a week late

Usually, the MLB season starts this week. This season, it's starting a week later than usual, because of the WBC. I'm a WBC supporter (though I think there's a better time of the year to pay the classic than during spring training), but today I'm sweating that extra week. If holding my breath would make April 6th come sooner, I'd do it. Alexis was wearing her Mets hat when I got home last night, and I wore orange today; baseball season is clearly in the air in Brooklyn.

Like any good Mets fan, I'm a bit concerned about pitching, but like any good baseball fan, I'm dismissing spring training results as any sort of predictor for how even the beginning of the season will unfold. It's simply not predictive.

It's nice to have a manager who thinks the way I do; today in Port St. Lucie, Jerry said this: "The Major Leagues will tell you," Manuel said. "Spring Training just won't."

40/56

Johan Santana threw a few innings in an intra-team game (with the minor league kids) rather than make the trip to wherever the rest of the team went yesterday, and the title of this post is the fraction of his total pitches that he threw for strikes. 71%.

I know it wasn't against major league hitters, but damn. I hope Johan is feeling as good as he looks.

spring training games

The day before 10 of the Mets' major leaguers left to play in the World Baseball Classic, they shellacked the Astros 13-1 in Port St. Lucie. The day after 10 of the Mets major leaguers went off to play for their countries, St. Louis (including Albert Pujols, who apparently feels no particular national pride in wherever it is he comes from) killed the Mets 15-4, and the lowly Washington Nationals beat the Mets B-Team 6-4 the next day. The Mets, however, managed to beat the Italian WBC 3-2 team on Thursday, and the Cardinals 5-6 on Friday. So maybe it won't be nothing but mis-matches until the guys playing in the WBC get back to Florida.

I hate to say it, but I'm willing to bet that Wright and Putz (both playing for the US) will be the first to return to spring training after they're eliminated from the tournament.

yet more WBC fun

It's pretty unusual for most of the regular starters to play full (or close to full) games this early in spring training. But because of the Classic, Manuel wants the guys who are going off to play for their teams as much work as possible before they go. Which means that in the first three games of the exhibition season, we've seen a very close approximation of the opening day lineup (or, at least the opening day fielding lineup-- I'm still betting that come April, Reyes will be back hitting lead-off).

Which just makes the exhibition games even more fun to watch.

the DH in spring training

According to the rules of spring training, the manager of the home team (National or American league) gets to decide whether the teams can use a DH. Jerry Manuel made it known early that he and Dan Wharthen had no intention of using the DH in spring training, for the most rational reason possible: National League pitchers have to hit. They need practice, too. So Jerry has been putting the pitcher in the #2 spot, to make sure the starter gets a chance at the plate.

Strictly speaking, a team using the DH has a giant advantage over a team letting their pitchers hit. The Mets have played three spring training games thus far. All were against teams using the DH, while the Mets let their pitchers go to the plate.

And we've won 2 of 3, losing the last one by just one run.

Rock on, Jerry.

scoring

thanks to the magic of the Digital Video Recorder, I got to see all of today's game in Florida, and was in the mood for experimentation. So I looked all over the web for scorecard templates, finding most of them woefully inadequate for my scoring needs. I ended up with a Word template, which actually worked just fine, until the Mets started hitting in the second inning. I tried, but it just took too long to record the plays in Word the way I want to record the plays.

So I went back to my old standby, the legal pad, which never fails me. But by the 6th inning, it became your basic spring training game, with so many substitutions that I stopped scoring and just started watching. Which was pretty awesome, too.

Unfortunately, my camera is broken, but I'll add pictures both of the Word scorecard and the legal pad scorecard ASAP.

Mets Baseball! On Television!

They've got the full broadcast team working today's spring training game, and I am loving every second. So much, it's inspired me to clean the living room, just to stay in earshot of the game.

I'd jump up and down and squeal with excitement, but not only wouldn't that translate to the blog, I'm a little embarrassed by how thrilled I am to be watching baseball, even exhibition games.

Its 6-0 Mets against Florida, and Nelson Figeroa just threw a 1-2-3 inning to end the 6th which is always a good thing. I also notice that Delgado is playing first (and just hit a nice double), and that Reyes is in the game (not just in the game, he just hit his second home run of the game), as are Wright and Beltran (who just hit his second homer of the day). This must be because these are the guys who are going to play in the WBC, and Jerry Manuel wants to send them off in as best shape as possible.

Have I mentioned recently that I love Manuel?

P.S. We won on a three-hit shutout. I'm a happy girl.

Opening Day in the Grapefruit League

I've written before about how little I pay attention to spring training games; they mean so little for the season that it hardly seems worth caring about. Never the less, these are exactly the headlines a Mets fan wants to see after the first exhibition game:

Church, Castillo start spring on right note
Ryan Church shines in Mets's spring win
Castillo, Church thrill their skipper with strong performances

Why? Church and Castillo are x-factors on the team's success this year, so even though this game means nothing, it's great to see that those men performed in a way that will impress their manager, and their GM. Let's keep our fingers crossed for more of the same.

My Maine Man also pitched well today, and just because I love him so much, here's some video of John talking about coming back from surgery and his performance today.

