Posting late today as I had to run to Madison Square Garden to fetch tickets for the circus for my wife’s Girl Scout Troop. As I’m there I was very tempted to blow off work for the afternoon and go watch Georgetown-Villanova as the Big East Tourney is in full swing. But everyone is out in my office so I had to run back and be “the man” as we all know the city never sleeps.

Mike Pelfrey looks like he did an okay job today against the Deadbirds 4 2/3 IP 6H 2R 1 ER 2BB 1K without seeing him pitch I don’t know if his command was good or not but looking at his ground out/fly outs were 6/7 so with 6 grounds out that tells me Pelfrey did get the ball down and some point in this start. I’d say it was a good bounce back for Mikey P.

Carlos Beltran strapped it on today and played CF and went 1 for 2 with an RBI. I’d hate to be the guy sitting next to him on the bus ride back to St. Lonesome as I’m sure he will bitch and moan the whole trip.

Carlos Delgado played 1B and the good news is he didn’t strike out in three trips to the plate. He didn’t get a hit either but we’re taking baby steps here.

Endy Chavez The Forgotten Man went 2 for 3 with a run scored and 2 RBI

I don’t know what’s more childish Ramon Castillo putting bubble gum on Luis Castillo’ hat or me laughing my ass off watching him do it.

El Duque feels muy bueno. Someday he may pitch in a real life game.

The slide by Shelly Duncan yesterday against the Rays should get him a week’s suspension but I give him credit for making the statement. Johny Gomes too for running in from RF and jumping Duncan works for me as well. Unlike the pussies on the 2000 Mets that didn’t storm the mound after MF Clemens beaned Mike Piazza. Yes I hold a grudge. I’m Irish.

Reason number 24, 547 why I love living in NYC.  After my trip to MSG I went over to Macy’s to find a gift for Mrs. Kranepool Society as it is our wedding anniversary Sunday (22 years of bliss) as a sales clerk goes in the back to find a smaller size Tommy Hilfiger denim jacket I wanted to get,  I stand next to a guy who is waiting on his wife who is trying on just about every pair a jeans in the store. The gent has an English accent and we strike up a conversation. We end up talking about the English Premier League as the guy is from New Castle and is a huge New Castle fan. I tell him about my family in London who are as big a Chelsea fans as I am a Mets fan and I then tell him I started following Sunderland and the guy makes a face like someone farted. I tell him “hey my name is Keane” And the guy nearly shits himself as he thinks I’m a relative of Roy Keane the Black Cats manager and God of  Ireland football. After awhile the bloke tells me it’s his birthday and he wants me to join him and his wife for a pint and tell him “I’m not on holiday, I have to get back to work” Then Mr. New Castle begs me to blow off work and hang with him and I swear to God I was thisclose to doing it. But I came to my senses and headed back to the office with an anniversary gift and a smile on my face. Like they say only in New York Kids.

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As per Ed (Grey Goose) Coleman the Mets and Red Sox are ready to deal Coco Crisp for Angel Pagan in a deal that makes no sense at all except it kind of validates my earlier post about Carlos Beltran that he will start the season on the DL and Crsip would give the Mets outstanding defensive coverage in CF. 

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Sorry for the late posting but I’ve been trying all get the Emperors Club VIP to advertise on the site and waiting to hear if Governor Whore-Master gets the heave-ho (ouch sorry about that) as leader of the Empire State.  I tell you the last time I’ve seen my Wall St pals this happy, they were arm pit deep in junk bonds.

On to the Mets.   

