METS-THING

Strawberry Says '86 Mets Were Better Than '98 Yankees

2011-12-11T15:57:00.004-05:00

The Straw-man was interviewed on Fox 5 Sports Extra in New York last week. The show aired on December 4, with the highlight being when Strawberry was asked which team was better, the '86 Mets or '98 Yankees. Darryl won rings with both teams but he showed no hesitation in saying the '86 Mets were the better group....

The '86 Mets were a lot different than what the '98 Yankees were. The '98 Yankees were a very exciting team and it was a different time, but in that era of the '86 Mets, I think we were much better. I think the pitching staff, if you look all around, we had a tremendous pitching staff. But I think the kind of players that we had, we dominated during the course of the season, but when you look at the playoffs and when it got down to the real crunch time, you know, it was definitely a battle. But the '98 Yankees were a little different, we pretty much ran away with that whole thing and nobody was close, so, I always believe that that '86 Mets team, it would have been hard to beat us because we never quit.

And he's right. As I've always said, the '86 Mets were the last REAL, great baseball team, which is something the Yankees have never produced.

Beltran SelfLESS?

2011-03-03T14:51:00.005-05:00

On Monday, Carlos Beltran walked into manager Terry Collins' spring training office and told him he was ready to make the defensive switch to rightfield.

Beltran is being lauded for this move by most accounts I have heard or read. Beltran said, "I believe the best decision is for me to play rightfield. It's going to be less active, and I am looking forward to saving my knees for the long run."

Here's the thing. This is a selfish move by Beltran. Yes, I believe the Mets are a better team with Beltran in RF, potentially saving his knees and helping his offense. However, Beltran is only doing this to save his career and potentially cash in again next off-season. Beltran made this move on his terms. I think Carlos' ego wasn't going to be able to handle struggling for a whole season in centerfield and potentially being moved by the manager to RF. So Carlos did it himself.

The Mets were too sheepish to come out and just make the decision on their own. Luckily for Collins, Beltran realized he needed to do this for himself.

Another issue I see with this is, Beltran's not healthy. If Carlos was healthy, he wouldn't be moving himself to RF. Basically, he's saying, "I'm hurt, I can't play CF properly." Moving to RF didn't fix his knee, it's just an attempt to hide the problem.

Summer of '86 Review

2011-03-02T15:22:00.006-05:00

Yikes. What was that pile of shit that I watched last night? How is it possible to take the story of the 1986 New York Mets and ruin it? MSG pulled it off with Part I of the Summer of '86.

First, this whole thing turned into some kind of scam to get us all to watch the Knicks post-game show. The Summer of '86 was supposed to start at 10pm, but didn't actually air until sometime around 10:45. This post-game show consisted of a bunch of terrible interviews and bogus "analysis" from Kelly Tripucka. The only thing worse than NBA basketball is people talking about NBA basketball.

Moving on to the actual show, I must start by reminding everyone how awesome the '86 Mets were. They were the last REAL baseball team. They drank, did coke, brawled with opponents, picked up women, and won the World Series.

There has not been a team in America that has since come close to having as much character and talent as Davey Johnson's boys. The '93 Phillies were close and the '04 Red Sox were closer, but not quite.

So I was excited for this new show on the best team of all-time. I wanted to hear about the Scum Bunch. I wanted new stories about bar sluts and Colombian cocaine. I wanted to know how many punches landed on Tom Niedenfuer's face.

Or, as one Mets-Thing insider described to me last night by text, "I will only watch if Doug Sisk is interviewed with his voice garbled and his identity protected".

We want the real shit, not more of the same lame-ass baseball cliche talk about how Keith Hernandez was a manager on the field.

But that's what we got. It was 15 minutes (the other 15 minutes were all commercials and self-promotion) of fodder. Everybody in New York knows who the players were and who the manager was. MSG did not need to rehash all that nonsense.

The narrator sucked too.

The highlight of the show was everything and anything Davey Johnson said, telling the team "we're going to dominate" in spring training. Nice.

Part II will be airing tonight at 10:30pm.

Daniel Murphy Sighting

2011-01-24T17:46:00.003-05:00

While browsing around an Orioles blog (don't ask), I found this clip of Felix Pie making a fool of himself in the Dominican League. I think it's from this winter.

While I actually watched the replay to see if Pie was actually out on the play, I noticed the first baseman, who sold a brilliant sliding tag, was Daniel Murphy.

DePodesta's Baseball Reform

2010-11-16T14:22:00.004-05:00

This is a presentation that Paul DePodesta gave in 2003 called The Genesis, Implementation, and Management of New Systems. It is an awesome read about his time in Cleveland and Oakland and should be interesting for all Mets fans to see how their new head of Player Development and Amateur Scouting thinks. So give it the proper 15 minutes it takes to read.

Thanks to Dave Studeman at The Hardball Times for finding this.

Front Office Dream

2010-11-12T18:13:00.009-05:00

Gone, is the creepshow that was Omar Minaya. Gone, is his "I'm a baseball guy, so I know more than you" nonsense. Gone, is his guesswork.

In, is some brains with a plan. In, are some guys who HAVE tools, not guys who ARE tools. In, is a modern, intelligent approach to baseball.

Watching the Mets bring in Alderson, Ricciardi, and DePodesta is like a dream come true. These are the guys that changed the way everyone looked at baseball just 10 years ago. They found a cheap way to build a first-place team. Hopefully, they can keep evolving and find a new way to do it, again.

To me, the structure of the front office looks like this.... Alderson is the GM, the CEO, the owner (hell, the Wilpons probably should just hand over the team to him), while Ricciardi and DePodesta are the assistants that actually do all the work. They'll choose the players, come up with trades and run the system. Alderson will smoothly pull off the transactions. It's all in place.

However, my fear is this.... the Mets are 10 years too late. These guys had their run. They had their glory. They took advantage of a broken system. Everyone caught on and they've lost their edge. Once the rest of the league figured out what they were doing, they followed their path. Ricciardi and DePodesta both failed as GMs, and maybe this was the reason. Everyone is playing their game.

Still, this has to be exciting for us Mets fans. Proven winners have been inserted while a proven jackass is gone.

The Myth of the Yankees "Lean Years"

2010-10-01T17:00:00.021-04:00

Why is it that Yankees fans insist on trying to tell me that they suffered through the "lean years"? When I ask them about when exactly these "lean years" took place, I hear grumbling about the 80's and usually a comment about Matt Nokes.

For me (Mets fan obviously) and most of my Yankee friends who were born around 1975, the first things we remember about baseball, or anything else for that matter, was in the early 80's. So I looked back, and what do you know, in 1980 the Yankees won 103 games and finished in 1st place, and the following year they played in the World Series. So those can't be the "lean years".

1982 was actually a down year. But from 1983 to 1988 the Yankees finished with a winning record each season, a stint that included three 90-win seasons (97 wins in 1985!). The Yankees actually finished the decade of the 80's with more wins that any other team in MLB. So the 80's can't be the 'lean years'. But I was just told by a Yankees fan that "The Yankees were TERRIBLE.... in the 80's". Really? I don't know why he wants to remember it that way.

The true "lean years" were from 1989 to 1992. In those four seasons the Yankees were terrible. They finished last once, 5th twice, and 4th once. So out of the last 30 years, including 1982, the Yankees have had only five losing seasons. Five. Out of 30. Five. Maybe today's Yankees fans are like those who win the lottery, yet fall into a deep depression because they feel they didn't "earn" the money. Is that what the Yankees fans are feeling? They need to justify their fandom.

Since 1993, the Yankees lowest winning percentage in any given year is .540. And in that year (2000), they finished in 1st place and actually won the World Series. I think the last 20 years have more than made up for the four "lean years".

I actually had someone say this on Facebook the other day, "those born in the late 70s lived through the Mets winning a WS, lived through the NY media LOVING the Mets and only covering the Yankees because of Steinbrenner's antics.... I used to listen to WFAN and hope they would spend a few minutes on the Yankees, it was that bad." Hilarious. So not only do Yankees fans need to have a good team, but they also need to get all the attention.

Basically, here's the point Yankees fan.... if you want to talk about your championships, fine, but don't try and give me some sob story to go with it. Listening to a Yankee fan attempt to get you to feel bad for them is like listening to your 110LB girlfriend try and tell you she's fat. Meanwhile, her much hotter 125LB friend is thinking, "I hate that titless bitch". Meaning, yeah, the Yankees are like a girl with no tits and the rest of the league are her friends with the nice racks. Who wants a girl with no tits? So, if you're a Yankee fan, just continue to be an arrogant prick, and give up the "lean years" sob story.

Wright Tries to Sabotage Yankees Season

2010-08-17T18:10:00.006-04:00

Yankees catcher, Francisco Cervelli, was seen using David Wright's glove on Monday night. Cervelli was sent out to play thirdbase by Joe Girardi after Alex Rodriguez left the game with a calf injury and Ramiro Pena was replaced by a pinch-hitter.

We know a few things about David Wright and Francisco Cervelli. First, they're both a little weird. Wright has those perfectly sculpted salon-style eyebrows that I can't help look at even though they give me the creeps.

Meanwhile, Cervelli just has D-Bag written all over him. He's all about the over-exuberant 6th-inning fist pump during a Thursday afternoon game in April, and he reminds me of that guy in your Sunday baseball league that thinks everyone else is bushleague, even though he's the one that's acting like a tool and was playing catch on the infield dirt before the game.

So maybe these guys hang out on those Monday days off. Or, maybe this was David Wright's way of trying to hand off some of those strikeouts to the Yankees.

Mets Make Key Deadline Deal

2010-07-31T16:53:00.004-04:00

With just 13 seconds left before the trading deadline, the Mets have traded GM Omar Minaya back to the Montreal Expos for the Youppi! costume.

Seriously, Minaya, it's time to go. There's the door. Your lying creepshow is over. Thanks for nothing.

Mustrash Talk

2010-07-23T13:02:00.002-04:00

Let's Go Have a Beer, Doc

2010-06-16T12:49:00.005-04:00

Wally Backman.

South Georgia Peanuts.

South Coast League.

2007.

This is a classic minor league ejection from a former backyard Mets-Thing legend.

The New Big Train

2010-06-09T14:17:00.007-04:00

How angry is manager Jim Riggleman right now? The Nationals had Stephen Strasburg pitching in the minor leagues until last night, when he went off for 14 strikeouts against the Pirates in his major league debut. The Nats are actually contending this year. They could have used this kid in April and May. Riggleman should walk into GM Mike Rizzo's office and punch him in the face.

Maybe the Nationals were resting Strasburg, just waiting for June to come so he wouldn't log too many innings this season? Nope. They were pitching him. He threw 55 minor league innings in 11 starts before Tuesday night.

OK, so maybe they didn't think he wasn't ready? Nope. The kid finished his minor league stint with a 0.79 whip and 65 punchouts. Noone could possibly think he wasn't ready.

So what kept him in the minor leagues?.... Money. The Nationals simply tried to limit "Big Train" Strasburg's major league service time this season, which would make Strasburg ineligible for salary arbitration after the 2012 season. Basically, this would keep the Nats in control of his salary a little bit longer.

Of course, the Nats management says that all this minor league nonsense was part of Strasburg's "development plan", but I'm not buying it.

I think they simply made a mistake. Let's just say Strasburg started the season with the Nats, there is nothing that would make me believe that he wouldn't have pitched extremely well. The Nats could have had an extra 11 sellouts in his starts, and began making up that extra money they'll just end up paying him in the end anyway. Meanwhile, they'd have tons more fans and more W's in the standings.

I know some of you are saying that the Nats did a great job here. They got Strasburg some valuable minor league experience, meanwhile pumping up the hype machine to unbelievable heights. Last night was better than the two perfect games thrown this season, and the Jim Joyce game, combined. Then Strasburg lived up to the hype by going out and dealing while the whole baseball world was watching. Perfect.

Decent argument, but the Strasburg hype was already at stratosphere heights when he was in college last spring, and you can ask Mike Leake about whether he needed any minor league experience.

Riggleman is pissed.

Reyes 3rd? No. Wright 5th.

2010-05-04T17:58:00.006-04:00

Lost in all the we're moving Jose Reyes to the 3-hole drama, was the best decision Jerry Manuel has made in a while.... moving David Wright down to the 5th spot in the batting order.

