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Blue and Orange Opening Day Live Blog

Monday, April 1st, 2013

Every year, I have had a yearly tradition to get together with my friends Joe and Travis to watch the Mets’ home opener together. This tradition dates back fourteen years, all the way back to 1999, when Joe and I attended our first Mets home opener together. We used to go to the game every year, and then as home opener tickets became harder and harder to obtain, we at least vowed to get together to watch the game. In recent years, even with the abundance of available home opener tickets, we have still been watching at home, no longer quite as motivated to make it out to the ballpark as we used to be.

Unfortunately, this year has changed. Joe has to work, and Travis has family responsibilities, so our yearly tradition has been broken. So what am I to do? Certainly not go to work; I haven’t worked during a home opener in thirteen years, and I’m certainly not going to start now. No, I’m still going to take the day off, but instead of spending it with close friends, I’m going to spend it with the entire internet. Besides, who cares if I’m spending the nicest day of the year to date in my dark basement watching TV and writing about it o the internet? I have three TVs down here, each of them tuned into a different game. It’s the one day of the year Mets fans have even a twinge of optimism, so let’s do this thing.

Keep checking back throughout the day for updates from the Mets game, the Yankees game, and whatever else I can find on MLB.tv worth watching. I mean, who knows how long I will want to keep blogging, so take advantage while you can. We start at 1 and go all day.

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Blue and Orange 2013 Mets Preview

Sunday, March 31st, 2013

Let’s face it. There isn’t a whole lot to look forward to with the Mets this year. After you get past the first five or so players, it starts looking pretty ugly. For all the work Sandy Alderson has done in building the future for the Mets, he hasn’t really done a whole lot to build much of a present. Granted, he’s hamstrung to a degree by bad contracts and a low payroll, but you look at some of the players on this year’s team and wonder if there has to be somebody better out there. Nevertheless, this isn’t about what could be or what should be, but about what is. It may not be pretty, but this is the roster Mets fans are going to war with, hoping to clear the 70 win plateau this year.

For this year’s BlueandOrange.net preview, we’re going to count down the players 1 to 25, just to get a feel for what we’re dealing with this season. This won’t include players on the disabled list, so Johan Santana won’t be included (spoiler alert: Santana won’t throw a single pitch all season). It also won’t include players likely to make an impact in the second half, like Travis d’Arnaud and Zack Wheeler. This is the opening day roster, 1 through 25, with #1 a guy who will be around for the next eight seasons, and #25 a guy who you probably won’t even remember was on the team come May. Let’s see what we got here.

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Johan Santana 2008-2013

Friday, March 29th, 2013

Well, that turned out to be pretty disappointing, huh?

Actually, I’m not sure that’s fair. It’s hard to call Johan Santana’s time with the Mets disappointing because he did give Mets fans two indelible highlights. There was his season-saving, complete game shutout of the then-Florida Marlins 2-0 in Game 161 of 2008. Nine innings, nine strikeouts, only three hits and three walks allowed, and complete domination from start to finish, on three days’ rest with a knee that would require surgery. Sadly, as amazing as it sounds, that start will go down as the next to last September game Santana will pitch in his Mets career.

And of course, there was the no-hitter. Sadly, I wasn’t watching the game live. I was at an awful wrestling show in Rahway, New Jersey, a wrestling show I had regretted attending even before my friend texted me to let me know Santana was taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning. My friend Grim and I then huddled around my phone, following the MLB At Bat app as it ever so slowly updating us as to what was going on in the game. When Santana recorded the final out, I stood up and yelled out a cheer…as Big Van Vader was stalling outside the ring in his match with 2 Cold Scorpio. I got some looks.

Unfortunately, that’s all Mets fans really have for Johan Santana, a few isolated moments. He only pitched one complete season for us out of six, and that was his first season. He finished third in the Cy Young voting that year, perhaps robbed of an award he would not have deserved by a bullpen that blew seven leads for him. That was the season capped off by Game 161, which feels so long ago by now. It doesn’t help that the Mets promptly lost Game 162, overshadowing Santana’s gutsy pitching performance, and really putting a damper on a fine season by Santana.

After that game, things went downhill quickly for Santana. He threw 166 innings in 2009, before bone chips in his pitching elbow ended his season. He threw 199 innings before anterior capsule surgery ended his 2010 season, and his 2011 season as well.

He returned in 2012, and for a few months, if you squinted hard enough and pretended, it was like Johan was back again. He didn’t throw as hard, but he was as smart and tenacious as ever. Everything culminated with the no-hitter on June 1, but after that, things took a steep trip downward. Santana had an 8.27 ERA in his last ten starts, allowing 45 hits and 18 walks in 49 innings, and amazingly, 13 of those 45 hits were home runs. Santana was always a flyball pitcher, but this was extreme, even for him. Something wasn’t right. I don’t know if something happened in the no-hitter, but considering his latest injury is another tear of his anterior capsule, I think it was something that was bound to happen at some point regardless.

