How do they do it?  Mets management is not very good at many things but finding ailments for players who are of no use to the team and sending them off on an all expenses paid trip to the DL, they excel at. So now Fernando Tatis join Oliver Perez,  John Maine and Luis Castillo in Mets purgatory.  Tatis is on the DL with a shoulder (wink, wink ) ailment and Raul Valdes has been recalled.

Hummmmmmmm so Jerry Manuel moans and groans about needing another arm in his pen and a seldom used spare part comes down with a sore enough shoulder to go disabled, how convenient. It pays to be pals with the Used Car Salesman.

One the great mysteries of the 201 0season is the astonishing difference between the Mets playing at home and what happens to them away from Queens. At home the Mets are the best team in baseball winning 22 of 31 in the spacious confines on $iti Field but away from home they’re as homesick as a first time summer camper going 8-18. Just think, if the Mets went 12-14 on the road their record would be 34-23 and in first place in the NL East. If they went 14-12 on the road that would have put them at 36-21 and not only in first place in the NL East but the best record in the NL. Go figure?

Why is this? Well, last night I had the pleasure of joining Pat Nestor on NYB Blog Live on Blog Talk Radio and one of the subjects we discussed was why is it that the Mets are studs at home and duds on the road. Pat and I both felt that Mets batters when they go into places like Cincinnati or Philly see the smaller dimensions and feel they can get their swing on in those hitters ball parks, where as at home the batters have come to the realization that hitting to the gaps are the way to go so maybe it’s the radical change in hitting philosophy that hurts them on the road. Just a theory. 

While on the subject of radio, tomorrow night at 10PM ET on This Call To The Bullpen on Blog Talk Radio my guest will be Shannon Shark of The Mets Police. No black caps or jerseys allowed, proper Blue and Orange attire only.

You know worlds are colliding when I agree with Bill Madden who took Fredi Gonzalez to task for some curious in game managing yesterday and then pointing out that one time around the block with Hisanori Takahashi is good the second and third time not good at all, back to the pen with you Mr. T.

I have no idea who the Mets will draft tonight in the First-Year Player Draft but I just hope with the 7^th pick the club takes the best player available slotting, be damned. I’m just hoping the Skill Sets with the cozy friendship with the Used Car Salesman don’t have a deal in place where they do not go over slot in exchange for a sign off from the Commissioners Office on the Ollie Perez “injury” (ouch! Something in my eye) The consensus pick for the Mets by the way is Zack Cox a solid hitting infielder from Arkansas.

With all the talk about finding an 8^th inning reliever how about calling the Astros to deal Matt Lindstrom to the Mets?  Lindstrom’s been closing for the ‘Stros which is waste of his talent and that fastball/slider would be a fine compliment to Frankie Rodriguez and his 1,001 variations of pitches.

I spent the day at Coney Island yesterday eating food I have no business eating but the strangest sight of the day (and on Coney Island it takes a super human effort to be strange) were four people sitting next to us at Nathan’s (I need to know if they serve Nathan’s fries with cheese and bacon in heaven or hell so I know to either clean up my act if they’re served in heaven or continue my evil ways if they’re served in hell) were four the ugliest looking family of white trash decked out in Philadelphia Flyers garb. I wanted to ask them what the fuck they were doing here in Coney Island but I didn’t want to ruin my appetite.

What is it about a baseball that makes people lose their mind? I’ve been going to baseball games since I’m 6 years old and I have never caught a foul ball at a game, and I couldn’t care less if I ever did. Same thing with the stupid t-shirt toss, I have more t-shirts than an adult middle aged man should own so why would I risk breaking an arm or a leg for a t-shirt that reads Pepsi Party Patrol on it but people do.

Oh yeah, I want this with my Nathan’s Fries with cheese and bacon. I hope that goes on in hell too

After reading about Dwight Gooden getting arrested for DWI, I can now say I’m done with him.

With all the screaming a yelling over steroid and HGH use, I wish all that anger went against people who drive drunk. Think about what is worse, taking something to hit a ball a bit further or to revive your muscular system, or driving a car drunk where you can kill innocent people and yourself ? According to the police report Gooden had a child in the car. UN-FUCKING-REAL.

