New York Mets 2009

[syam24]

Nice to see the Mets win a series for a change! Some good pitching from the starters, nice couple of games from Thole, a monster game from Murph on Sunday, and some good news, finally, on the injury front with Beltran getting close and John Maine a possibility soon. Hopefully a good September is in the works.

 

[sonny10305]

Syam, I love your enthusiasm.

So many of my friends who are Mets fans have given up on them but I never will. I get it that the Mets are done for the season but that’s no reason for some of them to bad mouth or stop watching them all together. We had a rough year due in a big part to the injuries, who knows where we would be today if we had not lost all those guys.
Watching them now is exciting to me cause they have gone through so much but yet they still out there and try and win games. Watching our guys rebound the way our starting pitchers have it gives me an awesome feeling of pride in my Mets. I root for em now more than ever cause they deserve our support, they earned it with all of the guys working so hard out there. They have not given up why should we.

Look at Luis Castillo and the year he has had, putting aside that dropped ball at Yankee stadium he has had an amazing year. How could anyone not support a guy like that? Francouir has been a major acquisition, I must confess I was skectable of that trade I liked Church a lot, but now I am glad we did that. Murphy has been working hard developing his skills after that disastrous start in the outfield. The infield suits him better and he has done a great job at the plate. Next year I see him hitting more for power and will become a major player for us. Pagan has taken on the role of filling in beautifully for Beltran in center and lead off man for Reyes. Putting those base running blunders aside he has been terrific. Then there is Cory Sullivan who has done a masterful job for us as well. I also get excited to see guys like Thole and Misch come up, they are both full of potential.
Considering the injury loses and what those irregulars have done for us I can not call ’09 a failure, because of the hard work and dedication those guys have put in. We a hardly expect that group of guys to take us to a championship up against the teams that are healthy and have a full rooster of regulars it just would be to much to expect. But considering what those guys have done I refuse to call 2009 a failure, a lot of credit must be given and even more attention must be paid.

I will be heading out tonight to support the Cyclones on the first day of the semi finals, and will watch the Mets and Beltran later when I get home. GOD bless DVRs

Yesterday was the last game for this year with the team I play for on long Island. I feel really good about the season I had, I developed my secondary pitches and feel better about my pitching than I ever have. The last game had some extra fun in it cause I invited a Brooklyn Cyclone player to come out to watch the game, see me pitch and hang out for Pizza after. This was the first time the rest of the players on my team had met him and it was a great way to end our season.

So to all who read this remember, the Mets have had a rough year but continue to play hard and need your support right up to the last pitch on the last game on Oct 4th.

Let’s Go Mets!

 

[Sausy]

Good or bad,I'm sure sonny knows as well how much I love the Mets and they are always in my heart.Glad to see Beltran coming back,it looks like John Maine as well and let's support the Mets in the last three weeks send out a really tough season on a hopeful note... we will be heard from and respected again in the very near future!

Very happy to hear sonny's season has gone well and of your pride in further developing the way you always wanted to as a pitcher.And delighted to see that you will be supporting the Cyclones in their playoff bid and that your new friend from the Cyclones will be rooting you on in your last game of the season and spending time getting to know each other better.Sonny,you know you're a charmer around those baseball stadiums!

Also,thanks syam,chance and all our dedicated Mets fans....these lows Mets fans have dealt with are going to make the ride back to the top all the more sweeter and meaningful.

 

[sonny10305]

Very happy to hear sonny's season has gone well and of your pride in further developing the way you always wanted to as a pitcher.And delighted to see that you will be supporting the Cyclones in their playoff bid and that your new friend from the Cyclones will be rooting you on in your last game of the season and spending time getting to know each other better.Sonny,you know you're a charmer around those baseball stadiums!.

I met him last year when he pitched about 6-7 games. I went to all the games he pitched. It was my first year pitching for the team on Long Island and I just loved watching him and wanted to talk with him to pick his brain. We have hit it off and he has been very supportive helping me with my game, he is also becoming an awesome pitcher with an ERA this year of about 2.00.

Not a good night for Brooklyn last night they lost Game One of the best of three Semifinal series.
Now they are in a must win situation and have to win the next two. They are going up to Mahoning Valley this morning for the next game today. A loss in either game would end our season, but if the Cyclones can win both games, the team will return home to face either Staten Island Yankes or Lowell in the Championship Series.
My boy did not pitch yesterday, Cyclones ace Mark Cohoon pitched and got the loss. But he pitched 7 strong innings, he allowed three runs on five hits. He did not walk any batters and struck out I think it was eight. I have also met this kid a couple of times this year and he pretty much eats sleeps and lives pitching.

