Sorry for not posting anything in a while, folks. It's been a rough couple of days. Here's what went on in Florida while I was in bed with a 101-degree fever (pause for sympathy):

Good news and bad news:

We'll start with the good news. On back to back days, I believe those days were Saturday and Sunday, Tom Glavine and Kris Benson pitched very well. Glavine pitched four perfect innings before he left his game, and Benson went three perfect before giving up a couple of hits and a run or two in his game. I'm starting to get a good feeling about Kris Benson this year.

The bad news is that Pedro Martinez's* start was rained out on Monday. Again. It's his second straight start that's been rained out...and I think it might be three out of four. The Mets have been keeping him on a schedule so that he would be pitching every five days up to and including Opening Day, so it remains to be seen whether or not they keep doing that to keep him on schedule, or to get him to face some real game action.

The really bad news is that Steve Trachsel has a bad back, and likely will start the season on the disabled list. Trachsel has had this problem nagging at him, apparently, all spring, and finally had it checked out the past couple of days. No official word yet, but it doesn't look good that he'll be ready in April. The Mets won't need a fifth starter until midway through April, and right now it looks like Matt Ginter is the front-runner for that spot. Ginter played pretty well for the Mets in his spot starts last season - if I remember correctly, he was often the victim of a lack of run support (story of the 2004 Mets), but I remember him pitching well...I think he was the starter in one of the games during the Mets' sweep of the Yankees. But I also remember him throwing a couple of clunkers, so let's hope the good Ginter heads north.

Let's check the mail:

"Two quick Q's...

1 - The Mets developing a new network....would it be called MESS?? Mets Entertainment Sports Station?? METS ON MESS!!!

2 - The Mets signed Brian Daubach. Why? Don't they know he's horrible??

kevin
JMDBSDC Southern Bureau"

Kevin-long time since we heard from you. Not funny about the MESS. I'd say they call it the Mets Entertainment Television Station. METS.

And the Mets do have Daubach in their system right now, as well as former Red Sox backup to the backup's backup catcher Andy Dominique (who was horribly mis-named in an article in the Daily News, I think, when Pedro Martinez* first pitched...I wish I could remember what he was called - it was hilarious....but I guess you had to be there). Anyway, quick thing about Daubach (aka SCAB). (Speaking of scabs - it is such a shame that these ballplayers are so cold to the replacement players - do you know that Kevin Millar is still not in MLB 2005?!?! It just doesn't seem fair. The MLB Players' Union is a bunch of selfish pigs. If I had the chance to make some money as a major league ballplayer, albeit a replacement player, I would have taken that chance too. That's the only thing I sympathize with Daubach about. Now I will continue to rail on him.) Daubach is the only player in baseball who still acts like he's in Little League when he gets a 3-0 count. On the fourth pitch, no matter where it is - even if it's right down the pipe - he will start walking down to first. This has to piss umpires off. Because he never, ever, ever as long as I watched him play, ever got a close 3-1 pitch called in his favor. I think the umpires told him to cool it off a couple of years ago, because his last year with the Red Sox he didn't do it as much. But, man, that always annoyed me.

Giants 3, Mets 1 (59-63, 8 GB of Wild Card)

I feel like it's the early part of the season again. The Mets had a chance to pick up some ground in the race, they got a solid pitching outing from an unexpected source, and again their offense came up short.

In case you missed it, Future Hall of Famer David Wright was huge in Saturday's 11-9, 12 inning win. He was 4-for-6, with three doubles. His first of many 4-hit games in the Hall of Fame career. Unfortunately, he experienced a first of not-so-many on Sunday. He came up empty in a huge spot. With runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth, down 3-1, with two outs, Wright batted against Giants' closer Dustin Hermanson, and struck out swinging. That was it for the Mets. It's a shame, because they could have taken two out of three from the Giants and kept their wild card hopes VERY alive. Now they're just barely alive.

It's also a shame because they wasted a great game by Matt Ginter. Well, a very good game, maybe not great. He gave up a solo homer to Ray Durham leading off the game, then a 2-run shot to Barry Bonds later in the first, and it was looking bad. But he gave up just those three rus in six innings, filling in for the injured Victor Zambrano. A very solid start for Ginter - looking like he did back in May. Mike DeJean pitched in two scoreless relief innings.

