No Reason For Negativity

My favorite quote so far is from Ike Davis, "Why does everyone think we're going to suck?  It's February."

I am with Ike on this.  Spring Training has barely started yet fans have already begun to jump ship.  The Mets certainly have a lot of question marks but that doesn't mean they are going to be terrible.

Let's take a look at the offense.  Full seasons from David Wright, Daniel Murphy, and Ike Davis are nothing to complain about.  Lucas Duda has adds a lot of power to the lineup and he'll be in the lineup all season.  Hitting isn't the issue for Josh Thole.  And there is nothing stopping Jason Bay from producing again.  Those players will fill six of the eight offensive positions this year and they can all be expected to benefit from the shorter fences at Citi Field.

What about pitching and defense?  Well, their defense might not be spectacular but it shouldn't be anything to laugh at.  David Wright and Ike Davis have provided strong defense at the corners in the past.  Ruben Tejada has shown he's no slouch at shortstop and if there's one thing Jason Bay has provided during his Mets tenure it has been a steady glove in left field.  New center fielder Andres Torres has a strong defensive reputation as well.  The Mets are putting in a lot of work with Josh Thole on defense and I feel pretty safe saying Daniel Murphy is working at second base.  Lucas Duda may end up being the only defensive concern when the season starts.

The pitching staff is the biggest question mark for this team.  R.A. Dickey was the best pitcher last year and it'd be awesome to believe he'll produce similar numbers this year, but with a knuckleball pitcher there really is no way to know.  After Dickey, the Mets have Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, and Dillon Gee as definite starters.  Pelfrey is what he is, if he finds his 2008 self then he'll be awesome.  If he doesn't, he could be the weak link.  Jon Niese and Dillon Gee should benefit from having guaranteed rotation spots and they have both been more than capable major leaguers recently.  The big "if" is Johan Santana.  He has been throwing for a while now and recently got back on the mound.  He hasn't pitched in a game since he was in some minor league games last summer.  But if he can make it through 120 innings that would give the entire organization a boost.

The bullpen is full of new faces.  Jon Rauch, Frank Francisco, and Ramon Ramirez were all brought in.  One of them will probably end up being the closer.  Coming back the Mets have Tim Byrdak, Manny Acosta, and D.J. Carrasco.  Bobby Parnell and Pedro Beato could end up in the bullpen too but they have minor league options so they aren't locks.  It's only February and the bullpen roles haven't been assigned and nobody's seen any game action.  The pitching staff is a huge question mark and the bullpen is a big part of that.  It'll be much easier to judge even once Spring Training games start.

This is not going to be a team with big names.  It is a bunch of young players looking to find their way.  R.A. Dickey talked about a lot of people looking to take the next step and if they do all take that step then this team can be pretty good.  It's very true.  There are not going to be a lot of rookies on this team.  There are a lot of players that should finally have a feel for the big leagues and be able to find their way.

I'm not saying anybody should have high expectations for this team.  I just don't think they should be written off in February.  It's baseball.  There are 162 games and anything could happen.

Let's Go Mets!

What He Said

There is a piece in the New York Times about Mike Nickeas and how his offense will determine whether he will be on the Mets this year.  It goes into detail about some of the stuff I mentioned the other day, including his familiarity with the organization being a reason the Mets would choose him as the backup catcher.


There is also a nice quote from Dillon Gee about Mike as a team player:

“He’s really determined to do well, but he wants everyone else to do well, too,” said Gee, who is renting a house with Nickeas during camp.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading the piece.  


Let's Go Mets!

Eh, At Least It's Fun To Look Back At

I clearly didn't have twitter when Joe Smith was traded.  I am actually loving that.  The three posts I had that night are kind of hysterical now.

Enjoy them here!

And two weeks later I was just worried about how Mike Pelfrey would take the news.

So if any more players I really really like are traded I just have to wait three years and I'll be able to look back and laugh about it.  Good to know.

Would It Have Been Better To Know?

The NHL trade deadline is insane.  This year the rumors about one player being traded from the Rangers won't stop.  He is a player I really like so I don't really know how I'll react if he is traded.  But it has me thinking about two baseball trades that I wish never happened.

The first is the trade that sent Xavier Nady to the Pirates at the MLB trade deadline in 2006.  Nobody saw this trade coming.  Duaner Sanchez got the munchies, was in an unfortunate accident, and then Nady was gone.  The trade gave Oliver Perez and Roberto Hernandez to the Mets and wasn't really helpful after 2006.  In reality, Nady was expendable because the Mets had this exciting prospect named Lastings Milledge to take over in right field.

