Kuzul

Much was made of New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman’s comments regarding the Mets use of lefty reliever, Pedro Feliciano last season. Feliciano pitched nine seasons for the Mets from 2002-2010. This offseason, the Yankees signed Feliciano to a two-year, $8 million contract.

The Yankees recently had to put Feliciano on the 15-day DL due to a strained rotator cuff, an injury which Cashman blamed on the Mets.

“He was abused,” Cashman said. “Listen, I don’t know, the concern is based on the MRI. The use pattern was abusive, but the MRI itself shows what he’s got. And that leads us to believe all that is resolvable and that it’s not a major issue, just a timing issue.”

Last season, Feliciano made a league-high 92 appearances for the Mets. Over the past three seasons, Feliciano has made 266 relief appearances, the most in the majors.

When Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen was asked about Cashman’s comments, he was quick to fire back, and quite honestly, embarrassed Cashman.

“He volunteered for the baseball every day,” Warthen said. “He was asked whether he was able to pitch. He said ‘Yes’ every day. Every day. And wanted to pitch more than we even pitched him. So I feel badly that someone feels that way. But that was part of the reason that we decided not to re-sign him, because we knew we had used him 270-some times in the last three years.”

Now, I don’t believe Warthen when he says the number of innings he pitched was the reason the Mets didn’t resign Feliciano. In my opinion, it came down to money. The Mets didn’t have a lot to spend and $8 million is a lot of money when you’re as cash-strapped as the Mets.

But Warthen’s comments certainly point out the idiocy of Brian Cashman’s statements. He knew the stats, they were not secret. Yet he felt the two-year contract was the right move.

Not to mention Cashman’s track record of over used relief pitchers. But that’s beside the point.

Today, Feliciano threw his two cents into the conversation. He said Warthen’s comments hurt his feelings. He said that he chose to pitch for the Yankees because they offered him a two-year deal with a club option for a third year, which goes back to my opinion regarding why the Mets didn’t resign him.

But Feliciano also added that he’ll look to exact a measure of revenge from the Mets during the first Subway Series of the season (May 20-22 at Yankee Stadium).

“I will show [Warthen] in the Subway Series when I strike out Ike Davis. When I jump up and down on the mound, I’ll be like ‘That’s for you!'”

Well, Feliciano would have to get off the DL by then for that to happen.

Regardless, the Mets let Feliciano pitch when he said he was able to pitch. I don’t recall anyone poking Feliciano with a stick to get him out of the bullpen. To his credit, Feliciano defended how the Mets used him in his statements, so obviously Feliciano doesn’t agree with Cashman.

We’ll see what happens when the Mets and the Yankees meet next month.

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Through three days of play, the Mets have already shown their fans they’re capable of doing things differently. Even before the season started, they showed they’re capable of building a team with less money, whether it was by design or otherwise.

The Mets took two out of three games from the Florida Marlins, winning in ways not seen last season. They took a lead into the ninth inning of their game on Saturday, watched Francisco Rodriguez blow the save, and scored three runs in the next frame to win, 6-4.

Last season, the Mets played 16 extra inning games. They were 7-9 and scored in the 10^th inning in just three of those games. So far, they’re 1-for-1.

Their opening series is even more significant when you look at how the Mets played on the road last year. They were an impressive 47-34 at home, but an ugly 32-49 away. Three games on the road so far, and they’ve got two wins.

And as far as winning a series on the road? Forget it. The Mets didn’t do that until they swept the Cleveland Indians in June last year. One road series, one series win.

That’s the beauty of baseball. A new season brings a clean slate. And for now, the Mets’ slate is looking pretty spotless.

There’s certainly more good than bad to take away from these first three games, and the Mets got a glimpse of what they’re going to have to do this season if they want any chance of contending.

In the season opener, they sent their “ace” Mike Pelfrey to the mound to oppose the Marlins Josh Johnson, a trendy pick for this year’s Cy Young award. Pelfrey loaded the bases in the fourth inning and gave up a grand slam to catcher John Buck.

The Mets would never recover and dropped that game, 6-2.

For those of you honest Mets fans out there, how many of you were ready to pack it in after that? Because for a team with as many questions and concerns entering this season as the Mets, a loss on opening day stung.

