Last week at this time, it was Armageddon outside my house with rain and wind. Today, the sun is shining and the temperature’s soring to the mid-70’s today so this will be a real quickie post as  I’m going out to play, I may even break out the shorts, but before I head out a few items:

Looks like Mike Jacobs is the in line for the 25^th spot on the roster as he not only will give Daniel Murphy a run at first base bit he is valuable and an emergency catcher. Jacobs has no problem stepping in if asked to catch, in fact he has order a catchers mitt and is working down in the bullpen to hone his skills. Carlos Delgado was a catcher at one time but he made it known under no circumstances would he go behind the plate.  One more reason why I’m glad Delgado’s gone.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports has a must read column on the shakedown artists at the World Anti-Doping Association who keep trying to embarrass MLB to the point it sends more cash it’s way for the witch hunt of chasing athletes for PED use.  I know the Congress and the President  have a lot on their plate these days but someone needs to reign in the FBI agents wasting money and man power chasing down Barry Bonds, Roger  Clemens and other athletes about their use of PED’s.  You want to say Bonds and Clemens are assholes ? You get no argument from me but if you’re going to start putting people in jail for that then Glen Beck needs to be on Death Row.

Jenry Mejia pitched yesterday and is slated to go again today. Not a good sign if you ask me. Looks like Manuel is pushing for Mejia to join the Mets bullpen when the right move would be to let him start in Buffalo. Also John Maine goes today against the Cardinals, time to step up Johnny.

The Nationals have sent Jesus Strasbug  to their minor league camp.  Look for Jesus to be resurrected sometime in May, as it will buy the Nats an extra year of control over the Savior.

Johan Santana BELIEVES!!!!! Someone has to I guess.

Posted under Uncategorized

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!!!!!”

Posted under Uncategorized

  21 days until pitchers and catchers

It looks like Fernando Tatis is retuning for a third season with the Mets. Please hold your applause until the end, thank you. If you look at the offensive numbers on Tatis’ Baseball-Reference page you might be inclined to say this is a good deal for the Mets.  I’ll go as far as say I’m happier with Tatis coming back just for the fact that it means that Carlos Delgado’ career as a Met is done.  Last night on Twitter I was angry about the Tatis return but by this morning I’m more, “eh, whatever”. I’m tired of ranting about the off season and the mish-mosh ways of the organization, that has both the fan base and media baffled, I guess it’s time we just let it play out, we’ll have all summer to scream and yell.   

Look at this from John Smoltz point of view, what was good for Pedro Martinez could be good for him as well. Why sign with a team this early when you can workout on your own, play golf, even do some TV if you like and then wait to see the pitching landscape during the season and make the best deal you can.

As much as I can’t stand the way ownership and the front office fuck up and the on field personnel play like amateurs, there is no way I could ever, ever root against the Mets. I don’t care if a loss meant that the Jeffey, Omar, and J-Man all get the boot, I would never and have never rooted against the Mets. If I didn’t root for the Cincinnati Reds when Tom Seaver was traded and pitched against the Mets, I’m sure as hell not going to root against them now. Root against the Mets? Never in a million fucking years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t understand J-Man saying that Fernando Nieve is the front runner for the 5^th spot in the pitching rotation? Not to get to worked up over the 5^th spot (when spots 2-4 are not exactly the Rocks of Gibraltar) but where does Jon Niese or Nelly Figs fit with this team? How about Bradley Holt or Dillon Gee? Why is J-Man so against competition? Why am I full of questions?

No matter what happens this season, I’m rooting hard for my boy Daniel Murphy to put up big time numbers. No one on this team works as hard as Murphy and I just hope his hard work pays off and he just hangs in there until Wally Backman gets the job with the big club. Am I a Daniel Murphy fanboy? Yes. He is everything we Mets fans want in a player. Shows up for mini-camp when he’s not required to (Jose? Jose Reyes? Are you here? Come out, come out ,wherever you are!) will be the first guy at St Lonesome waiting for the gates to open for spring training (it will be neck and neck with him and D-Wright) and is working hard to improve at the fourth positions the Mets have assigned him to. How can you as a Mets fan not root for this kid?    

No Pro Baseball Central tonight but I will be on the with Kenrick Thomas and his Real Sports Talk Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio tonight at 10PM ET.

There is a group NYRNation that is planning a FIRE GLEN SATHER rally outside of Madison Square Garden on Sunday March 7^th  at 5PM before the Rangers-Sabres game. It is getting very ugly at MSG as the Rangers find themselves in the middle of 10 teams look at the 7 and 8 spot in the NHL playoffs. In fact the Rangers are a mirror of the Mets. Underachivers, Bad Management, Clueless Owner!

