A Glorious Mets Moment

Watching the 4th inning of tonight's game was like watching countless Mets games this year: just inexplicable. What leads to such little league type performances? Is it a lack of discipline? A lack of concentration? A lack of effort? Plain bad luck?

I'm not sure of the answer, but here's what happened. You had Santana inexplicably walk the opposing pitcher (who had never had a ML hit) on 4 pitches. You had F Mart spaz out, chunk a piece of turf out of the ground, and literally face plant as a harmless fly ball landed next to him for 2nd and 3rd. And then, after the pitching coach, goofy Dan Warthen got tossed (!) and jawed angrily with the plate umpire, you had (1) a double that cleared the bases, (2) Santos failing to catch Wright's replay to the plate (which was there in plenty of time to nail the 3rd runner), (3) Braun overrunning 3rd base leaving him a dead duck when Santana backed up Wright's throw to the plate, but Santana air-mailing the throw to third, and (4) Cora failing to stop the overthrow despite seemingly being well positioned to back up in short left, allowing the hitter (and 4th run) to come all the way around to score on the same play. If it wasn't tragic, it would have been hysterical. Or maybe it's the other way around.

Anywho, the next inning, that queer guy who is the on-field reporter for SNY starts giving some line about "the Mets are scraping to battle back here in Milwaukee." All of a sudden, I was transported to another time and place. It was 1982 again. Or maybe 1993. Anyway, it was like so many Met broadcasts I have heard before. Where a seemingly genuine announcer, apparently disconnected from the players smoking in the dugout or playing cards in the clubhouse, intones about the Mets "battling back" from a deficit.

All the while, every viewer knows a few things: (1) no, they're not; (2) they couldn't even if they were trying; (3) they've lost so many games in a row that it really wouldn't matter if they managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and come back.

There's a profound sense of peace and comfort when you've come to that point. It's like--what's the right word--acceptance? Kind of like taking a few hits on the oxygen mask with Tyler Durden on the way down from 30,000 feet.

Beltran done?

Post article speculates Beltran's season and/or career may be over based on the procedure that the 2nd doctor he visited typically performs.

Regardless, until Omar is no longer with this team I will curse not picking up a free agent Torii Hunter as one of the worst moves of all time. I will also curse not trading our core players at the end of last season like I wanted, when they had high trade value. Now, you will probably get shafted in return for Beltran, Delgado and Reyes. Good luck rebuilding this team when all your valuable trading chips just got severely downgraded.

As the song goes, you've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them. And unfortunately Omar held them too long, IMHO.

Jerry: Blame Omar

The Mets need a bat, says Jerry. Translation: we're losing b/c Omar's given me an undermanned team. Say what you will about the job that Omar's done, but it's just not the manager's place to be announcing that to the press.

Is there anyone the gangsta won't throw under the bus to prop up his job security? His former boss, his current boss, his players?

Turns out Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports noticed just the same thing:

Manuel, in baseball parlance, "throws guys under the bus." His candor appeals to fans who are tired of hearing excuses for overpaid, underperforming players. But such an approach rarely works long-term.

Rosenthal gives several examples of it:

Mid-February. Manuel informs the media of his plan to bat leadoff man Jose Reyes third without first informing Reyes. The experiment, predictably, never gains traction.

Late March. Manuel announces that Daniel Murphy will be his everyday left fielder, saying he is a better hitter than Ryan Church, a more established player.

"I don't want him to get strictly into a platoon situation," Manuel says of Murphy. "I think he's a little better player than that."

Murphy, whom some in the organization view as the Mets' answer to Paul O'Neill, is now platooning with Fernando Tatis at first base.

April 29. Manuel removes backup catcher Ramon Castro by summoning Omir Santos from the bullpen to pinch-hit with the bases loaded, two outs in the ninth inning and the Mets trailing the Marlins, 4-3.

Castro already has two hits in the game, but Manuel says afterward that he preferred Santos' shorter swing against Marlins closer Matt Lindstrom, disregarding that Castro also hits fastballs well.

Santos pops up for the final out. A month later, the Mets trade Castro to the White Sox.

May 18. Church again. Manuel refuses to address him by name after the outfielder misses third base and the Dodgers successfully appeal in the 11th inning of a game the Mets lose, 3-2.

"A guy missed third base," Manuel says. "That's unbelievable. I can't explain, why, how or anything."

