Mets Daily Thoughts

But this is the spot for a Funny Joke about new Phillies Luis Castillo


you're a day late on that one. 

A day late?   We will always have something to say that is funny or not so funny about that Clown Luis Castillo.  Geez, Opening Day is here and the Trolls show up already.  Stop Trolling and stay on your Phillies Board. 

Amazins, although I laugh a lot more listening to Gary, Ron & Keith on the broadcasts, I for one look forward to hearing my son's Voice of Summer in Howie Rose on the radio.  It wasn't that long ago that my own Voice of Summer Bob Murphy went to the airwaves above.  Maybe I'm getting old, but there's something special about listening to the game live on the radio.  Does anyone else feel the same? 

Oh yeah, I'm praying that Angel Pagan will have an even greater season than last!  lets go Mets

A day late?   We will always have something to say that is funny or not so funny about that Clown Luis Castillo . 



Castillo was cut by the Phillies yesterday, so calling him "the Phillies' Luis Castillo" today is wrong, which was my point.




Geez, Opening Day is here and the Trolls show up already.  Stop Trolling and stay on your Phillies Board. 


posting on another team's board isnt trolling.

posting on another team's board isnt trolling.




Other than being a Phillies fan, can't wait is one of the good guys from down the street.

Other than being a Phillies fan, can't wait is one of the good guys from down the street. - Yogi

Yogi - I value your opinion, but that remains to be seen as Can't Wait is doing the same thing here as he is on the Atlanta Braves Board.  Other than one antagonistic sentence here or there, I haven't seen any Posts w/ substance.... not impressed, check his Profile & Value.  Thanks SheaHey for lookin' out anyhow.  

Update: Recent reports are indicating that Jason Bay may be available to play for the Mets on April 9th. 

Amazins - I second Yogi on this one.  Can't wait has been here for at least the past two seasons, and while he clearly represents a Phillies perspective, he does it in a constructive manner.

There are a handful of Phillies and Braves fans like Can't Wait, Larry_Jones, and Tal Verda who come over and talk baseball.  Then there are a lot more who give these guys a bad name.

It is subjective and one of those "you had to have been there" things.  In 2009 when the Phillies and Mets wars were at their peak we did have visitors both ways.  I subjectively had can't wait, Jake, T Phish, and Phil 4 Life in one group while the trolls were Pollution and Phillies Rule.  Over the past two years I have posted polls on all 30 MLB boards,  (one way to kill your value) and some of my opinion is based on how I am received as a visitor.  I know that InSaN has first hand knowledge of the 'wars'.

O.k. - I'll give him a chance at redemption.   Can'tWait - Good Luck with the Phillies season. 

The Mets season begins tonight in Miami.  Although their Starting Pitcher is formidable... here's hoping for a Marlins Fish Fry.  I can't wait to watch the game.   Let's hope our offensive catalyst Jose Reyes gets the season rolling on the right note.  I want to see his speed, dreadlocks bouncing as he dives into a base, and a big grin on his face as he wipes away the dirt.  I miss that.  

I am still not sure that the Phillies really wanted him at all, just some inside informatin about the Mets under the guise of we will play you.  New regimine so it isn't like he was going to give them anything anyway. 

I was surprised at two things, The Phillies were willing to look at our reject that we ate 6 million to get rid of??  The other thing was he actually hit an extra base for the Phillies??  Oh well maybe we aren't as bad as we think.  Their 5 aces can't pitch 8 or more innings every game.  Well except may Halladay and well lee has shown capable.  Ohhh dang, I am jealous of that pitching rotation and I miss our mid 80s rotations.

CantWait, sorry if I jumped the gun but you have 2 veteran Mets Board members vouching for you.  That's good enough for me too. 

The 2011 Mets season is only hours away.  Although I normally prefer it when we open up at Home, beginning the season down in Florida may not be a bad thing.   Much has been said on the Boards in how we will need everything to go right for us this year, not only the breaks and bounces going our way, but player health also.  

On paper, the Phillies and Braves look much stronger than us but they have holes in their line-ups too.  Despite all of the projected shortcomings of the Mets pundits & media, I still have faith that this season may surprise us all.  When we are projected to be the kings of the MLB, NL, or NL East the pressure normally sets in & we've fallen below expectations far too many times in the past.  It is normally in those years where no one expects the Mets to do much where we witnessed Mets Magic pulled out of the tophat (except late '70's & early 80's LOL).   Enjoy the game & let's play some ball!

