New York Mets

By kranepool Tonight at 9PM ET we are back with a Hot Stove Edition of PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL on Blogtalk Radio. So join us live at 9PM ET on Blogtalk Radio or via podcast on our PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL site or right here at Kranepool Society for 90 minutes of  Mets Hot Stove talk.

By Jon Star Chris Schwinden does not have the name recognition of others who filled out the Savannah Sand Gnats rotation this season, but his team would not have achieved its success without him. A steady, reliable right-hander, Schwinden continues to make his case through positive performance ev...

By kranepool How would you like to be Jerry Manuel today? First the Mets bring back Wally Backman to the Mets family as manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones and then they announce that Tim Tuffel will run the Bingo Mets. Then it’s announced that Dave Jauss will be his bench coach with Chip Hale taking over the [......

By Jon Star One good sign of a prospect’s development is whether he continues to improve and produce as he moves up levels. That has held true for left-hander Roy Merritt who had his best season yet out of the Binghamton Mets bullpen. His ultimate role will be basic, but necessary. Look inside to find out w...

By GC Like the rest of you, “The Bad Guys Won” author Jeff Pearlman has read speculation surrounding the Mets’ interest in free agent OF Matt Holliday, but strongly urges Omar Minaya to turn his attention in the direction of….a third-baseman? If I know the Mets (and, sadly, I know the Mets), they...

By Associated Press Wally Backman has been hired as manager of the New York Mets' Brooklyn Cyclones farm team in the New York-Penn League.

By kranepool Of course the Mets need help in the corners of 1st base,(I’m not abandoning my boy Murphy but I will concede a righty hitting dance partner would be nice)  LF and catcher both power wise and defensively but right now the Mets have one solid starter in Johan Santana .

By GC Earlier today, the New York Post’s Bart Hubbach called out Mets executive V.P. of lying David Howard (above, third from left) after the club reneged on an earlier pledge to lower season ticket prices.  Lower them, they have, just not nearly as much as previously touted.

The New York Mets had a dismal season last year and, beyond Johan Santana, the team could use a lot of help on...

By Matthew Cerrone …the Mets lack of home run hitters killed home runs in Citi Field, not the ballpark… Meanwhile, the Mets hit seven home runs in nine games played at Citizen’s Bank Park, but hit NINE home runs in nine games against the Phillies in Citi Field.

By Alex Nelson Wrenn's left-handed counterpart may very well be Kansas State draftee Lance Hoge. Like Wrenn, Hoge is short pitcher who thrives with superior control (six walks over 41 innings for Brooklyn and Savannah), not velocity or great breaking stuff. His fastball sits 87-90, with a low-80s chan...

By Alex Nelson One guy who might be worth paying attention to is Sam Honeck, a big first baseman out of Tulane, where he hit .313/.458/.630 as a senior. No one will ever mistake him for an athlete, and, while he's fine at first, he'll never have the opportunity to play elsewhere. Thanks to an all-or-nothing type...

By James Kannengieser When Jeff Francoeur was traded to the Mets, I figured he would play out the season and be non-tendered.  A massive disappointment for his hometown Braves, this is a player who was one of the top 5 least valuable players in all of baseball in 2008.  At the time of the trade, he was on his way to anot...

By Matthew Cerrone In a recent review, Baseball America said: According to Adam Rubin of the Daily News, “Jerry Manuel traveled Tuesday from his home in Sacramento, Calif., to gauge whether Mejia may be able to help the Mets in the bullpen in early 2010.”

By Matthew Cerrone Here it is, your 2009 Mets, in one easy graphic, showing the winning percentage decline as each player was put on the disabled list: Here it is, your 2009 Mets, in one easy graphic, showing the winning percentage decline as each player was put on the disabled list:

By Matthew Cerrone What’s worse, while Jon Niese and Fernando Martinez are on the disabled list recovering from season-ending surgery, Braves RHP Tommy Hanson, Marlins OF Chris Coghlan and Phillies LHP JA Happ could wind up 1-2-3 in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, as Sherman points out.

By James Kannengieser 2009 Mets Anagrams - Omar Minaya = I Many Aroma.  Pedro Feliciano = A Periodic Felon.  Marlon Anderson = Loner Or Sandman. Carlos Delgado: His Legacy And His Future - Eric compares Delgado to past Met first basemen and discusses his future.

By kranepool Is there a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel? First, the team started to listen to the fan base and has made improvements to $iti Field. The video screen in the RF corner came in handy on Saturday and the montage of Gooden, Straw and Hernandez looked great along with the banners on the out...

