Go Big Time Pelf!

This is #3b of 5 Key Mets Players for the 2009 season.It's no great secret around here how much I enjoyed the coming of age of Mike Pelfrey during the 2008 season. It's always nice to see one of your own home-grown players mature and become successful in front of your eyes. And it was particularly true for Pelfrey, who had been so highly touted since being drafted in 2005, and had, by the beginning of the 2008 season, justified absolutely none of that hype. In fact, throughout much of the early part of 2008, Pelfrey appeared destined for journeyman status.

I've written about it in depth many times. But it's worth reiterating one more time. On May 26th, 2008, Pelfrey's record was 2-6 and his ERA was 5.33. These turns have a habit of starting quietly, happening in a way that you don't really notice it. But in a victory over LA and a loss in San Diego, Pelfrey turned in a pair of solid outings, allowing 2 and 1 run, respectively. He followed that up with the game that really turned my head, his brilliant performance against Arizona where he threw shutout ball into the 9th inning, outdueling Brandon Webb. All three of those games would end up in no-decisions for Pelfrey, but by then, a corner had been turned, and it was only a matter of time before these strong outings started turning into wins, and before we knew it, Pelfrey's 2-6 record suddenly became 6-6, and then came a pair of outings against San Francisco and Colorado where he was truly dominant, and 6-6 became 9-6 by late July.

Pelfrey came back to earth a little bit in August, after getting beaten a couple of times by the Marlins, but he continued to look better as a pitcher. Working studiously with Dan Warthen, Pelfrey started to work more on pitching to contact, using his hard sinker as an out pitch, the kind of pitch that, when it's on, batters will repeatedly pound it into the ground. Where, previously, Pelfrey would muscle up and start to use his fastball as an out pitch, driving up his pitch count, he began using the fastball as a setup for the sinker, thus making him a more economical pitcher, lowering his pitch count, and allowing him to go deeper into games. The end result of this is that in late August, Pelfrey accomplished something that became a rarity among Met pitchers: a Complete Game. And Pelfrey did it in back-to-back starts, no less.
Though Pelfrey went winless in September, he never pitched especially poorly, or at least not as poorly as he had been pitching earlier in the season. Given that Pelfrey was asked to shoulder a workload he wasn't yet accustomed to, with Maine hurt and the Bullpen being a disaster, he could have been forgiven for a poor outing. But he really didn't have one (or when he had a bad outing, his offense bailed him out). In the end, you have to consider Pelfrey's 2008 season nothing short of a rousing success, at 13-11 with a 3.72 ERA, 209 hits, 110 strikeouts and 64 walks in 200 2/3 innings pitched.

The high inning total has drawn a bit of concern. It's been proven that when a young pitcher passes a certain threshold in throwing more innings than he had the previous season, the consequences can often be bad, whether it means a poor season or an injury. And it's a justifiable argument as to why Pelfrey might not be as good as he was in 2008.

That doesn't mean that I have to agree with it. In fact, I'm pretty convinced that Pelfrey is the kind of pitcher who can be the exception to the rule. As I've mentioned in the past, most of the time (See: Verlander, Carmona, Jimenez, McGowan) you're dealing with a pitcher who is of a moderate build and often a non-fluid, sometimes violent motion towards the plate. Pelfrey, at 6'7", 230lbs is far from slight, and his motion towards the plate is easy and fluid. Plus, he's learned to conserve his pitches enough that by the end of the season, his pitch counts were manageable, falling generally in the 108-113 pitch per game range. Basically, my point is that Pelfrey is a horse. I think he can be the kind of pitcher who will eat innings with gusto, consistently be able to work through 7 innings, and be successful. I don't think it's outlandish to expect Pelfrey to continue to evolve, and be able to pitch well over a full season. If this is the case, we could expect 15-18 wins, and an ERA in the 3.25-3.50 range, firmly cementing himself as the #2 starter in this rotation behind Santana.
Of course, I've been wrong before. None of this is guaranteed. But few people seem to want to give Pelfrey any kind of credit. Again, I'll reiterate a point: If, at the beginning of the 2008 season, someone asked who would have the best season, out of Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Mike Pelfrey, your answer wouldn't have been Pelfrey. But he was the answer, and it wasn't debateable. And if Pelfrey were on the Yankees, he'd be getting the kind of hype Joba gets. But Joba spent much of the season injured or bounced around, and his role still hasn't been clearly defined. Pelfrey's role is defined. His expectations are clear. He's just got to go out there and do it.

