8/15 – The Mets injury bug pretty much came full circle with David Wright’s beaning. Always scary when you see one of those incidents happen. But it’s good to hear he’s on the mend. I think Johan Santana got a little carried away with hitting Bengie Molina. Didn’t he learn his lesson when Pablo Sandoval homered after his brush-back pitch? Needless to say, Molina got his revenge in the 10th inning; homering for a 5-4 Giant win.
8/16 – Sunday afternoon’s Mike Pelfrey/Jonathan Sanchez pitchers duel felt like a tightly-contested playoff game. The unlikely hero was Luis Castillo; getting the Mets on the board with a 2-run homer. Pelfrey was sharp, and was backed by good defense. Sanchez had his typical control problems (walking four in seven innings), but pitched well for a no-decision.
8/17 – Monday night turned out to be a laugher with San Francisco busting out for a 10-1 victory. As expected, Livan Hernandez had another tough outing, but the Giants were seriously due for an offensive explosion. This was a game they needed. They were focused, ran the bases well, and played solid defense. Joe Martinez pitched well over five, giving up just one run. Despite their struggles on the road, hopefully this win (with everyone contributing) will carry over to a successful road trip in Cincinnati.
*I said I’d take two. So after this weekend, I’m a satisfied Giants fan.
No CommentsHow about that high-powered Giant offense, huh?
Last night was a typical scenario of the games I attend between the Mets and the Giants. Can my team just score one measly run? Can I get a get a Pablo Sandoval home run? –My God, I’ll take a well-struck double. Can Barry Zito actually earn his $120+ million? No, no and no.
All I get is four lousy hits that barely trickled past the infield. Bobby Parnell pitches like Sandy Koufax, with his fastball routinely in the 94-95 MPH range. And once once, the Mets –wearing their cream-colored 1908 NY Giants throwback uniforms– stuck it to the modern day version 3-0.
The game pretty much ended by the time I sat down, with Angel Pagan leading off with a home run. However, Parnell deserves a lot of credit. He was impressive; throwing six scoreless innings, striking out seven and walking none. I fully expect Johan Santana to pick up where the Mets left off; extending the Giants’ scoreless innings streak to a full eighteen.
No CommentsBeware, Mets fans. The San Francisco Giants are in town.
Worried yet? You shouldn’t be.
Since the All-Star break, the Giants are slowly but surely being exposed an an average team at best. While their starting pitching and bullpen rank among the best in the NL, their offense remains painfully weak and inconsistent. Let’s be honest, the only reason the Giants are even in contention is because of the stellar efforts of Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. Without them, the Giants are easily a sub-.500 team.
Yes, Pablo Sandoval is having a fine sophomore season. But when Bengie Molina’s your clean-up hitter, your offense has serious issues. I liked the trade with Cleveland for Ryan Garko. But who knows if his power-hitting potential will ever come to fruition in a pitcher-friendly park like AT&T.
I have more reservations about the trade for Freddie Sanchez. Okay, the Giants got a quality-fielding second baseman with a solid OBP. He’s also injury-prone, and has little pop. Long term, I think Pittsburgh may have gotten the better end of the deal, especially if top prospect Tim Alderson lives up to expectations.
So Met fans, you dodged a bullet with Tim Lincecum being unavailable for this series. (Shame, I would’ve liked to have seen him at Citi.) Which is why I think the Mets will take 3 out of 4.
The marquee match-up is Saturday with Johan Santana facing Matt Cain. Considering the Giants’ offense, would anybody be surprised if Santana threw a 2-hit gem of a shutout?
The Giants best bet is probably Monday with Livan Hernandez against Joe Martinez. Livan’s struggled of late, and Martinez is an unknown factor against the Mets line-up. And the Mets often have trouble against starters they’ve never seen before.
Am I overreacting a bit as a Giant fan? Maybe. But the Giants poor road record speaks for itself. And I think it’s going to come back to bite them in the end. If they’re going to compete with the Rockies and the Cubs for the Wild Card, they have to play better away from the bay. Starting now.
