Tag Archives: Frank Francisco

29 September 2013 – Milwaukee Brewers at New York Mets

Posted by on 1 October 2013 Comments Off on 29 September 2013 – Milwaukee Brewers at New York Mets

Unlikely heroes bunt out a win as the Mets celebrate Mike Piazza

This time last year, R.A. Dickey set out to earn his 20th win in front of an enthusiastic crowd.  This year, the big milestone on the line was Eric Young Jr’s pursuit of the NL stolen base lead as the Mets attempted to equal last year’s record of 74-88.  Backing them up was a sellout crowd that came to see Mike Piazza inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame and stayed to see the Mets close out the season with a 3-2 win.

Mike Piazza evokes memories of home runs, playoff appearances, and black uniforms.  There would be none of those for the Mets from here on out, but it’s fun to look back at better days.  Denied entrance to Cooperstown this year, the Mets made Piazza the newest member of the Mets Hall of Fame surrounded by his family and the family of Mets greats from years past.

And a whole lot of cameras.  Absent were Al Leiter, whose job with MLB Network was keeping him busy as the Indians, Rangers, and Rays fought for the last two playoff spots, and Tom Seaver, who was all but ignored aside from a brief first-name mention from Piazza.

This wasn’t the time to look back at the Mets’ lone representative in Cooperstown as Piazza looks poised to join him whenever the writers get their act together.  Piazza graciously accepted the award, spoke highly of his former teammates, and let the fans know how much their support has meant to him over the years.  It was a true class act from a Mets great who hasn’t had much to do with the team lately, so this could be a changing of the guard.  Next up: Cooperstown and the Citi Field wall of retired numbers.

Terry Collins, not especially beloved by the fans but respected by the players and the front office, entered the game with a two-year contract extension all but finalized.  A progression of injuries and a team straight out of Las Vegas certainly didn’t help his case, but it does give some context to three losing seasons with the Mets.  Collins does know how to work with people, in stark contrast to his previous managerial roles.  In this regard, it makes sense that he made a special trip to the outfield before the game to thank the fans for their support.  It was a simple gesture, but it shows that someone in charge of something understands that the team needs the support of the fans.  Now let’s see what he can do with some better players.

Eric Young Jr. has proven that the Mets’ lack of a leadoff hitter is a significant deficiency.  While I wouldn’t say that he’s proven that he deserves to be a starter in 2014, he should be a safe bet to make the team.  Tied for the NL lead in stolen bases, Young put himself in position to get the top spot for himself with a leadoff single in the bottom of the first.  To the surprise of nobody, he was off in advance of the first pitch and easily took second for his 45th steal of the season.

Would he stop there?  Of course not.  A few pitches later, he took third when Milwaukee catcher Jonathan Lucroy couldn’t get a good grip on the ball and threw far too late to catch Young.  With one out, David Wright popped out to shallow right field, too shallow for a runner to tag up at third and score.

Or so you would think.  This should have been an out.  Even with Young’s speed, the ball got to Lucroy in plenty of time.  Lucroy on the other hand couldn’t get to Young in time to make the tag, catching the ball well into the infield and needing to spin around 180 degrees for any chance at getting Young.  Young did his job as a leadoff hitter and put the Mets on the board first.  That should have been enough, but this wouldn’t be a Mets game if it were that easy.

Jon Niese, who cruised through the first three innings, started the fourth with three singles.  Jeff Bianchi tried to score on the third, but Eric Young Jr. didn’t want anyone else to take away his spotlight, so he fired a throw to Juan Centeno, who made the tag for the inning’s first out.  Niese walked Yuniesky Betancourt to load the bases, but he looked like he would escape the inning without incident when Sean Halton hit an easy double play ball.  Umpire CB Bucknor thought otherwise and a run scored on the blown call, tying the game at 1.

