First of all, a big HELLO to all my new fans in the greater Wilmington, North Carolina area. Welcome, and thanks for coming. Sorry I haven't written in a while - I've had computer problems.

A lot has happened in the two weeks since I've last written. Including Saturday's 4-3 win over the Cubs in 11 innings, so that's where I'll start.

I couldn't watch this game, since the Boston area got the Angels-A's matchup. But the Mets won a game that I would classify as very encouraging. First of all, this was pretty much the Norfolk Tides against the Chicago Cubs, and the Tides won in dramatic fashion. After being shut down all day by Mark Prior, the Mets broke through in the ninth inning, first against Ryan Dempster, then against LaTroy Hawkins. Victor Diaz, who I'll talk a little more about in a bit, hit a 2-out, 3-run homer to tie the game at three, then in the 11th, Craig Brazell hit the game-winning home run. The youngsters came through, and I should also mention Aaron Heilman, the starter, who kept the Mets in it early, giving up 2 runs in five innings. All the Mets have left is to play spoilers, and Saturday's win could very well have contributed to ruining the Cubs' season.

So, I now present to you the guide to the major leaguers, who until very recently were minor leaguers:

3B David Wright: He's a future Hall Of Famer. Enough said...but just because I like to write about him, here are his stats, through 61 games - Wright's hitting .293, slugging .515, 12 HR, and 35 RBI. For good measure, he's also stolen 5 bases.

SS (yes, SS, not 2B) Jose Reyes: He has a long way to go (health-wise) before he gets his GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED tag back. But the Mets are clearly a better team when Reyes is in the lineup. That's why when he plays in just 45 games (like he has so far this year) it hurts so much.

2B (yes 2B, not SS) Kaz Matsui: The first year is done. Maybe he is less nervous next year and plays to his capabilities in the field. I wasn't too upset with his offense - he was one of the best Mets hitters this year when the game was on the line.

RF Victor Diaz: I've only seen Diaz in a couple of games so far this year, and it looks like he's a bit of a hot dog. I hope he has a level head. Diaz came from the Dodgers organization in the Jeromy Burnitz trade last year. His biggest concern, it seemed to me, after he hit the game-tying homer on Saturday, was that he stuck it to the Cubs, who passed over him in the draft, rather than the fact that he helped the Mets win. Maybe that's just my interpretation, but seeing some of Diaz's body language (not hustling out of the box) during his call-up makes me think he might have a bit of an attitude problem.

1B Craig Brazell: Brazell has been in the Mets organization for a while, and just got his first opportunity late last year. He's got some power, but hasn't shown it much at the major league level. I don't really know where he's going to fit in if Mike Piazza's going to be playing first base next year.

P Aaron Heilman: Heilman has had two solid starts in a row, since he's gotten another chance to pitch late in the season. Maybe he's put his disappointments behind him, and maybe Rick Peterson has worked magic yet again.

P Tyler Yates: Yates is working on a modest scoreless streak right now - 8 and a third. It's a start. Maybe his niche is in middle relief.

Some other thoughts on a wasted season:

Kaz Matsui says he'd like to try a couple of games at second base before this season ends...but Art Howe is worried about Matsui getting hurt (a la Joe McEwing). The funny thing, though, is that what does Howe care - he's not even going to be around to suffer the consequences.

Which brings me to the tease portion: Coming soon to johnnymets.blogspot.com - Who should replace Art Howe as manager of the Mets? I already have an idea...stay tuned.

Mets 7, Reds 5 (37-38, 3 GB)

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

WRIGHT WATCH: Yes, this morning we begin with the Wright Watch. And not just because he went 1-for-3 last night with a run scored, and an HBP. No, not because his average is at .364. Well, kind of. Last night, just before 2am on WFAN, Joe Benigno says, "The rumor around the station is that Wright is going to be with the Mets on Monday in Philadelphia." I quote because this is some serious stuff, and I want to make sure I give credit where it's due...and because I don't want to be blamed if it's wrong. I'm just throwing it out there. Benigno says they don't want him to be involved in the Yankees series, but that he'll come up for the Philly series.

Now, this opens up a lot of cans of worms. Does that mean the Mets make a trade this weekend to open up a spot for Wright? Will they move Wigginton and start Wright "wright" away? Will Wigginton start for a little while longer to increase his trade value, with Wright coming off the bench at first? Things could be getting a bit interesting this weekend.

As for last night's game, I only saw the last couple of innings. Braden Looper is an interesting sort. I feel the utmost confidence in him when it's a one-run game. But when it's a non-save situation, or a save situation where the Mets are up by 2 or 3 runs, I feel like he's not going full tilt. He's saying he didn't have his best stuff last night, but I just think he doesn't focus so much in those types of save situations. Regardless, after he loaded the bases, Looper managed to get the double play he needed to get out of the jam and close the game.

