Tag: Tim Byrdak

2012 Mets Pitchers and Catchers Reporting Date

Johan Santana
Johan Santana (Photo credit: Keith Allison)

The Mets pitchers and catchers have to report to Port St. Lucie by tomorrow and have their physicals on Tuesday. There isn’t a lot of intrigue this year given the team’s dire financial situation. But the one pitcher that everyone will be keeping an eye on is Johan Santana. He missed all of last season recovering from surgery on his left shoulder and there are still major questions about when he can come back. And there are even bigger questions about how effective he’ll be when he does come back. The good news is that Santana only has two years left on his deal with the Mets plus a team option for 2014. I never thought that I’d be counting down the days until Santana’s contract ended.

There are some new faces in the bullpen this year. Jon Rauch, Ramon Ramirez, and Frank Francisco will be the newly acquired back of the bullpen. Tim Byrdak will be back as the lefty specialist. D.J. Carrasco might find himself back in the minors again if he can’t keep it together.  Carrasco might be pitching along side Pedro Beato at Buffalo this season. Beato started hot last season but ended dreadfully. He’s available to send back to the minors now that the Mets got past his Rule 5 season. Continue reading “2012 Mets Pitchers and Catchers Reporting Date”

Video: Mets Weekly Report – Jose Reyes and Tim Byrdak

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: RY 24: Jos...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

In this week’s Mets Weekly Report, I talk with Kerel Cooper of OnTheBlack.com about two Mets players that have been prominent in the news this week. Everyone is concerned about the looming specter of Jose Reyes’ free agency. But there are some other big names that are going to be in free agency when the 2011 season ends including Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. Kerel brings up the question “Who is more valuable to their team Reyes or Pujols?”.

We also talk about the Mets decision to re-sign relief pitcher Tim Byrdak before he hits free agency. Byrdak has had a solid year as the lefty specialist and even navigated some full innings during the 2011 season.

Check out the video below for our thoughts on Reyes and Byrdak.

Braves 4 – Mets 1 August 5, 2011

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 05: Ryota Igarashi #18 ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The season continued to dwindle away toward meaningless August and September games tonight. Even the alternate “Los Mets” uniforms couldn’t help this team’s offense. The Mets had next to none with only 4 hits off Braves pitching and couldn’t get anything going against Tim Hudson after an RBI double by David Wright in the first inning. Wright went 2 for 4 and there wasn’t much happening in the lineup after him.

R.A. Dickey pitched really well but went into double-digit losses tonight (5-10). He threw 7 innings and allowed 2 runs, good enough to win with a decent team behind him. Tim Byrdak and Ryota Igarashi allowed a pair of insurance runs for the Braves in the eighth and the game was over. The back of the Braves bullpen doesn’t give up leads.

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Johan Santana Visits Mets in Miami

During last night’s game against the Marlins, Johan Santana visited with the Mets. He’s been rehabbing from shoulder surgery in Port St. Lucie and even threw a three inning simulated game this week. Santana will be throwing a bullpen session for the Mets front office tomorrow at Sun Life Stadium to gauge his readiness for pitching rehab minor league games.

Unfortunately, Santana isn’t going to make it back in time to have a positive impact on the season. The rumors are swirling about Carlos Beltran trade partners. And Fox Sports reported that the Mets want to trade Beltran early next week so they can work on trading away some other players like Chris Capuano, Willie Harris, Scott Hairston, and Tim Byrdak.

Even without having an impact on 2011, it sure would be nice to see Santana back and pitching well for the Mets in August and September. It would certainly instill some confidence going into the offseason that 2012 won’t be another wasted season.

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Mets 16 – Tigers 9 June 29, 2011

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 05: Ronny Paulino #9 of t...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Mets are going crazy on offense right now. 14 runs last night and 20 tonight. Who knew the Mets had it in them? Scott Hairston’s bases loaded triple in the first inning got the party started and it never stopped. They assaulted the Tigers with 20 hits and 7 walks in the game. Ronny Paulino hit cleanup and went 4 for 6 with 4 runs scored. Angel Pagan also chipped in 4 hits, 3 runs, and 4 RBI’s. The offensive numbers are just silly.

The Mets pitching wasn’t anything to brag about. Chris Capuano gave up 5 runs in 5 innings and ended his run of excellent starts. Without the silly offense, he would’ve lost most games. Pedro Beato didn’t look great giving up 2 runs. And there was a bizarre incident like I’ve never seen before in the seventh inning. Terry Collins brought in Tim Byrdak even though he wasn’t warming up in the bullpen. Byrdak promptly gave up a homer to the first batter he faced, and had some words for Collins on his way out of the game.

The Mets won’t have it so easy against Justin Verlander tomorrow. Mike Pelfrey will need to bring his “A” game.

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Pirates 3 – Mets 1 June 13, 2011

DENVER, CO - MAY 10: Starting pitcher Mike Pe...
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The Mets lost a tough one behind a solid game by Mike Pelfrey. He went 7 innings and only allowed 2 runs. The Mets just couldn’t get anything going against Paul Maholm. He threw 7 scoreless innings. And when they did get something going, it was sabotaged like when Daniel Murphy got picked off second base. It always boggles my mind when guys with no speed wander too far off second base. It was another stupid play by Murphy.

The Mets bullpen didn’t look great either. Manny Acosta gave up 3 hits in 0.1 innings and Tim Byrdak walked in a run.

The Mets split the series with the Pirates and head to Atlanta for three games.

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Astros 6 – Mets 1 April 18, 2011

Jon Niese
Image by slgckgc via Flickr

The Mets dropped the first game of the three game series to the lowly Houston Astros. Jon Niese took the loss to drop to 0-3 but he didn’t pitch that badly giving up 2 runs over 6 innings. He wasn’t especially sharp giving up 7 hits and 5 walks but managed to work out of a lot of trouble.

For all the talk about playing the game the right way, the Mets look like a bumbling crew that doesn’t play the game the right way to me. The bullpen was terrible Ryota Igarashi and Tim Byrdak not getting the job done. And Bobby Parnell had another melt down on the mound balking in a run before he threw a pitch and then giving up an RBI hit.

Scott Hairston blew another ball in left field for an error. It’s just a sad state of affairs. The Mets only had 4 hits as a team and the only run was scored on Carlos Beltran’s solo home run. There wasn’t much to cheer about for the few fans that showed up to Citi Field tonight.

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