It looks as though a change in pitching coach is immanent as there are a couple of stories in the papers today on the gag order placed on Rick Peterson. In order to speak to Peterson you have to go through Jay Horowitz to get which means you don’t get to speak to Peterson to ask him what his routine is with Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez? What kind of work has he done with Aaron Heilman and Jorge Sosa to get them on track? What is the problem with those underachieving players since it doesn’t look to be physical? Is he able to relate to them? Has he reached a wall with the guys like John Maine, Perez and Pelfrey? We will never find out because of the gag order but this much is true, Peterson’s days as Mets pitching coach are near the end.

Howard Mengal is an Oliver Perez fan and so am I and his article in the New York Observer is a must read. I’m not ready to give up on OP I just want someone other than Rick Peterson to look at him. There is too much of a live arm to give up on and I was in favor of Billy Wagner giving him a good swift kick in the ass and it’s an indictment of Peterson that Wagner has to be the one to straighten out OP.

Matt Wise is just about ready to be activated from the DL and question is who goes when he does. It would be a shame if Joe Smith gets bounced just because he has options over Jorge Sosa who has been totally ineffective but is making $2mil. I don’t know if Angel Pagan has any options but if he does do you drop a position player to add an 8^th reliever? Sounds crazy but the way Willie uses the pen, it might be a plan.

The Mets are looking at Derrick Turnbow recently released by the Brewers. Hey if it’s a minor league deal what the hell?

I don’t want to sound like a little whinny Ranger fan but if your Gary Bettman how can you be happy with the way yesterday’s Rangers-Penguins game (the whole series for that matter) was officiated?   Chris Drury gets his face spilt open by Ryan Malone’s stick and the assholes in stripes and an arm band (Marc Joannette and Brad Watson) make no call. What’s worse was the mannequin behind the Ranger bench Tom Renny a guy who makes Willie Randolph look like Earl Weaver does nothing. Drury then clips Malone who drew a trickle of blood and he gets a four minute minor so the clueless refs let that become the defying moment in the game as the Rangers were done after that kill as the overtime session started. It’s time now for Slats Sather to clean out the house a bit with the first move being his retirement so that Mark Messier can take over the hockey operation. I’ve been a big critic of Slats but  I’ll give the invisible GM his due he has left the Ranger organIzation  with lots of good young talent. Good bye Jagr and Shanny thanks for all you’ve done for the organIzation but it’s time for more new blood. Messier needs to take this team to the next level and find a coach with a fucking pulse and some passion.

Thank you  Boston Celtics for finally showing up and doing what should have been done in four games. Hopefully Doc Rivers will let Tom Thibodeau lock the team in the film room and pound playing the defense that made this a great season in their heads as the take on the Cleveland LeBrons. Please C’s get this done in no more than six games.

Some bulldog out of Johan Santana, bad luck for Joe Smith and a GREAT game for Willie Randolphtops off an uplifting 2 of 3 from the Snakes in Phoenix for the Mets. Santana didn’t have his best effort

Just a quick post today as I have a 12 noon game and my Little League team has lost three in a row so I want to get out early to give mandatory infield/outfield in fact I have my trusty fungo bat right next to me. Between my LL’ers not grasping the idea of fundamentals in the field and my Boston Celtics looking very old in losing game 6 last night in Atlanta (fine league you have there David Stern with crooks like Tim Donaghy and the incompetent Joey Crawford employed as referee’s ) as the Hawks took the ball to the hole and made the C’s look about two steps to slow. Anyway the Mets looked like a different team last night in Phoenix than the one that left Shea Stadium a couple of days ago.

Uh Oh I think I stared something here. First I’m reading Adam Rubin story in the Daily News today where he mentions that Rick Peterson is on a very shaky ground with Mets management:
{With a 14-12 record, the Mets aren’t really in dire straits, despite Wednesday’s three-error monstrosity. But with a nearly $140 million investment, and with talk-radio chatter already fomenting about whether Randolph and Minaya ought to lose their jobs, it’s worth wondering whether the first casualty may actually be pitching coach Rick Peterson if the team’s underachieving ways continue.
Hitting coach Rick Down lost his job at the All-Star break last season, when he was replaced on the staff by Rickey Henderson. And there was high-level disenchantment with Peterson at the end of 2007, enough so that his job status was briefly murkier than Randolph’s. With Oliver Perez’s five-walk, 1-2/3-inning performance against Pittsburgh and Mike Pelfrey yet to blossom, and with Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan getting so much out of an unheralded staff in St. Louis, Peterson’s resume doesn’t look so gleaming anymore.
Consider also that there are four credible alternatives already in the organization: Triple-A pitching coach Dan Warthen, who returned to the Mets after serving as bullpen coach on Grady Little’s Dodgers staff; Double-A Binghamton pitching coach and rising star Ricky Bones; minor-league pitching coordinator Rick Waits; and rehab coordinator Randy Niemann.}

