…i did not follow the team to Jupiter…instead, i remained at Tradition Field to watch how the team works out…
…it is amazingly quiet…very peaceful…i closed my eyes for a moment, to take in the sounds of cracked bats and the warm breeze…it is very, very relaxing…
…i watched Damion Easley, Brian Schneider, Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo, Endy Chavez and Jose Valentin take batting practice…after which they did sprinting drills around the bases…beltran still does not look totally comfortable…i saw him later in the locker room…i told him he looks tired, and he agreed…
Castillo told reporters this morning that if he is able to run the bases at full speed today, he will likely play this weekend.
…honestly, it’s so hard to tell…i mean, the guy looks like he is always in pain…even when he is healthy…he looked awkward running the bases today, but that may actually mean he feels good…who knows…
…as for schneider, i get the sense that he is more than able to play, but is staying back at camp to work with the pitching staff…instead of traveling to catch one pitcher, like John Maine, he can stay in camp and catch all of the rest…seriously, he looks strong in the batting cage and he’s getting up and down from the catcher’s squat with no issues at all…yes, he has a tight hamstring, as has been reported, but he is totally in shape…
…it was explained to me that they do not just go up there in batting practice and take cuts all willynilly…apparently, first they drop down a bunt, then pull a ball, hit one up the middle, hit 
one the opposite way, and then they just hack away…and they all do it…each one…every time…i didn’t realize that…
…i then strolled down to the minor-league complex, where lots and lots of youngsters were working with instructors on all sorts of drills…i was particularly interested in watching Kevin Morgan work with Hector Pellot and Mike Carp on fielding short hops…he had them roughly 15 feet away from him…they all bent down on their knees…morgan then batted balls at them, landing them only a few inches from their legs, forcing them to react only with 
their gloves…morgan explained to me that the idea is to isolate their hands, never giving them the opportunity to shift their body in place, since sometimes the real-life play moves too fast for that…
…before leaving, i stopped to watch Lucas Duda take a few swings…wow, that boy can hit…he’s a big dude, too, with an even bigger swing…the ball just flies from his bat…
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Very interesting stuff Matt. Keep it up and thanks for all the tidbits of stuff we don’t normally hear about.
I agree 100% great stuff
This is the best, most interesting day on Metsblog yet.
As for Beltran…he’s tired on March 4th, despite not yet being able to even play in a game?? Geez.
I was going to say the same thing. I mean, this guy is a 30 year old athlete right? How is he tired after having off for over 4 months. He should be energized and ready to go. I’m hoping that he was just agreeing with Matt rather than actually meaning he was tired.
i strongly disagree with your entire statement.
me too. have you ever played a sport before? when you first come back youre ALWAYS tired because youre not in playing shape yet. and considering beltran had surgery on his knees i doubt he was able to work out as much as he normally does in the off season so hes a little behind schedule right now. he’ll be fine come opening day.
I was listening to a podcast last night and the guy said some very positive things about Duda
What did he say about him?
they were saying how he is really cool. what a great guy. they mentioned that he is a wonderful fellow.
I don’t think I’ve seen the word peaceful used as much in this blog as it has the last couple of days (has it ever been used?) Heck, the word peaceful is not usually associated with sports. Sounds like Matt is coming to terms with his feminine side. Aside from that, I do enjoy the insight.
yes, peaceful is only feminine. All men should have on their minds is war, carnage, and sports.
Hahaha
+10
It’s great having you here to correct everyone. It must be grand to know everything, eh?
Matt is doing a fantastic job, breaking new ground.
I love it and that’s why I come here, not to find fault with every one else’s post. Give it a rest!
Picked up MLB 2k8 on my lunch break….On the rosters that ship with the game, Johan is still a Twin..a little odd to me, since the deal was done well before the game shipped, and the companies generally try to ship games with themost up to date roster
Ah thanks I’ve been dying to know. I read somewhere that there is already a roster update though, and I’ve seen videos of him in a Met uni.
