There are losses and there are losses but then again THERE ARE LOSSES and last night was one of those LOSSES.

You will read and hear a lot today about last nights Mets 11-5 loss to the Phillies some will say it’s much to early to worry and losing a series in the beginning of May is not the end of the world and Johan Santana himself said “it was just one those games” but to me and many Mets fans it wasn’t just one of those games, quite frankly it was a major embarrassment.

It all started when the lineup was posted, the Mets Twitter Nation was up in arms over seeing GMJ and Fernando Tatis, two players who could not play on any other major league team, playing instead of Angel Pagan and Ike Davis. Supposedly the numbers that Tatis and GMJ have against Jamie Moyer favored the move but I would hope that the manager would have thought, “I have a chance to take the series from my top rival that is reeling a bit, I have my Ace pitcher going so I need to play my best eight guys today” But Jerry Manuel decided he could play his best six and win and after the first inning he looked like a prophet. To be honest this loss had nothing to do with GMJ and Tatis in the line up (even though it is very interesting that the Mariners cut Eric Byrnes after their game yesterday but GMJ keeps on keepin’ on with the Mets even as Chris Carter is more deserving of his spot, by the way when was the last time Omar Minaya made an in season trade to help the team? Don’t say Ryan Church for Frenchy as Minaya stated that John Rico was responsible for that move) it was more of Johan Santana not stepping up in the first big spot of the season.

I don’t want to kill Santana because I really like and admired him. He proved his mettle in the next to last game in 2008 against the Marlins but I am so disappointed over last nights game that anything I write here will be pure emotion, but as I watched the Santana come up small a few things whirled around in my head.

When reporters ask you who the best pitcher is in the NL East, I would hope Johan Santana now knows to shut the fuck up. Just say, “it’s not for me to say who’s the best and all that, let the records speak for themselves”. Roy Halliday said nothing in spring training but on Saturday, I don’t care how big a Mets fan your are or how big a Phillies hater you are, Halliday made his statement on Saturday on who is the best in the NL East.

The 4^th inning was one of the worst innings I have endured in a long time but the big picture here is what happened in the bottom of the 1^st. David Wright just gave Santana a 3-0 cushion and Mets Twitter-verse were popping champagne corks. But Santana broke a cardinal sin of pitching, when your team puts up a crooked number in your half of the inning, you need to pitch a scoreless inning in the oppositions half inning, Santana failed that. There were some stupid Tweets about if the game was at “Citi Field those wouldn’t be home runs” bottom line Santana needed a 1-2-3 inning there and he failed.

The other thoughts I had after this disaster was about Tom Seaver and Doc Gooden and Jerry Koosman  those three guys would not have lost that game yesterday, in fact all three  would have stepped off the mound and adjusted there cups to show the Phillie fans just what they thought of them.  I even thought of Frank “Sweet Music “ Viola or Rosalita Leiter and Petey, they would not only not walk Jamie Moyer, they would have attacked Carlos Ruiz. Neither would have Sid Fernandez or Craig Swan. Or Ron Darling or Bobby Ojeda. Or John Matlack or David Cone. Or Orel Hershiser or even T-t-t-t-o-m G-g-g-g-lavine (God forgive me!)

If Santana pitches like the Ace he says he is last night and the Mets win, I leave my house this morning without pants on as my arousal couldn’t be contained, instead I’m as flaccid as Johan Santana’ fastball.

Johan Santana has lost me right now, and I think he’s lost his teammates a bit as well. After the 4^th inning the Mets bench was dead. Their top pitcher just got his ass handed to him and all the good cheer of the last homestand and the game on Friday went out the window. Of course the players won’t say so and all would deny it loudly, but actions speak louder than words. Forget Mets fans trust, Santana needs to regain his teammates trust more.

