Good Morning Mets Fans!

Four in a row is pretty damn good baseball, especially when those four wins came against the teams from last year's World Series.

The Mets are hot, and they have both their pitching and hitting to thank.  Let's start with the pitching.

Hisanori Takahashi is a big league starter...there is no question that he does what every manager wants his pitcher to do--throw strikes and keep hitters off balance.

In his second big league start Taktor K threw six innings of shutout ball and led the Mets to a shutout victory over the Phillies for the second straight game.

"He's a great pitcher with great instincts," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. "He had great command of his pitches."

Manuel went on to add that Takahashi is now firmly entrenched in the rotation.

"It'd be tough to get him out.... I think his command is among the top pitchers in the league," said Manuel, who compared him to the White Sox's Mark Buehrle. "That means at any time in the count he can throw any pitch, and that's a huge advantage for a pitcher."

"I can do it," Takahashi said through a translator. "As a reliever or starter, I don't change much. I'm happy to be in the starting rotation here."

Takahashi is now 4-1 on the season with a sparkling 2.13 ERA and an astounding 44 Ks in only 38 innings.  Last night he gave up five hits without walking a batter and struck out six.

"To have a performance such as that especially against two very good teams, elite teams, it lengthens the opportunity for him," Manuel said about Takahashi's continuing presence in the rotation.

Takahashi may have been facing a struggling Philly club, but he certainly added to their misery with his array of pitches and pinpoint control.  He and Barajs were in perfect synch, and it was really fun to watch them work the hitters all night like a chess match.  I actually thought his fastball, which sat at 89-90 mph, was his best pitch of the night.  He relied on it early, and when the big spots came up later in the game he had the hitters set-up perfectly for his changeup and slider.  He struck out Ryan Howard in a huge spot with men on base.

"I know he's one of the biggest hitters in the game, and [Rod] Barajas had a good plan to get him out," Takashi said of Howard. "I stuck to the plan."

The offense was working as well.  Jose Reyes is now officially in super hot mode, with 5 multi-hit games in his last 6.  He hit his first homerun of the season, and it really lifted the entire club.

The New and Improved Rod Barajas "Now with even more A-Ha's!" had a two-run double and a sac fly in a three RBI effort and Jose Reyes had his fourth straight multihit game, with his first homer of the season for New York. Luis Castillo chipped in with two walks and two stolen bases, and Angel Pagan had two hits.

The "Strawberry Effect"???

Maybe the Strawberry talk had its desired effect after all?  It's been reported that some players didn't care for his comments, and it may be pure coincidence that the team has gelled, but it is interesting timing. Whatever the spark is, the Mets are playing very, very good baseball.  They are a hustling team, a very good defensive team, and they have removed some of the trouble spots from playing time.

Think about it--first base is now stabilized, centerfield is now stabilized, and with the addition of Takahashi to the rotation, it certainly appears more stable that it had been previously.  They have found something in Dickey as a wonderful rubber armed change of pace guy as well.

There are still issues--that is a given--but when you have professionals doing their jobs in key roles, the stars will help lift you the rest of the way.

Enjoy your coffee!

Scoreboard
Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Philadelphia (26-19)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
N.Y. Mets (24-23) «	0	1	1	0	0	3	0	0	x	5	7	0

Players of the Game

New York J. Reyes AB 4 R 1 H 2 HR 1 RBI 2

New York H. Takahashi IP 6.0 H 5 ER 0 BB 0 K 6

Related articles:

• Link: Takahashi Embracing New Challenge as Starter (nj.com)
• Mets deal Phillies second consecutive shutout (cbssports.com)
• Mets-Phillies:Tak Terrific Leads New York Past Philadelphia (bleacherreport.com)
• Takahashi, Mets Shut out Phillies Again (abcnews.go.com)

Mets Baseball Card of the Day: 1984 Darryl Strawberry

Today's entry is the 1984 Darryl Strawberry.

1984 was Strawberry's second year in the big leagues, and it was a great one. After winning rookie of the year in 1983, Strawberry had anything but a sophomore lump, with 27 doubles, 26 homeruns, and 27 stolen bases.

His 127 OPS+ was excellent, and he led the National League in Power/Speed.

These terrific numbers for the 22-year old Strawberry led to his first All-Star game and confirmed what everyone knew--Strawberry was one of the most gifted players the Mets had ever seen.

His career with the Mets seemed destined for Hall of Fame greatness, though sadly, drugs and alcohol issues would haunt Darryl for decades.

I have never publicly told this story, and at the time I didn't believe it.

In the Fall of 1986 I was home on my first military leave after joining the Air Force.

My friend and I went to the Mets v. Cubs game in which the Mets clinched the pennant...it was pandemonium. I met a girl at the game and quickly ditched my buddy (we're still friends to this day). The girl's friend was dating one of the Cubs, and they invited me to go out with the three of them after the game. The player wasn't a star, but if I printed his name you would know it.

After the four of us had dinner, we started partying and drinking and drinking and drinking some more, and the conversation got real loose. By this time the player and I were in "buddies for life" mode and quite impressed with ourselves. He thought I was a pilot (and I did nothing to disabuse him of this notion--remember, this was when "Top Gun" was all the rage), and I was thrilled to hang out with a ballplayer and two very nice looking ladies at an upscale Manhattan drinking establishment.

