All his fault.

There he is. The man who quite possibly single-handedly ruined the Mets 2009 season.

John Smoltz.

You'd think Smoltz heading to the American League and taking his career 18-15 record, 24 saves, and 3.44 ERA vs NYM would be a good thing.

You're wrong.

John Smoltz started a bad list of events that led to the Mets doing the ONE thing they should not have done this offseason. Lets recap:

DEC 1, 2008: The Braves decline salary arbitration to John Smoltz. The future Hall of Famer is now free to sign elsewhere. The Braves - by all indications - fully expect Smoltz to return.

JAN 3, 2009: Derek Lowe rejects Mets 3yr/36mil contract.

JAN 7, 2009: Smoltz is expected to sign with the Red Sox.

JAN 8, 2009: The Mets and Derek Lowe are far apart on a possible contract.

JAN 9, 2009: John Smoltz makes it official, and signs with the Boston Red Sox. And here's where it all starts to fall apart.

JAN 13, 2009: The Braves, having lost Smoltz, completely freak out and offer Lowe a four year deal worth 60 million dollars. Four days after Smoltz's signs with Boston, Lowe signs with the Braves.

FEB 8, 2009: Ben Sheets - believed to be one of the backups if Lowe signs elsewhere, will miss almost all of the 2009 season with an elbow injury. I'm assuming the Mets figured this out weeks earlier, but probably not before they lost out on Lowe.

That left the Mets with no choice. Because John Smoltz signed with Boston, the Braves then lost their mind, then their backup plan got hurt, so the Mets were left with only one pitcher left to sign.

Oliver freaking Perez.

I've said my piece many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many times about this clown. But in 2009, I'll give him a break. Its not his fault.

So on October 4th - when the Mets are tied with the Phillies for first place on the last day of the season, and Oliver Perez is struggling to get through the 6th inning against the Astros - remember this Mets fans: Its all John Smoltz's fault.

- SB

SHUTTING DOWN FOR THE SEASON...OR FOREVER?

Yikes. Two Braves posts in a row. I hope they don't take away my Mets fan card.

I felt, though, that I had to comment on the John Smoltz situation. Earlier this week, Smoltz announced that he was going to have surgery on his throwing shoulder, ending his season. The speculation is that this might be too much to come back from, and it might have ended his career as well...but Smoltz says he wants to come back.

What bothers me about this is that it sort of messes up what could have been a great story - Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine all retiring at the end of this year, and all (in theory) going into the Hall of Fame together in five years.

This brings up a couple of things. First of all, yes, I think all three are Hall of Famers. Whether or not they are all first-ballot Hall of Famers is debatable, but I agree with others (most notably Tim Kurkjian, I think) who say that the voters will have a "sense of the moment" and put all three in together if the opportunity presents itself.

And, obviously, it's still possible. None of the three has said this will be their definitive last year, and it's still possible that even if Glavine and Maddux retire, Smoltz will not be able to come back.

The sad thing is, I hate to see Smoltz go out like this. Unlike the subject of yesterday's entry, Chipper Jones, I've never hated Smoltz. I've always sort of respected him, while hating the team he's played for. Part of the reason is because he's never been absolutely dominant over the Mets - they've gotten to him over the years. It was Maddux and Glavine who killed the Mets, Smoltz was a once-in-a-while killer...but beatable. Even as a closer. So it's too bad that he couldn't return this year and finish out from the bullpen again, or go out a winner as a starter.

It's like the Mike Piazza situation, which I haven't had a chance to comment on yet. It's one thing to retire unexpectedly after an injury, it's a whole different story to have your retirement cross the wires quietly. (Was there even a press conference? I never saw any video, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. This came right during my busy point of the year.)

But neither guy, both of whom are headed for the Hall, was able to go out on his own terms. And that's always a sad thing. Hopefully Smoltz will make it back and be able to gut out another year, at least. Piazza wasn't even given a chance.

JOHNNYMETS AND EL DUQUE RETURN ON SAME NIGHT; METS BEAT MARLINS

Mets 6, Marlins 2 (NYM: 30-17, FLA: 23-25)

Orlando Hernandez came off the DL on Friday night, and it was like he never left. He went six scoreless innings, trading 0's with Sergio Mitre, keeping the Mets in the game until they blew it open in the 9th.

Meanwhile, I've completed 90% of my school obligations, so I should be back for good. Thanks to the readers who have continued the dialogue in the comments section in my absence. The Southern Bureau needs to re-think his stance on Oliver Perez...I'll leave it at that.

