The Times They Are A Changin’

The 2011 Mets have been a far cry from their 2009 and 2010 counterparts, and we’re not just talking about their won-loss record. This year’s team feels different than the teams that frustrated fans over the past two seasons. Gone are the malcontents who had no business being on the team and replacing them are players who play hard and have fun doing so.

With apologies to Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin’ for the Mets. Here are some examples to show just how much things have turned around for the orange and blue.

Injuries were used as an excuse for the team’s lack of performance over the past few seasons. If the team went on a losing streak, it was always “when we get so-and-so back, the team will get better”. That defeatist attitude is no longer evident this year, as injuries to key players (David Wright, Ike Davis, Johan Santana) have been used as motivation for role players to step up their game.

Chemistry last year was affected by the Luis Castillo/Oliver Perez situation, the quick return of Carlos Beltran from his injury, sending Jeff Francoeur (a normally calming influence in the clubhouse) to the bench demanding a trade, and the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em K-Rod incident. This year’s team is a cohesive unit that enjoys playing with each other and has no off-the-field problems with its players. Would last year’s team be doing “the claw” with all their problems? Methinks not.

Last year, the team failed miserably in clutch situations, while this year, it seems like they do their best work after the first two men have been retired in an inning. The Mets currently lead the National League in hits, extra-base hits, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in two-out situations. New York’s 167 runs scored with two outs rank second in the league to the Phillies’ 168. However, the Phillies have played 88 games, while the Mets have played 87.

In 2009 and 2010, the Mets were a combined 61-101 in road games. Last year, they didn’t win a series on the road against a National League team until they took two out of three at PNC Park against the lowly Pirates in late August. This year, the Mets have the most road victories (26) in the NL and have allowed only two walk-off wins on the road, compared to 12 last season.

As a result of their poor performance in 2009, attendance dropped at Citi Field in 2010, as the luster of the new ballpark faded quicker than the team did in the standings. The team struggled to draw fans early this season, but as the team has gradually improved from month to month, the fans have been coming back. The Mets’ have drawn at least 30,000 fans to Citi Field in each of their last eight home games. Prior to that, they had fewer than 30,000 fans in attendance in 23 of their first 33 home dates, including a Citi Field-low paid attendance of 21,015 against the division rival Atlanta Braves on Sunday, June 5.

From the Mets’ performance on the field to the fans’ performance at the turnstiles, the atmosphere around the Mets has changed for the better. The disgruntled fanbase from years past is now subscribing to the philosophy of Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins. In other words, the fans are starting to like this team.

Better leadership. Better effort. Better results. The times are indeed a-changin’ for the Mets, and for the first time in years, that change is producing positive energy and positive results. Change is good.

Filed under: Ed Leyro, 2011 Mets

Is This Season Looking A Lot Like 1997 To You?

Prior to the 2011 season, the Mets interviewed a number of potential candidates for their open managerial position before deciding to hire Terry Collins, a pick that was popular in the front office, but not immediately liked by the fans. Less than half a season later, Collins has made believers out of the skeptics who thought anyone not named Wally Backman would be able to manage the Mets. After a rough 5-13 start, the Mets have responded by going 28-21 (.571 winning percentage) and currently find themselves in third place in the National League East.

Collins has been able to piece together a team that has been without Johan Santana for the entire season and sans corner infielders Ike Davis and David Wright for the past month. His makeshift lineups have led to the emergence of various players who had been career minor leaguers or fringe players. Players such as Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy have all contributed in the absence of Davis and Wright, and pitchers such as Dillon Gee, Chris Capuano and Jonathon Niese have all flourished while Santana has been rehabbing his surgically repaired shoulder.

The 2011 Mets have all the makings of a nice story in Flushing, after two lost seasons at Citi Field which immediately followed two heartbreaking seasons at Shea Stadium. But this is not the first time a manager has taken a downtrodden Mets team and turned them around faster than anyone ever expected. In fact, it was only 14 years ago when another former major league manager was given a chance by the Mets to bring respectability back to the franchise.

Bobby Valentine managed the Texas Rangers from 1985-1992, where he became the franchise’s all-time leader in managerial victories. But after a slow start in 1992, Valentine was relieved of his duties by future president George W. Bush and did not manage again for three years. In 1995, Bobby V took his managerial talents overseas and led the Chiba Lotte Marines to a surprising second-place finish in the Japanese Pacific League. Valentine’s success in Japan (he was fired due to a conflict with the team’s general manager) led him back to the States and a job managing the Mets’ Triple-A team in Norfolk.

After leading the Tides to an 82-59 record in 1996, Valentine was promoted to the Mets to replace the recently ousted Dallas Green. The Mets finished the season by winning only 12 of the 31 games under their new skipper. However, with a new season came new hope, and Valentine was the purveyor of that hope.

The 1997 Mets went into the season with little to no expectations. Their biggest acquisition of the offseason was John Olerud, a former batting champion in 1993 who had done little since winning that batting title, averaging 13 HR and 61 RBI from 1994 to 1996, and failing to hit over .300 in each of those three seasons. The rest of the infield consisted of the past-his-prime Carlos Baerga at second, light-hitting shortstop Rey Ordoñez and young Edgardo Alfonzo, who had been shuttled back and forth between second and third base for the better part of three seasons.

Although Bernard Gilkey and Lance Johnson were returning to the outfield, both were coming off career years in 1996 that did little to help the team in the standings. Rounding out the outfield was Butch Huskey, who had always shown power potential, but never quite fulfilled it. Todd Hundley (he of the record-setting 41 home runs in 1996) was yet again behind the plate catching a ragtag group of starting pitchers that included Bobby Jones, Rick Reed, Dave Mlicki, Mark Clark, Armando Reynoso and Brian Bohanon. Those six pitchers combined to win a mere 40 games in 1996 and were now being counted on to lead the 1997 Mets. It didn’t start off the way Valentine would have liked.

The 1997 Mets lost 10 of their first 14 games and were already seven games out of first place just two weeks into the season. But Bobby Valentine did not let the poor start deter his team. By mid-May, the Mets had climbed back to .500, but then hovered around the mediocre mark until mid-June. It was then that the team took off, winning six straight against Pittsburgh and Atlanta. By September, the Mets were still alive in the Wild Card race, but their playoff hopes finally burst during the final week of the season, as the Marlins took the Wild Card on the way to their first World Series championship. Despite falling just short of the playoffs, the Mets still finished the year with an impressive 88-74 record.

Bobby Jones and Rick Reed emerged as solid starting pitchers for the Mets, with Jones winning 15 games and earning his first (and only) All-Star selection and Reed finishing sixth in the National League with a 2.89 ERA, to go along with 13 wins (after winning a total of 10 games from 1988-1996). The infield also surpassed all expectations, with John Olerud leading the way. The first baseman batted .294 with 22 HR and 102 RBI. He also led the team in on-base percentage with an even .400 mark. The left side of the infield impressed as well, as Edgardo Alfonzo hit a then-career high .315 and Rey Ordoñez won his first Gold Glove Award. Bernard Gilkey and Lance Johnson couldn’t sustain their 1996 paces, but Butch Huskey made up for that by setting career marks in batting average (.287), hits (135), doubles (26), home runs (24), RBI (81), stolen bases (8) and slugging percentage (.503). In addition, Todd Hundley followed up his memorable 1996 campaign with another solid season, batting .273 with 30 HR and 86 RBI.