Now, I'm giving the Mets this one last shot here. They have four games - at home - against the San Diego Padres. The Mets are 8 games back of the Giants in the wild card race. The Padres are 2-and-a-half games behind the Giants. So they're right there at the top. If the Mets can pick up ground on San Diego, they'll keep themselves in it into September. If not, I'll officially write them off, and turn my attention to the Jets. Monday night, Aaron Heilman should be called up to make a start, so Kris Benson can be kept on his normal rest. (He was moved back a day because of Wednesday's rainout, and Thursday's doubleheader.) If the Mets can win Monday with Heilman, I like their chances with Benson, Al Leiter, Steve Trachsel, and Tom Glavine the rest of the series.

Let's go Mets.

Yankees 11, Mets 5

(bottom of the seventh inning when I posted this, but I have to go to bed - first day of school on Monday)

If only Matt Ginter could have gotten out of that first inning. He fumbled the grounder to him by Bernie Williams leading off the first inning, then hit Derek Jeter with a pitch, then gave up an RBI single to Gary Sheffield. Then Alex Rodriguez hits a little nubber that stays fair, and neither Ginter or Ty Wigginton has a play. Tough luck, pretty much, to this point - not Ginter pitching too poorly. Then Ginter serves up a 3-run bomb to Ruben Sierra - that was poorly pitched. So 6-0 after one. Tough hill to climb for the Mets.

There were two bad things about that 6-run first inning, notwithstanding the fact that it was a six-run first inning. First of all, it didn't have to be six runs - Ginter was clearly rattled, which showed when he couldn't get Williams at first. If he had gotten that out, who knows how big that inning is. Secondly, if he could have stopped the bleeding, and not given up the homer to Sierra, the Mets could have won the game. Their lineup is pretty darn good these days...They almost overcame the 6-0 deficit, it didn't have to be that big a comeback.

Of course, it was good to see Richard Hidalgo hit those two homers. And they weren't cheapies. Those were two bombs - one to center, the other to left. Mike Cameron had cooled down since his heat-up last week...but seems to have busted out again after the big doubleheader on Sunday. His homer made you think the Mets just might have a big comeback in them.

The bullpen performed pretty well. Dan Wheeler did great in the long relief role, keeping the Mets in it, but Jose Parra and Mike Stanton need to step it up. Stanton gave up a grand slam in the first game of the doubleheader to Hideki Matsui, then in the second game gave up a 2-run single to Sierra in relief of Parra. Then he gave up another 2-run single. You know who else is disappointing me is Steve Trachsel. What happened to him? He better turn it around soon - the Mets need him to become a little more automatic than he's been lately.

THE GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED Jose Reyes did a couple of stupid things Sunday night. First of all, in the bottom of the second, on a foul ball into the stands in short right field, Reyes goes sprinting into the tarp chasing after it. He really didn't let up at all. With his medical history, something like that could kill him. He'd better be more careful. Then later, he dropped a pop fly in fair territory behind first base after sort of running into Eric Valent. His first error at second base. But hey, nobody's perfect.

WRIGHT WATCH: Big developments down at Norfolk. David Wright, as of Friday night, was moved from the number 6 spot in the order to number 3 in the order. He responded well. On Friday, Wright was 1-for-4 with a solo homer. On Saturday, he went 2-for-4 with a double and homer, 2 RBI, and a run scored. Then on Sunday Wright went 1-for-4. The 4-for-12 weekend dropped his average to .347.

Mets 7, Reds 4 (35-34, 2.5 GB)

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Matt Ginter has been mostly unlucky this season. He's had 8 starts, and only two decisions. (He's 1-1.) His one loss came in a game he could have won - his start last week against Cleveland. He's had five other no decisions where he gave up a total of four earned runs. Those could have also been wins.

But when Matt Ginter gets lucky, he gets lucky. He got his first win this year against the Rockies, in a game he should have lost (5 ER in 5 IP). And last night was a no decision he should be very happy with, after giving up 4 ER in 4 IP. John Franco, Mike Stanton, and Braden Looper combined for five scoreless innings of relief as the Mets bailed out Ginter in a great win. (They're all great, aren't they?)

