The Den of Thieves (A/K/A NYC City Council) votes today on the re-development of Willets Point so lets see if rats and chop shops win over jobs, housing and progress.

D-Wright says he will bang the Mets tom-tom for the franchise to any free agent looking to join the club. D-Wright is a true blue Met but I get a bit queasy when you have to recruit guys to join your team especially when you are a NYC team. The Mets will have no shortage of sutiors some with real interest in join the team others who are looking to up their ante with other clubs, and one of Omar Minaya’s strong suits is his street smarts to know how to separate the phonies from the players who have a real interest in being Mets.

The closer contest looks to be very interesting as the Mets will start there it seems on the road to revamp the ballclub. It looks like the shopping list will go in order, closer/relievers, starting pitchers (2), catcher, outfield bat.

Newsday states that the Mets are now looking at Bobby Jenks. My consultants check is in the mail I hope.

Jake Peavy to the Braves looks like a done deal and that puts a little extra pressure on the Mets to strengthen the pitching staff and it also helps CC Sabathia get even more of the Steinbrenner millions.

Hops Weiss has a very good column on the state of college basketball here in the NYC area.  None of the area Divsion I teams are predicted to do much this season or be a factor come tournament time. Wiess lays out how college hoops used to be when St Johns ruled the roost.

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.

Not much on the Mets front today as we await Friday when hunting season opens. No not for men in camo killing Bambi but for guys like Omar Minaya to don an orange hat and use the smell of devalued U.S. currency as a lure to rope in a few good arms for the Mets pitching staff and maybe a bat and a bench player too.  But even during this lull in the Mets off season action, you can always find some interesting things to discuss such as:

The New York Football Giants went into that cesspool called Philadelphia and showed the Philly fans that there is at least one team in NYC with a pair of balls. Far from their best performance of the season the G-Men ran the ball right down the throats of the Iggles but still allowed to keep Philly in the game with some bad fumbles (Brandon Jacobs is a stud but he HAS to learn to put his shoulder down, run low and tuck that ball up high as one day those fumble are going to cost the Giants a big game) and some spotty secondary play. I love the cover of the NY Daily News with Tom Coughlin making the play of the game when he asked for video review of the illegal forward pass against Eli Manning in the 3^rd period that was reversed and set up the Brandon Jacobs TD that put the GIANTS in front for good. Just a side note with all the well deserved praise heaped on Justin Tuck and Osi Umenorya Chase Blackburn’s play at LB has been overlooked.

Mike Silva at NY Baseball Digest has a post and a link from Buster Olney on the Padres playing a tough negations game with Trevor Hoffman. The last guy who I would want to come pitch for the Mets would be the most overrated reliever of the 20^th and 21^st century Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman would not survive 5 minutes on 126^th and Roosevelt Ave.

I’ve linked to Randy Newsom before at Dugout Central and Newsom has another great report from Venezuela posted. Newsom is a pitcher in the Cleveland Indians system and is a very entertaining writer.

I have no idea if the great footballer and Sunderland manager Roy Keane and I are related (he is from Cork my family is from Silo) but one thing we Keane’s have in common, we hate losing and we lack patience so when I read this story about Keane being very frustrated with the lads on the Black Cats and taking Sky Sports commentators to task I started to think me and Roy have to cousins.

Well what do you know,  the ground at Willets Point are contaminated I’m shocked, SHOCKED!!!!!  After reading this it may be more than the prices keeping me out of $iti Field and if I do show up it may be in a bubble.

I went to see FUERZABRUTA last night at the Darryl Roth Theater on 15 St and it was on of the best and most entertaining shows I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a must see show!!!!! (Holy shit I think I’m morphing into Larry King)

I saw this link from the Shyster Ball site it’s a story on former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee being honored into the Red Sox Hall of Fame. I always like Lee and in fact my daughter needed something from my book case Saturday and while we were looking for a book on the 50 states I saw a copy I had of Lee’s The Wrong Stuff that hadn’t read in years. I may just dust it off and give it a look.

It’s tough to cut through all the double talk coming from the GM meetings and I’m still trying to figure out just what the GM’s are doing in Cali besides drinking at the bar and going bowling, hell they could have held the meeting on Staten Island down the street from my house for that matter.

What is becoming clearer is the off season mission of Omar Minaya. Is to add pitching, pitching and more pitching and if a hitter (Raul Ibanez, Nick Swisher, MANNY) falls in his lap so be it.

I am intrigued by the rumors of the Famous Rays interested in Aaron Heilman and if Heilman could bring back Edwin Jackson that would be a big score for Omar.

