ESPN-New York took a vote on the All-Time Mets team and the All-Time Yankees team, and the two “All-Time” teams will go head-to-head in a simulated series this weekend.
Inexplicably, the ESPN-NY readers chose Armando Benitez over Roger McDowell in the bullpen … and nether Art Shamsky nor Felix Millan made the team … but George Foster did!
Anyway, you click below to pick your starting lineup for the All-Time Mets team. Have fun!
Got links if you want it:
Long Live Shea Stadium – Anthony has a scouting report on the pitcher the Mets will face tonight – Yankees’ starter Javier Vasquez.
MetsToday – Will the Mets deal for a starter? If so, who will they target? John Delcos shares his thoughts on a very special episodes of MetsToday.
24 Hours From Suicide – LongIslandMetsFan is rooting for Brooklyn Cyclones manager Wally Backman.
OnTheBlack – Kerel Cooper breaks down who’s hot and who’s not. Extra credit: Kerel was mentioned in AM New York.
TheRoPolitans – Andrew Vazzano is starting to believe… Extra credit: Andrew was mentioned in AM New York.
The Daily Stache – Kevin Kearns tells us how – please sit down for this if you aren’t already – IKE DAVIS COULD HAVE BEEN AN ATLANTA BRAVE.
New York Times – Jerry Seinfeld will broadcast Wednesday’s Mets-Tigers game with Gary Keith and Ron.
Paul’s Random Stuff – A look at some of Paul’s autographed Kahn’s Mets baseball card set. Random, indeed.
And finally, via ESPN New York, we have a video recap of last night’s Mets and Yankees games, as well as a short preview of the upcoming subway series:
A second sweep makes seven straight with the Subway Series on the slate.
If you listened on the radio, you heard Howie Rose say “put it in the books” through two sweeps. And you may have wondered if in fact there is a book on brooms. There is, sort of: Men With Brooms: A Sweeping Epic
R.A. Dickey’s dancing knuckler cannot be stopped. He’s won his fifth straight game and has pitched at least 6 innings in every one of his starts. In this contest he allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. In many ways his legend resembles that of Terry Leach.
Jose Reyes was a homerun away from the cycle, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. He’s now hit in nine straight games.
Ike Davis, Angel Pagan, Ruben Tejada, and Chris Carter each stroked two hits. Davis also drove in 2.
I still can’t figure out how Pagan isn’t hitting close to .400, when it seems like he’s 2-for-4 every game. Must be the new math.
The Indians’ defense and fundamentals continued to be absolutely atrocious, and had a hand in handing over the game to the Mets. Part of it is related to players out of position (i.e., Austin Kearns in CF), but again, it’s eerily similar to the fundamentally unsound teams in Washington the past few years.
So glad Pedro Feliciano was able to get into this game — especially after warming up but not getting into Wednesday night’s contest. He’s thrown 74 pitches (in games) in the past week, but who’s counting? A little extra work never hurts a reliever — just ask Fernando Nieve.
K-Rod managed to earn his 15th save without causing anyone a heart attack. The ninth inning was refreshingly only mildly stressful.
The Mets embark to the Bronx for a three-game weekend series with that other team from New York City. Friday night’s matchup begins at 7:05 PM and has Hisanori Takahashi taking the hill for the Mets against Javier Vazquez of the Yankees.
New York Times – David Waldstein has a GREAT story about Chris Carter’s legally blind grandfather who just saw Carter play at Progressive Field. This is an early frontrunner for tomorrow’s Feel Good Friday link.
ESPN New York – Adam Rubin reports that Jason Bay is not in the starting lineup tonight.
MetsBlog – Jason Bay wanted to play tonight, but according to the new rule, you don’t play the day after almost sustaining a serious injury.
The Jewish Week – A strange story here… The Mets are being sued by Kosher Sports, for allegedly barring the concession company from selling its food at Mets games on Friday night and Saturday. The Mets claim the lawsuit is without merit.
ESPN – Buster Olney has a rundown on the pitchers that the Mets may trade for. My money is on Jake Westbrook or Kevin Millwood.
SNY – Michael Salfino says the Mets have a hole at second base, but he doesn’t think Akinori Iwamura is the answer.
BrooklynMetFan – BMF says Angel Pagan is the Mets’ MVP so far this season. Hard to argue with that…
Tonight, the Mets (37-28) go for the sweep against the Cleveland Indians (25-39). R.A. Dickey (4-0, 2.78) will bare his knuckles against possible future Mets hurler Jake Westbrook (4-3, 4.62).
Here is the starting lineup for tonight’s game vs. the Cleveland Indians, courtesy of the Mets PR Dept.:
Reyes SS
Pagan CF
Wright 3B
Davis 1B
Francoeur RF
Carter DH
Blanco C
J. Feliciano LF
Tejada 2B
Dickey RHP
Bay rests his charley horse, Jesus Feliciano gets a start, Frenchy moves up in the lineup, and the Animal provides him protection. Let’s hope R.A. Dickey’s knuckler keeps dancing.
Post your comments, links, pictures below …
NOTE: This is a guest post by longtime Mets beat writer John Delcos. Please direct your comments to John. Enjoy!
The Mets’ June cruise has not only made them relevant in the National League pennant races, but subsequently also at the July 31 trade deadline.
With management believing this is no fluke and the Mets will continue to play alert, aggressive baseball, there are serious discussions not whether they should trade, but whom to trade for – and just as important, whom they should not trade.
Their interest, despite this remarkable run by the rotation, must remain pitching. First rotation; second bullpen.
