David Wright is On Fire

David Wright was "sat down" for a game two weeks ago in Washington on May 19th and didn't take the news well.

The all-star third baseman is a proud player, and as the strikeout numbers piled up, the frustration could clearly be seen in his face.  He was getting chippy with umps, tossing his bat a little, and the stress and frustration was easy to see.

He scuffled a bit more after the one game "rest", and then the walks came, and the hits came, and the power came.

Since May 28th, David Wright has walked 7 times and struck out 7 times....a very good ratio.

In his last 7 games, he has struck out only 4 times, and 3 of those came in one game.  More importantly, he has stopped bailing out of the box on breaking pitches inside, and is back to just leaning away.  This was most obvious yesterday--the Marlins continually came inside, and DW just gently leaned away...it was subtle, but an important indicator that he is seeing the ball exceptionally well.

Since May 29th DW is 13 for 25, 5 walks, 4 Ks and has raised his batting average from .244 to .279.

David Wright is back my friends, and he may just be back all the way.

DATE		GAME		AB		R		H		2B		3B		HR		RBI		TB		BB		SO		SB		CS		HBP		OBP		SLG		AVG
JUN 01		@SD		4		1		3		0		0		1		2		6		0		1		1		0		0		.371		.495		.269
JUN 02		@SD		5		0		1		0		0		0		0		1		0		3		0		0		0		.367		.487		.267
JUN 04		FLA		2		1		0		0		0		0		0		0		2		0		0		0		0		.369		.482		.264
JUN 05		FLA		3		2		2		0		0		1		3		5		1		0		0		0		0		.376		.500		.270
JUN 06		FLA		5		1		3		0		0		0		0		3		0		0		0		0		0		.380		.502		.279
June Total:				19	5	9	0	0	2	5	15	3	4	1	0	0	.545	.789	.474

VIDEO: Jim Joyce Moving On

I give Jim Joyce a TON of credit for the way he has handled this situation.

Mets Have Good Numbers vs Ricky Nolasco

Looks like Jerry is paying attention....Cora gets the start today.  DW and Jose could have big days.

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	IBB	HBP	GDP
David Wright	44	41	14	4	0	3	10	3	14	.341	.386	.659	1.045	0	0	0	0	1
Jose Reyes	36	35	14	1	1	3	5	1	6	.400	.417	.743	1.160	0	0	0	0	0
Jeff Francoeur	28	26	8	3	0	2	7	1	3	.308	.321	.654	.975	0	1	0	0	1
Jason Bay	18	17	4	1	0	0	0	1	1	.235	.278	.294	.572	0	0	0	0	1
Angel Pagan	10	8	3	1	0	0	0	2	1	.375	.500	.500	1.000	0	0	0	0	0
Alex Cora	9	8	4	1	1	0	1	1	0	.500	.556	.875	1.431	0	0	0	0	0
Fernando Tatis	9	9	2	0	1	0	1	0	2	.222	.222	.444	.667	0	0	0	0	0
Mike Pelfrey	6	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0
Rod Barajas	5	4	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	.250	.200	.250	.450	0	1	0	0	0
Johan Santana	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0
Henry Blanco	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0
Chris Carter	3	3	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	0	0	0	0	0
Ike Davis	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.333	.000	.333	0	0	0	0	0
Omir Santos	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.500	.500	.500	1.000	0	0	0	0	0
Jonathon Niese	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000	0	0	0	0	0
Total	181	169	53	11	3	8	26	10	36	.314	.348	.556	.904	0	2	0	0	3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/6/2010.

Good Morning Mets Fans!

Hey, the kids are alright after all.

Jonathon Niese was absolutely dominant yesterday in leading ythe Mets to their 9th win in the last 13 games.  In another good sign, David Wright went yard, and Ike Davis smoked 4 hits.

When it was all said and done, the Mets had a 6-1 win over the rival Marlins, and the energy level of the team appears to be peaking.  It was the Mets seventh straight home victory.

David Wright has 3 RBIs on the day and looked extremely comfortable at the plate.  His homerun was an absolute bomb and sent the Citi Field faithful into a frenzy.   Jeff Francoeur, who has really hit the ball well of late, chipped in with an RBI single and newcomer Ruben Tejada, who looks like a real talent, stroked a run-scoring double.

The real story of the day was Jonathan Niese.  He had pinpoint control, changed speeds, and was locked in on every batter.  He worked quickly and looked like he could have easily completed the game if not for the fact that he was coming back from injury.  Fox cut to a camera angle of Niese and Jerry Manuel in the dugout after Jerry let Niese know he was done for the day, and you could see Niese plead for one more inning...the kid is a gamer.

The struggling bullpen came on and finished it off in fine fashion.  Jenrry Mejia and Fernando Nieve each tossed a scoreless frame, and Mejia had great life on his pitches.

The Mets are the best home team in baseball.

"If you watch us play at home, I expect us to win the division," Francoeur said. "We've accepted we're going to play to our advantage with this field."

David Wright now has 10 HRs on the year, and if not for the high K rate, we'd be talking about his solid numbers.  He is back on a hot streak and pulling the ball with authority.

"This really is a park that you have to be able to hit the ball down the lines," Wright said. "I don't really consider myself that good of a pull hitter. I like to try to stay up the middle. It felt good to be able to pull the ball and then the next at-bat be able to stay on the ball and go up the middle. So hopefully that's a good sign."

Ike Davis was actually using Jeff Francoeur's bat in the game, and the results were spectacular.

