The New York Mets want YOU to buy season tickets in 2011

We interrupt your regularly scheduled NCAA tournament programming to bring you this highly convincing multimedia ticket sales campaign by the New York Mets.



"Cheesy" doesn't even begin to describe it. Only the Mets could put their star players in something like this. On the ridiculousness scale of 1-10, Ike Davis gets a 5, David Wright gets a 6, Jason Bay gets a 7, Carlos Beltran gets a 10, and Jose Reyes gets a 13. Only Ike and Wright looked comfortable in front of the camera, and I'm being generous. Not exactly a video that makes you excited for this season of Mets baseball.

In the Mets' defense, they have no money left to produce a real commercial, so a series of green screens and some flimsy graphics was all they could afford. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011 New York Mets!

Family Guy Takes a Shot at the New York Mets

For those that missed last night's Family Guy, Stewie Griffin is shown wearing a Mets hat (sort of) and at a Mets game. Those who know Family Guy know that's not a good sign for Mets fans. Let's just say that Stewie isn't enthused by the Sandy Alderson signing in this very quick clip from the Family Guy Halloween episode:

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And the Mets' GM is...Sandy Alderson!

Sandy Alderson

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated reported that the Mets have hired Sandy Alderson as their new GM. The Mets will probably make the official announcement on Friday (in between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series). At 62 years old, Alderson has put together quite a resume. He served as GM and later president of the Oakland A's from 1983 to 1997, winning four division titles, reaching three World Series, and winning the World Series in 1989. After his time with the A's, Alderson was MLB's Executive Vice President of Operations, and from 2005 to 2009 he was CEO of the San Diego Padres. The only caveat to Alderson is that he hasn't run a team's day-to-day baseball operations since 1997. Something tells me that with Alderson's skills, he'll be able to jump back into the GM position with no problems.

Wally Backman

The next step for Alderson and the Mets is to start looking for a manager. Since Manuel was fired, Mets fans have been pushing for Wally Backman as the team's new manager. Alderson, with his Ivy League education and Marine Corps background, doesn't seem like the type of guy who will give in to a popular idea simply because it's popular. Most sources close to Alderson and the Mets believe that Alderson is not considering Backman, and is instead looking for a candidate with major league managerial experience who is well-versed in dealing with the media (can you say Bobby Valentine?). Whomever the Mets pick, I feel more comfortable with Alderson at the helm.

 Mets fans will be anxious to see how Alderson handles his first major test. What will he do with Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, Carlos Beltran, and K-Rod (almost $55 million dollars worth of problems right there)? Hopefully, under the new Alderson era the Mets can expect a sense of credibility and common sense that they haven't had in the last few years under Minaya.

A look inside the Mets' GM search

The Mets are currently playing their own version of the dating game, trying to find a new soul mate to occupy their top executive position. Although the Wilpons, and the Mets organization in general, have botched so many situations in the past, Mets fans are hopeful. We’re not hopeful because the Wilpons have a great track record in hiring talented executives. We’re hopeful simply because the Mets are actually interviewing candidates. Over the last 13 years the Mets have bounced around from one GM to the next, never conducting a full vetting and interview process. In 1997, Steve Phillips was made GM when his superior, Joe McIlvaine, was fired. When Steve Phillips was let go, Jim Duquette, a member of the Mets front office, was made interim GM and then was given the full position. Finally, in 2004, the Wilpons raced to hire Omar Minaya. It’s time for the Mets to finally enter the dating pool and see what the GM candidates out there can offer our little ball club.

Jeff Wilpon has announced that the Mets will choose their new GM by the World Series. (Perhaps the Wilpons are hoping that Mets fans will be so thrilled by the prospect of a new GM that they won’t notice that it’s been a decade since they watched their own team in the World Series?) The Mets are currently pursuing a courtship with five different bachelors: MLB executive and former Padres CEO Sandy Alderson, former D-backs GM Josh Byrnes, former Royals GM Allard Baird, current White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn, and Dodgers assistant GM Logan White. (Just as an aside, if you haven’t noticed, all of these candidates are white. This seems strange considering Los Mets have been heavily Latino over the last few years.)