One other thing I want to touch on that's being written about this morning. The papers are touting Cliff Floyd's big game, even though he almost didn't make it to Cincinnati because he and Mike Cameron were stuck in traffic in New York trying to get to the airport to catch their private charter flight. Then when they boarded the plane, takeoffs were delayed because the Vice President was in town. None of the articles mention why those two were traveling to Cincinnati separate from the rest of the team, though. And I want to know why. Teams travel together in order to prevent the type of situations that Cameron and Floyd encountered last night trying to get to the game. Now, Monday was an off day, and Floyd and Cameron could have been staying behind for some kind of charity event or something. But if you're going to base your whole game story on how Cliff Floyd almost didn't play last night, tell me why he was late...and why he didn't travel with the team. Otherwise I'm going to draw (probably wrong) conclusions that make me think there are divisions on the team. (OK - after writing all that, I just checked Newsday - it appears Floyd and Cameron just wanted to spend the off-day at home. I bet Howe takes that policy off the table after this near-miss.)

Another note - Art Howe in the papers this morning defends his decision to not change the rotation for Tom Glavine to pitch in the Yankees series this weekend (he didn't pitch in the Bronx last weekend either). Howe says he'd rather have Glavine pitch the opener of the series against the Phillies on Monday. I agree. Good for you, Art. (I especially agree if David Wright is also in the lineup on Monday.)

Here's something you shouldn't know, but because I'm psychotic, I do: the Mets, with their win last night, improved to 9-3 on Tuesdays this season. Their best day of the week.

Tonight Tom Glavine goes against Cory Lidle as the Mets try to wrap up June on a winning note.

The Mets begin interleague play today against the Minnesota Twins. The Mets are 28-28, 3.5 GB of Florida. Atlanta is also 28-28, 3.5 GB. Philadelphia is 29-26, 2 GB, and Florida's record is 32-25. See, when you turn the standings upside down, the Mets come first.

Anyway, that's your NL East Update. I know, it's crappy, but I really don't feel like writing about the other teams - besides, I wrote about the Marlins yesterday. Read that again if you want. OK, fine. Here's what I'll do - I'll give you the first interleague opponent of each of the NL East teams, but that's it.
Florida - at Cleveland
Philadelphia - at Chicago White Sox
Atlanta - at Detroit
Montreal - at Kansas City
That's it. Onto other things.

So the draft was yesterday. You probably want me to give you some breakdown of the Mets' draft picks, and predictions of how they'll turn out. What do I look like...some kind of loser? Well, here goes...no, I'm just kidding. I have no idea who these guys are. All I know about the Mets draft is that once again, they did not pick me, so I go another year without fulfilling my dream of playing for the New York Mets. I do know that the Mets' first pick (third overall) was Philip Humber, a 6'4'', 210 lbs. pitcher from Rice University. He won the championship game for Rice last season, for whatever that's worth. The only thing I hope about this draft is that the Mets don't go down in history as "one of the teams who passed on Steven Drew" or "one of the teams who passed on Jered Weaver". Those two were supposed to go very high, but fell to 15 and 12, respectively, because teams didn't want to pay the big money that agent Scott Boras would have demanded for them as top 5 picks. Oh well. Hopefully they turn into busts.

I'm sure you're dying to know how the softball game turned out. It wasn't as exciting as the first one, but our team once again prevailed, with an 18-9 win. So we're 2-0 on the year, and we're pretty darn good. But I found out there's no playoffs or anything, so what the heck are we playing for?!?! So that's the softball update. My wife will be writing a game recap for her company later today, if it's good, maybe I'll post that tomorrow.

Here's a little tidbit I had forgotten about but just read in the Daily News. Mike Piazza is a career .365 hitter in interleague play. Nice.
And I'll end with this excerpt from a conversation with my mom last night, who, it turns out, doesn't like Art Howe. Now, mind you, she thinks he's a wonderful person (How does she know that, I wonder...), but she says she just has to question some of the decisions he makes during the games. (If you know my mom at all, this is just hysterical.) Apparently the big joke in my house with my mom is whenever the Mets are in a tight spot and Art Howe comes to the mound, she says, "Uh-oh, time to bring in John Franco." I just thought I'd relay that story. It must be funny around my parent's house during a Mets game. Good thing I'm not there. I'd probably yell at her.

