Stokes Up-date

I see the hat logo is in the Daily News today. It's also featured on MLB.com. Loyal readers might remember the piece I wrote about it back on 12 January...I am still in horror from the telling; in... NY Sports Dog--a Place for Mets Fans

Assuming that the Mets go with a five player bench and seven relievers in the bullpen, it really leaves just three open bench spots beacause naturally you have the Tatis/Murphy platoon and backup catcher Ramon Castro taking up two of those precious five spots. 1. CA - Ramon Castro2. OF - Fernando Tatis/Daniel Murphy*3. 4. 5. I put together a small chart that shows all of the potential...

Carlos Beltran had some very strong words for Cole Hamels yesterday. When asked about Hamels calling the Mets choke artists this winter beltran said “The only thing that I know is he will be watched every time he faces us. Hopefully we kill him, and then he’ll have to deal with the ...

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes arrived in Port St. Lucie today and responded to Cole Hamels "choke artist? comment, which was made Dec. 11 on New York's WFAN radio. ?We don?t worry about Philly,? Reyes said. ?I don?t know why they worry so much about the New York Mets. They can talk about whatever they want to, because we worry about us. They are the one to win the World Series...

Jerry Manuel made a very casual comment the other day that he was going to try changing things in the order to not only give Castillo more confidence but also to make Reyes a better player, because really, you are only the leadoff batter once a game. If only there was a way for Reyes to bat leadoff, and yet still feel like he is batting second sometimes. Well there is a way, its...

There are a bunch of excellent blogs out there about our favorite team. One that I particularly enjoy is Mets Tailgate. James Kannengieser is the brains behind that site and recently he agreed to do a Q&A with me on the upcoming season. Here are his responses to my questions about the 2009 Mets.

? "I'm not going to be able to make everybody around here Mr. Perky... All I can control is to manage this team to the best of my ability. And then if whoever's patience runs out, that I can't control. I really don't worry about that. ...I? think it would be bad if I started whining and ...

Luis Castillo finally shows up to camp. Though technically it's the actual day for position players to show up. BUT this is a player who has given the Mets almost nothing since he signed that ridiculous 4 year contract.Everyone seems to think you're going to get Castillo circa 2003. That Castillo is long gone. This gimpy Castillo is what we have to deal with and he is the...

Jose Reyes is a lot of things. He’s young, blessed with transcendent talent, and faster than my first car. But can the charismatic spark plug really be a three hitter? Mets skipper Jerry Manuel appears to think so based on his comments on his first day in Port St. Lucie. While the [...]

I have been reluctant to write eulogies to Shea Stadium since it really wasn’t gone - till today. Back on September 28th, I witnessed the final, and tragic, end to baseball at Shea Stadium. That night we had our NYBD “Shea Goodbye” show with various contributors chiming in on the defeat. Since ...

Not long ago everyone thought it would be Niese in the 5th spot. But now we're looking at a true battle with others who have been brought into the fold.Omar decided against signing Pedro and didn't think that Niese and Parnell should be the only participants in the battle. You don't want to just hand over the spot, you want the 5th starter to earn it.Niese came up and...

Not sure why it's okay to have a patch on the hat that looks good and the uniform gets a Domino's Pizza Reject logo.The Mets marketing department seems to be as bad as the Mets training staff but this logo looks really good and should be on the uniform too.

File this under the bizarre via XM MLB Chimp rooted for Mets when Valentine was manager, later changed to Yankees–NY (NY Post): “The chimp liked watering flowers, wine, expensive steak, brushing his teeth and even watching baseball games on TV. Neighbors also said he liked to pretend ...

Flushing9.com has released the debut issue of our exclusive digital magazine. It is the first magazine of its kind, available to Mets fans (and baseball fans) for FREE! You can download the issue and print it or read it directly online.

Philly and New York are about ninety miles apart but, until recently, seem to never cross paths in baseball. All that has changed since 2007 and what probably will go down as collapse part one. It was that year that Jimmy Rollins issues “the team to beat” mantra that has become, almost ...