No CommentsI am unsurprised that the NEW YORK media and NEW YORK Yankees fans are hypocritically claiming that the Red Sox 2004 and 2007 WS championships are tainted because Ortiz and Ramirez are on a list for having apparently tested positive for a PED in 2003. Clemens and Pettitte are also identified as PED users in the infamous Mitchell report, but I have not read or heard anything from these same bastions of professional and personal ethics about the Yankees four WS championships from 1996-2000 being similarly tainted. What about the Yankees dramatic 2003 ALCS triumph with a team that also included Giambi and Sheffield, yet two other players linked to PED’s? Is the Yankees win on Fri (Sat morning) in the bottom of the 15th inning on Rodriquez’ walk off 2-run homer tainted, too, since he is another admitted PED abuser? On what level and at what point does the invalidation of success end?
I am no less unsurprised that the NEW YORK Times released Ortiz’ name in the week leading up to this 4-game series in NEW YORK in order to create maximum damaging, distracting impact, compelling Ortiz to hold a press conference to address the matter while in NEW YORK. Of course, NEW YORKers have only the noblest intentions in undermining the credibility of Boston players and postseason triumphs, and the timing is mere coincidence. No hint of an agenda there — just more solid investigative journalism through unidenitified sources about purportedly sealed federal government records of supposedly anonymous drug testing results. Make no mistake, Boston media would be no less disingenuous were the roles reversed.
Let’s not be naïve. There are still nearly 100 more names unreleased, and it is not unreasonable to imagine that many PED’s were undetected. Every game for the last 15 years is tainted by the spectre of cheating through PED’s. There are few innocents in this ugliness. Ever since the McGuire-Sosa HR chase of 1998 in particular, the players, owners, MLB corporate, media, and fans alike have facilitated an environment conducive to the condoning and flourishing of PED’s. Cheating has improved interest and business: fantasy leagues, sports gambling, media coverage, talk radio, and viral blogging have never been more prosperous. It’s all demoralizing, so let’s cease all moralizing contrivance.
Like it or not, Jose Canseco has been the most accurate and truthful high profile public figure about this issue, however arguable the honorableness of his intentions. Like it or not, the problem is possibly and probably more a case of the many spoiling it for the few rather than vice versa. Like it or not, PED’s are here to stay because presumably we collectively like it and want it this way. Like it or not, the games on and off the field will continue.
No CommentsAnother day, another injury. I really don’t know what to say anymore. The only explanation I can come to is that there is a big ol’ ruthless curse on the Mets. I don’t know who put the hex on the team or for what reason … but there is definitely something going on. How else do you explain the whole team, their backups and the backups backups getting hurt all at once. How else do you explain Luis Castillo falling down the dugout stairs and then Jonathan Neise “straining his hamstring” on a warm up pitch, after doing a split at first base? The medical staff probably really is that bad, but I think on top of all the mismanagement, someone or something put the big kabosh on the Mets.
Demon: What an excellent day for an exorcism.
Father Damien Karras: You would like that?
Demon: Intensely.
Maybe it’s because the Wilpon’s totally ignored the Mets history in their new “Ebbets Field”. Maybe they pissed off the baseball Gods. Maybe it’s that rumored Philly fan who worked on constructing the new ballpark, and supposedly buried 5 Phillies jerseys around the building. Maybe Tony Bernazard stole Jobu’s rum. I don’t know. What i do know is we need an exorcism. Bring in a Priest, bring in a Rabbi, bring in a Witch Doctor … I don’t care … bring in the Ghost Hunters TAPS. Just get someone in here to get rid of the curse.
And while they’re at it … it would be a good idea to put some Mets History inside the Mets ballpark. That would, if nothing else, rid the building of a lot of negativity.
Are you listening, Mr. Wilpon? Probably not. That’s also a big part of the problem.
