Scare tactics by Jerry Manuel

A headline in the NY Daily News today reads: Slumping Mets eye major shakeup: Coaches on firing line; Pelfrey, Perez or Maine may get demoted.

The Mets are off to a 6-9 start.  Their starting pitching, outside of Johan Santana, has been nothing short of miserable.  The offense apparently decides what days it feels like showing up to the ballpark.

That leads Jerry Manuel and the Mets to shift gears from positive motivation to scare tactics.

A team insider later elaborated that no one, aside from Johan Santana, has immunity. Translation: Perez or Pelfrey, who can be optioned to the minors without passing through waivers, could be ticketed for the minors, while Livan Hernandez's standing as fifth starter could be on shaky ground.
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While nothing is imminent, dialogue about coaching changes already has begun, a source told The News.
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The more interesting question would be whether to pull the plug on Gary Sheffield, who went 0-for-5 Thursday as part of Manuel's rejiggered lineup, dropping his average to .111.

Manuel has been the king of saying one thing and doing another during his tenure here in New York.  Right now, this just seems like the next form of motivation before they actually start to do something about it (i.e. roster moves and coaching positions).

I’m not glad it has come to this, but I’m glad this is what they’re doing.  Nothing scares a player more than getting demoted and/or cut.

Let Manuel talk this talk and walk this walk for a while.  If it doesn’t work out though, he might be the man out of a job.

Twitter Poll: If you had one roster move to make on the New York Mets…

The Mets have lost four games in a row.  They’re 6-9 on the season and can’t seem to get in sync.

Last night I asked my Twitter followers if Omar Minaya granted them one roster move on the current Mets team, what would it be?  I got some very different answers.  There is one that want to look into cloning Johan Santana, another who is offering their services and a few who would like to swap out the entire team.

Here are their responses…

• benmyerson said: does "swap rosters with Buffalo" count as one move?
• letsgoduke said: trade castillo for ruben gotay.
• samtpage said: Fire Omar Minaya. Does that count? If not, release Sheffield.
• Retire31 said: Clone Johan Santana four times.
• ByronBrewer said: Honestly... I don't even know where to begin. Is a team-swap considered 'one move?' :)
• Section518 said: It's a tough one, because one move isn't going to get it done. Another starter? Maybe Cliff Lee? Not really sure...
• ambilevous said: sign manny
• BigLeagueWIFFLE said: Hire Tommy Lasorda to coach
• dmoneymania said: Sign me up. I'm a co-ed softball league superstar. I pick it like Olerud, stroke it like Alfonzo. I'm pure stud.
• soxanddawgs said: sign pedro
• cselland said: Sign Manny - we need a left fielder. Oh, wait...
• Section518 said: Sign Manny - we need a left fielder.
• acesigma said: Fire Omar. Oh wait that's not a roster move.
• metgirl4ever said: nothing until May...knee jerk moves/reactions usually make u worse, not better...
• gmo418 said Pick up Pedro off junk pile, place John Maine and Dan Murphy/Ryan Church on trade block for young front line starter
• JTKrycek said: sign jake peavy
• fullnelson said: Gary "Iron" Sheffield, not Pinch Hitter, need many At Bats. what is da use of F. Tatis?
• thebrowncoat said: If I trade the whole team at once, does that count as one roster move?

Quite and interesting array of answers if I do say so myself.  It seems as though many Mets fans have turned to humor to try and forget about their team’s on field performance.

Not on Twitter?  Hit the comments to toss in your 2¢ about the one roster move you would want to make.

Follow me on Twitter to participate
in the next Twitter Poll!

Maybe He can help the Mets

This image was sent to me by John Helferich.  He says he found it a few days ago in New York City.

The Mets need all the help they can get at this point.

Game Recap: Cardinals 12 – Mets 8

On a day the bats decided to show up to the park, the pitching just wasn’t there.

The Cardinals (11-5) beat the Mets (6-9) by a score of 12-8.

The Mini Recap

The teams pounded out 31 hits between them.  Livan Hernandez only lasted 4 1-3 innings, allowing seven earned runs while on the mound.  Sean Green didn’t fare much better, allowing five earned runs in two innings of work.

