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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Citi in the snow - Keith and Murph in the sun


Happy Snow day to my fellow east coast residents! I came across this great picture of Citi Field courtesy of Gary Wong from http://www.thewongway.org/) A reminder that theres still a long way to go before baseball season starts but pitchers and catchers are in eight days.

Speaking of which the Mets signed Mike Jacobs today - hopefully not be their catcher as suggested by Mark Healey of baseball digest but rather to be a lefty power bat off the bench. I like the move but i dont know if i agree with it. Does that make sense? Im not sure. But im also not sure why they signed him.

Daniel Murphy should be their 1B when the season starts. In case you missed it - Keith Hernandez went down to Port St. Lucie to work  with Murph (and Nick Evans). Here is the video courtesy of metsblog
Watching this video a couple of things popped into my head. First of all Keith offering to help and saying "any time, any time ... just call Jay (i assume Horowitz) Im a 40 minute drive". How awesome must that be for Murphy? He even offers to call him to talk it out. I also loved seeing the instruction. Really makes you think back to the Mike Piazza at 1B experiment. What were they thinking? In case you were wondering i also read somewhere that Hernandez did not talk to Murphy about hitting saying "Thats Howard Johnsons job". I like that - hes not looking to interfere - he just wants to help. They really need to retire this guys number already. Also he says that Murphy "played remarkably well last year".
And finally watching this video - it struck me how much Daniel Murphy looks like Johnny Galecki




at 6:24 PM

7 comments:

  1. Great Piece today: CITI FIELD JUNK BONDS

    NEW YORK (AP) Citi Field's bonds have been lowered to junk status by Standard & Poors and Moody's Investors Service because the company that insures the reserve fund for many of them is having financial troubles.

    The bonds' underlying rating was dropped from Baa3, an investment grade, to Ba1, a speculative grade, by Moody's last Thursday.

    Standard and Poors cut the bonds from BBB to BB+ on Tuesday while still giving them a "stable outlook."

    The Mets sold $613.1 million of three types of bonds in 2006 and an additional $82.28 million of bonds last year. Ambac Assurance Corp., the company having financial difficulty, insured $547.6 million of the 2006 PILOT bonds (payment in lieu of taxes).

    "We lowered all the bonds ratings because the 2006 PILOT bonds do not have a reserve fund with adequate liquidity to support any disruption in project cash flow," Standard & Poors said. "Because Ambac is currently rated speculative grade, the creditworthiness of the debt service reserve fund supported by the surety policy is below the creditworthiness of the bonds."

    S&P said the stable outlook "reflects the expectation that the project will perform in line with expectations."

    The $800 million ballpark opened last year, and the Mets went a dismal 72-90.

    "This is related specifically to Ambac, which insures the 2006 bonds, and is not based on our operations or the strength of the underlying credit," the Mets said in a statement.
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  2. Im not opposed to signing Jacobs, I actually liked him during is mini stint with the team. He actual played a good game when I went to see the Mets play the D-backs in Arizona.

    They are on the verge of siging some other Japanese pitcher today, Whoopie!
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  3. I have a colleague who is from the UK and he absolutely swears by Keith Hernandez. He is the proud owner of all things Keith: his picture, bobble head, mug, you name it. Considers him the greatest player . . . ever. This Keith guy obviously has people's hearts. Not sure why though (helping Murph notwithstanding).
    On another note: Johnny Galecki? You can't be serious. I don't even know who the guy is.
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  4. Keith being asked to help is encouraging. Few would be able to credibly doubt that he's the best defensive first baseman to ever play the game. He could teach DM a huge amount. A next step - which should have been made already - is to retire the great man's number.
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  5. Keith helping out is huge asset the mets are lucky to have. Miles - i completely agree and even mentioned that in the post "They really need to retire this guys number already"
    Shimi - Keith completely changed the course of the franchise possibly similar to when LT came to the Giants or when the Yankees brought up a young SS named Derick something-or-other. On a personal note i had the pleasure of meeting him once and he was a really nice guy.
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  6. Plus Shimi, Keith had, and still does have, much better hair than Derick. And the attitude and dynamics that he brought to the team were crucial to the team's success. Sadly these things are not as easy to pass on to people.
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  7. oh, he's the DJ of the Mets! Why didn't you say so in the first place. Not that comparisons to the "Great One" should be taken lightly (1 ring vs. 5 rings . . . you know what I mean?).
    But I get it. Even I can admit that he was one of the greatest defensive first basemen to play the game. He's definitely an asset to the Mets. Too bad he won't be able to help Bay/Wright hit more HRs (hah!).
    But then you had to ruin it all with a LT reference, didn't you . . .
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