Terry Collins did his part by arguing the call, but nothing he could say would change the call or, apparently, get him ejected.  Logan Schafer followed with a dribbler that nobody could get to, driving in a run to give the Brewers a 2-1 lead.  Scooter Gennett hit the fifth single of the inning, but someone didn’t get the memo about not running on Juan Lagares.  Centeno tagged Halton to end the inning, for real this time.  With the Mets’ bats silent since Young’s leadoff single, that blown call could decide the game.

Vic Black is a contender for high leverage relief appearances next year, so it’s good to see how he reacts under pressure.  After an out and a four-pitch walk to Norichika Aoki, Black was determined to undo his mistake via pickoff.  A little too determined.  On the third consecutive pickoff attempt, Josh Satin couldn’t get a glove on the ball and Aoki took second.  With the pressure on (largely due to his own efforts), Black got the next two batters to fly out to end the inning.

Juan Lagares gunned down Sean Halton to end the Brewers’ scoring in the 4th and Lagares came out on top again when their roles were reversed leading off the bottom of the 8th.  On a ground ball to short, Lagares reached first safely when Halton couldn’t keep his foot on the bag and made no attempt at a tag.  Juan Centeno followed with a perfectly dropped bunt that he was able to turn into an infield single.  Milwaukee second baseman Scooter Gennett was caught off guard despite this being Centeno’s second bunt attempt and, after bumping into Bucknor, couldn’t get into a stable position to field the throw.  That opened the door for Lagares to score and tie the game at 2.

Juan Centeno, not David Wright or Daniel Murphy as had been rumored, would be the only Met to lifted for a pinch runner, though it wasn’t to give him an ovation.  Matt den Dekker took over as the runner at second, which apparently Lucroy didn’t pick up on when he fielded Wilfredo Tovar’s bunt and threw to third instead of first.  With the lead run on third and nobody out, most fans would expect a run here.  Between the Brewers’ inept defense and the Mets’ absent offense though, nothing was certain.  Josh Satin popped out for the first successfully recorded out of the inning, bringing the offense full circle to the player who started the day’s scoring and now had a chance to end it.

Eric Young Jr. didn’t need to do much.  A base hit or a deep fly ball would bring den Dekker home.  Instead, he smashed the ball into the ground just in front of home plate for a groundout that the Brewers executed without an error.  As den Dekker slid across home plate.  With the lead secured, Justin Turner and his beard came in to put the Mets’ offense to bed for the year.

Frank Francisco was brought in to be the Mets’ closer, but things didn’t exactly go as planned.  After a disappointing 2012, Francisco missed most of 2013 while rehabbing from injury.  With the Mets up 3-2 going into the 9th, Francisco was handed his first save opportunity of the year and an opportunity to end his Mets career back on track.  His first test would be former Met Carlos Gomez, who popped out to start the inning.  A strikeout brought in Aramis Ramirez as a pinch hitter and Milwaukee’s last chance.  Ramirez watched as Francisco sent strike three over the plate to end the game.  If you picked Frank Francisco to save Game 162 for the Mets, well, you must not follow baseball.  Still, that’s the way it happened as we say goodbye to Citi Field for 2013.

2012 Mets Debut Autographs

Posted by on 25 September 2012 Comments Off on 2012 Mets Debut Autographs

Familia and familiar faces

The September call-up tradition usually means a big influx of minor leaguers for the season’s final weeks, with teams getting up to 15 additional players to use as they see fit. For the Mets, this meant calling back most of the players who had been up with the club at some point this season plus two new faces. Jeurys Familia made his much-anticipated debut in relief, a role that most of the experts see him in long-term. Fred Lewis, who spent time with the Giants and the Reds before having a quietly solid season in Buffalo, made his Mets debut in the following inning as a pinch hitter. Everyone else shown here was back up with the big league club at the end of the season except Kirk Nieuwenhuis (AAA DL), Vinny Rottino (claimed off waivers), Rob Johnson (DL), Jack Egbert (AAA DL), Omar Quintanilla (given away to the Orioles), and Garrett Olson (finished the season in Buffalo). And this is the way the season ends.