If Javier Vasquez could be had for Gimp and his stupid contract I’d green light that one as well. What we have to remember here is the Mets are looking to bolster the back of the rotation so unless Derek Lowe really loves the colors blue and orange I don’t see him signing with the Mets when the Highlanders and Red Sox will be spending money like they own oil wells.

I still like my idea of going after Matt Capps and John Grabow from the Pirates. As much as I wouldn’t mind Brain Fuentes I hate that a player like that feels he has a team like the Mets over barrel and even if Omar were to land Fuentes I’d still go after Capps and Grabow.

Hey look two of the core are wearing Gold Gloves lets trade ‘em

Speaking of the Great Bloviator of WFAN, it seems he had his pants pulled down<figuratively that is > by Ryan Church about Church hating NYC and playing for the Mets. Read here at MetsBlog and you see how the Rush Limbaugh of Sports Talk Radio was outed as the pompous jerk he has grown (REALLY GROWN) to be. Oh yeah and Mike tells us again how D-Wright is just another player and an awful third baseman, you phony turd!

Click over to Mike Silva’s NY Baseball Digest and listen to his interview with John Manuel of Baseball America who tells us the state of the Mets Farm System is not as weak as we’ve been led to believe. Some of you Tony B haters will have to join the dark side soon as he has fortified the farm system with excellent free agent signings and a couple of fruitful drafts.     

It’s safe to say, that Omar Minaya is not enamored with the play of Brian Schneider and as well he shouldn’t. It’s not so much his offense as the front office knew that Schneider was not much of a batsman but his defense to me and most likely to the Mets brain trust was not as advertised. Schneider came to the team with a good glove rep and as an a good pitch caller but those attributes were not on display much last season. Schneider had nagging injuries but to me he looked a little lazy with the glove and his pitchers (especially Petey) shook over his signals a lot of times in big spots.

On Metsblog there is a link to the SI story but read the comments section and where they are on to something where if Omar could land both Molina and Aaron Rowand that would be a major coup

Congratulations to Fernando Tatis on winning the Comeback Player of the Year Award and a great pick up by Omar Minaya

If anything came up as a positive last night that the Phelatios won the NL Pennant it’s that the flame that was close to Omar Minaya ass to make his team better just turned into a blow torch. I ‘ve read a lot about who should go, who should come back and who the Mets should go after but as much as we Mets fans want to see some movement immediately nothing will happen until after the World  Series and after the free agency grace period. As far as the bullpen I would say you won’t see any action on that until December to see what players are offered arbitration and who doesn’t as the non-tendered list should bring something of substance to the beleaguered pen. This process will be take a while to play out and I’d say to all Mets fans to be patient but I know better than to go that route.

I am staring to fee bad for Mike Francesa. Here was a guy who was on top of the sports talk food chain and now has become as relevant as a rotary telephone. It’s hard to get mad at his Anti-David Wright rant yesterday as I feel more embarrassed for him than pissed. To say that David Wright is not a five tool player and that “every team in baseball has a David Wright “ is so over the top stupid it was like listening to a drunk at a dinner party slur his words and spit his food. WFAN has tried to do everything to save Mike’d Up as they see that Francesa by himself can not carry a show (just like Derek Jeter can’t carry a team by himself) and Program Director Mark Chernoff has trotted in just about all of the talent the station has to find a match. So far Joe Beningno has been the best of the lot with surprisingly Evan Roberts putting up a good showing as well. Kim Jones was good to but Mike was treating her like it was his sister and not a colleague and the biggest disappointment was Chris Carlin who was dreadful but I digress, it seems most of the callers and posters on MikeFrancesa.com feel that this attack on Wright is personal. A caller brought this up to Francesa and he acted in his typical rude way. For Francesa to diss Wright as he has in belittling his ability not only in the field but at bat (at one point in the day, Francesca said that Wright’s 33 HR’s and 124 RBI meant nothing and that Wright was an awful 3^rd baseman which if a blogger wrote that they would be laughed at and their site never heard from again) .

It sad because as much as I would bitch about how out of touch Francesa is I listen every day at work and I’ve always found his analysis spot on for the most part, but now I see a guy who looks ready for a nervous breakdown and who misses his partner more than he will ever let on. 

Mike Silva has a post on this Francesa Fiasco at his always informitive NY Baseball Digest site 

R.I.P. Tom Tresh. I remember getting one of his bats at bat day at Highlander Stadium as a little kid and having my friends beg me for it looking to trade me a Ron Woods bat for a Tresh bat and when I wouldn’t budge on the deal being called a “stupid fucking Mets fan” which is funny because those same friends still call me that to this day.  

