Picture Recap of Day 2 of Spring Training

The highlight of my day today was as previously posted, Ike Davis' mammoth home run off D.J. Carrasco. My initial guess was that it would've easily cleared the Shea Bridge. Yes, that mammoth of a shot.

I also got a chance to see a couple of young pitchers on the 40-man roster/the lefties trying to make the team.
 Taylor Tankersley, Michael O'Connor, Tim Byrdak. Tankersley was the most impressive from my vantage point, as he had some deception/hitch in his delivery (which you will see in the videos later tonight). I was very disappointed and talked to Tankersley asking why he shaved his mustache, but he didn't have much of an answer...

Here are the trio of lefties fighting to fill Feliciano's big shoes.

Tankersley shaved his infamous mustache!

All arm and no front side Byrdak. Ugly.

High effort Tankersley

Michael O'Connor. Not that impressive

So in the running for the LOOGY, my first impression is that it's between Ollie P. and Tankersley. Obviously there is a lot of baseball to be played and my 'impression' means nothing, but I know you are looking for some data.

Fernando Martinez had a great round of BP when I was watching him, driving the ball to all fields. I'm getting tired of typing "if healthy", but this guy really is very talented.

Once again, the defensive drills at 2nd base were at below game speed and I can't make any definitive statements re: who is in the lead/if Emaus or Murphy are capable of manning 2nd base. Here are a couple pictures of the 3-headed race.

I got my first look at Pedro Beato, Manual Alvarez, and Josh Stinson. Beato I just saw from a far working on mechanics, but his arm action was free and easy, although he hooks his wrist out of the glove which I didn't love. M Alvarez (on 40 man roster and has great minor league stats) looked good to me, although I don't know if he has enough velocity to make a big impact in the majors (reports say he sits at 91-92). J Stinson is a potential reliever with a fastball and slider.

Beato in the front. Nice pitcher's body

Great external rotation by Alvarez

Stinson

I will post some more pictures tonight with some close-up player shots and other observations, as well as video.

It's 86 degrees and Sunny...

Soooo, I'm headed to the beach. Updates with pictures and video will be posted later. Enjoy the day!

W Harris and R Adams

everyone else is stretching or in the clubhouse. But Willy Harris and Russ Adams are now taking fly balls in the outfield. Utility guys willing to do whatever it takes to make the club.

Spring training day 2 quick hits

Just about to leave the park, another great day. Overcast but still 85 degrees. Plenty of pitching videos today (and check out the videos from yesterday. They were supposed to post last night at 10PM and didn't for some reason). One highlight today was Ike Davis taking D.J. Carrasco DEEP; 400+ feet to right center. What a shot. It created some ooh's and ahh's from the crowd (which was bigger than yesterday). More to come after lunch.

Ollie P. Running Between Stations

This was taking from my cell phone (sorry for it being sideways and that it's Ollie P.)

Pitching Videos of Day 1

Pelfrey and Dickey throwing side by side in the bullpen before throwing BP. Just slightly different approaches!

Chris Young from the 3rd base side.

Jon Niese from the 3rd base side.

Spring Training Day 1 Videos

Meet and greet with Fred Wilpon. I said "I look forward to seeing you vindicated." As I've said earlier, Fred was very nice, talking, signing autographs and taking pictures with a lot of fans.

This was my favorite interaction of the day. If anyone else that needs help getting off of work for opening day, be sure to show this to your boss! Terry Collins, you are awesome and this made my day. And I can't wait for my boss to see this...

Look for a couple pitching videos (Chris Young, Jon Niese) later tonight.

Some quick Snapshots of Day 1 in Spring Training

Luis was late onto the field after going into the Clubhouse to hear about his brother's surgery

Is this how the 2nd base race will play out? Murph, Emaus and Luis a distant 3rd?

Chris Young TOWERS over Big Pelf

Little different in stride lengths Dickey vs Pelf.

CY straight over the top, but drop and drive.

My elbow hurts looking at this Izzy. No front side at all. Not good

Patiently waiting...

How'd I do coach?

Your landing foot is closing off your hips and your arm is late.

We like Ike

That's how you use your front side Izzy

Smile Izzy

Knuckle Curve!

Circle Change

OUCH MY ELBOW

Big Pelf

Spring Training Day 1 Recap

Although it was only 3 hours, it was a lot more action than last year; I never felt like I could have enough eyes to see everything I wanted to see. This was a lot different than last year for me, when it was only pitchers and catchers in the AM, and the position players who were in town came in the afternoon. Today, all four of the main fields had some top players and it was difficult to try to grasp everything.

