This whole changing of the walls at Citi Field has me a bit perplexed to a point of being a bit pissed off. While I agree with lowering the height of the outfield walls to eight feet, which they should have been when the park was first built, it seems the lowering of the walls and bringing them in a bit closer to home plate is because some of the Mets starting eight have been traumatized by the outfield dimensions. According to Pitching Coach Old School Warthen, his pitchers “got a bit lazy” due to the vast pasture of the Citi Field outfield that they had a hard time pitching in a place like Citizen’s Bank or even the Mall of The South Bronx.  What all this tells me is this team collectively is mentally weak and the pitching coach has no idea how to do his job.

I’ve always been a card carrying member of the David Wright Fan Club but his constant crying about the Citi Field dimensions have me wondering if I want to renew my membership. Same with Jason Bay, I was never a fan of his as his signing was just another example of the damage Omar Minaya and Jeffey Skill Sets did to this organization. So now that the fences have been moved in and the walls lowered (I guess it is perfectly clear now that Citi Field was badly planed and put together between the skyscraper outfield walls, the lack of a Mets-eccentric feel and the whole homage to the Brooklyn Dodgers that was met with Mets fans ire) there should be no excuse for Wright and Bay to not have monster seasons in 2012. Right? Wright?

As for Warthen his quote :

“We got into being a little bit mentally lazy and overly secure. … I think that caused a lot of the homers this year. I really do. …[The new dimensions] will help us focus and concentrate and not be so ready to go out there and throw a fastball away and hope they hit it to center field.”

As the pitching coach shouldn’t you have nipped this problem in the bud ? By saying this out loud didn’t you realize that you are just feeding into the frenzy of many Mets fans (this one included) that you have no clue on how to fix this staff and should have been relieved of your duties this off season? It’s quotes like this that make me wonder if it’s Warthen fault that Bobby Parnell, he of the Howitzer arm, had no clue on how to pitch? Same with Mike Pelfrey. Pelf has talent and his a big strong workhorse of a pitcher is that Old School can’t or doesn’t know how to tap into what it takes to make both pitchers the dominate arms we feel they can be?

Jeffey Skill Sets says, not to worry about whom and when these minority shareholders of the Mets come on board. Besides it’s none of your business:

“Some of the people don’t want to be public,” Wilpon said. “Some of the people might never be public. I don’t think anybody knows all the minority shareholders in each of the other teams. Do you know all the minority shareholders in Atlanta or Kansas City or St. Louis, Cincinnati, the Yankees? It’s just not widely known.”

Do I care who holds a minority share in the Braves, Royals, Cardinals or the Bronx Bastards? No, because I don’t root or spend my money on tickets and merchandise on those teams but I do on the Mets. See I want to know as a Mets fan/customer what financial resources the team has to improve the product they are selling to me and my fellow Mets fans. I’m not going to pay Broadway prices for a high school production.  This is just another example of this ownership having not a clue of how to treat or connect with its fan base.

I’ve never been a big fan of Halloween maybe it was because the neighborhood I grew up in was more about ducking flying eggs or avoiding getting jumped by guys with socks full of chalk (usually pulling a knife on the sock hopper curtailed those attacks) than collecting candy but Ed “Rusty Jr.” Marcus went to a Mets Halloween Party last night and saw some interesting costumes. Oh and by the way Ed, the image of you in KISS makeup is disturbing.

Posted under Uncategorized

It looks like John Franco wants to get back in uniform with the Mets, no not as a player but as a coach. Franco said in today’s NY Post, that he would love to join the club as a mentor to Bobby Parnell, which I feel would help Parnell immensely and if Franco is sincere as I’m sure he is, instead of telling this to a newspaper reporter, why not approach Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins with this idea.

When Collins was told of Franco’s wish he said “I’ll try and set that up”. One of the things Collins told me during the winter was he told his coaching staff if you see something that you thing in a player or in a way the club is going about it’s business the needs fixing, you should speak up and let’s look at it as a staff. So if John Franco feels he can help Bobby Parnell get his mindset right to be a closer and help him develop an off speed pitch to go with his supersonic fastball, Collins would definitely be on board for that.

