This Week In Mets Quotes

Lots of interesting, funny, idiotic, and insightful things were said by the Mets — and about them — over the past week. Here are some of our favorites.

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You can hate me now. But I won't stop now.

"… Right now [the Nationals] are playing good baseball, but I don't believe they're a better team than us. They're playing great baseball. But a better team? I believe we're the better team. We just have to play as we're supposed to. Every team goes through a bad stretch. I told Terry two months ago I haven't seen a team better than us. We just have to believe how good we are and just go out there and perform. I believe we are the best team in baseball. We just have to play like one. That's what we're not doing." —Miguel Batista [Metsblog]

Well they got one

"We need to come out of [the Washington] series feeling good about ourselves. Whether that's one, two, or three wins, we need to come out of it feeling like we're still competing." —Terry Collins [New York Daily News]

I thought you play the game one at a time

"I said, 'Quit worrying about who we don't have. You worry about who's sitting in this room, because this is who has gotten us here. This is what's going to have to move forward. There are no saviors. We're going to have to make sure that these guys understand they've got to just continue to battle and battle and battle and get out of this and go win six in a row. That's the only way you can play." —Terry Collins [ESPN]

Bay went 5 for 25 against minor league pitching

"I'm going to mix and match a little bit. I talked to Jason [Bay] today about it. I told him, 'Look, you're back in there. And you're going to be back in there tomorrow. We've got to start getting you to seeing this kind of pitching.' As we've talked about in the past, when you're seeing Triple-A pitching, you forget how good the next level is. So we've got to get him back in there and see if we can get him going." —Terry Collins [ESPN]

Well I think that the rest of us do know

"A right-handed bat is low on our list. Jason's got to play a role, whether that's just against left-handed pitching, I don't know." —Sandy Alderson [New York Times]

Canadian Humility

"Absolutely [I didn't want to be pinch hit for.] But you don't really have an argument there. Had I been doing better, or had I been around swinging the bat well, I could say, 'Hey, what's going on? Obviously you want to hit. You want a chance to do something well. But there's no way I could argue." —Jason Bay [ESPN]

Canadian Smack Talk

"[Jordan Zimmerman] only gave up like four hits. I actually felt good. I saw the ball well. Just the two-seamer was filthy. We didn't really do a whole lot." —Jason Bay [ESPN]

All the best

"Right now I feel good. My arm feels good. All the symptoms are gone. So that's a positive. It's been a long week for me. This thing kind of came out of the blue and hit me really fast. To be honest with you, it was very scary at first, kind of tough to go through." —Dillon Gee [ESPN]

As I'm from Queens, I'm going to say this was actually a Spiderman reference "That's the biggest thing is I'm not trying to be Superman out there, because that's impossible. It's baseball. It's pitching. Obviously you're going to have to get a lot more sharp." —Ike Davis [ESPN]

There's your problem, probably should be shooting for runs

We're not swinging the bats anywhere like we can -- or like we have. Not even close. So we've got to get that going again. We've got to put some points on the board." —Terry Collins [ESPN]

In short, a non-issue the media try to turn into #LOLMets

"I tried to get it down on the floor, so he can swing over it. And I yanked a little too far. Unfortunately, Thole wasn't able to get to it and it got away from him." —Pedro Beato [New York Daily News]

"Well, I read that one of our players said something they shouldn't have said. I didn't like that quote, so we're going to address it today. . . . We can't let that happen. That can drive a wedge in this thing, and we've worked too hard to get it going smooth." —Terry Collins [New York Daily News]

"I told [Josh Thole] exactly what I said. We agreed that it wasn't pointing fingers at anybody." —Pedro Beato [New York Daily News]

"That's not what [Beato] meant, how it came off. So it's no big deal. A non-issue." —Josh Thole [New York Daily News]

That's not the type of bold statement I remember from Mike Piazza

"Does [Piazza] think that Roger Clemens was on ‘roids when he broke that bat? Yes! He does think that." —Alicia Rickter (wife of Mike Piazza) [New York Daily News]

Ah there's now there's a non-answer

"The only time I've ever known [Clemens] is hitting against him. It's really tough for me to say, ‘cause I never played with him, just against him. I mean, look, he was a great pitcher. His record speaks for itself." —Mike Piazza [New York Daily News]

I still contend Mike was tipping pitches and love him more for it

"[Piazza catching Clemens in the 2004 All Star Game] didn't go too well. He was frustrated. We had a tough night. From a professional standpoint, I wish he did well. It's professional pride. But what are you going to do?" —Mike Piazza [New York Daily News]

McHugh continued, he also makes more money, is taller, higher self esteem

"I've seen [Dillion Gee] pitch a few times in spring training, and a couple of years ago I saw him pitch a little bit. I think for the most part the comparisons are pretty well-founded. We both throw four pitches -- curveball, slider, changeup, fastball. He's got a little more of a sinker than I do. I probably have a little bit more of a curveball than he does. Otherwise, it's pretty similar. Actually, he's got a much better changeup than I do, too." —Collin McHugh [ESPN]

Great insight into the decision of perhaps leaving Mejia as a RP despite his struggles

"Not necessarily, but I think you make a good point. We don't necessarily want to keep going back and forth. Jenrry [Mejia] is in a tough spot because he's still really coming back from Tommy John. I think we're all thrilled right now that he's out on the mound and he's competing in such a short period time. Where is he now? Fourteen months off of surgery. They generally say players are lucky if they're back on the mound in 11 or 12 months. But the reality is their command and full game, it's usually closer to 18 months. So in my mind, the primary goal for Jenrry throughout this season has always been to get through the season healthy, get back on the mound and get to a point where he can repeat his mechanics and feel comfortable doing so, and feel comfortable that he's going to remain healthy. Now there's probably a debate about how that's best accomplished -- whether it be with him in the bullpen or him in a starting rotation. I think we've wrestled with that a little bit. But I think whatever decision we make here going forward, we're probably going to stick with through the end of the year, for the reasons you stated. We don't want to keep having him go back and forth. The one detriment so far of him being in the bullpen is he's had a mentality of just trying to throw harder, just trying to throw the ball by guys as opposed to pitching. That certainly wasn't the intention or the goal of having him in the bullpen." —Paul DePodesta [ESPN]

Just sad

"Dude, who's that guy?" Lenny Dykstra asked, nodding in Lefty's direction.

"You're kidding me, right?" said an exasperated Billy Beane. "That's Steve Carlton. He's going to the Hall of Fame."

Dykstra, unimpressed, spit a stream of tobacco juice, and said, "I'll rake him, anyway." [Moneyball]

"That Lenny has been gone for a long time…Lenny just isn't the same person. He doesn't have the same mental capacity as he did when he was playing. Whatever Lenny put in his body, it changed his personality…"It's over, Lenny's life is over, done. And that's a shame." —Darryl Strawberry [NorthJersey]

"Lenny is a complicated man who somehow lost his soul." —Ron Darling. [NorthJersey]

"I remember one time when we were with the Phillies [in 1991], this was before a game, Lenny had blood coming out of both of his ears. He was panicked. He said, "Dude, what's happening to me?" Somehow Lenny played that night, but with all the stuff he put in his body, you knew it wasn't going to end well." —Wally Backman [NorthJersey]

"Just listening to Lenny speak – he was practically incoherent [at Gary Carter's memorial service.] He was whispering, mumbling. I said, ‘Lenny, I can't understand you. What are you talking about?' It was sad to see what'd happened to him. It broke my heart. I hope Lenny makes it." —Wally Backman [NorthJersey]

"I'm going to be dead in five years. Someone's going to get to me." —Lenny Dykstra whispering into Backman's ear [NorthJersey]