This leaves me with mixed thoughts. The good memories include a sublime 2008 season, a dominant performance to stay the Mets’ execution one day, and the first no-hitter in team history, along with approximately 74 other starts, most of them good, some of them great. The bad include two whole missed seasons, three other seasons cut short due to injury, a few poor starts after the no-hitter, and $137.5 million of mostly dead money over the course of six years.

I’m not going to go so far as to say the $137.5 million was worth spending. That money failed to help the Mets move any closer towards a World Series championship, or even a playoff spot. Not all of that is Santana’s fault, of course, but for a team whose owners quickly learned they were a lot poorer than they realized, to have that much dead money on the team’s ledger undoubtedly hurts quite a bit.

But if you asked me am I glad Johan Santana was a Met? That answer is an unequivocal yes. Santana starts were always an event. Every Santana start brought the promise of the team’s first no-hitter, until he delivered on that promise last June 1. He was a great pitcher through and through, one who made the team more fun to follow when he was healthy than it was when he was hurt. He didn’t quite achieve the brilliance in New York that he had in Minnesota, and he didn’t push this team over the hump towards a world championship like Mets fans were hoping on February 2, 2008, but it was still a treat to witness his greatness while we had the chance.

Also, in case I didn’t make this clear earlier…HE THREW THE FIRST NO HITTER IN METS HISTORY. No matter what, his legacy as a New York Met is secure, even if things didn’t go according to plan.

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Jerry Manuel is a liar

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Manuel responded on television, saying,  “We allowed the fewest baserunners and then threw out the most base runners. So there you go, Ozzie. But what you got to do Ozzie, you got to teach me how to tweet so I can get back to you. You don’t have to put me on blast.’’

David Lennon, Newsday

Leave it to Jerry Manuel to pull this website out of retirement.

Let’s start with the obvious: if the New York Mets had allowed the fewest baserunners in baseball AND threw out the most base runners, I don’t think Jerry Manuel would currently be an analyst for MLB Network. It’s also safe to assume that Sandy Alderson would still be working in the MLB front offices, the Mets would be the defending World Series champions, and would be generating so much money, Fred Wilpon wouldn’t have to explore selling the team because he’d be making a mint off of ticket sales and merchandise right now. Right off the bat, this one doesn’t come close to passing the smell test.

And of course, Jerry Manuel is wrong. The Mets did not, in fact, allow the fewest baserunners in baseball last year, or any year in which he was the manager. Take a look at the tables below. First, we’ll start with the 2008 Mets.

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Chris Carter Non-Tendered

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

Per Adam Rubin on Twitter, the Mets have announced that Chris Carter has not been tendered a contract for 2011.

We’ll deal with what this means for the 2011 Mets tomorrow.  I know a lot of you love the guy, so this thread is for you to say goodbye.

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The Minaya Years – 2005 Outfield

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Now that Omar Minaya is officially out as the Mets’ GM, this is no longer a pre-post-mortem, but a mere post-mortem on the career of Omar Minaya and the job he did as Mets GM.  What were his strengths, what were his weaknesses, and what were his patterns, and how can the next GM improve upon his performance.  Let’s take a look at the first outfield he constructed, the 2005 Mets starting outfield.

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Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel “relieved of duties”

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Mets fans, meanwhile, are merely relieved.

Seriously, not to piss on their graves or anything, but Minaya and Manuel very clearly needed to go.  I’ll talk more about Omar as the weeks progress as I continue to look at the Minaya Years, but it was clearly beyond his capabilities to build a successful baseball team on a consistent basis.  He simply was not the right man for this job, and was a perfect example of the Peter Principle at work.

Jerry Manuel…I think this blog has made its feelings clear on Jerry Manuel, but yesterday’s game really demonstrated why he’s not a very good manager.  Taking David Wright and Jose Reyes out of the game in the top of the 9th inning of a tie game, so they can get a standing ovation as they walked off the field, really showed a lack of priorities.  The game went an additional five innings before it ended, and perhaps if the Mets had their best hitters still in the game, it would not have lasted as long.

Really, I can think of no better way for the 2010 season, for the Jerry Manuel era, and for the Omar Minaya regime, to all come to simultaneous conclusion than by Oliver Perez giving up a HBP and three consecutive walks to give the Nationals the victory.  I think that pretty much sums it up.

The Minaya Years series will continue tomorrow, and as news breaks regarding potential successors, we will discuss it here at Blue and Orange.

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The Minaya Years: 2005 Bullpen

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Part two of our look at Omar Minaya’s various teams will look at the 2005 Mets relief corps.  In case you missed yesterday’s post, this is an objective look at the various moves made by Omar Minaya to try to find what we can learn from his moves, both good and bad.  I started with the 2005 starting rotation, now I am going to take a look at Omar’s first bullpen as the general manager of the Mets.

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The Minaya Years: 2005 Starting Pitching

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

With Omar Minaya’s days as general manager numbered, I thought now would be as good a time as any to try to take an objective look at the various Mets teams he has assembled during his days as GM.  This isn’t another excuse to tear Minaya down, it’s a way to look at what he did, to identify his good moves and his mistakes, and how future Mets GMs may learn from them.  In order to give a thorough examination for every aspect of the teams he has built, I am going to be breaking each team into small parts, and from there piecing these small parts together until we have a big picture.  The first thing I am going to examine is Omar Minaya’s 2005 starting pitchers.

