Normal is Good

We're a mere two weeks away from the start of the 2021 baseball season. This is a marked improvement from a year ago when the COVID-19 epidemic had already shut down baseball. Even then, we were all only beginning to understand how much of our lives would be shut down and how long it would take to return to normal. We're not quite there yet but, if you squint hard, you can actually see normal from where we are now. For a while, it seemed that we would never get to this place.

The Mets Can Still Use Starting Pitching

Now that Carlos Carrasco has joined Francisco Lindor on the Mets, the team has a top 3 in their rotation to match up with anyone in baseball. If Noah Syndergaard makes it back and the other three remain healthy — always a big if when you're talking pitching — the Mets would have as good of a rotation 1-4 as they've had in many years, easily one of the best in baseball this year. Combined with the solid offense and a defense that has certainly been upgraded and could be a really solid group if a true CF is signed, this is a legit playoff contender with a real shot at going all the way. But the questions certainly remain when it comes to the depth of this rotation, and we've seen lack of depth sabotage many promising Mets seasons in recent years.

A Pyromaniac's Delight

As I've written other posts in my look back at the 2005 season it continually strikes me just how bad and chaotic the Mets bullpen was that year. Any starter who departed the game with a lead, even a pretty big one, did well not to count on that win until after the last out was recorded. Indeed, closer Braden Looper blew a save for Pedro Martinez on Opening Day, a deflating loss that would set the Mets on a 5-game losing streak before they finally notched their first "W".

What fascinates me the most about the 2005 'pen was that it could probably serve as a primer on how not to build a solid Major League bullpen. In all, 17 pitchers pitched relief innings for that club, and the vast majority were awful. Basically, the Mets would give any pitcher with a pulse and a working arm a chance to pitch out of their bullpen in 2005, and the vast majority only proved that they didn't belong in any major league bullpen. What follows is the story of the individuals who made up what was, with few exceptions, a bullpen that undoubtedly took years off the life of those of us unlucky enough to root for the 2005 New York Mets.

Out of Nowhere

Sometimes a pitcher explodes onto the scene, as Matt Harvey did in 2012 or Doc Gooden in 1984, immediately staking his claim to glory. Some, like former #1 overall pick Brian Taylor, never even come within sniffing distance of the majors despite major hype as a prospect. Still others take a more circuitous route to major league success. 2005 Mets pitcher Aaron Heilman is a member of that third group.

Drafted #1 by the Mets (18 overall) in the 2001 draft out of Notre Dame University, Heilman put up decent numbers as he advanced from A ball to AAA by June 2003. Heilman was elevated to the major leagues after GM Steve Phillips was handed his walking papers that June, and it did not go well. Heilman was pummeled over 13 major league starts to the tune of a 6.75 ERA and a WHIP of 1.83. Over 65.1 innings he gave up an incredible 13 HR. It was clear that Aaron Heilman was not a major league pitchers at that point, and rather questionable that he would ever be one.

Walking the Ballpark

In March of 2005, Mets GM Omar Minaya was scrambling to find a starting pitcher to replace Steve Trachsel, who just had surgery for a herniated disk and would miss most of the season. He reached a deal with the Dodgers to obtain 31-year old lefty Kazuhisa Ishii in exchange for catcher Jason Phillips.

Phillips was an interesting story during his short time in New York. After very brief stints in the majors in 2001 and 2002, Philips broke out in a big way for the Mets in 2003 at age 26, batting .298/.373/.442 with 11 HR and 58 RBI in just over 450 plate appearances. The distinctive corrective goggles that Phillips wore became part of his legend, with some fans nicknaming him GGOG, or Greek God of Goggles, as I remember it. He was one of the few bright spots on an abysmal 66-win club, and Mets fans, including myself, prayed that it wasn't just a fluke.

Flash in the Pan, Part 2

In the initial installment of this post, I offered up a definition of the phrase flash in the pan as someone who gets off to a promising start but can't sustain it. The 3 players discussed in Part 1 of this post fit the most commonly used definition of the term. Víctor Díaz, Anderson Hernández, and Juan Padilla all enjoyed a brief burst of success, but none lasted very long in the majors. All players in both parts of this post played for the 2005 New York Mets ballclub.

The 3 players I will write about in Part 2 were different than the 3 discussed in Part 1. They all enjoyed longer major league careers than Díaz, Hernández, and Padilla. Even the initial success they enjoyed was bigger and lasted longer. Still, they all failed to live up to their initial fanfare but were interesting stories nonetheless.

Flash in the Pan, Part 1

Merriam-Webster dictionary offers a definition of the phrase flash in the pan as "one that appears promising but turns out to be disappointing or worthless." The expression originated with the old flintlock muskets of the Revolutionary War days when the small amount of gunpowder in the priming pan of the weapon ignited, but the gun didn't actually fire. In baseball and other uses, the phrase describes someone who got off to a promising start but couldn't sustain it.

