The Year Is Coming (maybe....)

I'm Getting tired of being right all the time...

2009-09-14T01:06:00.003-04:00

Once again, as has happened several times in bizarre circumstances on this site, I called it. I said Pedro going to the Phils could only end one way: him being healthy and dominant for them, and helping them to ultimately eliminate the Mets once again from the playoffs. What happened tonight? Well, Pedro, who is undefeated since joining the Phillies, absolutely dominated the Mets for 8 shutout innings in the game that officially eliminated the Mets from playoff contention. Now, obviously, the Mets haven't had a realistic hope for the playoffs in months, but really, how else could this season end but being officially eliminated by Pedro? Still think Pedro's not a capable pitcher anymore, Jerry Manuel? Great job. It's alright, though. You and Omar have job security. What an organization!

....by the way, as some of you may know, I'm also a Detroit Lions fan, so as the Mets officially had the nail driven in their coffin for 2009, the Lions kicked off another massochistic season today by being annihilated by the New Orleans Saints. Something tells me that football season won't be cheering me up much....

A Winning Streak? What is this?

2009-07-27T22:15:00.005-04:00

So, the Mets have now won 3 in a row against legitimate baseball teams (the Astros and Rockies). And tonight they played very good fundamental baseball, including a successful sacrifice bunt by Daniel Murphy (Unbelievable!). It was all capped off by a pinch-hit grandslam by Fernando Tatis in the 8th. I'll admit, I was furious when Jerry sent Tatis out there in place of Corey Sullivan (who already had an RBI sac fly earlier in the game). To be fair, Tatis has given no reason for fans to be confident in him in that spot -- grounding into a double play in one out of every 10 at bats this year. But he came through. And the Mets are on a winning streak. And Tony Bernazard was finally fired today. All positive stuff.

If only Omar didn't blow the day by creating more bad press for the Mets... At least the consensus seems to be that the end is coming for Minaya, as well. After all, his two big hires since gaining full autonomy (Bernazard and Willie Randolph) are both gone now. No more scapegoats left, unless he buys a bit more time for himself by firing Manuel (who probably should be terminated anyway).

WTF?!

2009-07-20T20:00:00.010-04:00

http://nybaseballdigest.com/?p=12974

According to the very reliable Jon Heyman, the Blue Jays offered Roy Halladay -- the best pitcher in the game -- to the Mets for Fernando Martinez, Bobby Parnell, Jon Niese, and minor league SS Ruben Tejada. Omar Minaya, in his infinite wisdom, turned down this deal.

Of course. Why would Mets fans ever want Roy Halladay instead of those 4 guys? F-Mart failed in his call-up this year and is now injured, Parnell has clearly worn out after an initial good start (and has no quality second pitch), Niese projects to be at best a #3 starter, and unless we plan to give up Jose Reyes in a deal, Ruben Tejada's value to the franchise is as trade bait. We could have Santana and Halladay as 1-2 in our rotation, but why would we want that when we already have Ollie Perez? Perez is all we need. Just like Randy Wolf on the cheap wasn't necessary over the off-season because we had Livan Hernandez and Freddy Garcia. Makes perfect sense...

This is exactly what we did with Lastings Milledge. We held onto that guy until his trade value was a small fraction of what it once was. There was a time when the Astros offered us Roy Oswalt for Milledge -- straight up. And we turned that down. Now, we turn down Halladay to hold on to Fernando Martinez. F-Mart had better become a superstar, and Jon Niese better develop into a consistent 15-wins-a-year-pitcher, and I don't know much about Ruben Tejada, but if he doesn't produce big returns for us I'll always hate him now. The Blue Jays offered Halladay TO US! And Minaya says no. What is the plan here?! Can't wait 'til Halladay goes to the Phils and beats us 5 times next year as we fans all suffer again.

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**Update**
It's now being reported that the Halladay story was bogus. But even so, I wouldn't put it past Omar Minaya to turn down such a deal if it was offered. That's what makes this bogus story so incredible: that it seemed completely possible. This wasn't like the Curious Case of Sidd Finch.

This can only end one way....

2009-07-14T20:56:00.003-04:00

Two years ago, as part of the epic collapse of the Mets, Pedro Martinez started a game against the Phillies in which he blew an early 7-0 lead in a game the Mets eventually lost. Remember, the Mets eventually lost the division to the Phils by a game. Now, that same Pedro Martinez has signed a one-year deal with those same Phillies. What does this mean for the Mets? If history is any lesson (and I am a history major, so I sure hope it is), we know that Pedro will both stay healthy all year (which he never did for the Mets) AND be absolutely dominant (or at least he will be in games he starts against the Mets). Can't wait to see this one play out. And anybody who thinks that this time it could be different, remember that the Mets are throwing a minor-league quality lineup out there every day.

Officially giving up

2009-07-10T18:19:00.005-04:00

The Mets desperately have needed to make a trade for the past several weeks. Today, they made one. They sent Ryan Church to the Braves for Jeff "Strike Three" Francoeur. Yes, the Mets made a trade with the BRAVES! WTF!!!! Another right-handed hitter who strikes out constantly and hasn't put up good numbers in a couple years. And we give up our best fielder and one of our few legitimate hitters. And we do it in a trade that will help a rival that's only half a game ahead of us in the standings. Here's the rest of my expert commentary:

#$)&#)$#&)$#@)#@&#@&() V&*@ Minaya &*()RE#*()$#&)$#@#^)#^*@*^&#) Jerry Manuel &*()#$&)$#&)#( Shake Shack )(*&#$&#(&$(&(*&*(&*( strikeouts. If Jeff Francoeur doesn't hit 25 homers the rest of the year, I want Minaya and Jerry Manuel not only fired, but also tarred and feathered. Let's hear Jerry Manuel try to claim he didn't have a personal hatred of Ryan Church all along now. What was the reason for it? The quickest explanation may not hold much weight (Church is white) since Francouer is too. But I'm certainly not abandoning that theory; after all, why did Daniel Murphy not play last night after a big night on Wednesday? Manuel said he wants to get Tatis in a rhythm. How f*cking long are we gonna wait for that? What happened to "if you produce, you'll stay in the lineup"? Murphy was producing, and he was benched in favor of the Hispanic player who's leading the world in GIDP's per at-bat. Church was productive on the last road-trip, and now he's gone. When Francouer strikes out in each of his first 15 at-bats, he'll be benched in favor of whoever the next Emil Brown is to come to town. Can't wait to see who..... And sticking with the theory: who did we remove from the rotation to make room for the returning Ollie Perez? Not journeyman Fernando Nieve, but rather veteran expensive starter Tim Redding. Please explain.

I'd love to believe the Mets can still win the division, but don't believe it. I can't root against Ryan Church even in Atlanta; I'm a fan of players. But I officially give up on Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya. I just want them gone.

Fossum File

2009-07-02T18:49:00.004-04:00

It's been a long time since I've posted a Fossum File. My bad. The state of the Mets has just depressed me far too much to speak. However, here's the update: Fossum is once again available. After pitching very well for a few weeks at Scranton, Fossum used an out in his contract and opted for free agency. Will the Mets pick him back up? Very unlikely. But where will his great, epic story take him next? I already need to add a couple more verses to the tribute song.

Two straight Met wins, but...

2009-07-02T18:45:00.002-04:00

Yes, the Mets have now won two in a row. However, I'd rather write about this topic:

The Mets have signed the 16 year old son of former all-star reliever Ugueth Urbina. He will receive a signing bonus of $1 million +. He reportedly has a fastball in the high 80s and a decent curve.

However, the only comment I have is this:

I'll take it, as long as he's not a lunatic like his dad. I'd like him to light the league on fire someday, rather than literally lighting people on fire (and I hope no machetes were involved in the signing bonus).

I hope you get to hear about this from your cell, Ugueth. But I sure hope the signing bonus isn't used to bail you out (or bribe the guards, or whatever is done in Venezuela).

A petition to the Mets management

2009-06-30T23:22:00.006-04:00

To: The Wilpons and Omar Minaya
Re: The remainder of the 2009 MLB Season

We, the long-suffering fans of the New York Mets franchise, implore you to simply forfeit the remainder of the 2009 season and begin preparing for 2010. The injury rate of Mets starters this year may otherwise soon be matched by the rate at which Mets fans are committed to insane asylums or plunging from skyscrapers (or from the top of Shake Shack, if nothing else). The Mets players all require time to heal their physical ailments (and also some time to maybe watch instructional videos on baseball...), and we fans require at least a full year to recover emotionally and mentally. Many of us have endured the collapses of the last two years -- as well as the choking in the 2006 NLCS -- and continued to root unconditionally for the Mets with all our hearts. However, so far this year, we have been forced to suffer through losses due to a dropped fly ball in left field by Murphy, a miss of 3rd base by Ryan Church (followed by a comedy of errors in the field), a dropped pop-up in the 9th inning by Castillo against the hated Yankees, multiple blow-out games against those same Yankees, a bases-loaded walk to Mariano Rivera to give those same Yankees an insurance run, and Fernando Martinez falling down on a fly ball followed by a 4-run double by Ryan Braun. And that is only the minimum list. Several other losses have been nearly as devastating to us devoted fans. Therefore, for the welfare of all those involved, we urge you to forfeit the remainder of the 2009 Major League Baseball season. After all, it looks like we may never win another game anyway.

Please act quickly.

Signed,

The New York Mets Fan-base

What is Going On?

2009-06-22T23:52:00.009-04:00

Today, the Mets placed Carlos Beltran on the DL -- joining Maine, Perez, Putz, Pagan, Reyes, Delgado and others. They also demoted Ken Takahashi and Wilson Valdez. Filling those 3 spots, the Mets called up Fernando Martinez, Elmer Dessens (yes, Elmer Dessens... the latest in the "Where Are They Now?" series of Mets), and LHP Pat Misch. (By the way, 3 other candidates for "Where Are They Now?" Mets were recently released from Buffalo: Javier Valentin, Bobby Kielty, and Wily Mo Pena........ none of which make sense to me) (Also, did you happen to hear that Jose Reyes -- already disabled -- was in a car accident today on the Triboro Bridge along with trainer Ray Ramirez [just what we need: even our medical staff isn't safe from injury -- though the terrible team doctors being replaced probably would help this team...] A fire truck rear-ended their car)

It was also announced that Bobby Parnell and Pedro Feliciano were unavailable for tonight's opener against the Cardinals. Tim Redding, still looking for his first win as a Met, was slotted to start, and counted on to go deep into the game.

All of that news combined seemed to spell doom for the Mets. And yet, they won -- leaving all of us in a state of giving up forever on trying to understand this team. Along the way, highlights included:

Tim Redding pitched into the 8th inning, allowing 4 runs (one of the runs was a homer leading off the 8th, which was his last batter).
Jon Switzer struck out the first hitter he faced in relief of Redding. His next hitter got on, and Switzer was replaced by Brian Stokes.
Brian Stokes came into a game!!! And in a pressure spot, which Jerry Manuel has said all along he doesn't trust Stokes in. Why he doesn't trust him, Mets fans don't know. It's the same irrational dislike he has for Ryan Church. And yet, due to all the insanity of the Mets roster for tonight's game, here was Brian Stokes coming into the game in the 8th inning leading by one, with the tying run on first. And who was coming to bat as the potential go-ahead run? None other than the best hitter in the league, Albert Pujols. Jerry Manuel must have been peeing his pants. Stokes fell behind Pujols on a series of sliders, then battled back and finally induced a weak grounder right back to himself, and turned the 1-6-3 double play to end the inning. Jerry Manuel must have immediately entered into a state of shock that may or may not have required Sandy Alomar to manage the rest of the game; we don't know. But who knows, could this actually make Jerry Manuel realize that Mets fans and analysts are right and begin trusting Stokes again like last year when he became the go-to guy at the end of the year until he was burned out? Probably not; nothing Church has done has convinced Manuel about him. But maybe.... After all, desperate times call for desperate measures -- even trusting people you wouldn't at any other time. And could things be more desperate for the Mets right now?...
Daniel Murphy homered, giving the full Mets lineup for tonight's game a total of 17 home runs on the season. Fourteen players around the league have at least that many as individuals.

Quick Political Statement

2009-06-19T00:55:00.003-04:00

I know this is a baseball blog, and I've completely avoided any mention of politics thus far (Steve made one little promo for Obama at one point...). But this is one I have to say:

People have to understand that Iran may be the Islamic Republic, but it does not have the close ties to other Islamic nations that that official name would suggest. Iranians are not Arab (the name "Iran" comes from the same root as Aryan), and despise most Arab nations. Through Hezbollah they've gained influence in Lebanon, and they sponsor Hamas in Palestine. But are we really afraid of offending Hamas further? I think their opinion of us is pretty well set -- no matter how much Obama tries to suck up to them during his Mid-East trip (at the cost of our Israeli friends, putting Mr. Netanyahu in a difficult place). The US government supporting protesters in Iran is not going to offend Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, or most other Islamic countries -- only the extremists who despise us anyway.

It's time for Mr. Obama to show what he truly aims to promote in the world: American principles or American image. He won the presidency with a popularity contest strategy fit for a high school class election. Now it's time to be a real leader. The reform candidate in Iran may still be in favor of their nuclear program and certain other disagreeable policies, but he would still be a great improvement over (and I apologize if I spell this wrong) Ahmedinejad.

Flag-bearers of freedoms should be supported by the US throughout the world -- whether it's oppressed protesters in Iran or Aung San Suu-Kyi (again, sorry if I spelled it wrong; I'm doing this whole thing off the top of my head) in Burma (yes, I know it's called Myanmar ever since the military junta took over and imprisoned the rightfully-elected president (Aung San Suu-Kyi).

To tie this in to sports for the sake of this blog, the Iranian national soccer team saw 8 of its players -- including its captain -- wear green bracelets in support of the reform candidate during the World Cup Qualifying Match against South Korea. When the second half began, the bracelets were suddenly gone. Little doubt that Ahmedinejad -- who is a huge soccer fan -- and his regime played an active part in removing the symbols of protest.

Just try naming the Mets' current 25-man roster. Go ahead.

2009-06-05T21:14:00.003-04:00

Alright, so the last several days, my younger brother and I have been quizzing each other on our favorite teams in specific years. We've been asking each other to name -- say, the full roster of the '98 Yankees or the 2000 Mets. And with that we both did very well -- incredibly well even with very obscure people.

However, as many past Mets as I could name, I admit I can't possibly name all 25 guys on the Mets current roster. Emil Brown just came into the game tonight. Now, I knew we acquired him in a minor-league deal for a player to be named, but when the heck did he get called up from Buffalo? Add him to such standouts as Wilson Valdez and Fernando Nieve, it's hard to believe this team could not be in first place....

Actually, I just checked the Mets' active roster, and Brown and Nieve are the only ones I wouldn't have gotten -- though I would have named Nieve as "Random Pitcher called up to Take JJ Putz's Place."

It's probably a good thing I haven't posted in quite a while. If I tried to keep up with all these Mets health issues, I think my computer's CPU would have burned out from over-use. And I would have been just as likely to hurl my computer across the room (which coincidentally would probably be faster and have more sink than a JJ Putz splitter this year) if I tried to blog about the Mets recently being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, despite that already-pathetic team sending away Nate McLouth for -- I don't even remember who... Three hockey fans they found on the street outside the Stanley Cup finals maybe? If the three hockey fans had on Braves caps, it's hard to say if the inept Pirates front office would even realize the difference. They certainly didn't recognize that they've gotten no sort of significant return on trading away McLouth, Nady, and Bay (who shockingly enough may have given the Pirates the best outfield in the league while they were together).

Why is Ryan Church not playing?

2009-05-12T17:44:00.007-04:00

Marty Noble of mlb.com was asked in his most recent Mets Inbox why Ryan Church has seen his playing time continually decrease while players such as Gary Sheffield have seen plenty of playing time with worse numbers. He wrote:

"You hardly are alone in your wonder. My sense of it, and that of others, including men in uniform, is that Church has been shortchanged -- in words, plans and, since the season began, playing time. It began early in Spring Training. The comments manager Jerry Manuel made about him then seemed unnecessarily uncomplimentary. Then Church made most of the trips and played as much as anyone other than Daniel Murphy in exhibition games. He was exhausted by mid-March. Since Opening Day, he has become the player most affected by the batting-order imbalance -- too many left-handed hitters.

"Church is a fine outfielder, the best defensive right fielder the Mets franchise has had, and he ought to be in right as often as possible in Citi Field. He plays hard; no one can quarrel with that. And he was hitting early on. I suspect Manuel didn't want to sit Murphy when he was having so much trouble in left field and have Murphy begin to doubt himself."

