It's So Perfect And I Didn't Even Realize

"He sits by the phone. He hopes it'll ring, but it's a sound he won't hear tonight."

That my friends is the opening line of Moodswings and Melodies by Sparky's Flaw.  Because I was just tweeting lyrics to whatever song I was listening, I didn't look for metaphors to the Mets in any of them.  Thankfully, somebody did.

If you haven't figured it out by now, the Mets did not make any significant moves approaching the trade deadline.   And by 'significant' I mean trading Mike Jacobs to the Blue Jays for a PTBNL doesn't count.  Even if I like him.


Let's Go Mets! 

Because He's Awesome

Joe Smith, I mean.  The Indians won 2-1 against the Blue Jays today.  Joe had 1 2/3 perfect innings.  He's been doing well since his call-up and his performance today gives me a reason to share Smitty-info.  Actually, I don't need to justify sharing Smitty-info, but I thought I would this time.

A lot has been said about his name.  Joseph Michael Smith.  It is  a combination of likely the most common names in the USA.  He doesn't play for an exciting team with the Indians.  Perhaps the only unique thing about him is his pitching style.

That's why Joseph Michael Smith of the St. Petersburg Times took the chance to interview Smitty (the Indians, one) when the Rays came to Cleveland.  It's a very amusing piece as they talk about life with the name.

Here's a preview, where Chris Perez interjects with his opinion:

I read where you said something like, "My name is pretty plain, and so is my nickname (Smitty), but at least my throwing motion (sidearm) is unique."

That's the one thing unique about me, I guess, something to get out of the everyday norm. I don't do a whole lot, I'm a pretty simple guy. My name kind of sums me up.

(Turns to fellow Indians reliever Chris Perez) Would you say my name sums me up, Chris?

Perez: Yes. Like, if you saw Joe Smith in a bar, you probably wouldn't remember him. Like the All-American Joe Smith.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Let's Go Smitty!

Please Don't Stereotype Us

The Mets just had the winner of SNY's KidCaster Contest join the booth with Gary, Keith, and Ron.  In a word: terrible.  The winner was a girl about 16 years old.  I have always been one to stick up for female sports fans, especially teenagers that have a harder time proving themselves as fans.

But, this was just bad.  She started off by saying her favorite players are Mike Piazza and David Wright.  Great, nothing special, anybody could guess that.  She then explains her special home run call for David Wright.  David hits a home run and you can hear her hyperventilating.  Her play-by-play is simply reading the scoreboard.  She doesn't say anything special about the players, doesn't mention anything unique.

I understand calling a game is hard.  I get that it's difficult to make any sort of impression when you're in the booth for half an inning.  But, it's not hard to make an impression like the one I just saw.  It was stereotypical, it was boring.

By the time tomorrow's game start it's likely nobody will remember this.  I just want to let you know that we're not all like that.  There are teenage girls out there that don't love David Wright, they won't shriek if they see him hit a home run.  But, if we do like David, don't assume we will shriek if we see him hit a home run.  Personally, I prefer good defensive plays.

I'm simply trying to say, don't stereotype us.  It's rude, annoying, and lazy.

All The Right Moves

Well, maybe not.  Even though the Mets haven't made any trades or fired any coaches, there is definitely news this afternoon.

Jason Bay has a concussion.  Obviously he didn't feel any symptoms over the weekend, or he wouldn't have played.  The signs showed up on the plane home.  Nothing you can do about that.  He'll be reevaluated in a few days.  If he's put on the disabled list it'll likely be Jesus Feliciano getting the call-up.

The Jason Bay injury pretty much cancels any chance of Jeff Francoeur being traded.  The Royals reportedly had no interest in the deal anyway.  And on the Royals end of the deal, the Gil Meche - Oliver Perez part of the deal wouldn't have worked with Meche requiring shoulder surgery.


Let's Go Mets!


Oh yeah.  Jerry Manuel won't be managing the Mets tonight.


No.  He wasn't fired (yet).  He was suspended for arguing with the umpire over a call in Friday night's game.  Replays showed the umpire made the wrong call, but I guess that doesn't matter.