Ginter helped the team out a bit, though. He kept the game from getting way out of hand, working out of jams, and giving up only the four runs that he did. That allowed the Mets to come back. And it's nice that the Mets picked up Ginter for a change, if not getting him a win this time around, at least keeping him from getting tagged with a loss.

Could the offense finally be coming around? It seems like everything's starting to click. Mike Piazza is hitting homers, Cliff Floyd is showing his power, Mike Cameron is no longer stuck in a slump, and new addition Richard Hidalgo even contributed last night. Here's the biggest thing - Kaz Matsui is in a slump right now, and THE GREATEST BASEBALL PLAYER WHO EVER LIVED Jose Reyes has yet to do what he's capable of. So you have to believe this will keep up when those two start setting the table.

The Braves blew a chance for the Mets to move to within a game and a half of first. Atlanta led the Marlins last night 3-1 into the seventh inning, but proceeded to give the game away with a bases loaded walk, and a wild pitch with a runner on third. So the Mets picked up a game on the Phillies, who lost to Montreal, but remain two and a half behind the Marlins.

This is as far as the Mets have been over .500 since the beginning of the month. After they beat Florida to go to 27-26 on June 3, they lost seven of eight. (They've turned around and won seven of eight since.) The Mets just need to keep winning now, and put .500 in the rear view mirror. The farther above .500 they get, the closer to first place they'll get. Tonight it's Jae Seo against Todd Van Poppel. If Seo can keep the ball in the park against the Reds, the Mets should win this game.

WRIGHT WATCH: Last night the Norfolk Tides lost again (Bob Keppel got knocked around this time - the Mets minor league pitchers aren't looking so good), but David Wright continues to shine. Wright went 2-5, with a double, raising his Triple-A average to .353.

Mets 5, Phillies 3 (24-26, 5.5 GB)

May 31, 2004

Mother Nature screwed me over yesterday. The Mets were supposed to be on ESPN2 at 1pm. The start of the game was delayed by rain, but it started around 2pm. So I watched the first few innings. Then the rain came again, keeping the game off until after 4pm. By then, ESPN stuck with its regularly scheduled games, and blew off the rest of the Mets-Phillies game. So I didn't watch much of the game, but I did see Matt Ginter's full outing. Nice. It's too bad the rain prevented him from going five and qualifying for a win. Ginter continues to pitch well - remember, last week he went six scoreless against Philadelphia before leaving and seeing his 3-0 lead turn into a loss. Everytime he pitches well is a huge boost to the team.

Jason Phillips homered again, and Kaz Matsui looked good. I read Mike Cameron had a clutch hit. Hopefully the offense develops some consistency. I did notice in the box score, though, that the Mets left five runners in scoring position with two out. Not sure if they left the bases loaded at all (although using some math skills I've retained from high school I think I can detect that they didn't), but that's still a problem that needs fixing.

I forgot to write this yesterday, but I think Mike Piazza is going to love hitting in the new ballpark in Philadelphia. Apparently the ball jumps out of this park, especially out to right-center field. He hits the ball well to that part of the field. He went 1-for-3 yesterday, we'll see how he does over the course of the year, and whether or not this is a stat that's worth following.

A couple of other things. First of all, the Mets finished the month of May 15-12. That's good. That's probably one of their best months in years, sadly enough. Let me put a 15-12 month in perspective for you. There are roughly 6 months in a baseball season. If you play 15-12 ball every month, you go 90-72. That's enough to win the NL East this year...at least in my mind. Now, the Mets went 9-14 in April, so they have some ground to make up. But the 15-12 per month is very manageable. Especially considering a couple of things - first, they finished May very badly, with a 4-game losing streak on the final days of the season. They also had 3 other stretches of back-to-back losses. Another good sign coming up is the Mets play the AL Central in interleague play. A weaker division in baseball is tough to find. The Mets play at Minnesota (27-23) next week, and they've been depleted by injuries. Then they play at Kansas City (17-31) - one of the worst teams in baseball. After that, the Mets host Cleveland (22-26) and Detroit (23-27), two not-so-good teams. The Mets don't even have to play the White Sox, the best team in that division! Of course, the Mets being the Mets, they're not going to dominate these teams like they should. But it's safe to say the Mets should win more games in June than they did in May. That's a johnnymets guarantee.

