The Future Is Now For The Mets

The recent past has not been kind to the New York Mets.  Since opening its new ballpark in 2009, the team has given its fan base a state-of-the-art facility, delicious food options, Free Shirt Fridays and six consecutive losing seasons. 

The Mets left Shea Stadium in 2008 and apparently also left their winning ways in the rubble of their former home.  General managers Omar Minaya and Sandy Alderson tried to give fans hope by signing veteran players like Francisco Rodriguez, Jason Bay, Jose Valverde and both Chris Youngs.  But none of those players were able to repeat the successes they had as younger players.  Other than the Bartolo Colon signing by Alderson, neither general manager had much success when it came to the veteran players they chose to sign as free agents.  Fortunately, they had success in other areas.  And those areas are now paying great dividends for the Mets.

They may not have always looked sure of themselves, but at least Minaya and Alderson got something right.

Omar Minaya may have been responsible for some off-the-wall signings and inexcusable long-term deals, but no one can complain about his skills at drafting amateur players.  Gold Glove winner Juan Lagares was a Minaya guy, as was 30-homer hitter Lucas Duda.  From a pitching standpoint, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Jeurys Familia are all pitching at an All-Star level for the Mets.  All three standout pitchers were brought aboard by Minaya.

Similarly, Sandy Alderson has tried throwing a potpourri of players on the proverbial wall to see which ones will stick, but most of them have turned into former pitcher and current semi-pro football player Kyle Farnsworth.  Where Alderson has excelled is in the wheeling and dealing department, as he has completed several shrewd trades of veteran players for young talent.

Zack Wheeler was Alderson's first big acquisition, and although Wheeler will not pitch in 2015 as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, he was a key contributor in 2014 and figures to continue to bolster the starting rotation once he returns in 2016.  Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard became property of the Mets following Alderson's second year as the team's GM, even though the team had to part with a popular Cy Young Award winner in R.A. Dickey.  Dickey has since become the definition of mediocre in Toronto (29-29, 4.00 ERA in 74 starts), while d'Arnaud has established himself as an offensive threat for the Mets behind the plate and Syndergaard is about to make his major league debut on Tuesday after blasting his way through Triple-A lineups in 2015.

But the Alderson guy who has given the most to the Mets even after he announced his retirement from baseball is John Buck.  Buck was a throw-in in the same deal that brought d'Arnaud and Syndergaard to the Mets.  A tremendous first month with the team in 2013 - Buck had ten homers and 29 RBI in his first 23 starts - made Buck trade bait in July, as Alderson sent Buck and right fielder Marlon Byrd, who was having an offensive renaissance of his own in New York, to Pittsburgh in exchange for reliever Vic Black and second baseman Dilson Herrera.  Black pitched beautifully out of the bullpen for the Mets in 2014 (2.60 ERA, 8.3 K/9 IP in 41 appearances) and figures to continue in that role once he recovers from a herniated disc in his neck.  Meanwhile, Herrera is currently the team's second baseman until David Wright returns from the disabled list.  But after collecting three homers and 11 RBI in an 18-game tryout last season, Herrera is doing even better in his first week back with the Mets, posting a .263/.333/.474 slash line in six games after torching Triple-A pitchers to the tune of a .370 batting average and nine extra-base hits in 20 games prior to his call-up.

William Shakespeare wrote in "The Tempest" that "what's past is prologue".  The past has certainly been quite tempestuous for the Mets and their fans, especially since the team moved from Shea Stadium to Citi Field.  But events of that past, particularly the amateur drafts and international signings overseen by Omar Minaya and the trades orchestrated by Sandy Alderson for top prospects, are now serving as a prologue for the winning baseball that is currently being seen at Citi Field.  With an 18-11 record, the Mets have been in first place for most of the season.  Their lead in the National League East has not been below 3½ games since April 21.  And most of their success has been due to young players who project to be part of the team's future for years to come.