Joel Sherman in his Hardball Blog writes on how Larry Bowa enjoyed working with Manny Ramirez and how Bowa is rumored to be headed back to the Highlanders. If Bowa is looking to leave LA why doesn’t Omar grab him to coach 3^rd base? A Bowa type is sorely needed and Bowa did play for the Mets. Okay that one was a stretch but I would love to see Bowa waving home runners at third for the Mets.

Here’s what I took from last night’s Presidential debate. If you were going to jump off a building, Barrack Obama would talk you out of leaping to your death. John Mc Cain on the other hand seems like he would yell “Will you fucking jump already!!!

I know a lot of you in Orange and Blue Country don’t give a rat’s ass about this post season (Most Mets fans it seems are like my Ranger fans brethren as when the Rangers are not in the Stanley Cup hunt that’s the end of hockey season for them) but I do as I have put my angst and despair of the 2008 Mets campaign behind me and quite frankly I am very much looking forward to both LCS series.

I’m hoping the Dodgers take the NLCS and I’m also hoping that Omar Minaya is hiding outside the Dodgers hotel with a big bowl of rice and beans from one of the fine Dominican eating establishment in The Heights to lure Manny back home, but this series is sooooooo close that the only thing I’ll predict is a Seventh Game. This series comes down to bullpens as the Phinks have Brad Lidge and the Bums have Guns of Broxton to close for them. The supporting cast in each pen has Mets fans drooling and hopefully Omar is taking notes on how to build a better pen. This series goes 7 games and that’s as far out on a limb as I’ll go.    

Same for the ALCS, my appeal for the Rays of Tampa is the owners Mets/Brooklyn roots, Scot Kazmir and the fact they take their name from one of my favorite pizzerias in Manhattan but then I have the issue with the Old Town Team of summer on Cape Cod and the Dropkick Murphy’s on my iPod and of course my close encounter with the Rem Dawg .  Tito is rolling the Dice (K) here by starting Matsuzaka over Jon Lester and then going with Josh Beckett in Game 2 saving Jon Lester for Game 3. The Rays counter with James Shields, Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza so I’ll say whoever is up 2 games to 1 will win this series.  

Tony B is such a bad guy that the Mariners are looking at him for their GM spot. Sure I’m a cynic as I think it’s just window dressing as Bernazard meets the Latinio requirement for the interview process, Kim Ng filling two spots as an Asian-American woman so the minority window dressing will be complete this way the M’’s can give the job to Pat Gillick as he returns to the Emerald City.

I’m having the TiVo set for Life on Mars as I’m all over this show like a pair of Jordache Jeans. If I see Michael Imperiolli walking around the neighborhood I’ll ask him if he wants some of my old quinoa shirts, wrap around sweaters, or platform shoes. Don’t laugh I was a hottie back in those days.

What a night NLCS, Life on Mars and Opening Night of the NHL!!!!!! WOOOO-HHHHHHHOOOOOOO

Speaking of the NHL, Republican VP candidate Sarah Youbetcha will drop the first puck at Saturday’ Rangers-Flyers game  Also the Stepford Governor will be selling Tupperwear between periods .

WOW I haven’t bought an issue of Playboy since I wore those quinoa shirts and platform shoes but this issue is a must for me.

Tonight in Philly, Deion Sanders get to throw out the ceremonial first bucket of ice water over Tim McFullofshit’s head.

     Looks like I better chop some more wood for the Hot Stove. This sucks it really really sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heading for the ferry this morning as I popped on my iPod and set it to shuffle the first song that came on was Nickelback’s “You Remind Me”, how appropriate (as I was walking to my office when I got to Wall St Green Day’ Boulevard of Broken Dreams came on now that’s freaky) for what happened last night in DC and the uneasiness right now in the Land of Orange and Blue.

As much as Dirty Sanchez sucked balls last night, the offense was the worst culprit of the night. It just seems who ever is up with bases loaded hits into a double play. I would have bet my house that the Mets lead baseball in most hit into DP’s but they don’t in fact they rank 18^th in most GDP’s but isn’t it every game now that the DP is a rally killer?

I’m glad to see J-Man take my advice and throw Bobby Parnell a bone and use Ricardo Rincon as well. Now if he can free Al Reyes we can see who are the most effective pitchers in the pen. It’s the old throw the shit on the wall and see what sticks. It’s not the way to run a team and that brings me to this conclusion on the J-Man –Omar Minaya relationship.

I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that Warlord Jerry will be the Mets manager in 2009.  I look at the way J-Man has used the personnel since the first of the month call ups and I get the feeling that Omar and J-Man are not exactly on the same page as it comes to who plays and who sits. J-Man has made it known that playing time is done through a meritocracy and not pay checks. This theory crossed my mind listening to Gary Cohen say the Mets were going to have Parnell pitch a simulated game to get some work and see where he stood to get some pen work. That to me has Omar/ Tony B fingerprints all over it and as the losses and blown saves add up and Omar starts to realize that if the Mets don’t make the post season he could be on the unemployment line, how much arm twisting does he do with the manager to get things done the way he wants?

