213 Miles From Shea

According to SiriusXM radio, Jose Reyes is a Miami Marlin. The Florida, now Miami Marlins have been going strong for this past week for Jose.

It is worth this note though. Only this twitter from SiriusXM and Metsblog, via that same link, are saying that Jose has signed with the Marlins. All other sources, as of 4:32 on November 13th remain silent on the subject.

Update 4:48

No one else has come out in support of this.

I remain skeptical, not just because I am a Mets fan but Dino Costa of XM was the same person who reported that the Mets signed Matt Holliday.

Update 5:23

Hold Up:

Joe Capozzi Tweets that Jose has NOT signed with the Marlins. He is a Marlins beat writer.

Update 5:31

Link

The Marlins have reportedly offered contracts to Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols, and Mark Buehrle and they have expressed interest in Ryan Madison.

Are they the 2005 Mets?

Going into 2005, the Mets brought in a new manager to bring a new sense of energy into the franchise (and a new GM to spur this, which is probably the largest reason for why the Marlins are not the Mets) in Willie Randolph. These Marlins have brought in Ozzie Guillien. The Mets made offers to, signed, or pursued Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Pedro Martinez. In 2006 the Mets then acquired Delgado and then signed Wagner. For the Mets the off season before 2005 and 2006 were the two offseasons that completely changed public perceptions of how the Mets operated because they looked so similar to the Yankees.

Now we have the same thing happening to the Marlins. While they haven't signed anyone yet, they have pursued 3 of the top, and by top I mean actually the top, free agents for this winter and are already discussing more contracts. They have a new stadium, a new look and they are trying to get a new team to fill in the stands. I'm curious to see how this plays out because it is as if the team is essentially buying the market, and there is nothing wrong with that.

(The Non-Mets fan version of me, or the version of me as an outside of Baseball) would like to see what happens to this team 3, 4 years down the road if they sign all of these players, specifically if they do this quick fix system for a few years. If they do it right, they could be a dynasty but they could end up exactly like the 05, 06, 07 and 08 Mets just as easily. So far the only team of late that has been able to balance spending a lot of money, and trading and farm system development is the Phillies, and I'm not convinced yet that this Marlin model looks like that.

It should be an interesting few weeks….

It took me an extremely long time to get this level of frustration with the Wilpons.

I was raised in Baltimore, and although I was raised a Mets fan, I was generally only around Orioles news growing up. The Orioles hay-day ended as I went to Middle school, as their current slump started. From that time I have been surrounded by a fanbase with a truly awful ownership.

The time in my life when I was able to cognitively handle the politics and business of baseball was when I was in High School. At that point I could start to see how Peter Angelos was strangling a proud franchise. In the middle of my high school career was when the Wilpons made their “win now” movement signing players like Pedro, and Beltran. When I was freshman in college, the Wilpons wrapped up this period of time with the Santana contract.

Since that point of time the Wilpons have really moved away from this mentality.

While I'm fine with not spending a lot of money, I there is something when saving money comes in the way of winning. We shouldn't be giving out big contracts to sign players that flash in pan, but we need to make several key investments.

That is why the Reyes situation is beyond comprehension to me. Not paying Reyes because the team isn't ready yet just seems like a lame excuse. He, Wright, Davis are a strong enough core to help this team out. Plus with the walls moving in, Bay will probably have a much better year.

At this point, if it is the money, and not a baseball reason, why we let Reyes go, then it is time for Wilpons to go as well.

If you look at the Mets roster right now:

1B – Davis

2B – Tejada / Turner / Murphy

SS – Reyes

3B – Wright

LF – Bay

CF – Pagan

RF – Murphy / F-Mart / Duda

C – Thole

SP – Santana, Capuano, Dickey, Gee, Mejia, Niese

Set Up – Izzy

Closer – Parnell

The Mets will look different in a lot of ways next year, even new, depending on how you define the word. First off, there a few players I would group in the category of “key” for the Mets: Reyes, Wright, Santana and Davis. Last season, the Mets tried to play without two of those key players in Santana and Davis. Just having those two players back makes this team look very different, even if the Mets do not do anything else.

The hinge of the entire off season is Reyes. If the Mets resign Reyes, awesome. If the Mets don't resign Reyes, I honestly do not think they will go look for someone else, especially another big ticket item. It looks like Tejada will take over for Reyes, which wouldn't be terrible, but you never want to lose a spark plug / batting champion.

Then there is the conversation about the outfield. Pagan may be changed, so may Duda. There is the possibility that the Mets may explore Sizmore or look at Upton. This is the area why I say the Mets have a new look, outside of the pen. If changes come to the outfield, then they will almost have to come via trade, which will change other areas of the team in unpredictable ways.

Finally there is the bullpen. There really is no point in analyzing this in October, because it almost always changes.

It may be time for some changes to the team. I fully welcome some new position players and new bullpen players to shake up this team a little bit and to work in with the youth injection that is inevitable in the pitching staff.

I wanted to first address the lack of posts recently, and the lack of quality writing in September. I started my career as a teacher this year in Newark, NJ, so in the last few months I moved from Baltimore to Newark (now sorta in Mets territory!), and started a very difficult but rewarding job. If any of you know first year teachers, you know that the first year is a crazy amount of work, which stops me from writing about the Mets.

Anyway let's catch up with some very interesting news with the Mets, the Mets finally made it official that they are changing the dimensions of Citi Field. They are dropping the wall height from 16 to 8 feet, bringing some walls in and getting rid of the ridiculous Mo's Zone. This will definitely change the play of the field, especially for Wright who seems to bounce balls off the wall often, but it will also make a lot of other changes for the team.

