8 days until pitchers and catchers

If you haven’t seen the video of Keith Hernandez working with Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans at first base, click here. Again my opinion on Murphy is certainly biased but if the other 24 players on the Mets roster that comes North has the same desire and work ethic as Murph, things may be a lot better than we think this summer at $iti Field. At the end of the video Hernandez tells Murphy and Evans that if they ever need him for anything to tell Jay Horowitz and he will drive up to St Lonesome to lend a hand.

Two things here, one what the hell took so long for the Mets to utilize Mex in this capacity and two, if Mike Piazza never asked Hernandez’ advice when the Mets were looking for him to make the transition for catcher to first baseman, then he’s a bigger asshole than I think he is.

Nice to see Mike Jacobs back in the org. I hope he likes chicken wings.

The biggest problem I have with Mets management is not so much with it’s ineptness of its baseball ops but more with its dishonestly. When it comes to the teams finances someone is lying  either the media or the team and most likely it’s the team.  With the management not being aggressive on free agents and not making deals that would make the team better by taking on pitchers like Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, or Gil Meche, who have big contracts that teams would love to get out from under, it proves that the coffers of the Skill Sets are not as robust as they claim.

It seems that’s the only reason Omar and Jerry Manuel are still here, it’s more of a “it’s cheaper to keep ‘em” scenario than a performance  factor. The Skill Sets can’t afford to pay Minaya and go out and hire a top of the line GM, so what we get is lots of layers of front office types that makes dealing with the Mets tedious and exhausting.

Everyday there are more and more stories about the teams finances and I’m sure there will be more and more of the cash flow stories throughout the season.  All it will take is for one snitch to blab the inside scoop on what’s going on in the back rooms of $iti Field to bring this to light.

Perfect example of the Mets money woes, Chein- Ming Wang is ready to sign with the Washington Nationals who are putting together a nice team for 2010.

Just sit back and listen to this song and enjoy your snow day!

I don’t know about you but I’m getting a massive headache trying to decipher what the hell the Mets plan is for the off season.

Omar has gone on TV and print preaching pitching and defense and I scream at the TV YES OMAR YES! !!!  then I read the tons of minutia coming out of Indianapolis and everything about the Mets is contradictory.

The Mets are hot for Matt Holiday and John Lackey,

Then we hear, the Mets won’t be spending on big ticket free agents.

Luis Castillo has been offered to every team but Miguel’s Taqueria softball team. If you can’t move Castillo then you have to buy out his contract. I’m not a big Castillo fan and I would love to see him moved but you have to admit the way the Mets are treating him sucks. If my job treated me like this I’d at the union hall filing a fucking grievance. Either trade the man or grow a pair of balls Jeffey and buy him out you little shit.

Last night I watched Mets Hot Stove and the great Bobby Ojeda when asked by Kevin Burkhart what the Mets biggest need is this off season, Bobby O said “pitching, pitching and more pitching. Then when the cut to Indianapolis, and Chris Carlin interviewed Bobby Cox who was asked about his suplus of starting pitching. Cox said “you hate to move a starter because you never have enough pitching” Now they know that, I know that, you know that, all of baseball knows that. Do the Mets know that?

The last time I was this discouraged as a Mets fan, Lorinda de Roulet were trying to figure out how to clean baseballs and Bebe and Whitney de Roulet were strutting their debutant ass’s through out Shea trying out as ball washers.

The thought of free-agent left fielder Matt Holliday signing with the Mets is good for a chuckle. Some who know Holliday say he would prefer not to play in New York. Also, his power to right-center makes him a poor fit for Citi Field. The Mets would not be so desperate to upgrade in left if Fernando Martinez had justified talk that he might be a left-handed Manny Ramirez …

Hey Ken , who’s Holiday’s agent ? Scott Bora$ right? Bora$ will have Holiday sign with the Tehran Burkamakers if the price is right. Who’s your source on this one, the same source who told you that no way C.C. Sabathia would never come to New York, Money talks, and bullshit is employed by FOX, dickhead.

Dierkes also puts Randy Wolf and Brad Penny in Mets Blue and Orange. Wolf I can see but Brad Penny? Unless it’s to work as a bouncer at the Acela Club I don’t see it.

Have you watched any of the baseball post season? I have, especially the NL games and after last night I’ve come to the conclusion that the best thing the Mets could do this off season is not sign any big names free agents or make a block buster trade. I don’t know who the Mets can sign or trade for that would make that big an impact to make them a contender. Who is our Chase Utley? It’s not David Wright. Who is our Ryan Howard? Frenchy? He’s not even Jason Werth. You think I enjoy writing this? I’m ready to puke.

We have two players out 25 that have any championship timber, Johan Santana and Frankie Rodriquez.

Now I know you’re all saying “hey asshole, what about Wright, Beltran and Reyes” and I say, “Yeah what about them”? Beltran is right on the cusp of joining Santana and Rodriquez and maybe he bounces back in 2010 and puts up a Beltran kind of year. Or maybe this past injury was the beginning of the end. Reyes, even healthy we’re still waiting for that bust out year that may never come. In the mean time who would you rather have at short for the Mets, Hanley Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki, Jimmy Rollins or Reyes? Shit at this point I’d take JJ Hardy.

Now to Wright. Look I love D-Wright, really I do and maybe I want him to become something he can’t be, a team leader. I don’t think Wright can be the guy because I don’t think he feels comfortable being the guy. He needs help, he needs the reincarnation of Cliff Floyd to bring out the best in him or could Jeff Francouer be “the guy” to bring out the leader in Wright. Wright needs a tag team partner the way Marty Jannetty needed Shawn Michaels , or Hawk needed Animal or vice versa. Whatever, Wright needs a confident and guy to lean on a guy to be his sounding board.

