If the Mets learned nothing from Jose Reyes's season so far, they should know that it's foolish to expect a talented and important player who has missed significant time to an injury to return to the lineup at full strength and production. It took Mr. Reyes weeks to get himself back into game shape this season once he recovered from the various health problems that sidelined him for most of last season, and the Mets ought to expect the same sort of prolonged process for Mr. Beltran. Shoehorning him into the lineup will be no easy transition. Mr. Pagan has become a mainstay, and while Mr. Francoeur is an inconsistent hitter, he's a fine defensive rightfielder. Mr. Minaya has said Mr. Beltran's return will be similar to the Mets' trading for another strong hitter. But it's too soon yet to say for certain just how much production Mr. Beltran will provide, how long the Mets will have to wait before he provides it and what the effect of that wait-and-see period will be. - link
The Mets are 16-6 in the 22 games Mr. Tejada has started at either second base or shortstop since Mr. Castillo went on the disabled list. There isn't necessarily a direct correlation—Mr. Tejada is hitting just .228, after all—but that record does indicate how little drop-off, if any, there has been since he entered the starting lineup. Mr. Castillo is scheduled to return from the DL not long after the All-Star break, and there's a sports axiom that a player isn't supposed to lose his starting spot because he has been injured. (It's an axiom that Lou Gehrig, Tom Brady and a few other superstar athletes past and present might dispute, but many coaches stick to it anyway.) Mr. Tejada's presence at second base, though, gives the Mets two obvious advantages they didn't have with Mr. Castillo. First, because he is a natural shortstop and because he is younger and more athletic than Mr. Castillo, Mr. Tejada makes the Mets a better defensive team. He has a stronger arm, covers more ground and will grow only more comfortable at second the more he plays there. Second, whenever Mr. Castillo starts, Mr. Manuel hits him second, a compulsion that weakens the Mets' lineup. At the team's No. 2 hitter, Mr. Pagan has delivered more speed and dynamism than Mr. Castillo, and Mr. Tejada, at this stage of his career, is a natural No. 8 hitter. -
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I used to think Milledge was going to be a star, but that seems quite unlikely now. It's not impossible that he could develop into a good regular, if his power improves. But there's no sign of it in the numbers; his production has been flat steady at 92-95 OPS+ for three years now, with the only positive trend being improvement in his walk rate. I haven't quite given up on him yet; he was really good in the minors most of the time, and the skills could still be in there somewhere. Sometimes players like this take an unexpected step forward in their late 20s after everyone gives up. - link
This is a fascinating story…
Sandoval was drafted by the Mets out of high school but chose to go to college instead. He wasn’t drafted again, and eventually wound up playing ball in the winter league last year. Guess what, Sandoval and the Mets corssed paths again, he was signed, and the rest is, as they say, history.
So far this season, he has played for St. Lucie, Savannah, and now, Brooklyn, where he is hitting .339/.431/.536/.966, in 56-AB.
3-2-10 from: - http://www.goldenbaseball.com/winter/ArDisplay.aspx?ID=5298&SecID=880 . The Mets signed shortstop Rylan Sandoval to a contract. Ryan hopes to take the path of Scott Richmond and Sergio Romo, who were also signed out of the Arizona Winter League and made their respective major league rosters. He had originally been drafted by the Mets in the 30th round in 2007 but chose to go to Long Beach State instead. While playing for Chabot College as a freshman he was voted the California Junior College player of the year.
7-5 from Pete Spiewak/Mack’s Mets: - Rylan Sandoval hit early and often Monday night, leading the Brooklyn Cyclones to a 4-2 victory over the Jamestown Jammers, with three hits and three RBI, including a tie-breaking RBI single in the top of the ninth. The shortstop’s heroics helped the Cyclones bounce back after they blew a 10-run lead to the Jammers yesterday. Sandoval led off the game with a home run, his second of the season, giving lefty Angel Cuan a 1-0 lead to work with before stepping onto the mound. But the Jammers would battle back in the bottom of the fourth, as Sequoyah Stonecipher had a RBI triple which was followed by a Wilfredo Gimenez RBI single, to give Jamestown the 2-1 lead. But Sandoval would strike again, driving home Will Cherry with a single in the fifth, tying the game. That would be the last run scored before Sandoval gave Brooklyn the lead in the ninth. The Cyclones added an insurance run when Kurt Steinhauer scored on a wild pitch later in the inning
Everybody knew the Brooklyn Dodgers as "Dem Bums," but the Mets? Investment bankers who sell sports teams believe the Amazin's owners, the Wilpon family, are so cash-strapped that they will have to sell the Flushing franchise if the team has a losing season or two and attendance falls. There is growing evidence that the owners are in serious need of dough, and the team -- saddled with roughly $700 million in debt -- is not turning a profit. * Fred Wilpon, whose family owns most of the team, took a second mortgage on the team, refinancing roughly $375 million in loans, with $75 million of that going to the Wilpons themselves, said a source with direct knowledge of their finances. - link
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