"I just felt good today swinging the bat," Davis said. "Been working on some things, just slowing it down a little bit. Happened to find the barrel a couple times. It feels good to find some grass out there." 

Enjoy your coffee!

Scoreboard
Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Florida (28-29)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	7	0
N.Y. Mets (29-27) «	0	2	3	0	1	0	0	0	x	6	10	0

Players of the Game

New York I. Davis AB 4 R 3 H 4 HR 0 RBI 1

New York J. Niese IP 7.0 H 6 ER 1 BB 1 K 6

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• Niese, Davis Lead Mets to Win Over Marlins at Citi Field (bleacherreport.com)
• Mets 6 - Marlins 1 June 5, 2010 (metsreport.com)
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• Niese sharp in return from DL for Mets (cbssports.com)

VIDEO: Jim Joyce BLOWS Perfect Game Call

This is outrageous!

Mets Have a Chance for a Special June

I was looking at the schedule this morning and it's clear that the Mets have a golden opportunity for a special month of June.

After starting the month 1-0 thanks to a Mike Pelfrey special, Johan Santana takes the hill against the Pads, and then the Mets return home.

For the remainder of the month they face:

• 6 against the Marlins, 3 home, 3 away.  Marlins are tied with the Mets at 27-26
• 3 more against the Padres at home
• 3 at Baltimore--Orioles are 15-37
• 3 at Cleveland--Indians are 19-31
• 3 at the Yankees--Yankees are 32-20
• 3 at home against Detroit--Tigers are 26-25, but only 11-15 on the road
• 3 at home against Minnesota--Twins are 31-21, but only 13-12 on the road

It is such a strange month...15 games against American League teams against only 11 National League games.

Thankfully the Mets play the absolute two worst teams in the AL, and maybe in all of MLB.

The fact that the Mets have 4 off days in the month, one a week, also bodes well for the team, as does the favorable travel schedule.  If you include the Yankees games, the Mets will sleep in their own beds for 2/3rds of the month--unheard of in today's game.

The scheduling gods were certainly kind to the Mets in June, now let's see if the team can take advantage of their largess.

"Give Rod the Nod" Campaign

Mets fans want to see Rod Barajas in the All-Star game, and we can certainly help by going here to vote.

The 34-year old Barajas has been a revelation for the Mets, both with his bat and his glove.  He currently leads all catchers in homeruns and RBIs, and his slugging percentage is second only to Miguel Olivo.

That said, the most important contribution he's making just might be with his personality.  Barajas has developed exceptional relationships with his pitchers and the amount of "shaking off" from last year to this year is noticeably less.

If you look at the stats, Barajas is certainly above average defensively, with the 9th best CERA in MLB to go along with the 4th best RF in the NL.  He does fall short in terms of throwing this year, but he commands the game from behind the plate, works well with the staff, and I have not seen him make a bad decision all year. 

Speaking of throwing--Barajas has an excellent arm and has thrown out 33% of baserunners in his career, and 34% just last year.  His totals this year are down, but they are also not running on him very often.  By season's end I fully expect that stat to normalize back toward the mean.

NL Catcher Sortable Fielding
RK	PLAYER	TEAM	GP	GS	FULL	TC	PO	A	E	DP	FPCT	RF	ZR	PB	CSB	CS	CS%	CERA
1	Geovany Soto	CHC	43	39	340	327	312	14	1	1	.997	8.64	3.012	1	30	8	.211	4.46
2	Russell Martin	LAD	46	45	404	387	357	25	5	1	.987	8.52	2.972	3	23	10	.303	3.99
3	Bengie Molina	SFO	40	37	320	303	281	21	1	1	.997	8.49	2.931	1	37	7	.159	3.29
4	Rod Barajas	NYM	41	39	349	328	314	12	2	3	.994	8.40	3.021	1	15	2	.118	4.23
5	Miguel Olivo	COL	38	38	335	303	274	26	3	2	.990	8.07	3.083	3	13	16	.552	3.46
6	Brian McCann	ATL	41	39	331	294	273	16	5	3	.983	7.87	3.170	1	23	9	.281	4.08
7	Yadier Molina	STL	46	45	403	350	323	25	2	5	.994	7.78	3.237	2	10	13	.565	2.52
8	Chris Snyder	ARI	41	39	345	286	260	26	0	0	1.000	7.47	3.395	2	25	11	.306	5.93
9	Carlos Ruiz	PHI	39	38	334	272	247	24	1	2	.996	7.30	3.463	1	24	7	.226	3.55
10	Ryan Doumit	PIT	44	42	367	299	276	21	2	1	.993	7.28	3.485	4	41	4	.089	5.09

There are certainly some great choices for all-star this year at catcher, but for many reasons, it's time for Mets fans to get out and vote to "Give Rod the Nod".

The current popular vote totals for National League catcher are:

1	Yadier Molina, Cardinals	316,795
2	Carlos Ruiz, Phillies	259,227
3	Ivan Rodriguez, Nationals	247,998
4	Brian McCann, Braves	203,377
5	Russell Martin, Dodgers	160,698

Barajas 2010 Season Stats
SPLITS	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Season	42	149	22	40	8	0	11	30	4	20	0	0	.268	.291	.544	.835
Career	855	2670	321	641	157	1	103	385	147	464	2	2	.240	.284	.415	.699
Last 7 days	5	18	2	5	1	0	1	6	0	0	0	0	.278	.263	.500	.763
Projected	151	536	79	144	29	0	40	108	14	72	0	0	.268	.291	.544	.835