MySports Today

Talk about a train wreck.  The 2009 New York Mets could be one of the most disappointing stories in the history of major league baseball.  No joke…

The New York Mets were all excited to open a new stadium – CITI Field – in 2009, and had high hopes of playing a World Series in CITI Field in its 1st year hosting MLB baseball.  But after a decent start to the season, the Mets were still within striking distance of the NL East race.  But once the injury bug hit – Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, J.J. Putz, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Johann Santana, David Wright – it was like a runaway train headed straight for “Disaster Town.”  Jayson Stark has a great article on ESPN, pointing out that the Mets Train Wreck could continue for years to come…

Johan Santana will have season-ending elbow surgery to clean out some bone chips in his throwing arm.  The Mets are going ahead with the surgery now so that Santana will be ready for the start of spring training in 2010 – the Mets are 57-69 and they trail the 1st place Philadelphia Phillies by 16.5 games in the NL East race.  Santana had a great start to the 2009 season and his overall numbers in 25 starts were solid – 13-9 record, 3.13 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 146 strikeouts. But since his June 30th start against the Phillies, Santana has compiled a 6-7 record with a 4.02 ERA and only 5.5 average strikeouts per game.  Santana had this to say about the decision: “I didn’t want to shut it down.  That said, you don’t want to go out there and blow it and make it worse…  It’s not the worst.  Believe me, I’m going to be ready.”  If history is any indication, Santana should be just fine – he had the same surgery after the 2003 MLB season, and he won a career-high 20 games for the Twins in 2004 winning the A.L. Cy Young award in a landslide.  He went on to win another Cy Young award with the Twins before signing his lucrative contract with the Mets before the 2008 MLB season.

In addition to all of the other injuries that the club has had to deal with (David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, John Maine), the Mets found out today that Oliver Perez – season-ending surgery to repair right knee tendinitis – and J.J. Putz – who suffered a setback during his rehabilitation from elbow surgery with a sligh right forearm tear – will also miss the rest of the season.  Perez (3-4 record; 6.82 ERA; 1.92 WHIP) and Putz (1-4 record; 5.22 ERA; 1.64 WHIP) both struggled in 2009, as did most of the Mets.  Not sure if any other team suffered from the injury bug as much as the Mets did during the 2009 MLB schedule…

Phillies 2nd baseman Eric Bruntlett turned an unassisted triple play to end Sunday’s 9-7 win over the Mets, only the 2nd time a player has turned that feat in MLB history and the 1st time since 1927.  Let’s set the stage.

The Mets trailed the Phillies 9-6 heading into the 9th inning and faced off against Phillies closer Brad Lidge.  Angel Pagan started the inning off by reaching on an error by Ryan Howard – he made it all the way to 3rd base.  Luis Castillo then reached base on another Phillies error – this one by Bruntlett himself – which allowed Pagan to score.  Daniel Murphy singled which moved Castillo to 2nd base.  Castillo and Murphy attempted a double-steal, but Jeff Francouer hit a scorching line drive up the middle.  Bruntlett was headed over to 2nd base to cover for the steal and ended up catching the line drive for the 1st out of the triple play.  Bruntlett stepped on 2nd base forcing our Castillo who was trying to steal 3rd base.  Bruntlett then reacted quickly tagging Murphy out right near the 2nd base bag for the triple play.  Crazy, crazy, crazy.  It was the 15th triple play all-time in MLB history.

Pedro Martinez picked up his 2nd win in 2009 in his 1st return start against the Mets in New York.  Martinez gave up 4 ER on 7 hits and 1 walk over 6 innings.  Brad Lidge picked up his 25th save of the season. The Phillies are now 21 games over .500 at 71-50.  The Phillies have a 6.5 games lead over the Atlanta Braves and a 7.5 games lead over the Florida Marlins.  With the mid-season addition of Cliff Lee, the Phillies look poised to win the NL Pennant and defend their 2008 World Series title against the AL Pennant winner in the October Classic…

Gary Sheffield is upset with the New York Mets for putting him on waivers earlier this month.  Now he is demanding a contract extension, which the Mets declined to discuss.  Now he is asking to be released or traded so that he can play for a playoff contender for the rest of the 2009 MLB schedule.  If not, he is going to sit – what a great team player, huh?  What is it with these professional athletes?

