Pages

9/30/19

Reese Kaplan -- Songs of Joy (and More)


So with the season that just concluded it’s time to revisit theme/walk-up songs for some of the people associated with the Mets ball club.  It’s unlikely there will be an “Enter Sandman” controversy over who “owns” which piece of music. Please feel free to contribute your own suggestions.  It will take your mind off the fact that the team has missed the post-season yet again, though improvements certainly did take place.


Pete Alonso


The self-proclaimed Polar Bear may have been selling himself short.  His monstrous season deserves a more fantastical name than a mere Coca Cola spokes-Ursus.  Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” came to mind but it is instrumental and not suggestive of the Herculean efforts he achieved.  The more I thought about it, the catchiness and sheer magnitude of the destruction he wrought on opposing pitchers. Therefore I nominate:



Jeff McNeil 


Now that he’s proven his rookie year was not done with mirrors and that he actually improved upon it, the Mets fans came to rely on McNeil working strong at-bats and delivering in the clutch, whether it was to set up a rally or push runners across the plate when needed most, he delivered the kind of consistency where it appeared he would take on the burden of carrying the load for everyone watching the games:





Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano


The prodigious strikeout numbers were there but that’s about the only positive you could take out of most of his appearances late in games.  His first near in New York was not what Brodie Van Wagenen thought he was getting when he traded away a pair of major leaguers and a trio of minor leaguers to bring both he and Robinson Cano to New York.  The former Yankee and Mariner looked like a man lost and he was shell of the guy they thought they were getting. He did heat up in the second half but from opening day for most Mets fans it was:





JD Davis


The acquisition of Astros’ farmhand JD Davis was not considered a major deal.  After all, he struggled in early big league trials and despite winning a PCL-inflated batting title, there was no room for him in the AL Division Champs’ immediate future and it looked like another overpay in prospects to land someone of middling reputation.  Wow, is everyone happy they were wrong about that one. In fact, as the season progressed and numbers continued to improve, all you could think was:





Jacob deGrom


Here there are a lot of ways to go for the Mets’ Cy Young Award Winner.  You could take it from the perspective of the hitters in which they knew that as soon as Jake entered the game the good times would indeed stop rolling.  Towards that end, Willie Nelson’s “The Party’s Over” would be appropriate. However, the fact is that in 2018 the sole good thing to watch was a deGrom start (even though the likelihood of a win was slim when the batters went into the witness protection.  I thought long and hard about it, but the fact that BVW got the Wilpons to let the moths out of their wallet and ink him to a highly lucrative extension, it would seem we pinch ourselves to hear him pitching as if he's singing to us:


Mickey Callaway

Wow, there are so many ways to go with this one.  Yes, the club improved a great deal this season and affter being left for dead they stormed back and were mathematically in it until the final four games of the season.  The vision of meaningful games in September indeed came to fruition, but many think that they could have done much more without the bullpen mismanagement, the questionable lineup decisions and the many head scratching maneuvers.  When he was signed to a three-year deal by the Wilpons they were hoping he would do more.  There are many now saying it's time for BVW to choose his own man and bring in someone with more experience to take them to the next level.  In that case, will we be singing:


Brodie Van Wagenen

You have one job in improving the team for 2020.  You have to find a way to get the bullpen ready to do its job to:


16 comments:

  1. Pete should have "Mississippi Queen" as a walk up song - some raw energy.

    At least with the way the Mets finished strong, no one should be playing "Send in the Clowns" - except for how Mickey sometimes made mystifying bullpen calls.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done, Reese. But for those of a different generation, could you please tell us the full titles of the songs?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Reese

    You have to use only Scott Joplin rags to reach Bill.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Bill

    Godzilla -- Blue Oyster Cult -- for Pete Alonso
    The Weight -- The Band (with the refrain, "Put the load right on me" -- for Jeff McNeil
    Welcome to My Nightmare -- Alice Cooper -- for Edwin Diaz & Robinson Cano
    You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet -- Bachman Turner Overdrive -- for JD Davis
    Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours -- Stevie Wonder -- for Jacob deGrom
    Two Out of Three Ain't Bad -- Meatloaf -- for Mickey Callaway
    Shut You Down -- Beach Boys -- for Brodie Van Wagenen's shopping list

    ReplyDelete
  5. Reese

    Team song - John Prine's "In Spite Of Ourselves"

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pete: Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high….

    ReplyDelete
  7. All Stuff Mets

    1. Mookie Betts - I personally do not think that Boston would ever be so foolish enough to lose outfielders Mookie Betts or JD Martinez. Other people in MLB concur with this opinion too. The Red Sox fan base want both Mookie and JDM back in 2020, and for very good reason. There are other ways to get Dombrowski's payroll down, maybe starting with their older and ineffective starting pitching that too often lands on the injury list. So Betts and JDM landing in MetsLand is probably not going to be a reality anytime soon, and "Seinfeld" has a better chance of getting a new show than this.

    This too.

