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March 31, 2009

Some Thoughts with a Week to Go

I watched last night's game against the Orioles and came away impressed by several things I saw. Although Oliver Perez still wasn't throwing his best fastball, he certainly looked much better than he did his first couple of outings back from the WBC. The first thing that I noticed was...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 4:26 PM | | Comments (0)

March 30, 2009

Book Review: Maple Street Press Mets Annual 2009

Maple Street Press Mets Annual 2009 Edited by Matthew Silverman and Greg Spira Softcover, 128 pages, Maple Street Press A problem with most sports annuals is they try to cover everything and wind up doing a poor job of previewing anyone. Another problem is that these team previews are often...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 1:55 AM | | Comments (0)

March 29, 2009

Sunday Reading, 3-29-2009

This will be a quickie Sunday reading column this week as I am in the process of finishing up a book review that I am committed to finishing tonight. Cut to the Chass Matthew Artus from Always Amazin' once again calls Murray Chass -- who seems to be on a...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 11:27 PM | | Comments (0)

March 28, 2009

The Formula for Bullpen Success Runs Deeper than Two Guys

One of the perks of doing a blog is the opportunity to develop friendships with my fellow bloggers. One of those was with Mets Today's Joe Janish. Joe and I have had interesting email exchanges, because while we agree on many things we don't completely agree on anything. More than...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 2:22 AM | | Comments (5)

March 26, 2009

The WBC Strikes Again

Three years ago I wrote several items critical of the World Baseball Classic for this blog. No matter what spin Selig and the pro-WBC crowd try to put on it, the timing of this in spring is just terrible. No other sport (or Commissioner, for that matter) would risk its...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 4:35 PM | | Comments (5)

March 25, 2009

Two Weeks to Go -- The Bullpen

It's not exactly a secret that the Mets bullpen was their downfall last September, so it's no surprise that most of us are wishing, hoping and praying that this year's edition performs as well as it looks on paper. In less than two weeks we will begin to find out....

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 3:08 AM | | Comments (4)

March 23, 2009

Two Weeks to Go -- Starting Pitching

Two weeks from today the Mets will be in Cincinnati playing a baseball game that will count in the standings. Sometime between now and then the 25-man roster will be finalized. As of today it looks like most of the decisions are at least close to being made, with a...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 6:29 PM | | Comments (3)

Belated Sunday Reading

I know, it's not really Sunday any more, but after missing a couple of days I thought I'd ease back into posting with the usual Sunday feature. Both my Mets-related reading and writing suffered this week due to a backlog of work and ill-timed back issues, but there were a...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 2:39 AM | | Comments (1)

March 20, 2009

More Thoughts on the Bench

In many ways, the battle for bench and bullpen spots have been the most compelling of the spring for the Mets, particularly since no one really seemed inclined to battle Livan Hernandez all that hard for the fifth starter's job. The latest speculation is that Nick Evans has forced himself...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 4:47 PM | | Comments (4)

Pelfrey Looks Strong

Sorry for being a little sporadic on the posting this week. I'm buried in work. I had a chance after dinner tonight to sit down in front of the TV and spend some quality time with this afternoon's game that I had DVR'ed. I was particularly interested in a chance...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 1:57 AM | | Comments (3)

March 18, 2009

He Shall Be Livan

I watched a couple of innings of Livan Hernandez' start today, and DVR'ed the rest to watch later. I came away from it convinced of two things: one, that Hernandez has a huge lead in the fifth starter derby, and two, on a good day I can still bring my...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 6:56 PM | | Comments (4)

March 17, 2009

Things Going Right

Tim Redding won't be ready to open the season with the Mets. John Maine isn't throwing his curveball yet. Freddie Garcia looks like what he is -- a thirty-something pitcher trying to come back from shoulder surgery. Livan Hernandez can't break a pane of glass at ten paces with his...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 2:14 AM | | Comments (4)

March 15, 2009

Sunday Reading, 3-15-2009

We're going to do something a little different this week. I like to highlight 3 books, two of which are already out and one which is due out sometime this summer. Maple Street Press Mets Annual 2009 Edited by Matt Silverman and Greg Spira 128 pages $12.99 Available now More...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 4:05 PM | | Comments (2)