 

Jerry Manuel is a man who never uses profanity but he still is a nasty fuck sometimes as we see with his quotes about Ryan Church and how finally the truth is coming to light on why he was not a fan of Church:

 

Whether the Mets learned to be cautious with concussions as a result of Church’s case remains to be seen. Jerry Manuel appeared to question Church’s toughness yesterday, at least relative to Wright’s grit.

“David is a different animal, so to speak,” Manuel said. “And how he is made up is a little different than, say, Ryan Church, in my opinion. And that’s not to say one is better than the other. But they’re different.”

 

So Manuel feels Church was a big pussy, now we see it. That’s why I always liked Billy Martin, he was man enough to call his players a pussy to their face (sure after a few scotches) I will say I am kind of surprised that Manuel would question a player like Church’ intestinal fortitude, especially when everyone from doctors, fans and people around baseball all agree that the Mets botched up Church’s head injuries big time.

 

Jeff Francouer did a Q & A with the Atlanta Journal Constitution on how he is loving life in NY and $tit Field.

Great stuff from Mets Geek on the unsigned Mets draft picks.

After seeing those throwback uni’s in person Saturday you what, they weren’t that bad. I like the color and I LOVED the MR. Met on the sleeve along with no names on the back, if the NY were smaller it would have been a hit. Mets Police was listening to yesterday’s game on radio like I did (I was on my way to Coney Island to see the Brooklyn Cyclones and eat pizza at Spumoni Gardens. Also it was a day to torture my kids by telling them I’m selling our house and moving back to Brooklyn.  My wife and kids used to laugh when I’d do this but now they’re scared to death that the might see a for sale sign on the front lawn. Truth be told if I could up root my house and place it in Bay Ridge, I’d be back in Brooklyn in a heartbeat) and heard Howie Rose talk about the throwbacks and how the Mets are slowly learning that the fan base wants to see more Mets tradition and to be more like the Highlander, Cardinals, Dodgers, Cubs and Red Sox and just tweek the uniform and not go crazy. As we all know Howie is with us in the Black Uni’s Suck Club. If the Mets were to modify the throwbacks from this weekend to use an orange NY with blue and orange stripes on the sleeves, numbers on the front and back and no names on the back  with blue piping down the pant legs with Mr. Met on one sleeve and the round Mets logo on the other and top that off with blue stirrups and the classic blue caps that would be a world class uniform.

To make matters worse my son and four other boys from our troop spent the night in the woods about 5 miles from our camp to fullfill thier wilderness survival reqs for a merit badge. The boys go into the woods for a night with just a sleeping bag, knife, water, mat, and two hot dogs and an apple. When they returned to camp this moring around 6 AM my son informed me that he saw a bear near their shelter but he was scared off by the noise.

With all that I’m ready to go home and get some concrete under my feet by the way Jerry Manuel needs to play Daniel Murphy every day and Omar needs to give Livan Hernandez his release, and Jeffey and Freddie Skill Sets need to come out hiding and speak to the fan base on how they are going to get this franchise back on track not for this season but for 2010 and beyond.

Time for everyone in the Mets organization to man up and realize this season is done and work on dealing off guys like Ryan Church, Garry Sheffield, Brian Schineder  and Fernando Tatis to name four.

It would be nice if someone in the Mets organization had the guts of a 13 year old Boy Scout

 

 

 

What can I add about last night’s game that you don’t know already? How can you break down this game when it’s the same old same old? Everyone is screaming for Omar Minaya do something, what that something is and how he can obtain it  no one has an answer to. “GET A BAT, GET A BAT” is a popular rant but last night you scored 6 runs and still lost. What bat do you want? We’ve gone all over the tried names and none of them will make a difference. It’s not complex what the problems are with the Mets and you can look at charts and numbers and load up your nuclear slide rule and you will come up with the same result I do just through simple observation, the starting staff can go deep into games, thus the bullpen is worn out and is now ineffective add in the defense is atrocious and collectively the baseball IQ of the 25 man roster is at Special Ed level.