I wouldn't bet against him.

Exile On Maine Street

This is #3a of 5 Key Mets Players for the 2009 season.

Analyze the evolution of John Maine, and the 2008 season seems rather out of place.

During Maine's first two seasons with the Mets, he left us wanting, and perhaps expecting, more.

In 2006, Maine, then an unknown Rookie thrown into a trade, burst out of nowhere to run off a 26-inning scoreless streak and capped off his season with two solid outings in three Postseason starts. No, he wasn't eye-popping good. No, he didn't blow you out with his stuff. But he proved himself a cool, collected character of the highest order, stepping up and performing well in spots when it was needed the most. That last outing, in particular, showed his fortitude, as he worked out of a big jam in the 1st, and kept the Cardinals off the board until the Mets were able to scrape out enough runs to win the game and extend their season. If he was still a question mark, he was one with a lot of upside.

It was at this time that I named him the #1 Key Mets Player for the 2007 season. The Mets believed that he was a prime candidate to build on his success.

They, and I, were right, for the most part. Maine emerged as the Mets best starter throughout the 2007 season. He started off incredibly strong, even putting away Pitcher of the Month honors in April. By the All-Star Break, he was a solid 10-4 with a 2.71 ERA, perhaps the Mets most reliable starter most of the time. His second half, however, was uneven. While the Mets struggled around him, Maine seemed to unravel with a number of losses and no-decisions, games where he was either getting hit hard, or throwing too many pitches early in the game and becoming spent by the latter innings. He mixed in some good performances, but he wasn't quite as sharp as he was in the 1st half. But with the Mets teetering on the brink of the abyss, with two games left in the season, Maine took the mound against the Florida Marlins and delivered his signature game, a masterful 13-strikeout performance and a no-hitter for 7.2 innings. Again, with their backs against the wall, the Mets handed Maine the ball, and Maine delivered with a performance equal to the magnitude of the day.

Turned out, that would be our last memory of Maine for the 2007 season. But overall, you couldn't look at his numbers and say he wasn't a success. You don't scoff at 15-10, 3.91 and 180Ks in 191 IP in someone's first full season in the Major Leagues. It was safe, you would figure, to assume that Maine would at the very least match his '07 numbers in 2008. After all, even when Maine was at his worst, he still looked like he belonged. And he was probably just hitting the wall a little bit, or at least that was how we tried to justify it.

So a funny thing happened in 2008: Maine regressed. Which was something that none of us really expected. You didn't really notice it at first. He had a lousy first outing in Atlanta, but that was OK, it was raining and the game was delayed, etc. He followed that up with several decent outings, and all seemed to be on track. All the numbers seemed to be right in line, at least if you were looking at the box score. But he wasn't really going much past the 6th or 7th inning, except for one outing in LA when he worked into the 9th. But by Mid-May, he was 5-2 with a 2.81 ERA. That was just fine, and just good enough for me to give him a ridiculous nickname, which was actually coined by Shirts vs. Blouses, but that's neither here nor there.

