clueless

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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.