 

But more pathetic than that are the unnamed players whining for the front office to make a deal to “lift them” which to me is the pussy-fcation of this team. If Michael Jackson were alive he’d tell them to “man up”.

 

This slide is less about who isn’t here but more about the heart of who is here. D-Wright and Gary Sheffield (GARY SHEFFIELD!!!!! For Christ Sake!!!!) are doing everything they can to keep this team in contention with Wright near exhaustion and Sheff ready to blow out his knee. It’s time for other guys to step up and that means you Ryan Church and Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora to take more of a leadership role that he has slacked on recently. Most times team meeting are well…meaningless but I think this would be the exact right time for Wright, Sheff and Johan Santana to close the clubhouse door for a players only meeting to clear the air and figure out who is ready to fight for their season and who is ready to hide under the bed.

 

What a surprise, Carlos Beltran in going for a second opinion on his injured knee and he is going to Vail Colorado to visit Dr Richard Steadman a noted orthopedic doctor who specializes in micro-fracture surgery. See you in March Carlos.

 

“The New York Mets would like to announce the addition of Dr. Conrad Murray to their medical staff”

 

Thanks to The Dirty Mets Blog for a shout out to this site this morning.

 

The Mets Police has a clip of Vin Scully calling Sandy Koufax’ no hitter against the Mets 47 years ago today.

 

I think it’s great that Keith Hernandez, when not telling us that “batters are a bit tardy on the fastball”, is saving lives as a NYC EMT

 

I am thisclose to purchasing a LINCICUM 55 Giants jersey. I’m starting to feel like Nurse Jackie, I’m married to the Mets but I’m cheating with the Giants ( by the way how weird is it to watch Edie Falco as Nurse Jackie banging the guy who played Father Phil on The Sopranos?) especially when Tim Lincicum is pitching. The Giants do everything we wish the Mets would do. The play outstanding defense, they don’t beat themselves with stupidity both on D and at bat, they have solid starting pitching with the best 1-2 punch in the game with Lincicum and Matt Cain, a solid bullpen core that doesn’t get burned out as Bruce Bochy lets his starters go deep into games and sometimes lets them finish all 9 innings. I was never a big fan of Bochy when he was running the Padres bench but watching the Giants as much as I have so far this season he is doing an outstanding job.

 

I will be a guest on Mike Silva’ NEW YORK BASEBALL DIGEST RADIO SHOW tonight at 6:30PM on Blog Talk Radio.

 

Johan Santana had a very difficult time in the first three innings finding the strike zone as he had neither command of his fastball or change up in the first three innings whether this was due to his mechanics or the ineptitude of home plate ump Ron Kulpa  I’m not sure but after giving up a walk to Chris Carpenter in the 4^th Santana all of a sudden got locked in and took control of the game. The mark of a great pitcher is when he can’t get his best pitches over for strikes he still finds a way to stay on top of his game and work his way through until he figures out how to get those pitches working or has a plan B and gets that to work. No panic, no fear that’s Johan Santana.

 

Ryan Church is lucky J-Man didn’t take out his blade and cut his ass after yesterday’s game. Manuel has put the challenge to Church by putting him the clean up spot while Sheffield recoups from his cortisone shot to his knee. So far the challenge not met by Church. With Daniel Murphy on second and Luis Castillo on first, D-Wright had an outstanding at bat. After looking at two called strikes, Wright bared down and then let two balls go out of the strike zone to even the count 2-2, the next pitch Wright just missed (a fastball I believe from Kyle McClellan) and then took the two more pitches for a base on balls. Outstanding at bat. Of course after that Tony LaRussa made yet another trip to the bullpen (and had me make a mess out of my score card) lefty Trever Miller to face Church.

