What was up with Big Pelf last night? Was he channeling his inner Doc Ellis? Did he spend part of the day in Height-Ashbury? Or is he trying to be the new Bill Lee, a/k/a The Space Man? Long strange trip for Big Pelf.  IF it weren’t for the brain farts leading to 3 balks, Pelf would have had a stellar afternoon in Frisco. The best part of his performance was the 10 ground ball outs he got so I’d say it was still a positive outing for Pelfry.

 

What you’re shocked that Steve Phillips sounded like a total douchebag last night during the ESPN telecast? Whoever came up with the idea to add Smarmy Steve to the booth needs to be fired. Still smarting over getting canned by the Mets eh Stevie boy ? Well you sucked as a GM and you suck as a TV analyst in fact all you’re any good at is banging secretaries. When Joe Morgan becomes the voice of reason in the ESPN booth then the apocalypses is near. Jon Miller should be arrested for the fucking shirt and tie he wore last night. That outfit was gayer than a weekend on Fire Island.

 

Tip of the Mets cap to Dave Singer at NY Sportsdog for calling out J- Man for pinch hitting for Daniel Murphy. As I posted on Dave’s site, whatever crime Ryan Church committed to get in the J-Man doghouse, Daniel Murphy must have been an accomplice as he is not getting the Chateau de Bow Wow treatment. With Delgado gone (I think he’s gone for good) can we just let Murphy play first base? Either that or offer the Orioles Jeremy Reed and Eddie Kunz for Aubry Huff.

 

My evening started out great as I was a guest on The Seven Train To Shea radio show and had a great time with those guys. But after that the night sucked as my Boston Celtics had the rigors of old legs, lack of size and lack of depth catch up with them to lose to the Magic (enjoy it now Orlando as you guys will be gone in 4 to the Cleveland Le Brons) and then the Mets loss coupled with the embarrassing announcing crew on ESPN topped off the evening.          

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I spent the morning at the Staten Island Ice Pavilion watching my daughter ice skate. I was really enjoying myself  watching her glide along the ice and my XL Dunkin Donuts coffee and drifting off into thoughts of what will happen next week at the Winter Meetings especially since I will be joining Joe McDonald starting Monday night at 9PM EST on Pro Baseball Central with live reports from Las Vegas. I’m trying to tell myself that Francisco Rodriguez is the missing piece to the pen. But then I contradict myself with thoughts of Kerry Wood closing and then passing the torch to Eddie Kunz, Bobby Parnell or Bradley Holt. I drift off in the thought of Omar Minaya pulling a deal that no one saw coming like this nutty one I read this morning. I even day dreamed of D-Wright working out with a mind set of leading his team to the post season and an MVP award. It felt sooooo good to think good baseball thoughts that I could see and feel myself in my Mr. Met t-shirt, shorts and flip flops on a beautiful 80 degree Saturday waiting on line at the Shake Shack stand at $iti Field Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh But of course someone has to drop a turd in my punch bowl.

 

As soon as I heard “Well we’ll sign C.C  then Burnett and Texiera and that will put us back where we belong” Ughhhhhhhhhhh Highlander fans. Can’t a man enjoy a Saturday morning without these blow hards? Then blow hards buddy Nit Wit chimes in “Yeah and wit Joba and Wang we’s will have da best rotation in baseball because we is da Yankees ya know” and they both laugh like retards. Now I try to ignore them and just chill with my java but of course they can’t leave well enough alone. “We ain’t like dem looosers da Mets” says Blow Hard to which Nit Wit replies “Uhhhhhhhh Da Mets suck” 

 

Now my morning is ruined. I’m ready to get my daughter to go find their daughters and do a Tonya Harding on their ass but then I decide to do my own dirty work. I pull my Mets cap a little more down in the front and turn to them and say “If I were you guys I’d worry more about the Red Sox and Rays than the Mets, since you can’t beat either of them” They see the Mets cap and reply to me how the Mets choked and how they are losers and yada, yada yada. I answer them the best way I could. I told these jokers that at least Mets fan realize their team’s flaws and are intelligent enough to look over the possibilities available to them to fix their problems and go back and forth with each other unlike Highlander fans who just say “buy whoever is out there”

 

Both dopes knew nothing about the teams farm system other then they both thought Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy should be traded and that Joba will win the Cy Young. After I heard that I was thankful my daughters lesson was over and we could leave and I did with a good feeling knowing that it’s good to be a Mets fan.

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Greeting from the Catskill Mountains. Some how I got talked in to going up to hither lands for Thanksgiving Weekend and as I look out the big picture window of the lobby where it sure looks like winter and while my wife and kids go horseback riding( the last time I was on a horse was when my mother was putting dimes in the ride outside of Woolworth’s on 5 Ave in Bay Ridge) so while I have idle time I’ve read some stories on the direction the Mets are going for a closer and all I can say is I hope Omar is not the guide on the trial my family is riding on because I may never see them again.

