I like the fact that David Wright is stepping up his leadership role with the Mets. In fact one of the best addition by subtraction moves the club made this winter was saying buh-bye to Carlos Delgado, who I felt was a very intimidating presences in the Mets Clubhouse and too many times Wright had to take a backseat to the senior vet. Now with Delgado gone it’s time for Wright to takeover that clubhouse. 

You need an everyday player to be the go to guy and Wright fits that mold better than anyone not named Johan Santana with the Mets. As great a player as Carlos Beltran is, he’s a very low key guy and Jose Reyes who is the on field igniter could be Wright’s tag-team buddy in that clubhouse, in fact in a perfect baseball world the two faces’ of the franchise should be able to say or do what they please with the service time they have with the club, but both are deferential to the older vets on the team sometime to a fault.

If Johan Santana can play the Cliff Floyd role with Wright and give him backup, it would be a major asset to this team. It won’t cure all the ills, but it would help put on notice players, who don’t give 100 % effort physically and mentally, especially the mental part which was as much a reason for the Mets demise as the injuries were last year.

Forget all the bravado of the team to beat bullshit, besides health, the biggest improvement with this Mets team and the whole organization for that matter is accountability. The team motto for this spring and season should be “NO MORE EXCUSES!!!!!”

  21 days until pitchers and catchers

It looks like Fernando Tatis is retuning for a third season with the Mets. Please hold your applause until the end, thank you. If you look at the offensive numbers on Tatis’ Baseball-Reference page you might be inclined to say this is a good deal for the Mets.  I’ll go as far as say I’m happier with Tatis coming back just for the fact that it means that Carlos Delgado’ career as a Met is done.  Last night on Twitter I was angry about the Tatis return but by this morning I’m more, “eh, whatever”. I’m tired of ranting about the off season and the mish-mosh ways of the organization, that has both the fan base and media baffled, I guess it’s time we just let it play out, we’ll have all summer to scream and yell.   

Look at this from John Smoltz point of view, what was good for Pedro Martinez could be good for him as well. Why sign with a team this early when you can workout on your own, play golf, even do some TV if you like and then wait to see the pitching landscape during the season and make the best deal you can.

As much as I can’t stand the way ownership and the front office fuck up and the on field personnel play like amateurs, there is no way I could ever, ever root against the Mets. I don’t care if a loss meant that the Jeffey, Omar, and J-Man all get the boot, I would never and have never rooted against the Mets. If I didn’t root for the Cincinnati Reds when Tom Seaver was traded and pitched against the Mets, I’m sure as hell not going to root against them now. Root against the Mets? Never in a million fucking years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t understand J-Man saying that Fernando Nieve is the front runner for the 5^th spot in the pitching rotation? Not to get to worked up over the 5^th spot (when spots 2-4 are not exactly the Rocks of Gibraltar) but where does Jon Niese or Nelly Figs fit with this team? How about Bradley Holt or Dillon Gee? Why is J-Man so against competition? Why am I full of questions?

No matter what happens this season, I’m rooting hard for my boy Daniel Murphy to put up big time numbers. No one on this team works as hard as Murphy and I just hope his hard work pays off and he just hangs in there until Wally Backman gets the job with the big club. Am I a Daniel Murphy fanboy? Yes. He is everything we Mets fans want in a player. Shows up for mini-camp when he’s not required to (Jose? Jose Reyes? Are you here? Come out, come out ,wherever you are!) will be the first guy at St Lonesome waiting for the gates to open for spring training (it will be neck and neck with him and D-Wright) and is working hard to improve at the fourth positions the Mets have assigned him to. How can you as a Mets fan not root for this kid?    

No Pro Baseball Central tonight but I will be on the with Kenrick Thomas and his Real Sports Talk Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio tonight at 10PM ET.

There is a group NYRNation that is planning a FIRE GLEN SATHER rally outside of Madison Square Garden on Sunday March 7^th  at 5PM before the Rangers-Sabres game. It is getting very ugly at MSG as the Rangers find themselves in the middle of 10 teams look at the 7 and 8 spot in the NHL playoffs. In fact the Rangers are a mirror of the Mets. Underachivers, Bad Management, Clueless Owner!

shout out to The Ropolitans for this pic

Sorry for no posts this morning but it’s been a busy day. So busy that I forget all about the David Wright sit down with the Sports Bloviator. I caught the tail end of the sit down as I traveled back from Brooklyn and I guess you could say it was typical David Wright. All positives and nothing controversial.

