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At his blog for ESPN.com, Peter Gammons lists five reasons why the Mets are a different team in 2008 compared to 2007.
His number one reason is Johan Santana, who is third in the NL in ERA at 2.70, first in quality starts with 24 and has had his bullpen blow six saves this season.
His other four reasons are as follows:
…M…V…P…no further explanation needed…
- Jose Reyes, who since May 11th has had a .381 OBP, .320 average, and an .890 OPS.
- Mike Pelfrey, who has stepped up with the injury to John Maine and has provided the Mets with a 1-2 punch behind Santana.
- Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans, who have performed more than anyone expected.
…i met murphy for the first time yesterday and he was just as advertised, a good kid who just wants to perform…i asked him about a potential move to second base and his answer to me was, “I don’t care where they put me, I just want to hit”...
…added to by Matthew Cerrone…
…exactly, because, ‘Daniel Murphy means business’…
the mets need more guys like murphy, hes hardnosed
eckstein was already traded to the d’backs. erstad’s on the astros, maybe the mets can get him!!
The bell’s ringing, and yet Dr. Pavlov hasn’t brought any food!!!!
still on my nuts, i see. oh well, some things never change.
Yes, like you thinking I give a crap about you. I see a moronic post rehashing the old “Eckstein” jokes, and I post. Not my fault that it’s you.
I am a big fan of SMURFY but think of him more to the future (with excitment) and credit Johan, Delgado and Reyes with this year’s success
I emailed this to Matt because I didn’t have a good post to comment it in. 10 minutes later, Brandon Eddy adds this post. Seems like a good spot to leave this comment:
Subject: Look Up!
Hey Matt,
Here’s an interesting thought:
Why are we not focusing on the Cubs? As fans, we are constantly looking in our rear-view mirror at the Phillies, which naturally reminds us of last year’s demons and in turn all of our thoughts revolve around the (gasp gasp) collapse of ‘07. Well, guess what… Johan Santana, Nick Evans, Daniel Murphy, Brian Stokes, Luis Ayala have all played major roles on the 2008 club and none of them have any such memories in their closets! Considering we have no more games against the Phillies and we have a 4 game set at home against the Cubs during the last week of the season, why not set our sites on HFA during the playoffs? It’s time to forget 07 and focus on 08. As of right now, we sit a mere 6 games behind the Cubs, and they are struggling at the wrong point in the season. Zambrano is a huge question mark and Bobby Howry and Kerry Wood haven’t exactly been lights out lately either. They got pushed around by the Phils in the final 2 games of that series and have lost 7 out of their last 8. I know baseball is a funny game, but isn’t it conceivably possible to go on a huge run over the next 3 weeks and win the Division and HFA? I know, I know… I’ll believe it when I see it, but seriously… why not?
Just to compare… Here are both teams schedules to end the season: (Cubs schedule is brutal!)
Cubs:
9-11 @ Stl
12-14 @ Hou
16-18 vs Mil
19-21 vs Stl
22-25 @ NYM
26-28 @ Mil
13 on road; 6 at home (all teams still much in playoff race!)
Mets:
9-10 vs Wsh
12-14 vs Atl
15-18 @ Wsh
19-21 @ Atl
22-25 vs Cubs
26-28 vs Fla
12 at home; 7 on road (only Cubs still in playoff race)
As far as the team is concerned, let’s focus on each day’s game, instead.
That’s an interesting way of looking at it. Fighting those above rather than below.
I think the point is we all want to get to the playoffs before we care about anything else. Last year before the season there was a major sense of entitlement among the fans that we expected it to be a no-brainer making it to the playoffs and we got put back in our place. I think we are all a little more humble this year and just want the playoffs locked up before we start caring about HFA.
lets just get in with the 2nd best record, hope we win the first round and let someone else knock off the cubs in the first round…sounds more realistic and doable…
daniel the man murphy…not much to hate on this kid
Many people and I have been preaching this for months. Yes the september collapse was terrible but that was in 2007. We are in 2008 with yes some of the same charaters but also some new ones. We will have a different result this year..period.
agreed dirty.
here’s to hoping all these guys keep taking care of business!
danthemanmurphy
I really hate posts that link to ESPN insider articles. It’s not fair to those of us who aren’t “In”.
