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…

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.

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!!!

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.

Johan Santana looks ready to start the regular season.  The Mets defeated the Nationals 4-1 on Friday night.  Johan Santana went 7 strong innings – the 1st Met to pitch past the 6th inning this spring.  Santana needed only 75 pitches and allowed only 4 baserunners all on hits.  He gave up 1 run and had 6 strikeouts – 3 of which came when he struck out the side in an inning.

This is great news for the Mets.  After a slow start for Santana this spring, he appears healthy and ready to shoulder the load for the Mets rotation in 2009.  The Mets will need 110% from Santana if they expect to dethrone the defending World Series Champion and 2-time defending NL East Division-winning Philadelphia Phillies.

Woo hoo!!!!!

Despite giving up 2 runs on 6 hits against minor league players, Johan Santana emerged from his 56-pitch effort “pleased” with the results.  Santana had this to say:  “Game situations.  You want as many different game situations as possible to be ready.  You want to face all kinds of hitters in all kinds of situations.  I did that today.  It’s good when you have baserunners.”

Really?  What are we talking about here?  Santana is glad that he allowed 6 minor league players to reach base in 4 innings of work so that he could pitch from the stretch more often?  This is unbelievable.

Now I know that he threw 40 of 56 pitches for strikes; and I know that he had 5 strikeouts.  But at this stage of the spring, I want to read about Santana retiring 14 of 15 minor league batters faced in a 5 inning effort.  This leaves a lot to be desired for me and let’s hope the Mets get their act together before the season starts.  The best thing that they have going for them is that Cole Hamels could miss some regular season action because of left elbow issues.  Hip Hip Hooray…

Johan Santana made his spring debut on Thursday against the Florida Marlins.  Santana is glad that it is finally over with.  Santana last 2 2/3 innings, giving up 3 runs and 4 hits in the 16-8 loss.  He struck out 2 Marlins batters and hit a batter.  He did have a perfect 1st inning – throwing only 10 pitches.

Santana had this to say about the outing:  “It’s just I had a little setback.  I worked out and did all the treatment I was supposed to do and got back on track.  I knew all along I was fine.  It was just a matter of time, getting the game situations and facing hitters, and tonight was the time.  The first time being in a real game situation, I felt pretty good.  I was able to get everything going right away and throw all my pitches.  It was a good sign.”

Good news Mets fans.  Although the outing wasn’t Santana-like, it was good to see Santana back on the mound throwing all of his pitches.  Hopefully the minor setback is a thing of the past and won’t turn into a nagging issue throughout the 2009 MLB season.  The lead pitching role falls squarely on Santana’s shoulders – if he doesn’t perform at least as well as he did in 2008, the Mets will not win the NL East.  So far so good – Santana is pain-free following the start and is still on track to be the Mets opening day starter against the Cincinnati Reds on April 6th.