Friday, February 29, 2008
Santana set for first spring start today
A winter's worth of anticipation will end today afternoon when Johan Santana makes his first exhibition game appearance for the Mets.
"It's going to be exciting for everybody," Santana said. "It's always good to be in the first game and get the first game out of the way. I'm not going to try to do anything crazy. I'm going to try to do my job and try to work on everything, and we'll go from there. As far as being out there, I'm going to enjoy it, for sure."
Sanchez gets first spring action
After being held out for precautionary reasons, Duaner Sanchez returned to appear in Friday's Grapefruit League home opener, pitching one inning and allowing a single run.
It's that cautiousness that kept Sanchez out of his scheduled relief appearance in Thursday's game against the Cardinals, though the worry has now been assuaged. Sanchez returned to appear in Friday's Grapefruit League home opener, pitching one inning and allowing one run.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Kazmir banged up
Scott Kazmir missed a scheduled intrasquad game appearance in St. Petersburg, Fla., after feeling discomfort in his elbow on his final warmup pitch. McCarthy was scratched from Wednesday’s spring opener because of elbow soreness.
Kazmir had warmed up in the bullpen without a problem, then watched the first half-inning from the bench. The AL strikeout champion threw three warmup pitches before leaving the mound and walking to the clubhouse for tests.
“I was warming up, feeling great,” said Kazmir, who was 13-9 with a 3.48 ERA last season, when he led the AL with 239 strikeouts—one fewer than major league leader Jake Peavy. “On my last warmup pitch … I just kind of felt a little discomfort.”
The Rays said the 24-year-old, who agreed to a $3,785,000, one-year contract last month, would undergo an MRI exam later in the day. His status was to be updated on Wednesday.
“When you have a guy like that, who’s never really been hurt before, sometimes it’s hard for them to gauge. We’ll just wait,” manager Joe Maddon said, adding that Kazmir’s first spring training start, scheduled for Saturday, might be affected.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Citi, Mets unveil Citi Field logo
Gathered around an artist's rendering of the new Citi Field on Monday morning, a group of Mets -- some of them laughing, all of them grinning -- saw their future. Hard for them not to be excited after the Mets packaged years of planning, hope and expectation into one bright little logo.
The team on Monday unveiled its logo for the new Citi Field, set to open in 2009. Combining the colors of Citi -- a global financial services company that is the stadium's namesake sponsor -- with those of the Mets, the new logo is the most tangible bit of marketing for the stadium to date.
"It's a beautiful logo," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "It's a great marriage with Citi Bank and the New York Mets. It's a great day, and I can't wait to see it all over Shea Stadium. It's going to be fun."
Randolph, along with general manager Omar Minaya, chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and several Mets players, helped unveil the logo on Monday at Citi Field Practice Field, a diamond built at the team's Spring Training complex with the new park's exact dimensions in mind.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Mets pitchers soak up Koufax's wisdom
Saturday morning gave him even more reason to marvel, as Sandy Koufax made a rare public appearance at Mets camp to help closer Billy Wagner with his curveball. Since he's tinkering with the new pitch this spring, Wagner figured he might as well learn from the best. Makes sense. And the best was happy to oblige.
"If somebody wants to get better and they think I can help them, then it's a pleasure," Koufax said. "I don't do it unless somebody asks me to do it. If I help them, great, and if I don't, I tell them this is an experiment. If it doesn't work for you, forget it. It has to work, you have to be comfortable. I don't have all the answers to anything."
Could've fooled Wagner. As his new teacher gave him a crash course on the curveball, Wagner soaked in every sentence. This wasn't just some ordinary lesson. No, this was like learning music from Mozart or physics from Einstein.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Nails Nailed
Lenny Dykstra has been sued by an accounting firm that says the former All-Star owes at least $111,000.The lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan’s U.S. District Court claims Dykstra failed to pay DDK & Co. LLP of Manhattan for accounting and tax work.
A Los Angeles lawyer who represents Dykstra did not immediately return a telephone message for comment. Dykstra played for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies during a 12-year career.
The company says a bill for $111,097 was sent last June to Dykstra and his wife, Terry, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. It says the tab has since grown to about $138,872.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Burgos Robbed
Reliever Ambiorix Burgos lost approximately $270,000 worth of jewelry and other valuables when burglars broke into his room at the Spring Hill Suites in Port St. Lucie on Sunday.