Carlos Beltran went 3-5 on the day with a double and a home run, driving in three runs.  Ryan Church also connected for a two-run home run.  Alex Cora and Fernando Tatis each picked up their first hits of the season.

For the full recap, head over to Baseball Digest.

The worst home run call ever

Take a listen to this home run call by the St. Louis broadcasters.  This is after Ryan Church’s two-run home run in the seventh inning. 

Yes, the game was 11-3 at the time, but still…

Maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea.  How do you feel?

SNY to CC games starting May 1

According to Neil Best, who has been spearheading the media push to get SNY to add closed captioning, just announced that the network will begin adding captioning to games on May 1.

From Best:

Effective May 1 (when the Mets visit the Phillies), SNY plans to offer closed captioning - for Mets games only.

It is a belated move three-plus seasons after the network launched, and it would have been nice to have all programming captioned.

But it is much better than nothing, and will serve as a bridge to March 16, 2010, when FCC rules will require the network to be all-captioned.

I know many people who will be very happy to read this news.

Lineup shakedown

The Mets have been struggling to score runs, plating eight over the last three games combined.  So today, as promised, Jerry Manuel has decided to shake up the lineup.  He has replaced three of the starting eight (thought it’s a day game after a night game, so Luis Castillo and Ramon Castro likely wouldn’t have started anyway) and switched Carlos Beltran and David Wright in the lineup.

1. Jose Reyes – SS
2. Alex Cora – 2B
3. Carlos Beltran – CF
4. Carlos Delgado – 1B
5. David Wright – 3B
6. Gary Sheffield – LF
7. Ryan Church – RF
8. Omir Santos – C
9. Livan Hernandez – RHP

Who knows if this will help or work at all, but it’s worth a shot.  It can’t get much worse, right?

Baseball Digest: A ring comes to Citi

Please head over to Baseball Digest to read a story I wrote about a couple getting engaged with the help of a FanWalk brick at Citi Field.

Click here to read the story.

Twitter Poll: What’s worse: Mets bats or Mets arms?

After another night of sloppy pitching and lack of hitting, I asked my Twitter followers what was worse about the Mets: the bats or the arms?

Here are their responses…

• wendy93639 said: pitching
• letsgoduke said: bats
• pjdempsey said: bats with RISP. Pitching hasn't been horrible as far as runs allowed goes.
• Section518 said: Bats. Pitchers (outside of Johan) have been bad or shaky, but this offense can pick them up. But they haven't. Yet.
• PaulsRandomStuf said: The Mets starting pitching, other than Santana, is a disaster. The hitters will eventually get it together (I hope).
• acesigma said: A billion left on base so far? Batting. No question.
• Retire31 said: how about timely hitting AND timely pitching.
• MetsNY81 said: You can make a strong argument for both.. but i'll go with bats.
• lvadgal said: gotta go with the bats as if they were hitting runs would score and that helps the pitchers.
• darknova306 said: Pitching. We know the bats will come around, but Maine looks toasted, Ollie is worse than ever and who knows about Pelf's arm
• gmo418 said: Hitting, 100+ men left on base . Cant drive in runs. Its sad. Hopefully Mets can get healthy on the Nats this weekend.
• jessicarubin said: Bats.. The pitching has been inconsistent but it could be much worse (*cough*chien-ming wang*cough*) - a few hits would = win
• samtpage said: They're both good. I'm serious.

Interesting array of answers.  Bats came out as the “winner” but pitching had a strong contingent behind it.

Not on Twitter?  Hit the comments to toss in your 2¢ about which problem facing the Mets is worse.

Follow me on Twitter to participate
in the next Twitter Poll!

Game Recap: Cardinals 5 – Mets 2

What’s left to say?

The Cardinals (10-5) beat the Mets (6-8) by a score of 5-2.

The Mini Recap

John Maine struggled throughout the game, letting up seven hits and five earned runs in five 2-3 innings of work.  The bullpen kept the Cardinal quiet, but the Mets bats just weren’t there.

The team picked up on in the third on a Daniel Murphy RBI single and tacked on another in the ninth on a Carlos Beltran RBI double.

If you watched this game, you just knew the Mets weren’t going to win.  They had a tie in the third, but from there the Cardinals just took over the game.  They made Joel Piniero look like Cy Young.

For the full recap, head over to Baseball Digest.