As I said last week it may be time to get a new voice for the pitching staff to listen to. Looks like a change will happen soon as you see Rubin already has names under discussion by the Mets. This is no blind item this info had to be given to Rubin. I still like my choice of Bobby Ojeda who coached in the organization and more importantly has won as a Mets pitcher and is the complete opposite of Peterson in personality and pitching approach.
Now Tim Marchaman takes it a step further and writes that it’s time to dump Willie in a scathing indictment on Randolph’s ability to lead:
{That they haven’t expressed that talent in its fullness is in the end the fault of the players, not the jeering Queens fans, drive time hosts, bloggers, or even the manager. The manager, though, is the one whose sole job is to ensure that the team that physically takes the field is as good as the team that’s on the lineup card. In this, Randolph has failed in concrete ways, and shows no prospect of or capacity for improvement. Every day the Wilpon family and Omar Minaya keep him in his job is a day they do a bit more to show themselves as unfit for their jobs as Randolph has proved for his.}

Thanks to Rubin and Marchman for making my job a little easier.

Brian Schneider is still hurting from the staph infection in his thumb but for whatever reason the Mets still refuse to put him on the15 day DL even though he has not played in eight day so the most he would miss is the D’Backs series and the Dodger series. So far Raul Casanova and Gustavo Molina have done a nice job filling so just why hasn’t Omar put Schneider on the DL? The wheels are really starting to fall of here in what looks like a crash and burn of the Minaya era.
 

So here we are at the beginning of May and Willie’s Guys are two games better than mediocre which is what they were for the bulk of the 2007 season so nothing much has changed. It’s easy to kill Ollie Perez for yesterday’s debacle and from the roar of Billy Wags it seems his teammates are losing patients with his attention deficit disorder (as Wags states in the paper today the difference between talking to Ollie and a wall is the wall understands what you’re saying)

As bad as Ollie was 9 of the 13 runs the Pirates scored were UNEARNED as the defense went in to brain fart mode. Some of that I will attribute to playing behind a guy who can’t find the strike zone as fielders tend to go back on their heels when it’s ball after ball after ball  but from the get go the whole team just looked like the last place they wanted to be yesterday at 1PM was at Shea Stadium.

Now it’s on to Arizona and I have a very bad feeling about the next three games in Phoenix (as does Billy Wags who is getting more and more frustrated and said in the paper that the Mets “don’t match up” with the D’Backs.) The ship may not be sinking but it sure looks to be taking on water.

After the D’Backs the Mets go to LA where the Dodgers are starting to get it together so in the next six games what do you think the Mets record will be in those games?  Put me down for 2-4 as little by little Willie Randolph is losing this team.  Randolph has to find a way to get through to his team before all is lost. If not their will be a new voice in the Mets dugout before Memorial Day.

I’m sure Nelson Figueroa’ stature sky rocketed yesterday in the Mets clubhouse as he strapped it on for the team going 3 innings after pitching just two days ago. You would think Ollie would learn a lesson form Figgy but from what your hearing out the Mets clubhouse teaching Perez anything is a lost cause.

I felt Randolph should have gone with Aaron Heillman after Figgy yesterday instead of using Sosa and Feliciano not only to give Heilman the opportunity to work out his problems but to stretch out his arm so he could move to more of a longer relief roll.

I guess it was time for my American Idol crush, Brooke White to go as she has not finished strong  by missing lyrics and singing some awful songs (by the way this has been one lousy season of AI Dolly Patron, Andrew Lloyd Weber, and even Brooklyn’s own Neil Diamond were dreadful how about a Pantera or Uriah Heep night ?)  but how does that little girly boy Jason Castro survive each week?)