I asked the player about the Mets, and he told me about Strawberry and Gooden's heavy partying--everything, including out of control cocaine use--but I was 19, very naive, they were my heroes, and I didn't believe a word of it.

It was a great night, and at the time the closest I had ever been to hanging out with baseball players. As for the girl, well, the long distance thing didn't work out since I left shortly thereafter for a few months of training in California, and then went on to Korea for a two-year assignment.

When I found out Gooden entered rehab a few months later, in early 1987, I realized every word the player had told me was true. It was devastating to all Mets fans, and most us believe to this day that the drug and alcohol problems on those teams certainly prevented them from winning another World Series title or two.

Strawberry's best years, 1987 and 1988, were just tremendous, and he absolutely should have won the MVP award in 1988--Kirk Gibson's numbers pale in comparison.

We all remember Darryl fondly, but in the backs of our minds, we also always think, "What could have been?"

Related articles by Zemanta

• Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry to join New York Mets Hall of Fame (sports.espn.go.com)
• Mets Hall of Fame inductees (ballhype.com)
• Gooden, Strawberry to be inducted into Mets HOF (cbssports.com)

Billy Wagner Makes an Interesting Decision

I'm not sure quite what to make of Billy Wagner's reported decision to invoke his no-trade clause after being picked up on waivers by the Boston Red Sox.

At 38-years old, he expressed his desire to pitch for a winner, like the Red Sox.

He's never been to a World Series, the Sox have won two in the last 5 years and were a game away from going again last year.

He has all sorts of other issues with the move--he doesn't want to be offered arbitration, he doesn't want to be overused, he wants to close next year, and on and on.

So here's the deal:

• The Mets will not make the post-season this year
• The Mets will use him
• The Mets will offer him arbitration
• He will not close for the Mets next year
  

So if getting what he wants on all fronts were the conditions for waiving his no-trade clause, he truly made a mistake.

I know Billy has a lot of pride and enjoys nothing more than sticking his middle finger up to the man, but this type of self-destructive behavior is a bit over the top.

Look, I'm very happy to have a healthy Billy Wagner on the Mets next year for $8M--or at worst, he tests the FA waters and gives us a draft pick.

Anyway, for a guy that professed his desire to "pay back" the Wilpons for the big contract he got, he sure has a funny way of saying thanks.

Memo to Ollie: Listen to Doug Glanville

For those of you that don't know, former major league ballplayer Doug Glanville writes an occasional opinion piece for the NY Times--they are outstanding. Please take some time and go read a few.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I have a special place in my heart for Glanville because he and my brother were born in the same hospital in New Jersey a few days apart.

Glanville was a Teaneck kid, and we were Bergenfield and Paramus kids. North Jersey readers are smiling now.

So what does Doug Glanville say that Ollie needs to read? It's simple--use free agency to find a place to win a ring because at the end of your career, that is what matters more than anything else.

Still, somewhere in that internal dialogue you ask yourself, “Was I a success?” I suppose it is safe to say that if you are inducted into the Hall of Fame, you probably would answer “Yes.” But I tend to believe that personal success is much more elusive than that.

Even personal success, however, is hard to define without input from the masses. Baseball has a love affair with numbers; it’s how players are measured and, often, how they measure themselves. Their statistics are flipped around, analyzed to the nth degree, placed in boxes of homemade recipes. What did I hit on Astroturf? How many stolen bases did I have in day games? What did I hit against lefties from east of the Mississippi? Before long, it’s easy to find an angle that makes you the either the greatest player on the planet or the worst in history. I finished my career with a 293-game errorless streak on defense. I also hit .210 that last season. Still, can I get a vote?

But there are a few universally accepted measuring sticks that no one can escape. A World Series ring is one of them. Players come to spring training year in and year out obsessing about a championship season. It is hard to imagine, if you hang up the spikes without a ring on your finger, that you don’t have that moment of “Did I fall short?” Even if you are about to enter the Hall.

The more years I played, the more essential that ring came to seem. In my first year of free agency (six years into my major-league march) I preferred a place where I would have the opportunity to play the most. So I headed to Texas. After I got that out of my system, two seasons later, I went to where I thought I had the best chance to win: the New York Yankees. I wanted to end my career with an exclamation point. Finish it off as a winner and enjoy the ticker-tape parade into retirement. That was the plan, until the Yankees’ plan didn’t include my services.

Pretty insightful. He goes on to add:

Maybe I would have approached free agency differently if I’d had more playoff success earlier, before I’d earned the right to test the market. When all is said and done, I made it to the playoffs only once. There were a few second-place finishes, and a winter-league championship in Puerto Rico, but whenever my regular season hat featured an MLB logo, I was pretty much certain to be spending the off-season watching the playoffs on television.

I may not be on the committee that votes players into the Hall of Fame, but I can think of a lot of players who will never be inducted into the Hall, and who never were part of a World Championship team, but who nevertheless make you re-think what it means to be “successful.”

Ollie, if by chance you're a reader of the NY Times, take heed.

The Mets will give you a chance to win, to win now, and to keep you from looking back at the end of your journey and asking, "what could have been?"

And with apologies to my North Jersey brother, no one wants to be another Doug Glanville.