I guess we better get used to this. It looks like it will take a minimum of three pitchers with a max of six pitchers a game for the Mets to grab the NL East Flag as the Magic Number stands today at Sweet 16.

Again last night a game that looked like it was going to be a 12-10 or 14-12 loss due to an ineffective Ollie P but the day was saved by the relay team of Figgy, Knight, Smith, Mush-Stache (he looks like he’s auditioning for a role in Boogie Nights II, Show or changing his name to Chest Rockwell) and of course the 1-2 punch of Stokes/Ayala. Absent is the name Heilman from this list that because he’s on the bus you know with the ladies.

The Carlos Del-GOD-o saga just get better and better every game. It’s one of the great sports stories in ages. Here is a player who was close to being bought out of his contract to now becoming the leader in the NL MVP race. It’s not just the fact he is driving in runs and hitting home runs but his hommers are Ruthian and they come in clutch situations as do his RBI (I love how Mex calls them “Rib-Eye Steaks“) THEN add in his Wes Parker like glove work at first base and as hard as this is to believe, Del-GOD-o could be on his way to be the first Mets player to win an MVP. I need to sit down.

It was very tough to watch the Billy Wags presser yesterday as he talked about dealing with his up coming Tommy John surgery and having to tell his son that he won’t be pitching next year and the awful realization that he may never wear a Mets uni again. The best he can hope for is he gets the surgery now and rehabs all spring and summer and pitches for the Mets next September. I’ll be lighting a candle for Billy on Sunday.

I think it’s a pipedream that John Maine pitches again for the Mets this season. This theory that he can pitch out of the bullpen in the playoffs is nuts. If he needs surgery then let him go for it already and get well for spring. Just look at the Wagner situation that went from a cramp in his forearm, to elbow discomfort to surgery. The Mets look to be taking a page out of the Bill Belichick book of dealing with injury info.

Curt Schilling has another “LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME” moment that he is famous for. What an A-1 Dickhead.

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

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

Mets Pitcher Burgos Arrested For Assaulting Girlfriend

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

{ I wrote this post at about 9AM this morning but forgot to hit the publish button. Yes, I’m an idiot) 

The Collapse2007 is dead and buried, thanks to a couple of grave diggers named Santana and Delgado. Johan Santana did what an ace does, prevents long losing streaks and then we have Carlos Delgado who has transformed himself in mid season, the likes I don’t think has been seen in baseball ever. I don’t have the time or patience to research it but if anyone can tell me different let me know what player has gone from shit to sugar in mid-season like Delgado? I mean those were M-V-P chants I heard last night from Shea right? I wasn’t sure as my head felt like it was injected with Novocain listing to Joe Morgan’s analyisis of the game.

So the Mets are in the same spot as they were before Friday’s game two games up on the Phellatios instead of being even. If you’re the Phellatios, even with two of three weekend you’ve got to be somewhat verklempt after last nights game because you are banking on the Mets folding up like a home mortgage lender and you find out that will not happen again for two reasons, the Mets strong starting pitching and new leadership in the managers office. Now that the Mets held serve they must, MUST beat the ever loving shit out the Nats and Braves this week, as if any lesson was learned from last year it’s take no opponent for granted as these two teams hate the Mets and will be at their best to try and beat them.

Pardon me for not panicking about Billy Wags being done for the season. Of more concern is  the up and down starts by Petey as the bullpen looks to be in descent shape but the starting rotation can not have another member go down. The pressure is on Santana, OP and Big Pelf to keep up their stellar starts but if Petey is not going to give the Mets effective starts then J-Man will have to act and from what we’ve seen so far if you perform you play is the Warlord Jerry’s Golden Rule.

Now if Wags is gone for the year then I don’t want to here a word about him or out of him until spring. Now I know I’m prick for saying that but I’m of the mindset if you’re injured and can’t play then get out of the way. Cold hearted yes but it’s the only way to go. Losers make excuses for poor play due to injury (see Highlander, New York, Girardi, Joe, Clueless) Wags is out. No problem.  Luis Ayala is doing fine and I also think Al Reyes will see some significant innings as will Ricardo Rincon. The Mets have the arms what is needed is the execution.

Do you get the idea that Warlord Jerry looks at Aaron Heilman like the Jets looked at Baby John in West Side Story? What is J-Man quote? “Gangsta’s take the field, ladies take the bus”? Looks like J-Man gave Heilman an unlimited Metro Card.

