Does anyone know anything about this show? This is the first I’ve ever heard of it, but if it’s just a half hour of Ike Davis throwing stuff at people, I’d definitely watch it.
Ike Davis doing stuff
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Category Archives: Mets
Twitter Q&A-style product
Something to do to keep me working and not just sitting at my desk watching basketball all day:
Nuts? No. Optimistic? Probably.
I’ve liked Young since he was a stalwart for the Gary (Indiana) Templetons, my old fantasy team, in 2004. But his fastball averaged under 85 mph last year and the reports this spring have him in a similar range. He still has time to build up arm strength, but it’s hard to imagine a righty with that type of velocity and his standard 50-percent flyball rate being able to keep the ball in the park — even if it’s Citi Field — as often as Young did in his four-start stint at the end of 2010.
Still, success would not be unprecedented. Fellow righty Livan Hernandez enjoyed a decent season in 2010 while throwing an average fastballs below 84 mph. But Young has the additional hurdle in his injury history. He’s supposedly a smart pitcher and a great competitor, for whatever those are worth. (NOTE: This paragraph originally said Ted Lilly was also a soft-tossing righty. But he is a soft-tossing lefty who just got jumbled up in my head.)
Of course, speculating if Young will be the second-best pitcher on the Mets begs the question: Who will be the best pitcher on the Mets? Based on 2010, you’d have to say Dickey. But awesome though he is and with all the caveats about being relatively knew to the knuckler, Dickey only has one good season under his belt. Mike Pelfrey probably is who he is at this point: A decent but unspectacular innings-eater. Jon Niese should improve off his rookie season. To me, it’s hard to pick a clear favorite.
I have never been to In-N-Out. In fact, I have been to 40 of the 50 states, but never California. I hope to rectify both at some point this year.
That said, I’d probably say Five Guys is the best burger chain. McDonald’s is basically the definition of replacement-level: passable, inexpensive, available. White Castle I happen to love, but I know that’s a controversial stance. Plus those don’t even count as burgers to me. They’re White Castle burgers, and that’s a whole different thing.
Burger King is the worst. I recognize there’s a chance I’m biased because of a couple of particularly bad Burger Kings — most notably the atrocious one in Farmingdale, N.Y. near where my band used to practice — but every time I eat there I feel sick. Grosses me out, and I have a pretty strong stomach for these things (See: the Taco Bell tab).
There are some regional burger chains that need to be considered, though. The butter-belt staple Culver’s serves some pretty amazing burgers. And Good Times, in Colorado, is one of the best fast food places I’ve ever enjoyed.
Honestly, it’s surprisingly easy now that I feel like the team is actually being run with the goal of sustainable success in mind. And I know there’s a lot of doom-and-gloom fire-sale stuff in the papers, but I’ll believe the Mets will be forced to trade David Wright to cut payroll when I see them trade David Wright to cut payroll.
I think baseball allows most fans a healthy dose of optimism, even while remaining grounded in reality. Hell, look what happened last year: The Giants, with a lineup full of old-ass men who were never even that great to begin with, won the World Series. Yeah, they had great pitching. They also had a ton of little things fall their way. That happens sometimes.
Doesn’t mean, of course, that a team shouldn’t position itself as best it can by putting together the best possible roster. It looks like the Mets (fingers crossed) are trying to do that, hanging on to young players, managing for the near- and long-term, paying attention to the margins. On paper, are they good enough to win it all? Not really. But were the Giants last March? Were the Cardinals in 2006?
So yeah, right now I’m still holding out hope for a surprise playoff appearance. When that doesn’t happen, I’ll fall back on productive seasons from the young players that now appear to be part of the team’s next core group.
All the damn time. I’ve even spoken to a literary agent a couple of times. The biggest hold-up is I can’t come up with a suitable topic that would sustain my interest for the length of time it would require to write a book. For first-time and relatively unknown authors, publishing houses want ideas that are guaranteed to sell — the type of thing you’d get your dad on father’s day 2013. All my ideas are a bit too spacy, it seems. And I don’t want to write a book about something that doesn’t really interest me just for the sake of writing a book. I’m still thinking, though.
