You could say with a half descent bullpen behind him, there would have been a first time press conference at $iti Field today to announce Johan Santana as the 2008 NL Cy Young Award winner but instead the award goes to the Frisco Phenom Tim Lincecum and it’s hard to argue the choice. I know it really doesn’t matter who comes in 2nd or 3rd in these awards contests but how could 9 voters not give Santana either a 2nd or 3rd place vote?

Allan Schwartz has a piece in the NY Times today about the Mets finding it tough to get rid of the dead wood that wash up on the shores of Flushing Bay that became the 2007 Mets bullpen. As much as I’m a Aaron Heilman fan his time in NY has come and gone he really needs a new start and I’m sure there is a team out there that would trade for him to stick in the back of their rotation as he does have some nasty movement on his pitches and he’s cheap. Scott Schoenweis could be dealt as well due to the fact he throws baseballs with his left arm. Not very effectively but left handed just the same. Duaner Sanchez if not traded should just be non-tender he is ineffective and just too goddamn lazy for me. That three relievers gone without even me getting up off my couch and laptop so how hard could it be for Omar to dump these guys? Tip of the Mets cap to Eagle for the link.

We all agree that the Mets bullpen has to be demolished and built back up. So before I detonate the TNT and blast it away to oblivion, the following relievers please step forward:

Pedro Feliciano

Brandon Knight

Joe Smith

Please leave to blasting area and enjoy your winter, See you in St. Lonesome in February.

The rest of you. SYA-FUCKING-NARA

Okay, now who do I want Omar to go after? I’m a Brian Fuentes fan and I wouldn’t mind signing him to close but he would be a fall back candidate and we all know Fuentes and K-Rod (his stock is dropping like he was listed on the Dow Jones) will not sign a dotted line until they meet with the Mets. Fuentes had a fine season and would come much cheaper than K-Rod. Fuentes had a WHIP of 1.10 (K-Rod 1.28) and his BB/K were 22/82 in 62 2/3 IP (K-Rod 34/74 BB/K in 68 IP) Fuentes has command of a fastball and slider that would look awfully good in the Mets pen.

The other free agent I’d go after is a no brainer Juan Cruz. Cruz size wise reminds me of former Mets reliever Tom “The Blade” Hall but pitching wise Cruz has exactly what is missing in the Mets pen that has been manned by to slop tossers, a flamethrower.

Another pitcher who would look handsome in Mets Blue and Orange is D-Backs reliever Chad Qualls. Qualls has fabulous size at 6’5 220 lbs and he’s a workhorse. Last year he appeared in 77 games and pitched 73 2/3 innings. His BB/K was a sterling 18/71 with a WHIP of 1.07. Qualls avoided arbitration last year by signing a 1yr/$1.3 mil deal and he could more than that triple that this year. With the D-Backs counting pennies and the Skill Sets shitting $100 bills I’m sure Omar could work his magic in a deal for the much needed Qualls.

Now my SLEEPER pick for this off season would take a deal to get and it might be a bit costly but I would almost (ALMOST) invoke a moratorium of my attacks on the Skill Sets if Omar could acquire Matt Capps from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Capps had 21 saves for the lowly Bucos and in 53 2/3 IP his BB/K mark is 5/39 That’s right FIVE walks in just under 54 IP add to that a WHIP of 0.97 and that Capps is 25 years old and raw boned I would do whatever is necessary to bag Capps. I’d go as far as to find a way to add LHP John Grabow in the deal I’d seriously look at putting F-Mart, Nick Evans and Luis Castillo with a book of blank checks in his pocket from the Skill Sets account   which the Pirates could use to pay Gimp every two weeks You could sweet talk the Bucs into adding a another prospect, you know be creative I’m sure Omar and Neal Huntington can work something out.

I’m happy with the re-sign of Fernando Tatis and I’m sure we could all live with a  Murphy/Tatis LF platoon. The bench needs strengthen and versaliliaty so Omar needs to land either Willie Bloomquist (my choice) Jerry Hairston Jr. or Felipe Lopez to the every man on the bench.

Yes I want a new number catcher and you all know of my crush on Pierzynski but I’ll say this as well; as great as he was in the second half last year I will be disappointed if Carlos Delgado is the opening day first baseman. He proved us all wrong last year but he needs to go. It’s not personnel it’s business. As great as Delgado was I still look at him as a “Me” guy and not a “We” guy and if D-Wright is going to become the leader if this franchise and its face then 2009 is the place to start. It seems that Delgado is the voice in that clubhouse, a clubhouse that gagged two years in a row so if Omar, Tony B, J-Man and Jeffey want to get peoples attention then they need to ship Delgado out pronto.

