Your New York Sports Blog

According to Ken Rosenthal the New York Mets have claimed 1st baseman and former Yankee Andy Phillips. Phillips should serve as a right handed bat of the bench and could also split time at first with Carlos Delgado and play second every once in a while. Rosenthal believes newly brought in Wayne Krivsky had a big part in bringing in Phillips.

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According to MetsBlog.com Ryan Church took batting practice with the team yesterday, took part of the pregame workout, and is expected to join the Brooklyn Cyclones either on Wednesday or Thursday for a rehab assignment.

...If all goes well and Ryan does not feel any symptoms he should be back in time for the weekend Subway Series against the Yankees. The return of Church could end Robinson Cancel's job with the Mets, move Carlo Delgado down in the lineup, and stregthen the bench by allowing Trot Nixon to come off the bench as a pinch hitter.

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Former Mets manager Willie Randolph was fired this week apparently for being too laid back. New manager Jerry Manuel doesn't seem to have the same approach. After Manuel removed Jose Reyes from Tuesday nights game a minor argument ensued. Manuel had this to say about the encounter.

"I told him next time he does that I'm going to get my blade out and cut him. I'm a gangster. You go gangster on me, I'm going to have to get you. You do that again, I'm going to cut you right on the field."

Apparently he was joking but that is hilarious.

Courtesy of Google

He doesn't look too gangster to me.

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Metsblog.com:

The Mets have fired Willie Randolph, and named bench coach Jerry Manuel their interim manager.
Pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto have also been relieved of their coaching duties.
Ken Oberkfell will be hired as the team’s new first base coach, Dan Warthen will be the new pitching coach, and Luis Aguayo will be Manuel’s bench coach

...What a strange time for this to come. Right after the Mets win a great game against the Angels and look like they are playing good baseball. The move of firing Willie I do agree with though. I would rather not have had the Mets replace him with Jerry Manuel, but we don't have any say in that and if we did this whole fiasco would have been put to rest a while ago.

I kind of liked they way Willie was managing recently despite the record. His starting pitching was outstanding and was letting them go extra inning and into the 110 pitch area. He even let Pelfrey go out for the 9th inning the first time that has happened all year. At least we are now done with everything and there won't be a cloud hanging over everything. Only time will tell to see if this is a good move and see how the players will connect with Jerry Manuel calling the shots instead of Willie...

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All you can say is that today was not really the bullpen's day, but they framed it on it John Maine in the first game and Pedro Martinez gave them a pep talk and made them pitch well for him. It seems that every time the Mets call up someone new they have a good game so we might as well call up Mike Carp and/or Danny Murphy. There are reports that Rick Peterson is fired and Willie Randolph is going to Anaheim, but is not guaranteed anything, but we will see what happens.

Mets v. Rangers Game 1

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Texas	0	0	1	0	2	0	4	1	0		8	11	1
NY Mets	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	3	2		7	11	0

W: Millwood (5-3) L: Maine (6-5) S: Wilson (13)
In game one Kevin Millwood continued to be a thorn in the Met's side. If he pitches like this until the deadline he should fetch Texas a decent haul at the trade deadline. John Maine's line looks a lot worse than it was. Left the game with only three runs on the board, but then Pedro Feliciano a two-run single that caused both runs to be charged to Maine.

The Mets kept giving you a sense of hope, but a bonehead move by Brian Schneider and Carlos Delgado's double play really killed them. When they scored 3 runs in the 8th and 2 in the 9th they showed glimpses of the 2006 team, but back then the throw would have been up the line allowing Schneider to score instead of right on target and Damion Easley wuld have hit a game inning home run, but what could you do besides accepting defeat. Firing Willie is one option, but we won't talk about that again.

The second game was much much better. Pedro Martinez was getting hit pretty hard early on, but settled down and pitched a very respectable game to earn the win and help one or two coaches keep their job.

David Wright found his antidote and it was a left handed pitcher. He ended up going 3-4 in the game with a RBI. He became the first Met to reach the half century mark in RBI's this season.

The real story in this game was hitting with 2 outs. A very shocking statistic is that all 4 runs were scored with 2 outs. The first two were driven in by Wright and Carlos Beltran in the 3rd and then the last two by a Robinson Cancel single in the 6th.

The bullpen rebounded with 3 shutout innings lead by Pedro Feliciano, Duaner Sanchez, and Billy Wagner.

