Before we delve into sports minutia lets not forget that today is Veterans Day and it would be worth all our while to thank the men and women of the US Armed Forces who have sacrificed for our country THANK YOU ALL.

I went to the Rangers-Oilers game last night and if you didn’t know better you would have thought the Rangers were on the 15 day 7 game road trip and not Edmonton.  The Rangers have now gone 1-3-1 in their last 5 games and the first period blues have continued. Maybe it’s just one of those bumps in the road but the way the team has looked lackluster in the beginning of games is a but disturbing. So is the defensive play of Michal Rozsival who is looking to replace Marek Malik as the ire of the Blue Seats anger.

With the trade of Matt Holiday to the A’s and Huston Street going to the Rocks added to the Padres going cheap and say bye-bye to Hells Bells Hoffman if your Francisco Rodriguez and Brain Fuentes it has to make you a bit nervous that having more supply added to the demand may cost you leverage and money when teams come a courtin’. It also puts a ton more pressure on Omar Minaya with more options out there to bolster the bullpen big time.

J-Man is chillin’ on the golf course these days while Omar, Tony B and John Rico burn the midnight oil revamping his team. Check out the wardrobe the Warlord was wearing on the links yesterday. I bet he looks damn fine in a fedora.

JC Bradburry as a great site named Sabernomics and on this site he has a post on MLB investigating the uses of HGH and what a waste of time and money it is to do this as there is no proof that HGH enhances performance on the baseball diamond.  I always felt bad for Jonathan Mayo who wrote a great inside baseball book on Roger Clemens that came out at the same time of Clemens lying and cheating scandal. As much as  I am not a fan of Clemens but I’ve always felt it was more Clemens mastering the spilt finger fastball that led to his late career success than the pharmaceuticals.

Kid Carter will manage the LI Ducks watch your back J-Man.

Dom D has a post on the Mets interest in Dan Uggla and Kevin Gregg as the Marlins prepare another of their famous tag sales. I love Uggla’s grit and bat but his glove is a liability. Gregg would look nice at the back end of the Mets pen though.

It’s time to give the post season baseball awards voting to bloggers as the BBWA are to lazy or too stupid to figure out who is a rookie and who isn’t. Edsion Volquez is not a rookie but he still received votes from three different writers in a second place slot.

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.

If Erik Aybar puts that bunt down, Mike Scioscia is a genius but because Aybar could not take that 2-0 fastball and drop one down as Reggie Willits was bustin’ ass down the third base line and Jason Varatek had to haul his big ass plus tools of ignorance down the third baseline to tag Williets on the butt for the out, Scioscia is now one dumb fuck. Amazing simply amazing. Was it the right call? For the Angles yes it was because that’s the way the Angels play baseball and quite frankly I love that kind of play as I also love the hit and run , the stolen base and batters who work the count to their advantage. If you say “wait a minute , there was one out so you have two shots to get Willets in from third sure you do but as I said this is the way the Angles play so it was no surprise that Scioscia called for the suicide squeeze and that missed bunt is the difference between sugar and shit.

Now the Angles need to take a big swig of Shut The Fuck Up.

The Rays are a hybrid of the 1969 and 1986 Mets. Going from the last to first with pitching, defense and timely hitting is the ’69 Mets part and take no bullshit,  charge the mound ask questions later is the ’86 component. So this series against the Old Town Team should be must watch TV this week.

I never thought as a proud Brooklynite I’d ever root for the Hollywood Carpet Baggers but St Joseph of Torre and his healing green tea about to make the Corky Steinbrenner look more special ed than ever and future Met Manny Ramirez taking on the Phucking Phillies  this one is easy GO BUMS!!!!!!!!!!

Tim Dierkes at MLB Trade Rumors has a link to 10 gallon Tracy’s column that Manny from The Heights is looking for a 5yr/$85 mil deal and speculation (as it is has the last three off seasons) Omar is ready to make the offer to the Boras Extortion Agency to hook Manny.