The Mets struggled to be relevant for six long years.  Those tumultuous half-dozen seasons are now in the past.  Fans have looked forward to the future for much too long.  The future is now meeting the present with the call-up of Noah Syndergaard, who joins players like Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Jeurys Familia, Juan Lagares and Dilson Herrera to form what could be the core of winning Mets teams well into the next decade.  (And let's not forget Steven Matz, who should also make his major league debut at some point in 2015.)

It's a good time to be a Mets fan.  And the present success of the team bodes well for the club as it continues to march toward what appears to be more and more like a bright future.

Daniel Murphy - The Mets' Overlooked Offensive Star

Can you spot the overlooked offensive star in this photo?  (Brian Garfinkel/Getty Images)

With all the attention being paid to John Buck's torrid start, another Met's offensive performance has gone under the radar.  But his start is just as noteworthy as Buck's.

Daniel Murphy has always been a great contact hitter, lashing doubles at a rate never before seen by a left-handed hitter in Mets history.  Nearly one-quarter of his 481 career hits have gone for two bases.  But what he's done over his first ten games this season is proving that Murphy is more than just a 180-foot specialist.

After not hitting his first home run last year until June 27, Murphy has produced two bombs this year.  And bombs is the correct term, as his first homer traveled 407 feet and his second sailed 428 feet.  The latter home run is the longest hit by a Met this year.   Perhaps SNY's Gary Cohen and Ron Darling said it best after Murphy's second blast, when Cohen opined that "he has hit the ball to some places in the ballpark that are not often visited" and Darling added that "this is where the Ike Davis(es) and the Lucas Dudas go."

Murphy has also become a top run producer on the Mets.  After never surpassing 65 RBIs or 62 runs scored in any of his previous four seasons in the big leagues, Murphy has driven in ten runs and has crossed the plate ten times in his first ten games.  Murphy is one of only two players in the National League (Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips is the other) to have already reached double digits in both categories.  His 10 RBIs are tied for third in the NL and his 10 runs scored place him in a second place tie, just one behind league leader Matt Carpenter.

The Mets' second baseman is all over the National League leaderboard.  He is eighth in the league in batting average (.368), fifth in slugging percentage (.711), sixth in OPS (1.115), tied for sixth in hits (14), sixth in total bases (27) and tied for second in extra-base hits (8).  But just because he's added new facets to his offensive game doesn't mean Murphy has forgotten what got him to this level in the first place.  That's right, Mets fans.  The man affectionately referred to by a certain Twitter user as "Daniel Murphy, Doubles Machine" can still rack up two-baggers, as evidenced by his league-leading five doubles.

Daniel Murphy, Doubles Machine!#Mets #DMDM
— Ed Leyro (@Studi_Metsimus) April 13, 2013

Daniel Murphy is one of the best doubles hitters in Mets history.  His 120 two-base hits are 18th all-time in club annals despite having fewer than 1,800 career plate appearances.  Every other Met with at least 100 doubles needed at least 1,900 plate appearances to accomplish their career totals.  (Lenny Dykstra is the only other Met with at least 100 doubles who ended his Met career with less than 2,000 plate appearances, but he "only" had 104 doubles in 1,908 plate appearances as a Met - 16 fewer two-base hits than Daniel Murphy has already produced in 124 fewer trips to the plate.)

But Murphy is becoming more than just a doubles machine.  He is becoming a solid run producer.  He is getting on base at an incredible rate.  He is driving the ball with authority.  And he's doing this with all the focus being placed on John Buck.

Daniel Murphy has been a Met since August 2008, making him the longest-tenured player currently on the 25-man roster not named David Wright.  But despite his many years of service to the franchise, he has played mostly in the shadows of other offensive stars.  This year is no exception.  His hot start, however, is giving us an indication that Murphy is about to break free from the shadows that have hidden his offensive talents throughout his entire career.

The National League is about to realize that Daniel Murphy is one heck of a baseball player.  Opposing pitchers don't need to be informed of this transition.  Murphy's bat has already let them know.

Bang! Zoom! The Mets Keep Hitting Balls To The Moon!

