The LTJ Editorial: “Have we truly seen the last of Johan Santana?”

“The LTJ Editorial”
Author: Luis Tirado Jr.
Date: 11-8-13
Twitter: @LTJ81
Website: http://www.TheNYExpress.com

“Have we truly seen the last of Johan Santana?”

All through my life, I've always enjoyed getting the sports jersey of my favorite players on the various teams I root for. Yeah, it's no secret, while I do cover both the New York Yankees and New York Mets, deep inside my heart, I love my Mets. Ever since 1986 when I saw the World Series trophy in the hands of guys like Strawberry, Hernandez, Gooden, etc when I was about 5 years old, I was hooked on this team. That image to this day is burned into my memory, it's the last time I ever saw any of my teams actually win a championship that I can remember. These past few years have been rough on a diehard Mets fan like me but we have our moments here and there. One amazing memory that is actually up there with that '86 championship to a degree, was the first ever no-hitter in Mets history. I'll never forget back on June 1^st, 2012 when for the first time in team history, the New York Mets FINALLY achieved a no-hitter. I watched every inning that game getting goosebumps with every successful out leading to the 9^th inning. Once it finally happened, I knew that the player who ended up bringing that elusive no-hitter to the Mets would be immortalized forever. Of course it went to one of my favorite players on the team, Starting Pitcher Johan Santana.

Some say the decision Manager Terry Collins made to keep Santana in that game potentially led to the shoulder issues that nagged him thereafter. He re-tore his shoulder capsule going into this past MLB season and ultimately needed season-ending surgery that technically stemmed from that perfect game. He missed the entire season and being at the age of 34 years old, everyone wondered if he would ever be the same again. A few weeks ago, the Mets had the decision to pick up his team option or decline it. The team ultimately made the decision to not bring him back. At the time of this editorial, he will be testing the free agency market. There is a possibility he will return to the Mets if no interesting offers are presented from other teams. There is also talk he might be presented with a new deal by the Mets that is incentive based since he is coming off surgery and a year away from MLB. It’s the first time in his career Santana will be a free agent so this is all new to him as well as Mets fans seeing his name there.

When you look at the big picture, many questions need to be answered. Can Santana be effective as a starter again next year? Since he's towards the last leg of his solid career, would there be a chance he would change pitching positions? Maybe converting to a Relief Pitcher or even a Closing Pitcher at this point of his career? Of course the big elephant in the room is would the Mets make some kind of offer to bring him back since we are down an ace? We all know Starting Pitcher Matt Harvey will be out for all of the 2014 MLB season due to Tommy John Surgery on his throwing shoulder so we have a spot open. Would it make sense to bring back an established ace to fill the void without Harvey?

Let's try to dissect all this for a moment.

In the long-term sense, bringing back Santana would be a mistake. For the short-term idea of things, perhaps a simple one-year deal as insurance would be ideal for the Mets. I still think though, this could truly have been the last time we've seen Santana wear a Mets uniform and I'll explain why. We all know the Owners of the Mets, the Wilpons, have made it quite clear they want to bring in some top notch talent to the team to make a quality season out of 2014. They want great pitching, solid defense, hard-hitting players, and gradually mix in their young amazing prospects into the majors. The Mets farm system is one of the best in baseball, especially with pitchers. The Wilpons want to make the organization and its fans know the “youth movement” is coming, no more memories of aging superstars eating away at the finances of the team. No more old players just standing around being unproductive or way past their prime. The key is to upgrade areas with established productive players through the free agency and build from within. Sadly, a player like Santana doesn't fit this criteria anymore when you think about it. He's coming off an entire year of no baseball activity and off of back to back major shoulder surgeries. It's more than likely he's seen his better days and for the Mets to bring him back would be a setback. It would seem like they're just bringing him back for namesake purposes and not for the benefit of the long-term big picture. Sure, there is that slight chance he will return and be decent but history shows that most players don't after these circumstances. They come back and easily require a few more years of re-learning the mechanics and techniques of what made them originally famous. It's not easy to say the least.