Posted under Uncategorized

shout out to The Ropolitans for this pic

Sorry for no posts this morning but it’s been a busy day. So busy that I forget all about the David Wright sit down with the Sports Bloviator. I caught the tail end of the sit down as I traveled back from Brooklyn and I guess you could say it was typical David Wright. All positives and nothing controversial.

It looks like it’s a foregone conclusion that Bengi Molina will be the Mets #1 catcher this coming season. Again this looks to be another move where Omar was told to sit in the corner as the way the Mets have made Molina sit and stew is very un-Mets like. Same with Carlos Delgado who I think the Mets brain trust only went to Puerto Rico to see just to get away from freezing cold weather in NYC. Think about it, if the Mets were strictly an Omar Minaya Production, Molina, Delgado and Joel Piniero would be celebrating their multi year deals by now. Looks like those days are over.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Art Rust Jr. who was sportstalk radio in this town back in the 1980’s. Rust hosted a three hour call in show on WABC and unlike WFAN he actually talked ALL sports. In fact I had called in to his show because a young Mark Messier came on to talk hockey and agreed to take calls from fans. Rust was a great baseball historian and a huge Highlander fan but his real passion was for The Sweet Science and he had all the big time boxers on his show.  R.I.P. Arthur George.

Posted under Uncategorized

Sorry, I’m just standing here wondering what all the hubbub is over Mark McGwire’ admission on his steroid use last night. The best part of the evening was watching the sanctimonious Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal not accepting McGwire’s mea culpa. I love how Verducci, Rosenthal and Jon Heyman are now all over McGwire and the rest of the Steroid Sluggers but never confronted them or did any investigative reporting during that era but now they’ve all become holier than thou. Th eonly reporter who spoke up at that time was Steve Wilstein of AP who asked about the bottle of Andro in McGwire’s locker. Too bad MLBN didn’t have him on.  

By the way I still have a few questions for Big Mac than Bob Costas failed to hit on. “Who got you the dope”? “Did it occur to you that this was a Federal crime having illegal narcotics “? Were you willing to pay any price to succeed in the game even if it meant getting arrested and going to jail”? “Who instructed you on how to administer the PED’s”?

I love how the panel on MLB Network was up in arms by McGwire saying he didn’t think the drugs made him better, he said he took them for the sole purpose of helping recover from a string if injuries he suffered from. Sure you can call bullshit on that statement but like Rick Peterson says “In God we trust, all others bring data” in other words, It’s all opinion on how much affect the drugs had on his home run total. That’s not to say I don’t agree with those who feel the PED’s didn’t help him jack up his HR total, it’s just that I can’t prove it.

Last word on this whole situation, I have never been a fan of Tony LaRussa but I will say this for TLR, he is one loyal son of a bitch. He has had McGwire’ pock marked back all these years and still has it.

I’ll take this as good news. Seven Train to Shea quotes a Twitter feed from Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse saying that Carlos Delgado is not moving to well around first base. If the move was strictly Omar’s, Delgado would have been re-signed by the Mets already but it looks like Omar has doesn’t have final say on personnel matters anymore. This off season has not been a typical Omar Minaya off season. The Mets are much more patient, to the point of Mets fans screaming in panic (me included) I guess that’s we are used to, the Omar Way. Let’s face it, if Omar had full autonomy Bengi Moilina would be sitting with a 3yr guaranteed contract right now.

Also on Ed Price’ Twiiter feed he claims Mets are talking 2yr/$15 mil contract for Joel Piniero

Posted under Uncategorized

I’m running out the door to spread some Christmas cheer but before I do, a moment please:

What does your Dickey do? Mine throws a knuckleball

Hello? Where have you been hearing that the Mets should get David DeJesus and Gil Meche? Hello? Is this thing on?

Fork please! Carlos Delgado is as done as a Christmas goose.

When it comes to Assclowns nobody beats Highlander fans. Some of these geniuses have been calling WFAN or Twittering that they hate the deal that brought Javier Vasquez to the Highlanders for Melkey Cabrea and a couple of bush leaguers. Sometimes Highlander fans your stupidity is breath taking.

Thank you Mike Vaccaro, thank you for a wonderful column this morning.

Why do I get the sad feeling that we will see more Red Sox stories in the fish wraps this summer than Mets news?