In my head, trading Xavier was the biggest mistake that could be made.  I cried when I saw the news scroll across the bottom of SNY.  It was the first time I had lost a favorite player.  I didn't know how I would keep rooting for him in Pittsburgh.  Was I supposed to become a Pirates fan too?  Could I really just root for one person on a team?  The answers didn't really matter to me because I didn't even want to believe he wasn't a Met.  But he wasn't a Met and I just knew I never wanted any more favorites to be traded.

Of course, I wasn't so lucky.  In December of 2008 Joe Smith was sent to the Indians as part of a three team trade that brought J.J. Putz to the Mets.  The Mets bullpen was a disaster in 2007 and 2008 and everybody knew changes were coming.  It turned out that those changes meant trading one of the younger guys.  Smitty was off to Cleveland.

The first reports of the trade didn't include Joe Smith.  And then the trade was finalized and yet again I had to part with my favorite Met.  It all unfolded overnight and I'm not really sure how I followed.  I guess school and sleep weren't really high on my priorities list because I stayed up until everything was complete.  This trade didn't seem to hit me as hard as the Nady trade.  I was attached to Smitty but I also knew what it was like to root for one player on a team in a different city.  And I already rooted for Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee so the Indians weren't such a mystery to me.  But I still hated it.  Smitty filled the hole left by Nady and now that hole was empty again.  Looking back at old posts, I was actually just pretty mad at Omar Minaya.

The thing about both of these trades is that I didn't see either of them coming.  I didn't know either of them were leaving until the trade happened.  I have never known one of my favorites was on the market before they were traded.  It probably would have been easier if I knew the Mets were willing to part with Nady or Smith.  It probably would've just made me hate Omar Minaya more than I already did.  The good thing about knowing a favorite might be traded is that if they are, the news isn't really news.  On the other hand, it means your team doesn't really find them necessary.

I guess it would always be nice to know something.  To not totally be in the dark about the organization's feelings about your favorite player.

I just hope I won't have to deal with any of it any time soon.

Okay Then

Terry Collins isn't set on giving the backup catcher position to Mike Nickeas yet.  He will have to prove he can hit well enough because Terry doesn't want to have to pinch hit for him in the fifth inning.

Giving him the roster spot right away would never be the right thing to do.  The Mets brought in Rob Johnson and Lucas May to fight for the backup catcher role.  Johnson is similar to Nickeas in that he his strength has always been defense.  Lucas May is a better hitter than either Nickeas or Johnson.

I think it will come down to Nickeas and Johnson battling for the position and Nickeas ultimately getting it.  The Mets already have an offensive catcher in Josh Thole so having another as backup wouldn't make much sense.  Nickeas or Johnson would give the Mets the defensive side of the game.

As for why Mike Nickeas should get the spot over Rob Johnson, it's simply because Nickeas is more familiar with the pitchers and organization.  The rotation will certainly include R.A. Dickey and his knuckleball and Mike Pelfrey and his . . . everything.  Nickeas has experience with the knuckleball and actually has some success catching it.  Nickeas has also been able to work with Pelfrey, who has a history of only being comfortable with certain catchers.  Mike has also had the assignment of catching prospects and some of the young guys throughout his time in the minor leagues.  I'd like to believe that working with some of the future means he knows where the organization wants to go and can work with the same mindset as the pitchers.

The word out of camp is that Nickeas spent the offseason shortening his swing.  Hopefully that will provide more consistent results than whatever he had going on last season.

The good news is that it means he will have to be playing more to show what he's got.

Let's Go Mets!

My Catcher Calendar

The Mets 2012 Calendar is less than spectacular.  Angel Pagan, Terry Collins, Jason Bay, and Dillon Gee shouldn't be who the Mets are showcasing for this year.

So instead of using that calendar I thought that maybe I should make my own.  It would still be baseball related, it would just be a lot more relevant to me.  Thus, I came up with my Calendar of Catchers.

January - J.P. Arencibia
February - Mike Nickeas
March - Buster Posey
April - Joe Mauer
May - Matt Wieters
June - Lou Marson
July - Brian McCann
August - Drew Butera
September - Jarrod Saltalamacchia
October - Josh Thole
November - Kai Gronauer
December - Chris Iannetta

That works for me!

Good News And Better News

Well, I like it.

That means backup catcher isn't one of the positions that anyone is battling for . . .

And that means it is basically Mike Nickeas's spot on the roster.