Andres Torres Ronny Cedeno Ramon Ramirez Jon Rauch
5 April 2012 5 April 2012 5 April 2012 5 April 2012
Frank Francisco Kirk Nieuwenhuis Jordany Valdespin Jeremy Hefner
5 April 2012 7 April 2012 23 April 2012 23 April 2012
Zach Lutz Vinny Rottino Rob Johnson Robert Carson
24 April 2012 4 May 2012 9 May 2012 18 May 2012
Jack Egbert Omar Quintanilla Elvin Ramirez Justin Hampson
28 May 2012 29 May 2012 3 June 2012 25 June 2012
Josh Edgin Matt Harvey Garrett Olson Kelly Shoppach
13 July 2012 26 July 2012 8 August 2012 16 August 2012
Collin McHugh Jeurys Familia Fred Lewis
23 August 2012 4 September 2012 4 September 2012

Previous Entries:

Hello, goodbye

Between offseason acquisitions, injury replacements, and general roster crunch, a lot of players have made their first Mets appearance in 2012 – 16 in the first three months of the season. Of those, most have spent time on the DL, been sent down to the minors, or, in the case of Vinny Rottino, been put on waivers and claimed by the Indians. Jon Rauch has been healthy but became a major scapegoat after getting hit hard in a few games and Kirk Nieuwenhuis earned a call-up when Andres Torres was injured on opening day and has stuck around ever since. Omar Quintanilla is the only other call-up with a chance of sticking long-term, largely because of his lack of options and the Mets’ lack of depth at shortstop. With the Mets still in contention, the looming trade deadline should bring in some new faces by the trade deadline.

It’s Harvey time!

Back in April, you may have been wondering how many starting pitchers the Mets would have to lose to call up Matt Harvey before August. The answer turns out to be three, with Pelfrey and Gee out for the season and Santana on the DL. As the Mets spiral out of contention, it’s time to see who’s ready for next year. That means we get to see Harvey pitch for the big league club in late July. For a team that was expected to finish in super-last place and trade all of its players with a pulse for a can of nuts with a springing snake in it, a decent first-half run and a couple months of Harvey in the rotation isn’t a bad deal. While he may have exceeded all expectations in his first start (5-1/3IP 0ER 3H 2BB 11K, plus 1-2/3 scoreless innings from fellow 2010 draft pick and July call-up Josh Edgin), it will take a while to see if he will live up to the hype.

From Fenway to Flushing

And then there were two. With Johan Santana out for the season, only Jon Niese and R.A. Dickey have lasted this far in starting rotation. I thought Jeff Kent was supposed to be on Survivor, not the Mets starters… Taking Johan’s slot (initially at least) will be Collin McHugh, who has had a great year so far in Binghamton and Buffalo, despite being overshadowed by Zack Wheeler at both stops. McHugh’s last minor league start before his call-up was at Fenway Park for Futures at Fenway, where he pitched 7 scoreless innings in Buffalo’s 2-0 win over the Pawtucket Red Sox. His next destination would turn out to be another big league park as he was tapped to start at Citi Field the following Thursday, where he went another 7 scoreless innings against the Rockies. Kelly Shoppach made a similar trip by way of the Boston Red Sox. Claimed on waivers and traded for PTBNL Pedro Beato, Shoppach was acquired in an attempt to improve offensive production at catcher. The deal also gives the Mets staff a close look at Shoppach, who will be a free agent at the end of the season and was in their sights last offseason. Shoppach homered for his first hit with the Mets and has been a big part of the team’s recent resurgence.

Product Spotlight: 2012 Topps Heritage

Posted by on 29 April 2012 Comments Off on Product Spotlight: 2012 Topps Heritage

Treating the Mets like it’s 1963

Topps Heritage has turned out to be the most long-lived retro/specialty product in baseball history.  Now in its 12th year, the formula is simple and everlasting – take the Topps product from 49 years ago, replicate it with current players, repeat next year.  Last year we finally got to the set that introduced the first Mets cards, so there was plenty to satisfy any Mets fan.  The party’s over in 2012 Heritage, as Topps treated the current team as if it had just turned in a 1962 performance and barely acknowledged that a team called the Metropolitans even exists.

