Same Results

The second half started last night and nothing has changed. Same beat-up team with another loss, pushing them 7.5 games behind the Phillies. I'm thinking we just need to win games and not worry about the teams ahead of us. The results will take care of themselves.
I'm heading down to the ATL tonight to go to the game and I am thinking of going into the Mets locker room and putting together the line-up myself for Jerry. Hopefully JDog and T the ROP will cause a distraction so I can get it.

Here is what my line-up would look like and I'll explain a couple of things after.

1. Castillo 2B
2. Murphy 1B
3. Wright 3B
4. Sheffield LF
5. Francoeur RF
6. Pagan CF
7. Schnieder C
8. Berroa SS
9. Pelfrey

Berroa? Yes...I like Alex Cora, but he is 7 for his last 39 and it seems like all he does now is ground out to the 2nd baseman. Is it just me or is that what I am seeing? Berroa is a former ROY for the Royals and is younger then Cora and can play everyday, unlike Cora, who at this point in his career is a bench player with a spot start here of there. I say we let Berroa play and see what happens. I can't see this hurting if we do it, do you?

I also put Luis at the top of the order. He has been hitting good, or at least getting Luis Castillo type hits...you know...Captain McSlappy! I like Pagan and his speed, but don't view him as a lead-off guy.

A Different Pedro

It is official...Pedro Martinez is now a member of the Phillies. Oh well...no biggy. During he press conference he seemed like a much more humble Pedro. Here are a couple of quotes from today's press conference:

"I don't expect to be the same Pedro I was. There have been a lot of innings I've pitched since [the Cy Young years], but I still feel that I can bring something to the table, and that this team needs just a little bit of help."

"I was hoping the Mets would make a move [in the spring] and they didn't, so I decided to wait," Martinez said. "I knew that one of the teams would need pitching at this time, so I waited."

“I have a lot of respect for the Mets organization. I have nothing to say but God bless them, wish them well, I hope they all get healthy and come back and compete.”

“I would love to tell you that, but I can’t hide love, and I have love for those people. I can’t do anything with the hate you have for the Mets fans. That’s between you guys.”

So the new Pedro seems to be alot more reserved then the one of the past. It was his personality that really helped him, so will be interesting to see how he does. He is however on the 15 day DL with a strained right shoulder, but the Phillies expect him to be in 2 to 3 weeks.

The deal is reported to be $1 million, plus $1.5 million in incentives.

I think Pedro is right in that he is not the same pitcher he was during his prime, and that prime was past when he came to the Mets. In 4 years with the Mets he started just 79 games and had a 32-23 record. That averages out to just 8 wins a year.

Here is his year by year breakdown with the Mets:

2005: 15-8, 2.82 ERA, 208 K's
2006: 9-8, 4.68 ERA, 137 K's
2007: 3-1, 2.57 ERA, 32 K's
2008: 5-6, 5.62 ERA, 87 K's

So in the end, he wasn't worth all the money we paid him. Yes he brought excitement when he arrived, but it didn't translate into a World Series win. While I wish his luck, I don't wish him to much luck.

All-Star Game

It was good to see DW5 and K-Rod do good last night during the All-Star game, and while I like watching the game, I am more focused on the 2nd half of the season and the Mets getting back on track.
I do want to vent a little about the All-Star game and the format of the winner gets home field advantage for the World Series.
The whole idea of the All-Star game is really to entertain the baseball fan. Games have always been fun and competitive and continue to be. Why they had to add the whole "This Time It Counts" motto is just riduculous to me. This all goes back to the tie game because they ran out of players. Big freaking deal...so it was a tie, who cares. I believe MLB came up with this whole new approach way to fast, instead of thinking about ideas that would have made more sense.
Here are a couple of ideas:
1. Add 6 more players on each team. While you want everyone to play, it is still an honor to be invited. Those 6 players...make them 3 pitchers and 3 position players if you want, can just add depth and we wouldn't always have to hear about the snub of some players, since all teams need to have at least one player
2. Stop having an overload at one position, that is just insane. Based on the fan vote, the top 3 players from each position and 9 outfield positions should get the automatic invite, with the highest vote getter get the starting nod. If you do that, you have a total of 24 position players. Then add 10 pitchers...5 starters and 5 relievers...now we are at 34 players. Then the manager can add 6 more players, with possibly 1 or 2 of those players getting the nod based on career stats. Someone like a Ken Griffey Jr should have been on the team last night because we don't know how long he will be around. I think it is nice to let these future Hall of Famers have one more go around.
3. World Series home field advantage should either go to the team with the best record or it should alternate NL and AL. While the last 6 World Series are split 3-3 as far as home field advantage goes, but a team that has the best record in baseball has earned that right to host the 1st game of the World Series.
So these are just a couple of thoughts...my 2 cents.

DW5 and Zimmerman at All-Star Game

Check of this video of DW5 and Ryan Zimmerman during BP at the All-Star Game Yesterday: DW5 and Zim

The Second Half

Technically we are already in the 2nd half of the season. The Mets have played 87 games already and have 75 games...half way is 81 games, so we are 6 games into the 2nd half technically...but who cares...All-Star Break is the start of the 2nd half.

So how do things look for the 2nd half? Well the Mets have 75 games left with 27 games against the Phillies, Braves and Marlins. What sucks about that is the fact that 17 of those games are on the road and only 10 at home. Here is the breakdown:

Phillies: 4 home / 4 away (includes doubleheader on 9/13 in Philly)
Atlanta: 3 home / 7 away (starts with 4 games in ATL on Thursday night)
Marlins: 3 home / 6 away (doesn't matter where we play this team, they seem to have our number)
I didn't bring up the Nats, because they don't really count.

