I Keep Coming Back

I became a Mets fan in 2005.  Before then, they were just that other New York baseball team.  I could've been a Yankees fan, heck for the first 10 years of my life Mike Piazza was the only Met I really knew much about.  Edgardo Alfonzo was the guy whose last name was Alfonso Soriano's first name.  I saw Nick Johnson and Chuck Knoblauch more than Benny Agbayani and Robin Ventura.

But in 2005 that changed.  It changed with David Wright and Cliff Floyd.  I just saw David Wright make that barehanded catch and I didn't care about the team record or the ERA of the pitchers.  I just wanted to see Wright and Mike Jacobs and Jose Reyes.  2005 was the first year I enjoyed watching baseball game after baseball game on TV.  Somehow that year I finally understood simple concepts such as the difference between the top and bottom of an inning and what the designated hitter actually means.

The Mets just seemed to mean more to me than their crosstown rivals.  The great thing about being a die-hard fan is that there's never really an explanation for the obsession.  There's a reason for the initial interest but the full-blown addiction just kinda happens.  That infatuation is why die-hard fans will enjoy next season no matter what happens.

I have come back to the Mets every year since 2005.  I have seen them dominate in 2006 and crash and burn in 2007 and 2008.  Yet none of that stopped me from watching and rooting the next year.  It didn't stop any of the other die-hard fans.  This group of fans found a way to root for the backup backup backup 2nd baseman in 2009.  This group of fans will find players to fall in love with in 2013.

I'm going to root for David Wright next year, contract extension or no contract extension.  I'm going to enjoy every inning he plays as a New York Met because he's the only player left from that 2005 season.  He's the first Met that I called my favorite player, the last Met left from the 2006 playoffs.  I'm going to watch Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Ruben Tejada, and Ike Davis grow into the future and cheer for every win because it's all another piece of the puzzle.

In 2013 I'm going to watch as many Mets games as possible simply because they're the Mets.  They're the team with Gary, Keith, and Ron in the booth and Kevin Burkhardt sitting somewhere in the stands. They're the team that is perpetually the underdog no matter how many runs they score or strikeouts their pitchers get.

There is no simple explanation.  There isn't really a complicated explanation either.  But I'm going to come back next year and the year after that and the year after that.

I guess it's just because they're the Mets.

Let's Go Mets!

I'm So Frustrated I Can't Think Of A Proper Title

Wright declined comment when contacted. Said it's been "important to me from the beginning that these negotiations remain confidential."
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) November 28, 2012

Just today it has looked like the Mets were never going to sign David Wright, to a deal looking somewhat almost possibly imminent, and back to talks to moving slowly and no deal being anywhere close.  This is perhaps one of the most frustrating things about loving and following a New York sports team.  There are so many newspapers and so many beat writers and so many people that want to know everything about every move that it's impossible to let anything just play out.

The part of me that dreams about being a writer wants to know everything about the negotiations.  What the Mets are thinking, what David Wright and his agents are thinking, why the Mets haven't just given him a blank check, who's leaking the information, is there more information that's not being reported, just how far are the sides from making a deal.

But there's another part of me that doesn't want to know anything.  If it weren't for the media leaking details of supposed contract offers there wouldn't be any reason to deny those offers.  Both sides should be able to negotiate without worrying about the media.  The fans shouldn't have to decide which reports to believe.  I'm sick of seeing fans and the media speculate the terms of the contract and when it's going to be done.

Nobody looks good when a player denies getting the reported offer.  People are forced to choose if they want to believe the news source or the beloved player.  If they don't believe the reporter then how will they get their precious news and rumors that fuel their irrationally critical rants?  But if they don't believe the face of the franchise they can't possibly be taken seriously as dedicated fans, can they?

. . . I'm getting off topic. . .

The David Wright situation seems to have just gotten so far past any hope of a happy medium of information and optimism for me.  I don't want to believe any reports because I don't want to see any reports.  Yet, I know I should try to take the reports seriously because I want to be the one on the other side of them at some point.

The writers are just doing their jobs.  I wish I could be the one writing about those offers.  But they're the very thing I detest reading as a fan.  It's frustrating and it's just one of many obstacles between the life of a fan and a professional.

Sigh.

Let's Go Mets!

In Which I Make Mike Pelfrey Relevant

Mike Pelfrey last threw a pitch on April 21.  That day he threw 102 pitches in eight innings and only gave up one run.  Shortly after he had Tommy John surgery and spent the rest of the season healing and preparing to pitch in 2013.  Right now he is a Met.  By the end of the month he will be a free agent.  The combination of his inconsistency on the mound, major surgery, and having Scott Boras as his agent work against the Mets giving him another chance.  But offering him a minor league contract might not be the end of the world.

Pelfrey will turn 29 in January, already younger than some of the low-risk signings they've made for previous seasons.  He only knows this organization, and he has only had a real issue with Rick Peterson who has been gone for quite a while.  And perhaps the biggest point, he actually looked pretty good before the surgery.  His two other starts this season saw him throw 6 innings and give up 1 run and 5.2 innings while giving up 3 runs.  In his shortest outing he had 8 strikeouts.