Same with Gimp Castillo, by playing Damien Easley in both games it shows J-Man was true to his word that he doesn’t care about contracts he is playing his best guys.

According to ESPN MLB Schedule the match ups the next four games, the Mets will see four LH starters (Jon Lanan-Odalis Perez for the Nats Denver School Superintendent Mike Hampton and Jo-Jo Reyes of the Braves) so my question How does J-Man get Danny Boy Murphy at bats? Out of the next four Murphy has to get at least one start and if a righty comes in, then Murphy should be put in for either Tatis or Evans which ever gets the start.

Just back from Shea and Game 1 of todays day/nighter with a few observation and a rant.

Petey is now a major concern for the Mets as he had nothing today after coming off a start where he wasn’t feeling right and working out with his personal trainer and having an extra day off. The extra days rest helped with his velocity but his fastball is as flat as a tortilla and when he can’t get that breaking ball over consistently for a strike it sets up that meatball fastball and whole lot of trouble.

Tonight J-Man has to go with his eight best men, and throw the lefty/righty bullshit out the window. Here is the line up I’d go with for tonights waterboard broadcast on ESPN:

Dirty Jose ss

Dropkick LF

Sugarpants 3b

Carlito’s Way CF

Del-GOD-O 1b

Flushing House of Worship RF

Off the Schined C

Gimp 2b

$19mil dollar man P

The Mets played todays game like there was no sense of urgency I know players are much different from fans as we take every pitch like it’s life or death but my God this Mets team should have come out fired up after losing Friday night instead they played like shit. There was no batting practice and no infield practice so add that to no game yesterday (in fact the only player it seems who was at Shea yesterday was Billy Wags so they all had a full day off) Hard to believe but  this team better play tonight like their hair is on fire.

The Skill Sets own the Mets and they also own the Brooklyn Cyclones, so it’s a head scratcher to me how both places treat their customers so differently. Today at Shea as we entered Gate E, we had got on the bag check line because my wife is not happy until she smuggles in bottle water, cracker jacks and sandwhices. Me, I bring a binder with notes of stats a scorebook and pens, pencils and a radio. Really not much to check. The rent a cop doing the checking at the Gate today must work also at one of the area airports as she was pulling out every item out of people bags. She was wearing batting gloves to sift through fans belongings and opening up bottles of water and sniffing them. I swear I was waiting for her to have fans drop their pants and spread their butt cheeks. Some of the other guards were laughing their ass’s off at this as they waved my family and the family in back of us around before we were subjected to a body search.

How the fuck did all the Philly fans get into Shea this afternoon? I swear to God I’ve been going to Shea Stadium for all forty-four years of it existence and never have I’d seen this many Phillies fans here. I guess they all had tickets to yesterdays rain out but what did they do sleep at homeless shelter in Jamaica? The Upper Deck was sparse in the LF/RF corners and the Field Level and Lodge had spots of empty seats so I guess for a make up game it was ok but I was expecting a full house as this is a pennant race. Hopefully tonight the place is packed with METS FANS!!!!!!!!

Tough to get too upset over last nights loss as Big Pelf was again stellar but The Wife Beater was a bit better. The Mets hitters were baffled by the Wife Beaters curve ball that was filthy and again the one area that has crept into this hot second half, the inability of the offense to get a big hit in a big spot (that means you D-Wright) was on display last night.

As I write this post it’s 10:27 AM and every reoprt on TV says that Hurricane Hannah will hit the area by 2 PM so why haven’t the Mets called off today’s game and announced a day/nighter for tomorrow? Why make the fans risk a trip to Shea espically on a Staurday when a lot of LI and Connecticut fans go to the game? For one once close the ledger book and do right by your supporters Skill Sets.

I can’t get too mad at Michael Jack Schmidt for sending an e mail to his former team as a little pick me up in fact I’m jealous that no former Met would do the same. No team treats it’s former players in this town like shit the way the Mets do. No wonder I’m not asked to go on Mets Weekly anymore LOL

Warlord Jerry has laid the law down to Billy Wags welcome back but prove you can still do the job before you get it back. When you look over the numbers and the performances and listen to J-Man the team really didn’t miss Wags all that much.

J-Man, Gimp Castillo in the 7 hole? What were you thinking?

