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Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.
Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here.
Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here.
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LOL Might Stand for ‘Like Our Lineup’
by Greg Prince on 31 July 2015 5:34 pm Hey, the Mets made a trade and got a guy they needed. Is that too optimistic a thought to express before Yoenis Cespedes does a thing in blue and orange?
Cespedes come to the Mets from the Tigers for highly regarded pitching prospect Michael Fulmer and fellow minor league hurler Luis Cessa. Even if Cespedes tanks and the two kids turn into Hal Newhouser and Dizzy Trout for Detroit, this was a shot worth taking. Yoenis can hit, and the Mets are already covered for pitching.
Still Mets: Zack Wheeler; Wilmer Flores. Nice to keep them, too.
Three games out of first, three games coming up against the first place team. Cespedes joins the fun Saturday. Let’s greet him with a winning streak of one.
Fun times ahead? More fun than we’ve lately been party to would be a great spot to start.
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A week or so ago I just about had it with this team. But the trades do signal someone is working in the executive offices at Citi Field. Win or lose, whatever happens, it feels great that they recognize as much as we do that this team has a shot. That’s all I could ask for. Let’s go Mets!
You.
Gotta.
Believe.
A Cespedes for the rest of us!
The dream rotation of Harvey, Wheeler, deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz (+ Niese, why not) lives on.
Fulmer and Cessa for a 2-month rental who won’t resign here is not cheap. But other bidding teams probably drove the price up. Of course, the alternative to renting Cespedes was the clock running out without a bat added at all. Expensive trade, but necessary.
I don’t worry about Cespedes. He’ll be locked in. Cespedes is a 29-year-old angling for his big FA pay day. He’s now on a big-market stage with the chance to showcase himself carrying a contender into the play-offs Beltran-style. He’ll be gung ho and produce.
The Mets paid with a big chunk of organizational pitching depth for Uribe, Johnson, Cespedes, and Clippard 2-month rentals, but each one fills a gaping need on what had been a team full of gaping needs outside of the starting pitching.
9 games left against the Nationals starting tonight. A starting rotation ready to win now. (Quick! Before it’s Syndergaard’s turn for TJ surgery!) Go for it.
d’Arnaud’s back. Hopefully, good news on Matz’s lat (which I believe he was pitching with in the minors but didn’t report until he was in the majors) next week and he can sub in for Colon sooner rather than later. Maybe Cuddyer comes off the DL like the .330 hitter from the last 2 seasons.
Now, as for Familia and the bullpen …
Crush it, Harvey.
Agree…shot worth taking.
As for liking our lineup, it is a totally different dynamic with Flores at 2B (where he is on record saying he is comfortable) and Murphy at first, where he looked good already. Just put Cespedes in left for Campbell and with d’Arnaud back, it looks better on defense too.
I’m still wondering when Duda will make an appearance tonight. The guy has rocketed 6 HRs in 5 days but didn’t start. When the Nats took out Gio and replaced him with Roark a RHP with 2nd and 3rd and two outs in the 5th, he could’ve pinch hit for Uribe but didn’t. When the Mets had a man on in the 8th and a RHP on the mound, he could’ve pinch hit but didn’t. Totally Clueless said he’d play the guys who are hitting, but apparently he didn’t mean it. Besides, the team already had one run so it wasn’t worth trying to extend the lead.
Bot 9th, for Campbell … guess not.
Looks like Duda is unavailable.
But with a lefty in, TC finally brings in Duda to hit.
In this case, I gotta agree with you LA Jake. TC’s use of the bench tonight was a both mystifying and frustrating. Thankfully it didn’t cost us the game.
I hasten to add, though, that I like Terry overall as a manager, and I was glad to hear in his post-game that he wasn’t under any circumstances gonna pinch hit for Flores tonight. Will be nice to see what he can do with his ever improving line up and bench now.
Collins has his strengths and weaknesses. As an in-game tactician, his decisions can be head-scratching. As a manager of young and grown men, his character and thus his team’s character are sound.
Flores hits a HR to win it tonight. You can’t make it up. Great win!
“Flores drives it… deep left center field… Taylor back, near the wall… IT’S OUTTA HERE. FLORES ENDS IT WITH A HOME RUN. Wilmer Flores Night at Citi Field comes to a fitting close and the Mets win it, 2-1 in 12.”
It was awesome.
Flores drives in both runs in a 12-inning 2-1 game. Wins the game with walk-off home run.
Wilmer “Homegrown” Flores.