This post will be the general observations, followed up by a pictures post and then finally a couple youtube clips.

1) Terry Collins is very very likable and friendly. He went out of his way to talk/listen to the fans, and probably signed 100+ autographs for people. He was running between all the fields and spent time to talk to every single player it seemed during warm ups and/or during drills. I can see why D Wright was quoted today as saying he's a guy who you would run through a wall for.

2) Fred Wilpon was also present today and was talking to a lot of fans and posing for pictures. I did not see Jeff, and Sandy Alderson was on the fields, but I didn't get to see or talk to him at all.

3) On the field warming up, the players were laughing and having a good time, and they opened up the gates just in time to see Johan and K-Rod hug L Castillo. It is now known that Castillo left part of the practice to hear that his brother survived his surgery, but it is unknown whether Luis will leave camp to be with him. Obviously our prayers go out to Luis and his family. Luis spent some time signing autographs for the fans in between stations. I didn't get to see him take BP, and as expected, the defensive station couldn't tell me much, except that the "starting infield" had Ike and D Wright alone at the corners, Reyes and Hu at SS, and Murphy, Emaus and Castillo at 2nd (no J Turner).

4) I did get very excited about seeing Jason Isrignhausen back in a Mets uniform, and saw him throw live BP alone with Chris Young, Oliver Perez and Mike Pelfrey. RA Dickey, Capuano, and Bonser also threw, but I didn't get to see them enough to make any judgments.  Here is the run-down for the pitchers I did see.

Izzy: Mechanically he didn't look in sync (will show pics later). He still has the nasty knuckle-curve though and also was throwing his change-up often.
Chris Young: Although he's tall, he is a drop and drive pitcher, and throws straight over the top. They didn't have radar guns at the field, but he didn't seem to have much velocity.
Oliver Perez: He is still a mess mechanically, and he started out very wild and not throwing hard. But he finished up strong and looked confident coming off the mound. He faced Bay, Beltran, Duda, so I'm interested to see if they have anything to say about Ollie today.
Big Pelf: Pelfrey looked free and easy and ready to rock and roll. He was consistently within the strike zone, which resulted in him having a lot of balls put in play against him, but don't read into that at all.

5) I watched Beltran take a round of BP, and right-handed he showed no signs of favoring his knee, which was a major plus. I was comparing how much he uses his lower body to Jason Bay's, and Beltran generates a lot more torque than Bay. He wasn't hitting home run after home run like last week, but it was against a BP pitcher and he was routinely hitting the ball off the wall.

I think that's all the major things right now. Feel free to post any comments/questions and I will do my best to answer them.

All in all a successful first day, and a great start to the week!

5 Things I'm Looking For This Week

I have been asked numerous times over the weekend, "what are you most excited to see this week, or is there one particular player you really want to see?" I hadn't had time to think about it due to the "real world" stresses, so my standard answer was, "I'm just really excited to see baseball, hear the crack of the bat, the smell of the grass." But now that it's 5 AM and I've barely slept all night because of the excitement of it, I figured I should expand on that thought.

1) The overall feel of the camp and the 'new regime.' Last year Jerry Manuel's camp was very relaxed and laid back. Early reports is that Terry Collins is very high energy, running between fields and stations. It also has been reported that he's a player's manager. I'm eager to see if his difference is palpable throughout the camp, or if it's just writers and players saying the right things/reporting it on a slow news day.

You won't see this any more

2) The 2nd Base Audition. Much of the off-season has been spent discussing who will play 2nd base. It's been much assumed that the job is between B Emaus, D-Murph, with J Turner and L Castillo being long-shots. Defensively I'm not expecting to be able to see much since most of the play will be a lot slower than game speed, working on fundamentals (at least thats what it was last year). But I am looking forward to seeing Emaus, Murphy and Turner swing the bat and see if I can declare an 'early leader in the clubhouse' in this race.

3) I'm looking forward to seeing Jose Reyes' energy/enthusiasm/love for the game. Last year before full team practices, I saw Reyes joking around, having fun, and showing his immense talents. But then the thyroid condition derailed him, and he didn't seem to be himself for much of last year. The reports this season is that he is 100% healthy, and that has been confirmed to me privately. He worked out all off-season with one of the top strength and conditioning specialists in the business, and he has been quoted as saying Reyes is one of the best athletes he's ever worked with, including Olympians. Reyes has a lot on the line this season with his impending free agency, so I am expecting a nice rebound year from him.