Mark got very little help from his offense they only got about five hits. I was a little surprised that the park was not packed, there were a lot of empty seats which sucks. Come on Brooklyn fans support your team.

I have not yet watched last nights Mets game, maybe later I will write about it

 

[syam24]

Before I forget, as we switch sports seasons, a big THANKS to Sonny for heading up this thread once again. It's great to commisserate with fellow Mets fans about our losses, injuries, and of course, our victories, small or large. Looking forward to see how the young Mets fare these final days of '09, hopefully giving us a bright look at the future. As I go forward to root on the Giants and Rangers in coming weeks, Let's Go Mets!!!

 

[NYDan815]

ah where we start to drift apart with football...
mets will always have a place in my heart and i will watch the rest of a disappointing season...
i go to root for a myriad of unsucessful NFL teams, including my beloved Jacksonville Jaguars (i know, random) and my 2nd best Atlanta Falcons. (even more random that im born and raised in NYC...=P)

 

[sonny10305]

Syam, thanks for that, it has been fun.
NY Dan, better luck with your football this year than ya had with the Mets

Pat Misch did not start his outing very well yesterday but what is important is how well he rebounded, completing six innings with just one more run.
Josh Thole was solid behind the plate, although I was baffled by the way he framed pitches that were nowhere near the strike zone. I also noticed that he is not fooled by pitches; his relationship with his pitcher is spot on. I liked that and the way he gets to the balls with ease. He is a work in progress and I love what I see so far.

I am a little concerned for David Wright. He looks beat and seems to get confused at times. For example, in the first he had the chance for a double play that would have ended the inning with no runs scored. But he made a bad throw to Murph and messed that up big time. Even more odd was why he did not have the sense to get the runner going to second; it would have been an easy double play, dono why he went to first. I hope David is not suffering from any residual effects from that concussion cause he seems to be out of sorts a to me.

Ron and Keith did ok without Gary, but the big man was sorely missed. It was very loose and relaxed but missed a certain something. I rate it a B-

I hated the "silent sixth" on Wednesday where there was no commentary at all just the sounds of the crowd, kinda goofy, did not care for that at all. All this new stuff SNY is doing is getting weird and must stop.

I absolutely loved Kevin Burkhardt talking to with Josh Thole’s dad. It was for me the best part of the game.

I am bummed because The Cyclones lost again yesterday and have been eliminated. It was especially sad for me cause Brandon Moore who has been pitching so well (including a no hitter last month) got the loss.
The Cyclones finished the season 45-30, and went 0-2 in the postseason. This was the sixth time they made it to the playoffs in nine seasons. We wil get em next year.

I am starting to get those OMG the baseball season is almost over blues. My season on Long Island is done, The Cyclones are done and the Mets have only a little over three more weeks of play.

Hold me

 

[sonny10305]

Ouch, could the Mets pitching gotten any worse than it did last night.
Just as I thought we were making ground with the new “Fab 5” they have sunk to new levels of bad pitching. Bobby Parnell was dreadful, just awful. Usually I like to find at least something good in a bad performance to write about, but not this time, he was a total train wreck. I dono how he went five innings. I said it before and I will say it again the kid is not ready to be a starter. But it did not stop there; he got worse with Lance Broadway, Sean Green and Pedro Feliciano who continued the blood bath.

Angel Pagan continues to make me nutz, what the Hell was he thinking in the seventh when I guess he forgot how many outs there were and got thrown out on a double play ball. He makes me absolutely crazy cause once again he was effective at the plate last night. We just gotta let someone else run for him.

I so wanted to mess up the Marlins chances as they did to us for two years in a row. Giving them the sweep was the last thing I wanted.
Speaking about the Marlins would someone please give Ramirez a new helmet, that disgraceful looking thing on his head is so filthy, it makes him look like a fool, no class no respect. Take that thing and get it cleaned up or throw it away.

Tonight The Mets will be in Philadelphia for a four games series, first up Figurea and Hamels

 

[sonny10305]

Another one of the fab five goes down.

Nelson Figueroa pitched 5 innings allowing 15 base runners, which included nine hits and five walks and one hit batter. But he only gave up two runs, keeping the team in the game. He pitched himself out of trouble a few times and we could have had a better chance of a win had we gotten run support. But there was no offense, AGAIN!
Cole Hammels, who the Mets usually own, dominated last night. The Mets could not even see what was clear to me and that was Cole’s approach, with his fastball up and in and then high with that awesome change up.

Even Pagan who has been hot at the plate went 0-for-4.