Mets-Thing correspondent, Cribs, has been calling for this move the last two seasons. Wright simply puts too much pressure on himself and his swing has turned into some kind of twisting upper-cut while he's stepping in the bucket.

Since moving down in the order, it is quite obvious that he is calmer in the batters box and taking more relaxed swings. His numbers since 4/23, the first day he returned to the 5-hole....

.343 BA, .368 OB%, .629 SLG%, 2 HR, 11 RBI

I, Davis.

2010-04-30T23:38:00.000-04:00

On April 17, the Mets decided that they'd seen enough swings and misses out of firstbaseman Mike Jacobs, and designated him for assignment. Meaning, cut, see ya, get out of here you bum.

On April 19, the Mets decided that they'd call up firstbaseman Ike Davis, their 2008 1st round draft pick. The entire team was struggling. They couldn't sustain a rally offensively, and couldn't pitch.

After calling up Davis, the team has been on a 10-1 tear. Coincidence? We think "NO".

Davis has simply solidified the firstbase position. He has hit well so far and drawn some walks. Defensively, he doesn't look like the most gifted guy with the glove, but he looks the part and the infielders appear to be more comfortable letting throws go with his long arms over there to receive them.

We could be looking at the Mets firstbaseman of the next ten years.

Top Metsie Uniforms

2009-08-16T22:02:00.017-04:00

This weekends cream colored throwback uniform is sweet! Got me thinking of the top 5 Mets uniforms in there brief history in MLB.

5. This weekends uniform; a turn of the century NY Giants inspired uniform, without the name on the back:

4. Los Mets:

3. The currently used pinstripe uniform w/solid blue hat/helmet:

2. The currenly worn road grays:

1. 1980's pinstripe with classic piping:

Mets Add Another Surprising Name to the DL

2009-06-26T16:02:00.003-04:00

Head Trainer, Ray Ramirez, was finally placed on the DL today, Friday, after suffering a neck injury Monday afternoon. Ramirez and Jose Reyes were involved in a car accident in which they were rear-ended by a firetruck on the RFK (Tri-Borough) Bridge. Ramirez has been suffering from neck pain all week as a result.

However, in standard Mets procedure, he stayed on the active medical staff roster, making the Mets play with one doctor short all week, before finally realizing that yes, indeed, he was hurt.

The Mets have called up rookie chiropractor, Bert Jerkins, to take his place on the staff.

Jo-el dominates Mets, again

2009-06-24T12:40:00.003-04:00

Joel Pineiro, complete game shutout. Two hits. One strikeout.

This is a guy who sported a 5.15 ERA in 2008, and leads the NL in losses so far in 2009. He's just not a good pitcher at this point in his career.

However, against the Metsies, he's money right now.

He's 2-0 this year in two starts against them, throwing the shutout last night and an eight inning "gem" on April 22nd.

Omar, please read the DL rule

2009-05-26T15:13:00.014-04:00

Can the Mets please DL Jose? How long do we have to watch the Mets play a man down? Nobody learned from last year with Church's injury? When someone is hurt, you put them on the DL. They get better, and can play 100% when they return.

Or, you can keep trying to play Jose Reyes, and he can keep reinjuring himself until he plays ineffectively all year.

Ironically, Church is also hurt now as well. DL. Please. The Mets actually have someone in the minor leagues named Fernando Martinez. He might be more overrated than Lastings was, but at least we have a replacement for Church. Make the DL move.

Scouting the A's Rotation

2009-04-29T16:46:00.011-04:00

Since 2005, Billy Beane, and his Oakland Athletics have been auctioning off their best pitchers each season. They’ve attempted to stay young, competitive, and fiscally responsible while playing in the monstrosity that is The Coliseum.

So, with the new season, and the Athletics’ starting rotation a bigger question mark than ever, I figured I’d take a look and see what they’re working with now. I’ll start with their two highest rated prospects, both of which were drafted out of high school, Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson.

Trevor Cahill, 21, has already been compared with Brandon Webb. Cahill deals the same type of plus sinker that Webb does, an upper-80s 2-seamer that can produce tons of groundball outs. Trevor also uses a 90 mph 4-seamer that he tries to spot early in counts to get ahead. After the fastballs, which he’ll throw the majority of the time, Trevor deals a very soft changeup and two different breaking balls. His slider gets some sweeping action, while the curve looks like a plus pitch, getting good drop at just a few mph slower than the slider.

Unfortunately, Cahill has struggled mightily with his command at the big league level, issuing 15 walks in 20 innings so far. The A’s like to use the excuse that his stuff moves so much, he’s prone to bouts of wildness. However, all this crazy movement hasn’t produced many missed bats, as he’s notched only 7 strikeouts.

Trevor’s knuckle-curve, described as an “out-pitch” by A’s director of player personnel Billy Owens, has been non-existent. I’ve see him use the pitch only a handful of times, and Cahill didn’t throw one breaking ball in his last outing on 4/24.

If Cahill can improve his command and mix his pitches better, he can reach the level expected of him.

Cahill *sinker(84-89), 4-seamer(89-92), changeup(75-78), slider(82-84), curve(77-80)*

Brett Anderson, like Cahill, has made the jump from AA to the majors in 2009. He has shown good command at all levels of the minor leagues and continues to throw strikes in the Bigs.

Anderson uses a good fastball and has the confidence to command it on the inner half of the plate. He’ll then attack hitters with a sharp slurve that he can back-ankle RHs with, or sweep away from LHs. His changeup is fairly standard, but is thrown with the same plus control. Anderson mixes in a slow 12-6 curveball as his fourth pitch, usually in the first pitch of an at-bat.

Because Anderson’s stuff is not dominating he’s been banged around a bit in the major leagues, allowing 4 homeruns in 18.1 innings, while only striking out 9. Anderson seems to know what he’s doing on the mound, which will give him a good chance of succeeding. However, any loss of velocity would spell his doom.

Anderson *fastball(87-93), slider(79-85), changeup(79-84), curve(73-77)*

Of the remaining three starters, only lefthander Josh Outman has impressed me. He throws hard, dealing a fastball in the low-mid 90s. The fastball is fairly straight, but it sets up his sharp slider well. He has shown me a big hook that gets decent 11-5 movement, and a straight changeup. His minor league walk totals are fairly high, which won’t allow him to pitch deep into ballgames, but Outman might be able to make a successful move to the bullpen, where he could be a weapon.

Outman *fastball(90-96), slider(81-84), changeup(81-84), curve(75-77)*

My #4 and #5 in the rotation, Dana Eveland and Dallas Braden, are similar pitchers. They’re both left-handed, they both throw in the mid-upper 80s, they both were drafted out of college, and they both have strange first names that start with ‘D’.

I guess the similarities end there though, since Eveland relies heavily on a good slider to get outs, while Braden relies on his soft changeup.

Eveland *fastball(87-90), slider(80-84), changeup(82-84), curve(75-78)*

Braden *fastball(85-91), changeup(71-76), slider(76-83), curve(73-74)*

Unless one or two of these guys steps up bigger than I expect, this rotation isn’t going to be posting very many innings. This will put the A’s bullpen under a ton of stress, making it difficult to compete for the division.

[ Read more pitcher scouting reports at http://www.60ft6in.com/ ]

The Carlos Bros

2009-04-23T19:14:00.004-04:00

Slide Beltran, Slide, Down, slide, SLIDE!!!!, plow him over, dive, yell, anything!!!! Jesus, forget about it. Walk back to the dugout. Yeah you were out and hopefully injured your foot or ankle on the play. You are a complete idiot. (L.Dykstra would have nailed the catcher for a move like that).

Delgado kicks first base with toe after catching a high throw a few steps before Pujols bends over to touch the bag with hand. Delgado doesn't argue... doesn't really care... looks dazed and confused... Manual i guess wasn't watching the play... (K.Hernandez would have got ejected for going face to face with the 1B umpire)

Can we find players that actually want to win... just saying, just saying.

The 2009 Starting Rotation

2009-04-03T08:33:00.009-04:00

Here's my look at the Mets' 2009 starting rotation.... I think at this point in the careers of John Maine, Oliver Perez, and even Mike Pelfrey, us Mets fans were hoping the trio would have solidified themselves as reliable Major League starters by now. Unfortunately, all they've done is solidify the fact that we still don't know how they are going to perform on a given start.

Ideally, John Maine is a guy that can post ERAs around 3.00-3.50, with solid strikeouts, and throw 200 innings. The truth is that he has trouble missing bats and finishing off hitters. He also issues way too many walks, which especially hurts after batters spoil multiple 2-strike pitches. Maine failed to throw a full six innings in 12 of his 25 starts last season, and only had two starts where he threw at least seven innings. Maine will be 28 years old this year, and should be in his prime. I'm actually predicting an improvement for Maine. I think he'll pitch a little more like he did in 2007, and hopefully win a few more games. But coming off shoulder surgery, and posting awful spring numbers, no one really knows what he will bring this season.

Oliver Perez is almost the same pitcher that Maine is, except when Perez has his meltdowns, they are Chernobyl-like. Perez always posts low hit totals, like Maine. Perez has a good fastball, like Maine. However, Perez still has a problem with walks, like Maine. After the new coaching staff arrived last year, Perez went on a 13 game stretch where he threw at least six innings in every start. I don't know whether it was Dan Warthen's coaching, or the fact that Jerry Manuel seemed to leave Oliver in games at let him pitch himself out of trouble, when Willie would have yanked him long ago. I watched one spring appearance by Perez. His velocity seemed a bit down, again, but he looked very relaxed and threw the ball well. I don't see how anyone could predict anything better than a 4.00 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP, as he'll continue to pitch inconsistently.

The Big Pelf had his "breakout" season last year. He reached the 200 inning mark and proved that he could be a horse at times, single-handedly pitching the Mets to some victories, including back to back complete games in August. Mike can pound the upper reaches of the strikezone with his 4-seam fastball, but usually relies on a very heavy, sinking 2-seamer. The downside is, that's all he has. His slider fails to get the necessary movement to get strikeouts, and his changeup actually looks like it has regressed somehow. This makes Mike predictable, everyone knows the fastball is coming, and Mike becomes hittable. Still, Pelfrey should prove to be the Mets clear #2 behind Johan Santana, and a viable second pitch could make him dominant.

Johan Santana, the best pitcher in baseball over the last five years, anchors the Mets staff. Despite a loss of about 3-5mph on his fastball, Johan still dominates. In a Santana start, you can almost bank on 7 innings, 7 Ks, and 2 ER or less. Johan should continue to be the ace of MLB, there is no reason to think otherwise.

The Mets will start the season with Livan Hernandez as their fifth starter. Livan may not be the best option, but the more I think about it, he's definitely not the worst. He has no velocity left, but he'll try anything to get an out. He throws sinkers, changeups, sliders, curves and will vary the velocity or tilt on any pitch. He can even hit a little, won't walk a ton of guys, and should give up some monstrous homeruns that us Mets fans can watch. If he's pitching well, he can go deep into games. I actually think Livan will stick in the rotation longer than anyone expects. He might end up in New York all year, outperforming expectations.