Get Over Yourselves and DFA Him

That is my message to the the Wilpons.  Oliver Perez just got the loss in the Mets game.  I don't care how much money he is making, he is simply terrible.  The Mets can make the choice to pay him to sit at home and not affect the Mets, or they can pay him to blow games while he is with the team.  The money has been spent.  If the Wilpons wanted a winning team they would do whatever is necessary to put a winning team on the field.  That winning team will never include Oliver Perez.

That's all I have to say right now.

Speaking of Catching

I can't say I've seen a better defensively played game by any team as a whole than I did last night.  The Mets had great catches my all members of the outfield.

The first, and most impressive, of the plays came from Jason Bay.  With 2 outs in the bottom of the second inning Jamey Carroll hit a ball that looked like it would be a double off the left field bullpen fence.  But wait, Jason Bay was running as hard as he could and looked like he might be able to catch the fly ball.  Jason did make the catch as his body slammed into the bullpen, and his face seemingly smashed into the one part of the perimeter of the fence that wasn't padded.  It looked painful.  I guess it was just his luck that he had to make the longest walk back to the first base dugout, all the way from left field.  Alas, Jason Bay seems to be okay.  He stayed in the game and got a huge 3-RBI double in the eighth inning.

In right field, Angel Pagan made 2 impressive catches.  The first one came leading off the fourth inning.  It was a shallow fly ball of the bat of Matt Kemp.  It was falling fast but Angel Pagan was running fast.  He made a sliding catch to rob Kemp of a base hit.  There was no wall involved in this play.  However, in Angel Pagan's second catch, coming on the next batter, there was a wall involved.  A Casey Blake popup had Angel Pagan, Ike Davis and Luis Castillo all running towards shallow right field.  If anybody was going to get there it would be Pagan.  Angel had to slide but he ultimately made the catch in fair territory.  It may have been in fair territory but he was awfully close to wall when he began to slide, and ultimately crashed into the wall.

And finally, as we were all busy 'blaming Beltran' on Twitter, Carlos still hadn't joined the defense party.  On a catch that made Kevin Burkhardt exclaim, "Holy cow defense amazing!" Carlos Beltran made a sliding catch.  Andre Ethier was at bat with one out in the sixth inning and hit a shallow pop fly to center field.  It looked like it was going to fall in for a single, but that would only happen if Beltran failed to exist.  It was a great play that ended with a somersault from Carlos.

It was a fun game to watch as the Mets finally got a win.  And by a win, I mean a game they actually won on their own and not with the help of a screwy call by an umpire.

Let's Go Mets!


BTW, Jason Bay went towards the left field wall in foul territory in an attempt to make another catch.  He didn't make the catch but he did crash into the wall.

Catching On

Tonight the 1955 World Series Champion Dodgers are being celebrated at the Mets - Dodgers game in Los Angeles.  If there is one team I would've loved to watch, it has to be the Boys Of Summer.  I read that book and really didn't want it to end.  Not only did that book introduce me to one of the most entertaining teams ever, it introduced my to my favorite player that I never got to watch.

Roy Campanella was the catcher for the Dodgers of the 1950s.  His playing career was cut short due to an automobile accident that left him paralyzed below his shoulders.  He played his last season in 1957, never having the chance to play in Los Angeles.  He is in the Hall of Fame due to a career that included eight All Star selections, three National League MVP awards, and the one World Series championship in 1955.  He had his #39 retired by the Dodgers in 1972.

I don't know what it was about Roy Campanella that caught my attention.  The easy answer would be that he was the catcher, but it really was more than that.  His career came in an era of strong racial prejudice.  He persevered through all of it, while playing a position that required authority.  Even after the accident he worked hard to teach himself how to feed himself, and use his hands to gesture.  He simply was one of the strongest people in baseball.

He was truly thankful for everything he had.  He died in 1993, but he left an amazing legacy.  I loved reading about him and just wanted to let everybody know about the book he wrote.  It was originally published a year after the accident.  That in itself makes it pretty amazing.  It was impossible for me to stop reading this, and I got to make a really cool school project based on it as well.  Most of you won't be reading it for a project, but I would've enjoyed it just as much on its own.

