The New Key Met

My initial response to the Ryan Church/Jeff Francoeur deal was something to the effect of "Huh?" I have to say I didn't expect it coming, or at least not a deal particularly like this. But if this is the kind of deal Omar Minaya is going to make to somehow cosmetically make us think he's conscious, well, so be it.

I understand the logic of the deal, which I assume to be something like, "Here, we'll take your headcase off your hands, but in exchange we'll deal you one of ours and hopefully this'll work out for both of us." That's the only way this deal makes sense to me, because I think that both players more or less cancel each other out.

Neither Church or Francoeur are going to save the Mets season at this point. I suppose thinking longer term, Francoeur is the better player, if only because he's 25 (5 years younger than Church), he has some sort of demonstrated record as a full-time player (though not necessarily a good one) and he gives the Mets some sort of decent bat from the right side (though, at this point, any bat that wasn't already on the team is probably an upgrade over the incumbent). On the other side, I was never especially fond of Francoeur, though, let's face it, that was primarily because he played for the Braves and drew a ton of hype during his initial splash in the Major Leagues and his solid seasons afterwards. There's also the whole "Sleeping with the Enemy" factor, which more often than not ends up burning the Mets in the long run (see: Glavine, Tom; Stanton, Mike; Randolph, Willie).

Then, there's Church, who becomes the first Met to be traded during the same season in which I named him a Key Mets player. To this point, Church has posted better numbers than Francoeur, but at the same time, there wasn't any sign that he was going to perform any better than he was. He hadn't gotten hot like he was at the beginning of '08, and it seemed like he was constantly being called out as being hated by Manuel, a problem in the Clubhouse and not a fan of New York. He also didn't help himself with that whole missing 3rd base fiasco. Again, who the hell knows if any of this is true, but I have a feeling that we're going to find out now that he's been traded and the Mets and Braves will play each other next week. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Church has already been in touch with good friend Larry, promising to spill all the Mets signs to the Braves. A common practice, no doubt, but when you have two teams whose fondness for each other can be best compared to, say, Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell, these things can escalate.

Braves fans seem to be tearing their hair out. Mets fans are not surprised that Church was dealt, but perhaps odd to hear who's coming in return. I guess this can only work out in the positive for the Mets. After all, things can't get much worse.

Here, Have This Game, We Don't Want It.

I think that, instead of sitting down and trying to make some sort of explanation for why his team played like a group of morons for close to 4 hours late last night, Jerry Manuel probably should have sat down for his postgame press conference and said only one thing:

"You're welcome, Joe."

Then, he should have got up and walked away. That's all that needs to be said after the Mets quite literally handed the game to the Dodgers.

I've made some brief references to the fact that the Mets have this rather annoying habit of playing like complete idiots every so often (this particularly seems to come in the last few weeks of the season), but last night, they took this problem to a startling new height.

It's fortunate, I suppose, that this was an extra-inning game on the West Coast. At least most Mets fans were spared the misery of actually watching (or listening) to this disaster unfold. I had the poor fortune of listening to the game on the radio, and you could see this ending coming a mile away. As soon as Ryan Church got called out for missing 3rd base, in a move that has to be considered vapor-lock of the highest and most inexcusable order, you knew that this game was done, the Mets were fucked, and it was only a matter of time before the Dodgers pushed across the winning run. At least they made it quick.

It's one thing to say that the Mets are banged up. And missing a pair of key players and their top sub from their starting lineup doesn't help. But, simply abandoning the fundamentals of baseball just makes matters worse. I'm not sure who, exactly made the 5 errors that occurred in last night's game. I know that Beltran got one because Pagan stupidly didn't pull up on a fly ball, and another one went to Jeremy Reed for his inability to simply throw a strike home to Castro. But nothing is an excuse for Ryan Church, who I figured to be a key player for the Mets this season. The Mets, as an organization, seem to have an unwritten MO with their players: If they like you, they'll hype you to death. But if they don't like you, they will bury you, and take every opportunity to do so. I don't know how or why, but Church is headed down that path. He didn't help himself by slumping after a quick start, but rather than let him work out his problems, Church got pushed into a 5-man shuffle. But nothing is an excuse for missing 3rd base in the 11th inning, when your run means taking the lead. I'd guess he's getting taken to task for it today, and, let's face it, he deserves it.

