What Mets fans talk about when not talking about the actual games.
This is one of those posts that tend to make people mad at me. I can already see the “if the bullpen could have…” comments coming in.
Let’s walk through the 2009 Mets and give everyone best case scenario:
1B Delgado. In what will likely be his final year as a Met, the super-motivated Delgado chooses not to suck in April and has an awesome 40 home run 120 rbi year. We’re off to a great start!
2B Luis Castillo’s gonna hit .334 and steal 62 bases like he did in 2000 as a 24 year old.
SS Jose Reyes will prove he’s not overrated, he’ll win an MVP and hit a career best .330 (43 points higher than his career average), score 120 and hit 20 homers with 80 rbi’s. Just like everyone but me thinks he will.
3B David Wright. How about we settle for 2007-like #s with some .325 and 30 action. That’s some infield!
LF Dan Murphy. The Murph got 131 at bats which I believe puts him one over the maximum to qualify for rookie of the year (that sucks). I’ll give him .313 again (making that 5 guys hitting over .300!) but I can’t give him more than 10 HRs until he shows me some pop.
CF Carlos Beltran. How about a 2006-like 40, 120 and .280. Carlos has only batted .300 once so our run of .300 hitters ends here.
RF Ryan Church and Friends. Ryan will play in a solid 162, which should give him around 18 home runs with a .275 average.
The Catchers, Well, they’ll catch the ball and throw it back to the pitcher. Anything more will be asking a lot.
Santana will win the Cy Young. His best was 20-6, let’s give him 21 wins with an elbow-free summer.
John Maine will find his way out of his funk and go 15-10. He’s done it before!
Oliver Perez will learn that every game is a big game, better his best 15-10 and win a sneaky 18!
Mike Pelfrey won 13 games at age 24 and looked like he learned to pitch. Let’s give him 16!
That Other Guy. The Number 5 Guy is going to eat innings for us. He’ll only go 10 and 10 but that’s a solid 80 wins from our starting pitching! That’s 4 more than the 1986 Mets. Not bad!
Now we know 63 of those will be saved by K-Rod, with 63 holds from Putz.
That all looks amazingly promising! But what if Santana misses a game or two. What if Castillo is the 2008 version? What it there’s a book on Murphy now? What if Maine is funky and 15 wins becomes 10? What it Perez wins 18 not 15?
I think this team has enough to win – but it’s not a lock that they’ll out hustle the Phillies. I would love one more decent bat in there – maybe not Manny, but I wish we knew what we actually had in left, right, second and behind the plates. There’s a lot of wishful thinking with how this team is put together. I hope it holds. It seemed like everything broke right in 2006 and broke wrong in 2007. Maybe something in between and some number less than 30 blown saves might do the trick. After the last two seasons I’m not ready to declare this team better than the defending World Champions. I’m hopeful, but I’m going to need to see it to believe it, and I won’t believe it until I’m watching the Mets in the NLDS.
www.metspolice.com
Great piece in New York magazine called The Hurt That Hasn’t Healed about how this team’s senior management acts like they won in 2006 and are just one piece away.
With that loss, Prince writes, “the Mets dug themselves into a hole from which they’ve never climbed out. It’s always October 19, 2006. Ownership and general management has proceeded as if this is forever a World Series club in every sense but that of accomplishment.†The evidence bears him out. Two years ago there was the “we’ll get it this time†off-season, with few moves made, management assuming the team would just repeat what it did the year before. Last year was the “we just need one starting pitcher†off-season, with the acquisition of Johan Santana masking the dam holes quietly tearing open everywhere else. Now the “we just need to fix the bullpen†off-season has been concluded, with J. J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez hauled in and pretty much everything else left intact. General manager Omar Minaya has acted like his team is perpetually one piece away, while other pieces, the ones he wasn’t looking at, slowly erode. And he’s just about out of time.
Amen brother.
www.metspolice.com
A surprise #1 this week: The new name for the Formerly Shea Subway Stop.
