The Few Bright Notes of 2009

As painful as the Mets' 2009 season has been, as September draws to a close, it’s time to examine the few bright spots that give us hope that 2010 will be a better year. Amidst the misery that comprised much of this season, a few players stand out for either having exceptional seasons, overcoming adversity or for just plain gutting it out as team players when so many others clearly played for individual stats. So with this in mind, some kudos to those who rose above the cumulative mediocrity and gave us fans something to cheer about.

Luis Castillo

After a horrendous 2008 season where he batted a mere .245, Castillo came into spring training in better shape and determined to prove that last year was an aberration. While Castillo isn’t the best defensive second baseman, he has hit well in 2009, with an average hovering around .311. He has been in the middle of countless scoring rallies and also gets bonus points for the way he handled the dropped pop-up which cost the Mets a game against the Yankees in June. He has played in over 140 games this season and since that infamous dropped pop-up game, has batted .337.

David Wright

While David’s sudden lack of power and increased strikeouts this season has drawn the ire of many critics, the fact is, he is still hitting over .300 and has gutted it out to play pretty much every game aside from the few he spent on the disabled list. At various points this season, he was the lone Met regular in the line-up and deserves credit for not only playing without any rest whatsoever but also for coming back after being dangerously beaned in the head.

Daniel Murphy

After Murphy’s failed experiment in left field, most young players would not have had the confidence or ability to learn a new position midseason and show promise in the field. Murphy has done just that and has even shown some flashes of brilliance at first base. Though he struggled with the bat the first half of 2009, he has been hitting much better since July, raising his average to .266. Murphy is hitting .304 this September and is tied with Albert Pujols for the most extra base hits this month. He also leads the team in doubles (36) and home runs (11 – yes, pathetic…). Sadly, Daniel probably will become a star for another team next year as unless the Mets find some power in left field or behind the plate, his 11 home runs just won’t be enough from a first baseman.

Pedro Feliciano

Pedro Feliciano seems to have been in every game this season, challenging his own record for the most appearances in a single season set last year. The lefty specialist reliever is pitching to a 3.02 ERA and lefties are hitting just .227 against him. If only the rest of our bullpen was half as reliable…

Jeff Francouer

When the Ryan Church for Jeff Francouer trade first happened, I must admit to not being thrilled. In hindsight, though, this was a very good move by Omar Minaya. It seems a change of scenery injected new life into Francouer, who in 64 games with the Mets is batting .314 with a .342 OBP, seven HR and 34 RBI. You also have to love the grittiness and the desire to win that Francouer exudes. He is a true team player and a clubhouse difference-maker for 2010.

Honorary Mentions – Carlos Beltran and John Maine

Carlos Beltran and John Maine deserve kudos this year not for on-field accomplishments but for gutting it out through their injuries. The fact that both came back for the final weeks of September in a losing, meaningless season speaks volumes about their character as players. Most players these days would have just mailed it in and collected their paychecks until spring training. Here’s hoping both Beltran and Maine remain healthy and can play significant roles in the Mets’ 2010 comeback.
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Beltran's Back, But Where's Jose?

After missing more than two months with a bone bruise, Carlos Beltran will supposedly make his return to Citi Field tonight in the opener of the Mets series against the Marlins. When Beltran went down in June, this marked the beginning of the downward spiral of the Mets’ 2009 season. At the time, the team was coping fairly well with the absence of Delgado and Reyes, but Beltran was on fire during April and May. With him in the lineup it almost looked as if the Mets could hang on without their regular shortstop and first baseman. Before Beltran went on the DL, the Mets had a 35 and 32 record. Since then, they have gone 27 and 42. Now granted, many other injuries have come into play since Beltran went down, but in my mind, losing the second Carlos was the straw that broke the camel’s back for this season.

Considering the ridiculous amount of injuries that have befallen this team, I look at Beltran’s return to the lineup with some trepidation. With less than a month to go in a lost season, I’m not convinced his return is the wisest move, even though the bone bruise is improving. The way the chips have fallen for the Mets this year, my fear is that the bruise will get worse by playing, the team will wait the winter to see improvement and when they don’t, Beltran will have surgery that ruins the 2010 season as well. Let’s face it; the Mets’ medical staff’s track record is pretty tarnished right now. Getting another thing wrong would just be par for the course.

But with all of this being said, I definitely commend Beltran’s effort and desire to come back and play again in 2009 - even if only for a few weeks. It takes guts, heart and commitment to do this. Many players would have just shut it down and waited for 2010. Instead, Beltran stepped up, showed leadership and did the right thing. Perhaps Jose Reyes can learn something from all of this because the silence on his part is inexcusable. The fact that Aaron Boone returned to the Astros roster after open heart surgery before Jose could return from his hamstring injury is preposterous. It makes you wonder if this is the fault of the Mets medical staff with another misdiagnosis or just the case of Jose being Jose. Somehow, I think it’s a little of both.