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) Recapping the horrible events of the last two months for the Mets. Ugh! Multiple injuries to key players including Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and John Maine. Trades! Ramon Castro traded to White Sox upon the return of Brian Schneider. Ryan Church gets moved to Atlanta in exchange for Jeff Fr...

By kranepool It will be great to see Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan at the 1969 World Championship celebration but the best reunion will be of Nancy Seaver and Ruth Ryan By the way why is Tony B the “high ranking official” on this road trip? Where is Omar? Getting his nursing degree?

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) Wow, what a month it has been in the world of the New York Mets. We’ve had injuries. We’ve had drama. And we had a crushing loss the other night against our cross town rivals the Yankees. In this episode I break down the reaction to Luis Castillo’s dropped pop-up. And I talk about the wave of injuries...

By Tino Evangelou It’s official. With the unsurprising designation of Freddy Garcia to minor league camp, Livan Hernandez will enter the 2009 season as the New York Mets’ fifth starter. Aided by the injury to Tim Redding and the decidedly underwhelming competition in camp, it had been apparent for a while t...

By Matthew Cerrone My email box is being flooded with questions about the new, nicely designed, Citi Field patch that on the Mets hat today and being sold on Mets.com. From what I can gather, this is the Citi Field Patch that will appear on team-issued items, such as hats, t-shirts, etc., at Citi Field, their webs...

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) A heartfelt attempt to get back into the swing of things as we ease our way into spring training 2009. Here are some of the discussion points. Shea Stadium has gone the way of the dinosaur. Jerry Manuel considers moving Jose Reyes to 3rd in the batting order. Who will be the fifth starter for the Me...

By Eric Simon Johan Santana (4.8)Mike Pelfrey (3.0)Oliver Perez (1.3)John Maine (1.4)Tim Redding (1.1) Those last three are what should depress Mets fans about the re-signing of Oliver Perez to a three-year, $36 million pact. John Maine, who pitched sixty fewer innings than Perez in 2008, was neverthele...

By Alex Nelson Catcher: Part 1, Part 2 First Base: Part 1, Part 2 1. Cincinnati Reds 2. Houston Astros 3. Chicago Cubs 4. Arizona Diamondbacks 5. Atlanta Braves 12. St. Louis Cardinals 13. Colorado Rockies 14. Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals 15. New York Mets 16. San Diego Padres

By Chris McCown January 21st: Jeff figured out what we could expect from Carlos Delgado. He ended up with a .871 OPS, for reference. June 18th: Willie Randolph finally got canned, Oh happy day! We held a roundtable about it. That part about Jerry Manuel maybe being more patient than Randolph with the bullpen w...

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) It’s been awhile but I’m glad to get back into the saddle. On this podcast I talk about: My reaction to the way the 2008 season endedThe whole Citi Field bailout controversyThe Mets picking up K-Rod and J.J. PutzThe Mets sending Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez and Joe Smith on their wayThe possibil...

By Dashiell Bennett Padres, Cubs Set To Quit Each Other [Rumors and Rants] Agent: 'Padres asked for too much' for Peavy [Chicago Tribune] • As mentioned before, the Mets got slightly less terrible. The Phillies are unimpressed. [Jets and Mets] • And they want A.J. Burnett too. [ESPN]

By john The next pitcher that I’d like to profile is Duaner Sanchez.  Sanchez was a key member of the Mets bullpen in 2006.  After missing all of 2007, Sanchez returned to the Mets and pitched with a lot of mixed results in 2008.  Sanchez finished 2008 with a 4.32 ERA, his highest mark during his four full...

Look, I'm a Mets fan because I was a Mets fan when I was a kid. I rooted for the Mets probably because my parents grew up in Brooklyn and Rockaway and therefore rooted for the Dodgers. I like to think I'm a Mets fan because they have better philosophy, but I know in my heart that it's really the color...

By Howard Megdal The final spot in the bullpen could be a toss-up between Duaner Sanchez, Aaron Heilman and Bobby Parnell. Parnell could probably use a year of seasoning at AAA, but he’d be a fine final man in the bullpen. And should either Sanchez or Heilman return to form, the Mets could give Parnell additio...

NEW YORK — For 145 games, the New York Mets mean business. The first six or seven innings each night, no trouble at all. Finding a way to finish — that's the problem. After their second consecutive late-season collapse, the Mets began clearing out of Shea Stadium on Monday and looking ahead to a...

