The Mets get hammered in this town for a multitude of offenses and in most instances, the bludgeoning is warranted but when it comes to the decision by J-Man to work Jose Reyes into the 3 spot of the lineup, the criticism is not only unwarranted but it’s also senseless.

In today’s NY Post, avid Mets hater Joel Sherman (there are lot’s of Mets haters in MSM, Jon Heyman, Bill Madden, Tom Verducci and of course their Emperor Mike Francesa) has a full page column today take the Met to task for batting Reyes third, even though he admits it’s out of necessity and just something Manuel pulled out of his ass:

 The shift is a reaction to Carlos Beltran’s knee surgery, which will cost him at least a month of the season. Without Beltran to hit third, Manuel fears the lineup lacks length if he simply has David Wright bat third and Jason Bay fourth. The order would dip precipitously at No. 5, likely with Daniel Murphy. In addition, Manuel wants to preserve Reyes’ legs and feels batting him third will translate to fewer steal attempts to limit the risk of having runners thrown out in front of your best RBI men, Wright and Bay.

Sherman goes on in the article to give his hypothesis on why this is bad idea, but gives no solution, which of course there isn’t any. If Carlos Beltran were of sound mind and knee, this would not even be an issue but as we know the best laid plans of mice and Mets never go as planed and so they have this situation to make the best of the lineup until Beltran gets back.

Sherman lays out the answer to the why part of Reyes hitting third when he mentions Daniel Murphy hitting fifth. Murphy is not a #5 hitter. He’s a perfect #2 but the problem is Luis Castillo is also a perfect #2. And there is the problem; the Mets have two #2 and two #1 in Reyes and Angel Pagan.

From the rumbling’s from St. Lonesome, Beltran is progressing nicely and should just miss just the first month of the season (I know, I know you’ll believe it when you see it) so when he comes back Reyes moves back to the #1 spot and Beltran back to #3 and the team will live happily ever after. I hope.

It becomes somewhat astonishing how many times do the GM and Manager of the Mets open their mouths, they cause Mets fans angst. The latest is from J-Man, about stud pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia being in contention for the 8^th inning set up job. It’s not so much that Manuel said this  (I would hope that this years Manuel Night at The Improv a/k/a post game presser on SNY will be sponsored by Account Temps) it’s that Omar Minaya didn’t call bullshit on this ridiculous way of thinking.  From all accounts Mejia is a sold pitcher who projects to a top of the rotation arm; all he needs is to mature both as a pitcher and as a young adult being that he is just 20 years old.  One never knows if J-Man is serious or he just likes fucking with us Mets fans.

“But doctor you were supposed to remove my appendix but you took out a kidney instead” and the doctor said “Hey, nobody’s perfect”

I stop into a bodega in Alphabet City last night to get a little Cintron and rum, seems like the Mets like a little Cintron too.

Freddy Skill Sets: Hello Sand-a-la !

Sandy Koufax: Hello Fred, what’s up?

FSK: It’s that time a year again! So when am I going to see my favorite high school buddy this spring?

SK: Fred, last time we were in high school the guy the school was named after was still alive (Lafayette) what do you want from me?

FSK:   you know what I need from you, come down for the day Judy will make a nice brisket, you, me, Saul, and David will play a little Mah Jong , Jeffey will make us those nice drinks we like with the paper umbrellas in them and we can make jokes about Jay Horowitz’ big noggin’

SK: HA-HA-HA you know making fun of Horowitz never gets old HA-HA-HA-HA

FSK: See, what a time eh? Oh and one other thing ……….. 

SK: Yeah, yeah I know talk to your pitchers……..every year Fred, every year you want me to talk to these guys especially that Perez character. You know who he reminds me of Freddy? Remember that kid in the 5^th grade Herbie Lipschitz who ate the Elmer’s Glue and had Tourettes?

FSK: OOOOoooooooooohhhhh my God yes HA-HA-HA hooooooooo Sandy you know my bladder ain’t what it used to be, don’t make me pee my pants….HA-HA-HA-HA  I know Ollie is a bit meshugana  but he’s got a live arm so what do you say? You coming down or what?

SK: hey for you Freddy, sure why not.

FSK: you’re a mench Sand-a-la, a real mench !

SK: by the way how is that statue of me coming along? I think right outside the Rotunda will be a nice spot for it.

FSK: We’ll talk Sand-a-la, We’ll talk………..

I’ve tossed around a few lineups and the problem I have is not who leads off as the Mets have three guys (Reyes, Castillo and Pagan) who are terrific leadoff men. They also have two nice #2 hitters in Castillo who gives you OBP and Daniel Murphy who hits with some pop. I’m intrigued about Reyes in the 3 spot because with Bay and Wright behind him you know he’s going to see strikes.

So if I were the manager I’d put this lineup out as much as I could this spring to see how it works.