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If not victory, dignity

This morning I passed a hospital and saw a frail old man struggling to get out of a hired car. His wife held his cane while he adjusted his belt. Collared shirt half out, shoes tattered, but wearing a tartan sport coat. You could tell he was on the way to a doctor’s appointment of some sort, and you could tell he was bearing through physical hardships that had taken their toll over many years, but just the coat itself hinted at his need to maintain a modicum of dignity while so much within and around him failed.

And so it is, too, for this year’s New York Mets. Carlos Beltran and David Wright spoke from the same vein when they both talked about their returns from injuries that many might have not faulted them for hanging up their 2009 cleats for. They are ball players, they get paid well to do it, they love the sport, and they want to do their jobs and compete. As Beltran said, even if it’s just a matter of being able to come back for the very last game of the season, that’s what they have to do.

The team on the field needs to adopt more of that mantra. These past many weeks in particular, the script has often been “keep it close for 6 or 7 innings, fall apart badly late, show absolutely no capability of displaying offense and die.” That needs to change as we enter this final month of regular season competition. For the past 3 seasons the Mets have been the inglorious recipients of the wrath of spoilers named Phillies, Marlins & Braves. This is the opportunity for them to repay a bit of that back to the very teams that previously so gleefully doled it out upon them. There is a level of intestinal fortitude (or maybe somewhat lower, anatomically) that needs to man up (aka: Be Johan) right about now, and become the spoiler that can go home with its chin held high. If you’re capable of staying in the game for 6 innings, the problem isn’t who you’re missing but who you have. It’s time for those who represent the blue and orange to step up to the responsibility that Wright and Beltran clearly see. Not only would it do a great bit of good toward team morale, it would probably let fans leave a horrid season feeling a bit less violated, and at least a slight bit more optimistic about the future.

Finally, within David Wright's return he's received a great deal of criticism for the choice to move forward wearing a new helmet, designed to offer greater protection and mandated for future use by minor and Little League baseball. He's received a great deal of heckling in the blogosphere and from the twitterati for it, mostly for aesthetic reasons. The helmet may not look cool, but it's a lot cooler than a coma. In the process, he's allowed vanity to give way to leadership, as he will be a valuable role model to youngsters who might otherwise think about safety as an option rather than a necessity. Yes, he may resemble the Flintstones' "Great Gazoo," but Gazoo held the fate of the universe at his fingertip. That's the kind of power the Mets could really use...

(Follow up: Wright has chosen to forego The Helmet for a standard batting helmet in today's game. Melon season has officially ended. All bets are off.)
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NY Mets 2009 - DNR Now and Save 2010

After losing three of four to the putrid Arizona Diamondbacks this past weekend, it is pretty safe to say that any hopes of a Mets wildcard berth have pretty much petered out the same way this entire season has. With only 57 regular season games left, the Mets find themselves five games under .500, ten games out of first place and eight games out of the Wildcard with seven teams ahead of them. Though mathematically still alive, let’s face it, folks, our Metsies are currently on life support along with their beleaguered GM and possibly their manager. It’s time to pull the plug and look towards 2010.

As everyone knows, injuries to so many starting players and even key back-up players played a huge role in this disappointing season. At this point, I see no real reason to even try to rush Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran back so they can play at 80% and possibly cause more damage to their fragile selves. Why not shut them down now, let both rest for 2010 and err on the side of caution? Or if Beltran does indeed need that micro fracture surgery, do it now and get it over with so that the ten months it takes to heal does not kill all of next season for him. In fact, if surgery is what he definitely needs, this should have already been done weeks ago after it was deemed the bone bruise was not improving.

As for Delgado, Wagner and Putz, if these players can come back for 2009, by all means they should. As everyone knows, both Delgado and Wagner will be free agents after this year, and Putz is playing for his option year. All three want to come back and prove they are healthy so that the cash bells start ringing in the off-season. This is a can’t lose situation for the Mets. If they can help out, that’s fantastic. If they don’t, well, it was great knowing you, good luck in the future.

The one question mark for an injured players return this year is John Maine. Ah, my adorable Johnny Maine…so young and fragile yet with so much upside...Should the Mets try to rush him back this season just to test that fatigued shoulder and see if they should offer another contract for next year, or do you let him rest, offer a super cheap but incentive-laden deal for 2010 and take your chances? Or do you just walk away for 2010?

Given the amount of money this team has wasted on bad contracts like good old Ollie P’s, I would try my best to keep Maine a Met for 2010. When healthy, he has proven to be pretty reliable for a quality start and has even shown flashes of dominance. I’d trust a healthy Maine with the ball any day over Ollie. Plus, he’s young, seems to have a good team attitude, he’s adorable (worth repeating) and can likely be had for cheap. For a million / million and a half, if it doesn’t work out, you cut your losses and move on. The Mets would probably have an easier time trading a semi-ineffective, reasonably paid John Maine than they would have unloading good old Ollie without having to pay part of his contract.

