The worst part of the Reyes Thyroid melodrama is not the illness as it appears with rest and proper diet, Reyes can get his overactive Thyroid under control, it’s the fact that the front office now has to make some very important personnel moves and that alone should set all our Thyroids into overdrive.

As a fan I’m petrified about Jerry Manuel getting his way, having Jenry Mejia thrust into the set up role, and of Alex Cora becoming the everyday shortstop, and Cora can crow with all his bravado about grabbing the shortstop job until Reyes comes back but in the words of Harry Callahan, “A man’s got to know his limitations” you are what you are an overpaid backup. Now Manuel has another problem, trying to put together a lineup without two major pieces, a leadoff hitter and three- hole hitter.

The way it looks now the lineup for opening day would be this:

Pagan

Castillo

Wright

Bay

Murphy

Francouer

Barajas

Tejada

However, with the current situation the Mets find themselves in now and the way Ike Davis is hitting, the Mets may be forced into brining Davis up and letting him be the everyday first baseman. Now you may be saying, “Aren’t you the big time Murphy Fanboy” yes, yes I am, the problem is though, Murphy is not a 5 hole hitter, he is more a 2 or a 7 but with Wright and Bay both hitting from the right side, to have Frenchy got to 5, I would not be comfortable with three consecutive right handed batters plus Davis is showing that he could be ready and having that lefty power bat early on not only would boost the lineup but it would re-invigorate the fan base.

Murphy early on would be a lefty bat off the bench and by the time Beltran comes back (talk about a guy who has fallen off the radar screen, is Beltran working out in camp? at home?, at the mall ? where’s Carlos B ?)   along with Cora and either GMJ (switch-hitter) or Frank Catalanotto or Chris Carter with Fernando Tatis and Henry Blanco ready from the right side.  Then when Beltran and Reyes do come back, reassess the situation and move accordingly.

The biggest gripe I have and most Mets fans have is the lack of a strong leader in management. There is no one in the Mets organization that can stepped to a podium that makes me feel like they are in control of any situation. It’s sad. Every time a situation arises with this team it turns into embarrassment, we want to believe, we want to look at the ownership with confidence that there is a plan, we want to see the manager and players hold their heads high and play tough physically and mentally but all we get is a bunch of guys with high water pants and eye glasses held together with scotch tape. Not very inspiring is it?

I’d go into the pitching situation but my Morphine drip is almost empty.

  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!

Cory Sullivan, cf
Luis Castillo, 2b 
Fernando Tatis, 3b 
Daniel Murphy, 1b 
Jeff Francoeur, rf 
Jeremy Reed, lf 
Alex Cora, ss 
Brian Schneider, c 
Livan Hernandez, sp

WOW What a Murderer’s Row!!!!

The biggest threat in the lineup is Livan at 9

I’ll pass thank you (after listening to Gary and Ron’s openning) and watch Dodgers-Giants

As we approach the 24^th hour since the M. Donald Minaya disgraceful presser the debate still rages on about the direction this team is going.  I’m not sure Minaya was working alone in his attack on Adam Rubin since Rubin stated he had spoke to Jeffey Skill Sets about getting into baseball and not Omar, it just smells of a set up to me.

In one way Omar was slick in calling out Rubin during the press conference as it took away the fact that Tony Bernazard would still have a job today if not for the daily stories on Bernazard’ behavior that were painting him as one nasty bastard and made the organization look bad.

What I don’t get is why the hell do the Mets ever let Minaya speak at these things? Listening to him stumble and stammer makes me so uncomfortable listening to him. If Minaya survives this off season and his contract extension kicks in, the Skill Sets should send Omar for some public speaking courses or bring in someone to work with him to help him speak in front of the cameras. The New York Mets for all their faults and ineptsness is still a billion dollar corporation and should not have as it’s spokesman a guy who has a problem putting a sentence together.

By the way the Mets won a game in big time fashion with Fernando Tatis hitting a grand slam on a 0-2 pitch that any other day would be the big story but as usual front office stupidity reigns again.

I’m going to the game tonight (as bad as the team is I love spending my birthday watching baseball) and I think I may go real early and call out Jeffey Skill Sets kind of like Steven Segal in Out For Justice as Det. Gino Felino went looking for Richie Madano in this scene. So if your at $ti Field tonight and you hear someone yelling “Yo Jeffey, Com’on out Jeffey” come by and say hi.

Looks as though the Mets will be sellers instead of buyers and that could be a good thing, as it may be best to sell vets for prospects and then come the off season a major re construction of the player personnel is in order.

Looks like the annual collapse came early this year and in the end that may be a good thing.

