SNY will significantly expand its Mets programming with two news shows this
season:
Mets First Pitch presented by Cadillac will air prior to
Pepsi Max Mets Pre Game Live and feature in-depth instructional segments with
Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and Bob Ojeda; Terry Collins pre-game presser;
Exclusive one-on-one’s with SNY’s on-air talent interviewing players and
opposing players, managers and GM’s; Interactive social media elements;
Viewer/fan phone calls with SNY’s on-air talent; and Player profile features.
Mets Insider presented by W.B. Mason will debut Sunday, March
31, at 6:00 p.m. and be produced in a magazine style format. It will feature
shows on a variety of topics, including dedicated episodes about the draft and
prospects, player profiles, “Where are they Now” episodes, All-Star game
features and more.
This
is great news. You simply can’t have enough Mets coverage for people like me
that live outside the New York Metro area. As I have mentioned before, for some
reason SNY blacks out all the Mets games, both past and present, on my South
Carolina cable company. I do receive the spring training games but that’s it. I
assume this isn’t personal J
The
“Mets Insider” feature sounds like something that will also be blacked out
here, but the pre-game won’t be and the TC presser will only help me write
about the team.
Great
stuff.
Q - Do you think the Mets had a right to file a grievance
regarding their draft pick? A rule is a rule, right?
Keith Law - A rule is a rule, and this one was collectively bargained.
If you don't like it, bring it up in the next negotiation. Or, even better,
sever the tie between free agents and the draft entirely.
The last Mets pitcher to win a playoff game was John Maine.
Bob Klapisch - @BobKlap
Curious how Fred Wilpon waits
until all the free agents are signed to say Mets actually have money.
When he
first came up, he didn’t have a problem with those breaking balls. The key is
laying off those pitches you should be lay off, and that comes down to pitch
recognition. When you start struggling a little bit, guys start chasing hits,
and chasing results. Whenever you start
doing that, you start a little bit earlier. … I try to teach the guys, if you
see spin down — knee high or thigh high — if it’s spinning, you have to
discipline yourself. But when you’re
hunting hits, it’s very difficult to do. That’s how it snow balled with
Nieuwenhuis a little bit. He couldn’t calm himself down and he wanted to hit so
bad, he was committing himself early and not recognizing those pitches. My
suggestion to [the hitters] is early in the count, we’re tracking pitches.
Right now, we’re going down and watching our pitchers on the side and watching
that spin. Then when the games begin, hunt fastballs. [He] can hit breaking
balls, but it has to be a breaking ball that’s up.
It is
close to impossible to think that Nieuwenhuis will start this season as bad as
he finished last year. He struggled against the righties, but was downright
pathetic against left hand pitching. Hudgens is 100% correct when he says that
the Captain was chasing. I remember him actually starting his swing before the
ball had even left the pitchers hand.
I was
a late blooming switch hitter, but started out as a righty. And, I dealt with a
righty’s curve only one way… you had to get it in before I swung at the next
one.
I
also found, and continue to find, that umpires don’t like curves and tend to
call them outside the zone unless they end up dead zero in the middle. Does
this make the actual pitch a strike? I mean, if the ball ends up as a
bulls-eye, didn’t it spend most of the time crossing the batter as a ball?
Very
few umpires are going to call a low breaking ball a strike and the quickest way
of turning around a reputation that you are a sucker for a curve is to stop
swinging at them. Sure, you may strike out looking a few times, but the word
will get around that you’re not fishing anymore and pitchers will have to
command the zone more when they pitch to you.
Let
me tell you a little secret.
Pitchers
don’t throw curves to throw strikes.
They throw curves to make you swing.
I
like Nieuwenhuis and I’d like to see him succeed past being the opening act for
Matt den
Dekker. The only
question is whether or not the Mets will let him start against a lefty again.
“My
histories of denial are documented all the way back to 1997, so I didn’t think
that was news coming into it. … Most of the stuff that I documented was pretty
much through the training room, through the trainers. One of the things was
Vioxx, which is a very strong anti-inflammatory, that was banned because it was
one of those things that could cause heart attacks and things like that. I just
really wanted to paint a picture that drugs, unfortunately, [are] part of
sports. Obviously, it’s part of the training room. Sometimes you have to do
those things, [like] Cortisone, to get out on the field. I just merely wanted
to kind of draw a comparison to [how], sometimes, guys blurred the line. As far
as andro for me, it was just a supplement that came in a pack that I bought.
Once I started realizing that it was being discouraged, then I stopped it.”
I
really liked Mike Piazza as a Met and I
can’t think of a more exciting game than the one when he hit that home run to
center in that first game back from 9-11, but all this book does for me is make
me remember all the hush-hush involving his possible drug use ( plus his sexual
tastes).
In addition, he has some unpleasant
things to say about Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, who, according to Piazza, had it in for him. Do you
really want to take on Scully? Isn’t this like dissing the Easter Bunny?
It is obvious Piazza had something to
say and he specifically didn’t release the book until after the Hall of Fame
vote. I was quite impressed with his first year number of votes and my guess is
he stands a good chance of getting in next season, but putting out a defensive
book isn’t going to help him get there.
