Johan Santana

Brett Myers

David Wright

For More Info contact Bob at TrainorComm@gmail.com.

If there is anyone in the Mets front office who feels Luis Castillo should remain a Met, their opinion had to have changed after last night. I don’t care if you are a relative of Castillo’, his actions after driving in Ike Davis for a come from behind walk off win proves he hates being here as much as Mets fans hate that he’s here. Talk about irreconcilable differences, there is no reason to put Castillo or Mets fans through this loveless marriage anymore. Let’s do it for the kids. By the way check out Greg Prince’ post on last night’s game at FFIF and tell me you don’t feel like crying. Misery in Winning, that’s Mets Baseball.

Is Wayne Hagin kidding with his gushing praise of Jeff Francoeur ? After Francoeur knocked in David Wright with a Sac Fly in the 2^nd inning, Hagin went Radio Ga-Ga over Frenchy. I’d have given Howie Rose $100 bucks if he slapped Hagin in the head after his ridiculous remarks.

A must read for all Mets fans is Adam Rubin’ 3 part expose of the failings of the Mets under the Skill Sets/Minaya regime.  From reading this series I take it that Jerry Manuel will be fired as soon as the team is mathematically eliminated from contention (even though we all know the season is over NOW)  Minaya will either be caned or reassigned and I’m leaning towards reassignment. John Ricco will be the GM and Wally Backman the manager. The organization will find a way to either deal off Oliver Perez and Luis Casitllo or just release them and that money ($18 mil) will the equivalent of a free agent signing. The organization will make Backman the focal point of the team in order to sell tickets. Will it work? We won’t know until this time next year.

In  Rubin’ report he mentions how little money the Mets have spent on draft picks and in the International market for free agents. I had the pleasure of speaking with Wilbur Miller, a Pittsburgh Pirates fan and a fan poster on Bucs Dugout about the recent leaks of the financial statements of the Pittsburgh Pirates on my THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN Radio Show last night and one of the items we talked about was the Pirates under the ownership of Bob Nutting and Frank Coonley have spent $23 mil in 2008 and $21.2 mil in 2007 on player development.  The Mets in turn have spent a mere $14 mil the last three seasons on player development. That’s $4mil less than the money they will pay Perez and Castillo combined next season.  After listening to my interview with Miller you tell me who is more optimistic Miller the Bucs fan or me the Mets fan?

Sorry for the late post but I was conferring with my attorneys, to see is we Mets fans can file a grievance against the MLBPA for filing a grievance against the Mets in the Mets v. K-Rod case.

I did not watch any of the Mets-Astros game last night and I’m glad I didn’t as it seems the play of the field made people wretch.

Rod Barajas will be activated some time today and word is Josh Thole’s spot is safe. So the Mets will go with 3 players out of 25 who play catcher. Then they have a pitcher who may as well sit in the bullpen in a Snuggie with a bowl of pop corn as he never gets to see the light of the pitchers mound. Now you know why the Mets organization is baseball’s equivalent of the person coming out of the bathroom with toilet paper sticking out the back of their pants.

I  have my doubts about people like Tony Dungy, who is one of  these holier

 than thou types, than I do about a guy like Rex Ryan. In fact, I would trust Rex Ryan more than I would Dungy. 

Matthew Cerrone thinks Bobby Parnell should be the Mets closer now and next year in the event that Francisco Rodriguez is gone from the team. Hard to argue that point in fact I’ve been saying for awhile the most overrated position in sports is the closer, with the exception of Mariano Rivera.

If you haven’t heard my THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN show with Howard Megdal, it’s well worth your while, also don’t forget to vote of Howard for Mets GM right here.

Alex Belth has touched on a great subject at his Bronx Banter site, film crews in NYC. Where my office is located downtown we have crews for the now off the air Ugly Betty, Law and Order, and Rescue Me. There is nothing funnier than a crew trying to shoot a scene and telling pedestrians to please wait before crossing a street and having New Yorkers telling to go fuck themselves and keep walking.    