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The New York Daily News is reporting that the New York Mets have interest in All-Star closer Brian Fuentes. According to the paper no deal is 'imminent'. Last season the Mets offered Aaron Heilman for Fuentes, which the Rockies rejected at so we will see what happens.
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We have this update according to ESPN Rumor Central:

The New York Yankees are one of several teams who are watching the progress of Freddy Garcia, reports the New York Times. Garcia had rotator cuff and labrum surgery last August and has begun throwing off a mound recently. He will reportedly start throwing for teams in Miami starting in early July.

Other than the Yankees teams who are most likely also interested are the Mets, Cubs, Astros, Dodgers, Padres, and Tigers.

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Tonight's Mets v. Rangers game has been canceled due to rain. It will have to be made up tomorrow night as part of a day/night double header. John Maine was already schedueled to pitch tomorrow at 1:10 pm so it will be interesting to see how things shape out. The logical thing would be for Pedro Martinez to pitch the morning game and Maine the night game.

UPDATE: 11:10 John Maine will pitch the 1st game and Pedro the 2nd game.

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We have this update according to Metsblog.com:

Following tonight’s game, Omar Minaya announced the Mets have acquired OF Trot Nixon from the Diamondbacks for cash or a player to be named later.

....Nixon is one of those hard-nosed, grinding players the Mets need right now. It is more of a leadership move than anything, but Nixon can produce to go along with his leadership. He is currently hitting .309 with 10 home runs in Triple A so if he can bring any of that production to go along with his leadership it could help the Mets turn it around a little bit. This is not the change they need, there still has to be more, but this is definitely a start in the right direction.

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Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,That saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now, I see. T'was Grace that taught...my heart to fear.And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear... the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares... we have already come. T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home. The Lord has promised good to me... His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be... as long as life endures. When we've been here ten thousand years... bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise... then when we've first begun. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now, I see.

Tex 1

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Rangers 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 Mets 2 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 x 7 9 0

NYM 7

W: Perez (5-4) L: Feldman (1-3)
HR » TEX: J. Hamilton (18)
S: (0)
That's not really how I feel, but there were reports of that noise being sung in Willie Randolph's office following tonight's win.

You saw why Hamilton has 72 RBI's tonight the guy is just a flat at beast. Thankfully Oliver Perez was pretty beastly himself today only giving up 3 hits in 7 innings of 1 run ball. He also had 8 strikeouts and lowered his ERA under 5 to 4.98. The bullpen was actually good tonight and did not give up any hits and only had 1 walk.

The offense clicked on all cylinders tonight except for one person.... The one person you least expected it from before the season. That is right Mr. David Wright. His AVG. has really taken a real blow, but it is nice to see the Carloses step up in his absence. You know I pitcher is slow to the plate when Carlos Delgado gets a steal off of him, but it is always fun to watch.

Great game today hopefully Wright gets tomorrow off, but with Willie on the ropes he will probably keep him in so he can continue to play every inning of every game this season.

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According to any report you read Willie Randolph is on thin ice and may be fired very very soon. Some reports say that he only has this weekend to turn things around in the series verse the Texas Rangers. Sadly the same reports say that if Willie is indeed fired he will be replaced by current assistant manager Jerry Manuel. Now I am not saying Jerry Manuel is a bad manager and he has even won the prestigious award manager of the year before. The real problem is that Jerry Manuel have similar managing styles and that is why he is on his coaching staff. As always Omar Minaya gave his support before this game, but of course he is going to say that when he is on the chopping block too.

If you are curious how Willie feels about his situation here is how he felt before the today's game:

“I’m here. You see me. I’m still here (patting himself down). Yeah, man. I can’t control what’s said and written and stuff. I just come to work here ready to go, and put these guys in a spot where they can produce and finish up strong on this home stand.”

Other than Minaya and Randolph it is said that Rick Peterson and Howard Johnson could as well be out the door. I honestly hope Minaya, Randolph, and Peterson get fired and Hojo stays. Peterson has done a great job, but the team needs change and I feel a guy like Mike Pelfrey will benefit from the change.
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Enough of this Willie crap in other news Moises Alou is on the DL and Robinson Cancel was called up to replace him. Genius move to call up a 3rd catcher.

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Oh no. This is not what the Mets needed and here are some numbers for you.

