WTF?!

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.

Why is Ryan Church not playing?

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.

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!!!!


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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...

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

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?!

Mets Home Opener about to Begin

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.