March 14, 2009

Irrational Thought Rules

It's becoming increasingly clear that rational baseball analysis in the local papers has joined the endangered species list. There was once a time when explaining the nuances of the game to the fans was an important part of what a columnist did. Now it seems proclaiming outrageous statements at the...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 4:36 PM | | Comments (5)

March 13, 2009

The Bullpen and Fifth Starter

By all accounts, Freddy Garcia had his best outing of the spring so far and still hasn't improved his chances of locking down a fifth starter's job that many thought was his to lose coming into camp. Garcia allowed the Tigers 2 runs in 2 1/3 innings, with one of...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 5:05 PM | | Comments (4)

March 12, 2009

Good News

I get on the media sometimes for their almost relentlessly negative coverage of this team, but I do understand that negative stories tend to draw more attention than the positive ones these days. As print media outlets in particular fight to survive, this is increasingly important. Still, though, when a...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 5:02 PM | | Comments (3)

Setting the Record Straight

A while back I realized that setting a goal of posting 2 or 3 times a week wasn't going to work for me. I've been pretty busy for the last year or so, and I find that what I don't work to make part of my daily routine doesn't get...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 1:33 AM | | Comments (0)

March 10, 2009

Adios, Duaner

I was surprised to see the Mets cut Duaner Sanchez today. I wasn't totally shocked, but I expected them to wait until closer to the end of spring training. Sure, it would have cost them another $100,000 or so to keep him for another couple of weeks, but for a...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 3:16 PM | | Comments (10)

Murphy and Sanchez

It's after midnight and I still have a couple of hours work to do before I hit the sheets, but here's some quick Mets-related thoughts for your pleasure (or displeasure.) When I get really swamped with works, it's often e-mails from readers that keep me up on what's going on...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 1:06 AM | | Comments (3)

March 8, 2009

Sunday Reading

Just a quick one tonight. I had a tough week of work that carried into the weekend. I don't link to as much stuff as I used to, mainly because I don't have time to read many other blogs or even some of the traditional media sources every day. When...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 11:47 PM | | Comments (2)

March 7, 2009

The Commissioner of Selig

Sure, Bud Selig's official title is the Commissioner of Baseball, but his only real concern nowadays seems to be doing creative rewriting of baseball's history in regards to steroids in the hopes of removing the stain from his own legacy. Frankly, he has as much chance of doing that as...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 4:07 PM | | Comments (3)

March 6, 2009

Your Friday Spring Training Non-Update

Some readers have asked me why I haven't spent more time this spring writing about the spring games and the ongoing battle for the fifth starter's job. To tell you the truth, I'm coming around to the belief that the all of the scrutiny on spring training in recent years...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 4:16 PM | | Comments (0)

March 5, 2009

The Burden of Proof

In our legal system you are considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In Murray Chass' world, zits are all the proof needed to brand you as a cheater. Chass was reacting to a column Joel Sherman wrote about the rumors of steroid use by former Met Mike...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 11:42 PM | | Comments (5)

March 4, 2009

A Lot of Noise

I stopped listening to Mike and the Mad Dog in early 2006 after spending years listening to hours of the duo. I work at home spending hours a day on my computer, and for many years that show would keep me company, droning on in the background. What finally got...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 11:51 PM | | Comments (4)

March 3, 2009

Eating Innings

The battle for the fifth starter's job includes a couple of veteran pitchers who have shouldered a heavy workload in the past, Freddy Garcia and Livan Hernandez. By even the most exacting definition, Garcia was an absolute horse in his time with Seattle and the White Sox. He pitched over...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 11:54 PM | | Comments (9)

March 2, 2009

You've Got to Change Your Evil Ways

All of the brouhaha over Johan Santana's tight triceps tendon brings a few varied thoughts to my mind. While I join most Mets fans in gratitude that this doesn't seem to be a serious problem, I find myself in agreement with The Eddie Kranepool Society's Steve Keane: I can understand...

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By Mike Steffanos, posted at 11:53 PM | | Comments (5)

March 1, 2009

Meet the...Hey, Who ARE These Guys?

Even a bad day at the ballpark is better than a good day at the office, so please don't take any portion of this post as a complaint. The sun was shining, not a drop of rain fell, there were almost as many Mets fans as there were Tigers fans...

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By NostraDennis, posted at 4:41 PM | | Comments (0)

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