I get to leave the camp today so it’s off to Wal-Mart for some supply’s and a cup of Dunkin Dounuts coffee but the best part pf heading to the outside world of upstate NY is getting to see all them Cougars in their muffin tops spilling over their  too tight jeans YAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOO

What can I add about last night’s game that you don’t know already? How can you break down this game when it’s the same old same old? Everyone is screaming for Omar Minaya do something, what that something is and how he can obtain it  no one has an answer to. “GET A BAT, GET A BAT” is a popular rant but last night you scored 6 runs and still lost. What bat do you want? We’ve gone all over the tried names and none of them will make a difference. It’s not complex what the problems are with the Mets and you can look at charts and numbers and load up your nuclear slide rule and you will come up with the same result I do just through simple observation, the starting staff can go deep into games, thus the bullpen is worn out and is now ineffective add in the defense is atrocious and collectively the baseball IQ of the 25 man roster is at Special Ed level.

But more pathetic than that are the unnamed players whining for the front office to make a deal to “lift them” which to me is the pussy-fcation of this team. If Michael Jackson were alive he’d tell them to “man up”.

This slide is less about who isn’t here but more about the heart of who is here. D-Wright and Gary Sheffield (GARY SHEFFIELD!!!!! For Christ Sake!!!!) are doing everything they can to keep this team in contention with Wright near exhaustion and Sheff ready to blow out his knee. It’s time for other guys to step up and that means you Ryan Church and Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora to take more of a leadership role that he has slacked on recently. Most times team meeting are well…meaningless but I think this would be the exact right time for Wright, Sheff and Johan Santana to close the clubhouse door for a players only meeting to clear the air and figure out who is ready to fight for their season and who is ready to hide under the bed.

What a surprise, Carlos Beltran in going for a second opinion on his injured knee and he is going to Vail Colorado to visit Dr Richard Steadman a noted orthopedic doctor who specializes in micro-fracture surgery. See you in March Carlos.

“The New York Mets would like to announce the addition of Dr. Conrad Murray to their medical staff”

Thanks to The Dirty Mets Blog for a shout out to this site this morning.

The Mets Police has a clip of Vin Scully calling Sandy Koufax’ no hitter against the Mets 47 years ago today.

I think it’s great that Keith Hernandez, when not telling us that “batters are a bit tardy on the fastball”, is saving lives as a NYC EMT

I am thisclose to purchasing a LINCICUM 55 Giants jersey. I’m starting to feel like Nurse Jackie, I’m married to the Mets but I’m cheating with the Giants ( by the way how weird is it to watch Edie Falco as Nurse Jackie banging the guy who played Father Phil on The Sopranos?) especially when Tim Lincicum is pitching. The Giants do everything we wish the Mets would do. The play outstanding defense, they don’t beat themselves with stupidity both on D and at bat, they have solid starting pitching with the best 1-2 punch in the game with Lincicum and Matt Cain, a solid bullpen core that doesn’t get burned out as Bruce Bochy lets his starters go deep into games and sometimes lets them finish all 9 innings. I was never a big fan of Bochy when he was running the Padres bench but watching the Giants as much as I have so far this season he is doing an outstanding job.

I will be a guest on Mike Silva’ NEW YORK BASEBALL DIGEST RADIO SHOW tonight at 6:30PM on Blog Talk Radio.

I don’t know if it’s just frustration or that there is in power struggle between J-Man and Omar but some of Jerry Manuel’s moves have me puzzled. His choice of Fernando Tatis as and everyday player and burying Daniel Murphy on the bench is ridiculous. Tatis has been a great addition to the Mets but for Christ sake he ‘s not Lou Gehrig, he’s a very good utility guy who produces when used sparingly. Please, FREE DANIEL MURPHY at put him at first base. Same with Ryan Church can you leave the guy in RF? Let F-Mart platoon with Sheffield in LF because as great as Sheff has been he’s is 40 years old and can not play every day.

So now John Maine joins the walking wounded with a “tired arm”. How much you want to bet this is another line of happy horseshit from Flushing ?

PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Don’t tell me that Nelly Figs is coming up for Maine. I don’t care what Jon Neise’ numbers are in Buffalo bring him up and let him pitch and stop burying this kid. ENOUGH OF NELSON FIGUEROA already!

You’ll read no more criticism of D-Wright or Carols Beltran here as both of these guys have stepped up and gone above and beyond the call of duty. If I were managing a team against the Mets I’d never give either guy a pitch to hit I’d take my chances with the other six guys in the lineup.

The Mets showed the fight that we have been clamoring for out this group and the leader of the pack is the Ace Johan Santana. It’s tough for a pitcher to be the team leader but there is no question that Santana is the emotional leader of this team and I believe that his fiery way is rubbing off on Carlos Beltran as well as we’ve seen Beltran be much more vocal than ever in his Mets career.