This game was so disgusting to listen to, I couldn't even fall asleep afterwards. Howie Rose said it best after the game, while doing a commercial for Wendy's. "If you still have an appetite after this game." That about sums it all up. What the hell kind of team is this, that can look brilliant for a week and beat the tar out of the Giants, then go out there and play like a bad reincarnation of the '62 Mets? Where do they go from here?

The Church of Sporadic Offense

This is #1 of 5 Key Mets Players for the 2009 season.

The last man ever to swing a bat in Shea Stadium was Ryan Church.

If things had broken a little better for him during the '08 season, perhaps that final swing could have taken place under vastly different circumstances.

If the 2008 season for the Mets could be best described as long, frustrating and ultimately unfulfilling, perhaps nobody exemplified this more than Ryan Church.

After arriving in New York in a rather controversial trade, Church certainly had a number of questions surrounding him. Could he hit lefties? Could he hit for power and drive in runs on a consistent basis? Would he be able to hold down the bottom third of a batting order that stood to peck and scrape for runs?

At the outset, the answer to all of those questions turned out to be a resounding YES! While the rest of the team seemed to be in their own fog, Church broke from the gate and played like he really had something to prove. Over the first two months of the season, nobody was playing better than Church. He kick started it off with a rally-extending single on Opening Day, and only went up from there, finishing April with a .316 BA and 19 RBIs. His defense in Right Field was more than solid as well, as he chipped in with a strong arm and great range to complement Beltran in Center. May started, and Church continued to swing a hot bat. His power numbers picked up, and by May 20th, Church had a robust 9 HRs and 32 RBIs for a team that wasn't scoring much.

Then, came the nightcap of a miserable May 20th Doubleheader.
Trying to break up what would be a game-ending Double Play, Church's high slide led him straight into the knee of a leaping Yunel Escobar. The resulting collision was brutal, ugly and ultimately short-circuited Ryan Church's entire season.

Whether or not the Mets Medical staff botched the handling of Church's second concussion in three months is academic. Church should have been sent back to New York and immediately put on the Disabled List until his head was clear. But, instead, Church played on. But it was clear that he wasn't right. After about a week's worth of Pinch-Hitting appearances, Church was back in the starting lineup on June 1st. He responded with a fine game, even hitting a HR off Hiroki Kuroda.

Church would go 0 for his next 10 before being placed on the Disabled List for the next few weeks. He wouldn't appear again until June 29th. Clearly, something was very wrong. Again, Church claimed he felt good, and he certainly looked good, picking up a pair of hits in a victory over the Yankees. When he continued to play well the following week, we again thought Church was back. But on July 5th, he left the game against the Phillies in the 8th inning with Dizzy spells.

He would not play again until August 22nd. For June, July and August, he played a grand total of 20 games.

When he returned, he played his heart out, and the fans knew it and appreciated it. But he hit .195 for August and September, and clearly killed the Mets in a number of spots. Instead of being a bottom of the order run producer, Church instead deepened the Black Hole at the end of the lineup. His hits counted, including a Grand Slam in Milwaukee, and a pair of clutch hits (and an even more clutch slide) in the frenetic September 25th game vs. Chicago. It was clear that he couldn't be counted on, and he probably wasn't playing at 100%, and yet Jerry Manuel continued to run him out there day after day, until that final afternoon, when he embarrassingly struck out in his first 3 at bats before making that final swing and lofting that final fly ball out to Center Field.

After the season, there were revelations that he hated New York and wanted to be traded, though the prevailing thought was that this was little more than a Mike Francesa Creation, and Church and his wife were happy, and moved with the fans response to Church, particularly after he returned from the DL. Whether this is true or not, Church is back, and for better or worse will be the starting Right Fielder on Opening Day.

[Note: Some further research revealed Francesa's comments to be totally False. Church sounded off on this in an article here, and was further corroborated here.]

The question is, what, exactly, do we have in Ryan Church? His career norms don't jump off the page at you, and his 2008 season all told didn't vary from those numbers at all. The 43 doubles he hit in 2007 while playing in cavernous RFK Stadium were a good indicator of his gap power, and Church certainly displayed that when he was going good, though he didn't come close to 43 doubles for the '08 season.
It's clear that Church certainly has the capability to play well for a good streak of time. I don't think his hot start was an aberration. But it's unclear as to whether or not he can keep that sort of a streak going over the course of a full season, and end up hitting .290 or .300 with 20 HRs and 80 RBIs. These are the kind of numbers that the Mets are probably going to need out of Church if they expect to challenge for the NL East. Given that it's going to be the same cast of characters playing out there for the Mets in 2009, and given that the Mets didn't bring in a righty bat to platoon with Church if he begins to falter against lefty pitching, it is incumbent upon Church to show that his concussion battles are behind him, and that the hot start he got off to in 2008 was no fluke.

