Santana Suspicions Applesauce - Mets may lose ace for 2011, Paulino arrives, Samuels' sitting on motherload
by Joe Budd on Mar 14, 2011 9:28 AM EDT
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Meet the Mets
The big news from Port St. Lucie this weekend was pretty disappointing, as rumors starting circulating that Johan Santana's entire 2011 season may be in jeopardy. I can't say that this really surprises me, but the really bad news is when you look the chances of Santana playing beyond 2011.
That being said, you can buy your single game tickets starting today!
Ronny Paulino's visa problems were finally dealt with and the anticipated backup catcher made his first sighting at Met camp this weekend. Paulino's arrival kept the Mets from having to resort to more unconventional training methods.
We've got some more news from the Charlie Samuels saga: hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1986 Met memorabilia stashed in a storage locker.
Apparently, the second base competition has been so bad that Luis Hernandez has jumped into the race.
Good story in the Times recently about how Jason Isringhausen's new role with the team compares with his previous go-rounds with the team.
The 1969 Mets standings in animation form.
Carlos Beltran has earned himself a spot at #7 in Patrick Flood's rankings and probably a good deal of Hall of Fame speculation when all is said and done.
Major League Soccer apparently hasn't been paying attention to the news for the last couple months.
Around MLB
Ruben Amaro's pushing all his chips in has earned him a 4 year contract.
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Bryce Harper will not make the Nationals opening day roster.
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Bengie Molina is officially retired ... for now.
Dontrelle Willis manages to injure himself in new and exciting ways.
One blogger has taken it upon herself to draw every hall of famer and she's actually pretty good at it.
And, finally, the intersection between Albert Pujols' massive contract negotiations and his evangelical christianity could make for some interesting contrasts.
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Santana
So, according to everyone except for Steve Popper and Bob Klapisch, Santana is on-schedule in his rehabbing. They then cite anonymous Mets organizational member, who said that Santana’s rehab will be shut down for an unspecified amount of time ( possible his entire career!) if he feels irregular discomfort- something that, according to Dan Warthen, he’s not feeling. You’d think, for something with more gravitas, there’d be more reporters on this story, and a few more, ahem, actual sources? Man, I wish I had a job where I got paid to basically spin BS and not actually have to really back any of it up credibly.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 453 posts (10/03/10)
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 14, 2011 9:57 AM EDT reply actions
Yeah I totally Agree
Sports writers really don’t have to verify jack. All they need to do is throw a big ol “anonymous”, or “person familiar with the teams thinking” on anything, then call it a day. Its a joke.
by Coolpapabell on Mar 14, 2011 11:16 AM EDT up reply actions
i'm familiar with the team, I'd be willing to sell them information I made up for a very reasonable price
Hey, wait! I'm having one of those things. You know? A headache with pictures?
by KeithsMoustache on Mar 14, 2011 11:21 AM EDT up reply actions
That is the case with some sports writers
but as one myself…I’ve always hated the use of anonymous sources. Of course, I don’t cover a big named team or anything of that nature but crediting sources where you may not have any is just bad journalism…and no, the janitor doesn’t count as a legit “team source” though I have known some people who have used it as such
Enjoying what may be the final season of two of my favorite Mets in Blue and Orange: Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran
Apparently Phillie ownership wants Amaro
to be around when Howard and Lee are making 50 plus million between them as 36 and 38 year olds.
Listening to Philly radio...
Running errands on Saturday in the greater Philly area, caught some local sports talk radio. Wow, the Phillies fans are scared! They are now feeling the effects of Amaro going all-in regarding the rotation. Guy called up and asked what prospects they had to take over for Utley. The dude informed him that outside of their back-up for Rollins, there does not exist any prospects to take over immediately or in the near future. All of the sudden, an evil little grin started growing on my face. I know our farm ain’t the best, but at least we have some talent that can possibly take over and provide above-replacement production. I am excited to watch the careers of Duda, Thole, Davis, Niese, etc unfold this year. And to see how Capt. Kirk, Turner, Mejia, et al progress in the minors. (Note: just threw names out, no particular reason, just first ones to come to mind). To know that the OHere’s hoping that the bottom falls out on the Phillies soon.
Fail
Argh, posted without editing. *To know that the Phillies depleted their farm system for the hopes of having a 4 man, monster pitching rotation, just makes my Monday morning that much better. Here’s hoping that the bottom falls out on the Phillies soon.
yup can't wait for the hammer to fall on their bet-the-farm strategy, and it almost certainly will eventually
I also hope this is the year Howard strikes out 300 times. I think he can do it.
Hey, wait! I'm having one of those things. You know? A headache with pictures?
by KeithsMoustache on Mar 14, 2011 10:32 AM EDT up reply actions
When do we start calling them the PhiLOLies?
"He who gets the best players usually wins" - Bobby Bowden
They do have a habit of picking up former Mets...