Now here's my take on it: Omar Minaya has had the reputation since his days with Montreal that he favors mediocre minority (specifically hispanic) players to even good white players. His seeming preference all through the offseason to stick with Ollie Perez instead of Wolf or Lowe looked like further evidence of that. Could he be pulling the strings against Ryan Church? Or could Jerry Manuel have the same preference? Sheff has hit nothing at all (other than his 500th homerun), Tatis can get at-bats at other positions (and has done so, with Delgado's health issues). And look how long it took for Jeremy Reed (who is also white) to finally get a start. He only just got his first one this past week, over 20 games into the season. And while Daniel Murphy was favored by Jerry Manuel in his statements during Spring Training, Murphy has also seen his starts decrease in favor of Tatis and Sheffield. So while one white outfielder was favored over another, they both take backseats to the minorities. I'm curious what will happen when Brian Schneider comes back from his injury (whenever that may wind up being). Is Minaya going to try long and hard to deal him away in order to keep Ramon Castro and Omir Santos?

Now suppose an organization was intentionally playing very mediocre white players over much better and more productive black or hispanic players simply due to race. That organization would be subject to lawsuits and be branded as racist by fans. Should the Mets not be viewed the same way? Racism against whites is still racism.

Another Stop on the Fossum Trail

2009-05-04T21:17:00.003-04:00

After 3 appearences with the Mets, posting a 2.25 ERA in the process, Casey Fossum was DFA'd by the Mets to make room for 40 year old rookie Ken Takahashi. Now, I'm hoping Takahashi pitches very well for the Mets, and his first appearence against Philadelphia was impressive following another pathetic Oliver Perez start (which now has Perez headed to the bullpen to be a $12 million long reliever). But this is a sad time for me as a Casey Fossum fan. He was quickly snatched up off waivers by the evil Yankees across town. He made his first start at AAA Scranton on Saturday afternoon, pitching well against the Norfolk Tides. Saddest of all: I was at the Scranton-Norfolk game on Friday night, but did not find out until today (Monday) that Fossum had signed on there. Otherwise, I definitely would have at least gone and seen him pitch. Very sad. Very, very sad. Maybe another time this summer...

Go Blade!

2009-04-21T21:56:00.004-04:00

Okay, it's Casey Fossum's first game with the Mets, and he's currently on his way to the mound from the bullpen to relieve (once-again) terrible Ollie Perez, who just walked in a run. As you can deduce from that, Fossum is entering with bases loaded. Dear God! He's doomed.

Let's hope the best....

Go Blade!!!!

------------

Well, he's just thrown 4 pitches. And... well.... none of them were anywhere close...

..at least it wasn't any different from how Ollie Perez was pitching...

He did it!!!

2009-04-21T12:59:00.004-04:00

Today the Mets called up LHP Casey Fossum from AAA Buffalo to the Major League club. Here's how I learned this awesome news:

According to a commenter on DRaysBay, Fossum just got called up to the Mets??? And holy crap, he's on their Active Roster!! Yippeeeeeeee!!!!

That's an email I woke up to from Steve. I haven't had a chance to look into it yet, but my guess is this: Nelson Figueroa had to be called up for a spot start over the weekend since Pelfrey was hurt but not hurt enough to go on the DL. To make room on the roster, Darren O'Day (who we got as a Rule 5 pick from the Angels) needed to be designated for assignment. Pelfrey should be healthy enough for his next start, so Figueroa was no longer needed on the big league club. So I'm guessing Fossum is taking his spot on the roster, and O'Day's role with the club as a middle reliever. Not sure, but that's my guess. Whatever the explanation, Woo-Hoo!!!!

A Glorious Day

2009-04-17T18:17:00.005-04:00

Today is truly a great day in my life. I just realized that Gameday pitch-by-pitch of minor league games is available at MiLB.com. What does that mean for me? Well, the Buffalo Bisons just started a game against Syracuse, and the starting pitcher for Buffalo is none other than -- you know who -- The Blade!

After one inning, Fossum's hopes for a season-long shutout are shattered: Syracuse leadoff hitter Jorge Padilla doubled to start the game, and scored on an RBI groundout following a Fossum wild pitch. In typical Fossum style, after a couple mistakes leading to a run, he then struck out the next two batters to end the inning. One of those was former Met great Lastings Milledge -- sent down to AAA by the Nationals last week. Fossum continues to please the authors of this blog in so many ways.

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Update: Fossum just exited the game with a no-decision. In 6 innings, he allowed one earned run on 3 hits and 3 walks. He also struck out 9 (Lastings Milledge was a victim twice). He threw only 88 pitches. Eddie Kunz has come in to pitch the 7th.

Fossum File

2009-04-17T01:57:00.004-04:00

There hasn't been much positive to say about the Mets thus far this season, so I figured I'd give a more uplifting post that's relevant to one of the main themes of this blog:

Casey Fossum has started one game so far for AAA Buffalo. In a no-decision, Fossum tossed 5 innings of scoreless ball while allowing 2 hits and 2 walks. He also struck out 3. With Pelfrey ineffective and possibly injured, and Perez and Maine both inconsistent, is it terribly unreasonable to believe Fossum could break the big league rotation this season? Granted, he's probably behind Jon Niese, Dillon Gee, and even Elmer Dessens on the organizational depth chart, but...... stranger things have happened. The '06 Mets who won the division used over a dozen starting pitchers during the season. So why not? The jersey I have will actually make sense then -- assuming he keeps his number 47 from Spring Training.

See you in Buffalo

2009-03-29T17:47:00.003-04:00

In what will very likely be his last appearance of the Spring, Casey Fossum today allowed 3 runs on 6 hits in 2.2 innings against hte Orioles. Clearly, Fossum was at his best on the mound. And that's why we love him. See you in Buffalo at AAA, Casey! The Buffalo Blade!

The Good News and the Bad

2009-03-20T16:05:00.004-04:00

Today brings with it both happy and sad news for the authors of this blog. For Steve and his Rays, Evan Longoria was named to Team USA today to replace the injured Larry Jones. So along with David Wright, Steve and I now both have our man-crushes manning the hot corner for the Americans for the semis. On a much sadder note, the Mets re-assigned our beloved Casey Fossum to minor league camp today (along with Jon Niese and a few others), officially ending our dream that he would somehow secure a role on the big league staff as a long reliever. Damn.... On a happier note, my Casey Fossum Mets jersey should be arriving in the mail in a few days. I just have to keep hope alive!

Long time no see..

2009-03-12T23:12:00.006-04:00

So man, it's certainly been awhile since I've shown my face on this blog. Where can I even begin? My Rays!! Oh man, despite the bittersweet finish to the World Series, I could not have been more happy with the way the season worked out in the end. Who would have ever picked us to win 97 games last year? Absolutely ridiculous...that was too awesome for words. And I have to say, I would not be surprised in the least if that one season just made me a Rays fan for life. I have so many memories already attached to the team and experienced so much joy from this past season, I can't see myself ever rooting for another team.

At the same time, though, I don't know if I could ever limit myself to simply rooting for one team for the rest of my life. The way I see it, I was a huge fan of the Yankees back in the late 90s, but I jumped ship once I lost faith in the way that they were running their franchise. Now, I like to think that I won't do that again if the Rays ever start heading in the wrong direction, but I can't say for sure. I do know that at this point, I would find it very, very tough to root for a team whose front-office philosophy does not match my own. If the Rays ownership ever changes hands and start to import expensive talent like the Yankees are constantly doing, I very well might jump ship again.

I feel like this is an interesting question: do you root hardcore for your favorite team forever and ever, 'til death do you part, regardless of the direction and philosophy of the franchise? Are there any strings attached to your fan-dom? Could ever a hypothetical situation arise where you cut ties with your current favorite and pick up another? I must say, I have and incredible amount of respect for those people that can continue to root for teams like the Kansas City Royals despite the fact that their on-the-field product is horrible and their front office has an atrocious philosophy towards building a team. I respect them, but I can't ever imagine being the same way.

Maybe it makes me less of a "true fan", but I feel that like in any good relationship, both sides need to be able to get something out of the deal. Why should I pay you money if you refuse to even try to build a winning team? Also, I'm not about to stick around in a relationship with a team that I cannot connect to - a team that I do not hold the same values as. Does that make sense? I'm probably being a bit overly dramatic with this whole analogy, since I'm basically comparing rooting for a sports team to marriage, but I feel like the analogy holds true and does have something to it. There's a lot of time and money and emotion put into rooting for a team, so why root for a team that you don't have anything in common with and that doesn't care about you? It doesn't make sense in a relationship...it doesn't make sense as a fan.

Anyway, that was a long tangent, but I like the concept. For now, though, I'm totally loving the Rays - I love their current team of players and I love their front-office philosophy. It's a good match. Go Rays!

Clay Hensley is Going to Dominate the NL this season.

2009-03-01T14:26:00.004-05:00

The Mets have batted around here against Clay Hensley of the Astros in the 3rd inning. Delgado just followed up Schneider's grand slam with a 3-run homer of his own (which nothing looked right about -- the swing was a terrible uppercut, it looked like a pop fly, and wound up going about 3 inches over the shoulder of the right fielder who simply missed the ball as it cleared the fence). Hensley was just pulled from the game after the Mets announcers said this is a terrible sign for a guy trying to earn a spot on the roster.

What does this all mean?

Answer: Clay Hensley is going to win the NL Cy Young Award.

Why, you ask? Well, last year, the Mets had a Spring Training game against the Cleveland Indians in which the Indians sent out Cliff Lee to the hill. Lee was competing for a spot in the Indians' rotation. He failed to make it out of the first inning after giving up several runs (I don't remember exactly how many), and the Mets announcers that day said it was a terrible sign for a guy competing for a spot. How did it turn out for Lee? He had a dominant season that resulted in a Cy Young Award and Comeback Player of the Year Award.

So there you have it: Clay Hensley is the early favorite for the NL Cy Young Award.

Love is the Most Important Thing in the World, but Baseball is Pretty Good Too

2009-03-01T14:16:00.005-05:00

So far this Spring Training, I've had to just listen to the Mets games on mlb.com since we do not get SNY here at Gettysburg College. However, we do -- for some strange reason -- get CW11, so I haven't moved from my seat since 1 pm as I've been watching the Mets take on the Astros. So far, the offense has looked good, loading the bases in each of the first 3 innings. However, they only just pushed in a run for the first time here in the 3rd on Ryan Church's grounder through the legs of the Astros first-baseman (the second time today Church reached on an error).

On another note, John Maine started today's game. His first inning was sharp (despite a solo homerun by Miguel Tejada). He lost his control a bit in the 2nd, but the important thing for Maine is seeing him healthy after last season. The importance of his health is heightened with the news today that Santana is returning to NYC to have his elbow examined.

....as I typed this, Brian Schneider hit a grand slam to put the Mets on top 5-1. Last season, I made it to three Mets games (two at Shea and one in Washington). Schneider homered in all of them -- including being the last person I saw hit a homer at Shea (against these Astros). Let's hope he stays healthy this year, as well, as he spent the first half of last season struggling from a multitude of problems before having a strong second half at the plate.

Watching baseball again feels great. The world is right again. If only Casey Fossum could pitch today it would be perfect.....

First Fossum File of the Spring

2009-02-27T21:51:00.005-05:00

Okay, so the Mets lost their Grapefruit League game today against the Cardinals, 9-8. However, a couple things on the bright side:

1) Ryan Church had an RBI double in the second inning off Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer. It's no secret on this blog that I'm a Church fan (certainly more-so than Jerry Manuel, apparently), and I'm happy to see him still able to rake at the plate. I've had 6 concussions myself (4 in baseball), so it might be partly for that reason that I'm really rooting for Church. Good start to the spring; let's hope (for Church and for the sake of the Mets' lineup) that he keeps it up.

2) Bobby Kielty had a homerun off former Met great (in the same way Roberto Alomar and Kaz Matsui are former Met greats..) Royce Ring. Kielty is -- just like Church -- trying to make a comeback from post-concussion syndrome. Kielty, however, has been out of the game since 2006. It's impossible to imagine Kielty making the opening day roster, but he could be this year's Fernando Tatis. And taking a chance on Tatis after his break from the league certainly turned out well for the Mets last season. I hope to see him in Queens (or somewhere else, granted it isn't Philadelphia, Atlanta, or Miami) getting a shot at some point this year. A real feel good story if he can. (By the way, check out some old photos of Kielty. As some other blogs such as Metstradamus have pointed out, he bears a striking resemblance to Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons. And as most kids of the '90s like me know, Sideshow Bob certainly kept on coming back -- even if in Italy........ by the way, Johan Santana was supposed to make a start against the Italian WBC team for the Mets, but he's been scratched as the Mets play it safe with his health).

3) Most important to the heart of this blog (which any of you who are regular readers will know) was the fact that Casey Fossum, our beloved "Blade", pitched two scoreless innings in relief for the Mets -- allowing two hits. Obviously Fossum is a long-shot for a spot on the 25-man roster out of Spring Training, but we're not giving up hope. We'll be following his incredible mediocrity whether it be in Queens, Buffalo, or just on the field the voices are telling me to build for him.

....by the way, I'm accepting donations to fund my construction of that field.

A-Rod Admits to Steroid Use, We ask the Obvious Next Question (at least obvious in my mind....)

2009-02-10T17:50:00.006-05:00

The following is a list of the top shortstops from the late '90s and early 2000s in Major League Baseball (in no particular order) (the list actually comes from a poster I have in my house...):

1. Alex Rodriguez -- Admitted to steroid use
2. Alex Gonzalez -- Named in reports for HGH use
3. Nomar Garciaparra -- Extensive history of nagging injuries suggests performance-enhancing drugs have not been in use (or have been very ineffective)
4. Rey Ordonez -- Despite winning 3 Gold Gloves, had a dreadful career batting average of .246, with a high full-season average of .258, and had only 12 career homeruns, so who cares if he did take P.E.D.'s?
5. Omar Vizquel -- Has won 11 Gold Gloves for defense, but has only a .273 career batting average and 77 career homeruns in 19 seasons.
6. Miguel Tejada -- Named prominently in the Mitchell Report for P.E.D. use. Now under investigation for perjury.
7. Derek Jeter -- What's his story? Only member of this list to play at least 145 games in each of his full seasons in the Majors, clearly avoiding nagging injuries. Has a career average of .316 and 206 career homeruns. Seems suspicious....

Last Day at Shea

2008-08-23T00:19:00.003-04:00

Tonight's victory against the Astros will most likely be the final game I go to at Shea Stadium. I have to be happy with the way it worked out: a Santana v. Oswalt matchup, the return of Ryan Church from the DL (which included a 2-minute standing ovation when it came time for his first at-bat, in which he hit an infield single), and a Mets victory. The last homerun I'll ever see in-person at Shea Stadium was hit by Brian Schneider off Oswalt immediately following Church's single. The last out was recorded by Luis Ayala (which capped off two perfect innings by the normally-nerve-racking Mets 'pen). And most importantly, the Mets sit in first place as I walked away from Shea Stadium for the last time.

Goodbye, Shea.

Two Good Notes for the Rays

2008-08-10T19:53:00.003-04:00

Steve is incredibly still unavailable to write about the incredible season his Rays are having, so it once again falls on me to do so.

Today, the Rays won for the 71st time this season. This sets a new franchise record for wins in a season, and it is only August 10th. The Rays still may not make the playoffs; the BoSox are hanging around and the Yanks aren't dead yet. But this will be a season for the Rays fans like Steve to remember for a long time -- the first time this franchise has put together a competitive team for late in the season.

Another feel good story came out of the Rays' victory today. Rocco Baldelli made his first appearence in the Majors since being diagnosed with a rare muscle fatigue disorder. He picked up a hit in his second at-bat. Baldelli is unlikely to crack the regular starting lineup for this solid Rays team, but seeing him back in the boxscore after years of injury problems and this newly discovered disease is a pleasant sight that ranks close to the returns of Jon Lester and Doug Davis (from a baseball point of view, at least.... I don't mean to say that his fatigue disorder was as distressing as cancer).

---

As for the other half of this blog's subject: the Mets -- well, they lost an ugly one today against the Marlins, and currently sit 2 games behind the Phillies and 1/2 game ahead of the Marlins.

Go Mets and Rays!

RIP: Hope for Aaron Heilman

2008-07-17T22:19:00.003-04:00

All hope for Aaron Heilman among Mets fans passed away today after a lengthy struggle. Doubts first surfaced in the minds of Mets fans a few years ago, when Heilman was first transferred from the rotation to the bullpen. Fans watched in agony as Heilman suffered through repeated walks, hard hits, and scoring inherited runners. All of these are common symptoms of Inaffective Reliever Syndrome (IRS), which will from now on be called Aaron Heilman Syndrome. Heilman seemed to be recovering from the illness in the final three weeks before the All-Star Break. However, after the 3 day rest, the disease clearly returned in Cincinatti.

Hope in Aaron Heilman is survived by Hope in Duaner Sanchez, Joe Smith, Scott Schoeneweiss, Carlos Muniz, Pedro Feliciano and Billy Wagner. However, Schoeneweiss showed signs of an onset of the disease during his time on the mound following Heilman.