Statistics of three starts aren't nearly enough to look at though.  The 2008 season proved that he isn't always able to carry success.  But this season showed me the first signs of a desire to improve, even if it meant rebuilding his approach.  Rick Peterson forced Pelfrey to change his entire approach to pitching and now, more than a few years later, that can be connected to his downfall.  He used to be able to blow batters away with his sinking fastball and fool batters with his curveball.  He turned into a pitcher with a decent, but not overwhelming, fastball, inconsistent change-up, and sinker.

It would be an understatement to say he experienced growing pains.  People expected him to be a ground ball pitcher.  They saw his 6'7" frame and wanted him to fire his fastball past every batter.  His mechanics were largely inconsistent.  That is, they were inconsistent until this year.

It's hard to judge such a small sample size but I'm going to judge it anyway.  As opposed to last year and the year before that and the year before that, all seasons that his sinker didn't quite sink enough and his pitches flattened by the fifth inning, this season he finally made productive adjustments to his windup.  He worked on staying on top of his sinker, and in his limited innings he was able to make the adjustment.  He made a conscious effort to stand more upright on the mound.  Perhaps the most noticeable consistency in his windup was his addition of a reach over his head before throwing the pitch.

One thing that may be important to note with Pelfrey is that his success doesn't necessarily rely on strikeouts.  In 2008 and 2010, his two better seasons, he had 110 and 113 strikeouts, respectively.  But in 2009 and 2011, two of his much more trying seasons, he had 107 and 105 strikeouts, respectively.

Comfort has been essential to any possibility of success throughout Pelfrey's career.  He will probably get offers from other teams, and he has every right to consider each offer as deeply as he wants.  But I can't imagine him getting many offers of Major League contracts.  The Mets have nothing to lose by offering him a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training.  There is no such thing as too much pitching depth.  Heck, maybe he'll shock the world and become a valuable relief pitcher.  They'll never know if they don't try.

Let's Go Mets!

Stuffing For The Mind

I'm still in somewhat of a food coma and combining that with the lack of a hockey season and the fact that I'm watching a concert of The Fray on TV, puts me in a weird place. But The Fray isn't totally irrelevant to my history with the Mets and hearing How To Save A Life reminds me of that.

I first fell completely in love with the Mets in 2006. I was only 12 years old and I spent a lot of time on the computer (some things never change I guess). I watched most Mets games on TV but I also followed a decent number of games on GameDay as I listened to music. However, I only listened to one playlist which I'm pretty sure was named 'MeTs GaMeS' or something similar.

This playlist was special. One might think it would have only baseball related songs since it was saved for baseball games. It did have Centerfield by John Fogerty as well as And We Say ... Let's Go Mets! (which I still know all the words too). But it also had How To Save A Life, It Ends Tonight, Slide, and so many other songs.

Those songs were part of my first full season with the Mets. When I hear them I still think of the nights I spent watching GameDay. It was with me that entire season, including when I became uber-emo preteen and listened to It Ends Tonight after game 7 of the NLCS.

Unfortunately 12 year old me didn't think I'd ever care about the original playlist and kept adding songs to it until it essentially contained my entire music library. I wish I knew the original songs on it. If only so I could relive some of the magic of that season again.

I guess I'll just sit here in my turkey-induced haze and file that under my first world problems.

I hope everybody enjoyed their Thanksgiving. I'm not really sure how this post relates to Thanksgiving but just consider it a little extra stuffing. In a year or two I'll probably regret letting saying of this, the way people regret eating so much stuffing for the month and a half after Thanksgiving.

Let's Go Mets!

A Lesson For The Mets

This has been quite a busy week for baseball. From the announcements of the major award winners to trades and signings, the offseason quickly started to take shape. One of those trades was the huge blockbuster between the Marlins and Blue Jays.

Among those dealt by the Marlins were Mark Buehrle and Jose Reyes. They both signed big contracts with Miami just last year and according to reports they also both received verbal no-trade agreements. The Marlins have many issues in their front office, among them is their refusal to include such no-trade clauses in contracts. Combine that with their constant dumping of any big name player they ever have and you've created an environment nobody is going to want to play in.

Baseball has reached an era where players are looking for job security as much as they are looking for money. Every free agent wants a multiyear deal so they know where they will be spending the next 3-7 years of their life. What the Marlins have done, and what the Mets must not do, is make a habit of making those long-term commitments mean absolutely nothing.

There is a difference between trading Carlos Beltran in the last year of his contract and trading David Wright because you don't want to give him one. It's not the same when a player has had that sense of security from one team for almost 10 years and then it's disregarded. If the Mets can't even lock up their biggest homegrown player since the 1080s then why should any free agent feel secure in this organization?