I love Howard Johnson, his combination of speed and power makes him one of the best players to wear a Mets uniform, but really HoJo it’s time to shut the fuck up. As Mike Silva tells us, Johnson has taken to Twitter to bash Mets management claiming they are anti-86 Mets.   As Silva points out there are a number of ex-86ers that work for the team, and the Mets gave HoJo a shot at being a manager and he failed and they handed him the job as the big league batting coach and many feel he’s ruined David Wright with his tinkering of his swing. So really HoJo stop the whining you’re starting to sound like a bitter ex-wife.

The Skill Sets are confident they will find at least 20 investors in their Ponzi scheme effort to raise some capital and to keep ownership of the Mets. I’m sure Mortimer and Randolph Duke Freddy and Uncle Saul know what they’re doing, I mean what could go wrong? (BIG EYE ROLL!!!!!!!)

Posted under Uncategorized

What’s worse than watching a baseball game in September that’s meaningless? How about watching a meaningless baseball game in September being played in “Your Name Here” Stadium in South Florida in front of dozens of fans with an hour plus rain delay? Then when the game resumes your team in this meaningless contest has the lead and the pitcher who is thought to be the closer of the future comes in and blows the save for the fourth time in nine chances, but his ass is saved by a player who you couldn’t give away at least three times this season getting the game winning hit?

So is the tale of Bobby Parnell and Nick Evans. Parnell has been given the opportunity to show he should be the closer for the Mets from now until whenever but he has shown that he does not have the qualities needed to be effective at that position. Parnell has a flamethrower for a right arm but has a ton of trouble locating pitches for strikes. He also has this nasty habit of giving up a hit and then falls apart by falling behind in the count to the next batter who either walks or gets a nice juicy fastball or a flat slider to mash at. It’s not just the pitches that are ineffective; it seems Parnell loses some nerve and confidence when he’s behind the 8 ball.  Small fires become forest fires for him on the mound.

It looks as though the manager who has shown a lot of faith in him is starting to doubt if Parnell can close out games:

“Well, we’re going to talk to Bobby tomorrow,” Collins said. “I mean, there’s a couple things (pitching coach) Dan (Warthen) had talked about with him, a couple of little pitch-location stuff that he’s just got to be able to make. He’s got to make some pitches.

“He’s got a great arm and he’s got really great stuff. But the bases on balls hurt him. Getting behind in the count hurts him. You saw the first hitter, he went right at him with good fastballs, got ahead of him in the count, and throws him a slider and it’s a mismatch. But you’ve got to be able to get ahead.”

It has got to be deflating  to the team to have Parnell blow as many saves as he has and Collins made be sensing some frustration in the clubhouse so why not take Parnell out of this roll and let him work on getting his mind as well as his pitches back to where he can be effective. There is too much talent in that right arm to give up on Parnell, but Terry Collins wants to end this season on a winning note as well as evaluating players who have a future with the Mets and who doesn’t.  Using a committee of Manny Acosta, Jason Isringhausen  and the neophyte Josh Stinson looks to be the way to go for these final weeks of the season.

As for Nick Evans, how can you not root for him? He’s been tossed on the scrap heap time and again but never gets discouraged and when he gets opportunities, as he is now playing 1^st base on a nightly basis, he is producing with his bat and his glove. From trolling around the team you can tell the players hold Evans in high regard as they know how hard he works to stay in the big leagues and if he can continue to produce like he has, and impress the manager like he has, he will have a spot on the 2012 Mets 25 man roster.

Posted under Uncategorized

I got to see 2011 15^th round pick Phil Evans make his Brooklyn Cyclones debut last night and came away very much impressed by the soon to be 19 year old.  Evans went 1 for 5 at the plate but even his outs were well hit with two of them “hang with em’s” as they were great defensive plays on soild hit balls. In the field Evans and 2^nd baseman Ismael Tijeina had a bit of communication breakdown as to who was to cover 2^nd base if the runner on first was to attempt a steal, but in the 9^th inning Evans made two great leaping plays for the 2^nd and 3^rd outs of the inning to end the game.