Then, it all started to go downhill. Beginning with an outing in Atlanta on May 20th, where Maine got torched for 4 runs and 8 hits in 4 innings, things clearly didn't look right. Maine seemed to be getting through games, but just barely. He was throwing strikes, but too many strikes, and too many strikes that were just kinda hittable. He wasn't putting hitters away, he was nibbling and getting into too many deep counts. Jason at Faith and Fear said it best: Maine had "Leiteritis." Maine was getting two strikes on hitters and not putting them away, wasting away pitches and wasting his ability to go deep into games. Sometimes, he was just barely getting through 6 innings. Sometimes, he was getting outright pounded. He left a start in Philadelphia with a problem in his non-pitching shoulder. Whatever it was, it wasn't what we had expected. Then, finally, we found out the problem: A bone spur in his shoulder was affecting his start and stop points in his pitching motion. It wasn't doing any damage, but it was causing him quite a bit of pain, and perhaps forcing him to make an ever-so-slight change in his move to the plate. Whatever it was, Maine's season was over on August 23rd, after he got lit up for 8 runs by the Astros.
Though he would need an operation on the spur, Maine held off. Perhaps, he felt, he would be able to come back and help the team down the stretch. His Manager, however, felt otherwise. Maine was last seen warming up in the 10th inning of a desperate last-week game against the Cubs, a game that would deteriorate before he had a chance to appear. And so, though he was counted on to be the same presence he was in 2007, John Maine was saddled with a rather forgettable 2008, a 10-8 record, 1 4.18 ERA, 122 strikeouts, 122 hits and 67 walks in 140 innings. To evidence his struggles, Maine averaged 4.17 pitches per batter, a figure that led the National League. Not up to our standards, and not up to his standards by any stretch.

So, that brings us to 2009. Maine had his operation shortly after the season ended, and now stands primed to return to his 2007 form. Pitching without pain, Maine has been working with Dan Warthen on using his curveball, a pitch that Rick Peterson made him drop two years ago. It's one thing to say that the Mets need Maine to go out and be the kind of pitcher he was in 2007, and another for him to go out and actually do it. If it was indeed the bone spur that led Maine to such a string of ineffectiveness, then this probably isn't much of an issue. But, if Maine simply doesn't have the oomph to put away a hitter, that's something else entirely. Maine isn't necessarily wild, though he can go through fits and starts of walking guys. But if he's wasting a lot of strikes that just get fouled off, it means he's not going as deep into games as he needs to, which means more tax on the bullpen, which can lead to a domino effect. Though the bullpen is vastly improved from last season, the starting pitching still needs to do its job, and keep the Mets in the game. It starts with John Maine being able to recapture his success from 2007. Maine will be handed the #3 spot in the rotation (3 or 4 is really just a matter of semantics at this point. I know that Perez will start the 3rd game and Maine the 4th), and his expectations, I'm sure, have been clearly defined. He knows it, and we know it. He's tantalized us quite a bit, but he's never quite put it all together. Things always seem to finish for him just a few steps short.

Perhaps this will be his time.

The Kid for a Kid

I had an idea a few weeks ago. This may not be an original idea, and it may not even be a very good idea, but it was an idea nonetheless that I'd like to try out. I was inspired in part by a post by Jason at Faith and Fear, about collecting Baseball Cards. I've written in some vague depth about my own collection of Baseball cards, which may be about as expansive as Jason's, at the centerpiece of which is a collection of Mets cards spanning their entire history, going back to 1962. To say I'm OCD about this collection is kind; I keep everything in an album, in order, and currently is lacking only 3 cards, those which I'm sure you could guess rather easily (1967 Topps Tom Seaver RC, 1986 Topps Nolan Ryan RC, 1970 Topps Nolan Ryan). Cards from the 80s and 90s, and even today, are rather easy to come by, at least if you're sticking to the gold standard of regular issue Topps. I've got a large number of cards from Fleer, Score, Upper Deck, Donruss and the others, but and those are catalogued in a similarly anal fashion, but it's the Topps cards that carry the prestige. They've been around since the beginning, and that was how it all started for me.

It was 1987. The Mets had just capped off a magical World Series victory, I was 8 years old and attending Saturday afternoon Sports Club, something that seemed to be a staple of the youth of just about any male child who grew up in New York City in the 80s. One of the counselors thought it a good idea to give out packs of Baseball cards as a prize for the kids who did well in Basketball drills. Somehow, despite my general lack of aptitude for Basketball, I managed to score myself 3 packs of the just-released 1987 Topps. The first card I turned over in the first pack was #20, Gary Carter. That was how it started. Pretty soon, I was getting more and more, and trying to finish off a set of 792, and starting in with albums and plastic pages, and it pretty much blew up from there.

