Mets a Mess Off the Field

Earlier today, Jay Horowitz sent out a letter to Mets fans, telling them the team will do all the right things on the field.

The problem? Well, besides calling our catcher "Jose Thole" (WTF?), the letter was "signed" by Terry Collins. The truth is: it came from Horowitz, Collins had nothing to do with it.

On the fan today, Mike Francesa interviewed Collins and asked him: "we know now that you didn't send the letter, but do you agree with its contents?" (Francesa's podcast is available for free through iTunes)

Terry's response: "I have to be honest, I haven't read the letter yet."

How the hell did they sign his name to it without even running it by them? Embarrassing.

I'm not by any means giving up on Alderson for one relatively insignificant snafu, but as a Mets fan, I'm snake-bitten. For now, the new regime looks a lot like the old one: one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing.

The Mets dropped their road opener to Florida on Friday, 6-2.

The Yankees defeated the Tigers in their home opener on Thursday by a score of 6 to 3.

Yanks, Mets begin spring training

Spring training exhibition games kicked off for both the Yankees and Mets in Florida today.

In what may be a potential World Series preview, the Yanks dropped their opener to the Phillies 5-4. Jorge Vazquez went 2-2 with a homer for the Bombers in the loss.

In Port St. Lucie, the boys in blue and orange and the Braves played to a 5-5 tie. The game was called after 10 innings. The Mets showed resiliency, coming back from behind to tie the game on 3 separate occasions. Jennry Mejia started the game, allowing 1 unearned run over 2; Fernando Martinez and Willie Harris homered for the Mets.

It's nice to see baseball back in action, especially because it means spring is right around the corner.

Was Jerry right to pull Santana after 8?

Last night the Mets ended up losing their shutout streak after 35 innings when Ryota Igarashi allowed a walk-off homerun in the 9th inning. The New York Mets dropped the first game of the series with the Brewers, 2-0. Since then many have questioned Jerry Manuel's decision to pull Johan Santana after 8 scoreless innings and 105 pitches.

Jerry has made some stupid moves before, like throwing Nieve out there every other day. I think that makes us over critical of future moves, even if they were quite reasonable. This move belongs in that category.

Judging by the naked eye, Santana did not have his best stuff last night. Nevertheless, he shut down the Brewers for eight straight innings. That is a testimony to the kind of pitcher that Santana is, but he may very well have been "done" at the time. The season is a marathon and May is the first leg. Santana had thrown 100+ pitches. I can't fault Jerry for saving his horse to finish the race.

Mets fans faulted Jerry for making short term decisions (Nieve), now they fault him for making long term moves (Santana). We can't have it both ways.

Mets shutout sweep the Phillies

On May 27th, the Mets finished a sweep of the Phillies, a most historic kind of sweep, in fact: a shutout sweep!

The veteran knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, surprise Japanese import Hisanori Takahashi and developing ace Mike Pelfrey pitched 6, 6 and 7 shutout innings respectively. The bullpen (Nieve, Feliciano, Rodriguez and others) also kept the lowly Phils off the board.

Offensively, the Mets dominated the basepaths. Angel Pagan and Luis Castillo contributed 3 and 2 stolen bases respectively. Jose Reyes provided his first homerun of the year, and several other timely hits.

The Mets now go on the road for a 3 game series with the Brewers. First up is an ace vs. ace matchup in Johan Santana vs. Yovani Gallardo. Odd as it sounds, Nieve and R.A. Dickey, two men who weren't starting for the Mets in the beginning of the season should have the pitching advantage in their games against two struggling Milwaukee lefties.

Jonathan Niese should return to the Mets soon, meaning the matchup against the Brewers will be Nieve's only starting outing for awhile. That should provide some comfort to a worn out New York Mets bullpen that can ill afford to lose yet another piece after Hisanori Takahashi was promoted to starter.

Opinion: Wherefore art thou, Fernando?

Today (May 19th), Fernando Tatis started at 3rd base for the New York Mets, perhaps giving David Wright a much needed rest. In his time with the club, Tatis has been far from a star.

Still, Tatis is a valuable baseball player: he can play a tremendous amount of positions (LF, RF, 1B, 3B) and even catcher or 2nd base in the case of an emergency. He's not particularly remarkable defensively at any of these positions, rather, the remarkable thing is that he can play most of them quite adequately.

The point of this post, however, is not his defense but his bat.

For much of the early season, New York Mets fans were subjected to the craptastic pinch hitting of Gary Matthews, Jr. and Frank Catalanotto. Why not Tatis? For awhile, I wasn't even sure that he was on the team anymore... but yes, Fernando is most definitely there.

Consistently gving Cat and GMJ the nod for pinch hits over Tatis is one of the things that stumps me most about Manuel's management of this ball club this year. True, Manuel has always been big on lefty/righty matchups, but I'll take Tatis vs. a righty over either of those two guys any day.

Thankfully, Cat has been sent down and Carter has been called up, so if you want to go with Carter vs. righties I'm fine with that. But if GMJ continues to get the call vs. lefties over Tatis, I'll be at a total loss.

What do you think?