It is customary for most MLB teams to put a vast majority of their rosters on waivers after the July trading deadline, just to see if there is any interest from other teams.  Even star athletes are put on waivers – look at Alex Rios who was in the 2nd year of a 6-year deal getting traded from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Chicago White Sox last week just so the Jays could clear some salary. When the San Francisco Giants claimed Sheffield off of waivers, the Mets pulled him right back because they want him to play the rest of the season on New York.

You see the Mets do need Gary Sheffield right now – the Mets are 57-65 and trail the Philadelphia Phillies by 13.5 games in the NL East race.  The Mets trail the Rockies by 11 games in the NL Wild Card race, so chances of post-season play are slim to none.  Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes and John Maine have been on the DL for most of the season, and David Wright is still recovering from getting hit in the head by a pitch last weekend against Matt Cain of the Giants.  Besides Johan Santana, Gary Sheffield is the next best thing to come to CITI Field for these days.

It’s not a good situation for GM OMar Minaya and the Mets in their new CITI Field in 2009.  This Sheffield issue has just made things worst.  At this point, the best thing going for the Mets is for the season to end…

It was a crazy night in baseball on Friday night as the MLB schedule saw lots of walk-off home runs.  It’s not too late to get MLB tickets to see exciting pennant race baseball the rest of the way.  Here’s a little tidbit of the games most exciting endings:

Yankees 2, Red Sox 0 in 15 innings – Alex Rodriguez hit a walk-off 2-run home run against Junichi Tazawa and the Boston Red Sox in the bottom of the 15th inning.

Padres 6, Mets 2 – Mets Closer Francisco Rodriguez blew a 2-1 9th inning lead.  The Padres scored 5 runs of K-Rod in the 9th inning, winning it on Everth Cabrera’s walk-off Grand Slam.

Mariners 7, Rays 6 in 12 innings.  After the Rays took a 6-5 lead in the top of the 12th inning, the Mariners topped the Rays on Ryan Langerhans 2-run walk-off home run.

Braves 9, Dodgers 5 in 12 innings.  The Braves tied the game at 5 on Garrett Anderson’s RBI single off of Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton in the 9th inning.  In the 12th inning, the Braves took the lead for good on a Yunel Escobar RBI single and a 3-run home run by Ryan Church.

Reds 10, Giants 5 – The Reds scored 2 runs in the 8th inning to tie the game at 5, and then piled on 5 runs in the 9th inning to pull off the improbably 10-5 win over the wild card-leading Giants in San Francisco.

Lots of fun games to watch – gotta love these pennant races!

Forget about the bad play – a 16-29 stretch since June 1st has left the Mets with a 44-50 record trailing the Phillies by 10.5 games in the NL East race – what is going on with Mets’ management?

Tony Bernazard, the Mets vice president of player development, has had a rough season and recently challenged the Double-A Binghamton team to a fight in the clubhouse following another loss.  Bernazard allegedly took off his shirt, thretening the players in a fiery tirade.  Pretty funny.  Guess everyone is starting to lose their cool in the Mets orgnanization.

Mets GM Omar Minaya had this to say about the incident:  “We do take these matters seriously and we are going to investigate these reports.  We need to follow up and we plan on doing that.”

The Mets have had several key players on the disabled list in 2009, and Bernazard has taken a lot of heat for not having the right minor league players to step up a level to compete while waiting for the return of the likes of Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, John Maine, Jose Reyes and J.J. Putz.  While that is a tough order to fill, the Mets replacements have been atrocious this season as the Mets Triple-A Buffalo affiliate has a 34-58 record and the Double-A Binghamton affiliate has a 37-58 record.  For the latest on the Bernazard debacle click here.

At this point, Omar Minaya and the Mets will just be glad when this mess of a 2009 MLB schedule ends in October.  These next 60+ games are going to brutal – plain and simple.

