The Mets want to hear from you!

Do you want your team to hear your voice? The Mets want to hear your opinions and viewpoints in an upcoming meeting! Here's the gist:

The Mets front office is looking for feedback from at least 300 Mets fans for an upcoming meeting. It would be GREATLY APPRECIATED if you and your friends (and their friends) could e-mail me with thoughts on the last few days, whats been going on this season, thoughts on the players, organization, etc...

Please use the subject line: Fan Feedback!

Messages will be summarized and addressed during a meeting when we return, please send before we fly home after the Colorado series, thanks & Let's Go Mets!!
-Kelli

Get e-mailing!

Again, that e-mail is stylz917 at aol dot com. (She uses AOL on the road to avoid firewalls, I asked.)

Early BP pays off

Yesterday, I wrote about how the Mets were taking early batting practice on a more regular schedule. Last night, the batting practice paid off to the tune of 15 hits and seven runs.

Jeremy Cothran fills us in on Jerry Manuel's new approach:

The Mets normally go with four shifts of eight swings each, and then rotate groups. Manuel has chopped those in half after noticing a lot of tired swings in games.

"Pitches that we normally put in play or put in play with authority, we're popping up and doing those types of things."

So true. Without looking at statistics, and just going on info from recent memory, almost every game seems to go the exact same way.

• Mets score runs early. They look good, and show no signs of stopping through the first three innings.
• The fourth inning comes and now they can't hit.
• Mets pitchers can only do so much, and the early lead begins to shrink.
• The lead is gone, and the Mets bats are completely asleep.

Tired bats could definitely be to blame. With this new approach, the Mets might be able to keep their bats going past the first few innings.

I always remember the story about how in the minors, they would have to stop David Wright from working out too much, because he would wear himself down just by training and working out. Of course, he's at all the early batting practice session.

I like the way this team is going.

So far, so good with the new manager. These next five games can change the season.

TSTDIA: Mets 7 -- Rockies 2

The sentences that define it all...

Arguably the strongest game of the season so far. The Mets dominated on every side of the game to claw back to .500 on the season.

Early bird gets the worm

Jerry Manuel has quickly instituted early batting practice, optional for the players.

I like this, and it seemed to only pop up when there was a dire need under Willie Randolph.

Today, as always, David Wright was out taking the early BP. Joining him, among others, was Brian Schneider and Carlos Delgado, someone who rarely came out early with the previous manager.

Hopefully it pays off, since the Mets struggled last time in Colorado, especially against tonight's starter, Aaron Cook. Last time the Mets visited Denver, Cook tallied a complete game, four hitter on May 25.

Mets Wars IV: A New Hope

With a new manager at the helm, the Mets, and especially Mets fans, seem to be finding some new hope for this season.

Yeah, it's been only two games. Believe me, I know. But the way Jerry Manuel

is carrying himself and dealing with the team, it's possible they might be turning a new leaf.

The next six games could turn the entire season around for the Mets. Tonight, the team will take on the Colorado Rockies, a rematch of the late May series where the Mets dropped two of three. Currently, the Rox are 31-42 despite winning seven of their last ten.

After the series in Denver, the Mets return home to take on the hapless Seattle Mariners. Also under a newly promoted bench coach, the Mariners are 25-47, the worst team in baseball.

Six games, six very winnable games. The Mets could turn their whole season around with four, five, or even six wins over the next six days.

And for Mets fans, that would be more than enough for a new hope. May the force be with them.

Willie pens his own article

Click here to read Willie Randolph's own article, appearing in the Daily News. It's very cool to see, almost play-by-play, how the whole thing went down between himself and Omar Minaya.

Some excerpts:

It got to the point over the last month or so that whenever I saw the word "sources" in a story, I knew either me or someone on my staff was going to be declared on the verge of unemployment.
...
Omar went on and on, looking very uncomfortable, this weird chill started to course through by body. I could feel myself going cold. He kept talking, almost stammering, and the chill got worse.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that maybe he was talking about me. Maybe I was the one about to get whacked.

Finally, I stopped him. I looked right at him.

"Omar, are you firing me?" I asked. He looked away for a minute and then met my eyes. "Yeah, I'm going to make a move," he said. "It's a hard decision, but I have to make it."

...
"You don't have to say anything more, Omar," I said. "I came here to win, and if you don't feel I'm the guy to get that done, then it's your right to make a change. I'm eternally grateful for the opportunity you gave me. I want you to know that."
...
Look, nobody needs to tell me that the Mets have been maddeningly inconsistent for the last year and a half. If I want to take the credit for 2006 - when I felt we were the best team in baseball and our season ended one hit short of the World Series - then I have to take the hit for what happened since - the collapse last September, and the ups and downs of this year.

And you know what's also on me? The dumb, and horribly timed, remarks I made to a New Jersey reporter after we took two straight from the Yankees last month, when what I thought were private remarks became very public.

The bottom line is that by suggesting that the color of my skin had something to do with how I was judged, I did nothing but sow the seeds of my demise. I kick myself about that every day. It makes me angry - and really sad.

I suggest you go read the whole article. He handles himself fairly well, though it rubs off as somewhat forced. Randolph is a class act, but he just was not the fit for this team, right now.

I don't think Randolph will get a job this year (Seattle?) or even next year. I can see the Yankees taking him back as a bench coach or in the minors somewhere.

Happy trails, Willie!

Third place

With the Atlanta Braves losing by a score of 5-4 today, the New York Mets moved into sole possession of third place in the NL East.
The Mets are only four out in the loss column, so this season is far from over. Let the slow, tedious climb begin.

91 games to play, and to me, it feels like a brand new season.

It's all Nieto's fault

Reader Jonathon Neff e-mailed me a pretty hilarious article by Howard Megdal, blaming Tom Nieto for everything that has gone wrong with the Mets. Here's my favorite part:

Most inexcusable is Nieto's shackling of would-be base stealer Ramon Castro, an extra weapon who could have made the difference in New York's one-run losses. The deceptively fast catcher reached base at a .336 clip in 2007 and a .356 rate in 2008, but how many steals did he have to show for it? Zero. Considering his five thefts in 10 attempts for the 1994 Gulf Coast League Astros, as well as his steal in 2005, clearly talent isn't what kept Castro from utilizing his speed. But a quick look at Nieto's playing record, with his 251 games, 619 at-bats and zero stolen bases make it clear that "If I Couldn't Read the Pitcher's Move, No Catcher Can" Nieto simply didn't recognize that the fleet-footed Castro was a double waiting to happen.

Forget Canada, blame Tom Nieto!

And to think I "broke" the news of Neito's move to first.

New layout

Like? Dislike?
Comments? Ideas?

Thanks.

AM NY

Have a copy on AM NY from Wednesday June 18th? If so, I'd really like it.

I, along with my friends Joe from Mets Today, and Joe D. from Mets Merized Online, were quoted in the sports section with little snippets from our respective blogs.

Click here, and scroll down to page three to read the little blurbs.

If you happen to have it and are willing to give it up, please e-mail me (address in on the top-right of the sidebar)!! Thanks.