July 16: Afternoon Mets Links and Open Thread

Posted on July 16, 2010 by loge mezzanine

Star-Ledger – Jerry Manuel wants to keep Josh Thole on the roster as R.A. Dickey’s personal catcher and backup first baseman, (or not?).

Daily News – Andy Martino indicates Oliver Perez could face the Dodgers next Saturday. Oh boy.

Mets Minor League Blog – The Brooklyn Cyclones won again last night, to go two games up on the second-place Staten Island Yankees. Sources tell me Fred Wilpon was in attendance. Interesting…

Long Live Shea Stadium – A scouting report on tonight’s opposing pitcher, Barry Zito.

And here is Carlos Beltran discussing his first game back:

TONIGHT’S GAME

The Mets try to bounce back against the Giants, as Jon Niese (6-3, 3.61)  faces Barry Zito (7-4, 3.76). For what it’s worth, the Mets and Giants are tied for third place in the wild card standings, along with St. Louis. All three teams have a record of 48-41, putting them 1.5 games behind Colorado and one game behind the Dodgers.

First pitch at 10:35pm.

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Random Act of Managing: Josh Thole at First Base?

Posted on July 16, 2010 by loge mezzanine

The Mets have a good, young, left-handed hitting first baseman named Ike Davis. So why would they even consider this?

Manuel also floated the concept of letting Thole work out at first base while he’s at the major league level, although the manager changed his statement mid-sentence and made it seem that Thole would work out there, but not actually appear in a game. (ESPN New York)

Just Manuel bein’ Manuel, I guess…

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Quote of the Day: Jerry on Batting Bay in the Two-Hole

Posted on July 16, 2010 by loge mezzanine

Or I could go, if Reyes is starting, I could go… I might… I could go, Reyes-Bay, uh, 1-2… Yeah I could do that, I could do that.

–Jerry Manuel with WFAN’s Joe Beningo and Evan Roberts (7/15/10)

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July 16: Friday Morning Mets Links

Posted on July 16, 2010 by loge mezzanine

Mets Police – Shannon Shark thinks David Wright might be one of the ten best third baseman of all-time. Hmm… Boggs, Arod, Matthews, Schmidt, Brooks Robinson, Brett… He may be on to something.

MetsMerized – Sean Green and Luis Castillo are close to returning, but Fernando Tatis is out for the year.

Yahoo Sports – The Mets search for a cheap veteran starting pitcher continues. The latest possible target? Brett Myers. Great…

And here is Kerel Cooper of OnTheBlack – wearing a WWWBD T-shirt – discussing Carlos Beltran’s return to the lineup:

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Mets Game 89: Loss to Giants

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Joe Janish

Giants 2 Mets 0

It was a tough loss for Johan Santana Mike Pelfrey R.A. Dickey and the Mets.

Dickey pitched his heart out, allowing one measly run on five hits in seven innings of work — proving beyond argument that it didn’t matter it was he and not Santana or Pelfrey pitching the first game after the All Star Gimmick, because the offense wasn’t going to score against Tim Lincecum no matter who was pitching for the Mets.

Game Notes

R.A. Dickey is making it very difficult to remain skeptical of his success. Is it possible that he simply has finally figured out how to tame the knuckler? Do knuckleballers get better with age, as a direct result of experience and rote? Or is he still riding that element of mystery vs. the National League? Keep on rolling, R.A.

Carlos Beltran made his first appearance of 2010 and managed a single in four at-bats. Naturally, Jose Reyes was out of the lineup with his lingering oblique injury. Beltran looked maybe a touch aggressive and rusty, but not remarkably different from what we expect. He faced Tim Lincecum after seeing A-ball pitching for a month, so I’m not concerned and not going to rush judgment. In the field he was only mildly tested … and no news is good news. Hopefully he can make his transition back to MLB without any major problems.

The Mets collected a total of six singles on the evening against Lincecum.

The other run scored was charged to Elmer Dessens. I have a funny feeling that his luck is quickly running out.

Chris Carter had a pinch-hit single in the eighth. However the Mets needed a pinch-hit homerun in that spot. Oh well .

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Giants play again on Friday night at 10:35 PM EST. Hey, why not just start the game at midnight? These game times drive me nuts … why can’t they start at 6 PM PST? The Left Coasters get out of work by 3 PM / 4 PM, don’t they?

Jonathon Niese is scheduled to face Barry Zito. Luckily most of us can sleep in on Saturday morning.