4) I wrote a short Mets season preview for another web site the other day (it will be linked when it's posted on March 11th), and one of the 5 questions was "What are your expectations for Carlos Beltran this year?" So here is my response (a little glimpse into the 40-man roster preview which will begin in March).

I am not expecting the return of the All-Star Carlos Beltran this year, but he still will be an above-average player. He's turning 34 in April, and has combined to play only 145 games, and 602 plate appearance over the past two years. In the previous 3 years, he had averaged 34 home runs, but I'm only projecting 18 home runs. My overall line for Beltran would be: 140 games, 550 at bats, 73 runs, 18 home runs, 73 rbi's, 9 stolen bases, 3 caught stealing, .284/.365/.475. As a reference, the slash stats for the average NL CF for 2010 was: .260/.330/.407. So Beltran is still an above average player, but I don't expect him to perform like the All-Star/borderline Hall Of Famer he was in his prime.

But then after reading Metsblog this week and the praise they gave Beltran in the cage, I am even more eager to see Beltran; how he's moving around, and if he is driving the ball with authority from both sides of the plate. If I see that this week, I will nudge this home run totals up over 20 most likely.

5) I am eager to see if any of the young pitchers impress me, mainly Matt Harvey and J Mejia. I will also be looking forward to getting a feel for the veteran pitchers who were brought in this off-season, C Young, C Capuano, P Beato (rule 5 pick), D.J. Carrasco, my man-crush on Izzy, and if Johan is around the team much or if he's just rehabbing privately.

Obviously keep checking in this week to see pictures, videos etc live from camp, and an end of the day "observation" post to recap at night. I'm going to be experimenting with some new equipment this year, so there may be posts that are blank/not appearing correctly today. I apologize in advance.

Hope everyone is excited as I am today, spring is in the air!!! (It's going to be 84 here in Port St. Lucie today)

LET'S GO METS!

Position Players Report Today, I report tomorrow

I'm definitely getting excited for my 2nd annual trip to Port St. Lucie, and as a reminder, I will be at the formerly known as Tradition Field on Monday morning for the 1st full team practice. Be sure to check in throughout the day and week ahead, for plenty of pictures, videos and my observations.

LET'S GO METS!

Pitchers standing around last year during S.T.

Mets sign Izzy!

Oh I will never forget Generation K. And I will never forget this picture which I have autographed by the three (Izzy, Pulse and P Wilson) which I bought in Cooperstown 10 years ago.


http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/izzy-pulse-and-a-generation-k-revival-1.2688849?p=

I wonder if I see Izzy next week if he would sign that picture again and date it.

LET'S GO METS!

And the Day Has Finally Arrived!

Today, we finally get to talk baseball; the longest off-season in my recent memory is over, and we get to here reports about every pitcher's bullpen sessions, Ollie Perez getting locked out of the facility, etc.

I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait to see and hear the sound of a baseball glove snapping, and the sweet smell of Spring.

As a reminder, I will be in Port St. Lucie, live and in living color, for the team's 1st full workout on February 21st.

Let's Go Mets!

Link: Great read on Jason Bay

Jerry Crasnick has a great article on Jason Bay's off-season, along with some quotes from AL scouts with what exactly went wrong with Bay last year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove10/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=6076399

My Take: I am expecting a big turn-around year for Jason Bay. What exactly does that mean? Looking back at his scouting report for last year, which you can find here, I expected 32 home runs. I'll expect a slight regression for his body aging (he is 32 years old), and I'm going to predict .270 average and 28 home runs.

Pitchers and Catchers report in 16 days!

Thank goodness we don't need to see this uniform again this year

Let's Go Mets!

RA Dickey Signs 2 year extension

Fan favorite RA Dickey has been re-signed for 2 years approximately 8 million dollars.

My Take: If he can make 30 starts each of the next two years, then this contract will be well worth the money. It's a big unknown, but considering the lack of certainty associated with the Mets starting pitching, it's great to have him locked up at a reasonable rate for 2 years.

Anyone have a Couple Dollars?

