Mets outfielder Ryan Church found out last night that he’s cleared to resume baseball activities. He’ll report to Florida this weekend to work out and begin playing in rehab games this coming week.
Church had tests in Manhattan on Thursday that showed that his post concussion syndrome symptoms are cleared.
He could re-join the Mets when they return from a road trip on August 19th.
Flickr photo by imagesbyferg
As the Mets prepare for their seven game home stand this week, I thought it was a good time for some links to read while having lunch. No game yesterday means no post game interviews to dissect. Onto the links…
Have a good lunch and enjoy the links.
The Mets had a rough road trip and the two main weaknesses of the team were exposed, the corner outfielders and the bullpen. The two positional weaknesses should be looked at independently.
Sure, the losses of Moises Alou and Angel Pagan for the season and Ryan Church for an unknown period of time have hurt the team. There’s no denying that. Church is being evaluated by doctors in New York this week and may begin rehab games within the next week. The Mets have to count on him coming back in their plan for the rest of the season.
When Church gets back they can mix and match in left field between Fernando Tatis, Nick Evans, and Daniel Murphy. If things don’t work out as planned they may be apt to give Fernando Martinez a shot at the job too.
The bullpen is another story. Although Billy Wagner has gone through bad patches, the Mets are married to him as their closer. As long as he’s healthy he’ll be closing games. Duaner Sanchez and Aaron Heilman haven’t been living up to expectations though. I really think Heilman could use a change of scenery. He’d be great waiver deadline trade bait during August. Sanchez may need some time on the disabled list to refresh his arm. He won’t be successful throwing a fastball in the mid-80’s as he has been over the last week and a half.
The Mets may need to explore a trade for a relief pitcher like Brian Fuentes if the Rockies fall out of contention this month. Heilman for Fuentes would be a fair deal for both teams in my mind. The Mets may need to throw in another mid level prospect but not any of their top prospects. If Eddie Kunz looks good over the next couple of weeks it may not even come to that.
I’m not ready to hit the panic button because of this bad road trip. And I’m not second guessing the Mets lack of activity at the trade deadline. But if they don’t take five out of seven games on this home stand against San Diego, Florida, and Pittsburgh then I will think there’s a problem with this team… again.
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
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
I’m not a big Stephen A. Smith fan but I thought that I’d link to this article that he wrote for ESPN The Mag. The subject is the relationship between Mets manager Jerry Manuel and Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. Apparently, they’ve known each other for more than 20 years which isn’t a big surprise as the baseball circle is pretty small.
It sounds like the two have a lot of respect for each other and a good relationship:
“Charlie and I have known each other for more than 20 years. And every time he sees me, he says, ‘Jerry, you know the only thing good about you is your last name.’
I thinks it’s probably obvious that I can’t stand the Phillies but it seems like Charlie Manuel does a good job of maximizing the talent that he’s given. That’s all you can ask of a manager. He does a much better job of setting rules and expectations with his players than Willie Randolph did while he was with the Mets. That’s evidenced by his benching twice this season of reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins. Randolph was criticized for having two sets of rules: one for veterans and the other for younger players. Jerry Manuel’s seems to have done a good job of evening the playing field for the team and setting expectations.
It’s an interesting read as much as Stephen A. Smith could be.
The Mets chances to take a playoff spot this season actually improved at the trade deadline despite not making any deals according to Sporting News writer Gerry Fraley. He makes some great points about the competition that the Mets will face over the next two months.
The Mets have 14 more games against Atlanta and Pittsburgh, teams that surrendered and became big-time sellers at the deadline.
The Mets also have 12 more games against Washington and San Diego, a pair of last-place clubs. That adds up to 26 games against dead-in-the-water clubs.
Although the Mets schedule is favorable, they need to take advantage of that by winning the series’ that they’re supposed to. That starts with Houston this weekend and then San Diego coming to town on Tuesday.
The Phillies and Marlins failure to make any splashes, such as Manny Ramirez, certainly is a huge positive for the Mets. I’ve read that the Marlins were planning to flip Ramirez to the Yankees if they landed him anyway. So he may not have had an impact in the National League East as was rumored prior to the trade deadline.
Flickr photo courtesy of ewan and donabel
The trade deadline came and went without a peep from Omar Minaya. And that’s okay with me for two reasons:
I know there’s some dissatisfaction out there that the Mets didn’t get better yesterday. But I’m fine with where they are right now. There’s still time to evaluate the effectiveness of Pedro Martinez and Ryan Church during August to determine if a waiver trade is necessary.
Flickr photo courtesy of bryce_edwards
The Mets Report 