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7 Most Memorable First Career Hits in Baseball History

Getting that first hit in the major leagues is a big moment in the career of any player. There are some players who’ve had the hits mean even more because they came in a big spot.

Jordany Vladespin is the latest player whose first hit had some extra meaning, because he was able to help the New York Mets to a victory.

A number of players have came up to the plate and immediately had success. There is a fairly lengthy list of players who have hit home runs in their first at-bat. For some of them, though, it would also be the last home run that they ever hit.

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New York Mets: Projections for the Starting Rotation

If the New York Mets are going to have any chance of finishing over .500 this season, then they are going to need to get a lot of outstanding performances from their starting pitchers.

The Mets’ rotation is set entering the season, but they still have a number of questions about the health and abilities of their starters.

It is very possible that the Mets’ rotation looks a lot different at the end of the year. Pitchers may be dealt and prospects may come up from the minors to replace ineffective starters.

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Miguel Cabrera’s Face and the 5 Most Bloodied Injuries in Baseball History

Baseball is not a sport that often leads to players having injuries that cause them to bleed a lot. However, they do occur on rare occasions.

Many of the players that are on this list were hit in the face by baseballs. Others suffered their injuries in the middle of great performances.

All of the players eventually recovered from their injuries, but some missed a significant amount of time as a result of them.

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Bryce Harper, Alex Rodriguez and 10 Most Loathed Players in Baseball

Some baseball players are loved, and other baseball players are hated. There is just something about the way that certain players carry themselves that causes the public to have a poor opinion of them.

There are also players that are loved and hated at the same time. Alex Rodriguez is an example of a player like this. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! believes that Bryce Harper will eventually simultaneously become the most loathed and the most respected player in baseball.

This list consists of players that fans have loved to hate. A number of these players have immense talent, but with that talent, they also had some pretty big egos.

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Jesus Montero Traded for Michael Pineda: 5 Bold Predictions for Pineda in NY

By trading for Michael Pineda, the New York Yankees made one of the biggest splashes of the offseason. Their moves likely make them favorites in the American League East and one of the top title contenders in all of baseball depending on how Pineda performs.

Moving from the AL West to the AL East means that Pineda will be facing much more potent lineups, but if he is as good as advertised, then he should not have a problem with them.

Pineda will be a New York Yankee for a long time, and he will likely have a lot of success with the team.

The following are some bold predictions for his time in New York.

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MLB Trade Rumors: Power Ranking Teams That Could Acquire Ubaldo Jimenez

Ubaldo Jimenez trade rumors have been showing up everywhere on the web the past few days. Jimenez is without a doubt one of the biggest names available on the trade market this year.

It is uncertain if the Colorado Rockies will trade Jimenez before the 2011 MLB trade deadline, but there are certainly many suitors coming after him. The Rockies have said that they need to be overwhelmed with an offer and every team after Jimenez could do that.

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New York Mets Pay for Their Old Mistakes, Send Bobby Bonilla His First Check

Yesterday, on July 1, Bobby Bonilla received a check in the mail from the New York Mets.

The payment was worth $1,193,248.

This is just the first of 25 checks that the 48-year-old Bonilla will receive from the team every year on July 1.

The story of why Bonilla is receiving checks from the Mets is fairly well known.

When the 1999 season finished, Bonilla had just one year left on his deal. The Mets owed him $5.9 million. GM Steve Phillips and owner Fred Wilpon determined that Bonilla was not worth $5.9 million, and he definitely wasn’t—in 1999 he posted a horrendous -1.2 WAR. (To put that in perspective, his season was worse than Oliver Perez’s 2010 campaign when the pitcher went 0-5 with a 6.80 ERA. Perez posted a slightly better -1.1 WAR that year.)

But instead of just buying out Bonilla for $5.9 million, the Mets got creative.

The team worked out a deal with Bonilla in which the $5.9 million payment would be deferred, and the Mets would begin to pay him in 2011. The Mets would pay him back over the course of five years.

The two sides agreed to a generous eight-percent interest rate at the time, and as a result, the $5.9 million that the Mets owed Bonilla would turn into $29,831,205.

A 73-year-old Bonilla will receive his last check from the Mets organization in 2035.

Mets fans will unfortunately be reminded about this deal for years to come.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


New York Mets Pushing the Panic Button? How To Fix Things in Queens

Even just 17 games into the season, it is fairly clear that the Mets are in big trouble. The team is sitting at 5-12, already 5.5 games behind the Phillies. It is not as if the Phillies are even playing their best baseball of the season yet. They are still without Chase Utley.

