The Fun Time of Year

Posted by Gregg Hopps

Remember the Christmas special, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas?" Remember the part when the Grinch and his dog Max are hanging over the cliff, the sled just barely keeping balance, and then the Grinch's heart grows 3 1/2 times it normal size? Last season as the injuries continued to mount, I became the Grinch, and yes my heart exploded. I began looking at other aspects of the Mets, such as the young kids, and took a joy in watching them play. Wondering what the future is going to hold for the Mets.

Well, the future is here, and there are a lot of fun story lines and competitions to look at.

Lets start at first base. Ike Davis so far has had a pretty good spring. There's no arguing that point. But that doesn't make him the number one first baseman, perhaps not even the number two guy. Daniel Murphy is the Rodney Dangerfield of this club, he gets no respect. Murphy is going to be the number one guy going into the season. Unless Murph cannot produce, I expect to see him at first pretty much all season. Even if Murph goes down, the Mets have both Tatis and Mike Jacobs. I may be wrong here, but I doubt we'll see much of Davis on the 2010 Mets.

Catching is interesting. The Mets have decided to go with two veteran catchers with Henry Blanco, and Rod Barajas. It's going to be interesting to see how the two veterans handle Mike Pelfrey when he goes through one of his meltdowns.

The biggest question, I think is when will Jose Reyes be able to play? I said it before, and I'll say it again: Jose Reyes is the most exciting baseball player in New York. The good news here is that Reyes thyroid condition is minor, and could be controlled by diet. All I know is the Mets need Reyes to get healthy.

The Gary Matthews Jr.-Angel Pagan situation in center field should be interesting too. I guess Pagan is the number one guy, with Matthews assuming the role as fourth outfielder. I really haven't seen Matthews play too much, but what I've seen so far I like. Competition is a good thing. Lets watch Matthews and Pagan battle for playing time.

As for pitching, the number 5 slot is up for grabs with Jon Niese apparently the font runner. If the starters are Johan, Pelf, Maine, Ollie and Niese, what happens to Figueroa and Nieve? I think the only sure guys in the bullpen are K-Rod, Feliciano and Green. It'll be fun to see who Jerry and Dan Warthen decide to bring up north.

After a very long wait, baseball 2010 is finally here, and slowly the questions are starting to be answered.

Mets Void Waiver Claim, Send Marshall Back to A's

Posted by Matt Pignataro

According to Adam Rubin of the Daily News, Mets’ waiver claim of Jay Marshall was voided Tuesday by the commissioner's office and Marshall will return to the A's.

Video: Jeff Wilpon's Video Blog

Posted by Matt Pignataro



Hilarious stuff from 12AngryMascots.com.

Davis Continues to Make Impact this Spring

Posted by Matt Pignataro

Updated:

After today's game, Mets manager Jerry Manuel was asked if Ike Davis could make the Opening Day roster, Manuel was quoted by saying:

Some unforeseen things would have to happen in my opinion for that to happen... It's a little bit more difficult to make that decision based on a position player unless everybody just has to be 100% in agreement that that's the right way to go. I would say more young pitchers have made the jump than more young, unproven position players. I could be wrong, but I would think.

However, Manuel also said, "You’ve got to give him some thought. When a guy keeps hitting the ball out to center field, grand slams and so forth, you’ve got to give it some thought."

Original Post:

Ike Davis just hit another homerun this spring in the bottom of the seven of today's game.

It was a 410 ft bomb to dead-center.

Prior to the game, Davis had 14 extra base hits in 14 at-bats.

Davis continues to make his case for the Opening Day roster with his already impressive spring.

Mejia Going North Seems Like Real Possibility

Posted by Matt Pignataro

Today, Jenrry Mejia tossed three scoreless innings in relief, while giving up two hits and striking out two.

"Mejia’s No. 76, Frankie’s No. 75. They might follow each other down there. That’s what I’m trying to tell you," said Jerry Manuel, according to David Lennon of Newsday via Twitter.

Jerry Manuel noted that an internal meeting is coming soon regarding Mejia's future.

Mets GM Omar Minaya said before the game that the plan going into spring training was for Mejia to open the season in Double-A. "That's still the plan... It hasn't changed," said Minaya.

Minaya's thinking might have changed after today's excellent performance by Mejia.

Adam Rubin of the Daily News writes:

Mejia should get as many as four innings in three or four days. Then the organization needs to decide whether Mejia continues to get stretched out for starting duty in the minors, or whether they start using him in one-inning bursts more regularly to get a closer look at his bullpen candidacy.

The big thing for me with Mejia is what will he be like throwing back-to-back days? Does he have the physical and even better mental mindset to do so?

K-Rod's Goggles Return and Escobar Shuts it Down

Posted by Matt Pignataro

Francisco Rodriguez is no longer contagious and returned to camp today.

