Mets skip trade deadline rager

If you didn't believe the Marlins would still be a threat with just a third of the season to go, you've officially been put on notice.




And that was before the Fish almost landed Manny Ramirez.

The Marlins handed the Mets their first series loss in over a month yesterday; the first for Mike Pelfrey since before Memorial Day. The Mets got out of Miami with a solid win on Tuesday night, but all in all you've got to be a little bit concerned about the Marlins. The team leads the league in come from behind wins for a reason. They fight hard, even if they play sloppy, NBA Jam baseball (see Dan Uggla) in a football stadium.

Not that the Mets didn't play hard in losing 2 of 3. Jerry's still got them playing inspired, tenacious baseball. Ultimately they've got some obvious shortcomings, and they can't be expected to win every game or every series. Mike Pelfrey's going to have a bad start. It happens. Let's just hope the bullpen gets it together and Ryan Church makes it back soon.

It's a new and nice thing for me to feel confidence in the Mets. I actually thought they were going to win last night. While they may not win the division in the end, I still think they will. When it comes to an important game, or responding from a tough loss, I have a newfound faith that the Mets will get it done. As I mentioned in my last post, it's interesting that resiliency has become a sort of hallmark for a team that was disturbingly soft just a little bit earlier in the season.

We could have used some reinforcements at the deadline, but with nothing available for anything less than Jon Niese or Fernando Martinez, sometimes no news is good news.

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Still, this was one of the more active trading seasons in recent memory. The Mets got to the party and decided to lay off the keg. Wise.

But with Mark Teixiera, Ivan Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr., Manny Ramirez, Xavier Nady, C.C. Sabathia, Rich Harden, and Jason Bay all trading places in the last month, there were definitely some winners and losers this July. Let's examine.

The big winners:

New York Yankees: Much as it pains me to say it, the Yankees owned the trade deadline this year. Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte for Jose Tabata, a maybe prospect, and several scrubs was a bigger steal than the Mets getting Johan Santana by default. Then they got Pudge Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth, and saw Manny Ramirez get traded out of the AL East. Add to that the fact that the Rays got no major reinforcements, and the Yankees seem poised to walk away from 2008 having bought out the rest of the league. Once again. It's pretty depressing.

Still, you've got to give Brian Cashman some credit. The Yankees wouldn't have been able to engineer those deals if they weren't able to take on limitless contractual obligations, but still: he got three key parts for peanuts.

Chicago Cubs: Already in good shape, they added Rich Harden. If he can stay healthy, they'll be in as good shape as ever to break their now-100 year curse.

Milwaukee Brewers: Added C.C. Sabathia. The downside? They added C.C. Sabathia. That was a "this year" type of move, and if they can't pass the Cubs or make a playoff run as the wild card, they'd better be able to sign him. As we well know by know, the prospects in those trades often aren't insignificant.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Just one game out of first in a crappy division, now they've got Manny Ramirez. They gave up some talent, but no Clayton Kershaw, and nothing from their big three of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and James Loney. And they kept the Marlins from making a deal for Manny. Thanks, Ned Coletti!

Manny's going to the beach...not the one in Florida, thankfully

Los Angeles Angels: ...of Anaheim. They were already the best team in baseball, and they added Mark Teixiera. They'll probably resign him. LAA of A has really flown under the radar this decade. They've been good just about every year, won a title, and they've got a good chance this year to win another.

The losers:

Boston Red Sox: Get Jason Bay for Manny Ramirez AND two prospects. If that doesn't sound fair, it's because it's not. The Sox basically paid to get rid of Manny. It's understandable that they wanted him out of town, but I have to question the approach here.

Jason Bay is no Manny Ramirez. Without Manny, and with the Yankees' reinforcements, the Sox basically have the third-best chance at this point to win the AL East. They still could squeak into the playoffs and make some noise, particularly with their pitching, but all in all the outlook for the Sox isn't so good right now.

If you're going to give yourself less of a chance because you want your disgruntled superstar out of town that badly, you might as well at least trade him for prospects in a forward-looking move. Instead, the Red Sox gave up two more of their own prospects and overpaid - dramatically - for Jason Bay. They're going to regret that.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Made out pretty well in the Bay-Ramirez deal, netting two prospects apiece from the Sox and Dodgers, but still got a pretty weak return when you consider the fact that they just traded two of their starting outfielders and one of the better lefty relievers in the game. There's a reason they haven't had a winning season since the early 90s.

Some other trade deadline notes...

The Reds and White Sox also made a pretty big deal involving Junior Griffey, but I don't really know as much about the players being exchanged there. That deal gives the ChiSox a pretty good chance to hold onto the AL Central, while the Reds make a deal they had to make and get a couple of young guys to aid in their rebuilding effort. Both winners.

Watch out for the Indians in the next couple of years. This year is a real disappointment for Cleveland, but they sold high on another superstar (Sabathia), just like they sold high when their luck ran out in the early 2000s. They've got a strong young nucleus, and stand to have some money now to bring in some lower-profile reinforcements. I say they're poised to make another comeback sometime soon.

