Am I turning on old No. 57? Heck, yes. (So is at least one Mets fan, too)
Posted on February 29th, 2008 – 12:58 PMBy Howard
My favorite ballplayer of the hour is Juan Gonzalez, who took Johan deep for a three-run homer over the lunch hour in his first Mets inning. No. 2 on the list is Brendan Ryan (triple off Johan) and Albert Pujols (double off Johan). Yes, that’s the Juan Gonzalez with 1 AB in the last 3 years.
Are they panicking in New York yet?
Well, one commenter on a New York Post blog has weighed in:
Hey, all i’m saying is Santana better win some freaking games if he gonna walk around like he’s da Shizzle!
The guy seems to have no personality and I can only wonder if he’s gonna hold up in NY.
If you ever get a chance to see them in spring training, you stand right next to these guys. All of the Mets are great people, but Johan, write this down, shady guy, I only hope he can handle NY.
Bring back LoDuca!
UPDATE: And here’s the “rude greeting” report from the Palm Beach Post.
And here’s the mlb.com angle, in which Johan makes the obligatory “feels good” comment.
AND FINALLY, I refuse to link to the New York Post report on Johan’s start because the reporter obviously spent his life telling his teachers that the dog ate his homework. But it starts thusly:
The Mets can only hope Johan Santana is a slow starter.
Their $137 million ace had a rough first inning today against the Cardinals in Port St. Lucie in his game debut as a Met. St. Louis took a 3-0 lead on a Juan Gonzalez home run to left against Santana, who gave up hits to three of the first five batters.
I’m not so much for belittling other journalists, but that this bubba-with-a-laptop is covering the Mets and doesn’t know that Santana is a slow starter? Lordy.
other people are here too.
30 Responses to "Am I turning on old No. 57? Heck, yes. (So is at least one Mets fan, too)"
I’m starting to think maybe the Twins knew something about Johan that nobody else knew.
Robert,
It’s verrrrrrry early, but we should have fun with it while we can.
Hey, Mr. Santana pitched for the cycle (1B, 2B, 3B, and HR).
Of course, I’d already emailed the first two innings of the box score to my beloved Met fans.
He did give up a lot of dongs last year. He’s going to miss Rick Anderson, right?
I’m going to enjoy the collective NYC hand-wringing when Johan gets off to one of his familiar slow starts. He’ll give up 4 runs in 6.1 innings in his first start, and the collective garment rending will begin. Mid-June he’ll probably be unstoppable.
*sigh*
Juan Gone is a Johan-killer. He is 6/7 against Johan in his career with 2HR and 6RBI.
Did Albert Pujols change his name to Luis? If not maybe Johan is just getting fat and happy after signing a pretty good sized contract.
Maybe he misses riding his bike along side Silva to the park more than any of us would have thought.
jama,
My bad. Didn’t mean to confuse Albert with Luis “The Other” Pujols It’s spring training for baseball bloggers, too.
(Note to commenters: We’re on a new server as of last night, and more comments than normal are going into the moderation queue. Dunno what’s up, but I’ll get ‘em posted.)
I know Howard, but how much better would it feel if Johan came back to Earth now that he’s in a Mets uniform??
I was on the “sign Johan” bandwagon but now that he’s gone I hope he gets the “large contract blues”
as much as it’s fun to just ponder the fun that he might not do as well on someone else’s team, keep in mind that Johan never really pulls his form together until May. He never did all that great in ST or even the month of April for us either…
C-Babs,
It’s verrrrrrry early, but we should have fun with it while we can.
I don’t know, last years he worst months were his last 2 months. This could be a new Johan, a human Johan.
I apoligize for the grammar. “years he”=”year his”
Howard,
I realized it wasn’t Albert, just a little joke. But I agree how many of these Spring Training players on other teams have you heard of?
I really need to do some more research to keep up with all these no name minor leaguers. You generally follow the bigger name prospects but I have no clue who some of these guys are.
*I realized it WAS Albert, it must be Friday, I need to take a nap.
jama,
It’s OK, pal. I have editor-reporter conversations like this with writers all the time. I’m just glad the Twins haven’t traded for Ervin “The Other” Santana.
When will the NL go with DH during the season?
I wonder how many people saying “It’s early” for Johan would be flipping out that Smith was a fool to keep him if he did the same thing in a Twins uni.
Whatever. It should be fun tonight to watch the ESPuNdits (love that word, wish I could remember who to credit it to) wig out about how the Mets may be in trouble this season.
And oh yeah, Shea will be burned to the ground by mid May if Johan gets off to his typical start.
I am embarrassed to report that, I too, on hearing of Johann’s game on the radio, felt a lovely little nudge of schadenfreude (sp?). My true hope is that he will go 5 - 18, losing games 1-0 or 2-1.
I hope Johan does well but not as good as he did with us, and I hope the Twins and Gomez do better so we actually won the trade.
Johan has always been a slow starter. He’s a second half pitcher. I’m going to love listening and reading about NY media morons going crazy at his 4.25 ERA through the first half.
Great point, T. And maybe it’s true confessions time for Howard and me…..
If Cytanna had been signed for $20M and has a horrible start, would we admit we had been wrong to push for his signing?
Romer, T:
Hell, no! 
lilbiscuit, what are ya, a William F. Buckley disciple?
I’ll always remember Dan Schadenfreude coming out of the pen in ‘87. A true unsung hero.
Now we have to settle for Humber and Guerrier…..
I refuse to listen to anbody who says “Bring back Lo Duca.”
Johan wasn’t much of a second-half pitcher last season. But I suppose run support helps when you’re looking for those W’s. I’m sure he’ll find success in NY… unless my voodoo doll works.
Kidding! Sort of.
Romer,
Hee-Hee
This story is so funny. First spring traning game for Johan and some of the NY guys are nervious already. Too funny!!!! I guess the way the Mets ended last year pessimism is the norm.
Maybe we can trade for Santana and get him back while his value is down. (that is a joke) Based on one game Buscher is way better than Santana. Maybe trade Buscher for Santana.