No one would say that the 1997 Mets were loaded with All-Stars. But Bobby Valentine took that group of individuals and turned them into a team. Valentine used 143 different lineups, utilizing all 25 players on the roster and going with the hot hand whenever possible. The final result was the first winning season for the Mets in seven years.

Fast forward to 2011. Terry Collins is now the former major league manager who was hired by the Mets after a layoff of several years. After spending time guiding young players in the Mets’ farm system in 2010, Collins is now managing a number of them in the big leagues.

Not much was expected from the Mets in 2011, but after a slow start, the Mets are now playing very good baseball. They’re coming together as a team, with veteran leadership (Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes), emerging talent (Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, Daniel Murphy), and young pitchers developing into top starters (Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee).

Like Bobby Valentine did with the 1997 Mets, Terry Collins is instilling confidence in the 2011 Mets. His goal is not to reach .500, but to surpass it. Mediocrity is not an option with the current Mets. It is a stepping stone. Terry Collins expects this team to perform on the field, regardless of who he puts out there. It is why the Mets have been able to leapfrog past the Nationals and Marlins in the NL East and why they are within 4½ games of the Braves for the Wild Card lead.

Bobby Valentine did wonders with a group of players that “on paper” shouldn’t have performed as well as they did. He taught them how to believe in themselves and their ability to get the job on the baseball field. The players responded to their manager and made the fans believers as well. Fourteen years later, Terry Collins is trying to do the same thing with his group of Mets.

Will Collins succeed as Bobby Valentine did almost a decade and a half ago? That remains to be seen. One thing is certain, though. If the players continue to follow Collins’ philosophy, then there’s no reason to believe that this team can’t surpass expectations. The Mets can go as far as they want to go. It’s a good thing they have a manager who knows this and is willing to take them there.

Filed under: Ed Leyro

Justin Turner “Un-Vail-ed”

It seems like a lot of people have sent the Justin Turner bandwagon into overdrive. From #JustinTurnerFacts on Twitter (tip of the blue Mets cap to The Daily Stache for creating what has become a trending topic on Twitter) to this guy who’s written too many blogs on him recently, Justin Turner seems to be on everyone’s mind. Even a certain renowned writer who has an equal amount of “faith” and “fear” in his team has weighed in on Turner’s recent accomplishments.

Needless to say, I noticed a connection between Justin Turner and Rusty Staub that has nothing to do with their hair color. Unfortunately, it’s not one most Mets fans would want to make.

Let’s hop into the DeLorean and set the time coordinates to 1975. At the time, the Mets were in a transitional phase. Yogi Berra was fired in August, replaced by Roy McMillan. 1969 World Series hero Cleon Jones was released outright. However, the Mets did produce their highest team batting average to date (.256), saw Dave Kingman belt a franchise-record 36 home runs and watched Rusty Staub become the first player to drive in 100 runs in a single season.

That team also produced a young outfielder named Mike Vail.

Mike Vail was a hitting machine at AAA-Tidewater in 1975, hitting .342 in 115 games. He was also a clutch hitter, driving in 79 runs despite hitting only seven home runs for the Tides. On August 18, he made his major league debut as a pinch-hitter. He singled in his first at-bat. Two days later, he made his first start and went 0-for-5. He wasn’t held hitless again until September 16, when ironically, he did not collect a hit in an 18-inning victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, going 0-for-7 in the extra-inning affair.

Vail’s 23-game hitting streak set the franchise record, unsurpassed until 1984 when Hubie Brooks hit in 24 consecutive games. After hitting .302 in 38 games in 1975, Vail made Rusty Staub expendable in the minds of the front office, who traded Le Grand Orange to the Detroit Tigers for the rotund and past-his-prime Mickey Lolich.

The Mets did well in 1976, finishing with the second-most wins in franchise history at the time (86), but that proved to be the final respectable season for the team until 1984. Rusty Staub went on to average 106 RBI per season for the Tigers from 1976-1978 (no Met drove in as many as 106 runs in a season until Darryl Strawberry collected 108 RBI in 1990). Mike Vail went kaplooie after being anointed as the “player of the future” following the 1975 season.

A basketball injury sustained during the off-season kept Vail on the disabled list for most of the 1976 season. Upon his return, Vail struggled, hitting only .217, scoring eight runs and driving in nine in 53 games. He performed slightly better in 1977, but still only produced a .262 batting average with eight home runs and 35 RBI in 108 games.

The “player of the future” helped send the Mets back to their losing past. After being an excellent contact hitter in the minors, Vail struck out 114 times in 584 career at-bats for the Mets. He attempted eight stolen bases as a Met and was thrown out all eight times. Vail also made Jeff Francoeur look like a walking machine. From 1975-1977, Vail drew only 34 bases on balls, never walking more than 19 times in a single season for the Mets. This continued throughout his major league career, as Vail walked a mere 81 times in 10 big league seasons.

Now let’s get back into the DeLorean, fire up the flux capacitor (anyone have a spare piece of plutonium lying around?) and return to 2011. Justin Turner just set the Mets’ rookie record by driving in at least one run in his seventh consecutive game. Prior to his streak, Turner had only driven in six runs in his major league career.  But like Vail, Turner was also an outstanding contact hitter in the minor leagues, hitting .309 and striking out only 279 times in 2,202 plate appearances.

Justin Turner is also playing third base, filling in admirably for the injured David Wright, who drove in over 100 runs last season. With just about every Met having the “untradeable” tag removed from them, could it be that history is about to repeat itself?

Let’s hope not. Justin Turner is on quite a bit of a roll, but he will never be David Wright, even when the longtime third baseman reverts to his David K. Wright persona. At best, Turner will platoon with Daniel Murphy at second base until Terry Collins decides that one of them has won the job outright.

Justin Turner is a nice player whose 15 minutes of fame have stretched into a second week. He’s not David Wright just like Mike Vail was not Rusty Staub. Let’s enjoy his hot streak while it lasts, but let’s not make the mistake the front office made in 1975 by anointing him “the player of the future”. For now, Justin Turner is a player of the present. We’ll let the future take care of itself.

Filed under: Ed Leyro, justin turner, Mike Vail, Rusty Staub

An Open Letter To Brooklyn Dodger Lover Fred Wilpon

Dear Mr. Wilpon,

I was recently at the Mets Team Store on the Field Level at Citi Field looking for some Mets T-shirts. After being pleasantly surprised to finally see R.A. Dickey and Angel Pagan number shirts for sale, my jaw dropped when I saw yet another piece of Brooklyn Dodgers merchandise.

This wasn’t yet another tribute to Jackie Robinson or Ebbets Field. This was something else entirely. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you photo documentation of the latest shirt for sale at the Mets Team Store.

A Sandy Koufax Brooklyn Dodgers shirt? Really? Let’s look up a few things about Mr. Koufax to share with our readers.

Sandy Koufax had a great career in the major leagues. He finished his career with a .655 winning percentage (165 wins, 87 losses), pitched four no-hitters (a record at the time), struck out 382 batters in a single season (also a record at the time), won three Cy Young Awards and was the National League MVP in 1963. He also was a member of four pennant winners and three World Series champions. As a result of his outstanding career, Koufax was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972, his first year of eligibility.

That’s a lot of accomplishments for a pitcher whose career was cut short because of arthritis. But that’s not what stands out most for me on his Hall of Fame plaque. Let’s focus on Sandy himself, or rather, let’s focus on the cap he’s wearing in the plaque. What’s that on his cap? Oh, yeah…

It’s a LOS ANGELES DODGERS cap!

Now why is he wearing an LA on his cap rather than a “B” for Brooklyn? That’s because Koufax did very little in Brooklyn as a Dodger.

From 1955-1957, the last three seasons the Dodgers played at Ebbets Field, Sandy Koufax’s record was 9-10, or the same record compiled by Jonathon Niese in 2010. He was also very wild, walking 108 batters in 204.2 innings and posted a 4.00 ERA.

Once the Dodgers packed their bags and left Brooklyn for LA, Koufax blossomed into one of the all-time greats in baseball.

So why on Earth is Citi Field selling Sandy Koufax Brooklyn Dodgers shirts when he did practically nothing as one of Dem Bums? It surely can’t be because the Mets appreciate pitchers who go 9-10 while pitching in one of the outer boroughs. If that were the case, then the store would also have a full stock of Jonathon Niese T-shirts (which they don’t; what’s up with that?).

No, Mr. Wilpon. You know the reason as well as I do. Sandy Koufax was a childhood friend of yours. The two of you went to Lafayette High School in Brooklyn together. Sandy comes to spring training as a favor to you to talk to your pitchers.

We get it. You’re BFFs. Fine.

But please. Sandy Koufax wasn’t a Met. He was barely a Brooklyn Dodger. Stop trying to make it seem like he was. The Mets don’t play at Ebbets Field. They don’t have a “B” on their hats. Therefore, if you could, we’d like you to stop trying to shove the Brooklyn Dodgers down our throats. We know this is probably hard for you to do, so perhaps we can reach a compromise.

Do you remember which two players led the major leagues in home runs and RBI during the 1950s? Maybe the photos below will help.

The man in the photo on the left is Duke Snider, who played in Brooklyn for 11 seasons (1947-1957). The man on the right is Gil Hodges, who came up to the Brooklyn Dodgers for good in 1947 after playing in one game for the team in 1943.

Both men played the majority of their major league careers as Brooklyn Dodgers, winning six pennants and one World Series in Brooklyn. They also have one other thing in common. Let’s roll out the photo album one more time to assist you.

Your eyes are not deceiving you, Mr. Wilpon. They were indeed both members of your New York Mets.

Duke Snider played one season for the Mets, making the All-Star team in 1963. Gil Hodges played parts of two seasons for the Mets (1962-63), hitting the first home run in franchise history on April 11, 1962. He also did something on a grander scale seven years later. It may or may not have involved winning a championship. I’ll have to look that up.

Do you see what I’m getting at, Mr. Wilpon? Why are you selling Sandy Koufax merchandise when you can sell Duke Snider or Gil Hodges gear? They were both Brooklyn Dodgers far longer than Koufax was and contributed to more success in Brooklyn than your boyhood buddy did. Plus, they have the added appeal to Mets fans because they both donned the orange and blue at some point.

As of right now, there is nothing for Duke Snider at Citi Field and only a first base entrance named after Gil Hodges. I know I’m not the only fan who’s appalled that you’re trying to sell Sandy Koufax as a Brooklyn Dodger to Mets fans. In fact, my wife also has an opinion on the lovefest between you and the Brooklyn Dodgers, which she will share with you now:

Speaking of both teams for whom to pay homage, you also discredit the origins of the “orange” from the term “orange and blue” in your child-like fascination with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and that’s the New York Giants.

While the Dodgers were quick to embrace their new identity on the west coast with winning a championship in two years, the now-San Francisco Giants had to do nothing BUT embrace their New York roots. And why was that? Because prior to 2010, they had not won a championship in their 50 year old home and a lot of their rich history was based in New York. Even when the team won, they visited the old site of the Polo Grounds (where both the New York Giants and…oh some other team…oh yes, the New York Mets once upon a time played) with the Commissioner’s Trophy to pay homage to where their history originated. I don’t believe that the Dodgers visited the old site of Ebbets Field after winning a championship so quickly after switching coasts. The Giants embrace New York and the Mets need to embrace the Giants history as well.

It’s not so much the Koufax jersey or this blatant “to the victor go the spoils” attitude at Citi Field that is troublesome — there is also no mention of New York Giants history. You’d like to be fair, then how about this? In addition to selling Brooklyn memorabilia, why not include the Giants as well in a nostalgia store? Not to mention, one of the most storied baseball players in history, Willie Mays, played for both New York and San Francisco Giants AND ended his career with the Mets. Wouldn’t it be great to not only acknowledge those teams but to also have an actual connection to the Mets?  There’s no limitation to having Giants or Dodgers jerseys either in the nostalgia store – you can sell old Mets jerseys as well and even other items such as collectible yearbooks and souvenir cups. 

My wife and I are just two people, Mr. Wilpon. But we’re not the only ones who feel that you have overdone it with your homage to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Citi Field.

You’re the owner of the New York Mets. You also love the Brooklyn Dodgers. If you absolutely must share that Dodger love with the fans who pay their way into your homage to Ebbets Field to see the Mets play, at least share it with players who have ties to both teams. Is that so hard to do, Mr. Wilpon?

Peace, love, Mets, y’all,
Ed Leyro and Taryn Cooper

Filed under: Ed Leyro, Taryn "Coop" Cooper, Brooklyn Dodgers, Fred Wilpon

I’ll See You At The Crossroads

Last winter, the Mets were actively searching for an outfielder with some pop in his bat. After all, when the team leader in home runs only hit 12, as Daniel Murphy did in 2009, some energy had to be infused so that the team didn’t suffer a similar power outage in back-to-back seasons.

With Matt Holliday looking for a longer deal at more dollars per year, the Mets turned their attention to Jason Bay, signing the veteran leftfielder to a four-year, $66 million contract, with a fifth-year option. Unfortunately, Bay’s first season in New York was less than spectacular (.259, 6 HR, 47 RBI in 95 games) and he hit a wall in July. Not the proverbial one, but the one in Dodger Stadium, causing a concussion that put an end to his debut season for the Mets.

Fast forward to this week. Jason Bay, now fully recovered from his concussion, was ready to put 2010 behind him and start earning his lucrative paycheck. However, upon feeling discomfort in his ribcage, Bay took himself out of Tuesday’s starting lineup and will now start the season on the disabled list, with Lucas Duda replacing him on the roster.

Although Bay’s DL stint can be backdated to last Friday, he will not be eligible to play for the Mets until Saturday, April 9 at the earliest. That means he will miss both Opening Day against the Marlins and the home opener one week later.

Mets fans will once again be left without their entire team when the players are formally introduced during the pre-game ceremonies at Citi Field on April 8. However, you can imagine that with the underperforming and oft-injured Bay not in the starting lineup, some fans might not be cheering when No. 44 is introduced next Friday.

After all, Mets fans are a passionate bunch. They will adore you if you play well and vilify you if you don’t. Mike Piazza will always be loved by the fans because he played exceptionally well and always gave his best effort. Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez? Not so much. In fact, in recent years, both Castillo and Perez were subjected to boobird droppings from every level of the stadium, even on a normally festive day like Opening Day.

So now that the Gruesome Twosome are gone, fans who feel they’ve paid for the right to boo have no one to unleash their vitriol on. Unfortunately, that might not bode well for Jason Bay.

Bay is a solid player who gives his all on the field. If he didn’t, he would have shied away from the Dodger Stadium wall last July instead of introducing his coconut to it. But when a player earns top dollar like Bay is, fans expect that player to produce the numbers that go with that salary.

Jason Bay’s career in New York can follow one of two paths.