So I am not felling bad bout Figueroa’s outing cause it was not really bad, just not pretty although he kept the Phillies down to two runs. He did struggle through just about every inning and what concerned me was his anger. He seemed upset, cocky even, making gestures obviously aimed at the umpire for his strike zone. But he was mostly irritated and not havin much fun out there.

So now we have lost four in a row, and are 19 games behind the Phillies. Not that it really means anything but if you do the math one more loss and the Mets are officially eliminated. Which most of have felt happened a while ago.

Today it’s Peltey and Moyer. Can Big Pelf repeat?

Daniel Murphy will not take the winter off, he will play winter ball for Leones del Escogido, good for him, way to improve your game there Murph.

 

[syam24]

Well, although Pelfrey gave up some long balls today, after being given a 4 run lead, at least the Mets toughed out a victory against the Phillies bullpen, which is in rough shape right now. David Wright reawakens with 2 clutch homeruns!! 6 RBI, a week's worth for the Mets. We've certainly missed more performances like that this season. Even Beltran got back into the act with a roundtripper. Nice win going into tomorrow's twinbill.

 

[sonny10305]

Syam I wanna take it another step and say it was a great game

It had it’s good moments and s not so good, once again, Pelfrey as not on his game allowing eight runs and ten hits in his six innings, plus he came close to blowin that four run lead the boys gave him. We saw Pelf fall behind in the count to often, he did not command his fastball, which was not over the plate. His secondary pitches, such as they are, were not effective. At least he only walked one and did not hit any batters.
Frankie Rodriguez gave us a no drama 9th inning save, usually in that spot he would allow a couple of base runners, ya know, just to fuck with us.
I guess we can say the Phillies are now the new blown save queens of the NL east.

Of course the hero of the game was David Wright with two, count em two, home runs, and six RBIs .How great was it to see David come back to life. Then there was Beltran who also had a great day, Carlos and David back in the lineup together how great was that to see.

I also need to give a shout out to Daniel Murphy who made an awesome play in the seventh, turning that misplayed ball into a double, and then stole third and scored on a groundout. Wait there was more Murphyanics in the eighth, when he singled Beltran home which set up that Wright blast that put us ahead. Those are the things that win games, along with how the Mets were finally able to play some long ball yesterday.

I went out after the game and had a tough time not boring my date with details of that game. I mean I just could not come down from the high.


Today is nothing but baseball for me, a double header with John Maine on the mound for game one. I am so excited to see John pitch. I wonder what he will be like and how well he will do. Of course after yesterday to have John pitch a gem and win the game would be beyond awesome. I just hope Manual has the good sense to pair Maine up with Schneider; John will need the veteran calling the game and keeping him focused.
BTW, pitching for the Phillies in game two is Pedro Martinez. That will be a little weird to see our boys face Pedro but for sure it will be fun.

 

[NYDan815]

.......
anyone else think that if pedro was on our team, he would be 0-5 with an ERA around 7.82?
instead of 5-0 with an ERA of 2.87...

 

[syam24]

Great pitching by Pedro last nite, a real professional job, what pitching, not throwing, is all about. Sorry the Mets didn't bust him, but he was on his game last nite. Mets bats back in the dustbin.

 

[sonny10305]

Dan, I wondered abut that as well
Pedro has to be lovin it. He is bitter about the way the Mets treated him when he wanted to come back. Although he did say “l feel horrible for the guys, the players…I feel bad for the city, I feel bad for the fans. Everybody has ups and downs. The Mets had three pretty good years. We had a lot of talent, a lot of support, we let them down, and now this year, the health hasn’t been there. This year I thought they had everything they needed.” Nah Pedro you’re lovin this.
Jerry Manuel still stands by the Mets’ decision not to sign him, Jerry said “I thought we did all we could do. We just got hit so quickly by those injuries. Then we still had some people in place. We had Nieve who came in and pitched very well. We had a lot of things we thought were in place. We didn’t realize we were going to get hit at the degree that we got hit. You could never foresee that type of thing.”
In other words, the Mets did not want Pedro.