Mets 6, Dodgers 1 (9-13, 6 GB)

Thursday, April 29, 2004

If you take the season one series at a time from here on out, starting with the Mets taking two out of three against the Dodgers, things are looking pretty good. This is what the Mets needed to do (although when you consider they came very close to sweeping L.A., the 2-out-of-3 scenario sounds less enticing). The Dodgers are a very good team, and the Mets caught their weaker pitchers - a good break - maybe signaling a change towards better fortune is on the way.

The Mets jumped out to the lead in the second - and after going up 1-0, they loaded the bases with 1 out. It's just their luck, though, that Jae Seo would be up, and ground into a double play, keeping it 1-0. Seo (1-3) was great last night (on the mound) - six and a third quality innings, earning his first win of the year. He's been very good since the call-up. Either being sent down woke him up, or he wasn't going full-tilt in spring training.

Karim Garcia added to the Mets lead with a 2-run bomb to right in the third inning. If you've been a regular reader, you know how I feel about Garcia. I'll take the homer, but I'm also glad it makes him a more valuable trade commodity, should the Mets consider such a thing.

The only negative from last night's game was that Mike Piazza looked lost against Jeff Weaver. I don't think I've seen him look worse against a pitcher so far this year - hopefully the Mets won't face Weaver again, just for that reason.

But back to the positives - the Mets were able to put away the opponent again last night - something that's been happening more and more in their wins. Up 3-1 through 7 innings, the Mets rallied - Danny Garcia's RBI single to right field off Wilson Alvarez broke a 10-inning scoreless inning streak by Alvarez. Then Mike Stanton (!!!) hit an RBI-single to left. All I'll say about that is relief pitchers don't get lucky hits on sucky teams. It's a sign of good things to come, my friends. Trust me. Mike Cameron added a solo homer leading off the ninth inning. I can't believe how many home runs the Mets hit in this series.

This offense is starting to click. I can't help but think good things. Here's another good thought - the Mets go into a pitcher's park in San Diego this weekend. Tyler Yates, Al Leiter, and Tom Glavine are pitching against the Padres. The Padres aren't too shabby this year, but here's a stat for you. Mets starters this year lead the league in ERA. And Yates has pitched well since his bad start against the Braves. And we all know about Leiter and Glavine so far this year. Taking two out of three would be nice again...and is very possible. And dare I say it, a Mets sweep would be better....

Notes: I happened to catch a few minutes of the WFAN pre-game show last night, and Art Howe said he was resting Ricky Gutierrez (as noted yesterday, Gutierrez has not exactly been lighting it up - maybe Art reads my blog) and starting Garcia. Then Howe says, "Garcia's my pick to click", whatever that means. But it turned out he was right, with Garcia getting a clutch hit, and making a good defensive play sliding to field a grounder in the first inning. Best call Art's made so far as Mets manager - and keep reading my site, Art...The Mets have won 8 of their last 11 at Dodger Stadium...I still haven't received my '86 Mets book. I should have just gone to the store and bought it...Oh, and I probably should have put this up higher, but oh well - Jose Reyes felt something in his hamstring during a minor league rehab game, and left the game. The Mets are saying it was precautionary, but I tend to doubt he'll be at Shea for next week's homestand. We'll see...Cliff Floyd could be back as early as Saturday in San Diego.

Expos 2, Mets 1 (6-9, 4.5 GB)

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

I don't even know who to be mad at for last night's game. Man, that was frustrating. First of all - what the hell happened to Karim Garcia when he was nailed at the plate? The replays focused on the play at home, but how was he out by so much? If I hadn't seen him take a cheap shot to the catcher's face, I might think he still hasn't scored. By the way - real smart move throwing an elbow to a catcher's face while he's still wearing a face mask. Maybe he thought the catcher was a Florida pizza deliveryman or a Fenway Park groundskeeper. I gave him a chance, but Karim Garcia is back on the johnnymets sh**list. I'm not even going to mention how in the bottom of the first Garcia took a 3-1 pitch and started walking to first like he earned an automatic ball call. You're Karim friggin' Garcia - not Wade Boggs! In case you didn't notice, Karim, which you probably didn't, because you have a pea-brain, umpires don't like being shown up. No surprise Garcia got called out on strikes on the next pitch - he's just lucky it was a great curve. If it was a borderline pitch, the umpire still would have punched him out. I can sense bad things in the future with Karim Garcia if things continue to slide - the Mets should trade him while his value is high right now and get some bullpen help.

Hey - here's an interesting fact - the bullpen didn't screw up last night. Mike Cameron, though, cost the Mets this game, making an error that led to the go-ahead run scoring. Tom Glavine (2-1) was the hard-luck loser. He deserves to be 4-0. That's pretty horrible.

I don't even know that you can blame Matt Galante very much for those two outs at the plate. OK, maybe on the Piazza one. He's slow as hell. But again, Garcia should have scored. I never saw a wide enough replay on the play showing why Garcia didn't score, and I know the centerfielder feigned like he was going to catch the ball, but Garcia shouldn't have even been looking out there. He should have scored.

The overnight callers on WFAN (and the host) were ripped at Art Howe for last night's game. I don't know that I'll blame Howe for this one, but there's plenty of blame to go around.

Just FYI - here's what's to come. The Mets can barely score more than a run against Pittsburgh and Montreal. Pittsburgh is getting pounded by the Cubs, with Chicago averaging about 10 runs a game this past week. The Mets go to Chicago next.

Notes: Brad Wilkerson doubled off Glavine in the fifth inning - that was just the second extra-base hit off Glavine so far this year (the other was a Marcus Giles homer in the season-opener)...Piazza's swinging the bat better. I think he hits the record-tying and -breaking homers by the weekend, and then can concentrate on helping this team win.

Pirates 7, Mets 6 (5-5, 3 GB)

Friday, April 16, 2004

This was a rough one. I generally give Art Howe the benefit of the doubt, but I don't know about tonight. I was at the game, and on the way home, the radio post-game show reported Howe said Tom Glavine's shoulder was starting to stiffen, and that's why Howe pinch-hit for him in the 7th inning. I hope that's the truth. Because if it's not...man, that was a tough one to swallow. The Mets led 2-0 after a 2-run single by Ricky Gutierrez in the second inning. Glavine was cruising, giving up just one hit in 7 innings. The Mets blew a couple of opportunities to get some insurance, including stranding Shane Spencer on third base after he hit a bases-empty triple. But even still, they should never have an inning as bad as the 8th inning at Shea.
Orber Mareno - 3 straight hits. Booed off the field.
Mike Stanton - Walk, infield hit. Game tied at 2.
David Weathers - Hit, bases loaded hit by pitch (are you kidding me??!)....in all, a 7-run eighth inning for the Pirates. 7-2 in the middle of the eighth. Someone's gotta put that fire out.
The encouraging sign here is that the Mets fought back. With 2 outs, the Mets closed to within a run when Eric Valent hit a pinch-hit 3-run homer to make it 7-6. Jose Mesa got them 1-2-3 in the 9th, though.
This team will battle every night, but if the bullpen keeps pitching like this, that's going to be a long, uphill battle every night. And you don't win many of those battles.

Notes: Man, was it chilly at Shea last night...The scoreboard lights make the out-of-town scores much easier to read...Credit my dad with an interesting point - should we be concerned about Kaz Matsui's range? There were a couple of balls hit his way that he either didn't make much of an effort to get to, or wasn't able to reach. It could have been the angle we were sitting at, but it seemed like he should have fielded a couple more grounders than he did...It looks like Mike Piazza's pressing a bit for that record-tying home run. He better get that out of the way soon so he can just worry about playing ball.

Braves 6, Mets 1 (4-4, 3 GB)

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

I was pretty excited that the game didn't get washed out last night. Now I wish it had. I hope the weather had something to do with Tyler Yates' (0-1) performance. That 3rd inning was brutal. Those five runs felt like ten. Hopefully he'll bounce back in his next start. I'll reserve judgment on this start in the cold and rain until seeing how he reacts in his next start Monday. Maybe he'll have a big Trachsel-like bounceback.

Another sidebar coming out of last night's game was that apparently Mike Piazza wasn't told by Art Howe that he was starting at first base instead of catcher. The newspapers are trying to make a big deal out of it, but Piazza says it's not a big deal. Hopefully they leave it at that. The Mets don't need manufactured controversy over stupid little stuff like that. Save it for the inevitable controversies they'll create themselves this season.

Nice outing by Jae Seo yesterday - I wonder if he falls into the same category as 2001's Ichiro and this year's Kaz Matsui. They both had poor springs before breaking out during the regular season. Seo lost his starting job late in spring training, and he wasn't pitching well, but maybe it was because he felt he would save his best stuff for the regular season. Maybe it's part of a mentality players from the Far East have. Let's see how he pitches when he gets the start on Sunday.

Notes: Encouraging to watch the solid outing by the bullpen. Seo (2.2 IP), Dan Wheeler (2), John Franco (1) and Grant Roberts (1) combined for 6 2/3 scoreless innings to give the offense a chance to get back in the game. It was especially good to see Roberts not give up a run. He needs the confidence boost....I think I need to ban my future wife from watching Mets games with me. She's watched the past two Wednesday games, and the Mets have lost by a combined score of 24-11. She doesn't seem too upset by my threat.