HIGH ON ANGEL DUST—-So as I read the Murdoch Daily I see where the Mets have placed a call to North of the Border to inquire on the availability of Reed Johnson and Shannon Stewart. While Johnson, with his ability to hit lefties is intriguing from watching Angel Pagan who just might be blossoming at 26 and the phenom F Mart it looks like the outfield is in pretty good shape.  Although there is a possibility that Carlos Beltran will not be ready to start the season as he claims he is not comfortable in the field yet.    I’m trying not to question Beltran and his inability to play but he had his knees scoped in October and here it is March and HE STILL is not ready to play in the field due to weakness in his quad muscle.  So that’s why it looks like Omar wants to find another veteran outfielder and let F-Mart start the year in ‘Nawlins. Me personally I’d let the kid start with the big club and play LF I have no problem throwing him in the deep water as I’ve said before.  To add a piece like Reed Johnson is going to cost pitching and I am not comfortable trading pitching for extra outfield help. If not F-Mart then Omar should just be paitient and wait for the spring cuts and do some dumpster diving on the waiver wire.

Don’t forget tonight at 9PM EST to join us at SPORTALKNY as we have as a guests Kathy Foronjy and Joseph Coburn of MATHEMATICALLY ALIVE  Tune in at USTREAM and join in via phone and chat room.

I love the NHL’s Winter Classic and having the Rangers play an Original Six team outdoors (fuck the Devils and Islanders you bastard children. Original Six Rules!!!!!!!!!!!) I also like the idea that Joe Benningo and Evan Roberts brought up about the Jets playing one more time at Shea and the SUPER BOWL CHAMPION NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS playing in South Bronx but I don’t agree with the premise of those teams playing the “last” games at the stadiums. The Mets and Highlanders should have the honor of closing down their homes. Both NY football teams abandoned the city for the Jersey Swamp and as far as the Rangers I would love to see them play in one of the new stadiums when they open in ’09. As soon as the Mets and Highlanders are done with the 2008 season the padlocks should go on both venues and no team or second rate singers should ever grace the field again.

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Some observations on the Mets before I announce my candidacy for Governor of New York:

Close your eyes and imagine a warm summer night, say July 22^nd versus the Phillies. Johan Santana ready to take the Shea Stadium mound. The Mets in first place with a 3 game lead  over the Phillies. A packed house of 55, 000 screaming Mets fans.  Newly called up Fernando Martinez, who was tearing the ball apart in Bingo, takes over left field for Mosies Alou who is sidelined with a bout of old-timers disease. Santana vs. Ryan Howard. David Wright vs. Cole Hamels. All this came to my mind watching Johan Santana baffle the Old Town team yesterday and how every Santana start will be the BIG event in this town this summer. I can’t wait!!!

I watched REAL SPORTS on HBO last night as they had a feature on Lenny Dykstra who has become a stock market savant. The report showed how Nails has amassed a huge fortune by owning, operating and selling car washes in California and how he has mastered the art of day trading. Dykstra was pretty funny and candid during the interview but as I was watching him I found his appearance disturbing. He didn’t look like the Lenny of old and yes I know people age (as I well know) but he moved very very slowly and spoke very deliberate. Even though it’s good to see Dykstra quite well off, I still felt sad for him. After the interview Bryant Gumbel asked Bernard Goldberg if he broached the subject of steroids. They rolled a tape of Goldberg asking Dykstra about his use of steroids and Dykstra took off his sunglasses and said he would look Goldberg in the eye and told him no he never used steroids. Goldberg said after when the cameras were off Dysktra told him “you know I was lying before right”?  It’s now secret that Dykstra used steroids but even now as a guy long retired from the game he still can’t come out and say he did them. Like I say, I feel sad for the guy.

This Billy Crystal “signing” with the Highlanders has left me stunned. How in the world can MLB allow this to go through? There is a part of me that hopes Crystal gets a line drive right in the head. If there was ever a jock sniffers Hall of Fame Crystal would be the first inductee. This is not an anti Highlander rant because I was all over the Mets for allowing Garth Brooks to take batting practice and also Kevin James as well, in fact there should be a MLB by law that forbids all of these Hollywood douche bags from any on field playing activity. If Derek Jeter was a real captain instead of fictional character he plays for the team he’d march right up to Pack a Day Hanks office and let him know that the players will not participate in this farce. If the Pirates had any guts they’d stay in Bradenton and play an intra-squad game, as this is a huge insult to the Pirates players and organization. The Highlanders are telling them that they suck so much we are going to let a 60 year old groupie play for us against you. If this goes through the Bucos pitcher at the time has to drill Mr. Saturday Night. 