The title says it all, It's Good To Be Alive.

What Were The Real Expectations?

The Mets have had a rollercoaster of a season.  That includes the team as a whole, and the players individually.

David Wright is back where he belongs, hitting enough home runs and keeping his batting average up.  Jose Reyes has been up and down with his health, but when he's healthy he's been performing.  Ike Davis was a surprise and anything the rookie does this year is above expectations.  Nobody could've asked for anything more from Angel Pagan.  2nd base has been a game of musical chairs and there isn't much that could be said about any one player.  And Carlos Beltran hasn't played long enough to know anything.

There are three players I want to focus on: Jeff Francoeur, Jason Bay, and Rod Barajas.

When the Mets acquired Jeff Francoeur in the middle of last season he was better than ever could've been imagined.  I think that contributed to the higher expectations coming into this season.  His stats are down but he's the kind of player he was towards the end of his time with the Braves.  Nobody can say Frenchy hasn't done this before.  It's fair to say he's below expectations but he's not the only one.

Jason Bay stands out more than anybody else when thinking about expectations.  His home runs, RBIs, batting average, and OBP are all down.  He's being paid a ton of money for his offense and it simply isn't there.  A lot of Mets fans want to believe he will perform eventually.  It would suck if he became a total bust, but it happens.  If Jason Bay is going to start hitting like he has in the past I don't think it will happen this year. I hate it, but Jason Bay isn't going to be Jason Bay until 2011.

Finally, Rod Barajas may surprise you.  Right now Rod is doing better than both last year and his career averages.  It seemed like he didn't get a hit in the month of June, but he had a hot start to the year.  The recent lack of offense from the rest of the team, combined with the fact that Josh Thole has gotten hits as a catcher has magnified Rod's recent struggles.  If there is anybody to go after for not producing, you can't go after Rod unless you expected him to have a major career year in 2010.

Most of the Mets have been fine this year.  The team is falling fast and people are looking for a scapegoat.  Jeff Francoeur has become that scapegoat.  He is performing below what people expected after the second half of 2009 and he isn't paid a ridiculous amount of money.  Coming into the season Jeff wasn't supposed to be as big a part of the offense as Jason Bay.  With both of them under-performing I honestly think Jason Bay deserves more blame.  And if you take the time to look at the stats from Rod Barajas this season you will see why he isn't even included in this discussion. 

Let's Go Mets! 

The List Can Only Keep Growing

It is definitely known that I have a lot of players on other teams that I follow.  It is also known that some of those players are former Mets.  Right now, that list started with Mike Jacobs (2005), and also includes Xavier Nady (2006), and Joe Smith (2008).

One name I do not want to add to the list:
Jeff Francoeur (2010).

The Mets are trying to trade Frenchy, possibly before the Mets get out their weekend series with the Dodgers.  First of all, who in the world wants Frenchy?  Second, just, really, why??  What would the Mets be getting back for him?  Sadly, I probably won't know any answers until he's traded.

The Mets are in a free-fall right now.  I don't really see how trading Frenchy will change that.  It just always seems the Mets are trading players I've liked.

I won't say Let's Go Mets because I really don't want them to do anything.

P.S.
Omar Minaya also traded Grady Sizemore, from the Expos to the Indians.

Six Years Ago

On July 21, 2004 both David Wright and Grady Sizemore debuted for the New York Mets and Cleveland Indians, respectively.


David Wright went 0-for-4 in the Mets 5-4 win over the Expos.
Grady Sizemore played the ninth inning of the Indians 14-0 loss to the White Sox and went 0-for-1.

Both of them have had great careers.  David Wright has continued his success this year, while Grady Sizemore has had an injury-riddled couple of years.  They have both become the face of their franchises.  At 27 years old there is plenty of time for their continued success.

Congrats David and Grady on 6 years in the big leagues!

Let's Go Mets and Indians!