On Friday night, Joe Smith was actually in position to get the win, after the Mets pushed a run across in the 8th inning. Aaron Heilman, though, continued his slow implosion with a disastrous 8th, in which he was lucky to give up just a run, and the Mets were tied heading into the 9th.

That's when the Mets scored 5 times, taking a 6-1 lead, and slamming the door on Florida, winning, 6-1.

David Wright has come alive lately (mostly since I haven't been writing), and Carlos Delgado is starting to come around. The Mets nearly got burned in this game, though, with some bad baserunning in the 7th inning, and part of that is attributed to those two guys. In the seventh, David Wright started the inning with a little squibber up the first base line. Now, in defense of Wright, the ball was waaaay foul before it kicked back, but he should have hustled right down the line when he saw it kick back towards fair territory. He didn't, and was tagged out as the ball crossed the foul line. Next batter, Delgado, crushes one to the wall in left field, and off the wall. The throw comes into second, and despite a good slide (he was actually safe), Delgado was tagged out. I never saw a good replay (FoxSports Florida is awful), but I'm pretty sure Delgado wasn't hustling right out of the box. He should have had a double easy.

Other than that, another good game for the Mets. They're really not doing anything spectacular, they're just going out, playing good baseball, and winning games. It's been a good stretch for the Mets....sorry I wasn't available to write about it.

Apple johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: Pretty amazing to see El Duque come back without missing a beat. He goes 6 innings, throwing 88 pitches, giving up just 2 hits. The only negative about his start was that I didn't know it was coming soon enough to start him in my fantasy league.


PLAYING CATCH-UP: Since we've been gone:

• David Wright has been on fire. 0 HR's in April, 8 in May. Nice. (He'll get some retro-active Player of the Game honors when I have a chance to go backwards and award them.)


• The Mets have called up Carlos Gomez, who is a speedy young outfielder, and has been filling in for Moises Alou (on the DL still) and Shawn Green occasionally....and they sent down Mike Pelfrey.


• The Mets lost two out of three to Atlanta, in Atlanta, but still have a game-and-a-half lead in the division. Incidentally, the Mets got jobbed every which way from the umps in Thursday night's game, in which John Smoltz won his 200th career game.
  
• My school obligations are near complete - and hopefully I'll be able to start staying up for games. I've been falling asleep in the 6th inning or so the past few nights. Gotta get past that.

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT: This is just tremendous...in the next couple of days, there should be a major announcement featuring johnnymets, Justin in NYC, the Southern Bureau, and Dave in Brighton.

BEAT THE STREAK: This I've been continuing, albeit unsuccessfully. Vladimir Guerrero on Friday night got me up to 2 games, I think. I like Carlos Beltran on Saturday.

BRAVES OUTSLUG METS IN PITCHER'S DUEL

Braves 9, Mets 6 (ATL: 12-6, NYM: 11-6...0.5 back)

Tom Glavine - still 7 wins shy of 300 for his career. The Mets bullpen - worse than it was on Saturday. David Wright - still under the 'johnnymets.blogspot.com Beat the Streak jinx'. Sorry about that.

This was a see-saw game - and the Braves jumped out to a 1-0 lead on the first pitch of the game. Tom Glavine left a pitch up high, and Kelly Johnson jumped all over it to lead off the game with a homer.

In the 5th, Shawn Green tied the game with a solo homer off of John Smoltz. At that point, Green was 11-for-23 in his career against Smoltz. The fifth inning was exciting - after the homer, Jose Valentin had a long flyout to the wall opposite field in left, then Tom Glavine hit a roller down the third base line. Smoltz jumped off the mound, barehanded the ball, and threw a strike to first to get Glavine. It was some play. Jose Reyes reached, then Paul Lo Duca blasted one to the right-center gap, and it bounced over the wall for a ground rule double - it would have scored a run otherwise. So with runners at second and third, Carlos Beltran took a third strike -the strikeout that tied Smoltz with Cy Young on the all-time list.

In the sixth, Jeff Francoeur had a 2-run single, making it 3-1, Atlanta, off Glavine.

In the bottom half, Carlos Delgado singled, then David Wright struck out (0-for-12 since his hitting streak ended). Moises Alou singled, putting runners at first and second. Shawn Green walked controversially, and when Bobby Cox argued, he got ejected from the game (127 career, four from a major league record). With the bases loaded, Jose Valentin made it 3-2, Braves, with a single. Then, after Julio Franco pinch hit for Tom Glavine and flew out, THE GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED lined a ball down the right field line - 3-run triple, the Mets were ahead, 5-3, and Tom Glavine could win the game. (Paul Lo Duca added an insurance run.)