By Howard Megdal In the final weekend of the season, New York lost two of three games to the Florida Marlins. The starting pitching, a strength for much of the season, ranged from good to spectacular. Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and most notably Johan Santana combined for 20 1/3 innings of 2.21 ERA pitching, de...

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) Amazin Moments #88 (MP3 File) A review of the factors behind the Mets recent ten game winning streak. Discussion about what lies ahead for the rest of July. Join our social network, I Heart Mets, where you can find the podcast, lots of Mets news, blogs and more. Amazin Moments #88 (MP3 File)

Add a Pick-Off update and plenty of laid-back baseball banter with new-addition co-host Andrew Kappes, and you’ve got yourself a damn good show. Enjoy and interact via e-mail at thepitch@mvn.com or via phone at 360-450-MVN3. Willie Randolph (IconSMI) “The Pitch” stayed up all night Mond...

At the start of the year, hosts Joe Aiello and Brandon Rosage felt pretty comfortable giving the Mets and Tigers passes to the postseason after their big off-season acquisitions. But while Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera went walk-off Thursday for a Tigers sweep, Mets closer Billy Wagner blew...

By Alex Nelson This could be a big draft for the Mets. The Mets’ farm system is pretty barren–even more so following the Johan Santana trade–and the Mets luckily have three picks in the first and supplemental rounds: number 18, number 22, and number 33 overall. The 18 and 33 come courtesy of the Braves, who w...

By Alex Nelson The Mets followed up their disappointing 14-12 April with an even more disappointing 13-15 performance in May, one that got so disheartening after a five-game losing streak, that Mets Geek closed up shop. Here’s the team-by-team breakdowns: Team W L RS RA Arizona 2 1 16 14 Atlanta 0 4 9 27 Ci...

By Aaron Dorman MetsGeek: What are Valentino Pascucci’s pluses? Can he help the Mets at all? MetsGeek: So we shouldn’t be rooting for the Mets to release Delgado and call him up? MetsGeek: Yeah, I think Fernando Martinez might be in a similar situation. At what point does Fernando Martinez have to put up nu...

The program adds in a review of its weekly “Pick-Off” game, a DVD giveaway and more news and notes from the past weekend in Major League Baseball. Carlos Delgado should be pissed. Carlos Delgado’s would-be home run in the Yankees-Mets weekend finale sparked an old favorite discussion on th...

1978 - Hubie Brooks. Very solid selection with #3 choice in draft. Was close to major league ready when chosen. Had some pretty good years with the Mets before going to Montreal in the Gary Carter deal. Had a decent career. Kirk Gibson was taken 9 picks later, but hard to fault this selection.

By GC Past commemorative patches worn by the Mets include tributes to Shea Stadium’s 40th Anniversary (2004), the 40th Anniversary of the club’s inception (2002), the first Major League game to be played in Tokyo (2000), the 50th Anniversary ...

By Matthew Cerrone The Mets today unveiled the ‘commemorative logo’ celebrating the 45-season history of Shea Stadium. The Mets will wear this logo as a patch on the right sleeve of their uniforms during all 2008 home games. In the coming weeks, ...

New York Daily News The answer is simple: Alex Rodriguez to the Mets New York Daily News, NY - A-Rod would give the Mets a third baseman who can hit 50 home runs a year and actually throw the ball to first base. His presence would allow Carlos ...

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) We’ve been hurt by a variety of injuries but we still have some important core players like Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran. Shawn Green is expected to return very soon. Moises Alou could be back in a week or so.

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) We wrap up the month of April, which had the Mets staying neck and neck with the Atlanta Braves at the top of the National League East. Show Notes Nice win against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Listener comment on Endy Chavez walk off bunt single. April 2007 Recap – A lot of positives! We need to beat...

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) It’s been too long. Let’s talk Mets baseball! Your comments Greg in CT – on David Wright, Carlos Delgado and Aaron Heilman. Zach – on Willie Randolph and the 2007 season. Kyle – on the Mets great start. April 2007 Month in Review The Pitching – Surprisingly good performances by Mets starters you...

By rob@newyorkmetspodcast.com (Robert J. Safuto) Game 5 gets rained out so Tom Glavine gets an extra day of rest. So does Cliff Floyd, who might just be able to pinch hit in the last couple of games if needed. Also word that Albert Pujols (who pulled an o-fer last night) is nursing a hamstring injury.

By Eric Simon Still, the Mets picked a bad time to start slumping. With series against the Cardinals, Yankees and Phillies in the next two weeks, the Mets will need every advantage they can get to emerge from these nine games atop the NL East. What's up with the Mets? Eric tries to get to the bottom of it.