The next day, Manuel denies a rift with Church.

May 29. Manuel uses the "A" word — anxiety — to explain why he is resting one of the Mets' best players, third baseman David Wright, for a home game.

"I think anxiety has something to do with it, wanting to do so well in front of the home crowd, those type of things," Manuel says, citing Wright's better road statistics. "I believe he'll eventually turn that around, get comfortable here in these surroundings."

Wright disagrees, saying, "I just think it's two months of a game that is already tough to be consistent at. I don't feel any different playing here than I do on the road."

June 4. Manuel criticizes right-hander Mike Pelfrey for getting rocked by the Pirates while pitching on an extra day's rest.

"I was a little discouraged at Mike being where he was today after getting a day off, and kind of knowing what we needed and just not having it," Manuel says. "That was kind of disheartening, because we really needed this game today."

And there's more.

Manuel has upset some veterans by declining to give them advance notice of days off. He even sounded as if he was sending a subtle message to Mets general manager Omar Minaya when, referring to his injury-depleted roster, he said, "I have to deal with what I have."

Gotta love watching a game on ESPN's Gameday

Flip over to Mets-Yanks, bottom of 8th, tying run on third base. Omir Santos up against Mariano. Omir sees 6 pitches, fouling off 4 of them. Then the 7th pitch comes:


The red dot I circled was the final pitch for a called strike three. When they clearly show it off the inside part of the plate, my B.P. goes up higher than it already is. What the heck?

Should the Mets be Sellers?

It's hard to admit it when you're 1.5 gb in the division, but it's looking more and more like this team simply doesn't have the pieces to compete for a championship. If Reyes, Delgado, and Beltran were all back at 100%, you might have a case. But what is the likelihood all three guys will be: (1) healthy; (2) at the same time; and (3) when it counts, meaning September and October? If the answer is, "not that likely," than this team is clearly a middling squad at best in terms of offense and slightly above average in terms of pitching (now that Ollie has completely broken down; Maine appears nowhere near healthy; and Putz' elbow is blown out).

Now, Omar was quoted as saying that this is a seller's market. With all the parity around the league right now, there are a lot of buyers willing to move meaningful pieces for anything that will help. Perhaps the Mets should be thinking about adding prospects instead of adding players like Nick Johnson or Aubrey Huff? If Adam Dunn is going to bring back top tier prospects, what might we get for Beltran, if his knee problems are not structural? What could we get for Reyes? Church is certainly young enough that someone might want to take a flyer on him, despite the fact it's hard to imagine him getting better than the average player he is. And if you could move Castillo's contract for a bag of balls it would be addition by subtraction.

I haven't been focused on the sellers side of the market: the young prospects that might be available if the Mets were willing to move their Major League talent, but I'm going to start.

I Don't Think it's a Coincidence..

..that this Mets team is showing its most character and drive while Reyes, Delgado and Beltran are on the bench.

Well Put

Today's Post Hardball:

Obviously, the Mets have a physical problem. But I think they also have to be aware of two potential mental problems: 1) That players lose faith in the medical staff. It seems like every Met injury follows this path: There is nothing wrong with him, he will miss a few days, he is going on the DL, he will be out longer than first reported.

Omar goes DFA happy

Wilson Valdez
Willy Mo Pena
Bobby Kielty
Javier Valentin
Connor Robertson

Gone.

Not sure what the point is here, but if we're trying to free up salary, Omar does realize that it takes a lot Bobby Kieltys to make one Adam Dunn or Nick Johnson, right?

Why don't we just DFA Buffalo. Maybe Binghamton too, while we're at it.

Beltran to the DL

Just try it. Everyone's doing it.

Interesting discussion on what the Mets should do next is here.

I am now confident..

..that the Mets either have the worst medical staff, or management purposely lies and misdirects. I have never seen a team that so consistently has "player setbacks" during rehab, such that it is a 100% guarantee that no one gets off the DL early, but instead always has an extended stay beyond the original estimated return date. The latest of course is Maine, but it could just as well be Reyes, Delgado, Putz, etc.

Either Omar or the Wilpons apparently want to take a "head in the sand" approach, and believe that they can will away bad news. Omar's latest is saying that rather than trade he wants to wait for reinforcements to return. You mean the same reinforcements who are likely to get injured again? That's not a long-term strategy.

