Subscribe to Hot FootNews FeedSubscribe to Hot FootComments

Reyes Running Gives Mets Fans Hope

By Anthony De Rosa on February 2, 2010 at 10:30 am  

Comments

There hasn’t been much for Mets fans to get excited about this off-season, but the sight of Jose Reyes sprinting and reports of him going through drills with flying colors has to bring a rare smile to those who have endured this wicked winter.

Reggie Jackson was the straw who stirred the drink, Reyes is the spark plug that starts the Mets engine. As Reyes goes, so do the Mets, and boy do they need the motivation. So many things need to go right for the Mets to win this season.

They have to hope Oliver Perez and John Maine at the very least stay healthy and pitch to their mean, not spectacular, not better than they ever have before, just to the level they were once expected to play. If they can do that, along with expecting what you’d expect from Johan Santana, and perhaps a step up from Mike Pelfrey, the Mets will suddenly be in very good shape.

If the pitching does all that, Reyes will drive the offense. His infectious energy will drive Wright, Bay, Murphy, and the rest of the lineup. It’s still early, way too early, to get too excited, but Reyes gives Mets fans a glimmer of hope and that’s something that has been sorely missing in a long, long time.

A Rough Off-Season for the Mets

By Vinny Cartiglia on February 2, 2010 at 8:34 am  

Comments

After a forgettable 2009 season the Mets desperately needed to have a superb off-season.It was necessary to improve their pitching deficiency, add a power bat, and receive positive press throughout the process. If for nothing else, but to get the fans feeling good about this team again. According to this blogger, other than adding Jason Bay, they have failed miserable.

Epitome of a Met Fan

Image by via Flickr

This off-season has become one bad story after another. It started when the Mets missed out on John Lackey, who many would argue was the only proven impact pitcher on the market, when they decided to forgo offering him a contract and he signed a 5 year deal with the Red Sox.

The Mets failed to land targeted free agents Joel Pineiro, and Bengie Molina. According to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, he believed the Mets were Pineiro’s first choice. According to Rosenthal, Pineiro grew tired of waiting for the Mets so he decided to sign with Anaheim. This might have been a blessing in disguise, but the fact still remains the Mets wanted Pineiro, he wanted to be a Met, yet he is not.

Bengie Molina opted to sign a 1 year contract for less money to stay in San Francisco rather then play for the Mets. Molina later told the NY Post, that he would have signed with the Mets had they guaranteed him a 2ncd year. He also said that he felt the Giants have a better chance at making the playoffs in 2010 then the Mets due.

The Mets have also fallen bridesmaid to small market teams like Oakland for the services of Ben Sheets and San Diego who signed Jon Garland. Once again missing out on an opportunity to improve this rotation.

Instead, the Mets have spent the off-season signing scrap heap players with minimal upside and doing little to make this team a legitimate contender. According to Buster Olney of ESPN on Twitter, Yorvit Torealba would like to engage the Mets, but the Mets have indicated they have no money available. No money? Really?

As if all this was not bad enough the Mets front office has gone through off-season fiasco’s, such as the mis-communication with Carlos Beltran, regarding his knee surgery, and now this. In an interview with Comcast Sportsnet Chicago, (you can read the full interview here) JJ Putz describes his trade to the Mets as a mess from the beginning. Stating he never received a physical upon being traded. 16 days from pitchers and catchers reporting and yet another embarrassment to the Mets medical management, which speaks volumes to the organizations incompetence.

A day where Mets fans should be ecstatic to recieve news that their star player, and team spark plug, Jose Reyes, ran at 100% speed pain free (click here to see video). Instead we are reminded once again of just how painful this off-season has been.

Saying the Mets need a good start to the season is an understatement after this off-season.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

The Truth About J.J. Putz

By Anthony De Rosa on February 1, 2010 at 12:04 pm  

Comments

In a pretty amazing article at Comcast SportsNet Chicago, J.J. Putz reveals the Mets never had him take a physical that would have revealed a bone spur that eventually led to him blowing out his elbow and ending his 2009 season.

“It was a mess from the beginning,” said Putz in an interview with Comcast SportsNet…soon after he arrived in New York, Putz knew that something was wrong…“When the trade went down last year, I never really had a physical with the Mets,” said Putz. “I had the bone spur (in the right elbow). It was discovered the previous year in Seattle, and it never got checked out by any other doctors until I got to spring training, and the spring training physical is kind of a formality. It was bugging me all through April, and in May I got an injection. It just got to the point where I couldn’t pitch. I couldn’t throw strikes, my velocity was way down.”

The Mets issued this statement:

“In our review of the player’s medical records in the acquisition of J.J. Putz, we were aware that he had a bone spur before the trade.  He had the same condition in 2008 and was able to pitch with it.  J.J. underwent an exam during Spring Training and an additional exam and MRI before he was cleared to play in last year’s World Baseball Classic.  Unfortunately the spur did flare up again in May, and he missed the rest of the season.  We are happy to hear he is feeling well, and wish him success with the White Sox.”

If this doesn’t send chills up your spine about how dangerous the Mets medical management is, I don’t know what will. I wrote a piece about this awhile back and the evidence keeps piling up. Something needs to be done before we have another repeat of 2009.

Bats in the Outfield

By Benjamin Tulis on February 1, 2010 at 7:45 am  

Comments

The Mets certainly have some question marks. Is a rotation of Johan Santana and the “Human Question Marks” sufficient to compete? Can the Mets reasonably rely on Mike Pelfrey to revert to 2008 form? Similarly, will Oliver Perez revert to pitching like a Major League caliber starter?