So with the financial crisis hitting our country how does this affect the sacred sanctuary of sports team, the luxury suite? According to Mets Mouth Organ David (The Lawyer) Howard there is no financial crisis:

   {Executives at Yankee Stadium are monitoring the economic situation but have not seen any effect, said Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman. She did not provide specific sales figures, but the luxury suites are nearly sold out, according to news reports. The same is true at the Mets’ Citi Field, said Dave Howard, the team’s executive vice president for business operations.

“Timing is a part of this,” he said. “The firms we’ve sold to haven’t had any major issues, and the people who have them realize they’ve got great value for the quality of what we’re offering here.”}

I, like Calcaterra, think this is a smoke screen as well, who did the Mets and the Highlanders as well, sell these dens of greed and excess too? The only guys making enough coin to buy a luxury box drink their cordials from a pimp chalice.  And who is to say that by opening day $ti Financial will still be in business? The Mets could be taking the field at Cathouse Stadium come April.

That’s why this financial crisis hasn’t hurt me at all as I’ve invested all my money in illegal gambling, prostitution and out of state cigarettes and I’m livin’ large!

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.

There is no better place on earth than New York City on the first crisp cool fall day even though we haven’t had one of those classic “Con Edison can’t handle the electrical demand summers” there is something invigorating when you step out the door and it’s 51 degrees with a chilly breeze. The afternoons are even better as the shadows of the sky scrapers bring back memories of Seaver/Cuellar and Koosman/McNally and just makes me root harder for the Mets to get into the post season as this season HAS TO KEEP GOING. Not just because fall baseball is the ultimate sporting event (made even better that my son was asked to play on a team in a fall baseball league today even though he didn’t sign up as he rather play soccer this time of year but the coach knew of him from Little League and asked him to play for his team today. Talk about your late season call up)  but it’s only fitting that the team from the South Bronx which has looked down it’s nose at us for years closes it’s stadium doors with no post season game but a with a meaningless play out the string game tomorrow night and that Shea the old clapboard house that many an insult has been hurled at it finishes out in style with post season baseball. 

Last night’s game was no work of art by any means but OP was great, Brain Stokes had his fastball back and Daniel Murphy will find a place to play for the Mets this post season and for many seasons to come.

Is FOX kidding by putting Cards-Cubs on in NYC with the Brewers-Reds on at the same time?

Let’s hope Petey has some magic left in that right arm tonight

I can’t say this enough please Skill Sets and Omar shut down John Maine for the season get him the surgery he needs and let the cow chips of the bullpen fall where they may.

Very inconsistent pitching by Jon Niese in his ML debut. All of his three innings were a chore as he had base runners and deep counts each of the innings. 73 pitches (39K/34B) in three innings is the definition of laboring. The first inning Niese was clearly nervous as he gave up a HR to Rickie Weeks on the second  pitch of the game. It wasn’t a total loss for Niese as he showed a real good curve ball that had a great break and he was able to change speeds as well, hitting 90 mph on the fastball and then coming in with a curve and change in the mid 70’s. 

Niese’ biggest problem on the night was location early, then fatigue from throwing so many pitches early as the Brewers just were teeing off on him in the 3rd. Hopefully Niese will have gotten over his bad case of big league-itis before his next start if there is a next start as J-Man has let it be known that this no time for auditions as we are in a pennant race.

Nelly Figs has come on and pitched well as it’s 5-5 in the top of the 6th so it will be up to the bullpen to keep the Brewskis off the board. Secure that pair of Depends folks it could be a rough night.

It’s up to Big Pelf to bail out the Mets today and gain a spilt with the “Stros. Speaking of Big Pelf, how come I couldn’t find a PELFREY 34 T-Shirt at Shea Stadium? I looked at the souvenir stands on the Upper Deck and outside the Stadium and not one PELFREY 34 shirt. I admit I didn’t ‘t go to the team store as I was hell bent to get my free sports bag as my other fifteen or so other Mets sports bags don’t get lonely. I have so many Mets bags from giveaway days that when we go on vacation my van looks like the Mets equipment truck. It’s not just sports bags either it’s coffee mugs, lunch bags, bobbleheads, pens, key chains, t shirts, seat cushions, baseball cards, 2000 NL Pennant flags and my prized possession a CD of Meet The Mets, original and 80’s version and an instrumental played  by Jane Jarvis.  That list doesn’t even count the blankets, drawstring bags and hats I have from filling out credit card applications.  Yes I am seeking help for my Mets tchotchke addiction.