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 453 posts (10/03/10)
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 14, 2011 10:47 AM EDT up reply actions
hey say what you will but he has a winning team
as far as GMs go, he has done his job and deserves the extension
Any task BIG or small, Do it well or not at all
by Rickfansince76 on Mar 14, 2011 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Except that he did very little to contribute to that winning team.
Most of those good players are from his predecessors time there. All he’s done is make the team older trading away a lot of prospects and signing guys to huge, long-term deals.
Save Jenrry Mejia!
yeah, how could anyone credit
RAJ for assembling a staff led by Halladay, Oswalt, or Lee…
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions
admittedly their rotation is pretty intimidating
and if they stay healthy all year, they’re going to be a beast of a team because of that alone. But their depth is paper-thin, their offense is getting older, and they’ve gutted a good chunk of their young talent from their system. If you look behind Utley, who is already showing wear and tear in his knees, they have no real backup depth to replace him if he goes down. Werth is gone, replaced by Ben Francisco, and Howard is increasing his K-rate like it’s going out of style. Polanco and Ibanez are both fairly old by ballplayer standards. It’s a precariously balanced team. I could see them dominating the division for a year or two if everything goes right for them, or being totally buried, and the difference is really just one or two injuries. Eventually the top-heavy approach will probably bite them in the ass. To me it’s more a question of when than of if.
Hey, wait! I'm having one of those things. You know? A headache with pictures?
by KeithsMoustache on Mar 14, 2011 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions
they're built to win.
if they do win, nobody will be able to fault him for what he’s done thus far (except the Howard contract)…
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions
They're built to win now
and if they don’t do that, their future looks very murky. Not the best way to build your team.
Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!
by Steve Schreiber on Mar 14, 2011 7:31 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm no expert on their system, but
according to some who do follow the minors a lot closer than I do, the Phils still have a pretty solid system. I think it’s hard to knock the job that Amaro has done thus far.
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 9:57 PM EDT up reply actions
They have a good system but
it’s all concentrated in the low minors, with a number of players who aren’t near big league ready and may never be big leaguers (prospects in Low A are so far away that anything could happen). Sort of like us in 2007-2009, but finally some of our guys are creeping up towards the top of the system. All of their prospects that were near ML ready were dealt in trades (Michael Taylor, Kyle Drabek among a number of others) except for Domonic Brown, who’s injured and not looking all that great thus far in limited big league exposure.
Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!
by Steve Schreiber on Mar 14, 2011 11:14 PM EDT up reply actions
winning does cure all ills, but it becomes the classic question of whether possibly winning now
at the cost of a lot of potential losing seasons down the road is a risk worth taking. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t, but I remember another team i’m quite familiar with going the route of building a team of a ton of veteran (pronounced “older”) big name players, being touted for getting a star pitcher, and being declared the far-and-away favorite for the division after signing a ton of huge multi-year deals, without having any depth or near ML-ready prospects in case anything went wrong at many of those positions. They had a really good season where everything went right which ended a bit early, and from there things pretty much totally fell apart. I think as Met fans we’re pretty uniquely in a position to see exactly how the way Amaro has worked turns out. Maybe they’ll be luckier than us, but if all that separates the Phillies strategy from the Mets of a few years ago is how lucky they are, then I forsee a pretty brutal fall for the Phils in the next couple years.
Hey, wait! I'm having one of those things. You know? A headache with pictures?
by KeithsMoustache on Mar 14, 2011 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions
He gave up Lee and Kyle Drabek, D'Arnaud, and Michael Taylor to get Halladay and was piratically handed Lee back and Oswalt.
You’re going to give him credit for Lee turning down more money from the Yankees and Rangers? You’re going to give him credit for the Astros piratically giving their ace away?
Save Jenrry Mejia!
not saying you did, but
an awful lot of Met fans gave Omar credit for getting Santana or as you might frame it, the Twins practically handing Johan to us…
regardless of the circumstances which we can dissect ad nauseum, RAJ has assembled a team built to win now… if they win the next 2 WSs, how many people are going to say, “but they weren’t built for the long term?” Iow, he’s playing the hand he was dealt and till now, playing it well.
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 6:21 PM EDT up reply actions
But theres no guaranteeing that they'll win any of the next two.
If Utley is indeed no longer the player he was or has chronic injury problems, that offense is not very good. If any of Haward, Utely, or Rollins are out the offense crumbles because they don’t have anyone to insert who can preform at a considerable level higher than replacement level.
They won when they had a deep team. Amaro basically destroyed that depth for some admittedly high-end talent (and the corresponding huge contracts) – but in doing so made it unnecessarily either boom or bust.
Save Jenrry Mejia!
guarantees?
who has guarantees? none of their core is old… if they don’t hold up, they prob don’t win… the same risk that any team has. the Yankees have been doing pretty good with the same formula for a while.
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 6:38 PM EDT up reply actions
The Yankees can afford to go that rout because they can afford to keep throwing money at their problems.
The Phillies can’t.
Utley is 32.
Howard is 31
Rollins is 32
Halladay is 33
Oswalt is 33
Lee is 32
Ibanez is 38
Lidge is 34
Polanco is 35.