The Philadelphia Phillies signed free agent starting pitcher Pedro Martinez to a 1-year, $1 million contract.  The contract has incentives which could allow Martinez to earn up to another $1.5 million.  Martinez is a 3-time CY Young Award winner, but he has not pitched in a game since the 2008 MLB schedule.  Martinez went 5-6 with a 5.61 ERA in 2008 for the rival-New York Mets, as he won only 32 games for the Mets during the life of a 4-year $53 million contract that he signed 2005.

Martinez is still as cocky as ever, but a little more realistic.  Here’s what he had to say about joining the Phillies: “I bring with me a legacy, I bring with me my last name…I’ll be the first one convinced, really convinced, if I can do it or not.  If I don’t do it, I’m going to go on and take myself our of baseball.”

It should be interesting to see how Pedro fits in with the Phillies, but I’m sure that the Mets will be thrilled to see Pedey on the mound sometime soon. The defending World Series Champion Phillies hope that Pedey will have enough in the tank to propel them to another NL East division title in 2009 and a long return playoff run to the World Series.

The American League defeated the National League 4-3 in the 2009 MLB All-Star Game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.  The AL is now 12-0-1 since its last defeat back in Philadelphia back in 1996.  The last time the NL didn’t lose was at Miller Park in Milwaukee in 2002 when the two leagues tied 7-7 after 11 innings.

The AL jumped on NL starter Tim Lincecum right off the bat with a single by Ichiro Suzuki and a HBP by Derek Jeter.  After a Joe Mauer groundout that forced out Ichiro at 3rd base, Derek Jeter scored the game’s 1st run on a fielder’s choice error by home town hero Albert Pujols at 1st base.  Jason Bay then followed with a single to center field that loaded the bases, and the AL scored another run on a Josh Hamilton fielder’s choice groundout.  Hamilton avoided getting doubled up at 1st to allow Mauer to score.

The NL scored all 3 of their runs in the 2nd inning and took a 3-2 lead.  After 2 quick hits, the NL put together 4 straight hits off AL starter Roy Halladay to take the lead.  David Wright and Shane Victorino singled, and home town Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina delivered an RBI single to center field that allowed Wright and Victorino to score after a Hamilton throwing error.  Prince Fielder then pinch-hit for Lincecum and put the NL ahead with an RBI double to left field that scored Molina.  But the NL offense disappeared the rest of the way, as 22 of their final 24 batters failed to reach base.

The AL tied the game in the 5th inning off of Chad Billingsley on a Joe Mauer double that scored Derek Jeter.  With the game tied at 3 in the bottom of the 7th inning, the Tampa Bay Rays Carl Crawford made a specatacular catch by pulling back Brad Hawpe’s shot to deep left field that would have been a home run.  The next inning, Detroit Tigers Curtis Granderson tripled and scored the winning run on an Andruw Jones’ sacrifice fly.

The AL pitching said it all on Tuesday night.  From the 3rd through the 7th innings, Mark Buehrle, Zach greinke, Edwin Jackson, Felix Hernandez and Jonathan Papelbon each worked perfect innings.  After getting the 1st 2 outs of the 8th inning, Joe Nathan allowed a walk and a hit to put the go ahead runs on base.  But he was able to strike out Phillies slugger Ryan Howard to end the threat.  And Mariano Rivera worked a perfect 9th inning to preserve the win for the AL and home field advantage for the AL in the 2009 World Series.  No one had more than 1 of anything except for Jeter – he scored 2 runs despite never getting a hit.

Carl Crawford was named the 2009 All-Star Game’s MVP for his spectacular catch that saved the game at the time for the AL.  Crawford became the 1st non-pitcher to win the MVP Award without having an RBI or scoring a run.

Couple of side notes – President Barack Obama honored former Cards great Lou Brock before the game and threw out the 1st pitch – in a Chicago White Sox jacket – to current Cards great Albert Pujols.  Obama became the 5th sitting U.S. President to throw out the 1st pitch at an MLB All-Star Game (the NL had won each of those previous games up until last night).  Former Cards great Stan Musial – one of the games’ greatest hitters of all-time – was also honored before the game.