Posted under Uncategorized

 

Stop listening to the Minister of Mis-Information Omar Minaya. Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, John Maine and J J Putz are NOT COMING BACK THIS SEASON!!!!!!! For some reason Omar hasn’t gotten it through his head that all the talk of the injured has been undermining this team for the past month. While it’s not just Omar’s fault, J-Man was the early culprit in this stupid “Hold the fort until they get back” losers mentality but he finally figured out how unproductive that attitude was. Now add D-Wright to those slow learners that this “blame it on the injuries” lament is for losers which is what the Mets are right now.

 

Instead of Minaya spewing his bullshit on SNY and in the press he should be sitting down and figuring out how much of the deadwood on the player development side will be thrown out for salvage come the end of the season.

 

I hope you all have come to the realization that this season is kaput. The time now is to turn to who in the farm system is worth promotion to either see how they fit here in 2010 for to let them strut their stuff and entice other organizations to talk trade.

 

But the biggest movement here will be clearing out the front office. The only thing that will save Omar’ ass is the Skill Sets will in no way shape or form fire him and pay him to lay on the beach in the D.R. but at some point the Skill Sets may have to think of finding a baseball executive that Omar would report to.

 

Freddy Skill Sets realized a few years ago that he sucks as a baseball man but he didn’t have the heart to tell his little boy Jeffey that he wasn’t a baseball man either. The time has come for Freddy to have a heart to heart with the little shit and give him a dose of tough love that it’s time for Jeffey to stay out of the baseball business. That’s not to say that all contract and money spent won’t go through Jeffey as he is the owner and he is in charge of the money being spent (you think he gives his daddy grief about Freddy’s good buddy Bernie Madoff ?) but this off season I don’t want to hear that Jeffey is wining and dining free agent and calling agents and stalking Omar about personnel moves. The Mets need a President of Baseball Operations to run the entire spectrum of player personnel, pro and minor league along with amateur scouting. If Omar has a problem with that then let him resign and leave the money behind. I doubt that he would do that and as I stated the Mets won’t fire him so hiring a boss for him is the next logical step. The first name that comes to mind is Sandy Alderson who left the Padres earlier this year. Gene Michael would be another great choice and with the Bronx Robber Barron out of the picture maybe a substantial raise would lure him one boro over. Buck Showalter would be controversial and maybe not a fan favorite but his track record shows he can build a team and maybe it’s time for guy to rattle the cages in Queens. Could Andy MacPhail be fed up with Peter Angelos and come to NY to carry on the MacPhail NY baseball family legacy ?

 

The bottom line is it’s time to take the keys away from Omar and put Jeffey in the corner and bring in a Baseball CEO to save the franchise.

Posted under Uncategorized

 

If you saw the back page of the Daily News this morning you’d think “oh shit” but then when you read the story you say “what’s the big deal”?:

 

And asked if he could be certain that he’ll return to the Mets at some point during the 2009 season, Delgado said: “I can’t guarantee that. But it looks that that’s going to be the case. The most important thing is to get better, get healthy, that you can perform effectively, and that’s our goal.

 

“I think that’s going to happen sometime this year, but I can’t guarantee nothing.”

 

 

So he feels he can get back this year but who knows what set backs he could endure during his rehab. Makes sense no?

 

Joe Janish hits a home run in his post at Mets Today on Fernando Martinez and the lazy ass culture of the Mets. I went over this last night with Joe McDonald on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL. Larry Brooks in a story in yesterday Post said the same thing that the Mets are known for non-hustle and I agree. Delgado has been a culprit as has Beltran at times, Reyes has not hustled on numerous occasions and the fan fav Mike Piazza dogged it regularly (Yeah Joe Mac Piazza dogged it!!) Now most of this non ass busting is not to maligners but down right laziness. The more I think of young Martinez not busting it the other day the more pissed off I am at him and at J-Man for not taking him off the field. As I said last night, I’m trying not to rush to judgment on F-Mart as it’s just two games but do far I don’t see what the big fuss is about this kid and maybe it would have been more beneficial to him to leave him in Buffalo for the whole season.

 

Mets Grrl in her continuing endeavor to make $iti Field a better place for Mets fans and to help straighten out this clueless ownership has a third installment of her letter writing campaign this time to have the Skill Sets acknowledge the history of the NY Mets in $iti Field. This prove how pathetic the Skill Sets are when it comes to knowing it’s fan base that you actually have to pressure them to celebrate the franchise history.

