New York Mets 2012

[sonny10305]

So now we have yet another star in the making in Valdespin he joins a team full of Major League confidence. I like his bat and speed on the bases and his footwork around second; I think he will steal a lot of bases as well. I don’t yet see him as a threat to Murph however when you think of all that Daniel has contributed since his coming here and it has only been a few weeks for Jordany although he is in the lineup tonight against the lefty instead of Murph. My only concern for Valdespin is he has a big time attitude one mighty even call him cocky which does not fit in with the rest of the “team players”. If it gets any worse I am sure some of the veterans will sit him down and read him the riot act before he turns into another Lasting Millings, remember that jackass?
He needs to listen more and grow up a bit then he will be fine.

Speaking of the roster most of our injured guys are making progress Ruben Tejada went 0-for-4 playing a second straight full game at shortstop in A St. Lucie and should be moving to AAA Buffalo tomorrow. Ronny Cedeño made a fifth straight start for Buffalo on Tuesday, going 1-for-5 with an RBI. He is expected to be activated from the DL on Friday in time for the Yankee series.
So I go back to the question of what happens to the roster when they return, Quintanilla for one is out of options and must be exposed to waivers before being sent to Buffalo, but chances are good that he won’t get through which would preserving his spot. So what happens guys like Valdespin will be interesting. One spot is still very much up in the air and that is Jason Bay who underwent an MRI and a second day of exams by doctors yesterday we are still waiting for word, what is troubling is that no news probably ain’t good. As Gary Cohen said, if the news was good we would have heard it by now. Speaking of Cohen he will take a few days off and Kevin Burkhardt will do his usual outstanding job filling in doing the play by play. Kevin will be in the booth tonight and Friday, tomorrow is a day off and Sat/ Sun are network games on Fox and ESPN so SNY won’t be covering those games Cohen rejoins to the booth on Monday in Chicago.

Tonight’s lineup, Andres Torres, cf Jordany Valdespin, 2b David Wright, 3b Scott Hairston, rf Vinny Rottino, lf Ike Davis, 1b Justin Turner, ss Mike Nickeas, catches Dillon Gee. I am so looking forward to seeing Turner play again since he got hurt he was on fire when it happened and we are all hopping he returns to form tonight.

Um, Murph…whatcha doin with that Phillies cap in your back pocket?

 

[syam24]

Nice sweep of the Birds of Baltimore, great pitching, even the bullpen didn't implode. Now it's time to spank the Yanks! Let's go Mets!!

 

[sonny10305]

Just a quick post before headin over to Aberdeen where the Cyclones play the IronBirds tonight.

Well, its official Ike Davis is back~ Gary Cohen
Ike (start me up) Davis has had continuous games with good at bats and of course two homers. His defense continues to shine as well witnessed yesterday by that awesome stretch to catch Turners ball to get Jeter.
Now Murphy needs to step it, up he feels he is going to rebound quickly based on his good BP and encouragement from DWright. I was a little ticked with Collins for keeping Daniel out 3 games in a row bur after speaking with Murph about it I get that Collins has changed his thinking about having a steady lineup going out there every day and instead play righties and lefties against opposing pitchers. Everyone including Murphy and Nieuwenhuis get that and are on board with it. Murphy will be playing tonight against the righty.
Murph promised on his next day off to come on out to see the Cyclones and spend the day with us, as you know he was on the Cyclones which is where I first met him and has loads of friends there.
Tuesday is t-shirt Tuesday in Brooklyn and if you want to vote for Murph text MURPHY to 51684
Yeah in case you are wondering I did tell him he looks like a 70s porn star with that stash but his response is not something I can post here in family friendly JustUsBoys I love teasin Murph it’s just so easy. Collins went on to say about Murph that the goal is to win games now, but he also knows she needs to let him play out of his slump as he did with Ike.

So I’m guessin by now you heard about Frank Francisco and that whole Yankees chicken remark. Lemme tell you guys that’s is just Frankie being himself, off the field he is just a big ole lovable teddy bear who likes to have fun his teammates just likes to tease. In no way did he mean anything mean spirited he was just having a little fun at the Yankees expense and that’s all. And man oh man did the guys in the clubhouse ever have fun with it. Wacky Justin Turner loaded up any and all chicken lyrics to blast in the club house and when Francisco walked into the clubhouse a bunch of the guys greeted him with “the chicken dance” but the winner had to be crazy wacky Tim Byrdak, who went to Chinatown and bought a live chicken, which he brought into the clubhouse. Later he realized now he had to get rid of that chicken and said "Don't want to see him get whacked, please help does anyone live on a farm that could take a chicken off my hands?" I know I have told you guys about Tim, that boy is always getting into it just a wild and crazy dude.

