Mike Matthews, I forgot you were a Met

[Edgy MD]

Doing some Met research and I stumbled upon Mike Matthews. Took a LOT of brain jogging to remember him. Broke camp in 2005, appeared in six games, and was cut loose with a double-digit ERA.



Talk about troubles with left-handed relief. Randolph's first Met team started the season with Matthews and Felix Heredia. They would pitch 7 2/3 innings that season between them and never appear in an MLB game again. Dae-Sung Koo would give them a modestly effective 23 innings before getting coming up hurt with an injury that was ultimately connected to his daring slide into home plate against the Yankees, but the Mets would cycle with frustration through the likes of Royce Ring and Tim Hamulack. No success there, but at least I vividly recall those guys.

Matthews didn't even warrant a 2005 Mets Pin.

[Frayed Knot]

I have ZERO memory of Mike Mathews.
Don't even remember the name much less anything about the player.

[Edgy MD]

If my experience is any guide, dim memories should start leaking into your brain in about a half an hour, mostly of him as a Cardinal in the first years of the century.

Mike Matthews is a very Cardinal name. Mike Matthews, Matt Matheny, Mark McGwire. The Cards seem to attract MMs like the Mets attract BBs.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think Matthews was no. 27.

More often than not the Mets break camp with such veteran bullpenners, but just as often they are the first guys to be cycled out. Sometimes, a LaTroy Hawkins or Jason Isringhausen Mach II manages to hang on for a year, but more often its guys like Heredia and Matthews and Valverde and Brandon Lyon and Farnsworth and Matt Wise and Toby Borland and Jorge Julio and Brian Rose.

[Edgy MD]

Matt Wise, I forgot you were a Met!

[seawolf17]

I definitely remember that pin set. I have multiple copies of the Mr. Met, including one peering at me right now over my monitor. (I have Wright, Reyes, and maybe two or three others somewhere too.)

I do not remember Mike Matthews. I do remember Matt Wise as a Met; I want to say he gave up a big home run to the Marlins early in the season, but I might be conflating him with Shingo Takatsu. Or maybe they both did that.

In my head, Mr. Koo was an all-time great Met, because that play against the Yankees is one of my favorite Met things ever.

[seawolf17]

seawolf17 wrote: I do remember Matt Wise as a Met; I want to say he gave up a big home run to the Marlins early in the season, but I might be conflating him with Shingo Takatsu. Or maybe they both did that.

Hey, whaddya know. Takatsu's was a bases-clearing double, not a home run. Close enough.

Wise (second game as a Met): http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO200804010.shtml
Takatsu (first game as a Met): http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO200509030.shtml

[batmagadanleadoff]

seawolf17 wrote: I definitely remember that pin set. I have multiple copies of the Mr. Met, including one peering at me right now over my monitor. (I have Wright, Reyes, and maybe two or three others somewhere too.)

[fimg=1255]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTA1WDE2MDA=/z/2-YAAOSwqu9VBg9k/$_57.JPG[/fimg]

[fimg=666]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTQ2OFgxMTAx/z/yQkAAOSwZjJU-MJ7/$_57.JPG[/fimg]

Edited March 23, 2015 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

Did nobody have the funk when Willie asked them to bring the funk?

[batmagadanleadoff]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: [fimg=566]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTQ2OFgxMTAx/z/yQkAAOSwZjJU-MJ7/$_57.JPG[/fimg]

With the passage of time, those uniforms look even sillier.

[Edgy MD]

I'm totally wearing my Mike DeJean pin to work tomorrow.

If that doesn't get me a key to the executive washroom, I don't know what will.

[seawolf17]

Edgy MD wrote: I'm totally wearing my Mike DeJean pin to work tomorrow. If that doesn't get me a key to the executive washroom, I don't know what will.

That's because Mike DeJean is actually head of maintenance in Edgy's office.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I believe DeJean was the guy who was doing pretty well for a while, then began to suck, and then it was revealed, well what did you expect, the guy's pitching on a broken leg.