.1 ip, 2 runs, 2 er, 1 hr, 1k
1 ip, 2 runs, 2 er, 1 hr, 2k's
1 ip, 2runs, 2 er, 2 BB's, 1 k

Those are Billy Wagner's numbers in his last three games all of them were blown saves. And during that time period his ERA has jumped from .36 to 2.33. It shows you how dominant he had been for the first two months, but this little slump came at the absolute worst time of the year you could ever imagine. If the Mets want to win some games Wagner is going to have to be lights out just about every night and not look as if he is throwing a beach ball to the plate.

FINAL in 10th 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E Diamondbacks 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 5 8 0 Mets 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 4 11 0

W: Lyon (2-1) L: Heilman (0-3) S: (0

HR » NYM: R. Castro (1)
I am kind of left speechless after this game it was really that bad. I guess it was nice to see Ramon Castro show up on time and hit a home run, but other than that and the fact Carlos Delgado looked good, despite going 0-3, it was a bad game. David Wright continued to struggle and so Joe Smith had his 2nd straight bad outing in a loss.

Johan Santana was amazing and it will get last in all of what happened. He pitched 7 innings with 3 hits and 10k's the perfect follow up of Mike Pelfrey's start last night. It is still amazing how people say he has not been his best yet he has a 2.85 ERA with 7-4 record, that should be around 10-4 but the bullpen blew leads, and has 86k's (5th in the league).

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All of this according to John Heyman of SI.com:

The Mets have agreed to terms with first-round draft choice Reese Havens, a shortstop from the University of South Carolina, SI.com has learned. The Mets will pay Havens, the 22nd overall pick in last week's amateur draft, a signing bonus of about $1.4 million.

Goes on t say they are close to signing Brad Holt their third pick and haven't began negotiations with Ike Davis their first pick in the draft. If I believe correctly that is right around the same amount Havens wanted all the way back in 2005 when coming out of high school.

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WOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! What a game that was. It seemed as though it was over once Wagner gave up that 3-run home run in the top of the 9th. It felt as though you were watching the game down 20-1 in the 3rd inning just waiting for the horror to end, but the Mets came through with a BIG BIG BIG BIG win to end their losing streak.

FINAL in 13th 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 R H E Diamondbacks 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 3 10 2 Mets 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 9 0

W: Vargas (3-2) L: Gonzalez (1-3) S: (0)
The real story of the night is my boy Michael Pelfrey. Boy was he on tonight and his fastball moving. His fastball was sitting at 94 mph and moving making himself look more like Brandon Webb than Brandon Webb did. It was just blazing up there and dropping off the table resulting in 8 strikeouts. He also managed the running game extremely well giving up no steals and picked Young of first in the 1st inning. He himself gave up no runs and should have had a chance for a shutout, but when Billy Wagner came in he gave up one run for Pelfrey and blew the save for himself.
Right after the announcers said '...the Mets catch a break with that call' referring to when it appeared Mark Reynolds was hit on the foot and the ump said he was not hit and did not award him first base Wagner throws a fastball high and over the middle and Reynolds crushes it to deep left to tie the game and crush Pelfrey's hopes and the Mets spirits. You had a feeling like the Mets had already lost, but Carlos Beltran felt differently.

Up until the 13th the Mets had only scored three runs, two driven in by a Beltran single and one by a Marlon Anderson force out. After Luis Castillo got on because of a Reynolds error David Wright continued his struggles by popping out to first base leaving Beltran to get Castillo in from first with two outs. Well Beltran did even better absolutely crushing the no doubter to right center something the Mets needed to have any shot at doing anything this year. One of those games that you think would put the team on a nice little streak and bringing back memories of the 2006 team.

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or..
??????

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At #18 the Mets took a player many people thought they wanted to take in the draft and that is of course ASU 1st/OF Ike Davis. Davis is hitting .394 with 16 homers and 73 RBI in 49 games. With the 22nd pick the Mets took shortstop Reese Havens out of South Carolina. Havens is hitting 315 in the wood-bat Cape Cod League. Havens hit .359 with 18 homers and 57 RBI in 63 games this season for the Gamecocks.