John Buck yuks it up after yakking it out for a grand slam in Minnesota. (Photo by Jim Mone)

In 2009, Citi Field opened its doors for the first time, but the Mets forgot to pack their power strokes when they made the move from Shea Stadium.  The Mets finished dead last in the National League with 95 home runs in 2009, a year after hitting 172 longballs in their final season at Shea.

The 2012 squad pounded out 139 homers - their highest total in four years - but that was still a far cry from the 182 homers they averaged per season from 2004 to 2008.  Because of their recent inability to hit balls out of the park, no one expected the Mets to provide much in the power department in 2013.  But oh, how things have changed.

During the team's first 51 seasons, no Mets squad had ever homered in each of their first nine games.  This year's team has now homered at least once in each of their first ten games, with John Buck going yard in his last four contests.

The Mets have hit 14 home runs in their first ten games.  By comparison, the 2009 squad didn't reach 14 home runs until May 1.  It's the first time the Mets have hit that many home runs over their first ten games since 1995.  And it's the first time the Mets have homered in ten consecutive games at any point of the season since 2008.

It's been a long time since the Mets have been a home run hitting team.  Since Citi Field opened in 2009, only three players have hit more than 15 homers in a single season (David Wright twice, Ike Davis twice and Scott Hairston once).  But this year looks to be different, and the Mets are wasting no time showing the league that they have more than just warning track power.

John Buck has six home runs in less than two weeks.  Three other players have gone deep at least twice.  And David Wright, who can hit 15 homers in his sleep, isn't one of them.  But once he joins his teammates with a crooked number in the home run column, you can bet he will contribute greatly to the team's increasing homer total.

According to the so-called experts, the Mets aren't supposed to compete for a postseason berth in 2013.  Those same experts also expected the Mets to be near the bottom of the league in home runs.  But through their first ten games, the Mets are hitting early-season home runs like they never have before, and they are currently leading the National League in runs scored.

Pitching wins championships, but home runs can lead to a few wins, too.  The Mets are in the process of putting together a young pitching staff.  The home runs are coming as well.  Baseballs aren't the only things flying to the moon.  The Mets might also be reaching new heights.  Bang, zoom indeed!

Will John Buck Be Another Rod Barajas?

Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus

Ever since the Mets sent Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey to Toronto in December, the hot topic of conversation has centered around when the Mets would call up Travis d'Arnaud, the key player acquired from Toronto in the deal.  Would it be in June?  Would it be earlier?

But the Mets also acquired another catcher in the trade, one that would be the team's No. 1 option at the position until d'Arnaud was deemed ready to take over behind the plate.  John Buck - a catcher with a reputation of being a fine handler of a pitching staff, but not a fine handler of the bat - was sent to the Mets in the Dickey deal to keep the immediate area behind home plate warm for d'Arnaud (and also to prevent a plethora of passed balls, as Casey Stengel would have wanted from his backstop).

Buck is now off to a tremendous start for the Mets, hitting .421 with two homers and a league-leading nine RBIs.  He has also started two day games after night games with no ill effects, as clearly evidenced by his four-RBI performance on Saturday against the Marlins, just hours after catching every pitch in a 3½-hour loss to Miami the night before.

As great as Buck's first five games have been, causing many a Mets fan to reconsider how long they want d'Arnaud to remain in Las Vegas, we've seen hot starts by journeymen catchers before.  Anyone remember how we went bonkers for Barajas?

In 2010, Omar Minaya signed Rod Barajas to a one-year deal to become the starting catcher for the Mets.  Barajas was coming off a year in which he had a low batting average (.226) and low on-base percentage (.258), but showed good pop (19 HR) in his final year with the Toronto Blue Jays.  Barajas became an unexpected offensive sensation for the Mets, hitting .269 with 11 homers and 30 RBIs through the end of May.  During his hot two-month stretch, Barajas had three multi-homer games and provided Citi Field's first walk-off home run when he took Giants' reliever Sergio Romo deep for a two-run blast on May 7.