I wanted desperately to go to bed but I was I got to involved in last night’s late night with the Used Car Salesman and now I have to scramble as if it’s  Sunday it must be High School Open House Day as I have to go with my son to two more schools on his list.  So ‘ll be brief. Very sloppy game on both sides with bad base running and errors with the Rays not living up to their rep of top fielders and strong bullpen and the Upton run scored reminded me of little league but the game was compelling and I guess MLB had no choice but to start the game at 10PM but I doubt to many people stayed up for the end unless they were coming home from a night of partying.

Saw this today that the Fish are looking to deal Kevin Gregg and though tif not a closer for the Mets a great 8th inning guy and the Mets and Fish have worked deals before so I’m sure Omar will be dialing Larry Beinfest. Or one would hope

If anything came up as a positive last night that the Phelatios won the NL Pennant it’s that the flame that was close to Omar Minaya ass to make his team better just turned into a blow torch. I ‘ve read a lot about who should go, who should come back and who the Mets should go after but as much as we Mets fans want to see some movement immediately nothing will happen until after the World  Series and after the free agency grace period. As far as the bullpen I would say you won’t see any action on that until December to see what players are offered arbitration and who doesn’t as the non-tendered list should bring something of substance to the beleaguered pen. This process will be take a while to play out and I’d say to all Mets fans to be patient but I know better than to go that route.

I am staring to fee bad for Mike Francesa. Here was a guy who was on top of the sports talk food chain and now has become as relevant as a rotary telephone. It’s hard to get mad at his Anti-David Wright rant yesterday as I feel more embarrassed for him than pissed. To say that David Wright is not a five tool player and that “every team in baseball has a David Wright “ is so over the top stupid it was like listening to a drunk at a dinner party slur his words and spit his food. WFAN has tried to do everything to save Mike’d Up as they see that Francesa by himself can not carry a show (just like Derek Jeter can’t carry a team by himself) and Program Director Mark Chernoff has trotted in just about all of the talent the station has to find a match. So far Joe Beningno has been the best of the lot with surprisingly Evan Roberts putting up a good showing as well. Kim Jones was good to but Mike was treating her like it was his sister and not a colleague and the biggest disappointment was Chris Carlin who was dreadful but I digress, it seems most of the callers and posters on MikeFrancesa.com feel that this attack on Wright is personal. A caller brought this up to Francesa and he acted in his typical rude way. For Francesa to diss Wright as he has in belittling his ability not only in the field but at bat (at one point in the day, Francesca said that Wright’s 33 HR’s and 124 RBI meant nothing and that Wright was an awful 3^rd baseman which if a blogger wrote that they would be laughed at and their site never heard from again) .

It sad because as much as I would bitch about how out of touch Francesa is I listen every day at work and I’ve always found his analysis spot on for the most part, but now I see a guy who looks ready for a nervous breakdown and who misses his partner more than he will ever let on. 

Mike Silva has a post on this Francesa Fiasco at his always informitive NY Baseball Digest site 

R.I.P. Tom Tresh. I remember getting one of his bats at bat day at Highlander Stadium as a little kid and having my friends beg me for it looking to trade me a Ron Woods bat for a Tresh bat and when I wouldn’t budge on the deal being called a “stupid fucking Mets fan” which is funny because those same friends still call me that to this day.  

Joel Sherman in his Hardball Blog writes on how Larry Bowa enjoyed working with Manny Ramirez and how Bowa is rumored to be headed back to the Highlanders. If Bowa is looking to leave LA why doesn’t Omar grab him to coach 3^rd base? A Bowa type is sorely needed and Bowa did play for the Mets. Okay that one was a stretch but I would love to see Bowa waving home runners at third for the Mets.

Here’s what I took from last night’s Presidential debate. If you were going to jump off a building, Barrack Obama would talk you out of leaping to your death. John Mc Cain on the other hand seems like he would yell “Will you fucking jump already!!!

What a mess. I mean it is so difficult to sit down and watch games that should be closed out and put in the win column just to be pissed  away by incompetent relief pitching. I thought yesterday we finally saw the frustration of Warlord Jerry when he used both Aaron Heilman who should just be sent home at this point and told wait for notification of a trade to a new team and for using Mush Schoeneweis against right handed hitting Omar Infante.  It’s hard for me to kill J-Man here as the Mets were not facing Murder’s Row here but a team playing out the string in the Braves, but right now J-Man has to go strictly with a platoon of relievers the rest of the week in order for the Mets to have a chance of post season play. Right now I would like you to click here and read Howard Megdal piece in today’s New York Observer on the state of the bullpen and how J-Man has to mix and match. Read that now I’ll wait,  then meet me in the next paragraph.

