I took to the keyboard late today because after the morning chores, I sat down to watch Rangers in 60 on MSG. Yes that’s right I watched the Ranger-Bruins exhibition game from last night and after months of hardship watching the Mets it was good to watch young strong hockey players bust their ass to make a team where the coach is on the lunatic fringe and will only play the guys who give a shit and perform no matter their salary or experience. The exact opposite of how the Mets are managed you might say.

I would have ventured over to 33 st and 8 Ave last night to view the Blueshirts in person but I chose to go to Amazin Tuesday at Two Boots last night and I’m so happy I did. Our Master of Ceremonies Greg Prince did a fine job as usual as did the guest speakers, John Coppinger, Jon Springer , and Jeff Pearlman who told some terrific stories especially on his writing The Bad Guys Won and more tales from the John Rocker Files.

As each of the speakers got up to give their dissertation the TV screens around Two Boots were showing the Mets-Braves game from The Ted. For all our screaming and yelling about the suckyness of our Mets each person in the good size crowd had an eye and two ears on the speakers and one eye on the game, We can say we don’t care but we’re full of shit. We care, oh boy do we care!!!!!!

By the way someday I want Daniel Murphy to meet me and thank me for having his back.

Pedro Feliciano wants a multi-year deal from the Mets. This is the equivalent of your house burning down to the ground and when trying to figure out how to rebuild it your main concern is what type of door knobs to buy. Pedro, on the list of things to do your contract is not any where near the discussion phase.

Although his walk rate and his all round zaniness would concern me, if the Cubs were to take Oliver Perez and say Eddie Kunz for Carlos Zambrano, the Mets would have to make that deal. Zambrano may be nuts but he is effective when he healthy and motivated and coming to NY and tag teamed with fellow Venezuelan Johan Santana might just bring out the best in El Loco.

From reading the stories on J-Man’ first address of the spring, it’s clear that unlike Willie Randolph he will not let his team forget the end of the last two seasons. I also like that  Manuel has stated it wasn’t just the bullpen that sucked down the stretch that putting the failure of the ’07 and’08 collapse solely at the feet of the relievers is selfish and easy to pin the failure on. That’s not to say the bullpen didn’t suck last year or the year before of course they did but also the inability of the offense to get key hits and the fact that if the Mets were hockey players there would be a lot of Lady Bing candidates, so Manuel throwing out a grenade like he did yesterday is welcomed as this team needs to have its cage rattled.

The thing to watch here is will be the reaction by Jose Reyes when he bops into camp. If Reyes comes in and says” Whatever Jerry thinks we to do to win I’m all for it” then the message has gotten through. If Reyes comes in and acts like a baby then puts a face on and complains then he validates Manuel’s mindset that the Mets are a selfish bunch and Jose is clueless to what it takes to win. 

This is also a challenge to Castillo who is the most hated Mets player since Bobby Bonila wore ear plugs and acted like a first class dick. Now in Gimp’s defense he has never been as much of a prick as Bobby Bo and the biggest blame on having Gimp around is solely on Omar Minaya from the ridiculous contract he gave him but J-Man is throwing down the gauntlet to Castillo by telling him show what you got old man.  This will be a huge spring for Castillo as Reyes goes off to be a Dominican Dandy, Gimp can show J-Man that not only does he deserve to be the starting 2^nd baseman but he can thrive in leadoff spot of the batting order.

It may not be so crazy to look at Reyes in the 3 hole. Maybe as Reyes approaches 26 years of age he can continue with adding power to this offense and driving in runs more than worrying about stealing bases so much.

In the end though I think this is something Manuel is tossing out there as a test to see if Reyes has added some maturity and if Castillo has any pride left in him.