I cannot wait till Sunday for that CC/RA match up, fortunately the Cyclone game in Aberden is at 5:45 and the Mets game starts at 8pm so I outta be able to see most of it live.

 

[sonny10305]

So we have a few expected roster changes now that Tejada and Ramierez are back from the disabled list. Jordany Valdespin has been demoted and returned to AAA, also designated for assignment is Vinny Rottino and in a very good move Justin Hampson has been brought up, that gives us a very much needed second lefty in the pen. With Frank Francisco now on the disabled list with a strained left oblique. Bobby Parnell and Jon Rauch are prolly gonna do the closing. Then it will be interesting to see what the Mets do after the All-Star break in the trade market to help our bullpen, they gotta do something cause our pen is kinda scary. We also need some right handed hitting David can’t do it all. Maybe Bay who starts his rehab games next week will come back and surprise us…hey, like they say in the lottery, ya never know.
Francisco btw will be a free agent at the end of this season

Speaking of Tejada it was great to see him return back in form yesterday going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, he never missed a beat and you would never know he was out so long, as I have said before….Jose who? .

The Valdespin move makes a lot of sense and I was sorta relived to see that happen. First of all we don’t really need a lefty second baseman we have one by the name of Daniel Murphy, perhaps you have heard of him. Also we have Turner a righty who also plays the position rather well, Having Jordany here was taking playing time away from Murph and with him in a little slump that is the last thing he needs Murph needs to work out his problems by playing every day and Jordany needs to play regularly as well if he is to master the craft and going to AA will give him that so a win win. The other problem I have with Jordany is his attitude I believe I touched on that last week, the kid needs an attitude adjustment he is too cocky for his own good and needs to come back down to earth and humble himself a little. There is no place in our clubhouse for an attitude like the one he has it does not fit in with the rest of the team. When he first came up I was impressed and thoight maybe a new star is born so let’s hope he makes adjustment and starts behaving with a bit more humility if/when he returns, if not well… I will leave that to the other boys.

I told you about the chicken story with Byrdack the other day where after his little joke found himself with the chicken and what do with the little bugger. They even named it little Jerry Seinfeld, well it all worked out just fine as it has been given to a farm in upstate NY. Just as a side note to this goofy story it turns out that Francisco has a chicken farm down home in the Dominican Republic he raises fighting chickens its legal there.

Ike Davis feeling fine now after two days with a case of some sort of food poisoning. Ike loves fish; I mean he LOVES the stuff and eats a lot of it, on any given day off you will find him fishing somewhere. Apparently Saturday he got a bunch of, I’m not sure if it was oysters or Clams, and got really sick about 2 hours before the game on Saturday, yesterday he felt better and did come to the park available to PH. Ike of course hopes to continue his road back to his ole self after he hit his eighth home run of the season against Andy Pettitte in Friday’s game. Ike is in the lineup tonight against the lefty

If our guys look a little tired tonight its cause those poor kids had a rough flight to Chicago after the game last night and did not get in till 4am

 

[sonny10305]

Well I did tell you guys the boys were gonna be tired last night
I’m sympathetic as one of the guys described the series as exhausting not so much playing but the entire hoop de do surrounding the game. The excitement at Citi for those games was beyond anything most of them had ever seen or experienced, that series will stay with them for a long time. Then there was that grueling plane trip after the game most of the boys did not get to sleep till after 5am. I’m not making excuses I’m just sayin it was something else and they totally get a pass from me for last night I mean when Wright drops a ball …come on.