But this team showed resiliency. The Mets aren’t always going to have a pitching advantage heading into a game. In fact, with Johan Santana on the DL until at least July, they frequently won’t.

The important thing is that they win the games when they get good starts out of their pitchers, as they did on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, Jon Niese gave the Mets seven innings of four hit, two run ball. That’s about all you can ask from Niese, or any of the Mets’ starters for that matter.

The Marlins Ricky Nolasco matched Niese pitch for pitch though, and the Mets found themselves having to pull the game out in the ninth inning, when they got a go-ahead RBI single from Josh Thole.

Enter closer Francisco Rodriguez with another lesson for the Mets. After getting the first two batters he faced out, Rodriguez gave up three straight singles and blew the save.

But there’s more to like about that situation than dislike. You can dislike that K-Rod blew the save. But the Mets came right back and scored three runs in the top of the 10^th inning on RBI hits from David Wright and Willie Harris.

Any Mets fans watching on TV who turned the game off after K-Rod blew the save were kicking themselves the next morning.

They learned they can come back and win in situations where they struggled last season.

If the Mets want to contend this season, they’ll have to win games in extra innings and take advantage of bad pitching as quickly as possible. They did that Saturday night and again on Sunday, jumping all over Marlins starter Javier Vasquez, who gave up seven runs (four earned) over just 2 1/3 innings.

Five walks from Vasquez, three Marlins errors and home runs from Harris and Ike Davis gave the Mets a 9-2 win and their first series win of the season.

You’d like to have seen the Mets come back from down four runs in their game on Friday, but watching them come back to win in extra innings the next day AND crush the Marlins yesterday should give fans a fuzzy feeling.

The Mets now head to Philadelphia with a little momentum. Sure, the Phillies are 3-0 and have a win in extra innings of their own, as well as the advantage of having Cole Hamels and Roy Hallday in two of the three games against the Mets, but the Mets have something they didn’t have much of last season.

Confidence.

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The New York Mets open the 2011 regular season tonight against the Florida Marlins with Mike Pelfrey set to oppose Josh Johnson.

Heading into this season, the Mets have a lot of questions that need answers. Can the rotation step up without their ace, Johan Santana. Will Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran stay healthy? How will the bullpen perform without Pedro Feliciano, their most reliable reliever last season?

We’ll start to get those answers tonight.

That said, here is your Mets 2011 season preview.

Starting Lineup

Jason Bay starting the season on the DL with a rib injury isn’t a good sign. Willie Harris will get the start tonight in left field, batting second and pushing centerfielder Angel Pagan to the fifth spot in the batting order.

Jose Reyes, entering possibly his final season with the Mets will be in his customary leadoff spot, and as all Mets fans know, as Reyes goes, so go the Mets. Last season, Reyes played in 133 games, batted .282 with 11 home runs, 83 runs scored and 30 stolen bases.

When Reyes is healthy, he’s one of the most electrifying players in baseball. This season, he’ll have to be if the Mets want to contend. David Wright had a great season in 2010, coming back to hit 29 home runs after hitting just 10 the year before. Along with Carlos Beltran and Jason Bay, Wright is the centerpiece of the Mets lineup.

Bay is eligible to come off the DL on April 9, so hopefully manager Terry Collins won’t have to wait any longer than that, but right now, fans need to cross their fingers. Once Bay returns, Reyes and Pagan will form an excellent one, two punch of speed and on-base percentage.

Rule 5 pick Brad Emaus is the most intriguing player heading into this season. A relative unknown, Emaus earned the second base job after the Mets released Luis Castillo and Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner failed to impress Collins in spring training. Along with catcher Josh Thole, the Mets will have one of the best offenses in the National League if they can stay healthy.

Starting Rotation

Mike Pelfrey steps in as the Mets No. 1 starter in the absence of Santana, who continues his way back from shoulder surgery. Last season, Pelfrey has the best season of his career, finishing the season 15-9 with a 3.66 ERA. He was amazing in the first half, starting out 10-2 with a 2.68 ERA, but he faded in the second half, posting an ugly 10.02 ERA in the month of July.

Jon Niese enters as the No. 2 pitcher in the rotation. In his first full season, Niese threw a career-high 173.2 innings, finishing 9-10 with a 4.20 ERA. He led the team in strikeouts with 148.

