Monday, November 22, 2010

Welcome aboard Captain

In a press conference tomorrow morning, the New York Mets will announce that their search for a new manager is over. Sandy Alderson was looking for someone with experience in a coaching position and someone with a good temperament for dealing with the players. Alderson found those qualities in Terry Collins.

Collins beat out some fan favorites fr the position including Wally Backman and Chip Hale. With his experience coaching the Angels and the Astros during the 90s in successful seasons, plus working out in the Far East, Collins seems like the best man for the job. He is also familiar with the Mets organization, from working as the Minor League field coordinator.

The way I see it, this is going to work out n two ways. Collins has been aching to get back in a managerial position for a few years now. He tried once before for the position of Mets manager, losing to Willie Randolph. Collins also lost a chance to manage the LA Dodgers, until DePodesta was let go. Luckily for Terry, we picked up DePodesta not to long ago. So either Terry Collins is going to take advantage of this opportunity and push the team to be big winners, if not by 2011, definitely in 2012. Or Collins is going to crash and burn.

Of course I wish Terry Collins and the rest of he Mets nothing but good fortune. I'm just going to wait to see results, before getting too excited about the new additions to the family.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Need a cheap date? See a Mets game.

With a struggling economy and a few less than adequate performance over the past four seasons, the Mets organization have decided to drop ticket prices at Citi Field. Prices for ticket have been reduced by 14 percent on more than half the seats in the stadium. Even the number of tickets under $15 have increased.

Their hope is to raise attendance, after a steady decline due to four fourth place seasons. The double digit price cuts along with Sandy Alderson joining the franchise might bring the fans out to the ballpark. Now you can take your kids out to a game and not spend a months pay to do it.

As a baseball fan I found this news very exciting. With how tough times are these days, it's great that you can go see a baseball game and not break the bank. Disregarding their motivation, I say kudos to the Mets for looking out for their fans.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Star Shortstop Around For One More Year

One of the first items of business taken care of Sandy Alderson as the new NY Mets general manager, was exercising shortstop Jose Reyes' $11 million option for 2011. This option is the final portion of his four year $23.5 million  contract that Reyes signed before the 2007 season. At the moment there isn't any discussion on whether they would sign him beyond 2011.

Jose Reyes is definitely one of the finest players to don a Mets uniform. He has played his entire career with the Mets and has produced impressive numbers. Reyes has a franchise record of 83 triples, has 74 home runs, 331 stolen bases and hits a .286. Though the team has had a collective disappointing performance over the past couple of years, Jose Reyes is one of the few that keeps our hopes alive. Even with injuries which have caused him to miss a large amount of games, Jose Reyes' performance in 2010 was still stellar.

Reyes has stated that he wishes to stay on the mets until he retires. I have the same wish. I hope that he never leaves. We need to have players like Reyes on the team that produce great numbers so we can get pissed off when they don't make the playoffs. Not because they suck, but because they have the potential to be World Series contenders. Reyes is part of that equation and I am happy he's sticking around.