Did Joe Smith make it in the game?
i just picked it up for the 360… I didnt get a roster sheet!! But I did get a jose reyes bobblehead voucher.
Anyway, when you connect to xbox live the rosters will update and you’d definitely have our #1 as #57
Hmm, wonder is Glavine is on the team.
And I hope Santana has a Mets hat in his profile.
takes 6-8 weeks for the bobblehead tho
I heard if you go online there’s a roster update dated 2-29-08.
Going to pick up my copy right now.
yes there is a 2/29/2008 roster update, but I wasn’t able to download it..kept getting an error. And yes, Joe Smith is in the game. As is Deolis Guerra, but under a different name. (he is in the Mets A club by default, has the initials DG and is 19 yrs old)
for MLB 08: the show (not sure about 2K), Johan is not on the default roster, but there is a roster update with him on the Mets.
Any news of Gotay’s CT scan?
The BP drill (the names isnt coming to me), is to simulate game situations, whether to move a runner over or bring him is on a sac fly.
I didn’t think it was done all the time, I thought it was more of a drill done after regular hack-away BP.
Great stuff Matt.
I also have Lucas Duda’s new nickname – LUDA.
Or LUCUDA.
Let’s all sing it:
Camptowm lady sing that song
Duda
Duda
Thanks, Matt. This is what I’ve been waiting for. I love to hear what drills they’re doing. As a little league coach, I eat this stuff up.
ladies and gentlemen, your starting 1B for 2008, Lucas Duda!
I don’t care where he played last year. If he can smoke the ball, field the position, and walk under his own power, he is the best option left!
Maybe not the starting 1B, but why not get a look? He isn’t even with the big team in spring.
Oh, I pitched a ton of BP to my sons LL and BR teams, and we always made them drop 5 bunts at the beginning (or more, if they couldn’t get one right!)
The rest of the mets routine was a bit too sophisticated, since we were happy some of them could just make contact. Although I would throw in or out to make them pull or go with.
Off-topic, but I’m watching the Nats-Dodgers ST game on TV right now, Milledge is 2-2 with a 2 RBI double in his first at-bat and an almost RBI-single in his second (Guzman got thrown out at the plate), and he made a heads up play in center to hold a runner on second (which prevented him from scoring on the next single, he got thrown out at the plate instead.) Obviously it’s a very short sample, but Milledge looks like he’s already one of the best players on the Nats, not that that’s saying much.
I like Milledge, and hope he does well, just not against us…
I’m actually more interested in seeing how Gomez is doing. I hope he does well, even if it’s against us.
The trade of Milledge will be just like the Kazmir trade – everyone will be comparing Milledge v. Church/Schneider just like they did with Zambrano and Kazmir. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it pans out not only this year but in the future.
Sorry, but you are WAY off.
Kazmir >>> Milledge
Church + Schneider >>> Zambrano
The deals aren’t even close.
Your logic is WAY off. I am not comparing Kazmir to Milledge and I am not comparing Church/Schneider to Zambrano. The comparison should be Milledge is perceived better than Church/Schneider while Kazmir was perceived (an ultimately proven) better than Zambrano.
The comparison that will be similar is the post trade following and opinions for the next couple years if Milledge becomes what we thought he would and Church/Schneider are what they are.
the problem with Schneider is that his contributions to the team won’t necessarily show up in the box score because you won’t know how he helped the pitchers or called a better pitch than Lo Duca would have in a certain spot that helped us win a close game, so of course Milledge is going to put up better numbers. But if the veteran presence of Schneider and Church help us win this year with their great defense, than I won’t care what Milledge does this year and if FMart comes up next year and plays to his “teenage hitting machine” ability than I won’t even remember that Milledge was on the Mets! If we won the World Series after the Kazmir trade, not as many people would be so upset at that trade the way they are. I want to win a World Series this year PERIOD, I’ll worry about next year next year!
To expand on what Steller said-
Another major issue with the Kazmir trade was that the Mets were NOWHERE NEAR contention!! Even if Zambrano did well, it wouldn’t have mattered unless he won them the world series.