I called it!

2008-07-15T23:20:00.006-04:00

I said to the people around me that Wagner was going to blow the lead in the All-Star Game if he didn't come in for the save in the 9th. We Mets fans know there are two things Wagner always finds a way to blow: coming in in the 8th inning, and coming in in a non-save situation. Well, manager Clint Hurdle decided the Phillies' Brad Lidge was going to be the NL closer, and brought Billy in to pitch the last out of the 8th (that's right; only one out). And, well, Billy blew it. He allowed a single to Grady Sizemore. With Evan Longoria pinch-hitting for Milton Bradley, Sizemore then stole second base without a throw. Then, well, Longoria hit a ground-rule double to left to bring him in. So the Rays half of this blog-writing team got the better of the All-Star Game. But I blame Clint Hurdle. He's obviously never seen Wagner pitch in an 8th inning.

...by the way, the Yankee Stadium people did not play "Enter Sandman" when Wagner entered the game. As I write this, Mariano Rivera is jogging to the mound with the song blasting. So I blame the sound people for Wagner's failure, also. Clint Hurdle is on warning, but the Yankee Stadium sound people are dead to me.

Moises Alou update

2008-07-10T16:43:00.003-04:00

This seems to be the end of Moises Alou's Major League Baseball career. In a post-game conference following the Mets' victory over the Giants today, Omar Minaya announced that Alou has a torn hamstring for which the team has recommended surgery. Alou will miss the rest of the season. At his advanced age, and considering his long history of injury problems, it seems impossible that he will play in a game again at the Major League level. If so, a solid career has come to an end. However, despite his impressive and consistent numbers throughout this career, Alou will go down in history as first-and-foremost the left fielder who looked up to the stands angrily after Steve Bartman attempted to catch a foul ball at Wrigley Field (although Alou stated this year that he would not have caught that ball with or without Bartman there).

Goodbye, Moises Alou. You'll never have to urinate on your hands in lieu of batting gloves again.

We called it!

2008-07-01T01:10:00.004-04:00

"Sometimes I even amaze myself." -Steve Martin, My Blue Heaven

I continue to be impressed by the near-prophet abilities we've demonstrated so far on this blog. First, we anticipated the usefulness of covering the Mets and Rays before Mets Geek did so for emotional expediency. Now, we come to realize the fruition of our greatest dream. That's right. Casey Fossum, "The Blade" himself, was the winning pitcher tonight for the Detroit Tigers. He's BACK!

In honor of this occasion, here's the lyrics to the Casey Fossum tribute song which I promised in the comments to the post linked to above. It's as corny as any other baseball fan song, I know (note: I actually have applied for a copyright for these lyrics, so they can only be reproduced with my permission.... which I'll very happily grant):

Our Beloved “Blade” by Joseph Cook

Drafted by the D-backs in the 7th round
He refused to sign, and the next year found
He’d raised his value up to pick 48
And was set to be the next Red Sox great.

Here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

He moved up to the majors in just four years.
He was clearly in the top half of his peers.
Casey made 7 starts his rookie season
And their quality gave us all a reason

To say here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

He joined the likes of Pedro, Burkett and Lowe
But the ALCS was as far as the Sox could go
So Casey did his part to end that dreadful “Curse”
He headed to the D-Backs – hey, it could be worse!

Here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

The Sox needed an ace who could lead them through
The playoffs while wearing a blood-filled shoe
So they sent off Casey to the desert sand
And brought Schilling to Fenway up in New England.

Here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

After a year in the desert where he’d mostly lose
He was sent to Tampa Bay for Mr. Jose Cruz (and cash!)
It was there that he spent the next 3 seasons
And gave us all so many more very good reasons
To say here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

With that infant franchise that did nothing but lose
Casey did nothing to hide from the boos.
Led the team in losses and thus put the hurts
On Nomo, Hendrickson, Waechter and Sturtz

Here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

Released by the D-Rays, he was free to roam
To the Padres and the Pirates searching for a home
Finally he signed on with Detroit
The 1930 home of the great Waite Hoyt.

Here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

This will have to be the current end of this song
But greatness can be held in check for just so long
Casey saved the Red Sox from decades of dark
And soon will be losing in Comerica Park.

Here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

Yes!
Here’s to Casey Fossum
Our beloved “Blade”
We’ll never forget the incredibly average
Way that he played.

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There are some kiljoys who say we shouldn't salute Fossum for being 1-0 out of the bullpen with an ERA of 12.00. But c'mon; anybody could be 1-0 with an ERA of 0. Lighten up and celebrate Fossum's mediocrity.

By the way, just as Fossum was clearly responsible for ending the Curse of the Bambino, check out what's happening with the team he was forced to leave last season. That's right. The Rays are in first place at the start of July. Steve isn't available currently to comment on it, so I'll just give the opinion of the rest of us in the world of baseball fan-dom: WTF?!!! Oh, Casey Fossum, why must your powers of improving teams by leaving them be so great?

Current HOFers

2008-06-27T16:27:00.007-04:00

As much as I and other bloggers like rdaam would like Joe McEwing to somehow make the Hall of Fame in 2012, it's not going to happen. But it got me thinking about all the people in MLB right now who are either locks for the Hall or will have very strong cases. Here's the list (let me know if I forget anybody):

Catchers:
-Mike Piazza (retired earlier this year) (LOCK)
-Ivan Rodriguez (LOCK)

First Basemen:
-Frank Thomas (Near-LOCK)
-Jim Thome (Near-LOCK)
-Albert Pujols (if he stays healthy, his numbers rival those of several of history's greatest hitters) (TBD: Health)
-Jason Giambi (impressive numbers, but will likely be hurt by the steroids problem) (TBD: Mitchell Report)

Second Basemen:
-Jeff Kent (I hate having to say this, remembering his pre-All Star days with the Mets) (LOCK)

Shortstops:
-Derek Jeter (LOCK)
-Omar Vizquel (Near-LOCK)

Third Basemen:
-Alex Rodriguez (LOCK)
-Larry "Chipper" Jones (Near-LOCK)

Outfielders:
-Barry Bonds (hasn't officially retired) (TBD: Steroids and generally an @$$****)
-Ken Griffey Jr. (LOCK)
-Manny Ramirez (Near-LOCK)
-Gary Sheffield (Strong Case, but is hurt by the fact that he was never the most feared hitter in a lineup)
-Ichiro Suzuki (will be the first Japanese import inducted into the HOF) (LOCK)
-Vlad Guerrero (Near-LOCK)

Pitchers:
-Mariano Rivera (LOCK)
-Trevor Hoffman (Hoffman has the advantage over Lee Smith in that Hoffman played for top quality teams) (LOCK)
-Greg Maddux (LOCK)
-Tom Glavine (LOCK)
-John Smoltz (I've heard people argue against John Smoltz, but with 200 career wins and 150 saves, I don't have a doubt about him. At different times in his career he stood as one of the best starters and best closers in the league) (LOCK)
-Roger Clemens (still has not officially retired) (TBD: Steroids and Character controversies)
-Randy Johnson (LOCK)
-Pedro Martinez (LOCK)
-Mike Mussina (Strong Case, hurt by the fact that he never won a Cy Young or led the league in ERA)

Designated Hitter:
-David Ortiz (TBD: If Edgar Martinez is elected to the HOF, then Ortiz has a good chance. If Edgar Martinez is not elected to the HOF, then I don't believe Ortiz has a chance at all, because that will be a strong statement by the BBWAA concerning DHs)

I feel like I've forgotten people since I came up with this post last night. Let me know if I did. Feel free to tell me what you think of the people I have listed here, also.

Unfair League Justice

2008-06-26T23:19:00.003-04:00

Major League Baseball Umpire Brian Runge was suspended 1 game by the league for his conduct in the Mets-Mariners game on Tuesday night. After attempting to bait Carlos Beltran into arguing a call, Runge engaged in an argument with Mets manager Jerry Manuel. During this debate, Runge clearly bumped Manuel, at which point Jerry went berserk and was ejected (Beltran followed suit as Manuel reached the dugout on his way to the clubhouse).

Here is my problem with this: Runge should have been suspended for more than 1 game. If Jerry Manuel had bumped him during the argument, Manuel would be suspended for at least 4 games. Why should Runge be let off so easily? I've been umpiring little league games for 4 years, and last year even I was suspended for a week because the general opinion was that I was seeking out confrontations with coaches and players. So recreation little league umpirers in small-town north Jersey are held to a higher standard of conduct than Major League umpirers? Outrageous. I was surprised to see that Major League Baseball gave Runge any punishment, but seeing that they did, they were too lenient. I also wonder whether they would have done anything at all if the incident had happened in Seattle rather than in New York...

We've all seen suspensions doled out after brawls that don't seem proportional. But this suspension of Runge for only one game clearly shows that the league is more interested in protecting its direct employees than in promoting equal justice for wrongdoing.

Heilman gets a one day reprieve; Down With Oliver Perez!

2008-06-02T22:43:00.003-04:00

Here's an idea: With Pedro Martinez returning to the Mets tomorrow, the team should keep both Mike Pelfrey and Claudio Vargas and remove Oliver Perez from the rotation. This whole season has been brutal to watch, and tonight has just ended with 1/3 of an inning giving up 6 runs including two homeruns (one of which was by a hitter who never had more than 2 long balls even in a minor league season) and leaving one runner on base who is his responsibility. How did this guy win an arbitration case this past offseason?!

It's good to look to Church on Sunday

2008-06-02T15:32:00.003-04:00

Ryan Church returned to the Mets line-up in right field Sunday night for the first time since suffering his second concussion of the season against the Braves. The result? The Mets offense actually looked alive for once. Church made me jump out of my seat in his first at-bat when he hit a low-inside pitch deep to right, but it was caught a few steps short of the wall. The Dodgers weren't so fortunate later in the game. After Carlos Beltran homered (his second in two days... amazing), Delgado walked (I guess that's something...). Church stepped up and hit a two run shot to right on a high-inside fastball. It's great to have Church back. Maybe we can actually get over .500 again now. The Mets face the Giants and Padres next -- the bottom dwellers of the bad (with the exception of Arizona) NL West. If there's a time to gain ground on the Phillies and Marlins, this is it.

By the way, after Church homered, ESPN continually showed the replay and viewers were forced to listen to Joe Morgan talk about what a poor scouting report the Dodgers obviously had on Ryan Church since they threw him up and in and he turned on it for a homer. So let me see if I understand this, Joe Morgan. Any time a batter hits a homerun, is it because of a bad scouting report used by the pitcher and catcher? Or does that just apply to Mets players who had hit a low and inside pitch to the warning track in their previous at-bat? Ever stop to consider that maybe Ryan Church just guessed right? Or -- and here's a wild idea -- maybe Ryan Church is just a good Major League hitter? Thank God Steve Phillips wasn't up there in the booth. Who knows what he and his hatred for the team he worked hard to destroy would've concocted as the excuse for why the Mets suddenly looked like a Major League baseball team!

I'm Alive....

2008-05-28T22:36:00.003-04:00

I'm alive. The Mets, on the other hand, do not seem to have much of a pulse lately. While other Mets blogs have jumped ship temporarily to other teams (see: MetsGeek, which has converted to RaysGeek..... On that note, notice which blog beat them to covering the Mets and Rays. That's right. WE DID IT! Boo ya!)

Where was I? Oh yeah; I haven't been posting in a long time for two reasons:

I haven't had access to the internet much lately.
It would be too depressing to write about the last couple weeks the Mets have had.

Hopefully things will improve soon. While I wander aimlessly in North Jersey and Pennsylvania, read metsblog and metstradamus for your Mets fixes. The Mets are in the 12th inning right now and losing to the Marlins, so it could be another sad day.

Best Pitchers in the AL East?

2008-05-22T10:12:00.004-04:00

I just posted this article on DRaysBay.com and it got added to the main article section, so I figured I'd should re-post it over here as well. I think it mostly got posted because it was an attempt to stop people from endlessly debating which pitcher is better, Sonnanstine or Jackson. I swear, arguments on DRaysBay can end up going in circles because some of the commenters refuse to accept the other point of view or at least concede some points. But anyway, here's the article:

To help distract us from more pointless Sonnanstine/Jackson debates, I figured I'd post something that's been on my mind for a little bit. After watching Kazmir pitch last night and seeing how well Shields has been pitching this year, I couldn't but think that we've got one of, if not the best, 1-2 punch in all of the AL East. Let's think about this...

Rays
#1: Scott Kazmir
#2: James Shields
This may seem weird to say after Kaz's really awesome performance last night, but if you ask me, I feel like Shields is quickly developing into our staff ace. He has already assumed a vocal team leadership role on this team, taught Percy and Kazmir his change-up, and has put up really impressive numbers so far this season. He's also had one of the most dominant outings from any (Devil) Ray pitcher, he's pitched multiple complete games already, he doesn't walk many batters, and he is much more economical with his pitches than Kazmir. Of course, Kaz looked much more economical last night and could be poised for a big break-out year himself. Thoughts? Opinions? Who will be our staff ace by the end of the year? Personally, as weird as it may sound, I currently feel more secure with Shields on the mound than Kazmir.

Boston
#1: Josh Beckett
#2: Dice-K
Beckett is just...well, awesome. But Dice-K is not the staff ace that Boston thought they were paying for when they put up that $50M posting fee. He had a 4+ ERA last year and although he currently has a 2.50 ERA this year, his K:BB ratio is screaming that his ERA is bound to rise soon. Heck, he's walked 8 hitters in one game this year, which is just absolutely ridiculous. Then again, Dice-K did have a much better K:BB ratio last year than he does this year, so that will probably improve some as well. This is up for debate (depending on how much you like Dice-K and how much you think Kaz and Shields will improve this year), but I personally say advantage Rays.

Orioles
#1: Jeremy Guthrie
#2: Daniel Cabrera
Okay....is this the year that young, chronically wild flamethrowers finally find the strikezone? So far, it's certainly looking good for Jackson and Cabrera. While I'm still not completely sold on either of them, they are certainly looking like they're making improvements and who knows? This could be the year these guys finally put it together and if so, watch out AL. However, despite all that, this duo still has nothing on Kaz and Shields. Too unproven and heck, who is Jeremy Guthrie?

Jays
#1: Roy Halladay
#2: AJ Burnett
Roy Halladay is probably one of the most underrated pitchers in the league, simply because he pitches in Canada and well, those Blue Jay never get any love. He's a model of consistency since he first broke into the league, almost always posting ERAs in the low 3s. Burnett, on the other hand, is brilliant when healthy, but he's certainly had a hard time with that since joining the Blue Jays. He has yet to get over 30 starts in one season with the Blue Jays and over the course of his career, he's only topped 30 starts in two seasons. However, he is a heck of a pitcher when healthy. This year he hasn't been that effective yet (4.79 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 49:27 K:BB), but I think he has too much talent not to turn it around as long as he's healthy. However, both Burnett and Halladay are currently 31 and most likely beyond their peak years. While they'll probably still be effective for some years, Shields is 26 and Kaz is 24, plus their both locked up by the Rays for years to come. I think that fact alone gives the advantage to the Rays.

Yankees
#1: Ching Ming-Wang
#2: Andy Pettite
Wang is a true ace, despite him not being a strikeout pitcher. However, the Yankee rotation ends there. Andy Pettite (36 years old) and Mike Mussina (39 years old) in slots 2 and 3? Sure, they're still decent pitchers, but nothing like how they were in their peaks. If the Yankees get Hughes back on the right track or switch Joba to the rotation, then maybe they'll be able to challenge Kaz and Shields. As of now, though, they simply don't have the depth. The Yankee rotation is just a mess at the moment.

Okay...so that was nowhere near a systematic analysis or anything, but I think if you look up the stats, they'll back up many of my conclusions. I was just feeling too lazy tonight to put a bunch of stats in. But anyway, thoughts? Which 1-2 punch do you think is the best this year? The best to build a franchise around? Also, because I'm really curious, who do you think is our staff ace...Shields or Kazmir?

PS...

2008-05-14T16:14:00.004-04:00

Yay Rays!

I'm incredibly happy today, just so you know :-D

Hypothetical Question Time!

2008-05-14T15:00:00.004-04:00

"...you're a Major League Baseball team owner. Everyone is a free agent. You have a Yankees-like wallet. Who is your first position player? Who's your pitcher?"

This was a question asked to President Bush in a recent Politico.com interview. Bush's answers? Chase Utley and Roy Halladay. Now, I'm going to stear clear of casting political aspersions (I'll leave that up to UmpBump) because I'm sure Joe wouldn't appreciate that, but I'm really impressed with these choices. Utley is definitely a justifiable pick and although Halladay is 31, he's an awesome pitcher that not too many people know about because he pitches for those Jays up in Canada. Bush knows his baseball.

However, this got me wondering, who would I pick in this same situation? I my mind, whoever I pick has to be good at all the aspects of the game plus being young. So, let's begin by looking at the hitters.

Alright, right off the bat you can cross the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Hanley Ramirez, and Ryan Braun off the list. Why? Defense. As awesome as they all are with the bat, they're notorious butchers in the field. I'm not going to make a Tiger-like mistake and bring in a guy like Miggie, only to realize 10 games later that he can't play his position. I have to say, though, I'm still tempted by Ramirez because even if he gets moved to centerfield (which could happen since he's apparently pretty bad at short), he's still an offensive powerhouse. Who has ever heard of a player going 30-50 before? It's just insane! But anyway, regardless, I'm still crossing him off the list.

That leaves me with a list that reads something like this: Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols, David Wright, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, BJ Upton, Grady Sizemore*. Some people might argue that Carl Crawford and Brandon Phillips should be included on there, but they're both bordering on too old for this list. Also, they're OBPs are just way too low for my likes. I've read "Moneyball" and yes, I'm a convert. And A-Rod, as awesome as he is, is now 32 (turning 33 in July). In my eyes, that's too old to build a franchise around.

* I'm stealing this technique from Joe Posnanski's blog, which is awesome and I think everyone should read. It's great writing, plus it happens to be about baseball. Anyway, does anyone else notice how NL heavy that list is? And not just that, NL East heavy. Just a thought, but those Phillies and Mets look to be good for years to come, assuming they're smart.

Also, I know there are tons of other amazing young players out there, like Evan Longoria, Justin Upton, Ryan Zimmerman, Chris Young, Alex Gordon, etc. The trick is, I'm only including players in this list that have already proven they can produce at the major league level. As much as I might like to pick Longo, I'm not picking anyone unless we already know that they can be a stud on the major league level.

Okay...so I'd go through my reasoning completely, but to spare you from reading a ridiculously long post, here's my final answer: BJ Upton. I know that I'm incredibly biased, but I think I can back this up. Pujols is 28 and possibly past his prime years. Reyes doesn't walk enough and has been in a slump dating back to the All-Star Break last year. Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins are turning 30 this year. Prince Fielder has an attitude. Ryan Howard strikes out waaaay too much. Grady Sizemore hasn't been able to step up his game to the superstar level yet. And Upton has posted similar offensive numbers to Wright...but he's two years younger.

Upton is currently 23 and finally brokeout last year. His final numbers were .300/.386/.508, with 24 HRs, 22 SBs, and 82 RBIs in only 129 games. His batting average was a little higher than we can probably expect going forward, but his power and speed numbers both look to increase. Now that Upton has found his proper position and is playing every day, it should be very interesting to see what sort of numbers he can put up over the course of a full year. He did strike out a good amount last year, but his K/BB ratio has improved a lot so far this year.

Anyway, I'm going to leave it at that for now. I need to ponder over which starting pitcher I'd like, so I'll get back to you on that one. Anyway, Joe, what do you think?

Alou is Back!

2008-05-02T22:01:00.004-04:00

If nothing else, the Mets roster is beginning to slightly more resemble the Mets roster with Duaner Sanchez returning recently and tonight's return of Moises Alou. Sure, both catchers from our preferred Major League roster are on the Disabled List currently, and Pedro will miss several more weeks, and El Duque is -- well -- El Duque, but some people are making their returns.

Last year, when Alou actually played, he was an RBI, BA, and HR machine. Tonight, in his first at-bat of the season, he has an RBI single (which, granted, should have been a double play ball if Diamondbacks 2B Orlando Hudson didn't simply miss it completely). There's been plenty to complain about with this Mets team this season, but Alou is currently batting 1.000 with an RBI. There's not much we can say in complaint about his performance when he's actually been on the field......yet.

----------------------

By the way, the Mets have switched back tonight to the order with Ryan Church batting second and Castillo in the 8-slot. They're scoring again. Incredible... Amazing how so many blogs and other fans have called for this, and it's taken this long for Willie Randolph to go with it.

Relishing the Glory

2008-04-28T18:19:00.002-04:00

Sending vaguely nasty facebook comments to all the Red Sox fans I know wasn't quite enough, so here are a bunch of the articles I've enjoyed reading today. Just simply soaking up the glory of this series...

It's April, but who cares?

Was this series the most important one in (Devil) Ray history?

Leading the AL East!

Go Rays!

NFL Draft

2008-04-27T22:30:00.005-04:00

I actually did watch both days -- all 15 hours or however long -- of the NFL Draft, proudly wearing a Lions jersey. I didn't pay much attention to college football last season, to be honest, so I didn't know much about the draft class like I usually have in the past. However, there was one member of the draft class that I -- and every audience member at Radio City, as well as the ESPN commentators -- was hoping would have his name called. That one player was Caleb Campbell, a safety from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Campbell was looking forward to leading a platoon in Iraq if he wasn't chosen today. Every time he was mentioned or shown on screen, the crowd erupted into chants of "Ca-leb Campbell" or "U.S.A., U.S.A." It was undoubtedly the most exciting moment of the draft, despite being the 11th pick in the 7th round (218th pick overall). And what team selected Caleb Campbell with that pick? The Detroit Lions. I've never been so proud to be a Lions fan.

Even better, I just found this question and answer from NFL.com's player profile on Campbell, compiled before the draft:

Q. Growing up, who was your favorite NFL player and why?
Campbell: Barry Sanders. He was unstoppable.

I agree, Caleb Campbell. That's the main reason I became a Lions fan, and have been through many painful years since Barry Sanders left.

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The link below is the NFL.com article about Caleb Campbell being drafted by the Lions:
http://www.nfl.com/draft/story?id=09000d5d80807e53&template=with-video&confirm=true

A Turning Point in the History of This Blog

2008-04-27T22:12:00.005-04:00

I am sorry to say that this is the first post to which I am attaching a Parental Advisory, following the lead of other blogs that wrote on the event.

This past week, the Mets traveled to Wrigley Field for a series against the Cubs. During that series, young Mets reliever Joe Smith apparently decided he had had enough of the hecklers to whom relief pitchers become so accustomed. Follow the link below to HomerDerby and the video is available on that site.

http://homerderby.com/archives/2144

I like Joe Smith. I do. I think he was our best guy before Wagner in the 'pen before Dirty Sanchez came back (who has looked good so far, so my hopes are high). But I don't like this.

...Speaking of Billy Wagner, today he allowed a hit for the first time this season. I guess this windup of his (which I still find weird whenever I see it) is working. Wagner still has not allowed a run in 2008.

Holy. Crap.

2008-04-27T16:25:00.002-04:00

Wooohoo!! 3-game sweep of the Red Sox at home!! And now, if things keep going the way they're going and Baltimore loses to the White Sox tonight, we'll be tied for first place in the AL East with them. Plus, we're squaring off against Baltimore in our next series and Kaz is looking to come back on Thursday, so oh man....this is just too friggin' exciting. I just can't contain myself right now!

Oh, and by the way, that Longoria guy is pretty f-ing incredible. He made a couple amazing grabs at third today plus after striking out twice against Josh Beckett, he comes back in his third at bat and blasts a homerun against him. I love Longo more and more every day...

And Shields pitched a monster of a game tonight. Pitching a complete game, two-hit shutout against the Red Sox? That's just something else.

On a completely random subject, apparently the Rays are a great deal if you want to go see them at home. There's free carpool parking, plus college kids can get tickets for $5 on Friday nights along with $1 hot dogs. If only I lived in Tampa...

Not Much New

2008-04-27T14:50:00.002-04:00

I've been very busy lately, thus the no new posts on the Mets. But here's a basic update:

-Wright is unfortunately in a slump.
-Ryan Church is still hitting the ball hard, against both righties and lefties.
-Aaron Heilman has taken over the top spot on my list of undesirables. He is absolutely terrible.
-Brian Schneider has missed the last several games with an injury. Raul Casanova has filled in for him. Casanova has a homerun today off of John Smoltz.
-The Mets knocked Smoltz out of today's game after only 4 innings. The Mets were leading 4-0. It is now 4-3.... Crap.

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Hopefully I'll have time for another substantive post soon.

Links Links Links...

2008-04-22T17:46:00.003-04:00

I'm not feeling like writing a real article, per se, but I've found a good amount of really cool sites out there worth checking out. So pop into these sites if you have a minute...you won't regret it, I promise.

Beyond the Boxscore
This is a very intelligent baseball sabrmetrics blog, written in large part by my favorite blogger from DRaysBay, RJ Anderson. If you want a sample of the sort of articles they publish there, take a look at their most recent post above. It's a really great article detailing the reasons (and pretty in-depth ones at that) why despite his slow start, David Ortiz still has some pop in his bat.

Rob Neyer's new book
Definitely add this to my list of books I'd like someone to buy for me. Actually, I'll probably buy it for myself before my birthday comes around. For anyone that loves baseball history and lore, this looks like a must read.

Interview with Rob Neyer about said book
After reading this interview, I've decided that Rob Neyer is one of the few ESPN analysts that I can actually respect. Come to think of it, I can't remember ever having a problem with any of the things that he's written. He's definitely a cool guy and seems to know what he's talking about.

Tejada Lied!
Honestly, this is a few days old news by this point, but ESPN just finally put an article up about it. The Orioless got so lucky that they unloaded Tejada to the Astros this offseason. First the Mitchell Report and now this. And hmm...to be honest, I actually don't like this article that much but it's worth skimming to get the gist of the situation.

Baseball players have ADD?

2008-04-21T13:06:00.006-04:00

Very interesting article from Newsweek highlighting how many baseball players may be switching from amphetamines (since they're now banned) to ADD medication. I haven't heard anyone in any baseball circles or on any blogs mentioning this, so I feel like this has simply yet to gather attention. It's certainly an interesting idea and I would definitely believe it. Heck, from talking about ADD in my psych class this semester, some college kids use Ritalin in order to help focus for studying and tests. Apparently having ADD is very profitable on campuses, as everyone wants to get some Ritalin or Adderall. So if college kids are using it, why not pro athletes?

That's so depressing, though. Why can't athletes just be content with the skills they naturally have? Oh, that's right...

$$ *bling bling!* $$

Happy 10 Year Anniversary of Suckiness!

2008-04-20T09:04:00.011-04:00

I recently posted this on Facebook in the blog for the Tampa Bay Rays Fan application. Apparently if I'm not too late, I might be able to win a prize (a nifty icon on Facebook!) for it. I figured you guys might enjoy it as well...

"Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out."

For years, this quote from Ernest L. Thayer's immortal "Casey at the Bat" was very fitting for the Devil Rays franchise. If you slightly changed the last line, just imagine how many different situations it applied to:

"But there is no joy in Tampa - mighty [insert name here*] has struck out."

* Choose one: Aubrey Huff, Jared Sandberg, Greg Vaughn, Jose Canseco, Vinny Castilla, Ben Grieve, Toby Hall, Jorge Cantu, Joey Gathright, Elijah Dukes, Dewon Brazelton (struck out as a pitching prospect), Lou Piniella, Josh Hamilton (damn the Reds!), etc.

If you couldn't get my drift or you've been in a coma for the last ten years, the Devil Rays sucked. No ifs ands or butts; they’ve been utterly atrocious ever since they first joined the league ten years ago in 1998. Through a combination of bad luck and a horrendously bad front office, the Devil Rays managed to bungle their way to a 645-972 record (a .399 winning percentage), losing over 100 games in three of ten seasons. They’ve become masters at being “forgettably bad” – not bad enough to become lovable losers like the 1962 Mets or 2003 Tigers and not good enough to justify people actually liking them. Instead, they’ve just wallowed in the moldering bog of suckiness, swallowing any player with actual talent and turning them into Dewon Brazelton.

After the 2005 season, though, everything started to change. Vince Namoli and his cronies left town after eight loooong years (sound familiar?), bought out by the baseball equivalent of Barack Obama - Stuart Sternberg. While Sternberg wasn’t nearly as elegant or good looking as Barack Obama, Sternberg came in very inexperienced but preaching about, “dramatic change for this organization.” Him and Matthew Silverman (President/GM) reshaped the team’s infrastructure and started pampering to their fans, enticing them with free parking and many new upgrades to Tropicana Field. Even if the team on the field wasn’t much different the next year, the mindset in the front office had definitely changed. “There are teams that spend quite a bit of money and don't have much success,” Sternberg said, “There are teams that spend a bit less and have a lot of success. We just want to have success.”

Now, if Obama could be as successful turning our country around as Sternberg and Matthew Silverman (president/GM) has been turning the Devil Rays around, I wouldn’t be surprised if within three years, we all have global health care and Iraq has a settled, stable government. Ever since Silverman took over, the Devil Rays have significantly improved to the point where this off-season, they finally shed themselves of their cocoon and for the first time ever, became a major league ball club. They invested money in free agents needed to make the team better, they signed key players to long-term contracts, and they finally committed to the idea of winning now. No more of this “winning-in-five-years” crap, thank goodness. And what better way to symbolize this change than by changing their team name, logo, and uniforms? Oh, and they released plans for a new stadium. In short, the Devil Rays and their ten years of suckiness are no more. The Rays, gay burst of sunshine and all, are here to play and they mean business.

In the end, though, how much can we really expect from the Rays this season? Sure, they front office may have added Troy Percival, Cliff Floyd, Trevor Miller, Jason Bartlett, and Matt Garza this off-season, but how much does this all translate into in terms of wins? If we’re just evaluating in terms of these off-season moves, potentially, not a lot. We’ve already seen both Cliff Floyd and Matt Garza go down with injuries this year, while Bartlett and Miller haven’t exactly lived up to expectations yet. Regardless, PECOTA (currently the most reliable stat-based projection system) predicts that the Rays will go 88-74 this year, ending up in third place in their division. PECOTA has a reliability of around 4 games, meaning that it’s normally only ever off by plus or minus 4 games. Where is this coming from?

Two words: defense and pitching. The Rays were absolutely horrible last year in terms of both defense and pitching, actually hitting the realm of historically bad in terms of defense. According to Baseball Prospectus, the 2007 Rays had a .662 defensive efficiency rate, the lowest they have on record. All this means when turned into other stats and juggled a little bit is that last year, the Devil Rays, “…were nearly six percent worse than the league average at converting balls in play into outs.” Ouch.

Also, the Rays had horrible pitching. Heck, their Opening Day rotation last year included both Casey Fossum and Jae Seo; I don’t know about you, but that certainly looks like a winning combination to me (irony alert!). Their team ERA was 5.53, while their bullpen ERA alone stood at 6.16. Their pitching staff let up 944 runs, which is over 50 runs higher than the next closest team. Granted, their pitching couldn’t have been helped by their historically inept defense, but I still don’t think Edwin Jackson’s 5.76 ERA was completely a result of bad defense.

Now, the addition of Bartlett, the promotion of Longoria, the development of Upton in centerfield, and shifting Aki to second base all bolster the Rays’ defense. To what degree is debatable, as Bartlett hasn’t been perfect at short (though he is a definite step up over anyone else we’ve ever had at short) and Upton still has a lot to learn. There was also a recent article published at Baseball Prospectus that goes into some detail why they believe PECOTA overestimates how much improved the Ray defense will be this year. Even if the Rays’ defense isn’t incredible this year, though, it’s still got to be much better than last year.

In terms of pitching, the pitching depth that the Rays have in the minor leagues is finally starting to manifest itself in the majors. Over the first 18 games of this season, the Rays have been without their staff ace Scott Kazmir, but they still have a 4.04 team ERA and a 2.93 bullpen ERA. This improvement even without Kazmir (and Garza, for that matter) stems from one main thing: minor league depth. The Rays farm system has been ranked for the past two years in a row as the best system in all of baseball, and the results are finally now beginning to appear in the majors. Flamethrower J.P. Howell seems to have finally found his niche as the long-relief man in the bullpen (2.53 ERA in 10.2 IP), while Jason Hammel has managed to turn his potential into results for the first time (1 W, 4.26 ERA, 19 IP). Even Edwin Jackson has finally strung together a couple good starts, though whether this success is temporary is up for debate. Top prospect Jeff Niemann was just called up from AAA and if he strings together a few more solid starts, it may be tough to send him back down. So whatever way you look at it, the Rays are finally in a good place for pitching. Maybe Jackson and Hammel won’t keep pitching as well as they currently are, but it seems like the days of Ray pitchers with 6 ERAs are long gone. Oh man, and speaking of pitching, I can’t wait for David Price to arrive on the scene next year…

So when all is said and done, PECOTA’s prediction of 88-74, while optimistic, might actually hold true. At the very least, you can make a solid argument as to why the Rays could potentially put up that record. Personally, I’m predicting the Rays to finish with a season record at 81-81, plus or minus 3 games, with it being more likely they’ll end up on the minus side. PECOTA’s prediction is just a tad too optimistic even for me, one of the world’s largest optimists. I think the Rays’ defense is going to better, but not as good as PECOTA predicts. Aki is going to need time to adjust to second base and we’ve already seen Upton misplay some balls in the outfield this year. Our pitching staff I have more faith in, though I am very skeptical of Edwin Jackson’s early success and feel that we should trade him while his value is high. We have enough pitching depth and I would much rather give Niemann 30 starts right now than Jackson.

