Notice that ESPN has the score incorrectly listed at 6-5. The final score was actually 9-7 with the Mets beating the Reds. Good work ESPN.
Month: April 2009
Audio: Mets Manager Jerry Manuel April 8, 2009
WFAN’s Mike Francesa interviews Mets manager Jerry Manuel. I’ll say this right off the bat. This isn’t a very good interview. Francesa does most of the talking about every topic. They do get into the bullpen changes this season and Gary Sheffield. Click the link below to listen.
New York Mets News Top Stories April 9, 2009
As we recover from the flashbacks of last year’s bullpen this morning, the Mets are preparing for a morning game in Cincinnati. You can read my game preview here. Who knows what to expect from Oliver Perez today? The funny thing about Perez is that he’ll probably be the first pitcher in Mets history to throw a no-hitter. And then in his next start he won’t get out of the first inning against the Pirates.
Onto today’s top stories:
Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball has a great post about the blackout rules that MLB has for their Extra Innings package and MLB.TV. Make sure you read it if you’re planning to buy one of those. Here in Connecticut I get blacked out from seeing the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox.
Ken Belson at The New York Times writes a nice piece on how the Mets have increased their ticket prices over last season despite the bad economy. He goes into good detail about the tiered packages that the Mets use. Not surprisingly, he writes about how the Mets keep making a higher percentage of the games in the most expensive tiers.
Jim Baumcach at Newsday writes a good column about how Citi Field seems to be embrace the Dodgers and Giants history without giving a complete picture of Mets history. Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry aren’t reprensented in the new stadium.
Marty Noble at MLB.com writes that Billy Wagner plans to be in Port St. Lucie next week to throw off the mound. He’s recovering from surgery to repair a ligament and muscle in his left arm. Wagner says he plans to be back with the Mets by this August. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. I don’t think that the Mets want him back this season. But the thought of having three legitimate closers in the Mets bullpen at the end of this season is exciting for us fans.
Tino Evangelou at Mets Geek has a good post comparing Oliver Perez to Derek Lowe. We’ll be making this comparison for the foreseeable future and Perez won’t stack up very well most likely.
Marty Noble at MLB.com writes that Jerry Manuel may use Gary Sheffield in the outfield against the Marlins on Sunday. Everyone is waiting to see Sheff right now. I’d like to see him worked into a pinch-hitting appearance within the next couple of days.
The Mets are auctioning off some of their higher end price tier seats for opening day. Its not a good sign when you have to resort to this type of gimmick to sell opening day seats in a new stadium. We’ll have to keep an eye on ticket sales as the season progresses.
Bernie Madoff’s Mets tickets are for sale on eBay. This isn’t a joke.
Flickr photo courtesy of slgckgc
Game Preview: Mets At Reds [Game 3] April 9, 2009
New York Mets (2-0 Road: 2-0) vs. Cincinnati Reds (0-2 Home: 0-2) 12:35 pm
Oliver Perez (0-0 0.00) vs. Bronson Arroyo (0-0 0.00)
What to watch: The Mets go for the sweep today in Cincinnati behind the enigmatic Oliver Perez. Perez got tagged by the Red Sox on Saturday in the Mets final exhibition game. The crowd at Citi Field boo’d him as he came out. Bronson Arroyo is coming back earlier than expected from a bout of carpal tunnel. Micah Owings was originally expected to pitch today’s for the Reds. The Mets will leave town right after the game to head to Miami for a series against the Marlins.
Visit The Mets Report Live Game Chat during the game to chat with other Mets fans.
Mets Edge Reds 9-7 April 8, 2009
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Mike Pelfrey started the game terribly throwing 44 pitches in the first inning, laboring to find the strike zone. It didn’t help that Angel Hernandez was behind the plate tonight either. The Reds put up four runs in the first, notably on a 3-run homer by Joey Votto, the young Reds first baseman.
The Mets got two runs in the first inning as well on a 2-run shot by Carlos Delgado. The Mets offensive hero of the night was Delgado who had four RBI’s on the night.
Pelfrey only last five innings which turned out to be just enough to get the win. The bullpen stumbled a bit as well. Bobby Parnell gave up two walks but no runs in his inning of work. Pedro Feliciano got hit in the seventh, giving up two runs in .2 innings. Even J.J. Putz gave up a run in the eighth. And Francisco Rodriguez reminded me of last season’s bullpen disasters by loading the bases in the ninth inning on two walks and a questionable error on Delgado. Fortunately, he got out of the inning unscathed which was a nice change from last season.
The Mets go to 2-0 on the season and get things going early tomorrow with a 12:35 pm game time.
Video: Olney On Mets-Mariners Trade
ESPN’s Buster Olney has an interesting revelation about the trade that brought J.J. Putz and Sean Green to the Mets in the off-season. Dustin Pedroia‘s opinion on Green factored into their decision making. The decision to bring in Green looked pretty good in game one against Cinicinnati.
Mets Spring Suffers Huge Loss
In the middle of the worst U.S. economy since the Great Depression, the Mets felt the effects more than any other team in the Florida Grapefruit League this spring according to a report in the NY Post. Tradition Field suffered a year over year loss of 16.3% in ticket sales this year. That’s an average of almost 1,000 fewer fans per game over their 16 game home schedule. Compare that to the Yankees loss of just 1.6% over last year’s spring ticket sales.
The Arizona Catcus League losses were even worse. From the NY Post:
Teams in the Cactus League in Arizona suffered far worse drops, however. The Padres’ attendance fell a whopping 30.8 percent, while Texas dropped 26.2 percent and the Angels 25.1 percent.
In my mind, this goes to show that the Mets organization severely underestimated the effect that the current economy would have on spring attendance. They should have adjusted ticket prices and promotions to compensate for the environmental factors that they were up against.
The Mets didn’t bring in any “big splash” free agents that would draw fans to Tradition Field. Francisco Rodriuguez doesn’t really qualify in the same way that CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira did for the Yankees. Hopefully, the Mets learned a lesson the hard way and will apply what they learned to the high-end ticket prices this season at Citi Field.
The Mets Report 