• Path 1: He can be like Carlos Beltran and have a subpar first year which included a shot to the head (as Beltran did when he played patty-cake with Mike Cameron’s noggin in 2005) and then recover to have three outstanding years.

• Path 2: He can be like George Foster and have a putrid first year, recover some of his power in his second year, but underachieve in the other offensive categories before being run out of town prior to his contract expiring.

For those too young to remember or old enough to want to forget, George Foster signed a five-year deal with the Mets to become their leftfielder after being traded from Cincinnati to New York in 1982. In the six years prior to the trade (1976-1981), Foster was one of the premier sluggers in the major leagues, averaging 33 HR and 112 RBI per season, to go with a .297 batting average.

However, in his first season with the Mets, Foster batted .247 with 13 HR and 70 RBI. He did recover to hit 28 HR in 1983, but lowered his batting average to .241. He was released by the Mets in 1986.

The great Yogi Berra once said “when you come to the fork in the road, take it”. Jason Bay has reached that fork in the road. Will he go left and be confronted with the Foster Dead End or will he make a right towards Beltran Drive? His success or failure (and whether he becomes the next target of the Citi Field boobirds) as a Met might ultimately depend on which direction he chooses.

Filed under: Ed Leyro, jason bay

Courting Mark Cuban

By now you’ve heard the story of the Wilpon Family Circus ad nauseum. If not, it goes a little something like this. The Wilpons are being sued! They need money! They’re looking for a business partner to buy up to 25% of the Mets!

But while numerous investors have stepped up expressing interest in buying a share of the franchise, including one that would include Martin Luther King III, there is one billionaire whose name has not surfaced as a potential minority owner. This person has experience with ownership of a professional sports franchise and has also attempted to buy two other major league baseball teams in the recent past.

Tell me, my friends. How would you feel about Mark Cuban throwing his money around Citi Field?

In today’s Daily News, Tim Smith reveals that all the Mets have to do to get Cuban’s attention is to make the first phone call. The always accessible entrepreneur was in New York last night to watch the team he currently owns, the Dallas Mavericks, play the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Cuban had this to say about the Mets’ search for a business partner:

“If someone sees me as a potential owner, I’ll take their call and discuss a deal.”

Cuban has already expressed his desire to own a major league baseball franchise. In 2008, he tried to purchase the Chicago Cubs from Sam Zell, but was unsuccessful in his attempt. Last year, after the Texas Rangers declared bankruptcy, Cuban was one of a number of investors who put in a bid for the financially troubled team. In August, he was narrowly beaten out by a group led by Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, who bought the eventual American League champions for over half a billion dollars.

So what are the pros and cons of Cuban potentially owning a share of the Mets?

For one thing, Cuban certainly wouldn’t have allowed players such as Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo to remain on the team for as long as they have. Although the Wilpons have never publicly stated that they’re unwilling to eat their contracts, it is not unreasonable to believe that their current financial problems have a lot to do with it. If the Mets decided to release Perez and Castillo, they’d still be responsible for their salaries (approximately $18 million in 2011 between the two players). They’d also have to pay the players who would fill their vacated roster spots, increasing the team’s payroll in the process. By keeping Perez and Castillo on the team, they’d in essence be saving money, although it would come at the expense of fielding the best possible team.

Mark Cuban would not only rid the team of Perez and Castillo, he’d personally drive them to the airport and would make sure the door hit them on the way out. He would not let a few bucks or perhaps $18 million get in the way of fielding a contending team day in and day out. The Dallas Mavericks have been in the playoffs each of the last ten years, reaching the NBA Finals in 2006. They’ve put together a talented team despite there being a salary cap in basketball. Imagine what Cuban could do in baseball, where the commissioner’s office doesn’t restrict him from spending whatever he needs to acquire the best possible players.

Now there is the question of how hands-on you’d want Cuban to be. At times he has become the main story, rather than the man who sits quietly in the background, letting his players’ performance do the talking. Cuban has been fined more than any other owner in NBA history. If he were to become a part of the Mets organization, would this behavior continue? The players have already had to deal with numerous off-the-field controversies. (Frankie Knuckles, Madoff’s Millions, etc.) Would they have to answer for their new co-owner as well?

The Dallas Mavericks have never won a championship since Mark Cuban bought the team in January of 2000. However, they have registered ten consecutive 50-win seasons (the all-time NBA record is 12) and have won three division titles, reached the Western Conference Finals twice and made one trip to the NBA Finals. That’s a lot more than the Mets can claim since Fred Wilpon bought Nelson Doubleday’s share of the Mets in 2002. Since then, the Mets have only made one playoff appearance (2006) and have finished with a losing record five times.

In a perfect world, Cuban would become an owner of the Mets, allowing the Wilpons to deal with their problems, while coming up with the capital needed for Sandy Alderson to bring in the talent necessary to compete in the National League. Of course, we live in a less-than-perfect world, one where a certain player remains on the team to pick up that ever-elusive fourth victory in the third year of a $36 million contract.

Eventually the Wilpons will find a buyer that will dole out approximately $200 million for a share of the Mets. Should Mark Cuban be that buyer? Judging by how he brought the Dallas Mavericks back from Moribund Central (ten consecutive losing seasons in the ’90s) to the rarefied air of the NBA’s elite, perhaps a maverick owner is just what the Mets need.

 

Filed under: Ed Leyro, Fred Wilpon, Mark Cuban, New York Mets

From Angel Pagan’s Mouth To God’s Ears

Angel Pagan might have been heaven sent over the past two seasons, but now he seems to have his head up in the clouds.  According to today’s Daily News, Anthony McCarron reports that the outfielder still believes the Mets can compete with the Phillies for the NL East division title, despite the fact that the Mets have done very little to upgrade the team during the offseason, while the Phillies now have the Four Horsemen in their rotation with the December acquisition of Cliff Lee.  Pagan goes on to say the following:

“If we have health, we can give them a fight.  Everyone is counting on Philadelphia, but they have to do it.   I got my money on my team, bro.  I love challenges and that’s why I’m looking forward to it.  I believe in surprises.”

We all know Angel Pagan is not going to say that the Mets’ goal for the 2011 season is to hold off the Washington Nationals for fourth place, especially now that Jayson Werth is there because he wants to win.  But to say that the Mets can be part of the same stratosphere that the Phillies currently inhabit, although commendable for its optimistic perspective, is a little bit of a stretch.

Has Angel Pagan become aware of a top secret radical realignment plan by Bud Selig that would put the Mets in the NFC West for the 2011 season?  If so, will Carlos Beltran be assessed a 15-yard penalty the next time he tries to take out Chase Utley at second base with a hard slide?  Does R.A. Dickey have to trade in his Thesaurus for shoulder pads?  Will Ruben Tejada be declared ineligible because he isn’t three years removed from his high school days?

I’m sure there’s a player on the Pirates who believes his team is going to win the NL Central, when the more realistic goal should be to just finish at .500.  That’s something the Bucs haven’t done since 1992, when Barry Bonds* was a skinny MVP candidate who was feared on the bases and Bobby Bonilla still wasn’t collecting his Millionaire For Life winnings from the Mets.

For now, getting over .500 would be a good start for the Mets.  If they go from 79-83 to 83-79, that would be a good stepping stone.  The 2005 Mets improved to 83-79 after suffering through three consecutive losing seasons.  The year after their rise above .500, they went to the postseason.  The 2011 Mets can plant the seeds that will begin to bloom in 2012.  Angel Pagan shouldn’t expect the moon this year.  But he can be a part of the team that gets blasted off in 2011, with the potential to land in the playoffs in the coming years.