Daniel Murphy said the first order of business for him when he gets to Chicago is to shave that thing on his lip, he is so sick of all the comments and people looking at that instead of his face when they speak to him. It’s time for it to go, I understand Murph you gave it a shot now please don’t ever do that again

With the Mets having the day off on Monday SNY will televise live from Brooklyn at 7 pm when the Cyclones take on Hudson Valley. who we shut out last night 3-0 So come on out to Coney Island and watch the guys live or watch em on that TV machine. We have an awesome pitching staff this year lead by Luis Mateo that I am sure you will be impressed with.
We have Brandon Nimmo in the outfield and some very exciting players like P Evans C Frenzel and A Sanchez.
We are currently 6-2 .750 and in first place in the New York-Penn League McNamara.

 

[sonny10305]

Ike Davis finally got off the interstate yesterday batting .201 and going 3-for-5, with four RBIs that included a three-run homer. Oh yeah, the kid is back! In fact in his last 50 plate appearances or so he is batting .353 with a .441 OBP, five home runs, five doubles and 20 RBIs Ike is for sure seeing the ball better and making better choices at the plate you will notice that now he is walking more and striking out at a less, and most importantly he is making more contact.
Now I wanna write about that issue between Ike and umpire Manny Gonzale, while we still don’t know if MLB will fine or suspend Ike for that it is likely to be something lite. Ike meant no disrespect to Gonzalez by touching him it was just a gesture with absolutely no hostile intent; Ike simply reached out and touched him on the arm. How many times are you having a conversation with someone and reach out to touch them it’s a perfectly natural thing to do. Problem is the umpires have a rule against anyone touching them; they are rather touchy about that. Ike did apologize to Gonzalez yesterday before the game, Turns out Gonzalez who was on second the day of the incident was going to be at home plate yesterday. Ike told him he was sorry for touching him with his glove, and that he didn’t mean to touch him, and Gonzales told Ike that he knew he did not do it maliciously. Ike said he thought the conversation between the two was “good” and that he didn’t seem like he was too upset at him. So we will wait until Joe Torre looks at the situation and makes a decision, most think a small fine will be about it and certainly no suspension. The only bug-a-boo here is Ike’s reputation for bitching at the umps something his teammates and friends including myself have warned him against, Torre may want to make a point with Ike considering his reputation for such things but it is not expected to be much. I mention the conversation Ike had with Gonzales because during yesterday game when Ike came up to bat for the first time Ron Darling made the comment that usually when batter comes to the plate for the first time he will acknowledge the umpire in some way but he pointed out that Ike had not done that with Gonzalez, what Ron did not know was that Ike and Gonzales had met just before the game and so they had gotten there little greeting over with earlier. Ron made it appear that Ike was ignoring Gonzalez on purpose which is just not the case. I reached out to Darling and hopefully he will clarify what he said. It bothered me cause Ron made it look like by Ike ignoring the ump he was fueling things which was simply not the case at all.

The other big deal was to see Daniel Murphy finally homer…twice snapping his homer drought, way to go Murph. I guess shaving that stash paid off Since Murph originally grew the thing for the Yankees series and then when went it went badly shaved it off, I have to say the baseball Gods are sending him a message, no more mustache. But Murph insists that he might grow it again someday even though his main reason for taking it off was all the ribbing and attention it got and then there was the Yankees loss so off came the stach, so no more 70s porno style look or as Kevin Burkhardt called it Magnum PI.

 

[Sausy]

I'm still atwitter about the 17-1 thrashing against the Cubs the other day!So good seeing Ike and Murph hitting the ball hard and making big contributions again....Murph had a great night again last night against the Dodgers,knocking in five runs including his third homer....look out,Daniel's on a roll!!!Ruben Tejada is on fire,four hits last night!RA Dickey was back to the super knuckler,or as he calls it "knuckleball on steroids"going 8 innings,allowing just three hits and striking out ten,fifth time this year at least ten strikeouts.Now 12-1,ERA barely 2 he looks primed for the All Stat game,and really looks strong for the Cy Young award right now.

No surprise that Ike apologized to Gonzalez,and I'm sure Ron Darling's calling out Ike unfairly for not acknowedging Gonzalez first at bat was not intentional.From everything I read about Ike,everyone loves the guy...he treats everyone wonderfully...just has to get his frustration with umpire calls under check,and not be demonstrative when a call doesn't go his way.Ike and Murph look back on track,next one hopefully is Kirk,too many strikeouts this past month after such a great start.

