Category: Spring Training

Video: ESPN 2011 Mets Preview

ESPN in the United Kingdom
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Tim Kurkjian previews the Mets from Florida. Basically, his take on the position players is that they look good on paper. The problem is that the recent injury histories of Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran make it difficult to believe that they’ll be in the lineup all season. He doesn’t even mention Jason Bay and his awful, injury-shortened 2010.

The take on the Mets rotation is that they’re fairly pedestrian without Johan Santana at the top. It’s hard to argue against that. Kurkjuan doesn’t think the Mets have the pitching to hang with the Phillies, Braves, and Marlins this year. Frankly, I agree.

Check out the video below.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

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Video: Mets Injuries, Santana, Beltran, Perez

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 27: Johan Santana #57 of...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Kerel Cooper of On The Black and I address the Johan Santana rumors about him not pitching in 2011 in this week’s video on the state of the Mets. We also talk about Carlos Beltran and his current status and the Oliver Perez move to the bullpen.

We talk about the effects on the team that the Santana and Beltran injuries could have for the season. Check out the video and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Report: Mets’ Johan Santana Out For 2011 Season

Johan Santana won’t be back to pitch in 2011 according to a report in The Record by Steve Popper and Bob Klapisch. The report states that Santana’s throwing sessions haven’t gone well and that the Mets are considering pulling the plug on his rehab and re-evaluating the work that he should be doing at this point.

Originally, Santana was supposed to be doing rehab from his left shoulder surgery last September with an eye towards return in early July. Santana himself even reiterated that timetable in a Feb. 17 radio interview with Mike Francesa of WFAN New York.

The Mets already thin starting rotation is pretty much in shambles without Santana coming back this season. Let’s face it, nobody wants to see Chris Capuano getting 30 starts this year and that’s the painful reality of today’s news.

You never know how a season is going to go for a team before it starts. I think most people are predicting the Mets finishing third or fourth in the NL East. And I believe that’s a fair assessment of the team and the division. Without Santana, the team’s best player and highest paid player not pitching at all in 2011 those predictions could be lowered. It’s going to be a sad state of affairs for this team going through the fourth year of a seven year contract without Santana pitching at all.

In addition, Mets ownership can’t be happy with the prospect of Santana’s $22.5 million salary going up in flames either, considering their financial situation. Presumably, the Mets have insurance for all or a portion of Santana’s salary in case of injury. But given this ownership group, I wouldn’t put it past them to be forced to swallow the whole salary because of a bad insurance policy.

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Video: Mets Spring Training, Young, Perez, Evans

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: RY 24: RY ...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

In this week’s video I did with Kerel Cooper on On The Black we talk about the spring training position battles at second base and starting pitcher. Specifically, we talk about Justin Turner and Chris Young. We also talk about what could happen to Oliver Perez this year and Nick Evans if he doesn’t make the opening day roster.

I’m hoping that Evans gets a shot at Major League playing time this season, I’m just not sure how that could happen with the Mets barring an injury. Since he’s out of options, I don’t think he’ll make it through waivers unclaimed.

Weekly Mets Report with On The Black
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Carlos Beltran Begins Final Season with Mets

Carlos Beltran

Image by tedkerwin via Flickr

In Port St. Lucie today, Carlos Beltran is scheduled to make his spring training debut against the Red Sox as a designated hitter. His achy knee still isn’t well enough to play the field more than a year removed from surgery that the Mets didn’t authorize. Today begins the seventh and final season of Beltran’s run with the Mets that has gone from disappointing to exhilarating and back to disappointing again. Most seven year contracts will have their up’s and down’s but this one has been a wild ride. The final season of that long-term contract begins with serious question marks about how effective Beltran can be, especially in the field. Beltran already deferred to Angel Pagan in center field, moving to right field. The last time he played a game in right was in 2000 with the Royals.

I haven’t talked to any Mets fan that makes an argument that Beltran will, or should, be back with the team next season. Frankly, I don’t think he’ll be with the Mets for the entire 2011 season despite his full no-trade clause. The Mets financial situation combined with Beltran’s $18.5 million salary and dim prospects for a playoff berth should lead the new “All-Star” front office to do everything they can to trade Beltran during the season. Probably sooner than later.

Year Age Tm G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
2005 28 NYM 151 650 582 83 155 34 2 16 78 17 6 56 96 .266 .330 .414 .744
2006 29 NYM 140 617 510 127 140 38 1 41 116 18 3 95 99 .275 .388 .594 .982
2007 30 NYM 144 636 554 93 153 33 3 33 112 23 2 69 111 .276 .353 .525 .878
2008 31 NYM 161 706 606 116 172 40 5 27 112 25 3 92 96 .284 .376 .500 .876
2009 32 NYM 81 357 308 50 100 22 1 10 48 11 1 47 43 .325 .415 .500 .915
2010 33 NYM 64 255 220 21 56 11 3 7 27 3 1 30 39 .255 .341 .427 .768
NYM (6 yrs) 741 3221 2780 490 776 178 15 134 493 97 16 389 484 .279 .366 .499 .864
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/6/2011.

A reasonable expectation in 2011 is for Beltran to play as well as possible for a 34 year-old outfielder rehabbing a major knee surgery. Unfortunately for Beltran, this happens to be a contract year. Don’t feel sorry for him though, he’s made about $116 million in his career to this point. So I think he’s pretty well set financially. MLB Trade Rumors posted a good piece this week about this being a make or break year for him. And it is.

If you look at Beltran’s career as a whole, he’ll have spent his prime years with the Mets. He spent seven years with the Royals and he’ll spend six and a half or seven with the Mets. The bulk of the statistics he’s accumulated during his career came with the Mets. Beyond the Box Score did a good comparison of how he compares to some of the top center fielders in history. If he continues to play fairly well until age 40, he should be on target statistically for enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He would likely go in as a Met. That would be ironic for a player that had a hard time adjusting to New York by underperforming in 2005, offered to take less money to play for the Yankees, and is best known for the 2006 NLCS watching strike three from Adam Wainwright. That’s the paradox of Beltran’s Mets career.

Mets’ Carlos Beltran Moves to Right Field

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 28: Carlos Beltran #15 ce...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Carlos Beltran told manager Terry Collins today that he would accept a move to right field so that Angel Pagan can take over center. Beltran is still slightly hobbled by the knee surgery he had just over a year ago. Although he played center field in the second half of last season, he really couldn’t move very well and was playing more on reputation than skill.

At first blush it seems like an altruistic move by Beltran. He puts the team first and moves out of the way for the young buck, Pagan. Apparently, Carlos Delgado and Scott Boras helped him come to this conclusion. You know if Boras is involved that there’s more to it than putting the team first.

I have to think that there’s a strategy here. Beltran said that he thinks he can still play center and if he had more time that he’d be able to get in shape to play a solid center field. Since this is a contract year for Beltran, I believe that this is a strategic move to maximize Beltran’s value for another contract.

Check out the video below to hear Beltran talking about the adjustments he’ll need to make switching from center to right field.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

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Video: Mets Spring Training, Secret Loans, Bench

Kerel Cooper of the On The Black and I got together again to talk about the state of the Mets. This week we cover spring training games starting, MLB issuing a secret loan to the Mets, the bullpen, and the candidates for the bench in 2011.

A couple of issues we talked about that are worth discussion are that I love Jenrry Mejia in the bullpen and hate Nick Evans coming off the bench. Check out the video below to see why.

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