So, now we're in 2009, and I'm still collecting cards, though in a much tidier fashion. I don't buy packs anymore, just cards I want. Mostly Mets. Sometimes I try to build an older set. But I keep going back to the albums of Mets, going all the way back to '62, and I thought I would share some of them with you. 1987 was the first year I collected cards, and I put the Topps set together by hand, and here, in order, are the Mets cards from that classic 1987 set.

#20 - Gary Carter

This is where it started for me. It's a pretty good shot of The Kid's form behind the plate. Topps, still based in New York, always seemed to have a majority of their photos taken at Shea Stadium. It was always pretty easy to pick it out. The '87s were no exception. The woodgrain borders, not seen on Topps cards since the original Mets year of 1962, were a nice touch.

#48 - Wally Backman

The card back states that Wally "is an avid hunter in the offseason." This particular photo shows Wally sliding in under a tag from Pirates Catcher Tony Pena. I believe the photo also made the Daily News.

#75 - Ron Darling

I got this card in a pack, and showed it to one of my sports club counselors. He started going on about how Darling dated all these models. That, back then, seemed more impressive to me than his numbers in 1986, 15-6, 2.81 ERA and 184 Ks in 237 IP. If he put up numbers like that today, he'd probably finish in the top 3 in Cy Young Award voting, and people on WFAN would be screaming about how he was due for a dropoff because he threw so many innings. Darling wasn't terrible in '87, but he fizzled out with a string of no-decisions before his season ended early, not because of arm trouble, but because of a broken thumb suffered in a most infamous game.

#103 - Rick Aguilera

Aguilera's hitting prowess was always overlooked. He hit 2 HRs in 1986 and another one in 1987, but after that year, he was moved to the bullpen and rarely, if ever, saw an AB. Then, he was traded to the AL in 1989 and made his name as a closer.

#130 - Dwight Gooden

This, along with Don Mattingly, was the prize card in the set. I got this one in a pack and 3 other kids immediately crowded around me yelling "WOAH! LUCKY!" and tried to trade me for it. Gooden's personal problems were a mystery to us kids back then. We knew he was out, but I don't know if we ever really grasped the magnitude of the situation until we were older.

#147 - Randy Niemann

Niemann was let go after the '86 season and only pitched in 6 games for the Twins in '87. He did return later on as the Mets Bullpen coach. Topps, through most of the 1980s, put out a 792-card set, which sometimes included goofy subsets like "Turn back the clock" or "Super Veterans", but it generally afforded the ability to include cards of just about every schlub who saw some action in the Majors the previous season. Niemann, an unremarkable middle reliever, is one such example of this. We'll see others before too long.

#158 - Tim Teufel

1987 was the year the "Teufel Shuffle" made its debut. This, combined with his surprisingly strong play when Backman went down with an injury, served to indelibly mark his time with the Mets. In reality, the season Teufel had in '87 (.308/14/61) was more or less the high point for him.

#185 - Roger McDowell

Hotfoots, Hernias, Crushing HRs, Masks and wearing his uniform upside down. That pretty much summed up McDowell's '87 season.

#198 - Lee Mazzilli

Maz shows his form as a 1st Baseman in this photo, or at least that's how it appears. In his second tour of duty with the Mets, Maz hardly, if ever, got a start, and usually didn't justify doing so. He did do well as a Pinch-Hitter though, and he was still remembered fondly for his time as one of the few bright spots on some pretty lousy Mets teams.

#213 - Randy Myers

Who knew that behind this almost-cherubic face lurked a maniacal, fatigue-wearing, ninja star-throwing lunatic? Of course he was closer material! Myers only had brief cups of coffee in '85 and '86 and he took some time to establish himself in '87, but by 1988, there he was.