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Attention fellow Mets fans: Stop bitching and moaning about the unavailability of tickets for the coming year. What did you expect for the last days of Shea? As I have said about a million times NYC is an EVENT town with more bandwagon jumpers per captia in the world. If all were fair in love and Mets baseball, in order to purchase ticket for Mets games at She this year you should have to pass a written test on Mets history. Questions like for one point each name every player who has played at least a game at third base throughout the history of the franchise? How was Tom Seaver obtained?   Name the great Hall of Fame second baseman who was a coach with the Mets in 1962? Who is Lorne Brown? What position did Mac Scarce play? What did Benny Ayala do in his first ML at bat? What was Tim Foli’s nickname?   Where was Jim McAndrew born? (if you ask who is Jim McAndrew then stay the fuck out of Queens)  Only real Mets fans can answer those questions and those are the folks who should be pissed off about ticket availability not you Johnny Franco Come Lately’s.

My spring training roller coaster emotions are at it again today as I look over spring stats. With all the worry about injuries and old age, the pitching staff has gone unnoticed. The Mets as a team are pitching to a 3.33 ERA so far this spring with the potential bullpeners like Jorge Sosa, Scott Schoeneweis, Matt Wise, and the surprising Nelson Figueroa leading the way. John Maine looked very strong yesterday, Petey feels as good as he ever has as a Met and El Duque is not going down without a fight. Oliver Perez has been a shaky and Mike Pelfrey has to make a statement in his next start. The late inning men, Feliciano, Heilman and Wagner have gone about their business to be ready to roll three weeks from today. Pitching and Defense wins championship just use that as your mantra.

Here is today’s lineup versus the Old Town Team

  SS Jose Reyes
LF Brady Clark
3B David Wright
DH Carlos Beltran
1B Carlos Delgado
2B Damion Easley
RF Ryan Church
CF Angel Pagan
C Brian Schneider
LH Johan Santana 

  Beltran and Delgado are back in action but no Castillo. The story of the spring Angel (in the outfield) Pagan plays CF.  Johan goes again and the game is on SNY at 1PM which means a long lunch hour this afternoon.

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Back from a great time in Albany for the screening of Mathematically Alive and being part of a panel which consisted of the filmmakers Joseph Coburn and Kathy Foronjy along with Mike Silva of Gotham Baseball Live and author Matt Silverman. The movie was shown to a packed house and after the movie we took questions from fellow Mets fans in the audience. After the screening we headed over to Valentines to enjoy Howard Glassman and his band Grainbelt, Glassman by the way reminds me a lot of John Hiatt who I am a huge fan of. Valentines is my kind of gin mill and before I went on the wagon (12 years now) I’d have done some serious drinking in a place like that.   A big thank you to Kathy and Joe for the invite and to all the fans that came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed reading this site. 

I’m looking forward to Wednesday night when Kathy and Joe will our guests on SPORTSALKNY  at 9PM EDT.  Folks if you call yourself a Mets fan you must add this DVD to your collection. It goes right next to your 1969, 1986 World Series and “Get Metsmerized “ tapes and DVD.

The Mets need Barry Bonds like Britney Spears needs another baby.  Just read the story in this week’s SI on how the SF Giants clubhouse is a more relaxed and happier place now that Bonds is no longer taking up four lockers with his arrogance and all around asshole personality. Not only don’t the Mets need Bonds as he can’t play the field anymore but he is to emotionally fragile to handle NYC.

