The Mets finished the 2011 season 77-85 which is a rather disappointment for what will be a transition period for the Mets as Carlos Beltran is gone and Jose Reyes will likely find a new home as a free agent.

Speaking of Jose Reyes, he won the batting title for the first time in the Mets history, an amazing accomplishment edging out MVP seasons from Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun. However, no player in the history of baseball has ever received more slack for winning a batting title than Jose Reyes. Some say his classless act on the final day of the season was selfish and made his personality flaws more apparent. After leading off the game with a bunt single, the Mets manager immediately put in a pinch runner for Jose Reyes effectively taking him out of the game so that he may stay pat on his seemingly comfortable batting title lead over Ryan Braun. By going 1 for 1, Jose Reyes made it so the Brewers Ryan Braun would have to go 3 for 4 or better to overtake Reyes in the batting average percentages. Reyes said afterwards it was his idea, and he told his manager before the game to pull him out of the game if he got a hit in his first at bat.

The greatest hitter of all time, Ted Williams was the last to bat .400. On the final day the Red Sox had a double header, and Williams had a batting average a fraction of a percent under .400, a number which would be rounded up to .400. Ted Williams was given the option to sit out the double header, but he wanted to play because he is a competitive ballplayer and realized that if he was going to be a .400 hitter he was going to do so because he made it happen on the field. The beauty of this story is that he went 6 for 8, and finished the season with a .406 batting average which is something incredible and may take a very long time to match. The Jose Reyes incident happened on the anniversary day of Ted Williams .400 season.

Personally, I am happy Jose Reyes got the batting title award. He has had an up and down time with the Mets. A cornerstone of a generation of Mets teams that had a couple of good runs, but more often than not came up short of being spectacular and were often overshadowed by the Phillies and Braves in the division. Often injured, when in the game he was often the best player on the field and extremely exciting to watch play. Jose Reyes had a great smile and his playful personality made him popular to his teammates and to fans who he interacted with in a great way at home and on the road. Overall, Jose Reyes had many great memorable moments for Mets fans but injuries over the past few years really hurt the Mets chances of success.

I am giving him a ‘pass’ on this icky situation with respect to the batting title. I kinda understand why he did it, he is competitive in his own way and with the Mets out of contention he has been focused on winning the batting title for sometime. He earned the right to be in the drivers seat going into the last day by taking a couple percentage points lead the night before. He chose to sit on that lead if he could increase it by a small amount with a hit, therefore forcing Braun to have a difficult to achieve multi-hit performance. From a team perspective this was certainly a weak move by Jose Reyes, but seeing the Mets had little to play for except for the fans in attendance on the last day of the season it should not be considered to be over the top egregious. Especially considering those fans were lucky to see him at all, because during his stint with the Mets there were seemingly hundreds of games fans would not get to see him at all due to his hamstring, calf etc. Reyes did earn his spot in the record books wearing a Mets uniform, something Mets fans will appreciate overtime once the initial shock of the move wears off.

The Mets off-season should be interesting, and no doubt entertaining with issues and news about to be created throughout all levels of the organization. Best of luck in the off-season and here’s hoping the Mets 2012 opening day roster is something to get excited about all over again.

The year was similar to 2010, in which early in the season the Mets outplayed expectations but fell apart right after the All Star Break. 2011 was no different as Jose Reyes and resurgent Carlos Beltran got the Mets off to a fairly good start and kept them within striking distance of a wild-card birth during the first half of the season. Then it all slowly went downhill, Reyes got injured and re-injured, Beltran and K-Rod were traded away, Ike Davis hurt his foot and was out for most of the season. Still no sign of Johan Santana, but he is supposed to make a couple starts before the season ends.

No 90 win team. No playoffs. Nope, another year of watching the Phillies and Yankees tear-up the playoffs, while Mets fans ask themselves the same questions over and over. When will this change?

Hopefully, 2012!