#241 - Danny Heep

Unassuming Heep was another minor chip let go after '86. I remember getting his card and wondering where he was on the '87 Mets. I didn't even know he was gone until an Early September game in LA that ran long, and Heep ended up chugging around the bases to score the winning run on a Ho-Jo throwing error in the 16th inning.

#267 - Howard Johnson

There were some cards in this set that we always used to love to pull because of the jokes that would ensue. This was one such card (I remember Sparky Anderson and Dennis Boyd being some others). Ho-Jo's name aside, what's even better is that on the back of the card, it states that "Howard was co-winner of a rib-eating contest among professional athletes after 1985 season."

#295 - Len Dykstra
I used to love this guy. As an 8-year old, my 2 favorite players were Dykstra and Hernandez. I was also a big Gregg Jefferies fan, but he'll come later. He was small, he liked to run into walls, and his book, Nails, that came out in '87 was loaded with the kind of 4-letter words that I wasn't supposed to say but they made me laugh. What wasn't to like? Hell, I shouldn't even say I used to love him, I still do!

#331 - Mets Leaders

Another 80s staple that keeps coming back and disappearing, it's basically a summary of the Mets team leaders in an assortment of statistics. It's usually accompanied by a dreamlike photo of the team's better-known or longest tenured players. Carter, Strawberry, yeah, that's acceptable. Though it's worth noting that Keith Hernandez, featured off in the shadows on the right, led the Mets in most offensive categories in '86.

#350 - Keith Hernandez

You knew when someone had a card that ended in numbers like -00 or -50, he was probably pretty good. Keith Hernandez at #350 was pretty good. This is a nice candid shot of Keith, with the moustache in full bloom during Spring Training. It's unlike most other cards of Keith, which feature him in action. Keith's card doesn't have any fun facts on the back, just stats. Besides, by '87, what could you say about Keith that hadn't already been said?

#378 - Rafael Santana

Santana was the classic 1980s Shortstop. Came out of San Pedro de Macoris, DR, great glove, and he didn't hit a lick. 1987 was no exception.

#404 - Doug Sisk

According to this card, "Doug received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Washington State University." This fact is probably more noteworthy than anything Sisk did during the '87 season.

#433 - Ed Hearn
Hearn, like Heep, was one of those guys who I had a card of but was puzzled as to why I never saw him on the team in '87. Then, I heard he was traded to Kansas City for a pitcher named Cone, which was another one of those names that made me laugh, kind of like Howard Johnson or Sparky Anderson.

#460 - Darryl Strawberry

We didn't laugh about Darryl Strawberry, for some reason. Probably because he was nearing that rarefied air of Mattingly or Gooden. This was another one of those cards that you got and would flash to your friends to make them jealous.

#488 - Ray Knight

After Knight's performance in the '86 World Series, his card became another one of those "gotta get" cards. After all, it was also his last card with the Mets. Knight didn't do much with Baltimore in '87 and his career pretty much peaked in the '86 Series, but getting that Last Mets card of Ray Knight was a pretty big deal back in the Spring of '87.

#512 - Dave Magadan

Magadan's card drew that ubiquitous, colorful "Future Stars" tag that would grace many an '80s Topps Card. Magadan figured to get a strong look at 3rd Base for the '87 Mets, but he wasn't quite there yet, and his glovework at 3rd Base left a bit to be desired. And he wasn't replacing Hernandez at 1st just yet. So, Magadan bounced between AAA and the Majors for another year.


#543 - Dave Johnson
For some reason, I really liked the checklist cards in sets. I would always get them and furiously check off all the cards I had, thusly ruining the card with my sloppy penmanship. The Manager cards were a big deal too, because it had all the cards on the team listed on the back. So it was thrilling when I pulled Johnson's card and checked off all the boxes on the back. At a much later date, I replaced all the marked checklist cards with clean cards.

#570 - Sid Fernandez

From the card back: "Sid wears uniform #50 for two reasons: His native Hawaii was the 50th of the US States, and his favorite television show is "Hawaii Five-0." I remember that Sid used to enter to the Hawaii Five-0 theme too.