It’s one thing to expect great things for your team, but it’s another thing to say that the Mets are ready to compete with the team that finished with the best record in the National League in 2010, a team whose victory total has improved every year since 2006.  The Phillies have their own version of the Fantastic Four (with Cole Hamels playing the role of the Invisible Woman), while the Mets have their Fantastic One (Johan Santana) out for a big chunk of the season.

Angel Pagan should just concentrate on being the best player he can be, giving 100% on the field, and not making 100% unreasonable predictions off the field.  With Sandy Alderson having a definite plan on how to improve the team without doling out contracts that come back to bite him in the Bor-a$$, the competitive team Pagan wants will be there eventually.  Just don’t expect it to be an overnight success.

Filed under: Ed Leyro, Angel Pagan

If Kiner’s Korner Had A Hall Of Fame Vote…

On Wednesday, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce their Class of 2011. The first time nominees include former Mets John Olerud, John Franco, Al Leiter and Carlos Baerga. Notable first-timers include Jeff Bagwell, Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro and Larry Walker.

A number of returnees are also on this year’s ballot, including Roberto Alomar (another former Met) and Bert Blyleven, who both narrowly missed enshrinement last year. Alomar was selected on 73.7% of the ballots and Blyleven’s name was chosen on 74.2%. Of the 21 previous players who received at least 70% of the votes, but failed to register the minimum 75% needed for election, all of them eventually got the call to the Hall.

Kiner’s Korner was not allowed to vote in this year’s Hall of Fame election. (Note to self: Remember to add another $20 bill the next time I send the Baseball Writers Association of America a letter asking them to join their ranks.) But we still have an opinion as to who should reserve a hotel room in Cooperstown the last weekend in July.

 

Roberto Alomar

Can you name a more complete second baseman in the expansion era? Maybe Joe Morgan (who’s already in the Hall of Fame). Certainly not Jeff Kent, unless if you include his ’70s porn ‘stache as one of his five tools.

If you take the 10-year time period from 1992-2001, you’d have a hard time finding another player, regardless of position, whose numbers could match up with Alomar. During those ten years, Alomar hit .315, with 327 doubles, 49 triples, 159 HR and 792 RBI. He also stole 303 bases and scored 1,007 runs. He was an All-Star in all of those seasons and won the Gold Glove Award in all but one of them.

For his career, Alomar hit .300, with 504 doubles, 210 HR, 1,134 RBI, 1,508 runs scored and 474 SB. He also made 12 All-Star teams, won ten Gold Gloves and earned four Silver Slugger Awards. Although he never won a regular season MVP Award, he did finish in the top six in MVP voting five times. He also won the 1992 ALCS MVP Award for leading the Blue Jays to their first World Series appearance and took home the 1998 All-Star Game MVP trophy.

 

Bert Blyleven

It is a travesty that Blyleven has been retired for nearly 20 years and has still not been elected to the Hall of Fame. His numbers speak for themselves.

In 22 major league seasons, Blyleven won 287 games, mostly for poor teams (Blyleven’s teams finished below .500 in ten of his 22 seasons). Despite playing most of his career in the American League during the DH era, Blyleven registered ten seasons with an ERA of 3.00 or lower. His low ERA was helped out by his astonishing 60 career shutouts. That’s approximately two full seasons of starts without allowing an earned run in any of them!

He also possessed one of the most devastating curveballs in major league history, fooling hitters to the tune of 3,701 career strikouts, which is good for fifth on the all-time list. Unlike Nolan Ryan, he didn’t need to rely on gas to send hitters back to the bench, unless if he was wearing the shirt below.

Blyleven was also an excellent pitcher in the postseason, despite having only played for three teams that made the playoffs (1970 Twins, 1979 Pirates, 1987 Twins). In six career postseason starts, Blyleven was 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA. He was also the winning pitcher in two pennant-clinching games (1979 NLCS Game 3, 1987 ALCS Game 5).

Simply put, Blyleven was one of the best pitchers in the game during the 22 years that he played it. He just didn’t get the attention he deserved because he spent many of those seasons toiling in places like Texas, Cleveland and California, which were not exactly hotbeds for baseball.

 

Jeff Bagwell

One stat should say it all regarding Jeff Bagwell’s candidacy for the Hall of Fame. Prior to this year, every player who scored at least 1,500 runs and drove in at least 1,500 runs (and is eligible for the Hall of Fame) is already in the Hall of Fame. Jeff Bagwell scored 1,517 runs and picked up 1,529 RBI over his 15-year career. Let me repeat that in a separate paragraph.

Jeff Bagwell scored and drove in over 1,500 runs. He only played 15 years in the major leagues. Therefore, he averaged over 100 runs scored and 100 RBI every year he played in the major leagues. If that isn’t worthy of the Hall of Fame, I don’t know what is.

Just in case that’s not enough for you, I’ll give you some more bits o’ Bagwell. Before injuries sapped him of the last few years of his playing career, forcing him to retire at age 37, Bagwell was ultra-durable. He played in all 162 games four times. He hit 488 doubles, including 26 or more in each of his first 14 seasons. He stole 202 bases, a number almost unheard of for a first baseman. He became (and still is) the only first baseman in history to register a 30-30 season when he hit 42 HR and stole 30 bases in 1999. He hit over .300 six times, including a career-high .368 in his MVP season of 1994. In addition to that MVP Award, Bagwell was also the 1991 NL Rookie of the Year.

 

Larry Walker

Perhaps a questionable call, due to the many years he played in the pre-humidor Coors Field, but Larry Walker still put up incredible numbers and was a phenomenal defensive player.

Over a career that spanned from 1989-2005, Walker hit for average (.313), could draw a walk (.400 career on-base percentage), hit for power (383 HR), stole bases (230 SB), could find the gaps (471 career doubles) and made opposing runners fear his cannon in right field (six Gold Glove Awards).

Walker played the first six seasons of his career in Montreal and the last season and a half of his career in St. Louis (for which he made his only World Series appearance in 2004), but it was his time in Colorado that made him a superstar. In fact, he had one of the best six-year stretches in recent history from 1997-2002.

During those six seasons, Walker hit a whopping .353. He won three batting titles (1998, 1999, 2001) and hit .366 in 1997, a season in which he didn’t win the batting title. However, that 1997 season was one for the ages. That year, Walker hit 49 HR. He also scored 143 runs, tallied 130 RBI, laced 46 doubles and stole 33 bases, in addition to the .366 batting average. He also led the league in on-base percentage (.452) and slugging percentage (.720), en route to winning every accolade possible (All-Star team, NL MVP Award, Gold Glove Award, Silver Slugger Award).

There are other players who are certainly worthy of Hall of Fame induction, such as Rafael Palmeiro, who, like Jeff Bagwell, is another member of the exclusive 1,500 runs scored, 1,500 RBI club.

You can also include Edgar Martinez (.312 career batting average, 514 doubles, 309 HR, seven-time All-Star) and Barry Larkin (.295 career batting average, nine-time .300 hitter, 198 HR, 379 SB, 441 doubles, 12-time All-Star, nine Silver Slugger Awards, three Gold Glove Awards, 1995 NL MVP) to the list.

All three of those players might make it to the Hall of Fame someday, perhaps even this year. However, I believe only four players should be inducted into the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2011. Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven, Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker should all be Hall of Famers.

In Blyleven’s case, he is long overdue for enshrinement. In the other three players’ cases, they represented the complete baseball player. They possessed all five tools and excelled in all of them. When the Hall of Fame makes their calls on Wednesday, those four players should make sure their phone lines are clear. They just might be getting the calls of their lives.