Now, with all of this being said, I can almost write the script for the rest of the Mets 2009 season…As Murphy’s Law always has it, just as fans completely give up hope and start looking ahead to 2010, this team will give us some small reason to believe that they are not actually dead in the water. Maybe they’ll pull off a string of wins against St. Louis and on their upcoming road trip. Maybe their beards will grow to ZZ Top-like proportions and they’ll make it to .500…It’s okay…Mets fans are like Charlie Brown…we’re used to the football being pulled away at the last second. This year, though, we know that’s how 2009 will end. We’ll be good sports and kick through but we won’t land flat on our backs. It’s up to the Mets front office and how they deal with Reyes and Beltran to make sure 2010 doesn’t begin that way. Read more!

A Moment of Silence

I have been putting off writing my weekly post all morning because truthfully, I don't even know what to say anymore about these Mets. They get harder and harder to watch with every passing game so I have really been adhering to my self-imposed media blackout for the past week. If they win, well, it's a nice surprise. If they lose, well, at least I didn't waste my time and energy only to be disappointed. This is a terrible way to exist but I'm not sure what else to do at this point in the season.

This past weekend's sweep by the Phillies was a complete and utter disaster of anemic hitting, atrocious fielding and general malaise. The team might as well have just not shown up at all and forfeited. I know, the injuries, blah, blah, blah. I'm so tired of hearing about the injuries. No one expects the Mets to be playing like a championship caliber team right now but they aren't even treading water. This series with the Dodgers is pretty much over before it even begins. Sorry, call me a pessimist, but at this point, not only is the glass half empty, it's cracked and my lips are bleeding profusely.

The All-Star break could not come quickly enough - just so that Mets fans get a reprieve from the daily torture of this team. At this point, it is hard to believe that they can overcome the physical and psychological damage this season has wrought. As of now, the only player that looks to be coming back from the disabled list remotely soon is Angel Pagan, and given his injury history, I'll believe that when I see it. There's no hard dates set for Reyes, Beltran, Maine or Putz. And as for Delgado, I have my doubts whether he will ever wear a Mets uniform again. If and when these players do return, it is not going to be an immediate return to all-star form for anyone. After being out for so long, it's going to take some time to shake off the rust and get going.

As for adding player(s) before the deadline, no addition great or small is going to make enough of an impact to outweigh the loss of so many key regulars. The Mets farm system is in shambles as it is. Why give up future talent to try to patch an irreparable situation with a soon-to-be free-agent rental? No Mets fan wants another Zambrano for Kazmir debacle.

As frustrating as losing is, Mets fans have to sit tight and try to ride this one out. This 2009 season does not look promising but all we can really do is wait and see how it unfolds. With the exception for the Dodgers, the NL is mired in mediocrity right now. If it stays that way, the teams that get hot towards the end will be the ones playing in October. Hopefully, after a miserable first half and the collapses of '07 and '08, maybe the Mets will get some good karma sent their way for September and October. For now, though, at 4.5 games in back of Philly and 3 under .500, I'll hang my head in a moment of silence.
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2009 Survival Guide for Mets Fans

Mets fans are a passionate bunch who are incredibly resilient and loyal to a fault. For the most part, we take the phrase "Ya Gotta Believe" to heart. But is there ever a time when you need to detach from the chaos to save your sanity? For the 2009 season, that time might be right now.

The Mets are finishing up June with a 9 and 17 record for the month. Now granted, with the ridiculous amount of injuries that have befallen them, the under .500 record is understandable. You can even argue that earlier in the month there were quite a few games that they should have won if they had managed to play error-free, solid fundamental baseball. As the month has progressed, however, you can’t even remotely say that. A bleak situation has turned even bleaker with the loss of Carlos Beltran. When news of this first broke last week I was pleasantly surprised to see the team rally and take 3 of 4 from the Cardinals. But losing this bat combined with the Triple A line-up of replacements, bad bullpen work, circus-like mental mistakes and a general lack of hustle, is too much to overcome.

All of this became painfully evident over this weekend’s series against the hated Yankees and it started in the first inning of Friday night’s game. I generally hate interleague play - especially the Yankee series because even though games within our own division mean more with regard to the standings, losing to the Yankees is pretty much unbearable. It is like salt in the wound in a city where your team and its fans are second class citizens. Granted, for the past few years the Subway Series has been pretty evenly matched, but the fact that we lost the World Series to the Yankees in 2000 (thanks, Armando!) was the ultimate blow and I am scarred for life by it. It was after that World Series that I learned how to save my sanity by resorting to a SIMB. Now, you may ask yourself, what is a SIMB? A SIMB, my friends, is a sanity saving tool for any fans of losing sports franchises. It is a Self-Imposed Media Blackout.