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With exactly a third of the 2008 regular season to play, the Mets head to Ten-run Field in Houston tomorrow night for Pedro's return (how many times have we said those words in his short Met career). With 54 games left, the Mets currently sit 1 game from first place, with the Marlins knocking on the door just 1 more game back in third. The Braves are 9 out, just traded Teixiera, and are unlikely to make any noise, but you can never be too complacent with the team from Atlanta, especially as a Mets fan. It's going to be a wild ride. Stay tuned.


(Images courtesy nydailynews.com, photobucket.com)

Unconventional Wisdom

The winning streak ended last Saturday. The Mets lost a devastating game to Philadelphia last Tuesday night. Ryan Church is still on the DL, and yet the Mets have still won 14 of 17 and continue to play exceptionally well.

A previous post in this space might have enumerated the Mets' myriad deficiencies, starting with Mike Pelfrey's lack of guile, Oliver Perez's lack of focus, Johan Santana's lack of aceness, the Mets' lack of two starting outfielders, and the downward arc of Carlos Delgado's career. It wasn't looking too good for the Mets this season, regardless of who was managing our team.

I was largely in alignment with the mainstream, but the Mets' recent surge has made many people look foolish, myself included. Pelfrey is 7-0 in his last nine starts. Johan and Perez just fired gems against the Phillies. Carlos Delgado has four home runs in his last nine games while hitting at a nearly .400 clip in month of July. And the Mets have won 14 of 17 without those two starting outfielders. Sometimes, you'd rather be wrong.

I was at Shea on Tuesday night, for my first game in 2008. I have tickets to the August 8 tilt against the Marlins, but I figured I'd try to go support the team for at least one of the games in the all-important Phillies set and get an extra game in before the big ballpark is ushered out and going to Mets games becomes a triple digit affair in the money department.

The atmosphere was electric. The Mets and Phils, tied for first place. Santana pitching. A full house on hand. Insults and peanuts, thrown in the direction of every Phillies fan in attendance over the age of 18 (you've got to draw the line somewhere).

Two home runs (one by Delgado) and eight strong Santana innings later, and the Mets have a 5-2 lead going into the ninth. Billy Wagner is unavailable, and Jerry says Santana's done, so it's up to Duaner Sanchez to close the door.

All of a sudden, Sanchez and three other relievers can't get a Phillie out. One six-run ninth later and Phillies win, 8-6. A boisterous ride home on the 7 train, ruined.

This was devastating. The worst loss of the season. A nine inning microcosm of last September. You don't lose that type of game and go on to win a division, I said on the ride home.

But what happened next? Two games and two Mets victories later, and we vault into first for the first time since early April...9-4 for the season, so far, against the Phillies. One game after that, and we're up by two after another Phillies loss, and another sensational performance by Pelfrey.

What we're seeing from the Mets right now is some serious resiliency, the hallmark of any good team. It was only this morning that I was able to fully process the fact that this winning stretch has required the Mets to really bear down on a few occasions. That loss on Tuesday night? No big deal. A blown lead that first night in Cincy last week? We'll put up a four-run ninth. The second game of this remarkable turnaround was the one in Philly where Tatis put us over the top in the 12th after Jayson Werth temporarily ruined Billy Wagner's (and my) afternoon.

It's interesting that Jerry Manuel has gotten the Mets to internalize everything that Willie Randolph ever talked about but could never actually get his team to put into practice. The Mets are fighting, and battling, and finding ways to win games. Manuel's "guys" are playing with the kind of inspiration and loyalty to their manager that Willie could never quite inspire. After Tuesday night, he would have given the media some positive nugget to chew on about battling back in the next two games of the series, but the Mets likely would have found a way to roll over again. That's assuming that if Willie was still around, this last Phillies series would have even been important at all.

And it's somewhat unfair for me to still be ripping on Willie Randolph. It's possible that the Mets' recent success has less to do with Jerry Manuel, per se, and more to do with a team responding to any new face, or the right guys being hot at the right time. Still, it's hard to argue that Jerry has pushed the right buttons. The cerebral Manuel's calm sense of urgency, with a twist, certainly appears to be trickling down throughout this entire Mets team.

Can they keep it up? Everyone on the Mets is stepping it up right now, from Delgado and Pelfrey to Robinson Cancel and Argenis Reyes. Reyes and Wright have rounded into form and are poised to put up numbers as good as anything we've seen from those two. Santana is a second half pitcher, and you have to like what you saw in a big game last Tuesday, even if he didn't end up getting a much-deserved win.

There is a lot of season left, and we don't know if Delgado can continue his pace, or if Pelfrey will keep being dominant, if Ryan Church will come back, if the bullpen will hold, if Carlos Beltran will finally get it going consistently. But I do remember how I felt about the Mets from around this time last year until about a month ago, and I like this a lot more. Regardless of what happens between now and when the leaves change, the Mets have turned their season around, and it's finally fun to watch again.