I watched the end of the Mets-Nats game this morning and while I agree with Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez on questioning walking Roger Bernadina to pitch to Ryan Zimmerman I feel if this were a game that really mattered Bobby Parmell would have been pulled as Bernadina came to the plate but Collins wants Parnell to show him why he should be the Mets closer in 2012. So far Parnell has been ineffective and I hate to say it, looks scared in these pressure spots. His inability to command his slider has been his biggest downfall. He falls behind in counts and has to come in with his fastball that is all but telegraphed to the batter.

Josh Satin makes his Major League debut today at 1^st base

I see that the Daily Lupica has put out a 50^th Anniversay Mets book with their Phillies Beat Writer as a contributor. No way in hell will that book be a part of my library. If you want a book that details the history of the Mets in detail and with outstanding pictures you need to purchase  New York Mets 50 Amazin’ Seasons by a true Mets fan and historian, Matthew Silverman.

Posted under Uncategorized

Greetings from Kissimmee, Florida where the humidity  is a rude as the European tourists at Disney World.

One of the best features of the condo we’re staying in is it has wi fi which is something the Disney hotels don’t , which always shocked me. Everything Disney’s does is first class you would think adding free wi fi would be a no brainer. Oh well.

The Mets season could be summed up by the just completed Nats series. Just when you get a burst of enthusiasm that this team has couple be a major player down the stretch and maybe have turned that corner to being relevant again, you get games like yesterday that make you think there is much more work to do. Base running errors (seems the manager blames Jon Niese for not tagging and going home on Wright’s fly ball that doubled up Murphy but the Murph-haters out there don’t agree) and the closer in training again not showing a closers mentality to finish out a game.

If Bobby Parnell wants to show the Mets brass that he is THE GUY, to be the closer in 2012, he can blow games like yesterday. A real closer comes in after a go ahead home run in the 9^th and closes the game 1-2-3. With a 100MPH fastball, Parnell should have come into the game breathing fire. His makeup as much as his pitching will be on display for the next two months.

Is anyone upset that Sandy Alderson didn’t make any more moves at the trade deadline? Scott Hairston, Willie Harris or Izzy could be moves through waivers but as Terry Collins said there is anyone in Buffalo to bring up in their place.

That’s enough for today, back to my R & R

Posted under Uncategorized

Good morning you ship jumping rat bastards. I wish you’d make up your minds, are you Mets fans or just a bunch of whinny bitches? I nearly lost my mind following some Mets fans on Twitter during the game last night (I got to stop Tweeting and watching the Mets and just concentrate on the watching the game and taking notes like I did way back  in the dial up pre iPhone internet days) I understand Mike Pelfrey was horrible last night but some of you took your venom to Big Pelf like you were auditioning for a job as beat writer at the NY Daily Lupica. Get a hold of yourself for Christ sake.

Pelf morphed back into his spaceman mode last night and it will be up to him, Old School Warthen, and neophyte receiver Josh Thole to get the Big Pelf locomotive back on track. I would think that the troika I just mentioned went over their pitching game plan for last night before the game. What was most puzzling for me was the fact that young Thole was dictating to Pelfrey what to throw. We all know that Pelf’s bread and butter is the splitter that induces a plethora of ground balls when he’s right. When he adds his two seam fastball and is effective with that pitch then you get vintage Big Pelf. Sure he’s big and strong but he’s not a strikeout pitcher. He doesn’t have an overpowering pitch to get that key K, in fact the guy Pelfrey should be attached to the hip with is Chris Young.

Back to my puzzlement on the short circuited battery. Pelf has taken it on his shoulders to let it be known that even though Thole was calling for him to throw his third and fourth pitches in his arsenal (curve and slider) he could have shaken him off until he saw the finger he liked the best. In a way it’s refreshing that Old School and Terry Collins let Thole call the pitchers instead of having them called for him by Warthen but perhaps with the lack of a veteran catcher (please don’t even mention Nickeas) on the roster, Old School should institute pitch selection from the bench in Big Pelfs next start or let Thole know next time he catches Pelfrey and calls for curves an sliders, there will be a plane ticket to Buffalo waiting for him in at his locker.

