I was just watching Wednesday night's episode of the Colbert Report, were Stephen Colbert was welcoming back his writing staff with a few extra celebrities (like Tiki Barber).
The last writer to come out was Mr. Met, who came out to different music and lights.
I had to share that immediately.
On the first day of spring, lets finish up our journey through the regular 2008 season with a look at the month of September. At this point it will be a year from the horrible collapse. The Mets will get plenty of chances next September to close the book if the race is tight between the Braves and the Phillies. For this entry, the Games will be listed in order that they will be played, because in September, the order of the games is crucial for the postseason birth.
MIL 3
PHI 3
WAS 2
ATL 3
WAS 4
ATL 3
CHC 4
FLA 3
The breakdown of the games is as follows. The Mets will play 25 games, 10 away 15 home. They will play 16 games against teams that were over .500 last season and they will play 7 games against teams that played in the playoffs. That month, they will get the 4th off, the 8th off and the 11th off, and the last game will be on the 28th. The breaks are at good places as one is before the PHI series, one after (before the WAS series) and one after that series before the ATL series.
Playing a four game set with the Cubs at the end of the month should be very beneficial if the Cubs run away with the NL Central, because they will be in rest mode there. So if the season goes down to the wire, the Mets could have the advantage. The Mets have a good mix of important games against rivals and teams that they should aways beat on paper to help them close the book and get into the 2008 postseason.
Pitchers and Cathers report in under 2 hours.
By a weird coincidence, MLB.com was looking in depth at their 2B men today as I was going to do so as well (by using their fantasy rankings). MLB.com recently released their fantasy projections that included projection stats for 2008 for every player that they feel will play in the Major Leagues. They have 73 players listed for 2B, 4 of whom will play for the Mets next year. Just if you were curious, Kaz Matsui was ranked at 24.
Luis Castillo: Ranked 21
Projected: 557 AB, .298 BA, 105 R, 2 HR, 44 RBI, 25 SB
His AB here seem a little high, but his BA and HR seem right on the spot. Spending the whole year in the #2 spot for the Mets, I think he will have above 50 RBI and hopefully more than 105 R. With stolen bases, you never know with this team.
Damion Easley: Ranked 67
190 AB, .246 BA, 20 R, 8 HR, 22 RBI
I agree with these stats because Easley is expected to fill in multiple positions on the fields, so he might have a shot of 190 AB, although that seems a little hight. The rest of the stats seem fair for that amount of AB.
Ruben Gotay: Ranked 68
135 AB, .260 AB, 15 R, 3 HR, 18 RBI
I do not agree with the AB here, I think Gotay will barely get to 100 AB due to health of other players. That being said, I think Gotay can put up these same numbers with only 100 AB.
Jose Valetin: Ranked 70
186 AB, .238 BA, 18 R, 6 R, 24 RBI
These stats make sense because I can only see Valetin making the roster and playing if there is a major injury on the Mets roster. If that doesn't happen, I really hope the Mets stick with Gotay, because the Mets need a mix of Veterans and Youth on the bench. This Gotay vs Valetin battle will be played out in a matter of days and should last all Spring Training.
First off, in the last Minor League Jersey entry, by an oversight, I put the link to the Star Wars jersey for the Mike Lowell link. Here is the real link:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1298/565829992_a1cc7b9e8e_b.jpg
That is Keith Foulke doing a rehab assignment in a Mike Lowell Spinners Jersey.
An anonymous commenter posted on another article that Michel Abreu is 32, not 29 as originally thought. That does lower his stock a bit, but lets see what he does in Spring and he might be a good bench member if he puts up the numbers.
Before I start, I realized recently that on the last post both links are the same, later today I will change that when I have more time. Also, through a comment someone brought up something pretty important about Micheal Abreu, check it out, it should be two articles down. (This too I will put in a separate post later today).
Our Journey through the season has brought us to the dog days of summer. July on paper looked like a pretty easy month for the Amazin's. What about August? Will they their bullpen start to be wearing down? Will the pen being looking forward towards September when rosters expand so they can rest up? Here is a break down of the games the Amazin's play in August:
FLA 6
WAS 3
ATL 3
PHI 2
HOU 7
SD 3
PIT 4
When looking at this list from a perspective of last years' final stats, out of the 28 games (15 away, 13 home), the Mets will only be playing 2 games against a playoff team (5 if you count SD as a playoff team), and they will only be playing 8 games against teams that had records above .500. (In terms of division, 14 vs the east and 14 vs other).
That being said, this month, that looks pretty easy right now on paper can be a lot harder than it actually is. Houston, although I do not agree with most of their moves, has made a slew of minor upgrades and could, and probably be a much tougher team to play than they were last year. (Although I am not really too concerned, but with the weak NL Central, there is plenty of room for another team besides the the Cubs to end up above .500).
This month, the Mets get a small dose of their main rivals, the Braves and the Phils, and only have a combined 5 games against them. These are the five games that are must win for the Mets. In a two game set, they need to take both, and in the 3 game set, they have to take at least 2 of 3. It is hard to say these situations though before the seasons has actually started, because the situation around these games cannot be predicted before spring training begins.
Minor League teams are known for completely out-there, strange, wacky promotions. There is a whole genre of promotions that recently have gone to a new extreme and that would be the promotional jersey. The most basic form of this promotion has been in the majors for years and that would be “Turn Back the Clock Night.