Filed under: Ed Leyro, Hall of Fame

Go Left, Young Man!

Quality left-handed relief pitchers are hard to come by.  Some teams are fortunate enough to have one dependable southpaw who can come out of the bullpen and neutralize the opponents’ left-handed hitters.  In 2010, the Mets employed two such pitchers.

In Pedro Feliciano, the Mets had a seasoned veteran who had experienced highs (the 2006 division title) and lows (the Art Howe Era and anything that occurred after Yadier Molina).  They also had a pitcher who could be called upon in any situation, be it as a lefty specialist, eighth inning set-up man or mop-up duty, and be effective far more often than not.

Most importantly, they had a pitcher who was always there, never landing on the disabled list and breaking the franchise record for appearances in each of the last three years.  In fact, Feliciano led the National League in appearances in each season from 2008-2010.  His 266 games pitched over those three seasons were the most registered by any major league pitcher in a three-year span, breaking the previous record of 263 held by Mike Marshall (1972-1974) and Kent Tekulve (1978-1980).

With Hisanori Takahashi, the Mets had a savvy veteran with starting pitching experience (nine years as a starter for the Yomiuri Giants) and bullpen experience (15 saves as Yomiuri’s closer in 2006).  Both types of experience would prove helpful to the Mets in 2010 as Takahashi stepped into the rotation in May and shut down the potent offenses of the Yankees and Phillies.  This came right on the heels of a surprisingly overpowering stint in the bullpen (26 innings pitched, 33 strikeouts, .234 batting average against).

When Francisco Rodriguez was lost for the season after letting his Frankie Knuckles persona take over, Takahashi was perfect as the fill-in closer, going 8-for-8 in save opportunities.  His 10 wins were the most by a Mets rookie pitcher in the 21st century (the legendary Jae Seo went 9-12 as a rookie in 2003) and he became the first Mets pitcher since Roger McDowell in 1986 to record at least eight saves to go with a double-digit victory total (Mr. Hotfoot won 14 games and saved 22 in ’86).  Takahashi was a workhorse and a jack-of-all-trades, and gave the Mets more than they could have expected when they signed him for the 2010 season.

But during this off-season, the Mets said adios to Pedro Feliciano and sayonara to Hisanori Takahashi.  Feliciano signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the crosstown Yankees and Takahashi switched coasts to become a member of the Los Angeles/Anaheim/California/Orange County Angels for a similar two-year, $8 million deal.

Two quality lefties are now gone from the Mets bullpen, leaving Pat Misch (Oy!) and Oliver Perez (Vey!) as the sole southpaws on the Mets’ 40-man roster who can pitch in relief.  With Misch being a potential starter and Perez being a potential disaster, the Mets don’t really have the type of left-handed arms they’ll need to silence the lefty bats in the division, especially those on the Phillies, who boast a predominantly left-handed lineup.

So who’s out there in the land of free agents that the Mets can bring on to bring left-handed balance to the bullpen?  Not much.  However, these are the top candidates:

• Joe Beimel (age 34):  Beimel has appeared in exactly 71 games in each of the last three seasons.  His 3.01 ERA over that period is quite acceptable.  He also keeps the ball in the ballpark, as evidenced by the 11 home runs he’s given up since the beginning of the 2007 season (spanning 296 appearances).

• Will Ohman (age 32):  Since coming up to the major leagues for good in 2005, Ohman has been the prototypical left-handed specialist, pitching in 375 games, but only amassing 258 innings of work.  His ERA over those six seasons is 3.87.  Unlike the other available left-handed relievers, Ohman is a strikeout pitcher, averaging nearly one per inning over his career (269 Ks in 273 innings pitched).

• Hideki Okajima (age 35):  When he signed with the Red Sox in 2007, he was brought on to be Jonathan Papelbon’s set-up man.  He went on to have three spectacular seasons in Boston, going 12-4 with a 2.72 ERA in 198 games.  However, his 2010 season left a lot to be desired, as Okajima’s ERA jumped to 4.50 and for the first time in his major league career, he allowed more hits than innings pitched (59 hits in 46 innings).

• Dennys Reyes (age 34):  Reyes has pitched for 10 teams in his 14-year career.  His last five seasons have been his best.  In that time, Reyes has won 13 of 17 decisions and registered a low 2.63 ERA.  He does walk his share of batters, but keeps hitters off-balance more often than not (178 hits allowed in 205.1 innings since 2006).

One positive that all these pitchers have in common is that neither of them is represented by $cott Bora$.  Therefore, the Mets won’t have to break their piggy banks to sign any of them, as they would if Bora$ was breathing down their necks.  But which one of these non-Bora$ clients do I think suits the Mets the best?

Although Dennys Reyes might be the best of the bunch, especially considering the consistently good numbers he’s put up since 2006, and Joe Beimel might be the pitcher most linked to the Mets, Will Ohman is the lefty the Mets should be paying attention to.  To see why, all you have to do is look at what these pitchers accomplish against the teams in the NL East.

In Dennys Reyes’ well-traveled career, he has failed miserably against the teams the Mets would face a minimum of 18 times per season.  These are his numbers against the Mets’ divisional rivals, followed by the numbers of Beimel and Ohman.

 

Dennys Reyes:

vs. Atlanta:  4.10 ERA, 1.33 WHIP

vs. Florida:  4.64 ERA, 1.36 WHIP

vs. Philadelphia:  6.95 ERA, 2.23 WHIP

vs. Washington:  4.23 ERA, 1.55 WHIP

 

Joe Beimel:

vs. Atlanta:  3.42 ERA, 1.48 WHIP

vs. Florida:  1.66 ERA, 1.20 WHIP

vs. Philadelphia:  5.76 ERA, 1.75 WHIP

vs. Washington:  6.53 ERA, 2.27 WHIP

 

Will Ohman:

vs. Atlanta:  3.09 ERA, 1.63 WHIP

vs. Florida:  1.29 ERA, 1.00 WHIP

vs. Philadelphia:  4.88 ERA, 1.17 WHIP

vs. Washington:  1.84 ERA, 1.29 WHIP

 

Note:  Hideki Okajima has pitched exclusively in the American League and therefore does not have sufficient experience against the teams in the National League East to include in the above comparison of relief pitchers.

 

Clearly, Reyes and Beimel have difficulties against the teams in the NL East, especially against the hated Phillies.  Ohman is the best of the three against Philadelphia and has also had a fair amount of success against the other three teams in the division.

If the Mets are going to make a play on one of the above left-handed relievers, there is no question that it should be Will Ohman.  Not only is he the youngest of the group, but he is the most effective against the teams the Mets are going to see the most.  The Mets should make an offer to Ohman sooner than later, so as not to lose his services to another team.

Regardless of whether or not the Mets sign Ohman, they have to fortify their bullpen from the left-hand side.  If they fail to do so, then get your vocal cords ready.  You’ll need them to boo Oliver Perez every time he comes into a game in a spot that used to be reserved for Pedro Feliciano or Hisanori Takahashi.

Filed under: Ed Leyro, Free Agents, Hisanori Takahashi, Left-Handed Relievers, Pedro Feliciano

Could Ike Davis Be The Next Darryl Strawberry?

It seems odd to compare Ike Davis to Darryl Strawberry.  After all, Darryl was the #1 pick in the 1980 amateur draft, took home the Rookie of the Year Award in 1983, and is at or near the top of many of the Mets’ all-time hitting records.  Ike Davis?  He was known for being the son of former major league pitcher Ron Davis.