Castillo

Murphy

Reyes

Bay

Wright

Francouer

Barajas/Blanco

Pagan

Pitcher

I’m a little concerned with the 7-8 spot. Barajas is feast or famine and Pagan is the square peg in the round hole I spoke about in the beginning. He’s more a 1-2 hitter but as we see without the potent bat of Carlos Beltran, there has to be some improvisation with this Mets lineup.

Poor Omir Santos, the guy shows up early to camp looks around at the large stable of catchers the Mets accumulated over the winter and thinks to himself  “none of those guys have anything on me”  Well sorry to burst your bubble Senior Santos but the only squating behind the plate you’re going to be doing is in the International League backing up Josh Thole.

The Mets reach a deal with Rod Barajas for a base of $1mil with incentives that could double his contract.  Barajas and Henry Blanco are now the top battery mates for Mets pitchers and both are a huge upgrade defensively from last years broken down model of Brian Schneider, Shrek,  Ninja Turtle and Santos.

Remember at the end of the season J-Man and Old School Warthen put alot of the blame of the inability of the Mets pitchers to cut down on walks and not hit their spots consistently on the catching corp.

Give the Mets some love here as the got Barajas for their price and upgraded the catching position as well

Tip o’ the Mets cap to The ‘Ropolitans for this tip

  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!

….oh yeah, where was Jerry Manuel yesterday? Not at the Bay Day ceremonies that’s for sure. How about David Wright? Carlos Beltran? Johan Santana? Alex Cora? (you know  the heart and soul of the Mets), Charlie Samuels? (good thing Samuels wasn’t there he’d have had Bay decked out in a black jersey and the shitty black cap with blue brim. Bad enough Bay wore the snow white jersey and not the pinstripe that we heard was all the rage this winter but he did have the blue hat) but seriously, the manager couldn’t fly in from Cali to greet his new LF’er? Doesn’t D-Wright keep a flop flat down in Gramercy Park? I’m sure the Skill Sets could have splurged for a room and air fare for Beltran and Santana and the wifies for a week end in NYC and appearance at the Bay presser.

If it’s a point where one or two of these guys had prior engagements, then couldn’t you have found a day when either J-Man or D-Wright could be on hand? For Christ sake, Rod Gilbert was there (I guess it was an open bar)

Pat Reily has always said the thing that keeps teams from winning is The Disease of Me and after seeing no one but Omar, Jeffey, Dave the Shyster and the ubiquitous  Jay Horowitz yesterday ad $iti Field, I’d say the Mets org has terminal Disease of Me.

Now that the site is up and running again and that fact that I’m jonesing for a  posting, lets call this a late night lighting round:

Once upon a time, Marco Scutaro was Mets bloggers favorite player, mostly due to his success in Triple A. I wish I had the posts I wrote from back then as I was calling for Scutaro to be brought up from Norfolk to play 2B for the Mets and when was called up, I thought I had some juice. It was my Big Balls moment.

But Scutaro played sparingly for two not very good Mets teams and it was about that time we were fed up with Robbie Alomar and felt Scutaro had the tools to takeover at 2B. But the Mets but him on waivers after the 2003 season and Billy Beane claimed him for the A’s and it set off a bit of a bloggers firestorm around these parts. Ahhhhhhhh good times!

Now Scutaro has signed with the Red Sox, a move made by” cut from the same Billy Beane cloth”, Theo Epstein  to play shortstop for the Old Town Team.  It’s good to see both me and Scutaro are still kicking around.

In another move to kick Omar Minaya in the nuts, the Mets have signed former Reds GM Wayne Kivsky to be an Asst’ GM. If you listened to our PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL show last week, Joe McDonald said he had info that the Mets have a plan in place if (when?) the Mets get off to a bad start, to ax Omar and J-Man and put a new GM and Mgr. in there place. Looks like the GM part of Plan B is in place.

First, Placido Polanco goes back to the Phuck-Phaces and now Chone Figgins signs with the Mariners. And Rogers Castillo sighs in relief.

The news I’ve been waiting to hear, the KC Royals are looking to move RHP Gil Meche and LF David DeJesus and both would look great on the Mets. Then I’d go trade for Aaron Harang and sign either Joel Pinerio or Jason Marquis to give myself a fighting chance to be a contender in 2010.

That’ it for now but I will leave you with something I posted on Facebook:

“Why do I have a feeling that the NY Mets will start the 2010 season like the NJ Nets? If there was a stock called “The Mets will suck in 2010″ I’d empty my bank account to buy it”

I did not get to hear Omar, Jeffey and Dave The Lawyer on with the Sports Bloviator last night and I can’t listen to the replay at work because of the filters on our computers, so I am relying on Mathew Cerrone’s recap which is court stenographer accurate.

The first thought in my mind when I heard the Gang of Three were going on ‘FAN with Francesa was how could I get some C5 explosive into that studio. The only nit wits missing from that group were Glen Beck, Momar Kadafi, and Vince the ShamWow guy for it to be a true Carnival of Douchebags.  

