Allstarjim

Dude, relax. I am not trying to make him out to be Vince Coleman. The only major disagreement that we have is how good he is defensively. I actually agree with most of what you are saying, bud! I agree with you that he is not as good an outfielder as Endy, but that is more of a tribute to how great an outfielder Endy is rather than a dig on Pagan's ability. Endy is outstanding, while Pagan is very good. You mentioned the 4 steals... it's not the stats at this point that is important. It's the fact that he can do it and he is a threat that opposing pitchers and catchers have to worry about. Besides, Reyes only has about 10 steals so far this year, and he is the best base-stealer in the league. Plus, with him hitting .280, that is not bad. He is a patient hitter and can take some walks, so I just look for his on-base percentage. Guys like Pagan the OBP is more important than the BA, because he is a table setter. He's not there to hit homeruns. So I go back to my original point, he is a very good 4th outfielder. There's nothing wrong with that... he has and will help us win more games this year.

So the 2nd injury was related to the car accident... so in fairness he never healed properly from the first injury. Again, he has had no baseball-related injuries. This team is a playoff caliber team. And I'm still right about Pagan. You can't take one play out and say he sucks. There's been plenty more already this year that he's made that he shouldn't have gotten to but did... He just sacrificed his body the other night for a great catch he had to come a long way for. Willy even said he has a great arm, too, not just the scouts. Darling and Cohen were talking about his good arm about a week or so ago. No need for name-calling. As far as Duaner goes, he wasn't hit hard tonight, a couple seeing eye grounders is what dogged him. Plus I still think he's getting and will get stronger as he gets more work. He is somewhat still working to get back where he was a couple of years ago. His velocity was down tonight more than usual.

That's the spirit, xxi!

He hadn't pitched since last Sunday... he needed some work.

At least it looks like guys are hitting now! Beltran, Wright, Delgado, all these guys that weren't hitting are now stroking! That is a great sign.

Another thing... I'm not talking about key cogs. Every player makes contributions at one point or another that helps a team (or hurts a team, for that matter). As far as Pedro and the previously unmentioned El Duque, their presence and what they can provide this year will be a big lift. I'm not counting on both of them. But if one of them can stay healthy, we can be very optimistic about what they can provide. If both do, that's a bonus. Out of the two, I think Pedro is the more likely candidate to make it back sooner and stay healthy longer term than El Duque. Last I read Hernandez still had that bunion that was giving him problems in ST. Pedro should be back in 2 to 3 weeks and with the warmer weather, hopefully that will bring looser muscles and less likelihood of those muscle strains. I really have to harp on you about Church. You only commented on his contributions at the plate. As if hitting .270 with his decent power wouldn't be an upgrade over Shawn Green. But defensively, he's a HUGE upgrade over Green. He is better than Green at pretty much every aspect of the game. That counts for something. And by the way, Church is not a BELOW .270 hitter. He is a career .277 hitter, and he has had one season as a fairly regular starter. Like Pagan, I expect him to progress as a hitter. Whether he does or not remains to be seen. But it is not a reach at all to expect him to hit .280, giving us 20 HRs and at least 80 RBI's this year. He has the potential to do much better than that as well, but even if he doesn't, all things considered that is a big upgrade over last year's version of Shawn Green. On to Schneider. Paul Lo Duca didn't hit for us last year either. As you said, Schneider is a good defensive catcher (already an upgrade on Lo Duca). And he has said that Beltran (ironically) has helped him with his approach at the plate contributing to his early season success. Sometimes a change in batting stance is what energizes a guy at the plate and in this case the early returns are good for Schneider. Of course I don't expect him to hit .308 all year like he has, but so far so good. And Santana's presence has a major impact on the rotation that cannot be minimized. So all in all I think that it is not out of the question that this team will compete for the division this year and I will remain cautiously optimistic that they will do so.

BTW, Sanchez does not have a history of being injury-prone. There is every reason to believe he will have an injury-free year for us. His injuries were related to his cab accident, not anything to do with baseball.