R.A. Dickey was one of the best parts of the Mets 2010 campaign. After failing to make the team out of spring training, Dickey was called up in May and was more than impressive, leading the team with a 2.84 ERA in 26 starts. A full season from Dickey should give the Mets a formidable front of the rotation.

Rounding things out, reclamation projects Chris Young and Chris Capuano look to restart their careers. Both have been dominant pitchers in the past, but have had to battle injuries in recent years. Young made just four starts for the San Diego Padres last season, finishing 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA. In spring training, Young won two games and posted a 1.84 ERA.

If he can stay healthy, Young could be the best offseason addition made by any team this offseason, and that includes the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox.

Capuano missed all of the 2008 and 2009 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. He hasn’t made a full season’s worth of starts since 2007. In 2005, Capuano won 18 games for the Milwaukee Brewers, finishing with a 3.99 ERA.

If the Mets can get 50 starts total out of Young and Capuano, the rotation will certainly be a strong point. And if the Mets can stay near the top of the division until Santana returns, they can make a late push and perhaps capture a wild-card spot.

Bullpen

The bullpen is an area of strength for the Mets this season, as it was last year. The biggest difference is the loss of Pedro Feliciano, who made a league-high 92 appearances for the Mets last season. The reliable lefty is replaced by Tim Byrdak this season, tasked mainly with keeping the big left-handed bats of the NL East in check. Collins decided against carrying two lefty relievers, so we’ll see if that decision works out or hurts the Mets down the line.

Blaine Boyer, Taylor Buchholz, D.J. Carrasco and Bobby Parnell will form the path to closer Francisco Rodriguez. Parnell will serve as the Mets eighth inning man, but Buchholz could also see time in that role.

Parnell was excellent last season, posting a 2.83 ERA in 35 innings. If Rodriguez is not with the Mets next season, Parnell seems poised to take over the closer’s duties. 

Buchholz is another of the Mets low risk/high reward additions this offseason. In 2008, Buchholz was excellent for the Colorado Rockies, throwing 66.1 innings of relief and posting a 2.17 ERA. Since then, Buchholz hasn’t quite been able to put those kind of numbers together again, mainly because of injuries, but if he can find that success again, he could be the best reliever in the Mets bullpen.

The Mets are in a tricky situation with closer Francisco Rodriguez. If he finishes, not saves, 55 games, his $17.5 million option for 2012 will vest, leaving the Mets on the hook for a lot of money. The MLB has already visited general manager Sandy Alderson, who assured them the team will not try to prevent K-Rod from vesting his option. If the Mets are contending, the might not be able to avoid it. If they fall out of it, K-Rod could be one of the players the Mets will look to deal.

K-Rod was excellent in spring training and seems to be in midseason form already.

Bench Players

The Mets have a lot of versatility and power on this bench this season. Lefty Daniel Murphy was a lock to make this team in some capacity when spring training began. He was a contender for the starting second base job, and though he hit very well, his defense proved to be an issue. Murphy will serve as an excellent pinch hitter and is also capable of starting at three different infield positions and the outfield.

Scott Hairston and Willie Harris are both excellent additions to the team. Hairston showed a lot of pop in spring training, leading the team with four home runs. Harris is best known for his excellent defense, making a habit out of robbing the Mets in the last few seasons. He’ll get the start in left field tonight with Jason Bay on the DL.

Chin-Lung Hu will be the Mets versatile defense infielder, able to play both shortstop and second base. Backup catcher Ronny Paulino will serve the remaining eight games of his 50-game suspension handed out last season for performance enhancing drugs. Mike Nickeas will take his place until he can return.

With Bay on the disabled list, the Mets added Lucas Duda to the 25-man roster. Though Harris gets the start tonight, Duda will get the majority of the play while Bay recovers. A September call up last season, Duda started his major league career in a 1-for-33 slump, but finished the season 16-for-52 (.307 BA) with four home runs.

2011 prediction

The Mets are a team that, if they can stay healthy and get solid production, the Mets can surprise some people. Almost nobody is picking the Mets to make much noise this season mainly thanks to the questions surrounding their finances. If the Mets find themselves out of contention this season, guys like Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran, both of whom are entering their final seasons under contract, may find themselves on the trading block.