At least with the Milledge deal, the Mets were contenders, and later on became a legit WS contender. Here they gave away the future for parts that can help out today.
Milledge strikes me as the type of player who going to focus on proving a person/team/city wrong if he perceives he has been disrespected.
Gary Sheffield’s bat speed with a grudge – look out NY.
Read what I wrote more carefully and you’ll see I mentioned nothing about the value of the trade just the post trade following of players. The deals aren’t close but the way people will be watching the players involved will be the same. I guarantee there will be Milledge updates each day by someone on this board. This trade will be followed more than the players involved in the Santana deal because no one cares about those guys like they did with Milledge.
Who has a bigger jaw than Valentin? I once had a nightmare that I was being robbed by Valentin (who looks like a criminal with that jaw).
ya have to start worring about mr.softee’s knees soon…
loks like the mets downplayed the rehab time involved…. i can easily see 2 weeks go by, and beltran rating his knees at 75%..
if he’s tired now and his knees weak , i dont see 2 or 3 weks bringing him to complete health and ready for the everyday pounding….
Mets, specifically Willie Randolph, downplay every injury like it is nothing. They said Gotay would be out a couple days and it turns out he probably broke his ankle. They should just give the normal prognosis that all othe sports or teams do, 6-8 weeks or whatever, and if he come back sooner, great. I’d rather by surprised that way then disappointed when they do not come back when they were supposed to.
I’m an Oklahoma Sooner fan and Blake Griffin went down a few weeks ago with a knee injury and had minor surgery. They said he’d be out 4-6 weeks – he only missed one game. I’d much rather that then telling me it will be a few days and have the player miss 4-6 weeks.
Ruben Tejada is Jose’s DP partner of the future.
Girardi is now the best manager in baseball because he is very tough on them regarding conditioning. They are all running and lifting like never before.
Would be funny if they got burnt out and crashed and burned in september.
Matt, any chance you can go see Mike Carp (you mentioned he was there at the minors) and see what’s up with him? Why such a drastic fall to not even be invited to the big league camp?
is matt able to watch practice because he is part of the media or can anyone do it? i would love to go down there next year but have always wanted to see them practice (because they dont really before the games anymore) so any info. about how i go about doing this would really help.
THANKS
LETS GO METS!!!
about 9-9:30 you can pass through a little gate, get your bags checked, give a $2 donation (or not, but they even give you a little ticket stub if you do) and watch them on like 2-3 fields until they throw you out around 10:30-10:45
i believe you can even go when the team is on the road to see the guys that stay behind, i will try later in the week
MILLEDGE IS GOING TO MAKE MINAYA LOOK LIKE THE COMPLETE CLUELESS IDIOT THAT I ALREADY KNOW HE IS
THAT TRADE SICKENED ME THEN AND IT SICKENS ME NOW
MILLEDGE IS AN ABSOLUTE BEAST ON A MISSION
TOO BAD ITS NOT WITH THE METS LIKE IT SHOULD BE
Stop yelling at me :(
3:45 p.m.: Take that, anyone who quibbled about the Matt Lindstrom-Henry Owens trade with the Marlins! Minor-leaguer Ezequiel Carrera has added an RBI single off Lindstrom. And Pagan just added an RBI single, too. 5-2 Mets.
3:40 p.m.: Tejada’s bloop single in the ninth off Lindstrom has scored Daniel Murphy. Mets are up 3-2 in the ninth, and still batting with none out and runners on the corners.
i’ll take it.
so milledge got a few hits in spring … and now he’s a lock to be a superstar……… pleaseeeeee!!!!!!!!!
I don’t know what you guys are all freaking out over.
I was just on yankeesblog.com and their YES journalist, Pratt Sherrone, was talking with an equipment manager outside the stadium and found out that…. get this… the Yankess played the Blue Jays today!
So pretty much you can see both organizations are giving their fans a truly remarkable experience.
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