It's sad that Santana's final moments with the Mets ended this way. I don't see him returning to the team and he will end up playing somewhere else battling struggles to keep up with everything. I'll always be grateful for his contributions to the Mets as well as finally bringing that no-hitter to this franchise. I finally got to witness something other than a championship that will be remembered for generations to come. Santana pitched that in Citi Field too, you can't put a price on how awesome it all was.

The first Mets jersey I ever bought was back in 2008. When it comes to jerseys, I always take my time and think about who I want to represent. Sure, I could have easily got one of David Wright, Jose Reyes, or even Carlos Beltran since they were all awesome at the time. Something told me though, I had to get the jersey of a true warrior. Someone who exemplified greatness and extraordinary skill. A baseball player who fascinated me every single time I saw them play this sport I love so much.

I went with #57.

Models for Success

 

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox are set to face each other in the World Series tomorrow. It should be a fantastic series that pits two of the best teams in baseball. Why is this series of interest to Mets fans? Well, maybe we can get a glimpse of how our organization should be run. Both teams got to the World Series with different methods and I think a lot can be learned from how these two teams were put together.

St. Louis has the closest blueprint for what the Mets have now. This team built its  foundation from within. Their drafts and farm systems have yielded countless contributors to this team every year. The cornerstones of this franchise have never played anywhere other than for the Cardinals. Jon Jay, Yadier Molina, David Freese; the list goes on and on with homegrown talent. The only two places that have been filled from outside the organization have been the corner outfields with Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran. Does this sound like the lineup blueprint for what the Mets will be trying to accomplish this offseason?

The starting rotation produces more of the same. Young arms that have been given the chance to contribute to this club in important situations. Shelby Miller and Michael Wacha are the new studs that, along with Adam Wainwright, form a very effective troika of starting pitchers. The bullpen has had more plug and play than the rest of the organization, but still has organizational depth. Trevor Rosenthal has blended with new faces like Randy Choate and a reborn Edward Mujica to complete their team. St. Louis sits at a team payroll closing in on $102 million dollars so this isn't to say that a team like this doesn't come with some cost, but their greatest asset is knowing when not to make the big salary move. Their refusal to pay Albert Pujols was considered heresy by some who worship Pujols as a baseball god, however, his play has done nothing to make the Cardinals regret moving on with Allen Craig, who is only the best hitter with RISP on the planet.

The St. Louis Cardinals just seem to do everything right and to some extent as a Mets fan, I hate their guts. But you have to respect the innate ability to always be right. The Boston Red Sox aren't always right, but they sure didn't do a whole lot of wrong this year.

Few people seem to remember just how terrible this team was a year ago. The team was written off, doomed to a wasted year of irrelevance with beer and chicken jokes being thrown in their faces. Boston of course went on to shock the baseball world and is now competing for a championship. The question of how can be attributed to the correct distribution of funds for players that fit in with the team and what they were trying to do. They got rid of cap salary destroyers like Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford and found players like Shane Victorino and Stephen Drew who were able to produce in the situations where the former players could not. The team became more balanced and even got a shot to the arm with the acquisition of Jake Peavy to the starting rotation.

Boston never had a terrible team design. There were obviously star players on the roster and they just needed complimentary players. Now, Mike Napoli definitely plays better than anything you would consider complimentary, but  his addition is the type of calculated add that moves a team into contention. They needed a power bat to help David Ortiz. They identified that need and filled it without mortgaging their future. When 2014 comes, this team may look nothing like the one playing in the World Series. They are set to move on with the future of players like Xander Bogaerts and could surely lose out on Jacoby Ellsbury to free agency, but the new regime in Boston has gambled and won. I'm inclined to believe that the winning won't stop there.

When you watch this series, think about how these teams got there. The process for both teams was successful and the Mets could go a long way by implementing a little from both organizations.