Another thing that should not be overlooked in this recent Pelfrey meltdown is the death of Harvey Dorfman, the sports psychologists and the shoulder that Pelfrey has cried on in recent years. With Dorfman gone all Pelfrey has left is the advice Drofman has given him through their late night conversations and a copy of Dorfman’s The Mental ABC’s of Pitching. Hopefully the lessons and the book and whatever magic Old School has in that tool box of his will right Big Pelf.

All this drivel written this morning in the fishwraps about trading Pelfrey is just another example of Mets bashing and lazy ass journalism that has permeated the NYC main stream media. Why write a column that looks into what is causing Pelfrey’s problems and see what is being done to correct them when you can just write that Pelfrey sucks and should be traded just to embrace yourself with the lunatic fringe of Mets fans. You know what you folks in the MSM are right; leave the heavy lifting to bloggers.

By the way here was my tweet when it was 7-0 Phillies and Mets fan tweeters were jumping ship. I then tweeted that the Mets would comeback. I then went after Evan Roberts of WFAN again as he proclaimed we would be ripping Mike Pelfrey on his show.

Now that I’ve cleared the air, will all of you GET THE FUCK OFF MY LAWN!

Posted under Uncategorized

The Mets bullpen situation is such that Sandy Alderson and his staff are trying to do some creative bookkeeping to by some time.

The Mets have asked Jason Isringhausen to stay an extra week in St Lonesome so to make sure his elbow is sound. The biggest fear the team has is keeping Izzy and he craps out in May. They have asked Blaine Boyer to accept a minor league deal when Boyer figures if he’s released he’d get a major league deal in a heartbeat.  The two moves come with the realization that Many Acosta and his 90+ fastball will be snatched up on wavers as well.  For a team that everyone feel s is a MLB bottom feeder, it seems there is some talent worth scheming for.

I’d like to see Izzy staying an extra week just to prove he can pitch without pain. The Mets want him on this team badly and if it weren’t for the pop he heard in his elbow a week ago, all this maneuvering wouldn’t be happening. Izzy is on the record as saying he will not take a minor league deal it’s big leagues or retirement for him . Boyer is interesting as he has also has an out in his deal with the Mets and they love his 90+ fastball that he gets down in the strike zone that converts to tons of ground ball outs.

I’d let Acosta go and hope Boyer agrees to a Minor League deal, if he doesn’t the you have no choice but to let him go as well and take a chance on Izzy even though you know he could be done by June.

One thing I better not see is Bobby Parnell getting optioned to Buffalo that would be a Minaya-like move.

Posted under Uncategorized

So who do you believe Johan Santana and the Mets or the Bergen Record? Hard choice. See I’m skeptical of both of them.  

This past winter Carlos Beltran told a gaggle of Mets bloggers that he felt great his knee felt great and he couldn’t wait to get to training camp. How has that turned out so far?

The one problem that Sandy Alderson needs to fix right away is the leak that’s in the organization. Someone with enough juice on this team told Steve Popper and The Klap the bad news about Santana and they ran with this story. Now the player, pitching coach and GM are all calling BULLSHIT on this report. I call BULLSHIT as well.

One thing I do believe in all this is why the rush to get Santana back in the rotation? Where are the Mets going that Santana needs to accelerate his rehab? Why not just let him work on his rehab try to get that shoulder stronger and healthier and look towards 2012? Even then who knows what kind of pitcher Santana will be. His last two seasons have been halted by injury; his velocity has decreased on his fastball which affects his changeup greatly. With two full seasons and a buyout left in his contract, it would be best to point at 2012 for Johan’s return than this summer. This type of surgery is tough to come back from as we see with Mark Prior and Chen Ming- Wang who have not come close to getting back in the baseball swing of things. So maybe slow and steady is best for this race.

Posted under Uncategorized

If reports are true, Ollie Perez is pitching for his Mets life this afternoon against the St. Louis Cardinals in St. Lonesome. Terry Collins is saying that this isn’t true that Ollie will pitch again after this start, but if he has a typical OP start, command issues, lack of zip on fastball, tons of walks then what’s the sense of giving him another start ? At some point you have to stop wasting your time with OP.