First off, the 2011 NY Mets are under new management and a new coaching staff. This is good news. The ownership is still the same, though the financial situation of the ownership is certainly not. These are obvious pluses and minuses going into the season. Gotta love new management and the coaching change is certainly welcome. The trouble the owner Wilpon is in is the predominant question in the air surrounding the team. In my mind the Dodgers owner situation, pending legal preceding determining percentage ownership of the team with his ex, pails in comparison to the whole Bernie Madoff victims lawsuit situation the Mets owner finds himself in. The fact is he is one of the few people who actually profited from the scheme, and though he definitely could have been oblivious to the whole thing, the fact remains the people who lost money have hired expensive lawyers to get back some of what they lost from anyone who profited. Hopefully, these off the field distractions will not make a difference on the field, but really that is just being hopeful, because in this day and age the questions surrounding the uncertainty of the team’s future are going to be ever-present.

Secondly, the product on the field for the 2011 New York Mets is much improved potentially and hopefully much healthier. Carlos Beltran is back, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez is gone, enough said for most Mets fans. Disappointingly, Johan Santana is going to be out most or all of the season following arm surgery. David Wright looks ready to go and Ike Davis has had some experience now so he should improve upon his middle-of-the-lineup bat that will be vital for RBI’s. Jose Reyes is in a contract year so I doubt he will get hurt this year so expect big numbers from him once he gets going. The pitching staff has some guys looking for bounce back years and a few surprises from last year. It should be enough to keep us in games and could really be pretty good if Johan Santana comes back and everyone drops a spot in the rotation. Our bullpen has to be our surprise strength this year because for us to compete, we can not be blowing up in the bullpen like we did last night against the Washington Nationals.

Lastly, our competition this year is very, very good. A lot of people have been quietly talking about the Florida Marlins this year as a sleeper. The Washington Nationals could be slightly improved, but will still have trouble against every other team in the division. The Atlanta Braves are a popular pick with their solid lineup and above average pitching. Finally, the Philadelphia Phillies have what some have deemed the best starting rotation in history…please they have Joe Blanton in that rotation. However, if none of their arms fall off this season their top four pitchers are insanely talented and have at one point in their career been the best pitcher in baseball. By pure talent alone I would rank the teams: Phillies, Braves, Mets, Marlins and Nationals. I think that is a fair evaluation, but the gap between the Mets, Marlins and Nationals is a lot closer than the gap between the Braves and Mets…or so the ‘so-called experts’ would like you to believe. I dunno, I hope the Mets obviously win the division, catch lightning in a bottle and just click on all cylinders.

With all that said, I feel the mets who are right this second, 4 wins and 5 losses and currently in a tied ballgame, 4-4, against the Colorado Rockies in the top of the 8th inning could be potentially a surprise team. We can win some close games and get timely hitting all season long – we are way overdue for this – and get some better than expected pitching all season long and win 90 games, make the playoffs and it would be a great season. I hope my 2011 New York Mets prediction of 90 wins and 72 losses is right on the money, but we have to be clicking on all cylinders to make this happen. Let’s Go Mets!.

Newcomers played well and David Wright went yard, hopefully both of which are signs of good things to come.

Johan Santana is looking like the Cy Young Award candidate that we predicted he would win, he will win, this year. With run support, 7 runs, Johan Santana could be the best pitcher in baseball. He has the advantage of pitching at CitiField, which is where home run hitters become sacrifice-fly hitters.

Yankees blew there opener against the Red Sox. Mets are 1-0 and the Yankees are 0-1. That feels good. Yankees victory last season over the Phillies earned them some love from Mets fans, because as much as we love saying Fuck the Yankees we would much rather them winning over those Phillies. Most Mets fans dislike our division rival much more significantly than even the depths of hatred we show towards the Yankees.

Mets Mets Official 2010 Baseball Season Predictions:

Mets win the division!
Johan wins the Cy Young
Wright finishes in the top 3 for MVP voting.

Omar Minaya is loved and hated. Some like him, and whats not to like about him when he has brought plenty of big name free agents into the clubhouse. Some despise him, and whats to like about a guy whose expensive free agents turn into injury plagued and overpriced wash-ups.

Our pitching is pathetic, save Johan Santana and K-Rod. Really pathetic if you compare our staff to our arch rival Philadelphia Phillies’ staff. Even Washington has a sensational rookie and Atlanta has improved.