This also speaks to R.A. Dickey's situation. You'd think winning the Cy Young award would guarantee a return, and it certainly works in the favor of his return, but it does not guarantee it. The Mets have seen what happens when they focus on veterans and it includes uneven play and late-season collapses. Howeve, they have also seen the never ending cycle of rebuild take a toll on the fanbase. R.A. Dickey is an important piece in finding the balance between the two.

Garnering trust from other players is important for any organization. Any group of players with partial no-trade clauses lets you know which teams are respected and which are unappealing. The Mets play in New York. They should be appealing to almost any young player. The same logic should put Miami as an appealing spot for those players. But there's something else that makes me think we'll be seeing a lot more players put the Marlins on their no-trade lists.

Whether Wright and Dickey have contract extensions by the Winter Meetings or jot, the Mets have to think about what trading them would mean. Not just to the on-field results, but to the organization as a whole.

Let's Go Mets!

Happy Birthday Xavier!

Xavier Nady just got his second World Series ring, this time with the San Francisco Giants.  He didn't get much playing time in the playoffs but he still got to enjoy the journey.  Today he turns 34 years old.

Happy birthday Xavier!

My Favorite Quote

"I want to thank the BBWAA for this prestigious award. I owe so much to my teammates for their support during the year, especially Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas, who did such a great job behind the plate all season."

R.A. Dickey deserves mounds of credit and congratulations for his Cy Young award.  All of his quotes are eloquent, as he is one of most well-spoken people around baseball, but this one was my favorite.  He never forgets anyone, not even his catchers.  I love seeing the "backstops" get recognition.  After all, their nickname shows just how much of an afterthought they once were.

Thank you, R.A. Dickey, for bringing some joy to a trying season.  And thank you for acknowledging everyone who helped you along the way.

Let's Go Mets!

It Can Wait

I had something to write about for today.  Keyword: had.  Then the Marlins decided to blow up their franchise again and everything else in the baseball world became irrelevant.

Hey Mets fans!  The good news is the Mets aren't the worst run organization in Major League Baseball!  That's something to celebrate!

Let's Go Mets!

Something Else About Patience And Trades

One of the biggest problems with the last front office regime was that they didn't seem to have a plan, and when they did have a plan they didn't stick to it.  Sandy Alderson and his staff have a plan and all accounts show they are sticking to it.  Their plan has never been to go all in or "win now."  It has been to rebuild and develop through their own system.  That was always going to take multiple seasons.  It's not fair to criticize them for wanting to stick to that.

The last front office fell into the trap of being in New York and seemingly went after every player that had ever been considered a semi-big name.  That front office failed miserably because that doesn't work.  Alderson inherited a mess that couldn't just magically be cleaned up.  He quickly moved past the big market pressures of New York.  "Win now" was never something he was putting on this organization.

So using the reasoning of "win now" to keep R.A. Dickey shows ignorance of this regime's strategy.  It doesn't make sense to go into every season thinking they'll reevaluate every offseason trade chip once they know if they're contenders.  If they were to do that they would never get any valuable assets in any trade.

This front office has done little to lose respect and faith of the fanbase.  If you have lost respect of it, and your reasoning is that they're not trying to win immediately I don't want to hear it.  All that tells me is that you weren't listening from the start.

You Could Go Either Way

A team usually doesn't think of trading a Cy Young Award-caliber pitcher.  Usually if a team has such a player they are looking to lock that player up for the rest of their career.  However, it also isn't a common occurrence that such a pitcher is a 38 year old knuckleballer.

R.A. Dickey proved himself this year.  Throwing a pitch so many have questioned and doubted, he had a season for the history books.  He has earned trust and respect from any organization he pitches for.  But is it too late for him to get a big contract?  Reports say he wants a five year deal.  Even without discussing money that's too much.  Even the best athletes break down in their forties and that deal would take him to age 43.  I wouldn't want to see the Mets go farther than three years on any contract for him.  If he is still pitching well at age 41 they can reevaluate.

Or they could go an entirely different route and look to trade him.  If you had asked me in September about an R.A. Dickey trade I would've wanted to throw a brick at you.  But think about where he is in his career and where the Mets are going.  They aren't looking to be contenders next season.  They also have a lot of holes to fill with not a lot of money.  So would trading him be the worst thing ever?  Probably not.  This would be the definition of 'selling high' on a player.  The Mets desperately need a catcher and right-handed outfielder and they could target at least one of those in such a deal.

The concept is simple.  Go the way that helps the team the most.  And that doesn't mean only looking towards 2013.  It means which way would make the Mets the better team in 2014, 2015, and however long his theoretical contract would extend.  Is it really going to be helpful to still be rotating catchers in 2014 but have a 40 year old throwing a knuckleball?

Simple problem, not such a simple solution.

I don't see how the Mets can lose with this situation.  I also don't think they are actively trying to trade him.  There is nothing wrong with putting him out there and seeing what they could get.  If there is a move that would bring them players to help the team, they should make it.

Let's Go Mets!