Mr. Mets Daily

Mets give Manuel his first win!

2008-06-19T10:58:06Z

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Mets press conference observations

2008-06-17T22:22:15Z

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Mets new manager, Jerry Manuel

2008-06-17T19:37:57Z

The New York Mets newest manager (God help him....) is 54 year old former bench coach Jerry Manuel.

Manuel will take over tonight as Mets manager against the Angels at 10:05pm. He had a fourteen year career, (mostly undistinguished) as a player.He was the manager of the Chicago White Sox for five seasons with a record of 500-471. The highlight of his coaching career came in 2000 when he led the Sox to a record of 95-67 and won AL manager of the year honors.

He is a very solid baseball man, and ironically, is very similiar to Willie Randolph in terms of personality. In fact, Willie may the more fiery of the two. Manuel is a student of Ghandi which tells you a bit about his calm demeanor, nothing wrong with that, but I do question whether a Willie clone makes sense. Much like Willie, he is a good guy, very intelligent, has a lot of baseball experience, but, again, I really have to wonder if this team is not in need of a more stern manager. But, I will reserve judgement, and wish him well....with this Mets team and front office, Jerry will need all the luck he can get!

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Mets fire Willie Randolph!

2008-06-17T10:57:19Z

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Mets open up against the Angels in LA

2008-06-16T15:59:28Z

The New York Mets will open up a three game set tonight at 10:05pm vs the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim...or wherever else they may be from. The stating pitchers will be Mike Pelfrey (2-6), but coming off his best career outing and Jered Weaver (6-6).

The Mets took two out of three from the Rangers this weekend, apparently saving Willie Randolph at least for.....who knows? However, it seems pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto will be getting the ax. (We all know the Mets biggest problem is of course first base coaching). The Mets are turning into the Knicks right before our eyes. This situation is being so poorly handled you would think Charles Dolan was advising the Wilpon's.

If you decide that Willie and company are not the right coaches for the team, fine, fire them and move on! This non sense of "well...lets see how the Mets play this week" is garbage! If the Mets brain trust (and I use that term loosely) don't yet have enough history to decide if they are in good hands or not from a coaching perspective, will another few games really tell them anything??

Sorry, had to get that off my chest...I feel much better now.

New York Mets quick hits:

Mets catchers lead the league in stolen bases against
Mets manager(for today) Willie Randolph has been named to the staff of the all-star game
the Mets enter play tonight at 33-35
6/17 starting pitchers: Johan Santana (7-4) vs John Lackey(3-1)
6/18 starting pitchers: Oliver Perez (5-4) vs Jon Garland (6-4)

Mets win, Wagner gets the save!

2008-06-16T01:01:53Z

The New York Mets beat the Texas Rangers 4-2 in the back end of their doubleheader tonight at Shea. Pedro Martinez got the win and pitched a very solid game.

Closer Billy Wagner, coming off a nightmare week where he blew three multiple run leads, came on in the ninth inning to notch the win for the Mets. That may have been the best sign of all for the amazins as without a dependable closer, no team can go very far. I must admit, I was a bit nervous as Billy came out because if he did it again, it would have gotten ugly. Closers must have short memories in order to be successful and Wagner evidently does. He was impressive and it was good to see.

As the game ended, I couldn't figure out who looked more relieved, Wagner or Willie Randolph.
The win gives the Mets a two of three victory in the series, and with the Phillies losing two this weekend, they pick up a much needed game in the standings.

The main thought I had was this; what did Willie Randolph do differently today then in games the Mets have lost this year? The answer, so far as I could tell, is...nothing at all!

The difference today was the Mets got some run support, a solid outing by their starter, and a lights out performance by the bull pen. None of this means that Willie is a better manager all of a sudden. What it does mean, to me, is what I have been saying all season; the manager is only as good as his team. On this day, Willies guys came through for him. Problem is, they are still the same guys who lost four straight last weekend in San Diego.