So let’s look at some of the highlights of this day of damage control Skill Sets style:

Only two coaches got whacked, Alomar Sr. and Luis Alicea and they were the only two who didn’t have anything to do with the season of suck. Razor Shines, the most inept third base coach since Wendel Kim, not only stays but he becomes Manuel’s confidant. But according to J-Man, Shines was responsible for the awful base running and for not making Daniel Murphy into an acceptable outfielder, but he’s a good baseball man so he gets to stay. Alomar Sr. gets the boot because it’s his fault that Luis Castillo is a broken down pedestrian second baseman. Christ, my head hurts already! As for Alicea , I wouldn’t know Alicea if he were sitting here next to me. So much for flying under the radar.

Jeffey apologized up and down for the awful season and said time and again that injuries were not to blame and that the lack of fundamentals were front and center a huge problem. He also said that the problem stems from the minor league system and the organization has to do a much better job of preparing the players on the farm so they can step in when the big league team calls them up. Well, knock me over with a Wilson Valdez’ bat. It’s good to see that Jeffey is reading the blogs and finally getting reliable information, especially the soon to be hiring of Wally Backman, to manage Binghamton.

The money issue came up and Jeffey claims the Mets will have plenty of bucks this off season to tantalize free agents. That’s great, but just because you have money doesn’t means you know what to do with it.  I give you Mets fan exhibit A, the Oliver Perez contract. Jeffey also was proud to say the Mets went over slot with first round pick Steve Matz by giving him a bonus of $895K. That’s great, but now with the 7^th pick in this years draft I want to see if the Skill Sets go over slot as they are sure to get a top talent to drop in their lap due to signabilty. It will be put up or shut up time next summer.

I’ll give Jeffey and his stooges this much, they learned the lesson from 2007 when they left Willie Randolph hanging in the wind for a couple of days before the came out and said he’d be back and addressed the collapse. This year they were out in force and addressed everything that needed to be addressed. The key is money talks and bullshit walks and with all the bullshit that comes from the Mets corporate office, the stuffed shirts in charge must go thru a lot of shoes.

The plan sounds good but it will take a big time move to prove to me they Skill Sets are sincere and intelligent enough to pull this off. Bring me Roy Halliday and I’ll be conveniced.

Watching Jeffey on SNY during his presser and with Chris Carlin, I’m pretty certain he never took a public speaking course in college. The guy is soooooo uncomfortable in front of the camera and reading his prepared statement was as painful to watch as it was for him to give it.. He has the personality of stale Wonder Bread. Crack a fucking smile will ya ! and stop the Elmer Fudd impersonation. Besides the on field work that needs to be done, the organization needs to hire a front man with some personality, some pizzaz. Not only would hiring Bobby Valentine bring that but he also brings a brilliant baseball mind as well. Sure the Skill Sets love Jay Horowitz like a son but it’s time to get someone in here who will push the Mets agenda a little more forceful. If you have seen Giants mouth piece Pat Hanlon on Giants All Access, that’s the kind of PR flack the Mets need.

I can’t let go so off I went to $iti Field last night. It was like a “Let’s remember the 70’s” kind of night at $iti. Parking was plentiful, concession stands were closed, the stands that were open and manned by incompetent “hospitality” staff and the stands half full. It brings a tear to my eye, when I think about the way we were.

You might have seen me on TV as we were sitting right above the Mo’ Zone where Garrett Anderson took Big Plef deep for a long double. Anderson ball was coming right at us and hit right at the orange line across the padded wall and bounce back to Jeff Francouer. In section 102 where I sat they have TV’s hanging off the over hang and as I looked up I could see on the replay a bunch of us in the section on the screen, and no I did not whip out my cell phone to call home.

I guess it’s time to send Big Pelf home for the winter. The guy is spent, done, kaput. Although I like that J-Man left him out there to get out of a jam in the 6^th with the bags juiced and 2 out, but his pitch count I believe was about 235 so maybe that’s not so good.

Just reading the quotes from Big Pelf kind of sums up the feeling of all of his teammates who I don’t think would be heartbroken if the organization forfeited the rest of the games. It’s pretty sad to watch a team with no hope or direction play out the string but when it’s the team you root for it hurts even more plus the fact knowing the bulk of the management team that put us in this mess is coming back and with limited financial resources makes me think next September will look a lot like this September at $iti Field.

Join us tonight at 9PM EDT for PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL on Blog Talk Radio. Our guests tonight will be Dana Brand, author of the book “The Last Days of Shea” and Rich Mancuso of NY Sportsday. If you can’t listen live you can hear it on out podcast on iTunes, our PBC site or right here at the Kranepool Society.

I see where J-Man has declared Omir Santos as one of his catchers for 2010. I’m ok with that as Santos has shown he can handle the catching part well and he hits….well he’s ok but the biggest part of the catcher position is defense and handling pitchers and even though we are all in love with Josh Thole the D and pitch handling part is still a work in progress. The best scenario would be to match Santos with a Molina brother in a catching tag team but knowing the Mets they would sign Fredo Molina.