Some quick hits for a snowy Saturday:

Growing up in a full blooded Irish household, we were always taught to never ever air your dirty laundry in public, so I guess that’s why I have such a hard time finding sympathy for Steve Phillips. Phillips yesterday spent a full two hours on Mike Francesa’ WFAN radio program and for ninety of those minutes talked about his sex addiction.  If it weren’t for the USA Olympic hockey game being one sided and the Moltrin kicking in to soothe my back from shoveling snow I’d have shut the show off.

Phillips mentioned the pain and suffering he inflicted on his wife and children and all I kept thinking was how does it help alleviate that pain by you coming on this radio show talking about your addiction to sex?  I’ve never hid the fact that I never like Steve Phillips as he always came off to me as huckster and  a phony and I guess I was right. I just think that this was Philips way of getting himself back into the game, maybe not as a scout or front office guy but back into broadcasting. Those therapy session tend to get expensive I guess. Maybe what Phillips needs is some “Irish therapy” a good ass kicking and stiff drink.

The first thing that comes to my mind of course is how can Alex Cora be a better signing than Felipe Lopez? Both players will make the same about of cash this season. Talent wise Lopez is the superior player and he’s five years younger than Cora. Mets fans have a right this morning to question why the Mets didn’t sign Lopez. The Mets won’t come right out and say it but Lopez for all his talent, has played on six different teams in nine years. A couple of weeks ago he was interviewed on MLB Hot Stove and was questioned if it was his attitude or some other issues were scaring off teams to sign him and Lopez got very defensive and got his back up a bit so maybe as the outside of the package looks appealing, the contents may be over priced when it comes to Felipe Lopez.

Mack Ade has some great links on his site this morning including David Wright brining a PB & J sandwich with him to a Mets media event at $iti Field this winter. You hear me making fun of Wright for that as I bring the same sandwich with me to work at least twice a week. Also Buster Onley states that if Ike Davis could make a run on the starting first base job this spring. Again, Daniel Murphy would have to flop big time and Davis would have to hit about 15 HR’s this spring for this to happen. No need to rush Ike. If it comes down to Frank Catalanotto or Mike Jacobs for the 25 spot on the roster, Catalanotto will get the nod.

I feel so bad for my favorite Van-Cougar Curler, Cheryl Bernard settling for the Silver medal for Canada after the loss to Sweden last night. If there is anything I can do Cheryl, take you to lunch or a Caribbean cruise, please drop me a line.

Geez you look familiar, you kinda look like Arturo Lopez?

   20 days until pitchers and catchers

Unfortunately  I missed Mets Hot Stove last night on SNY but from reading Mathew Cerrone’s MetsBlog this morning it looks like Omar did his best Alexander Haig impression to let us Mets fans know the “He is in charge” No wonder I had a restless nights sleep.

From reading the Cerrone’s post, Omar seemed fixated on the lack of any good solid free agents this off season and Minaya is right about that, it was a weak crop. The Mets did corral one of the better freebird players in Jason Bay and the Mets abstaining from any of the free agent pitchers may turn out to be the right move. Time will tell. But Omar is acting like the free agent way is the only way to fortify the team.

I don’t know if the Mets ever called the Reds or Royals to engage in talks for one of my favorite trio of pitchers I’d like to see, the pitching firm of Harang, Arroyo and Meche, but I just find it very odd that Omar feels the only way to add talent to this team is through free agents and diving in the ballplayers with disabilities dumpster.

If you really want to know what a Mets fan is really like, you must read Faith and Fear in Flushing. Greg Prince has a post out this morning that deals with the identity of our team. This part of the post says it all:

Little wonder the Mets’ identity is frayed. No wonder the Metsosphere is continuously and maybe justifiably staticky, jittery and expressing discontent. We are, by nature, a gaggle of nervous crosstalkers when we don’t have an actual season to dissect. Right now it’s all nervous crosstalk for Mets fans. We, collectively, remind me of the middle-aged ladies who’d set up card tables in front of somebody’s cabana at the beach club to which my parents belonged when I was little. (That’s the Sun Life I remember.) Those ladies indulged in nervous crosstalk, too, just like us. All we’re missing is four floppy hats, a carton of Tareytons and a few hands of canasta.

 

Just walking by them made me jittery, and I was only six.

 

After reading that passage, I can’t get the image of the Brighton Beach Baths out of my mind.

Fernando Tatis has resigned with the Mets and for less than the $1.7 mil he made last year. Nice hometown discount eh? Tatis will also change is uniform number from 17 (that he should never ever have been given) to 6 4 3.