There is a sense of calm derived from how well Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey have pitched, and a feeling of optimism with Jon Niese’s run since coming off the disabled list.
Slots four and five are a house of cards.
R.A. Dickey, despite being sterling since coming up from Triple A, is Continue reading
MetsToday – If you haven’t seen Joe Janish’s post on the Mets’ roster, check it out.
OnTheBlack – Are the Mets setting fans up for disappointment? Take the poll and see what other fans think.
The Daily Stache – Randy Shemanski thinks Jenrry Mejia should be starting in the minor leagues.
Amazin Avenue – James Kannengieser thinks Jenrry Mejia should be starting in the minor leagues.
TedQuarters – Ted Berg crunches some numbers to explain Johan Santana’s performance.
TheRoPolitans – Andrew Vazzano shares a pearl of wisdom from Jerry Manuel.
ESPN New York – Adam Rubin gives an update on the minor leagues.
And in case you missed it, here’s Jason Bay discussing his collision/injury from last night’s game. Bay is fine, but is expected to be rested today – because that’s a rule Jerry Manuel made up:
Tin soldiers and Niese was pitching, we’re finally scoring runs
This summer I hear the drummin’, four runs in O-HI-O.
OK, that was lame. No offense to anyone who found that offensive. But that CSNY song was running through my head.
If you think “CSNY” refers to a William Peterson police investigation TV production, please move on to another Mets blog … don’t make me feel old.
Ohio-born-and-bred Jon Niese pitched masterfully in front of his hometown fans, spinning seven innings and allowing 3 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks. Not nearly perfect, but perfectly acceptable nonetheless.
I liked Niese’s pace; he worked quickly and seemed to be pitching with a purpose. I still don’t love his varied arm angles and inconsistent release points, and don’t at all like his early collapse and sideways drive to the plate, which completely negates any advantage he has from his tall 6’4″ frame. Only rarely does he really use his height and get on top of the ball, dropping and driving a la Jerry Koosman — a style that would bring the sharp bite back to his curve and provide more leverage and sink to the fastball. Sometimes I think his learning the cutter was a step back in terms of long-term success, even if it helped create short-term success. Also I fear for the health of his elbow … sorry if I’m harping on that subject.
One of these days I’m going to force a “professional” pitching coach to explain to me why he allows pitchers to step sideways in starting the windup — and thereby going against all of the laws of motion and physics established by Sir Isaac Newton. Eh, they know more than Newton, I guess.
Speaking of “pro” coaches who have changed the game for “the better” … SNY showed a clip of Bob Feller during the 4th inning. If you paid attention, you would have seen that Feller used his arms over his head to initiate the generation of front-back-front momentum to propel the ball toward home plate. Somewhere along the line, pitching “experts” decided that it made more sense to keep “moving parts” to a minimum, and focused the delivery on hip rotation, which is side-to-side — and go against all the laws of motion and physics. The end result? Pitchers who don’t finish games, are limited to 100-pitch counts, have higher ERAs, lower win totals, and need annual surgeries. Go figure.
Offensively, the Mets jumped out to a five-run lead in the third inning and never looked back. Angel Pagan had a big day, going 3-for-5 with 3 RBI, a double, his 14th stolen base, and a run scored. Carlos Beltran can take all the time he wants getting back into shape.
Jeff Francoeur, Jason Bay, and Ike Davis each contributed two hits and an RBI, and David Wright hit a two-run double to round out the scoring.
Travis Hafner is a shell of his former self, and not nearly resembling the scary slugger he was before MLB starting testing for PEDs. Not to suggest that he had any “help”, just pointing out a coincidence. In fairness, Hafner has been struggling to fight injuries over the past four years, and injuries are rarely associated with PEDs.
I may never understand the universal praise for Manny Acta — aka “Connie Macta”, as Michael Kay likes to say. Despite a reputation of “being good with young players, his Nationals teams never took a step forward, were generally lazy, and lacked both fundamentals and discipline. Similarly, his Indians have gone backward. Even though Cleveland’s problems have something to do with injuries, I still felt like I was seeing a team similar to what we’ve seen in Washington the last few years. It’s not fair to judge Acta based on the small sample and the personnel, but there is definitely a familiarity from my view. Anderson Hernandez in the leadoff spot? Hmm ….
This was one of those nice games where the result was never in jeopardy … perhaps partially because Francisco Rodriguez had the night off.
The Mets go for the sweep in Cleveland at 7:05 PM on Thursday night. R.A. Dickey goes to the hill against future Met Jake Westbrook. Woops … did I say that out loud?
Links on the way… Stay tuned.
Long Live Shea Stadium – LLSS has a scouting report on Indians’ starter Mitch Talbot.
Mets Kool Aid – Did you realize the Mets have won 9 out of 10 games since they 86’d Gary Matthews Jr. and Oliver Perez? I didn’t… (Get it? 86’d? Whatever…)
Newark Star-Ledger – Andy McCullough reports that Jerry Manuel would like to see Ike Davis bunting on occasion against the shift.
213 Miles From Shea – A look at some decent recent late-round draft picks.
MetsBlog – Matt Cerrone reports that Arizona may be shopping Kelly Johnson. Interesting news, but Akinori Iwamura will come at a much cheaper price.
Tonight, the Mets (36-28)are taking on the Indians (25-38) in Cleveland. Ohio native Jon Niese (3-2, 3.61) gets the ball for the Mets and he will be faced by Cleveland’s Mitch Talbot (7-4, 3.59).