On the opposite side, if Reyes has a good season, he could become too expensive for the Mets to resign.

With the strides made by the Phillies, Braves and Florida Marlins, the NL East is a tough division. “Health” will be the key word for the Mets all season, but I think they’ll get solid production from their starting rotation, especially Chris Young, as well as bounce back seasons from Bay, Reyes and Beltran. Throw in a solid bullpen and the Mets should be in good shape.

2011 record: 83-79, fourth in the NL East

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Baseball is finally here. No more predictions and projections—we can finally get some real numbers to chew on. There’s really no better feeling than Opening Day.

There were six games on the Opening Day slate:

Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees: CC Sabathia vs. Justin Verlander

Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals: Derek Lowe vs. Livan Hernandez

Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds: Yovani Gallardo vs. Edinson Volquez

LA Angels at Kansas City Royals: Jered Weaver vs. Luke Hochevar

San Francisco Giants at LA Dodgers: Tim Lincecum vs. Clayton Kershaw

San Diego Padres at St. Louis Cardinals: Tim Stauffer vs. Chris Carpenter

Some great pitching matchups highlighted today’s action, as well as the return of some of the most promising young players in baseball.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from the day’s action.

Begin Slideshow

Almost as soon as the season ended, the Yankees made the decision on Jorge Posada: He would not catch in 2011.

I don’t even think he was allowed to bring a glove to spring training.

It was assumed that this would open the door for top catching prospect, Jesus Montero, to become the Yankees every day catcher.

Replacing Posada wouldn’t be easy, but for a team labeled as “old,” a youth movement would be a good thing.

Then the Yankees signed free agent catcher Russell Martin and immediately anointed him the starter.

This left Montero to compete with Francisco Cervelli for the back up role.

Cervelli was on a tear in spring training when he fouled a ball off his foot, breaking it, and destroying his Opening Day chances and giving Montero yet opening.

Flash forward three weeks and Montero is no closer to winning a job with the Yankees than he was when camp started.

If anything, he’s even further away then he was then.

After crushing 21 home runs in Triple-A last year, Montero has failed to impress anyone in spring training and the questionable defense he brought with him has been exactly as billed.

The Yankees have now shifted their attention to a non-roster catcher on a minor league contract: Gustavo Molina. He’s not a member of the world famous Catching Molina Brothers—Yadier, Bengie and Jose—but he brings major league experience to the table, which gives him the advantage over Montero.

It’s not so much about spring training performance; through 17 games, Montero is batting .263 with no home runs. It’s about the ability to call games on the major league level, something Montero doesn’t seem able to do just yet.

But more importantly, it’s above preserving the perception of Montero as a top prospect. Baseball America ranked Montero the No. 3 prospect in baseball on their annual top 100 list.

Would Montero still hold that position if he wins the back up job, comes up and hits .200 over the first two months of the season? How quick would the fans, so ecstatic over his minor league numbers, turn on him and begin calling for Posada back behind the dish?

The other option is the Yankees other top catching prospect, Austin Romine. But he hasn’t hit much either and though he’s considered superior defensively to Montero, he’s never caught above Double-A, so the same questions which apply to Montero, apply to Romine as well.

In 14 games, Molina is batting .077 with seven strike outs in just 13 at-bats. So, it’s not about his numbers either.

This is about ensuring that if the Yankees find a suitable trade mid-season for a starting pitcher, their tradeable prospects still have some value.

If the Yankees decide to go with Molina, he’s nothing more than a placeholder for Cervelli, who could be back by the end of April. When Cervelli comes back, Molina will be gone faster than you can count to three.

Meanwhile, Montero will be in the minors, improving, among other things, his defense. Right now, any team in baseball would jump at the chance to add Montero to their minor league system. 

If the Yankees had been able to pull off a trade with the Seattle Mariners for Cliff Lee last season, Montero would already be gone.

Given the Yankees depth of catching prospects, Montero may find himself thrown into a trade once again this season.

For that to happen, he’s got to have value. Languishing as a back up catcher wont help that.  

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It’s not easy being a fan of the New York Mets. The fall from grace has been so quick that most fans didn’t even have time to adjust to life in the basement.

With expectations at their peak coming off an NL East title and NLCS appearance in 2006, the Mets would go on to finish second in 2007 and 2008.