You're characterization of Pagan's defensive skills is laughable. His speed alone allows him to get to balls most outfielders can't get to. He came up as a centerfielder need I remind you. He also has an above-average arm by all accounts. I've read several scouting reports on him and NONE of them have had anything negative to say about him defensively. One of them specifically said he takes good routes to balls. I tend to think that major league scouts are more qualified in judging his defensive skills than you. All of them are at minimum complimentary of his defensive skills if not raving about them. That is why he is a solid 4th outfielder. I could go on about his bat... He doesn't set the world on fire but when he gets on he is a threat to steal not only 2nd but 3rd as well, as he did on back to back pitches in the Nationals series. Because he only has 400 at-bats, it may be wise to look at his progression. He debuted at the major league level in 2006 and batted .247, followed that up hitting .264 in 2007, and hitting .281 so far this year with a nice .353 OBP. Point is, he is progressing as a hitter like a lot of players do at the major league level. Few come in right away and hit everything in sight. I know it is early yet as well, but he has done a good job for us. But it is an example of how you are negative. You look at Reyes in a negative light, Shockey, almost everything I read from you is negative in one way or another. I'm just letting you know. That is not realism when you are always EXPECTING things to go bad and assuming the worst in people (Reyes, Shockey). That is negativity. I'm not saying you're an a-hole. You're alright by me. But the negative attitude does get stale sometimes. Can't you just let people have a positive outlook on their team without ruining the party with the .500 comments? I'm also a realist. I never thought Eli would amount to anything, and thought it was a huge mistake to trade for him. But I was wrong and so are you about this team. I'm not saying they are going to win the division, because the Phillies and Braves are also very good, but they will be in this race going down to the last couple of weeks of the season. I will say that Matt Wise is back up on the major league roster and may pitch today in the double-header. But much to my chagrin, Joe Smith, who has done a good job for us, is getting optioned to AAA because he has options left, while Sosa, who throws batting practice, is staying with the big club because he doesn't have options. I say let the guy clear waivers. If somebody picks him up, oh well. Let them deal with teams having a hit parade against him. We'll just bring up Collazo or someone if anyone in the bullpen gets injured.

Hey J-j-j-jaded Youve got your mamas style but youre yesterdays child to me So jaded You think thats where its at but is that where its supposed to be? Youre gettin it all over me And serrated ? ? ? Chorus My, my, baby blue (yeah Im thinkin bout you) My, my, baby blue Yeah, youre so jaded And Im the one that jaded you Hey J-j-j-jaded In all its misery it will always be what I love and hated And maybe take a ride to the other side were thinkin of Well slip into the velvet glove And be jaded Chorus (w/) yeah, Im so jaded And baby Im afraid of you Bridge Youre thinkin so complicated Ive had it all up to here But its so overrated Love and hate it Wouldnt trade it Love me jaded Guitar solo Hey J-j-j-jaded There aint no baby please when Im shootin the breeze with her When everything you see is a blur And ecstasys what you prefer Chorus (w/) (blue, blue, blue, yeah) (Im talkin bout you) (blue, blue, blue, blue yeah) (yeah, been thinkin bout you) My, my, baby blue Yeah, youre so jaded (baby) Jaded (baby) Youre so jaded cause Im the one that jaded you

See, you are a negative dude. You took the least important player out of those I mentioned and ridiculed it to justify your position that the Mets will be a .500 team this year. I'm almost starting to believe you WANT them to suck. Pagan is a solid 4th outfielder, and that is important to have, especially on our team. I've personally seen him cause a lot of problems for opposing pitchers just on the basepaths. He is not as fast as Reyes, but he's not far behind, either. He's a very good outfielder with a pretty good arm. I would not ridicule Pagan for his place on this team, it's an important one and he's already helped us win some games. But the rest of the players you don't comment on. I think I have a valid point, this team is not the same one that collapsed last year. A couple of things need to happen health wise but they are not out of the question. This team is going to start to hit as the weather warms up and if the pitching just maintains, we are going to win a good deal of games.

You are one negative dude, you know that?

Because last year's team did not have Johan, Church, Pagan, Schneider, Duaner Sanchez, and for the most part, Pedro. That's why. This is a different cast and I expect more out of this team. Johan's impact alone will prevent a 2007-like collapse. When this team gets hot, you're going to be the one that didn't believe.

jranieli, I think as long as Moises can stay healthy, we won't need to call up a young outfield prospect this year. We have Pagan, Endy, and Marlon Anderson in a pinch to spell the outfield at times. We can let F-Mart take his time, and hopefully he will progress nicely despite this early season scuffling. It is also nice that we have two firstbase candidates hitting well in Carp and Evans so that we can be optimistic that at least one of them will be good enough to be Delgado's replacement! I did see that Gomez hit for the cycle but we got Johan Santana and will have him for a long time. I do think Gomez is a stud but we needed a pitcher and we got the best one available. We weren't going to get him for nothing, so hopefully this is a trade that both teams can be happy with.

