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4/14/10
Lineup [Game 8]
- Jose Reyes – SS
- Luis Castillo – 2B
- David Wright – 3B
- Jason Bay – LF
- Mike Jacobs – 1B
- Jeff Francoeur – RF
- Rod Barajas – C
- Angel Pagan – CF
- Jon Niese – LHP
Game Chat will be up around 8:30 p.m.
Rubin: Bowman claimed by Jays
Yes, it’s early, but…
The Mets are only 7 games into the season. That’s very, very early in baseball terms. But, to me and to many, they’re giving fans very little to hope for so far.
- We haven’t even made two full turns of the rotation, and the team is already talking about dropping John Maine from the starting five.
- The team’s “starting first baseman” is being outplayed by Fernando Tatis.
- The team’s most expensive reliever, Francisco Rodriguez, is yet to have a save opportunity.
- Many fans are already calling for Jerry Manuel’s head.
- Many fans are already calling for Omar Minaya’s head.
- The stadium, for home games, is drawing smaller crowds than last year when the team was already out of playoff contention.
We’re seven games in. There are 155 more games to play. But at this pace, it’s a miracle fans aren’t revolting, jumping ship and burning merchandise in the parking lot.
It’s early, but many have seen enough. But change for change’s sake isn’t going to cut it. The team, from the front office on down, needs to present some sort of plan for fixing everything that seems to be wrong with the organization. The fans see it, the media sees it, it’s time for the Mets to be up-front about their situation and spell it out for the angry mob that seems to be growing.
At this point in time, it seems the Mets are just floating along aimlessly, without a way to steer or even a planned direction to head in. I’d love to see Fred Wilpon cop to it all, say that the team is going for an overhaul and start fixing things internally, externally and whatever-ternally helps the Mets out.
It might be a blow to the pride of the Mets, but in the long run, the transparency will help the sanity of the fans - the ones who put the money into everyone’s pockets – the ones that matter.
Manuel’s Musing
-Jerry Manuel on being down early
4/13/10
Game Recap: Rockies 11 – Mets 3
Hopefully you turned this game off and went to bed long ago.
The Good
David Wright hit a solo home run, his second of the season.
Jeff Francoeur’s hitting streak is still alive. He’s hit in all seven games this season.
Raul Valdes and Jenrry Mejia turned in scoreless stints, two innings and one inning respectively.
Jose Reyes singled twice. Still think he should be rehabbing in the minor leagues, though.
Jason Bay picked up his first RBI for the Mets in the 8th inning. It made the game 11-3. Yay.
The Bad & Ugly
Pretty much everything else…
John Maine: 3 IP, 7 H, 8 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. Yeah, he just looks awful out there.
Mets pitchers walked 10 Rockies. 10!
Rockies pitching struck out 10 Mets. 10!
Fernando Nieve only lasted 1/3 of an inning and was charged with 3 ER.
Greg Smith, who hadn’t won a game since 2008, threw seven innings against the Mets, allowing only two earned runs and striking out eight.
Game Ball
David Wright.
On Deck
Same Mets time, same Mets channel: 8:45 p.m. tomorrow. Jon Niese, baby!
Lineup in Colo.
- Jose Reyes – SS
- Luis Castillo – 2B
- David Wright – 3B
- Jason Bay – LF
- Jeff Francoeur – RF
- Fernando Tatis – 1B
- Rod Barajas – C
- Angel Pagan – CF
- John Maine – RHP
This tweet, explaining Pagan batting third, is really just a head scratcher.
Game Chat will be up around 8:30 p.m.
How the Yankees salvage New York City sports
The other day, in a discussion with Joe Fortunato from Blueshirt Banter, he brought up the point of how the Yankees save New York City sports from being a miserable sports town. And he’s right.
Though it’s impossible to think about New York City sports without thinking of the Yankees, the most powerful team in sports, let’s just take a run at it. Take a look at the NYC sports scene, boiling it down to the simplest of simple: Championships.
Pulling the Yankees out of “New York” leaves six major sports teams (we’re going to include the Giants and Jets, even though they play in NJ, because - well - yeah):
- Mets
- Giants
- Jets
- Knicks
- Rangers
- Islanders
In the last 20 years, these six teams have won only three championships – Giants in ‘90 and ‘07 and Rangers in ‘94.
That’s just sad. Over the last 20 years, the Yankees have won five championships on their own – almost double what the six other teams have done combined. Is it just a bad run for those six teams? It’s hard for me to believe that six teams in four different sports are all struggling this mightily, but I can’t just chalk it up to bad luck. We know the plights of the Wilpons, Dolans, etc., but they haven’t owned these teams forever.
In the last 50 years, the six teams listed above have won 12 combined championships – Mets in ‘69 and ‘86, Giants in ‘86, ‘90 and ‘07, Knicks in ‘70 and ‘73, Rangers in ‘94 and Islanders with their run of four straight from ‘80-‘83. In the last 50 years, the Yankees have won nine World Series on their own.
What stings the most is the recent struggles of most of these teams. We all know the plight of Mets fans lately, but the Knicks and Islanders rank right down there in the categories of ownership, GMs, managerial mishaps and the like. The Giants and Jets have enjoyed some recent success in getting to the playoffs, but only the Giants have tasted the sweetest victory in the last decade.
And soon, the Nets will join the ranks of NYC sports teams. They will improve over this past season because I just don’t think they could play this poorly again. Right?
It’s hard to imagine NYC sports without the Yankees, but if they weren’t around, this would be one very, very sad sports town.
Now I have to go take a scalding hot shower and scrub myself until I’m raw. That was a terrible article to have to write. It pained me.
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