 

[Sausy]

Another great pitching performance,this time by Johann Santana who allowed no runs,three hits and had three strikeouts in eight innings.Daniel Murphy had two more hits,shaking off that slump that saw him not playing for a stretch and looking luke the Murph we know.Ike ripped a double and had an impressive three run homer to bring his season totals to 11 homers and 45 RBI,even with his batting average just over .200 now he is happy he is still contributing and that is his goal over the remainder of the season,to help the team win even if it will be difficult to really raise the batting average that much.He has been getting great swings,driving the ball,showing much more patience at the plate instead of flailing at anything that is not in his happy zone,which was his biggest problem while he was deeply mired in his slump.Great to see Kirk Nieuwenhuis getting a couple of hits too and hopefully he's starting to get his focus and discipline back at the plate.

 

[sonny10305]

Well the votes are in and although DWright was leading the race for third base most of the time Pablo Sandoval has been selected to start at third base for the National League at this year’s All-Star Game Wright has made the team as a backup so of course we will see him play. – Sandoval defeated Wright by 1.6 million votes.
Meanwhile, R.A. Dickey has been selected to be part of the National League’s pitching staff in the All-Star Game. The starting pitcher will not be named by NL manager Tony La Russa until the day before the game. Assuming Dickey is named the starting pitcher, he will be paired with Giants catcher Buster Posey, who won the fan balloting

Oh Saucy you made me feel good reading your comments on Ike and Murph I am so proud of those two guys I can barely contain myself.. How about Ike Davis yesterday with that 3 run homer after they walked Dwight to get to him. Just as it happened I turned to my dad and said wouldn’t it be awesome if he made them pay for that? and almost as I said it Ike blasted that homer “That I’ll learn em” said dad Ike Davis' 5 HRs in June with at least 2 players on base is most in month in franchise history. Our boys Ike and Murph have been tearing it up; Murph over his last 5 games is batting .429 with 3 HRs 0 RBIs and 5 runs. Duuuuuuuude!!

Reminder tomorrow at 7pm on SNY you can watch the Cyclones game live from Brooklyn you will want to watch our future Mets stars in action. If you are in NY why not come on out to Coney see the game enjoy the boardwalk and ride the Cyclone, make a day of it. Depending on how late the Mets get in from LA tonight I may have a few surprise guests at tomorrow’s batting practice more on that later.

Kevin Burhardt is taking a well-deserved break with his family he will be back on the air after the All-Star break. We will miss you KB have a great vacation and try to stay outta trouble.

 

[Sausy]

Ah well,at least DWright will be in the game.Dickey also deserves the All Star honor so much as well....bet Posey's never seen anything like RA before!Thanks for the update,sonny...and I wish I culd go to Brooklyn tomorrow and se the Cyclones and have a fun day on the boardwalk,but I know all those fans there will have a blast.Hopefully I can catch some of the game tomorrow evening on SNY.

Well,three out of four is retty damned good but hate the way the defense unraveled tonight,first in the fifth costing Dillon Gee and the Mets two unearned runs and later,in the seventh....Good God...ineffective relief plagued by stolen bases,walks,and a horrid misplay when score 4-3 Dodgers after the bases were loaded,one out Miguel Batista appeared to get out of it when he grabbed a comebacker and threw home to Phil Mickeas,somehow overthrowing him and ultimately three more runs came in to score...third error of the game for the Mets and the ugliest.We used shoddy Dodger fielding to get a 3-2 advantage with the Dodger ace Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw starting but gave it all back and more with our own miserable fielding.Kershaw bore down and went seven innings keeping his team in the game.Just such a pity all the great pitching and play of the last four games had to finish like this tonight.....hopefully we come home and get into the All Star break next Sunday holding our own and staying past Atlanta for second in the NL East.Really frustrating when the guys play like this,but we know they can bounce back strong.

 

[sonny10305]

Yup Saucy a crappy end of what was otherwise a great series in LA but I am not complaining 3 out of 4 ain’t to shabby I just wish that last game was not televised nationally for all the country to see we play better than that it seems the Dodgers defense which really sucks musta rubbed off on us that last game
I too was disappointed that DWright came in second but it is still a great accomplishment and we have to be proud of him. Terry Collins congratulated the guys in private, here is a very amateur video made of Terry congratulating the boys. what the video lakes on quality it makes up for in a close look at the kind of relationship shared by the boys and Collins which I found touching.