It's the 6th inning.  Can the Mets please get a base hit?  Yes, Josh Johnson looks awfully good tonight but let's go already Fellas!  We've only managed to scrub out an Ike Davis walk so far. 

Well last night's game wasn't the result that I was hoping for but one bright spot was the play of Carlos Beltran.  After everything that I've read on him one would believe that we could expect to see a hobbling old man out there, but that was not the case.  Hopefully we will rebound tonight and then R.A. Dickey will throw on Sunday. 

On a side note - One of my past favorite Mets, Hisanori Takahashi retired just one of the four batters he faced and he gave up a solo home run to boot.   I still wish that he had stayed. 

The brightest smile came to my face when Willie Harris ended Josh Johnson's No-Hit bid.  I just kept saying to myself how horrible it would be to start the Mets Season off by getting no-hit by the Marlins in the 1st game of the year. 

The 4th inning Grand Slam by Buck was a game-changer.  It reminded me how awful our stats were from last year in which no single Met even hit one Grand Slam, yet our pitchers surrendered 12 to opposing teams.  Gary Cohen realted this fact during the broadcast. 

I think that Thomassam (or someone else) said it another post:  Mike Pelfrey is a #3 Starter, or maybe #4 starter on the MLB level at best and he would be solid in such a role.   I think that our real Ace (R.A. Dickey) throws tomorrow.  

How long will it be before the debate to move Angel Pagan up to the # 2 spot in the batting order begins?  I think Collins will switch him back there when Jason Bay returns.     Let's watch and see tonight. 

After the Mets came up empty in the 6th,  I thought Bob Feller.  I guess like Keith, I hadn't heard the trivia question but I knew the answer before the question.  Take that Jeopardy!  A good thing was Carlos Beltran, RBI double and run scored.  Looked OK in RF, but wasn't challenged.  Keith commented he looked like he had lost a step, probably right. 

Hey Amazins, There will be no debate on Pagan batting 2nd. Tonight he will be there. Only reason he was 6th was because Harris had earlier success agains Johnson and he was in the lineup. I don't know if Collins will do that everytime Harris is in the lineup or not, but Pagan is our everyday #2 hitter.

Be nice to get a win tonight...Niese is on the mound against Nolasco....and Florida had won 9 of 10 in Florida against the Mets....Ok maybe start the season somewhere else next year.....well next year Florida has their new stadium....

Jade - I hope you're correct.  I love the 1-2 duo of Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan setting the table at the top of our order.  There is a long season ahead and I would like nothing more than for these two to contribute to the Mets offesnse by putting up some crooked numbers on the scoreboard EARLY in the game.   Let's Go Mets! 

So you guys have successfully recruited me.  I like that the idea is spreading, just makes it sound like a better one.

As far as Los Mets, the 0-8 from Wright and Reyes was disappointing.  Obviously Josh Johnson is an animal and it's just one game, but I was actually kind of excited for this season to start.  The no-hit until the 7th inning stuff got me to come back down to reality really quickly.  Also on Pelf, it looked like he struggled early but was going to be able to get over it.  He had more than a few of those last year--what I like to call Johan Santana games.  Where he clearly doesn't have his best stuff but gets through it anyway.  Bottom line is that he didn't trust his defense and a walk killed him to start that grand slam inning.  If not for that, I could have definitely seen him going 6, throwing around 110 pitches and only giving up 1 or 2 runs.

Can't get all worked up about it though.  We'll see how they bounce back tonight.

One random note though on Jose Reyes.  It looked like he is making a more than conscious effort to be more patient at the plate.  We all know that's what Alderson (and therefore Collins) wants to see, but will that benefit Jose as a hitter?  I have no idea at this point.  It looked like he had 3 really perfect fastballs to hit in his first AB, but he was taking a strike all the way.  Only time will tell: 1 if he's even able to stick with that strategy, and 2, if it will even pay off.

Santana8Moss3 - First, thanks for the inspiration of a Mets Daily Random Thoughts.   2nd, thanks for participating as you have proven in the past to bring excellent discussion to the table.  You will soon see that we have MANY Posters present here (too many to name) that are knowledgable and passionate about our Team and we stick it out through the good times as well as the bad.  