Even though the Mets have quite the group of candidates, the Wilpons have their eyes set on the great state of Texas. Rumors have been swirling that the Mets’ Plan A involves Rangers GM Jon Daniels, a former New Yorker who grew up a Mets fan and whose parents currently live in Bayside. I LOVE the idea of a GM who is a Mets fan. I especially love the idea of a GM who has led his organization into the playoffs (with the added bonus of forcing Yankee fans into the fetal position). However, the Mets seem to be wasting their time and energy on Daniels.

First, the Wilpons have announced that they will choose a GM by the World Series. Daniels’ team is playing in the World Series. If the Mets truly want him, they will have to delay their timetable and wait until after the World Series to even start to talk to Daniels. Second, do the Mets really think that Daniels is going to leave Texas after the season he’s had? Daniels has an opt-out clause in his contract that allows him to leave the organization if the Rangers change owners. However, Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg has already stated that he wants to sign Daniels to a contract extension. When times are so good in Arlington, I can’t imagine that Daniels will jump ship, even to his hometown team.

The Mets are considering five other candidates, but there’s really only one who can be the Mets’ Plan B if Daniels doesn’t come through: Sandy Alderson. Allard Baird has a history of making bad deals and has little success in the draft. Rick Hahn has little scouting experience, and although he’s a negotiator-extraordinaire, the Mets already have John Ricco as their negotiation guru. Logan White is great at scouting…and that’s about it. Mets fans don’t need a Minaya Jr. The Mets didn’t invite any of these courters back for their second round of interviews.

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Manuel and Minaya are out: A belated celebration from a Mets fan

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Minaya and Manuel are GONE!!! Have there ever been five sweeter words spoken?

The Mets have finally decided to trim the fat, starting from the top down. Well, they’ve decided to trim most of the fat. Although Omar Minaya has been dethroned from his seat as Mets GM, the Mets have said that they are planning to retain Minaya. Perhaps they want to keep him around to share his winning ways with the new GM. The Mets would have to pay Omar for the next 2 years and some Mets fans are pushing to keep him on to do something (anything) for his $2 million salary.

This seems like a horrible idea. Firing Minaya and Manuel represents a clean break from the last four years of losing. Every girl knows that when you break up with a boyfriend you get rid of everything that reminds you of him so that you can move on. You definitely do not keep the ex-boyfriend around so he can do menial chores around the house. You just send him on his way. That is what the Mets need to do with Minaya -- cut all ties. Get rid of Castillo, Beltran, K-Rod, and many of the other relics that remind Mets fans of the ex-GM. The only thing that Minaya can do in the Mets’ front office is become a second schmuck that the new GM will have to cater to (the first, of course, being Jeff Wilpon). Why invite that headache?

Although Omar Minaya’s landing spot is still up in the air, Jerry Manuel’s fate is sealed. Manuel has been completely removed from the Mets’ clubhouse, with no carry-over possible. Most Mets fans are not going to miss Manuel. There is a laundry list of characteristics to dislike about our former fearless leader, starting with his demeanor.

For starters, Manuel had the most annoying habit of refusing to look at the dugout camera during in-game interviews. It must have been the highlight of Gary Cohen’s day every time he got to talk to the top of Manuel’s head. If Manuel didn’t want to deal with the media, he should have gone to Kansas City or Cleveland. In New York there are a lot of newspapers, radio, and TV networks dedicated solely to NY sports. Media comes with the job so Manuel should have looked at the camera, smiled, and at least pretended like he wanted to be there.

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Adding Another to the Team (and a few links)

We're not waiting until September 1st to expand our rosters here at NYaT. I'm happy to announce our newest permanent blogger (and our new Official Mets Blogger), Elissa Glucksman. E recently guest blogged about 5 reasons the Mets could make the playoffs in 2011 and before that had previewed Citi Field 2.0 for NYaT. Elissa even participated in a triathlon with former Mets manager, Bobby Valentine, as a partner. We're excited to see what else she has in store for us (there is some talk of Sarah and Elissa doing a blog series of sports from the feminine point of view). Please join me in welcoming Elissa to the NYaT team.

