Tag: Carlos Beltran

Mets News Aug. 15, 2009: Citi Field, Livan, Ricco, Beltran

In a lost season, the Mets can still get an occasional win as they did over the Giants last night. The bigger news may be that the team unveiled some long awaited changes to the stadium. We still don’t have a Mets Hall of Fame and Keith’s number 17 still isn’t retired. But they’re making some small steps in the right direction.

Here’s the news:

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Mets In The News Aug. 10, 2009

The Mets won yesterday in San Diego, to salvage one of four games, so we all feel good about this team now, right? Maybe not. But they’ll be in Arizona for a few days and there’s still plenty to talk about.

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Mets 2009 Season Close To Oblivion

Carlos DelgadoWe’ve been waiting for months now for the injured Mets to heal and get back to help this team to a miracle playoff run. But if the current Mets can’t, at least, hang on there won’t be a chance at all. The Mets need to go 40-18 over their final 58 games of the 2009 season to reach the 90 win plateau. That’s the number of wins that it took the Milwaukee Brewers to beat out the Mets by one game in 2008 for the wild card spot in the National League. It should take about that same number of wins to take the wild card spot this year.

The Mets had a good little run going against Houston and Colorado over the last week. But that will come crashing down quickly if the Mets lose tonight to the D-Backs and Dan Haren. Losing three out of four games at home to a team that’s completely out of it, like the D-Backs, is going to hurt the Mets badly this late in the season.

Even if Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, J.J. Putz, John Maine, and Billy Wagner are playing for the Mets in September, will it really matter? September could be a very quiet venue for the Mets. And the season ticket holders that are trying to sell on Stubhub and eBay will be taking a big loss in the secondary market.

I understand why Mets GM Omar Minaya chose to stand pat at the non-waiver trading deadline. The team often looks dead and spending resources appears to be a lost cause. But it would have been nice to bring in some much needed offense that would be here next season too. Say a Victor Martinez. But that didn’t happen. So we’re still watching and waiting. Watching this impostor of a big league team. Waiting for the players to heal. The same high-priced players that are drawing their salaries from the pricey seats at Citi Field.

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Mets 2009 All-Stars Ready For Action

IMG_0295Three Mets are in St. Louis today for the mid-season festivities. David Wright will be starting at third base and hitting sixth in the National League lineup. Francisco Rodriguez is in the bullpen and it’ll be interesting to see where he gets into the game. In my mind, he should pitch the eighth inning. Trevor Hoffman should get the ninth, despite the fact that he was added because Jonathan Broxton couldn’t make it because of injury.

The Mets have asked Charlie Manuel, the NL manager, not to use Johan Santana unless it’s an emergency. So don’t plan on seeing Santana unless the game goes to extra innings. Santana just pitched on Saturday and threw seven innings against the Reds. I’d be thrilled if he didn’t make it into the game tonight at all for the Mets sake. He’s too important to risk in an exhibition game.

Of course, Carlos Beltran would have been starting in center field but he’s recovering from a bone bruise to his leg.

Enjoy the game tonight. I know that I will be. Sure, it’s an exhibition but the National League could sure use a win. It’s been a long time and the Mets could use home field advantage in the World Series this year. Right?

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Mark DeRosa To Cardinals Limits Mets Trade Options

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

For the last two months, since Carlos Delgado went on the disabled list, I felt that Mark DeRosa was the best fit from a trade perspective for the Mets. That possibility was gone yesterday with the announcement that the Indians traded DeRosa to the Cardinals for Chris Perez and a player to be named later. Perez is a 23 year-old reliever with a very good fastball. That’s a better package than the Mets could have offered the Indians.

DeRosa can play any infield position and the outfield corners. He’s a right-handed hitter with power that would’ve been perfect for the Mets current needs. I don’t like Aubrey Huff or Adam Dunn for the Mets this season. Dunn has too much money coming over the next year and a half. And I never liked his “walk-strikeout-home run” game.

The more limiting possibilities are Matt Holliday and Maglio Ordonez. Holliday doesn’t have the versatility to play first base until Delgado gets back from the DL. And Ordonez is having a terrible season and has a huge contract with the possibility of vesting options guaranteeing future years based on plate appearances.

My guess is that the Mets try to acquire someone like a Ty Wigginton type of player. I don’t think they’ll make a splash by acquiring a big name. There’s too much risk this season with the Mets players that are currently injured. If Delgado, J.J. Putz, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, Oliver Perez, and John Maine can’t come back to the team healthy and make significant contributions, the season is over for the Mets anyway. Making a major investment in a trade for a big name would be completely useless. Holliday couldn’t carry this current Mets team to the playoffs… And that’s the bottom line.

Omar Minaya should wait for as long as possible to pull the trigger on any trades until right before the non-waiver deadline on July 31. That’ll give him time to evaluate the health situation of so many key players on this team. No matter what happens with the currently injured players, I don’t expect the Mets to become sellers at the deadline. But I think they would stand pat and ride out the season if they aren’t going to get some of their premier players back this season.

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Orioles 5 – Mets 4 June 18, 2009

The Mets looked like they had this one wrapped up with a 4-3 lead going into the ninth and Francisco Rodriguez coming into the game. But K-Rod blew his second save and this one was completely on him. He looked really bad loading the bases and walking in a run before giving up another game winning hit to Aubrey Huff.

Livan Hernandez had another very solid start going 7 innings and giving up 2 runs. As usual, he gave up 8 hits and 1 walk but did a good job of limiting the damage.

The Mets offense was paced by Carlos Beltran, Alex Cora, and Luis Castillo with 2 hits apiece. Again, the Mets had no home runs and only one double by Daniel Murphy. Not much power in this lineup.

The Orioles take two of three games from the Mets as they come home to face the Rays.

6.18.09

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Post-Game: Carlos Beltran On Phillies, Injuries

Here’s some video of Carlos Beltran after the Mets second straight extra inning loss to the Phillies. He addresses the critical players that are on the disabled list right now and the news that John Maine is going to be the second starter on the DL, joining Oliver Perez.

Carlos Beltran talks about loss to Phillies
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