No way the Mets could lose the game now...they just don't lose games like this. Well, they lost this one. In the 7th, Ambiorix Burgos got two quick outs, then got a fly ball to right field. Shawn Green jumped for it, when he didn't have to (he was on the run, but it was a routine fly ball), and it went off his glove....and it wasn't ruled an error. Scott Schoeneweis came on, gave up a walk, then a 3-run homer to Edgar Renteria. 6-6.

In the 8th, Aaron Heilman served up a 3-run homer to Kelly Johnson, following an error by Jose Valentin. (Valentin has been very sure-handed, so this is the exception, not the rule. Looking dopey in right field has almost come to be expected out of Green.) All of the runs were unearned, but Heilman lost the game.

The Mets mounted a mini-rally, but came up short. With two on in the 8th, Jose Reyes and Paul Lo Duca failed to get a run home. In the 9th, Bob Wickman struck out Carlos Beltran in a 12-pitch at-bat to lead off the inning, walked Carlos Delgado, got David Wright on a fielder's choice, gave up a single to Moises Alou, then got the tying run, Shawn Green, to ground out to short.

The Mets have lost just two series this season, and they've both been to the Braves. That doesn't bode well, if only because it lets the Braves believe they still have some sort of a shot. The Braves have played better than I thought they would to begin this season...but I don't think they'll have staying power.

The Mets are now a half-game back of Atlanta, but they can do some damage this week - they host Colorado, then go to Washington. It's John Maine against Taylor Buchholz Monday night.

Kelly's Roast Beef johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: Kelly Johnson killed the Mets on Sunday. He was 3-for-4 with 2 home runs, 4 RBI, a walk, and three runs scored. Clearly he reads the blog and took offense to me saying earlier in the year that the Braves don't have anyone who can lead off for them.

CITI FIELD UPDATE: The fact that the Mets will have a new stadium soon is quite possibly the most exciting thing for me since 1986 as far as the Mets go. Every time I drive by Shea now as I head to my parents' house in Queens, there is more and more progress on the new stadium.
That was one of the things I was looking forward to in going to the game on Friday night - seeing the construction over the outfield wall. Unfortunately, I couldn't go to Friday's game. However, my sister went to Sunday's game against the Braves, as the Mets held their annual Autism Awareness Day. (My sister does fantastic work with children, day in and day out...many of the children she works with have some form of autism. Last year The Wife and I went to Autism Awareness Day with her, and we saw Tom Glavine versus Dontrelle Willis. But I digress.) My sister took a couple of pictures with her cell phone, forwarded them to my cell phone, and I was able to get them into my e-mail, and now onto the blog (I feel like Jack Bauer). So I present you with the latest visual proof that the Mets are, in fact, building a new stadium.








COMMENT ON THE COMMENTS: Please ignore the dumb postings that may end up having me discontinue the "Comments" section. Also, don't forget you can e-mail the site at johnnymetsmail@yahoo.com.

As for the Southern Bureau's comments on David Wright's homers...I can't tell you why he's not homering. I'll only say that if he wasn't hitting at all, I'd be worried. When you look at Wright's numbers since last year's All Star break, he has just 6 homers since last July. Now, he has tended to fade late in the seasons, so maybe he's made an adjustment, and is keeping himself fresher for the second half of the season/post-season. Also, Southern Bureau, maybe it just serves you right for drafting him and not allowing me to have him on my team.

BEAT THE STREAK: David Wright has to get a hit eventually, so I'm taking him against Buchholz on Monday. My longest streak so far this season has been 2 games. That's disgusting.

BOUND TO HAPPEN....

Braves 5, Mets 3 (NYM: 4-1, ATL: 4-1)

I knew the Mets weren't going to go 162-0, but I still wanted to see just how long they could stretch the season-opening win streak. I guess it was just four games. But the Mets were done in by one of the things that keyed them to their 4 straight wins - their defense.

The Mets looked all set after the top of the first, after jumping out to another 1-0 lead - this one from an unlikely source: a homer by Paul Lo Duca. Tom Glavine gave it right back, though, and you could tell by the way he was working that career win number 292 was not going to come easy - of course, it didn't come at all.

The Braves' first started with an innocent grounder to second, which turned into their first baserunner when Carlos Delgado dropped the throw from Jose Valentin. Kelly Johnson then came around to score on a grounder to short. Matt Diaz homered in the second to give the Braves the 2-1 lead, and the Mets their first deficit of the season.