1 CommentLast night, Luis Castillo proved that the Mets are truly cursed. Just when you thought all the injuries were over with, Castillo showed that there were new and better ways for players to go on the disabled list. In fact, he didn’t even hurt himself on the field. Luis fell down the stairs while stepping into the dugout and sprained his ankle. 16 players have hit the DL for the Mets this season, some more than once, and now we can make that number 17 as Castillo is limping once again. Well at least, with a limp, we’ll all recognize Luis once again.
Later on today the Mets will announce that Castillo is “Day to Day” and that the ankle injury is only a slight sprain. A few days rest will do him just fine and he’ll be back in the lineup by the end of the weekend. By this weekend, Castillo will re-aggravate the ankle while doing running drills. He will then see the team doctor again, get it looked at, and we’ll be told that he’ll need another day or two. The Mets will then take Castillo on a flight for the road trip, only to send him back to New York a day later when they realize he can not walk off the airplane. When he gets back to New York he will be sent for an MRI, finally, only to find out that he’s had a broken ankle the whole time and should have been put on the DL. Soon after, Castillo will be seen sitting in the dugout in a full body cast. The Mets will tell us that the body cast is not related to the initial ankle injury and we’ll all wonder what the hell they are doing. The media will ask the Mets questions about their medical staff and how they misdiagnosed the injury, and the Mets will insist that they were correct in their initial evaluation, simply that Luis Castillo was pregnant and was suffering from nothing more than swollen ankles.
That is the Mets front office and medical staff in a nutshell.
Here is a nice video that I found on youtube. It’s from Family Guy and portrays Bobby McFerrin falling down a flight of stairs. I just pretend that it’s Luis Castillo and it makes me laugh. Try it … it will help you forget the absolute disaster that the 2009 Mets have been, even if it’s only for a little while.
Yes, I am aware that the video is 10 minutes long. It’s a 10 minute long video of a guy falling down the stairs that is played in a repetitive loop. What’s funny and sad at the same time about this, is I find more entertainment in watching this 10 minute video of Bobby McFerrin falling down an endless staircase than it is watching the Mets. It actually makes a pretty good beat if you listen to it. Maybe the Mets should make this the 2009 theme song. In fact, there is even more irony to this.
The Mets, as a team, have been seemingly falling down this endless staircase for a couple of years now. Everything about the franchise has been tumbling further and further down the stairs, from the ownership all the way down to the feelings of even the most optimistic fans. Players have been getting battered and bruised, fans have been getting angry and numb, the front office has been falling on its face, and the owners have been getting swindled.
The basement is near. As the tumbling continues and the band aids continue to do a bad job in trying to cover up the gaping wound that is the Mets, the team will start to enter National territory. Yes, the competition is on to see who will lose more games … the Mets or the Nationals. I wonder if the Wilpons even notice. Maybe they’ll give Omar another extension.
2 CommentsThe trade deadline has arrived. What that means is that it’s the time of the year when some smart moves are made by some teams along with a whole lot of bonehead moves by the rest. With the Mets losing the second game of the double header tonight, they now sit about 6 games out of the Wild Card and about 10 games out of the division. The Mets have a couple of good prospects at the lower levels, but overall, a system that is far from stacked with talent.
Translation: There is no quick fix.
The economic landscape now dictates a high priority on prospects and young players with minimal service time, to keep cost down, even for big market teams. The Mets have to hold onto as much as they can, in terms of their farm system, or we as Mets fans will be forced to repeat the same problems year after year. Prospects like Fernando Martinez, Jon Neise, Brad Holt, Jennry Mejia, Ike Davis and Wilmer Flores are very valuable to lots of teams … and those teams will try to swipe them for a player making lots of money. The Mets need to be sensible. We as fans need to stop being so impatient, stop with the instant gratification, and start looking at the big picture.
Roy Halladay would be really nice, but at what cost? When the Mets have to pay him Santana money to keep him on the team in a year, after giving up 4 quality arms for him, will it be worth it? Will he guarantee anything? Probably not. Same goes for Victor Martinez or any other high priority player that is being shopped right now. Besides, there is a guy named John Lackey out there next year, who can be signed for money only.