Here are the scouting reports for these guys, as published at 60ft6in.com:

Johan Santana, LHP
Santana brings three excellent pitches to the mound. He has a hard fastball in the low-90s which he can spot on both sides of the plate. His changeup is known as one of the best pitches in the game; a soft pitch, floating, then sinking under bats as it reaches the plate. Santana's third pitch is his slider, which gets sharp, late, sweeping action. Santana does not bother to experiment with any other offerings. In 2007, he saw a significant jump in homeruns allowed and seemed to lose a little velocity on his fastball in 2008. However, Johan has been the best starting pitcher in baseball over the last five seasons, and the Mets expect years of continued success from him.
*fastball(87-95), change(74-85), slider(80-87)

Mike Pelfrey, RHP
Pelfrey has been a strange case so far. He has a great arm and his fastball appears to be a good pitch. He throws moving 2-seamers around 92mph and can pump in a 4-seam fastball at 95mph. The 2-seamer really dives when it's thrown low and to his arm side. As a top prospect in college he was known as having a hammer of a curveball. Somewhere along the way he lost that pitch, until halfway through the 2008 season, when he started mixing a few in per game. Thank you Dan Warthen. Currently, Pelfrey's main breaking pitch is a below average slider in the mid-80s, which at times gets good late movement, but most of the time appears to merely spin towards the plate. His changeup actually looked like it regressed last year, as Mike began to slow down his motion when he delivered it. Pelfrey's current strategy is to pound his 4-seamer in for strikes to try to get ahead, then use his 2-seamer to get Ks. He mixes in his other pitches for show only.
*fastball(89-97), slider(81-88), change(80-86), curve(70-80)

John Maine, RHP
Maine changed his approach multiple times during 2008. He always uses uses good 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs to get ahead of hitters, but it's his secondary pitches that he needs to tinker with. He went from being a fastball/slider pitcher, to a fastball/changeup pitcher, and as of 7/23/08 he was finally using his entire repertoire in the same game. Maine's changeup tails considerably to his arm side, making it effective against both LHs and inside to RHs. The slider is a very tight pitch that has a tendency to lose bite when he's throwing poorly. And finally, in his 6/30 outing, Maine broke out his old curveball and kept throwing it more and more as the season wore on. Maine's pitches are difficult to hit and all this sounds great, but Maine still walks too many batters and has trouble finishing hitters off.
*fastball(87-97), slider(78-89), change(81-88), curveball(75-81)

Oliver Perez, LHP
Oliver's stuff always looks good, starting with a fastball around 90mph from a 3/4 arm angle. Perez varies the velocities on his breaking stuff alot. He uses a sweeping slider between 75-81mph to get Ks. When thrown well, the slider will either dive towards the ankles of RHs, or break away from LH's bats. Oliver has a very slow curveball that he started to use in 2007, dropping that pitch in to mix things up. A splitter is Perez' off-speed offering, a good change of pace that dives under RHs bats. Oliver rarely uses the split-joint, but he needs to show it more often to keep hitters guessing. Ultimately, Oliver's success will always depend on his suspect command.
*fastball(87-96), slider(75-83), splitter(78-85), curve(63-71)

Livan Hernandez, RHP
Livan has regressed to a low-80s fastball and slurvy breaking pitches. He starts with his fastball, a pitch that gets some sink and tail, but is very hittable. Then Livan will flip up multiple sliders in the 70s and a curveball that he varies considerably. The curve can be anywhere between 60-71mph. Livan's fourth pitch is a changeup that he'll show to LHs. He gives up tons of hits but can pitch deep into ballgames when going well.
*fastball(82-87), slider(76-78), curve(61-71), changeup(73)

Relief?

2009-02-06T15:15:00.004-05:00

K-Rod and Putz.

This could be just what the mets need to win it all.

And what would the celebration look like.... i picture some dancing around, maybe the awful jumping celebration until Murphy reaches the pile and....

ok, ok, lets win a few games first with Delgado at first, Castillo on second, Schneider behind the plate and Ollie on the hill.....

Brokeback Clubhouse

2008-11-02T15:13:00.003-05:00

I noticed Johan's tongue ring(pictured left) in his September 23rd start against the Cubbies. Johan often chews gum on the mound, but after watching him in this outing I was fairly certain that this is not gum in his mouth.

Just another reason why a Mets-Thing correspondent inside the Major Leagues recently reminded me, "All latin guys are Bi. You don't want to get in the showers when the latin guys are in there. You either have to go in with a brother or another white guy for protection".

Ron Gardenhire(Santana's manager in Minnesota), has a famous quote, well famous in the blogger world, about why he wouldn't shower when Johan Santana was around.... "If I'm going to get chased around the shower, it's going to be by my wife".

Don't shoot the messenger.

Baseball Celebration Snobbery

2008-10-31T00:15:00.008-04:00

Listen, the most important part of winning a championship is celebrating it.

And Ryan Howard knew what he was doing. He had obviously put some thought into it and had a plan for what he would do after the last strike. Most importantly, he knew that the only way to properly celebrate on a baseball field is with a pileup. So, he made sure that he was the first player to the mound and he made sure that the pitcher and catcher went down. He was skillfully able to take both Brad Lidge and Carlos Ruiz down in one tackle. This started the pileup and everyone was able to easily jump on top. Howard also pulled off the rare celebration double-play by successfully protecting Lidge and Ruiz from too much pressure. He was able to get his arms out and brace them from the flying bodies. Big Ups to you, Ryan Howard.

However, Brad Lidge nearly blew the celebration. He showed awful technique and obviously didn't have any kind of strategy. Come on dude, just a little forethought is all. Immediately after the last strike, Lidge simply went down onto his knees in one of those bogus "praise God" poses and wouldn't get out of it. This left his teammates in a difficult position.... It's hard a tackle a guy that is already on his knees. It's also impossible to leap into the arms of a kneeling pitcher. Lidge was lost out there and really put Ruiz in a tough spot. Ruiz did his best to do an awkward hug just before Howard saved the day.

****

The Phillies celebration ranks as one of the best I've seen recently. I don't exactly have a list written out, but I probably should. What I remember though, is that the '04 Red Sox, a team that hadn't won the World Series since the Jefferson administration or whatever it was, they had one of the worst celebrations I've ever seen. Their "celebration" consisted of the team jumping up and down in a circle. They followed that with hugs and a couple dumbasses talking about "Cowboying" eachother or some stupid shit.

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The #1 celebration of all-time is owned by the '86 Mets. I've never seen a celebration as powerful and the pitcher and catcher have never gone down as hard.

Sox/Rays Game 7

2008-10-19T19:49:00.004-04:00

Prediction for tonight's Red Sox @ Rays game....

--Garza gets hammered. Rays lose 8-1.

What I want to happen in tonight's game....

--Lester gets hammered, Garza deals, Rays win 8-1.

Released?!?!

2008-10-15T19:38:00.008-04:00

So, when are these guys getting their walking papers?

And the rest of their bullpen mates. When are they leaving?

Daniel Murphy

2008-08-30T22:25:00.008-04:00

This guy is a good hitter.

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I might even write a post someday soon, or update the Met Killers, or the ejection list. Soon though, don't pressure me.

Mets-Thing in Tom Cruise control

2008-08-08T23:41:00.009-04:00

I guess I knew what I was talking about all year. As soon as Perez and Delgado started playing well, the Mets started winning. It wasn't that hard to figure out who was killing the team.

While I've basically been on a Mets hiatus lately, blog wise, I've realized that it's hard to come up with material when the team is going well. This blog is obviously here for my ranting when I want things to change.

It's not as if the team is perfect now by any stretch, but I don't need to beat the bullpen down anymore than it already is.

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Pedro though, doesn't look good. He looks nervous out there. Scared even. I think he knows that he's finished. He's just out there fighting with the little he has left, just hoping every pitch doesn't get hit out of the yard.

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Tonight the Mets won a game with only two pitchers: Oliver Perez and Aaron Heilman. Aaron got a 2-inning save. And, they didn't allow a run.

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Like this guy: Brad Ziegler of the A's. Tonight, like Heilman, he also got a 2-inning save. However, unlike Heilman, he hasn't allowed a run yet in his major league career, and only allowed one earned run in AAA this season before he got called up. So Ziegler's pitched 61.1 innings this year and has allowed 1ER. And, that one earned run was allowed on May 11 against New Orleans, the Mets' AAA team, just about three months ago.

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I also watched parts of War of the Worlds tonight. It was on ABC. It was bad, but me and Pops kept flipping back, hoping for more gore. Then, as it turned out, it was a Speilberg movie, so no wonder it sucked.

Finally in 1st!

2008-07-24T15:07:00.007-04:00

Big win today for the Metropolitans. My two least favorite Mets, the two guys that I wanted gone two months ago won the game. First Ollie Perez struck out 12 in 7.2 innings, allowing only one run. Then, Carlos Delgado got the game-winning opposite field double in the 8th inning.

In case you didn't know, both of these guys have been playing very well lately, not just today. Since the July game against the Yankees in which Delgado drove in nine runs and hit two homers, his line going into today was: .368 / .467 / .736 with 8HRs and 24RBI. Basically, he's been a monster, hitting bombs and seemingly getting hits in 'clutch' situations. Meanwhile, Oliver seems to have benefitted by Dan Warthen's presence in the dugout. Including today, he hasn't allowed more than 2ER in each of his last five starts. He has also cranked up his K totals again, and seems much more confident out on the hill.

While it's now obvious that simply releasing these two players wasn't necessarily the answer, continuing to play them in May and June wasn't the answer either. Now they are winning games for the Mets, but to me they're just making up for all the games they lost earlier in the season. I mean, you can't just forget the fact that Perez' ERA on 6/24 was 5.29, leading to nine Met losses in his first 16 starts. You also can't forget that Delgado had bottomed out at .229 / .306 / .396 with 11HR and 35RBI halfway through the season. You can't forget all those runners he left on base, and all those rallies he killed.

I'm glad these two are performing. I don't want Delgado to suck. But I'm just a little skeptical about whether these two can continue playing well now. Especially Perez. We've seen Perez pitch well for a few starts, and then he has one of those games where he can't get out of the 2nd inning.

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Also, can all those braindead New York writers and stupid fans that hate on Billy Wagner give it up now? The guy is fucking good, one of the best closers in league history. The Mets play one game without him and the bullpen allows 16 runs in one 9th inning. All closers blow games (unless you were juiced out of your mind like Gagne).

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Gary Cohen, I know you're a dedicated reader of Mets-Thing. So, please drop the "past the diving (insert player here)...." line. That is Michael Kay's stupid line, made famous because of Derek Jeter's lack of range. The quality of the Mets announcers blows away the Yankees in every department, radio and television. So let's keep it that way Gary. You're so much better than Kay will ever be. I'm sure you're not doing it on purpose, but it's time to pay attention and not use that line again. Thanks. Your pal, Sven.

The Mets won 10 straight?

2008-07-19T18:46:00.003-04:00

I left town and the Mets couldn't lose. For a minute I even had one of those ridiculous supersticious moments where I thought I should take a day trip or something to keep the streak going. It was only a moment though. Then the Mets won again after my return to make it 10 in a row.

The Mets seem to have been winning all kinds of games. High scoring games. Low scoring games. Shutouts. On the road. At home. One run games. Of course, that's what happens when you win. But they shutdown the Gigantes and the Rox, two teams that they SHOULD beat. And that's great because that's what they weren't doing earlier in the season, beating the lowsy teams.

****

Ironically, just weeks after writing about Billy Beane's brilliance, I'm starting to wonder if he has slightly lost his course. He is trying to get as much as he can for his players before they become too expensive for his franchise. Fine, great. But, it almost seems like he has become obsessed with making trades and not necessarily improving. It bothers me because I feel like he gave up on this season when they are an over .500 ballclub that could contend in their division. And I picked them to win the division, I didn't pick them to play for next year.

However, he has gotten some young arms in his recent (2007-08) trades, again, who are piling up Ks in the minors. See Gio Gonzalez, Sean Gallagher, and Fauti de los Santos.

Mets-Thing goes on vacation

2008-07-05T09:58:00.001-04:00

Mid-Season Review

2008-06-30T13:55:00.007-04:00

Since today is exactly the halfway point of the season, I figured I'd give some kind of mid-season review of the Metsies. So here it is.... their record is 40-41, about .500. They've played like a .500 ballclub. They get hot and win a few, and then get swept by the Padres. They can beat the Yankees, but can't touch Seattle. From the caliber of play we've seen so far, it's about what you'd expect.

OFFENSE....

The Bad - There's been too much patchwork crap going on in LF and RF. Tatis, Nixon, Easley, Anderson, and Chavez are decent to good bench players, but not starters. Omar's reliance on Alou this year has really cost this team. Delgado has 14 homeruns now, but his OB% is still .308 and his slugging percentage is less than Ramon Castro's. He also ranks 214th in VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), just above Kelly Shoppach and just below the Meathook.

The Good - Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran. Big surprize there. Ryan Church was excellent early. Beltran still frustrates me, but he's putting up the numbers. Luis Castillo takes a terrible amount of heat from New Yorkers, but he's a good player. He takes a lot of pitches, draws walks, doesn't strikeout, steals bases, and he's solid in the field.

PITCHING....