In the fifth, the Mets did their manufacturing run thing, after a leadoff walk by Jose Reyes. He stole second, went to third on a grounder to second by Lo Duca, and then scored on a single by Carlos Beltran. The Mets knocked around John Smoltz, but he seemed to get the outs when he needed to.

Unfortunately for Glavine, the outs couldn't come because of his defense. After no errors in 4 games, the Mets committed two on Saturday. In the bottom of the sixth, with the bases loaded, Shawn Green dropped a Matt Diaz fly ball that allowed one run to score. The next batter, Woodward, flew out to right off Pedro Feliciano, and Green made a nice running catch, but the ball was deep enough to score a run to make it 4-2. Then Joe Smith came on and got a groundball, but it was too slow for Reyes to make a play, so the Braves took a 5-2 lead. All 5 runs were charged to Glavine, but only two were earned.

The much-improved Braves bullpen held the Mets to one run the rest of the way, though the Mets did threaten Bob Wickman in the ninth. Trailing 5-3, Carlos Delgado walked, and David Wright singled (extending his hitting streak on an otherwise horrid day - 3 strikeouts against Smoltz). With two outs and runners on second and third, Green lined one towards right field, but the ball was snared by Craig Wilson at first. A tough way to end the game, but it showed the Mets still have that ability to come back late in games, and you still get the sense that they're never out of a game.

CHICK-FIL-A JOHNNYMETS.BLOGSPOT.COM PLAYER OF THE GAME: No one really stood out in this one, so we'll go with Matt Diaz, who had a homer and lifted the fly ball that Shawn Green dropped. At least he put it in play, and you have to give him some credit for that - chances are the then-go-ahead run would have scored anyway. Diaz finished 1-for-2 with 2 RBI and a run scored.

NOTES ON THE GAME: The Braves have no true leadoff hitter, now that Rafael Furcal is gone. They also have no true second baseman. Kelly Johnson is playing second and leading off, but I also noticed this on Friday night, when Chris Woodward was the starting second baseman and leadoff hitter. That's a step back from Furcal, and Marcus Giles at second.

ALSO THE WAY I FEEL: Tim Kurkjian was guest host on Mike & Mike In The Morning the other day (I think it was Thursday), and the subject of the DirecTV/other cable providers Extra Innings packages came up. (An aside: I find the Mike & Mike show to be much more tolerable when someone like Kurkjian or Buster Olney is on for the entire show rather than the regular Mikes...but that's another story for another day.) Kurkjian said he has DirecTV, and the day he got it, he says, "was, other than the days my kids were born, the greatest day of my life." So, he said, it wouldn't be right for other people to not have the opportunity to get the package. I agree.

SNY 2007: Friday night was my first chance to see a Mets game on SNY. Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez were in the booth, and were very good (for the amount I saw before I fell asleep). A couple of notables:
-Slightly newer, snazzier graphics.
-Good ads - one, a tribute to Ron Darling for being named best New York sports analyst (I think, I was a little fuzzy on the award). The other was hilarious - it was a cartoon of Cohen, Darling, and Hernandez sitting on the couch watching the game, and Hernandez keeps saying, "I sound great. Wow, I'm doing a great job." And Darling and Cohen end up taking off Hernandez's mustache, and the announcer says, "Watch the Mets with Gary, Ron, Keith, and Keith's mustache." Good stuff. I hope there are different commercials like that each week. Hilarious.
-Also, forgot to mention this, so might as well here - Lee Mazzilli is the new studio analyst this year. I haven't seen enough of his work to comment yet.

1986 ROUNDUP: I don't remember seeing him all last year on camera, but Roger McDowell is still the Atlanta Braves' pitching coach. They showed him on Friday night, and either Keith or Ron said, "Roger smiled a lot more as a player." I thought that was funny.

MORE BROADCASTING: Caught the Reds' games over the weekend, and Grande was doing the games. Wonder what kind of a rotation they have going there. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

A WORD ON THE WEATHER: This year is more extreme than most, but I feel like every year there's a hubbub about the season-opening weather, and moving all of the openers to warm weather cities. Now, I don't know that that's a foolproof option - I hear there's a chance of snow in Arlington, Texas, for the Red Sox game Saturday night, which is surprising to me, but I feel like this is always a controversy in April every year, and then it dies down and is forgotten. I do feel, however, that this year has been extreme, as I mentioned above, extreme not only in weather, but also in outcry over the weather. And I think there will be some fallout - especially since Cleveland and Seattle are losing a game because of the weather, and because Victor Martinez got hurt in the bad weather, AND because of the controversy on Friday surrounding the weather and the way the game was called off. I don't know how much fallout, but I feel like the situation won't die away so easily, and maybe there will be some change next year.