A huge tip of the Mets cap to AwfulAnnoucing for the video of Little Man Bob and Bugsy Buzz as they attack truth justice and the American way. After the show Little Man and Bugsy drowned kittens in East River. My offer of a good old fashion Brooklyn ass kicking still stands for Costas if I ever see him in midtown. I’d go after Bugsy Buzz as well but he’s elderly and that’s just not right even by blogger standards.

By the way Braylon Edwards has contacted Al Sharpton for a march on HBO’s studios as he had to witness two angry old white men spew hate.    

The last thing the Mets needed was an extra inning game last night with a day game today but that’s what they got after Jose Reyes ‘ throwing error set the Pirates up to tie the game in the 9^th and of course no Mets game is complete with the daily Cavalcade of Relievers as it was a six reliever night for Willie’s Guys to pick up a win.

If it weren’t bad enough that last nights rain out messes up this weekends pitching rotation it also let this ridiculous controversy over Carlos Delgado and Curtain Call-gate percolate.  Again I’ll state my position here as Pro-Delgado. Fans have every right to boo and as I’ve stated in the past as well I have never booed a player for any team I root for (why boo when I can kill them here) but as a fan it’s your right to voice your displeasure but fans have to remember you get what you give. You tell a guy he sucks over and over again and then when he does something positive, you want love. Like I said I applaud Delgado for not giving in and waving to the masses, if it were me I’d drop trou and give you my ass to kiss.

Look NYC is a very tough place to play and it does take some inner toughness to make it here. Just look at Eli Manning. This guy was roasted more than anyone on the Mets could ever  think of getting kicked around but now after winning the Super Bowl and be named the MVP he’s untouchable. Same with Lawrence Taylor or Phil Sims. How about Joe Namath or Mark Messier or Brain Leetch, or Adam Graves or Mike Richter or Tom Seaver or Keith Hernandez or Mookie Wilson or Lenny Dykstra or Wally Backman or Darryl Strawberry or Willis Reed or Walt “Clyde” Frazier  or Patrick Ewing or John Starks or Paul O’Neil or David Cone or Don Mattingly. Some of these guys have won and some didn’t but what they all did was go out and play balls to wall. You can’t go through the motions in this city because this city’s sports fans will put a foot so far up your ass you’ll have the Nike “swish” on your tongue.

As much as has been made about the Mets fans behavior the Mets players need to grow a pair and stop the “oh woe is me” bullshit and that’s the fault of Willie Randolph. You think Jim Leyland would put up with that? How about old Dallas Green YIKES! I can’t ask a guy to be something he’s not but at some point Randolph needs to get his team together and tell them if you’re worried about the fans booing, then your not really concentrating on what you need to be doing., and that is a big problem with this team, they lose focus and it’s up to Randolph to straighten them out. 

The Curley Haired Douche Bag (CHDB a/k/a Fillip Bondy) has TWO Mets columns today. I guess he tried to slip in a few extra receipts for Summers Eve on his Daily News expense account past Leon Carter and this is his (and our) punishment.

The first column was on Jane Jarvis and her departure from the Shea scene. Now we all know the Mets are the least creative team in sports when it comes to marketing the team and events at the ball park but you would think someone would have the idea of letting Lady Jane play the organ for one last weekend of the Final Season at Shea.  On that same note, why no Old Timers Day this year? Are they saving it for the final home game? Do the Skill Sets know what a great event it would be to bring back every player (still breathing that is) who wore a Mets uni to Shea? You could even have a weekend for fans when the Mets are on the road where you open Shea and let fans walk on the outfield and have a catch with kids or other fans (no baseballs of course wiffle balls or Spaldeens only) set up photo ops in the dugout and bring down the two World Series Trophy’s for the photos. Set up autograph tables with as many former Mets players as you can get. On the DiamondVision show all the great moments in Mets history and have fans send in their own memories of Shea. Open the concessions and charge 1964 prices (they could do this for a couple of games as well) and what ever money the Skill Sets make give it all to different charities around the city. A weekend like this would be a huge success and maybe work towards alleviating all the bad blood and negativity between the fans and the team.