However the Rays turn out this year, though, I think there’s something everyone can agree with – this is going to be one hell of a fun team to watch. Whether it’s going to be Pena blasting a homerun, Crawford stealing bases like crazy, Kazmir striking out people left and right, Longoria being damn sexy, or Johnny Gomes swinging for the fences, it's going to be a wild ride. So excuse me while I go turn on the game. Jackson’s on the mound, so let’s keep those fingers crossed. Go Rays!

Dirty Sanchez is back!

2008-04-15T22:15:00.004-04:00

The Mets game just ended, and it was full of great individual performances. Pelfrey pitched 7 scoreless innings, Reyes had 4 hits including a triple and double, Wright had 5 RBIs including a 2-run homer in the first inning. But the biggest thing about tonight's game in my opinion was the man who pitched the 9th inning for the Mets: Duaner Sanchez. It was his first Major League appearance since his taxi cab accident in Miami back on July 30, 2006. I didn't get to see it, but the radio announcers said his slider seemed sharp and his fastball had good velocity. But we all know Duaner's go-to-pitch is the change, and he seemed to be missing his spot with that. But that will come. Overall, Sanchez pitched 1.0 inning, gave up a ground ball single up the middle, struck out a batter, and induced two ground ball outs. A strong outing.

I know I'm a Heilman-hater, but I'll mention here that he pitched a scoreless 8th inning, despite giving up a double.

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More on Duaner Sanchez, I just want to include a story here. I've already written the story of how Xavier Nady learned he had been traded after Sanchez's injury created a need for a relief pitcher. As clueless as Nady was that him being traded was a possibility, the rest of the Mets may have been even more shocked. Apparently, Nady was in the hotel lobby on July 31 and preparing to leave to join the Pirates. A bunch of the Mets players were set to go out to dinner and just assumed that X-Man would either join them or be going out on his own. It was then that Nady told them all he had been traded to Pittsburgh. He also told them at this time about Duaner Sanchez's car accident and injury, which the players seemingly didn't know about before. Needless to say, the collection of Mets players was speechless. Nady was an extremely popular player among both his teammates and the fans, and obviously everybody recognized how critical Sanchez was to the team's success.

With Sanchez returning, it's an appropriate time to look back. Aaron Heilman, Guillermo Mota (yes, that steroid-using, lead-blowing @$$****), and Roberto Hernandez all tried to fill Sanchez's role, and none were particularly successful in the end (i.e. the playoffs [Yadier Molina? Are you kidding me, Heilman?]). Heilman is still blowing leads for the Mets, so not much has changed there. Mota was sent to the Brewers in a form of addition-by-subtraction, since the player the Mets received in return, Johnny Estrada, was released just a couple weeks later. Roberto Hernandez went to the Indians to start 2007, but was released by them on June 20 of that year, and signed onto a minor-league deal with the Dodgers. He struggled through a stretch with the Major League club, and is currently a free agent at 43 years old. Xavier Nady is now the main offensive threat of the Pittsburgh Pirates (or a close second to Jason Bay), and still a very popular player (not to mention an early winner of the Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day Award here on this site).

Today's Game So Far

2008-04-15T19:58:00.003-04:00

I just got back to my computer after playing whiffleball for a while and eating dinner, and I obviously went straight to MLB.com to access Gameday and to listen to the WFAN broadcast of the Mets game. When I got into Gameday, I saw that Ryan Church is batting second in the Mets order today, which is very strange, because the Nationals' starting pitcher (Odalis Perez) is a lefty. What happened to all that talk of Church being incapable of hitting lefties? Anyway, with Church in the 2-spot, Luis Castillo was bumped down to 8th in the order. I thought I must have been reading something wrong or they had posted it wrong. But then I saw that Wright hit a 2-run homer in the first to give the Mets the lead, and clicked on the little video link to watch the highlight. When he finished rounding the bases, the runner waiting for him at home was wearing uniform #42. Ryan Church is #19, so obviously my belief that something was wrong with Gameday was correct. It only took me a second to realize that everybody on the Mets is wearing #42 today in honor of Jackie Robinson Day, which is being celebrated around baseball today.

As part of Jackie Robinson Day, which Commissioner Selig decided to center at Shea Stadium this year, the Mets unveiled the newly constructed Jackie Robinson Rotunda, the Ebbets Field-inspired museum portion of the Mets future home, Citi Field. I haven't had a chance to watch any video of the unveiling yet, and probably won't until late tonight when my college's internet speeds up after everybody else who isn't a history major is asleep. But I'm really getting excited about that new stadium every time a ball is hit to left and it appears in the background.

From a Broadcast last season: "And David Wright has just hit the first homerun in Citi Field." -after Wright's homer landed in the construction area

---------------------------------

I realize I haven't posted a Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day in quite a few days. I've just been extremely busy lately.

Why must reporters be such jerks sometimes?

2008-04-12T18:31:00.007-04:00

So I just finished writing a rather lengthy, angry email to Jayson Stark, a writer at ESPN.com. I can't really comment on how good his article was, since it piqued my ire after...ummm, 8 sentences. I got so pissed, I couldn't go on. I very well may have been overreacting since it's late and I'm tired, but I'll let you decide. I explain all in the letter:

Dear Mr. Stark-

I for one was shocked and appalled by your reference to Rocco Baldelli in your article "So many key players on the shelf". To be specific:

"(Before we launch into this list, just be aware that those with long-term afflictions -- Tommy John rehabbers, sufferers of Rocco Baldelli-itis et al -- were deemed ineligible."

Are you aware that Baldelli was diagnosed this spring with a rare and debilitating illness that could not only mean the end of his baseball career, but also impact all aspects of his life?

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080312&content_id=2421189&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

The poor guy can't play a game without getting winded and well, baseball isn't exactly like soccer. He's having trouble with stamina and because of that, his entire life could be impacted. His baseball career is most likely done (unless they can somehow find a way to cure it) and this illness could also end up keeping Baldelli from leading a normal, active life. And you find this as something to poke fun at?

I know there are tons of people out there that are injury prone and as a Ray fan, I've gotten frustrated with Rocco before. But at this point, all I can feel is ridiculously sorry for the guy. Do you think he wants to get winded after light workouts? He's going through a rough enough time as it is and I don't think he should have the media poking fun at his illness on top of it all. I notice you didn't say anything about anyone suffering from Doug Davis-itis...how is this any different? As someone that's had cancer myself, I sincerely hope that you would never, ever say something like that. You don't insinuate that someone else may have a debilitating illness, especially when it draws away from the seriousness of that illness. It's disrespectful to everyone involved.

And one more thing...at least they know what to do to help Doug Davis, you know? He could potentially be ready to go by the All-Star Break. But what can Baldelli do at this point? Yes, it's not cancer, but it is a rather serious disease that seems to be getting worse and worse, which no one has any idea how/why it started or how to stop it.

So I guess all I'm asking is that you use more discretion and care in the future. Sorry this was so long winded, but I hope you stuck it through to the end. Thanks for listening.

Steve Slowinski

Breaking News!

2008-04-12T17:19:00.004-04:00

Okay folks, this news almost tops Longoria in terms of how big a deal it is. Some of you out there may not fully appreciate the magnitude of this announcement, but it truly is ground-shaking information. Quite possibly the biggest baseball news that there's been since that whole Santana drama finished. Maybe even since that Babe Ruth guy was sent to the Yankees for money to fund a play.

**Drumroll please**

Casey Fossum has signed a minor-league deal with the Tigers! The Blade is back!

Longoria is back!!

2008-04-12T05:27:00.007-04:00

I woke up this morning simply hoping that the Rays had managed to pull out a win last night against the Orioles (which they had, 10-4), but lo and behold, there was even more good news waiting for me. Doing my daily early morning check of DRaysBay, I happened to notice these three heavenly words gracing the top of the site..."EVAN. HAS. ARRIVED." Woohoo!!

Apparently, sending Longoria down in the first place was entirely an economic decision and the Rays management seems content to not pretend any differently. They're calling him up after only about 10 games, during which Evan has only 5 singles. Certainly doesn't seem like he's proved anything amazing while down there those few days. However, Longoria literally just passed the deadline so that his service time will extend an extra year. I'm perfectly fine with this decision since at this point, we'll have Longo for an extra year one way or the other, plus Longo didn't really miss much of this season.

For all of you out there that may have no idea who I'm talking about Evan (not Eva) Longoria is currently the top ranked prospect in the Rays organization and one of the highest rated in the game at the moment. He's basically the consensus pick to with the AL Rookie of the Year award, though obviously we've got to play the games first and see what happens. However, he is an excellent defensive third baseman that hits for average, power, and has a pretty good batting eye. In AA last year, he hit .307 with 21 homeruns in only 105 games. He was promoted to AAA at the end of the season and although his average dipped, his on base percentage increased and his power numbers remained steasy. In short, he's a hell of an upgrade over their current third baseman and should be a solid presence in the middle of the Rays' batting order for years to come (knock-on-wood...).

He's starting tonight vs. the Orioles! Don't miss it!

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PS - I don't feel that bad anymore about the Rays getting cleaned up by Wang earlier this week. The Red Sox just got owned by him last night to the tune of 9 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, and 3 K. Heck, the Rays got 4 hits and 2 walks off him over 6 IP - that's positively brilliant in comparison.

Mets Defeat the Phillies

2008-04-09T22:15:00.005-04:00

The Mets just defeated the Phillies 8-2 at Shea Stadium. It was an ugly game. Only two of the Mets 8 runs were earned, and Kyle Kendrick walked 6 Mets in his 2 1/3 innings. On a brighter note, Mike Pelfrey made the start for the Mets and lasted 5 strong innings. Sosa (2 innings), Feliciano, and Muniz finished out the game.

With most of the runs resulting from walks and errors, the only real offensive highlight for the Mets was an RBI double by Angel Pagan.

The most exciting part of tonight's game was probably the names in two matchups in the 8th and 9th innings: Pedro Feliciano vs. Pedro Feliz, and Carlos Muniz vs. Carlos Ruiz.

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Today's Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day was Phillies SS Eric Bruntlett, who filled in for the injured Jimmy Rollins. Bruntlett had 2 of the Phillies 4 errors, and they were costly.

"It Gets Through Buckner"

2008-04-08T21:25:00.007-04:00

Bill Buckner was welcomed back to Boston for the first time today since his error in Game 6 of the '86 Series against the Mets. I remember two years ago, the Mets faced the Sox in a series in Boston in Interleague Play, and the Sox attempted to organize a reunion of players for the 20th anniversary of the two teams meeting in the Fall Classic. Buckner refused to attend. Today, the evidence was clear that Boston has fully forgiven their former all-star first baseman. The power of the reception he received clearly affected Buckner, but didn't prevent him from firing a perfect strike to Dwight Evans in the ceremonial first pitch. To watch the video, click the link (which I hope works) below:

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/mp_tpl_3_1.jsp?w=2008/open/tp/archive04/040808_detbos_buckner_1stpitch_tp_400.wmv&pid=mlb_tp&gid=2008/04/08/detmlb-bosmlb-1&vid=7758&mid=200804082505348&cid=mlb&fid=mlb_tp400&v=2&id=641604

The whole event was made even better (to me, at least) by the fact that the music played at the stadium for Buckner's entrance was from one of my all-time favorite movies (Glory).

I'm happy for Bill Buckner to finally be able to return to the city where he played a major part in simply getting the team to a World Series. I always enjoy when old players return to stadiums for events, and this one with Buckner was particularly moving.

Don't get me wrong, though. I love the event that caused Buckner's 22 year exile from Boston. (I realize the Red Sox brought him back at the start of the 1990 season, but he was driven out of town by the end of June of that year.)

Mets fans get it half-right

2008-04-08T17:27:00.002-04:00

The Mets fans got it half right today in the pregame introductions of the Mets players. As nonted earlier, they booed Scott Schoeneweiss, but had a very neutral response to Aaron Heilman. Schoeneweiss proved in the game today that the booing was justified, and Heilman showed in his inning of work that the quiet reception he received was far too kind.

It didn't surprise me that no teams were interested when the Mets put Schoeneweiss on the market this offseason. However, I don't understand why management continues to refuse to include Aaron Heilman in trade talks.

Throw the bums out.

Mets Home Opener about to Begin

2008-04-08T13:05:00.010-04:00

I've been listening to the introductions of the Mets' players in the pregame ceremonies for the final Home Opener at Shea. A couple things stood out:

Obviously, Johan Santana received the loudest and most sustained ovation. He was also the only new Met who received an introduction including the words, "Welcome to New York..."
The next loudest ovation was predictably for David Wright. In 3rd place? John Maine. I am personally a big John Maine fan (I'm wearing a Maine jersey today), so I appreciate that the crowd at the game recognizes like I do how well Maine pitched for us last year despite his tail-off in the August.
Scott Schoeneweiss received -- if nothing else -- a quieter reception than he was expecting (Said Schoeneweiss over the weekend about the upcoming player introductions: "I'm scared to death of it because I always get booed. Can't I just wear my hoodie out there?"). I heard more boos than cheers, but it wasn't as loud as I expected.
Aaron Heilman was not booed, despite already having given up a few costly runs this season, along with his checkered past including that homerun he gave up to Yadier Molina in the '06 NLCS.

Anyway, today's the final Home Opener for Shea Stadium. So I leave you with these song lyrics:

Now we see them rushing

To the stadium in Flushing.

Big Shea will see its last game in the Fall.

We've got Maine and Ollie Perez,

Moises and Chavez,

Santana's our guy and we're finishing high

So let's play ball.

We're talking baseball (Jose Reyes and Mr. Wright)

Talking baseball (Delgado's bat is dynamite)

Pedro, Church, and Billy -- they're all set.

And Carlos Beltran -- he's as good as it gets.

We're talking baseball. Baseball and the Mets.

Damn...

2008-04-06T16:18:00.004-04:00

Well, so much for 3 of 4 from the Yanks, though I have to say, I'm perfectly happy with a split (which is basically what this is going to be, seeing as Hammel pitches tomorrow). Our pitching staff game us another solid performance today and definitely gave our offense a chance to win this one, but Wang, Joba, and Mo out-shone us today. But hey, since when have the Rays ever been able to say that they've been in every game that they've played against the Yanks? This is certainly an encouraging thing.

On a negative note, though, Shields didn't have the best day out there. He did manage to limit the Yanks to 2 runs over 5 innings, which is always a good thing, but he let up a heck of a lot of baserunners. Not many walks at least, but the Yanks got a lot of hits off of him. This probably means nothing besides that the Yankee offense woke up a little bit today, but we've just come to expect better from Shields. In the end, though, he only let up 2 runs and that's what counts the most.

One slightly worrisome piece of news: Longoria has yet to get a hit or draw a walk in his first three AAA games this year. I know it's a small sample size and all, but come on man....we need you to destroy the league so you can be up in a month. Start mashing the ball already, geez.

I really want to try this sometime this season...

Also, add this book to my wishlist, for sure. Highly recommended by RJ Anderson from DRaysBay, probably the one blogger whose opinion I respect the most (well, minus anyone from this site, obviously).

I'm back!

2008-04-06T03:38:00.004-04:00

Well, that was a long hiatus. I certainly did not mean to miss out on posting for the entire month of March, especially considering some very interesting developments happened with the Rays during that month. Thankfully, Joe was awesome enough to cover the Elliot Johnson incident and everything. I think I was in Ireland during the time that had all broken out, so that's my excuse for not being right on top of things.

But anyway, take a look at the Rays! 3-1 and they've knocked the Yanks around some during these past two games. Sure, a couple games don't necesarily mean anything in the long run, but if you're a Rays fan, you can't help but be really happy right now. Since when have the Rays ever done something like this in the past? They've gotten solid starting pitching so far, awesome bullpen outings, and they've managed to win two games in a row on the road. Heck, the Rays were atrocious on the road last year (29-52), while going 37-44 at home. If the Rays can keep up this intensity and, most importantly, pitching, things are definitely looking up for the season. Of course, I'm not going to expect E-Jax to maintain his 1.50 ERA or anything, but he did show a lot of resilience last night, settling down after starting off really shaky. At this point, Jason Hammel is going to have to pitch ridiculously well tonight to keep his spot in the rotation when Kaz comes back...

