Daniel Shoptaw, the Prime Minister of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and the operator of the Cardinals blog C70 At The Bat, does a series on his site, Playing Pepper where he interviews bloggers from other teams sites to get the lowdown on their season. Now up on C70 At The Bat are the New York Mets and yours truly is a contributor.

Where did this Albert Puljos trade to the Phillies for Ryan Howard come from? Ruben Armaro is calling bullshit and I’m sure Cards GM John Mozeliak said the same thing because it really makes no sense. But I did learn something from this rumor, if you really need page views just pull something ridiculous out of your ass like Buster Olney did by reporting this.

First camp cuts are out and Josh Thole will be sent to minor league camp. No surprise there.

Okay Rielle Hunter thanks for the dirt now go away and take your pictures with you, you’re extremely unattractive.

I see the point that Alex Cora is a smart player and is looked up to in the Mets clubhouse and I appreciate that but as long as he plays no more than two games a week, his short comings will come through. Just let Ruben Tejda play everyday until Jose Reyes comes back.

Maybe Fernando Martinez has turned the corner from prospect/suspect to solid major leaguer but he hasn’t played or stayed healthy enough to be the everyday CF’er until Carlos Beltran comes back. I could be persuaded though is Angle Pagan continues with his brain farts on the field.

The voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame has nothing on the shit heads who vote for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here are some of the names who are NOT in the Rock and Roll HOF:

Joe Cocker (did they send him a Letter?)

Alice Cooper (unconscionable)

Deep Purple (ever hear of Richie Blackmore ? )

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (I nearly cried over this one come here Joanie I’ll give ya a hug)

King Crimson (Robert Fripp? Adrian Belew? Hello?)

Mott The Hoople (something against Young Dudes ?)

Motorhead (It’s Lemmy for God sake)

New York Dolls (THIS IS A NATIONAL FUCKING DISGRACE!!!!)

Warren Zevon (no wonder the HOF is Cleveland bunch of losers!!!)

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The Mets get hammered in this town for a multitude of offenses and in most instances, the bludgeoning is warranted but when it comes to the decision by J-Man to work Jose Reyes into the 3 spot of the lineup, the criticism is not only unwarranted but it’s also senseless.

In today’s NY Post, avid Mets hater Joel Sherman (there are lot’s of Mets haters in MSM, Jon Heyman, Bill Madden, Tom Verducci and of course their Emperor Mike Francesa) has a full page column today take the Met to task for batting Reyes third, even though he admits it’s out of necessity and just something Manuel pulled out of his ass:

 The shift is a reaction to Carlos Beltran’s knee surgery, which will cost him at least a month of the season. Without Beltran to hit third, Manuel fears the lineup lacks length if he simply has David Wright bat third and Jason Bay fourth. The order would dip precipitously at No. 5, likely with Daniel Murphy. In addition, Manuel wants to preserve Reyes’ legs and feels batting him third will translate to fewer steal attempts to limit the risk of having runners thrown out in front of your best RBI men, Wright and Bay.

Sherman goes on in the article to give his hypothesis on why this is bad idea, but gives no solution, which of course there isn’t any. If Carlos Beltran were of sound mind and knee, this would not even be an issue but as we know the best laid plans of mice and Mets never go as planed and so they have this situation to make the best of the lineup until Beltran gets back.

Sherman lays out the answer to the why part of Reyes hitting third when he mentions Daniel Murphy hitting fifth. Murphy is not a #5 hitter. He’s a perfect #2 but the problem is Luis Castillo is also a perfect #2. And there is the problem; the Mets have two #2 and two #1 in Reyes and Angel Pagan.

From the rumbling’s from St. Lonesome, Beltran is progressing nicely and should just miss just the first month of the season (I know, I know you’ll believe it when you see it) so when he comes back Reyes moves back to the #1 spot and Beltran back to #3 and the team will live happily ever after. I hope.

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Before we all go off the deep end here about J-Man contemplating batting Jose Reyes in the 3 hole, let’s remember that (a) this is only because Carlos Beltran will be out until May (cross fingers and toes) and (b) when Beltran comes back, Reyes goes back to the lead off spot. The bigger problem with the Mets lineup is too many square pegs and round holes.