As everyone obviously already knows, below was the press release that the Mets sent on Friday. This is in a response that the Wilpon's may be sued for as much as 1 BILLION dollars for their involvement with the Madoff scandal. Obviously if that does come to fruition, the Wilpon's may need to have more than a minority owner. But until that time comes, all we can do is wait and see what happens, versus speculating when we don't know the facts in the case.

I know a lot of people are unhappy with the Wilpon's as owners, but they actually have been more than supportive since owning the team solely since 2002. They are not to blame for the poor baseball choices that were made by Omar and company. Yes, they put Omar in charge, but they also gave more than enough resources for him to succeed (140+ million dollar payroll).

So I view this as a smart move for the Wilpon's, and trying to cover their bases if in fact the lawsuit does take shape to the tune of 1 billion dollars. So do the readers of Long Live Shea Stadium want to start up a fund and offer proposal to be minority owners of the Mets?

In other news, 3 weeks from tomorrow is the first full team workout, and I will be there live blogging from Port St. Lucie. I'm wearing my Mets sweatshirt and hat again, and can't wait for baseball to finally be here once again!

January 28, 2011

Dear Mets Fans:

As Sterling Equities announced in December, we are engaged in discussions to settle a lawsuit brought against us and other Sterling partners and members of our families by the Trustee in the Madoff bankruptcy. We are not permitted to comment on these confidential negotiations while they are ongoing.

However, to address the air of uncertainty created by this lawsuit, and to provide additional assurance that the New York Mets will continue to have the necessary resources to fully compete and win, we are looking at a number of potential options including the addition of one or more strategic partners. To explore this, we have retained Steve Greenberg, a Managing Director at Allen & Company, as our advisor.

Regardless of the outcome of this exploration, Sterling will remain the principal ownership group of the Mets and continue to control and manage the team's operations. The Mets have been a major part of our families for more than 30 years and that is not going to change.

As we have said before, we are totally committed to having the Mets again become a World Series winner. You deserve nothing less.

We wanted to share this information with you concurrent with sharing it with all Mets employees and the media. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Fred Wilpon Chairman & CEO Jeff Wilpon COO

Mets on Verge of signing Chris Young

"If healthy" will be said at least twice in every article written about the tall (6'10") right-hander formerly with the Padres.

In the past 3 years, he's thrown less than 200 innings combined. He turns 32 in May.

The good: He throws 1st pitch strikes 60% of the time, and is still able to get above average swing and misses (8%). He has an above average slider. He's an extreme fly-ball pitcher (28% GB % for his career)

The Bad: After numerous injuries, he now throws between 84-86 mph. He's never thrown 180 innings in a season, and only threw 160+ 3 times (last in 2007). His career ERA at home (Petco) = 3.43. Road = 4.16.

Overall: Another low-risk signing. If you make enough of these, one them are bound to work out and you will think they were genius!

On a brighter note, Pitchers and Catchers Report in less than a month. And of course, snow is falling in the tri-state area once again today...

Mets sign a Lefty!

Welcome to Spring Training, Taylor Tankersley.

Too bad his career WHIP is 1.53 because his walk rate per 9 innings is over 5 for his career.

The Mets signed the 27 year old lefty reliever to a minor league deal after he was designated for assignment by the Marlins. He missed all of the 2009 season rehabbing from an elbow injury, and appeared in 27 games for the Marlins (12 innings) in 2010, had an ERA of 7.50, and a walk rate still over 5 (5.25 to be exact). He did pitch better in AAA earlier in the year (27 games, 26 1/3 innings, 2.7 W/9, and 3.42 ERA).

He is a two-pitch pitcher, with an 87 mph fastball, and a plus slider. However, the best part about Tankersley is his mustache. Sad, but true. Check it out here: http://thumbnails.truveo.com/0020/44/7D/447D7FAFB66E50B363D482_Large.jpg

Another low risk, but this one is probably low reward.

Is it Spring Training yet? I will be at the Mets 1st full spring training practice February 21st.

Let's Go Mets

News and Notes January 5th

Couple noteworthy items to report over the past few days; sorry for the delay.