(Image courtesy nydailynews.com)

Nine wins

Does there have to be an all-star break?

(Image courtesy www.newsday.com)

Assessing Jerry Manuel

If the Mets fail to make the playoffs this season, it won't be because of their manager. That bears repeating, because for most Mets fans that would have been an entirely different statement just a few short weeks ago.



With tonight's win, the Mets have improved to just 13-10 since Jerry Manuel took over the team. On paper, that doesn't look that much better than the .500 ball they've been playing for close to 14 months now. In the Mets' recent 12 game stretch of three consecutive important four-game series, they began by splitting the first two (4-4) and only finished 7-5 because they took three of four in Philadelphia. Last night's win in Philly and the game tonight against San Francisco are all that currently separates the Mets from .500.

There's a lot about the Mets right now that doesn't look a whole lot different. Billy Wagner can still blow a save against the Phillies, and Aaron Heilman can still lose a game to the Cardinals. Ryan Church is still out with a concussion. Moises Alou should still retire. The Mets still beat the living daylights out of the Yankees in game one of that two stadium doubleheader, only to lose the nightcap to Sidney Ponson.

But while I might a month ago have attributed inconsistent play and any team shortcomings to a failure in managerial leadership, the difference right now is that I've quickly grown re-accustomed to the feeling of confidence in my team's manager, something that's obviously been lacking for quite some time. As most Mets fans, I suspect, will do if the Mets don't go anywhere this season, I'm prepared to chalk any failures up to the fact that this team might just not be that good. If the Mets don't go anywhere this season, it will be because the rest of the offense has had to prop up Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, and starting outfield slots in right and left that have been lacking a starting outfielder for significant portions of the season. It will be because Aaron Heilman, 0.64 June ERA and all, will always be unpredictable, and Billy Wagner seems to be far from ironclad when it comes to closing out big games.

These issues weren't Willie Randolph's fault, and they're not Jerry Manuel's fault. So why was Willie blamed for the Mets' collective failures (fairly in my opinion) while Manuel seems to be enjoying our (my, at least) affection and confidence?

There will almost always be a honeymoon period with any new manager, especially when they replace someone who became as deeply unpopular as Willie Randolph. And part of the initial satisfaction with Manuel seems to have come from the fact that he differs from Willie when it comes to a few key things that seem to have annoyed everyone most about Randolph. Still, Jerry Manuel has already endeared himself to Mets fans in a way that I think was always elusive for Willie Randolph.

Manuel is also a calming influence guy, but he's already been ejected three times and he doesn't find arguing with umpires to be pointless. He seems to place more value on conspicuous action, when necessary, to protect players (witness the Carlos Beltran situation with Brian Runge) or team dignity. He believes in setting roles for the bullpen. He talks about the need to play fundamentally sound, but before tonight's game actually got his team together to work on fundamentals, instead of just trusting the players to figure things out for themselves. Manuel seems to be a bit more willing to try new things in order to solve lingering problems. He has the advantage of having done this before (six years in Chicago), but in general he just inspires more confidence as a manager than Willie had been since really the end of last summer.

I just like the way this guy runs the team. At this point, I propose the Mets keep Jerry Manuel, regardless of what happens the rest of the season. Where Willie Randolph led the Mets through intentional dispassion and a Torre-like lack of managerial personality, Jerry Manuel seems to be more of a Met guy, already having established himself as a Gandhi-quoting cerebral type with an edge that comes out when necessary, like during the Beltran vs. Runge situation, the argument last night over the ridiculous Ryan Howard home run call, or the "tongue-in-cheek" comment his first night on the job about knifing Jose Reyes if he acts up again.

Mets fans were leery of Manuel because he came directly from Randolph's right hand. But it's also clear from the early body of Manuel's work and the other coaching changes on the staff that this is a fundamentally different Mets leadership at this point. Manuel may have worked with Willie, but he's his own man with his own ideas, and he's taken the team in his own direction. Mets fans understandably didn't like the idea of another Willie guy taking over for Willie, but the fact remains bench coaches don't play a very assertive role and Mets fans knew hardly anything about Manuel before he was promoted. To a large degree, I think we've all been pleasantly surprised more than anything else.

In replacing Willie, the Mets tapped the easiest resource, an experienced manager out of their own dugout - this seemed less than exciting for those of us who would have preferred a more radical change, and admittedly, Jerry Manuel was not on my short list of favorite candidates to take over the Mets. Regardless of my prior feelings, however, or what happens the rest of this season, I must now admit that the Mets careful, risk-averse solution has for the moment left the Mets with a manager with whose leadership I am at least comfortable, and I think its hard to dispute the fact that the Mets were fortunate to have a guy like Jerry Manuel so readily available.


(Picture courtesy nydailynews.com)