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Suckond Base

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The offensive output from Mets’ second basemen has been pretty dreadful.  This should really come as no surprise to anybody who has watched a Mets game this year.  I’m not really going out on a limb by saying that Luis Castillo, Alex Cora, and Ruben Tejada have been bad hitters, this season.  The question I’m concerned with is, exactly how bad have they been in 2010?  How can we put their poor level of play in perspective?  Here’s an attempt to show just how badly they have hit this season.

After posting one of his best-ever line drive rates in 2009, Luis Castillo has crashed back down to Earth, hitting a career-high percentage of ground balls while hitting a career-low percentage of line drives.  The end result has been a .257 BABIP, which is about what you’d expect out of a player hitting line drives about 14.7% of the time. Castillo’s BABIP doesn’t usually stray too far from his batting average, as he pretty much always puts the ball in play; he rarely strikes out and never homers.  All told, Castillo has “produced” a .242/.336/.284/.620 line on the season.  This makes him the best hitting Mets second baseman by a fair margin this season.  For this production, Castillo will make $6 million this year.

Alex Cora is posting career-low totals in just about everything.  He’s struggling to hit above .200, he has provided no power to speak of (9 extra base hits in 187 PA), and he rarely walks.  This has produced a downright ugly .207/.265/.278/.543 line on the season.  His batted ball numbers are pretty consistent with his career lines, and yet he’s posted a career-low .226 BABIP, which does not vibe well with his line drive percentage, so it’s possible he’s due for an upturn in luck over the last two months. He’s still not going to get a whole lot better, and it’s borderline crazy that the team valued his contributions to be worth $2 million this season, with a vesting option for next season to add insanity on top of crazy.

I don’t want to rip Ruben Tejada, as he had no business being in the major leagues as a 20 year old.  He was overpromoted after injuries to Castillo and Jose Reyes forced the Mets to carry an extra middle infielder while Cora was forced into a starting role, which says more about the Mets’ depth issues in Buffalo than it does about Tejada’s own talents.  Still, it’s worth pointing out that Tejada has outhit Cora on the season with a .211/.297/.250/.547 line, though when there are several pitchers in the National League who have outhit Cora, I’m not sure if that’s anything worth bragging about.  

It is interesting to point out that despite a much better defensive reputation, it’s Tejada who has produced a negative UZR rating at second base this year, with a -1.5 in only 166 innings.  By comparison, Cora and Castillo have been about average defensively, with Cora producing a 1.3 UZR in 344 innings, and Castillo producing a 1.1 UZR in 438 innings.  Judging by my own eyes, though, I would like to see a larger sample size for both before conceding that either Cora or Castillo is a good defender.

Now that we’ve established that Castillo, Cora, and Tejada have been bad this year, let’s try to put thsi in perspective.  They are 26th in the majors in on-base percentage, thanks entirely to Luis Castillo’s batting eye, the one useful hitting skill held by a Mets’ second baseman. They are eleventh in walks, with Castillo leading the way (28 of their 42 walks came from him in roughly half their plate appearances). They are dead last in the majors in slugging percentage, ahead of only the sixth-best organization in baseball Seattle Mariners.  The Mets are the only team in baseball without so much as a single home run by a second baseman this season, and only two teams have fewer doubles this season than the Mets, which goes a long way towards explaining that league-low slugging percentage.

All told, Mets second basemen have produced a .232/.306/.289/.594 line on the season.  That .594 OPS is the worst in the major leagues at second base by over 30 points.  If you prefer more advanced statistics, their .273 wOBA, 8 points behind the 29th ranked Cubs.  That is a truly woeful wOBA.  Your eyes do not deceive you; Mets second basemen have been the worst hitting in the majors this season.  For the privilege, the Mets have paid $8 million, and are scheduled to spend another $8 million on the same cast of characters again next season.

To be fair, this isn’t the worst collective hitting performance by a team at a specific position this season.  The Mariners*, Nationals, Tigers, and Astros have had worse performances out of their catchers, the Mariners*, Astros, and Orioles have had worse performances out of their shortstops, the Mariners* and Angels have had worst performances from their third basemen, the Indians have seen their center fielders perform worse this season, and the Mariners* have gotten worse from their designated hitter spot.

* And you wonder why the #6org tag exists; that’s four separate positions where the Seattle Mariners have had worse offensive performances than 2010 Mets second basemen!

The front office simply cannot afford this type of production at second base again next season.  Most enlightened baseball fans felt that giving Luis Castillo $24 million over four seasons after the 2007 season was an unwise decision, as he was a no-power second baseman whose only skills at the time were legging out ground balls for base hits and batting eye, and he was gradually starting to lose his legs.  Today, his legs are gone and all that remains is the batting eye.  Whether it be Omar Minaya or (hopefully) somebody else, the team cannot afford to punt an entire position this badly next season.

Posted in 2010 Season, Alex Cora, Luis Castillo, Ruben Tejada | No Comments »

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