Card Design

#imwith28

I’ll be honest, the 1963 design isn’t one of my favorites.  It seems to be quite popular, but the simplicity of geometric shapes and primary colors just doesn’t work for me.  And that yellow back…  I’m all for readability, but it looks like these got dropped in the toilet.  It is what it is though; this is a retro set, so we’re stuck with the design.

Base Set

The new Mets, same as the old Mets

Ten Mets cards make up the base Mets team set.  There are no real surprises here; most of these guys will look familiar from last year’s set.  As he did in Topps Series 1, Schwinden gets the RC designation here.  We also get a team card, which is always nice.  A few notable players are missing, but there are SPs coming up later that should cover all of them, right?

Floating Schwinden clone heads, the new market inefficiency?

Four Mets appeared on multiple player cards.  Reyes once more gets recognition for his batting title, though the card is a bit ambiguous when it comes to who came out on top (sure looks like Kemp won from this card).  Chris Schwinden inexplicably shows up on a quad rookie card after getting his own card elsewhere, so, um, that’s another card.  Josh Satin quietly makes his debut in another quad rookie card, and then Chris Schwinden rounds the group out with, um, another quad rookie card?  What the hell, Topps?  Three Schwindens?  This had better he a reference to a Mets rookie who appeared on three cards in the 1963 set, otherwise this is just stupid.  Actually, it looks like they did this with a few players.  Not enough rookies to pad out the set?

Topps continues to lobby for Jason Bay as the face of the franchise.

Finally, the SPs add some star power with Ike Davis, David Wright, Frank Francisco in his first Mets card (not really a star but I’ll give him a pass for being new) and Oh come on Topps, Jason Freaking Bay???  He’s a lost cause, but Topps showcases him as one of only three Mets in the Opening Day set and now makes him an SP in Heritage.  Did somebody at Topps not get the message that, short a miracle, this guy will be a platoon player at best by the end of the year?  These are your New York Mets, missing only the bulk of the rotation (Niese, Pelfrey, and Gee) and a center fielder.  It’s not the best mix, but this is a specialty set, so you can’t expect to get everyone.  Heritage always has lots of fun variants and parallels, so there should be plenty more to see.

Variations

Not a mistake, this is every Mets variant in 2012 Heritage

Or not.  No Mets were featured in any of the multitudes of variant sets.  No errors, no color swaps, no store exclusive bordered cards, not one single chrome or any chrome parallels…  Last year there were 37 cards in this category.  This year: 0.  Hey Topps, tell us what you really think of the Mets.

Inserts

Who's the guy with the hair and why is he in a Mets uniform?

Luckily, the Mets weren’t shut out in the insert category.  The annual Clubhouse Collection Relic set featured two Mets, David Wright and Jose Reyes?  This is really getting old.  Wright also appeared on a little sticker.  And that rounds out the current player inserts.  Maybe getting nothing would have been better.

Who has two autographs and led the 1962 Mets bullpen in losses? This guy!

But wait, there’s more!  The Real Ones Autographs insert set has been a treasure trove of forgotten player autographs, with last year’s set giving us four (three and a half?) players from the 1962 team.  This year, we get one more original Met, Craig Anderson!  …  Craig Anderson?  He, um, led the Mets pitching staff with 50 appearances in 1962.  And didn’t do much afterward.  There you have it, your vintage Mets representative, Craig Anderson!

If you’re underwhelmed, well, you should be.  Look, I’m ecstatic to get a 1963 reprint autograph of ANY Mets player.  These are the guys who started the club, going from the standard for futility to World Champions in less than a decade.  Without them, we would be stuck with the Yankees and their dozens of championships, and who wants that?  I hope every one of them who can still hold a pen can get Topps to make some cards for them to sign.  But when your team’s only representative is a guy who lost a bunch of games in 1962 and then fell off the map, somebody isn’t trying hard enough.