In 2007, the Mets completed what I have come to call the “Seven with 17” collapse, losing the division on the final day of the season to the Philadelphia Phillies. Since that season, the Phillies haven’t relinquished their division supremacy, and the feeling Mets fans had on that day hasn’t gone away.

A few bad contracts and back to back sub-.500 seasons later, and it’s impossible to walk out your door without hearing something bad about the Mets.

In no place is that more true than in the Mets’ home town, New York City.

Obviously, you’re not going to read about the Mets issues in the Kansas City Star, but there has to be some pro-Met coverage somewhere in New York, right?

Nope.

You can turn every page of every newspaper you want; scan every Mets website or magazine; even ride any bus or subway in the city, and you’ll get the same story everywhere: the Mets are a terrible franchise, and a terrible team, with no future and no chance.

Look, am I going to sit here and make a case for the Mets to be competitive in 2011? No. I’ve already done that many times in the last few weeks and it’s based entirely on a list of “ifs.”

And I’m more than aware of their struggles and situation, both on and off the field.

Whether it’s Luis Castillo, Oliver Perez or Bernie Madoff, the Mets are open to criticism from all sides. They have no one to blame but themselves.

But if you say the same thing and hear the same story every day, your future becomes nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy—an inescapable truth that despite your best efforts, you’ll never be able to change.

Mets fans expect a bust in 2011. They expect another sub-.500 team with no chance at even a second place finish. Heck, there isn’t a Mets fan alive who wouldn’t sign up for a .500 team that keeps the Phillies from winning the division by beating them on the final day of the season.

And that’s what it’s come to in the the Empire State. The biggest city in the world has the smallest expectations for their team.

On a subway last night, riding along, half awake, I turned to my left and noticed an advertisement. Nothing new on a subway, but this one in particular caught my eye. Perhaps some people reading this have even seen it themselves.

It was an advertisement for a mini-storage business that said: “Why would you leave a city that has six sports teams…and the Mets.”

I mean, seriously?

I know they’re bad, but isn’t something like that the same as telling your son he’ll never be a great player after he strikes out in little league?

Maybe it’s the size of their payroll. Maybe it’s the dancing and carrying on the Mets do when they’re winning. Maybe it’s the result of living in a city where affections change with the traffic lights.

Maybe if we pound this team into the ground and put enough pressure on them, we can create a diamond out of a lump of coal. But maybe we can try taking this team for what it is—a group of guys playing a game. An eight-game losing streak isn’t costing the fan anything other than a few bottles of Pepto-Bismol.

There’s a new regime in place ready to turn things around. Handing Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins a lemon isn’t going to get you champagne. They’re playing with house money in 2011 and there isn’t any realistic result which would come as a surprise to Mets fans.

So let’s start the season and see how the chips fall. Let’s stop beating the poor horse and pointing out the obvious. Let’s play some baseball!

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Playing in the American League East, it’s important to keep a competitive team on the field every season.

The Boston Red Sox and general manager Theo Epstein know that very well, so they went out and improved their team more than any other in baseball.

When it was all but set in stone that free agent outfielder Carl Crawford, who was considered the second-best free agent behind Cliff Lee, was going to Anaheim, the Red Sox snuck in like a thief in the night to sign him. Seven years and $142 million is quite the check to write, but for the Red Sox, self-improvement is an obsession.

Still not done, Epstein then sent top prospect Casey Kelly and two others to San Diego for probably the most underrated slugger in the National League, Adrian Gonzalez. Put simply, Gonzalez was the entire Padres offense; taking him from PETCO Park to Fenway Park is going to be quite the show.

Throw Bobby Jenks into the bullpen to join Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon, along with a healthy Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury returning to the lineup, and the Red Sox have built themselves a World Series favorite.

The starting rotation has some question marks, especially in the forms of John Lackey and Josh Beckett. Each is coming off the worst season of his respective career, and as we all know, pitching wins championships.

Last season, Lackey went 14-11 with a 4.40 ERA and 1.42 WHIP, both well above his career marks. His numbers were down across the board from 2009, including K/9 (7.10 to 6.53), BAA (.263 to .277) and K/BB ratio (2.96 to 2.17).