This may put some money in his pocket
but, in ‘my book’, we’re back to square one about the issues surrounding Big
Mike.
…………………………………
d’Arnaud’s trouble staying healthy might be
more of an obstacle than John Buck, the Mets’ expected starter behind the
plate, although I also could see the Mets letting d’Arnaud get 200 to 250 plate
appearances in Triple-A to work on his approach and make up for the time he
missed last year.
d'Arnaud hit 16 home runs last year at Triple-A
Las Vegas with a .380 on-base percentage in 67 games, numbers that should have
vaulted him to the big leagues by the All-Star break. As it was, d'Arnaud tore
a ligament in his left knee in June, prematurely ending his season. He worked
and rehabbed and was fine by the holidays, hiking around Lake Tahoe with his
girlfriend, Britney, in November. Less than a month later, the Jays made him
the centerpiece of a deal to bring R.A. Dickey to Toronto, ending one era in
New York while establishing another. The Mets also acquired a top-flight
pitching prospect in the seven-player deal, a veteran catcher and one other
prospect. But it was d'Arnaud whom they coveted, d'Arnaud who represented the
key to everything.
Right
now, the Mets have around 7-8 guys to write about until, at least, the spring
training games start, so these two articles may not be the last of the d’Arnaud
stories going around.
I
didn’t know he went hiking after his rehab. I feel much more confident after
reading that.
I
agree with Keith Law.
First
of all, I don’t think John Buck is going to give
up his starting job as easy as everybody thinks. Buck is a professional hitter
coming off his worse career season and could easily post the highest slugging
percentage on this team during the first half of this upcoming season.
No,
Buck will not be a Met next year, and, yes, d’Arnaud is the future catcher for
this team, but there doesn’t seem to be any logical reason to rush him.
First,
forget the hiking… let’s see how the ligament holds up under game time
conditions. Second, keeping him on the farm a little longer will give the Mets
an additional year that d’Arnaud is controlled by the team. And lastly, it’s
only 2013 and everything this team is doing is targeted for 2014.
No, I
like the plan I have mentioned before. Put him on the same plane that SP Zack Wheeler will be on at the all-star break. Let Wheeler replace the
departing Johan Santana (trade)
and name d’Arnaud your starting catcher.
This
also could be a good time to add another person to that plane ride, SP Jenrry Mejia. What better time to replace Dillon Gee with Mejia and 40% of your rotation has already been caught
by d’Arnaud the first half of the season.
………………………………………
Wilpon asserted that the diminished payroll now
overseen by General Manager Sandy Alderson — it stands at a little over $90 million — was
open to being increased, perhaps back to the $140 million-plus level once
maintained by the team’s previous general manager, Omar Minaya. Wilpon was not
specific as to just when Alderson might open the spigots, although he did say
there was a “50-50” chance that Alderson would do something significant in the
middle of the 2013 season to improve the team if its performance on the field
justified such a move.
This
is like the Mike Piazza decision to come
out with his book after the Hall of Fame vote. Now, we have the owner
saying the team can spend money when there is no one left out there to spend it
on.
I
happen to believe what is being said here, but please believe me that no one is
going to trade you an established star halfway through the season if they are
still trying to make the playoffs.
The
first thing the Mets need to do is continue to clear payroll, which will begin
with the Santana contract. My guess is the Mets will trade him (if he is
healthy and producing) before the 2013 season is over and, the Mets will have
to eat a large portion of the existing dollars left on that contract. Big deal.
My
next guess is the best you’re going to receive back here is a decent minor
league prospect. Trust me, if Santana is pitching like he has most of his
career, this has the potential of producing another Zack Wheeler-type acquisition, but, the down side here will still
probably be a potential MLB starter at a badly needed position life outfield.
By
the way… the more you will eat of the Santana contract, the better the prospect
will be.
Would
I eat, let’s say, $20mil for a deal that gets me someone like George Springer, Jackie Bradley Jr., or
Michael
Choice?
You
bet your ass I would.
Now,
if you can pull this off, you can concentrate your off-season on the purchase
of one key superstar in a free agent market dominated by players over the age
of 30.
Would
it kill the Mets to make a run at 2B Robinson Cano ? Sure, you’d have to pay him more than you paid David Wright, but the Wright contract is old news. A ‘big market’ team
needs to make at least one big market deal each off-season and I can’t think of
a better one this off-season than Cano
If Fred Wilpon is telling the beat reporters the truth about his family’s
lack of debt and the team’s ability to return to a proper payroll, than show me
the money?
What
about the outfield? Well, there will be plenty of opportunities to package two
or three of the young starters in this organization and go trade for someone
that will join what’s starting to become quite the lineup.
And
then, come 2015, I’m going after Justin Verlander.
One thing… I need to bring this up every once
in a while. My past brain trauma creates a situation sometimes that I don’t
always type what I’m thinking. Things come out differently and I have a hard
time recognizing it myself, even when I spell check. Regulars have learned to live
with it and I apologize for what seems like stupid mistakes.