BEAT THE STREAK: After no hits Friday by Xavier Nady and on Saturday with Derek Jeter, I'm going with as sure a thing as I can on Sunday, with the Cleveland doubleheader. I'll take Grady Sizemore - all he needs is one hit in two games to get me started.

PHILADELPHIA FAILIES

Mets 8, Phillies 3 (PHI: 39-38; NYM 38-38, 7 GB)

I've said it so many times, I feel like it's my mantra...but it's not, because then I'd have a very crappy mantra. "The Phillies do not scare me." Here's what scares me: Pedro Martinez* feeling a "twinge" anywhere on his body. Depending on Braden Looper in any situation in life. (Or Armando Benitez.) Clowns and monkeys. The Mets playing at Turner Field. Monkeys dressed like clowns. But not the Philadelphia Phillies. The National League East is tight, and very competitive - but the Mets only have to worry about Washington, Florida, an Atlanta. The Phillies had their run, they're on their way to the cellar. (Incidentally, there's no way the Nationals are going to keep doing what they're doing, but that's another story for another day.)

The Mets improved to 7-3 over the Phillies with their win on Tuesday night at Shea Stadium. The Mets jumped out to the 2-0 lead in the third inning with back-to-back RBI doubles by Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran*. I think both of them really crushed the ball, because ESPN GameCast said the doubles were hit to "deep left" and "deep center", respectively. Unfortunately, I was relegated to following the game on GameCast because I am at Channel 4. What can you do...I have to pay the bills, you know.

Victor Zambrano gave a run back to Philly, but the Mets broke the game open with 4 runs in the fifth, featuring a Beltran* triple, then RBI singles by Mike Piazza, future Hall of Famer David Wright, and "I can't believe the Mets now have" Jose Offerman. Also in the "I can't believe...." category: Brian Daubach added an RBI groundout. (I know I have a lot of Red Sox fans as readers, so I wanted to make them reminisce by including those two names.)

Mike Piazza added a 2-run homer later in the game to effectively put it away - he's really coming on of late - I might crunch some numbers to figure out at which point of the season you have to start counting his stats to see if he deserves the starting nod at catcher for the All-Star team. I'm sure since a certain date (probably earlier this month) his average is over .300 - he's been hitting that well lately. As it is, Piazza's average is up to .267 overall. That's a big climb from where he was.

The bad news - Danny Graves gave up a couple of bombs in mop-up duty. (Bombs being synonymous with homers - I have no way of knowing if they were legitimate "bombs".) He could help the Mets, but he needs to get things figured out - lots of time with Rick Peterson for Graves. That's my recommendation.

Now the words Dave from Brighton has waited nearly two months to hear -time to check the mailbag (there are a number of outdated e-mails, which we might re-visit on a slow day in the future, but we'll start with a very recent one):

"Dear JohnnyMets,

Thanks for returning to cyberspace.

Here's my question. Or a comment, then a question, really.

Doug Mientkiewicz pulled a hammie while in the on-deck circle the
other day, and he's on the 15 day DL. This got me thinking about my
favorite DL stories.

--Mike Remlinger hurt his left (throwing) pinkie adjusting his recliner
in May.
--Sammy Sosa's sneezing fit (sore back) from last season.
--Paxton Crawford (5-1 career record) lying down on a wine glass. I
read a rumor on the Internet that the injury involved a hooker and a
disagreement over Canadian vs US dollars.

What are your favorite DL stories (that don't involve David Wells)?

Dave"

Dave, you set me up perfectly. I was going to address this today, since my arch-nemesis, Kenny Rogers, missed a start because of a broken bone in his non-pitching hand suffered when he threw a fit in his last start. (Kevin Brown-esque.) And the Mientkiewicz injury might cost the Mets, beause he's the reason Jose Offerman is now back in the major leagues.

But any conversation about stupid baeball injuries begins and ends with John Smoltz. He ironed a shirt - WHILE HE WAS WEARING IT!!! I don't remember if he landed on the DL, or if he even missed a start - but it happened. That's enough. That's the big one...this might be a week-long theme, where I write them down when they come to me. Interesting point about Crawford, incidentally, Dave - thanks for bringing that to our attention.

A big shout-out to Hall of Famer Gary Carter, whose Mets of the Gulf Coast League are off to a 4-0 start. It's a 55-game season, we'll keep you posted on whether or not they stay undefeated. Thus begins our Carter Count.