Our medical staff is a joke, the ridiculous day to day hamstring issues and other minor injuries kept our players out for months and months, and eventually several of our players had to get off-season injuries. That is not acceptable especially when WebMD could have done a better job treating the team.

Other issues exist, but for now lets focus on the positives. Vegas thinks we won’t have another deplorable season, in fact they predict not to have a losing season. On the other hand, the Vegas Strip casinos didn’t pick us to have a winning season either. Our upcoming season projection 81-81, which obviously would suck to all of us hopeful Mets fans. 81-81 might as well be 0-162, cause if we don’t make the playoffs this over payed roster again will not live up to their value.

Jason Bay should help hit the long ball and some extra base hits when he finds the gaps. His speed helps as well and we could be looking at over 20 stolen bases from Jason Bay this season.

4 Years 66 Million and the potential for a 5th year

Thank You Jason Bay for joining the Mets. We support you 100% and hope you live up to your expectations. Best of Luck and Stay Healthy, please.

Mets Mets: Welcome to Mets Mets JR, it’s great to have someone here who can answer some of the many questions swirling around the minds of Mets fans everywhere.

Ladson: Ha…looking for an interview?

Mets Mets: r u ready

Ladson: Fire

Mets Mets: What are the most crucial areas for the Mets to improve this offseason?

Ladson: The most crucial areas: #1. Health #2 Starting Pitching behind Johan. We need guys who can go deep into games, and take the stress off of the bullpen. Kinda tied into number 1. #3 Corner outfield and infield production. We need to get more pop out of First Base (health one again ties into that), LF, RF, and 3rd base (even thought the third baseman was healthy!)

Mets Mets: That is a lot of holes who are the Mets looking to bring in

Ladson: Halladay makes everything okay. The Mets have star quality at a bunch of positons. The other thing about the holes is that our minor league depth makes having injuries unbearable. The best thing would be to get Halladay, and get a bunch of guys who can catch the ball in our upper-minors/bench

Mets Mets: David Wright averaged 29 home runs the last four years and then only hit 10, can you explain this dropoff?

Ladson: The reason D-Wright had a drop off was because of the right-center field gap, plus adjusting to the new park. In Shea, the ball carried great to right center (which was also 371 feet). Now, fly balls go to die in right center. Plus every time I watch David, he seems like he is pressing to hit 6-run homeruns, every time. This might also be the reason why he is less clutch than A-Rod (pre 2009)

Mets Mets: Are CitiFields dimensions going to keep power hitters from signing with the Mets in the future?

Ladson: The Mets haven’t been a franchise that has had a lot of prolific hitters. Pitching is where its at, and I love that we would be a top destination for pitchers more than hitters.

Mets Mets: Minaya the right guy to build the farm system?

Ladson: Minaya is the guy. He can’t stop the injuries, and his patience may pay off. Sure, he has made some mistakes, but Brian Cashman makes more. The key is getting to a position where we don’t have to continuously trade off our top prospects

Mets Mets: Put the NL east in order you think they will finish next year

Ladson: As of right now: Phillies, Mets, Braves, Marlins, Nationals

Mets Mets: Johan started off last year looking like a Cy Young candidate, how long will he stay at that level

Ladson: 3 years of Vintage Santana

Mets Mets: The Nets and Knicks are both trash, what chance do you give either team to land The King

Ladson: The Knicks have the only shot, out of the two. I think that there is a wildcard team: Oklahoma City Thunder.

Mets Mets: The Yankees championship means we can finally put an end to the steroid era and move on?

Ladson: I guess. The steroid era should be called “The owners got the players to cheat, to make the game better and everybody did it….so, who cares?” era

Mets Mets: What development plan are the Knicks working on when they say no to AI?

Ladson: Eddy Curry looked like he’s ready to become a relevant player again. That is why they didn’t go with AI. The young players developing thing, I don’t buy.  When they say it had nothing to do with AI’s personality, I don’t buy that either

Mets Mets: NFC east had a big day yesterday, what must the Giants do to make the playoffs

Ladson: Just win…they control their own destiny, plus have games upcoming with teams in the mix. 10-6 should do it (with tie breakers). Remember, Washington wins that game yesterday and the Giants are on top of the NFC East.