Is there any other team in sports that fucks around with injured players like the Mets?  It’s a testament to how much pressure Omar Minaya is feeling that he hasn’t sent John Maine to see a surgeon to get that bone spur on his rotator cuff taken care of. All we here is that Maine can not do any more damage to his shoulder and I’m supposed to believe that. BULLSHIT. Billy Wagner had a cramp in his forearm too and Ryan Church had a slight headache and Gimp Castillo has a touch of traumatism.    Then the Skill Sets want to know why the organization is treated like a bunch of chumps by fans and media.

I don’t know how these two guys went a stray in their baseball loyalties   but when it comes to hip and cool in the blogesphre Repoz and Alex Bleth are the hippest and coolest Check out this post from Repoz on Bleth’ Bronx Banter site on his memory of Highlander Stadium and Michael Burke the man who ran the Bronx Bastards into the ground before the Robber Baron took over. Some Highlander historian needs to write a book on the men who have run that franchise throughout their history.   Repoz and Belth are like the double bill I saw at Max’s of Iggy Pop and Mink DeVille back in the day.

Mike Silva has a piece on the Mets shuffling off their Triple A team to Buffalo which is a solid move.

Someone at WFAN better wake up fast and clean up the mess on that station between 1-6 as Francesca on the FAN should be changes to Floundering on the FAN. You can’t have a round guy that is so square do a show by himself as Francesca lacks the personality to carry it off. Whatever you think of Chris Russo he had the chops to do it but lacked the overall sports knowledge that Pope Mike possesses. That’s what made them so successful each guy had his strength and weaknesses and they played off each beautifully.  

The Mets are rolling. Since July 1 to today the boys in Orange and Blue are 32-15 and winners of 14 of their last 18. With a 2 ½ game lead over the Phillies and a macho performance by Johan Santana last night Metsdom should be as giddy as Jeffey Skill Sets when he’s opening up the season ticket renewals. But of course there always has to be a turd in the punch bowl.

Gimp Castillo who has been a way from the team for what seems like three months has bogarted his way back into the starting lineup in what looks to be the first power struggle loss under the rule of Warlord Jerry. This is Omar Minaya pulling th “I’m the boss” card out on J-Man as Manuel knows he’ got a good thing going here and doesn’t want it disturbed. It’s not so much that Gimp is back in action, it’s more who gets the furlough to NOLA that is disturbing.

Look we can all read and the number that Gimp has over both Argenis Reyes and Damien Easley is his OBP of .365 which is superior to Reyes (.297) and Easley (.312) so if it were a question of the Mets needing an offensive shot in the arm then Gimp coming back would be greatly anticipated. But offense has not been a problem for the team since Gimp went out in fact the resurgence of Carlos Delgado and the LF platoon of the Gold Dust Twins added to the resurgence of Fernando Tatis makes the Mets offense one of the deepest and most productive in baseball. Sure the offense has helped the Mets-troliner get back on track but the biggest ingredient to the surge has been starting pitching and defense which always go hand in hand.

When you have a strong up the middle defense like the Mets have now with the Reyes-Reyes/Easley-Beltran tag team, it gives your pitching staff a little more confidence to pitch to contact because of the great faith they have in their fielders. That’s what Argenis and Easley have brought to the table that Gimp hasn’t. Gimp is shell of himself in the field and like the Visa commercial where everyone on line has a Visa check card and then one guy stops the line by writing a check that’s what Gimp will bring when he comes back. The baseball term on offense is when your down by a lot runs and you need a big inning when guys get on base you will hear from the bench”Just keep the line moving” and that’s what J-Man wants for his defense to keep the outs coming and he knows with Gimp out there that could be a problem.

But J-Man like most of us has a boss and his boss is Omar Minaya and not only is J-Man limited in his taking on the boss as he still has the”interim” tag next to his name he also has to know the burden Omar has with the albatross contract around his neck that is Gimps ridiculous deal. As bad as that signing has been for Omar and the Mets it’s unfair to kill him on it as so far Minaya has made many more positives moves than bad during his rein as Mets boss. If he could have just found a way to keep Gimp away from the team until September 1, that would have been another check maker in the positive column for him.

Meanwhile with all the bloviating I just got finished doing I will still be cheering for Gimp tonight as he is a Met and we have something very special going on here at Shea, that’s why I leave all my “hatein’” here and not at the ball park.