To add to that, Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus wrote this concerning Carlos Beltran:
Carlos Beltran is coming back. That was always the plan, but how he’s going about it speaks a lot to where he might be in the future. Beltran has decided to accelerate the pace of his rehab, hoping to come back towards mid-August, matching up closely with Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, and Billy Wagner. That’s an infusion of talent no team will be able to match with trades, but it might also be too little, too late as the Mets continue to slip. Beltran made the informed decision based on the near certainty that he will need microfracture surgery and could miss much, if not all, of the 2010 season. He’ll do everything he can to avoid it, but that’s the worst case scenario and he’s willing to give it a go. His success will be based on pain tolerance and management, as well as Jerry Manuel’s ability to spot him in and out. It’s unlikely he can play CF, though no one has said much about where he will actually play. It’s a calculated risk that Beltran and the Mets are taking. Given the success – or lack thereof – with microfracture in MLB, it’s a big risk and perhaps Beltran’s last hurrah.
This is what makes Fernando Martinez invaluable right now. The Mets simply can not afford to trade him, since he’ll be the only major league ready outfielder who can cover center field for Beltran. If Beltran is out next year and there is no Fernando Martinez, I really don’t want to live with the likes of Angel Pagan or Jeremy Reed playing center full time. There will be no other money to pay another free agent for that position, since any trade would dictate that a player acquired, like Halladay, would be due that money. There will also be lots of other holes to fill. So that’s the dilemma. The Mets should just accept where they are in the standings and not do anything too risky.
Make a smart trade.
The Mets should look to do a trade before the deadline ends. They should try hard to move Luis Castillo. His value is as high as it can be right now, and won’t get any higher. This is a chance to move his contract and the Mets should try to do it. They can even net a mid level prospect or two for him. Yes, he’s helping the team win right now, but how long will that last? Is Luis Castillo really a difference maker? I don’t think he is. The Mets would be better off to part ways with him if they can get another team to pick up the remaining contract, and actually get something in return worth more than a bag of balls.
They have players to fill in at second base, and when Delgado returns, Daniel Murphy can slide over to second base full time. Yes, Daniel Murphy. The same Daniel Murphy that no one had any confidence in to play first base. The same Daniel Murphy who’s playing first base with the comfort of a veteran. Murph has shown enough now that he can play the infield, and he is an aggressive first baseman with good aptitude. That will translate perfectly at 2nd base, not to mention his bat, which is more of a 2nd baseman’s bat.
You can then figure out what to do at 1st base next season. The Mets can either fill it from within, sign a free agent, or move Murphy back to first when Delgado is gone, if they choose to sign Orlando Hudson at 2nd base.
The moral of the story is … be conservative, be smart.
By the way, the Mets lost that 2nd game of the double header tonight, because of this:
So for all you sunshiners who are banking on a miracle, you can blame it on Charlie Samuels for dressing our Mets in these ugly, charred looking jersey’s that look like they came out of a rhinoceros’ burning asshole. The Mets equipment manager seems to think they bring good luck and thought it was a good idea to take the white jersey’s and blue caps away from the team after they won 3 straight at home with them.
Well tonight they lost with the disgusting black. I hope he took note. Rant over.
1 CommentOmar Minaya attempted to apologize by speaking to the media a few minutes ago. Here is a video recap of what he said:
1 Comment4 in a row… the team on the field has done a good job the past week. Still not convinced but I thought this was relevant…
1 CommentI hate snakes!
Omar Minaya accomplished something today. He did something very difficult. He completely made the Mets front office look even worse than they already do. When the GM of your favorite baseball team basically reveals his scales and spits his venom, in a live press conference, at a reporter who simply stated facts, you know you’ve entered the Twilight Zone.
As if “13 investigations” about a shirtless bully carrying himself as if he had a hot poker permanently lodged in his sphincter were not enough. This was a punk who was in charge of player development, yet the only developments worth talking about on his resume are the developments that arose from his hot temper and behavioral problems. There was reason enough to fire Tony Bernazard for his ineptitude in “player development” alone, but his ongoing attitude disorder was what ultimately did him in. Terrible Tony ripped off his shirt and tried to fight players on the AA team. He chastised an intern publicly, having a meltdown and screaming expletives because someone was sitting in his seat behind home plate at the Mets home ballpark. He had a heated exchange with Francisco Rodriguez and also had words with Johan Santana on the team bus. This, mind you happened mostly in the past month. That’s not counting the “bus driver incident” that happened a while ago. Who know what else this guy did. Curious how Omar needed “13 investigations”, after the fact, when all this has been going on for quite some time.
Omar sent the fans a stupid letter today. One quote from this letter illustrates his incompetence:
“Prior to a series of articles published in the media, our Baseball Operations and Human Resources departments had begun looking into several matters involving Tony. Once those reports became public, we accelerated our investigation.”
OK, so what he did right there was openly admit that Baseball Operations and Human Resources had already been aware of Terrible Tony’s bizarre behavior. The were already looking into it, yet Omar needed to investigate it by using the word investigate 13 times in 2 minutes, only because Adam Rubin reported it.
Here is another nice quote from Omar, in his letter:
“Personnel decisions are never easy. And one can’t make them without giving it a lot of thought. It’s even harder when you know someone as I do Tony. Tony and I go back a long time.”
It is a horrible way to run an organization when you surround yourself with your cronies. Omar has shown a pattern in his time here, that shows he’d rather hire his buddies than hire smart baseball people. He’d rather run the farm system into the ground, simply to have his punk pal running around like a mad man. He’d rather hand out stupid contracts to players he’s had a relationship with in the past, even if it hurts the performance of the team long term. Worst of all, as he showed his true colors today, Omar would rather stick his neck into the guillotine and carry on like a paranoid child because he was forced to fire his unqualified friend, who deserved to be fired.
For Omar Minaya to accuse a newspaper reporter of trying to tear down Terrible Tony in an attempt to take his job, in the middle of a live press conference, when he was supposed to be ridding the air of all the scandal and negativity, it just shows the level of class that Omar possesses. None. Zero. Zilch. Omar Minaya is a complete embarrassment. That embarrassment is even worse than the product he’s constructed and put on the field the last 2 1/2 seasons.
Adam Rubin reported facts that were proven to be true. Omar Minaya knew those facts to be true and that is why he had to fire his pal, yet he went on a ridiculous offensive against Rubin. Maybe he was dealing with that “eye for an eye” mentality or maybe he’s just as big a buffoon as I think he is. Either way, it’s sad that this is the guy who is running our baseball team. This is not the way an executive should carry himself and this is not the way the GM of a Major League baseball team should handle public relations. This is a public relations nightmare for the Mets and Omar created all of it. If I can give him credit for something, it would be for staging the best drama on television. Drama is never good for baseball teams, though.
Omar Minaya is completely unprofessional. I hate snakes!
To make matters worse, Jeff Wilpon, crawled out of the shadows of the circus today and spoke to the public. He did so with Omar Minaya at his side and basically threw Minaya under the bus. Wilpon stated in so many words that Rubin did nothing wrong and had no problem with him. Omar then spoke a few seconds after and his words were comical. “I still stand by what I said, I just regret doing so in that forum”. He’s a complete idiot. His boss threw him under the bus while standing next to him and he was completely oblivious to it.
Omar Minaya should never speak again in front of a camera and he should never work another day as the GM of the New York Mets. He has done a bad job both on and off the field. Hopefully that moronic extension given to him does not dictate him staying on any longer and causing more chaos in the organization.
One thing is for sure. Omar started an all out war with the media today, and I don’t think he’ll survive it because he simply can’t win that war. He brought this all on his own head, so the outcome will be deserving. Let the slithering commence.
If only we had Indiana Jones to come to the rescue.
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