Are Kelvim Escobar and Ryoto Igarashi effective set-up men for Francisco Rodriguez? Is a platoon of Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis really the move at first base? Is there a starting catcher aboard the 2010 train? The training staff. And that list of 2010 roster questions is hardly all-inclusive.

While Carlos Beltran’s knee remains a temporary question mark until he is again roaming Citi Field, the fact is the Mets are entering the 2010 season with a seemingly productive and reliable outfield for the first time in a long time. Beltran’s knee will heal and when it does, the Mets will have at least five months of the most productive outfield it has had in a long time.

I am not saying the Mets are saved because they have a good outfield. They are not. Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur certainly have their flaws but they are in or entering their prime (unlike the Moises Alou’s and Shawn Green’s of years past) and have put up gaudy numbers in past seasons. Gary Matthews Jr. is not a $50 million man but at $1.25 million/year, he is a steal as a fourth outfielder even in light of his advancing age and declining numbers. Isn’t Alex Cora making double that?

Lest we forget that Matthews has had his Endy moments while providing some offense as recently as a few years ago. And Angel Pagan has proven he is capable of performing like a starting outfielder (if he remains healthy of course). Even Frank Catalanotto, recently signed to a minor league contract and invited to spring training, appears to be a smart signing and could provide some reliable outfield depth. And Carlos Beltran will come back in May as Carlos Beltran.

This article is a merely a comment on a long trend in recent Met history and Omar Minaya’s recent decision to abandon the trend  of the “piecemeal” outfield or the “Beltran plus ‘anyone’” outfield. The abandoned philosophy was also attributable to the reigns of Steve Phillips and Jim McIllvane.  The philosophy essentially goes back to the transition from Frank Cashen & Darryl Strawberry to the likes of Vince Coleman and Bobby Bonilla.

Read more

2010: The Season of “IF” – First Base

By Pete Lappin on January 31, 2010 at 3:03 pm  

Comments

Hot Foot now allows you to speak directly to thousands of Mets fans. Pete Lappin has written a multi-part series through our Fan Post feature, he calls it ‘The Season of “IF”‘

In his last entry he took on catching, today he looks at first base.

Want to have your voice heard? Head over to our Fan Post page and tell us what you have to say about the New York Mets.

First base

There’s a lot of concern expressed over Daniel Murphy being the everyday 1st baseman to start the 2010 season. For where the Mets are, right now, I don’t have any issue with this but I know that many of my fellow Mets fans do. So I’ll try to make a case.

“IF” you take a look at how Daniel Murphy has developed in his brief professional career, major and minor both, he appears to be a Bobby Higginson-Adam LaRoche type of hitter. “IF” you look at both of those players at age 24, here’s their production; 14-13 HR, 43-45 RBIs’, .224-.278 BA respectively. Murphy’s production at age 24; 12 HR, 63 RBIs, .266 BA. Pretty comparable.

Here’s the Higginson-LaRoche production at age 25; 26-20 HR, 81-78 RBIs, .320-278 BA respectively. Now “IF” Murphy’s production lands in between the Higginson-LaRoche production at age 25, that will be enough to replace all the production the Mets received from 1st base last season. It’s not a huge upgrade but an upgrade nonetheless.

I advocated signing Adam LaRoche going into the off-season but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it could work against them Mets in the long run. In a scenario were the Mets sign LaRoche, Murphy doesn’t get ABs at the major league level, subsequently doesn’t develop. This would limit Murphy’s trade value going forward.

It’s clear to me that unless the Mets develop Daniel Murphy as a 1st baseman or, YES a 2nd baseman his future is as a DH in the AL. Remember this is the season of “IF’s”. “IF” Murphy has a Higginson-LaRoche type of year, his value goes way up. If he produces at the same rate as last season his value is not much worse then it is right now because he’s young.

I’ve also heard concerns about Murphy not being able to hit LH pitching. Remember, Murphy is only 24 and has all of 639 ABs in the major’s with a career .240 BA against LHers. With more ABs against lefties he’ll most likely get better.

To put this into prospective, the pre-steroid phenom, Barry Bonds only hit .219 and .228 vs. LH his first two full seasons with 964 ABs. I’m not implying that Murphy will be as good as Bonds. The point is that Bonds, as great as he was, struggled early on vs. LH pitching as well.

History would suggest that Murphy’s power will come later on. Historically LH hitters that throw RH develop the power stroke later vs. their L/L counterparts. Billy Williams, Rusty Staub and Darrell Evans started hamming in their mid-20’s at the major league level. David Ortiz and Jeremy Burnitz are more contemporary examples.

As for his fielding, Murphy is no Keith Hernandez and perhaps never will be. He is, however, athletic and moves well around the bag while being very aggressive at 1st base.

While doing some research for this article I took a look at Gold Glove winners that changed positions, which led me to Albert Pujols and Mark Teixeira. Both were horrible 3rd baseman in the minor’s, even worse then Murphy was.

Teixeira moved from 3rd to 1st while Pujols went from 3rd to LF, where he was horrendous, to 1st. Both settled in and became Gold Glove winners, not that Murphy will win a Gold Glove anytime soon, but there’s hope. He’s supposed to work out with Hernandez before camp begins and that can only be a good thing. Daniel Murphy will be a good defensive 1st baseman. Not great, but good.

Note: I can only go by what I’ve read but in appears that Carlos Delgado’s days of playing the field may very well be over ending his days as a NY Met. It would have been fun to see Delgado hit his 500th HR in a Met uniform. I wish him well wherever he ends up playing.

This post was submitted by Pete Lappin.

Video : A Typical Jerry Manuel Press Conference

By Anthony De Rosa on January 30, 2010 at 5:23 pm  

Comments