 

[Sausy]

Thanks sonny,nice video and even better Terry Collins also will be on the All Star squad,I believe Tony La Russa who's managing
the NL squad has been impressed by the way Terry Collins has the boys playing and invited him to be one of his coaches in the
All Star game.As much as DWright and RA Dickey deserve the honor of being selected to play for the NL,t's such a classy move by La Russa to recognize Terry Collins who has done so much to be positive and get these guys to believe in themselves.He credits being invlved with minor league player development has really made a difference in becoming a better manager.He knew he was too intense and eventually that proved too much for the Angels and the Astros.He retained the passion and intensity but now through working every day within organizations really improved on his personal and leadership skills,knowing when to get tough and when to pull back some...but always demanding the players play hard,play smart and believe in themselves.

 

[syam24]

Nice to see the Mets club the Phillies last nite, especially after a 3 of 4 vs the Dodgers. Great hitting up and down the lineup and a superb effort from Niese. Murphy's 4 hits, DWright's 3 run homer and 4 RBI, and 3 hits from Tejada, super job. Need to keep on a roll thru the All Star break, and we have the chance with the Phils slumping followed by the Cubbies. The starting pitching has been good, and the bats are alive, Murphy in particular has broken his slump in a big way. Let's go Mets!!

 

[Sausy]

Yep,syam...great to see the Mets pounding the Phillies!Big hitting nights by Murph,Ruben Tejada and Josh Thole and a huge three run blast by David Wright to break open the game....even Jonathon Niese got in on the action.11-1 victory coming home after such a shoody performance against the Dodgers was a terrific bounceback.Niese went eight innings allowing three hits and one run,as the Mets made some tremendous fielding plays on the defensive end .Leaping catches by Murph and Tejada and a great reaction play by DWright highlighted the defensive gems.Let's have some more Mets fireworks here on the Fourth...have a safe and happy Fourth of July,everyone!

 

[Sausy]

Oh well,Mets had fun last night but today the Phillies returned the favor.And you KNEW Cliff Lee wouldn't stay winless forever.
He was toughest when he had to be as Chris Young just lost it after six scoreless innings.Gave up three runs,Byrdak and especially Hefner just didn't have it and home runs flew out for the Phillies as the Mets lost an afternoon Fourth of July game 9-2.Hopefully we take two out of three before our weekend series against the Cubs brings us to the All Star break...let's go Mets!!!

 

[Ninja108]

Just wanted to wish a happy post 4th to some fellow baseball fans,even though we root for different teams.
And like some of your losses the past week and a half,I feel your pain. It's one thing to be outslugged or outpitched but three of the games the Yanks lost in the past week were more of the Yanks beating themselves with awful defense. Those are the kinds of losses that drive me nuts.

 

[sonny10305]

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Fourth my thanks to Saucy and Syam for keeping things going here.

Well it’s clear that Chris Young's cannot pitch beyond the 6th inning which is unfortunate, once again h3e came unglued in the 7th yesterday after just 67 pitches. In just seven pitches with homers by Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz the unraveling began. The Phillies just started taking good swings at Young, up to then he was cruising along pretty well. It looks like Chris is vulnerable once he reaches the third time through the opposing lineup, he could be seen missing down a few times and got his pee pee smacked for it. Cliff lee was overdue just too bad he had to do it against us…oh well. We know this year The Phillies are a mess and when Charlie Manual was asked what’s wrong with his team he replied “Everything"

Daniel Murphy (come on, did you think I would write this thread without mentioning the Irish hammer?) anyways Murph who is spraying the ball all over the whole field is batting .438 in his last games and he has become an RBI machine driving in 14 in five starts with nine extra base hits which is the first time a Met has ever done that.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis will not go on the DL as of now, this morning he felt pretty good but will be stay day to day. Kirk did something to his right hand on Wednesday swinging in DP, It is the same hand he previously had surgery on so that will have to be monitored. Jordany Valdespin is up for now to fill in if needed on the bench originally scheduled to replace Justin Hampson on the roster.

Pedro Beato is traveling today he will be available in the bull pen for today’s game, Jeremy Hefner was optioned to Triple to make room for Beato on the roster. Beato is 3-2 with a 1.12 ERA in 16 relief appearances with Buffalo this season.

