We are told not to take the stats from spring training too seriously especially early, but the quotes coming from John Maine after his cameo appearance yesterday left me a bit unsettled.

Because of the rain the last couple of days in Florida, the Mets have tried to rearrange the pitching assignments to make sure every one gets in their work. Maine came into yesterday’s game after Johan Santana pitched four superb innings, starting the fifth inning. He got two quick outs then the roof caved in as he gave up a couple of walks and a couple of doubles and next thing you know he had to be taken out of the game without completing the inning. Now if it were just that, I’d say he was working on different pitchers and looks like those pitches need some fine tuning, but it was Maine’ statements after the game that have me concerned.

 ”I felt good,” Maine said. “It’s just one of those days. My shoulder and arm feel fine. Coming in like that – off my routine – I just wasn’t at all prepared. It was different. I didn’t get the job done. …I just wasn’t kind of that into it and just wasn’t that comfortable.”

So physically Maine claims to be fine but mentally he’s all fucked up for the lack of a better term, if there were ever a poor choice of words, “I just wasn’t kind of into it and just wasn’t comfortable” that quote would be it. If I’m the manager or GM, I would have left a call to Mr. Maine to be at the complex at 7AM this morning to explain that quote.

Maine’ biggest problem he said he’s used to starting a game and getting ready to make the game his, that’s fine but this is an exhibition game, a practice game, the one time during the year where the numbers on the scoreboard mean nothing plus it wasn’t like Maine was coming into the game with the bases loaded and no outs, he was starting the fifth inning. With all that Maine was still not fit for duty:

“I am a creature of habit,” Maine said. “I have a certain routine. I was out of sync, off my routine. I just wasn’t prepared. I didn’t get the job done. It’s the whole aspect of throwing before the game, sitting down and doing this.”

The players and management of this team have more excuses than Eric Massa, in fact I’m wondering if someone in the Mets clubhouse tickled Jose Reyes to the point his Thyroid nearly exploded.

Maine makes his next stat on Saturday and if he’s not into that start, maybe management would be into trading for Andy Sonnerstine who looks to be on the trade market. 

Management can spin their confidence about the starting rotation in public all they want but I’m sure behind closed door the brain trust feels their desperately need another solid starter and are working the phone lines to feel out the offers. Give it a day or two but rumors will be flowing like the weekends  rain off your gutters, that the Mets are looking for pitching, especially if Maine has another performances like yesterday .

Blue Sky, sunshine, what a day to take a walk in the park.
Ice cream, daydream till the sky becomes a blanket of stars.
What a day for pick-in’ daisies and lots of red balloons.
And what a day for hold in’ hands and being with you.

Lot’s of stories coming out of Camp Kumbaya where everybody is in “great shape” and ready to fulfill everyone’s expectation of championship baseball. Ah yes, Port St. Lonesome in March, where Johan Santana wins 20 games and the Cy Young Award. Where Big Pelf steps up to throw 200 innings and win 17 games. Where Oliver Perez and John Maine form the best 3-4 spots in any rotation in baseball. Where David Wright, with hard work and a new physique will return to 30 HR’s 100+ RBI. Where Jason Bay and Jeff Francouer prosper on the field and off it as both BAY 44 and FRANCOUER 12 jersey’s can not be produced fast enough by little girls in some third world country to meet the demand of the Mets fans filling $iti Field to capacity every night. Where Daniel Murphy leads the NL in batting with a .350 average and 40 doubles and 20 HR’s. Where Kelvin Escobar and Francisco Rodriguez form the most intimidating late inning relievers in baseball. Where……..what?…….what do you mean both guys haven’t pitched yet this spring?………..Escobar isn’t healthy and Rodriguez has pink eye?…….How do you know Rodriguez has pink eye? He was diagnosised  by who? ED COLEMAN?????? But Escobar is fine isn’t he????????? He’s not?

NO NO PLEASE DON”T SAY IT…….. PLEASE DON”T SAY SAME OLD METS!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I like the fact that David Wright is stepping up his leadership role with the Mets. In fact one of the best addition by subtraction moves the club made this winter was saying buh-bye to Carlos Delgado, who I felt was a very intimidating presences in the Mets Clubhouse and too many times Wright had to take a backseat to the senior vet. Now with Delgado gone it’s time for Wright to takeover that clubhouse. 

You need an everyday player to be the go to guy and Wright fits that mold better than anyone not named Johan Santana with the Mets. As great a player as Carlos Beltran is, he’s a very low key guy and Jose Reyes who is the on field igniter could be Wright’s tag-team buddy in that clubhouse, in fact in a perfect baseball world the two faces’ of the franchise should be able to say or do what they please with the service time they have with the club, but both are deferential to the older vets on the team sometime to a fault.