    I watched enough Red Sox games to know that neither JDM or Mookie Betts were the same players as they were just one year earlier when Boston took home the gold. Mookie (for instance) was 50 points lower on both his BA and OBP. He's only 26, but clearly something was not the same with Mookie in 2010 and it showed from game one thru their last game. Not sure what though. The fire he drove thru 2019 had some watering down with it. JDM was a little bit the same way too. Alex Cora is a naturally born manager. It was not him.

    2. Mets have lefties David Peterson and Blake Taylor in AFL. I didn't realize this yesterday when I wrote on who I'd like to see in AFL from the Mets. My bad. Peterson is basically a slider guy, while Blake is a lefty reliever who can hit 96/97 mph, which is very good and the same mph as Justin Wilson, who is excellent. Most lefty pitchers in MLB range-in around 91/92 mph. So this is most favorable. I still like lefty starters Tom Szapucki and Kevin Smith as well. And to me, I think Harol Gonzales has a good chance of breaking 2020 ST a NYM.

    The NY Mets need to shed all their "tweener" pitchers that are up and down from Syracuse way too much. Same with the field players too that never really have stuck. If you don't stick after twelve tries up...fish.

    3. Both catchers Patrick Mazeika and Ali Sanchez are in AFL and doing overall quite well. Sanchez is rated a little higher defensively with that arm he has, and Patrick has natural more pop to his batting. I personally think that one will be traded this off season, while the other one gets a serious look for the Ramos' backup catcher role come ST. Trade with like whom you ask? Maybe Boston, who is desperate need for a good young catcher who can field their position and hit for average. Maybe my Michael Chavis idea? We'll see.

    4. I still don't know where to fit Dominic Smith into the 2020 equation. But something tells me that he is a starter. Nice problem to have though, isn't it. It simply means your team is very good. Maybe could move JDD to third, or possibly right field, since JDD has a third baseman's live arm. JDD is a natural athlete, Jeff McNeil as well.

    5. The bullpen upgrades could very easily decide 2020. Know this now. It will take two things to improve the 2019 NYM bullpen. Careful, time consuming committee type scrutiny by all management and pitching coaches. Plus, a rare and unusual "open mind" not always simple to find in this modern have to have it yesterday world.

    Factoid is that all of MLB has been deficient with their bullpens as of late. Few exceptions pop into mind. The structuring of the bullpens is no longer working. The flaw is not just the talent level of the average reliever in MLB (it's been okay) but also the way MLB utilizes those relievers in game situations. It is simply this "conventional way thinking" that is holding relief pitching back some. This may be the more pressing of the two explanations.

    For NYM fans, 2020 is looking so very bright!

    Here's a new slogan idea that I came up with recently.

    "We Ain't No Stink Bottom Kids No More!"

    LGM!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just so you all know, "Starsky and Hutch" are seventy-five years old now and still holding on Mets fans. They haven't got a lot of time left for a NYM Championship already.

    Keep this in mind please.

    And try to stave off the acquisition notion of collecting old useless one time really good veterans from other teams (the decade prior) whose only real life goal now is to earn a paycheck, and sleep the first half of every season only to try hard maybe the last five weeks in order to earn another ridiculously high paycheck the very next one. The beat goes on. (Sonny and Cher)

    This is a young masked marauder offensive scheme here now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. If you get a moment, look up the 24 year old right fielder on Tampa Bay named Austin Meadows. If you have not seen this kid bat, you should. This is the exact type of right field bat the NYM need added in. High average 33 HR's, a ton of RBI's. But interestingly enough, his athletic peak is just hitting now. Grab him while you can may be a wise thing here. Snooze lose.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think Meadows is a future star in this game.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Why would a successful Tampa trade Austin Meadows to the Mets, though?

    I also see Blake Taylor as a dark horse Mets pen arm in 2020. He had a GREAT year in 2019.

    ReplyDelete
  12. One last thing (for today anyway).

    Andres Gimenez.

    I am not a natural contrarian mind you. But I have never seen any Mets minor league player more hyped up than this AA .250 BA shortstop Andres Gimenez since actually OF Benny Ayala was being hyped up as the next Roberto Clemente, forty years ago. Benny Ayala played like ten years, batting a collective .250 with 38 homeruns on multiple teams. Mets fans were expecting Mays. It did not ever happen people!

    Gimenez is a really good shortstop but his hitting at even the AA level is nothing to write home about. Be honest. The Mets have a better shortstop here now in Amed Rosario, who probably will be on the All Star team in 2020 because he is literally that good!

    The NY Mets need to sit down collectively and figure out and identify just who they have that could be utilized wisely as tradebait possibilities for those player acquisitions that they really, really need to make for 2020. I am sure that they are doing this now, or will be soon. But it is so importante.

    This cumulatively needs to be like precision, swiss watch, like a good sturgeon, I mean a good surgeon would do.

    Gimenez, one of the young catchers, a current starter (or two) like who knows maybe Matz and/or Stroman, maybe Gilliam or Blackham or Sewald, maybe a current right fielder...Hmm.

    "Surgery I tell you. Surgery."

    ReplyDelete
  13. (I think I recognize the writing of one of these non guys...)

    ReplyDelete