I’ve tossed around a few lineups and the problem I have is not who leads off as the Mets have three guys (Reyes, Castillo and Pagan) who are terrific leadoff men. They also have two nice #2 hitters in Castillo who gives you OBP and Daniel Murphy who hits with some pop. I’m intrigued about Reyes in the 3 spot because with Bay and Wright behind him you know he’s going to see strikes.

So if I were the manager I’d put this lineup out as much as I could this spring to see how it works.

Castillo

Murphy

Reyes

Bay

Wright

Francouer

Barajas/Blanco

Pagan

Pitcher

I’m a little concerned with the 7-8 spot. Barajas is feast or famine and Pagan is the square peg in the round hole I spoke about in the beginning. He’s more a 1-2 hitter but as we see without the potent bat of Carlos Beltran, there has to be some improvisation with this Mets lineup.

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I like the fact that David Wright is stepping up his leadership role with the Mets. In fact one of the best addition by subtraction moves the club made this winter was saying buh-bye to Carlos Delgado, who I felt was a very intimidating presences in the Mets Clubhouse and too many times Wright had to take a backseat to the senior vet. Now with Delgado gone it’s time for Wright to takeover that clubhouse. 

You need an everyday player to be the go to guy and Wright fits that mold better than anyone not named Johan Santana with the Mets. As great a player as Carlos Beltran is, he’s a very low key guy and Jose Reyes who is the on field igniter could be Wright’s tag-team buddy in that clubhouse, in fact in a perfect baseball world the two faces’ of the franchise should be able to say or do what they please with the service time they have with the club, but both are deferential to the older vets on the team sometime to a fault.

If Johan Santana can play the Cliff Floyd role with Wright and give him backup, it would be a major asset to this team. It won’t cure all the ills, but it would help put on notice players, who don’t give 100 % effort physically and mentally, especially the mental part which was as much a reason for the Mets demise as the injuries were last year.

Forget all the bravado of the team to beat bullshit, besides health, the biggest improvement with this Mets team and the whole organization for that matter is accountability. The team motto for this spring and season should be “NO MORE EXCUSES!!!!!”

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  13 days until pitchers and catchers

Last night’s hour long PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL show, went by in a flash thanks our own Yankee-Doodle, Michael calling in and Matt Silverman coming on to talk about the ’69 Mets. Some of the topics I wanted to get to in the opening of the show got pushed back as I went on a bit of a Fernando Martinez rant, so I guess I’ll touch on those here.

By the way I got to see F-Mart’s AB last night with the bases loaded and two out in the Dominican Republic v. Venezuela Caribbean World Series game. Martinez did not get a hit in the AB but it was an impressive turn at the plate that lasted 10 pitches until he hit a foul pop that was caught by the Venezuelan right fielder.

I’m not anti-Fernando in any way; I just want the kid to stop acing like he’s a 27 year old journeyman who has never gotten a chance and be the 20 year old who plays so well this spring that he beats out Angel Pagan to be Carlos Beltran’s understudy.

Looks like me and Orlando Hudson have something in common; we both will never play second base for the Mets. So after all the debate about second base for the Mets what’s done is done, Luis Castillo is the Mets second baseman for better or worse till death due us part (or until Reese Havens can prove he can play at the big league level) for 2010.

What is the under/over on how many times Gary Cohen or Howie Rose say “Just out of the reach of Castillo, for a base hit” this season? Let’s set the number at 75.

The last place in the world I thought I’d ever see the name Municipal Credit Union would be on a ball park marquee.  I wonder if those of us with accounts at MCU will get a discount on Cyclones tickets.

I’m very happy for Nelly Figs and his great performance the other day for DR in the Caribbean Series but it wasn’t like he was pitching against the Phillies or Highlanders, it was against Mexico and 45 year old  270 lb Vinny Castila, The Big Fajita!

Maybe things are not as bleak for the Mets as we think. FOX has the Amazin’s scheduled for broadcast 8 times this coming season and one of the games is a prime timer versus the Bronx Bastards.

Maple Street Press is coming out with it’s Mets Annual in a few weeks and there will be a section on the Mets Blogosphere, that will include yours truly.