Looks like fans, the Mets, the Highlanders, and the Newark Bears need to stop being his enablers. Every time he runs afoul with the law, he gets help by one of those teams I mentioned and adulation from both fan bases in NYC.

If these charges are true and he’s convicted, I hope the judge has the balls to throw his ass in jail and then I want the Used Car Salesman to ban him from baseball.

UPDATE: I thought Gooden was drunk but it was high on drugs just as bad THROW THE BOOK AT HIM You want to get high? You want get shit faced? STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rumor has it, that Freddie Skill Sets has been begging The Used Car Salesman to order the Trolly Dodgers to play their home World Series games at $iti Field.

 

 

After yesterday’s ass whipping by the Braves a game where another player went down with a leg muscle strain and a player who allegedly is getting released by today pitched like his usual shitty self the thought came over me as maybe the Mets should get involved in a reverse pennant race, the race for the top pick in the 2010 Entry Draft.

 

Right now the Nationals again lead the way for the first overall pick in the next draft with a 26-65 record and lead the Mets by 17 games for that pick. Unless the Mets assign the rest of the big league team on the DL (not a bad idea, eh?) and bring up the whole Buffalo Bisons team then the Mets have no shot at beating DC for the top pick. The next team in line would be the Cleveland Indians who at 36-57 lead the Mets by a mere 8 games. Now passing the Indians could be done with the help of keeping Tim Redding not only on the team but putting him in the rotation and giving D-Wright the rest of the summer off and pitching Ollie Perez on two days rest.

 

Say this happened, no not Wright’s vacation or Redding and Perez every other day but say the Mets tank to the point of finishing with the second worst record in baseball, they would have a shot at drafting Bryce Harper.

 

You’ve all read about Bryce Harper, who has been hailed as the next great thing since the birth of Jesus. Harper just 16 years old will skip his junior and senior years of high school by obtaining a GED and enrolling in Junior College with the sole purpose of being drafted number 1 in the next draft. Now where this gets interesting is if the Nationals have that pick would they draft Harper who will probably ask for part of the franchise to sign after dealing with Scott Boras in their dealing with Stephen Strasburg? Can the Nationals shell out big bucks for two potential super start players? Would Freddy Skill Sets call in his marker with the Used Car Salesman to rig the draft so the Mets could get their hands on Harper? Am I drunk? Oh sorry no,  but when your team is 10 games off the pace and players are dropping to wayside every game the only thing to hang your hat on is securing a top 10 draft pick. Sad isn’t it?

 

The All Star break is over and we head for the second half of the season tonight on Pro Baseball Central we will discuss the Mets disappointing first half and what direction this team needs to take which  is one of the great complex question of our time, plus we will monitor the Mets-Braves game live. We will also talk about the NY Highlanders with our guest Rebecca Glass the author of the Highlander blog This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes. Join us live at 9PM EDST on Blog Talk Radio live or listen to the podcast at your leisure at our site or right here at TEKS.

 

After The Used Car Salesman ranted and raved about Manny Ramirez going to the bushes to get in shape before ending his 50 game sentence the Phillies after signing Petey to a $1.5 mil deal was placed on the 15 day DL with a “strained (wink-wink, nod-nod) shoulder. This was done because Petey wouldn’t sign a minor league deal so the Phills skirted the issue with the bogus DL placement. Am I a bitter jilted Mets fan? YES. Yes I am. I’m not rational when it comes with Petey going to the Cheesesteakers I’m the jilted lover who will now try to make his life miserable.