I was ready to get on the bully pulpit on how the Mets need to shut down John Maine right now but Mike Silva at NY Baseball Digest saved me the venom (by the way while your at Mike’s site click on his link to his interviews which are fantastic), it is admirable that Maine has taken on pitching through pain and that he has put team before self but he really is not helping the team or himself if his signature pitch the late giddy up fastball has lost it late jump. As we witnessed on Saturday without that second wind his fastball is very hittable. If surgery is needed then do it now so he is ready for spring ’09. Maine is way too valuable to the Mets to mess around like this.

It’s not time to think about the off season I know but when it comes to focusing in on who the Mets need to go after in the free agent market the number one name on their list had better be C.C Sabathia. With all the money the Mets are making, money is no object they have to be major players for Sabathia. Forget about Texieira I WANT CC.

I wish I knew what is really going on with Gimp Castillo? Did he beg out of activation on Saturday? Did Warlord Jerry win his power play with Omar? Is he not ready for prime time physically and or mentally to play? Or is it that he sees the team playing winning baseball and is putting team before himself?

Tonight at Shea the Shea-Goodbye Countdown goes to 16 remaining games. Yesterday Mex took down number 17 as he should but tonight the man who should take down number 16 will not be in attendance and it breaks my heart. Dwight Gooden for what ever reason has be estranged from the organization that gave him his start and put up with a lot of bullshit along the way and has aligned himself as more of a Bronx Bastard than a a Met. Doc was never known for making good decisions. What makes it even sadder is today is the anniversary of Doc becoming the youngest pitcher in the modern era to win 20 games in a season when he did it as a 20 year old back in 1985. Yeah kids, those were the days

Great story by Bob Klapish in yesterday’s Bergen Record (tip of the Mets cap to Repoz and the Baseball Think Factory) on his journey back from his devastating injury while pitching in a semi pro game. Scary stuff. Get well soon Klapper.

The idea of the slider is to fool the batter that it’s a fastball but then when it breaks the way it should (like down and away or down and in) it should it is an extremely effective pitch but it is also a high risk, high reward pitch especially when Pedro Feliciano throws it.  So today Feliciano took a risk and threw a slider to a couple of guys Brad Asmus and Darin Erstad who had five HR’s combined coming into the game and instead of just challenging both batters Feliciano goes with sliders which hung just enough over the middle of the for both batters to tee off and take him long. As the Bobby Valentine always says, Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance, that saying should be hung in Pedro Feliciano’s locker.

I have to say I love that the Shea in game staff was hip enough to play the Dropkick Murphy’s when Daniel Murphy comes to bat, I am curious if he chose that or not.

Today I was in beautiful Bay Ridge Brooklyn and as we were walking on 5th Ave I passed a sporting goods store named LEDGENDS. They had a rack on the side walk of MLB baseball jerseys on sale for 10 bucks. No bullshit these were like $200 jerseys with names and numbers sewed on for 10 bucks. The problem was most were Cardinal jerseys with Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds names on them so they were out. There were Red Sox road jersey with RAMIREZ on them so no go there either as were the Cubs, Phillies and the Mets Tom Glavine top. But there was one that caught my eye and after a lot of thinking and putting it back, picking it up, putting it back, I said “ah what the hell I got to take this for 10 bucks” it’s a home pinstripe Mets with 44 MILLEDGE on the back For a double fin I’ll represent for my boy LMILLZ.

Quicknote as it is moving day from Cape Cod to Boston have to pack and get ready for Fenway Park. First it looks like Petey was rusty but healthy bottom line is if that fastball has no movement he will get lit up.

Maybe J-Man should have batted for Chavez with Castro as that looks to where the game was lost last night even though the blame goes to Heilman (doesn’t it always)

Welcome to the Mets Dan Murphy with Jon Neise and Eddie Kunz not far behind.

Red Soc fans gave Jason Bay a huge standing ovation last nigh in his first at bat. Bay looked both touched and embarrassed by the gesture as I guess it hit him that this ain’t Pittsburgh.