Now that the Mets are done for the year, are you following any other team that’s on the march to the post season? I always have a soft spot for the Giants so I like to watch their run (even though they’ve dropped 4 of 5 to the Padres and Phillies, two teams that if they needed to beat) for the NL West or Wild Card and the watching the White Sox-Twins series has been a thrill. So tell me is their a team your following or are you just waiting for football season?

Don’t forget to check out my NO PSL REQUIRED Fantasy Football League as there are some spots remaining.

Tired of railing against this organization, who again screwed over the Mets fans by playing last night’s game in the rain, which made the field conditions so dicey that even Joe Morgan could see it was stupid to play with puddles (which I named Lake Wilpon) in the infield. How about poor ol’ Luis Castillo? He thinks Jerry Manuel put him in the lineup last night to boost the offense, when in reality management forced Manuel to put Gimp in the game hoping he’d break an ankle on that marsh of an infield.

Joe DeMayo put on his investigative fedora and found out that word on the street is the Mets will sign Matt Harvey, Greg Peavey and Drew Martinez. It may take a lot of these to get the deals done though.

Why wouldn’t the Mets pick up Jose Reyes option for 2011? You’re not going to trade him off this season as his trade value is not very strong and you have no one to replace him at short stop. The guy that has me concerned is David Wright, whose roller-coaster season is the ultimate head scratcher.  When Wright is on, there aren’t many better than him in baseball but when he falls into these awful funks at the plate as he is now, (how far outside of home plate can you stand that you’re not out of the batter’s box?) and you fuse that with the general malaise over this team, it makes for a toxic stew that pushes the fan base over the edge. Part of Wright’s problem, in my view, is he tries to hard. It seems he takes it like if he doesn’t do it, no one else will. What he lacks is a mentor, and I’ve mentioned this numerous times, Wright still misses Cliff Floyd terribly. Wright needs a veteran player who has been around the block a time or two who he can talk to and who can be honest with him when he fucks up. HoJo is the favorite uncle who takes Wright to Nathan’s and a ride on the Cyclone and gets him a candy apple for the ride home. Maybe David needs some tough love to straighten himself out. I’d love to get inside his head for a moment to find out how he really feels about the direction of this organization and if he wants to be a long term member of the Mets family.

As a Mets fan and as someone who has watched him beat the Mets ass for years, I should hate Chipper Jones and not give a shit if he comes back from knee surgery. But I can’t. I admire the shit out of him as he took everything the Mets fans threw at him and gave it back. With a smile. He kicked our ass for years, but I still have to tip my Mets cap at him if this is Larry’s Last Stand.

David Wright

Frankie Rodriguez

Roy Halladay

For More Info contact Bob at TrainorComm@gmail.com.

So today KO-Rod will be arraigned in Queen Criminal Court on domestic violence charges and no matter if his father in law doesn’t want to press charges it’s out of his hands as in NYC the law is the City of NY is now the plaintiff in this case.  This could be the best news the Mets get all year, maybe Rodriguez gets two years in the slammer and the Mets get to void his contract. Props to the Pops for taking one for the team.

I have a very funny feeling that David Wright will go to management very very quietly this winter and ask to be traded.

I’m leaving the Cape tomorrow and heading back to NYC and what I’ll miss most besides the beach and Main St in Hyannis is the great baseball I’ve seen here the last 10 days.  Yesterday in Game 1 of the Cape League Finals I saw one of the best pitching performances of the year as  RHP Matt Andreise out of Cal-Riverside pitched a complete game shutout to give the Cotuit Kettlers a 3-0 win over the Y-D Red Sox. Y-D is an offensive power house and that makes this game more special.

Then I’ve been watching some Red Sox games as you can’t help it they are on every TV in every bar and restaurant on the Cape.  For all the injuries the club has suffered this year they keep on playing good hard fundi baseball and are still on the Highlanders tail.