The 2005 Mets featured several players who, more or less, fell under this definition. In this 2-part post, we're going to take a look at them. Before I begin, I want to specify that I am in no way making fun of or demeaning these players in any way. Anyone who makes it to the Major Leagues has overcome tremendous odds to get there. They have achieved reaching the top of their profession, even if it was for a brief time. They have my respect for their accomplishment, every single one of them.

The Year We Said Goodbye

When I decided to start writing again a little over a month ago, I knew that I would need to find things to write about given the current stuck in limbo reality that has overtaken baseball and our normal lives.

I decided to spend some time writing about the 2005 season for a lot of reasons. It was the first year that I started writing my old blog. It was a season of dramatic comings and goings for the Mets. There were some interesting characters and games to talk about.  It was the year that both Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran came to town.

We Can Be Heroes, Just For One Day

Some players achieve greatness in New York sports by sustaining excellence over a long period of time.  The names Seaver, Koosman, Wright, Strawberry, and Gooden are all examples of ballplayers who called Queens home for a good chunk of their career and earned their way into the pantheon of greatness.  Day in and day out over a period of years they became heroes one game-winning homer and one complete game shutout at a time.

Then there's another type of guy. This player did not maintain greatness for any length of time but had a moment so unforgettable that he took a shortcut to eternal glory.  In this case, he was a pitcher who spent one year in American major league baseball, appearing in 23 innings spread over 33 games with the New York Mets in 2005.  He was used as a LOOGY, an import from Korean baseball, and his name was Dae-Sung Koo.  His nickname was Mr. Koo - As I recall, he got that because that was his answer to reporters when they asked what to call him.

Beltran, Then and Now

This piece about Carlos Beltran is a part of my series on the 2005 season.  I can't really talk about Beltran, however, without coming back to the present day and the reason why Carlos' tenure as Mets Manager was over before it even began.

First the look back. In the offseason of 2004-2005 new General Manager Omar Minaya had already mad a huge splash by inking future Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez to a 4-year contract.  According to Minaya, he promised Pedro to continue aggressively trying to improve the team.  He kept his word with his pursuit of Beltran, one of the game's top players who, going into his age 28 season, was still in the prime years of his career.

Great Games: June 11, 2005 Mets vs. Angels

The Mets game vs the Angels on Saturday, June 11, 2005 at Shea Stadium was not only arguably the best Mets game of the 2005 season, all these years later I still rank it as one of their best wins of all time.

Going into the game the Mets were floating along on the edge of competing in the National League East race in the way mediocre teams always seem to do: alternating bad and good games, putting a streak of solid ball together and then following with some weak efforts.

The Goats of 2005: Kaz Matsui

In December of 2003 the Mets announced the signing of 28-year-old Japanese shortstop Kazuo Matsui. Kaz had been a big star for the Seibu Lions in Japan, hitting for average and power and with the reputation for playing good defense as well.

Other major league clubs were looking to sign Matsui. They were primarily looking at him as a second baseman due to concerns about whether his arm strength would allow him to play shortstop in the American game.  The Mets convinced Matsui to sign with them by throwing a lot of money at him ($20 million over 3 years) and promising that he could play shortstop.

The Goats of 2005: Braden Looper

While my best memory of the 2005 season is the heroic season of Pedro Martinez that I wrote about yesterday, there were plenty of not-so-great memories, too. Above all, 2005 featured its fair share of players that a large segment of the Mets fanbase loved to hate. Near the top of that list was the closer, Braden Looper.

Looper was signed to be the Mets' closer in January 2004. He had been the closer for the Marlins the previous season and, while not great, was competent. He replaced Armando Benitez, who had been traded to the Yankees the previous July.

The Year of Pedro

The transition between 2004 and 2005 was a consequential time for the New York Mets. GM Steve Phillips departed in 2003, and his replacement Jim Duquette never seemed more than a placeholder. Omar Minaya was handed the keys after 2004 thudded to an end and brought some energy and a sense of optimism with his arrival.

Still, most, including myself, thought Minaya was brought on to oversee a slow rebuild, restocking what had become a low-rated farm system. Top prospect Scott Kazmir had been traded for Victor Zambrano the previous July, and there wasn't much behind him. Omar had a history in player development so that seemed to be where they were headed.

A Celebration of Mediocrity

Although my classic Mike's Mets blog no longer exists on the internet, I still have all the old posts that I and the others who contributed to it saved.  The earliest material goes back to August 2005 when I finally took the plunge and began the journey of blogging.  You can still find the old stuff here from the day I started through February of 2006 when I moved over to MikesMets.com.