But once the calendar turned to June, Barajas went into a swoon.  Following his torrid start, Barajas began to hit like the pitchers he was asked to catch.  From June 1 to July 19, the former Hot Rod displayed a cold stick at the plate, batting .161 with no homers and just two ribbies in 101 plate appearances.  Barajas finally ended his seven-week homerless streak on July 21, but only started two more games for the Mets after his final clout.  Four months after endearing himself to Mets fans with his powerful bat, Barajas was a Dodger, as Los Angeles claimed him off waivers on August 22.

The Mets allowed Rod Barajas to walk off to Los Angeles three months after he walked off against the Giants.

Prior to becoming a Met, Barajas was a lifetime .238 hitter who had reached double figures in home runs in five of his previous six seasons.  In his final year before coming to Flushing (2009 with Toronto), Barajas posted his lowest full-season batting average since becoming a No. 1 catcher.

Meanwhile, John Buck was a .235 career hitter before becoming a Met.  Buck hit ten or more homers in seven of his nine seasons, but in his last year prior to his trade to the Mets (2012 with Toronto), Buck posted a career-low .192 batting average.

I don't know about you, but I think I see a similarity there.

It's great that John Buck is off to a fast start.  He's helping the team at the plate with his bat and he's also helping the team behind it by getting the most out of his pitchers (Mets starters have combined to give up five earned runs over the team's first five games).  But don't automatically assume that Buck's quick start will allow Travis d'Arnaud to stay at the Triple-A level for a long period of time.

The Mets have been down this road before.  They've seen a journeyman catcher perform brilliantly out of the box, only to see his production tail off dramatically before the first day of summer.  I tip my hat to John Buck for a wonderful first week, but I'm not ready to announce that he should be the team's starting catcher past the All-Star Break just yet.  We have our recent catching history to thank for that.

John Buck: More Throwback Than Throw-In

When the Mets sent R.A. Dickey to Toronto earlier this offseason (along with Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas), they received two of the Blue Jays' top prospects in Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard.  Toronto also threw in veteran catcher John Buck to complete the deal.  Buck is expected to begin the season as the Mets' No. 1 catcher, eventually deferring to d'Arnaud when he is deemed ready to play every day at the major league level.

Although Buck's time as a starter may be a short one, he isn't acting like a player who was considered to be a "throw-in" in the multi-player swap.  In fact, recent statements by Buck make him look more like a throwback at the catcher's position than a throw-in.

John Buck stops here.  And so do bad habits and poor efforts for the Mets pitching staff.

In 2012, Johan Santana started off the season strongly after missing the entire 2011 campaign.  But after his historic no-hitter on June 1, Santana's feel-good season crumbled faster than a late-inning lead.  The general consensus was that Santana's horrid stretch - he became the first Met to allow six or more earned runs in five consecutive starts - was due to nagging ankle and back injuries, as well as fatigue from the long layoff following his 2011 shoulder surgery.  But John Buck doesn't see it that way.

In an interview with Kevin Burkhardt, Buck claimed that Santana might have been tipping his pitches last year.  Buck will work with Santana in Port St. Lucie to "tighten some of those things up" and considers the matter all clear.

In addition, Buck has also been offering advice to Matt Harvey, who will be entering his first full season in the major leagues in 2013.  Harvey was brilliant in a ten-start tryout for the Mets in 2012, recording a stellar 2.73 ERA and striking out nearly 11 batters per nine innings.  His new catcher was impressed by his "heavy stuff", but has some advice for Harvey if he wants to be more successful at the big league level.  Buck said:

"My focus with him is to hone down what he needs to be effective as a power pitcher.  If you get up there as a power pitcher and just aimlessly throw pitches, sometimes, as a hitter, you can wait on that.  But if he uses his stuff effectively in those power situations, then you’re not only being a power pitcher, you’re keeping the hitters off-balance."


John Buck figures to get the bulk of the catching duty for the Mets while Travis d'Arnaud gets more seasoning at AAA-Las Vegas.  But even after d'Arnaud gets his eventual promotion, Buck figures to be a key member of the team.  He won't be calling pitches from behind the plate, but he will be coaxing his pitchers to perform better from the bench, serving as the team's unofficial second pitching coach and manager.

