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…

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.

The New York Mets defeated the Phillies 7-4 on Friday night in Philadelphia.  If ever there was a big win on the 1st of May, this was it.

The Mets have been struggling of late, sitting at 9-12 and 4.5 games behind the 1st place Florida Marlins.  The Phillies have been the Mets’ nemesis the last 2 years, and the last thing the Mets needed was a sweep in Philly over the weekend.

The bullpen creation of J.J. Putz / Francisco Rodriguez hasn’t always worked this year for GM OMar Minaya, but everything was set up perfectly for Minaya and the dynamic duo on Friday night in Philly. 3-run lead at 7-4, bottom of the 8th inning, Putz getting ready to take the bump – would it work?

Fortunately it did for Minaya and the Mets.  Putz had a 1-2-3 uneventful inning in the 8th and K-Rod took care of the rest by mowing down the heart of the order for the Phillies.  Although he did issue a 2-out walk to Chase Utley, he ended the game with a strikeout of slugger Ryan Howard.

Look out for Mike Pelfrey as well.  Although his numbers aren’t great – 6.00 ERA and 1.86 WHIP – Pelfrey is now 3-0 on the season and he even had a single and 2 RBI’s in the Friday night win.

Dan Murphy got the Mets off to a good start with a 2-run homer in the 1st inning.  Fernando Tatis and David Wright each had 2 hits for the Mets in the win.

Oliver Perez will face off against Jamie Moyer in Saturday afternoon’s FOX Game of the Week, while John Maine and Joe Blanton will battle on Sunday afternoon.

So much has been said about the New York Mets’ collapses in September in each of the last 2 seasons.  With a bullpen that just blew way too many saves too be reliable each of the last 2 seasons, Mets GM Omar Minaya made it his off-season mission to make sure that did not happen during the 2009 MLB schedule.

How did the moves pay-off in the Mets opening day game against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday?  It was a one word answer:  perfectly.

Johan Santana – the Mets ace acquired in free agency a little over a year ago – pitched well enough to give the Mets a 2-1 lead into the 6th inning.  Newly acquired Sean Green came into the game with 2-men on and 2 out and his job was to preserve the Mets 1-run lead.  He did just that – getting out of the jam with a soft line drive to left field and then retiring the Reds 1-2-3 in the 7th inning.  Next up – - newly acquired J.J. Putz.  1 walk and 1 strikeout later, the Mets still had the 2-1 lead heading into the 9th inning.  Next up – - Francisco Rodriguez – or K-Rod as he is affectionately known throughout all of baseball.  10 pitches later – 8 of which were strikes – K-Rod had his 1st save as a Met and the Mets were 1-0.

Now I know it is just 1 game, but this is exactly why Minaya signed K-Rod to a 3-year deal and exactly why he traded for Putz and Green.  If today’s game is any indication – 3 1/3 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 walk, 2 K’s – these guys can pitch.  And as long as they stay healthy, you won’t see these guys collapsing late in the season.  Will it be enough for the Mets to overtake the defending World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies to win the NL East Division Crown?  I guess we won’t officially know that answer until October, but I like my odds with the bullpen Minaya has put together.