 

You may have read the Tyler Kepner piece in the Times the other day where he reports on Nolan Ryan and Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux are going back to old school tactics with the Rangers pitchers throughout the organization to go deeper into games and not be a slave to pitch counts. All I can say is HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH!!!!!! I would hope the Mets would get in on this retro trend as well. It has to start in the low minors as it’s time pitchers learned how to pitch and how to pitch out of trouble. Too many guys stand on that mound when they are in a jam ready to shit themselves while looking toward the bullpen for help. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the minor league teams records and winning the fucking Sally League Championship, how about teaching not only pitchers but all players in the organization the proper way to play baseball. You can shove the NY-PENN League Championship Banners up Jeffey’s ass.

 

For a much calmer look at pitch counts check out Mike Silva’s NYBD and his thoughts on this.

 

 

Posted under Uncategorized

Sorry for the late posting today especially after one of the most biziare loss the Mets had suffered in awhile.

Someday the main streamers in the press and talk radio will give fans the credit they are due for knowing their team better than they ever could. Why is everyone in the media so shocked that Jerry Manuel has no use for Ryan Church? We knew this since late February when J-Man made it known that Church would platoon with Fernando Tatis in RF. Back then Daniel Murphy was the fair haired boy but now he is closing in on Church status.

Just viewing the video of J-Man giving Church his ass to kiss after Church missed 3^rd base. I have no doubt that Church missed that base in fact Church deserves to grab some pine after that but Manuel HAS TO go out and argue that call no matter what. Let’s face facts, Manuel is no Earl Weaver when it comes to moves and counter moves from the bench his strength is holding his clubhouse together but after last night there could be a crack in that clubhouse. Manuel not going out to argue was reminiscent of Willie Randolph not fighting for the home run taken away from Carlos Delgado in Highlander Stadium last year.

Carlos Beltran is 100 % right that Angel Pagan (the new Jerry Manuel flavor of the month) should have backed off when he called for that ball. The center fielder is the ruler of the outfield roost, but throwing Pagan under the bus in the press is not what a leader does. Flame his ass in private Carlos.

With D-Wright stepping up big time with his bat (after taking Omar’s “this team has no edge” remark personally) now with Delgado on the shelf for 2 months minimum Wright needs to grab that clubhouse but the balls and get his teams attention. After that embarrassing loss last night maybe a gathering of teammates only is in order before tonight s game.

Lost in the slop of last night was the stellar effort by Tim Redding and the bullpen’s strong outing as well.

Can we please just put Daniel Murphy at 1^st base everyday and see what he can do? Go with Tatis in RF if you want and Sheffield in LF. I don’t know what the hell Murphy sis to J-Man but it’s time to forgive and forget if you’re J-Man. I swear Manuel is part Irish the way he holds a grudge.

When the manager is more upset about losing Alex Cora than Reyes then we know we’re in for a turbulent summer .

I have a 5PM game today and you know making sure you touch all the bases willbe brought up in my pre game talk

Posted under Uncategorized

Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed me with suggestions to help me with my pitching staff. I am happy to report that we won our first game of the season 10-0 (now 1-3 on the year) with only three walks against us in the game. Rick Peterson would be proud of all of you.

Speaking of The Jacket, he will play himself in the movie version of “Moneyball” with Brad Pitt playing Billy Bean.  Art Howe will also be in the film playing the cadaver they extract  the ligaments from for Tommy John surgery.

The Mets are rolling through NOCAL yesterday 9-6 win. Another strong start I felt, by Johan Santana who had one bad inning (the 6^th) in the 7 innings he pitched as he had an incredible 79/22 K/B spilt plus he got the win to go to 5-2.

The pitching and hitting is as good for the Mets as any in baseball right now but the fielding needs to tighten up a bit especially with Wright and Castillo. Yes I’m never happy I have to find something to bitch about with this team.

With Carlos Delgado on the DL (what a shock!) the Mets have to make decision on what to do with first base. I don’t see how Jeremy Reed is an option over Daniel Murphy if they want to go a righty/lefty platoon. In fact it looks like the increased playing time for Reed is more of a showcase as why would you need both Reed and Angel Pagan on this roster that now is top heavy with outfielders? Pagan can do as much if not more than Reed both with the bat and in the field plus the added bonus of being a switch hitter. Maybe  a deal with the Orioles for Aubry Huff that would have the Mets send Reed and Eddie Kunz to Baltimore could snare Huff? By the way can we let Murphy play tonight at first base? It’s been four games since his last start. FREE DANIEL MURPHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A reminder, I will be a guest tonight on The Seven Train To Shea Radio Program tonight at 7PM EDST.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted under Uncategorized