How is their core not old?
Save Jenrry Mejia!
Sorry but that's an old core, ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose and
you’re just plain lying if you think otherwise.
Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!
by Steve Schreiber on Mar 14, 2011 7:35 PM EDT up reply actions
now I'm lying?
1st, are you out of your mind??
2nd, I hardly consider Ibanez or Polanco their core.
Utley 32
Howard 31
Rollins 32
Halladay soon 34
Oswalt 33
Lee 32
Hamels 27
Ruiz 32
Victorino 30
to me that’s more representative of their core and none of them is 34 yet… they’re all right in their primes or latter stage of primes, though you can certainly argue that some have had their best years already… regardless, other than Utley none are looking at any significant health issues so that group could carry them for at least the next 2 seasons… and considering they’ve already put together 89, 92, 93, & 97 win teams the past 4 years, adding another two 90 win seasons will make for a great 6 yr run, so I don’t know what more anyone should expect from them…
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 10:08 PM EDT up reply actions
rather than try to hijack
this thread for some inane sidebar, the point was about Amaro wasn’t it? I know, the baseball intellectuals want to go to extreme lengths it seems to prove that the great success that the Phils are having, have had, and seem pretty certain to have again this year and prob in 2012 again is either due to smoke and mirrors or not really successful, or sure to come at such a great expense that instead of crediting anyone connected with the Philly FO we should instead be assailing their very core existence… it’s one thing to detest the Phils and be a rabid Met fan but the loss of objectivity can get pretty blatant at times…
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 10:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Who's saying that haven't been successful?
We’re just trying to give credit where credit is due; namely to Pat Gillick and not Ruben Amaro.
Save Jenrry Mejia!
This.
Gillick did an excellent job during his tenure (and I hate to do it but give Ed Wade some credit too for drafting Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels). Sure, Amaro has brought in the 3 aces and he stole two of them (Cliff Lee from the Indians for nothing and Oswalt from the Stros for nothing). However, he gave up a lot in the Halladay deal along with dealing Lee away for nothing in return. I was confused when I heard that deal…Lee wasn’t making all that much money last season and the difference between Halladay and Lee was negligible. If you’re going to deal all those prospects for Halladay and you couldn’t get anything better in return for Lee, you might as well just go for it and keep Lee.
Ultimately it worked out for them that Lee wanted to go back to Philly but if they had Lee last season, just imagine how much better they’d have been. It was pretty unnecessary wheeling and dealing.
Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!
by Steve Schreiber on Mar 14, 2011 11:26 PM EDT up reply actions
I have no idea what that means
but 30+ are not prime years of a baseball player’s career.
Save Jenrry Mejia!
depends on the player.
ooh, we could fill a whole page with players whose career primes were right in the 28 – 32 area and many whose primes extended beyond that. just look at the team in question, the Phils.
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 16, 2011 12:35 AM EDT up reply actions
In baseball terms 30+ is old.
Yes, there are exceptions, but when talking about the prime years of a baseball player, you are not talking about their age 30+ seasons.
Save Jenrry Mejia!
oh and obviously
the Phils have plenty of money to spend.
by ThnkGoodnessforHowieRose on Mar 14, 2011 10:22 PM EDT up reply actions
They had money to spend
but there is a limit and they have a ton of money committed to players who are well into their 30’s.
Save Jenrry Mejia!
The Mets had plenty of money to spend in 2006-2009, and we know how that worked out.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 453 posts (10/03/10)
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 15, 2011 12:07 AM EDT up reply actions
Mets main page quotes santana as saying
“A tad miffed and mystified, Johan Santana said Sunday he was unaware of any detours, in place or pending, in his rehabilitation from surgery on his left shoulder, and he went so far as to say those responsible for the report had lied.”
Bad “journalism” is bad.
Hey, wait! I'm having one of those things. You know? A headache with pictures?
by KeithsMoustache on Mar 14, 2011 10:47 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I said this last year
that the mets need to find a new ace starting pitcher, asap.
I know where to find one...
we can kidnap one of the Phillies’ starting pitchers. Jeez, they have enough.
Send them to Venezuela
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 453 posts (10/03/10)
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 14, 2011 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Unfortunately for us
the Wilpons likely won’t be able to afford to pay a kidnapper, so they’ll send David Wright instead. For our luck, while Wright is trying to put a bag over Halladay’s head, he’ll probably tear his ACL and miss the entire season.
Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!
by Steve Schreiber on Mar 14, 2011 7:37 PM EDT up reply actions
Joel "Base Hits for Two Different MLB Clubs in the Same Day" Youngblood sez: "18 days to Opening Day"!
I know that there is a more famous #18, but I couldn’t find a good picture of Duffy Dyer.
#18
I think they should retire that for Darryl. Why not?
"cocaine is a hell of a drug"
"Intelligence is not a genetic predisposition. Think stupid!!"
by Wright of passage on Mar 14, 2011 9:06 PM EDT up reply actions
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