I was upset for a second, too, and then I realized having the metsblog summary of the article is better than no article at all…
Gammons mentions that Murphy will play second in the fall league (or winter league — whichever.) I like the experiment and liek that Murphy seems to be a hard worker, but I’m not sure the “I don’t care as long as I get to hit” attitude is going to get him where he needs to be to be a Major League second baseman. Honestly, I think his future really is in left.
Trust me, it wasn’t one of your typical egotistic athlete responses … He basically said he will play anywhere on the field as long as he gets to hit. He loves to hit … who doesn’t?!!??!?!
Apparently Ambiorix Burgos does too!
That’s the only reason why I play softball…to hit.
Awwww…he was just saying he’ll play any position except pitching in the American League.
I am in the process of reading and finishing a book on Ted Williams. I am not equating Murphy to Williams but that is all Ted Williams talked about growing up. He didn’t discover Women until he was 21 or so because he was so consumed with hitting. All Ted wanted to do was hit, All Daniel Boy wants to do is hit and I am fine with that.
how exactly do you know his “future is in right field”? please tell me….i know i havent seen him play second….maybe you have…
Let’s just say I wouldn’t place any bets on him being a graceful second baseman right off the bat.
To Brandon: No, I didn’t think he was being an idiotic, arrogant jock, but rather that (like Ted Williams, apparently — and that’s about the only thing Murphy and Ted Williams have in common,) hitting is his obsession, and fielding an afterthought. You can’t do that and be a successful middle infielder, in my view, unless you are blessed with incredible physical talent and agility.
Incidentally, I’m not saying Murphy won’t be a frigging hall of famer — who knows, this early is his career, if he’s Wade Boggs, Robin Ventura, or Benny Agbayani? — but he could be a hall of famer and still not touch Williams.
You make an excellent point about having fielding being an afterthought when playing 2b. My thing is obviously Murphy and Williams are completely different. Williams came up with much hype and much expectations. What the Mets may need to do is tell Murphy hey we love your bat but we want you to be a good fielder. His bat would be best suited at 2b if he could play formidable defense it would help this team as they could acquire a big bat in LF or if F-Mart actually pans out he goes into LF
The resurgence of Delgado emphasizes that just because an older player goes through a tough period it does not mean that they are done. Although, to be fair to his critics, Delgado’s performance had deteriorated to where he was performing as though his skills had eroded to such an extent that he looked overmatched both at the plate and in the field. Basically he looked very old. But some times older players suffer performance problems for the very same reasons a younger player does and you have to be patient.
Talking about a resurgent player the erstwhile GMs that populate this blog went on about the stupidity of the Dodgers in giving up players to rent Manny for the remainder of the season. They pointed out how Manny was no longer the great hitter he had been and would be a cancer in the clubhouse. Well in 126 abs for the Dodgers Manny is hitting .397, .494obp, .730slg, .212ops+. Yep, he’s destroying the Dodgers chances for the division and they were extremely stupid in acquiring him.
I loved that trade for LA. LaRoche is supposedly pissing people of in Pittsburgh with his lax attitude, Morris got shut down, and Manny has does nothing but absolutely rake. AND Boston paid the whole remainder of his salary. Worst comes to worst, LA misses the playoffs with a second place finish, and Manny leaves. Not like they gutted the team to get him.
Pittsburgh really managed to hose themselves in that trade. Who really could have predicted that the curse of Sid Bream would have such a profound impact on the Pirates and Braves?
I wonder why some teams like Florida, Tampa, Oakland, Arizona and Minnesota can develop talent with limited budgets and others like Pittsburgh and Kansas City can’t.