At home, Bay seems to hit the ball to Left more than Right. Maybe this move takes off some stress for Bay who always seems just on the edge of breaking out. If anything, I would wait to try to trade Bay for another team's bust player until mid season because I think the combination of physical changes at Citi and mental changes will allow Bay to perform as well as the players around Bay to perform (in other words, this move will help Wright. If teams start to pitch around Wright, maybe they will have to give Bay more pitches to hit).

These wall changes will also change the pitching situation at Citi Field, which will still be a pitchers park. I would be very wary of the Mets making a big pitcher sign this offseason. For the most part these contracts for pitchers are too long and really are too risky. This is supported with the amount of young arms that are coming up through the system.

I'm ready for 2012, and 2011 still isn't over yet.

The Mets and Reds close out the season today as the Mets look to end on a high note. Once again, the story for the Mets will be if Reyes can hold to the league lead in batting average. Today Miguel Batista will be facing Edinson Volquez.

Batista is 1-0 on the season over 21.2 innings of work with an ERA of 3.47. This season against the Reds he has logged 0.2 innings while allowing 2 earned runs. The Reds have the following numbers against him:

Renteria 10-35, 3 2B, HR

Hernandez 4-12, 2B

Cairo 4-8

Phillips 0-5

The Reds will sending out Volquez who is 5-6 with a 5.84 ERA. In his career against the Mets, he has a 7.71 ERA in 14 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Volquez:

Reyes 4-5

Wright 0-3

Harris 1-1, 3B

Let's Go Mets!

Happy Offseason!

The Mets and Reds play game two of this final series of the season as the Mets look to end their slide. To be honest though, the reason we are all watching at this point is mostly to see if Reyes can take the NL Batting title, as he just barely leads Braun. Capuano will get the start for the Mets tonight as he goes against Arroyo.

Capuano is 11-12 with a 4.55 ERA going into his final start of the season. In the month of September he is 1-1 over 4 starts with a 5.66 ERA. In his one start against the Reds this season, he pitched 5.1 innings allowing 6 ER. The Res have the following numbers against Chris:

Phillips 12-26, 3 2B, HR

Renteria 3-18

Stubbs 3-9, HR

Votto 3-9, 2B

The Mets batters will get a chance to look at Arroyo who is 9-12 with a 5.09 ERA. In the month of September, he has pitched 24.1 innings over 4 starts with a 4.81 ERA (he has had two incredible starts and two terrible starts). When he played against the Mets this year, he pitched 6.0 innings, allowed 7 hits, 5 runs, 4 earned. The Mets have the following numbers against Bronson:

Reyes 9-33, 4 2B, HR

Wright 7-31, HR

Harris 6-21

Paulino 6-17, 3 2B

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and Reds open up the last series of the 2011 season tonight as the Mets look to end the season on a strong note. Yesterday, the Mets dropped the series finale to the Phillies, after taking the two previous games. Tonight Schwinden gets the start for the Mets as he takes on Bailey of the Reds.

Schwinden is 0-2 this season in three major league career starts where he has logged 16.0 innings pitched with a 5.06 ERA. He has never faced the Reds or any batters on the Reds team in a major league game.

The Mets will get to see Homer Bailey who is 9-7 this season with a 4.32 ERA. He made one start against the Mets this season where he pitched 4.0 innings, allowing 12 hits and 9 earned runs. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Bay 2-3, 2 2B

Pagan 2-3

Reyes 0-3

Wright 3-3

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and Phillies start a series today in Queens. The Mets are on a high after one of the more improbable comebacks of the year as the Mets scored 6 runs in the top of the ninth against a team that needed to win. So for first time in a while the Mets got to play spoiler against someone else. Anyway, tonight Dickey will get the start as he goes against Hamels.

Dickey is 8-13 on the season with a 3.35 ERA. In the last three starts he has pitched 21.2 innings with a 1.25 ERA. He has only made one start against the Phillies this season where he pitched 7.0 innings allowing 4 ER. The Phillies have the following numbers against Dickey:

Polanco 7-23

Ibanez 7-22, 3 HR

Pence 2-12, HR

Rollins 1-11

Howard 2-4

The Mets will get a crack at Hamels tonight, who is 14-9 this season with a 2.80 ERA. He has been human in his last two starts as he has allowed 8 ER in 12.0 innings of work. Also, the Mets have had his number this year. He has pitched 14.0 innings in 3 games against the Mets, where they have scored 15 ER against him. The Mets have the following numbers on Cole:

Reyes 12-37, 2 2B

Wright 12-32, 3 2B, 3B, 2 HR

Pagan 9-33, 2B, HR

Paulino 4-14

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and the Cardinals finisht their three game series today as the 2011 season continues to wind down. Yesterday the Mets dropped the second game of the series as they lost by the score of 6-5. Today Chris Capuano gets the start for the Mets wile Westbrook gets the start for the Cards.

Capuano is 11-12 this season with a 4.47 ERA. In his last two starts, he has pitched 11.0 innings while allowing only 3 ER. Last year he made one start against the Cardinals where he pitched 8.0 innings allowing only one earned run. The Cardinals have the following numbers against Capuano:

Pujols 17-30, 4 2B, 4 HR

Holliday 8-23, 2B, HR

Berkman 7-19, 3 2B

Molina 2-13, 2B

Patterson 1-9

Jake Westbrook is 12-9 this season with a 4.58 ERA. In his last three starts he has pitched 14.2 innings with a 3.07 ERA. He made one start against the Mets this year where he allowed 2 ER over 8 innings of work. The Mets have the following number against Jake:

Harris 2-10

Pagan 2-6

Reyes 3-7, 2B, 3B

Paulino 0-6

Let's Go Mets!