While I am happy with winning this series, and with the Mets coming through like they did, I still feel the problems that plague this team, which have them playing .500 ball for the last 160 or so games, still exist. To me, that is more on the GM then the manager. I hope, as I have all season, that this will propel them on to some kind of winning streak to get back in the mix in the NL East. Problem is, based on recent experience, I can see the next game they play ending like so many other over the past couple of season's.

Maybe this time will be different.

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Mets win, mishandle Willie situation

2008-06-14T13:03:15Z

First, the game news; the New York Mets beat the Texas Rangers 7-1 last night at Shea Stadium. Oliver Perez was "good Ollie", pitching seven strong innings and picking up his fifth victory of the season.

The Mets, luckily, picked up enough offense that they didn't need to worry much about the bull pen.

Now, the more significant news; the Mets have apparently all but decided to fire manager Willie Randolph. It has been reported that ownership has concluded that it is time for a change. The lone hold out is General Manager Omar Minaya, the man to blame for the current sad state of the organization, in my opinion.

It makes sense to me that Omar would opt not to fire Willie, since by doing so, he would be the next one with a target on his back. I believe his support of Willie Randolph is merely driven by self preservation. Minaya has put together an old, overpaid ($140M is a lot to pay for a sub.500team) squad that is not constructed in such a way that leads you to believe they can compete for a Championship any time soon. To make matters worse, Minaya has mortgaged the Mets future in order to bring us this mediocre team. The Mets farm system is one of the weakest in baseball right now.

Great job, Omar! The Mets are badly handling this situation. If you want to fire Willie, just do it. Enough of this "day to day" nonsense. It is bush league and makes the Mets appear second class. If you fire him though, and Omar knows this, it won't make much difference. While Willie certainly has made his share of mistakes, but is it his fault that Pedro Martinez is old? Or that Carlos Delgado, a once great player, is now a liability? Is it Willie's fault that the bull pen is sub par? I could go on and on, but you get the point. The Mets are not a well constructed team. That is the fault of the man who built the team, not the man who manages them.

Hopefully Mets management will decide to make meaningful change, which means get rid of Minaya and as many of these aging, overpaid players as possible and lets try to load up on young talent and actually have a future for this franchise. Just my opinion.

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Billy Wagner costs Mets this time....

2008-06-12T21:02:58Z

Mets closer Billy Wagner has blown three straight saves, two of which have been costly losses. The Mets entered the ninth inning leading the Diamondbacks, 4-2. Wagner couldn't close the door,and the Mets went on to lose 5-4 in ten innings.

Below is a picture of Wagner preparing for the save:

(Sorry, Billy, couldn't resist). For the most part, Wagner has been outstanding for the Mets, but of late, he has been a liability. As we all know, the Mets are not a team that can afford to give away a single game (I realize no team can, but especially the Mets),with the way they are struggling. The Mets bailed Wagner out last night after he blew a three run lead in the ninth, and they almost did it again today. However, David Wright and Damion Easley were robbed in the ninth.

This is typical of the 2008 Mets season; if they get strong starting pitching, the bull pen fails, if the pitching is strong all around, they don't hit, if they hit and pitch, they don't field. It has been frustrating to say the least.

It was a wasted brilliant performance by Mets ace Johan Santana. Just like they (Wagner), wasted a tremendous outing by Mike Pelfrey last night. Even though the Mets won last night, the kid deserved a W.

The beat goes on....the Mets continue to prove they are just a mediocre team. It pains me to say it, but look at the facts.

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Wagner blows the lead, again....

2008-06-12T20:18:19Z

The game is in the top of the ninth as I write this and Mets closer Billy Wagner has just proceeded to blow his third save in as many tries...yuk! The Mets entered the inning up 4-2, it's now 4-4 and counting...just had to get that off my chest.

Mets swept by Padres

2008-06-09T00:08:39Z

Well, first the good news..at least the Mets didn't lose 2-1 again. That score was getting old. No, today the Mets decided instead of showing they could lose a game with a strong pitching performance by not hitting, they would hit and just display lousy pitching! That was the story today. The Mets lost to the San Diego Padres 8-6.