Burgos said he didn't realize anything had been taken until Tuesday, and that authorities have since recovered a portion of what was stolen. He planned to visit the police station after his workout on Wednesday to see what the police had recovered.
Does Burgos even have $270,000 of anything? Hard to believe.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Delgado vows to bounce back after horrible 2007
Upon arriving at New York Mets camp Monday, Carlos Delgado pronounced that he had recovered from the broken hand weeks ago, noting he's been hitting since early January the New York Daily News reported.
So, as the 35-year-old first baseman enters the final guaranteed year of a four-year contract, the question is squarely this: Did Delgado experience an off-year in 2007, when he had career lows with a .248 average, 24 homers and 87 RBI? Or has he hit the age where his skills are eroding, with years on artificial turf in Toronto and catching in the minors having caught up with him?
Delgado, who arrived in camp looking sleeker, suggested his talent remains intact. He pointed to a two-game stretch in Cincinnati last September during which he went 5-for-10 with a homer. Instead, and in order to get back to basics with his mechanics, he proceeded more slowly this winter while working on his hitting.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Normally quiet Beltran has familiar message for Rollins: `We are the team to beat'
The star center fielder reported to camp three days early Saturday and revealed he probably won't be ready to play when spring training games start because he's still rehabbing from Oct. 3 surgery on both knees.
That hardly put him in a sour mood, though. An upbeat Carlos Beltran spoke excitedly about the club's new ace and had a right-back-at-you message for Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins.
"Let me tell you this: Without Santana, we felt as a team that we have a chance to win in our division. With him now, I have no doubt that we're going to win in our division," Beltran said. "So this year, to Jimmy Rollins -- we are the team to beat!"
Of course, it was Rollins who boasted last offseason that his Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East, even though the Mets had run away with the 2006 division title.
The comment made headlines in New York and turned Rollins into a ripe target for angry boos at Shea Stadium. He backed up his words, however, leading Philadelphia's late-season surge past the fading Mets for its first division championship in 14 years.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Mets Report To Spring Training
Pedro Martinez was full of himself at Port St. Lucie.
"I dominated that era and I did it clean," he said. "I can stand by my numbers and I can be proud of them."
The three-time Cy Young Award winner said he hasn't paid much attention to the fallout from the Mitchell Report, and he didn't watch Roger Clemens testify before Congress on Wednesday. But Martinez said he'll probably get caught up on his computer now that he's in camp.
Mets Sign Johnson
The New York Mets on Thursday signed outfielder Ben Johnson to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. The 26-year-old Johnson, acquired in the trade that sent righthander Heath Bell to San Diego last season, appeared in nine games for the Mets in 2007, hitting .185 with one RBI. Johnson has a career average of .230 with seven home runs and 26 RBI in 98 major league games for San Diego and the Mets.
Santana Arrives, Throws, Impresses
One day before pitchers and catchers officially reported, Johan Santana arrived at the New York Mets' spring-training complex on Wednesday afternoon and quickly got to work with an impromptu throwing session the New York Daily News reported.
With pitching coach Rick Peterson, bullpen coach Guy Conti and trainer Ray Ramirez observing, a beaming Santana pitched from a 60-foot, six-inch distance on flat ground, with coach Randy Niemann serving as catcher.
"It was nice to have a visit and to find out what he likes. Johan's my teacher," Peterson said, alluding to how he will devise a workout schedule for Santana based on the ace's preferences.
Source: New York Daily News
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Home run apple will follow New York Mets to new ballpark
The huge fiberglass apple that pops up when the New York Mets hit home runs will follow them to their new ballpark when it opens next year.
"The big home run apple is coming," the team's chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, said Tuesday during a media tour of Citi Field, the new stadium.
An apple is coming, at any rate. Mets officials said they did not know whether it would be the same fiberglass apple that has popped up like a champagne cork following Mets homers since 1980.
But a well to house the apple was visible beyond center field at the new stadium, which Wilpon said is on schedule and on budget -- about $800 million.
Some 85 percent of Citi Field's structural steel is now complete, and the tiered concrete that will support the seats and stairways is in place.
The Mets broke ground on the stadium in 2006 and announced a naming deal with Citigroup, which will pay $20 million annually, or about $400 million over a 20-year contract.