The Bad - Heilman blew a few games early on and was just awful. Replacing Pedro wasn't really accomplished very well, and he looks like crap now anyway. Maine, Perez, and Pelfrey haven't progressed quite like everyone hoped. Oliver has had nine bad starts out of 17. Maine still hasn't found a strikeout pitch. Pelfrey allows half the batters to reach base.

The Good - Santana. Wagner. Everyone else is just average to bad. Pelfrey has pitched fairly well since 5/31, going 3-0 with a 3.35 ERA. Heilman has only allowed one run since 5/31. Duaner Sanchez has done well setting up for Wagner. New pitching coach, Dan Warthen, altered Oliver Perez' windup yesterday, and it worked. We'll see if that continues though, I won't hold my breath.

COACHING

The Bad - Willie was braindead. Rick Peterson was creeping everyone out.

The Good - Jerry Manuel is a gangsta and wears Joe Maddon glasses. Dan Warthen is old.

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There is a baseball road trip happening now. It's called Thirty27. All 30 stadiums to watch a game in only 27 days or less. All by car. Click HERE to read about it son.

Billy Beane is a smart man

2008-06-27T15:37:00.005-04:00

Billy Beane (left) is a legend that changed the game.

This post is for Keith, Ron, Gary, and for every other stodgy baseball guy that is "insulted" by the book Moneyball....

Listen, first, the book Moneyball was written by a reporter, not Billy Beane. Also, Moneyball was not about the perfect way to evaluate players, although it's close. Moneyball was about finding a baseball asset that was undervalued, and capitalizing on it. Billy Beane figured out, by using statistics, that OnBase% is one of the most valuable individual offensive statistics in baseball. He also figured out that players with high OB% weren't necessarily coveted by other ballclubs. So he began collecting cheap players who put up high OB% and built very successful teams.

Beane also figured out that college players were much more developed than high school kids, and therefore much closer to becoming major league players. Having college playing experience also gave Beane more sample size, which made them easier to evaluate, and therefore less of a gamble than high schools kids.

With Oakland's small budget, Beane needed cheap players, and he couldn't afford to make mistakes. So instead of relying on what his scouts "saw", he used anything he could to help himself, including statistics, data, and evidence. He thought the best way to field a good team was by capitalizing on the value provided in an offense built around OB%, and a pitching staff built around young, cheap, college arms.

His stategy obviously worked. First, his teams won. And now OB% is properly regarded as a valuable trait, and the college game has elevated dramatically. When everyone starts copying you, you know you're doing something right.

So to Keith and Ron and fucking Joe Morgan, all Beane did was break away from the same old, crusty, narrow-minded baseball strategy of years past, those same dated ideas that you hang onto about "how the game should be played". He found a new way that worked, because he was forced to by his budget, that is why it was called Moneyball, and not Statball.

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I never thought that Howard Johnson would get a coaching job, especially a Hitting Coach job. He was one of the most undisciplined players I can remember. He pulled everything, struck out a lot, had terrible defensive form, and played like a lunatic. Then on Wednesday he's doing a dugout interview during the game on SNY talking about how Delgado needs to hit to the opposite field and other shit. He was right, but I just thought, since when did you ever hit a ball the other way? Then I remembered what my college coach used to say, and what I assume HoJo must say to his players, "do as I say, don't do as I do".

Please, No More

2008-06-25T16:58:00.007-04:00

Oliver Perez (left), from Mexico, is the real reason New Yorkers support building the border fence.

Please, Omar,.... Jerry,.... I don't want to see Oliver Perez anymore. Today I edited his games started to 16. I don't want to add another one. His ERA is 5.29, with a WHIP of 1.56. He can't hold runners. He can't throw strikes. He leads the league in hit batters and he's second in walks....

Wow, I just found an awful Mets stat while looking at Perez' numbers....

Oliver Perez(17.95), John Maine(17.88), and Mike Pelfrey(17.72) are all in the bottom seven in pitches per inning, for all of MLB. They are all worse than Tom Gorzelanny and barely better than Bronson Arroyo. This is telling me the obvious: they throw a lot of balls, and don't have a strikeout pitch.

So please, Dan Warthen,.... tell Pelfrey and Maine to start throwing a curveball. Guys, a curveball is a pitch that is much slower than your slider, a pitch that you throw by creating downward spin. Just try it, for the hell of it. Maybe you'll actually miss a bat with it, and even if you don't, maybe it will make your fastball look better. Just try it.

****

I was very excited to be able to add to the Mets Ejections list today. I was also pumped up to write this blog about the incident, but I guess everyone else was too, since it's all I've heard about today. I thought Runge pulled multiple bushleague umpire stunts, first asking Beltran if he needed the plate dusted off, then bumping the manager. He ranks right up there with Tim McClelland about now.

Jerry needs to make his arguments a little longer though. They're pretty good overall, with excellent head bobbing and screaming. His glasses fly off and his hat moves, but he just needs to add some length. You know, get in there until the other umpires come over. Or until the umpire starts to back away. Let the fans enjoy it and the stadium get really loud. Remember Jerry, those arguments are more for the fans than anything else.

Jerry Manuel is from the streets, Bitch!

2008-06-22T17:31:00.003-04:00

"I told him next time he does that I'm going to get my blade out and cut him. I'm a gangster. You go gangster on me, I'm going to have to get you. You do that again, I'm going to cut you right on the field." - Jerry Manuel talking about Jose Reyes' sissy fit.

No doubt, Jerry Manuel learned a few things while managing on the south side of the City of Chicago.

"Willie Watch" Continues

2008-06-18T15:07:00.004-04:00

Not being able fill up the back pages with polished journalism like this (left) was the real reason for yesterday's media blow-up surrounding Omar's questionable timing.

It's amazing how easily public opinion is swayed by the media. Yeah, I initially thought it was bogus that the Mets fired Willie in the middle of the night (although, on the west coast, where the firing took place, it wasn't the middle of the night). I still agree that it wasn't quite handled correctly, but do you think Willie cares? Do you think it makes one bit of difference to him whether he was fired in the morning, afternoon, middle of a game, taking a shit, or in the hotel? I don't think so. Would it really make a difference to you, dear blog reader, what time of day you got fired? What matters is that he got fired, and he wouldn't be happy about it no matter when it happened. However, New York ate it all up. Everything about how classless a move it was, every last bit of it.

The only reason this is an issue at all is because the NY media and press didn't get to break the story live. By the time they splashed the backs of their papers with the news today, it was already old.

So, I'd like to know. Did Willie feel dissed by this? Or was it just the media?

****

The other group of people blasting this move are Yankees fans disguised as impartial viewers. This group of pathetic people talk about how much 'class' Willie has, and how 'classless' the entire Mets organization is. However, as far as Willie goes, 'class' isn't defined as blaming your percieved lack of enthusiasm on some racist cameramen. And one douchebag writer even used this to try and make Hank Steinbrenner look better. Now that is classless.

TOM NIETO IS FIRED

2008-06-17T11:05:00.016-04:00

Tom Nieto, Rick Peterson, and manager Willie Randolph were all fired in the middle of the night, while New York slept.

So, what exactly did Omar and the Mets think was going to happen here? I mean, the timing of this firing was odd to say the least. What could the Mets' ownership and GM possibly be thinking? Well, you've come to the right blog, because I know exactly what they were thinking. An undercover Mets-Thing correspondent, who shall remain nameless, secretly recorded Omar saying this over the weekend....

"Hey guys, I was thinkin', if we fire Willie in the middle of the night when we're in Anaheim, noone will notice, we'll be able to avoid the media, and New York won't even realize we made a change. I mean, we're three thousand miles away, there's no way anyone could get word of this for at least a week. We'll do it at the hotel after the game too. Half the players will be asleep and they won't even realize we made a change until September."

I don't understand why they're trying to hide this. I don't understand why they waited until Willie flew all the way to California. Actually, I don't understand why Willie wasn't fired immediately after LAST season.

This firing makes me feel a little sick to my stomach. And I think I'm feeling that way because this firing most likely won't do any good for the team. If you've noticed in this blog, I've pointed out how Willie seems clueless at times, but I haven't completely blamed him for how bad the Mets are. The problem still lies in the old, overrated players he has been given by Omar. Whoever the manager will be the rest of this season (maybe Jerry Manuel), will still have to rely on players like Carlos Delgado, Oliver Perez, Scott Schoeneweis, Endy Chavez, Damion Easley, Marlon Anderson, and Fernando Tatis, all playing key roles. Then, he has to deal with the oft-injured Moises Alou and Pedro Martinez, two players that Omar likes to think are big parts of this team. And unfortunately, Omar is right, because without them, the Mets are mediocre at best. Thinking you can rely on them is the problem.

Basically, although I didn't like Willie that much, he's not really the issue here. It's the players. However, you can't get rid of the players, so you get rid of the manager I guess.

****

Can we bring back Bobby V. now please?!?!

All-Star ballot stuffing time

2008-06-16T14:03:00.012-04:00

Since I am obviously a well respected internet baseball bloggister, I feel that it is my duty to post the all-star ballots that I submitted last night. To me, the all-star game is a scrimmage game, a game where the fans vote on who they want to see. So, I vote for my favorite players, not necessarily the best ones, as you might be able to tell. I used my 25 allotted entries on these guys....

American League
*1B Jason Giambi (the Giambino, with mustache)
*2B Aaron Hill (sick defensive secondbaseman, underrated bat)
*SS Edgar Renteria (had to vote for someone from Colombia, and Edgar is still sweet at SS)
*3B Miguel Cabrera (with Edgar, this makes an all South American leftside of the infield, and I still think Cabrera is one of the top-5 hitters in baseball)
*C Joe Mauer (sweetest swing in the game)
*OF Carlos Quentin (fucking monster, will be dropping bombs for a long time)
*OF Josh Hamilton (the 'Natural', 26 tatoos, 3 suicide attempts, snorted Colombian white gold for over 3 years)
*OF Manny Ramirez (best hitter ever, best baseball character ever)
*DH Travis Hafner (yeah, bad season, injured too, but his nickname is "Pronk")

National League
*1B Prince Fielder (he's a big man)
*2B Orlando Hudson (styling secondbaseman)
*SS Stephen Drew (making up for his brothers, Tulowitzki would have had this vote except for the fact that he's been dead all year)
*3B David Wright (had to pick a Met, Wright has been very consistent, played great defense, and hasn't missed a single inning)
*C Brian Schneider (wow, there are some hurting catchers in the NL, I like Russ Martin and Kendall, but Schneider has really shown me how bad LoDuca was)
*OF Eric Byrnes (my favorite player, known as 'Captain America' in the Dominican)
*OF Juan Pierre (freestyle rapper, never Ks, old school)
*OF Ryan Church (rounds out the same NL outfield group that I voted for last year)

****

Aaron Heilman has pitched poorly to say the least. However, he has seemed to be a little unlucky. Every groundball seems to find a hole, and every blooper seems to fall in. So I looked up his BABIP (batting average on balls in play). BABIP is usually around .290 and independent upon how a pitcher is throwing. Basically, if a pitcher is showing a very high average here, it's bad luck. And if he has a very low average here, he's getting some good luck. Right now, Heilman is allowing a .344 BABIP, way above the average. I'm thinking he's bound to get some of those groundballs to start going at infielders and start moving his BABIP back towards the mean. However, his BB/9 is way up, as he is already closing in on last year's walk total. He may not be able to determine where batters hit the ball, but he can control the walks.

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Yesterday, Pedro had a little spat with Marlon Byrd after Byrd stepped out of the batter's box during Pedro's windup in the 6th inning. For some reason the umpire granted timeout. It was the second time during the game that Byrd did this. Pedro was pissed, and he played the waiting game with Byrd before he flew out to CF. It reminded me of one of the great Pedro moments. A few years ago, when he was on the Red Sox still, pitching against the Yankees, Gary Sheffield tried the same shit with Pedro, stepping out twice in the same at-bat. Pedro just stared him down, waited, then put a fastball right between his shoulder blades.

Don't worry about Billy

2008-06-13T14:36:00.006-04:00

Billy Wagner (left) fist-pumps the Goodyear blimp during yesterday's game.