Beckett missed two months last season due to a back injury, and he finished the season 6-6 with a 5.78 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP. If you subscribe to the “every other season theory,” you expect a great season from Beckett, or at least great by comparison to his 2010 campaign.

A .349 BABIP certainly strengthens that position. But until we see it, Beckett remains a concern.

On top of the Lackey and Beckett issues, you can wonder if Clay Buchholz’s 2010 season was a fluke and which Dice-K is going to show up this season, the 2008 or 2010 version.

With so many questions surrounding their starting rotation, how can the Red Sox be favored to reach the World Series?

You might be inclined to think it’s because of the returning health and offseason additions to their lineup. After all, you can add Crawford and Gonzalez to almost any lineup and produce a winner.

Throw those two guys into the same lineup as David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis and Pedroia, and that’s just plain scary.

Yet the World Series expectations have nothing to do with any of that.

It has everything to do with the guy in the dugout pulling the strings and moving the pieces—Terry Francona.

Since Francona took over, the Red Sox have won at least 86 games every season. He is, of course, the manager who broke “The Curse” with a World Series title in 2004 and delivered a second championship in 2007.

Francona boasts an impressive 654-480 record as Red Sox manager and, for my money, deserved to win Manager of the Year honors last season.

Why?

Because the Red Sox managed to win 89 games last season while leading the league in trips to the disabled list. Francona is the master of improvisation and adaptation. Perhaps no other manager in baseball had to deal with as many moving parts as Francona did last season.

In all, the Red Sox had 11 different players land on the DL in 2010, including Beckett, Pedroia, Ellsbury, Mike Lowell, Buchholz and Victor Martinez.

Darnell McDonald; Bill Hall; Daniel Nava; Eric Patterson. These are the names Red Sox fans had to become familiar with last season.

Such was the life of Terry Francona.

That team of minor leaguers and guys more likely to have been released than become starters managed to win 89 games.

Flash forward to 2011, and it’s a different situation.

Of course, it’s a long season, and injuries can occur, but if a patchwork team can win 89 games under Francona, imagine what he can do with a healthy team of starters that now includes the slugging Gonzalez and speedy Crawford.

Red Sox fans have to love what their team did this offseason, but they should love Francona more.

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I live in New York City. Well, Brooklyn to be exact. I’ve been a Mets fan my whole life and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable. I admit, I’m one of those guys who prefers the feel of a newspaper in my hands to the cold, lifeless feel of a computer when it comes to getting my news.

I read two newspapers each day: a New York Post, and a Daily News.

Each carries stories about the Mets and Yankees. Most New Yorkers know to read the Post for the Yankees and the News for the Mets, though I would say both are pretty balanced.

The biggest story over the last month, and last three years really, has been the plight of Luis Castillo. Since signing his four-year, $25 million contract in November 2007, Castillo has had his ups and downs.

I admit, I’ve jumped on Castillo plenty of times for his lackluster play, and I do not support his candidacy as the Mets second baseman this season. He’s due $6 million and thanks to the poor defensive play of several of the other potential second baseman, has been able to stay in the mix this far into spring training.

There are those who support Castillo, thinking him the best player for the job, and there are those against him; probably more for the latter.

But what surprised me the most while perusing the newspapers this morning was the number of New York sports writers who have decided to come to Castillo’s defense at the last possible moment.

It’s no secret that Castillo is a likely candidate for release this spring, and it gets reported every day that it could be any day now. And since he has one foot out the door now, I guess it’s time to defend Castillo for his play in New York.

Convenient timing.

A headline in the New York Post today reads: “Castillo’s fate on line today as cuts loom.”

Yes, this we know.

But Andy Martino of the Daily News and Ken Davidoff of Newsday have decided that now is the time to offer up excuses and defenses for Castillo. The number of anti-Castillo columns from both of those writers is practically limitless, but we’ll ignore that little fact and just focus on today.

Martino wonders if Castillo would be met with as much scrutiny and animosity if he were white, and not Dominican. So never mind his sub-par play and defensive gaffes, it must be about race, right?

Martino writes:

Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan have played well as Mets, and have not faced the same anger. People who root for a team value production, above all other qualities, and have unleashed negativity on many white players in the past. But are nonwhite players more vulnerable to being labeled lazy malcontents, and less likely to be called “gamers?” Must they work harder to receive credit for positive contributions to the team?