#582 - Bruce Berenyi

It seemed like every year, Berenyi was supposed to be a key member of the Mets rotation. And every year, he got hurt and barely pitched. After two seasons of this, Berenyi was let go following '86 and that was it for him.

#594 - Rick Anderson

I'll reiterate what I said in reference to Randy Niemann. When you have a 792-card set, you have to fill it out, and sometimes, you have to fill it out with some pretty obscure names and guys who had never or will never see the light of day. Not that anyone would remember, but Anderson made it into 15 games with the '86 Mets after 8 years of toiling in the Minor leagues, at the age of 29. And just as quickly, he was gone, to Kansas City with Ed Hearn for that Cone fellow.

#595 - Keith Hernandez All Star

Here's one such subset. The All Stars. Each All Star Game starter from both leagues got their own card, and on the back, there was a list of the league leaders in a particular stat that they might have excelled in, and another fun fact. Keith's All Star card has the NL Leaders in Runs scored, for which Keith finished 6th, with 95. The leader, Tony Gwynn, had 107.

#601 - Darryl Strawberry All Star

Darryl's card features the NL Leaders in RBIs. Strawberry finished 7th in the NL, with 93, however this is an odd choice of stat for his card, since he wasn't even first on his own team. Carter, with 105 RBIs, finished 3rd in the NL.

#602 - Gary Carter All Star

And you don't even have to go far to find Carter, who has the League Leaders in Game-Winning RBIs, a particularly useless stat that only existed from 1980 to 1988 and which, oddly, Keith Hernandez was the career leader in. In '86, however, Carter tied for the NL Lead with Houston's Glenn Davis with 16 (and added another 3 in the Postseason). Strawberry was second with 15. Hernandez and Knight each had 13.

#603 - Dwight Gooden All Star

Gooden seems rather perturbed in this photo. I'm not sure why. Fittingly for Dr. K, his card features the League Leaders in strikeouts, which Gooden finished tied for 4th with his teammate Sid Fernandez, but way off the 306 put away by Mike Scott.

#625 - Mookie Wilson

Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Yes, we laughed.

#653 - Kevin Mitchell

Mitchell was gone in the Kevin McReynolds trade before 1986 had even ended. He went on to some pretty good seasons with the Giants before his attitude and conditioning got the better of him. He was a pretty solid contributor for the '86 Mets, though, and this rather dusty photo is a good example of Mitch in the middle of things.

#704 - Jesse Orosco

Fresh off the iconic image of Jesse with his arms raised in celebration in '86, Orosco failed to even come close to duplicating his success in '87 and by '88 was shipped off to the Dodgers, beginning a career odyssey that would span clear to the year 2003.

#746 - Bob Ojeda

Ojeda hit his peak in '86, and as we would later find out, he basically did it at the cost of his '87 season, and perhaps further than that. Pitching in pain most of the season, Ojeda was the perfect complement to Gooden's heat and his 18 wins were a testament to that. Also took the ball in the two biggest games of the season and won them both with outstanding performances. Again, think about it. 18-5, 2.57 ERA. His season, more or less overlooked, was about the same as Johan Santana in 2008.

#1T - Bill Almon

Ah, but we're not done! There's the Traded Set, which is now commonly known as "Topps Updates and Highlights." Back then, it was a 132-card set packaged in a cute little box and sold only as a factory set, and it usually came out in November or so, featuring Rookies and, naturally, Traded players. Almon was one such player who came to the Mets in '87 and didn't amount to much.

#24T - David Cone

Here's that Cone fellow. Acquired for, among others, Hearn and Anderson in what was more or less a nothing deal late in Spring Training. I think it's safe to say the Mets got the better end of that one.

#63T - Terry Leach

Terry Leach had had some cards in prior Topps sets, but he didn't make the '87 set since he'd barely stuck with the team in '86, appearing in only 6 games. But he turned the corner and was a revelation in '87, filling in admirably when guys like Ojeda, Aguilera and Fernandez went down and ran off 10 consecutive victories to start his season. Plus he had that bizarre submarine delivery that we would always try to copy. Badly.

