213 Miles From Shea

There's a lot to report today, mainly being some signings here and there and some other news. Specifically to the Mets, today marked the day when the last section of Shea fell to the ground. the remaining piece of Shea that was left yesterday was basically a section of the ramp. Now all thats left for Shea is to become a parking lot, but news has come out saying that on the parking lot, there will be marks that denote where the plate, bases, and pitching mound was at Shea. Thats a nice mark. The other Mets news, which can be read all over the net today was that the Mets had their vertical jumps today, where Wright impressed with a 34 mark, but Pagan got the high with a 39.

Pagan is starting as a long shot to make the team thanks to Murphy and Tatis, but don't be surprised if he makes his way on the roster some way. He did it last year, impressed in April, then after injury in May could never get back. If his bat looks nice, he will find his way to the bench, and possibly make things really confusing in the Mets outfield.

First, it looks like the Orioles have reached a four year extension with Roberts, at around 10 million a year. This has been rumored for a while that it would eventually happen. Living in Baltimore, I know that Roberts really is the most loved player right now on the roster, no matter what he does, so this is a good PR move for the Orioles. On the Baseball side. Right now Roberts is abover average as 2B go, the issue is how will he be in 4 years. The Orioles have little in the system at 2B, so I think this is a good move on the baseball side as well. This morning, it seemed that Griffy was going to be a Brave according to the Braves Press. The Braves Brass think that Griffy is leaning towards the Mariners. One thing that has been thrown around a lot is that the loser of this will get Garrett Anderson. Hopefully a resolution will be reached soon, because I am tired of reading about Griffy.

Jerry Manuel made a very casual comment the other day that he was going to try changing things in the order to not only give Castillo more confidence but also to make Reyes a better player, because really, you are only the leadoff batter once a game. If only there was a way for Reyes to bat leadoff, and yet still feel like he is batting second sometimes. Well there is a way, its sometimes controversial, but if we are trying new things in Spring, why not try this. Let's bat the pitcher 8th and have Murphy or Castillo bat ninth. Now, in certain situations, Reyes is like the number 2 hitter and he is still a table setter. So a proposed line up could look like this:
   1. Reyes
   2. Castillo/Murphy
   3. Wright
   4. Beltran
   5. Delgado
   6. Church
   7. Schnieder
   8. Pitcher
   9. Castillo/Murphy
(As a note, I would prefer Murphy second, and Castillo 9th only because I think Castillo would be better hitting in front of Reyes because he is more experienced). The downside of a lineup like this is the after the heart of the lineup, the there is a soft spot, but the soft spot gets broken up. What I mean by that is lets assume the Mets get no hits for 2 innings, then 7-8-9 looks terrible usually, but now, there is some hope with 9. Its something that should be tried in Spring Training.
There are other ways to do this as well. For example, if you really want Castillo batting 2nd, you can also put Church 9th and have Murphy go 6th. When Tatis is in the lineup, then he would go great in the ninth spot because he's a veteran and then Castillo would go 2nd. The other benefit of a lineup like this is when you take the pitcher out, you go PH, then 9-1-2, the offense options seem a little more open. Its something to think about.

Over the last few years, a problem the Mets have had to balance in some weird, almost counter-intuitive way was the amount of swagger, confidence, cockiness that they put out on the baseball diamond. Some say they have too much, some say they don't at all. The Phillies say they the Mets play with it and should be punished for it (Jose Reyes) but then the Phillies turn around and it act it out themselves (this whole Team to Beat Drama). The Mets did in 86 and it worked for them. The Mets didn't do it in 69 and 06 and it worked for them. So what is the resolution?

Well besides the age old, cliche, just be yourself. The Mets are going out there with a little more attitude as it was discussed on Mets Merized Online a few days ago. They now have a sign above their club house door that reads “Through These Doors Pass the Best Players in Baseball. New York Mets.” And of course there is Krod who seems to be saying every day that the Mets are the team to beat in the division.  Is all of this good? Is all of this bad? What should we make of all of this nonsense?

Personally, I am a fan of hte sign but not a fan of Krod's comments. The sign is directed at the players and gets them pumped up. When you play in a clubhouse with that sign, you represent that sign, you become the best players in baseball. The Mets have to go out there every day and practice and play with that mentality. With Jose Reyes, his antics usually gets people upset and people say he should tone it down. Thats how he plays. its the joy and excitement of the game, turn that up. With Krod, saying that once was good, saying it twice is questionable. While you want to say you are the team to beat, there is no reason to say it every time. But please, get the troops riled up. Get the Mets angry, get them together as a team. Its us against the world. Every day is a fight. Thats what the Mets need, thats going to get us into October and beyond.