People still love pics – but it surprised me that the 150 Pics of New Yankee Stadium were more popular than the 300 Pics of New Yankee Stadium or the Tons of Pics of Citi Field. Curious what the signage looks like at the gates at Citi – click here and while not new, people are still curious about the Obstructed Views at Citi. I won’t get to see Yankee because The Yankees Won’t Sell Me Tickets.
You caught that The Rock admitted to taking steroids , didn’t you?
Will you watch Football at Citi Field? I like alt-football leagues but this one is doomed.
Nobody cared about this one but I’m a little concerned about seeing your Willie Randolph, so check out this video of the divider-less urinals at Citi. (ha I started to type “Shea” after the word “at” – way to go brain!) Eyes forward everyone.
I also thought that K-Rod’s media meltdown went underreported. This is a bad sign to me.
Mets Police continues to grow, and thanks to those who visit and those sites that give us love – not limited to Mets Blog , Amazin Avenue, Mets Geek, Mets By The Numbers, Flushing University, Flushing 9 and New Stadium Insider.
We’re always looking for writers – so if you’d like to join the Police or think you have the occassional one-off (Thomas in the UK I’m talking to you!) hit me up at shannonshark at gmail dot com.
www.metspolice.com
As I mentioned earlier, the Yankees won’t sell me tickets – but maybe they will sell them to you.
The New York Yankees announced today that the online registration process for the general public to apply for the opportunity to purchase tickets for individual games in the inaugural season at Yankee Stadium is underway at www.yankees.com and www.yankeesbeisbol.com. The registration process will be open to fans through Tuesday, March 17 at 10:00 p.m. Due to the large demand for individual-game tickets, a random drawing will be held from the registrant pool. Those selected from the pool will be notified on Friday, March 20, at which time they will receive a password, which will allow them to purchase tickets online only on Monday, March 23, prior to the general public on-sale.
Prior to the public on-sale, all Yankees Premium, Full-Season and 41-Game Ticket Licensees will be able to purchase individual-game tickets, online only, via a pre-on-sale on Thursday, March 19. On the following day, Friday, March 20, all other Partial Plan Licensees (of 20-, 15-, 12- and 11-Game Plans) will be permitted to purchase individual-game tickets online only as well. For complete information, including ticket limits, please visit yankees.com.
Beginning Tuesday, March 24, tickets may also be purchased at the Yankee Stadium Ticket Office, at all area Ticketmaster outlets, via Ticketmaster by phone at (877) 469-9849 and Ticketmaster TTY at (800) 943-4327, and at all Yankees Clubhouse Shops.
The Yankee Stadium Ticket Office is located outside the new Yankee Stadium adjacent to Gate 4 on 161st Street and Jerome Avenue. Beginning March 25, the Yankee Stadium Ticket Office will be open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The first games in Yankee Stadium will be exhibition contests vs. the Chicago Cubs on April 3 at 7:05 p.m. (gates to open at 4:00 p.m.) and April 4 at 1:05 p.m. (gates to open at 10:00 a.m.). Full-season ticket licensees will receive complimentary tickets for both games. Partial-plan holders will receive the opportunity to purchase tickets, subject to availability, via the pre-on-sales previously described. Also subject to availability, tickets will be made available in the general public online-only on-sale on Monday, March 23, and to all fans via www.yankees.com, the Yankee Stadium Ticket Office, all area Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster by phone at (877) 469-9849 and Ticketmaster TTY at (800) 943-4327, and at all Yankees Clubhouse Shops, beginning March 24.
For the exhibition games vs. the Cubs, Bleachers tickets will be 25, and Grandstand tickets will be $1.10 — the same prices they were the day the original Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923. Tickets on the Terrace Level will cost between $20-35, tickets on the Main Level will be priced between $20-45, and tickets on the Field Level will range from $45-$50.
Call me back Nick Fugazy.
www.metspolice.com
