Cleaning Up a Mets

Coming into this baseball season, it looked as if the New York Mets were destined to finish as one of the 5 worst teams in baseball. They had Reyes, Wright, Beltran, and Bay, but not much else. At the end of last year, they lost Johan Santana into a greater part of this season. The media - in particular, the PepeVibe - were all over them, saying that they would struggle. Certain bloggers predicted they would trade away both Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran prior to the trade deadline.

According to certain "respected media outlets".....this trio is supposed to be getting split up at some point this year.

They had a rather ordinary, if not disappointing, offseason. Their starting pitching needed to be addressed, so they picked a couple of reclamation projects off of the bottom of the heap – Chris Young and Chris Capuano…..both former all-stars who had found themselves one step from being out of baseball.  Chris Young had been an up-and-coming young arm before getting injured….and getting injured again….and again. Capuano had done a complete nosedive from a top-of-the-rotation lefty to an innings-eating long reliever in the bullpen. While the Mets did not invest much money into these two, their satisfaction with rounding out the back end of their rotation with them was puzzling. It seemed to signify that the team conceded that they would not be a factor this year, and needed some stopgap pitchers until free agency the following year. To “bolster” their bullpen, the  “Amazin’s” signed Jason Isringhausen. Isringhausen, one of the dominant closers of the 2000’s, had not had a productive season since 2007.

Once upon a time, Capuano represented the senior circuit in the midsummer classic. Of recent, he had been relegated to sparsely-used bullpen material with a consistently bad ERA.

Offensively, they seemed to have some of pop with a top 5 of Reyes, Pagan, Beltran, Wright, and Bay. However, they were going with uncertainty nearly everywhere else. Could Ike Davis continue to develop and improve upon his decent rookie year? Could the tandem of Thole and underachieving journeyman Ronny Paulino handle the duties behind the plate? How about the carousel of youth at 2^nd base?

 After reading the introduction, you might think you have an idea of where this blog is going. If you are a regular PepeVibe reader, then you have seen the shots I have taken at the Mets from time to time. At the very least, I’ve had some fun at their expense.

"The Vibe?....That guy can kiss our ass" Minaya (right) and Ollie P (left) were targeted in a spring training blog on the New York Mets. Perez is now in the Nationals organization working on his command. Minaya is somewhere out there working on speaking into a microphone without stammering.

But if that’s where you think this is going, you are wrong.

I’m writing this to point out that, to this point in the season, the Mets have done a really nice job. Don’t get me wrong, the beginning of this season has been littered with “here we go again” moments for them. However, their response to these moments has been quite different from years past. Injuries to Angel Pagan, David Wright, and Ike Davis. Ineptitude by the Mets training staff (Davis’ injury turned from a possible week or so problem to potentially season-ending). We witnessed a period of time in May during which their regular lineup was:

C Josh Thole

1B Daniel Murphy

2B Ruben Tejada

SS Jose Reyes

3B Justin Turner

LF Jason Bay

CF Jason Pridie

RF Carlos Beltran

Aside from Beltran, Bay, and Reyes, how do you fill out the rest of the lineup card? All other players combine for fewer than 20 career home runs. On the mound, Chris Young looked to be finding the magic again, but the injury bug hit him again.

Ginger extraordinaire Justin Turner probably figured to be wearing this Buffalo uniform all year long. He's gotta be happy. It has to suck to play baseball up in Buffalo. Did anything good ever come out of there anyway?

But a funny thing happened while all of this was going on….the Mets started to win games. The feisty, hungry minor league call-ups that the Mets have run out there have not been an easy out for teams this year. While none of them really can be considered a breakout star, they played well collectively and got contributions from different people on different nights. Most do not project to starting roles in their future, but are players that any team would like to have in the fold. To fill the void left by Chris Young, the Mets have gotten an All-Star-esque season from rookie Dillon Gee, who was not supposed to be in the majors this year. Gee, unlike the other role players, DOES look like he could be a special player in his future.

If Gee strings together a few more quality starts, he could be looking at an all-star selection as a starting pitcher. If he gets to 9 wins, he's in the mix.

It used to be that while all the injury bugs were biting the Mets, and while all of the circus of incompetence was going on off the field, the team was equally as frustrating on the field. Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, Jerry Manuel (uhhhh…uhh).

This team has done enough to give the Mets fan something to watch this season. Are they setting the world on fire? No. Will they make the playoffs? Probably not. But they are competitive, and will be competitive moving forward.

The difference for them, in my opinion, is in their leadership. Terry Collins does not possess the “let’s just make it thru this” approach that Jerry Manuel had when injuries and misfortune struck the team. Collins attitude is “we still need to go out there and get it done.” Sandy Alderson is cut from the Billy Beane mold, which means that he is likely to find good, productive players on the cheap. Omar Minaya was cut from the…..well, I’m not sure what mold he was cut from, but it wasn’t a good one.

Uhh...we're just gonna try...uhhh...to tread some water...uhhh....until we get our guys back. 

I’m not saying that we should now dismiss all “same old Mets” feelings we might be having. Jason Bay sucks and will get $66 million of the Mets money. Injuries still plague the team. They still toy with the emotions of their fans. They’ve been within a game or two of .500 for SOOO long, and they never seem to be able to turn the corner and make a run to get above .500.

All that considered, the Met fan has to be feeling good about the way they have performed this year, and the way things project for the future.

You're welcome, Mets fans.

Misaligned?

The buzz of late is a rumored discussion about MLB realignment that could also coincide with changing the playoff format. It’s been an idea that’s been kicked around for a few years, consistently being fueled by the following arguments:

1) The NL has 16 teams, while the AL has 14.

