Daily Archives: February 15, 2008
Mets 3B David Wright was a guest on WFAN today, and had the following to say about…
…how long it will take to get in the flow of spring training…
“We’ve been ready especially after what happened last year, guys were chomping at the bit to get down here…The weather is beautiful. Pitchers and catchers threw some bullpen, so it gets you excited and in the mood for baseball.”
…Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana…
“Seeing those guy’s, I was just a fly on the wall earlier today, those two were talking about pitching when we were getting our physicals and just hearing those guys and how excited they are, Pedro looks great. Obviously, Santana looks amazing. So these two are solid and ready to go, they are going to be a powerful one-two punch.”
“I saw him in Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago before spring training, and he looks trim, he looks strong and I know mentally he’s ready to go, ready to prove last year was a fluke. He’s been one of the most consistent RBI producers of this generation and I’m sure he’s gonna bounce back, you know when healthy he’s gonna put up his numbers.”
…being the first player to reach out to Brian Schneider…
“Well, anytime you bring in an addition to a team you want to make him feel welcome. I think that’s what the veteran guys did with me my rookie year, they made me feel welcome in the clubhouse. As much as it hurts to see Lo Duca go, a close friend of mine, we’re gonna welcome Brian with open arms and I wanna be a guy that welcomes him. You know, anything, if he wants to talk, whether it’s directions to the stadium or where to live, if he has some questions I wanna answer those questions for him and make him feel welcome.”
…thanks to the amazing Peter Wade for the quotes…
To listen to Wright’s entire interview, go to WFAN.com, where you can enter to win a trip to Tradition Field as well as a pair of Nike Fuse M-C-S cleats, which were inspired by Wright and are available exclusively at Modell’s Sporting Goods.
In his blog for Newsday, Ken Davidoff gives a letter grade to each of the Florida spring training sites.
Davidoff writes of Port St. Lucie:
“For years, I heard horror stories from veteran writers about ‘Port St. Lousy’ and ‘Port St. Lonesome.’ But since coming here in 2005, I’ve had no major beefs. Both the town and the ballpark – and, I suppose, the Mets themselves – have benefited from upgrades. Grade: B”
…i just can’t wait until some of the action becomes televised – whether it’s a game or just some long toss…
Tagged Regis Courtemanche |To listen to Willie Randolph’s state-of-the-Mets address from earlier today, go to WFAN.com.
For a written recap, check out my post, here.
Tagged WFAN, Willie Randolph |…from SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt, who will be sending me random text messages over the next few days, keeping us 
updated on what’s happening at Tradition Field:
…Jose Reyes just walked in to the locker room dressed stylish, with jeans, white shoes, an orange button-down shirt with ‘plenty of bling.’…according to reyes, he felt largely responsible for the collapse…
For more on Reyes’s arrival, check out Adam Rubin’s blog for the Daily News, John Delcos’s blog for the Journal News, as well as David Lennon’s blog for Newsday, in which he quotes Reyes as saying…
“Baseball is like that sometimes. Sometimes things go wrong for you. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”
By the way, tonight at 6 pm on 
, Burkhardt will have one-on-one interviews with Duaner Sanchez and Mike Pelfrey, and clips of Willie Randolph’s press conference.
For all of you fantasy players out there, the analysts at ESPN.com have begun to roll out their 2008 team previews.
The preview lists some of the following fantasy facts about the Mets:
- Sleeper: OF Ryan Church has a career .340 batting average at Shea.
- Stud: LHP Johan Santana will benefit from a lineup that hit 59 more HR, had 90 more RBIs and hit 11 points higher (.275 versus .264) than the Twins last season.
- Schedule: The Mets only have one series West of the Mississippi (Houston) after July 4, 2008, and 15 of the last 22 games are at home.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while talking to reporters yesterday at Braves camp, Bobby Cox said that he has not yet decided if he will retire after this season.
In a poll in the same article, 80 percent of Braves fans would like to see Cox return for a 30th season.
…and 100 percent of me can’t wait for him to leave…
David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution describes Tom Glavine’s homecoming to Braves camp.
O’Brien writes:
“I asked if the mood in the clubhouse was like it used to be, when the Braves were always reigning champions who expected to win, or whether he sensed it was more a hunger to get back on top.”
“Glavine said, “Obviously there’s the realization of what’s happened the last two years; that’s fresh on everybody’s minds. Everybody in [the clubhouse] is hungry to get things back on track.”
…it’s as if being on the Mets never really happened…i’m not saying i don’t appreciate glavine’s contributions to the team – i was at his 300th win in chicago and it was amazing – i’m just saying tommy always seems right at home in atlanta, where he belongs…
Tagged Regis Courtemanche, Tom Glavine |According to the Mets, Sandy Alomar, Jr. has replaced Tom Nieto as the team’s catching instructor.