After the season, I wrote that teams were pitching around Delgado and Beltran to pitch to Church, and Church was justifying the move every single time. If Church hits, and hits well, it means that Beltran and Delgado get better pitches to hit in front of him, it means guys like Daniel Murphy don't have quite as much pressure on them to get that big hit, and it means that the Mets lineup looks a lot better from top to bottom.

19 20 to Survive

Note: Edited because I forgot that the Mets have a Doubleheader in Atlanta on Tuesday.

I mentioned this briefly yesterday. It had been posed to me in an e-mail on Tuesday morning that the Mets pretty much had to win the final 3 games of the Nationals series because of the upcoming schedule. The Mets, over the next 2 1/2 weeks, will be playing the following teams:

Washington 3 2 (5/13-5/15)
@ Yankees 3 (5-16-5/18)
@ Atlanta 3 4 (5/20-5/22)
@ Colorado 3 (5/23-5/25)
vs. Florida 3 (5/26-5/28)
vs. Los Angeles 4 (5/29-6/1)

19 20 games against some of the league's best. True, the Yankees aren't the powerhouse they have been, but they're still a very good team, and true, the Marlins will likely come back to earth soon, but still, this is a stretch of 19 20 games that should, more or less, determine who the Mets are and where they're going in 2008. Last season, there was a similar stretch in June, where the Mets played, over the course of 3 weeks, every team that made the playoffs in 2006. By and large, they survived, although that's a fairly kind way to put it. They didn't play well over that stretch (8-10 over that 18-game stretch, although it's 8-13 if you add in the 3-game sweep by Philly that preceded it), and the result was that the team was listless the rest of the season. The performance over that stretch pretty much spelled out the rest of the season. It didn't end well.

This stretch ought to tell you about as much. I hate to put pressure on games in May, but let's be realistic. The Mets are basically teetering on the brink of obscurity. Heads are already beginning to roll, and if the team doesn't improve, wholesale changes will need to be made. The first of the 19 20 games was last night, and the Mets won. If the Mets go 9-10 10-10, it's not great. Anything worse than 7-12 7-13, and it may be time to think about rolling some more heads. 5-14 6-14, and it's time to clean house and build for 2009. If the Mets get hot and roll off a 13-6 14-6 stretch, everything's OK. This will be a good barometer for the rest of the season.

So, last night, the Mets beat the Nationals, which they should be doing on general principle. John Maine summoned his greatest inner strength, shunning the black, bleak, looming specter of doom that hovered over the stadium like a dark cloud on a cold, lonely November afternoon, and brought forth another sterling performance. He set the tone early, drilling Felipe Lopez with his first pitch ("It slipped," he said.), perhaps in retaliation for the cheerleading going on in the Nationals dugout on Monday (a word on that: Yes, it was ridiculous. But think of the possibilities. Why isn't Lastings now showered with mocking "Let's Go Millie!" chants?). After that, Maine settled right back into his regular groove, getting out of jams, and departing after only allowing 2 runs and 2 hits over 6 innings, and picking up a win when Ryan Church's line drive somehow sailed over the head of Austin Kearns for the winning double. Washington did make it close late in the game, but the Mets got the tack-on runs they needed and cruised to a much needed 6-3 victory.

Too bad John Maine can't take the ball every night. It's also too bad that Rick Peterson has conditioned him to only throw 100 pitches a game (109 last night) and God forbid he throws more than that. But that's another gripe for another time. 1-0 for the 19 20-game stretch. Claudio Vargas tonight. Why does it seem as though I'm always in attendance when these spot starters make their appearance. I've seen Lima, Jeremi Gonzalez and Chan Ho Park over the last 3 seasons, now Vargas. Well, like I said yesterday. Close your eyes and hope for the best.

Harbinger?

If we learned anything from last year, it's that you can't really take anything away from the first few games of the season.

But it's nice to see encouraging signs.

Wednesday morning, I got a call from my somewhat-legendary co-worker. I had thought he was calling regarding something work related. Instead, he was calling with a 10-minute diatribe on how Carlos Delgado is done, and we need to bring in someone immediately to replace him. His suggestions ranged from somewhat logical to completely ridiculous, and involved Shawn Green, Tony Clark and Doug Mientkiewicz.

