Wright, Beltran, and Bay have the most weight on their shoulders entering the 2011 season.
With all the recent buzz surrounding the Phillies rotation, it got me to thinking about the NYM position player do against top left handed pitchers. In case you didnt know, David Wright is one of the top lefty mashers in the NL. Lets see how the numbers look...
Spring Training is oficially upon us and I couldn't be any happier as a Mets fan right now. Here is the latest Mets information on the web!
First off, you can follow my writings and discuss all things Mets with me and other NYM fans on Twitter or Facebook!
Matt Cerrone is down in Port St Lucie taking pictures, videos, and getting a feel for Terry Collins way of running camp. Matt goes into great detail on Metsblog everyday and is doing a great job keeping up with all the happenings of Spring Traing 2011. Click Here to see the latest!
Omar Minaya and the recently traded NBA Forward Danillo Gallinari are friends and Danillo apparently reached out to Minaya when he was traded just yesterday.
R.A. Dickey is working on a slower version of his knuckleball and the new pitch is reported to be as slow as 50 MPH! Last year he the knuckler was around 70-80 MPH, if he can make that 50-80, he will make the hitters job that much harder and he will most likely improve upon his stats of last year.
Mike Pelfrey is trying to re-discover his sinker that produced many ground balls from 2007-2009. He completely abandoned the pitch last year in spring training in favor of a split finger fastball, which caught hitters off early last season.
Willie Harris and Scott Hariston are both Met killers on the defensive side of the ball. Fortunately, they are now part of the Mets and hopefully they still have some magic left in their gloves.
Finally, here is a video from SNY featuring Matt Cerrone as he documents his stalking of Mets manager, Terry Collins. Enjoy!
These are the types of players that Sandy, Paul, and J.P. Riccardi love to swipe off of the free agent market. Lets not forget Ronny Paulino, Tim Byrdak, Taylor Tankersly, Taylor Buchholz, and Willie Harris. With the resources that the Moneyballers have had, I am extremely pleased so far with what has been put together to be called the Mets in 2011. I am by no means saying all of these players will have great seasons, but I do not think I am stepping out on a weak limb when I say that the New York Mets will surprise alot of people this year because of the low risk/ high reward signings of this past offseason.
The Following Lists are the players who will be attending Spring Training with the Mets in 2011. The first 25 players listed are my favorites to make the club out of spring training. This team will be able to compete if and when healthy because there is talent on this team, it just has not had the health part on its side since 2006..
(8) Lineup
SS Jose Reyes
CF Angel Pagan
3B David Wright
RF Carlos Beltran
LF Jason Bay
1B Ike Davis
2B Daniel Murphy
C Josh Thole
(5) Rotation
SP Mike Pelfrey
SP R. A. Dickey
SP Jon Niese
SP Chris Young
SP Chris Capuano
(6) Bench
INF Brad Emaus
C/1B Ronny Paulino
4th OF Scott Harriston
INF Ching-lung Hu
PH/1B Nick Evans
(7) Bullpen
CL Fransisco Rodriguez
SU Bobby Parnell
SU Taylor Buchholz
MR D.J. Carrasco
MR Manny Acosta
LR Taylor Tankersley
LR Pedro Beato
Those are my favorites to win opening day jobs with the Mets. Below, I created a list of all the other players in camp who are trying their hardest to win a job on the NYM Roster.. Here it goes..
Minor League Position Players
C Mike Nickeas
2B Justin Turner
2B/SS Reuben Tejada
2B/SS Jordany Valdespin
INF Luis Hernandez
1B/3B Zach Lutz
OF Fernando Martinez
OF Lucas Duda
Position Player Non-Roster Invites
INF Russ Adams
OF Willie Harris
C Dusty Ryan
C Raul Chavez
Minor League Pitchers
RHP Manuel Alvarez
RHP Dillon Gee
RHP Jennry Mejia
LHP Pat Misch
RHP Armando Rodriguez
RHP Josh Stinson
Pitching Non-Roster Invites
RHP Blaine Boyer
LHP Tim Byrdak
LHP Michael O'Conner
RHP Ryota Igarashi
LHP Taylor Tankersly
RHP Boof Bonser
Release Me Already
LHP Oliver Perez
The Mets have alot of interesting pieces in camp this year. From new pitchers, Chris Young and Chris Capuano to the Non-Roster Invites of Willie Harris to Taylor Tankersly, Sandy Alderson has put some pieces in place and in one week, we will begin to see what the 2011 NYM team will look like. Spring time is one of my favorite times of the year, and when the sun starts getting warmer and the days get longer, it only brings optimism of a splendid 2011 basball season for my favorite team, The New York Mets.
Heres to a competitive, fun, and entertaining season in 2011!
Today, I stumbled across a poll at MLB Depth Charts and found it very interesting. The whole idea about the poll was to take a look at who might become the MLB Comeback player of the year in 2011. 4 NYM players were listed and here is what they had to say...