Mets Mets: Mets had the second highest payroll in the majors, how come year after year they don’t have the consistent results like the Yankees?

Ladson: Because they don’t have Yankee money. The Yankees signed guys to about 450 million in contracts. Sabathia and Teixeira in the same offseason can’t be done by any other franchise.

What no questions about Brandon Jennings?

Mets Mets: What do you have to say about Brandon Jennings?

Ladson: Brandon Jennings is the most invigorating talent in the NBA, since LeBron (including Kevin Durant). He has turned a boring to watch franchise into a must watch franchise (ESPN is picking up their game Friday). The other thing is that he is already near the top of the league, as far as point guards go. It’s early, but I don’t miss many Bucks games

Mets Mets: What do you attribute his breakout to the year he spent in Europe?

Ladson: Jennings breakout year? He played against pros in Europe and worked hard. I find it hard to believe that more kids don’t go over there. He got to play against Travis Best and Earl Boykins in Euroleague. Can’t find those guys in college. Plus, he’s incredibly humble. He puts in the work, and he doesn’t have the bling bling associated with being an NBA Rook

Mets Mets: How long before we see an NBA franchise in Europe?

Ladson: You will never see one that competes in what we call the NBA today. You may see an NBA Europe

Mets Mets: Will Dubai and other international rich people own a majority of American sports franchises within the 25 years

Ladson: Someone from Dubai will attempt to buy something, and it will cause a discussion. If someone from Dubai wanted to buy the Mets, I would want it in a second

Mets Mets: Why does Nike not just pay Lebron to play alongside Kobe

Ladson: It’s not worth it… They would probably make more money if they were in two cities. Vitamin Water has them both, and they were ecstatic when Kobe and Bron almost faced off last year. There needs to be some rivalry there

Mets Mets: What is your feelings on T. Henry of France?

Ladson: It’s a missed call….that’s it. The problem is that missed calls in soccer can result in 3 weeks of rioting, or a referees death.

Mets Mets: Was Clemens on roid rage when he threw the bat at Piazza?

Ladson: Clemens wasn’t on roid rage. Here is my diagnosis of what happened there. He hit Piazza in the head with a pitch, and it was accidental. Then the media makes it out to be on purpose, and create a fake rift between the Yanks, the Mets, Clemens, Piazza, etc. Then, that night Clemens got so fired up, that he unconsciously threw the bat at Piazza. 2 things about that moment (which is one of the most important moments in Mets history): Clemens should have been tossed, and if he isn’t tossed, the Mets should have cleared the benches. Clemens literally ripped the heart out of the Mets there.

Mets Mets: Should the NFL scrap challenges and just let the booth make all the correct calls every time?

Ladson: No…never. Three problems with it: One, the refs usually get it right the first time. Two, it would slow the game to a standstill. Three, not every stadium has the same areas they can put cameras. The different types of views, etc. wouldn’t be uniform across the whole league.

Mets Mets: So it is ok in football to have a totally wrong call but no challenges/timeouts when a team’s whole season comes down to a piss poor spot or blown call on the line

Ladson: yes.

Kim Kardashian

Mets Mets: Who are currently the 3 hottest girls in the world?

Ladson: lol….hmmm. Megan Fox, Kim Kardashian (until she has a kid), # 3 is tough

Mets Mets: lol

Ladson: Jessica Alba? No.. Not anymore

Mets Mets: Thanks for joining us today. New York fans be sure to check out the sports handicapping blog 2kallday.com

Football Jets

Quarterback Mark Sanchez leads a dynamic offense while New York Football Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan leads a shutdown New York Jets Defense that has not let up a touchdown yet after two games against two good teams.

Starting Pitching: Johan Santana, John Maine, Oliver Perez,
Relief Pitching: JJ Putz
Closer: Billy Wagner (just came off)

Lineup: Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, David Wright, Jeff Francouer

Nobody in history can touch the Mets Disabled List thats for sure.

Teams, like the Braves, are looking forward to playing the Mets, because everyone no knows we are beatable, very beatable.