I am a die-hard Mets fan. I will always root for them and always support them, but every once in a while it is necessary for me to tune them out and sort of pretend they don’t exist. For example, while most Mets fans were in agony during the Art Howe years, I simply tuned most of it out. Much more pleasant than getting upset over a situation you can’t control.

After the collapse in 2007, I was forgiving enough to believe in them for the start of the 2008 season. When that got off to a ridiculously slow start with the Willie Randolph debacle, I again resorted to short-lived SIMB. Before I could bring myself to believe in them, they had to give me some reason to believe. And then true to form, they did give me a reason to believe in July and August. Of course, in September, they once again kicked me in the shins, but hey, as Mets fans, we have come to expect the worst and we usually get it!

Now, in 2009 with the new ballpark and a much improved bullpen, I once again gave the team the benefit of the doubt and had faith that they would redeem themselves for the past two black Septembers. I have been very patient all through this June swoon because of all of the injuries, but at this point I just can’t stomach what I have been seeing the past few games to continue watching. It is like a comedy of errors. Not only do they not hit, they also do not pitch. And the lack of hustle and the lethargic, sloppy play are just too much for me to take. So I won’t. I’m tired of all of it. Tired of the losing. Tired of the ineptness. Tired of hearing about the injuries. Tired of Jerry Manuel talking about treading water (inexcusable). Would Bobby Valentine be happy with treading water? Hey Jerry, how about losing the Zen and lighting a fire? I have news for you, Mahatma Manager, Omar can trade for whoever is available but one or two deadline acquisitions are not enough to help this team if Beltran is out for the season.

So at this point, if the Mets don’t show up for games, why should I? SIMB, baby! I will watch and listen from a distance and detach myself emotionally. Hopefully, they’ll surprise me like they usually do and turn things around once a few of the walking wounded return from the salt mines. But until then, I’ll let the games play out in the background and watch from afar. Sometimes good things happen when you least expect them but if they don’t, at least the disappointment will be over long before the last day of the season.
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Injuries Will Be A Test Of Their Met-tle

Yesterday looked to be another bleak day in Metsville when news broke that Carlos Beltran was headed for the 15 day disabled list with a progressively worsening bone bruise. As if to add an exclamation point to the bewildering number of injuries that have plagued this team this year, word then gets out that Jose Reyes and trainer Ray Ramirez were in a car accident earlier in the day. Even more ironic is the fact that they were headed to the Hospital For Special Surgery when it happened. Thankfully, no one was hurt but the level of ridiculousness here is just a little spooky.

Since the season began almost half of the Mets’ roster has been plagued by injuries. Missing most notably are Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado and J.J. Putz, but the absence of all of the players that have succumbed to one malady or another has played a huge role in where this team stands right now. It is by no means the sole reason the Mets are currently floundering, but it definitely plays a significant part in their June swoon.

Losing Delgado and Reyes have been the two most difficult of the injuries to overcome, but Putz, even though he was not pitching well when he went down, was a huge loss in the sense of how the rest of the bullpen has been overused. You can almost directly attribute all of last week’s losses to Putz’s absence.

Now, with Beltran down for 15 days or more, these next few weeks become the real test as to whether the Mets can hang in there until their many walking wounded return. Last night’s game was an encouraging sign that maybe, just maybe, this team can get it together and survive their DL blues. Kudos to Tim Redding for pitching 7 innings and getting his first win as a Met. It was not his best outing run-wise but aside from the home runs by Ryan and Ludwick, he was in control of the game.

On the offensive side, for the first time in a while, pretty much everyone contributed. The highlights were Daniel Murphy’s 2 for 5 night, including a home run, and Luis Castillo’s 3 for 3 night. Also notable was the fact that they made no errors and essentially played solid fundamental baseball against the blazing hot Cardinals, who had just swept the Royals over the weekend. Pretty nifty!

Whether or not the Mets can sustain the momentum from last night’s game remains to be seen but the fact is, even with this hodge-podge roster of subs, if they expect to stay in the race until the regulars return, they are going to have to step it up a notch. That means good starting pitching (preferably six innings or longer), clutch hitting, good fundamentals and team work. Do the little things right. Like actually catching routine pop-ups, stepping on third base, hustling to first and knowing how to lay down a bunt. Some clutch hits with the bases loaded would also be much appreciated, thank you. Play small ball until the big boys return and play as a team and the results might just surprise everyone. And let’s face it, after the last three years, every Mets fan could use a nice surprise. Here’s hoping that after a June of rain, doom and gloom the sun will start peaking out through the clouds over Flushing some time soon. Ok, I rhymed…time to stop now before I jinx everything. Read more!