Omar Minaya will feel the wrath of new blogger, Elissa (NYDN)

Now for a few links:

• Someone else is keeping track of that whole CC Sabathia opt-out (as well as Joe Girardi's contract situation): Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues. Moshe Mandel of TYU tells us why Girardi isn't going anyplace.
• SI's Joe Posnanski nails arm injuries and pitching prospects in this great blog post. Then The Common Man at The Platoon Advantage takes down Rob Dibble.
• NoMass scores another great interview (this time with Yankees' SVP, Mark Newman) and talks about the Yankees farm system. Then Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus writes "just add [Brett Marshall] to the long list of Yankee pitching prospects who have taken a step in the right direction." I like the sound of that.
• Last week Christina Kahrl of Baseball Prospectus handicapped the AL MVP race and the NL MVP race. It will be a close one.
• Rebecca of This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes on Kerry Wood. Sam Borden of LoHud on Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter. Aaron Gleeman of HardballTalk on the Yankees' "phantom disabled list". FanGraphs' Dave Cameron on the Minnesota Twins. Flip Flop Fly Ball on the many Yankees logos. Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues on HOPE week.
• The Big Lead on why Tony LaRussa is an idiot. Wall Street Journal's Brian Costa on why Ivan (Nova) is anything but terrible. ESPN's Jayson Stark with everything you would want to know about Roy Oswalt's night in left field.
• Eastbound and Down Season 2 (I can't wait)

Javier Vazquez is officially below replacement level according to FanGraphs (H/T Jay). More later.

5 reasons the Mets could make the playoffs in 2011

As you might have noticed, the New York Sports and Television blog has been a little light in its coverage of The Other New York Baseball Team.  With that in mind, I'd like to re-introduce you to one of our guest bloggers, Elissa Glucksman.  E is very passionate about her Mets, even if they do not give her much to be passionate about.  Below you will find her analysis of one sportswriter's list of reasons why the Metsies could be a contenda next year.

Image courtesy of the NY Post

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For Mets fans, this season has been a bit of a roller coaster. Pre-all-star break the Amazins were over-performing (to say the least). At the break the Mets were only 4 games out of first in the NL East. This surprising start made many Mets fans give the organization, its GM, and its manager the benefit of the doubt. Who cares that the Mets’ rotation had swiss cheese-like holes? It didn’t matter that Minaya’s main free-agent acquisition (Jason Bay) was underperforming and Carlos Beltran was home mending his infamously repaired knee. The Mets were playing some decent baseball on the backs of Rod Barajas, Ike Davis, Angel Pagan, and R.A. Dickey. But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. After the All-Star break the Mets didn’t just come back down to earth, they crashed so hard they made a crater the size of Citi Field.

Now is the time of year most Mets fans are used to. The season is starting to really gear up for the Yankees and the Rays, but for the Metropolitans and their fans it’s time to pretend the baseball season ends at the end of August and start thinking about next year. And what do we have to look forward to? Matt Meyers of ESPN The Magazine took a relatively optimistic look at my Mets and came up with a list of five reasons the Mets could make the playoffs in 2011. After reading this list I couldn’t decide if the article made me more or less depressed.

Here are Meyers’s 5 paraphrased reasons, followed by my translations:

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Quick Hits: FanGraphs Event, Yankee Bullpen, Mets, Cervelli, CC, Granderson, and Other Baseball Thoughts

It's time to play some catch-up on the blog. A little of a lot here on a Monday. Some quick hits for you:

- The FanGraphs Live event last Saturday in Manhattan was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and the panels were all extremely engaging. Amanda Rykoff has a great review of the whole event at The OCD Chick, and Dave Cameron and Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs both have great recaps. A few observations/conclusions from the panel:

The FanGraphs live event was awesome

• I may be a nerd (Amanda did label this a "mini-dorkapalooza")
• Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues dislikes Francisco Cervelli as much on Twitter as he does in real life (and Jay Jaffe of Pinstriped Bible dishes out some dislike as well)
• Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues argues that the strength of the AL East pushes each team to get better
• Reporting on Twitter discourages analysis and makes it more about a personal brand
• The Wall Street Journal has a great formula for their sports section: smart, funny and analytical
• The game story is slowly leaving the papers (and with it, the need for the box score as well as Tim Kurkjian wrote on ESPN)
• Bloomberg Sports has an awesome fantasy sports tool that can even show video of Jeff Francouer drawing multiple walks
• Statistics are now for a wider audience than just nerds (though Tim Marchman of SI looks at the problems with defensive stats)
• The biggest myth in sports (according to one panelists) is that the pitcher stopping his windup mid-motion has led to a lot of injuries 
• I now own a FanGraphs t-shirt
• "Accept randomness"
• It was nice to finally meet in person people like Ben and Amanda who were, until now, just Twitter avatars and bylines on blog posts. This type of thing should occur more often.

- Joel Sherman of the New York Post asked today (re: the Yankees bullpen): "Do you believe in this group?" At one point the answer would most certainly have been no, but Joba Chamberlain, David Robertson, Boone Logan and Kerry Wood have joined together to form a nice "Bridge to Mariano". The Yankees bullpen in August is 1-1 (the one loss came from Mariano Rivera) with a 1.02 ERA in 35.1 innings and has a WHIP of 0.991. Since July 2nd, they've only allowed 16% of inherited runners to score (which was a bugaboo for a while with this team as they were at 30% at that point). With Andy Pettitte coming back (forcing Dustin Moseley back to the bullpen), and Alfredo Aceves and Damaso Marte on the mend, this is looking like a pretty good group. And despite his latest glitch, Mariano Rivera is pretty great/probably the greatest ever. The Yankees are 62-0 when leading after 8.

-CC Sabathia is getting less strikeouts as David Golebiewski of FanGraphs pointed out today and Dave Cameron pointed out last week. Here's my theory: from 2005 to 2010, Sabathia's thrown more innings than anyone in baseball. Maybe he's resting his arm a bit knowing he has plenty of years left to pitch in baseball. While strikeouts are the surest way to prevent outs, groundouts are usually a good way as well and they usually require less pitches. That's probably a good thing for someone who will have over 20,000 pitches in a 6-year span. Like Girardi told Chad Jennings of LoHud: "we don't want to wear the big guy down."

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View from the Seats: Citi Field 4th Row

Ari posts a picture from 4th row at Citi Field tonight as the Mets look for 2006 revenge against Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals.

NYaT competes in the 2010 KIC IT Triathlon

As much as we here at NYaT enjoy watching and writing about sports, we occasionally enjoy participating in them too!  As a matter of fact, one of our resident guest bloggers, Elissa Glucksman, competed in the 2010 KIC IT Triathlon today in Stamford, Conn.  This Olympic-length triathlon, as the name suggests, benefits Kids in Crisis, which is Connecticut’s only facility for children newborn to age 17.   KIC provides free temporary shelter, therapeutic counseling, comprehensive medical care and specialized educational support for children struggling with a wide range of issues including abuse, neglect, abandonment, family health issues and family conflict.

This was Elissa's fourth straight year competing with a relay team.  Her sister, Deena, breezed through the 10k (6.2 mile) run in just over an hour and Elissa swam the 1 mile in a personal-best 29 minutes.  But the surprise was their bike teammate, none other than former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine!  Amidst widespread speculation that he's about to win the Florida Marlins' vacant manager position, Bobby V co-chaired the triathlon, hosted the post-race food party at his own restaurant (which is named Bobby V's, of course) and managed to post a 1:39 time in the 25-mile bike segment, besting the 1:43 yours truly clocked in 2008.

The best number of all, though, was the $225,000 that KIC raised today.  Congratulations to all who competed!  Before you go, be sure to check out Elissa and Bobby V in these news clips!

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The Yankee Clipper: A Series Win Before Heading Back to the Bronx

The Yankees lost for the first time in Minnesota since August of 2008 last night but they still leave Minnesota with a series win and head home to face what should be the easy part of their schedule (here's a look at their pitching probables from Zell's Pinstripe Blog). Since it's been a while since we've done a Yankee Clipper, let's look at how we got here, shall we?

