Thoughts on Game #1

My quick hits on spring training game #1 vs Nationals:

1. I was really impressed with Josh Thole. He had said all offseason he worked on his stance and keeping the same one. He had said last season his stance would change often. it seemed to me that was a big difference as he made several good throws from behind the plate and threw out a runner. His throws seemed to hit the same target at second base.

2. Andres Torres, that was the Torres we know from 2010. Hitting .212 & .321 OBP like he did in 2011 is not going to cut it and will bring Kirk he sooner rather than later. Last night he got on base and STOLE ON THE FIRST PITCH! When was the last time Reyes did that? A good sign since Sandy values OBP from his leadoff hitter.

3. Matt Harvey was definitely nervous. He once stated he struggles when he gets promoted to each level due to nervous and being excited. It was nice to see him induce the double play last night to get out of the jam and give up no runs. After giving up 3 hits and hitting a batter, goot to see him settle down and get out of the inning when he almost got yanked.

4. Daniel Murphy will be adequate at 2nd base. He was good enough at first a few years back. his problem is he is very aggressive and needs to work on his footwork. He does a good job with the DP ball but just the footwork is the issue there. I do not see him making errors due to bone headed moves or plays AKA Angel Pagan.

Judge Rakoff ruled today that the trustee was entitled to collect up to $83 million in fictitious profits from the Wilpons. This clears the way for a jury trial on March 19 in which the Wilpons could be on the hook for an additional $300 million.

Even as Jude Rakoff denied a bid by the Mets’ owners to dismiss the remaining counts against them, Rakoff said he was “skeptical” that the trustee, Irving H. Picard, can prove that the Wilpons acted in bad faith.

If they appeal Rakoff’s ruling, they will have to post a bond worth 110 percent of the monetary damages. If the figure is as much as $83 million, they would have to come up with $91 million.

It remains to be seen how the Wilpons can come up with $91 million when they twice have asked MLB for an extension of a $25 million loan and thias offseason borrowed an additional  $40 million from BOA. I personally do not understand the total financial ramifications the Wilpons are in but if Wilpons must pay an additional $91 million plus anywhere near close to another $300 million don't you figure the Wilpons are finished?

I would just caution fans who want the wilpons out that the grass isnt always greener on the other side. There are some horrific owners out there like Dan Snyder of the redskins and Steven Ross of the Dolphins. The Wilpons when they did not have these financial problems did spend maybe not wisely but did spend a lot. Obviously the farm system was ingored and  money was not allocated in the correct way but there sare some really bad owners in sports. I much rather would have the Wilpons own the team than Donald Sterling of the LA Clippers.

AJ Burnett/Johan Santana

Pirates pitcher A.J. Burnett will undergo surgery on Friday to repair a fractured right orbital bone. AJ injured himself participating in bunting drills. Pirates have not announced an immediate time table for his return.

Johan Santana faced live batters today for the first time this spring. He threw 43 pitches to several mets hitters including sitting down for four plus minutes to simulate innings. He is scheduled to long toss over the weekend then pitch against the cardinals March 06, Tuesday. Santana said he threw his fastball and changeup and felt good. Johan also stated he is not worried about velocity or hitters. Just about feeling good at this point.

Pudge to mets?

In a post on twitter, Mike Puma of the NY Post reports as recently as 10 days ago the mets spoke to Pudge and have not ruled out signing him as a backup catcher but before they spend the roughly $2 million in their budget the mets want to make sure Johan is healthy in case they need to spend the $ on a starting pitcher. This is great news and I hope they can sign pudge. He plays hard, would be a good veteran presence & a good influence on Thole. Obviously he is at the end of his career but it would be a great move.

Fred Wilpon Comments

Today Fred Wilpon spoke to the media and had a lengthy, about 22 minute long chat in which he made several statements which make me angry.

Let me begin by saying I do believe in the quote "the grass isnt always greener on the other side." If the Wilpons did sell the team, yes they could sell to a total idiot like Dan Snyder or Donald Sterling. I get that. But this charade has gone on long enough. It is completely obvious that the Wilpons can no longer afford to own the team and run it like anything but the Kansas City Royals. I do not expect the team to have a $150 million payroll every year but I sure as hell expect the team to be able to afford player who make more than $2 million per year which right now they cannot even afford that.