Career statistics:

371 saves / 798IP / 1046K / 1.015WHIP

Billy Wagner was born as a natural righthander. At a young age he was forced to throw with his left arm after breaking his right one twice (rumor has it, he threw over 156mph with his right arm, and the bones just couldn't withstand the force). Then the guy pitches at D-III Ferrum College, where he shatters every D-III strikeout record there ever was and put them so far out of reach that they will most likely never be broken. Wagner's domination didn't stop when he reached pro ball either. He was a first round draft choice, and has continued to post ridiculous strikeout numbers his entire career, from minor league starting pitcher, to major league closer.

In 2008 he has broken out his old starter's windup, changed the tilt on his slider to get more drop, and he has looked as dominant as ever. He's also one of the few players on the Mets who seems like he cares whether they win or lose (I can't be sure how they all feel, but many of them sure don't look like they give a shit).

So, with all of the broken pieces, or pieces that simply never existed on the Mets, trying to pin all the blame on one of the most dominant pitchers you'll ever see, well, that makes you look like an idiot. Don't worry about Billy.

Don't Jump

2008-06-12T09:53:00.007-04:00

How a championship should be celebrated (left).

I've been away, sleeping under the cover of a Big Agnes tent in the Smoky Mountains, watching elk (yes, there are elk on the east coast), building campfires, hiking the Boogerman Trail, and drinking cans of sweet tasting Modelo. Not all at once.

It seems I picked a good time to go too, since the Mets put together an Amazin' string of losses that must have been just gut-wrenching. Three straight 2-1 games, multiple walkoff losses, all told it was five straight going into last night. Even last night's game feels like a loss. Wagner blows Pelfrey's shutout and the Shea Stadium fans were finished. Beltran eventually won the game with a homerun, and the Mets celebrated around homeplate as if they won the pennant. Unfortunately all he did was break a five game losing streak. What the team should have done was give a short round of high fives and get back in the clubhouse. You don't deserve to celebrate like that after first blowing the game to set up that homerun.

And what's the deal with that 'team jumping together around home plate' thing anyway? I hate that thing, whatever it is. In '04, when the Red Sox won the World Series, first time in 357 years or whatever it was, the on-field celebration consisted of a 'team jumping together around Doug Mirabelli' thing. Then some hugs and champagne. Horrible. When you win a championship, there needs to be a '86 Mets style pileup on the mound. If the pitcher doesn't get tackled, you've basically blown the celebration. And when you haven't won a championship since the 14th century, the celebration needs to consist of more than the standard 'team jumping together like a bunch of schoolgirls' thing.

****

I will go down as a second-guesser here, but only because I failed to post my opinion on Church's injury, not because I didn't have the opinion. Basically, the Mets did just about everything they could do exacerbate Church's concussion symptoms, and nothing to help. He needed to go on the DL immediately. It was quite obvious, and I don't know why anyone would fuck around with a severe blow to the head like he took. It's not a very difficult decision really, the Blue Jays know what to do with a concussion injury. This was reported on MLB.com about Aaron Hill....

Second baseman Aaron Hill, who has been sidelined with a concussion since May 29, could potentially begin a Minor League rehab assignment sometime next week. J.P.Ricciardi (Blue Jays GM) said Hill has experienced no symptoms for the past two days. Ricciardi noted that Toronto's medical staff wants Hill -- eligible to be activated from the DL on Saturday -- to have gone at least a week sans symptoms before shipping him out to play some rehab games.

What do you know, "at least a week sans symptoms" before playing baseball again. I just hope the Mets didn't ruin Church's entire season, or worse, his career.

Giuseppe Franco buys Mets

2008-06-03T14:11:00.003-04:00

I was going to write today's blog about my favorite commercial starring Giusseppe Franco, but someone already beat me to it. My favorite part is when he looks seriously into the camera and says, "I don't own the company, I don't know anything about it!". Then he trots out the ugliest guys he could find in LA, I just don't get it. He's not putting his name on the line for something that doesn't work though. If you've watched just one full inning of Mets baseball this year, you know what we're talking about.

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I'm also high on that Heineken commercial. There's that one blonde that brings the beer to the bearded Scandinavian dude in the snow. Yeah, that chick is hot. Something about her, I can't wait for that commercial to come on. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of her.

Carlos Smells

2008-05-30T13:35:00.003-04:00

I think I smell, yes, I smell a swing and miss.

Carlos Beltran of the Metropolitans has had more than a disappointing season so far, so I wrote down a couple things I noticed about him....

1) He takes a lot of called third strikes
2) He has had some bad luck at lining out to infielders

Neither of these things is necessarily a very important measure of how he was doing, but just for fun I wanted to see how he ranked against the rest of the league. So I asked my friends at STATS to do the work for me.

Somewhat to my surprize, Beltran's strikeout looking percentage isn't anything special, it's about normal. But Marco Scutaro, as of 5/29, 15 of his 20Ks were looking. Luis Castillo (7 of 14) and Jacoby Ellsbury (12 of 17) had similar high caught looking percentage. On the other end of the spectrum, Carlos Gomez has K'd 51 times and only been caught looking 11 times. Based on what I already know about these hitters, Scutaro, Castillo, and Ellsbury all have an idea of where the strikezone is and probably were hurt by umpire's wide strikezones, while Gomez will take a hack at anything.

Then the lineouts to infielders.... I expected to see Beltran on top of this list, since it seemed like he was lining out every game this week. However, 53 other players have lined out to infielders as many times, or more, than Beltran has in '08. Juan Pierre has been 'robbed' of basehits in this manner a league leading 8 times, Beltran only 5.

*The Mets have now won three in a row and are even starting to catch some breaks,.... like yesterday's catcher's interference that started the two-out rally against Penny.

*Gomez Update (6/2): After watching Carlos Gomez playing against the Stanks this weekend, I miss him being on the Metsies. I have to keep telling myself, "but they got Santana", "it's ok, they got Santana". There was one play where he smelled his bat, then laid down a bunt to Betemit at firstbase and beat it out before the ball was touched. I mean, he got down that line so fast it made that old Mantle legend of his 3.1 time to first look like a fucking disgrace.

Changes are happening

2008-05-29T15:44:00.008-04:00

Jeff Wilpon(left) and Omar Minaya(center) consult Uncle Pete(right) about Willie's job status.

Since the infamous "summit meeting" between Willie and Omar and Fred and Jeff, there has been some serious platooning going on at Shea. Righthanded hitters playing against lefthanded pitchers, lefthanded hitters playing against righthanded pitchers, righthanded hitters pinch-hitting against lefthanded relievers.... confused yet? It doesn't matter. Willie is at least starting to "manage" the mediocre team he has. Whether or not he's been forced into it, I don't care. All I know is that running the same old lousy lineup out there everyday had to stop somehow. Maybe Willie is too timid, too scared, too much of a pushover to tell players (Delgado) they need to sit. Maybe Omar had to force him. Maybe Fred had to force him. Doesn't matter, things are changing, slowly.

*As soon as I saw Scott Hatteberg was released by the Reds, I thought it was a no-brainer for the Mets to go get him(I see today that it's a legitimate rumor). Here's our chance to get rid of Delgado. Yeah, Hatteberg is 38, no, he's not going to drop bombs all night for you, but he'll get on base, he won't swing at shit in the dirt, and he can't be any worse than Delgado. Delgado hurts the Mets, Hatteberg wouldn't do that. And if you platoon the guy properly with Tatis at firstbase, they could both produce. I imagine this happening like a simple fantasy baseball transaction, 'Add: Scott Hatteberg, Drop: Carlos Delgado'.

Carter vs. Hernandez

2008-05-27T12:55:00.006-04:00

Nick Evans looked like a savior on Saturday, raking three doubles in a Mets win. He continues to hit the ball well. However, Evans' callup tells us how bad the Mets' minor league system is. Evans is a AA firstbaseman. An infielder. The Mets needed an outfielder. So, you're telling me there is no better option to fill-in in leftfield than the AA firstbaseman? I'm very happy to see a new player out there instead of the bench of retreads that the Mets usually use, like Ordell Anderson or Damian Easley, however, it would be nice to have a legitimate prospect somewhere in the system.

Speaking of Damian Easley.... after skipping a game to attend his son's graduation last week, I was surprized to see him in the dugout yesterday, since I heard his grandpa was having a backyard BBQ he wanted to attend.

I'm officially announcing my candidacy for the New York Mets managerial job. I'd like to thank Gary Carter for giving me the courage to put my name into the discussion. Omar, you know where I am, I'm only a phone call away. My contract with Mets-Thing allows me to leave if I get a Major League job. You know what though, I think I'm going to go ahead and just call Mr. Wilpon, why waste any time with Omar, he doesn't know what he's doing. In fact, I think I should have his job too.

Keith Hernandez really let Carter have it during the broadcast on Sunday, saying that Carter walks around basically "unconscious" to anything or anyone but himself. While Keith himself is also all about his own mustache (Keith's been sporting that short new haircut all year too), he is probably right about Carter. I'm sure it's not bad luck that has Carter managing in an independent league, and not with a major league organization. He must be doing something that people don't like.

*The Rays have the best winning percentage in baseball. Thanks in large part to this guy. He kinda looks familiar.

Rock Bottom

2008-05-24T15:19:00.006-04:00

Keith Hernandez (left) and Ron Darling (right) called the game Friday night.

Well, there isn't much more to be said about this Mets team that I haven't already said on this blog. They just aren't playing well, and it's getting to the point where you can't keep saying that they're a better team than they're showing. They have seemingly hit rock bottom. Maybe they just aren't that good of a ballclub. We can't keep looking for bullshit excuses for them either. It's all about "Willie doesn't have enough energy", or "when Pedro comes back", or "when Perez puts it together", or "they're showing flashes", or "this team doesn't care", or "they're better than this". It's just a bunch of lousy excuses that the media, fans, and players have been making for the players who aren't performing. It's pretty simple. Guys need to hit and pitch and field better.

*Albert Pujols is the kind of guy that will hit two bombs off you one day, then come back blasting lines drives off your face and breaking ankles.

*While considering what Braves players to add to the Met Killer list after that sweet four game sweep, I realized that the entire Braves franchise could be added to the list. Then as I pondered further, I realized that they're aren't any opposing players that are killing the Mets, it's the Mets themselves.

*FYI, Mark Kotsay was a national champion BMX racer at the age of six. Kevin Burkhart told me so. Kotsay also should have won multiple Gold Glove awards while with Oakland.

*Willie obviously doesn't read Mets-Thing. Otherwise he would have known to not play Alou every fucking day! Alou is awesome, but you can't play an injury-prone 57 year-old everyday and expect him to stay healthy.

*Do you think Minaya would ever trade David Wright? The thought hit me during one of those recent Wright interviews where he was basically talking shit about his teammates. I thought that Minaya might actually think that it's David Wright that is bringing the team down, and the rest of the team would be better without him trying to get in people's heads. It is a nightmare scenerio, seems completely ridiculous, and I have no basis for thinking this. I just wouldn't be completely surprized if it was something Minaya would consider.

Don't Worry About Church

2008-05-20T23:23:00.005-04:00

Ryan Church (left) is the bomb-dropping, cannon-armed, christian-gangsta-rapper, that Milledge will never be.

But, Church, what are you doing? It's the fucking last out of the game, it's over, the Mets offense is abysmal. You're about to get swept, it's not your fault. You're carrying this freakin' team. Don't put yourself in harms way to try and get fucking Damian Easley off the hook. Just peel off.

If you didn't see it, Church took a knee to the head while trying to break up a double-play on the last play of the doubleheader that just ended.

FYI, the Mets got swept. I couldn't watch the second game. Tom Glavine dealt on them in game 1. Awful. The whole team should be ashamed of themselves. Then they let Jorge Campillo, a career Mexican Leaguer, drop curveballs on them all night. Seriously, the guy spent eight years, his entire twenties, pitching in the Mexican League.

Well, it just might be time to resign to the fact that the Mets are a .500 ballclub. They'll continue to give us some really great games, but also continue to give us some absolute disgraces against poor teams and poor pitchers.

Mets kill Yankees

2008-05-19T16:18:00.009-04:00

Today, being a Mets fan feels good. Wagner gave his teammates a much needed public bashing on Thursday, and Willie called a 'closed door' meeting Friday night in Yankee Stadium. Then, the Mets proceded to beat the shit out of the helpless Yankees in two games and Jerry Manuel stepped up like Willie would never do, and got himself tossed.

