State of the Mets

[Broncmet724]

Hmm, where to start from the last post.

Well lets go infield. Mike seems to be heating up as the weather is warming. Good to see him swinging well, and I hate to say it, but I like to see Castro in there in the late innings for defense. Rather happy with our catching right now. Overall C+ Get that average, and Mikey, watch a tape of that throw you made against Florida earlier this year.

First base, Dougie Mientkiewicz. Start off with something not really dealing with the Mets. I heard he gave the ball from the World Series back to the Sox, but then you hear announcers saying he still has it. Which is it? <shrug> Dougie is playing really nice defense, which we needed at first. Has a nice little power thing going on right now, but I did expect, and still do expect him to get his average closer to .300 as the season progresses. Overall B- Needs to get the average up a bit for me

Second base, Kaz Matsui. Hmm, mama always said if you cant say anything nice dont say anything at all. So, umm hes playing decent defense from what I have seen. He's hitting .303 against lefties. Maybe he should give up that switch hitting thing. Ummmm, I'm sure he'll get his average over .250 for the season! (Right?) Oh well, forget what mama said. Steal some dang bases! I mean come on............ Overall C- Be more aggressive, on the basepaths and at bat.

Shortstop, Jose Reyes. Made some really nice stops in the field. Stealing some bases.Hitting wise, now that he's got that first walk, he's going crazy. Not much else to say, good young player. Stay Healthy Jose! Overall B- Get that OBP up

Third, David Wright. Seen a few not so good throws and he's had a few balls eat him up. Hitting wise, Almost a 1/1 K/BB rate (25/20)
Very nice OBP and starting to show some pop. (Maybe move him to #2, does he have the bat control for that?) Overall B get the average up a little for me.

Left field, Cliff Floyd. What can I say, man was on fire. Looks like he could hustle a little more for me, but I suppose he has deceiving speed cause he gets to most everything he should. Will we get 140 games out of him? Contract year and all that garbage. Stole a few bases, caught a couple of times. Overall A.

Centerfield, Carlos Beltran. Looked good in the field, very good that is. Bat starting to warm up also. Showing some of the power he shown last year. Maybe we'll see 35 HRs. Which I must honestly say I doubted he would get. Surprisingly more CS than SB. Which with his career average is disappointing. Overall A-

Right field, Mike Cameron. Looking good now that he's back. More BBs than Ks, but I'm sure he'll rectify that problem. Am interested in seeing how he'll adjust defensively to right. I doubt he'll have any problems but will we get the Gold Glove defense we got him for? Only games will tell. Overall nada. Too small a sample

Starters. Pedro Martinez. Pedro is god is about all I can come up wtih right now. Seriously though Giving up HRs at a little above his career pace right now, which I thought would be the direct opposite. ERA is nice, but as well as he has pitched thought it might be a little lower. More bad luck than anything I think Overall A

Tom Glavine. If Pedro is god, then Tom is the AntiChrist. Although I did hear an interesting stat the other night. Tommy is 19ish wins 10-12 losses with a mid 3 ERA and a mid 1.30 WHIP? versus all other teams not called the Braves, Phillies, or Marlins. Hmm, maybe we should adjust the rotation around that. More BBs than Ks, not even close to career ratios. Overall F Hate to do it to you Tom, but you've got to show me something

Kris Benson. I like Anna Benson Overall nada. Too small a sample

Victor Zambrano. Victor keeps me on the edge of my seat, that for sure. Or scares the crap out of me the way John Franco used to. HR ratio way above career average so far. Except for the one start vs Washington (wierd to type that) he hasn't been stink it up bad. Lots of walks, but what did we expect? Overall D+ We need some more innings out of you Victor with those 3 ER starts, just one or two more. I know you can do it

Fifth starter. Ishii, Seo, Heilman. I must say overall I am rather happy with what we have got out of all these guys. Ishii in particular was a pleasant surprise. Jae, next time stick around a bit longer will ya? Aaron, keep those pitches down and I see a bright future for you. Overall C+

Bullpen. Overall a very nice job from the group for what was supposed to be a big question mark for us. Braden, not too bad this year so far. Roberto, I love ya big guy. Manny, getting better the more I see ya. Great K/BB ratio there! Dae-Sung, you haven't impressed me, but I am not scared to see you enter the game (please look at the catcher a bit sooner before you let go of the ball k?) Heath, nice job there guy. Wille left you in at Milwaukee a bit long methinks. Glad to see you get called up. Mike, I dont want to be like Mike, or any of have any of our other pitchers be like Mike either. Hey Mike I have a suggestion, take about a 4 month vacation, you can afford it. Overall B Maybe a bit high but I wont hold Mike's performance against the rest of the guys.

Bench. Where oh where did my Victor go? Great job there although you did start to slow down a bit, but I think you were trying to impress the brass too much with Mikey coming back. Marlon, great job pinch hitting sir, a pleasure to see a true professional. Eric, you need to step it up a notch, you are struggling a lot compared to last year. Miguel, wish you got a few more starts at second (Sorry Kaz). Nice job so far. Chris, guess we got you for your defense, sure wasn't for your bat. Overall B- Tooo many backups with a batting average below the Mendoza line. But hopefully they wont get too many ABs (not talking to you Marlon, or you Miguel)

Hope I didn't bore you guys too much

[Amazinz]

There have been some interesting discussions on other Mets fan sites linking the late-inning blowups to Castro. And when you look at the numbers it definitely makes you wonder. Obviously Castro has the better arm but I like every other aspect of Mike's game better. The one thing that always seems to get overlooked with Piazza is his ability to call a game. If it was up to me Piazza would sit on Pedro's starts: we need less offense and Pedro can call his own game. Looper hasn't faired well with Castro so I'm not real crazy about these late-inning replacements.

As far as Alphabet goes, from what I understand he loaned the ball to the Red Sox but it still belongs to him and it will be returned to him when they're finished showcasing it.

Tom is the Anti-Christ. Yep that sums it up nicely. Aside from Glavine the Mets SP depth is awesome. Much better that I would have imagined going into the season.

On a final note look at these numbers from the Mets press notes:

Leading after 6: 11-0
Leading after 7: 12-1
Leading after 8: 15-1

Tied after 6: 3-1
Tied after 7: 3-0
Tied after 8: 2-0

I think our bullpen deserves some props.

[SaintsOfTheDiamond]

Damn. Great stuff from both of you.