Oh and just a prediction: Cardinals in 7. Pitching is just too good right now.

The LTJ Editorial: “The best memory Mike Piazza gave me”

“The LTJ Editorial”
Author: Luis Tirado Jr.
Date: 9-27-13
Twitter: @LTJ81
Website: http://www.TheNYExpress.com

“The best memory Mike Piazza gave me”

I will have the privilege of attending the final NY Mets game this coming Sunday, September 29^th, 2013 at Citi Field and it won't just be another baseball game for me. This will be the day the Mets will induct Mike Piazza into their own Hall of Fame and will honor him in a pre-game ceremony tribute. I have plenty of memories about Pizza especially a huge one that I'll never forget to this very day. More on that later in this article but for now, let us take a look at some of the accolades Piazza earned wearing a Mets uniform.

Piazza is a 12-time All-Star and in the eyes of most baseball enthusiasts, easily one of the best catchers to ever play the game. When you look at professional baseball as a whole, he holds the most home runs hit by a catcher at the amazing number of 427. The last time the Mets went to the World Series back in 2000, one of the biggest reasons they were able to get there in the first place was because of the hot bat of Piazza. I remember he had a hitting streak of 15 straight games where he at least got one run batted in. During his tenure with the Mets, he honored every single game in the contract he signed back in 1998 and played for about 7 years. During that stretch, he played in 972 games, had 532 runs, 1028 hits, 193 doubles, two triples, 220 home runs, 655 runs batted in, 7 stolen bases, a batting average of .296, and a .373 on base percentage. Absolutely incredible stats and many say that the trade the Mets made to acquire Piazza was one of the best in baseball history to turn a franchise into the right direction. A winning direction at that.

When you look at his career, he has not only been quite the class act, but he's been a phenomenal superstar no matter where he ended up playing. Even though he debuted for the Los Angeles Dodgers and played for teams like the Miami Marlins, San Diego Padres, and the Oakland A's, he will almost always be remembered for his tenure with the Mets. He even said when his time comes to get into the MLB Hall of Fame, he wants to be inducted as a Met. Before his professional baseball debut, ever since he was a little boy, baseball was his world. Did you know when Piazza was just five years old, his Dad was working on his arm strength by making him throw baseballs and practice catching? Another fun fact is that when he was just twelve years old in his custom-made backyard batting cage, he had a very special instructor. One who showed him what kind of batting stance he should always use. It was Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams! It was Williams who actually showed him how to bat and made sure to teach Piazza that no matter what any coach ever told him, to never change his batting stance.

Many baseball fans, especially Mets fans, cherish every memory he brought to this team. I remember one very big memory though because it helped distract me during a difficult time not only in my life but in the lives of millions. I will never forget the terrorist attacks that struck this nation, especially in New York with the September 11^th, 2001 attacks. I remember just a huge sadness that hit me the day it happened that lasted that entire week and still bothers me to this day. Everything in New York was on lock down, every night I went to bed I would worry if in the news the next day more attacks would occur. The sports world stopped and you couldn't even watch TV or even listen to Sports Radio because everyone was focusing on the coverage of what would be another upcoming war this country would face. After the week was over, some kind of sports returned that weekend I remember. It was another NL East game featuring the Atlanta Braves coming to Shea Stadium to take on the Mets. Everyone was sad, crying, it was really emotional since all the players wore NYPD/FDNY caps to honor New York. It was the first sporting event held after the 9/11 attacks, so it meant a lot to a ton of people, regardless if you followed baseball or not. What's my all-time favorite Piazza memory? That at-bat where Piazza hit a ball for a home run that even though I wasn't physically at the game, I heard the Shea Stadium crowd from my home in Queens. It was huge and gives me goosebumps every single time I see that hit. At the time, it lifted the entire city to forget just for a little bit of what occurred earlier that week.