Long time readers of this site probably remember a series of posts last fall where I talked about my experience reffing and working at Raven's M&T Bank Stadium. Well today I had that opportunity again to work in Sports, this time at the Comcast Center in College Park, MD, for a NCAAW basketball game, Rutgers at Maryland.

My job today was working in the concession stand, really no surprises how they day went, but might as well share my experience anyway. The tip-off time was set to be a little after 1:00 and we arrived at the stadium at 10:00. Like most Sport Jobs, we provided shirts for the day (with the Maryland logo on them of course) and paper hats. For the first hour, we got things ready. We got Ice for the soda machines, set up the condiments outside, got the grill and fryers ready to go and stocked every cashier area with lids and straws. Starting about 11:00 is when the cooking got going, which was 30 minutes before the game started. My job for pretty much the majority of the day was a combination of fries and getting hamburgers/cheeseburgers/etc ready to go. As the they came off the grill, I put two pickles on each one, some diced onions, wrapped them up and sent them out.

One of the things I was amazed with is over our 3 hours of serving, I think only a few people brought back their food because something was wrong.Now cooking this stuff isn't rocket science, but none of us really had experience. I have never used a fryer before, but its pretty simple. After the halftime rush things started to slow down and then we started to clean up, scrub and mop.

The more interesting aspects of the day though were leaving and exiting because at Comcast, pretty much all “employees” use the same door. So when I left, after taking out the trash, I was leaving (still with the trash in my hand) with not only the security guards but also the players, coaches, etc. Because Comcast is not as big as an NBA arena (but still large for College, it can get up 18,000 people), when you exit on the ground floor, you can see right on the court. Its the same tunnle that the people who have floor seats who are famous use (for exmaple, yesterday I was there as a fan, and three rows in front of us on the floor was Jon Harbaugh, the head coach of the Ravens). All in all, it was an interesting day. My next assignment I believe will be being a walking vendor at Nationals Park if the group I am with gets a spot, that will probably be the most interesting out of all my perspectives. I might have pictures of this later, with links to my old ones.

The Mets, according to the Daily News, are set to sign Livan Hernandez to a minor league deal for about a million dollars with a million in incentives. This means a few things but first off, the Mets have finally gotten to the point where they are ready to sign Hernandez. The reason I am making a big deal about that is because it seemed like ever since the Mets picked up El Duque in 2006, the Mets were connected to Hernandez so the pitchers can pitch together. Well, they won't get to pitch together this year but the saga of chasing after Hernandez is over.

The real fall out of Hernandez is that no matter how good Pedro does in the WBC, I think this really closes the door on the Mets bringing him back. This is a committment to either Garcia or Redding then either Niese or Hernandez. The Mets had ton of rotation issues last year due to injuries and this is a committment to prevent that from happening again. You have to like the arms race the Mets are in. They aren't racing against anyone, yet, but the more they have, the more legitament options they have to fall back on.

Roto Authority posed a great read today in their article, Spring Training Cliches. This article looks at, so far, who has lost a lot weight, or tried a new work out routine. Its pretty funny because it just lists all of those ridiculous claims that we hear all the time, and who said them. As of now, there are no Mets on the list but there are some familiar faces. For example, Kazmir gained close to 20 pounds. Utley also might have gained about 10 pounds.

If you have a moment today, you should really check out this article.

I am sitting in College Park Maryland right now and it was 70 yesterday, I feel like it will be that way again today. In short, it feels like Spring in College Park and it feels like Spring in baseball land as well as today is the official start for several teams for Pitchers and Catchers. A few Mets pitchers have already taken the mound including Putz and Holt. Before getting to Putz, there has been a buzz around Holt. He really impressed last season in Brooklyn with over 90 K's and an ERA around 1.87. From St. Lucie, it sounds like he is impressing again. He is only 22, so I can't see him making the team this season before September, unless he is lights out during Spring Training. The Mets will want to use him as a starter, which is why he will be spending the vast majority of the year, if not all of it, in the minors. Keep an eye on him though, because people will be talking about him.

