@SurfingTheMets: Jeff Wilpon visited Wally Backman at Cyclones game last night, met privately, denied talking about managing the Mets.
Sep 3, 2010 @ 02:37 PM from web Powered by TweetedAlso, Mets GM Omar Minaya landed in Chicago this morning. I’m starting to wonder if something is up?
@NewYorkMets: #Mets Thursday lineup @ Atlanta: Castillo-2B, Duda-LF, Beltran-CF, Carter-RF, Wright-3B, Davis-1B, Arias-SS, Blanco-C, Santana-LHP
Sep 2, 2010 @ 08:05 PM from web Powered by Tweeted
The Mets have promoted C Mike Nickeas and have transferred John Maine to the 60-day disabled list.
Nickeas hit .283 with five homers and 33 RBIs in 82 games with Double-A Binghamton this season, then played seven games for Triple-A Buffalo.
A couple of years ago, I had the chance to watch Nickeas when he first was drafted by the Rangers. He is a very defensive minded orientedcatcher with the bat coming second. Nickeas has a strong arm and a good receiver behind the plate, but the weak bat comes back to hurt him in the end.
Mets prospect Lucas Duda will make his major league debut tonight in Atlanta. He will be batting seventh, playing left field, and wearing the number 21.
The full lineup is below.
@NewYorkMets: #Mets Wednesday lineup @ Atlanta: Castillo-2B, Thole-C, Wright-3B, Carter-RF, Beltran-CF, Davis-1B, Duda-LF, Tejada-SS, Pelfrey-RHP
Sep 1, 2010 @ 07:31 PM from web Powered by Tweeted
Yesterday, the Mets acquired Joaquin Arias from the Texas Rangers for Jeff Francoeur.
When the Rangers acquired Arias for Alex Rodriguez in 2003, he was a top shortstop prospect with a rocket arm and plenty of projection. Unfortunately, Arias never really gained the strength many scouts expected him to, and shoulder problems have all but killed his arm strength. Arias is a pretty good contact hitter with great hand-eye coordination but very little strength, so he doesn’t have much power. He’s also a pretty aggressive hitter that won’t draw many walks. The primary issue with Arias is that he’s a utility-type that doesn’t have the arm strength to play at shortstop or third base. You’re taking a big risk if you want to play him at short. He is pretty much a second baseman all the way these days. Another red flag I have is that Arias is a quiet guy that never seemed to respond well to criticism or adversity. Certainly not the type of playing you’re looking for in NYC. I’d be surprised if he made it through the offseason on the Mets’ 40-man roster.
The Mets have recalled RHP Jenrry Mejia and OF Lucas Duda from Triple-A Buffalo as the rosters have expanded for September.
On Monday, Mejia tossed eight innings giving up one run on five hits and struck out nine.
Duda since his promotion to Buffalo in mid-June, has hit .314, 23 doubles, two triples, 17 home runs and 53 RBIs in 70 games.
From Adam Rubin of ESPN New York:
The Mets’ Arizona Fall League contingent in Mesa will include: left-hander Robert Carson, right-hander Josh Stinson, catcher Kai Gronauer and infielder Jordany Valdespin.
The Mets have traded OF Jeff Francoeur to the Texas Rangers in exchange for IF Joaquin Arias.
Arias, 25, hit .276 with five doubles, one triple and nine RBIs in 50 games for Texas this season.
I had the chance to see Arias play down in Spring Training this past March. I didn’t see much of him, while I was down there, besides a little batting practice on one of the practice fields, but I wouldn’t get overly excited about him. Arias is a utility infielder with a decent glove and little to no-bat. I really don’t see any impact from Arias at all.
The big topic of conversation tonight, both on SNY and WFAN is the poor attendance at Turner Field for the Mets-Braves series. Early in tonight’s game Keith and Gary were commenting on the poor attendance, wondering why a team in the pennant race would have such poor attendance. SNY then went so far as to put up a graphic showing some low attendance figures. About an hour later on WFAN Wayne Hagin and Howie Rose were discussing the same thing, the conversation then went into last night’s poor crowd at the Rays- Blue Jays game. Funny, in all this conversation about poor attendance, you don’ hear any mention of the team that has the biggest decline in attendance of all 30 MLB teams (hint the team name rhymes with bets).
I just wonder next week, when the Mets return home to an almost empty Dodgertown, if the guys will say anything about the empty Polo Ground green seats. If they do, I’m sure the spin will deal with the kids returning to school. I may be wrong here, but I think the kids have already returned to school to Atlanta and Florida. Like I said I may be wrong though.
Hagin & Rose on WFAN went so far as to say Carl Crawford“called out” the Tampa fans for not showing up, and the lack of fans in Tampa could hinder them in signing future free agents. They then said that Crawford, who is a free agent at the end of the season will probably leave Tampa. Keen insight there fellas, maybe they should share those thoughts with Mr. Wilpon and Mr. Minaya. Dodgertown will be a ghost town the rest of the season, I guess the free agents will not be coming to the Mets.
Of course we all know how much of a hypocrite Cohen is. Last year, he slammed the weak hitting of Daniel Murphy every chance he could. This year Ruben Tejada is struggling at the plate big time, but Cohen is quiet about that.
The Mets broadcasting teams on both SNY and WFAN need to be careful here. As the Mets continue to stink, these guys keep serving up the blue and orange Kool-Aid and are sounding more and more like the YES network and WCBS Yankees radio.
@SI_JonHeyman: trade being discussed would send infielder joaquin arias to #mets for francoeur
Aug 31, 2010 @ 11:25 PM from web Powered by Tweeted