The 2nd half starts with a fun 10 game road trip with 4 in ATL, 3 in Washington and 3 in Houston...the Mets then get 10 at home with 4 against the Rockies, 4 against the DBacks and 2 against the Cards.

The toughest stretch will be from August 18th through August 30th when the Mets get 3 at home against the Braves, 4 at home against the Phillies and then 3 at Florida and 3 against the Cubs...seems like an ungly stretch to me.

Hopefully this will be a productive 2nd half and we can get Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Putz, Maine and Wagner back to help us bring it home in September.

Pedro A Philly?

It is looking more and more like Pedro Martinez will be signing a deal with the Phillies. Reports have him in Philly to take a physical. While we can all hate him for being a Philly, we can't totally blame him, Omar never made a move to try and resign him, when he should have over the course of the first half of the season.
But anyway...he may soon be a Philly, so I look forward to telling him "The Mets are his Daddy!"

Rotation Set

Jerry has set up the rotation for after the All-Break:

Against Atlanta:
Thu: Perez
Fri: Pelfrey (I'll be there)
Sat: Santana
Sun: Nieve

Against Washington:
Mon: Hernandez

According to Jerry, any of the starters who have 3 bad outings will be replaced by Jon Niese. 3? I don't think we have enough time to give these guys 3 bad starts to turn it around. Plus, what is a bad start? Is it a loss? What if Ollie gives up 5 runs in 3 innings on Thursday night and the Mets win 6-5? Is that a bad start?

Trade....2 Games Down

While it is only 2 games since the trade of Church for Francoeur, but so far, Francoeur seems to be doing a little better.

In 2 games, Francoeur is 4 for 9 (.444 average), with 1 double and 2 rbi's...and Church is 1 for 9 (.111 average), with 1 rbi. Yes, I know this is only 2 games, but that is all we have to go off of for right now since the we are now at the All-Star break. One positive, the Mets are 2-0 with Francoeur and the Braves are 1-1 with Church.

The big test for Francoeur will be this coming week as the Mets head down to Atlanta for a 4-game series. This is going to go 1 of 2 ways...One, Francoeur will be lights out and stick it to the Braves or he will be so mentally spent from being in Atlanta again that he will fall flat on his face. It is much like Glavine when he returned to Atlanta...lots of memories and just couldn't get it done. So this should be an interesting test for Jeff, and the Mets as well.

The Trade

I've been trying to wrap my head around the trae of Ryan Church to the Braves for Jeff Francoeur. I didn't know what to think at first, but I am starting to warm up to the idea.
Here is a a quick view of why I am leaning toward liking this trade, albeit that Frenchy performs in NY.

1. Francoeur is only 25, compared to Church at 31
2. He is a Gold Glove winning outfielder and at Citi Field we need good defensive outfield becuase of the size of that outfield...Church has agreat arm, but he is not a Gold Glover
3. This is his 4th full season, has played on a regular basis all 4 years...Church is injury prone, and has only played in 504 games since 2004, whereas Frency has played in 631 since 2005
4. He has 129 career doubles and at Citi Field, he will get a ton of those
5. He has 78 career home runs, compared to only 49 for Church...he can hit the long ball and we need that...he has hit 29 in a season, compared to Church's career high of 15
6. People say Jeff strikeouts alot, but this year he only has 46, compared to DW5 who has 85

I liked Church and hate to see him go...but with this trade we got younger and better in the outfield. I welcome Jeff to NY and wish him the best, because we need his best. I will be in the ATL next friday night and it should be interesting to see how Jeff reacts coming back to Atlanta in a Mets uniform.

ADDITIONAL:
This is from Mets fan Ernie DeFalco in NY...he posted this on his Facebook page...Ernie and I went to High School together (Drew):
It is a nice job by Omar. The reality is, this team is not going anywhere. So the fact he was able to get ANYONE for church, let alone a 25 year old who has already put up similar numbers as the 30 year old church is a good job. We really cannot worry about this year at this point. It is about the future, here is what I would do now with these Mets:
1. Release Tatis
2. Let Murphy and Evans platoon at first
3. Let Reed and Pagan platoon in CF
4. Frenchie and Sheff play everyday in RF and LF... Read More
5. Trade Livan for anything, let Niese be the five guy. Lets find out now if the kid can pitch in the bigs.
6. When the deadline nears, if the Mets are out of it, trade Sheff to an AL team. Trade Beltran for some arms, and trade the rights to Carlos Delgado (which they shoud have done in the offseason).

Build around Wright and Reyes and hope they can find it. And also hope HGH/Steroids were not on any of thier menus.

Interesting take by Ernie...I'm good with everything except the Beltran move...we need a guy, when not hurt, that can cover right-center to left-center in that spacious Citi Field outfield.

Tonights Line-Up and other Thoughts...

Here is the line-up for the Mets tonight as they face-off against the Reds.

1. Angel Pagan CF ($575,000/yr)
2. Alex Cora SS ($2,000,000/yr)
3. Daniel Murphy 1B ($401,000/yr)
4. David Wright 3B ($7,750,000/yr)
5. Ryan Church RF ($2,800,000/yr)
6. Jeremy Reed LF ($925,000/yr)
7. Argenis Reyes 2B (n/a)
8. Brian Schnieder C ($4,900,000/yr)
9. Fernando Nieve P ($414,000/yr)

Notice I put the salaries for all these players. Only one I could find was Argenis. That adds up to $19,765,000 in salaries for 2009. Carlos Beltran makes $19 million by himself. This just shows how bad they are hurting. Lets hope some magic happens these next 3 game before the All-Star break.