Davis should moved through the system very quickly and start in Citi Field sooner rather than later unless the Mets decide they need to sign Mark Teixeira this off-season. He is very athletic and has good blood lines so hopefully he can fill out his potential as a slugging player in the middle of the lineup. Reese Havens reminds me of a bigger version of Dustin Pedroia. That is not a bad thing. He knows how to play ball and could possibly move to catcher where he would instantly become the best catcher in the system. If anyone can make the switch to catcher it is him.

Little disappointed they passed on Cole twice, Melville, Meyer, Galloway, Odorizzi, and Collier but only time will tell on this draft.

Picks to watch:
Eric Beaulac, rhp
Kyle Allen, rhp (hs)
Javier Rodriguez, of (hs)
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The Yankees first round draft pick made the whole draft worth while. They got one of the top talents in the entire draft and the best prep pitcher available. The took the Californiaphenom Gerrit Cole out of Orange Lutheran High School. Some people say he is the best California prep pitcher since Phil Hughes in 2008. If he watch his delivery on the left an his stuff he seems like a replica of Max Scherzer of the Diamondbacks. This kid throws a legit 93-96 mph fastball with movement and can hit 98 if he gets everything behind it. He uses a curve and change that will be plus pitches and make him one of the top prospects in a few years.

Jeremy Bleich might have been a stretch in the 2nd round, but the Yankees do have a need for a lefty in the system and for the 2nd straight year the Yankees took Scott Bittle (3rd round) a guy who just knows how to get outs.

Picks to watch:
Brett Marshall, rhp
Kyle Higashioka, c
David Adams, 2nd
Pat Venditte, lhp/rhp

Thats right Venditte is a reliever who can throw with both his right and left hand earning himself the nickname "The One Man Bullpen". A video of him can be seen here.

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The New York Mets have optioned 1st/OF Nick Evans to Double A Binghamton and purchased the contract of utility infielder Abraham Nunez from Triple A New Orleans.

...There has been a large crowd of fans who wanted the Mets call up Val Pascucci, but the fact is he still wasn't the best choice. If it was up to me I would have called up Chris Aguila. The guy has just been on an absolute tear in Triple A racking up 15 home runs and 31 RBI's.

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According to SNY the Mets have signed Raul Gonzalez to a minor league deal after he was released from the Mexican league. He will first go to extended spring training and then go to New Orleans. Raul Gonzalez played 137 games for the Mets in 2002 and 2003 hitting .238 with 5 home runs and 32 RBI's.

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Above .500!!! Yeah now you Met fans can celebrate and Willie can relax for a little while with the team playing great ball right now. They are playing as we all expected and the man stepped on big tonight to show why he was worth the four prospects the Mets had to give up to get him and why they were so willing to do so.

Mets (28-27) v. Dodgers (27-29)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
LA Dodgers	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	6	1
NY Mets	1	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	X		6	10	0

W: Santana (7-3) L: Kuroda (2-5) S: (0)
HR » NYM: C. Beltran (6), R. Church (10)

New York Mets
Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
J Reyes SS	5	2	2	0	0	1	0	.284
L Castillo 2B	5	0	0	0	0	0	2	.265
D Wright 3B	4	1	3	2	0	1	0	.293
C Beltran CF	3	1	1	2	1	0	1	.264
C Delgado 1B	3	1	0	0	1	0	4	.224
R Church RF	4	1	3	2	0	0	0	.320
B Schneider C	4	0	1	0	0	1	3	.258
E Chavez LF	3	0	0	0	1	0	3	.205
J Santana P	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	.192
J Smith P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
S Schoeneweis P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
a-R Casanova PH	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.275
P Feliciano P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	35	6	10	6	3	4	16

Jose Reyes has been on fire as of late. He now has a 17 game hitting streak and has stolen 6 bases in that time with 12 runs and 5 home runs. As the saying goes 'As Jose goes the Mets go' and it has stayed true to form so far this year.

His franchise mate David Wright had a good game himself with 3 hits (all singles), 2RBI's, and a steal. How amazing is Ryan Church? He came in and played as if he didn't miss a beat. It took him one at-bat to get in the grove, but then he was golden. His 10th home run his second time up, double his third time up, and single his fourth time.

Johan Santana was the man today. He started out slow, but put it all together and threw 7.2 innings with 6K's and only 1 run given up. He handed it off to Joe Smith who hit his only batter and had to be bailed out by Scott Schoeneweis who continued his amazing season and the game was finished off by Pedro Feliciano with a perfect 9th.

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