The mangled Mets

I got an e-mail today from the guys over at More Hardball.  They’ve put together some photoshops of Mets player cards.

Here’s my favorite…For the rest, check out the More Hardball blog.  They’re hilarious.

Manuel’s Musing

“We've got issues.”

-Jerry Manuel on who knows what

Lineup for Game 145

Francisco Rodriguez is away from the team after his wife gave birth to twins.  Their names: Francisco and Angeline.

Here’s the lineup…

1. Luis Castillo – 2B
2. Cory Sullivan – LF
3. David Wright – 3B
4. Carlos Beltran – CF
5. Daniel Murphy – 1B
6. Jeff Francoeur – RF
7. Josh Thole – C
8. Anderson Hernandez – SS
9. Pat Misch - LHP

Mets 2010 preliminary schedule

The Mets will open their 2010 season at home against the Florida Marlins on April 5, according to the preliminary schedule that has been released.

For interleague games next year, the Mets will take on the AL Central with games against the Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins in June.

The 2010 season’s final regular season game will come on Oct. 3 at home against the Washington Nationals.

Here’s an image of the schedule via WFAN…

Players heading to Arizona Fall League

The Mets will be sending six players to the Arizona Fall League to play for the Surprise Rafters.

The Mets announced the following minor league players will participate in the Arizona Fall League…Infielders Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada, righthanded pitchers Jenrry Mejia, Scott Moviel and Josh Stinson and lefthanded pitcher Eric Niesen will play for the Surprise Rafters…The AFL begins on October 13th.

These are some of the top players in the Mets minor league system.  The fact that they’re sending them to play more baseball is a good thing for the future of the franchise.

Let’s just hope the 2009 injury bug ends when the season does.

Buy Lenny Dykstra’s ‘86 WS ring

Only $20,000!

A summer with the Brooklyn Cyclones [Video]

As the 2009 season comes to a close (at least in term of playoff chances), let’s look ahead to the future of the Mets. The Brookyln Cyclones recently put up this awesome video of their season. Take a look…

My favorite moment is the play at the plate around the 1:06 mark.

Eliminated

In what was the foreseeable end to a dismal year, the Mets were finally mathematically eliminated from playoff contention after yesterday’s sweep of the doubleheader at the hands of the Phillies.

The nail in the coffin came in the night game, as old friend Pedro Martinez tossed a gem to the tune of eight innings, six hits and no runs.  Pedro walked two and struck out seven while on the mound.

Now, as if they weren’t before, the Mets are solely playing the role of spoilers.  Sure, it’d be nice to watch the Mets go around the league beating teams late in the year and making baseball all the more exciting down the stretch.  Too bad they’re struggling to win any games at all and spoiling likely won’t be happened much, if at all.

2009 was a year that started with tons of promise.  The team and the fans were jazzed up about what, on paper, looked like a magical year.  Too bad the paper it was written on and the players on the team were more fragile than tissue paper.

The Mets were an absolute nightmare this year.  The kind of nightmare that you tell your friends about because it’s so darn out there.

All in all, it was entertaining.  And I don’t mean like “whee-fun-yay!” entertaining.  I’m talking about the “oh-my-goodness-I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening-you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up” entertaining.  Shock and awe type stuff.

I was never one to pack it all in, ditch the Mets gear until spring training type of guy.  I will continue to wear my Mets hat, shirts and other assorted team apparel gladly, and maybe partially for the pity.

Keep your heads high, Mets fans.  2010 is only months away, likely filled with some high hopes of at least improving on this year.

In the baseball world, it’s tough to predict what may happen from year to year.  No one was reading the tea leaves predicting this sort of Mets catastrophe.  Maybe karma will pay this Mets team a visit and pay us all back for the last three years of heartache and distress.

I think we’ve earned it.

Manuel’s Musing

“We had a shot at it. We put forth an effort, but fell short.”

-Jerry Manuel on…well…a lot of things

Lineup for Game 144

The Mets will look to stave off elimination for another day against an old friend.  Pedro Martinez takes the mound for the Phillies as the Mets tragic number stands at two.

Here’s the lineup for the second game…

1. Luis Castillo – 2B
2. Cory Sullivan – RF
3. David Wright – 3B
4. Carlos Beltran – CF
5. Daniel Murphy – 1B
6. Fernando Tatis – LF
7. Brian Schneider – C
8. Anderson Hernandez – SS
9. Tim Redding - RHP