The other problem is I currently hunch in front of a computer all day for work. And I’ve got some pretty heavy back and neck issues. Though I’m vain as anything and I’d love to see my name on a book jacket, it’s hard to imagine coming home from work and getting right back in front of a computer for several more hours. That’s what my TV is for.
I’d put my money down on Beltran still. As frustrating as it is to follow along with the outfielder’s seemingly very slow rehab process, Santana is so far off and shoulder surgery is so very tough for pitchers to come back from. Fun fact: I’m the one who set the April 21 over-under that Matt Cerrone used for MetsBlog. It was a total guess, but it’s my total guess.
Kiss me I’m AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!
As Emma Span points out, the Mets’ St. Patrick’s Day hat is completely terrifying.
Wherefore art thou, Jeff Francoeur?
Well here’s something vaguely interesting:
The Mets’ most experienced right fielder, by far, will start in center field on Opening Day. Angel Pagan has played 538 1/3 innings in right field over 90 Major League games, and a handful more in the Minors.
After Pagan, the Mets’ next most experienced right fielder is Willie Harris, who never played the position in the Minors but has totaled 230 1/3 innings over 45 Major League games at the spot. After that, there’s a huge dropoff.
Baseball-reference.com doesn’t list Minor League innings totals in positions, so I’ve listed the outfielders in Mets camp by professional games played — Major and Minor League — in right. Keep in mind that Harris only has 24 starts at the position, but he did play a bunch of outfield in the Minors (apparently) before people started keeping track of which outfield spots guys were playing, so he may have more time out there. Hence the asterisk. Same goes for Scott Hairston, though both players were primarily infielders in their Minor League days.
I’ve excluded Pagan and Jason Bay, since they are starting in the other outfield positions. Bay, incidentally, has one Major League game in right. His Minor League days also aren’t tracked by outfield positions, but it’s probably worth noting that he played in one game at second base.
Not really sure if this matters at all, just thought it, like I said, vaguely interesting. Citi Field’s right field is a reasonably demanding spot, and the Mets will most likely be trotting someone out there without much experience.
A lot of the talk suggests Scott Hairston will be the man if Beltran has to start the season on the DL. And though Hairston has proven a good defensive outfielder in center and left, he has not played much in right at all.
| Guy | Professional games in right field |
|---|---|
| Willie Harris | 45* |
| Nick Evans | 14 |
| Lucas Duda | 9 |
| Scott Hairston | 8* |
| Carlos Beltran | 3 |
Alderson on the pending second-base decision
Well that’s nice to hear. Obviously the proof will be in the proverbial pudding, but “a whole body of work over a period of time” doesn’t sound like Luis Hernandez to me.
Humorless Carlos Beltran has never seen Groundhog Day
Seriously though he should probably check it out. Great movie.
Even more noise and other disturbances
As one of the only rational Mets fans left, I just had to vent to you re: a line from Danny Knobler on sportsline.com this morning regarding the state of Mets camp: “It has been that kind of spring, a spring where most of the news is bad, and even the good news doesn’t feel that good.” Is it only me, or has the mainstream media just stopped trying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Madoff and Johan. I get it. In my view, this spring has been overwhelmingly positive. New front office, new manager, nice young talent, low expectations.
– Greg, via email.
These are trying times for Mets fans. Pick up any paper, click to 90% of Mets blogs, listen to any sports talk radio, and everything is doom and gloom. Wilpon this, Madoff that, MLB loans, fire sales, short ticket lines, shut-down aces, looming injuries, Luis Hernandez.
Noise, noise, noise.
Thing is: How much of what we read is true? How much of it matters to the Mets’ success? Every negative story is met almost immediately with an equally negative counter-story, rendering it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions.
Do we yet have any actual evidence that the Wilpons’ finances have affected the Mets’ roster any more than the failures of the last front office did? Why would a lack of walk-up ticket sales mean anything other than that fans would rather buy online than brave the cold? How can anyone — Johan Santana included — hope to understand and accurately interpret every blip in the long, hazy timeline of recovery from major shoulder surgery? Why would a Major League Baseball team hand a starting job to a middle infielder with a career Triple-A OPS below .600?
And mostly: Who cares?