Hey Mike Pelfrey, time to man up son. I’m not too concerned with the runs he gave up yesterday but the walks are what bother me. Pelfrey cannot leave his pitches up in the zone and keep pitching from behind. Plus I’m starting to question if he has the guts to make it in the big leagues. This is a golden opportunity for Pelfery to show that he is the guy that belongs in the rotation over El Duque.  El Duque , with his new delivery has sent word to Pelfrey that HE is the man for the fifth spot in this rotation so now it’s up to Pelfrey to say “Fuck you old man” and prove that the spot his. Pelfrey’ next start will the biggest of his life.

Little by little the walking wounded are coming back to the Mets lineup. Ryan Church had two hits yesterday and Duaner Sanchez while not showing great velocity at least took to the mound.  Damien Easley played as did Brian Schneider and Marlon Anderson and today Jose Valentin . I’ll be more relived when I see Carlos Delgado and Luis Castillo on the field.

“Hi, I’m Joe Girardi, you know when I get “my friend comes to visit”  I use Tampax tampons in fact Tampax is the official tampon of the New York Highlanders”

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Hey don’t worry it’s early. What you’re shocked that Moises Alou got hurt? Please. Oh and for anyone thinking that Ray Ramirez or anyone on the training staff is responsible for any of these injuries you’re so far off base. Take it from an “old guy” when body parts breakdown after the age of 35 they do not heal fast.   Anyone one want the under on that 4-6 week return for Alou? Not me. If you see Alou in left field by the first day of summer (June 21^st) I’d be shocked, SHOCKED!!!!!

So where does the outfield stand? No one will say it  but I’ll throw it out there. Why not let Fernando Martinez start the season as the Mets left fielder? Yes I know he’s 19 and he’s a lefty bat but you’re not dealing from strength now if you’re the Mets. You think the Cubs or the Orioles will send Matt Murton or Kevin Millar for Jorge Sosa and/or Scott Schonewiese? If they do then I’m on board for a deal like that and send F-Mart to Nawlins but why not sit this young man down and explain to him that due the epidemic of old mans disease we are going to let you start the season with the big club. Explain to him you are not here to carry the team but to be a “hold the fort guy” until Grandpa Moises is ready to assume the position.

If you can get a Wavier wire dump off like Andy Phillips or a Jorge Cantu or a player of that ilk then fine send young Fernando down to the Triple A farm but if I’m the GM  I’m  not ready to deal off pitching for a 4^th or 5^th outfielder just yet.

If Martinez is all he is written up to be, not just full of talent but mature beyond his 19 years then I bet he could handle this temporary promotion. I’m sure he would understand that if not for the epidemic of injuries this wouldn’t even be a thought in anyone’s mind but due to the circumstances let the kid play.

Don;’t forget tomorrow night I’ll be in Albany NY for a screening of the award winning ‘documentary Mathematically Alive at The Linda located at 339 Central Avenue. After the screening there will be a panel discussion and a Q & A session as well. I hope to meet some of you folks that read this site and to mingle with my fellow Mets fans.    

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I’m sure you’re as sick of reading about injuries as I am writing about them but the main theme of spring training 2008 for the Mets is not just injuries but injuries that will linger throughout the season. The team to beat in the NL so far looks like a team that will be without its major players come the 31st of this month in Miami

Omar Minaya has to stop downplaying the injury factor as so this spring. Every inquiry about the walking wounded gets the same response “We’re not concerned” which is such bullshit.

Carlos Beltran is nowhere near ready to play in fact the way he’s talking I don’t see him starting the season any place but the disabled list:

{ “When you have surgery, you lose all the muscle in your quads, everything goes away,” Beltran said. “Because the knees are fixed, the sensation of tendinitis I was having, I don’t have any more. But if I don’t strengthen my quads, then all the pounding is going to be in the knees, and I’m going to aggravate the knees again.”

As Beltran spoke, he demonstrated with his legs, showing how they might get tangled up and put his knees at risk. For everything that he has done so far, it’s the high-impact activities that worry Beltran the most. Bel.tran says he’s fine in the batter’s box because of the hitting program he began while in Puerto Rico this winter.