2) Hmm…Brewers owner Bud Selig takes over as commissioner in 1992, the Brewers get moved from the AL to the NL in 1994.

2) The AL East is consistently too strong.  

3) Certain teams (namely the Colorado Rockies & Texas Rangers) play all of their divisional games outside of their home time zone.

i.e. every time the Rangers play an AL West road game, it’s a 7:00PM PST start, which is 9:00PM back home…For the Rockies, the difference is 1 hour

4) Realignment would allow for at least 2 more teams to make the playoffs, which adds to the buzz around the sport come October.

Bud Selig manipulated the Brewers into the NL 15 years ago. While they haven't set the world on fire with success, they certainly have been in more playoff races than they would have been had they stayed in the AL. They were in the AL East for many years, but then jumped to the AL Central briefly before the Devil Rays were founded.

The last major realignment occurred prior to the 1994 season, and was met by disaster right out of the gate. Obviously, there was a player strike the very first season of the realignment. Aside from killing baseball in Canada, the stoppage squelched any prospective “buzz” that was there.  

I think they're French Canadian........What happened to Canadian baseball, eh? The Expos drew above the NL average attendance in the late 70's and early 80's, while the SkyDome was one of the toughest places to play in baseball in the late 80's and early 90's.

In addition, the change was met with extreme skepticism as the newly formed AL West had a first place team (Texas Rangers) that was 52-62 at the time of the strike, while the AL Central had 3 teams with winning percentages above .557. The strike could’ve very well killed baseball in Kansas City also.

In any event, I’m of the opinion that a full-blown realignment could be a good thing for baseball. I just hope that they plan it out carefully. To that end, I will propose a prospective realignment model.

NOT A GOOD IDEA

One suggestion that’s been kicking around is to do away with divisions altogether and just have the NL and the AL as respective leagues. This would sound good on paper, as it would satisfy reasons #2 and #3 from above. No more running uphill for the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles. Everyone plays everyone else an (approximately) equal number of times.

It's not fair....they're too good!

The problem with this is that it would place immense travel strain on teams. Using the Mets as an example, they currently could travel to Philadelphia for 3, then to Washington for 3, then to Atlanta for 3 without missing a beat or leaving the eastern time zone. In a “whole league model,” they could conceivably play the Phillies, then the Cardinals, then the Padres and have to do a ton of travelling. Now, you could say they will just schedule road trips in geographic clusters to eliminate that….but can you do that for all 15 league teams while making sure they play everyone the same number of times? I’m skeptical.

Do we keep charged rivalries together, or just do what makes practical sense for baseball?

Another issue is the odd number of teams in each league (15). This means that there would be at least 1 interleague series for every cycle all year long.  This is not as big of a deal (in my opinion).

MY PROPOSAL:

Just for fun, I included their current records so you can see where the teams would stand under this new format. Each league has 15 teams, with 2 divisions.

Key Aspects: The Astros move to the AL, giving the Rangers a rivalry on the schedule more frequently. It also gives them a team in their division that is close to them. For the most part, all teams east of the Mississippi are in the “East”, and all teams west of the Mississippi are in the “West” (except the Brewers).

Playoffs: 6 teams qualify per league. Division winners secure automatic home-field advantage in the Division Series.  The FOUR wild card teams will play prior to the Division Series in a Wild Card Round. The format is:

Wild Card Round (Best of 3…higher seed hosts games 1 & 3)

#1 WC record vs. #4 WC record

#2 WC record vs. #3 WC record

Divisional Round (Best of 5…division winners host games 1, 2, & 5)

#1 Division Winner vs. Lowest WC seed

#2 Division Winner vs. Higher WC seed

Championship Series (Best of 7….highest seeded team hosts games 1, 2, 6, & 7)

Divisional Round Winner #1 vs. Divisional Round Winner #2

American League

EAST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Red Sox	43	28	.606	---
Yankees	41	29	.586	1.5
Indians	39	31	.557	3.5
Rays	39	33	.542	4.5
Tigers	39	33	.542	4.5
Blue Jays	36	36	.500	7.5
White Sox	35	38	.479	9.0
Orioles	32	37	.464	10.0

WEST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Rangers	38	35	.521	---
Mariners	37	35	.514	0.5
Angels	35	38	.479	3.0
Athletics	33	40	.452	5.0
Twins	31	39	.443	5.5
Royals	31	41	.431	6.5
Astros	27	46	.370	11.0

Wild Card Round:

#1WC Yankees vs. #4 WC Tigers

#2 WC Indians vs. #3 WC Rays

Byes – Division Winner #1 Red Sox, Division Winner #2 Rangers

Part of the deal to join the AL for the Astros ---- bring these back!

National League

EAST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Phillies	45	28	.616	---
Braves	40	33	.548	5.0
Reds	38	35	.521	7.0
Pirates	35	36	.493	9.0
Mets	35	37	.486	9.5
Nationals	35	37	.486	9.5
Marlins	32	40	.444	12.5
Cubs	29	42	.408	15.0

WEST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Brewers	40	33	.548	---
Cardinals	40	33	.548	---
Giants	39	33	.542	0.5
Diamondbacks	39	34	.534	1.0
Rockies	35	36	.493	3.5
Dodgers	32	41	.438	8.0
Padres	30	43	.411	10.0

Wild Card Round:

#1WC Braves vs. #4 WC Diamondbacks

#2 WC Cardinals vs. #3 WC Giants

Byes – Division Winner #1 Phillies, Division Winner #2 Brewers

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil....Poor Cubs fans go from being 10 games out in the NL Central to 15 out in the newly formed NL East.