The 2010 MLB All-Star Game will be played at Angel Stadium, the home field for the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles.

Check out my post from Saturday June 27th – Mets In Great Spot – boy was I wrong.  Since I wrote that post, the Mets have lost 5 straight games.  The Yankees swept the Mets over the weekend at CITI Field, outscoring the good guys 18-3 along the way.  Things didn’t start much better on the Mets road trip to Milwaukee as the Mets lost 10-6 on Monday night.  Fernando Nieve had his shortest start of the season, lasting just 3 1/3 inings, giving up 3 ER on 11 hits.  Nieve suffered his 1st loss of 2009 as the Mets bullpen imploded in the later innings – a combined 4 2/3 innings of work, 7 ER, 8 hits, 3 walks and only 2 strike outs.  Not good.

The Mets turned to ace Johan Santana on Tuesday night and things started off well when David Wright gave the Mets a 2-0 lead with his 5th HR of the 2009 MLB schedule.  But the Brewers rallied for 4 runs in the 4th inning courtesy of a base-clearing double by double by Ryan Braun, with Braun scoring from 2nd after Johan Santana’s errant throw flew into left field. Santana lasted 6 innings, but ended up yielding 6 runs on 9 hits and 4 walks – not what you expect from your ace in the midst of a 4-game losing streak.

The Mets won only 9 games in the month of June as their record fell to 37-39.  With the Phillies struggling too, the Mets are only 3 games out of 1st place in the NL East, but they will need to answer the call soon.  The Marlins have passed the Mets, pushing the Mets back to 3rd place in the division.  When will it get better – we’re not sure now.  The Mets will need some quality pitching and good fortunes to shine on CITI Field in Flushing Meadows if they expect to make a run at the playoffs in 2009.

We are just shy of the midway point of the 2009 MLB schedule and the Mets are right where they want to be at 37-34.  The Mets trail the Phillies by just 1/2 game in the NL East race.  Given the injury issues, you can’t really complain too much about their position in the standings.  Currently, the Mets have 7 players on the disabled list who would be playing a vital role in the Mets everyday attack.  Outfielders Carlos Beltran and Angel Pagan; Shortstop Jose Reyes; 1st Baseman Carlos Delgado; Starting Pitchers John Maines and Oliver Perez; and Relief Pitcher J.J. Putz.  At some point during the next few months, the Mets expect to have all of those players back and ready for MLB action.  If the Mets can weather the storm during the month of July and stay towards the top of the NL East, they should have a good chance to dethrone the Phillies from a 3rd straight NL East crown. David Wright has shouldered the load for much of the season with a .356 batting average; 39 RBI’s, 47 runs and a whopping 19 stolen bases.  Johan Santana (9-5; 3.08 ERA; 1.20 WHIP; 100 K’s; 30 BB’s) and Frankie Rodriguez (20 saves; 1.01 ERA; 1.07 WHIP; 38 K’s; 19 BB’s) have shouldered the pitching loads.  When everybody is back and healthy in Queens, the Mets should be one of the best teams in the NL.

I am optimistic that this will be the case – losing such quality hitters like Beltran, Reyes and Delgado for such an extended period is just too hard for a team to overcome everyday during the long MLB season.  Not having 40% of your starting rotation is also hard to overcome for most MLB teams.  Fortunately for the Mets, the Phillies have struggled at home to the tune of an atrocious 13-22 record.  That being said, however, the Phillies 24-11 road record is by far the best road record of any team in the major leagues and the Phillies will not be able to keep that pace up over the long season.  10 of their 37 wins have come against the worst team in baseball – the Washington Nationals – and their weaknesses were exposed when they played the AL East in interleague play – losing 10 games to the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles andRays.

The NL East race should be a fun one to watch over the next 3 months.  The past 2 seasons, the Mets have choked away big leads to the Phillies down the stretch.  It will be interesting to see if the Mets can make a move from behind and overtake the Phillies in 2009.  The fun will begin this weekend as the Mets battle the Yankees at CITI for the final 3 games of the 2009 interleague Subway Series.