The latest on Matt Holliday is that the Yankees aren’t interested (per Buster Olney), the Angels aren’t either, and the Red Sox and Jason Bay appear to be on the same wavelength. That said, the Mets may have only the Cardinals to bid against when the Holliday auction begins — right?
Not necessarily … Continue reading
Everyone knows Wally Backman is a bad guy. It’s a known fact. The guy is just bad news.
Right?
Not so fast.
Here’s a story of a bad guy doing something that you might not expect. And you certainly won’t be reading it anywhere else…
This past weekend – before he became the new manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones, Wally Backman visited the Park Terrace Care Center in Corona – just a stone’s throw from Citi Field. (Ron Darling appeared at Park Terrace last Monday.)
Backman fielded questions from the Center’s residents for over an hour, sharing his thoughts on subjects ranging from his experience as a World Champion in 1986 to his feeble career homerun total to his opinion of Derek Jeter. Before leaving, he posed with each of the 30+ residents who had come downstairs to see him speak.
And according to my sources, Backman wasn’t compensated for the visit. Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez and several Yankees teammates were charging between $200-$475 for autographs in New Rochelle, NY.
Here are a few more photos secretly snapped by the paparazzi:
John Delcos wonders what it will take to get Roy Halladay.
Drew Costello at MetsFansForever did a complete analysis of the Mets infield (geez, it took me a month to do the same!)
Andrew Vazzano at TheRopolitans offers the good and bad of trading Luis Castillo and signing Orlando Hudson.
MetsPolice can’t get a press pass to Bisons games but displays a way to get in via mobile phone:
Yes, you’re likely more interested in the MAJOR League free agent list, but that one is still being assembled.
In the meantime, you can peruse the minor league free agents in search of bargains and diamonds in the rough.
Hat tip to FanGraphs.
In a few days we’ll discuss some potential targets for our beloved Mets.
Anyone remember Ruben Gotay?
He was in the midst of being the Mets’ version of Robinson Cano a few years back, but was curiously hated repressed by then-manager Willie Randolph (and undervalued by Marty Noble). Willie valued defense at second base, but was generous enough to give the iron-gloved Gotay a start whenever Halley’s Comet appeared.
Though the switch-hitting second baseman hit .295 in limited duty in 2007, he didn’t Continue reading
How do you evaluate a half-season of performance that was riddled with nagging injuries?
Carlos Beltran played in 81 ballgames — exactly one-half of a 162-game season. A good number of those games where played on an injured knee, so there’s some reason to believe that his numbers could have been even better.
Those numbers were pretty impressive by the way. He posted a .325 AVG, 22 doubles, 10 HR, 48 RBI, 11 SB, 47 BB, and 43 K, with a .415 OBP and .915 OPS. Had he been healthy, Beltran likely would have been among the top 10 NL hitters in most offensive categories and won another Gold Glove. But it was not to be.
Instead, the day Beltran was placed on the disabled list Continue reading
Most New York newspaper sources are reporting that Wally Backman will be returning to the Mets organization as a minor league manager, with the official announcement coming on Tuesday.
I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Wally yesterday afternoon, just talking baseball. He would neither confirm nor deny the news, and since this blog isn’t run by “Scoop” Brady, and doesn’t seek to get a cheap influx of hits by irresponsibly breaking news when I’m asked to sit on information, I’m happy to respectfully wait for Tuesday and therefore wasn’t pressing Wally for confirmation.
Instead, we talked baseball — nothing specific, just idle chatter on his experiences as a manager, his thoughts on the game, and some insight on some of the players he’s managed or seen over the past few years.
One thing we did discuss was his philosophy in terms of young ballplayers on their way to the big leagues. Wally Backman believes that players can and should learn how to win, no matter the level of play. In his view, learning to win and “development” go hand-in-hand. He eschewed organizations that put a premium on “developing” players, to the point where “development” took precedence over winning ballgames.
Some may not take this the right way — much like few people truly understood where Vince Lombardi was coming from when he said “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”. So I said to Wally, “in other words, you teach players to do the right things, all the time — to constantly practice ‘winning habits’ — and if they do, they’ll have a good chance to win more games than they lose, right?”
His answer: “Exactly. You can’t win until you learn how to win.”
If indeed Wally Backman is on the verge of re-joining the Mets, and is bringing ideas such as this with him, I have to change my current pessimism into optimism. Hopefully, the Mets are looking to inject more people like him throughout the organization (re-hiring like-minded Tim Teufel is further evidence that the Mets are committed to change — hopefully John Stearns is also on the radar). It may take some time before we as fans reap the benefits of philosophies instilled at the lower levels of the farm system, but at least we’ll know a philosophy that makes sense, and is grounded in success, is in place.
I’m willing to wait.
Carlos Beltran recently told reporters that he’d like to see Carlos Delgado return to the Mets in 2010.
At a Harlem RBI event, Beltran said: Continue reading