Mike Baxter's is recovering nicely from that displaced collarbone he left yesterday for Port St. Lucie to begin baseball activities, love hearing that. Mike will hit off a tee today and then start some running he probably won’t see live pitching just yet. It is encouraging news since originally the doctors had predicted a six-week recovery time from the June 1.

Jason Bay will also head down to Florida towards the end of the week to begin his work

The Cyclones won their sixth straight game yesterday with help from the bat of Brandon Nimmo who has 10 RBI in his last five games.

Tonight Dickey and Hamels….oh boy

 

[sonny10305]

Kirk Nieuwenhuis will not go on the DL as of now, this morning he felt pretty good but will be stay day to day. Kirk did something to his right hand on Wednesday swinging in DP, It is the same hand he previously had surgery on so that will have to be monitored.

Update,Kirk is much better today no discomfort and will be in the lineup tonight

 

[syam24]

What a rousing victory last nite over the Phils. DWright with another big game; 2 run HR, game winning hit, following Murphy's key run tying single off the leg of Papelbon, which, if it didn't hit his leg, would have been the game winning hit up the middle. An awesome ninth inning rally. Dickey didn't have his best stuff, perhaps the heat/humidity doesn't work well with his knuckler. Parnell was very effective in the ninth to get the win. Now the Cubbies come to town, can't let down, need to finish the first half strongly. Don't even give the Cubs a sniff at a victory. Let's go Mets!!

 

[Sausy]

What a win for the Mets last night.....amazing at bats and clutch hitting.So many heroes...starting with Ike leading off the ninth having had a lousy game going with a good pitch by Papelbon and ripping it the other way for a double.Thole made a beautiful bunt pushing it towards the third basemen and Jordanny Valdespin was showing great judgement not trying to do too much in the situation and then Papelbon hit him.Kirk Nieuwenhuis had the worst AB of the inning.....he's striking out WAY too much and not showing any of the discipline ghe had in the first month when he was fantastic.....Jordany Valdespin had far more patience.Ruben Tejada of course is so impressive because of his maturity and discipline at such a young age....took the walk to load the bases,made Papelbon work like hell.Then our Murph rips it up the middle bouncing off Papelbon,able to knock it down but having no play at home or first as Murph who joked about his lack of speed nonetheless was busting his ass all out to first.Then David Wright who had already had a great game with an RBI single and an impressive two run homer to left field was strong enough to loop a pretty good pitch to right in front of a diving and failing Hunter Pence.He was mobbed by everyone jubilantly,one of the first rousingly out of the dugout in celebration RA Dickey who really didn't have his knuckler working last night but was proud of his teammates for getting the win.RA's a team first guy,no whining or sulking...said he deserved to lose last night but it was the team able to get beyond that and win a critical game against the Phillies that was what he was most concerned about.Losing two out of three would have been tough as the Phillies are desperately trying to get back on their feet and out of the mess they're in but this was so huge a psychological victory for our Mets.

David Wright mentioned after the game how he thought he had the worst AB of the inning but hell,he was strong enough to take that pitch to right and what a sight to see Hunter Pence diving in futility trying to catch it,having to come in too much to make up the ground.The best thing DWright said was how much fun he was having with these guys,how fun it was to be playing like this....has 11 homers,59 RBI now,and striking out proportionally even less than he did in his great years from 2005-2008.Gotta have David back for a six or seven year extension in the offseason though I fully understand why he doesn't want to have it done now and take away from his teammates....and Murph!How can't you love him the way he's playing now.....confident again,not defensive but attacking when he sees it.I readthat the Mets might think about including Murph in a deal to help the offense but seriously,how?The slump was puzzling butlike he's showing now,like he showed last year before he got hurt....he's going to drive the ball in the gaps,hit line drives all over the place...if he doesn't hit more than 15 or so homers,he won't strike out that much and he'll be your best situational hitter.Who else do we have on the club we can trust like that?Murph may eventually not be the long term answer defensively at second,but for now,and next year at least....the Irish Hammer should shine in Citi Field.And Duda,and especially Kirk Nieuwenhuis should step up and produce...or maybe we should see much more Jordanny Valdespin in the second half,or Matt den Dekker.We need EVERYONE to help out,and keep this going through the second half.

Cubbies this weekend...in the words of syam"Let's Go Mets"!!!