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…

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…

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.

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.

It looked like the Mets were going to pull off the upset against the best team in the NL on their home turf, but just like that, the Ryan Church was called out on an appeal play at 3rd base in the top of the 11th ining and the Mets defense deserted reliever Brian Stokes in the bottom of the inning to cost the team the win.

Top of the 11th – With 2 outs Ryan Church singled to left field and appeared to score on Angel Pagan’s triple to the give the Mets the 3-2 lead.  However, Dodgers Manager Joe Torre appealed the play and the 3rd base umpire called Church out for failing to touch 3rd base.  Not good.

Bottom of the 11th – Brian Stokes issued the dreaded lead off walk to Mark Loretta.  Xavier Paul then reached on an erros when Pagan interfered with center fielder’s Carlos Beltran’s view of the ball on a routine fly ball – 2nd and 3rd nobody out.  Not good.  Manager Jerry Manuel ordered the intentional walk to Juan Pierre and Stokes induced Rafael Furcal into a short flyball out to left field.  When Orlando Hudson hit a weak groundball to 1st baseman Jeremy Reed, it looked like the Mets would get out of the inning, but Reed threw a horrible ball towards home plate and Loretta scored with the winning run.

After beating the Giants on the 1st 3 games of this 7 game road trip, the Mets lost the finale to the Giants on Sunday and the 1st game of the 3-game set in L.A.  The Mets will rely on John Maine and Livan Hernandez to try to salvage the last 2 games of the L.A. series.

It did not look good.  The Mets trailed the Giants and reigning Cy Young Award-winner 5-1 heading into the 6th inning.

The Mets have won 8 of their last 10 games and have opened up a 2-game lead over the Phillies and Braves in the NL East race.  Lets Go Mets!!!

The New York Mets defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 9-5 on Thursday behind a big 7-run 7th inning and a solid pitching outing by John Maine.  Maine pitched 5 innings giving up only 1 unearned run on 6 hits.  While Maine did have 5 strikeouts, he also had 3 walks.  But overall, it was a good outing for the Mets #2 right-handed starter.

As for the Mets bats, the team racked up 13 hits and scored 7 runs in the 7th inning to pull off the come-from-behind victory.  Mets regulars Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Jose Valentin each had 2 hits.  Reyes even had 3 RBI’s.  The Mets should continue to have one of the most productive offenses in the National League this season, so let’s hope the bats continue to stay hot once the season starts.

It’s great to see John Maine pitch an efficient 5 innings at this point in the spring.  Let’s hope he can finish off strong and be ready to carry over the momentum into the 2009 MLB schedule.