1. A split with Boston, a 2-game loss to Tampa, and then a series loss to the Mets. Yeah, it's been a while since we've done one of these. Tampa seems to be on another level than the rest of the majors, this past week's series against Boston notwithstanding. The split with Boston was disappointing since they had every chance to win that second game including a 5-1 lead and a rally towards the end. The Mets series was even more disappointing as the bats went dead (a theme that has carried through since). Jason Bay continues to be a Yankee killer. Jason @ IIATMS looks into whether the Yankees are waiting for the big hit and while many Yankee fans were busy panicking, Steve at River Ave Blues put everything into perspective. Also to be put in perspective, the Yankees have been playing without Curtis Granderson who returns tonight and Matt from TYU looks at what Granderson's return means to the Yankees. I think it means more protection in a lineup that has recently been pretty bad throughout, especially the middle of the line-up. Getting Granderson back could allow the Yankees to move Swisher into the #2 hole, Granderson into the #6 hole and Gardner further back in the lineup where he thrived earlier in the season.
2. The Yankees still have Minnesota's number. Two one-run games (one suspended) went to the Yankees in the first two. Home runs by Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher in a park that has shown to be very hard to homer in were the difference. Jeter's bad and glove had been questioned recently so it was good for him to show up. So calls about his defense and moving him out of the lead-off spot will have to wait for now.
3. But other teams still have Javier Vazquez's number. Despite looking really good in his last two starts, Vazquez didn't look quite as good last night going for the sweep. Maybe it was that bunt attempt that he took off of his finger...or maybe he really hasn't turned a corner just yet (or maybe he's historically struggled against some of the Twins). Rob from Bronx Baseball Daily writes that just when Javy looked like he had turned the corner, last night happened, and Joe from River Ave Blues writes that there was some good, but mostly bad last night.

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Is There a Free Agent Market For Cliff Lee?

One of the biggest off-season moves of this past winter was the Seattle Mariners acquisition of Cliff Lee from the Philadelphia Phillies. With one year left on his contract, Lee was deemed expendable by a Philadelphia team that didn’t think they could resign him once his contract was up. The Mariners had dreams of pairing Felix Hernandez and Lee together for one season and seeing what they could do in the spacious confines of Safeco Field.

Well, it may only be one year that they have together. Lee’s agent, Darek Braunecker, told ESPN’s Buster Olney that Lee will be testing the free agent waters in five months. With Josh Beckett locked up, Brandon Webb injured and Javier Vazquez having a rough go of it in the Bronx, Lee is definitely the cream of the free agent pitching crop.

But what type of market awaits Lee? Which teams will be involved in the bidding? While 5 years ago, Cliff Lee would be looking at a huge contract deal, in 2010 with a depressed economy, sagging attendance in some parks, and teams looking to be more fiscally responsible, it seems like Lee’s prospects are drying up in certain areas. So will Lee get a CC Sabathia-type contract or will he be left disappointed after the off-season is over? Let’s take a look at the possibilities (with thanks to Cot’s Baseball Contracts on the salaries):

Seattle Mariners: The Mariners traded away some of their best prospects to get Cliff Lee so it would make sense they would keep him, right? Well some of thought behind acquiring Lee was that they would keep him for a year and try to recoup the prospect loss in draft pick compensation for Lee signing elsewhere (Lee should be a Type A free agent). And since the Mariners are yet to approach Lee about a contract, that draft pick grab may be the path they are going to head down. If Lee has a huge season in Seattle, though, the Mariners will have a lot of incentive to resign him. If the team struggles, however, they may have to trade him and The News Tribune says they should think about doing that now, rather than later. The Seattle P-I says that the Mariners haven't really been showing much love Lee's way (picture to the right from that article).

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Mets embrace own history at Citi Field 2.0

As you may have noticed, NYaT is largely a Yankees blog.  But we do have one resident Mets blogger (Ari) so from time to time we have to pay heed to the other team in town.  Especially when that team has recently been on a tear, going from worst to first and then back to second all in just a few short days.  So without further ado, please welcome our newest guest blogger, the lovely Elissa Glucksman, as she offers a thorough review of the 2010 version of Citi Field.  Let's go Mets, F-A-N da da da!
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Last year Mets fans had a lot to grip about.  It seemed like every day another Met was put on the DL and the 2009 season fell woefully below expectations.  But at least we had a brand new stadium to keep our spirits up, right?  Wrong.  To most Mets fans Citi Field felt like Ebbets Field Jr., with a little New York Giants orange and black thrown in.