Nieto will move to first base in place of Rickey Henderson.
WFAN has named play-by-play veteran Wayne Hagin to the 2008 Mets radio broadcast team, joining Howie Rose in the booth.
Hagin, as quoted in a press release…
“What a thrill it is to come to New York to join Howie Rose for WFAN’s radio broadcast of the Mets. With the excitement of the team in its final year at Shea, it’s a privilege to be a part of it.”
Last month, at this blog for Newsday, Neil Best noted that Hagin has been the front runner for the WFAN job, adding…
Tagged WFAN |“Hagin created a huge stir before the 2005 season when he accused Todd Helton of the Rockies, whose games Hagin previously had called, of being on ‘the juice.’
“Helton was furious, telling ESPN at the time: ‘I would like to extend a hunting trip to him deep in the woods somewhere.’’
Willie Randolph is talking with reporters at Tradition Field.
The conversation will air live on 
.
…i’m going to do my best to live blog the topics, questions and general responses…stay tuned…
According to Randolph, it took him until the holidays to start feeling like himself again following last season’s ‘collapse.’ He is excited to be back with ‘his boys,’ i.e., his players, in spring training so to ‘get back at it again.’
He reached out to his players during the off-season to address the ‘collapse.’ He said his peace over month ago. One of the things that he loves about this team is that they know they wasted a golden opportunity last season, and they will not need ‘any additional motivation or speeches or talks,’ since they are ready to go, and ‘we’re ready to get back.’
He does not intend to change his demeanor or tenor or the way the team workout this season compared to last, ‘No major changes need to be made, nothing different, we’ll hit on all the things that are important, like always, talk about our philosophy and work to refine that.’
He does not feel the team must behave any differently, just because of ‘the collapse,’ since, for the most part, the team played fairly solid all of last season. For instance, to ask a player like Carlos Delgado or Carlos Beltran to act in a way that is a different from ‘who they are,’ could jeopardize the way the play. He believes that last season’s awful ending can simply be credited to the entire team going in to a funk at the wrong time.
“We are who we are, I think we are good at what we do,” he says, “We’ll just try to learn from our experiences, and work harder to make sure that when we have the chance to put people away we do that.”
He is impressed with the number of players who are in camp, healthy and ‘chomping at the bit’ to get back to winning baseball. “That’s a real good sign, to me,” he says.
He talked to Duaner Sanchez, who he says is, “Ready to go.” He adds, “I don’t think we’ll treat him with kid gloves.”
He thinks they are a better ballclub, talent wise, compared to last season, though he adds, “There isn’t a manager in baseball who doesn’t feel good about his team during this time of year.”
He doesn’t feel any pressure. “I’m here to win,” he says, “and I feel good about my people…It is what it is, as far as expectations…I know that if I don’t get the job done, and we don’t win, I know…I think year to year, one at a time, I think of winning.”
He says Jose Reyes went through a bad slump. “It happens, that’s baseball…it’s a learning experience, and you just hope it doesn’t happen at that time of year…But, that’s baseball…We all know, it’s human, human beings are playing the game…Look at the Rockies…You get hot…They weren’t the best team in baseball, but they almost won a World Series…It just happens like that sometimes.”
He will not revert back to the more strict rules he implemented during his first spring training, adding, “I’ll get in their face if we’re not going about our week in the right way. I mean, we’re gonna come out here and work hard, and get after our business, but that’s the only reason I’d get in their face. In that first year, I wanted to form a solidarity…We have a solid group of guys now, who respect each other’s space…We’ll get back to hard work, but that’s every spring.”
He says it may have helped for him to have relayed some of his experiences to his players during the end of last season, saying, “For instance, we’re going down the stretch there against Philly, and my attitude might have been, you know, I want to knock someone’s head off on the other side, but if that’s not their mentality it doesn’t matter what I feel, I’m not playing.”
More than any ‘mistake,’ he feels he learned a lot about his players, from last year, and will know how to handle certain situations with them in the future.
“We’ll prove what we’re all about, and the only way to do that is on the field,” he says.
Right-field is Ryan Church’s job to lose.
There will be no team message or rally cry, because, “I don’t believe in that stuff…In our minds, we’re gonna have a good year…I think you go over board when you start looking for themes and mottos and sayings…It’s baseball, man…If you have talent, you go out and execute and learn from your mistakes, you’ll bounce back.”
…the happy-go-lucky, open, off-season version of willie is now over…welcome back to the surly, serious and focused regular-season version…
…also, by my account, 55 percent of the questions essentially dealt with the collapse, so if you took the under, you’re a winner…
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