Amazin' Avenue Says Farewell To 2009

Despite the epic fail that was the Mets in 2009, Amazin' Avenue had a pretty good year. Readership grew in both quantity and quality (for the most part). After bringing Sam into the fold in late 2008, Eric was kind enough to invite me on board earlier this year. Alex Nelson of MetsGeek and Mark Himmelstein joined the front page, Joe Budd provided daily links and commentary, and Howard Megdal expanded his poetry horizons, resulting in what is the best place for Mets discourse on the Internets. If nothing else, I'm thankful AA is around to provide an escape from the usual "COUNT JETAHS RINGZZ" baseball opinion provided by my co-workers. To say farewell to 2009, here is a recap of some favorite front page posts from the year:

January

• Citi Field: Where Home Runs Go To Die -- This post earned more links from other sites than any other during the year.
  
• Brian's Got 99 Problems But A Split Ain't One -- Sam channels his most favoritist rapper with this defense of Brian Schneider.
  
• Loves Me Some Rickey -- Who doesn't? Bill James was right when he said "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers".
  
• Let's Revisit That Citi Field Inaugural Season Patch -- A preview of things to come. Sports Illustrated took notice.
  

February

• What The Oliver Perez Signing Means For The Mets -- Nothing good, I'm assuming. Click through to find out what the people were saying before he even threw a pitch in 2009.
  
• Sunday Morning Cartoons: Why He Doesn't Think Like You -- Unfortunately, Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz were the droids Omar Minaya was looking for.
  

March

• Jose Reyes, Slugger -- One of these years Jose is going to knock thirty out of the park.
  
• Carlos Beltran Underappreciated By The Media, Part 879 -- My first front page post, taking on Kevin Kernan.
  
• Productive Gangsta Outs > Hits -- We have some fun with Marty Noble from time-to-time but it's all in good spirits.
  
• The Best Infield Ever -- 1999 was ten years ago, wow.
  
• Best Mets Opening Day Starts -- Featuring a lot of Seaver and Gooden.
  
• Mets Announcer Tournament Championship: Bob Murphy vs. Gary Cohen -- Amazing that this ended in a 382-382 tie. Stay tuned for another (different) tournament in March.
  

April

• The Highs And Lows Of Marlon Anderson's Mets Career -- Quoth Eric: "This post is Marlon Anderson’s greatest contribution to society."
• Pressing The Panic Button -- Two weeks into the season and people were declaring a Mets state of emergency. They were sort of right, I guess.
  
• Regarding Heart, Grit, Fire -- One of my least favorite talking points of this or any other season.
  
• Mike Pelfrey's First Three Starts -- Here's to a 2010 where Mike Pelfrey silences the haterz.
  
• Oliver Perez In So Many Words -- This post took some time to put together but was worth it in the end.
  
• Oliver Perez In So Many Graphs And Charts -- ETA of the first "Ollie is in the best shape of his life" announcement: January 15th.
  

May

• A Modest Proposal To Fix The Mets -- Don't sell yourself short, Sam. You're a tremendous slouch.
• Omar Minaya's $36 Million Titanic -- Maybe it's more appropriate to call Ollie the $36 million Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• Fat But Good: Mets 4, Braves 3 -- The birth of grission!
• Brian's Back! -- The legend of cult hero Brian Stokes begins to grow.
• Sorry, I Just Can't Let Feliciano vs. Diaz Go -- Those will probably be my dying words.
• Free Jon Niese -- Follow me to freedom!
• An Open Letter To ESPN -- The letter that got Steve Phillips fired. Oh wait, that's not correct.
  
• Perfect Ending -- Jeremy Reed. First base. West coast game. Good times.
• Jerry Manuel vs. Manny Acta: The Quotes -- Kind of like Tyson vs. McNeeley.
  
• More On The Castro/Broadway Trade -- Hippo is still unemployed.

June

• A Day In The Life Of Brian Stokes -- The post that turned an ordinary relief pitcher into an icon.
• How Feliciano Got His Groove Back -- Starring Dan Warthen and Taye Diggs.
• Some Myths Surrounding These Mets -- Mythbusting?! That's a bingo!
• Jerry Manuel Has No Clue -- Remember when David Wright was leading the league in OBP and batting 5th night after night?
• Recap By Committee: Yankees 9, Mets 8 -- Probably the only positive thing to come out of Luis Castillo's night to forget.
• Mets Play Pretty One Day -- Remember that absurd spring training 80 pitch drill? Hopefully that's not brought back.
  
• The Viability Of A Mets Player-Manager -- Alex Cora won the poll here in a landslide.
  
• Pedro Feliciano Wants A Vacation -- Hey Pedro: Ken Tak isn't walking through that door. Adam Bostick isn't walking through that door. Dennis Cook isn't walking through that door. It's all you in 2010.
  
• Oliver Perez Rehab Diary -- Dear Diary, I think Sam Page hates me :(.
• Stop Talking About David Wright's BABIP Like It's An Achievement -- Imagine what people would be saying about David's 2009 if his BABIP wasn't .400.
  