After a season of complaints the Wilpons have finally acknowledged that the Mets have a distinct and unique history of their own, wholly independent of their Dodger and Giant ancestors.  My first trip to Queens in 2010 was last Tuesday in the middle of the Mets' amazing homestand and I couldn't believe the difference in Citi Field's appearance.  Last year when fans walked from the parking lot to the stadium the only remnants of Mets history were five bronze plaques embedded in the parking lot commemorating Shea Stadium's home plate, bases, and pitcher's mound.  This year it is hard to avoid pieces of Mets history.  Banners are hung along the outside of Citi Field highlighting past and present Mets players, ranging from Ed Kranepool to Edgardo Alfonzo.  There are also banners hanging from the lights posts that illuminate the entire length of the sidewalk next to Citi.

I was lucky enough to have VIP tickets to the game.  All of the VIP entrances are now named after Met greats.  The first base VIP entrance is named after legendary Mets manager Gil Hodges, the third base entrance features Hall-of-Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, and the left field entrance is entitled Stengel VIP after Casey Stengel, the Mets' first manager.  The hallways inside each VIP entrance are adorned with photographs and memorabilia highlighting each of these three Met heroes.

The 2009 Citi Field feature that I hated more than any other was the Ebbets Club.  It was the club/dining area on the Field Level behind home plate.  What Ebbets Field has to do with the Mets, aside from existing in the same city, I will never know.  Thankfully, that horrible excuse for a club name is gone, and has been renamed the "Champions Club."  The club now celebrates the 1969 and 1986 World Series Champion Mets teams.  The first base side of the club honors the 1986 team, with pictures and memorabilia all along the walls, and the 1969 team is honored on the third base side.

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Just When Things Were Starting to Look Up for the Mets...

No matter how good things get for the Mets, there's one bad date they have to put on their calendar: July 1, 2011. And, well, every July 1st thereafter--until 2035. Why? Bobby Bonilla. Let's let CNN and Mental Floss explain:

Next year former outfielder Bobby Bonilla goes back on the payroll at the ripe old age of 48.

In 1999, Bonilla returned to the Mets for a second stint at Shea following his borderline disastrous free-agent signing in 1992. Bonilla wasn't any better the second time around, so the Mets waived him in 2000. The problem was that the team still owed Bonilla $5.9 million in guaranteed salary.

Bonilla's agents worked out a deal with the Mets where he would defer the salary if the team would pay him $1,193,248.20 every July 1 from 2011 to 2035. Not a bad deal for someone who was so bad the team basically paid him to go away.

Now, if you're wondering, what that $1.193 M could pay for the Mets in 2011, Cot's Baseball Contracts is the place to go. But even if you just take the Major League Minimum of $400,000, Bonilla's salary could pay for almost three players to play--or, for 2011, Ike Davis, Jon Niese and Jenrry Mejia.

How bad was Bonilla in 1999 that the Mets decided to waive him and incur this future albatross? Well in 60 games, he hit .160/.277/.303 and a cool .260 wOBA (which, according to FanGraphs was 9.9 runs below average). According to Baseball Projection, that was good enough for -1.5 wins, the worst mark of Bonilla's career. He also supposedly was playing cards with Rickey Henderson during the 1999 NLCS--while the game was going on. And the Mets will be paying him until he's 72! Maybe if the Mets are looking for some offense this off-season, they can ask Bobby Bo to actually come back and earn some of that money.

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One if By Sea to Two New York Baseball Stadiums

The Mets and Yankees have continued to come up with ways that people can avoid driving to baseball games and here's another way: they can take a complimentary New York Water Taxi to either stadium (H/T Aimee via Sarah). The transport leaves from Pier 11 (at the end of Wall Street) and is a great alternative for businessmen and businesswomen who would rather not squeeze into a packed 4 train in business suit and sweat their way to 161st in the Bronx.

During the course of the season, the taxis will leave 90 minutes before game time and arrive at least 30 minutes before first pitch. There will be no return service.