 

Now here was Church’s time for redemption in the game as he misplayed a ball hit by Rick Ankiel in 6^th as he broke in the tried to get back and the ball sailed over his head for a double and Ankiel eventually scored the Cards second run so with the bags drunk it was Ryan Church in the spotlight (“Church bells may ring, ding –dong-ding, church bells may ring, ding-dong-ding”)  time to show the manager, the fans and his teammates the he is ready to step up.

 

Miller seems to have a bit of the yips as he can’t find the strike zone and falls behind 3-0 to Church. Ok now Ryan take a strike here, atta boy. Ok now it’s on a platter for you 3-1 and the pitch………..A CALLED STRIKE!!!!!!!!! Ryan, you are batting in the coveted clean up spot, the bases are loaded, it’s the bot of the 8^th and a 1 run game WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TAKING ON 3 AND 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

 

Now realizing he’s not up there to leave it up to Tatis, Church swings at the next pitch and fouls it off. Now Church is digging that back foot in the batters box determined to get a hit here but Miller just rears back and blows one by Church who took a huge swing and missed but at that point it didn’t matter this at bat was done at 3 balls 1 strike. Want to bet that Church sits tonight against Sabathia ? If he got a hit there lefty or no lefty he would have earned the start but after that at bat and the play in the 6th inning Church will sit tonight and it’s deserved.

 

The more I go to $iti Field the more I love the place (don’t worry we old timers will always have Shea in our hearts) how can you not. I know it has its faults (see Mets Police for those as he is the Elliot Ness of Mets fandom) and management (are you ready for this) seems to be listening to it’s fan base (S-H-O-C-K-I-N-G I know!) First thing I saw walking in I looked at the scoreboard in right/center and guess what? The lineups were posted ! YA-HOO!. Then in the 8^th inning no Sweet Caroline (HURAYY!!) but Meet The Mets (HURRAH!) now I do have a little bone to pick, how about playing the whole Meet The Mets song? Why do the butcher and the baker and the people on the street always get the short end of the stick all the time?

 

I was no fan of Michael Jackson’ when he was alive so I’m not mourning his death today but I was shocked that he died just for the fact that he is the same age as me. I know it’s not polite to speak ill of the dead but the guy was a walking freak show which was not the worst of his sins, those he will pay for it he hasn’t already. I do feel sorry for him in that he didn’t really have much of a life which again proves my mother theory that even if you have a lot of money that doesn’t mean you’re rich and if that’s the case Jackson died broke in more ways than one.

 

Now someone I was a fan of was Farrah Fawsett as were many young men back in the 70’s. Show of hands how many of you fella’s had this poster in your room (my hand is up) and how many of us looked to date girls with that blonde hair in a flip (hand still up)

 

The only baseball I watched last night was my Babe Ruth team back in action after three straight rain outs and the boys had some rust on them in this game. Too many graduation parties, school dances and time off to text, play video games and just get a bit lazy. All this rain (it is pouring as I type this and I’m trying to explain to a newly hired inspector that part of his initiation is to go get a veteran like myself his lunch when it’s raining)  not only has me looking at 5 games to make up but I haven’t got them out to practice either and it bit us last night as my  archenemies, walks and errors came back to haunt us, and was the prime reason we dropped a 13-4 decision to a team coached by a guy I can’t stand, umpired by a real dick head and played at a facility that is a shit hole. So how was your evening?

 

Looking at the box score and reading the game story it seems Tim Redding was well, Tim Redding , back to his sucky self.

 

 I was surprised that J-Man brought in Bobby Parnell in the 6^th after he was ordained the set up man. 

 

J-Man can you please play Daniel Murphy play every day at first base? How is that Fernando Martinez who is clearly a not ready for prime time player but gets to play every day and Murphy who was all the rage coming into the season gets buried like he was Ryan Church’ twin brother?

 

Today is Dave Schneck’s birthday. Who is Dave Schneck? Schneck played outfield for the Mets back in the early to mid 70’s. He showed some excellent power in the minors but it never came together for him in the bigs. His claim to fame is batting clean up in his first major league game sandwiched between Willie Mays and Rusty Staub. But Schnecks greatest contribution was to the country as he severed in combat in Viet Nam. Happy and Healthy birthday to Dave Schneck.