#68T - Barry Lyons

The Mets only used the script "New York" on their road jerseys for one season, 1987. In '86, their road jerseys just had "Mets" in script, and in '88, the script was dropped in favor of a rather plain looking "New York." Here's a good shot of it, albeit on Lyons' warmup jersey.

#76T - Kevin McReynolds

This is, oddly, McReynolds first Topps card, despite the fact that he was already well established in the Majors with the Padres. He had Fleer cards and Donruss cards, but no Topps, and I've never found out why. Of course, his Topps debut features him with that wispy moustache that he would sport from time to time, though it seemed to be primarily in Spring Training. Which is good, because I don't see how you could take him seriously with that thing in the regular season.

#83T - John Mitchell

Ragtag righty who came in the Ojeda trade, made a bunch of spot starts and earned himself this card. Did nothing remarkable otherwise, though I suppose it's worth noting that he was considered to be among the Mets top pitching prospects back then, along with guys like Jack Savage, Julio Valera, Jeff Innis or David West. I went to school with a kid who really liked him, and used to make little clay sculptures of him in shop class.

So, there you have it, the full tour of the 1987 Topps Mets team set. It's pretty expansive, and one of the larger ones, clocking in at 39 cards. I don't have exact counts handy, but I think it's pretty much par for the course among the 80s team sets. We'll revisit this with some other Mets team sets over the course of time, at least until we've covered all the years.

The All-Ballclub Team, 2009 Edition

It's time once again to dust off the record books and name the All-Ballclub team for 2009. Each of the past two years, we've named a team of 40 players that we feel best represent The Ballclub, and the kind of Ballplayers we stand for. As always, the disclaimer is that it's not the 40 players we feel are the best in Baseball. Lists like that are boring (and besides that, they're facist). Some of them may not necessarily be good Ballplayers in general. But they have a necessary mix of talent, style, substance, swagger, heart and other intangibles, plus a certain Joie de Vivre for the game that makes them stand out to me, thus, they are worthy of the All-Ballclub Team.
For 2008, the Most Ballclub Player was Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers. The Most Ballclub Pitcher was, quite obviously, Johan Santana.

Here, I present the 2009 All-Ballclub Team, in alphabetical order:

1. Mike Aviles*
   
2. Carlos Beltran***
   
3. Endy Chavez***
4. Joba Chamberlain**
   
5. Carl Crawford**
6. John Danks*
   
7. Jermaine Dye***
   
8. Yunel Escobar**
9. Matt Garza*
10. Curtis Granderson**
11. Ken Griffey, Jr.**
    
12. Cole Hamels**
13. Josh Hamilton**
    
14. Matt Holliday**
    
15. Ryan Howard***
    
16. Torii Hunter***
17. Clayton Kershaw*
    
18. Tim Lincecum**
    
19. Francisco Liriano***
20. John Maine**
    
21. Nick Markakis**
    
22. Joe Mauer***
    
23. David Ortiz***
    
24. Jonathan Papelbon***
25. Hunter Pence**
26. Mike Pelfrey*
27. David Price*
28. Alexei Ramirez*
    
29. Hanley Ramirez**
    
30. Jose Reyes***
    
31. Mariano Rivera***
32. C.C. Sabathia***
33. Jeff Samardzija*
    
34. Johan Santana***
35. Alfonso Soriano***
36. Denard Span*
37. Ian Stewart*
    
38. Ichiro Suzuki***
    
39. David Wright***
40. Kevin Youkilis*
    Emeritus in Moustachness: Sal Fasano.
    

Note: Stars indicate the number of times this player has been named to the All-Ballclub Team.

Second Chances?

This is #2 of 5 Key Mets Players for the 2009 season.
Luis Castillo came to the Mets in what was more or less a no-brainer deadline deal in 2007. Down the stretch, Castillo took over at second base, a position that had been a problem for the Mets to fill most of the year. He played tolerably well, hitting .296 and scoring 37 runs in 50 games with the team, which is about what you'd expect of Luis Castillo. He'd made a name for himself for many years with the Florida Marlins doing just that: Getting on base, getting in the way and being a pain in the ass. Though he didn't possess the speed he once did (62 SB in 2000 was his career high), he was still farily fleet afoot, and with his Free Agency coming up, it seemed more or less a given that the Mets would resign him, probably for a couple of seasons.

