Month: August 2008

Mets Rookie Invasion Continues- Kunz Promoted

Daily News beat reporter Adam Rubin is reporting today that the Mets are promoting relief pitcher Eddie Kunz from Double-A Binghamton.The post doesn’t say if Kunz will be in uniform in Houston this afternoon or not, and he doesn’t say who Kunz will replace on the roster. I would surmise it’ll be Carlos Muniz.

Kunz is a 6’5″ 265 lbs. right-hander. He’s pitched in 44 games at Binghamton with a 1-4 record and 2.79 ERA. He was the Mets top draft choice in 2007.

We’re seeing a wave of rookies coming to the Mets and expect to see more soon. Daniel Murphy, Nick Evans, and Argenis Reyes are all making contributions at the Major League level. Expect Fernando Martinez not to be far behind if Ryan Church can’t get back to form when he comes off the disabled list.

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On Deck- August 3- Mets at Astros [Game 3]

New York Mets (58-52 Road: 26-32) at Houston Astros (52-57 Home: 28-26) 2:05pm

Oliver Perez (7-6 4.02) vs. Randy Wolf (6-10 4.79)

TV: CW11 Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets try to avoid the sweep today in Houston before coming home and having an off-day tomorrow. Perez has been outstanding under pitching coach Dan Warthen and looks to be the stopper today. The Astros inexplicably traded for Randy Wolf, who makes his second start for Houston today. He wasn’t very good in his first start going 4.1 innings against the Brewers and giving up 4 runs (3 earned).

Don’t forget to visit the Mets Report Live Game Chat during the game by clicking “Live Game Chat” above or click here.

Lupica- Beltran Is New York’s Biggest Offensive Disappointment

I have to say that I really don’t understand the fans and media that don’t like Carlos Beltran. What’s there not to like about the guy? What I hear is that he’s not a $100 million player, he’s not fiery or aggressive enough, and he’s not a New York guy.

I think Beltran is an excellent player and well worth the $119 million. The Mets knew exactly what they were getting when they signed him in 2005. Believe me, they researched him well. Even this season when there’s so much talk about getting Beltran going offensively, he’s really not far off his career average numbers.

Look at his 2008 season versus his career 162 game averages:

2008: .265/ .363/ .454 117 OPS+ 15 HR 73 RBI 16 SB

Career: .279/ .355/ .493 116 OPS+ 28 HR 107 RBI 30 SB

image It’s only the beginning of August and he’s not far off his career averages. He plays an excellent center field, always plays hard, has a good arm, and by all accounts he’s a good teammate and a good person. What’s there not to like about him?

I don’t get the backlash against him from the likes of WFAN’s Joe Benigno, who’s never been known to make the most intellectual of arguments, or today’s Daily News column by Mike Lupica. Comparing Beltran to Derek Jeter, hitting 33 points below his lifetime average is ridiculous. Jeter is the second best shortstop on his own team, is having a down offensive season, and has no range in the field.

In my mind, there’s no comparison. And Beltran isn’t a disappointment for the Mets.

Flickr photo courtesy of alpineinc

Mets Will Play Evans- Murphy Platoon In Left Field

Mets manager Jerry Manuel announced yesterday that he was going with an all-rookie platoon in left field. Nick Evans and Daniel Murphy will split time in left while Fernando Tatis will become the everyday right fielder.

This is a real stop-gap situation until Ryan Church gets back from his post concussion syndrome problems that have plagued him for much of this season. Church may be back with the Mets within the next two weeks depending on his progress.

Manuel’s done as good a job as he can with the pieces he’s been given in the outfield. Endy Chavez has some skills but he’s not an everyday player. So the Mets have to go with players that are naturally infielders in the outfield corners for now. We’ll see defensive shortfalls like the game winning hit that Tatis couldn’t make a play on in Houston last night. Unfortunately, we’ll have to live with that for now.

Mets Lose To Astros 5-4 In 10 Innings

The bottom line of this game is that Johan Santana just needs to pitch a complete game every time out for the Mets to win. This was an incredibly frustrating loss for a multitude of reasons. But Santana was terrific. He went 6.1 innings giving up 3 hits and 1 run. What does he have to do to get a win?

The bullpen was  complete disaster tonight. And Billy Wagner threw some gas on the fire tonight too with his 7th blown save of the season. Scott Schoenweiss gave up a long solo homer to Kaz Matsui, Wagner gave up three sharp hits and two runs allowing the Astros to tie the game, Aaron Heilman gave up a leadoff walk in the 10th inning and a hit, and then Pedro Feliciano gave up a sacrifice fly to Darren Estad for the Astros to win it.

Daniel “Don’t call me Dan” Murphy got a hit in his first Major League at-bat, and made a tremendous jumping catch against the wall in left and threw to second base for a double play. Nice start for the rookie.

So the Mets fall to third place in the NL East on this loss as the Phillies and Marlins won tonight. The Mets have lost three straight and have lost the series in Houston. They’ll try to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon.

Box score

NY Times Opinion- Bring Old Timers Game To Citi Field

This image is a candidate for speedy deletion....Image via Wikipedia

I read an interesting piece in the NY Times Opinion section today written by author Brian Biegel. Basically, he talks about having fond memories of the Old-Timers game at Shea Stadium and pines for it to come back again. I’ll tell you that I’m not a big fan of the Old-Timers games. They’re fine, just not that important in my mind.

Maybe the resurrecting the Mets old timers game will be more important next year at Citi Field. The Mets will become distanced from much of their history when Shea Stadium is torn down and we’re parking our cars where home plate used to be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to going to games at Citi Field as much as the next fan. But there will, inherently, be a distance from the Mets roots at Shea.

The Mets, as an organization, seem to feel its important to keep some of the former players in the organization and on their TV network. If that’s important to them, as it appears to be, they should think about rekindling the Mets history at Citi Field with an Old-Timers game.

Biegel writes that the reason they don’t currently have an Old-Timers game is:

So what’s going on with the Mets? A team spokesman told me that having an Old-Timers’ game just didn’t make enough money for the club.

That seems like a lame excuse to me for not having an Old-Timers game. They could have it before one of the inter-league games against the Yankees when the stadium will be sold out anyway. Finances can’t be the only reason… The Mets had an operating profit of over $32 million last year.

I’m on board. Bring the Old-Timers game to Citi Field!

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