I'm just annoyed that I missed watching the game while sitting in the doctors office for EVER today. SNY seems not to be re-playing it tonight, which also annoys me. I've take precautions, though-- tomorrow's game is set to record on DVR.

picture and links via Mets/MLB.com and NYPost.com

Dave Racaniello, or I love Marginalia

There are days when I think Dave Racaniello has the best job in baseball. This guy catches pitches in the bullpen during the year, and is reportedly responsible for the start of the Great Shave of '07. During spring training, he literally plays. He's good friends with David Wright and has a reputation as a good guy. He's a part of every game, in the bullpen the whole game. And when the Mets lose a game, he is in *no way* responsible.

At spring training last year, every time we saw Racaniello, SJ and I would scream at the top of our lungs, "Love you, Dave!! Go Rac!!" Perhaps it hadn't occurred to hm that the average fan not only knew who he is but wanted to cheer for him. The big smile on his face when he heard us tells me that he appreciated being noticed by the average fan, and that's something that likely doesn't happen to him much. But I love the guy, for all kinds of reasons, and I'm glad to have been able to let him know for a second or two that he's appreciated by Mets fans.

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Jerry Manuel is talking about moving Reyes down to the 3rd position, presumably ahead of Wright and Delgado (depending on Carlos' performance) and behind Beltran in the 2 slot. I can't decide if I think this is a good idea; I think it depends too much on the performance of Castillo, which isn't a performance I feel comfortable relying on. This strikes me a little too much like the behavior of Willie Randolph constantly changing the #2 hitter, with little success. That said, this is the only thing Jerry Manuel has ever done that has reminded me of Willie, and I was never a Willie-hater to begin with. I've been impressed with Manuel, and I think he can have real success with this team; I'd just hate to see a constant revolution of players hitting first this season, for reasons I can't yet fully express. It just feels a bit like throwing stuff on the wall to see if it sticks, a strategy I can appreciate in business but not much in baseball.

Things seem to be looking good down in Port St. Lucie; it's weird to think that in a short time, many of the most important guys to the team will leave to play in the WBC. I wonder, given Manuel's stated goal of making this year about the team rather than individual performances, how this can do anything but harm Manuel's project. I can see getting really pumped up to play for your country (or Puerto Rico), and then having a hard time getting pumped to play for a random assemblage of major league players with nothing in common other than being paid by the Wilpons, having just left the camaraderie of one's countrymen while doing your favorite thing (playing baseball). I hope I'm wrong about that, and that playing in the WBC will hurt the Mets neither physically (I'm praying, along with every Major League owner and GM in baseball, for no injuries) nor emotionally.

We’re born again, there’s new grass on the field.

Pitchers and catchers are due at Spring Training in Port St. Lucie today!!

And so a new countdown starts: 52 days until Opening Day.

One more day

Until the most important of the year, which for so many of us is Opening Day, tomorrow is the most exciting day of the year for baseball fans: pitchers and catchers are due at spring training. In truth, most of them are already there, guys like Perez and Santana (who's been rehabbing his knee in Pt. St. Lucie for a while now) as are a lot of the position players (David Wright likes to get to spring training early, and given that he lives in New York, who could blame him?).

Never the less, there is a special magic to the day when pitchers and catchers are due, whether they've arrived earlier or not. It means winter is almost over, and it's less than two months until there's baseball again. Baseball fans are creatures both of habit and routine (how else can you like a game that goes on for 162 games?), and pitchers and catchers at camp is one of the special days in the yearly cycle.

oh, and did I menion?

Two days until pitchers and catchers. Yay!

Thirteen Days

I’m not interested in the outcome of the Super Bowl. I can go on about the various reasons American football doesn’t do it for me the way baseball does, but that’s another post. Never the less, I look forward to the Super Bowl every year, because it means that it’s no more than two weeks until pitchers and catchers report to spring training. The end of football is the herald of the rebirth of baseball, and that’s why I’m excited that the Super Bowl is this weekend. When the football game is over, it will be eleven days until pitchers and catchers report to camp. Oh, and there will be an hour long episode of The Office, which while not as exciting as the coming of baseball season is still pretty darn exciting.

Perhaps its the fact that I’m in Los Angeles, where it’s 80 degrees and sunny, but I feel spring coming, and am eagerly anticipating the opening of training camp.

my sister takes good pictures

I've taken the privilege of naming this one Endy in the Hole, Port St. Lucie, March 23, 2008.

my latest excuse

I haven't posted about our spring training trip yet because M and V haven't shared their pictures yet.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

ok, the real reason is that L's laptop is missing the "g," which makes typing a bit uncomfortable. it'll be fixed soon.

in the meantime, I present this great picture of my sister and me at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, taking a break from John Maine's command performance against the Orioles.

full camp

most of the Mets starters (all except Moises Alou and Luis Castillo, I believe) have already turned up in Pt. St. Lucie, but tomorrow's the day that everyone is due. Full-team workouts are planned for Wednesday.

Carlos Delgado reported to camp today, and looks fabulous. He's in better shape than he was at any point last season, and I'm holding strong to my feeling that last year was his first-child year, well documented as one in which ballplayers often play badly.

I've never cared about or paid attention to spring training like this before. Is it only because we're going to Florida next month, or because my fandom has increased so much over the last three years that any baseball is better than none? Hard to say, and in truth, I really don't care. Spring is coming, and I'm a happy fan.

Pitchers and Catchers

Training camp officially oppened in Pt. St. Lucie, Florida for pitchers and catchers today, and both Santana and Martinez had some time on the mound. Though it's cold here in New York, today I saw the first sign of spring, and its a happy sight.