I’m a bit cloudy on just what Omar’s strategy is when it comes to the pen. He doesn’t want to spend a lot of the Skill Sets dough on a K-Rod or Brian Fuentes and he could take out a patch up approach with Kerry Wood or Trevor Hoffman. He may trade for Bobby Jenks or Houston Street or he may just hand the job to Bobby Parnell and or Eddie Kunz. What Omar has become is the Johnny Rodz of baseball (old time wrestling fans remember The Unpredictable Johnny Rodz)

Hopefully this bullpen riddle will be clearer starting next week when the Winter Meetings kick off in Vegas.

As soon as that first snowflake fly’s I’m heading back to civilization

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Eddie Kunz has checked in from the AFL and puts a positive spin on his fall season and that of all the Mets prospects who’ve joined him:

 

 

 

{I have been pitching very well and making all my pitches work for me. Now I know the numbers are not shoiwing it but this is a league to work on things and get better so era and those things don’t matter that much at all. I am getting stronger and a better feel for my piitches as well which is nice. The rest of the mets on the team have been doing really good also. Murphy is still hitting the ball very well and getting alot better at 2nd base with his defense. Josh Thole is hitting alot better and still is doing a great job at catching. Bobby Parnell is still throwing the ball hard and getting people out, while working on things and getting better as a pitcher. Jason Vargas is also doing very well throwing all his pitches and keeping hitters off set and changing speeds, he gets stronger with every outting and looks great.}

 

I hope Eddie is right as he does seem very confident that what he’s working on in Arizona will help him come spring. The more you read about Jason Vargas the more you realize he is becoming a valuable part for the bullpen plan for 2009

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It has got to be tough for the main streamers who cover baseball as this is a limbo period of the hot stove where it’s rumor after rumor (some of them made up just to fill up media space and time) because it will be one more week before teams can make contract offers to free agents. So while we wait the baseball owners to stimulate the economy there are some very interesting article on the web such as:

 

Paul Greco at Gotham Baseball has a great overview of Mets and Highlander prospect playing in the AFL. Reading the scouting reports on some of our prospects in the league there it looks more and more that the demise of the Mets farm system has been greatly exaggerated. I was upset over the thumbs down from the scouts that Eddie Kunz received as he has had an uneven performance so far in the AFL. I watch Kunz pitch in Brooklyn and his pedigree as a top collegiate closer made me think he’d emerge a lot faster as a viable pitcher in the bullpen especially with the fact that he throws a good sinking fastball that you’d think would translate into ground ball outs. I’m not ready to give up on Kunz yet and hopefully neither are the Mets. As we learn with Big Pelf, you need patients sometimes with young arms.

   

So far the Highlander will sign every single free agent on the market and will go into the season with a 1.4 trillion dollar payroll. Not only will they sign CC Sabathia to 10yr/$200mil contract but they will give Manny Ramirez 4 yr/$190 mil deal and then sign Derek Lowe, AJ Burnett and Ryan Dempster to $100 mil deals each. Then Pack A Day Hank will buy the San Diego Padres franchise just to get Jake Peavy. He will then sell the Padres to Mark Cuban (because he can’t buy the Cubs) at discount as Cuban agrees to let the YES Network televise  Dallas Mavericks  games so this way the NY/NJ/Brooklyn Nets can go to public access TV. Hank will then remove all of brother Hal’s vital organs to sell to pay for Mark Texiera’s 20 yr/$500 mil deal. And with all that the Highlander will finish no higher than third place in 2009.

 

Daniel Murphy is REAL and he is SPECTACULAR.

 

Murray Chass is a cranky old bastard who hates bloggers but I am trying to follow President-Elect Obama’s message of reaching over the aisle for unity (just like when I saw the Pope and had a feeling of calm and patients and understanding like I do now with the Obama Presidency this won’t last long because people will continue to piss me off like the assholes who walk along the subway platform with those ridiculous fucking backpacks on wheels that people trip over daily. What the fuck are you carrying around that you need a backpack on wheels? There’s something wrong with you mentally if you are toting around some much unwanted shit that you can’t carry it on your shoulder but have to wheel it around and to the woman who took exception to me kicking her wheelie-backpack this morning at the Staten Island Ferry terminal, I’ll be on that 7AM boat again on Monday so bring your husband, son, grand son and other person you like and make sure they bring their wheelie backpacks too so I can kick them all the way to Whitehall Terminal. Man did I take the long way to link this Murray Chass column sorry for that marathon rant.)    Chass writes about George W Bush wanting the Baseball Commissioners job badly but The Used Car Salesman, while denying it while he relocated the office from Manhattan to Milwaukee grab the job. One more reason to despise Bud.