Searching the net I found a few examples of crazy Minor League Jerseys:
http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/resources/2007/07/wcjersey.jpg
The link above takes you to a picture of a Star Wars Jersey from the West Michigan Whitecaps for their Star Wars night. As you can see there is a storm trooper on the front of the jersey. I found the link to the picture on uniwatch.com.
The idea of uniforms like this is really just goofy, but when you go to a lot of Minor League games, you understand the charm of these types of gimmicks.
Have you ever been to a Minor League game thats a tribute for a player? Most of the time its for a player that used to play for the team and they give out bobbleheads of that player in the Minor League team's uniforms. Well the Lowell Spinners decided to take this idea to another level when they named their team after Mike Lowell from their parent team for one night. I found this picture on ESPN.com of Keith Foulke in a rehab assignment wearing the jersey:
http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/resources/2007/07/wcjersey.jpg
Its a little hard to read but above Lowell it says Mike and and they changed the font of their jerseys to look more the like the Red Sox front. It is an interesting idea.
I have some more of these that I will post at a later time. If you see at a game or online a crazy Minor League Jersey and would like to be featured in this article, please let me know: eteich@umd.edu
Some of the ones I will be writing about later are the Aquasox and the Fresno Grizzles.
At the age of 27 in 2006, Michel Abreu lit up the AA in his first year in the minors. 2007, due to visa problems he wasn't here. And now Abreu will be part of the of the non-roster invitees to Spring Training.
First lets look at his stats. In the minors he played in 113 games where he had 406 AB, 134 H, 26 2B, 17 HR, 71 RBI, .330 BA, .402 OBP, .527 SLG.
He will be 29 this year, so a little old on the prospect side, but lets say for some reason we need him as a power bat off the bench,, he could be a possibility. If he does well after this year, he could be a trade chip, you never know with Spring Training who will turn out a hero and really fight for a spot. Carlos Delgado stands in his way. By that I mean Abreu has no shot at the starting job, and slim shot at best for the bench, but its always good to see excellence in the minors because that spells out security.
In the final day, Venezuela was pitted against Mexico for the third place game as both Dominican teams battled for the championship game. The end result in this week of pretty much Dominican dominance was DR2 (Licey Tigres) beating out DR1 (Eagles) for the Caribbean title. The final scores yesterday:
MEX (2-4) – 7
VEN (2-4) – 5
DR2 (5-1) – 8
DR1 (3-3) – 2
What we have seen over the past few days is a team without any wins, Mexico, going into action to pull out two wins in the last two days to tie for third best record. We have also seen the mighty DR1 team with Tejada go from a 2-0 start to dropping one, winning one, then dropping two more in a row. For Licey, this is their 10th Caribbean Crown (mlb.com)
Here are the usual stat lines:
Offerman 1-5
Tejada 0-4
Diaz 1-4
As you can see, our friend Anderson Hernandez is not listed. Yesterday, after having to straight games of no hits, he did not play. So his series average stays at .136. Don't feel to bad for him because he and Jorge Sosa are both champions for the moment, and hopefully are hungry to get the bigger, MLB title in October.
Last night was the last night before the championship game in the Caribbean Series. DR2 was trying to make it a perfect week while DR2 was hoping to keep pace. DR1 found out before their game that there was a chance that they would enter the Championship with the same record as DR2 as long as they won their game.
DR2 lost to Mexico 7-4 in the tenth inning last night. Mexico with that win went 1-4, and dropping DR2 to 4-1. Later that night Venezuela beat DR1 8-5 which improved Venezuela to (2-3) and lowered DR1 to (3-2).
Some stat lines:
A Hernandez 0-5
Tejada 1-5, R
Diaz 0-1
Colon 4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 R, 2 K's
With that second straight game without any hits for Hernandez, his BA dropped down to .136. At some point, when hitting second in the line up, you need to do something. Hopefully he will have a good game tonight.
Colon had 2 perfect innings to start. But the rest can be seen in the box score.
Tonight Venezuela and Mexico will play for the third place game tonight. Both Dominican teams will square off tonight for the title.
And we are so close to Spring Training
Dayn Perry recently wrote a story for Fox Sports that explains his picks for the worst player at each position. The list can be found here:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7737168/Position-by-position-look-at-MLB's-worst
Here is a quick rundown tho:
C- Jason Kendall
1B- Kevin Millar
2B- Ray Durham
3B- Rich Aurilia
SS- Omar Vizquel
LF- Juan Pierre
CF- Mark Kotsay
RF- Mark Teahan
So there are somethings I agree with and somethings I don't. I agree with the Kotsay listing because I have been saying all along, as many others have as well, that if the Braves think that Kotsay is the answer for the CF problems, they are so wrong. For them, it might have been a better idea to find a bench player somewhere that has promise to the play CF. Furthermore, giving up Devine was too much for the deal, as Devine will prove to be a good pitcher out of the pen.
When reading entry for Teahan, you can see he's listed because many teams have good players out in RF. He is in the unfortunate position that the Royals do not have anybody to platoon with him. With age he will get better, he is only 26 and I believe much of his problems originate with him being rushed through the minors (like Burgos before him). That being said, at this time next year, he will not be listed as the worse RF in the league.
How bout the Giants with three players on the list?
Check out the original article, its a good read.