I know he still has to work but this bit of hope still makes me happy.

Let's Go Mets! 

RIP Gary Carter

Gary Carter passed away yesterday.  The entire baseball was shook by his passing, even those that never met him or saw him play.  

As a fan of the Mets I feel this loss.  The Mets are celebrating their 50th anniversary this season and it will be different without the Kid.  He has been at every celebration of the franchise and 1986 team and now what will be perhaps the biggest celebration of them all won't have him.  Gary Carter seemed to love everything about playing baseball and being a role model for teammates and fans.  Just listening to what other members of the Mets organization said about him shows you that.  And hearing from fans that had a chance to meet him really shows that he tried to make each moment special.

And that is where it gets personal for someone in my family.  I never met him but my mom did.  She would go with her friends to see the Mets in various road cities.  She saw the Mets in Montreal and met Carter.  He just sat down with her and her friends and talked to them.  At the bar in the hotel.  And she always mentions that he didn't drink at all (while she witnessed some other players get quite drunk).  It's still hard for me to believe the story because I just cannot imagine a player having such a connection to the fans.  But that was Gary Carter.

Carter spent most of his career with Expos and was inducted into the Hall of Fame with an Expos cap on his plaque.  However, he loved the Mets and the fans loved him back.  He was easy to like immediately.  That's what happens when you hit a walk-off home run in your first game with a team.  And he started that rally in game 6.  Both Mets and Expos fans connected with him.  Both fanbases claimed him as their own.  And he loved both organizations.  I really liked when he had Mets and Expos caps before the 2008 All Star Game.  He didn't have to choose which organization to embrace.  There was enough passion for everyone.

The only time I saw him in person was at the 1986 celebration in 2006.  That entire team was beloved.  At that point I only knew of a few players from that team.  Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling from being on the Mets broadcasts and Mookie Wilson because no one could forget someone with that name.  But I also knew about Gary Carter.  I had decided that if I had been around in 1986 he would have been my favorite.  Something about catchers, I guess.

He really made an impact on so many people.  Everyone he played with and managed.  Fans of all ages and generations.  It is nothing short of amazing.

Gary Carter will live on in baseball forever.  He found a way to do what so many wish they could.  He stayed a kid forever. 

I Want To Be There

I had the chance to go to Spring Training this year.  I could have gotten the trip as an awesome 18th birthday present.  But because my birthday was in the middle of January and the Rangers just didn't lose ever during that month I decided I wanted a Rangers jersey instead.

I would give anything to make that moment disappear.  I miss baseball and I miss Spring Training and I want to be there and I just want to spend next week in Florida watching the Mets.  Last year was such an amazing experience and I want it all to happen again.  I want to see Mike Nickeas and Josh Thole and Bobby Parnell and Zach Lutz and Kai Gronauer.  I want to relive that moment when my favorite players turned into the nicest people ever.  I want to recognize the drills I do at softball practice happening during a Major League Baseball Spring Training.  I want to see the new players and have a reason to be excited about them.  I want to be close to the game again.

The crack of the bat.  The pop of the mitt.  The fresh grass.  The new uniforms.  The hope that comes with a clean slate.  Port St. Lucie is as close as one can be to that.  I want to be as close as possible to those sights and sounds.  I need to be as close as possible.

I don't just want to see the videos.  I don't just want to see the pictures, I want to be there taking the pictures.  I want that taste of summer during the winter.  I want the escape to my favorite thing in the world.  I want baseball.

Writing this is almost painful because I know I won't be there this year.  I won't be able to see my favorite players.  I won't hear the crack of the bat and the pop of the leather.  I won't enjoy the fresh grass.  I won't escape from the dark, dull winter.  I'll have to wait to experience baseball this year.  To get as close to the game as possible, even though this year I won't be nearly as close as I was last year.

It's Valentine's Day.  The made-up holiday about love.  Yet, the only people I want to be with are the Mets.

Maybe my parents will read this.  Maybe they will see just how much I miss the Mets and baseball.  Maybe they will understand that this has been the most stressful year of my life and I need this brief escape to summer.

It's unlikely so instead I'll go cry over what I won't be seeing this year.

Well . . .
Let's Go Mets!

Now That's Reporting

I am not sure anybody really knows what's going on with the Binghamton Mets right now.  At the Press & Sun-Bulletin one person spoke to just about everybody involved in the rumors.  The article clears up the facts but also makes it quite clear that absolutely nothing is clear.

So if you want to know what's going on then go check it out.