If Johan Santana can play the Cliff Floyd role with Wright and give him backup, it would be a major asset to this team. It won’t cure all the ills, but it would help put on notice players, who don’t give 100 % effort physically and mentally, especially the mental part which was as much a reason for the Mets demise as the injuries were last year.

Forget all the bravado of the team to beat bullshit, besides health, the biggest improvement with this Mets team and the whole organization for that matter is accountability. The team motto for this spring and season should be “NO MORE EXCUSES!!!!!”

 7 days until pitcher and catchers

The Mets off season reminds me of the old TV show Green Acres. Remember, Mr. Haney the guy who sold a lot junk to the residents of Hootersville? Well that seems to be who Omar Minaya has morphed into a purveyor of useless pieces.

The latest move that makes no sense is the signing of Mike Jacobs. Jacobs was cut loose by the KC Royals because for over $3 mil a year the Royals got a player who can’t hit lefties, has an aversion to getting on base, and plays defense like Edward Scissorhands. Brilliant let’s sign him up. Think about this, in 7 days you’ll have so many players lining up at first base it will look like an Italian bakery on Christmas Eve, get there early and take a number.

Great story on Johan Santana by John Harper who donned the tools of ignorance to catch Santana down in Florida. This is what, the third or fourth story on Santana this winter and each one Johan is sending a message to Mets fans that the season won’t be the disaster most of us think it will be. From your mouth to Tug McGraw’s ears, Johan.

As per Jon Heyman, the Mets are taking a Pasadena on Rod Barajas but have signed John Harper to a one year deal.

No PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL tonight but we should have a show next week to welcome in Spring Training.

So the Oakland A’s have made a competitive offer to Ben Sheets and want and answer not later than tomorrow. Okay, what is a competitive offer and how many competitors are in this race? From all the innuendo we’ve heard on Sheets, the Mets, A’s and Texas Rangers are in the loop. Rumor is Sheets’ management is looking for an $8 mil base plus incentives for this year and an option for 2011. Now as much as I would love to have Ben Sheets on the Mets, but $8mil for a pitcher who could be a either a stud or a cripple is a tough decision to make. But then again the Mets did give Alex Cora $2mil bucks to be a leader on the bench.

I can not see any way that the A’s would give Sheets $8 mil even the Rangers, as they go through a transition of ownership, would have a hard time paying that kind of coin.

If I’m the Mets I call Sheets’ agent and offer $6mil guarantee with incentives that could go to $10mil if reached (post season starts include in that) and a mutual option for 2011. Then take the other $2 mil and give that to John Smoltz.

If they can do that, not only solidifies the pitching staff but I’ll get off managements back for a while and maybe even praise them for a job well done.

So far the Mets Mini-Camp has proved that OP is great shape and that Johan Santana will again try to help Ollie as much as he can both with his pitching and with his psyche. Jon Niese took the mound for the first time since he ripped his hammy and felt pretty good. Daniel Murphy is a camp and is doing what most fans wish all the players would do, work hard and try to get better but he still catches hell. Wait until he gets traded and becomes a solid ML’er, I will be insufferable or more insufferable than I already am, if that’s possible. 

Kevin Kernan seconds my position that the injury excuse from last year was a smoke screen to how badly last years team executed all facets of the game.   Time for Jerry Manuel to Man Up this spring and prove that he can manage and teach and to prove that he is just not waiting to get canned so he can go back to Sacramento and collect a check sitting on his porch.

I still baffles me how the Skill Sets don’t get upset or try to change the perception of their organization after time and time again being told they run one of the worst organizations in baseball. At some point you need to show some spine and fight back. Everyone from media to fans to bloggers keep kicking the organization in the ass waiting for them to fight back. It’s at the point now where I feel like a bully for calling out the Skill Sets as often as I do, they just take all these kicks in the ass and ask for more. It’s more sad than strange. Com’on Jeffey show some fucking fight will ya!!!!!!

….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.

I hate to tell you this but the Mets are not very attractive, in fact they’re not even Susan Boyle homely, but they are close to approaching Rocky Dennis hideousness.

Stop kidding yourselves Mets fans, before you can contend for a title, a team must first become competitive. As I wrote yesterday afternoon on my Twitter account while all hell was breaking lose in baseball, “The Phillies are not the Mets rival, the Nationals are”.

You can talk about Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran playing at 100 % health and David Wright bouncing back from whatever bit him in his ass latest season and the fact the Johan Santana pitches every fifth day, the Mets are no closer to the Phillies today than the Earth is to the sun.