Putz threw yesterday as well and he is also impressing. There is news that he is a big upgrade over last year, which makes sense because he's a closer in the set-up role. I have feeling in my gut that as the season progresses I think Krod and Putz will start to be used in tamdem for closing. Its just nice to know that we have these options now (and to thing that in August, we could be getting Wagner back as well). The First Spring Training games are in slightly over 13 days, and we finally, after several long months, have some box scores and stats to sink our teeth into.

With Spring Training so close, and with players already arriving at camp, its time to focus down on a few battles that probably will go on during Mets Spring Training. These are not the only battles, this is more of a taste of what could and will probably will unfold this Spring. The first battle is that last rotation spot. With the rotation set with (but not in any order) Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, and Perez there is one last spot. Originally Redding was signed for that spot, and he is still the front runner for that spot but there are a few people that could take it away from him. Most notably would be Freddy Garcia, who could be a sleeper signing. The other is very young Jon Niese with his devasting curveball. The three of them will be watched closely. I still feel at this moment in time Redding wins out, but he will probably be on a tight leash, especially if Garcia impresses. Niese will most likely start the year in the minors, which is alright because he can still use some time to develop.

Second base shouldn't be much of a battle, but it could become one. Castillo has been getting in shape all winter and hopefully will do really well in Spring and have a good year at second. However, if he starts off slow, and stays slow, the Mets will have to see what are their other options at second. Although Murphy can play second, unless the Mets sign someone else to play OF, he will probably be staying there, so really, this is Castillo's job to lose.

The final battle is a battle on every team and that is filling out the bullpen. The Closer and Setup are assigned, which is nice because last year we started off setup by committee and ended with closer and setup by committee. Feliciano has sure spot and more than likely Sanchez will too, but who will fill it out? The Mets have signed a bunch of pitchers that havn't been making much news, and they will go for these last spots. Sean Green is one of the favorites and then come the younger guys vs the older guys. There will be attention on young guys like Parnell and Kunz, so we will have to see how it goes.

Three of the big names remaining on the free agent market are Manny, Hudson, and Abreu and things could be falling into place for all of them now. There is a rumor circulating, and being reported on MLBtraderumors.com that the Dodgers are prepared to get very active right now and possibly within three days will be signing not only Manny, but Hudson as well. This is a big deal because we know that they have been after Manny for a while, put the the Hudson part is new. The Dodgers have been linked to Hudson so far this offseason, but nothing hasn't really materialized, mostly because of the New York teams. This is a huge offense boost for the Dodgers because in reality, Manny was the bat in the lineup last year, and Hudson would add a lot of pop as well. (Remeber at this point in time both signings are still real rumors). This also puts the Dodgers back on top for becoming the winners of the NL West.

The other big story is that the Angels have been making some room on their roster, and all signs points to them pursueing Abreu. There are rumors that they are in serious talks for him and really although there are a good number of teams after Abreu, no one is pursueing that hard right now. People keep on saying the Mets, but they keep saying that they are not interested. If the price is below four million then the Mets might interested. Abreu got sixteen last year, so I think for the Angels to get him withough any other competetion, they are probably looking at a one year deal, probably around five to seven million. Lets see what happens.

This site is one of the worst forums for politics because its a baseball site. Baseball should not have to have interactions with the US government, but it does. The two should never be mixed and for some reason people push them to be mixed. Of course the issue I am referring to is steroids. Now that baseball has gotten on its game and is policing its self, there is no reason for politics to not only get involved, but given the times (an economic recession, multiple wars abroad, and the elephant in the room which is the energy crisis), politics should not even have time to comment on the steroids situation.

During last night's television address, a reporter, seemingly out of the blue, asked President Obama about how he felt about the Arod confession. The President handled the question very well saying he was disappointed, talked about children and ended the baseball talk right there. Which was great because the last thing we need right now is for the country to get involved in the steroid era. I really wish I knew though what that reporter was thinking. Everyone else was asking serious questions about very serious issues. Next to the failing economy, healthcare and wars abroad, the issue of sterioids in sports is just seems, and I hate to say this, but juvenile.

Baseball is so important right now because it is a way of relieving oneself of stress, and thats the way it needs to be. If have to go through another Mitchell Report and another Congress hearing, we could really lose that. Even if that happened, I know for me baseball will still be a way of getting rid of stress, but maybe not for other people. Lets take a lesson from FDR, who kept baseball going in times of war because the American people needed it and just hope that this Congress chooses to avoid steroids in baaseball, and lets baseball police itself.