Other than that, he had a solid, but not overwhelmingly spectacular college career at Arizona State University.  He wasn’t a big home run hitter (33 HR in three years at Arizona State), but was quite effective at using the gaps (69 doubles in 691 collegiate at-bats) and knew how to take a walk (on-base percentages of .387, .407 and .457 in his three years at ASU).  Like Strawberry, the Mets took Davis in the first round, selecting him with the 18th overall pick of the 2008 amateur draft.  The Mets were able to draft Davis as a compensatory pick when Tom Glavine left the Mets to sign with the Atlanta Braves after his “non-devastating” 2007 season.

Let’s dust off the DeLorean and take a trip back to 1983.  Danny Heep, acquired by the Mets during the off-season for future Mets killer and scuffer extraordinaire Mike Scott, was the team’s starting rightfielder.  No one was going to confuse Heep for Paul Bunyan (or Dave Kingman for that matter), as he had only cracked four major league home runs in 442 plate appearances prior to his trade to the Mets.  Despite having only started 96 games in four seasons as an Astro, the Mets felt comfortable enough to make him their Opening Day starting rightfielder.  It turns out he was only keeping the position warm for their 21-year-old phenom.

Darryl Strawberry was supposed to be Superman when he was called up to the Mets early in the 1983 season.  The team was floundering in the National League East and needed a spark.  The Straw Man became that spark, bringing excitement (but alas, not too many wins) to the franchise.  He finished the 1983 season with a .257 average, 26 HR and 74 RBI.  To this day, his home run and RBI totals remain the Mets’ all-time rookie record.  His 48 extra-base hits (he legged out 15 doubles and seven triples) were also the best showing for any Mets rookie at the time.

Fast forward 27 years to 2010.  Once again, the Mets found themselves in a state of disarray.  The team had come off a disappointing 2009 season and had started poorly again in 2010.  Mike Jacobs, the team’s Opening Day first baseman, was a two-tool player.  Unfortunately, one of those tools was “swinging” and the other tool was “missing”.  After registering more strikeouts than hits (7 Ks, 5 hits), en route to a .208 batting average, the Mets called up Ike Davis to replace Jacobs as their everyday first baseman.  Jacobs never got a chance to strike out again as a Met.

Davis shed his rookie tag quickly, hitting major league pitching as if he were a 10-year veteran, when in fact he had only just turned 23.  He raked left-handed pitching early and often and hit some of the longest home runs by a rookie since, well, Darryl Strawberry.

According to hittrackeronline.com, 15 of Davis’ 19 home runs traveled at least 400 feet, with eight of them measured at over 430 feet.  For the season, an average Ike Davis home run landed 415 feet away, which is the same distance as Citi Field’s furthest reaches.

Speaking of the Mets’ home ballpark, in 2010, a total of 10 players hit home runs at Citi Field that traveled at least 434 feet.  Nine of them did it once (including David Wright, Nick Evans and Angel Pagan).  The only player to hit more than one 434-foot blast at Citi Field was Ike Davis, who did it a whopping five times.  When Ike Davis would get a hold of one, no one on the Shea Bridge or the Pepsi Porch would be safe.

So Ike Davis can match Darryl Strawberry with his ability to hit long home runs.  But unlike Strawberry, Davis is not just a home run hitter.  If you recall, Ike Davis was a doubles machine at Arizona State.  That continued after he was drafted by the Mets, as Davis picked up 49 doubles in 677 minor league at-bats.  After his call-up to the big leagues, Davis continued to mash the ball into Citi Field’s spacious gaps.  In 147 games with the Mets, Davis picked up 33 two-base hits.  As a comparison, Darryl Strawberry NEVER hit as many as 33 doubles in a season.  In fact, only once did he finish a season with more than 27 doubles, when he hit 32 in 1987.

Ike Davis’ 53 extra-base hits in 2010 tied the franchise record for rookies set by Ty Wigginton in 2003.  His 19 HR and 71 RBI were both tied for second most all-time among Mets rookies (Ron Swoboda hit 19 HR in 1965; Ty Wigginton had 71 RBI in 2003).  The only man in franchise history who hit more home runs and drove in more runs as a rookie was Mr. Darryl Eugene Strawberry.

Since the days of Darryl Strawberry, no homegrown left-handed hitter has possessed as much power as Ike Davis.  But Ike Davis is more than just a home run hitter.  He can hit the ball to all fields, driving doubles into the gaps (his 33 doubles were only three behind team leader David Wright, although Wright had 64 more at-bats in which to collect those doubles) and he led the team in walks with 72.  Ike Davis is patient and will turn on a ball when it is pitched in his zone.

Darryl Strawberry was the next big thing back in 1983.  When he was called up to the Mets, there was much fanfare and hopes that he would bring the moribund franchise back from the chasm they had been lodged in since the Midnight Massacre of 1977.  Ike Davis did not come up to much fanfare.  He was never supposed to be the savior of the franchise.  He is not even the main guy in the lineup.  However, he does have the potential to be the best left-handed hitting homegrown player since the days of the Straw Man.  The next time Ike Davis hits a long home run, take notice.  You could be seeing the beginning of something really special.

 

Filed under: Ed Leyro, Darryl Strawberry, Ike Davis

Why Do Mets Fans Dislike Carlos Beltran So Much?

When Carlos Beltran came to the Mets in 2005, he spent the season hearing more boos than cheers.  This was because fans thought they were getting the best centerfielder in the game and instead got an overpaid Brian McRae.  After all, if you look at the numbers posted by McRae in his first full season as a Met in 1998 and compare it to Beltran’s 2005 season, you can imagine why fans wanted a little more bang for their buck.

 

• McRae (1998):  .264, 36 doubles, 21 HR, 79 RBI, 79 runs scored, 20 SB.
• Beltran (2005):  .266, 34 doubles, 16 HR, 78 RBI, 83 runs scored, 17 SB.

 

The 1998 Mets were in the thick of the National League wild card race in September, but fell apart in the end.  On the morning of September 8, the Mets were the wild card co-leaders with a record of 80-64.  They then proceeded to go 8-10 over their final 18 games before being eliminated from wild card contention on the last day of the season.  One of the main reasons for their collapse was Brian McRae.  He was supposed to be the tablesetter at the top of the order for the Mets and instead ended up pulling the tablecloth off the table, shattering the hopes of Mets fans who were expecting their team to reach the postseason for the first time in a decade.  Over the final 18 games, McRae hit a measly .188.  For a man who was supposed to score runs and steal bases, McRae did none of that over the last three weeks of the season, scoring only six times and failing to register or even attempt a stolen base.

McRae’s poor stretch run in September carried over into the 1999 season.  Through the end of July, B-Mac was hitting .221 with 8 HR, 36 RBI, 35 runs scored and only two stolen bases.  Not surprisingly, the Mets and their fans lost their patience with McRae and he was traded to the Colorado Rockies.  But what about Carlos Beltran?  It’s true that he didn’t have a successful 2005 season, certainly not one expected of a $17 million per year outfielder, but his poor play in 2005 did not carry over to the 2006 season.  In fact, the boos from the crowd quickly turned into MVP chants during the magical ’06 season.

However, despite the fact that Beltran tied the Mets’ single-season home run record by hitting a career-high 41 dingers and broke the franchise’s all-time runs scored record by crossing the plate 127 times, what do fans remember most about Beltran’s 2006 season?  You got it.  The visual burned into Mets’ fans brains is the one of Carlos watching Adam Wainwright’s curveball float by to give the Cardinals the National League pennant.