On the subject of Jose Reyes - I've said it many times before - the guy is a potent offensive weapon.  In a prior post I related that Alderson is attempting to build a "culture" around our Franchise where on-base percentage matters and is a top priority.  Yes, the money is there to sign him, but Reyes' career OBP won't justify Alderson's current philosophy.  If Reyes can jack up his OBP this year, and combine it with quality statistics that resemble his performances from three years ago... there is no doubt in my mind that we will be sitting in the seats at Citi Field (or in front of our t.v.'s) and singing Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose in unison for many seasons to come.     

Congrats to David Wright for hitting the 1st Mets Home Run this season.  Opposite field no less.  We had the chance to open the floodgates in the 3rd inning.  Reyes really tagged that ball to center.  Ike Davis leading the way once again.  Jon Niese keeping us in the game at least.  Tonight's game has been better to watch than yesterdays.  Let's finish it off.   

Question; is it really physically possible for anyone to pump their legs faster than Jose Reyes did leading into that classic feet first slide across home plate. 
Question; when did the Marlins get three GG in the OF.  There was a 5 batter sequence in the 3rd and 4th innings in which Reyes and Angel Pagen hit ball deep to CF and RF and both were caught.  David Wright led off the 4th with the HR followed by a ball caught by Logan Morrison off the bat of Carlos Beltran in deep LF followed by a diving catch of an Ike Davis line drive in CF.  Those balls fall in and the Mets put up 4 maybe 6 or more runs. 
Damn, that felt like Sept. baseball, good Sept. baseball.    

Damn, that felt like Sept. baseball, good Sept. baseball.    

Lets not get ahead of ourselves - its barely April ;)

Question; when did the Marlins get three GG in the OF. 

Seriously, I was thinking the same thing.  But then again, they looked like the same old Marlins OFers when they let that David Wright foul ball drop in extra innings which you could agrue cost them the game.

you're a day late on that one.-can't wait



After Wilson Valdez goes down; "THE RETURN OF Luis Castillo".  OK, Amazins, I think I understand how this works. 

Mets 6, Marlins 4.

Three stars for the Mets:

3rd: Josh Thole - 3-4 with the go ahead RBI in the 9th (too bad Francisco Rodriguez couldn't make it hold up)

2nd: Jonathon Niese - 7 IP 4 H 2 ER 1 BB 3 K's; very solid overcoming a rough 1st inning. He bent but didn't break.

1st: David Wright - 3-5 2 R's 2 RBI 1 HR - came through in the clutch in the 10th with the go-ahead RBI

I love Willie Harris.

That was a tough game in which we pulled out the victory.  I was so mad when K-Rod blew the Save but he ended up getting the Win.  Leo Nunez didn't fair much better coming out of the Marlins Pen either, but I long for the days when a Mets Closer can run out to the mound and be that dominant, lights out kind of guy.... I honestly believe we haven't had "that guy" since Randy Myers occupied the role.  Billy Wagner had that potential, but I will never forget his meltdown against the Yankees during a Subway Series game (for whatever reason). 

David Wright came through and it was nice to see Willie Harris have an impact on the game.  Can R.A. Dickey repeat his performance from last year?  We will find out tonight. 

Put it in the Books!  A sweep was not in the cards, but taking the rubber-match & opening season series victory over the Marlins is good enough to me.   We were 2-8 in rubber matches on the Road last season, so we're on our way in reversing some negative stats.  Now if only we can hit that elusive Grand Slam.  The opportunites will come.  

The Mets gave R.A. Dickey something they didn't supply him with too often last year.... Run Support.  Other than the 3rd inning, I felt that R.A. was in control for the majority of his time on the mound.  Capuano concerned me though.  Hats off to Willie & Ike Davis on their HR's.   Got Phillies?

Very nice to get our first road series win right off the bat! (remember how long that took last year?) ... Lots of positives already:

*Outside of one very bad inning by Mike Pelfrey, the starting pitching is off to a great start
*Wright looks like pre-2009 David Wright, which is great to see
*I really think Ike Davis is going to have a monster season, something like .290, 30 HR, 100 RBI
*Josh Thole is quickly becoming one of my favorite Mets, I will enjoy watching him mature this season

Granted, I am still very concerned about K-Rod, second base and overall depth, but definitely enjoyed the past few days! Lets Go Mets!