Cutnpaste: – Willie Harris, Jenrry Mejia, Stephen Strasburg, Oliver Perez, Lineup

Willie Harris:

 
Willie Harris is still trying to make a team. It’s at the very core of his ethos, starting with the way he arrives in the clubhouse each morning, the way he watches the game on the bench each day, the way he plays when he’s summoned to enter a game. Harris, a 32-year-old Mets outfielder/second baseman, has been a regular on a major-league roster for five of the past nine seasons. But he has not been a regular in a starting lineup, leading to the mind-swirling reality of trying to make the roster in the spring.

 
http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2011/03/mets_utility_player_willie_har.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

Jenrry Mejia:
Jenry Meija RHP (Mets) 4.28 – The Mets rushed him, then didn’t know whether to put him in relief or the rotation. Met’s fans can only hope that didn’t mess with his confindence. He appears to be on a more conventional path to achieve some success with his mid-90s fastball before exposing it to major leaguers.
 

http://myworldofbaseball.com/wordpress/2011/03

 

Stephen Strasburg:
Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg continues to make progress following Tommy John surgery last September. He is now throwing 90 feet on flat ground and his arm strength is slowly coming back. The next time he throws on flat ground, Strasburg hopes to throw 15 feet further than before. There is no timetable as to when Strasburg will throw off the mound. Once he is healthy and ready to pitch in the Major Leagues, Strasburg wants to be the ace of Washington’s staff. Before he hurt his elbow in August, Strasburg was clearly Washington’s best starter. In 12 games, Strasburg was 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 68 innings. There is a possibility he could return to action sometime in September.
 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110314&content_id=16943764¬ebook_id=16949042&vkey=notebook_was&c_id=was&partnerId=rss_was

 

Oliver Perez:
Wondering why the Mets have not already released Perez? Several prominent voices in the organization have been itching for weeks to cut the pitcher, sources say, and would likely have had their way had Perez not managed two scoreless innings in his first start on March 3. In a meeting last Wednesday, Warthen argued that Perez was worth looking at in the bullpen. He won the debate, and the tryout will last for as long as the pitcher throws strikes and collects outs.

 
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2011/03/14/2011-03-14_plenty_in_mets_organization_are_ready_to_give_up_on_oliver_perez_but_dan_warthen.html?r=sports&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+nydnrss/sports+(Sports)&utm_content=Twitter

Lineup:
By name recognition only, this lineup on paper would appear to be very strong. Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay, Jose Reyes and David Wright. Wow. But then you dig in. Outside of David Wright, I don’t believe any of them can be counted on for a full season. When healthy, Reyes is an absolute spark plug at the top of the lineup. Jason Bay couldn’t stay healthy last year, and even when he has been in a Mets uniform he hasn’t been all that good. And what can they expect out of Beltran is anyone’s guess, although I do expect him to have a bounce back year. Ike Davis looked pretty good as a rookie at 1B, but Luis Castillo is well below average at 2nd base. The defense Angel Pagan brings cannot be overlooked, but he isn’t much of a hitter. I do think this lineup has some pieces that could score some runs, but the lack of depth will mean staying healthy is an absolute must.

Nuclear Meltdown, Japan, Libya, the Economy… and Second Base

What’s wrong with the title?

 
I mean, the first four items mentioned are some serious shit, but the more I’m on line, the more I realize that the real story out there is who in God’s name is going to play friggin second base for the New York Mets.

 
First, it’s definitely Daniel Murphy, then, all of a sudden, everyone falls in love with Luis Castillo again.

 
Next we here that the manager hates Castillo and is going to name Luis Hernandez. But wait, Brad Emaus gets reported he’s the man, if Brad can’t do it, no one can.

 
Jordany Valdespin and Ruben Tejada fans keep tweeting they shouldn’t have been sent down and I’m waiting for Edgardo Alfonzo to ask for his yearly, ‘come on coach, give me another shot” plea.