Ya Gotta Believe.
deGrom up tomorrow.
From What The Hell Happened Wednesday to Thunderstorm Thursday to Flores’ Fabulous Friday this has been a crazy three days. Add in the acquisition of Cespedes, the big RH bat the team desperately needed, the return of d’Arnaud, 2nd Half Familia looking more like 1st Half Familia and the mood has gone from demoralized to electrified. I’m officially ripe for Lucy to pull the football away as Charlie Brown goes to kick it because I’m convinced this is the Mets year.
Rollercoaster season.
Bullpen performance was big. Familia being Familia again was big.
Nationals coming back to full strength are a scary team.
Wilmer’s first home run since kinescopes! Loved that line, Greg!
Like the infield ‘as is.’ Murphy may not have Duda’s power, but he’s a pro hitter, and Duda’s ‘deer in the headlights’ expression inspires no confidence in him whatsoever.
That Skid guy picked a heckuva season to do his full season Citi tour.
It took a while, but management has now assembled a team that can and should make the postseason. The lineup has enough legit bats and the bench is stocked with useful players. And who knows, maybe Cuddyer, Wright, Blevins and Montero might make it back from the DL and add to the depth.
I know I’m way too giddy thanks to the Cespedes deal and Flores’ GW HR, but not only does the team look good for this season, but it should be able to have a sustained run. It’s been seven years since we had any real reason to believe.
What I like most of all is that they didn’t end up trading Wheeler. I know that it may be unrealistic to think that after TJ surgery he won’t miss a beat when he comes back next season, but the dream rotation of 5 stud starting pitchers would be unreal and something that we could count on for years.
The dream rotation has the potential to be the greatest top-to-bottom starting rotation of all time. And it’s close enough now to realization to foresee it.
Even if the dream rotation ultimately comes to life for only 1 or 2 seasons due to contracts, injuries, etc, I want to experience it in its full glory for as long as it lasts, whether or not it delivers a championship.
We don’t follow sports just for the wins and titles. We follow sports for the rare extraordinary unlikely to be duplicated. The dream rotation fulfilling its potential would be extraordinary.
[…] LOL Might Stand for ‘Like Our Lineup’ » […]
Fulmer looks great to me. Should this thing blow up somewhere down the road, for, say, bullpenish reasons, we will come to regret that deal…
Wheeler versus Fulmer, which do you keep? Or do you forego trading for a bat altogether in order to keep both?
LA Jake — And don’t forget about Matz! Hopefully by SEP01 or earlier.
Should Fulmer turn out to be the next coming of Tom Seaver, the ‘First Guess’ on this deal is:
Great Deal, Sandy.
That Gomez deal rotted from the core.
Cespedes still needs to deliver Beltran-like for this trade not to be Ryan-for-Fregosi-like if Fulmer turns out to be the next deGrom.
I’m glad we kept Wheeler to keep the dream rotation alive. If Flores fulfills his potential, even better. Gomez’s medical evaluation wasn’t just about whether he could stay on the field. It was about whether he would return to his 2013, 2014 level of play and return to it this season, too.
The extra season of control for Gomez won’t be a worthwhile benefit if he’s healthy enough to play every day but only healthy enough to play mediocre.
Yours was the 2nd mention of Dizzy Trout I came across today. I’ve been reading a 1980 book called “I Don’t Care if I Never Come Back” by Art Hill. It’s essentially a diary of the 1979 Detroit Tigers season, with a lot of Team History thrown in (The author was in his early 60’s when he wrote the book).
So, anyway, there’s a chapter on Tigers Radio Broadcasters History. Dizzy Trout was a Tigers Broadcaster in the 1950’s and apparently made Dizzy Dean sound like John Houseman. One example that had me chuckling to myself: When it rained he’d inform the radio audience that “The Tarpoleon” is being rolled out. Stuff like that. He was a big hit, and eventually led to the other of the two competing radio stations carrying Tigers games to drop out.
Just thought I’d share, since, well, what other Mets Blog would even mention Dizzy Trout.
Fulmer may turn out to be an excellent pitcher, but you know what? Sometimes you need to roll the dice. If Cespedes gets us into the postseason, I’ll take it. And who knows? Maybe the Mets will actually keep Cespedes and he won’t be just a rental. I remember in 1983 when lots of folks assumed Keith Hernandez would run once his contract expired, and we would have nothing to show for Neil Allen and the then – promising Rick Ownbey. That one turned out pretty OK. as I recollect.