We didn't expect an asinine 4-year, $25 million contract that not only tied him up, it made him virtually untradeable.

We also didn't expect Castillo to show up undermotivated and out of shape in 2008, which resulted in a thoroughly embarrassing performance, hitting .245 in 87 games, scoring only 46 runs and managing only 11 extra base hits for the season. Yes, Castillo missed wholesale time during July and August. But when he returned in September, and found himself battling for playing time among the likes of Argenis Reyes, Damion Easley and Ramon Martinez, Castillo responded by going a robust 4-for-36 for the month of September. Booed regularly, Castillo had fallen out of favor rather quickly with the fans, and just as quickly with his manger. By the season's final week, Manuel's plan for Second Base appeared to be "Anybody But Castillo." With Reyes overmatched and Easley hurt, Manuel turned to castoff Ramon Martinez several times during the season's waning moments. In the end, it wasn't enough. Though Martinez contributed far more than expected, a healthy and motivated Castillo might have made the difference.

After the season, I called Castillo a "No Fun Cliff Floyd with no power." I'll stick with that statement until Castillo proves to me different. After an offseason filled with rumors that he would be cut, and attempts to deal him were futily attempted, the Mets decided to suck it up and bring Castillo back. These efforts weren't lost on Castillo himself; he came to camp this season and said he was embarrassed by his performance last year. He virtually begged Minaya for a second chance, and apparently made a concerted effort to show up in good shape and ready to play. Now 17 pounds lighter, and free of pain in his knees, Castillo, if you believe what you've been reading about him, appears ready to erase the memories of 2008.

But is it believeable?

Castillo has a lot to do to convince everyone that what happened in 2008 was an aberration, and not the path his career is heading. He has always been a high OBA, low SLG player, a slap hitter who uses his speed to get things done. He'd hit leadoff for a number of seasons in Florida, before 2003 when, hitting behind Juan Pierre most of the season, the Marlins won the World Series. You would think that, hitting behind Jose Reyes, Castillo would do many of the similar things, such as taking pitches, letting Reyes steal bases, or laying down a bunt, or slapping the ball to the right side and moving Reyes over, or getting some hits of his own and driving Reyes in.

The hot talk, of course, has been Manuel's plot to have Castillo himself hit leadoff, with Reyes moving to the #3 spot in the lineup. It's not the craziest idea in the world, and I'd suspect Manuel will try it more than once, at least during exhibition games. It's my thought that this is more of a motivational tactic that Manuel is using to kick Reyes in the ass a little bit. This move would work, but two things need to happen: 1) Reyes needs to basically become Keith Hernandez as a hitter (IE a #3 hitter needs to level his swing, hit line drives, and produce a high batting average and a lot of RBIs, not HRs and fly balls, something Reyes may not yet be capable of doing on a consistent basis) and 2) Castillo needs to prove that he's for real, and he's back to being the Castillo of old, that is, drawing walks and stealing bases, something he really hasn't done a lot of since 2004 or so.
More than likely, Castillo deserves to begin the season hitting 8th, with Daniel Murphy most likely hitting 2nd. Castillo would really have to prove himself to earn back the #2 spot, but then again, who am I to say? It would be nice to say that Castillo can rebound, hit about .280 with an OBA of .370 or so, and maybe hit more than 7 doubles for the season. It would be nice to think that he'll play 140+ games this season and be a steady figure on the team. It would be nice to see Castillo win back the fans, who will undoubtedly be on him like vultures from the moment he steps out of the Dugout on Opening Day. But he's got a lot to prove. Bill Price of the Daily News has already installed a daily "Castill-O-Meter," tracking his daily Batting Average. Nobody seems to be convinced that he's up to the task.