Mets ‘collapse’ did not hurt…of course it did…but this idea of which collapse is worse, or trying to pick out the ‘worst collapse of all time’ is insane and totally unfair, and it wreaks of hyperbole…
…actually, what’s odd, and this gets to klein’s point, i am impressed with how well we, as Mets fans, are handling the pain…i mean, if this is truly the ‘worst collapse of all time,’ you wouldn’t know it when talking to a Mets fan…sure, we’re disappointed, but, frankly, i think we have kept it together quite well…
Tagged MetsBlog |
In an article for Mets.com, Marty Noble outlines who on the team is eligible for free agency this winter.
Some players on the list include Moises Alou, Marlon Anderson, Ramon Castro, and Luis Castillo.
Noble writes of Marlon Anderson:
“…the two-year contracts subsequently afforded Julio Franco and then Guillermo Mota raised eyebrows and looked silly when Anderson was so productive for the Dodgers in the second half of the ’06 season.”
“It would be difficult to imagine the Mets not pursuing Anderson now. He has a .329 average in 85 pinch-hit at-bats in two tours with the Mets.”
…if they let go of Marlon, who is by far the best pinch-hitter from recent memory for the Mets, i will be very disappointed…there are others on the list such as Jose Valentin, and Shawn Green that i don’t see being in the team’s plans for the future…
Tagged Moises Alou, Ramon Castro, Regis Courtemanche, Shawn Green |
At The Hardball Times, David Gassko provides a compelling statistical argument for the National League MVP candidacy of Mets 3B David Wright.
Gassko used the interesting combination of BaseRuns and Zone Rating to determine a “runs above average” amount for each player.
…woah, i’m a stats guys and even this is way above my head…
According to Gassko, Wright, based on his runs above average score of 73, should be awarded the NL MVP, but due to the Mets failure to make the postseason, which he disagrees with, writing…
“Sure, the Mets collapsed over the last few weeks of the season, but none of the blame for that can go to Wright, who had a 1.034 OPS in September and October. It’s not fair to punish a player, especially so severely, just because his teammates choked down the stretch.”
…i’m all for wright winning the mvp this season, as i believe he did as much as he could to will his team to victory, only to come up short…but voters tend to award the mvp to a player, who’s team made the post-season…
…what makes wright’s season even more impressive is that fact he hit .244 with 0 HR and 6 RBI in month of april…imagine his finals numbers if he hadn’t struggled early on…
Tagged Mike Nichols |
…and with that, i just received my 200th e-mail in response to my request for new writers to MetsBlog.com, which i announced on this site less than 12 hours ago…so, with the way i drag my feet, it should be a good year before i get back to you…i’m kidding, of course…well, sort of…anyway, thank you for your interest, and i will do my best to moving on this as soon as i can…like i said, my goal is to have a full staff up and running by the end of the month…
Over at Bugs & Cranks, Brad Bortone says it’s time for Tom 
Glavine to go home and end his career where it started.
Bortone believes the left-handed pitcher was never a proper fit in New York City, writing…
“Tom Glavine never had the chance to truly become a New York Met. For the last four seasons, NY fans believed that Tom’s actual first name was ‘Former Brave.’”
In five seasons with the Mets, Glavine was 61-56 with a 3.97 ERA.
…i’m in agreement with bortone…unlike cerrone, i was never a big glavine fan and when the Mets first signed glavine back in 2002 i wasn’t overly thrilled with the signing…not because he came over from the hated Braves…i just never considered him to be an ‘ace’ at the time the Mets signed him…
…in my opinion, the acquisition of glavine, like Art Howe, was based on more of an organizational shift to make the Mets become a more wholesome, less controversial team…
Tagged Mike Nichols, Tom Glavine |According to Baseball Digest Daily, the 
Braves will make a ‘major announcement’ during a press conference later today.
…Update…10:55 am…
Ken Rosenthal, from FOXSports.com, expects that longtime Braves GM John Schuerholz will announce that he is stepping down, and will replaced by his assistant, Frank Wren.
According to a MetsBlog.com poll of more 
than 3,400 people, 75 percent of those polled support the job being done by GM Omar Minaya.
…i will conduct this poll at least once per week during the off-season, in an effort to track omar’s support through what should be a very important six month for him and his team…
…i’m actually surprised at the high level of support…however, i suspect he is on a short leash with the fans, myself included to some extent…and deservedly so…
…additionally, i continue to get more and more of a sense that he’s under a bit more pressure from ownership than i initially thought, mostly because the organization can not afford a slumping season in advance of Citi Field’s opening day in 2009…and so, the pressure is on to at least win back a bit of the credibility lost during September of this past season…
Tagged Omar Minaya |