The easy thing to do is scream that Omar Minaya sucks, and he just might suck as a GM but lets face facts, if you are a player like Roy Halladay, John Lackey or even Jason Bay or Matt Holliday why would you want to play for the Mets? Those players want to play for winning teams and to tell you the truth I commend them for giving the Mets their ass to kiss, as they know how desperate the Mets are and would have to pay more money to them than the Phillies in Halladay’s case and the Red Sox in Lackey’s case but both players went to teams that are not just winners and contenders but have management in place that is both intelligent and creative, two qualities the Mets will never be associated with.

Everyone throughout baseball knows that Jeffey Skill Sets is the reason that this organization has a big “Kick Me” sign on it’s back. It is crystal clear that the biggest mistake the Skill Sets have made this off season was not firing Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel because let’s face it, both of these guys are as good as gone. The Skill Sets could have hired a progressive baseball man like Jed Hoyer or gone after Gerry Hunsicker from Tampa or solid baseball men like Tom Kelley and Terry Ryan in Minnesota or even bring back Bobby Valentine who, love him or hate him, Valentine would not have let the Mets wallow in self pity as Jerry Manuel did last year or let them get away with playing “I couldn’t give a fuck baseball”

At the expense of sounding like a broken record nothing with the organization gets accomplished until Jeffey Skill Sets and David (The Syster) Howard take a back seat from the baseball operation. Both of these clueless dolts are the 1 and 1a entry on what’s wrong with the Mets as they are out of touch with what it takes to be a winning organization and what it takes to keep your customers happy. Winning and customers two things you won’t be seeing at $iti Field next season.

My mood is very, very glooming today due to the awful defensive display put on by the New York Football Giants last night against the Iggles from Philly. With the Dallas Cowgirls losing to the San Diego SuperChargers (if it’s December you know it’s wintertime and the Cowgirls will choke) and a big fuck you to Flozell Adams who if he played in the Staten Island Touch Tackle Football League (of which I played in some 30 years ago, 30 YEARS!!!!!! HOLY SHIT)  would be in a hospital recovering from reconstructive surgery on a knee, for being a cheap shot bitch, but I digress……..what a time for the Giants D to come up small and for the special teams to fall apart as well. Oh, an a word to Iggles Coach Andy, (more Chins than the Hong Kong phone book) Reid, your fat ass will not be going to the Super Bowl so enjoy your win over the Giants, only coaches who haven’t won shit would chest bump with their players after a regular season win.    

Can you feel the holiday spirit just oozing out of me? After that Giants game last I got to think of all the teams I root for which gives me the most of my rooting interest, Here are the candidates:

New York Mets

The first sports team I’ve ever rooted for and the team that gives me the most aggravation. More the way the ownership and front office go about its business is what infuriates me as the Mets are the only team I root for that does not embrace it’s history, in fact the owner not only had to be shamed into honoring the teams past but is shocked that the fan base is so adamant in celebrating the history of the team.  Freddy Skill Sets ain’t exactly Tevye, you know what I mean?

New York Giants

I got involved rooting for the Giants as a kid when I started playing football at age 12. My oldest brother had season tickets for the G-Men and I got to go once in awhile (at Highlander Stadium no less) and then my other brother became friendly with the Mara’s though business so it was a natural progression to become a Giants fan. Back in the 70’s, the Giants were not very good but I was a kid and my older brothers were Giants fans so I went with the flow. But then came the 80’s and the G-Men were the cream of the NFL crop (thank you George Young and Bill Parcells) then it became cool to root for Big Blue. The Mara’s also celebrate the teams history fully as they have owned the team since it’s inception in 1925 and it doesn’t hurt they are proud Irish-Americans as well.

New York Rangers

No one in my family were hockey fans when I was a kid and now there are still no hockey fans in my family today but me. My relatives always said I was a little “different” but growing up my neighborhood in Brooklyn was a hockey hot bed. We had the finest roller hockey rink in the city on 53^rd St and Ft Hamilton Parkway (it’s still there by the way) so as teenagers we spent a lot of fall and winter days playing hockey, and of course we were Ranger fans. Saturday nights on Ch 9 were Rangers Hockey Night (your Schaffer Circle of Sports) I got to see Brad Park, Eddie Giacomin and my all time favorite Ranger, Walter Tkachuk play in their famous Blue sweaters. Again there is strong tradition with the Broadway Blueshirts as they were an Original Six (I love that title Original Six!!!!!!) While I watched the Rangers on Ch 9 and listened to them on radio, I didn’t go to a Rangers game until I was 18 but the first hockey game I saw in person was a NY Raiders of the WHA game at Madison Square Garden back in 1973 (I was 15 and a bunch of us hopped the on the Sea Beach to Manhattan with our G.O cards and got blue seats for the Raiders for a couple of bucks, the Raiders played at 1 PM and the Rangers at 7:30PM. We thought about finding a hiding place in MSG until the Rangers game at night but figuring we never told our parents about our field trip to Manhattan, they might not be too happy if he didn’t come home until 11 PM or so) I held Rangers season tickets for 10 years but with a wife and two kids, it’s hard to go to 40 games a season and when you can’t make the games and have to eat the tickets, it gets quite expensive, but I was there to see the Rangers win the Stanley Cup and remember the banner in the Blue Seats that night “Now I Can Die In Peace” Of all the fans in this city no fans are more loyal than the Garden Faithful of the Rangers.