 

I like that Omar is headstrong on adding pitching which is where his priority should be but do you get the same feeling I get that Omar is lying in the weeds when it comes to Manny Ramirez? I could see a scenario where Omar waits to see what the offers are and goes to the Skill Sets asking permission to match or better the offer. If its 4years or more Omar will pass but it it’s 3 yrs I could see him offering up 3yr/ close to 90mil with incentives and some creative bookkeeping. 

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First off I hope all of you went to vote and if you didn’t what are you waiting for? While I was waiting to cast my vote (I’m sure everyone knows you I voted for) I read the Mets news of the day via Adam Rubin. After reading how Omar states the starting 8 from last year could be intact for ‘09 and Scarface Bernazard proclaiming that if Brian Funetes and K-Rod get to greedy the Mets are set to go with either Bobby Parnell or Eddie Kunz as the closer as Bernazard says “what are supposed to do if we don’t sign a closer, not play”? Well if the plan is what way laid in Rubin’s Daily News story, then yeah you’d be better off.

I’m sure this is just a smoke screen, Minaya at his sandbagging best as Jeffey Skill Sets told us in his message to the fan base, that there will be “addition by subtraction” but now his Brain trust tells us different. Here’s an idea for Omar, Tony B, and John Rico, stop with the fucking mind games and roll up your sleeves and get to work.

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Thank you Mark Healy for the hat tip from Gotham Baseball.  Heals, echos the feeling that the attituted of the Mets needs a blast from the past.

Yes, Greg Prince, Next Year can not get here soon enough for me either.

I think my head is still swiming from the managerial screw up by both Good O’ Cholly and Joey Specs so read the lay of the mis-managerial land from Beyond the Box Score.

Eddie Kunz is not having a good go of it in the AFL as lefties are whipping his ass and it has me worried

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Let us raise a Chug-A-Mug of Rehinglod today to the Tampa Famous Rays for winning the AL Pennant last night and giving Jackie Autry a reason to go to the beauty parlor and don some swanky polyester as she dutifully halndled her job as honorary AL President flawlwssly. How great is it to be the widow of the Singing Cowboy, especially this time a year. You get to a trip to the ALCS and hand out a trophy and soon everytime Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is played another royalty check goes in the mail. Sweet,  but of course I digress. Today we salute one of our own,  Stuart Sternberg,  he of the Carnarsie Sternberg’s and holder of Mets season tickets and unabashed Mets fan who used a little of his fortune to purchase the Tampa baseball franchise from  crazy old Vince Namoli and thorugh shrewed drafting and good trades now has not only a championship trophy but a snazy new t-shrt and  cap.

Now all the Famous Rays have to do is beat those in-bred slouths from Philly so at least one of “us” will call this season fulfiling.

All I did when David Price came on in the 8th inning last night was think about why didn’t the Mets just give the closers job to Eddie Kunz when Billy Wags went down? Looking back I agree this is an all time second guess but Kunz was a set up man and closer on two NCAA Champions and was closing at Bingo and with the jackpot of Dan Murphy and to a lesser degree Nick Evans and Jon Niese the talent from that team was quite rewarding but really instead of Dollar Store relevers like Luis Ayala and Brain Stokes you wonder what would have been if Kunz and Bobby Parnell were given the roles of set up and closer with the full backing of J-Man and Omar?    I know one thing, it couldn’t have been worse.

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I’ve been out of my office all day as I had to go for a training class so when I get back I’m all set to write up a post on how I’m not worried about Billy Wags, done for the season and career as a Met due to Tommy John surgery. I was all set to say how I feel bad for Wags that he has to go under the knife and endure all the rehab that follows but I felt that with the way J-Man has mixed and matched his relievers and how guys like Brian Stokes and Luis Ayala have stepped up that maybe now that it’s a done deal that Wags is gone that the Mets will use this as “no respect” card to rally around.

 

Even if Wags is done for the year as much as I don’t even want to contemplate the 2009 season as we are up to our eyeballs in a fight for the division with the Phillies, I thought well there is Ayala, Stokes, Eddie Kunz  and maybe even a kid like Steven Clyene  who be as effective as a closer then I read Tom Verducci’ story on where have all the two inning closers gone and why hasn’t an organization stepped up and gone back to the Rolllie Fingers, Goose Goosage Bruce Sutter model of reliever. Then it dawned on me “Hey what about Ambriorix Burgos? Burgos is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and has been pitching in some minor league games and should be ready to go to winter league so throw Burgos in the mix with the other guys I mentioned and you know what? We are not in as bad shape as I thought. Then I see this in my Google Reader:

 

Mets Pitcher Burgos Arrested For Assaulting Girlfriend

 

We don’t know the whole story so I won’t jump to conclusion but if all this proves true then Burgos has got to be released. As this behavior can not be tolerated but I am willing to hear his account but I don’t know what he can say to justify his action. Right now Burgos is just a big fucking coward as far as I’m concerned.

 

 

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