Category: Latest News

Mets News Top Stories April 10, 2009

gary-sheffieldThe Mets arrived in Miami last night to begin their weekend series with the Marlins. The biggest story looming is the addition of Livan Hernandez to the roster so he can start tomorrow night. Of course, this wouldn’t be an issue if Gary Sheffield hadn’t signed as a free agent last week. The big decision is whether the Mets release Marlon Anderson, owing him $1.1 million for this season or go to 11 pitchers. Likely, Darren O’Day would be the odd man out if that was the case. Jerry Manuel has hinted that Anderson will be out.

Also of note is that O’Day and Francisco Rodriguez were teammates last season of Nick Adenhart, who was tragically killed in a car accident after starting for the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.

An interesting media story is that Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is not allowed to do his Sirius satellite radio broadcast from Citi Field or Yankee Stadium. CBS Radio and WFAN have exclusive deals with the Mets and Yankees about radio broadcasting rights. Apparently, this was even an issue during spring training last month as well.

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New York Mets News Top Stories April 9, 2009

oliver-perezAs 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

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Mets Spring Suffers Huge Loss

tradition-fieldIn 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.

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Wright Call Lands Sheffield For Mets

David WrightThe newest Met, Gary Sheffield, spoke to the media today after the last exhibition game of the season against the Red Sox. Sheffield talked about how his uncle, Dwight Gooden, had spoken to him over the years about signing with the Mets. But it never quite worked out, until now.

One interesting fact that came out during the press conference was that David Wright called Sheffield urging him to sign with the Mets. Jimmy Rollins from the Philadelphia Phillies and Dusty Baker from the Cincinnati Reds had also put calls into Sheffield.It seems that Sheffield was most impressed that Wright made the effort to get in touch with him about signing with the Mets.

From ESPN:

“When you have the face of the franchise making a call to you, that means a lot,” said Sheffield, who’s one home run shy of 500. “You never want to tell other people you’re going the other way, but when he made that call I made my decision.”

Apparently, David Wright really has some clout around baseball now. That’s great for a young guy that hasn’t been around that long to have established himself. We’ll see how much Marlon Anderson, Ryan Church, and Daniel Murphy appreciate Wright’s call to Sheffield. They’re the ones that stand to lose the most by Sheffield’s presence on the team.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Gary Sheffield, Mets Agree On Contract

gary-sheffieldMike Francesa is reporting on WFAN that the Mets have agreed to a contract with Detroit Tigers castoff Gary Sheffield. Its a good low risk, high reward move that could play a big part in the 2009 season for the Mets. Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated reported that two Mets scouts met with Sheffield in Tampa on Wednesday for a workout at a college field. They wanted to see what Sheffield could do in the outfield. He hasn’t played the outfield regularly since 2005 when he played 131 games in right field for the Yankees.

This move may spell the end of Marlon Anderson‘s tenure with the Mets. Anderson’s contract was a mistake. The Mets shouldn’t have given him a 2-year deal before the 2008 season. The Mets will have to eat the $1.15 million that they owe him for 2009.

Sheffield shores up the possibility that Daniel Murphy and Ryan Church can’t handle playing the corner outfield spots every day. It also relieves the Mets of their lefty heavy lineup that’s been a concern for Mets fans throughout the offseason.

The other teams that were reported to be interested in Shef were the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia Philles. A point that I haven’t heard anyone address to this point is that signing Sheffield keeps him away from the Phillies. The Mets haven’t engaged in that type of activity much in recent years but its not a bad idea. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have been doing this to each other for years. There’s no reason that the Mets shouldn’t try to keep useful players like Sheffield away from the Phillies.

Overall, I think its a good move that will pay dividends for the Mets. The key is to make sure that Sheffield gets enough at-bats in the outfield to keep him happy. If he’s not happy with his playing time, he can cause real problems for this team.

Mets Over Orioles 9-8 To Complete Spring Training

mike-pelfreyThe Mets are finally headed back to New York after what feels like the longest spring training in history. The WBC lengthened spring training, seven weeks long, was arduous at best.

Mike Pelfrey wasn’t very good today, only pitching four innings and giving up eight runs on ten hits. Pelfrey only got 13 pitches in his previous start because of a rain delay, so he may have had a little rust at this early point in the season. I’m not concerned about Pelfrey at all. I like the progress that he’s made over the last year.

The Mets are flying back to New York tonight for a few days before the season starts on Monday against the Cincinnati Reds. The exhibition games gets started at Citi Field on Friday night against the Boston Red Sox at 6:10pm and again on Saturday afternoon at 1:10pm. Both games will be televised, Friday on SNY and Saturday on WPIX.

Its exciting to see the Mets play at Citi Field but I don’t get too fired up about exhibition games. I’m not going to Citi Field until the games count. At the prices the Mets are charging, and considering the economy, I want to get the most for my entertainment dollars. For those of you that are going to the Red Sox games, I’m not saying that its a bad idea. I’m just saying that I prefer to see the Mets starters putting in a full game and playing to win.

I’m ready for the season to start!

Mets 2009 Roster Set

Johan SantanaThe Mets made their final cuts today. Bobby Kielty and Elmer Dessens were assigned to Triple-A Buffalo and Fernando Nieve was released. Kielty had a great spring getting 54 at-bats and hitting .296/ .365/ .407. We’ll be seeing him with the big league club at some point this season. Dessens only pitched 3 innings this spring so we don’t really know how much he has left. We’ll find out as he spends time at Buffalo. Nieve was picked up after being cut by pitching-poor Houston a few weeks ago. He pitched 10.2 innings to a 6.75 ERA… that’s not going to get it done in a tryout situation.

Here’s the roster to start the season:

Catchers
Brian Schneider
Ramon Castro

Infielders
Carlos Delgado
Luis Castillo
Jose Reyes
David Wright
Marlon Anderson
Alex Cora
Nick Evans

Outfielders
Daniel Murphy
Carlos Beltran
Ryan Church
Jeremy Reed
Fernando Tatis

Starting Pitchers
Johan Santana
Mike Pelfrey
Oliver Perez
John Maine
Livan Hernandez

Relief Pitchers
Francisco Rodriguez
JJ Putz
Bobby Parnell
Brian Stokes
Pedro Feliciano
Sean Green
Darren O’Day

Livan Hernandez isn’t officially on the roster until he’s needed in the fifth game. Actually, the Mets could go for a couple of weeks without him but Jerry Manuel is choosing to go with a straight five man rotation to start the season. Expect Nick Evans to head to Buffalo when Hernandez’ spot in the rotation comes up.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia