I am pressed for time this morning as I have to leave work early and next week is a very short work week for me (just two days!!!!!) so I have ton of work to finish.

 But last night we had a great show on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL that lasted 2 hours. The first part of the show we talked Mets and the moves to be made and more importantly who is going to make the moves. Listen to Joe McDonald us in on who will be making the important moves and who could be making the future moves for the Mets. Also Eric Simon of Amazin’ Avenue joined us.

The big question of the night on the show was will the Mets go the way of JACKS 99 CENT  or Bergdorf -Goodman.

The second part of the show dealt with the recent Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto Prize Fight from last Saturday night as we were joined by Rich Mancuso of NY SPORTSDAY who was in Vegas to cover the fight. If you are a Boxing fan you will love listening to Rich give his Sweet Science insight. Just click on the link on the upper right hand side of this site to listen in.

Check out my Week 11 NFL BEST BETS on NY FOOTBALL BLOG.

Tonight at 9PM ET we are back with a Hot Stove Edition of PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL on Blogtalk Radio.

Joe McDonald and I will be joined by Rich Coutinho of ESPN1050, Rich Mancuso of NY SPORTSDAY and Eric Simon of Amazin’ Avenue.

We will discuss what has transpired so far this off season for the NY Mets and look ahead on what moves the team needs to make to get back into contention in the NL.

You can join in as well by calling in at (646) 595-4462.

So join us live at 9PM ET on Blogtalk Radio or via podcast on our PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL site or right here at Kranepool Society for 90 minutes of  Mets Hot Stove talk.

WELCOME TO YANKEE STADIUM ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Great, great post today by James Kannengieser over at Amazin’ Avenue commenting on a post by Jeff Pearlman on Mark McGwire becoming the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals where Pearlman gets all righteous slamming McGwire with the tired old cheater line.

Kannengieser brings up the Amazin’ Tuesday even that Pearlman attended and I was there. I have all of Pearlman’s books and I read his blog and SI.com columns as well so yes I’m a fan of his but I don’t always agree with him on his positions.

I agree with Kannengieser, Bill James, Rob Neyer and Tom Tango on this over blown media scream fest about PED’s in baseball. We live in a world of physical enhancement from face lifts, to Botx injections to pills that give men erections for four hours and no one gets outraged but a baseball player, who a grown ass men by the way, making decisions to take something that would either bring them back from injury faster or enhance their ability to play better that was not against any of the rules of MLB until recently.

If you really want to be outraged, turn your anger at the Federal Government who is wasting your tax dollars in trying to prosecute (very unsuccessfully) athletes for using PED’s

It seems the biggest loser so far this World Series is the Rich Folks Fortress in the Bronx. I thought it was just my middle aged ears that couldn’t hear the crowd noise but after reading and talking to some fans who were at the games, it seems the Grey Poupon  crowd just ain’t into cheering. It could also be that real fans A/K/A Poor Bastards in the upper deck and bleachers are closer to Van Cortlandt Pak than they are the playing field and their veil disgusting comments float like a fart in the wind. Sad. Here we Mets fans have a ball park that seats you closer to the action plus we are more passionate and involved in our team than our neighbors in the Northern boro but have a team that can’t find it’s way back to post season baseball. It’s even sadder when a Mets-Phuck Face series in May has more passion that the Fall Classic.

Omar Minaya’s Best Week Ever came to an abrupt end last night as his team ended it’s winning streak, his Ace pitcher again received no run support and this time the defense betrayed him as well, the best free agent pitcher on the market last winter who camethisclose to being the second banana to Santana that the Omar will be looking for before July came to $iti and showed the Mets what could have been, his rejuvenated first baseman is headed for a DL stint and his manager made some head scratching moves before and during the game last night.

Big thank you to Dave Singer at NY Sportsdog and James K at Amazin Avenue for doing the heavy lifting on dissecting J-Man’s brain farts last night. Let’s hope he learns a lesson from last night.

Carlos Delgado’ tragically hurting hip could send him to the DL. He already had cortisone shot this spring in the hip and is a little leery of taking another one so soon because as we all know cortisone is a steroid. That’s why I don’t get all in a huff over players using PED’s  as cortisone injections are given out to athletes like flu shots at a nursing home.

It’s no secret that J- Man doesn’t think Ryan Church is Gangsta’ enough for him but the truth is Jeremy Reed is the same player as Church but with better and more versatile outfield play. Even more bad news for Church is if Delgado goes on the 15 day DL you could see Murphy and Tatis spilt the first base duties with Reed going to RF and Gary Sheffield going to left and Church going to sunflower seed distributor.

A must read is Matt Cerrone’s piece on his tour of $iti Field and it looks as if after all the bitching and moaning over the name and price of tickets and all the other minutia that myself and others have spewed all winter we can enjoy the fact that we have a first class ballpark to call our own that will be very different for our Shea experience.

I’m curious to know where you guys stand on the new studio team of Chris Carlin and Bobby Ojeda?. For me I’d say it’s a huge upgrade over Snoozeoff and Boardwalk Lee. I like Carlin. I always thought he was a good listen on WFAN and he did a good job covering the New York Football Giants as he has a jolly good personality. As for Bobby-O , he has star potential. I met Ojeda a few years ago when he was the pitching coach in Brooklyn and he knows baseball, is very opinionated and is funny as hell. The post game banter between Ojeda and Mex will be Must See TV mark my words.

Speaking of Keith Hernandez, he and Ron Darling will be handling the play by play for tonight’s Mets-Nats game on SNY. No Gary and no Burkhardt. I hope someone has their finger on the dump button.

And speaking of Gary Cohen, he has advanced to the Mets Greatest Announcers Championship Round at Amazin’ Avenue’ against Bob Murphy. Talk about your tough decisions. I had to put a lot of thought into whom I was voting for. So I went and did what I always do when I have a big decision to make, I went for a slice of pizza and a Manhattan Special. When I got back to my office, I went to my keyboard and made my choice. I am proud to announce that The Eddie Kranepool Society has backed Gary Cohen and will vote for him as the greatest announcer in Mets history. I think what swayed me was the fact I’m wearing my “It’s Outta Here” t-shirt today.

Isn’t this great?. The first day of Vernal Equinox and it is snowing like a mutha’ here in NYC. Thankfully, it’s not sticking and the forecast tomorrow is for sunny skies and 50 degrees which is fine to conduct my first practice of the baseball season with my 13 year old Babe Ruth League team and to show that I’m more Gansta’ than Jerry Manuel I’m holding practice at a park next to the Berry Projects on SI. I might even wear my sweatpants down to my knees.

Last night on Pro Baseball Central we talked about the Mets roster, the Mets announcer’s tournament at Amazin’ Avenue, St Patrick’s Day, Kilts, what’s under the kilt, booze and rubber ducky’s. To hear what you missed check out the podcast at Pro Baseball Central web site.

Jon Niese was sent to minor league camp today and that sucks for the kid who had visions of making the team as the 5^th starter. So now it’s just about in stone that Livan Hernandez will get that spot but you can be sure we will see Niese sooner rather than later this season.

Ollie P makes his first spring start for the Mets and from what David Lennon says his mechanics while with Team Mexico were so messed up that Old School Dan Warthen had to deconstruct Ollie through video, instruction and a good old fashion ass kicking (ok I made that one up) just another reason for teams to get together and abolish the WBC.

Brain Costa at the Star Ledger has a nice piece on Bobby Parnell and his quest to make the Mets in the bullpen. What will be interesting to watch as the cuts come down is how much influence J-Man has on whom goes and who stays. Manuel has talked up Parnell and Nick Evans as two kids he adores and wants on his squad but money and player options may determine who comes North and  who keeps going further North to Buffalo.

It’s hard serving to masters isn’t David?  But not to worry as help is on the way for Team USA as Evan Longoria is headed to LA to fortify the Team of the Land of the Corporate Bailout. Craig Calcaterra of the fabulous Shyster Ball site explains with some kind of fantasy mumbo-jumbo. I could never get into that si-fi stuff all that make believe crap as I live in the here and now in real life, oh shit is tonight my fantasy baseball draft? Yikes! Got to go prepare!!!!!!!!!!!!!