More Ray news will be forthcoming, but for now, I'm going to leave you with a link that I've found particularly interesting recently. It's an interesting look at the DH and why pitchers should never hit. Sorry, Joe, but I actually might agree with this article. The AL certainly has its pluses and honestly, I'm all for tradition and keeping things the way they always have been, but pitchers hitting doesn't seem to make much sense these days. The DH has permeated every level of the game down to high school ball and is even there in the minors, so why should things only be different in the NL? But anyway, read the article for yourself and decide.

Why Pitchers Should Never Hit

Terrible Day; Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day

2008-04-05T22:21:00.003-04:00

Today is a rough day for me in sports. Earlier, I listened in my car as the Mets fell to the Braves. Currently, I'm watching the Tar Heels get destroyed by Kansas in the Final Four. But I realize I said the "Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day" would be a daily feature, so instead of writing an angry piece about the Mets bullpen or anything like that, I'll just name that player for today and wait 'til tomorrow for some better news, hopefully.

Today's Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day was Aaron Harang of the Reds. Harang picked up a no-decision in his start today, but lasted 7 strong innings against the Phillies, keeping his team in the game before a Corey Patterson homerun and Paul Bako RBI groundout gave the Reds a lead and eventually a win. So congratulations to Aaron Harang for becoming the least-deserving Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day so far this season.

Daily Updates, including today's "Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day"

2008-04-03T22:33:00.004-04:00

The Mets had a travel day today, and I honestly didn't know what to do with myself. I also had no classes today, and so instead spent my day reading through as many Mets blogs as I could, over and over again -- half hoping that if I did it often enough the Mets would have a game or something for me to be excited about. Of course that didn't happen, so I instead listened to the broadcast of the Phillies-Nats game (which was miserable to listen to -- THROW A FRICKIN' STRIKE! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A BATTING PRACTICE PITCH OVER THE CENTER OF THE PLATE). Yeah, I'm not pleased about how that one turned out. So with the Nationals' bullpen obviously eliminated from contention for Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day, I had to wait to turn my attention to the Braves-Pirates game. In the 10th inning, Xavier Nady singled in the go-ahead run for the Bucs. Matt Capps came in for the save, and despite a 2-out triple by the incredibly fortunate Mark Kotsay, the lead held up. That makes former Met Xavier Nady a 2-time winner of the Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day.

Also in Atlanta, Mike Hampton was scratched about 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the game due to discomfort he felt during his warmups. This would have been Hampton's first Major League start in almost 3 years. Remember when he left the Mets to sign that 8 year, $120 million+ contract with the Rockies (which has since been transferred to the Braves)? I considered him as the Non Mets Player Mets Player of the Day, since that Braves rotation with him back in it was supposed to be the factor that would allow them to reclaim the East from the Mets and Phils. Now, who knows what his situation is... However, I like Xavier Nady much more, and he actually won the game for the Pirates.

Yesterday's and Today's "Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day"

2008-04-02T21:31:00.006-04:00

I didn't have a chance to post this last night, and frankly I tried to avoid writing after Pedro exited the game with his injury (he'll likely miss 4-6 weeks with a strained hamstring). The "Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day" for yesterday, April 1, was Claudio Vargas. Currently a free agent, I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see the Mets go after Vargas to fill Pedro's spot in the rotation while he is out.

For tonight, though the Mets, Marlins, and Braves are still playing, I can announce the winner of the "Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day" is Washington Nationals starting pitcher Tim Redding, who pitched 7 scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. This is the 3rd selection for a member of the Washington Nationals organization, with the entire teaming winning the honors for two days in a row to start the season.

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"The Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day" is a daily feature on this blog which recognizes the player outside of the Mets organization who makes the greatest contribution that day to the Mets defeating the Phillies and Braves in the NL East. Based on those qualifications, it is possible for Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins players to win this award, as neither are considered serious contenders in the division.

Xavier Nady, still helping the Mets cause

2008-03-31T21:57:00.007-04:00

I was a big fan of Xavier Nady for his half-season on the Mets. It was only due to the misfortune of Duaner Sanchez's taxi accident that the Mets traded Nady to pick up some bullpen help in Roberto Hernandez (and picked up Oliver Perez in the deal, as well). My fan-ocity (term still not trademarked) of Nady is still growing, as he just hit a solo homer in the 8th inning to put the Pirates ahead of the Braves.

On the subject of Nady, his story of finding out he'd been traded still amuses me. He dropped back 30-something (I could look up the exact number but I don't feel particularly motivated right now) games in the standings by going from the Mets to the Pirates in that deal. Here's the story, as I remember it: Nady said he didn't even know his name had ever come up in trade talks, and was at the beach with his fiancee all day. When he got back to his hotel room, he picked up his phone and saw there were over a dozen missed calls from Omar Minaya. "I knew that wasn't a good sign," Nady said. He then called Minaya and thanked him for allowing him the opportunity of being the Mets' right fielder for those previous four months.

"I knew that wasn't a good sign." It reminds me now of Bob Uecker's Hall of Fame Induction speech, where he listed the signs he noticed that he was possibly being released from a team: (1) Walking into the clubhouse on day one and having a coach tell you that visitor's aren't allowed; (2) Having management tell you they want you to consider joining the team as the 2nd Base Coach if they ever need one; (3) Being told by a manager to "Go grab a bat and kill this rally" or to "Go up there without a bat and try to work a walk." Oh, Bob Uecker. We all love you. But Xavier Nady is pretty good, too.

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Edit by Joe Cook at 11:53 PM:

Nady hit another 3-run homer in the top of the 12th inning to put the Pirates up 12-9. The Braves scored two runs in the bottom of the inning, but were finally retired. Xavier Nady, with his 4-7, 2 HR, 4 Run, 4 RBI game against the Braves today, shares the honors with the entire Washington Nationals team (who defeated the Phillies [bullpen] handily today) for my daily "Non-Mets Player Mets Player of the Day." This is the Nationals' second selection this year, and second in a row, as yesterday they won the honor for knocking off the Braves in extras on an extra-inning blast by Ryan Zimmerman (who was teammates in AAU Baseball with David Wright).

Here's a convo just now between the two operators of this site, following Pagan's RBI double for the Mets a few minutes ago

2008-03-31T17:26:00.001-04:00

Joe(5:24:02 PM): Angel Pagan is a god (or angel...) among men (or pagans...)!!
"JCS" (5:24:31 PM): lol
"JCS" (5:24:36 PM): gotta love that name, I've got to say
"JCS" (5:24:40 PM): it's pretty ridiculous
"JCS" (5:24:54 PM): what team is he on? to be honest, the name isn't really familiar
Joe(5:25:06 PM): I know it's pronounced differently, but I can't resist calling him by the way that's spelled
cooksbro10 (5:25:13 PM): He's the Mets starting left fielder
"JCS" (5:25:35 PM): ahh, okay
"JCS" (5:25:39 PM): hmm....interesting
"JCS" (5:25:39 PM): lol
"JCS" (5:25:51 PM): so either your team is blessed or has sold itself to the devil
Joe(5:25:55 PM): and to make it even more perfect, he's followed in the lineup by Ryan Church
"JCS" (5:26:01 PM): haha!
"JCS" (5:26:02 PM): wow...
"JCS" (5:26:09 PM): it really is a divine year for the mets

Time for my overarching pessimism to shine through

2008-03-31T16:32:00.002-04:00

Reyes just struck out on 3 pitches in the top of the 1st. What a great way to start the season!

It's Opening Day!

2008-03-31T14:12:00.003-04:00

The title is enough for incredible excitement among all baseball fans. Just on my buddy list of people at Gettysburg College, there are currently 11 people with away messages exclaiming "It's Opening Day!!" and then giving their favorite team. So I'm pumped. Santana is on the mound today against Hanley Ramirez and the otherwise AAA-level Marlins. So, being the Mets fan that I am, I'm cautiously optimistic about the game today.

So, in honor of opening day and hopefully the wide spectrum of readers we have here: Go Mets, Yankees, BoSox, Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles, Twins, ChiSox, Indians, Tigers, Royals, Mariners, Angels, Rangers, A's, Brewers, Cubs, Astros, Reds, Cardinals, Pirates, Rockies, D'backs, Padres, Dodgers, and Giants.

(Yes, I know I left out a few teams. That was not by accident.)

Finally another post: covering potato chips, the Nets, and the Mets

2008-03-19T23:33:00.004-04:00

I've had nothing much to write about lately and have been terribly busy with classes and the work that goes along with them. However, someone complained that there hasn't been enough new stuff on here lately, so here goes something:

I was just eating potato chips just now and pulled out 3 straight chips that were shaped perfectly like Texas, Ohio, and Indiana and were even proportionately-sized. I take that to be a sign that either the Republicans are gonna win those 3 states in November or the Nets are going to have a very good road trip. However, since the Nets recently completed a dreadful Texas roadtrip and then lost to the Cavs, it could mean that they're also going to have a terrible showing against the Pacers soon. I haven't checked their schedule to confirm this possibility.

On the Mets front, John Maine pitched well again today, allowing only one run (a solo homer) on four hits in 5-2/3 innings. Brian Schneider and Ramon Castro are both nursing strained right hamstrings, which means right now the #1 catcher in the organization is Robinson Cancel or Raul Casanova (who had 2 hits and an RBI in the game tonight). Also, El Duque pitched a simulated game today, throwing around 75-80 pitches. Sadly, his top pitch speed was also in that range. And some people who watched it said that at times it seemed like slow-pitch softball. Now, everybody has seen El Duque occasionally throw the Bugs Bunny slowball, but from the sounds of the reports, his pitches today were all at very mediocre velocities. The Mets don't need a 5th starter for about a month due to the oddity of April scheduling that comes every year, but this is a very discouraging sign (unless, of course, you're either Mike Pelfrey or Mike Pelfrey's mother).

Are We Seriously Relying on Delgado?

2008-03-13T11:34:00.004-04:00

Carlos Delgado has played two games so far this Spring since returning from his latest injury, had 5 at-bats, and has struck out in all 5 of them. It's great to see he's right at mid-season form.... Maybe Easley or Anderson should be the everyday first-baseman. It's too bad Shawn Green only wanted to play for a West Coast team this year (and wound up retiring). I know he was never fully accepted by many Mets fans, but at least Green hit consistently. He certainly didn't have the power he had during his years playing for Toronto and Los Angeles, but an average around .300 with limited power is something I'd gladly take over Delgado at this point.

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Edit:
Delgado just made contact with the ball finally. However, his first ball put in play this Spring resulted in an inning-ending double play. It would have been better if he had struck out...

Rays and Yanks battling it out

2008-03-12T21:16:00.002-04:00

Steve is currently traveling around Europe for a few weeks, so it falls on me to talk about the first exciting event in Devil Rays history. This would be perfect for him, since he used to be a Yankee fan and now roots for the Rays, but since he's acting so special by traveling around while I spent my Spring Break with all the excitement of the flu and bronchitis, it serves him right to miss this story.

As some of you may recognize from a previous post I wrote, I'm a bit of a fan of bench-clearing incidents in Major League Baseball (as long as incidents don't get out of hand like Jose Offerman charging the mound with his bat as a weapon in the Independent League). So I am thoroughly enjoying this story (other than the fact that a Yankees catching prospect broke his wrist) about the Rays and Yankees charging at each other today after Shelley Duncan made a supposedly dirty slide into second base. Now, I've watched Shelley Duncan play since he first came up with the Yankees, so it doesn't surprise me that he's finding himself embroiled in the middle of this violent controversy. The guy plays hard. I have no problem with aggressive play, as long as it's legal aggressive play. I haven't seen the video of his slide into Akinori Iwamura, so I can't say whether it was legal or not. But I'm glad this will give the AL East another storyline aside from the Yankee-BoSox rivalry. Last year, there was the ongoing conflict between the Blue Jays and Yankees (specifically A-Rod). So this year the Rays join in hating the Yanks. As a Mets fan, there's no team I'd rather see everybody in MLB hate than the Yankees (sorry Phillies and Braves; the Yanks are the Mets biggest rivals).

So far we have Phillies players talking in their clubhouse about eventually brawling the Mets despite the fact that a pitch hasn't been thrown with those two teams on the same field yet. Now we have the Rays and Yanks already fighting two weeks into March. It's going to be an entertaining year.

...my favorite quote concerning the Yanks-Rays brouhaha has to be this one from Troy Percival: "There's no room in baseball for that kind of stuff. Ty Cobb's been gone a long time." It's good to see Ty Cobb hating is still alive and well in players, keeping up the traditions of Babe Ruth ("Ty Cobb is a prick, but he's a prick who sure can hit.") and one of the Black Sox in Field of Dreams ("Ty Cobb wanted to play here, but none of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive so we told him to stick it.").

Here's to Shelley Duncan keeping Ty Cobb style of baseball alive and kicking.

"C is for Cobb
Who grew spikes and not corn,
And made all the basemen
Wish they weren't born."
-Ogden Nash, "Line-Up for Yesterday"

Update from last post

2008-03-08T14:59:00.003-05:00

Out of the large number of Mets listed in the last post as being injured, several returned to the lineup today. The biggest surprise was Ryan Church, returning from the Grade 2 concussion he suffered in his collision last weekend. Church looked good, ripping two line-drive singles to right in his only 2 at-bats. Also returning to the lineup for the game against the Marlins were Brian Schneider, Damion Easley, and Endy Chavez. This was a split-squad game, and on the other squad which traveled to face the Baltimore Orioles, Marlon Anderson made his return to the lineup.

Duaner Sanchez is also scheduled to pitch for the first time in 8 days in the game against the Marlins, though he hasn't entered the game yet as of now.

Beltran, Castillo, and Delgado continue to sit out. Reports on Beltran and Castillo sound like they could appear in a game any day now. Delgado has taken batting practice and reported no pain.

Moises Alou will definitely miss the beginning of the regular season. Orlando Hernandez has finally thrown a bit down in Florida, but there is no definite timetable for his first appearence in a game.

No Surprise from Alou; Mets' team injury recap

2008-03-05T23:01:00.006-05:00

The first poll on this blog asked readers to choose which Mets player would be most seriously injured this season. By a large margin, readers selected "Moises Alou, just by being Moises Alou." Those people are off to an early lead, as today it was learned that Alou will miss 4-6 weeks following surgery for a hernia.

How exactly did Alou get a hernia? From all that heavy lifting he does in his life? The bat and ball are really heavy.... Every Spring Training game he has played so far, I've yelled at the tv screen for Alou to just walk to any balls hit to left and allow the batter to get an inside the park homerun in order to avoid injuring his legs. I don't know what he could have done to cause this hernia, or possibly could've done to prevent it. What a disaster.

So, to recap for people, the Mets regular starters in the outfield (Ryan Church, Carlos Beltran, and Moises Alou) are all injured. Their primary back-up outfielder (Endy Chavez) is injured. Their starting catcher (Brian Schneider) is injured. Their first baseman (Carlos Delgado) and both of his backups (Damion Easley and Marlon Anderson, both of whom are also backup outfielders and backup utility infielders) are injured. Their second baseman (Luis Castillo) is injured, along with both of his backups already named and also the person who would come 4th on the depth chart at second base (Jose Valentin). So out of the Mets 8 position-player regulars, only David Wright and Jose Reyes are uninjured at this time (though Reyes did take a couple days off after awkwardly fouling a ball off his own knee). What a great start...

Mets reserves on a roll...I guess...

2008-03-03T00:13:00.002-05:00

The Mets have won 2 in a row. Win tomorrow, and that's our first winning streak of the season.

...Yes, I know it's only Spring Training. But I spent over two hours tonight in East Rutherford watching the Nets play like crap against the Spurs. So Mets' reserves are really all I have in sports right now (though I appreciate that the Colorado Avalanche, my favorite hockey team, are apparently putting the band back together from their 2001 team by recently re-acquiring Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote).

Church and Anderson collide

2008-03-01T14:12:00.002-05:00

Crap!! Ryan Church and Marlon Anderson just collided going for a flyball in shallow right. It was nowhere near as horrifying as the Beltran-Cameron collision. It looked like Church's head collided with Anderson's chest or chin. Church probably has a concussion, I would guess. Anderson took longer to get up. Obviously, they both came out of the game. A serious injury to either would hurt the Mets badly.

The Mets are currently tied 0-0 with the Dodgers, but the Dodgers have the bases loaded with 2 outs, with Pedro Feliciano on the mound.

Reason to Dislike Steinbrenner #238

2008-02-27T13:41:00.008-05:00

Talking about the Make-A-Wish Foundation, if you ever get unlucky (lucky? not really) enough to make one of those wishes, beware of George "Who-Gives-A-Crap-About-Kids-With-Cancer?" Steinbrenner. In 1998, I wished to go meet the Yankees and I was supposed to go onto the field and get to hobnob with the the team during batting practice, but George Steinbrenner showed up at the stadium and put an end to that. Apparently he doesn't like anything "distracting" his players before a game. The Make-A-Wish Foundation worked on their feet quickly, though, so I did still get to sneakily stand outside the clubhouse and get a picture with any players coming in and out, but I'll always hold a grudge again George.