That’s right. Reyes and Pagan have “played well as Mets.” That’s the key phrase here—they’ve played “well.” Castillo? Not so much. From almost the moment he came to New York, Castillo has been ugly in the field and even uglier at the plate.

No one wants to watch someone take the first two pitches for strikes, only to foul off nine pitches in a row before finally striking out or hitting a weak ground ball to short. Castillo does this on a regular basis, regardless of the situation.

Over the last three years though, Castillo has actually hit well in the so-called “clutch” situations. With runners in scoring position, Castillo has batted .282. With the bases loaded? .348. 

Those are excellent numbers and certainly worthy of recognition, but it’s the overall body of work that proves to be Castillo’s downfall.

In his three full seasons, Castillo has missed a total of 171 games. His best season, 2009, he played in 142 games, bating .302 with a .387 OBP and 20 stolen bases. In 2008 and 2010, however, Castillo appeared in only 86 and 87 games, respectively. That tiny sample size versus his almost full season in 2009 helps pad his overall numbers.

Last season, Castillo batted just .235 with 17 RBIs and a .337 OBP.

Davidoff paints Castillo in the colors of an “everyday guy” who has done nothing wrong. He writes:

The smart money says the Mets will release Castillo shortly. … [And] it reflects worse on the Mets than on Castillo himself. “Sometimes things will happen. I tried the best I can,” Castillo said before joining his non-traveling teammates. “That’s what it is. That’s why the fans sometimes, they try to push you into doing good. The fans start to feel bad, because they want you to do good.” We’re not here to present Castillo as some icon of integrity who has been wronged. He’s just a low-energy baseball player—and at this point, not a very good one. But all Castillo did was say “yes” in November 2007 when the Mets offered him a four-year, $25-million contract that became a likely albatross the minute it sprang to life.

All Castillo did was sign his name for four years and $25 million and immediately became an “albatross.” No one can dispute that the amount of money former Mets GM Omar Minaya gave Castillo was way too much, but it’s not the amount that makes Castillo an albatross.

If that’s all it was, then no one would be able to criticise a player who signs a big contract and doesn’t produce. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with Castillo “getting his.” Who could blame him? I know I can’t play second base, but if someone wanted to give me $25 million to do my best, I’d be in the starting lineup tomorrow.

But it’s Castillo’s on-the-field performance that elicits the hatred of fans, and even one off-the-field moment was particularly aggravating.

The Mets have made a tradition of going to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit with the injured veteran soldiers. Castillo did not want to go during their most recent trip, saying, “I’ve never gone there because I don’t like to see things like that.”

I don’t like to see things like that either, but I’m sure those injured soldiers, who’ve lost limbs so that Castillo can play his game, like it even less. Maybe if Castillo was a bigger person it might have earned him some point with the fans.

It’s not about race and it’s not about Castillo earning $25 million. It’s about on-the-field performance. It’s about missing games every season with various injuries. And yes, Castillo has worked very hard to come back from those injuries, and it’s worth noting that Castillo was one of the few Mets who didn’t spend the majority of 2009 on the DL.

Castillo might find himself on the chopping block by the end of the week, maybe even today. And when he does finally leave New York, whether it’s in March or the end of September, Mets fans will rejoice. But Castillo has, at times, been a good player and any boos he’s heard have nothing to do with race or anything that hasn’t happened on the field.

Castillo gets paid to play a game, and when you don’t play it well, you’ll attract the boo birds. That’s sports and it’s not any more complicated than that.

Update: Luis Castillo has been released by the Mets today. So that’s that.

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“Yo Adrian! We did it!”

That’s right Philadelpha, you certainly did.

There is a long-standing perception in sports of the Philadelphia fans as nasty, vitriolic enemies of all that is good and decent.

How much of that is true is open to debate, but not according to a recent poll by GQ magazine.

GQ voted the Philladelphia sports community, specifically fans of the Phillies and Eagles, the worst fans in America. The Phillies landed in the No. 1 spot, while Eagles fans were No. 2.

Fans of the Red and Green landed at the top of Adam Winer’s “well-researched list” of “the bleacher creatures, bottle-throwers, couch-torchers, sexual harassers, projectile vomiters, and serially indifferent bandwagon-hoppers marring our national landscape.”