Good stuff from Howard right? Ok now here is how I would manage this fucking mess of a bullpen. My two late inning guys now are Luis Ayala and Bobby Parnell. Ayala is the best of the slop and Parnell right now is the only guy in that pen who can throw a fastball with any authority.  From there I’d team up my pitchers like hockey defensemen:

LHP Schoeneweis                             RHP Smith

LHP Rincon                                      RHP Stokes

LHP Feliciano                                   RHP Figueroa

Those are my mix and match specialists and then I’d use Bobby Parnell and Luis Ayala to close.

We really should be getting ready for a great week at Shea Stadium with all kinds of memories and great festivities and looking forward to the post season but after this latest road trip 3-4 road trip this team is really wearing me out.

I’ve about had it with people blaming the Mets offense for not taking on late innings runs. Yes it is quite frustrating to see men on base with less than 2 out and not score a run but the Mets offense is averaging 5 runs a game if that’s not enough to win then you don’t deserve the make the post season. I don’t know how guys like David Wright, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran keep their cool as I would have called out every rag armed fuck in that bullpen by now for not stepping up and doing their job.

I watched the eerie/strange ceremonies at the last game at Highlander Stadium some observations:

Having people dressed like the 1923 Highlanders was very very odd and creepy. Instead of actors maybe they should have gone with pinstriped coffins for the deceased players and lined them up on the warning track.

Most disturbing was the sons of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin,  Roger Maris and Thurman Munson come out in full uniform

Wade Boggs is the perfect example of you are what you eat

No Joe Pepitone

No Roger Clemens

 No one from the Kekich/Peterson Families

No one from the Peterson/Kekich Families

No Howie Spira

And no one from Joe DiMaggio’s family

After seeing the happiness exhibited by Willie Randolph I offer an apology to the Skill Sets and Omar Minaya, not only am I now happy you fired him like you did, I wish you waited until he feel asleep then woke him up and fired him. Yes I am fucking bitter. Word to Joe Giradi-watch you r back

My first memory of this Highlander  Stadium was of going in 1976 (I consider this Highlander Stadium II because it has no resemblance to the original Highlander Stadium which I was visited in 1968 for the first time for Bat Day with about 10 of my friends) in a 1966 White Caddy Coup with red interior with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath blaring out of the cars 8 track  while cruising into on of the off site parking lots and having the citizens of 158 St trying to figured what the fuck these crazy white boys were up to.

I also went to the 1977 All Star game but details are very sketchy of that due to heavy alcohol consumptions.

No mention of St. Joseph of Torre or of Donnie Baseball. CLASSLESS!

It looks like the Highlanders are grooming Bernie Williams for the Greatest Living Highlander title as he was introduced last. Should have been Yogi’s honor.

I kill Captain Craptastic a lot but he was great at the end of the game with his eloquent address to the crowd and leading his team around the stadium for one last lap. CLASSY!

If the Bravos showed as much guts against the rest of the NL as they did for the Mets they might still be I the thick of a pennant race Mike Gonzalez is an a number one ass clown.

Ah!!!!! why can‘t they all be like last nights game. No irritable bowels. No wretching. Just pleasure watching your ACE take car of business. Oh and muchas gracias to Geovany Soto for that three run bomb in the 9^th yesterday. The cuchifritos are on me baby.

I read a lot of stuff and I write down a lot of stuff and stuff just flies into my spacious head so here is some of that stuff in no order or no rhyme or reason:

The Mets are scaring the living shit out me with their treatment of John Maine. The more I keep hearing that he can’t do further damage to his shoulder the more I feel he will be making a trip to Dr Andrews office in the near future. Just goes to show that the fans, manager and front office have no faith at all in the bullpen.

Now don’t tell me that you won’t go after K-Rod because it may cost too much. Don’t lay that bullshit excuse on me. I’m not totally sold on signing K-Rod but it has nothing to do with money, as the Skill Sets are making enough money to bail out a bunch of mortgage lenders. Even if you think the money K-Rod will be asking is outlandish please for once blow a little smoke up my ass, and tell me the bullpen will be upgraded by any means necessary.

There has to be more to the release of Al Reyes than saying it was loss of velocity.

Looks like Gimp Castillo will be the getting the bulk of the playing time at 2^nd base. I love Argenis Reyes’ glove and his pluck but Castillo is league average in the field and he’s a better bat. Even though Brain Schneider hit two bombs last night, the 7-8-9 in the Mets line up is a black hole, and puts tons of pressure on the guys ahead of them and that’s a big part of the Mets late inning offensive woes.