Never mind that Beltran scored eight runs in the seven games against St. Louis.  Forget the fact that his two-run homer in Game 1 of the NLCS represented the only runs scored in the Mets’ 2-0 victory.  All that mattered to fans was that he kept the bat on his shoulders on an 0-2 pitch from Cardinals’ rookie Adam Wainwright when the tying run was on second base and the pennant-winning run was on first base.  Wainwright’s pitch was a Gooden-esque Lord Charles curveball taken straight out of Dwight’s 1985 repertoire.  Any major leaguer would have a tough time swinging at that pitch, and if they did, odds are that they would have missed it.  But no, because it was the $17 million man who took the pitch, that changed everything in the eyes of Mets fans.

Carlos Beltran followed up his 2006 season with equally impressive 2007 and 2008 seasons.  In fact, it could be argued that Beltran’s three-year period from 2006 to 2008 are among the best in Mets history.  The only other Mets hitters who could perhaps join the argument for best three-year stretch in franchise history are Mike Piazza and David Wright.  Let’s compare the three:

 

• Mike Piazza (1999-2001):  .309, 114 HR, 331 RBI, 271 runs scored, 6 SB
• David Wright (2006-2008):  .312, 89 HR, 347 RBI, 324 runs scored, 69 SB
• Carlos Beltran (2006-2008):  .278, 101 HR, 340 RBI, 336 runs scored, 66 SB

 

In addition to his outstanding hitting, Beltran has always been a standout defensive player.  In fact, when Beltran won the National League Gold Glove in 2006, he became the first Mets outfielder in franchise history to win the prestigious award.  He earned the Gold Glove in 2007 and 2008 as well, making Beltran one of only three Mets to win as many as three Gold Glove Awards (Keith Hernandez and Rey Ordoñez were the others).

But because the 2007 and 2008 seasons ended in disappointment for the Mets, Beltran’s achievements were overshadowed by the team’s performance, or lack thereof.  The collapses of ’07 and ’08 were certainly not Beltran’s fault.  In fact, Carlos stepped it up while the rest of the team was stepping off.

Both seasons were remembered for what the Mets accomplished in their final 17 games.  What did Carlos Beltran do in each season’s final 17 games?  In 2007, he blasted five home runs and drove in 17 runs (an average of one per game).  The following season, he practically put the team on his back when everyone else started to fall apart.  Over the final 17 games of 2008, he reached base 31 times (19 hits, 12 walks) for an on-base percentage of .419.  He also produced a .305 batting average and a .581 slugging percentage.  His OPS was an astonishing 1.000.  Beltran produced the walk-off hit down the right field line against the Cubs during the season’s final week, one day after Daniel Murphy was stranded on third base representing the winning run with no one out in the bottom of the ninth inning (Carlos was intentionally walked in that inning).  On the last day of the season, with Shea Stadium hosting its final game, it was Beltran who erased a 2-0 Marlins lead with a two-run homer into the bleachers.

Even in 2009, when everyone and their mothers went down with injuries, who kept the team afloat during the early part of the season?  Like I need to ask.

One by one, over the early part of the 2009 season, players were checking into the DL Hotel.  Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado liked it so much, they decided to stay for the entire season.  Other players who weren’t getting hurt were having subpar seasons, such as David Wright.  However, despite the injuries and Wright leaving his power stroke in his penthouse apartment, Carlos Beltran almost single-handedly kept the Mets in contention.  In fact, on May 29, the Mets found themselves in first place with a 27-20 record.  The next day, the injury bug caught up to Beltran and he had to be removed from the game in the sixth inning of an eventual Mets loss.  The National League batting leader at the time, Beltran missed the next three games before coming back on June 4.  However, Beltran was not 100% ready to play, returning only because the lineup was devoid of good hitters and their grip on first place was slipping away.  The early return ended up costing Beltran two and a half months of playing time, as he finally succumbed to the pull of the DL Hotel.  At the time of his last game on June 21, the Mets were in second place, only two games behind the division-leading Phillies.  When he returned on September 8, the Mets had dropped to fourth place and were 17 games out of first.

Fast forward to the 2010 season.  Carlos Beltran again missed significant time due to injuries.  When he finally returned after the All-Star Break, the Mets were still in contention.  However, his return coincided with the Road Trip From Hell, a trip that saw the Mets lose nine of eleven games in San Francisco, Arizona and Los Angeles.  Beltran’s slow start upon his return was viewed by fans as one of the reasons why the team faltered in the second half.  Of course, no one seemed to notice that Beltran ended the season blazing hot.  Over the last month of the season (Sept. 4 – Oct. 3), Beltran hit .353.  Prior to this stretch, Carlos was only hitting .211 with two home runs and 15 RBI.  In that last month, he ripped five home runs and drove in 12 runs.

Of course, that last month was also the month that Beltran, along with Mets pariahs Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo, did not attend the Mets’ annual visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  Because of the fans’ overwhelming hatred for Perez and Castillo, Beltran’s no-show lumped him into their group and made him the latest focus of the fans’ vitriol.   The fans did not care that he had already visited a Veterans Hospital in New York with Fred Wilpon months before and had a prior commitment in Puerto Rico with his Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy.  In the eyes of the fans, Beltran was now stuck on the Island of Misfit Toys with Perez and Castillo with no Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to save him.

So now Beltran is making the rounds on Twitter and appearing at Mets functions for the fans.   He is still active with his baseball academy and in the community in his adopted city of New York.  He claims he is ready to go and that he plans on having a great season in the final year of his contract.  I tend to believe him.  I was present at the Mets MVP Reception last week and witnessed the transformation of Carlos Beltran from quiet, unassuming, productive player (a la Kevin McReynolds) to vocal leader.  He wanted Mets fans to believe not only in his ability to produce a solid season, but in the team itself.  He wants to be here.  He wants to produce for the team.  He wants the fans to support him and especially the team.

Carlos Beltran is an intelligent man.  He knows that if he wants another lucrative multi-year contract, he’ll have to shake off his injuries and produce an All-Star caliber season for the Mets in 2011.  He did that in 2004 when he nearly had a 40-40 season for the Kansas City Royals and the Houston Astros, combining for 38 HR and 42 SB for the two teams.  He upped the ante in the playoffs for Houston, having one of the most impressive postseasons in baseball history, which led to his seven-year deal with the Mets.

He will do everything he can to put up the season Mets fans expected of him when he signed with the team in 2005.  He will try to approach his numbers from 2006 to 2008, numbers that gave him the best three-year stretch for any Mets outfielder in franchise history.  Despite all this, some fans will always dislike Carlos Beltran.  They will never forget his subpar 2005 season.  They will never forget the called strike three against Adam Wainwright.  They will never forget his inability to stay on the field for the most of the 2009 and 2010 seasons.  They will never forget his absence from the team trip to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  If they choose to remember Carlos Beltran for what he didn’t do, then they will miss out on everything he has done, and what he has done are the things that make him one of the greatest players ever to put on a Mets uniform.

There were fans who booed Mike Piazza when he first became a Met in 1998.  Those fans came around and are now asking for his number to be retired.  Carlos Beltran is a special player in his own right, both on and off the field.  Do yourself a favor and look back at the entire Mets career of Carlos Beltran.  I’m sure you’ll find that those boos you were ready to unleash upon him will turn into cheers in no time.

Filed under: Ed Leyro, Carlos Beltran