Boston Celtics

I know what you’re saying, “No Knicks?” No. Again every Sunday in the winter, I’d watch the NBA on ABC with Chris Schenkel and Jack Tyman and it seemed every Sunday, the Celtics were on TV. Sure I watched the Knicks on Ch 9 (WOR Ch9 was our sports channel only the upper crust in Manhattan had something called “cable tv” ) but I was mesmerized by John Havlicek, JoJo White, Coach Red Auerbach and the great basketball player of all time, Bill Russell. Plus, I thought they were all Irish because of the shamrock, green and well they were the Celtics. Of all my rooting interests, this team has won the most championships and I know a lot of fans hate the team and its fans for that fact. Tough shit!!!!!!!! It is weird though when I go to MSG to see the C’s dressed in my Celtics regalia and Knicks fans yell at me to “go back to Boston” and I yell back “I’m from Brooklyn, asshole” Classy, I know

Baseball’s garage sale begins tonight A/K/A the non-tendered players go on the free agent market and there are some players on the list that would help the Mets immeasurably like:

RHP Kevin Corriea

The Padres are trying to have the lowest payroll since the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings started paying players so a very good #4 pitcher like Corriea will be sitting out there to the highest bidder. Right now Corriea would be better than anyone other than Johan Santana in the Mets rotation.

Garret Atkins/Ryan Garko

Either player would be an excellent compliment to Daniel Murphy as a right handed hitting tag team partner at first base.

RHP Chien-Ming Wang

Yes he is coming off injury and yes he is a Highlander but Wang is perfect for the Mets if sound as a ground ball pitcher, Wang won’t be ready to pitch until May but Omar has signed bigger question marks than Wang so he’s worth an incentive laden contract. I’ll be surprised if the Highlanders let him go though.

Alex Cora is in mid season form. I guess the Mets will extend his contract now.

Kudos to Paul Lukas and the great Uni-Watch site for calling bullshit on these so called retro uni’s the Mets are hawking. As Lukas so eloquently states, these are the same pinstriped uniforms the Mets never wear only in a darker shade of white. Plus they still have the name on the back and of course the ugly ass black shadow. I guess the black is appropriate though as Mets fans we are always in mourning.

If the Blue Jays are dumb enough to trade Roy Halliday to either the Highlanders or Red Sox then Jeffey Skill Sets may have competition for the dopiest executive in baseball. Trading Halliday to their AL East biggest competitors would be like the Mets trading Johan Santana to the Phillies or Braves  Oh shit, I hope I didn’t give Jeffey an idea?

Even though this doesn’t make sense because it’s the right move to make and the Mets the last couple of years haven’t made many right moves, I still feel the Mets will be a major player in the Halladay Sweepstakes.

Mets Lifers are selling some great t-shirts that depict Keith Hernandez’ 17 and Mike Piazza’ 31 as retired numbers and shirts commemorating Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

The Mets made it official naming their new and improved coaching staff for 2010. Razor Shines leaves the third base coaches box after a horrendous season there and will be relegated to first base where we can do limited damage.

Third base will be manned by Chip Hale who worked for the Minnesota Twins during the successful Tom Kelly era. (How great would it be to have Tom Kelly step in as Mets manager? In fact I may post Kelly’s picture and managerial stats once a week to get the drums beating)

Dave Jauss will be Jerry Manuel’ new bench coach but his real claim to fame is he is the son of legendary Chicago sporst writer Bill Jauss. Papa Jauss was a member of one of favorite all time TV shows The Sportswriters on TV which used to play here on the old SportsChannel network.

Back and hopefully better are Old School Dan Warthen and Randy Niemann  and of course HoJo .

The most important and some what puzzling hire was that of Terry Collins as the Minor League Field Coordinator. From reading his resume I can’t figure out what Collins qualifications are to get such an important job? It’s not like he is coming in with and championship pelts on his belt or a list of players that were developed under his rein plus last year he was managing in something called the Northwoods Summer League. When you look at his body of work hw sure has held a lot of jobs in baseball and not too many with success. I guess as long as he doesn’t curse out the bushers and take his shirt off he’ll be ok.

{UPDATE: Mark Harrington of The Buffalo News thinks Collins is not only a great hire but the guy to step in if (when) J-Man gets the ax this season.}