Santana

I'd say it's better than even odds that Santana is hiding an injury. His per-game performance pre-May 11 and post-May 11 are remarkably bifurcated. There was no gradual drop in performance: he went from being consistently out-of-his-mind dominant to consistently about average.

Knowing that he pitched the final game on 3 days rest while injured last year tells me a lot about his mental drive. Incredibly his pitching ability while injured is still better than any of our other starters healthy. But I'd bet he's injured now; I'm not buying his "it's my mechanics" story. Hopefully it's nothing major, because this team with anything less than a dominant Johan is a non-starter to compete.

Possible Free Agents this coming offseason

An interesting list.

The ones that stick out for me, at first blush:

Victor Martinez C*
Matt Holliday LF
Jason Bay LF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Rich Harden P
Cliff Lee P*

Landing any one of these guys would massively upgrade the team.

*There is a 2010 option, but the site doesn't say if it's a player option or team option.

Luis Castillo fornicates with goats

That is all.

Valentine reunion with Mets isn't far-fetched

Oh, dear God, let this be true...

Valentine reunion with Mets isn't far-fetched

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State of the (Dis)union

Regardless of who wins the NL East this year, I guarantee they don't win by more than 2 games. You can bet this will be another tight finish among at least 2 teams with high-80s to 90 wins. Could it be the Mets? Sure, no question.

But I really don't care. For me, there's more than just making the playoffs. I want a team I can root for. A team I can believe in. A team that plays hard, plays smart, and you want to pull for.

That is not this team. Quite frankly, I'm sick of all the injuries. I'm sick of all the stupid, boneheaded baserunning and fielding plays that no other major league team seem to make so frequently. I'm sick of stupid tactical decisions by Manuel. I'm sick of ruining our minor league players by bringing them up way too early, and putting way too much pressure on them.

This team sucked the life out of me when they somehow failed to pull it out after "The Catch" in '06. The massive choke jobs of '07 and '08 are literally unfathomable. To go through it all again in '09 is just stupidity on my part.

Will the Mets make the playoffs? Maybe. But it surely will take a massive change of attitude and effort on this team to make me care.

It's a good thing..

...the Mets game was not televised here Fri night. I saw online that K-rod was pitching the 9th with a 1-run lead, then saw Mets lost 9-8. I simply assumed it was K-rod's first blown save. A tough pill to swallow given that K-rod has been perfect all season, and even though of course he can't be perfect all season it would be fitting with this Mets team that his first blown save would come in such a visible game.

However, that scenario PALES in comparison to what actually happened. Given my disgust with Omar, including the absurd 4-year resigning of Castillo, it's really good I couldn't watch last night's game.

Because if I had, I wouldn't have a working TV today.

"CITY SUPERIORITY ON LINE IN SUBWAY SERIES"

So says the Post today. Talk about false advertising. I think they mean city "inferiority" on line. After the series the Mets and Yankees just had I don't think anyone should be using their names and "superiority" in the same sentence.

Scary Thought of the Day

The Dodgers have by far the best record in baseball, and are tied for most runs in NL.

All without Manny Ramirez. Imagine how sick this team is going to be when Manny is back.

Also scary is how good the BloSox's numbers are with absolutely no production from Ortiz.

Meanwhile the Mutts strand 16 last night.

Went to Citi last night

And what a doozy.

I hate to blame the ump, but it seemed, with the naked eye from about 300 feet away, that they blew the call on the key play of the game. Let me set the scene:

Bottom of the 4th: we've already put up a three spot in the inning, and have gotten consecutive hits from Pelfrey, Castillo and Cora. It seems like Hamels is coming unglued. And now, with one out and the bases loaded, we have Beltran, Sheff and Wright due up.

These are the key circumstances where you have your opponent down and you need to step on their neck. Put the game out of reach.

Well, Beltran does the one thing you don't want to do, and hits the ball on the ground creating a double-play opportunity. The Phils try to turn the 5-4-3, and looks to me that Beltran beat the relay throw. The ump calls him out. 1st base coach argues. Beltran shows up the ump, staring at him quietly and not moving, but not yapping. The Gangsta is nowhere to be seen. I'm dying to see a replay, but since it wasn't an RBI, the CitiField big screen is on to showing kissing couples.

I start texting D.C. and Beetz to find out if they were watching TV and got a clear look at it. Didn't get them.

