Category: Management

Citi Field To Finally Celebrate Mets Past

Citi_Field The Mets are finally getting around to correcting the problem that jumped out at every fan on Opening Day 2009, the team forgot to celebrate their own history in their new stadium. In August, they announced that they would do some makeshift changes to address the oversight. Now, they are announcing some real modifications to Citi Field that will address the problem in a more permanent fashion.

They’ll rename areas of the field after Mets greats like Casey Stengel, Tom Seaver, Gil Hodges, and William Shea. They’re also re-forming the Mets Hall Of Fame committee and will open a Mets Hall of Fame and Museum at Citi Field.

These changes are all positive developments. But as Ken Davidoff properly notes, we won’t be talking about this 20 years from now. We’ll just be enjoying the Mets “vibe” at the park. But that’s not the whole story.

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Mets 2010 Starting Pitchers- Question Marks Everywhere

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Image by ddoyle1112 via Flickr

There’s only one certainty when it comes to the Mets starting pitchers for 2010: Johan Santana. As long as he’s healthy, there’s no reason to think he won’t be one of the best pitchers in baseball. He’s had some minor injury problems but I don’t expect to see any decline in his performance. After Santana, the situation gets very murky, very quickly. This is about to get ugly, so Mets fans hold onto your hats.

Mike Pelfrey– In 31 starts Pelfrey finished the season at 10-12 with a 5.03 ERA. 2009 was a serious regression for him from his 2008 line of 32 starts 13-11 and 3.72 ERA. Pelfrey had some disgusting performances like June 4th in Pittsburgh giving up 8 runs in 3.2 innings and giving up 9 runs in 4.1 innings in Atlanta on July 17th. There were other ugly games but you get the idea. Often Pelfrey looked uncomfortable and frustrated, but who wouldn’t be while pitching poorly? He had a bad year but the Mets have too much invested in him for him not to be back in the rotation. He’ll be there. You can bank on it. But I doubt that he’ll be considered the #2 starter. He should be demoted in the rotation. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t have a bounce-back year in 2010.

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Video: Mets 2010 Left Field- A Trade Awaits

Here’s an interview I did with Kerel Cooper of On The Black. We talked about the Mets left field situation for next year. Watch the video and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

http://blip.tv/play/gvchgaW2dAI

 

Thanks to Kerel Cooper for the invitation and check out his Mets video blog at On The Black.

Audio: Mets Management On 2010

NEW YORK - JUNE 23: General Manager Omar Mina...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

As part of their press tour today, we got to hear the Mets brass talk about their disappointment in 2009 and commitment to winning for 2010. What else would they say?

You won’t know just how committed they are until free agency starts and they can start spending. That’s when we’ll find out.

Dave Howard, Jeff Wilpon, and Omar Minaya spent quite a bit of time with Mike Francesa on WFAN this afternoon. He did a nice job of hammering them on Daniel Murphy among other things. It’s a two-part audio you can listen to below.

Mets management Part 1

Mets management Part 2

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Mets Fire Coaches, Players Next

NEW YORK - DECEMBER 02: New York Mets chief o...

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The Mets had a press conference today to announce that they’re firing Sandy Alomar Sr. and Luis Alicea. They’re also re-assigning Razor Shines and Sandy Alomar Jr. Apparently, Alomar Sr. has been asked to stay with the Mets in another job.

I always think it’s interesting that the coaching staff is the first to take the fall after a miserable season like the one the Mets just finished. Sure, a 70-92 finish means that changes will be made. Honestly, how much difference does a coach really make at this level? It’s the players that make or break a team.

I don’t have a problem with these changes. Clearly, Shines wasn’t the right man for the third base coach job. He just doesn’t have good judgment there on close plays. But he seems like a well-intentioned guy that could have a positive impact elsewhere.

The real news will come after the World Series when free agency begins and the Mets can make some meaningful player moves.

You can hear the audio clips below from the press conference today.

Jerry Manuel audio

Jeff Wilpon audio

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Mets 2009 Season Disaster Finally Ending

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 28: Carlos Delgado #21 of...

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The 2009 version of the New York Mets will finally disappear into oblivion this weekend. And I can’t wait for them to go away. There’s a chance for the team to wind up losing 94 games this season, the most losses since the Art Howe-era 2003 team that finished with 95 losses. In case you’re wondering, you can find a complete list of the Mets season records here. In a dreadful season, it’s worth taking a look at some past horrible seasons.

Sure, the Mets announced that they’re lowering ticket prices for next season. But don’t mistake that move as benevolence on the part of Mets ownership based on the torturous team they subjected us to this season. Reducing tickets prices is actually a calculated move to fill more seats for more games to meet revenue goals. The team likely didn’t meet their revenue goals for Pity (Citi) Field this season. So they used mathematical projections to determine the most likely pricing scheme to deliver their goals based on price/attendance correlation. Thanks Mr. Wilpon.

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Mets News Aug. 31, 2009 Santana, Beltran, Perez, Thole

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Image by ddoyle1112 via Flickr

The Mets are flying from Chicago to Colorado today. There’s no game but still plenty of news. Today is also the deadline for any trades of players that cleared waivers to play on the acquiring team’s postseason roster.

Anyway, here’s the news:

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