"Rodriguez won't wear contact lenses for a while, meaning his goggles look from the Angels days is back," reports Adam Rubin of the Daily News.

Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen believes K-Rod will throw a bullpen session tomorrow, then possibly throw batting practice on Thursday, and get into Saturday's game vs. the Tigers.

Kelvim Escobar has stopped throwing a baseball as he continues to feel weakness in his shoulder.

"When I tried to throw last week, it was weak," Escobar said. "It didn't feel right. ... I will take my time and do my exercises."

X-rays on Mike Pelfrey's knee came back negative after he was hit with a ball last Saturday.

Takahashi has Spot on Control

Posted by Matt Pignataro

Over three innings of work yesterday, LHP Hisanori Takahashi struck out eight batters and only allowed one hit, while throwing 34 strikes to just eight balls.

“If we were to speak today, and not having much history with him, I would say that he would definitely be one of the 11 or 12 pitchers that we take,” Manuel said.

Watching the game yesterday, Takahashi has spot on control. I do like his ability to change speeds as he showcased.

Must have been great to be Omir Santos behind the plate yesterday. Santos didn't have to move his glove when receiving a pitch. As a catcher you love those pitchers, it makes your work so much easier.

We'll see how the rest of the spring goes for Takahashi, but if he keeps it up, I think he'll make the roster. I'm guessing they will throw him in the bullpen as the long man or a lefty specialist. Then again... it is only his first spring appearance.

Thought's on Oliver Perez's First Spring Start

Posted by Matt Pignataro

Yesterday, Oliver Perez allowed five runs on seven hits, while striking out two and walking in three innings pitched in the Mets win over the Nationals.

Perez threw 49 pitches, 33 of those for strikes.

Mets manager Jerry Manuel on Perez's performance:

“Ollie threw strikes. That was the main focus we had going in. We felt that if he could get some level of comfort out there and throw strikes, we would be very satisfied with the way he was going.”

I guess this start is something to build on for him. I did like that he threw predominantly strikes in the start. Perez did stay consisant in his delievery which I thought was huge. Repetition, repetition, repetition...

However, he did leave a ton of pitches up in the zone that got hit. I would really like to see Ollie pound the inside part of the plate next start to right handed hitters.

St. John's Baseball Coach Ed Blankmeyer Tonight

Posted by Matt Pignataro

Matt and Steve talk with St. John's Head Baseball Coach Ed Blankmeyer about coaching, playing at Citi Field, his staff, recruiting, and more, tonight at 7 PM.

Click here to listen live.

To read more about Coach Blankmeyer and St. John's Red Storm baseball, click here.

After the Ed Blankmeyer interview Greg will join Matt and Steve to discuss Oliver Perez's outing from earlier in the day, our impressions of Jenrry Mejia, and Ike Davis's early impact this spring training.

Around the Camps

Posted by Gregg Hopps

With Matt and Steve doing their usual terrific job of covering the Mets news, I'm going to steal a page from Mets Extra's Around the Majors, and take a look at some of the odd things you have may missed in the first few days of spring training 2010.

Yesterday the Houston Astros played the Detroit Tigers. The Astros have a new manager this year, replacing Cecil Cooper, after yesterday's game I'm wondering if its worth the effort to look up the new guy's name. In the early innings the Astros left the field after only two outs were recorded. You know you're in for a long season if your team loses count of outs. Astros went on to lose, the final score was like 17-7.

The Cincinnati Reds are the latest team to leave Florida and head west for spring training. If I understand correctly the Reds are sharing a spring facility with the Cleveland Indians. Yesterday the Reds hosted the Tribe in their first spring game. The unusual thing here is that the game was a "shared" broadcast back to Ohio on FSN, the Reds channel, and Sports Time Ohio, the Indians channel. In the this shared broadcast the two teams announcers worked side by side. It would never happen here in NY. Could you picture our guys on SNY working with jokers over there on the NO network? As soon as Michael Kay started with his 27 World Championships nonsense, Gary would throw him out of the booth!!

Remember last summer when some Met fans were jumping and down, crying and peeing their pants because the Mets didn't sign Nick Johnson? Those of us with level heads wondered why the Mets would sign a walking M*A*S*H unit. Looks like the level heads were right; Johnson will be out of action until Monday. Seems he tweaked his back in the batting cage. He was wearing his spikes in the cage, instead of his turf shoes, and hurt himself. You can't make this stuff up.

Finally, be sure to get Sunday's NY Daily News. It has a special pullout section featuring the modern Yankee heroes! I would rather the News had a special pullout section featuring modern Yankee cheats and liars. Starting with owner who was banned twice from baseball, continuing through to the Rocket, St. Andy Pettitte and A-Rod.