Sorry for the late posting but I’ve been on the phone with Barack Obama as he is pleading with me to be his running mate in Novemeber. I’m taking time to contemplate what to do. Obama has promised me that when we win in Novemeber my duties as Vice President will not take away from my blogging about the Mets, in fact he assured me of being at opening day next year at $iti Field as I woud be his rep at the game. This is a very tough decison I have to make. J-Man thinks he has it tough.

I have to give credit to the Mets relievers, they are far more restrained than I could ever be if I were in their shoes. Everyday now that Billy Wags looks like he’s done for the year (you know one the inflammation in his elbow goes down an MRI will show a tear, it’s Mets luck kids) their ability, guts and talent are questioned by the fans, media and the manager and not one guy has exploded in anger. I wish I had that kind of temperament because I know if I were a Mets reliever I’d have told this whole city to go fuck itself by now.

Here is what me, you the media and the players need to get into their heads, there is no white knight on the way to close out games for the Mets. If the Mets and I mean Omar, Jeffy and Tony B even think about dealing Nick Evans, Dan Murphy, Jon Neise or the Teen Aged Hitting Machine for some ragged arm reliever off the wavier wire then the name of the blog will be changed to I Hate The Mets. No one is going to hand over a reliever to the Mets (Nick Evans for David Weathers? I will burn every piece of Mets clothing and memorabilia I have if that deal is ever made ) and the Phillies will block every wavier move that favors the Mets so forget it. The best you can hope for right now is that Al (Curly) Reyes, joins Jose (Moe) Reyes and Argenis (Larry) Reyes as the Mets have done well with guys named Reyes.

Oh and scratch Todd Jones off your wish list as he just landed on the DL with a sore shoulder.

If John Maine were healthy he would move to the closer role but with his shoulder problems you can’t ask him to pitch on an day to day basis, in fact when he does start it looks like 5 to 6 innings tops is what your going to get out of him so the four days rest he gets between starts is much needed. Forget Petey as well even though he has the mind set and heart to close he just doesn’t have the pitching arsenal to succeeded in that spot. OP? to valuable as a starter. Santana? “Nuff said. That leaves Big Pelf and if in the next two weeks that no one steps up and does the job Big Pelf would be the guy that heads to the pen. If Pelfrey were a big strike out guy the move would have been made already I think but since he’s not then the Mets brass will use him in the late innings only as a last resort. He woul dsuced there for the fact that he has mastered hitting the low strike zone and can induce double plays . If the Mets can’t find someone to step in or step up and they do make the post season more likely than not Big Plef will head to the pen.

Now I’m calling on citizens from all over the world this is Captain America calling.

Hey things could be worse, Carl Pavano could be your starting pitcher

This has to be seen to be believed.

Listening to Edward R Francesa from Jets camp and he just gave the bad news that Billy Wags is down and out as his elbow and forearm are still hurting and it looks like Omar and the Brain (farts) trust are looking at making John Maine the closer.  Whatever way the Mets go, hopefully they make a fast and firm decision instead of the straddle the fence way they have done things the last few years. As my Latino buddies say “Put on your belt Omar, and take charge” If it’s Maine so be it but lets get together with J-Man and Old School Dean Warthen and make a decision. This mix and match bullshit has got to go. The relievers need to know the plan of attack and so do Mets fans.

I don’t ask for much, I only want your trust and you know it don’t come easy”

I stayed up to watch the Phillies fall to the Friars (the Padres play by play man kept calling the Padres that all night so now it’s stuck in my head) as Mets fans are happy Brian Giles turned down a deal to the Red Sox as he drove in the late inning runs to lead the Friars to the win. I then turned over to see J.J. Hardy beat the Dodgers in 10 innings so by the time I got to sleep it was about 1:30AM. I didn’t get up this morning until 9:30 which is like slipping into a coma for me. So by the time I rolled out of bed, went for bagels and the papers (yes I’m a dinosaur that loves to read a hard copy newspaper) had my coffee it’s now like 20 to 1. My day is thrown off terribly. With no baseball games to coach I’m not used to weekend morinings with nothing to do. I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to write about but the late start to my day (even on my day off I’m up by 6 AM) I’ll just give a couple of quick hits:

Kudos to Petey for a great game last night. Maybe, just maybe he can stay healthy for the stretch run and have a few more like last night left in him. Pitching back to back starts against the same team is very difficult even to a second division team like the Bucs so that makes last night start more impressive.