Fans will enter Citi Field through the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, honoring the Brooklyn Dodgers great who integrated baseball. Other references to the long-departed Dodgers will include an Ebbets Club Lounge and a section of Ebbets seats.
The new stadium will have a capacity of 45,000 including standing room, compared with 57,333 at Shea Stadium, the team's home since 1964. It's being built next to the old stadium.
Wilpon, son of team owner Fred Wilpon, said he won't miss Shea.
"I was at Shea Stadium groundbreaking in my mother's belly," he said. "To be here for opening day should be pretty exciting."
Monday, February 11, 2008
Ehrhardt, Mets Sign Man, dies at 83
The sign man of Shea Stadium died Thursday.
Karl Ehrhardt was a fixture at Mets games from 1964 through 1981, famous for holding up tailored signs after key plays that displayed his pleasure or frustration with the team.
He was 83 and died at his home in the Glen Oaks section of Queens, according to his daughter Bonnie Troester. Ehrhardt had been recovering from vascular surgery.
Ehrhardt's block-lettered signs served as color commentary for both fans in the stands and TV viewers at home. He carried dozens to each game, some witty, some biting.
"Jose, Can You See?" was a regular when Mets outfielder after Jose' Cardenal struck out. "It's Alive!" was for hitters who broke out of a slump.
"Just Great!" was for more spectacular moments.
Only the Mets 1969 World Series victory left him speechless. The sign he raised high after the last out read, "There Are No Words."
At one point he had about 1,200 signs to choose from.
"I just called them the way I saw them," Ehrhardt told The New York Times in 2006.
"Before I went to the ballpark, I would try to crystal-ball what might happen that particular day," he said. "I would read all the newspapers to learn who was hot and who was in a slump, stuff like that, and create my signs accordingly."
Ehrhardt wasn't always a Mets fan. He grew up rooting for the Dodgers in Brooklyn before switching to the Mets in the early 1960s.
"He was part of the happening that Shea became," said Bob Mandt, former Mets vice president for baseball operations.
Ehrhardt was born in Unterweissbach, Germany. He moved to the United States when he was six years old and later served as a translator for U.S. forces during World War II.
He graduated from the Pratt Institute with a design art degree after the war and worked for American Home Foods.
His wife, Lucille Schneyer, died in 1997. He is survived by a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.
February 11, 2008
Pitcher Tony Armas agrees to minor league contract with Mets
Right-hander Tony Armas agreed to a minor league contract with the New York Mets on Monday.
Armas was 4-5 with a 6.03 ERA in 15 starts and 16 relief appearances last season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing 111 hits in 97 innings, striking out 73 and walking 38. The son of All-Star outfielder Tony Armas, he is 52-65 with a 4.62 ERA in nine major league seasons.
If added to the 40-man roster, Armas would get a one-year contract paying $1 million while in the majors and $90,000 in the minors. He also could make $350,000 in performance bonuses if used as a reliever and $650,000 based on innings, starting with 130.
February 10, 2008
Look for Randolph to run a tight ship this spring
During Willie Randolph's first year at the helm of the New York Mets, he left a two-page, typewritten set of rules — standards, using his terminology — that set the tone for a tightly run camp according to the New York Daily News.
The facial-hair restrictions may have been relaxed since 2005, and music may now be played in the clubhouse, but it would appear likely that Randolph will run a more disciplined ship this spring despite having a veteran squad. Carlos Delgado suggested the Mets played with a lack of urgency and fire down the stretch last season. We'll add "lack of attention to detail" to that list.
Randolph, who was left to twist in the wind by Omar Minaya for 24 hours after the collapse, before the GM affirmed he would return, figures to pay close attention to detail to guard against a repeat.
February 6, 2008
Mets introduce Santana
The New York Mets are looking ahead while desperately trying to erase memories of the recent past. When Johan Santana strolled to the podium Wednesday at Shea Stadium, the job became a lot easier.
"This is a historic day for the New York Mets franchise and for New York baseball," general manager Omar Minaya said.
The official unveiling of Santana came one day after the NFL's Giants were honored in a ticker-tape parade down the "Canyon of Heroes" in New York City. That was fine with Santana, who is dreaming of a parade with his new teammates own next fall.