That would be fine if Beltran was a DH. As a centerfielder, there are other concerns. Beltran shagged fly balls Tuesday, but there’s one hitch: He can run in a straight line, but stopping is a challenge. And he can’t plant his feet to make a throw.

“The problem in the outfield is the stop-and-go, when I have to stop and turn,” Bel.tran said. “I can run, but I can’t stop way out there. Also, when you run the bases, sometimes you’ve got to stop real quick, and that’s a problem right now. I don’t feel confident doing it.”}What we know about Beltran during his Mets career is he will not play unless he feels 100 % so that’s why I see Angel Pagan starting in center field on opening day. Add Marcus Thames name to the list of right handed hitters the Mets are looking at. Thames has power and plays both corner outfield positions and some first base. Mets are dangling Schonenweies, Sosa and Joe Smith as trade chum.Here is how bad the spring injury epidemic has gone for the Mets we are relived that Ruben Gotay only has a sprained ankle than a broken ankle.El Duque is trying out a new leg kick that won’t put as much pressure on his bunion. And guess what? Duaner Sanchez will not pitch again today versus the Dodgers. He has not pitched since last Friday. And of course there is nothing to worry about here.If you got ‘em you can’t smoke ‘em at Shea this year.

Don’t forget SPORTSTALKNY tonight at 9PM check us out at USTREAM

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As per Adam Rubin here is a list of causalities from St Lonesome:

Ruben Gotay-Early report is a broken ankle (you can’t make this stuff up) but official word will come after CT scan comes back from the photomat

Duaner Sanchez- Dirty hasn’t tossed a ball since Friday but claims he will pitch tomorrow against the Hollywood Bums. Oh he’s fine what the hell it’s only four days since he last pitched but it’s early right?

Ryan Church-”the bells of hell ring ding-a-ling-a ling for you but not for me”. Still a little woozy but feels he can start doing baseball activity in a few days.

Luis Castillo-Will run the bases today. Might have oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow.

Jose Valentin-No where near ready to play baseball but hey it’s beats working for a living

Damion Easley- Close to returning. I’m close to retiring

Marlon Anderson-Went from having the wind knocked out of him to can’t swing a bat. Still early right?

Carlos Delgado-waiting for Botox shipment. Still can’t do the hippy-hippy shake. Not a problem because we have the phenom Michel (my bell) Abreu. What? He’s hurt what?

Michel Abreu- In solidarity with Delgado he has a strained hip flexor. Well there is always Olmedo Saenz……….uh anyone seen Olmedo?

Olmedo Saenz-Not injured but no working visa (Tony Armas Jr and Fernando Taits also) This fucking infuriates me. What the fuck do these guys do all winter? They know they need a visa to play ball in this country and every year a player can’t compete due to visa problems. Un-fucking-believable. Meanwhile I can go to Port Richmond Ave here on Staten Island and hire about 50 0 Mexicans to build a house. Visa? We don’t need no stinikn’ visa.

Endy Chavez-Working visa? Check. Healthy ankle? No Ah don’t worry it’s early!

Carlos Beltran- Knee is about 78.6 % healthy he may be able to go once it hits 97.3 % healthy.

El Duque-Working on a new delivery because his bunion hurts. He’d never make it as a mail man that’s for sure. Wants to be ready to go in game 4 of the NLDS. Not to worry.

Omar Minaya-Last seen with an ice pack on his right ear from staing on the phone so long trying to find a backup right handed hitting first baseman and right handed hitting corner outfielder. The names Kevin Millar, Josh Phelps, Aaron (Fuckin’) Boone, Nomar Garciapara, Robb Quinlan, Jorge Cantu, Andy Phillips, X Nady, Matt Murton, Wily Mo Pena, Craig Monroe and Victor Diaz (remember him?) Come up in conversation.

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Omar, you want to move Jorge Sosa and Scott Schienweise? Then call down to Andy McPhail and get Kevin Millar. It solves firstbase, outfield and the righty bat and a big time dirt bag-grit as we hockey fans like to say-  that is soooooooo needed.

Make it rain Omar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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