So we lost both games yesterday
John Main returned and while he was far from great he was not all that bad. What I saw was he did not throw his off speed pitches for strikes, threw a lot of change ups. but he had good command of his fastball, I liked the way he was able to work both sides of the plate. His velocity was in the low 90s which is less velocity than before he went down. But I liked that he used all of his pitches and showed no sign of stress. His arm is fine!
He threw too many pitches, 20 in just the first inning, and had used up his pitch allowance by the third inning. All in all I thought he took a step forward and firmly believe he will have a great outing next time up. This was a test for him and he had to be nervous, he now knows he can pitch anything without pain and will move towards getting his velocity up. I was encouraged by what I saw yesterday. John has a lot to prove and theses games are very important, I am sure he knows that the Mets could opt to non tender him and just let him go next year. I also want Schneider to catch for him next time. Thole was very good with Maine and John did allow Josh to call the game, Josh was blocking balls behind the plate, and looking like sharp but I think Brian would be better for him. Thole also had an outstanding day at the plate going 4-4. Man, this kid is on fire.
I was not impressed with Tobi Stoner who came in and got hammered, lance Broadway faired better, at least he was able to pitch out of trouble.
But after that offensive explosion on Saturday the Mets bats went back to sleep yesterday, must been all tuckered out.

Did not see the second game yet but I will cause I wanna see Pedro pitch.

Off today and then three with Atlanta

 

[sonny10305]

OMG what a pitching performance by the Atlanta pitcher Tommy Hanson who completely dominated the Mets. His stuff is awesome that curve ball was incredible. I don’t gush too often about opposing team’s pitchers but WOW I loved watching him pitch. We gotta steal that kid.
Pat Misch started out ok but soon went into the toilet.

People are asking have the Mets given up and are just going through the motions now counting down the days till October 3rd. I say no way. I think I know these guys well enough to think that would never happen.

The situation they are in now has some interesting facts behind it. The Mets have fewer strike outs than any other team in the league, even with D Wright. (124) they also have the highest batting average with runners in scoring position in the league at .286. BUT they are also 11th in the league in runs scored, and 12th in ERA and have issued the most walks in the league. The Mets have hit only 85 home runs this season. So why with that batting average have we not scored more runs? Well it’s simple, a Lot of those hits with runners in scoring position did not score runs because most of the hits have not been deep enough to advance the runners, plus a lot of guys were thrown out at home, 21 as a matter of fact. Some due to the over aggressive actions of third base coach, Razor Shines and some were the case of guys blowin through the stop sigh and getting nailed. All that coupled our lack of power, poor base running along with a couple of crazy at bats like bunting with a 3-1 count (WHAT?) Of course the pitching has been very inconsistent and the loss of Santana was death for us.

Looks like Maine will pitch again on Sunday and have a higher pitch count. Manual will prolly let him go at east 80-90 pitches.
There is a strong possibility that if Parnell has another bad outing he will be returned to the bullpen. However If he does well, the Mets will go with a six man rotation for the rest of the season instead of making room for Maine. That makes sense, we have little to lose doing that and all the guys can audition for 2010.

The 2010 schedule is in and the Mets will open the season at Citi Field on Monday, April 5, against the Marlins followed by the Nationals,
The 2010 schedule will end with a seven-game Citi Field stand against the Brewers and Nationals, ending on October 3.

Congrats to K-Rod and his wife with the birth of twins.

 

[sonny10305]

How did we loose that one.
Good grief, it’s as if they said, hey we are winning in spite of Parnell. we can’t allow that, lets see what we can do to fuck this up.
Frankie, it’s not ok to blame Murphy for missing that ball, we all know he booted it. But you showed no class calling him on it and blaming him for your blow save. Oh, and Murph…that was pretty bad dude.

Josh Thole, Jeff Francouer and David Wright started things off well in encouraging first inning. But then…..
oh what’s the use of rehashing it. If you did not see the rest consider yourself lucky, just another ugly loss.

As for Parnell he had no command of the ball, and what was going on with his secondary pitches was pitiful.
I doubt we will see that 6 man rotation, prolly send Bobby to the pen.

The good news is the Mets did manage 16 hits, The bad news, they left 14 on base.

 

[syam24]

Didn't see the game, just the ending on ESPN this a.m. Glad I didn't get to see it live. We can't get out of our own way this week.

 

[sonny10305]

syam you got to see the ninth inning which was soooo painful

Well at least Daniel Murphy had nothing to do with last night’s loss. I was so pullin for him to do well after what happened on Wednesday. Danny came through with three hits, including a home run, which tied him for the team lead with 10. I am a big Murphy fan you guys have seen me write about him a lot. The kid works as hard as any other player in the game. Kevin Burkhardt said Daniel can tell you which pitches he got from every pitcher in every game he has ever played in. A walking encyclopedia of baseball. You just don’t wanna see a kid like that fail, he is a work in progress, especially at the plate, and his power is beginning to show. He obviously needs work in his defense. But no one works harder. I just hope the Mets keep him around in 2010. The problem will be where to lay him if Delgado comes back or if the Mets decide to go after a another first baseman I know one first baseman will be in contention for that first baseman’s job in 2010, look for Ike Davis to make a big impact on the Mets next year. I have written about him as well having seen him play with the Cyclones many times and having had the pleasure of speaking with him on a few occasions in Brooklyn, he is a really sweet and humble kid. Davis was just named the Mets Sterling Minor-League Player of the Year, which is their organizational player of the year. He finished up AA hitting .309 in 55 games.