Fred made some of the following statements and these quotes are from ESPNNY.com:

"We're OK," said Wilpon, who has been stung by the Ponzi scheme involving Bernard Madoff, in response to a question about his finances.---------------------------------------------->

Yea they are ok but that is why they have twice asked MLB for an extension on the $25 million loan and this offseason they had to take out a $40 million bridge loan.

"They shouldn't be concerned about us owning the franchise, because we intend to own the franchise for a very long time," Wilpon said about his message to fans.

Notice Freddie says the word "INTEND."

Wright is under the team's control through 2013, including a team option. Wilpon said it will be a baseball-operations decision whether he ultimately signs an extension, walks away as a free agent or is traded beforehand.

So if Wright does not stay with the team it has nothing to do with finances it will be a baseball operations decision? OK WHATEVER ASSHOLE!

As for his future, Wilpon said: "As long as I can, I plan to be the owner here."

LOL Again notice he says "as long as I can."


Just absoultely a bunch of lies IMO and just ridiculous statements.

All has arrived in mets camp

Now that everyone has arrived we can get down to the business of baseball. The issue of why Tejada was late is over and done with. I think if Tejada works hard, is in shape and shows a commitment he will be ok. Some mets players have been upset with Tejada not showing up early but now it is up to Tejada to show his commitment and all can be forgiven. There are obviously still one major off field issue that is the Wilpons trial scheduled to start March 19 and last a few weeks. I do not think this is a distraction as the mets players all know they need to step up. All have something to prove. As Sandy Alderson said, no one had a career year last year. There is room for improvement by all. Some are trying to come back from injuries and some are underperforming. This is a team that won 77 games last year despite trading KRod & Beltran at midseason, lost Ike for 5 months, Bay had another terrible year & DW for 2 months. I personally like the upgrade defensively at CF with Torres & a full season from Duda, who hopefully can keep his solid 2nd half going for a full year. I don't see any reason why mets cannot win 77 if not more games in 2012. What do you think?

Mets to honor Gary Carter

To honor Gary Carter, the Mets will wear a number ’8′ over the home plate cutout on their jerseys, according to David Lennon of Newsday. Lennon says the 8 will be placed on the jersey ‘sooner rather than later’ and will be placed on their Spring Training jersey as well.

Matt Harvey

Here is a great article by Rich Coutinho on Matt Harvey http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/24/coutinho-matt-harveys-impressive-stuff-is-obvious/ Josh Thole's comments after Harvey's BP session today were: Thole caught Matt Harvey today. "did you see him?" Thole later said. "(Bleeping) unbelieveable." Exciting stuff!

Cartoon on copter gate

This is a funny cartoon on copter gate. Go to link!

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/38630/joe-petruccios-journal-courtside-in-miami&cache

Copter Gate

Yes, the Wilpons chartering a helicopter for $3K/hour for a 5-7 hours does not really mean anything on the grand scale of life. Wilpons over the next six months will pay out $90 million in payroll, not to mention payroll for staffers, management and a lawsuit which they could owe up to $1 billion if things do not go their way.

But in life especially when you are in the public eye, it is the perception of how you do things. When it is the perception that you are broke, you lost $70 million last season and the franchise you own has $1 billion in debt along with you had to ask MLB for an extension on two different occasions for a $25 million loan, having a helicopter land on a PUBLIC practice field where fans and beat writers are hanging out with camera phones isnt the brightest idea in the world.

Wilpons should have chartered helicopter from a private local airport instead. Like I said, the cost of the helicopter is really peanuts compared to what the mets will pay out in payroll alone over the next six months but as I said, perception is reality. Think next time think.

Thoughts on Tejada

Yes there is a difference between report time and Terry-time. The old saying goes "if you are early, you are on time and if you are on time, you are late." The only players not in mets camp are Ruben Tejada, Ronny Cedeno & Scott Hairston(I might be incorrect on this). Jason Bay, David Wright among all other position players who have reported days early have already taken BP.