Don’t kill Eddie Kunz for last night, either J-Man uses this kid like he is conditioned to, to close or pitch the 8th inning or just send him back to Bingo. As Kunz said last night after the game he is used to pitching everyday or every other day last night appearance was his first in a week. This kid has been conditioned to close since college, so he is what he is so either let him pitch late innings here or send him back to Bingo but whatever the Mets do stop dicking around with the kid.

With the news that Billy Wags is not ready to get back to action, Omar and J-Man have to sit down and figure out what will be done about the late innings. One thing is for sure this mix and match of releivers has got to go. I guess we won’t know until tomorrow when Wags gets yet another MRI on his forearm/elbow but one thing is for sure the Mets need a game plan and if it involves taking either John Maine or Big Pelf to the pen then lets do it already.

Omar aquired Luis Ayala from the Nats for Anderson Hernandez early today. I guess Mel Rojas didn’t return his call.

D-Wright gets a day off today and Damien Easley will play thrid and bat third.

Joel Sherman had a column today on how the Highlanders will have a decison to make on the direction of the franchise and what to do with Captain Craptastic. Can you imagine the aggony of Highlander fans if Capt Crap ever was traded? How about to the Dodgers and Mr. T? We can only pray it happens. Also Sherman snuck in a comment about will the Steinbrenners even own the Highlanders after 2010. As soon as The Bronx Robber Baron takes his last breath, Pack A Day Hank, and Horse Whisper Hal will put the For Sale sign up so fast it will make your inter-locking NY cap spin. Remember what Peter O’Malley did so don’t think this is far fetched.

Even though the 12-0 and 9-3 games that the Mets have won this week are a welcome respite from the nail biters and “Please God Let Aaron Heilman Turn Into Dennis Eckersley” games we have been subjected to this season nothing is a better gauge of what your team is made of than when it gets down and dirty in a one run game and last night even with it’s scary moments the Mets had a (gulp!) Championship look to them. The Reyes Boys (Memo to Mark Malusis: When it comes to breaking down baseball personnel you’re clueless if you think Gimp Castillo at this point is better on the Mets than the A. Reyes/Damien Easley platoon then you’ve watch way too much of Robinson Cano) and Carlos Beltran flashed leather and arm in big D plays and Big Pelf had a bounce back game. Yes I know it was the Pirates and I swore I wouldn’t let myself get all pumped again about this team but when they do the little things that you need to win, I just can’t help myself.

I’ve thrown some stones at Billy Wagner here but you have admire the guy for saying screw minor league rehab and is forcing his way back as the closer. Wags knows the team needs him and as long as the medical staff clears him and Old School Dean Warthen gives the seal of approval then Wags will be activated on Monday. Then it looks like Eddie Kunz will go down for a couple of weeks but would come back on Sept 1.

Speaking of coming back, Ryan Church is playing in the GCL as a DH and hopefully by tomorrow will be in the outfield, same with Gimp Castillo who the rumor mill has it has been dealing with some medical issues with his wife.  I’m sure there is some kind of rule that both players have to be activated at a certain time but as it stands now there is no rush for either guy to come back before Sept. 1. As vital as Church’s bat has been early in the year with Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis both swinging potent bats (and don’t forget Nick Evans who has platooned with Murphy and started to hit) and Carlos Delgado’s deal with the devil still paying off, the Mets have the luxuary to let Church and Castillo take their time getting back. Depth it’s a good thing.

A big thanks to Joe McDonald for getting the site back up and running, I think it’s the Skill Sets doing this but THEY WILL NEVER SILENCE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a couple of things I was going to get into like the Mets finally beating the shit out of a bottom feeder team and Billy Wags pitching lights out in Bingo to the point where he is bypassing Brooklyn and meeting the team in Pittsburgh and the fact that Nolan Ryan is classless for turning down the Mets invitation to come back for the last weekend at Shea but it’s getting late in the day and I’m finishing up work and listening to the Wake of the Mike and the Mad Dog Show with Mike Francesa coming out on top as he is in sole possession of 1-6 slot on WFAN. If you want to read some very funny stuff on MMD go to Mike Francesa .com and read the on going posts during the show. I’ll out myself here as I am a poster on that site under the handle Bob Husesler Fan Club.

I’ll have some stuff tomorrow.