Mike Silva's New York Baseball Digest » New York Mets

The Mets Say Goodbye to Houston

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

The Astros are moving to the American League at the end of the year so this afternoon is the last time the Mets play in Houston, unless they have a rare interleague series. Houston has never been kind to them throughout their history. As Gary Cohen mentioned during last night’s game, the Mets have a [...]

Yanks Could Be Game Changer for ESPN Radio

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

ESPN started a new era in New York radio when it moved to FM yesterday morning with their 98.7 debut. They also turned 1050 into a Spanish speaking equivalent and renamed it ESPN Deportes. There is also a new lineup on the station. I don’t know if it’s possible for Terry Collins or Joe Girardi to shakeup their lineup as [...]

Weekly Digest @ 10pm on 1240 AM WGBB

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

Tonight I will be live from the studio of 1240 AM WGBB. Former big leaguer Frank Catalanotto will kick off the show. Frank recently published a book called “Heart and Hustle: An Unlikely Journey from Little Leaguer to Big Leaguer.“ I will talk about the homegrown Mets and their surprising April start. MLB.com contributor Jed [...]

Ducks Open Season Honoring #8

Friday, April 27th, 2012

When you think of the late Hall-of-Fame catcher Gary Carter you immediately remember his days in Montreal or leading the Mets to the ’86 World Series championship. Perhaps his final years in Los Angeles and San Francisco come to mind, as well. What you don’t think of is Carter in a Long Island Ducks uniform, but he [...]

Does Ike Davis Need to Turn It Around This Road Trip to Avoid a Demotion?

Friday, April 27th, 2012

.132/.192/.265/ That is the batting line for Mets first baseman Ike Davis going into tonight’s game. It was Davis, along with Lucas Duda, Daniel Murphy and Ruben Tejada, the Mets were relying on to emerge as part of the young positional core that will be on the field for years to come. Out of that foursome, Davis had the best resume [...]

Mets “Lousy” Farm System on Display in Victory

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

The Mets farm system hasn’t won any popularity contests over the years. In an age where prospect writing and analysis falls into the same lazy memes and groupthink we see in mainstream sports reporting, the Mets have ranked in the bottom third of most publications. They look even worse as the Yankees aggressive spending the [...]

Wright Facing Similar Crossroad as Strawberry

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

David Wright set a historic team record last night when he homered off Mark Buehrle to give the Mets a 2-1 lead, a game they ultimately would win 5-1. Those two RBI were the 734th and 735th of his career, setting the Mets record that was previously held by Darryl Strawberry. It’s amazing that he’s [...]

Is the Knuckleball an Endangered Species?

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

On Saturday, I attended a screening of Knuckleball! at the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. The documentary, by award-winning filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, follows knuckleballers R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield during the 2011 season. Stern and Sundberg also tell the story about how both pitchers came to embrace and master this unique pitch.  Charlie Hough, Phil Niekro, Jim Bouton  and long-time White Sox [...]

Don’t Expect Reyes’ Return to Be Very Memorable

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Jose Reyes returns to New York tonight as a member of the Miami Marlins. It will be weird to see the former Mets shortstop decked out in the silly art deco Miami uniform. This is not the first time in team history a star is returning to his former place of employment. The Mets have done [...]

Listen to the Weekly Digest @ 8pm

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

Join me on this rainy Sunday night to recap the week of New York baseball. Leading off is Hart Seely, author of the book “The JuJu Rules.” Hart, a Yankees fan, will tell us how he helps the Bombers win games from his couch! Award-winning sports columnist for Connecticut’s Valley Times, Bob Lazzari, will talk [...]

Philip Humber Almost Pitched Game 163 For Mets

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

Congrats to Philip Humber who pitched the 21st perfect game in MLB history. The former Met is more known here for his meltdown against Washington when he blew a 5-0 lead  in Game 158 during the collapse in September of 2007. After years of injuries and poor performance, Humber put up a very solid 2011 [...]

Collins Needs to Learn From His 9th Inning Mess

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

I think Terry Collins does a great job holding his team accountable and communicating with his players. Both were huge question marks when he was named Mets’ manager after the 2010 season. After watching him for two years, I have been less impressed with his in-game management and bullpen utilization. I don’t think either is bad enough [...]

Nelson Figueroa a Yankee

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

It looks like former Mets pitcher Nelson Figueroa just signed a Minor League Deal with the Yankees. He informed everyone of the news over at Facebook.  Looks like the Yankees brought him in for pitching depth with the injury to Manny Banuelos, I spoke to Nelson on my radio program last year. He is a [...]

R.A. Dickey’s Streak Ends, Looking Back at Doc’s

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

The Braves ended R.A. Dickey’s streak of 14-consecutive quality starts that fell just short of Dwight Gooden’s team record set in 1985. Ironically, it was the Braves that ended Doc’s on July 4th of that season. That was the infamous 19 inning game that ended at 4:00 AM. Dickey’s streak has been over two seasons, [...]

How Meaningful Are the First 10 Games?

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Are the first 10 games a precursor of things to come? Normally you wouldn’t think so since the baseball season is 162 games long. It represents exactly 6% of the total schedule. There are, however, some trends in how a team performs the last decade. ACTA Sports produced this analysis in their latest “Stat of [...]