 

The only thing better than the Mets winning on opening day is winning on opening day when the next day is an off day as my pals who are Highlander supporters are all walking around aimlessly muttering “What the fuck, what the fuck” after going 0-1 <dancing like Michael Flatley>

 

I am calling for an all out boycott of FOX Game of the Week this Saturday and every Saturday the Mets are not a participant if they black out the Mets-Marlins game in NYC. The biggest problem he is the dipshit Marlins management starting the game at 6PM due to a concert that’s schedule for after the game. Be that as it may, this black out rule is total bullshit and even though FOX has a contract with MLB and has this exclusive window, it would be nice if the Used Car Salesman would step up and come to the aid of the one franchise that walks lock step with every edict handed down from his office and get FOX to lift the ban in NYC. The game is not scheduled to be televised in South Florida (let that roll around in your head for moment a local baseball game not televised. Yeah I’m stupefied too) but I guess all five Marlins fans don’t care but not us Mets fans as I’m ready to take hostages if I miss an hour of Saturday’ game.

 

Good post by The Mets Police on the Mets management dropping the ball (which they do as well as the ’62 team) in not putting more historic markings in the parking lot that was once Shea Stadium.

 

Tim Marchman (one of my fav writers and I do miss the NY Sun sports page) has a great column on WSJ on the cutting back of sports coverage in newspapers. In cities like Pittsburgh the Post-Gazette may not even send a beat guy on the road to follow the Pirates and even the Old Grey Lady is cutting back on-site reporting. Marchman points out how bloggers and other web based writers have really taken over in covering games either being at the games or just covering them from TV but are able to file a story or opinion as soon as the game is over. It is stunning to guy of my generation who had to wait to get the NY Post when it was an afternoon only paper, to read about games on the West Coast, now I can read those stories with my Cheerios, first thing in the AM.

 

Quick observations on yesterday’s game:

 

I was nervous in the first inning as Johan had trouble with command but he adjusts brilliantly after that to pitch a gem.

 

Yes, The Gangsta’ left a ton of guys on base but please come off the ledge and stop with the “here we go again” lament at least until the end of this series 

 

Highlander fans won’t tell you to your face but they love our Daniel Murphy because he reminds them of Don Mattingly and it kills them that they have Douche Bag Rodriguez and we have not only D-Wright but Danny Baseball.

 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE I’m beeeggggggggggggginnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg you NO MORE BLACK UNIFORMS!!!!!!! And ditch those two-tone hats!!!!!!! Mex and Ronnie hit it out of the park, the Mets gray roadie is CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!

 

Now that’s a bullpen!             

 

The Skill Sets worship at the altar of Selig and do what ever he commands them to do. It’s the baseball version of Jonestown. The Mets are not going over budget because Selig doesn’t want them going over the salary cap. What salary cap? The best salary cap in all of sports that’s what. The NFL, NBA, and NHL all have hard caps but the difference between those three and baseball‘ is they have a minimum payroll you have to adhere to, in baseball that is not an issue you can havea $20 mil payroll like the Marlins and never get a new stadium but they still make money playing on a football field in front of a lot of folded up chairs because once the get their cut from MLB (all inclusive with  national TV/radio, MLB.com etc. they’ve made payroll before they even sell a ticket) or a $190 mil payroll like the Highlanders and throw some coin in the pot for the oppressed small market kids that it seems the Skill Sets aspire to become if not for the fact that so many damn people keep showing up at the ballpark and watch and listen on TV and radio even they would feel shamed in acting in that manner.

 

As bizarre as this may sound I actually like Freddy Skill Sets (his kid is another story) because we are both from around the same neighborhood in Brooklyn and he is a very charitable guy and really my only beef with him and the rest of the Skill Sets in command of the organization is the way they allow themselves to walk lock step with Emperor Selig.

 

It’s like a game of Simon Says with the Mets when it comes to commissioner’s office more like a Selig Says. “Selig says, do not go over the luxury tax”.  “Selig says, make sure you use the slotting system in the free agent draft”. “Selig says, build a new ball park but figure out a way to get some tax payer dough to do it” 

 

If the Skill Sets would just come out say they have had enough of the oppression put on them by Selig and Co. and acted like they should, the flagship team of the National League, playing in the biggest and greatest city in the world before some of the most passionate fans in sports, I would never utter the name Skill Set in vain again in fact I would reach out to some of my “Brooklyn friends” to see what could be done about this Madoff guy. Anything for you Freddy, I’d even sit down and have a Dr. Browns with Jeffey to burrythe hatchet if that’s what it would take to get you to regain focus.