The Post seemed to indicate that the ump blew the call, and it looked that way to me. And let's be honest: that play kept the door open for the Phils. If Beltran is safe, a run scores on the play, and you've still got runners on the corner with 2 outs, Sheff up, and a 4 run lead. As it turned out, that extra run would've kept the game from going to extras, if everything else happened the same way.

As bad as the top of the 7th was, with two blown plays in the field by Wright and Beltran (only Wright was given an error), it wouldn't even have mattered if the Mets would have tacked on one or two (or 3 more) in the 4th.

By the way, I haven't seen as many away fans in Shea or Citi, ever. I'd say about 20% of the fans were Phillies fans. They actually had a "let's go Phillies" chant going on several occasions. Other than subway series games, I can't recall ever hearing that at a Mets game before.

Props to Pelf, by the way. A really nice outing against the best lineup in the NL.

"I'm a man."

So said Johan to Manuel last night when Jerry took him out of the game. In fact, Johan, you're THE man.

"I'm a man. I'm a man," Manuel remembered his ace telling him. "What he means by that, I don't know."

Of course you don't Jerry, of course you don't.

Why I've come around on Kobe

First of all, the guy said that if he played in college he would have wanted to play for Duke and Coach K. Then, when asked if he ever thought about whether he would have liked to play college hoops, he offered this response: "every March."

Then he comes out with this one, after he finally was ready to play for Team USA on the last national team:

"It always seemed like an injury would come up or something like that. My practice jersey, I hung it up in my room and just stared at it last night."

Kobe Bryant, excited about being able to play for the national team.

Gotta love it.

For a guy I hated as a rookie, I've got to admit it: Kobe has won me over.

The evidence continues to mount

"That was the most glaring baserunning error of the season, and there've been too many to count."

-Bob Ojeda on the 4th inning doubleplay resulting from one baserunner passing another

"Players coaches always get a great reception up front. One, two, or three years out, when the team underperforms and the players tell the manager to F off cause they can get away with it, there's going to be a lot less praise headed his way."

-Fredo, 9/11/08

Unfortunately for all of us, it seems to have taken less than one year to get to the "F-off" stage. One day after supposedly calling his star players Wright and Beltran out for bad baserunning decisions, the team comes back with an impossibly stupid, unfathomable, and "once in a generation" (per the FAN broadcast) baserunning error the very next night. You really seem to have your team's attention, Jer.

After a year of bizarre, non-performance based favoritism exhibited towards certain players, publicly undercutting other players in the press without addressing them in private, and generally making a circus ass-clown of yourself, I can't say it's all that surprising that the team could care less what you have to say.

Putz isThe Mets Are Broken

Well, we've hit it a bit earlier than in recent years, but the meltdown is upon us. Every time the Mutts have a winning streak to take first, they choke it right back with ridiculous injuries, poor playing, and meltdowns by their best players at the worst times. Wright's slump is of course perfectly timed with the injuries to Beltran, Delgado and Reyes. Santana has lost a bit of his dominance at the same time.

And the injuries and sickness keep on coming.

Silly me, I thought having the #1 payroll in NL for several years running would buy more than a 90 win team. This year, it might not even buy that.

Putz is broken

I'm not big on ripping guys right after a terrible performance. It's tough to make an even handed analysis right after someone's just defecated all over the cot, cost the Mets the game, and ruined your evening.

That said, the analysis is pretty easy in this case. Putz didn't just have a rough night. He's had several of them. His velocity and control have been erratic most of the year. There's no question he's not "right," as compared to how he was throwing the ball two seasons ago.

So what are the practical implications of this? Well, for one, I think it makes Parnell untouchable, unless you're bringing an 8th inning guy back for him.

For two, it makes you wonder what is going on with the Mets medical staff. These guys have to pass a medical before being signed and/or traded for, right? The list of injuries right now is off the chart: Beltran (knees), Church (hammy), Reyes (calf), and Pagan (groin) are all out with the type of lingering flexibility/strength issues that you would think could be addressed through conditioning.

For three, it makes you wonder about the manager. When you play a 162 game season, you're going to have to fight through injuries. No one on this team seems to have the desire to do so. They ask for days off, and say they can't go at the first sign of trouble. Could this be tied in to the same laissez-faire attitude that is evidenced by players--whether established stars, rookies in the first week of their big league career, or journeyman shortstop who presumably are a bad game away from needing to get a real job--NOT running out fair balls in the infield?

Possibly so.