• Chris "The Animal" Carter signed a minor league deal with the TB Rays today
• My Take: I was a big fan of Chris Carter and hoped he would re-sign with the organization, but no such luck. I know he wasn't going to be a big integral part of the Mets, but he could've been a valuable piece off the bench.
• Byleven and R Alomar were elected to the Hall of Fame
• My Take: Congrats for both of these guys, as they narrowly missed last year. I don't understand why Larkin didn't make the Hall since he is very similar to Alomar. Check out this post if you don't believe me. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/if-alomar-why-not-larkin/
• Mets signed two pitchers coming off injuries. RHP Taylor Buchholz and LHP C Capuano.
• My Take on Buchholz: He has had some success in the bullpen, and he throws a fastball, curveball and change-up. His fastball velocity was 92 mph before surgery, and only 89 mph last year. For $600,000 it's not a huge risk, but coupling that with the release of Igarashi, who was slated to make 1.5 million, this bullpen slot is costing the Mets 2 million dollars. Way too much in my opinion for a team that is a .500 team.
• My Take on Capuano: He has an 87 mph fastball, a below-average slider, and a decent change-up. He has a 4.35 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. His contract is a base of 1.5 million, and incentive-laden that could increase the salary to 4.5 million. Some whispers were quoting his numbers vs Utley and Howard and their poor BAA. That was on a sample size less than 20 at bats = MEANINGLESS. 
• Overall, not terrible signings, but nothing that is going to change anything major in the overall scheme of things. They are both one-year contracts so it's low risk, but I am disappointed to designate Igarashi. He was highly touted last year, and although he was disappointing, there is no reason to eat his contract.

I don't think I missed anything, but if I did, send it in and I will post my opinion.

Let's Go Mets, and hope for no snow this weekend!

Hall of Faming Voting

As you guys know, I am a member of the BBA (Baseball Bloggers Alliance), and we vote for all the major awards. The latest vote was for the Hall of Fame. Below is the press release from the BBA, and for full disclosure, I voted for R Alomar and B Larkin. I was tempted to vote for Bagwell because of the connection to Skip (Dan Gooley), but I will vote for him next year most likely. Who would you vote or?

BBA RECOMMENDS ALOMAR, BLYLEVEN FOR HALL OF FAME

Second baseman Roberto Alomar and starting pitcher Bert Blyleven were named today as the recommended 2011 Hall of Fame class by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

Alomar, who is on the ballot for his second year, and Blyleven, looking at his fourteenth time, both finished just shy of the BBA's recommendation in 2010 at just a fraction under the 75% threshold.  As was the case last year, both Alomar and Blyleven received the same amount of votes from the BBA membership in 2010, but this time it was enough to push them into the recommended status.

Both players received 117 votes out of the 154 ballots cast, resulting in a 75.97% approval rate.  Again echoing the vote taken at the end of 2009, shortstop Barry Larkin was the third man in the balloting, missing selection by being named on just 70.78% of the ballots.

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance's vote has no impact on the official vote taken by the Baseball Writers of America and the members of the Hall of Fame.  However, the BBA has been often a predictor of awards granted by the writers, matching their selection in fourteen of the sixteen major awards in the last two postseasons combined.

The final voting results are as follows:

Roberto Alomar, 75.97%

Bert Blyleven, 75.97%

Barry Larkin, 70.78%

Jeff Bagwell, 62.34%

Edgar Martinez, 59.09%

Tim Raines, 54.55%

Mark McGwire, 44.16%

Lee Smith, 38.96%

Alan Trammell, 35.71%

Don Mattingly, 33.12%

Larry Walker, 31.17%

Fred McGriff, 27.27%

Jack Morris, 25.97%

Rafael Palmerio, 20.78%

Dale Murphy, 16.23%

Dave Parker, 12.34%

Harold Baines, 10.39%

Kevin Brown, 9.09%

John Franco, 7.14%

Tino Martinez, 5.19%

John Olerud, 5.19%

Al Leiter, 4.55%

Bret Boone, 3.90%

Juan Gonzalez, 3.90%

Marquis Grissom, 2.60%

Benito Santiago, 1.30%

Bobby Higginson, 0.65%

Charles Johnson, 0.65%

Kirk Rueter, 0.65%

Carlos Baerga, 0.00%

Raul Mondesi, 0.00%

BJ Surhoff, 0.00%

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was established in the fall of 2009 for the purpose of fostering collaboration and communication among bloggers from across baseball.  The BBA has quickly grown to its current membership of 256 blogs, including some of the most prominent blogs on the internet, spanning all major league teams and various other general aspects of the game.

More information about the BBA can be found at their website, www.baseballbloggersalliance.com, or by contacting the founder and administrator of the organization, Daniel Shoptaw, at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.