The Mets money woes may not be as dire as we think. The Skill Sets spent $15K on dirt. DIRT!!! But it seems like $15K spent wisely.

Ed Marcus posts up #6 in his all time Mets list. He was baseball’s Marlboro Man and one of my favorite Mets of all time and now he entertains us on TV. Just be careful if he asks you to help him move.

Adam Rubin posted his idea of what the Mets 25 man roster will look like on opening day. He has both Perez and Castillo off the team which is fine by me. He has Taylor Buchholz in the pen but notes that Jason Isringhausen is still in the mix and could grab Buchholz spot. Nick Evans is not on Rubin’s roster either and that is upsetting as Evans has worked hard to get back to the big league level but he’d have to beat out Chin-lung Hu or Willie Harris for a spot and I don’t see him beating either players out. There has to be a team that could use a good righty bat who can play both corner infield positions?

Dwight Gooden’s life just gets sadder and sadder. He has now agreed to become a sideshow act for Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab show on VH1. The show is like a junk yard for D list celeb’s that have their lives have swirled out of control. How in the world did Doc become a D-Lister? That is as crushing as his fight with drug and alcohol addiction.

Posted under Uncategorized

I have to say as much as I was looking forward to the start of spring training, I’ve got a bad case of “workout fatigue” from all the reporting going on from St. Lonesome.  There is only so much I can read about players having catch and throwing batting practice or bullpen sessions. I can only look at so many pictures of players stretching where it starts to become as annoying as when you’re cornered by a co-worker and forced you to look at pictures of the latest birthday party they had for their 3 year old.

It’s gotten to the point I sit at the keyboard and try to figure out what the hell can I come up with that’s new and fresh. I’m still staring. I can’t wait until Saturday when I can at least see players in game action. It’s nice to read about pitchers throwing outstanding bullpens and hitters ripping the cover off a batting practice fastball but when it’s put in real live action then we’ll find out just what we have with this Mets team.

And no I’m not jealous of everyone down in Florida in their shorts and t-shirts enjoying the warm sun, I’d much rather be here in NYC with four layers of clothes and being stuffed into a subway car like a sardine.

When I look over how the makeup of the Mets roster could be constructed I cannot fathom how either Oliver Perez or Luis Castillo makes this team (ok I admit I’m a bit obsessed with these two faces of failure and I see what Sandy Alderson is doing by keeping them as long as can until he either trades them or releases them)

For Castillo it’s either start or bust, he is no use to the team off the bench. From many indications, both Daniel Murphy and Brad Emaus will make the team, most likely as a platoon at second base unless one guy break out big at the start of the season.  Between Murph and Emaus you have a shot at 60+ xbh  from second base. It would take Castillo three season to do that.

Ollie Perez has become the Mets square peg on the round hole. What a misfit. Looking at pitching staff it looks like a 12 man staff of five starters and seven relievers. From the early results, Chris Capuano and Chris Young should fill out the bottom two fifths of the rotation. From listening to Terry Collins, the men in the pen who will have locker space in Queens are Frankie Rodriguez, Bobby Parnell, D.J. Carrasco. Pedro Beato has made a big impression on Collins and with his Rule 5 label attached to him he’d have to get hit from stem to stern to not make the team.  Now it gets a bit complicated. Jason Issringhausen has surprised everyone by showing up in Mets camp and looking impressive in his workouts. Izzy does just bring back some nostalgic memories, he also brings an impressive closers resume as well.  That leaves two spots and one has to be filled by a LOOGY, so Tim Byrdak and Taylor Tankersley will fight for that spot or would they both make the team? What about Pat Misch? Another lefty who could be LOOGY-ish or Darren Oliver-ish as a long man.  I haven’t even mentioned Mike O’Connor or two righties, Manny Acosta and Manny Alvarez who could make the final bullpen decision difficult for Alderson and Collins.

Am I missing anyone? I don’t think so, hummmm let me see…………ahhh yeah, Mr. Square Peg. Sorry Ollie you don’t fit here anymore.

Posted under Uncategorized