I spend a lot of time critiquing Willie Randolph and Rick Peterson on the way they handle the pitchers and the pitching staff. I’m always quick to blame either Willie for mismanagement or Professor Rick for being too cerebral and not having enough Leo Mazzone-Johhny Sain in him. But today after watching Mike Pelfrey pitch like a scared rabbit on Easter Sunday, all I can say is Pelfrey is lucky he plays for Randolph and Peterson and not for me. If he played for me, he’d have found his belonging s in a cardboard box in the middle of the clubhouse floor with a one-way ticket to ‘Nawlins sticking straight up.

 

Disappointing is not even close in expressing my feelings about Pelfery’s Piss Poor Performance yesterday.  I’m not a patient guy to begin with but I’m tired with the same broken record approach that Pelfrey takes to pitching. It’s the same thing time and time again, he falls behind in the count, throws a very straight and hittable fastball to get ahead, it’s always up in the zone, and it gets whacked hard for a base hit. That’s Mike Pelfrey’s Major League Pitching career in a nutshell.

 

I don’t blame Professor Rick because his mantra is pound the strike zone and Pelfrey can’t do that if his life and career depended on it. It has to be utterly frustrating for Peterson to have go over this with the neophyte Pelfrey after every start.

 

And some point in his young life Pelfrey has to strap on a pair of balls and take fucking charge and grab this fifth starter’s job. For Christ sake he is going up against a senior citizen with bad feet and he can’t out pitch him. Can you feel my frustration? I’m beating the shit out of this keyboard because the kid has a live arm but either he hasn’t the stones or the brains to be a big league pitcher and that is sad.    

 

Now Steve Register, there is a role model for Pelfrey. Here is a guy who is a Rule 5 players came to camp without any promise of a job and has opened eyes in management to the point where Omar is comfortable to leave Dirty Duaner down South to build up strength to go back to back days. Register looks like he will head to South Beach with the Mets next Monday.

 

What are the Mets going to do with the bench? Figure Lumpy Ramon is the back up catcher, Marlon Anderson and Damien Easley will be the “everymen” and Angel Pagan looks safe until Grandpa Moises comes back which means he should buy not rent when he gets to NYC. That leaves on spot open which most likely would go to Ruben Gotay but with the Blue Jays releasing Reed Johnson yesterday it opens up a different possibility. If Gotay has any options left to Triple A why not send him down and sign the right handed hitting Johnson? And if Gotay doesn’t have options then use his sprained ankle as an excuse to DL him to start the season. Whichever way, Omar can’t let the opportunity to add a good righty bat like Johnson’ get away.

 

We all remember Jane Jarvis, she of the famous Shea Stadium Thomas organ, well it seems Ms. Jarvis was one of the people displaced after the tragic crane collapse on Manhattan’s East Side. The good news is she was not injured and her apartment was not damages in the collapse but her building did sustain damage. After staying at a hotel in Chelsea the 92 year old musician was ready to go back to her apartment. Links courtesy of Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf.

 

On Saturday we held the draft for our SPORTSTALKNY Fantasy Baseball League. Here is Team Kranepool Society:

  

C Russell Martin

C Bengie Molina

1B Prince Fielder

2B Howie Kendrick

3B Ryan Zimerman

SS Troy Tulowitzki

CI Scott Rolen

MI Freddy Sanchez

OF Carl Crawford

OF Jeremy Hermida

OF Lastings Milledge

OF Ken Griffey Jr

OF Michael Cuddyer

UTL Bill Hall

BN Scott Hattenberg

BN Brian Schneider

BN Ryan Church

BN David Eckstein

 

SP Justin Verlander

SP Barry Zito

RP Takasi Saito

RP Manny Corpas

P Bronson Arryo

P BJ Ryan

P Gil Meche

P Ubaldo Jimenez

P Carlos Silva

BN Brian Bannister

  

So what do you think? Not a bad collection of talent eh? I had the last pick in the first round (12^th pick in the draft) and I took Carl Crawford. Then I had the first pick in the 2^nd Rd and I picked Prince Fielder. I was happy to land Tulo and LMillz and I was very surprised to land Brian Bannister in the last round. I picked Freddy Sanchez  but released him as he has health issues and I have a wavier claim in for Mark Grudzielanek It’s very scary how much I care about this team and league really really scary.

 

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