Mike Piazza stands for a lot of things. Integrity, loyalty, and of course, doing things the right way. I know a number of years ago he admitted to using something called Androstenedione but at the time it wasn't anything banned by MLB. Piazza used it for muscle mass and it really isn't any kind of Performance Enhancing Drug when you think about it. It's not like he was a horrible player, took Andro, and starting to hit 10 home runs a game thereafter. As far as I'm concerned, he has brought nothing but great memories and will be remembered as an incredible player. Does he belong in the MLB Hall of Fame? Absolutely! No catcher in the history of the game has made as much an impact as Piazza did and while he didn't get enough votes the last time he was eligible, he will eventually get in. This time though, in Cooperstown.

Dreams of Winning A World Series

I can remember when I first started to dream about playing professional baseball and wearing a Major League uniform in front of thousands of fans and millions of television viewers. I was about 12 years old and I had traveled with a team down to Cooperstown, NY, for a baseball tournament. During that week while I was there with my father and my team, I had the opportunity of walking through the baseball Hall of Fame. I wish I could recall the experience in depth, but as time goes by I find that my detailed description isn't quite the same. What I do remember is seeing a huge baseball bat and riding down an escalator into the actual exhibit of former greats.

I was interested in Sandy Koufax in those days. He was a little left-hander like myself with an unbelievable fastball and curveball. At that time, I didn't have any idea that I would throw as hard as 95mph, nor did I know that I was going to run into Bob Welch while temporarily with the Dodgers organization in 2005 and learn a filthy curveball. Walking around the Hall of Fame in 1996 made me start to dream. I started to dream about being older one day and standing in front of the podium during an induction ceremony and seeing thousands of fans standing and anticipating what I had to say about the honor of being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

At 12 years old, I was dreaming about the Hall of Fame. That's cute right. Well, nevertheless, I pursued getting to the Major Leagues and making that dream come true. Pitching seemed like the way to do it. Back then, I wasn't really known as a hard thrower. I had two cousins, Matthew and Charles Merricks, who people in my community really respected in the sports world, but I was just the little cousin.

I must say that I would have never made it as far as I have if it wasn't for the love, care, and attention of my father, Ronnie Merricks. My dad was more than a dedicated parent to the well being of his son pursuing his dream. He is still that dedicated individual who has taught me to stop at no cost of making your dreams come true. The place that I always envisioned myself playing was in the city of San Francisco for the Giants. I would dream at night of throwing my glove in the air in a game 7 World Series win, like I am sure most young men interested in this game have done, and I could see my parents and my family in the stands ecstatic to see that we finally did it. We finally pulled off the ultimate win.

Is that dream over? To be honest with you, my optimism tells me that the dream does not have to die. That it is still within my grasp. But sometimes, looking back at 6 seasons and 75 professional innings pitched, it doesn't seem like it is within reach at all.

I enrolled at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for Motion Picture/Television in pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the field of screenwriting. That may change as time goes by but writing has always been a lifelong dream too and I am looking forward to the 2010 spring semester which will start in February and end on May 22. I have decided that if it makes sense, I will find an independent team to play for who needs a starting pitcher, and if it works out that way, hopefully I can get more than 50 plus innings for the first time in my professional career. I will be 26 on the 23rd of December this year, and the time doesn't seem to be moving any slower. I realize that it isn't just about my dreams anymore. My son Aiden is here too, and I have the same responsibility my father had with me to help him pursue and achieve his passions.

Probably one of the main reasons I have enrolled in school in San Francisco is so that I can get close to that field that I have dreamed about playing on. At least, to be within a couple of miles of the location where I would visualize winning the World Series, is still possible. And if my chances of standing on the field as a player to win one has faded away, I can still play ball with my friends on the weekends and experience the true joy of what baseball is all about.

I want to add that I have had an incredible experience in moving forward to get as far as I have in this game. It has been a voyage that has taught me a lot about a game and life. This has been a priceless experience that I will be able to share with lots of youth who are pursuing the same dream. And yes, the dream is within reach for those who never stop dreaming.