Besides for that, though, the day was awesome. We got tickets about halfway up the stands right behind the plate, plus they paid for us to go out to dinner at "Mickey Mantle's" after the game (which is an incredible restaurant filled to the brim with Yankee memorabilia). The game was against the White Sox and the Yanks won 6-3, thanks to homeruns by Posada and Bernie. Okay, I didn't actually remember the score off the top of my head...I had to go look up the box score on Retrosheet. If you're curious and want to look it up too, the date was July 26th, 1998. But I did remember those two homeruns, especially the one by Bernie since he was my favorite player at the time (and still is to this day).

I suppose times may be changing with George Steinbrenner stepping down and leaving the ballclub in the hands of his sons, but I think the best bet is to ask to meet specific players like Sean Clayton did today. I think any player would be honored to be someone's Make-A-Wish, so you would probably be spoiled quite a bit. Although I really cannot complain at all because that day worked out beautifully. I still got to meet Bernie and O'Neill, which was enough right there to make that the best day of my life. Looking back now, I wish I'd run into Torre as well, but oh well...you can't have everything. Maybe when I go home this summer I'll scan pictures from that day and put them up here. They're definitely really amusing, especially my one with Chuck Knoblauch. Even in the 5th grade, I was taller than him...

Mets vs. Michigan, and Proof there are good guys in baseball even in the steroid era

2008-02-26T23:38:00.005-05:00

The Mets took on the Univesity of Michigan baseball team today in an exhibition game. In between classes, I was able to listen to innings 6, 7, and 8 via the online broadcast. I actually had to leave for an afternoon class right after Michigan took the lead on a deep 2-run homer. With the Mets having removed all their regulars (and even primary backups having left the game by that point), my hopes weren't high for a comeback. I returned from class to learn that Michel Abreu had hit a game-tying 2-run shot to center field with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. This will likely be Michel Abreu's only appearance on this blog, so I'm officially declaring February 26, 2008 "Michel Abreu Day." The game ended in a tie, since the Mets ran out of pitchers scheduled to throw today. While I was furious at the declaration of a tie in the All-Star Game in Milwaukee a few years ago, I didn't mind this one. My favorite moment of the game, which I didn't get to hear because it was in the bottom of the 9th, had to be 3rd Base Coach Sandy Alomar Sr. apparently going ballistic over Abreu's shot originally being ruled a double. As I wrote a couple days ago, I'm looking for some real fire on the Mets this year. If that passion starts with Sandy Alomar Sr., so be it. Whoever it takes.

Second best moment of today was definitely David Wright homering on the first pitch he saw in the first inning. As Steve noted in an earlier post, I have what some would categorize as a man-crush on Wright. Heck, why not? The guy is a great player, with the proper attitude toward the game.

Also, my sympathy to Aaron Heilman. As a proud Notre Dame alum, it must have been particularly hard on Heilman having given up a run to the Wolverines today.

Tomorrow is the first official Spring Training game for the Mets, as they take on the Tigers at 1:05. I will be listening on MLB Audio. I haven't ordered MLB.tv yet, but probably will soon. Mike Pelfrey will start on the mound for the Mets.

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This is just another item from baseball I wanted to note today. As part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Roy Halladay today provided a 13-year old cancer survivor with a wonderful day. I always enjoy the Make-A-Wish Foundation segments when they're shown on ESPN and when I see stories about them online. Many people view Major Leaguers as a bunch of selfish [due to huge contracts] criminals [due to steroid and HGH use], but: A) I truly believe that performance-enhancing drug users are a minority in MLB, no matter what Jose Canseco and others say; and B) A lot of the players in MLB honestly enjoy giving back to their fans when they can. Doc Halladay has always struck me as a good guy when I've seen interviews with him and such, and I'm thrilled for young Sean Clayton for achieving his dream by meeting the Blue Jays' Cy Young-winning ace.

I know Sean Casey (now of the Red Sox) has consistently been voted the nicest player in MLB by the players. I wonder who all of you think of when you think of baseball players who are truly decent human beings? Tell me your thoughts on this in the comments.

Rookie Ball: Why are baseball fans such stats freaks?

2008-02-26T13:18:00.006-05:00

Okay, that's not a very fair question. Not all baseball fans are obsessed with statistics, but if you've ever watched or listened to a baseball game, you know what I'm talking about. Baseball commentators use an inane amount of stats during their broadcasts, which can make it very tough for anyone trying to pick up baseball to understand what the hell is going on.

"Tejada is batting just .350 over the course of the last 10 games, plus he's also posting career highs with a .388 OBP this season. And just looks at all those 107 RBIs and 35 HRs...this guy is seriously raking it!"
"Good point there Chuck, but he is facing Roy Oswalt, who's got a career 10-2 record and 2.01 ERA in the month of August. Righties also only have a .211 OBP against him, so Tejada is going to have a tough shot getting on base."
"Ahh, right you are Bob."

If you happen to know what all of those statistics mean, then good for you! If you don't however, have no fear - that only means that you're probably normal, an unfortunate turn of events that I'm going to do my best to remedy.

To begin with, let's talk about why statistics are used in sports, period. Basically, they provide an objective means of measuring players and determining if one player is better than another. Duh, right? It seems obvious...if a player puts up good numbers, then they're better than someone who doesn't. The trick is, what statistics do you use to determine a player's worth? Also, can a player really be reduced to statistics? That last question is actually the center of a very big controversy in baseball at the moment and it would take way too long to get into, so let's focus on the first question for now: what stats are the most important? Well, here are the basics that every baseball fan worth their salt should know...

Hitting

Runs (R): the amount of times that player scored a run themselves.
Homeruns (HR): the amount of homeruns the player hit.
Runs Batted In (RBIs): the amount of runs a player hit home.
Stolen Bases (SBs): when a pitcher is throwing the ball, runners on base are allowed to attempt to run and "steal" the next base. They have to be pretty damn fast and good not to get caught, but it is possible.
Batting Average (BA): the amount of hits a player has divided by their total number of at bats. This is normally rounded off at three decimal places.
On-Base Percentage (OBP): How often a player gets on base, either by getting a hit or drawing a walk. This differs from batting average because OBP includes walks, while a players batting average simply measures hits.

Pitching

Wins (W): when a pitcher starts a game and leaves the game with his team ahead, he qualifies for a win. If his team wins that game without ever relinquishing that lead or letting the other team tie the game, he gets a win.
Loss (L): However, if a pitcher leaves the game with his team losing, his team never ties the game, and then his team loses, he gets a loss.
Saves (SV): If a pitcher comes in with his team ahead and finishes the game, he can qualify for "saving" the game if he enters the game when his team is up by three runs or less.
Strikeouts (K): However many players a pitcher has struck out. You'll see this number represented by a K or sometimes a backwards K (this is for if a player struck out without swinging at the last pitch).
Earned Run Average (ERA): This statistic represents the number of runs that a pitcher would let up on average if they were to pitch an entire 9 inning game.
Walks + Hits / Innings Pitched (WHIP): The average number of baserunners that a pitcher lets on base per inning.

These are the most basic statistics out there and the most common ones in use by far. For a full list of baseball statistics, if you're curious, just check out this. Be warned, though, prolonged thinking has been known to lead to spontaneous combustion, so watch out how long you puzzle over all of those. If you want to know enough basic information to successfully watch a baseball game, those are the numbers you need to know.

Now, why are these numbers significant? How accurate do they actually predict performace on the field? These answers and more coming up!

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Edit by Joe Cook: In order for a starting pitcher to qualify for a win, he must have pitched at least five full innings, leave with the lead, and have his team hold the lead for the remainder of the game. (E.g. Johan Santana pitches 6 innings for the Mets, and leaves with a 3-2 lead. However, in the 8th inning, the Braves tie the game. This disqualifies Johan Santana from the win, even though he is not the pitcher who gives up the lead.)
Also, a relief pitcher receives a win if he recorded the last out prior to the half-inning in which his team takes a lead which they do not then relinquish at any point. (E.g. Aaron Heilman comes in and pitches the top of the 8th inning for the Mets. When he enters the game, the game is tied 3-3. He records the three outs for the inning, and in the bottom of the 8th inning the Mets score to take a 4-3 lead. The Mets hold the lead for the rest of the game, and so Aaron Heilman gets the win.)

The final way in which a pitcher qualifies for a win is in a situation in which the starting pitcher leaves the game before completing 5 innings (for injury or any other reason). In this case, if the pitcher's team is leading when he leaves, and they lead in the score throughout the rest of the game, it is up to the official scorer to determine which subsequent pitcher had the largest impact on the game, and that pitcher receives credit for the win. E.g. Orlando Hernandez starts the game for the Mets. In the 4th inning, with the Mets winning 7-1, Hernandez is injured and leaves the game. Joe Smith enters for the Mets, and pitches 3 innings in relief without giving up a run. Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner each pitch an inning after that to finish the game. The Official Scorer would likely credit Joe Smith for the win in this situation. This is, by far, the most confusing of all scenarios.

Edit #2 by Joe Cook: As I continue to look through this post, my disappointment in Steve is growing (just kidding; I know he tried to make things very simple here). This addition is to the Saves section. Steve gave the most traditional, and most common, definition of how to record a save. However, in a couple of strange technicalities, there are other ways in which pitchers can record a save. For one, the pitcher is not required to pitch all of the 9th inning. However, a pitcher cannot come in with 2 outs in the 9th inning with nobody on base and get a save by recording the final out. If a relief pitcher comes into the game, and finishes the game without relinquishing the lead, he receives credit for a save if his team was leading by 3 runs or less when he came in. If there are already outs in the 9th inning when the pitcher comes into the game, he receives a save only if his team wins by one or two runs, unless runners are on base when he enters the game in the 9th inning creating a situation in which the tying run is on deck when he enters. (See now why Steve tried to keep this so simple?)
A relief pitcher can also record a save if he enters the game to start the 7th inning with his team leading, and finishes the game without giving up the lead. This 3-inning-save rule does not take into account how many runs the team is leading by. E.g. The Mets are winning 16-4 at the end of the 6th inning. Jorge Sosa enters the game as the Mets new pitcher to start the 7th inning. He pitches the remainder of the game, in which the Mets hold on to win 16-14. Jorge Sosa records a save for having successfully pitched the final 3 innings without losing the lead. Confusing, right?

For Baseball Newbies...

2008-02-26T10:49:00.003-05:00

Since starting this blog, I've realized that most baseball blogs out there tend to assume that the reader has a very advanced level of baseball. In fact, most sites out there deal with specific details about individual teams and players, which to the baseball nut out there is awesome, but it's less than ideal for most casual fans out there. In an effort to be fair to everyone out there, I will be starting a new column here aimed specifically at new or only causl baseball fans called...drum roll, please...Rookie Ball.

In this column, I will attempt to cover things about the baseball that may seem confusing if you didn't already know a lot about the game, such as the proponderence of statistics (article coming soon!), the importance of the past and history, tips on how to become a baseball fan, and anything else that strikes my fancy. If you ever have a question for me or would like to know something about a topic having to do with baseball, feel free to email me at slowjo01@gettysburg.edu. That being said, look out for the first Rookie Ball article to be coming your way soon!

The Dangers of Batting Practice

2008-02-25T13:28:00.003-05:00

As I discussed in my last post, Brad Lidge will miss 3-6 weeks after injuring his knee when a spike got caught during batting practice at Phillies camp. The dangers of batting practice have since reached Tradition Field at Port St. Lucie. While taking BP, Carlos Beltran was hit in the arm by a pitch from Johan Santana. The arm is only black and blue, but any time anything happens to Beltran it is cause for concern.

Beltran is not taking part in today's intrasquad game, which began at noon.

Lidge injured in batting practice

2008-02-23T19:12:00.005-05:00

I admit it's never proper to take pleasure in a person injuring themselves. However, after several days of hearing Phillies fans tell me that their pitching staff is fixed with Myers moving back to the rotation and Lidge being inserted into the 'pen, I couldn't help but chuckle when I read today that Brad Lidge reinjured the knee he had surgery on four months ago. Apparently he got a spike caught on his first pitch of batting practice.

I don't expect this Lidge injury is serious; he will probably take several days off, which may put him slightly behind schedule for conditioning and arm-strengthening, but nothing major. The most severe trauma Lidge is going to suffer this year is the first homerun he gives up in the tiny sardine can that is Citizen's Bank Park. Granted those Albert Pujols homeruns that broke down his confidence were hit to left field in Houston, which can be a chip shot itself. But those Pujols shots were anything but chips. They were bombs. Still, let's see how Lidge reacts when his ERA is hovering around 6 due to cheap homers to the corners in Philly.

-------------------------------------------

Update:

It was revealed today that Lidge will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his knee, and will miss 3-6 weeks. So the injury is more serious than I originally believed. Three weeks would still allow him a few appearences in Spring Training. However, if 6 weeks is more accurate, he could miss the start of the regular season.

The Phillies have got to be concerned about the possibility of persistent knee problems for Lidge. After all, they were hoping that he would shore up the bullpen this season. It was the acquisition of Lidge that allowed the Phillies to move Brett Myers back into the rotation. Could Myers head back to the 'pen if Lidge's knee continues to be problematic? That would require the Phils to go out and sign a free agent starter, since there isn't much depth at all in their farm system.

Goodbye and Good Riddance

2008-02-23T12:34:00.004-05:00

I'll admit it, when the Matt Garza for Delmon Young trade first went through, I was saddened. Ever since I started rooting for the team, Delmon Young had been proclaimed to be the future of the Devil Rays, a 40 HR-per-year cornerstone to build the franchise around. The trade almost felt like Andrew Friedman and Stuart Sternberg were ripping our future away from us after only having him for one season. But then I blinked and hey, life began looking better already. We got some awesome players in return for him and there was always talk that he was a bad clubhouse presence.

Well, now this comes to light and I have to say, I'm very glad that the Delmon Young Era is done and finished in Tampa. Apparently Delmon can't keep his mouth shut, even though he's not on the Rays anymore. What strikes me the most about this whole "he-said" shenanigans is the fact that Crawford got pissed, which is something you very rarely see. Apparently Delmon wasn't too well liked in the D-Rays clubhouse last year at all, though no one admitted it at the time.

So Delmon can just add his name to the list of bad attitude players that trashed the Rays after leaving, joining the illustrius ranks of Aubrey Huff and Toby Hall. I suppose we may regret trading him away if he goes out and smashes 30 HRs this year and has an amazing career, but at this point, I'm just thankful to be rid of his attitude. We have a surplus of OF talent and I'm very excited to see Garza in action. Delmon is going to regret leaving once the Rays finish the year with a better record than the Twins (which is definitely possible at this point)....

I hope he gets boo-ed when the Twins are in town.

Man love for David Wright

2008-02-23T12:22:00.003-05:00

For all of you out there that are David Wright fans, I just found this article and figured that even though the MVP voting from last year is long done, people might still enjoy it (especially if you're a David Wright nut like Joe). I have to say, though, even I can't deny that Wright is one hell of a player. And judging from this article, sabremetricians (?) love him a heck of a lot as well.

Just ignore the second half of the article. It's not too nice on the Mets.

Why I'm a Rays Fan

2008-02-23T05:31:00.004-05:00

I believe that there's some explanation in order, since the fact that I'm a Ray fan probably seems as foreign and weird to most people as the fact that curling is actually popular somewhere. I am in no way trying to sway anyone's support or convince others to become Ray fans but hey, it it happens, I'm certainly not complaining.

My journey to enlightenment started somewhere around the spring of 2003, I believe. As I mentioned in my last post, a bunch of my friends and I were self-publishing a baseball magazine to sell in our high school. Up until this point, I'd been a born-and-raised Yankee fan and I had no desire at all to go against my family's favorite team. However, this is also the year that Rocco Baldelli got called up by the Devil Rays and became an overnight sensation due to the fact that he had quite possibly the best baseball name of all time and that he batted around .350 for his entire first month or so in the majors. One of my friends wrote an article for our magazine about how Baldelli could be considered the most important player in baseball at the time, since he was actually causing excitement for a team as lowly as the Devil Rays. Later on that year, I first jokingly referred to myself as a D-Ray fan. At the time, I had no idea how true that would play out to be.

The big turning point happened during that next offseason, when the Yankees went nuts after losing the Series to the Marlins and did what in my mind was a complete rehaul. They let Andy Pettite go (and Roger Clemens, but I didn't care nearly as much about him as I did about Andy) and they signed every big name player out there in the free agent pool: Javier Vasquez, Kevin Brown, Esteban Loaiza (who was coming off his only great year), Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, and Gary Sheffield. Oh, and they also traded for that Rodriguez guy. Ever since they lost the Series in 2001, getting the biggest guns available out there became the Yankee strategy. For an idea how ludricrous this was, take a look at these numbers...