Topps, I’ll give you a hand here.  There’s a guy out there who, as a Met, was named a Topps All-Star Rookie in the 1963 set.  He went on to get a World Series ring with the Mets in 1969.  He is still active in the Mets organization mentoring young players and representing the team.  You may have seen him in uniform at Spring Training this year.  He has never been featured as a Met on a certified autograph card.  His name is Al Jackson and he should have been in this year’s Heritage Real Ones Autographs set.

Not shown as Mets, but that won't hide their shame...

Maybe I’m just making a big deal out of nothing.  Maybe Jackson won’t sign cards anymore.  Maybe he’s just too busy working on building the next Mets championship team.  But was there really nobody else from the 1963 Mets team set who was available?  Three other former Mets did sign on cards showing them with other teams – Hobie Landrith, Chico Fernandez, and Ed Bauta.  Of the three, only Landrith was on the team in 1962 and only Landrith would have a career after the Mets (he was traded for Marvelous Marv partway into the 1962 season).  We still got autographs from four ’60s Mets players, so maybe things aren’t that bad.

This team set was way too easy to assemble. Still working on 2011...

No, they are that bad.  23.  That’s how many Mets cards were in Heritage this year.  Last year is was more than 80.  The product as a whole seemed to be a bit less exciting than last year’s product, and 1962 was a big year for the team, but the Mets should still have been good for at least 30 cards.  This is after all a product with well over 1,200 cards when you consider base cards, SPs, variants, inserts, etc. (everything except 1/1s and box toppers).  Hopefully there’s more to come later in the year with Topps Chrome.

Box Toppers

Pro tip: 3-pocket currency pages work great for storing these in a binder.

For the consolation prize, there were a few Mets cards featured in the box toppers that have become standard in Heritage.  First are the ad panels, three-card blocks that feature a rotating lineup of players.  This year, Jose Reyes (NL Batting Leaders) and Johan Santana made the cut, with panes showing them in all three positions, for a total of six cards.

1963 was a good year for names, not so much for baseball.

Original 1963 Topps cards with a special foil stamp accounted for the second box topper.  These included well-known Mets like Choo Choo Coleman, Marv Throneberry, and Al Jackson.  In fact, there was probably a better variety of Mets players here than in the actual Heritage product.

2011 Mets Game-Used Year in Review

Posted by on 31 December 2011 Comments Off on 2011 Mets Game-Used Year in Review

2011 was another dismal season for the Mets on the field, but who needs actual games when you have baseball cards?  It was a fairly uneventful season there too until the last few weeks, but there were several bright spots.

Going into the first year of the reborn Topps monopoly (Upper Deck still managed to put out a 2010 product with just a MLB Players Association license before getting sued by MLB Properties), I didn’t exactly have high hopes.  Take out all that Upper Deck and Donruss have given the hobby on the game-used front over the preceding decade and you would be left with mostly mediocre offerings.  Even after just the loss of Donruss and Fleer in 2005, variety in game-used offerings has taken a nosedive; taking Upper Deck out of the picture certainly isn’t going to help.  Gone are the days of finding pieces of hats, gloves, shoes, and other random items embedded in cardboard (I can live without game-used dirt cards).  Gone too are the days of even having any details of the item mentioned on the card – “Congratulations! You have received pieces of stuff used in a game of some sort!”  Based on how Topps seemed to be dumping its excess game-used inventory into cards in 2010 (some cards featured pieces of jerseys from events dating back to 2002), the days of timely and relevant game-used pieces (aside from the annual All-Star game insert sets) seemed long past.  2011 had a few surprises though, giving hope for some interesting products in the years to come (especially now that Panini, aka Donruss Mk. III, is in the market with a license from the MLB Players Association).

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