Nelson Figueroa had trouble with the Braves all night then they got him figured out completly and by the fifth inning he was toast and the Braves knocked him around pretty bad, six runs on 9 hits.

Are you guys noticing that the Mets are swinging at everything the last few days, or is it just me?
Even that homer Murphy hit was a ball, I thought, jezz that ball was so out of the strike zone what is he hitting at? But then a second later I thought, oh wow, he turned on it, and got all of it. Those are little nuggets that fill me up in a ball game.

So as I predicted yesterday, Parnell is going back to the pen. But I don’t want to see him in relief right away, let him work on his game in bull pen sessions for a while before bringing him in to pitch in relief. He needs big time work on his secondary pitches. Good luck Bobby.

So we got swept twice, Marlins and Braves. Hey, weren’t we supposed to be the spoilers here? Guess not.

Nationals series starts tonight. At least we won’t have another Martinez type embarrasemt, cause Livan Hernandez will not pitch in this series. I mean come on, after what happened with Padro do we really wanna chance getting beat by Ivan? That would be NO

 

[sonny10305]

WE CAN’T EVEN BEAT THE FUCKIN NATIONALS!

Sorry, I need to get that out.
Big Pelf was not all that bad but I recall writing about that sinker of his in other posts. It just doesn’t sink. But at least he went deep, seven innings, not bad. Oh, and no walks, again! I liked the way he threw the curveball, nice variation around 77 MPH. He just needs to mix in a change-up, don’t ya think? I still think Brian Schneider is the best catcher for Pelf, he is a great game receiver and knows Mike well. To bad his bat doesn’t work,
hey at least he is now hitting just above .200
Thole is clearly the future for the Mets, he has some things to learn but he will get there. Santos is only #2 will never be anything more.

Oh yes and good grief, another Mets base runner gunned down at the plate. Are we going for some sort of record here?

Nice and exciting ninth to try and get the come back win, just fell short when Fancouir could not get it done. Poor Jeff I felt his pain that had to hurt. To bad too, cause he has had three hits in a game, five times in his last seven games and all with a torn ligament in his thumb.

More Cyclones news, one of my favorite boys Mark Cohoon has been named the Brooklyn Cyclones' 2009 Sterling Award winner, which is basically the team's Most Valuable Player. Mark led the League with nine wins (9-2), with an a 2.15 ERA.
Yesterday I told you about my boy Ike Davis but forgot to mention Kirk Nieuwenhuis who was named the Sterling Award winner for St. Lucie.
These guys are our future, I have watched them develop and look forward to seeing them in the majors.

 

[sonny10305]

Man it was great to se Redding pitch so well yesterday. Prolly should not have stretched him out into the eighth but Damn he looked good. He had a really good fastball, and something you have read me say many times, and that is how important the difference between the off-speed pitches and fastball is. Well Redding had that all going on yesterday, the Nats were swinging at balls late a lot of the time. That’s how ya do it.
Green seems to be pitching better since he dropped his arm angle,
now if he could only work on that throw to first.
Hadda love that play in the ninth inning that Castillo made, a thing of beauty.
It was also nice to see D Wright steal a base again. He has not done that since coming off the DL. I worried he was apprehensive about the slide.
Francoiur continues to be outstanding, and how great that Church trade has turned out to be.
Nice win, we needed that.

Today is a BIG day for Maine, question is will he continue to be sharp and the old Johnny return. I thought he was excellent in that outing last week and saw something in his pitching I had not seen in a while. This time he won’t be at all nervous, will not fear any return of pain and will have the confidence to throw all of his pitches effectively, no holding back. What a great shot I the arm for us if he can be Johnny Maine again. He should be able to go deeper in the game as well I would expect Manual to let him pitch at least 90 pitches today. Let’s just hope it’s over several innings, I would hate for him to crash and burn today.

I won’t see the game live cause I am heading out to Brooklyn this morning to join up with a couple of my Cyclone boys and Team Sandy for the annual Heart walk. It is for charity to fight heart disease and stroke. Between the three of us we have a ton of supporters all donating money for us to walk for this great cause. This year I am doing the longer 3.5 mile route. Both of the Cyclone players are doing the longer route and asked me to do that as well. Last year I only did 1.5 and felt I could have easily done more