Did anyone notice how fired up David Wright was Sunday? He was fist-pumping on the Yankee logo after he scored a run and smacked his assistant coach on the ass after getting ejected. Yeah, it was awesome. Even Reyes and Delgado got hits in both games.

Here's the deal though. I don't know what is going to happen next with the Mets. If the Mets are actually a good baseball team, this is when they should go on a tear. They should use whatever momentum they now have, beat Tom Glavine into retirement tomorrow and take three of four in Atlanta. Then the Metsies cruise to the division title by slamming the crap out of everyone's mediocre pitching staff in the East. Then, finally, after they clinch in early September, we can all talk about how Wagner 'lit the fire' and the 'closed door meeting turned the season around', and use all those other meaningless baseball cliches to describe the season. It would be perfect.

However, if this is still the same overrated Mets team they've had since last season, tomorrow they'll let Glavine shut them out, maybe split the doubleheader, and win one of four in Atlanta. Beltran and Reyes will go back to sleep and everything will be right back where it started on Thursday afternoon.

*Moises Alou's ejection last Wednesday was the Mets' first ejection of the season. Manuel's was the second. Willie where are you? Oh, he's in the dugout, preferring to make that 'sad little kid' face that he does so well.

*Oriole Magic. If you don't think this is funny, you don't like baseball.

New Met-Killer?

2008-05-16T09:00:00.007-04:00

You may have thought that Willie Harris is the newest Met-Killer after his unreal diving catch to rob Church of a double yesterday. Well, you were wrong, he is already known for his Met-Killing abilities. Here is a photo Willie Harris robbing Delgado of a homerun last summer at Shea where it would have tied the game 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth. Not only that, but he made a similar play on Alou in the first inning of that game to rob him of an extra base hit.

And what was Beltran doing half-way down the line on a line drive in the infield? There was one out. And he didn't even attempt to get back to third. 'I guess he was trying to beat the traffic'. (Classic quote from Eli Manning on the Letterman show referring to Belichick leaving the Super Bowl early).

My guy Pelfrey was going for that first ever Mets No-hitter. It was 0-0 and looking like maybe he could get one of those difficult to achieve no-hitters with a loss. I was rooting for it. That would have been in typical Mets fashion.

I also can't believe Ryan Church is doing this well. I thought he was one of those career minor league types. And I was pissed about losing Milledge for a minor leaguer and a washed up catcher. I was wrong; so far. Church is .310, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 29 R and has secured a spot at #2 in the order. Milledge is .238, 1HR, 13 RBI, 16 Runs, 1 for his last 19 AB and looks like he should just stick to rap.

Softball players?

2008-05-14T13:47:00.008-04:00

"Let's go Milly, let's go. (clap, clap) Let's go Milly, let's go. (clap clap)."

As everyone knows now, the Nats were chanting this in their dugout while Lastings Milledge was batting against the Metsies on Monday. Is this bushleague? I don't think so. With stone-cold killer, Elijah Dukes leading the chants, the Nats were laughing it up, having fun with eachother, and didn't say a word about a Mets player. Is it unprofessional? Slightly. If they had been using the old Dover Baseball chant of "Up the river, down the lake, pitcher's got a bellyache!", or the softball-esque SUNY Oneonta baseball chant of "He hangs it, you bang it!", then yes, that is bushleague because they're talking about their competition. But the Nats were just trying to enjoy the game by cheering for their own players. Is that the way I play the game? No, team chants are fucking cheesy. My college coach would have had us running poles for three weeks if we did anything like that. But still, I don't think what the Nats did was the disgrace it has been made out to be.

*"Team Mets-Thing" 'took the train to the game' last night(Tuesday). We picked a good night to go.

---Maine pitched great, my man Church hit dots all over the field, and Wagner closed it.

---We were able to find Sam Adams, Brooklyn Brewery, and Corona Extra, so we could avoid drinking yesterday's toilet water that is dispenced into the Budweiser and Miller bottles.

---Team Mets-Thing is a fan of the Mezzanine seats, which give you a good overhead view of the game without being two miles away from the action.

---It was strange to think that this is it for Shea Stadium too. Yeah, the place isn't much, but it's the stadium of my team. My home stadium. There are lots of memories here. And surprizingly for a team like the Mets, which hasn't had a ton of winning baseball throughout their history, there have been many historic baseball moments here too, including one of the top 5 World Series moments of all time.

*Then I saw the Mets' transactions for the day. Sosa.... gone! Yes! Hopefully he doesn't choose to go to AAA and he just leaves the organization. Frankly, I'm shocked that Minaya is showing some balls here. It's about time he started telling his players that they need to perform. Figueroa is gone too, but he might remain in AAA.

*I watched the tape of the game this morning, because that's what I do, I'm that guy. And John Maine has once again changed his approach. Last night, he was using his fastball away to all batters. Then to RHs, he was throwing his changeup inside. It's a 'backwards' strategy according to the standard MLB pitching coach, but it's a strategy I love. And, it seemed to work for Maine. All those pulled foul balls I saw last night, all turned out to be on inside changeups. The Nats could do nothing with the pitch, but pull the sinking change foul. Then he went back to his outside fastball for the out. Maine only threw one slider, which used to be his strikeout pitch, the entire game.

clueless

2008-05-12T14:49:00.003-04:00

You're the manager of a Major League baseball team. You should know the rules of the game. When the other team breaks those rules, you should know how to take advantage of that. Willie has no clue.

Yesterday the Reds batted out of order (Dusty is also clueless, poor Reds fans, but I want to focus on Willie because this is a Mets blog). So the Reds bat out of order, and Willie doesn't take advantage. He jumped the gun and alerted the home plate umpire too early. What you're supposed to do if this happens, is just let the team continue to screw up their order until they get a man on base. Then you alert the umpire before the next batter sees a pitch, the 'proper' batter is called out, and the runner is taken off base. Basically, you don't do shit until you can take advantage of it by getting a runner taken off base and an out called.

It was a hilarious scene though. Willie wore his usual confused look, Jerry Manuel thought he was so smart that the Mets were going to be awarded two free outs on the play, and David Wright held two fingers in the air, thinking there should be two outs. Then, even the umpires thought there should be two outs. Feliciano had no clue, he just stood there on the mound reminiscing about his one season with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. Then it was actually Dusty Baker("In Dusty we trusty"), of all people, that seemed to know the rule, and got the umpires to discuss it until they finally figured it out.

Now I know some of you are thinking, yeah, but this is a tough rule to understand, blah, blah, nobody really knows the rule on this, give him a break. Well, they should know the rule. Willie is being paid to manage a baseball team. This is one of those rules that every manager should understand, and understand how to take advantage of. Because if this was a closer game, it would have been nice to know you had the Reds by the balls because of their screwup.

*Friday night's game was rained out, so I watched some Yankee baseball instead. And wow, Wilson Betemit should never see the infield of a major league diamond again. He couldn't make a play on anything, and the Tigers just kept peppering him with hard grounders.

*Lots of new Met-Killers lately, add Bronson Arroyo to the list. 8ip, 4h, 1r, 2bb, 9k, W. Lowering his ERA to 7.14.

Celebrity?

2008-05-08T17:51:00.002-04:00

I saw a bunch of people I recognized sitting behind homeplate during the Dodger series. I assume they were from television or movies or something, but I couldn't name any of them. As an internet bloggister, I should probably know these things, but I don't.

Also, you will very rarely see a celebrity at a Mets game. You know why? Because the Mets have the fucking ugliest fans in baseball. I mean, just hideous. I think it's something about Long Island.

As far as the series went, well, Oliver Perez took another night off, Figueroa finally got banged around, and then the Mets salvaged the third game by destroying Brad Penny. And really, that was enough to make it a good series for me. I hate Brad Penny. The guy is out there showing up his own catcher by waving his arms around, saying he can't see the signs, when the real problem was that he was getting his ass kicked, as the Mets usually do to him. He broke an umpire's jaw last week because he can't understand a '2' sign from his catcher. And he used to go out with Alyssa Milano. Penny is one of the ugliest guys in baseball, but it's true. You're angry. Now you understand.

New Met Killer found

2008-05-05T16:14:00.003-04:00

Augie Ojeda (left) reaches base again.

Mets @ DBacks series wrapup....

Game One: I like the new DBacks uniforms. A more traditional look, and they've lost those awful pastel colors they used to have. In the game, the Mets simply took Micah Owings out back, scoring three runs in the first inning, and never stopped. Alou returned and just started raking, as predicted. I just hope Willie is smart enough to only play Alou about four times per week. Otherwise, he'll just break down again.

Game Two: Pelfrey decided to revert to his old form, allowing thirteen baserunners in five innings, striking out only one. Not hot. The Metsies actually battled back against Brandon Webb, but couldn't finish him off. Instead, it was the DBacks that put the game away by taking Duaner and Schoeneweis out back in the eighth inning. And of course, you can't forget the newest Met Killer, Augie Ojeda, who probably had the best game of his career. He drove in six runs, made diving plays, and banged Schoeneweis' wife after the game.

Game Three: This game was somewhat unfortunately decided by Conor Jackson's throwing error. Unfortunate only for the DBacks. Augie Ojeda had two more hits, and of course Micah Owings had a pinch hit. But for the Metropolitans, Ryan Church continued to pimp, gunning another baserunner down.

Two out of three from the best team in baseball, including facing their top three pitchers, on the road. Good weekend for Los Mets.

*The DBacks have my current favorite baseball announcer, Mark Grace. The guy just doesn't care, he'll say anything, and he's usually funny about it. He'll mix in legit baseball slang, and never annoys the shit out of me.

*I hope everyone liked the first post by Mets-Thing correspondent, Turn a Quick Two. His rambling rants, full of pure adrenaline and hatred should randomly appear on this blog.

Rays in First Place

2008-05-02T13:48:00.013-04:00

One month into the season and you can find the Tampa Bay Rays in first place atop the American League East. Scott Kazmir is coming off the DL, and starting Sunday. A few more wins this weekend over the BoSox can propel the Rays even further ahead in the standings. Similar to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Rays have a young squad with a low payroll, and high excitement. And a team that wants and loves winning. What is wrong with wanting to win anymore anyway? You can't fist pump or get excited without offending someone. You can't even high five your teammates your own way (or fans in the stands) without aggravating the other team. That is part of the reason for doing it- you want to get in the head of the opposing team. Having team leaders that don't stand up for the players as much as their own politically correct cliches is disgusting.

The Mets' leaders seem to always say the politically correct cliches (David Wright and Willie Randolph). The channel gets changed the instant I see them talking (hint: you know exactly what they will say!). This translates to the entire team. The Mets have no balls, afraid to offend anyone, and will Piazza charge the mound already!

The now mediocre Los Metropolitans are on the decline and have been ever since their powerful '06 season. The 2006 season ended in disappointment with some questionable managing and roster moves. And it didn't help that Duaner Sanchez went for a late night latino snack in Florida, when the "8th inning guy" wasn't allowing any baserunners all season. Leaving Milledge off the NL championship roster for a disabled/wheelchair bound Cliff Floyd was one of those Kazmir-like mistakes that you knew the instant it was announced. From that point on, I have been losing excitement and trust in the Mets, in particular the general manager and the manager. Always coddling the veterans every need and over-disciplining the young talent at even the most minuscule mistake. Hopefully things will change, and i don't mean Delgado hits a homerun or we sign Jose Lima.

*Tonight's pitcher scouting report by Schwenny: Mets @ DBacks, 9:40pmET, John Maine(2-2, 3.58era, .000avg) vs. Micah Owings(4-0, 3.48era, .421avg):

-John Maine is a fastball pitcher. He relies heavily on the fastball up in the zone to miss bats and induce fly ball outs. In the past Maine has used tons of sliders to finish hitters. However, in his last couple starts, he's thrown maybe a handful of sliders, and instead has begun to use his changeup for an out pitch. He has even used the changeup to RH hitters, which he never did before. Maine's biggest problem is still his control, which causes him to throw tons of pitches, and therefore can't pitch past the 5th or 6th inning.