The Mets have already jettisoned their Opening Day second baseman, and the team has placed Chris Young on the disabled list. It appears that Bobby Parnell may also need to be placed on the DL.

There is a lot that must be done for the Mets to be competitive this season,but it seems like that is not a possibility. It is very early, but the team may need to look towards the 2012 season. At just over a tenth into the season, it is not too early to begin to look to the future.

The first thing that the Mets need to do is allow for Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner to have a competition for the second-base spot for the rest of the year.  It may turn out that one of these two players is the Mets’ long-term solution at second base. Turner is once again having success in the minors as he is currently hitting about .300. Murphy has struggled a bit in the majors this year, but his defense looks improved.

It is important that Terry Collins actually gives both players time to try to prove themselves. The Mets made a mistake giving up on Brad Emaus so early. Emaus was only allowed to have 37 at-bats with the Mets. If Emaus had just three more hits in those at-bats, he would have been hitting .243 as opposed to .162, and he would still be on the Mets roster.

Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson need to make sure not to make this same mistake again and get rid of a player too early. They should allow for Murphy and Turner to get at least 120 at-bats a piece before they make any decisions.

The concept of trading Jose Reyes and even David Wright will be floated around a lot during this year. This cannot be done.

There is talk that Reyes is not valuable enough to the team right now because he struggles to post a high on-base percentage. Take a look at the Mets lineup right now. There are many holes offensively. If Reyes were moved, then who would replace him? It would likely be Ruben Tejada. He is outstanding defensively, but he is a black hole offensively. That is not something that the Mets can afford to have. The team should look to re-sign Jose Reyes this year because he is a valuable asset.

David Wright obviously has a massive amount of trade value and could bring the Mets back some outstanding prospects. The problem is that Wright is still young and is a top-five third baseman. It is incredibly difficult to justify trading him unless the Mets get an incredible return. He is part of the core with Jose Reyes and Ike Davis that Sandy Alderson should keep together for the next few years.

The Mets need to evaluate the assets that they have that could actually bring back value in a trade. These assets include Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana and Francisco Rodriguez. The Mets should look to move these players and bring back young major league-ready pitching prospects. The Mets rotation is currently one of their biggest weaknesses.

In addition to making these moves, the Mets should call up some of their younger players starting around early June and give them significant playing time in the majors this year if they have proven that they can hold their own in at least Double-A. If this year is lost, then the team should look forward to next year. Players tend to struggle a bit in their first season. By giving players that can help the team in 2012 some MLB experience, this will help prepare them for the 2012 season.

Players such as Jenrry Mejia, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Zach Lutz, Fernando Martinez (if healthy) and Josh Satin among others have the potential to play a role on the Mets roster in 2012. They should be given a chance to compete against major league competition if they have proven that they can handle the minors. If the Mets are still playing this poorly in June, the team has nothing to lose.

The season is still young, but if the first few weeks have been any indication, it will be another long year for the Mets. There was hope coming into the season, but it has quickly faded. Changes will need to be made this year, but it is just a matter of when. The team should look to prepare itself for 2012 and the future if its early struggles continue.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


"Chicks Dig the Long Ball" and MLB’s 25 Greatest Phrases and Terms

Over the years, there have been some inventive terms that announcers have used to describe events that occur in baseball games. Other terms are heard on highlight shows.

Many of the terms should be recognized by even the most casual of baseball fans. However, some of the terms may not have been heard by many fans before.

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New York Mets: Who Was Better, the 1986 Club or the 2000 One?

There has been little talk about the fact that it is the 25th anniversary of the Mets 1986 World Series victory. It is time to change that.

After reading a great piece by Stephen Meyer comparing two of the best Yankees teams in the franchise’s history, I decided that it would be a good idea to do something similar with the Mets.

With this being the anniversary year, the 1986 Mets team seems to be an obvious choice for this piece. In addition, they were one of the best Mets teams of all time.

The 2000 Mets were one of the franchise’s best teams in recent history. Led by Mike Piazza, the team lost to the Yankees in the World Series.

This article will serve as the grounds for a hypothetical match-up between two of the best teams in franchise history. It will be broken down position by position and each players year will be treated in a vacuum. By this I mean that only their numbers from 1986 and 2000 will be important in this analysis.

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