Some of you might think I am off my rocker by saying that right now. The team hasn't hit very well, there are injuries to be concerned about, and Pelfrey looks like he may not get it together. But there are good reasons to be optimistic. Despite all the struggles, this team is still close to the top of the division and is 2 games over .500 Wright, Beltran, Reyes, Delgado, and Castillo have all been slumping badly. But we know that slumps happen, and eventually they are over. We know Beltran will get right and hit near .280 with at least 30 homers and probably have over 100 RBI's. We can reasonably expect even better production from Wright and maybe even Ryan Church. Reyes is still one of the fastest players in the game, and when he gets going this team will win more, he is that important as we all know. And Castillo's hitting has greatly improved over the last two weeks. Delgado may be a bit of a question mark, but I'm not expecting a batting title. We really just need him to hit at least .260 or so, with 25-30 homeruns, and about 85 RBI's, and he is still very capable of doing that. With so many players slumping right now, it stands to reason that they could all end their slumps about the same time. If that happens, this team could win 6 in a row at minimum, or 9 out of 10 games. And Church has all the makings of a fantastic right fielder! It is not out of the question that he could hit .300, with 30 and 100 this year. With all the struggles, the Mets still have the 4th lowest ERA in the National League. When this team starts hitting a bit more, we should win a lot more games. I don't believe Heilman will stink all year. And Matt Wise may be called up tomorrow or by the latest early next week, so that means goodbye to Jorge Sosa thank God! Have we even seen the best from Johan yet? Plus, Pedro and El Duque are making progress in their recoveries, although admittedly that can change at any time. Or they could come up for a cup of coffe and get hurt again that fast. But what if they don't, and they actually turn in a solid 3/4 of a season? Moises is finally back! And he doesn't look old still! Consider also that we haven't had many breaks yet this season. We've already faced John Smoltz (twice), Tim Hudson, Ben Sheets, Carlos Zambrano, Cole Hamels, Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, Brad Penny, and a previously undefeated Micah Owings, not to mention up and comers Chad Billingsley and Jair Jurrjens. There are a lot of legit Cy Young candidates in that group, and we have held our own pretty well against them. We will start to get breaks as the season wears on where we aren't facing Walter Johnson every other day. Yessir, I think things are slowly coming together, and this team could get hot in the very near future! There is reason for optimism!

The way things are going, it may not be long before we can legitimately claim that we won the Lastings Milledge trade, a deal I hated when it happened. With Wright, Beltran, and Church, the middle of our order can be great for a long time.

Money, those of us that understand how to analyze statistical data understand what outliers are and why they can't be included in drawing conclusions from the greater sample. You are right to not include the Buffalo game as the data was skewed greatly by the weather, and hence, statistically means it's an outlier. Outliers are not considered in analyzing data which you did very well. There is no question in my mind that the offense clicked much better without Shockey. I really like Shockey. He CAN be a great force on the team. Unfortunately, his FREQUENT miscommunications with Eli has caused too high of a number of negative plays, and some of those negative plays have swung games the other way. I don't know what the right thing to do with Shockey is. But I can't support an argument that says our offense is more dangerous with Shockey in there, when that hasn't been the case. It doesn't matter what Shockey's individual stats are if he causes negative plays that sometimes have cost us a win. All I know is what I see. It's not that Boss is a better player, it's that he's been more efficient with his opportunities, therefore the offense has been more efficient. As it's been said, Shockey needs to keep his mouth shut and be a team player. His fits of anger and selfishness has been counter-productive to Eli's progression, I really believe that. Eli is definitely at his best when he spreads the ball around, as you said, and Shockey, like the other players, needs to fall in line with that.

Mets make Hong Chi Kuo and Jonathan Broxton look like HOFers. 94 MPH is obviously too fast for any of the Mets to hit. And David Wright needs to pull his head out of his ass and start hitting again.

:furious: :furious:

Some would boo, not I. It takes consistent suckitude to earn a boo from me. And that means like 5 appearances in a row or more. Like Heilman.

Blah, too negative! You Gotta Believe! BTW, it's Matt Wise, who's Danny?

This game really got away from us. I'm disappointed in Duaner today.

I think we all wanted Jorge and Heilman to get some confidence today. Hopefully Jorge did but Heilman really is fortunate to get out of that. A walk, followed by 2 hit by pitches? He causes his own problems. Even though they didn't score, I can't imagine he feels any better about himself about that showing.

I can't believe he's doing this AGAIN!

Where's your faith! Besides, its unlikely that Webb goes the distance. Let's Go Mets! Alou and Church hit him well, bats are starting to come around (with the exception of Beltran). We can do this thing!

You're being a little tough on the bullpen. Going in to tonight, they have a 3.57 ERA as a whole. That's not shabby. Smith, Feliciano, and Sanchez combined for 1 hit in 3 innings and no runs against the best team in the NL. Of course, Heilman and Sosa have been terrible, but I have to believe Heilman will get out of this funk. That being said, good call about the Mets in the desert. Quality start for Maine, and the Mets bats did a good job. Jose nearly hit for the cycle, David Wright was a triple short of his own cycle, and Church also went deep. Even Delgado had a couple of hits. And Alou is back! Great news for the Mets. The only negative about tonight is that Beltran again went hitless. His average is now lower than Delgado's, at .204. That is dismal. It's the Mendoza line watch for Beltran, never good. Hopefully he can get going soon, but it's going to be tough because the next two days we go against former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb followed by Dan Haren. Good job on the blog.