-Micah Owings is like that kid in Little League that would throw a 1-hit shutout against you, and hit two homeruns in the same game. Except Owings is still doing it in the Majors. His velocity won't overwhelm anyone, but he deals a heavy, naturally cutting fastball around 90mph that batters just can't seem to hit squarely. Owings will follow that up with a tight slider in the low-80s and a sinking changeup. At the plate, Owings makes the Mets wish they had a guy like him playing firstbase. He can hit, and hit for power. He has five career major league homeruns in just 79ABs, and in college at GTech and Tulane he combined to hit 33HRs in his NCAA career.

Mets@DBacks tomorrow

2008-05-01T14:53:00.012-04:00

The Mets are playing at Arizona this weekend and unfortunately for the Metsies, the DBacks look like the most exciting team in the league right now. They can hit bombs, run, and pitch. They are second in the NL in Runs, second in HomeRuns, first in ERA, and first in Wins. Their lineup has been mashing and their starters have been dealing. Both sides of the ball are loaded with young stars, and they just brought up this Scherzer kid who has already proven his minor league numbers are no joke. If only they had held on to Carlos Quentin (although the player they got for Quentin helped them get Dan Haren). Quentin is raking and drawing tons of walks for the WhiteSox.

As good as things are going for Arizona, they looked just as bad for the Mets yesterday. Ollie Perez had one of his far too frequent blow-up days where he can't throw a strike, can't field his position, and can't pitch past the second inning. The Mets played some horrible defense all day, and were basically just playing out the game after in the second inning. It wouldn't be that big of a deal, except it was Perez' fifth consecutive bad start. Meaning he's only had one good start this year, his first one. Since then he's put up these numbers in five starts: 23IP, 20BB, 23H, 3HBP, 18K. So he's putting tons of baserunners on and not pitching deep into games. Not good.

*Darrel Strawberry was on the post-game SNY show yesterday. He was actually pretty good, not as grating as Mazzilli.

YANKEE PRIDE

2008-04-29T13:22:00.005-04:00

This was a serious photo shoot.

I can't get enough of the Clemens bashing. While starting the revolution in Burma this last winter, I missed out on the Mitchell Report findings and Clemens' demise. Of all the things I "missed" while I was gone (I didn't really MISS anything), I think watching Clemens' decline would have been the most entertaining. Giants win the Super Bowl? Na. I can watch that on tape. But Clemens going down like the lying scumbag without a shred of dignity remaining, that must have been great to watch.

I have two friends who were proud, and probably still are blindly Yankee proud, that they were in the stands, and subsequently shown on TV during Clemens' 300th win. Sorry about that guys. Now you know it was all a big scam that you fell for. Oops.

Keep "Boo"ing

2008-04-28T14:31:00.004-04:00

I would still like to see this scene(left).

Delgado, as we all know, finally put a good game together yesterday. And this asshole doesn't go out for a curtain call. Shea stadium was waiting, and they probably shouldn't have, but they wanted the curtain call. But no, look out, Delgado's gonna show us fans. I guess we're not allowed to 'boo' him. I guess all that ticket money, $16M of which is going to be his this year, isn't enough from us. Now we're not allowed to criticize him either. What a prick.

The fans deserve some shit for this too. They were supposed to give him the silent treatment. Just sit on your hands. The guy hasn't produced in two years, and he gives us the same ridiculous sound bites about how he's "seeing it well", and "just need to get quicker". It's just a bunch of shitty excuses for being old and having 34 different hitches in his swing. If the guy starts putting a few good games together, I might get excited about it, until then he's still a .205/.304/.341 hitter.

FYI, .205/.304/.341 is awful.

*I think I dislike Teixeira more than Chipper at this point. Chipper creeps chicks out, and has hit alot of homeruns against the Mets, but Teixeira is a tool.

*Lose to Jair Jurrjens, then knock Hudson out after three innings and Smoltz after four. Fine with me, anyway the Metsies can take 2 of 3 from the Braves is good.

*John Maine has all but abandoned his slider. He's been using mostly changeups as his secondary pitch. The results are about the same: solid, but he still walks too many batters and throws too many pitches to go further than the 6th inning.

*Figueroa has fallen back to Earth a bit, but the guy is still throwing good innings. And he grew up a Metropolitans fan. Just keep pitching him.

Overmanaging.

2008-04-25T18:41:00.018-04:00

Yesterday we talked about Girardi's micromanaging, today we'll talk about Willie's overmanaging. And Aaron Heilman.

The Mets have played 21 games. Heilman has pitched in 13 of them! This has been bad for many reasons. First, he's being abused like Joe Torre abuses the uniform burning Scott Proctor(poor Scott must have been excited to finally leave Torre, and then the Dodgers go out and get Torre! Proctor currently has 11 appearances already). Second, Heilman has basically been brutal at times. He's allowed four homeruns, 24 baserunners in 13 innings, and since he's almost always brought in to close games, he has really hurt the Mets in a few games. My professional scouting opinion (smiley face) is that Heilman relies on his changeup too much. I think the fastball is Heilman's best pitch, and what happened to the tight slider he was throwing in the first week of the season? That pitch was working but it's like he's forgotten all about it. Bring that back,.... again.

I give Willie the blame for last night's game. He took Ollie Perez out too early. In the 6th, Perez gives up two singles to start the inning, then makes a great play on a bunt, and follows it by getting a groundout. Two outs now, Milledge comes up to pinch hit, and Willie brings in Heilman. It's a tie game at this point, and Perez looks like he might get out of this himself. But for some reason, every time a starter gets in a little trouble in the 6th or 7th inning, or sometimes the 5th, Willie goes out and pulls him. When is he ever going to let the starting pitcher pitch in a crucial situation? Sometimes, the bullpen just needs to be spared. Sometimes a pitcher, like Ollie last night, might still have enough to finish another inning. Sometimes NOT making a move, is making a move.

*Castillo is already up to .273BA with a .360 OB% and 6 SB. Entonces, don't worry about Castillo.

But Mommy!....

2008-04-24T15:41:00.007-04:00

Yankee Mom, er, manager, Joe Girardi, has taken candy out of the Yankees' clubhouse. It's funny, really. The fact that professional baseball players are given candy bars in their lockerrooms completely fits with the childish image we have of them. Players are constantly begging for more money, asking for private jets, and whining when something doesn't quite go their way. Just like when these guys were spoiled kids begging for more allowance or more oreos. But unlike those of us that grew out of that and sometimes act like adults, most pro ballplayers haven't quite advanced that far. The fact that Girardi has to take their candy away from them because they are so spoiled that they can't control themselves around it, is hilarious, but not that surprizing. I hate going on some bullshit 'high horse' type rant here, but it is just so symptomatic of the culture of professional baseball, and America.

Does this mean Bobby "El Comedulce" Abreu needs a nickname change?

The selfishness doesn't elude the Mets' franchise either. The way these guys are coddled is shocking at times. Delgado finally got moved down in the lineup, from 5th to 6th last night, and it was treated like such a big deal. Everyone wondered how Delgado would feel. How is this going to effect the team? What the fuck!?!? The guy is washed up, bat him eighth, release him, something. How is it going to effect the team? The team will obviously be better without that hole in the lineup. And Castillo gets moved to eighth last week and Willie has to worry about how Castillo is going to feel about it? Of course he's not going to be happy about it, but fuck, get a few hits and you can bat second again. It's just a shame that once players sign big contracts, their status on the field is dictated by the contract, and not by their performance anymore.

Snakes and Clowns

2008-04-23T14:46:00.000-04:00

Simply put, Chris Russo is the least knowledgable 'sports personality' in the business. He is also afraid of snakes and clowns.

I actually watched some of the M&M show yesterday, and I had a headache after five minutes. Then, knowing that so many New Yorkers get their baseball opinions from these two morons, I got angry. These clowns are propagating that old, stodgy, meaningless, good-ole-boy baseball talk.

*Ryan Howard will most likely be the first player to strikeout over 200 times in one season. In fact, I think he is going to shatter his own record of 199Ks, and set the new mark somewhere around 230.

*Duaner Sanchez already looks a hundred times better than he did in his first appearance of the season. His velocity is increasing and his stuff looks sharp. I didn't expect this, but I'm happy about it for sure.

the little guy

2008-04-21T14:14:00.002-04:00

Leave Castillo alone. People are all over this guy. Why? He can get on base, he plays above average defense, he takes alot of pitches, and he can still steal bases. Yeah, his .226 average is looking a little low right now, but just a few two hit games from now and he'll be hitting .300. And .300 is what he hits every single year. Willie has already been giving him days off so that he can stay healthy all year.

Randolph has batted Castillo eighth a few times, and I think he fits in great in that slot. He has some speed, so when he gets on, he can be bunted around by the pitcher. His high OB% means he will also clear the pitcher spot pretty often. I still like him in the two hole though. Castillo is one of the few 'stereotypical two-hitters' that is actually a good fit for that spot, because he can bunt, run, take pitches, and most importantly, actually get on base himself. Either way, he's one of the players Mets fans should NOT be worried about.

Unless you're talking about the 4-year contract he got, that is worth discussing. But Castillo in 2008, I wouldn't worry about him.

*Johan Santana is a really good pitcher.

*David Wright is a really good hitter.

*Carlos Delgado is awful. I can't think of anything he does well right now. It's time to take notice Omar, the Blue Jays released 'The Big Skirt", you can release Delgado. You can do it Omar, you don't owe anyone anything.

Prima Donna

2008-04-18T19:34:00.008-04:00

Beltran sat out last night's game with a 'stiff neck'. When Cohen announced this during the game, Pops said to me, "From what?!?! Bowing after finally hitting a homerun last night?!?!". I keep trying to like Beltran, but he makes it difficult. How could he even let it be known that that's the reason he was sitting out?

*Willie Harris was playing LF for the Nats at one point last night, when Luis Castillo came up to bat. Harris positioned himself just behind the shortstop so that Luis would have trouble blooping a hit in there. But Luis just doesn't give a fuck. You want to play shallow? He'll hit it shallower. And he did, just barely getting it over the thirdbaseman for a basehit. Then the guy steals second somehow. I don't understand how he does it since he usually looks like his knees are about to collapse.

*In the 14 inning game last night, it ended up being Jorge Sosa outpitching Joel Hanrahan. Come on, that's funny. I'm glad I just went to sleep.

It's About Time

2008-04-17T12:26:00.006-04:00

I thought Carlos was going to sleep through the whole season.

*Supposedly Reyes will be back in full celebration mode too. Good. The idea that Met handshakes make the other teams try harder is retarded. And if celebrating makes Reyes feel good, and in turn play good, then it's all good. However, I do think Reyes wore down last year, and that was the cause of his late season slump. So, Willie should ease off Reyes about running out every damn groundball. If I'm the manager I'm telling Jose, if you chop a two-hopper to second in the eighth inning of a blowout, please, just jog to first.

The DL

2008-04-16T13:55:00.007-04:00

So, Duaner Sanchez is back. I'm not excited. Major shoulder surgeries, lost velocity, plus Carlos Muniz gets sent down. Sanchez was between 87-91mph with his fastball, and relied heavily on his changeup around 80mph. The changeup had tons of good sinking action, but the fastball looked very hittable. Sanchez threw only one breaking pitch last night, a curveball. So, he brought back the same repertoire he had in '06, just not as good(his fastball used to top out at 95mph). Which is what I thought would happen, you can't expect a guy to come back from multiple shoulder injuries and be the same. Metropolitan fans and their GM need to calm down on the Duaner Sanchez expectations.

Then they can all calm down about Orlando Hernandez, Pedro Martinez, and Moises Alou. There is always so much talk about what the Mets are going to have, and what they're going to do, just as soon as they get healthy. Hernandez should be asked to just leave the organization and be forgotten about. Then Pedro needs to have his hand held on his walk out to the mound and should be used college style as Friday night starter. He'll need six days of rest between starts. Moises will need to be a part-time player if/when he gets back. I just hate the talk about these guys. They aren't reliable, and never will be again. Yes, they are good when they are healthy. When Alou plays he should be hitting cleanup on this team. But it's completely unrealistic to think the Mets can rely on any of these players at any point in the season.

*Pelfrey looked good again. He's throwing a real heavy ball so far and the slider looked deadly. He battled through Ryan Zimmerman and Nick Johnson with the bases loaded in the third inning last night. Pelfrey got Zimmerman to pop up on one pitch. Then he K'd Johnson by throwing him five straight fastballs, the last two of which were swung at and missed.