Mets starter Pedro Martinez didn't have his best stuff. Yet the Mets still had a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the eight. Duaner Sanchez was pulled with two out and two on in the inning. On came Mets closer Billy Wagner. Wagner quickly turned a 6-4 lead into an 8-6 deficit. Wagner has been solid this year for the most part, but for all his bashing of teammates (sometimes rightly so), it looks bad to have this kind of performance. I know there will be some second guessing of Willie Randolph for this move, ("why didn't Sanchez finish the inning?...etc"). I didn't love it (at least before Wagner imploded), but it wasn't a terrible move. As has happened often this season, the Mets players just didn't perform.

The Mets now limp out of town having been swept by a last place team. Any positive feelings the Mets garnered during their recent run was quickly wiped away after the lost weekend in San Diego. The team is now 7.5 back of the Phillies and reeling. The best news for Willie Randolph and the Mets players is that they are on the West Coast, far away from the angry fans at Shea Stadium.

As I have stated many times, hoping to be proven wrong, I just think the Mets are a mediocre team right now. Sadly, they keep proving me correct.

This is for you, Mets fans....(it couldn't hurt):

New York Mets 2008 draft recap

2008-06-07T19:03:32Z

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Mets start four game set in San Diego

2008-06-05T20:19:17Z

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Mets take 2 of 3 from Giants!

2008-06-05T00:15:52Z

The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 to take the series. Mets starter John Maine went six innings giving up one run on seven hits. Maine is now 6-4.

Jose Reyes had a big night with a homer, a single and a double. Carlos Beltran also had two RBI's.

I know the Giants aren't exactly the second coming of the '27 Yankees, or if you like, the '86 Mets, but still, the Mets won two out of three on the road. Over the course of the season, that is all you need to do; just win a lot of series. With the return of Pedro Martinez, the Mets now seem to have a solid top three in the starting rotation. I still have a lot of concerns about the Mets, but, I finally have some reason for optimism in this bizarre season.

Up next, the San Diego Padres.

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Mets open up series in San Francisco

2008-06-02T22:11:31Z

The New York Mets open up a three game series against the San Francisco Giants on the west coast tonight at 10:15pm. The Mets are on their best stretch of the season having won five of their last six games. Tonight poses an interesting challenge for the Amazins as they played a night game at Shea on Sunday, then had to board a plane for a cross country trip and play tonight. The Mets must have pissed off someone in the MLB scheduling office.

The Mets enter the contest at 28-27, 3.5 back, while the Giants are 24-33, 8.0 back. This series gives the Mets a chance against a weak team to string together some wins...lets hope they take advantage.

The starting pitchers are Oliver Perez(4-3) vs Jonathon Sanchez (3-3).

New York Mets quick hits for 6/2, 6/3 and 6/4:

Johan Santana got his 100th career win last night...congrats!
Jose Reyes has reached base safely in 32 straight games
Carlos Beltran has reached base in 35 straight starts
David Wright is the ONLY MLB player to play every inning this season....look out Cal Ripken!
6/3 starting pitchers are Pedro Martinez vs Barry Zito
6/4 starting pitchers are John Maine vs Matt Cain

Mets take 3 of 4 from the Dodgers!

2008-06-02T03:15:53Z

The New York Mets beat the Dodgers 6-1 tonight at Shea Stadium. The win makes the Amazins 5-1 in their last six games and finally appear to be getting on a roll.

So many key Mets came through tonight; David Wright with 2 RBI's and a run scored, Carlos Beltran with a two run homer, Ryan Church also had a two run job, Jose Reyes had three hits and Johan Santana was outstanding. Santana went seven and two thirds allowing just one run. It was Johan's seventh win of the season and the Mets are 9-3 in games he started.Not bad numbers for a team just one win above .500.

Mets fans have reason for optimism as the team travels across country to face the San Francisco Giants Monday night..(I won't complain right now about the MLB scheduling screw up). Remember, Pedro Martinez makes his return to the Mets line up Tuesday night.

I have been waiting all season for the Mets to make a run, it seems to be happening right now. While I still feel the club has some holes, I also feel with some breaks they could be a team to contend with.

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