2000 payroll: $92.9 million (1st in the league by $2 million)
2001 payroll: $112.3 million (1st in the league by $3 million)
2002 payroll: $125.9 million (1st in the league by $17.5 million)
2003 payroll: $152.7 million (1st in the league by $35.5 million)
2004 payroll: $184.2 million (1st in the league by $57 million)
2005 payroll: $208.3 million (1st in the league by $84.8 million)

If I were to graph this, it'd remind me a heck of a lot of graphs of worldwide population growth. While it took humans from the year 10,000 BC until 1804 AD to reach a population size of 1 billion, it only took us 123 years to reach our next billion. And then another 13 years to reach the next billion. And so on and so forth until we've now already eclipsed 6 billion humans living on this planet at one time. In the same way, it took baseball since its inception in the 1800s until 2001 for a team to break the $100 million dollar barrier. Four years later, the $200 million barrier was shattered as well. Since then the Yankees have scaled back and Brian Cashman has begun trying to rectify the mess they created, but the damage was already done.

Attribute their spending to market trends and inflation is you want, but I couldn't help but be disgusted with the Yankees' spending. Does having the largest pocketbook make you a great team? How can you feel good about winning when with that large a payroll, you're expected to win? And what happened to the history and tradition of the Yankee franchise? Do stars honestly think that you can become a "Yankee great" just by signing with the Yankees and playing a couple seasons there? Players like Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra...they were all homegrown talent that stayed with the Yankees for their whole careers. True, there are some exceptions to the rule...Babe Ruth and Roger Maris were traded for, but even they spent the vast majority of their years playing baseball in a Yankee uniform.

So in my mind, none of the players that the Yankees signed were or are true Yankees. Jeter, Posada, Bernie, Rivera, Pettite...those are true Yankees. The rest of them were just after big money and a World Series title, so in my mind they were a disgrace to the uniform. The Yankees had turned from a team of destiny in '96 to a team of sell outs. I simply couldn't stand it.

I gave the Yankees one last chance to redeem themselves, but when they lost in the playoffs in 2004 after being up 3 games to none to the Red Sox, I decided that the baseball gods had just passed their judgement. I knew before the World Series even started that the Red Sox would win. Once they'd beaten the Yankees, it was inevitable. The Yankees had so disgraced the name of their franchise, the Curse of the Bambino had broken. The way I like to see it, Babe Ruth figured that if the current Yankees were content to ignore the history and tradition of their franchise, then he didn't have to screw the Red Sox over for them anymore. The Yankees brought their ruin upon themselves.

In response, I switched allegiances. I switched from the team with the highest payroll to the team with the lowest, which at the time was the Devil Rays. Actually, the Brewers had the lowest payroll in 2004, but I was too attached to the AL East to make that drastic a switch. And anyway, the D-Rays were just so helpless. They'd completely and thoroughly sucked ever since their inception, so I wanted a taste of that misery. As I was observing, Red Sox fans had suffered for years on end, but it only made their eventual World Series win 86 years later all the more sweet. So hey, maybe I'm setting myself up for years and years of suffering, but at least the (Devil) Rays are running a franchise like I believe it's supposed to be built: using home-grown talent.

Heck, no one can accuse a Ray of being there for the money. Even recent signgings Troy Percival and Cliff Floyd aren't in it for the money, but because as they proclaim, they want to be a part of something great that's happening in Tampa. Carlos Pena just signed a 3 year contract to stay with the Rays, even though he could most definitely command more than what he signed for in the free agent pool. To me, this is a team that really has their hearts in the right place.

Also, this team has a bunch of players that you just can't help but root for. There's Scott Kazmir, who's been told time and time again that he's too small to be a starter. You have Rocco Baldelli, who has so much talent but such a fragile body. You have Jonny Gomes, whose family was in and out of a homeless shelter when he was growing up. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, he had a heart attack at the age of 22. But despite it all, he's up there swinging for the fences and playing his heart out every game he gets a chance. He donates to all sorts of charities and runs a baseball camp back in his hometown, so how can you not root for the guy?

Then there's Carlos Pena, who came out of nowhere to have an amazing season last year, and you'll never find a player who seems to enjoy himself more playing the game of baseball. There is always a smile on his face, a spark in his eye, and praise on his lips. He certainly doesn't take his success for granted, but takes every opportunity to express how lucky he has been to be where he is now. And you can't ignore Carl Crawford, who has always been the epitome of class even though he's suffered through 6 losing seasons as a Devil Ray. He has never trash talked the franchise, like fellow long-timers Aubrey Huff and Toby Hall. Instead, he signed a deal a couple years ago that keeps him as a Ray and at a much cheaper price than he'd get on the open market. How classy is that?

If you haven't figured it out by now, the Rays are a collection of good guys, feel-good stories, and underdogs trying to beat the odds. And then there's the Yankees, where all you have is more and more A-Rod drama. I'm sorry, but I'm definitely sticking with the Rays.

So that's my story. I certainly hope that the Yankees one day return to their roots and learn that home-grown talent is better than signing new free agents every year. They made great strides this offseason by not trading for Santana and instead hanging on to Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Melky Cabrera, and Joba Chamberlain. Now if they can only get rid of Damon, Giambi, Abreu, and A-Rod, I'd consider rooting hard for them again. At this point, though, my heart lies in one place and one place only....Go Rays!

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

2008-02-22T12:36:00.007-05:00

I'm sure that if you all read MetsBlog or even MLB.com or the NY Post -- or really any media that is covering Spring Training -- you are already aware that it has been suggested by Phillies players that there could very well be a brawl between the Phils and Mets in any of their 19 meetings this season. For the record, their first meeting will be on April 8 -- the Mets' home opener at Shea. Here's what Pedro had to say (Quoted by Bart Hubbuch in the NY Post) in response to the comments by the Phillies:

“I don’t believe there’s a reason to be fighting, but we’re over here. Basically, if [they’re] going to have to brawl or whatever, we’re over here. We’ll wait…I love Jimmy Rollins, I love [Brett]

Myers, I love everybody…but I would love to beat the [snot] out of them on the field.”

I love it, personally. I can't remember there being a single real brawl this past season. The closest I can remember was that ridiculous incident at the very end of the year when Miguel Olivo charged Jose Reyes at 3rd Base from the Pitcher's Mound. I think the lack of any actual fights is evidence enough that the Mets lacked the killer instinct they sorely needed down the stretch. Just looking back on Mets History, some of the first events that come to my mind are brawls (and granted that may just be because I have the subject in mind). But think about it: there was RoseBud. There were the Bad Boys of the '86 team, who -- on the rare occasion that they didn't beat a team on the scoreboard, they made certain to beat that team with their fists. In my own lifetime, I can still picture the Spring Training game when Guillermo Mota (yes, a lot of you forgot that we hated Mota long before he was blowing games even while on 'roids for the Mets) drilled Mike Piazza for the 3rd or 4th time in a span of just a couple years, and the benches cleared. Jeromy Burnitz charged literally into the Dodgers dugout and fought off several players (criticize Burnitz's strikeout total all you want -- I sure do -- but that guy at least showed every day that he wanted to win). And at his side for a part of that charge was the Light Brigade of Joe McEwing. But, just like the historic Light Brigade, McEwing was quickly pummeled by numerous Dodgers players (for those of you who are confused, No, the Light Brigade did not fight against Dodgers players. The players in this analogy are cannons). Joe McEwing may have been a scrappy player, but a master fighter he was not.

What I'm saying in all this rambling of memories is simply: Bring it on, Phillies. I'm not quite as afraid of your team now that Ugueth Urbina is rotting in a South American prison. If he comes back to pitch in your bullpen, then I think maybe the Mets and Phils should seek a truce. After all, the last thing we need is for any of our pitchers to get an arm hacked off by a machete, or to have Jose Reyes lit on fire. We need a fire lit under Reyes's ass, not a charred shortstop trying to swipe bases.

By the way, Pedro said later in the NY Post article that it's simply human nature to defend yourself when someone is coming at you. So there, he should now be completely forgiven for throwing Don Zimmer to the ground. After all, wouldn't you do the same? No? You would just step to the side and watch Zimmer pass right on by you? Well, I guess that works, too... But where's the fun in that? Zimmer may have been a fat grandfather, but don't let that simple fact deceive you, Jimmy Rollins. Pedro won't hesitate to throw you to the ground in the same way (assuming you simply put your head down and charge like a bull at Pedro's chest the way Zim did). Or maybe he'll just send a bunch of roosters to attack you...... You don't know what he'll do. And personally, I can't wait to see it. Ryan Howard is chubby, too; maybe he'll go on the attack the way the Zim did. 1000% pay raise or not, I'll still take Pedro in a fight over Howard.

Let the games begin.

The Start of an Era

2008-02-22T07:56:00.006-05:00

Hello there everyone! My name is Steve Slowinski and you, my friends, have some very difficult questions facing you. Why should you read this blog? What is it about this particular sports blog that differentiates it from all the other dime-a-dozen sports blogs out there? Do these writers have any sort of expertise? Why should I even trust them? Why am I wasting my life in front of the computer and in particular, reading this blog?

Well, fellow baseball fans, the long and short answer is glaringly obvious: because you have nothing else better to do. But if you've stuck around this long and haven't already gone outside to play a game of catch (which like Joe, I highly recommend), then maybe you deserve to get something out of your two or three minute investment so far. You, those lucky few that have persevered this long, are lucky enough to be present at the beginning of an era. You, right now sitting in front of your computer and staring blankly at the screen, you are a witness to history.

No, I'm not talking about the beginning of the Era of the Rays (even though that might be true as well), but about this blog. This is no ordinary sports blog, the likes of which you can find out there on the internet simply by sneezing and clicking your heels together three times. As JRR Tolkien put it:

"From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king."

I don't know where this crown is, but I sure as hell want it. For this blog, mark my words, shall soon be lord over all the blogosphere. That poem says it all, doesn't it? The Brewers ignited their fire last year, after years in the ashes of the NL Central. A-Rod has come out and claimed that he never did steroids, giving us a beam of shining, pure light in this moment of darkness (note the sarcasm...). And Sammy Sosa made his comeback last year, renewing that hollow blade he infamously broke, so obviously the moment of truth is upon us. We're simply here to receive our crown.

If it isn't obvious by now already, when Joe invited me to join this blog, I simply couldn't pass up the chance. I've been an avid baseball fan my entire life, ever since my dad took me to my first pro game in '95. It was at Yankee Stadium and although the Yankees lost to the Twins at that point, I was lucky enough to follow the Yankees closely all throughout their magical '96 season. More recently, I switched allegiances from the Yankees to the Devil Rays around the year 2002 (more to come on that later), and I have never wavered since. I've been playing fantasy baseball since middle school and by now, I'm completely and thoroughly a stats freak. Baseball, quite simply, is life.

As enthralled I'm sure you all are with my life story, what does this have to do with crowns and kings, you may ask? One word - everything. Ever since a young age, I knew I was destined for greater things. All my dreams came true when in high school, I self-published a baseball magazine with a bunch of my friends, earning us around 100 dollars total over three years and a trip to the principal's office. Glory days indeed...

And so, here I am. Here you are. Here this blog is. And here you shall read daily all the baseball news you never needed to know, but can't help but read anyway. Just think, years from now when we've bought out ESPN and have brought handball to the US, you'll be able to look back on this day and say yes, I was there when it all began. Be thankful. Praise baseball! Praise Babe Ruth! Allehuhia!

....I'm still waiting for that crown.

Condolences to David Wright and family

2008-02-22T00:06:00.003-05:00

My condolences to David Wright and his family in Norfolk, Virginia. Wright's grandmother passed away this afternoon. According to Steve Popper at the Bergen Record, David will be flying home to Norfolk this weekend to be with his family.

J-Roll, the Collapse, and disappointing Cubs fans

2008-02-21T12:25:00.001-05:00

Well, it's Spring [Training] again, and you know what that means. That's right; Jimmy Rollins is talking and Cubs fans are depressed.

My college -- and especially my band of friends -- is a bit heavily loaded with Phillies fans, unfortunately. Remember in Office Space when Peter said that whenever he made a mistake, he had 8 different people coming by to tell him about it? Well, that's what every day of The Collapse was for me -- only the number wasn't 8; it was more like 20. And this wasn't limited to students on campus. I was hearing it from old acquaintances who had transferred, and even from professors. People were shocked the day after The Collapse was complete that I still walked around with a David Wright jersey and a Mets cap on. But hey, it certainly wasn't Wright's fault. His September still merited he could've won the MVP. But instead, that award became the ultimate kick-while-down: "Jimmy Rollins, MVP." That day, a bunch of my friends suddenly had Phillies jerseys -- some with the tags still on them... Hmm... I wore Mets jerseys and caps every day back when the only reason to go to Shea was to see if Todd Hundley could hit a moon shot from on his heels or on his knee or whatever ridiculous type of swing he took that day (Fun Fact: My pet cat which I've had for years now is named after Todd Hundley). I never stopped wearing my #20 jersey and believing Burnitz could come up with a big-fly (or an accidental single) in a big spot, only to see him strike out again and again. I threw a small party when Armando Benitez left the team. I've seen the bad. I wasn't going to let one month of poor baseball rule my fan-ocity (not yet Trademarked). Hopefully this year Rollins will be forced to shut up while Wright or Beltran receive the MVP (And Pedro for Comeback Player of the Year? Unless, of course, Juan Gonzalez can hit like in his Mitchell Report days...).

And as for Cubs fans... I admit, I don't know many personally. But the one I am friends with here at college is not expecting anything from the 100 year anniversary other than that number continuing to increase. His reaction to Ryan Dempster's proclamation that the Cubbies are the team to beat? "Thanks, Ryan, you @$$****." But I think Cubs fans should just continue to say "100 Years" no matter how long it takes. Heck, the Hundred Years War really lasted 139 years or something like that. I'm not sure whether the Cubs are the French and the Cardinals the English in this Hundred Years War analogy or the other way around. Wouldn't the French need an eccentric woman on their side as a Joan of Arc equivalent? Would that mean Marge Schott and the 1990s Reds? Or Anna Benson (photo link from metstradamus.blogspot.com) and the '08 Phillies? Well, it's convenient if the Phillies are the French -- two groups of people I despise...).

I miss the Red Sox 1918 Curse. Their fans were so much more fun to mess with. Every year, they truly believed until the bitter end. Cubs fans are a different breed. They don't get their hopes up too high. It's disappointing. They're just sad.

Anyway, I'm not the only one pumped about Spring Training. I'm going to have a catch. I suggest you do the same. It's a much more fun way of emulating your favorite players than practicing Congressional Testimony, I found after attempting to watch the Clemens-McNamee circus.

Welcome to the Blog

2008-02-21T03:24:00.000-05:00

Hey there, everybody in the blogosphere. Welcome to this brand new blog. The focus is going to be mostly on sports -- and specifically on baseball. Just to let you know, I'm a life-long Mets fan, and the posts will reflect that. I have no real access to players or coaches or anybody else affiliated with the organization -- or any organization. This is simply going to be a fan's perspective of the Amazin's. I was born 9 months too late to enjoy a Mets World Series title in my lifetime, so hopefully this will be the year.

I have no real expertise other than being an avid fan. For all-access, great coverage, check out Matthew Cerrone at metsblog.com. I've seen more than my share of baseball games, and I hope you trust me when I say I know what I'm talking about (hopefully you'll at least bear with this blog long enough to give me a chance to show that).

I may occasionally post an angry response to something going on with the New Jersey Nets. I was a Phoenix Suns fan when J-Kidd was playing there, and I'm far from pleased with his recent departure to Dallas for a scrap heap of guys that includes Keith Van Horn. Heck, is it me, or did Keith Van Horn (I say did because Keith hasn't played a game since 2005) always seem like he would be getting wedgies from the other guys if the game was being played in the school-yard? I could just picture Van Horn being powerless as a guy pulls his jockeys all the way up to the 6'10" top of his head for an atomic wedgie.

But anyway, since talk of Keith Van Horn and the Nets is just making me depressed, let's return to baseball. Suffice it to say for now that I'm pumped about Spring Training returning. Heck, if there was a network that televised daily workouts, I would skip all my classes and just sit around watching David Wright take infield practice and Duaner Sanchez throwing live BP today to a group of guys (only D-Wright managed to make contact against him on a foul tip, and Easley was the only other player to take a hack, but swung and missed).

I'm also hoping I'll be able to convince my roommate, Steve Slowinski, to take up writing here, as well. I gotta give him credit; rooting for the D-Rays, he suffers more than Mets fans like I do. He's in Denmark now studying, and I don't waste a day reminding him that there's no baseball in Denmark. I think Spring Break we might have to both fly down to Florida for Spring Training. We'll see.

Well, that's enough of an intro for now. I'll try to post often on events down in Port St. Lucie. If nothing else, I'll try to post links to other sites' articles and posts that you might find interesting.

Go Mets!!!