 

 

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.

Tonight at 9PM ET we are back with a Hot Stove Edition of PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL on Blogtalk Radio.

 

Joe McDonald and I will be joined by Rich Coutinho of ESPN1050, Rich Mancuso of NY SPORTSDAY and Eric Simon of Amazin’ Avenue.

 

We will discuss what has transpired so far this off season for the NY Mets and look ahead on what moves the team needs to make to get back into contention in the NL.

 

You can join in as well by calling in at (646) 595-4462.

 

So join us live at 9PM ET on Blogtalk Radio or via podcast on our PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL site or right here at Kranepool Society for 90 minutes of  Mets Hot Stove talk.

 

Now that we amateur GM’s are ready to get down to business fortifying the Mets roster for 2010, the one item that is marked ESSENTIAL is The Bill James Handbook for 2010 (published by ACTA Sports). The Handbook is loaded with stats and leader boards that you would hope the front office is studying like it was the college boards.

 

As bad as the Mets season has been there were a few (surprise) Amazin’s who were ranked in the top 10 in some important categories for the 2009 season like Angel Pagan:

 

 

Angel Pagan-4^th in the NL for most Triples (11)

                      9^th in NL Leadoff Hitters OBP (.358)

                      4^th in NL OPS by CF’er

 

If Pagan had some semblance of baseball instinct and the ability to stay healthy the search for the everyday LF’er would be a moot point.

 

Digits like this and much more are in the Handbook. You can get your copy by going to Acta Sports or at the book store or online vendor of your choice. When you’re curled up by the hot stove this winter, your 2010 Bill James Handbook will leave you with that toasty feeling.

 

Got to hand it to my fellow Mets fans for coming out last night for the Million Manny March (even if there were only about 40 people there) in front of the SNY studios on 6 Ave. And give kudos to SNY for not chasing the fans “off their lawn” and giving them some air time on the Mets Hot Stove Show.

 

Speaking of Manny, Mike Silva at NY Baseball Digest is being rational about Manny to the Mets and what bugs the shit out of me the most is he makes sense. Our conversations over Manny to the Mets and most things Mets related are like Col. Trautman and John Rambo in First Blood:

 

Trautman: Mike Silva: You did everything to make this private war happen. You’ve done enough damage. This mission is over, Rambo. Do you understand me? This mission is over! Look at them out there! Look at them! (Omar, Tony B, Dave the Lawyer, Uncle Saul, Matt Yaloff, Lee Mazilli, Jeffey and Fred Skill Sets) If you won’t end this now, they will kill you. Is that what you want? It’s over Johnny Steve, It’s over!
Rambo: Steve: Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don’t turn it off! It wasn’t my war! You asked me, I didn’t ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn’t let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport Gate A, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer bullshit blogger and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they’ve been me and been there and know what the hell they’re yelling about!

 

Reality sucks!

 

I don’t think you could be bigger fuck ups than the empty suits that are running Citi Group. First, you become the biggest welfare recipients in the country and when you get your first WIC card you go out and try to buy malt liquor and cigarettes instead of baby food and diapers. These assholes still don’t get it. NO MORE PRIVATE PLANES!!!! And because they have acted so irresponsibly the Congress is looking at their deal with the Skill Sets on the naming rights to Chop Shop Park (a/k/a $iti Field) Hopefully the US Treasury and Congress will step in and void the naming rights deal for the new park so the Skill Sets can give the new pleasure palace it’s rightful name “NO MANNY DUE TO MADOFF PARK”

 

Tomorrow at Shea there will be a wake for the old girl as she is just about demolished. I would love to attend but too many chores on a Saturday for me but I would like to send this out the flock.

 

With John Maine coming to terms on a one year deal worth $2.6 mil came under his $3mil arbitration figure, so Omar Minaya wins the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right.

 

Nik Kolidas over at Kiners Korner has a great post and pics of the Final Days of Shea. As I read

Niks’s post and looked at his great pics I had my iPod on and it was set to shuffle and R.E.M “Losing My Religion” came on. Some omen huh?:

 

 

 Every whisper

Of every waking hour I’m

Choosing my confessions

Trying to keep an eye on you

Like a hurt lost and blinded fool

Oh no I’ve said too much

I set it up

 

I’m off to The Rock tonight for Devils-Penguins two teams I despise kind of like going to a Phillies-Braves game. But since Marty Brodeur is out I can’t yell ‘FATBOY” so I guess I’ll just heckle the shit out of Cindy Crosby.