The water taxis, adorned with the team and Delta logos, are equipped with air conditioning, a bar and satellite television, and can accommodate 147 passengers. Tickets will be available up to two hours before departure and can be found on the New York Water Taxi website or by going to Pier 11.

Now, before we celebrate, there are some drawbacks here:

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Let's Play Two (for one)

With New York getting pounded by some real April weather (remember how April Showers Brings May Flowers used to actually make sense?) the Metsies decided to postpone last nights game before the gates even opened. First off I want to take an unusual step for me and applaud their decision to postpone the game well before it started. Last year both the Mets and Yanks opened the gates on nights where it was almost obvious no baseball was to be played, collected their fans parking and concession money, let them sit in the wet and cold for 90+ minutes and then called the game. It made economic sense for them - new ballparks, plenty of fans, but was a real gut punch to the loyal fanbase that showed up.

Whether for altruistic reasons this year (or merely because they knew nobody would show up anyway) the Mets decided to call yesterday's game before 6pm and schedule a classic, old-school, doubleheader for today at 4pm. Yes that's right, one of those goodie 2-for-1 opportunities that I personally never thought we would see at Citi Field. The Mets are clearly struggling with attendance - even with the Dodgers in town they still have well over 10,000 seats per game unsold, so this move probably made economic sense. They also moved Johan up to game one, so there should be fannies in the seats starting with the 4pm game, if the weather improves.

So, kudos to the Mets for going with the fan-friendly value option here, instead of trying to milk two separate gates today or Wednesday. With the team's improved play they could even be, gasp, in first place by 10pm tonight. However, as most of the educated NYaT community knows, it is statistically unlikely that any team sweeps a doubleheader, even if they are playing at home. So mother nature might have delivered some value to Met fans, but may also now be responsible for ending their win streak. But hey, you gotta believe!!

Any of our loyal readers heading out to Citi this afternoon?

Side note: The Metsies hit Philly this weekend for a series with their hated rival. The weather forecast is looking good and the Saturday 3pm matchup will likely be Doc Halladay (fresh off his first loss) vs. Mike (Hand-licker) Pelfrey. The game is sold out but there is plenty of inventory on Stubhub and I am seriously thinkin about making the trip. Startin to feel things turning around for my Mets!

Jerry Manuel vs. Lou Pinella: Which Manager Has a Worse Disadvantage?

The gauntlet has been thrown. Jerry Manuel took our first Stupid Call of the Week by throwing K-Rod for 100 pitches in the bullpen and Lou Pinella fired back with the second Stupid Call of the Week by moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen. So I decided to pit manager vs. manager to see who has a worse disadvantage at doing their job. Is it "Sweet" Lou Pinella and his band of lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs? Or is it Jerry Manuel and his unlucky group of New York Mets? Best of 7. Let's get to it!

	Jerry Manuel	Lou Pinella	Dis-Advantage
GM	Omar Minaya - What can you say about Omar that hasn't already been said? Oliver Perez. Lack of bench depth. Tony Bernazard. Lack of starters. If the Adam Rubin press conference didn't do him in, you wonder what will finally end the misery?	Jim Hendry - One hamstringing contract after another. Alfonso Soriano. Milton Bradley. Now Carlos Silva. Also, surprising lack of NLCS appearances despite playing in weak division and weak league and spending plenty of money	This one goes to Jerry. Minaya's public spat with Carlos Beltran put this one over the top this year.  1-0 Jerry
Team Curses	You wonder if breaking ground on Citi Field is going to be this team's ultimate downfall. 2006 NCLS breakdown, two seasons of losing on the last day of the season and then last years debacle	The Billy Goat. Merkle's Boner. Steve Bartman. Collapse after collapse and bad fortune after bad fortune. A century of losing. The team has tried to sacrifice goats on Harry Caray's statue and it hasn't even worked. And there's even an "Ex-Cubs Factor"	This is all Sweet Lou. Now that the Red Sox and White Sox won, it's the Cubs all alone. The Indians haven't won in 60 years and it looks like nothing compared to the Cubbies. All tied up at 1

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The Stupid Call of the Week: Mets and K-Rod

Starting a few new series this year and this is one of them: "The Stupid Call of the Week". This is where an umpire blows a call, a manager or general manager makes a horrible decision, a player has a huge brain fart, or a fan does something so stupid, they have to be called out on it. Today's culprit is the New York Mets and their manager, Jerry Manuel. Amazingly, the move didn't get called out by many people (ESPN's Adam Rubin barely mentioned it in this article dissecting the entire game), but it was definitely the stupidest move of the past week.