Here is a small piece of the article:

“Over the years, Philadelphia fans have booed Santa Claus, their own star players, and most absurdly, the recipient of America’s very first hand transplant, whose crime was dribbling in a ceremonial first pitch — thrown with his freshly transplanted hand. Boooo! Admittedly, there are some things fans have cheered. Like Michael Irvin‘s career-ending neck injury and a fan being tased on the outfield grass. Things reached their nadir last season, when Citizens Bank Park played host to arguably the most heinous incident in the history of sports: A drunken fan intentionally vomited on an 11-year-old girl.”

It’s all true, of course. All of those events happened and certainly don’t shine a favorable light on the City of Brotherly Love.

It’s not all bad though. There are some thing about Philly to love and I say that knowing full well that I love in supposed “enemy territory” in New York City.

You’ll never find a better cheese steak than in Philly (I’m a Geno’s guy); “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is perhaps one of the funniest shows on television; and I have to admit, I’ve seen more Mets games at Citizen’s Bank Park than Shea Stadium or Citi Field, simply because it was much closer when I lived in New Jersey.

So, it’s not all bad Philadelphia. I’ll give you your due credit.

However, I can’t defend or explain some of the behavior we’ve seen out of your fans. The article in GQ does get pretty harsh as well:

“The truth is this: All told, Philadelphia stadiums house the most monstrous collection of humanity outside of the federal penal system. ‘Some of these people would boo the crack in the Liberty Bell,’ baseball legend Pete Rose once said. More likely, these savages would have thrown the battery that cracked it.”

Ouch.

Pretty harsh, though I think Pete Rose should have kept that little nugget to himself, as there’s plenty to be said against him.

But can the actions of individual fans, such as the so-called “Pukemon,” be used to lay a sweeping label across the entire fan base?

GQ certainly thinks so and the poll doesn’t lie. Results are results.

But the Philadelphia fan base is also very passionate, selling out Phillies and Eagles games on a regular basis.

Now, how much of the Phillies’ attendance is based on recent success is unknown to me, but I’m sure it certainly plays a role.

Regardless, what do you think? Are Philadelphia fans the worst in sports or does that title belong to someone else?

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Coming off the worst statistical season of his career, the questions of whether Derek Jeter was still a capable leadoff hitter were rampant. And with a speedster like Brett Gardner spending most of his time in the No. 9 hole, a replacement for Jeter atop the lineup was already in-house.

While manager Joe Girardi was unwilling to say directly that he would consider moving Jeter down in the lineup, he did say that he’d try “different things.”

Well, he’s trying something different tonight when the Yankees meet the Tampa Bay Rays.

Gardner, not Jeter, is set to leadoff, with Jeter batting second.

Is this a view of things to come in 2011? Perhaps.

Last season, Jeter set career lows in almost every offensive category—including batting average (.270) and OBP (.340). Jeter batted first 137 times last season, and was out of that spot just 18 times.

In 591 at-bats leading off, Jeter batted .283. In just 96 at-bats in that spot, Gardner hit .290 and collected 12 of his 47 stolen bases.

For the season, Gardner batted .277 with a .383 OBP and 97 runs scored.

A veteran like Jeter deserves to at least start the season batting first. A career .314 hitter should not be so easily displaced from his customary position. But Girardi has to be willing to make the change if Jeter does not show that least season was a fluke in an otherwise stellar career.

If Girardi isn’t willing to move Jeter down in the lineup during the season, does Jeter have the conviction to move himself out of that spot?

Even Jeter must recognize he’s getting older. Gardner is faster, younger and much more of a stolen base threat. He possesses all the qualities one would want from a leadoff hitter. Jeter has possessed them for the last 15 years, though, and admitting those skills aren’t there any longer would be difficult for anyone.

Despite the poor offensive season, Jeter still managed to score more runs (111) than he did in 2009 (109), when he batted .334 with a .406 OBP. In other words, scoring runs in the Yankee lineup isn’t the most difficult task in baseball. If Jeter can improve even slightly, he should still have a productive season.

Not to mention, Jeter is too good of a player to fade so quickly.

For tonight though, it’s Gardner’s show. A few good games out of the leadoff spot, and perhaps Girardi will have to think about lineup changes a little harder. In the regular season, that’s still Jeter’s show.

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