• Sean Green And Francisco Rodriguez Talk Nicknames -- I'd like to listen in on a real conversation between these two.
  

July

• Stats On The Fourth Of July -- BBQ, beers, fireworks and wOBA.
• David Wright Is A Leader! -- Remember when Omar said the Mets don't have an edge? That was fun.
• Mets Fan Reeducation: The Media, The Management, And You -- Probably my favorite non-MS Paint aided post of the year.
• Mets Prospect Chat With John Sickels Of Minor League Ball -- The SB Nation prospect guru stopped by for a mid-summer's day chat.
• Gary, Keith & Ron Drinking Game -- It'll get ya drunk.
  
• Quick Math Lesson -- On July 10th, 2009 the baseball gods bestowed Jeff Francoeur upon us. I'll keep this brief.
• Tony Bernazard Is A Loose Cannon -- I almost forgot about "Uncle Tony". Good riddance.
• Omar Minaya Has To Go -- A thorough ether of Omar. Jeff Wilpon hit back with his own version of "Super Ugly" by not firing our GM.
• Omar Minaya Attacks Adam Rubin Of The NY Daily News -- Lobby lobby lobby you know the rest.

August

• Omar Minaya Did The Right Thing -- Eric threw a trash can through a plate glass window after writing this post.
• You Always Fear What You Don't Understand -- A lame excuse to quote Carmine Falcone.
• False Hustle -- On Omar and Sports Illustrated's "Mix Master" cover piece.
• Jeff Francoeur's "Change Of Scenery": Improvement Or Hot Streak? -- One thing Jeff has done that Jason Bay hasn't: proven he can handle the rigors of playing in New York. If there's anything that makes a pro athlete quake in his boots it's fielding questions from Bart Hubbuch, amirite?
• The Rise And Fall Of Daniel Murphy -- Yeah, but does he still mean business?
• Make Frankie A Relief Ace -- Maybe Kelvim Escobar can take over the "closer" role next year.
• The Quotable Mr. Wagner -- Billy's greatest Mets contribution was introducing the expression "f***ing shocker" to my repertoire. He was also a pretty good pitcher.
• David Wright! -- Yay!

September

• What To Expect From Josh Thole -- Josh had himself a nice little September. Too bad he's about to get Molina'd (ask Buster Posey how that feels).
  
• Cranky Friday Hodgepodge -- Maybe my personal favorite post of the year, for various reasons.
• Amazin' Avenue Citi Field Guide -- The more you know.
• Hyperbole Alert -- Phun Phact: Jayson Stark is the man in the Phillie Phanatic costume. He also moonlights as an objective ESPN baseball analyst on the side.
• Top Ten Reasons To Keep Watching The Mets This Season -- ...............
• D.J. Murphy, Julio Francora And Joe Kings -- A confusing title but a not-so-confusing message.
• Mo'Lina Mo'Problems: or Why Bengie Molina To The Mets Is A Bad Idea -- Title of the year.
• Horrible Season Going Down In Flames -- The horror, the horror. Uttah disastah!

October

• Mets Managerial Musings -- Evaluating our fearless leader.
• Inside Out: Daniel Murphy's New Approach To Fastballs -- Sabermetrics on crack. 
• Keeping Track Of The Draftees, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 -- The 2009 Draft was a disappointment but, as always, you never know.
• Mythbusters: Citi Field Kills Home Runs -- This would be more fun if people actually listened.
• The Last Word On Yankees vs. Phillies -- Said it before but I'll say it again: at least the Yankees don't have Shane Victorino.

November

• Why Omar Minaya Failed And What It Means For The Future -- Umm, trust the process?
• Sam's 2010 Offseason Plan -- Well, they signed Kelvim Escobar. Happy, Sam? 
• Alex Cora Fascination -- Bring back Wilson Valdez!
• Remembering Met Veterans -- A nice tribute to some great Americans.
• Mets Picture Puzzles -- Occupied about half of my work day. 
• My Anonymous Sources... -- Some rumor mill commentary.
• No Holliday Or Lackey? No Problem! -- A low-cost approach to the Mets offseason.

December

• Looking Back: Robin Ventura -- He's on the Hall of Fame ballot and probably won't garner many votes, but he had a terrific career nonetheless.
• Omar Minaya's eBay Strategy -- Apparently eBay has an "add vesting option" button on all items now.
• The Time I Went To the Winter Meetings -- Sam paid a visit when the Meetings were held in Nashville, TN.
• Things I Would Do If It Meant Not Signing Bengie Molina To A Dumb Contract -- Fun fact: competitive eating champion Kobayashi lists Bengie as one of his influences.
• Point Of Contention: Jeff Francoeur's Defense -- UZR, Plus/Minus, TZ, RZR, what?!
• The Mets Are Doomed, And Other Offseason Overreactions -- C-3PO was probably a Mets fan.
• What Have We Learned? A Brief History Of A Non-Dynasty -- Mark comes out swinging in his front page debut.
• Mets Top Prospects: #20 Dillon Gee -- The prospect list is back!