I'm not at all convinced that Delgado will have a bounce back year this year, and I don't find the early results as encouraging as others might. But let's give it a month, perhaps, rather than two games before we throw him under the bus.

My co-worker basically said what I'd felt about Tuesday's game: It was like watching a Mets Classic of a 2007 game. I didn't like the results then and I don't like them now. After their comeback, the Mets went in the tank against a Marlins team that they went out and thoroughly pummeled last night.

Go figure.

Clearly, the Mets are going to play somewhere in between as well as they looked on Monday and Wednesday, and as bad as they looked on Tuesday. I can only hope, for sanity's sake, that they at least try to do so with some consistency. One of the more frustrating things that happened last season was a lack of consistency, be it good or bad. It prevented the glaring problems with the Mets (situational hitting, bullpen, Delgado) from being noticed or addressed because, hey, the Mets were still winning games, still in 1st place, until they weren't.

Point is, yes, I'll always take a 13-run output, 6 shutout innings from Ollie, a dominant Santana, etc, etc. But if you can do it, please do try to keep doing it over and over, rather than coming back and vomiting up a 6-walk outing, or a 3-2 loss.

Encouraging signs, yes, before we finish.

Brian Schneider seems to have been in complete control with this pitching staff so far. I love the way he's been calling games and every pitcher I've seen appears to be comfortable throwing to him. In particular, Perez last night really got into a good groove, spotting his pitches well and putting them where they needed to be. He's also been contributing at the plate, which is a nice bonus.

Ryan Church continues to hit well against the Marlins lefties. After coming up with a key assist in the 1st inning last night, Church followed with his, and the Mets 1st Home Run of the season, a laser beam into the RF corner. He did this on Monday and on Tuesday as well. Perhaps he is worthy of playing on an every day basis. So far, that's certainly been the case.

Angel Pagan - Who knew?!

Beltran and Wright are simply destroying the ball right now, straight out of the gate. Last season, it took Wright until May 1 before he hit his 1st HR, and he was struggling and even being booed at home. And he made a concerted effort to get himself in better shape and better playing condition so that it wouldn't happen again this year. Whatever he's done, it's worked, since he's bolted from the gate like a house afire, hitting what should have been his 1st HR off the top of the Teal Tower, and then two innings later dispelling the drama of what might have been by simply rocketing the ball over it for his elusive 1st HR at Dolphins Stadium and of 2008.

Friday, John Maine and a start that seems to be getting an awful lot of attention.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place

It took exactly 5 pitches into the bottom of the 1st inning for me to realize that I didn't have to be quite so tense while listening to the game on the radio in my office yesterday afternoon.

That particular 5th pitch, Johan Santana zipped a fastball past Hanley Ramirez, and Howie Rose put the exclamation point on it, "And it's IN THERE FOR A CALLED STRIKE THREE!"

Mets fans, welcome to Johan Santana.

In what was no doubt a vintage Santana performance, 7 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks and 8 Ks over 100 pitches, the only thing left to chance was how the Mets offense would respond. Over the first three innings, Mark Hendrickson got the best of them. Carlos Delgado gave me a horrible flashback, popping out with 2 on and 2 out in the top of the 1st.

Then came the 4th. Then came the flood. It started and ended with a pair of players who look like they're treating every game like it's the 7th game of the World Series. In between, a pair of key hits from a pair of newcomers looking to solidify their spots on the roster.

You can figure, for the most part, that Beltran and Wright will find themselves at the crux of most of the major rallies the Mets will have over the course of this season. The production we see from them is expected. But it's those other pieces that fill out the rest of the lineup that we weren't too sure about. Angel Pagan, for one. Considering that Pagan basically was brought in as an afterthought, but he earned his spot by hitting like a demon during Spring Training and earned a starting job based on Moises Alou's injury. But was this a Huskey-esque mirage? Well, only time will tell. But Pagan certainly helped his cause by solidly stinging a double to left in the 4th inning, driving home Beltran with the first of 6 Mets runs for that inning. Ryan Church followed that up with a hit just as crucial for his cause, the lefty off the lefty Hendrickson. Another run. And when Wright capped off the inning with a ringing 3-run double, I felt comfortable enough shutting the radio off and leaving for home, arriving just in time to see Heilman cap off the game.

A pair of assumed "spare parts" coming up with some momentum-building hits. The little things that a successful team needs in order to be successful.

A trio of newcomers, missing pieces in the puzzle, aiding the Mets to a rousing victory on Opening Day, kicking the season off on the right foot.