One last thing. Last night on WFAN, a caller says he was at the Binghamton Mets game. Says he saw scouts there from the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox, among other teams he couldn't identify. "Hmm", I'm thinking. "This guy sounds intelligent. Could be some good info coming here."
Those teams are there to check out some of the Mets' minor-league talent in the hopes of working out a deal, as the caller states the obvious.
Now, the Mets are in the market for pitching. So those scouts are there, I'm thinking, because if they're giving up pitching, they want to see who the young guys they'd be getting from the Mets are. (Assuming the teams were there to watch the Mets and not the Yankees' double-A team, as this guy said they were.) So anyway, the presence of the scouts assumes the Mets are buyers, not sellers. Because if the Mets turn in to sellers this year, it's not to get rid of minor league talent. Then this clown caller says, "I bet the Red Sox guys are there because the Mets are going to send Al Leiter to Boston."
What an idiot. There is just so much wrong with that statement. Yes, the Red Sox could very well be interested in Al Leiter. But if that's the case, WHY WOULD THE SOX SCOUTS BE WATCHING THE METS' MINOR LEAGUE GUYS?!??! DO THEY WANT TO SEE WHERE THE YOUNG TALENT THEY WOULD NEED TO GIVE UP FOR A GUY LIKE LEITER WILL BE PLAYING NEXT SEASON?!?! I was so disappointed that the host didn't call this guy out. All he said was, "I don't think the Mets are going to get rid of Leiter, especially at this point of the season." That story wasn't really worth telling, I just needed to get it off my chest.

By the way, speaking of Leiter, he comes back from the DL tonight to pitch against the Phillies. Hopefully he's a little more efficient, and doesn't have to come out of the game after just five innings. Glavine will go tomorrow. These next two games are huge, before four more against Florida.

Phillies 7, Mets 4 (23-23, 3 GB)

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Perhaps I'm too optimistic. Perhaps the negativity by so many Mets fans is the appropriate sentiment towards the New York Mets. Perhaps, even though the Mets are no worse off today than they were Tuesday morning, before they split the 2-game series with Philadelphia, then perhaps the Mets' season is over. But I don't think it is.

As one of the few Mets optimists left in this world, I'm going to focus on the positives that came out of last night's loss instead of dwelling on the negatives (errors by Matsui and Piazza, runners left on base, etc.), as all the late-night WFAN callers seem to do. First of all, Matt Ginter pitched a great game. He had a great start in Houston (vs. Clemens), then pitched crappily (is that a word?) but got a win vs. Colorado, and pitched very, very well last night. I sense someone who gets up for big games, which bodes well if the Mets' pitching remains in upheaval.

I read where the Mets had a team hitting meeting the other day to try to solve their problems hitting with 2 outs and runners on. The solution was to be more patient and put the pressure on the pitcher by waiting for a good pitch to hit. I noticed the hitters really putting that into practice last night, and the results were two 2-out bases loaded walks in the 6th inning by Danny Garcia and Cliff Floyd. Mike Piazza then struck out to end that inning, a sign of the bad things to come in the top of the seventh.

Another quick positive - Ty Wigginton made a great stab diving to his right to field a hard grounder in the 6th inning. Consider him even for the mis-play on Tuesday night.

A discouraging note - I think the headcase in Jason Phillips might be surfacing a bit. He threw a little hissy-fit in the batter's box in the 8th inning after the umpire called a pitch out of the strike zone strike one. The ump let him get away with the pouting, but then Phillips struck out swinging at two more very bad pitches. He better not let these types of games affect his head - he also had a homer robbed by Pat Burrell in the second inning, which could have built up in that distorted head of his and resulted in the late-inning blow-up. (I actually like Phillips - but he better not turn into bad Derek Lowe.)

Finally, the last point I'll make about last night's game - it was an ugly loss in a game the Mets should have won. Very similar to last Thursday's loss to the Cardinals, which became the sloppiest game of the year, in a game the Mets could have won. After that loss, the Mets responded with a spirited sweep of Colorado. If they respond the same way this weekend, they'll be tied with Florida in the standings. If the Mets are going to lose ugly once every five games, winning the rest, I think that's a ratio I can deal with.