There is a ton of good baseball and well run baseball teams out there just don’t go looking on 126^th St and Roosevelt Ave in Queens for it though.

However, Mike Pelfrey continued to have his first inning struggles and Arizona picked up where they left off last week taking the opening game of a three- game weekend set 9-6. Another loss for the Mets that left them at 52-51, 7-1/2 games behind first pace Atlanta and in a fourth place tie with Florida in the NL East.

It is starting to get dismal at Citi Field.  And the Mets also have to wonder what has happened to Pelfrey who surrendered three runs in the first inning. The Mets would get even in their half of the first on the first of two home runs from David Wright. It was a three- run blast off winning pitcher Ian Kennedy (6-8).

As for Pelfrey (10-5) who failed to get the decision, the Mets have to hope their right hander can return to form if they have any chance of making the postseason. And once again the Diamondbacks had his number, 0-5 in his last seven starts against them. In his last start at Arizona on July 19^th he threw 51 pitches in the first inning and was removed after getting four outs in the shortest outing of his career.

“Everybody else in the rotation has been throwing the ball great and I’ve kind of taken a step back from early in the year,” said Pelfrey. In his last six starts, he’s worked 25.1 innings, allowing 54 hits, 28 runs, 27 earned with 14 walks and 13 strikeouts.

“I definitely plan on getting this thing turned around and back on track so we can plan on winning some games,” he said.  Mets manager Jerry Manuel said adjustments will have to be made. There is the high pitch count, “still confident we have a young pitcher and don’t think it’s demoralizing,” said Manuel about his starter.

Wright drove in five runs and with his second home run in the third off Kennedy, 17^th of the year with two on, gave the Mets a 5-4 lead. After retiring seven straight D-backs with one out in the sixth, Kennedy reached first on an error from shortstop Jose Reyes.

“A routine ground ball, I have to make that play,” said Reyes who extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single in the first. Pelfrey after throwing 118 pitches had a chance to win. Enter Raul Valdes (2-3) who failed to retire the four batters he faced. The home run to center off the bat of Kelly Johnson gave Arizona a 6-5 lead.

Two more singles and on the 14th pitch thrown by Valdes, Miguel Montero hit a home run off the second deck in right field, a five-run Diamondbacks inning that helped his team snap a seven-game losing streak. “I’m swinging  at better pitches, I think,” said Montero about his fourth home run.

As to why the Diamondbacks have the Mets number, he said, “I honestly don’t know; it’s just baseball I guess.”  Montero has hit two home runs and driven in six in his last two games. Thursday evening he connected against the Phillies and has now hit a home run in consecutive games for the second time this year.

Manuel said it was the right situation for Valdes who warmed up in the pen four times before coming in. “It was a good match up in that situation,” said Manuel about the home run ball thrown to Johnson.

But the Mets still have two more games with the Diamondbacks and have to figure out how to take this series against the second worst team in the National League. If not the road trip next week against Atlanta and the surging Philadelphia Phillies could determine their season.

“Anytime one or two of their hitters gets hot they can give us trouble,” explained Manuel about his team troubles with Arizona.

Notes:  Before the game outfielder Jason Bay was laced on the 15-day disabled list from the minor concussion he sustained crashing into the outfield wall out in Los Angeles last Friday evening. The Mets recalled outfielder Jesus Felicano from Triple- A Buffalo.