Many former catchers have gone on to become managers after their playing careers were over.  But new Mets catcher John Buck isn't waiting for his playing days to end to serve as a mentor both on and off the field.

Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard may have been the key pieces in the deal that sent R.A. Dickey to Toronto.  But don't call John Buck the throw-in in the deal.  Rather, call him a throwback to the days when catchers served as the team's on-field manager.  The Mets hope Buck's experience and insight will help the young starters and the veterans to pitch to the best of their abilities.  If they do, then the throwback might just allow the team to look ahead to better days at Citi Field.    

R.A. Dickey Goes From Cy Young To C-Ya

On June 1, 2012, Gary Cohen uttered the now-famous three-word sentence, "it has happened", after Johan Santana recorded the final out of the first no-hitter in Mets history.  Those words can now be repeated, although this time the sentiment is a little bit different.

After days of speculation and hours of hammering out names and details, Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey has been traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.  It has happened.

R.A. Dickey will be taking his celebrity and his knuckleball north of the border in 2013.

Dickey will now be moving to the American League East, a division he has dominated since his renaissance with the Mets began in 2010.  Over the past three seasons, Dickey has gone 4-0 with a 1.71 ERA in 42 innings against his new division rivals.  He also has a sparkling 0.74 WHIP and 45 strikeouts against the Orioles, Rays and Yankees (he never faced the Red Sox as a member of the Mets).

In return, the Mets acquired Toronto's top offensive prospect in catcher Travis d'Arnaud.  The Mets also received Toronto's top pitching prospect (Noah Syndergaard) and a second catcher, veteran John Buck.  In addition to Dickey, the Blue Jays received the man who was behind the plate on the night "it has happened" happened.  Josh Thole, who has plenty of experience catching Dickey's knuckleball, is now a Blue Jay as well, after spending the last four seasons with the Mets.  Two other mid-level prospects were swapped as well, with one going to Toronto and one coming to New York.

Dickey's departure is reminiscent of Frank Viola, but in reverse.  Viola won the Cy Young Award in 1988 as a member of the Minnesota Twins, then was traded to New York the following season.  In his first full year as a Met (1990), Viola won 20 games.  Dickey did it in reverse, winning 20 games in his last full year as a Met.  Instead of being traded to the Mets after winning the Cy Young, Dickey was dealt away from the team following his award-winning campaign.

Since Travis d'Arnaud is coming off a knee injury that limited him to 67 games at AAA-Las Vegas in 2012 (his only games above the AA level), it wouldn't come as a surprise if he began the season at Las Vegas (which is now a Mets triple-A affiliate) in 2013, with John Buck becoming this decade's Rey Sanchez.  Sanchez began the 2003 season as the Mets' shortstop before Jose Reyes was called up in June to take over the position.  Similarly, Buck would be the stopgap at catcher until d'Arnaud was deemed ready for big league action behind the plate.

Noah Syndergaard (who, coupled with Kirk Nieuwenhuis, would represent the final two names in any 2013 Mets spelling bee) would likely begin the 2013 season at AA-Binghamton.  In three professional seasons, Syndergaard has never pitched above the single-A level.  However, in 45 appearances (35 starts), he has been dominant, pitching to the tune of a 2.35 ERA and 1.085 WHIP.  He has also held opposing batters to a .211 batting average while striking out 196 batters in 176 innings.

R.A. Dickey was a beloved figure in Mets history.  But a trade for two top prospects was too hard to pass up, especially when those players could become major contributors for the Mets long after Dickey has retired from baseball.

Cy Young Award or not, the Mets did the right thing to trade Dickey when his value was at its highest.  Dickey was part of the team's past and present.  Syndergaard and d'Arnaud are part of the team's future, a future that looks much brighter now.

It's okay to be sad today.  Because if these prospects pan out, there will be plenty of happiness at Citi Field in the near future.  And then there will be plenty more of the good "it has happened" moments that we can all celebrate together.