Not Much Happening in New York These Days

The Happy Recap: Mets 1, Pirates 0

In a day where the Jets couldn't score a touchdown or amount any offense at all in their season opener, both the Mets and the Yankees played to 0-0 extra inning games, the first time that's ever happened in the history of both teams on the same day - and sure it was only the Pirates, but amazingly enough, it was the Mets that came out a winner on the night!

THE GOOD: Sure it was only the Pirates last night, but Mets fans have to be happy the team actually won a game against the Phillies in the last series. Seriously, show me one Met fan that didn't expect a steamrolling Philadelphia team to come into town and sweep! Remember Mets fans - low expectations!

And sure it was only the Pirates, but this Dillon Gee's looking very Rick Reed/Bobby Jones-like in the two starts he's had so far - and that's good. And sure it was only the Pirates, but how about Takman in the closer's role? He's been absolutely outstanding, winning his ninth game of the year, and may even let the Mets ownership sleep better as they try to void KRod's contract. (who by the way is in the news again). And sure it was only the Pirates, but even Ruben Tejada had a big hit and Nick Evans of all people drove in the winning run in extras.

THE BAD: The bad news is bad, and no, it's not that we're all still Mets fans. The bad news revolves around Johan Santana, who underwent shoulder surgery yesterday and is out for the remainder of the year and maybe more. Mets doctors declared the surgery "successful", which in Met-doctor terms means Santana didn't die.

But here's the real bad news: this type of injury is extremely serious and unfortunately, pitchers just don't come back 100% from it - ever! I'm afraid we've seen the last of a dominating Johan Santana - and unfortunately, even though we have absolutely zero medical training, MetsFanClub.com hasn't been wrong about a player's injury in over 5 years.

We told you John Maine was done when everyone else thought he'd be back. We predicted extended absences from Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran. We thought the Oliver Perez contract was ridiculous and would handcuff the team. We predicted a long, injury plagued season for Jason Bay (on the day he signed with the team in fact! - Similar to our observation that J.J. Putz must have been hurt as well... and he was). We told you Billy Wagner had thrown his last pitch in a Met uniform. We told you Pedro would never be the same, and said the same thing for Duaner Sanchez, KRod, and Luis Castillo. We told you Ryan Church had a concussion before the team diagnosed it. We even told you that you've seen the last of Daniel Murphy when the team said he suffered a "minor setback". And the instant it happened, we even stated that Mike Piazza's career was in jeopardy the moment CleMEns nailed him the face with that fateful pitch.

We've predicted just about everything injury-wise with 100% accuracy, and now we have to tell you that despite what you heard in the rosy-eyed mainstream press, Johan Santana can only come back as a number 3 pitcher at best. That's not good, and hopefully, we're wrong - but we're probably not. Pitchers just don't come back from the type of injury he's suffered. That's not to say he won't be a good pitcher again... but a dominant potential hall of famer? Probably not.

Sorry for that report, but at MetsFanClub.com, you'll only get tough love. We tell it like it is - no matter how bad or ugly the situation is. You'll have to get your pollyanna from the other blogs and mainstream media reports. It's all reality here.

THE UGLY: 0.031 - that's 1 for 32. That's what Lucas Duda is hitting. And that's not the ugly part. The ugly part is that he actually looks worse than that! Only on the Mets folks. And the guy on the Fan that wants to trade him for Cliff Lee?... not going to happen buddy!

You Can't Lose Them All

The Happy Recap: Mets 18, Cubs 5

After losing in Atlanta to the Braves in humiliating fashion like they always seem to do, then dropping the first two games in Chicago against the Cubs, the Mets bats finally came alive highlighted by Ruben Tejada, who hit his first Major League home run and had 5 rbis on the day, proving once and for all, no matter how bad you are, you just can't lose them all.

THE GOOD: Let's just concentrate on this game for the good, because there really isn't that much else. On our last post, we called for low expectations from this team, and they've certainly obliged. But yesterday, the team scored 5 runs in 3 different innings in a game that David Wright didn't even play in. Angel Pagan drove in 3 runs. Luis Hernandez went 3-for-7 and is really looking to be a bright spot at second base. Carlos Beltran's getting better day after day and perhaps we can look forward to a monster season from him, next year. Ike Davis had a four-hit game, which hopefully gives him some needed confidence, as the league has slowly been exposing him at the plate, making him look more and more like Daniel Murphy each day. Josh Thole has earned the title "Mets catcher in the future" and continues to impress - especially when your competition is Hank White, Rod Barajas, and the ever-offensive Brian Schneider from last year. (Remember when we had Mike Piazza... Todd Hundley... Gary Carter... Jerry Grote?)

And of course Ruben Tejada. 2-for-4, a home run, 5 rbis, and still hitting under .200.

THE BAD: Until yesterday's game, every game has been Jeff Francoeur Appreciation Night, as his ex-teammates continued to honor the recently traded rightfielder by swinging at first pitch non-strikes, never working the count, and generally displaying no discipline at the plate whatsoever. Upon hearing the news that the Mets put up 18 runs against Chicago, loyal Met fan Hunter Greenwood's first question was: did they win? And when that's the response, you know things are bad.

The Cubs have Starlin Castro as their young phenom to build their team around. He's hitting .317 and impressing just about everyone on offense and defense and will probably win the Rookie of the Year award. The Mets have .059 hitting Lucas Duda. The Cubs played 22-homerun hitting and perennial All-Star Aramis Ramirez at third base. The Mets have career minor leaguer and .146 hitting Mike Hessman, who really should never get another at-bat in the major leagues. The Cubs have hot-headed Carlos Zambrano, who makes a ton of money for doing nothing and actually beat the Mets the other night. The Mets have Ollie Perez, who makes a ton of money and can't even see action in an 18-5 laugher in a mop-up roll.

The Cubs are bad, yet they still outclass the Mets. Here's another example:

The Cubs realized they had a manager who has clearly seen the game pass him by and politely asked him to "retire" (folks, has there ever been a manager who's stock has fallen more than Lou Pinella, now considered a laughing-stock after some brilliant seasons early on in his managerial career). Not surprisingly, since the woefully inept Pinella's left, the Cubs have been 8-3 before yesterday. Likewise, when Baltimore realized their manager was a stiff, they replaced him with Buck Showalter and the team's gone 17-12 since (and Baltimore at the time was vying for worst record in baseball - ever!). The Mets however, recognize they have a problem, but continue to let Jerry Manuel manage.

"Oh, I know I have cancer, but I'm waiting for next year before I get treatment". Ridiculous, yet that's exactly the team's approach. Once again, we've said it over and over: it's not so much the fact the Mets are bad that have the fans fuming. It's the continual rewarding of incompetence from just about every level of the organization that makes this team so hard to root for.

THE UGLY: Few things are uglier than when a multimillion dollar organization has been hit so hard that they need to fly their high-ranking executives in coach - which apparently is the case with Omar Minaya and the Mets. No wonder the Mets hands are tied and haven't made any deals to help this team after the All-Star break when everyone else was at least trying to do something.

MLB needs to force the Wilpons to sell this team. They are not financially capable of running this team. Period.

Rumors have swirled about the Wilpon's getting hit hard by the Bernie Madoff ponzi scam, but they're not the only ones to give into greed. It's becoming increasing clear that they should just admit what happened, then sell the team before it gets listed in some bankruptcy procedure that's probably right around the corner as far as we know. At least then the fans can get back to rooting for a team with some financial where-with-all before the Mets turn into the Pittsburgh Pirates. Oh,wait... the Pittsburgh Pirates MAKE money!