Hi there – unfortunately I am on the road, working a lot, and in the Pacific Time Zone which is going to make it very hard to watch Opening Night. I do have the slingbox ready to watch the game in the hotel room around 3am your time, but I doubt I will be able to avoid the score (that would mean staying off the internet.)
Usually when I travel I load up the blog with generic stuff – but it’s sort of hard to ignore Opening Day so I have flipped the keys to Media Goon. If anything interesting pops up drop him a line at [email protected] or on twitter @mediagoon. I’ll pop in here and there, and probably have some middle of the night (for you) posts.
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I wanted to thank you for reading. I’m actually writing this on Monday night, but even on the 28th of the month March 2011 has been the most successful month the Mets Police has had…up 50% since February and up 86% over February 2011!
Part of that growth was from some great links from Mets Blog and Uni Watch.
There’s a core that I hear from every day, plenty more silent lurkers, and even the actual Mets seem to enjoy the site – my sincere thanks to everyone.
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And on to the Mets.
I like this team.
It’s a home-grown team. They seem scrappy. This manager seems like he will lead and be proactive, not sit around and hope things change. The GM seems steady and shrewd.
I think this is going to be one of those magical rides. Expectations are so low that if they hang around (and across town I think the fat-cats are in for a bust year that their fans don’t see coming) expect to be joined by lots of “life long Mets fans” who have taken a sabbatical lately.
I think the season comes down to…ready for this? Jon Niese.
Expect Ike to have a typical sophomore year where he struggles at times…but you get the #s back with an offensive upgrade at second.
Reyes has to have a big year – this is a career year, and he’s healthy. If he isn’t the total package this year, I don’t know if you’ll ever see it.
I think Wright will play to the ballpark. Maybe you’ll never see 40 home runs from him, but if he plays smart baseball he can still lead.
Jason Bay can’t hit 6 home runs again. He can’t. I think it’s impossible. (I wrote this before I left town – if Bay is on the DL now don’t roll your eyes at me. he’ll still hit more than six homers. I could probably hit six homers.)
Pagan – if you can get .290 11 and 69 again, great.
Beltran – same deal as Reyes. Big big year from him. Ya Gotta Believe.
Pelfrey isn’t an ace yet, but he’ll have to do. Dickey you know what you got there. Young will be a fan favorite by May 1st. A major league 5th starter can be anyone as long as 5th starter eats innings, even if they lose every 5th day. You just can’t chew the bullpen.
The closer is the closer…which leads us to Jon Niese.
Is he a 9 game winner or a 16 game winner? I like what I see in this kid – you’ll often hear me refer to him as “future Hall of Famer Jon Niese” (294 wins due to some bad luck early in his career). He’s the key, and he was born on 10/27/1986. If that ain’t the lords of baseball trying to tell you something I don’t know what is.
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Off the field – we’re seeing some good signs. The ticket packaging, the blue and orange, the upcoming 50th, the GM who is blatantly honest in admitting that Castillo was at least partially booed out of town….I like it all.
Let’s Go Mets. Nobody believes in you, but I do.
Clap clap clap.
Clap clap clap.
(does the everyone gesture with his arms)
Clap clap clap.
Clap clap clap…
Tweet it.
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Media Goon, she’s all yours…
LET’S GO METS!!!