Maybe you do. Sometimes I do. Some of this stuff seems really important. But sift through the layers of nonsense and winnow out the actual incontrovertible facts and you’ll wind up unsatisfied. We love having terrors to fear and bugaboos to blame, but the most frightening thing to me is how many conclusions we draw from so little substance.
That’s because, I am almost certain, little of substance is happening. Grapefruit League results are meaningless. The Mets have one everyday position to fill, one regular with a nagging injury, and a couple of decisions to make about the pitching staff. That’s really it. They have no real reason to need to settle any of it until March 31. But there are blogs and papers and airwaves to fill, so everyone runs wild with even the tiniest morsel of information, however sketchy. And the Mets have suffered through two straight losing seasons, so all of it is interpreted as negative.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. A shiny beaming, glistening, spectacular light. It is real, meaningful baseball, and it starts, for the Mets, on April 1.
Some of the sideshows will continue thereafter, for sure. Santana certainly will not be recovered by then, and maybe not Beltran either. The Wilpons will still be embroiled in a lawsuit.
But who knows? My bet is if the Mets actually win some games, it will be a lot easier to tune out the noise.
Support your local Justin Turner
Matt Cerrone is polling readers to ask who the Mets should start at second base, and our man Justin Turner is running behind Luis Castillo and tied with Luis Hernandez. Rock the vote.
David Wright will crush your calculator, unless it’s thrown on the outside half of the plate
Patrick Flood talks to David Wright about the conclusions drawn from all the research on his streakiness this offseason. Wright, unsurprisingly, did not read it.
Justin Turner needs a lobby
The Mets are ready to shred their final four bracket and chart a different course at second base.
Disenchanted with what he has seen from Luis Castillo, Daniel Murphy, Brad Emaus and Justin Turner this spring, manager Terry Collins is preparing to name Luis Hernandez the starter at second base, a source with direct knowledge of Collins’ plans told The Post yesterday. The move will be contingent upon Collins convincing the front office to find roster space for Hernandez.
Wait a minute, really? That Luis Hernandez? The guy with the career .302 Minor League — Minor League! — on-base percentage. All due respect to the saddest home run ever, but I’m not buying it.
For one thing, keep in mind we’ve already seen reports from MetsBlog that Brad Emaus is in the lead, from the Times that Luis Castillo is in the lead, and from the Daily News that Daniel Murphy is in the lead. So it seems unlikely to me that, out of nowhere, Hernandez has wrested the position from four competitors by March 15 and only the Post has the scoop.
Second, as Matt Cerrone just pointed out, if the Mets were interested in an all-defense, no-hit second baseman — despite all Collins’ claims that second base is an offensive position — why wouldn’t Chin-Lung Hu then be added to the mix? Hu, after all, is also an apt defender, and probably offers more offensive upside than Hernandez.
I’m going to stick with my supposition that nothing has been decided yet. Because I don’t really want to consider yet the possibility that the new front office and manager would make Luis Hernandez an everyday player. I’ll wait until there’s stronger evidence that it’s actually happening.
I will seize this opportunity to advocate for Justin Turner some more. He often seems to be the forgotten man in what was thought to be the four-horse race for the second-base job. I get the feeling some Mets fans see him as almost interchangeable with Emaus — righty hitting offensive second basemen without much in the way of a Major League pedigree. And everyone figures since Emaus is a Rule 5 guy and Turner has options, Emaus would get the nod over Turner, all things being equal.
But I’m not sure all things are equal. As I pointed out Friday, Turner’s Triple-A stats from 2010 are actually way more impressive than Emaus’ since he played in a much tougher hitting environment. Plus Turner has experience playing shortstop, for what that’s worth. I haven’t seen nearly enough of him to say how he looks defensively, plus I’m not sure I’d trust my eye anyway. I’m just saying he needs a lobby, or at the very least some reporter to come out and say he’s in the lead for the second-base job.
Oh wait, I am a reporter. Nevermind that I’ve been away from Port St. Lucie a full week now and I didn’t really talk to anyone about Turner. How should I carefully word this completely fictional scoop?
How’s this? Some Mets people have been really impressed with Justin Turner’s work in camp so far and believe he could emerge as the team’s starting second baseman by Opening Day. Run with it, Internet!
Tedquarters 