It looks like it’s a foregone conclusion that Bengi Molina will be the Mets #1 catcher this coming season. Again this looks to be another move where Omar was told to sit in the corner as the way the Mets have made Molina sit and stew is very un-Mets like. Same with Carlos Delgado who I think the Mets brain trust only went to Puerto Rico to see just to get away from freezing cold weather in NYC. Think about it, if the Mets were strictly an Omar Minaya Production, Molina, Delgado and Joel Piniero would be celebrating their multi year deals by now. Looks like those days are over.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Art Rust Jr. who was sportstalk radio in this town back in the 1980’s. Rust hosted a three hour call in show on WABC and unlike WFAN he actually talked ALL sports. In fact I had called in to his show because a young Mark Messier came on to talk hockey and agreed to take calls from fans. Rust was a great baseball historian and a huge Highlander fan but his real passion was for The Sweet Science and he had all the big time boxers on his show.  R.I.P. Arthur George.

Sorry, I’m just standing here wondering what all the hubbub is over Mark McGwire’ admission on his steroid use last night. The best part of the evening was watching the sanctimonious Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal not accepting McGwire’s mea culpa. I love how Verducci, Rosenthal and Jon Heyman are now all over McGwire and the rest of the Steroid Sluggers but never confronted them or did any investigative reporting during that era but now they’ve all become holier than thou. Th eonly reporter who spoke up at that time was Steve Wilstein of AP who asked about the bottle of Andro in McGwire’s locker. Too bad MLBN didn’t have him on.  

By the way I still have a few questions for Big Mac than Bob Costas failed to hit on. “Who got you the dope”? “Did it occur to you that this was a Federal crime having illegal narcotics “? Were you willing to pay any price to succeed in the game even if it meant getting arrested and going to jail”? “Who instructed you on how to administer the PED’s”?

I love how the panel on MLB Network was up in arms by McGwire saying he didn’t think the drugs made him better, he said he took them for the sole purpose of helping recover from a string if injuries he suffered from. Sure you can call bullshit on that statement but like Rick Peterson says “In God we trust, all others bring data” in other words, It’s all opinion on how much affect the drugs had on his home run total. That’s not to say I don’t agree with those who feel the PED’s didn’t help him jack up his HR total, it’s just that I can’t prove it.

Last word on this whole situation, I have never been a fan of Tony LaRussa but I will say this for TLR, he is one loyal son of a bitch. He has had McGwire’ pock marked back all these years and still has it.

I’ll take this as good news. Seven Train to Shea quotes a Twitter feed from Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse saying that Carlos Delgado is not moving to well around first base. If the move was strictly Omar’s, Delgado would have been re-signed by the Mets already but it looks like Omar has doesn’t have final say on personnel matters anymore. This off season has not been a typical Omar Minaya off season. The Mets are much more patient, to the point of Mets fans screaming in panic (me included) I guess that’s we are used to, the Omar Way. Let’s face it, if Omar had full autonomy Bengi Moilina would be sitting with a 3yr guaranteed contract right now.

Also on Ed Price’ Twiiter feed he claims Mets are talking 2yr/$15 mil contract for Joel Piniero

What does your Dickey do? Mine throws a knuckleball

Hello? Where have you been hearing that the Mets should get David DeJesus and Gil Meche? Hello? Is this thing on?

Fork please! Carlos Delgado is as done as a Christmas goose.

When it comes to Assclowns nobody beats Highlander fans. Some of these geniuses have been calling WFAN or Twittering that they hate the deal that brought Javier Vasquez to the Highlanders for Melkey Cabrea and a couple of bush leaguers. Sometimes Highlander fans your stupidity is breath taking.

Thank you Mike Vaccaro, thank you for a wonderful column this morning.

Why do I get the sad feeling that we will see more Red Sox stories in the fish wraps this summer than Mets news?

