Okay so the second half of the season starts at 10:15 E.S.T for the Mets tonight , when knuckleballer ( and this seasons biggest surprise) R.A. Dickey is set to do battle with San Francisco Giants ace, Tim Lincecum. Call me crazy but I am actually psyched that the Mets are starting this 10 game road trip right after the break ( four games with the Giants, three games with the Diamondbacks, and three games with the Dodgers). I think that schedule makers finally threw the Mets a bone by putting this road trip directly after the All Star Break. Now hear me out, first off the team has had four days to decompress and convalesce from the aches, pains and nagging injuries that are part of playing everyday. Secondly I do believe that most of the Mets players were in San Francisco last night , which should negate any kind of jet-lag that would generally happen when flying directly from the east coast. I know that the Giants and Dodgers have been playing extremely well , and even though the Diamondbacks are awful this season, – they still have a good home record, I do believe the Mets can go either 6-4 or 7-3 on this road trip. If they do well racing out of the gate this second half, I feel that the division will be theirs for the taking. But there are some key elements that have to fall into place. Carlos Beltran needs to be at least 80% of the player we know and love. David Wright and Angel Pagan have to continue their stellar hitting, Jose has to recover from this oblique injury quickly. Jason Bay has to get his mojo back, Frenchy has to embrace whatever role he is dealt day to day. The pitching staff has to replicate those amazing winning streaks that dotted the first half. And lets face it the Mets need to get a good arm to supplement both the starting rotation and the bullpen. Look the Braves on paper definitely made themselves stronger with the acquisition of Alex Gonzalez yesterday, but I still feel that they will end up fading down the homestretch. My main concern is the Phillies who have a penchant of surging in the second half the last couple of seasons. And I won’t rest easily until they have been knocked out of contention !
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                                                                                         ”LETS GO METS !!!”
And with that said…. HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!
Celebrating Birthdays today are :
Original Mets reliever, Bob “Lefty” Miller is 75 (1935) .
The key to the ’69 championship season, first baseman Donn Clendenon , would have been 75 today (1935) .
Reserve outfielder from ’67-’68, Don Bosch is 68 (1942) .
Spot starter from the ’04 team, James Baldwin is 39 (1971).
Back up shortstop from ’04, Wilson Delgado is 38 (1972) .
Current mop-up man, and all around Jerry Manuel rag-doll, Fernando Nieve is 28 (1982) .
New York Mets traded Ron Darling and minor league pitcher,Mike Thomas to the Montreal Expos for one time dominant reliever,Tim Burke on July 15, 1991. I was devastated on this day. Ron might not have been the reliable pitcher that he once was, but he was still one of the few links that were left to the Mets ’80′s heyday.
New York Mets signed free agent pitcher,Vic Darensbourg on July 15, 2004.
Mo Vaughn was spotted near Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco yesterday. Reports say that the economy there rebounded in a matter of minutes !
6 comments
ceetar
7/15/2010-7:40am at 7:40 am (UTC -4)
i don’t believe Frenchy needs to do anything but disappear.
The Mets own the Diamondbacks at home, so that should help. By not beating the Braves and falling to 4 back, it puts a bit more pressure on this road trip to do well.
rustyjr
7/15/2010-7:47am at 7:47 am (UTC -4)
Yes you are right about that – but at least the team is well rested and they didn’t crawl into bed at 7 p.m this morning
ceetar
7/15/2010-8:49am at 8:49 am (UTC -4)
Reyes and Wright have been PST for days too.
metsfan4decades
7/15/2010-8:07am at 8:07 am (UTC -4)
It’s an 11 game road trip – 4 with LA – but I hear ya.
This team needs to hit the ground running with this road trip. The good thing right now is there is no drama surrounding them, unlike in the past few years. Clubhouse seems to be good, they’re playing good, crisp baseball, they’re not getting shelled in most games, which leads to no undercurrents or finger pointing.
It appears everyone is giving 100%. Whether that will be enough to land us in the playoffs – it’s just too soon to tell. Get a SP, maybe a BP arm, Beltran comes back with his bat, Reyes is ready to go this series – and we have a good shot.
rustyjr
7/15/2010-8:12am at 8:12 am (UTC -4)
Oops – my bad it was 4:30 am when I wrote it lol
GravediggerHebner
7/15/2010-12:42pm at 12:42 pm (UTC -4)
I hardly ever fly and haven’t in over a decade. Can someone who flies to different time zones comment on the whole “jet lag” thing? I’m wondering if it’s more pronounced going east-west or west-east. If the Wilpons were Steinbrenner they’d charter a Concorde for these trips!
Like others have noted above going to AZ is generally a good thing for this team and I don’t foresee anything different given AZ’s horrible bullpen. I look forward to them hanging an “L” on Heilman while there.
I’m also not entirely convinced the Braves made themselves stronger yesterday. If I am to trust sabermetrics Escobar is the superior defender this season and offensively Gonzalez is having a career season, there seems to be nowhere to go but down for him and his last 28 days suggest that may have already begun .212/.250/.456/.706, while Escobar has nowehere to go but up unless he’s washed up at 27.