 
Is this the best we can do, guys?

 
Most people think jobs are won in spring training. What they don’t realize is all ST is, is a place to be eliminated.

 
No baseball suit gives a rat’s ass what your batting average or fielding percentage is in March. If they did, David Wright would be sent down and Felipe Alou would have never played in the majors.

 

Here’s my opinion how this Mets second base thing works:

 
1. The job belongs to the last person that had it.
 

2. The brass does everything they can to find something they don’t like about the guy who was the last person to have the job.

 
3. If he shows up on time, he’s late.

 
4. If he’s quiet in the locker room, he’s not a team player.
 

5. If he laughs at a joke, he’s not taking the job serious enough.

 
6. If he laughs at a joke, that was in Spanish, he’s hiding something.

7. The manager’s job is to mention to one of the press guys a different name every day that impresses him at second base.

8. The reporter writes a story on it, but first tweets a tweet (God, I hate that expression…)

9. Next, 2397 other Mets writers and bloggers also tweet what the manager said.

10. The deflection has been accomplished and the team can get back to playing baseball.

Cutnpaste: – Paul DePodesta, Madoff Trustee, Jason Isringhausen, Mike O’Connor, Mets Chances

Paul DePodesta:

 
Paul DePodesta’s greatest professional regret is that he’s never stayed in one place long enough to watch his work blossom. Spending no more than five years in four different cities, DePodesta was at least partially responsible for such accomplishments as the 2008 Dodgers winning the National League West and the 2010 Padres contending until the season’s final day. But in each instance — voluntarily, in all but Los Angeles — he was gone before the accolades arrived.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?md=20110314&content_id=16944560&vkey=news_nym&c_id=nym&partnerId=rss_nym  

 

Madoff Trustee:
The trustee seeking to recover money to distribute to victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme plans to go after more funds associated with the owners of the New York Mets in an amended lawsuit, a source within baseball told ESPNNewYork.com. Trustee Irving Picard already is seeking $1 billion from Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon and his family to redistribute to Madoff victims. The original suit was filed Dec. 7 and was unsealed last month.

 
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6215342&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines

 

Jason Isringhausen:
The passage of time has produced some remarkable transformations in sports, from the steady maturation of Andre Agassi to the shocking devolution of Dennis Rodman. But few could surpass the metamorphosis of Jason Isringhausen. An immature, accident-prone prospect, who once fell drunkenly off a balcony here, returns to the Mets 18 years after that catastrophe as a sage, even-tempered veteran, who spends as much time dispensing wisdom to young teammates as he once did making crude jokes and inadvertently sabotaging his promising career.
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/sports/baseball/13mets.html?_r=2&ref=baseball

 

Mike O’Connor:
Mike O’Connor is among a handful of non-roster invitees trying to make the Mets as a reliever. The 30-year-old left-hander last pitched in the majors in 2008 with the Nationals. Since then, he had brief stints in the Padres and Royals organizations before joining the Mets in 2010. One of only five George Washington University products to reach the majors, O’Connor spoke to The Star-Ledger last week.

 
http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2011/03/mets_qa_with_relief_pitcher_mike_oconnorwith.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

Mets Chances:
Can the Mets surprise? Sure. But it feels as if it would take so many dominoes to fall just so. For example, say you believe that to be a contender, the Mets need 500 plate appearances from Carlos Beltran and 25 starts from Chris Young. Would you put the chance of each happening at, say, 20 percent? If so, it means they have a four-percent chance of occurring concurrently. I recognize this is no perfect science. You can’t just say this has a 30-percent chance of occurring, something else 70-percent, something else 50-percent and put it into one of those long equation strings you might have seen up on the board in “Good Will Hunting” and emerge with a definitive result describing the Mets’ chances at contention — kind of the sum of all fears in the Mets’ case.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/why_odds_are_so_stacked_against_bJUqmY8dqbsdPV2Ybdlo1L#ixzz1GSn6kVit