So the Skill Sets have sent out invoices to their loyal season ticket holders and some of these customers it seemed got bigger decreases in the invoice than others. If you’re a fat cat who buys tickets in the Metropolitan section you get a bigger break than the guy who buys tickets in the Promenade. It seems the less you know or care about the Mets, the better the Mets organization takes care of you.  Oh yeah, the Skill Sets need a partial payment by December 4^th so they can pay Bobby Bonillia’ his yearly stipend from his buyout.

I’m a fan of Carlos Beltran as he is a great player and is a very charitable man, but as a GM he leaves a lot to be desired. Beltran stated yesterday he’d love for the Mets to bring back Carlos Delgado for next season. I’m glad Beltran is so fond of Delgado, but the next time I see Delgado at a Mets game it should be for Old Timers Day.

Who wouldn’t want a stud pitcher like Roy Halladay? But does it make sense for the Mets to get involved in a trade for the Blue Jay ace? Word is the Highlanders and BOSOX are ready to talk turkey with the Jay-Birds but who knows how much of this is fact or bullshit and if the Mets were to get involved do the Mets have the pieces to make it happen? It seems the Jay want quality over quantity so if you’re the Mets do you have anything that the Jays would want? If you take Vernon Wells of their hands you could get Halladay for nothing but do who wants to saddle themselves with $98.5 mil in contract? As you can see I have a lot of questions but no answers.

I saw this last night on via Twitter on the Tirico Suave site and like I said there, this is Gold PURE GOLD. Mike Francesa never looked so hip!

I saw a bunch of guys stand around Port Richmond Ave on Staten Island this morning looking for day labor work and I swear one of them was Lou Dobbs.

Seems that Chuckie Gruden could be the next head football coach at Norte Dame. I think it’s a foregone conclusion that Charlie Weis is the lamest of ducks at ND and the list of names will be filled with names like Chuckie, Urban Myer, and Skip Holtz to name three but the bottom line is Weis has not only been a coaching disaster but a prick as well. The funny thing about Weis and Eric Manasshole in Cleveland is they want to be like Billy B up in Foxboro but they forget if you want to be a first class asshole you better be a successful first class asshole.

Because you can never have enough pitchers who suck, the Mets have obtained on waivers, RHP Jake Egbert from the Chicago White Sox. Here is snippet of Egbert’ body of work this season courtesy of Mack’s Mets:

Egbert pitched better at Triple A Charlotte, where he allowed 132 hits and 33 walks in 108 innings

He struck out 78 and finishes his minor league season with a 5.05 ERA.

Yeah I’m real confident things will improve in Flushing in 2010 (head shaking with eyes to the heavens)

So the Mets will dip a toe in the water where Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman swims to see if they should get in the bidding. I say stay the hell out that water as Chapman has shark fins. Now is not the time to waste what little Skill Sets dough there is on the unknown. It’s very nice that the front office is blowing smoke up our butts to show they are players for free agents but with a team that needs at least two professionally tested starting pitchers, the need to chase a foreign fairy tale is not what’s needed.

The Jose Reyes saga gets stranger and stranger, yesterday Reyes was supposed to do some running to see if he could play at least one or two games next week to ease his mind about next season. But as has been the case that last couple of times he’s been ready to run, something gets in the way of his workout. This time there is a family medical emergency that he had to attend to. Now I’m not calling bullshit on Reyes, but at some point enough is enough. I don’t think the front office wants to go through the off season with Reyes as a question mark. If they guy needs surgery then for Christ sake let’s go!

Carlos Delgado is done for the year and if there is some one in charge with any brains (a tall task for this organization I know) they will walk away from Delgado. Two guys who have no business whatsoever coming back to the Mets next season are Gary Sheffield and Carlos Delgado. It’s not personal fellas’ it’s business.

I’m glad to see the NY Sentinels of the UFL found a home at $iti Field for their Novemeber 4^th game. The UFL contacted me to see if the game could be played in my backyard but we just winterized the lawn and unless the players feel like raking leaves the yard may not be playable. I told them call the Skill Sets as they need the rent.

Two of the three runs were knocked in by Daniel Murphy who if anything has shown an intangible of mental toughness. You can mock that all you want but think about how Murph has not had the best of weeks on the field but still has been able to put it behind him and play some good baseball. Yes I know his OBP is still woeful but cut a little slack here haters please. I guarantee you there are GM’s out there hoping the Mets screw this up and look to deal Murphy for a utility infielder.