Matt Silverman is putting out a revised paperback version of his book “100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” 

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Still sifting through the fall out of the Beltran situation. I’m trying to figure out the who, what and where of this recent shit storm to hit the Mets:

Carlos Beltran

Beltran will turn 33 years old by the second week of the 2010 season and he has what looks like chronic osteoarthritis in his right knee. Hopefully the arthroscopic surgery performed on him will alleviate the pain and clean out loose cartilage that was floating around his knee. The post op outlook is Beltran will be out 12 weeks and then resume baseball activity. So earliest we will see Beltran in a Mets uniform is May.  There is no replacement for Beltran as 25-30 HR 100+ RBI and his coverage in CF can not be replaced. As it stands now, Angel Pagan will be the CF’er unless the Mets go out and sign Rick Ankiel or hope the Highlanders re-sign Johnny Damon and release Brett Gardner. In other words the Mets are fucked.

Mets Medical Staff

More embarrassment for this group. Obviously, Beltran has no faith in them as he went to his own doctor to have the surgery done. Now the team is circling the wagons by releasing a statement that Dr Altcheck, the Mets team doctor was consulted by Dr. Steadman, Beltran’ surgeon of choice, to show they are all on the same page, which is of course bullshit. The medical staff of the Mets should have been addressed after last season but the club decided to bring back the whole staff. Mets players show what they think of that decision by going outside the organization for medical treatment. What an endorsement.

Mets Front Office

Who is in charge? It’s not Omar that’s for sure. I will bet a dollar that David Howard is the voice behind the conference call today to wipe the egg off the teams face after this miscommunication. One thing we do know is,the organization had its pants pulled down on them in public again and it again calls for Freddy Skill Sets to step up and take is incompetent son out of the baseball loop. Put aside the on field problem with no Beltran, this episode again makes the Mets look like amateurs. Just when the fan base was feeling a tad optimistic with the signing of Jason Bay and the self control the front office has displayed with the overrated talent on the free agent front, this just wipes away any goodwill. It’s SOM Same Old Mets.

Hey don’t worry, Bengi Molina is on the way YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will have much more on the Beltran saga and other Mets news tonight on Pro Baseball Central at 9PM ET on Blogtalk Radio. My guest will be Joe Fiorello of Disgruntled Mets fan and a fellow member of the BBA. You can join in the conversation as well by calling in at (646) 595-4462.

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All hell is breaking with the Mets as we have learned that Carlos Beltran has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to relieve osteoarthritis. From reports it looks like Beltran has been working out to be in shape for spring training and started to feel pain in his knee.

The biggest story is not just the surgery but it seems Beltran did this on his own going to his own doctor, Dr Richard Stedman in Colorado. It’s unacceptable for a player to not let the team know he’s going for surgery and to make it worse, he doesn’t use the team’s physician. This just cements the feeling that the Mets players have no faith in the Mets medical staff.

Now this is not end of the world news as Beltran will be out about 3 months so for the first month of the season Angel Pagan can handle centerfield, so there is no need for the organization to make a panic move for a centerfielder.

What this does though is make you question how the organization looks at Beltran in regard to not coming to the team about his knee and using an outside doctor to perform the surgery and how does this effect Beltran to getting an extension of his contract, something he has been hinting at.

Since this news is still breaking, I’ll have some more on it tomorrow

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As you know I made reference to Joe Mc Donald proclaiming on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL last Thursday that the Mets will be a 90+ win team in 2010. His reasoning was that Oliver Perez will revert to his Good Ollie personality. I did say, it was encouraging news that OP, under the urging of both Scott Boras and Carlos Beltran, has spent the off season in Arizona, training hard to lose both the stigma of bring mentality and physically inept to pitch in the big leagues.

I’ve been looking around at the team as it now is constructed and have tried to make the case for 90 wins. It all starts of course with the pitching staff:

#1 Santana 15-17 wins

#2 Pelf/Joel Piniero/Bronson Arroyo/Aaron Harang/Gil Meche 10-12 wins

#3 Pelf/OP/Maine/Doug Davis/Jon Garland 8-10 wins

#4 one of the above at #3  8-10 wins

#5 Maine/Neise/Neve/Holt/Stoner/(Gulp!) Smoltz 8-10 wins

That comes to 49-59 wins from your starting rotation

Now from the seven relievers you figure will be in the pen:

Frankie Rodz

Ryoto Igarashi

Bobby Parnell

Kelvin Escobar

Sean Green

Pedro Feliciano

Lefty to be named later

You figure you can and average of 4 wins from each. That’s an additional 28 wins, brining my projection to 77 to 87 wins.