The Judge, Nelson Figueroa

2008-04-14T12:23:00.002-04:00

I can't help but like guys that played D-III college baseball. Then, add in that this guy has played all over the world and I've got a full on man crush. Figueroa has gone from Brooklyn, to Brandeis University in the 'Nerdy Nine' conference, to MLB, to the Mexican League, to the Chinese Professional Baseball League, to Taiwan Series MVP, to the Metropolitans. During this time he's rehabbed a rotator cuff injury, designed 9/11 t-shirts, and can make a cell phone out of a beer can and some pine tar.

On the hill, Figueroa throws from a 3/4 arm slot. He doesn't have overpowering velocity, clocking in the upper-80s with his fastball. His command is good though, and his low arm angle gives his fastball decent movement. His secondary pitch is his curve, which gets good bite despite its slow velocity. Nelson also mixes in a slider, but it's a pretty weak pitch. He'll backdoor it to lefthanded hitters, which seems to fool them somehow. Figueroa has shown a changeup in the past, but I don't think he threw one Friday night.

Brewers series notes....

*Carlos Beltran is a good outfielder. He has a good reputation but I've always been skeptical. He ran down a couple balls this weekend that I didn't think he could get.

*David Wright doesn't look like a gold glove defender right now. He still has the same problem he's always had, he can't throw accurately. He can 'pick it' with anyone, but once his feet are set, I have no idea where the throw will end up. Delgado has become pretty good at coming off the bag to 'catch and tag' runners coming down line, and save Wright's ass.

*On Saturday, Ben Sheets just simply out pitched Johan Santana. Sheets throws one of the best curveballs in baseball, and the Mets just struggled against him.

*I like this Carlos Muniz guy. He doesn't have completely dominant velocity, but batters look like they have a hard time hitting him. And, he whipped out a great balk move to pick off a Brewer on Saturday.

*A lot has been made of Prince Fielder's vegetarian diet. If the guy doesn't want to eat meat, great, but I just hope he has some kind of clue about how to get the proper protein he needs in other ways. I also hope he knows that he can get meat from farms that don't torture their animals, if that's his reason for going veggie.

*Sometimes you're the hydrant, sometimes you're Gabe Kapler. The newest Met Killer came to town launching home runs off Johan Santana and Oliver Perez. Yikes. This guy was retired last year, and couldn't hit in his prime, whenever that was. I'll put the blame on the Mets' lefties though. Both pitches he homered on were supposed to be outside fastballs, but missed locations put them on the inner half.

*I'm done with Delgado. He can't be taking up the fifth spot in the batting order anymore. The only guy he's been able to get the bat around on was Jamie Moyer. He should be occupying the eight hole. Seriously. I wonder what that lineup would look like....

Reyes SS
Castillo 2B
Wright 3B
Church RF
Beltran CF
Pagan LF
Schneider C
Delgado 1B
Darling P

As you can see, I'm a fan of Ryan Church.

BIG PELF

2008-04-10T12:08:00.006-04:00

Hard sinking fastball(92-93mph), straight changeup(83-84mph), late-breaking slider(81-85mph). Mike Pelfrey's repertoire. I've never seen his stuff look that good. His fastball was really sinking and his slider actually looked like it had some bite on it. It was nothing like last year's flat slider that routinely got hammered. I still wish he'd bring back the big hook though.

*Ian Kennedy: sensitive to water. What? Talk about embarrassing for the Yankees. Joe Girardi was banking on a rainout last night, he started his bullpen and ended up using Kennedy in relief. "It was a great idea. Unfortunately we played through the hard stuff", Jason Giambi said, meaning yes, indeed, they were hoping for a rainout. No wonder they didn't score any runs, they weren't trying. Girardi had them all thinking the game would get called.

*Can the Mets just forget about Orlando Hernandez now? He's bringing the organization down. The continued bad news he brings is only hurting. People talk about him like he's an important part of the team, but the best thing he does is create hilarious headlines like, "Hernandez to wear a boot for two weeks".

*I think the Phillies have the same number of holes in their squad to match the Metsies. Yikes. Looked like they were playing under a tent last night. Get it, cuz a circus is performed under a tent?.... Ugh.

*Braves closer Rafael Soriano was placed on the DL with an elbow injury. I guess that explains his rapid loss of velocity in Sunday's game.

Nine in a row

2008-04-09T16:09:00.014-04:00

This guy cannot keep getting important appearances. I want to read this in the paper.... "Scott Schoeneweis placed on waivers for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release". Sosa can go too.

The bullpen was supposed to be a Mets strength. I suppose it still is when Wagner, Feliciano, and Heilman are pitching. I still like Joe Smith and his new delivery too. And this Muniz kid doesn't look like he has lights-out stuff, but he's put up good minor league numbers as a closer. I'd rather try someone with potential than keep sending out the same two bozos (Sosa and Schoeneweis).

*Philly has now beaten the Metsies nine straight times. Pelfrey goes tonight to shut that streak down.

*The Mets suddenly have many glaring holes in their team, and I'm not sure how they're going to cover them up.

*Keith had an embarrassing moment in the booth yesterday when he confused So Taguchi with Tadahito Iguchi. It was bizarre, and put both Cohen and Darling into a stunned silence.

*Citi Field standing over Shea Stadium is a little strange. First it looked fucking awesome, then I felt sad that Shea will be imploded, and then the Mets started losing and I didn't care either way anymore. It's a better view than the parking lot was.

MET KILLER

2008-04-07T20:02:00.021-04:00

Teixeira reached base four times on Saturday, scoring two runs. Then he iced Sunday's game with a two-run jack in the top of the 9th and a diving stop down the line in the bottom of the inning. He was scooping throws from centerfield to doubleup guys, and finished the short series off with his ultimately dorky straight-armed fist into the air after the last out.

Teixeira is just a complete tool box. And yes, that's an '84 Donruss Don Mattingly double shortprint special-rookie platinum card in his hand.

With Chipper, and now Teixeira, the Mets may never beat the Braves ever again.

*During Saturday's Fox broadcast, McCarver was talking about how the rest of the league didn't like how Jose Reyes and the Mets were doing all their handshakes and 'showboating' the last couple years. He claimed that doing that hurt the Mets by giving the other teams extra motivation. So Joe Buck, realizing how ridiculous this sounded, said in the most sarcastic tone he could, "so they're gonna try harder because they don't like your handshakes?". It was a rare moment of hilarity from Buck.

*Ah, spring training. He was so good in spring training. The Mets tried to battle back for Maine, even posting some runs off Hudson. I was impressed until Jorge Sosa got involved and the game was over quickly.

*Braves closer Rafael Soriano lost all his velocity on Sunday after his 20th pitch. He went from consistently throwing 94 or 95mph to 93, 92, 92, 91, 92. His last pitch that Schneider ripped down the line was a 91mph fastball. My point is, maybe in the future, if you make this guy work a little, he'll become very hittable, very quickly.

*Carlos Beltran did a reenactment of the final out of the 2006 NLCS on Sunday. He just stood in the box, take, take, take, take against Soriano on some very hittable pitches until he got punched out.

Ollie

2008-04-04T09:54:00.011-04:00

This guy was awesome. Perez pounded the strike zone, hit the corners, varied his sliders, and even used a few splitters. His velocity was back up a touch from the end of last year too, if I remember right. Very impressive.

Looking back, last year Perez did the same thing in his first start too, dominating Atlanta. But then in his second start he had that awful seven walk outing against Philly and couldn't get out of the 3rd inning. I don't think that will happen again this year. Perez had a good season in '07 and Mr. Peterson, with that creepy look he gives his pitchers, might have helped. Ollie did see his walks increase and his velocity dropped (if I remember correctly) around mid-August. Is it possible he tired a bit? Sure. He's still only 26, hard to believe, and has had quite an up and down career so far.

*Schwenny prediction update: my AL Cy Young candidate didn't get the win against the Yankees on opening night thanks to the 315ft pop-up that the "Melk-Man delivered", just barely getting over the Jeffrey Maier fence in Yankee Stadium rightfield. That ball wouldn't have gotten out of any high school field I've ever seen and I'm pretty sure that Mets-Thing contributor 'Turn a Quick Two' could throw a baseball further. But, you know, it's the 'House that Ruth Built', built specifically so he could hit Home Runs easier.

*If you look up Jeffrey Maier on wikipedia (like I just did so I could spell his name right), on the bottom of the page it says, "See also: Steve Bartman". Fucking Bartman. Strange how these two fan interference guys are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. I wonder if the Marlins fans feel the same way about Bartman that the Yankees fans feel about Maier? Oh yeah, the Marlins don't have any fans.

*Dan Uggla was back to his old form at secondbase Wednesday night.

*Ryan Church is a real man. He will throw you out on a line from the fence and then drop a bomb on you in the next inning. He also recorded his own rap album after the game.

*David Wright can mash. And Carlos Delgado, well, he can't anymore.

SEASON'S OVER.

2008-04-02T10:14:00.016-04:00

I had a bad feeling about Pedro's start last night, but I didn't think he would die. SNY gave a dugout shot of Pedro awaiting the bottom of the 1st, and he looked wide-eyed and scared. It was strange. Pedro isn't supposed to be scared or nervous. He's the 4'-10" guy that will throw a fastball at your shoulder blades and then grab your coaches head and throw him to the ground. But Pedro took the mound and he couldn't command any of his pitches. The velocity was what we expected (85-88mph fastball), but he was all over the place. The Mets were down 2-0 in two batters and ten pitches. The nervous, dazed look never left his face until the pained look of injury replaced it.

What this means though, is that Mike Pelfrey is going to pitch a lot. Yikes. The guy still doesn't have any kind of breaking pitch. He was famed for a 12-6 curveball in college, but I guess he lost that pitch somewhere in his signing bonus. I don't even know what that means, but he needs to start missing some bats, getting some outs, and throwing some innings.

This also means John Maine is going to have to live up to my Cy Young prediction.

*Luis Castillo is funny. Sometimes the guy looks like he can barely move. He'll make routine plays in the field and then very slowly walk back to his position to recover. But then he'll get up to bat, lay down bunt basehits and steal bases.

*I don't miss LoDuca at all.

*Joe Smith has changed his delivery to a more upright throwing motion. His pitches, especially the slider, was moving a lot more.

*Heilman has added a cutter. The pitch worked well and Heilman seems to have quickly fell in love with it. In his second inning(the 9th), Heilman threw only two fastballs. He used mostly cutters, and a few changeups. He'll use the pitch inside on LHs and away to RHs.

*Keith Hernandez could barely finish getting the words, "you can get hurt upstairs with a changeup", out of his mouth before Wise did exactly that and ended the game.

*There is still nothing wrong with cheerleaders in baseball....

Metropolitans vs. Mermaids

2008-03-31T23:59:00.010-04:00

"You don't have to be great when you're that good." That's what Marlon Anderson said about Johan Santana today.

Johan Santana is still filthy. I was a little nervous because the Metsies have had a history of acquiring bums, but he still has that same good stuff. Santana's changeup might be the best pitch in the game, even though he allowed a HR on it today. The HR never should have happened either. He walked Hanley Ramirez to lead off the fourth inning after getting a no call on a two-strike fastball that had Ramirez starting towards the dugout and Schneider about to throw it around. Two pitches later Ramirez walked, the first Marlin baserunner of the game. Santana got the next two batters on weak outs, before leaving a changeup high and in to Willingham, who parked it. Willingham never should have batted that inning.

Other notes from opening day:

*Carlos Delgado looked pathetic. Two soft bloopers to SS, a sorry-ass groundball, and a walk. I don't think he can get the bat started anymore. He's got too many hitches and twitches and weird shit going on before he starts the bat forward.

*I hate to say it, because I don't want to sound like a baseball good 'ole boy, but Hanley Ramirez was living up to his 'laziness'. First he failed to cover second on a bunt, and then failed to back up third on a wild pitch, on consecutive pitches.

*Jorge Sosa is going to throw 97% sliders this year.

*Dan Uggla didn't look so bad at 2B. A good example of why you don't make judgements after watching one game.

*Jose Reyes got 'caught stealing' today. Only in the umpire's eyes.

*Church hit the ball hard three times today. He's going to be real solid and should be batting ahead of Delgado.

*There is nothing wrong with cheerleaders in baseball....