I told you this week during my morning walk to work as I got to Wall St,  Boulevard of Broken Dreams was on my iPod. Today when I passed there my iPod died. I need to find a new route to work.

How much will it bother you if the Mets make the post season as the Wild Card rather than NL East Champs? Last week it bugged me but the more I look at to paraphrase that Crazy Old Bastard who runs the Oakland Raiders, “Just Make The Post Season Baby”.

Shout out to Kathy Foronjy. I swear to God I am going to take fucking hostages at the Dunkin’ Dounts on Murray St some day. First I was shocked as there were only two people ahead of me on line there this morning as the incompetent staff is so fucking slow that the line is always out the door. Then a woman in front of me spoke limited English as did the worker behind the counter. The customer wanted one of those unappetizing sandwich on flat bread that she could not pronounce and the worker could not understand what she wanted so me,  speaker of two languages Brooklynese and Profanity,  is trying to interpret for this duo while trying to order a simple Extra Large Coffee just milk.  “Fucking flat bread with vegetable spread” got lost in the translation.

I don’t get all this weepy stuff over Highlander Stadium closing and I really don’t get what the picture on the front of the NY Post today has to do with it either as that stadium has been gone for 35 years . As far as I’m concerned the House That  the Womanizing Boozing Home Run Hitter Built closed on September 30 1973. This edifice that’s closing in the South Bronx, The House That The Costra Nostra Made A Killing On, is a shell of it’s former self.

There are guys like me who rant and rave and then there are sane guys like Howard Megdal who make tremendous statements quick and to the point. Even I feel better after seeing this.

Even with my baseball team in the heat of a pennant race, I am looking forward to watching Rangers-Senators hockey tomorrow night on MSG

Also Manchester United-Chelsea on Sunday morning FSC.

Com’on folks broaden your horizons.

I usually look at Phil Mushnick as a “Get off my lawn” kind of guy but today he was dead spot on with his critique of Mike Francesa and Chris Russo. I felt sad for Francesa in away, as he is tired of fans of his show and others saying how bad he is as a solo artist. His rant about having three number one shows and how he’s been very successful just comes off as Mike being extremely jealous and petty of the attention that Russo is getting with his new gig at Sirius.  Francesa can be a big blow hard but I guess out of habit I turn the radio on at 1:05PM to his show but I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t feel he needs desperately needs and injection of youth and enthusiasm to his show fast.

I have no ambition to do any work today. It’s sunny and cool out so it is definitley a walking day so it’s pizza at Ben’s on Thompson St for lunch. Later, kids

I’m speechless. Really what can you say about when your team wins and you still feel like it was a loss.  Eight pitchers to win a nine inning game? That’s almost impossible. And why is Al Reyes warming up in the bullpen and you don’t use him? In fact what is the deal-ieo with  “I can call you Jose or Argenis and Jose and Argenis when you call me you can call me Al” Reyes? Why hasn’t he seen the light of day as this Lehman Brothers Bullpen continues to flounder?

As bad as last night was what made it worse is Brandon Knight could only go 5 innings. No fault of Knight’s even though he was not very effective, he hasn’t pitched in a while and he left the game with his team up by 6 runs so Knight more than did his job but as we know unless the starter goes a minimum of 7 innings the Mets are fucked.

I think it’s safe to say, that Aaron Heilman will not throw another pitch in a meaningful game this year for the Mets. In fact the next pitch he throws in a big league game should be in another uniform. Time to cut Heilman loose. Yeah I know, brilliant deduction Sherlock. I don’t know what else to say really, watching Mets game is not a pleasure anymore. Your team is up 6 runs to a rag tag fourth division team as a fan you should be thinking magic numbers and post season instead of pacing the floor and sticking your head in a puke bucket.

Just when you thought all is lost we get this video via the Daily News of a guy so drunk at last weekend’s double header that he doesn’t feel or hear the fans around him stacking empty beer cups on his head. As I watched this over 9 min video besides wondering if the guy was dead because how could you not feel the beer cups or hear the fans screaming, I thought where were the Shea Gestapo? Here is a guy getting abused by fans in the stands and none of the SkillSets Storm Troopers intervene? But when I try to walk from the SUBWAY sandwich stand in LF through the Field Level concourse to get to the RF ramp, I’m not allowed as the Jeffy’s Thugs tell you only Field Level ticket holders can go through that concourse. If you argue, these belligerent assholes give you a hard time. I know they are only taking their orders from Skill Set High Command but their attitude still sucks. Fucking Rent a Cops.

