MLB Draft Recap

Yesterday, the MLB First Player’s Amateur Draft started at 2:00 p.m. This was the first time I had watched the Amateur Draft. I don’t follow college baseball, so I did not know any of the players coming in. I focused more on my Mets, I was very curious as to see which players the Mets to take, after trading away some of our farm players for Santana. This year, the Mets had two 1st round picks, #18 , #22, and a composition pick from Atlanta. However I only watched the first round and did not watch the later rounds.

First pick at #19, Mets on the clock and they decide to pick Isaac Davis, also known as Ike, a first basemen from Arizona State. Davis is also very capable of playing in the outfield. Ike is the son of former MLB pitcher Ron Davis. Ike is batting .394 with 16 homers in 49 games for the Sun Devils. Ike will most likely play first base in the majors, and will have a chance to replace Carlos Delgado once Davis has worked his way up the minors. Apparently, Davis was one of the last power hitters left in the draft, which I like, this ball club lacks in hitting the long ball consistently. 

At #22, Mets pick Reese Havens of South Carolina. Reese typically plays shortstop for the Gamecocks, and he is batting .359 with 18 homers in 63 games this year. Rumors are spreading that Havens may also be moved to the catcher position, although he has never played the position. I think if that doesn’t work out for him, he can always go back to shortstop and if he makes it to the big leagues, they will most likely move him to second because of Reyes. I would be very pleased if he can hit better than Castillo.

So the future infield can look like this, Wright at third, Reyes at short, Havens at second (or catcher), and Davis at first. This could happen as early as two, maybe three years.

As their composition pick, the Mets picked Brad Holt, a righty pitcher from UNC-Wilmington. From what I have read, Holt has a good fastball but does not have a very good secondary pitch, so I think he is more of a project then anything. Pelfrey was coming into the draft in the same position as Holt, hopefully this time they will leave Holt in the minors longer then Pelfrey stayed there.

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MLB: It’s a new month

Lately Willie Randolph has gone through much speculation and has been taking the brunt of the heat, but certain Mets players have also not performed up to par. Last Monday Willie met with the Wilpons and Minaya, expressing their concerns of the Mets mediocre season. Fans expected more this season, hoping that last September’s collapse was a thing of the past. The meeting wasn’t about firing Willie or replacing him, they were simply letting Randolph know that the hot seat is getting warmer.

You can see why the fans and the front office is disappointed in the average play of our Mets. After all you see what this team has done to try to bring in pieces to make a run at a World Series title, trading away Carlos Gomez and some of the Mets’ top prospects in the farm system for starting pitcher Johan Santana. Johan has looked good in most of his starts this season and has given us the chance to win games. Then trading away Outfielder Lastings Milledge, another one of the Mets’ prospect, to Washington for Outfielder Ryan Church and Catcher Brian Schneider. I have been most satisfied with Church’s play this year, I hope he will be one of the all-stars representing the Mets, as for Schneider I’ll give him a pass since the Catcher position is hard and he is working with a new pitching staff.

While watching some of the games this year, some of the games were just horrendous watching costly errors, wild pitches, infield hits that should have been turned into outs, blown leads, etc. just seemed to keep on piling up and making the situation worse. Carlos Delgado looks like he doesn’t give a damn anymore, or he wouldn’t make an easy defensive play. Castillo can barely hit the ball out of the infield (This isn’t happening as of late though, as he has been getting Homeruns and line drives). If our defense had stepped up their play, the Pitchers would be lasting a lot longer and being going in deeper into innings, and not be leaving late into the 5th. 

It’s a new month, and things look to be more positive in June. The Mets have won 4 of their previous 5 games, and hopefully this month will be better then April and May. Reyes has been getting on base every game for 20 games or so (which is his job, he’s the leadoff hitter and the bases stealer for the club). Also, Pedro is coming back and pitching against the San Francisco Giants.  If the Mets can be heading into the all-star game with an above .500 winning record, it will be one of the few successes in the 1st half of the season for the Mets. The warmer weather of summer should make the players more comfortable also.

The Mets look to win 3 out of 4 from the Dodgers tonight 8:00 p.m. on ESPN. Pitching for the Mets tonight is Santana (6-3). The Dodgers pitcher playing tonight is Kuroda (2-4).

NHL: Stanley Cup Finals

The Detroit-Pittsburgh matchup has been anticipated to be a great series before Game 1 had started. Both with great super star players. Crosby, Malkin, Hossa for Pittsburgh, and Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Holmstrom for Detroit. Before the Conference Finals for the respected conferences (by this time my New York Rangers had lost in the 2nd round to the Penguins), I had picked the Red Wings to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. 

Detroit has looked amazing with Chris Osgood in net for the Red Wings with some help of that Detroit defense. Some have thought that he will win the Conn Smythe, he has been big for the Wings for coming off the bench and doing well for this team. Other than him, Franzen would have the 2nd best chance of winning, before getting injured, Franzen was leading the league in Goals. Going into tonight Chris Osgood had a 2008 playoff record of 12-3. 

Throughout the playoffs, the Penguins have had the deadliest power play unit I have ever seen. With the Crosby – Malkin – Hossa lineup you can expect a Pittsburgh goal. Marc-Andre Fleury has also looked solid in net for the Pens, that was before he faced Detroit.

While watching Game 4 tonight, I had thought that Detroit better play the way they had been playing defense  in Games 1 and 2, so they can limit Pittsburgh’s chances. Also, they couldn’t be making any costly errors or mistakes like they did in Game 3. After watching the two teams tie 1-1 after the 1st, I had saw the statistics of the 1st period. I thought to myself,

“Is Therrien stupid for only playing Crosby for 6 minutes in the 1st? He is the best player on that team and he gets only 6 minutes of ice time. They will have to play him more in this game or they will lose.” 

Also Detroit had 5 penalties that period, giving Pittsburgh those chances but the Pens just couldn’t capitalize except on the first power play of the game. After the first Detroit had only 3 penalties. Watching Detroit killing that 5 on 3 power play in the 3rd period made the game intense, all the Penguins needed was one goal for tying the game. Detroit did a good job and stopped their chance. Chances. That is what is given to Pittsburgh at several times in each of the games, and unfortunately for them, they haven’t been able to capitalize, if they want any chance of coming back, they will use this to their advantage.

I believe that Detroit will win Monday night at Detroit, and end this series and become the 2008 Stanley Cup Champions.

 

Welcome to BBP

Thanks for reading Big Blue’s Perspective. I hope to be sharing and expressing my opinions on stories and rumors going on in the NFL, NHL, MLB, and College Football. Hopefully all the readers will also comment on my thoughts. I am however, a New York sports fan, so I will be going more in-depth on teams like the Giants, Mets, and Rangers. Do not worry, I will still talk about all the important and rising issues in all of sports besides the New York teams.