Dear Carlos Delgado,

Sorry to hear about your set back in rehabbing from your hip surgery. Hope you get well soon and find an American League team to your liking for 2010

Sincerely,

The Eddie Kranepool Society

If any player should be given praise in this month of doom it’s Jeff Francoeur who is still busting his ass and playing hard. Sometimes we forget guys like Frenchy, D-Wright, Carlos Beltran who still have some pride.

Not for anything as this could be construed like a pimple on an elephants ass but why wasn’t Wilson Valdez playing more? Anderson Hernandez is a shell of his former Mets self where as Valdez has shown nice range and a good arm at short.

So with the Mets tanking and the football season under way I will be contributing some columns at NY Football Blog. Check out my first post under my football handle Mel Hein.

As for Carlos Delgado thank you for all you’ve done here in your four season as a Met. Hopefully you will find an AL team that needs a DH part time first baseman. No need to come back to $iti Field this season your check s will be sent to you in the mail.

Tonight at 9PM on Pro Baseball Central we will be talking Mets and Highlanders with our guest Lenny Neslin of LenNY Yankees as we discuss the post season plans for the Highlanders along with the obligatory what’s “wrong with Joba”topic. Tune in at 9PM EDT on Blog Talk Radio and join in the conversation as well on our call in line (646) 595-462. If you can’t listen live then check us out on the podcast either here or on our Pro Baseball Central web site.

Stop listening to the Minister of Mis-Information Omar Minaya. Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, John Maine and J J Putz are NOT COMING BACK THIS SEASON!!!!!!! For some reason Omar hasn’t gotten it through his head that all the talk of the injured has been undermining this team for the past month. While it’s not just Omar’s fault, J-Man was the early culprit in this stupid “Hold the fort until they get back” losers mentality but he finally figured out how unproductive that attitude was. Now add D-Wright to those slow learners that this “blame it on the injuries” lament is for losers which is what the Mets are right now.

Instead of Minaya spewing his bullshit on SNY and in the press he should be sitting down and figuring out how much of the deadwood on the player development side will be thrown out for salvage come the end of the season.

I hope you all have come to the realization that this season is kaput. The time now is to turn to who in the farm system is worth promotion to either see how they fit here in 2010 for to let them strut their stuff and entice other organizations to talk trade.

But the biggest movement here will be clearing out the front office. The only thing that will save Omar’ ass is the Skill Sets will in no way shape or form fire him and pay him to lay on the beach in the D.R. but at some point the Skill Sets may have to think of finding a baseball executive that Omar would report to.

Freddy Skill Sets realized a few years ago that he sucks as a baseball man but he didn’t have the heart to tell his little boy Jeffey that he wasn’t a baseball man either. The time has come for Freddy to have a heart to heart with the little shit and give him a dose of tough love that it’s time for Jeffey to stay out of the baseball business. That’s not to say that all contract and money spent won’t go through Jeffey as he is the owner and he is in charge of the money being spent (you think he gives his daddy grief about Freddy’s good buddy Bernie Madoff ?) but this off season I don’t want to hear that Jeffey is wining and dining free agent and calling agents and stalking Omar about personnel moves. The Mets need a President of Baseball Operations to run the entire spectrum of player personnel, pro and minor league along with amateur scouting. If Omar has a problem with that then let him resign and leave the money behind. I doubt that he would do that and as I stated the Mets won’t fire him so hiring a boss for him is the next logical step. The first name that comes to mind is Sandy Alderson who left the Padres earlier this year. Gene Michael would be another great choice and with the Bronx Robber Barron out of the picture maybe a substantial raise would lure him one boro over. Buck Showalter would be controversial and maybe not a fan favorite but his track record shows he can build a team and maybe it’s time for guy to rattle the cages in Queens. Could Andy MacPhail be fed up with Peter Angelos and come to NY to carry on the MacPhail NY baseball family legacy ?

The bottom line is it’s time to take the keys away from Omar and put Jeffey in the corner and bring in a Baseball CEO to save the franchise.