It was nice of the Mets to give out foam fingers yesterday as the finger the fans have been using so far this season was cramping up. There were no fingers extended yesterday as it was also Turn Back The Clock Day as Carlos Delgado went Blue Jay on the Braves yesterday with two round trippers. Kudos to Delgado for NOT stepping out of the dugout for a curtain call I have more respect for him now that he DIDN’T come out than if he did. Seriously Mets fans, what do you expect, the guy gets the shit booed out of him and fans call up Joe Bada Bing and his little side kick to scream that he’s finished and then you want him to take a bow? If I were Delgado I’d come out waving my own foam finger.

Two out of three from the Braves is nice but now the Mets must dominate the Bucs and take three from them. Tonight’s game looks like a wash out especially with Johan Santana getting the start against object of my off season affection Ian Snell, so it looks like a two game series coming up. You want to go in with guns blazing this weekend into Phoenix and then LA where you can prove to your fan base that you’re a legit contender so until I see what our Mets do this weekend I’ll save my finger waving.

What you’re surprised about the latest injury news on Moises Alou? Alou is in Manhattan today to get an MRI on his left ankle that reports say is fractured. So now, get used to seeing Chavez Pagan in LF.

Matt Wise, Paging Matt Wise!

Second straight start for Figgy that he could not get past 5 innings but at least this one was a win. In his last 10 1/3 IP Nelson Figueroa has given up 14 hits 6 runs all earned and walked 8 and K’d 5. That’s why Claudio Vargas has been promoted to NOLA.

I’m not ready to offer a full apology to Omar Minaya over the Lasting Milledge-Ryan Church, Brian Schneider deal yet but I’m coming close. Schneider can’t stay on the field but when he does he has handled the pitching staff well but Church has really surprised the hell out of me. Yesterday’s catch was a game saver and his bat has been the saving grace so far this season. Hey sometimes I’m wrong about shit okay!

You would think that Ramon Castro would get his fat ass in gear with the sudden surge from Raul Casanova to get back and regain his backup catcher’s job. Castro never ever rises to the challenge when either Mike Piazza or Paul LoDuca went down with injuries. If anything, pick up a first base mans glove and show some damn initiative

As per Neil Best, he was at the Tribeca Film Festival and watched a film made by three NYU Students called “The Zen of Bobby V’ in which the three film makers followed Bobby Valentine for eight months in Japan. This film will air on ESPN May 13^th

This weeks MVP, Cy Young and ROY voting at Baseball Happenings is for the NL here is the way my vote went:

    NL MVP  1. Chase Utley 2. Hanley Ramirez  3. Brandon Webb With 20 extra base hits (10 HR’s) and an outlandish 1.236 OPS and Hanley Ramirez leading the first place Fish it kills this Mets fan to write their names 1-2 in this weeks MVP voting. Brandon Webb needs for the Snakes to start their games a 4PM so the East Coast can get a glimpse of this super pitcher. NL Cy Young 1. Brandon Webb 2. Tim Lincecum 3. Carlos Zambrano No Johan Santana? Not with the way these three have been pitching. NL ROY 1. Joey Votto 2. Kosuke Fukudome 3. Geovony Soto Since Fukudome is eligible for the award I have to give him a vote but Vovtto goes first for doing more in the less at bats.  

Didn’t see the games yesterday but it looks like John Maine is OK as he may have just had a cramp in the forearm but it took five pitchers to close out the last four innings of the game YIKES!

Nice interview by Wayne Coffey in the Daily News today with Davey Johnson especially the revelation that someone in the organization (Davey doesn’t say who) change Dwight Goodens delivery as they were worried about him not being adept in holding runs on. Johnson’s claim is it wasn’t him or pitchiching coach at the time Mel Stotlemeyer who did this.

The Klapper hits one out of the park today with his assement of Randolph and Minaya both on-the hot seat and how the Skill Sets will want to see a more competitive team by June 1st or heads will roll. Klapper hits the mood of Randolph on the head when he says he’s joyless. Those post game presser are depressing.

Mark Hermann sticks up for Mets fans for showing more passion than the team they root for.

Welcome back to the set up role Dirty Duaner.

I hope Willie Randolph took a lesson from Bobby Cox on Friday night when Cox went out and took a bullet for his team and his rookie pitcher Jair Jurrgens. Jurrgens was a victim of one of the worst umpires in baseball Tim “Look at me, Look at me” Mc Clelland when he missed a strike out that would have gotten Jurrgens out of a jam. The way Cox, who has two very bad wheels ran out as he was shot from a cannon must have had Mets players looking at Randolph wondering when he will do something like this.