The key with these four players is keeping them healthy, I cannot stress this enough. The Mets will contend in 2011 if these four players play like we know they can. I think Bay, Beltran, and Young all have an equal chance of staying healthy this year, with Capuano rounding out the group with a chance to prove himself this spring training. I know that we cannot count on all of these players being healthy, but Terry Collins is lighting a fire under the players asses and whomever is on the field will play like a real ballplayer should.. That is what it will take to make the Mets a winning team again.
Let me start this by saying, I do not like Steve Phillips and never will, but in this video, he sheds alot of light on the Wilpons situation with the Madoff scam. Simply put, the Wilpons got screwed, but just like Mack at Macks Mets said, I do not care who owns the team, all I care about is how the team performs on the field. Sandy Alderson is the man for the job and I believe The NYM and the Wilpons will put this behind them in the near future after part of the team is sold to an unknown investor.
Fangraphs has a great post on the value of Jose Reyes and even digs deeper to find out which teams may be interested if and when he is put on the trade block or granted free agency.
The Mets have agreed with OF Angel Pagan on a 1-year contract worth 3.5 Million. Pagan had requested 4 Million, The Mets countered with 3 million and they basically met in the middle on this one. Last year, Pagan filled in brilliantly for Carlos Beltran, and might even force Carlos to move to RF because Pagan's defense is THAT good.
Pagan in 2010: .290/.340/.425 with 31 Doubles, 7 Triples and 11 Home Runs along with 69 RBI and 37 Stolen Bases.. Damn!
Wondering what Angel Pagan had to say about the signing? Here it is..
“For the first time in my career I have a spot on the team,” Pagan said in a statement from the team. “But I’m not taking anything for granted. I can’t wait for Spring Training to start. I think we’ll be better than people are predicting.”
Terry Collins has lit a fire under his players already and you can tell just by reading the players comments on the upcoming 2011 season. I'm extremely excited.
Below is a video from earlier this month where Pagan talks about the upcoming season. Enjoy!
Ed Ryan at Mets Fever noticed that there has been concerns in the past about Ronny Paulino's endurance.
According to Mets.com, The New York Mets will host the 2013 All-Star game, its an early prediction but I predict the Mets will be well represented on the 2013 All-Star Team. I say David Wright, Jose Reyes, Ike Davis and Reese Havens make the team, with Wright and Reyes starting.
Martin Luther King III is interested in buying a piece of The Mets, according to this article. I have no problem with this, from what I understand, Fred and Jeff Wilpon are trying to recoup some of their losses from the Maddoff scam, while also keeping control of the NYM day to day activities. This situation has yet to play out, but it will be interesting to say the least.
The Brooklyn Cyclones, an A-ball affiliate of the NYM, has hired former Mets pitcher, Frank Viola, to be their pitching coach for the 2011 season. Its always good to know that former ball players are coaching and developing the minor league youngsters because they know what it takes to compete and perform on the MLB level. Adam Rubin has more details.
The Rangers have signed RHP Matt Bush to a minor league deal. Bush had also recieved offers from the New York Mets and the Cleveleand Indians. Similarly, Rodrigo Lopez is mulling over signing with the Mets, Braves, and Rockies.
Amazin Avenue has a great interview with Mets pitching prospect Kyle Allen. Allen admits that he loves to listen to Rick Ross and Gucci Mane, Nice!
If I missed any must-reads or any top notch NYM articles, please feel free to let me know on Facebook, Twitter, or my E-Mail.
According to multiple sources, the New York Mets have agreed to a 2 year contract extention with RHP R.A. Dickey. The deal is supposed to be worth around 8 million, and thats not including incentives. In 2010, Dickey meant more to the Mets than any other pitcher on the team. Nobody expected him to produce the way he did last year. Not to mention that he can throw his knuckler at various speeds with great accuracy.
Andy McCullough of the Star Ledger has a great article comparing the best knuckleball pitchers in history, while also examining what to expect from Dickey, take a look!
If R.A.Dickey can produce as much as he did last year, while serving as a mentor to the teams younger pitchers, he is well worth 4-5 million per season.
This will be the first time in Dickey's career that he has been able to go to spring training with a guaranteed job, and you can bet your bottom dollar hes excited..
“The strange thing about it is every year, it (his knuckleball) feels like it comes a little quicker,” Dickey said in a telephone interview earlier this month. “Which is nice. Like, I’m already starting to feel it coming out of my hand in a good way. Whereas in years past, it’s taken me all the way up to the first day of spring training.”
With every post that I write, the excitement of spring training becomes more real. Yes, I know that the Mets play in the best division in baseball, but that will not stop me from hoping for a good year from the amazins. I'm optimistic, and if the Mets get lucky and the Phillies age catches up to them sooner rather than later, we will have a chance to compete, and hopefully reach October baseball!