I’m probably talking out my ass about this as I could just be jealous of watching teams and fans whooping it up in October. I have the realization that my team is not making any major changes to its front office that has presided over two major collapses and a season where excuses were standard operating procedure rather being aggress and shipping out the corpses in baseball suits for young, hungry and baseball savvy players.

I’m reading some sites today asking who should the Mets go after Jason Bay or Matt Holliday? Are you kidding? Neither guy is a difference maker plus both will ask for long term deals at big bucks that will become albatross’ around the team’s financial neck. Instead of signing Bay or Holliday how about cutting Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez now that would be money better spent.

Wake up and smell the second division Mets fans, we are no where near a championship team or even a playoff team and if you think I’m full of shit just go back and watch the Jeffey, Omar, Manuel press conference from the Monday after the season ender and then tell me how confident you are.

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.

This has been a hot rumor for awhile but now our man on the inside, Adam Rubin has put it out there that Asst’ GM John Ricco looks to be the next man to run the Mets as it looks like Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel as well as the coaching staff are as good as gone too.

Ricco is the new breed of GM who has a grasp on stats and can speak in public without stumbling. No offense to Omar but it looks like Jeffey was as embarrassed by Omar’ public speaking as much as we was that Tony B was running wild.

Read the article and see if you get the same feeling I get that the Skill Sets are strapped for dough and will use the  $30 mil to pay off players and Omar and Manuel and not on free agents.

I feel bas for Jerry Manuel as he does not deserve to get fired but there needs to be a purge, a cleansing if you will of the organization and unfortunately Manuel has to go as well.

John Ricco GM. Bobby Valentine MGR. I can get aboard that bandwaggon.

With 21 days until pitchers and catchers open the gates at St. Lonesome, FINALLY, there is some Mets news:

Last night on Pro Baseball Central Joe McDonald and I got into a spirited conversation that started out as a positions by position comparison of the Mets and Phillies and then morphed into a debate of whether Carlos Delgado is a Hall of Famer. Joe says “Yes of course” and I say “No way”

Am I the only one reading the words of Jeffey Skill Sets as a cryptic message that Manny could be a Met? I’ve seen where Omar has soured on Manny about how he acted in Boston last year but I have to think that Scott Boras is on the phone right now with Omar to talk Manny.  Am I just getting my hopes up? Am I just so delusional that I’m holding out hope? Maybe but unlike when Cliff Floyd played under the Art Howe reign of error I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m happy with the Freddy Garcia signing and I hope he makes his $9mil which he would get if he meets all the incentives in his minor league deal.

Great story on D Wright in the NY Daily News and I like this statement by Wright:

Wright is ready to be more vocal in team meetings - he says he started to feel right about speaking up only last year - and active in uniting the factions of a diverse clubhouse.

“I try to reach out to the free agents we sign, and the players we trade for,” he says. “When young players come up, I will try to steer them toward doing things the proper way. . . . I grew up in a military town, where there is a ton of diversity, so I’m used to talking to different people. I’m getting more confident in that as the years go by.”

It’s time for Wright to take over the team, there is no need to name him Captain-it should be accepted already in the clubhouse- but J-Man should just let it known that Wright is THE MAN. This is why I’m still holding out hope on Manny as a Met because Wright has made it known he is on board with Manny.

Then there was this little nugget that needs some clarification:

While he worked, Wright was the subject of much scrutiny and criticism. He says that none of the post-collapse chatter affected him as much as his own disgust.

“Nobody enjoys hearing they should be traded,” he says, shrugging. “You never want to be disliked, but I understand that with the position I’m in, in the market I’m in, it’s not going to be happy-go-lucky all the time, like it was it ‘06. You have to take the bad with the good.”

I know of no Mets fan that ever said D-Wright should be traded and I know some of the Shea disdidents have booed Wright which is ignorant but Wright has to know that the only person in this town that even utter the word trade with Wright’s name was the mid day blow hard in Astoria and no one gives a rats ass about his opinion when it comes to the Mets.

Are the Phillies serious about this?

The site Amazin’ Avenue has a great post of Mets on the cover of Sports Illustrated from 1962-1985. WOW brings back memories.

So what does this mean for the Mets, Brooklyn Cyclones and SNY all of which fall under the Sterling Equities corporate umbrella? Does it mean that the Skill Sets have to bring in a partner a la Nellie D or worse put the team up for sale? How much does this effect the payroll and the pursuit of other free agents?

This looks to become a huge story  as it would be a shocker if the Skill Sets had to sell even a 50 % share of the club and they just might if they have to make up for their loses.

At this point no one can predict how the money woes will affect the rest of this baseball off season as not only are teams wary about signing free agents to big money and for long term deals but as the Omar Minya is finding out it’s very difficult to dump bad contracts.

It’s not just baseball that’s feeling the pinch. The WNBA Houston Comets are ready to be disbanded. The Arena Football League is talking about suspending operations for a year. The NHL just had a Governors meeting where they had some economists lay out the doomsday scenario for the league.

While the new ball park and the TV network should keep teams like the Mets and Highlanders with steady revenue for this coming season, what happens for 2010 when the suites are up for renewal and there is no corporation to renew the lease? Even with a new play pen, it will very interesting to see if fans have to change their game going habits? If you went to say 10 games a season do you cut down to 6 or 4 or none? No one can predict what will happen we just have to sit back an observe and see how the financial trouble play out.