 

The best part of this video from The Mets Police is the music. If I were the closer for the Mets this would be my entrance music.

 

No need for Omar to make a panic trade for as long as the Phillies continue to suck at home and now with Raul Ibanez out for 15 days due to a groin strain the Fucks From Filly are not going to get a big lead and 3 games out in June is nothing for Mets fans to get their balls in an uproar over.

 

If I’m Jose Reyes I’d be trying to get back as soon as I could because the “As Jose goes, so goes the Mets” is starting to become an urban myth. If I could only have one guy back from the long line of causalities on the DL it would be Carlos Delgado as his power and run producing has been the missing ingredient while Alex Cora has played a stellar short stop and his been getting on base at a better rate that Reyes.

I could never tell which one was Mlli and who Vanilli

I don’t know if it’s just frustration or that there is in power struggle between J-Man and Omar but some of Jerry Manuel’s moves have me puzzled. His choice of Fernando Tatis as and everyday player and burying Daniel Murphy on the bench is ridiculous. Tatis has been a great addition to the Mets but for Christ sake he ‘s not Lou Gehrig, he’s a very good utility guy who produces when used sparingly. Please, FREE DANIEL MURPHY at put him at first base. Same with Ryan Church can you leave the guy in RF? Let F-Mart platoon with Sheffield in LF because as great as Sheff has been he’s is 40 years old and can not play every day.

So now John Maine joins the walking wounded with a “tired arm”. How much you want to bet this is another line of happy horseshit from Flushing ?

PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Don’t tell me that Nelly Figs is coming up for Maine. I don’t care what Jon Neise’ numbers are in Buffalo bring him up and let him pitch and stop burying this kid. ENOUGH OF NELSON FIGUEROA already!

You’ll read no more criticism of D-Wright or Carols Beltran here as both of these guys have stepped up and gone above and beyond the call of duty. If I were managing a team against the Mets I’d never give either guy a pitch to hit I’d take my chances with the other six guys in the lineup.

 

 

Mets docs say Carlos Beltran and John are NOT suffering from the Swine Flu. Are these the same doctors that OK’d Ryan Church to play with a bruised brain last year?

Just the same I’ll be wearing a mask and sprying Lysol while watching tonight’s game on SNY

Can’t get all bent out of shape over last night’s loss in fact Mets fans are in a tough tspot as the team’s roster get depleted everyday so it’s hard to get on guys but J-Man has sent a message to D-Wright in a round about way that it’s time for him to step up and put this team on his shoulders.

This kills me to write this but I commend what Mark Texieria did last night breaking up that double play and if you were honest with your Mets fan self you’d say the same thing.

Maybe Fernando Martinez not running out that pop up last week was a good thing? Seems he knows now not to take anything at this level for granted. Also good to see the vets take him under there wing as Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora has. The more F-Mart plays the more comfortable he looks at the plate and in the outfield.

Bradley Holt is on a very fast track to Flushing as he has been promtoed to Bingo and will start for the B-Mets on Friday.

 

Over at ROOTZOO TV they have up a great video interview with Darryl Strawberry where he talks about his book and answers questions sent in by viewers it’s well worth watching.

Kevin Youkils is lucky he didn‘t get more than hit in the elbow last night. Remember last season before Manny Ramirez was shipped out of Boston he kicked Youks ass as he got tired of him throwing his helmet after making an out in the Red Sox dugout.

Next on the walking wounded list is Ryan Church you claims to have teak a hammy so now the Mets will play two position players down.

Bravo Gary Cohen and I think I speak for the vast majority of Mets fans who HATE hearing Sweet Caroline at $iti Field. Please Gary you are the one with the ear of the nit wits in management. Your our only hope.