[Edgy MD]

The thing about deJean was that he was doing terribly in Baltimore, and the Mets got him in a desperate swap for Karim Garcia. He gave them 20 good innings, and that was great, but they made him the number two guy in the bullpen the next season without much alternative. There was a lot of pain before they ended up deciding to make a reliever out of Heilman.

Non-pin guys Heilman and Roberto Hernandez did their best to shore things up. But bullpens are always in flux, and I guess they did alright, from the right side anyhow.

[Edgy MD]

Who's the resident Chip Ambres expert here?

I forgot all about him, too. But I believe he had a heroic moment or two late in the season.

[Edgy MD]

The Chip Ambres Game.

His third and final game with the Mets, each featuring one at-bat, in which he rolled the go-ahead (and ultimately game-winning) hit in the 10th inning against the Dodgers, putting the 2007 Mets up by 3.5 games over the Braves, who lost in 10 themselves.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I remember that game vaguely but I conflate Ambres with Emil Brown.

Check out Wagner nearly fucking everything up with the walks and stolen bases only to strike out the side.

[Edgy MD]

With me, Chip Ambres and Chris Aguila have become one blurry C.A.-initialed reserve outfielder DFA-ing his way through the summers of 2007/2008. "Neither of the collapses happened while I was on the roster!" Crip Ambuila cries.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Chris Aguila, I really forgot you were a Met. I forgot he existed at all.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I knew he was a guy. (He's Filipino, so I'm culturally obligated to be at least tangentially aware of guys with his parentage.) But yeah, in my head, Chris Aguila's a marginal Marlinal type.

Fred Lewis was a Met? Two years ago, no less?

[Edgy MD]

Taylor Buchholz? Joaquin Arias? Anybody?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Buchholz I remember, if only because he was doing pretty well, then sat out with depression, which tends to stick in one's head (unless one is clinically depressed himself).

[Edgy MD]

Getting screened NOW!!!!

[G-Fafif]

Did a little figuring the other day and found the Mets have suited up and deployed in at least one game 261 different players since Faith and Fear came on the air in 2005. I can probably remember something, even a tiny something, specific about 260 of them.

I remember next to nothing about Jose Santiago, who threw 5 2/3 innings of relief our first blogging summer, among them two at Shea, which came in a game Jason and I attended and that I clearly recall the tenor and outcome of. But I have no memory of Santiago's participation per se. (Nor that of two future Met relievers.)

I think Jose had been caught up in some kind of nefarious roster numbers game earlier that season, the Mets having him on hand but not activating him, the kind of thing they'd be allowed to taxi-squad for today if there was injury. (Yes, something like that.)

Perhaps somebody here remembers Santiago. Nobody here does.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Taylor Buchholz? Joaquin Arias? Anybody?

I remember Arias simply because he was a prospect of some promise in the Yanqui chain at one point.
More specifically, he was the PtbNL from a list of several that the Rangers opted for in the Alex Rodriguez deal [ARod + money = Soriano + Arias] on the reasoning that Arias (then only 19) had the SS abilities which gave him the better upside to a more advanced MFY infield prospect on the list but one whom nobody seemed to know quite what to make of: Robinson Cano.

By the time the Mets got him -- for Jeff Francouer in a swap of young, toolsy disappointments -- it was six years later at which point it was obvious he wasn't going to be the everyday SS that Texas was hoping for at the time and he got nothing more than fill-in duty (30 ABs - 6 hits) in Queens.
Still, Arias is still just 30 y/o and 2016 will be his 8th ML season and 4th straight with SF (assuming he makes the club). And while he's only twice reached 200 ABs in any one year, he's got 2 WS rings in his collection.

[Edgy MD]

Joaquin debuted on the same day as Lucas Duda, playing left field as Duda's defensive replacement.

You know a team doesn't have high hopes for your fielding when they pull you for a defensive sub in your major league debut.

[Guest themetfairy]

Buchholz -



Arias -