 

 

So last night Omar Minaya was a guest on SNY’s Hot Stove show and of course one of the big questions was about Manny Ramirez (is it me or are the Skill Sets the only folks in Metsdom who against Manny as a Met?) but Omar never answered the question in fact all he needed was fruit basket on his head because he did a great Carmen Miranda imitation:

From Matt Cerrone’s Mets Blog:

Asked specifically about Manny Ramirez, and whether he has recommended signing him to ownership, Minaya said:

{“Manny Ramirez is a great player… But, the reality is, we have been focused on pitching… If you don’t have the foundation with starting pitching, I just don’t believe you win championships… So, we have to address our starting pitching and our bullpen first… Like anything else, you put your team together, like all GMs, you have a game plan, but the bottom line is you have to focus on pitching.”}

Huh? Omar? Manny? The question was about acquiring Manny Ramirez? Yes we need pitching no doubt but a right handed hitting outfielder should on your shopping list as well. Omar seems to be ready to become a City Councilman. 

 

 

Joe Magrane has the makings of a very strong game analyst. I always felt that he and Dewayne Staats while doing Rays games very vastly underrated. Victor Rojas runs a tight desk moving the discussions from chair to chair. Trenni Kusnierck will take time for me to warm up to because my girl Hazel Mae is the total package. And then there is Mitch Williams.

 

No good Phillie-ass kissing Mitch Williams. I can see where Williams is just going to piss me off all season with his Phillies loving ways. Last night HR, Joe Magrane and Wild Thing were discussing the New Years resolutions for the NL East teams. When it got to the Mets, Wild Thing wigged out big time with the same old Cheesesteak bullshit about Jose Reyes and his antics. Give props to HR for knocking Wild Thing down a peg while defending Jose, Jose, Jose. The voice of reason was Magrane who kind of poo-pooed the antics angle for the Collapse I & II and put the blame where we have been saying it should be in the clubhouse and the veteran leadership.

 

If that wasn’t enough for a Monday bonanza, none other than Scott Boras took a trip to Secaucus to plead his case for his millionaires in waiting. HR, questioned Boras on how he could be looking for #1 starter money for Kevin Lowe when he’s not an Ace? Boras did a little dance and jive and the best he could come with is the disgrace that is Barry Zito. If that’s his defense in getting Lowe the dough he wants, then Omar has them both by the cajones.

 

I wish I could get in side the head of Lastings Milledge and rearrange some of the furniture in there and toss out the bassinette and changing table and put some big boy stuff in there. Milledge is going to be challenged by the Nationals and Elijah Dukes for the Nats centerfield job and I would guess a spot on the DC 25 man roster. If he fails he’ll either be dealt or released. I have told kids that have played for me in leagues that just when you think you’re all that, remember there are 1,000 guys out there better than you and just because you have some talent but your attitude sucks will be the difference of making a team and being cut. You have to be one outstanding ball player (Manny Ramirez) to have a piss poor attitude to make in the big leagues. I’ve never met Milledge or dealt with him but from folks I know who have told me he has been a big dick head. Time for LMillz to man up and grow up and be a big leaguer, if not the Atlantic League ain’t so bad.

 

 Joe McDonald posts some pics of the dismantling of Shea. This is like watching a family member die a slow death just put us and Shea out of our misery already.

 

From a link at the BBTF site I found Tim Marchman’ new website so to Repoz and Marchman, thank you!

 

So J.C Romero went into the local GNC bought some kind of supplement, took it and is now banned from playing for the Phillies for 50 days. According to Romero, he called the Union and told them what he was taking and they thought it was fine. He spoke with the Phillies training staff and they found nothing wrong with the supplement either. The one place Romero didn’t go for guidance was the Hot Line that is set up by MLB that is the be all end all of what’s approved and disapproved under the new and tougher baseball drug code. This is why when you have a tooth ache you don’t go to the chiropractor.   First, Mets-killer Pat Burrell goes to Tampa and now Romero in lock up maybe the Philly worm is turning?

 

Saw this on the Sox & Dawgs site. There is a pettion out there to get Ted Williams’ likeness on a postage stamp. Go there and sign it as if there ever were a real American hero it’s the Splendid Splinter and he should be honored on a stamp.

 

Don’t forget to make a not to join me and Joe McDonald on Thursday at 9PM EST for Pro Baseball Central on Blog Talk Radio.