Last year Luis Castillo was fighting for his job(which he loathed) and irked TC by not reporting early. TC had to have a little man to man with him for sulking because he did not want to fight for his job. He was obviously released. Tejada is the new kid on the block, the new starting SS. He isnt a veteran backup like Cedeno or Hairston. There is nothing wrong technially with reporting Saturday though with 22 other position players reporting days early, Tejada should have too. I agree with the line "if they want players to report early, they should move the report date up." I see that line of thinking but when you are the new kid on the block, not a veteran and the new SS, you should IMO make every effort to report early. Having Visa problems in not an excuse. Tejada like Paulino before him knows when report date is. They should have all their ducks in a row and ready to go for report date.

Johan's BP/TC remarks/Ruben Tejada/jersey numbers

Johan Santana threw his second bullpen session of the spring today. Mets are eyeing the first spring game of the season on March 05 against the Nats in PSL as his debut which he is scheduled to pitch one inning. Terry Collins remarked he hopes Johan to pitch 25-28 starts, which would be amazing. Terry also said he believes Johan will start opening day though he did say they will take Johan's spring cautiously. Johan also stated he feels better now in ST than he did 4-5 years ago at this point.


Terry Collins in a 25 minute interview with the media said "We're better than people think we are." Collins said every team has a player like Lin and that it is all about providing opportunuities.

Ruben Tejada is the latest met to have visa problems. He doesnt have a visa and is meeting with the embassy in Panama tomorrow. Jeurys Familia was seen in camp wearing K-Rod's number 75 and Bob Geren, new bench coach is reportedly wearing Jose Reye's number 7.

Mets Terry Collins

Here is a great article by Rich Coutinho from WFAN on some comments Terry Collins made on the mets chances this season. A great read! http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/20/coutinho-terry-collins-is-right-mets-will-surprise-their-critics/ I personally just love the positivity that TC has. We all know TC like SandMan and everyone else always puts on a positive front for the team but just look at how TC handled the team last year. He knew how to push all the right buttons at the right time, only "going off" three times last year. Each time afterwards the team seemed to respond. TC has definitely changed since last managing in the majors 10 years ago. He has definitely learned from past mistakes and has seemed to mellow out. The big criticism of him was he took every game too seriously, life and death. That all seems like a long long time ago.

SNL Jeremy Lin Video

This isn't mets related but a great SNL skit on Jeremy Lin http://m.deadspin.com/5886296

David Wright's Future

Yesterday Sandy Alderson said the following comment on David Wright which is the most striking to me: "I think that his future is independent of club performance." There are many factors involved yes such as his option for 2013 as opposed to the fact Beltran & Reyes were FA. But I think obviously DW future is tied to money. Wilpons have the Madoff trial starting on March 19 which is only expected to last a few weeks. Wilpons could owe up to $386 million. The amount of money that DW is owed over next two years is a lot. Wilpons could force Sandy to cut even more payroll in the future especially if the mets cannot trade Bay if they struggle. You would have to hope mets trade Bay first if he has a good first half season to get relief from his salary. I just think DW is a different story. His popularity with the fans and with Jeff Wilpon is a much different story from Reyes. Fans accepted Reyes leaving but I don't know if things are the same as DW.

ESPN Rejected Lin Headlines

This isnt mets related but funny. In case you live in a box or just aren't on twitter where everything seems to happen before it actually does, ESPN.com ran a headline today of "chink in the armor." now obviously espn meant this to say Lin was not invincible due to the fact he had 9 turnovers last night versus the hornets but of course they are a bunch of brain dead morons for putting this headline out. Point is here is some funny rejected espn headlines: Yellow fever Sweet & sour Knicks Taken to Lin cleaners General Tso-So Asian point guard can't drive Hornets make wontons out of Lin very slanted loss Knicks get wok'd Stir fried Knicks Wax on Wax off Knicks fortune run out Me lose you long time Back to ping ping Chow Mein Pain

Johan/The Kid

Johan Santana threw 25 pitches to Josh Thole in his first mound work of the spring. He is scheduled to throw another BP session on Tuesday. Johan said he threw all of his pitches and wasnt concerned with velocity. He had said he felt good after throwing expects to participate in drills with teammates in the coming days. Johan was interviewed today for a few minutes on WFAN by Mike Francesa. Check it out when you get a chance.

In other news, a great article from Bob Klapisch appeared in NorthJersey.com about Gary Carter and can be read here:

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/Klapisch_Gary_Carter_inspired_us_on_and_off_the_field.html

Thanxs for reading as this is my first blog post. Hope you enjoy and please feel free to share.