I agreed with Ron Darling who during last night telecast made mention of J-Man taking Johan out of the game that Santana has to be careful not to show up J-Man when Manuel came to the mound. But as a Mets fan who has been screaming for someone to show a pulse and have some pluck, watching Santana fight to stay in the game was outstanding.

Santana had a weird pitching performance. He was throwing strikes all night but his pitch selection when he was ahead in the count was a bit dicey. In the 4^th after the Mets added to their lead to 3-0, Santana got two quick outs and looked to do what you have to when your teams scores and that’s shut down the opposition in their next at bat. He got ahead of Ryan Howard 0-1 but then hung the next pitch (I think it was a change up) belt high middle of the plate and Howard teed off on it. Maybe going outside with a waste pitch would have been better something down and away  that Howard may chase but at least it was a solo shot.  Same with Ibanez up next.  Santana got ahead 0-2 before giving up a HR on a breaking ball that hung up over the middle. Strange pitch selection.

Lance Barksdale blew the call at the plate against Fernando Tatis in the 6th as Tatis was safe at the plate by not only sliding under the glove of Carlos Ruiz but Ruiz never had possession of the ball. But Tatis never argued the call and J-Man said he didn’t come out because he can’t see it from his spot in the dugout and Tatis didn’t fight it either. But SNY showed D-Wright (must have seen the reply) telling Manuel that Tatis was safe.  J-Man should have gone out between innings to let Barksdale know that when the highlights are shown that night that he will be embarrassed.

Faith and Fear in Flushing is hosting a METSTOCK night at Two Boots restaurant in Manhattan next Thursday night. The evening in which the Mets will be playing the Orioles will commemorate the 40^th anniversary of the 1969 World Championship and the 40^th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival.  Click here for all the details and a list of writers who will be on hand.

The Mets Police has more ideas for a better Mets alternate uni.  I would love to see something where they keep the snow whites and instead of METS across the front have an orange NY on the left side and no name on the back. I do like the hat that the Mets po-po suggests but the suggestion of putting QUEENS on the roadie uhhhhhhhhhhh NO WAY! .

Alex Nelson at Mets Geek has an outstanding  in depth scouting report on LHP Steve Matz and SS Robbie Shields.  In the comments section of this post is story that Matz is looking for a $1mil signing bonus or he will go to college instead. If the Mets believe this kid is worth keeping then I’d say give him the mil and get him in the system. The Skill Sets make more than that on the nickel deposits from the beer bottles at $iti Field.

It seems that Larry Jones regrets he was never a Met. The guy has an unhealthy envy problem with the Mets and NYC.

Mets docs say Carlos Beltran and John are NOT suffering from the Swine Flu. Are these the same doctors that OK’d Ryan Church to play with a bruised brain last year?

Just the same I’ll be wearing a mask and sprying Lysol while watching tonight’s game on SNY

Can’t get all bent out of shape over last night’s loss in fact Mets fans are in a tough tspot as the team’s roster get depleted everyday so it’s hard to get on guys but J-Man has sent a message to D-Wright in a round about way that it’s time for him to step up and put this team on his shoulders.

This kills me to write this but I commend what Mark Texieria did last night breaking up that double play and if you were honest with your Mets fan self you’d say the same thing.

Maybe Fernando Martinez not running out that pop up last week was a good thing? Seems he knows now not to take anything at this level for granted. Also good to see the vets take him under there wing as Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora has. The more F-Mart plays the more comfortable he looks at the plate and in the outfield.

Bradley Holt is on a very fast track to Flushing as he has been promtoed to Bingo and will start for the B-Mets on Friday.

Over at ROOTZOO TV they have up a great video interview with Darryl Strawberry where he talks about his book and answers questions sent in by viewers it’s well worth watching.

I said 6-4 would be th emark to hit and with the melt down in LA and players dropping left and right winning 2 of the 3 series is encouraging.

Looks like F- Mart will join th eteam as early as tonight. How about we Mets fans let the kid breathe before we put Willie Mays aspirations on him?

At what point does Omar DL Jose Reyes? Reyes is not getting any better and now Ramon Martinez is hurting and from reading Fernando Tatis words in the paper this morning he is not looking forward to playing short.  Either bring up Ruben Tejada or Jose Cornado go try to get Omar Vizquel from the Rangers   

Picked up a nice 30 in Louisville Slugger at the flea market yesterday and a huge poster of the NY Football Giants winning the Super Bowl XLII for my office wall for 5 bucks oh and a nice sun burn as well