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July 15: PM Mets Links and West Coast Trip Open Thread

Posted on July 15, 2010 by loge mezzanine

Tonight’s game is a late one… So check out these links and feel free to comment on them as we wait to see Carlos Beltran’s return…

OnTheBlack – Kerel Cooper thinks Angel Pagan should play everyday. It kind of scares me that this discussion even needs to take place, but it obviously has to be said. When did Jeff Francoeur become so highly regarded?

Real Dirty Mets Blog – The Cubs are reportedly looking at Robert Carson, Kyle Allen and Jeurys Familia as possible pieces in a deal involving Ted Lilly. Interesting…

MetsFever – Ed Ryan raises Andy Sonnanstine as a potential mid-level SP that the Mets could acquire.

Wall Street Journal – Mike Sielski has the scariest article you’ll read today, titled,  “Four Ways Mets Can Blow It.”

TONIGHT’S GAME

The Mets will face the Giants tonight in the first game back from the All-Star break. R.A. Dickey (6-2, 2.77)  gets the start against Tim Lincecum (9-4, 3.16). For a scouting report on Lincecum, check out LongLiveSheaStadium. First pitch at 10:15pm EST.

METS LINEUP

Jose Reyes was initially slated to leadoff, but he was scratched because of his lingering oblique injury. Here’s the current lineup:

Angel Pagan – RF
Alex Cora – 2B
David Wright – 3B
Carlos Beltran – CF
Ike Davis – 1B
Jason Bay – LF
Josh Thole – C
Ruben Tejada – SS
R.A. Dickey – RHP

Random Act of Managing

If you’re wondering why R.A. Dickey is starting the first game back from the break, instead of Johan Santana Mike Pelfrey, here’s why: by setting up Dickey to fail against San Francisco’s ace, Jerry Manuel cannot lose. If Dickey wins, Jerry is a genius. If Dickey loses, it was expected and Jerry can boast about giving Santana Pelfrey some extra rest. It’s a beautiful system – we’ve seen it recently with resting Jason Bay on his own bobblehead day, right before the All-Star break. Way to go, Jerry!

Posted in Gameday Open Thread, Link Dump | Tagged , | 7 Comments

July 15: Thursday Morning Mets Links

Posted on July 15, 2010 by loge mezzanine

The Mets return to action tonight in San Francisco and they’ll have Carlos Beltran… How ’bout some Mets links?

ESPN New York – A preview of the Mets-Giants series.

MetsMerized – Should fans be booing Jason Bay?

MetsPolice – Shannon Shark with a humorous recap of Mets Yearbook 1978.

DailyStache – Anthony Lafaman gives his mid-season grades. Check out IsuzuDude’s impassioned rebuttal in the comments section.

DeadSpin – An update on the Gary Carter autograph incident. Looks like Gary isn’t as bad as some would like you to believe, although it is a bit ridiculous for him to only sign white pieces of paper. Something tells me Gary’s agent is to blame for some of this.

MetsGazette – The gang at Mets Gazette make their predictions for the second half. Looks like we may have some meaningful games in September!

MetsMerized – A look back at how the Mets ruined Aaron Heilman.

MetsBlog – Luis Castillo started his rehab assignment last night, going 0-for-2 for Port St. Lucie (A).

And here is Kerel Cooper from OnTheBlack, explaining the importance of the upcoming west coast trip:

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Video: Gary Carter at All-Star Game Fanfest

Posted on July 14, 2010 by loge mezzanine

This is kind of depressing, if it all turns out to be true…

Via Barstool Sports:

Youtube description – The 2010 MLB All Star game is being held in Anaheim this year and Major League Baseball puts on an event called “Fanfest” for the public. The event costs between $25-$30 a person for admission and one of the PERKS in the advertisements is that you get the opportunity to meet some Hall Of Fame players with all autographs being FREE with your paid admission. For the most part the players were great about signing and posing for photos (Gaylord Perry, Juan Marichal, etc.) Until it came time for Gary Carter. People lined up about an hour or two before he got there just to hear after he arrived that he WOULD NOT SIGN ANYTHING FOR FANS except a white piece of paper! He did however sign for SOME FANS IF THEY DONATED MONEY TO HIS CHARITY!!!! A lot of people left after waiting in line out of anger because they were selling his memorabilia (8×10 photos, baseball cards, baseballs,etc.) that people thought he would sign…especially since every other player there was doing so. The people working the event apologized and said that it wasn’t supposed to be this way and they were unaware that he was going to do something like this. A few people ALLEGEDLY over heard his agent expressing dissatisfaction that there was no profit being made…he must have meant BESIDES WHAT THE MLB ALREADY PAYS these players to show up and do this in the first place.

Posted in Mets 2010 Games | Tagged | 5 Comments