MVN - Most Valuable Network

“Met of the Week” and “Met of the Month” Awards, Belated Edition

With the Mets in a depression-enducing swoon, and then bursting onto the scene with a red hot homestand I have fallen behind with my awards. Therefore, I will take care of a few in this post and catch up right now.

Week 8 Met of the Week: Claudio Vargas

Claudio Vargas wins the award for Week 8 sort of by default. The Mets only won a single game all week, and Claudio got the win in that game so it has to be him right? In a week to forget for Met fans all over, Vargas was the lone bright spot. On Saturday, May 24th the journeyman pitcher threw a gem when his team needed one badly. He went 7 innings, and gave up only 4 hits and 2 runs. He got his first win as a Met, and helped the team snap a season high 5 game losing streak.

Week 9 Met of the Week: Jose Reyes

We all know the saying: “As Jose Reyes goes, so do the Mets.” That statement certainly rang true this past week, as Reyes had his best stretch of the season, and so did the team. Number 7 led the Amazins at the top of the order going 11-30 with 10 runs and 3 steals. That’s the Jose Reyes we all know and love to see. But a power hitting slugger also appeared this week, belting 3 homeruns, and accumulating an OPS of 1.224. he is now on pace for a career high 21 homers, and has seen his slugging percentage get up to a respectable .480. Reyes seems to be finally clicking, and anyone who loves the blue and orange has to love his play of late.

Player of the Week Standings:

Billy Wagner- 2

Angel Pagan- 1

David Wright- 1

Nelson Figueroa- 1

Ryan Church- 1

Carlos Beltran- 1

Claudio Vargas- 1

Jose Reyes- 1

May “Met of the Month”: Billy Wagner

The Mets closer has been nothing short of spectacular all year, and he put together a nearly perfect May to serve as the rock that the team’s bullpen lies upon. Now it is true his ERA went up this month, but considering it ”soared” from 0.00 to 0.39, he can hardly be blamed at all. Wagner had his only blown save of the month on May 23rd, giving up his lone earned run of the entire season on a Matt Holliday homerun. But overall in May Wags threw 11 innings, gave up 11 hits, walked just 2 and struck out 16. He saved 5 ballgames in the month, passing Jeff Reardon for 6th all time along the way. 

And yet, it was much more than Wagner’s play that makes him deserve this honor. For it was his fiery and controversial post-game comments after May 15th’s loss to the Nationals that may have saved the season. It probably wasn’t the best approach to a team crisis, but it seems to have worked. After the comments, all of the team’s issues came to the forefront, and it culminated with manager Willie Randolph meeting the Wilpons and Omar Minaya. He was assured of his job security as long as he won, and since then the team has played it’s best baseball of the year. Wagner emerged even more as a team leader in May, anchoring not only the bullpen but the entire clubhouse. He truly was the team’s MVP in it’s most tumultuous month.

Met’s of the Month for 2008:

April- Ryan Church

May- Billy Wagner

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Met of the Month, Met of the Week, Claudio Vargas, Willie Randolph, Jose Reyes, Billy Wagner, Omar Minaya. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.