What move was that, you may ask? Well in that 20-inning game the Mets played against the Cardinals this past weekend, Jerry Manuel had Francisco Rodriguez warm up multiple times during the extra-inning affair. He warmed up so many times that he threw 100 pitches in the bullpen. 100! K-Rod came in with a dead arm and promptly gave up the lead. He was warming up EVERY INNING from the eighth through the 19th. The entire Mets bullpen was used as K-Rod continued to throw. Incredible.

FanGraphs' Matthew Carruth reacts:

Amazing, just plain amazing. Forget the idiocy of holding your supposed best reliever back for a possible future lead for a moment and just soak in the stupidity on the part of whoever had Rodriguez up and throwing for 11 consecutive innings.

On the plus side, I think he’s stretched out now so the Mets can go ahead and get Oliver Perez out of the rotation.

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The Mets REALLY Need to Swing for the Fences

If there wasn't incentive enough before, now there's real incentive for the Metsies to take a page out the book of their cross-town Bronx Bomber friends: hit some home runs. Why? Because at least when they do so in 2010, it'll go to a good cause. From the New York Post:

If there are Mets fans who don't know who Stewart Rahr is, they will soon enough. The Brooklyn-born billionaire -- a k a Stewie Rah Rah -- is donating $1,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation every time a Met hits a home run at CitiField, and $5,000 every time David Wright does, as he did on Opening Day. Later in the season will be "Home Rah Rah Day" with giveaways of Rahr's trademark yellow sunglasses.

Last season the Mets hit 95 home runs which was dead last in the National League--well dead last in any league. Their leading homerun hitter was Daniel Murphy  with 12 and they had 4 people (David Wright, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Beltran, Jeff Francoeur) tie for second with 10. They had the longest streak of games without a home run in 2009, when they had an 8 game drought from July 3rd to July 11th (they also went 7 games in May). So let's just say, they need to hit some more home runs in 2010. That's why they signed Jason Bay, wasn't it?

David Wright was the real disappointment of 2009 on the power front only hitting 10 home runs after hitting 33 the year before. Wright has the Mets only home run so far this season (pictured to the right from The Star-Ledger), so that's $5,000 in the books. It must be The Situation and Vitamin Water (H/T Ari). According to FanGraphs, the projections for Wright's 2010 home run total lie between 19 and 25. Let's hope that he finds his power stroke again. Come on David, it's for the kids!

The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Narrowing Down The Candidates

Last night the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament ended but we're still finishing up with our New York Baseball Bracket Challenge. We're going to pit the best against each other so you can declare the best in New York. We'll list all the candidates this round, have you pick three and then we'll list arguments for those three players and have you vote for the top baseball player in New York (Mets or Yankees) history.

I decided to cheat a little and forgo the outfield vote. The Yankees own the three best outfielders in Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Just missed includes: Charlie Keller, Roger Maris, Dave Winfield, Tommy Henrich, Bobby Murcer, Earle Combs, and Darryl Strawberry. But we're just going to go ahead and put the Yankees top three into the finals.

So here's the list (click on the link to find their original argument):

• Catcher: Yogi Berra
• First Base: Lou Gehrig
• Middle Infielder: Derek Jeter
• Third Base (results below): Alex Rodriguez
• Outfield: Babe Ruth (picture from Babe Ruth.com)
• Outfield: Joe DiMaggio
• Outfield: Mickey Mantle
• Righthanded Starter: Tom Seaver
• Lefthanded Starter: Whitey Ford
• Closer: Mariano Rivera

Remember, on the right side, pick your top 3 New York baseball players and we'll pit the top 3 all together head-to-head, to see who is the best baseball player in New York history. And let us know why you chose the way you did in the comments below!

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