When Warlord Jerry addressed his shell shocked warriors yesterday I hope he let them know that every team in the division hopes they fail again. I hope he let them no that every team in the NL East just doesn’t find then unpleasing I hope he told how much they hate them. I  hope he told them that the Nationals, Marlins and Braves want the Phillies to represent the NL East in the post season. I hope he told them that the also rans sit in their clubhouses and say “yeah we’re out of it but at least we didn’t choke like the Mets” and then laugh their ass’ off.  Seriously, nothing the opposition does or says angers the Mets.. Sure David Wright has been slamming hats and bats the last couple of days but don’t they see how the Braves, Nats, Marlins and of course the Phillies all turn into  Shaq serenading Kobe with “tell me how my ass taste” every time they play against them? With every loss and every blown opportunity to put the Phillies in the rear view mirror the Mets grab the bats a little tighter and overthrow their fastballs a little more out of the strike zone and fail to come through in clutch situations. It easy to throw all the blame on the bullpen but you have to question the entire character of the organization if they fail to make the post season for the second straight season. If that happens the Skill Sets will have some major decision to make here and not just how many olives to put in the martinis at the $iti field luxury suites.

The Braves came into Shea for their last series there and after beating the Mets two of three they are led by Larry Jones with cameras in hand to take pictures of the Shea Stadium scoreboard and no one on the Mets seemed to mind. Same with the Nats. First Elijah Dukes heckles Nelson Figurora and all he can do is call the Nats a girls softball team. Then Dukes goes nuts over a Mike Pelfrey ball inside. To Big Pelf’s credit he walked right toward Dukes and if not for Manny Acta coming out of the dugout there might have been an altercation. Willie Harris has been beating the Mets ass for a couple of years now maybe someone on the pitching staff will make him eat dirt.

Not only do I feel bad for Fernando Tatis for his injury and the fact that he was writing one of the great stories of the season but with him and Damien Easley out the Mets lose two of their best clutch hitters, Tatis was hitting .392 with RISP and .286 with 2 out/RISP and Easley was hitting a robust .314 with 2 out/RISP. Two guys who are killing the Mets in that department are Ryan Church (.179 2 out/RISP) and Carlos Beltran (.183 2 out/RISP) As I said it’s very easy to kill the Aaron Heilman’s and Scott Schoenweies of the world but when you lack the killer instinct to step on your opponents necks and snuff them out this is what you get, doubt, second guessing and Mets fans holding a puke bucket while watching their team fade down the stretch for the second year in a row.

I guess we better get used to this. It looks like it will take a minimum of three pitchers with a max of six pitchers a game for the Mets to grab the NL East Flag as the Magic Number stands today at Sweet 16.

Again last night a game that looked like it was going to be a 12-10 or 14-12 loss due to an ineffective Ollie P but the day was saved by the relay team of Figgy, Knight, Smith, Mush-Stache (he looks like he’s auditioning for a role in Boogie Nights II, Show or changing his name to Chest Rockwell) and of course the 1-2 punch of Stokes/Ayala. Absent is the name Heilman from this list that because he’s on the bus you know with the ladies.

The Carlos Del-GOD-o saga just get better and better every game. It’s one of the great sports stories in ages. Here is a player who was close to being bought out of his contract to now becoming the leader in the NL MVP race. It’s not just the fact he is driving in runs and hitting home runs but his hommers are Ruthian and they come in clutch situations as do his RBI (I love how Mex calls them “Rib-Eye Steaks“) THEN add in his Wes Parker like glove work at first base and as hard as this is to believe, Del-GOD-o could be on his way to be the first Mets player to win an MVP. I need to sit down.

It was very tough to watch the Billy Wags presser yesterday as he talked about dealing with his up coming Tommy John surgery and having to tell his son that he won’t be pitching next year and the awful realization that he may never wear a Mets uni again. The best he can hope for is he gets the surgery now and rehabs all spring and summer and pitches for the Mets next September. I’ll be lighting a candle for Billy on Sunday.

I think it’s a pipedream that John Maine pitches again for the Mets this season. This theory that he can pitch out of the bullpen in the playoffs is nuts. If he needs surgery then let him go for it already and get well for spring. Just look at the Wagner situation that went from a cramp in his forearm, to elbow discomfort to surgery. The Mets look to be taking a page out of the Bill Belichick book of dealing with injury info.

Curt Schilling has another “LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME” moment that he is famous for. What an A-1 Dickhead.