Now say I leave the bullpen projection alone but I up the ante on the #2 pitcher to 12-14 wins and the #3 to 10-12 wins, that would put the team’ record between 81-91 wins. Of course all this is predicated on the Mets signing one of the remaining free agent pitchers, of which just Joel Piniero is desirable if he comes cheap or can trade for the one of the Arroyo/Harang/Meche troika.

So what do you think? Am I out of mind thinking there is a way the Mets could be a 90 win team and contend? Am I drinking the Omar/Jeffey Kool Aid? Has Joe Mac brainwashed me?  Or am I just tired of freezing my ass off this winter and dying for spring and summer and baseball season? Could be the cold has made me delirious.

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….oh yeah, where was Jerry Manuel yesterday? Not at the Bay Day ceremonies that’s for sure. How about David Wright? Carlos Beltran? Johan Santana? Alex Cora? (you know  the heart and soul of the Mets), Charlie Samuels? (good thing Samuels wasn’t there he’d have had Bay decked out in a black jersey and the shitty black cap with blue brim. Bad enough Bay wore the snow white jersey and not the pinstripe that we heard was all the rage this winter but he did have the blue hat) but seriously, the manager couldn’t fly in from Cali to greet his new LF’er? Doesn’t D-Wright keep a flop flat down in Gramercy Park? I’m sure the Skill Sets could have splurged for a room and air fare for Beltran and Santana and the wifies for a week end in NYC and appearance at the Bay presser.

If it’s a point where one or two of these guys had prior engagements, then couldn’t you have found a day when either J-Man or D-Wright could be on hand? For Christ sake, Rod Gilbert was there (I guess it was an open bar)

Pat Reily has always said the thing that keeps teams from winning is The Disease of Me and after seeing no one but Omar, Jeffey, Dave the Shyster and the ubiquitous  Jay Horowitz yesterday ad $iti Field, I’d say the Mets org has terminal Disease of Me.

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I hate to tell you this but the Mets are not very attractive, in fact they’re not even Susan Boyle homely, but they are close to approaching Rocky Dennis hideousness.

Stop kidding yourselves Mets fans, before you can contend for a title, a team must first become competitive. As I wrote yesterday afternoon on my Twitter account while all hell was breaking lose in baseball, “The Phillies are not the Mets rival, the Nationals are”.

You can talk about Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran playing at 100 % health and David Wright bouncing back from whatever bit him in his ass latest season and the fact the Johan Santana pitches every fifth day, the Mets are no closer to the Phillies today than the Earth is to the sun.

The easy thing to do is scream that Omar Minaya sucks, and he just might suck as a GM but lets face facts, if you are a player like Roy Halladay, John Lackey or even Jason Bay or Matt Holliday why would you want to play for the Mets? Those players want to play for winning teams and to tell you the truth I commend them for giving the Mets their ass to kiss, as they know how desperate the Mets are and would have to pay more money to them than the Phillies in Halladay’s case and the Red Sox in Lackey’s case but both players went to teams that are not just winners and contenders but have management in place that is both intelligent and creative, two qualities the Mets will never be associated with.

Everyone throughout baseball knows that Jeffey Skill Sets is the reason that this organization has a big “Kick Me” sign on it’s back. It is crystal clear that the biggest mistake the Skill Sets have made this off season was not firing Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel because let’s face it, both of these guys are as good as gone. The Skill Sets could have hired a progressive baseball man like Jed Hoyer or gone after Gerry Hunsicker from Tampa or solid baseball men like Tom Kelley and Terry Ryan in Minnesota or even bring back Bobby Valentine who, love him or hate him, Valentine would not have let the Mets wallow in self pity as Jerry Manuel did last year or let them get away with playing “I couldn’t give a fuck baseball”

At the expense of sounding like a broken record nothing with the organization gets accomplished until Jeffey Skill Sets and David (The Syster) Howard take a back seat from the baseball operation. Both of these clueless dolts are the 1 and 1a entry on what’s wrong with the Mets as they are out of touch with what it takes to be a winning organization and what it takes to keep your customers happy. Winning and customers two things you won’t be seeing at $iti Field next season.

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