Month: April 2011

Video: Mets Weekly Report – Marlins, Beltran, and Phillies

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: RY 24: Mik...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

In this week’s video, Kerel Cooper of On The Black and I talk about the Marlins series that the Mets just took in Miami. We talk about Carlos Beltran (and his knees), Mike Pelfrey’s poor start on Friday night, Willie Harris’ hot bat, and the upcoming series in Philly starting tomorrow.

The Mets will face Hamels, Blanton, and Halladay in Philly this week. That will be a good early season test of how the Mets offense stacks up against some solid pitching. Tomorrow will also be our first look at Chris Young in a regular season game. He goes right into the fire in Philly.

Check out the video below and comment with your thoughts.

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Mets 9 – Marlins 2 April 3, 2011

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Willie Harr...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Mets put a beat down on Javier Vazquez early in the game today. They put up 7 runs in the first three innings and the game was effectively over. The Mets win the road series which is something we didn’t see much of last year at all. R.A. Dickey got the win although he wasn’t as sharp as we saw him last season. It’s a good start to the season winning this one in Miami.

The Mets offense went off on Vazquez and the subsequent Marlins pitchers with 8  hits and a staggering 9 walks. Willie Harris continued his hot hitting with a home run in the first inning. Ike Davis tacked on another one in the third. It was a true team effort with the Mets getting hits up and down the lineup.

Dickey only gave up 1 unearned run in 6 IP, but he did give up 5 hits and 3 walks. So he had runners on base frequently and was able to get out of jams. Chris Capuano didn’t look good at all relieving Dickey. He gave up 3 hits, a walk, and a run in 0.2 IP. Not a good start to the season for Capuano.

The Mets are off tomorrow and head to Philly on Tuesday. Hopefully, they can another road series win there too.

Box score

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Preview: Mets at Marlins April 3, 2011

New York Mets (1-1) vs. Florida Marlins (1-1) 1:10pm ET

R.A. Dickey (0-0, NA) vs. Javier Vazquez (0-0, NA)

TV: SNY, FSFL         Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets and Marlins play the rubber game of the series this afternoon. Expect Carlos Beltran to get the day off, maybe play as a pinch hitter if needed. Dickey gets his first start of the year and I’ll be curious to see if last year’s dream season continues this year.

Vazquez has a career record of 10-9 with a 3.16 ERA against the Mets in 25 games.

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Mets Punked By SNY Employee

SportsNet New York
Image via Wikipedia

Richard Sandomir has a great story in the NY Times yesterday about the Mets opening day broadcast getting punked by an SNY employee. I assume that person is a former SNY employee now. If you’re reading this, contact me so we can get your side of the story out. ]

After the Mets lost the game Friday night to the Marlins, SNY ran a brief audio clip of the Fox “Family Guy” episode making fun of the Mets. I was watching the game and didn’t even notice it, it’s so brief. Of course, it’s available on YouTube. Check it out below.

You can see the video clip from the original “Family Guy” on YouTube also. That will give you a frame of reference for the audio that appeared during the SNY broadcast Friday night.

This certainly perpetuates the image that the Mets are a joke of a franchise. Sometimes it’s hard to defend against that perception to friends and family, especially if they’re Yankees, Phillies, or even Red Sox fans. But I’m sure there’s no way that SNY would tolerate an employee pulling a prank like that during a live broadcast.

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Mets 6 – Marlins 4 April 2, 2011

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Jon Niese #...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This was a good game with several turns of fortune for both teams. It’s good for the Mets to get the first win under their belts so they don’t have to worry about getting swept in their first series tomorrow afternoon. Jon Niese had a very shaky start, giving up 2 runs in the first inning. But he recovered nicely to pitch the next 6 scoreless innings.

The Mets had some offense going tonight too for a change. David Wright had 3 hits including a solo homer to right field in the fourth inning. Ike Davis had 2 hits, both doubles and an RBI in the sixth inning.

It looked like Josh Thole might be the goat of the game when he singled in the seventh inning to right field and took a big turn at first base. Emilio Bonifacio threw behind him and Thole stumbled going back to first, getting thrown out. It was an ugly, embarrassing play but Thole redeemed himself in the ninth with the go-ahead RBI single.

K-Rod was terrible in the ninth, giving up 3 hits and a run to blow the save. He wasn’t fooling anyone. It was a terrible start to 2011 for him.

The Mets bombed the Marlins bullpen in the tenth inning though. They had 4 hits and scored 3 runs led by a big RBI double down the right field line by Willie Harris.

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Preview: Mets at Marlins April 2, 2011

marlins logoNew York Mets (0-1) at Florida Marlins (1-0) 7:10pm

Jon Niese (0-0, NA) vs. Ricky Nolasco (0-0, NA)

TV: SNY, FSFL             Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets try to recover from getting shut down by Josh Johnson last night. They’re playing behind Niese, who was 1-4 with a 6.49 ERA against the Marlins last year in 5 games. Nolasco went 2-0 against the Mets last season with a 3.96 ERA in 4 games.

We’ll get out first look at Lucas Duda this season in left field. Although Willie Harris played well last night, Duda should get the bulk of the playing time while Jason Bay is on the disabled list.

Video: CNNMoney on Mets Financial Problems

NEW YORK - DECEMBER 02: New York Mets chief o...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Even CNNMoney is getting in on the Mets-Madoff story now. They correctly point out that the Mets’ financial situation could get more desperate quickly as their first player payroll is due on April 15 and debt payments come due not long after that.

There isn’t much in the video that we didn’t already know. But it’s interesting to see the Wilpon’s faces and tone of voice as they made a statement last month about the situation.

We also got a glimpse into what the Mets-owned SNY response would be last night during the opening game telecast. Clearly, Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez were reading prepared statements about the Madoff lawsuit. Their prepared statements gave no indication of their true feelings, thoughts, or concerns about the situation. As employees of the Mets-owned TV station, I would expect nothing less if they want to keep their jobs.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/apps/cvp/4.0/swf/cnn_money_384x216_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=/video/news/2011/04/01/n_madoff_mets.cnnmoney

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