e-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com

Yesterday’s Mets-Dodgers game was so bad in so many ways. Besides the fact that David Wright is standing so far off the plate that he needs a canoe paddle to hit the ball and that he desperately needs a day off, and that Jerry Manuel has some form of Antention Decifict Disorder when it comes to writing a lineup (Luis Castillo MUST BAT 8^TH GOD DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) plus watching Manuel and St. Joseph of Torre match wits with the bullpen is like watching a four hour promo of the movie Schmucks For Dinner. Then to top off the whole afternoon of suck, the game was televised on FOX. Kenny Albert is not built for baseball. He kind of drifts off like he’s so fucking bored wishing it was winter so he can call football and hockey games. When Albert works both of those sports he’s solid but  on baseball he’s god awful. Eric Karros is a moron. Plain and simple, a moron. He makes no sense at all with any of his analysis especially when he thought pitching to Andre Either with first base open and one out with the winning run on thrird was a good move. Then there is Ken Rosenthal who I ask very nicely on Twitter, to shut the fuck up. For an “information guy” he brings you nothing except for some good old fashion Mets bashing. Yes we’re spoiled as we have the finest TV crew in baseball to enjoy almost every night, but at least if I’m going to sit through Jerry Manuel botching games and some pretty bas baseball this last month, I want to be entertained somewhat and only Gary, Keith and Ron can do that for Mets fans.

I’ll be shocked, SHOCKED if Jerry Manuel is the manager of the Mets come Tuesday night. If he is still the manager, then you know for sure the Skill Sets don’t care anymore. 71/2 back will soon be 10 games back and all out attention will be on Jets and Giants camp.

It’s so easy to kill Toxic Ollie for yesterday but Ollie is what he is. The only thing I can take out Manuel bringing in Perez was this was Manuel being insubordinate. It makes me think that Manuel told management he wanted no part of Ollie on this team and management told him to shut up and sit down as we are paying this balooka a ton of dough and Manuel said well then no problem I’ll make sure he comes into a tight situation and fucks it up. Manuel has managed this road trip like a guy is tired of his job and needs a change so the Skill Sets should do the right thing for him and the team and relive him of his duty.

The kicker today will be if the Mets are up or down by a lot today and Frankie Rodriguez pitches and after the game Manuel says “Frankie hasn’t pitched in awhile so he needed the work”

Jerry Manuel didn’t get on John Maine because he was John Maine. No Jerry Manuel got on John Maine because John Maine was pitching as John Maine right shoulder needed to be surgically repaired. Jerry Manuel liked John Maine but was mad because John Maine wouldn’t tell Jerry Manuel that John Maine was hurt. John Maine wanted the ball and tried to fight off John Maine’s sore shoulder. It didn’t work out for John Maine here as John Maine’ season ending surgery is likely to be the end of John Maine’ Mets career. So now Jerry Manuel has to find another John Maine to treat like shit like he did to John Maine.

No much to say about last night’s game except Big Pelf has had trouble with the Snakes for his whole career and maybe that neck of his was still stiff, but you still have to take into account that Pelfrey hasn’t pitched well in a month. No worries, because Ollie Perez is back, pass the Imodium AD.

The concern over Francoeur riding the pine still has be stupefied, as does the call fro Jason Bay to sit. Forget for a moment that Bay is being paid a shit load of dough, he also has a body of work that Francoeur could only dream about. The one good move that Jerry Manuel has made this month is telling Angel Pagan he will play day in, day out.

On top of this awful second half start, it seems like the Mets will not be players in either the Roy Oswalt or Dan Haren sweepstakes. From trying to piece together the reasons it seems a combination of not wanting to over pay in prospects, which is fine by me, and the lack of dead presidents in the Skill Sets bank account. That part worries me.    

Remember when Rod Barajas was a stud? That was when? Back in May? I know Josh Thole is up as showcase item but maybe it’s time to put young Thole on the protected list?

While most of us clicked off the television in disgust last night, Greg Prince hung in there long enough to report that Justin Turner came in to play for David Wright in the 7^th and thus, became the 141^st third baseman in the history of the NY Mets. Where have you gone, Roy Staiger?

Don’t forget to join me tonight THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN RADIO SHOW on Blog Talk Radio 10PM ET  

Johan Santana gave another solid performance going seven and giving up no runs as the Mets closed out the first half on a positive note.

We have full audio coverage below.

Angel Pagan

Jeff Francoeur

David Wright

Jose Reyes

Derek Lowe

Bobby Cox

For More Info contact Bob at TrainorComm@gmail.com.