Over the weekend while looking while watching the shingels of my roof fly through the air with the greatest of ease, I did a Q & A with the talented author of Crashburn Alley, Bill Baer (and Baseball Prospectus and Baseball Digest Daily and ESPN The Sweet Spot) on our beloved Metsies. Bill is hoping the Mets are fit to fight this season so as to keep the flames of this new found rivalry stoked. Be careful what you wish for Bill, be very careful

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 .

Join me today at 5PM ET for THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN on BLOGTALK RADIO. My guests will be Anthony Amobi and James Baker of Oriole Post and Michael Baron of Metsblog and Mets Photos.

Join us tonight at 9PM ET for PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL. Our guest will be Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael D’Antonio author of the book FOREVER BLUE: The True Story of Walter O’Malley, Baseball’s Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles (published by Riverhead Books/Penguin)

From 9PM to 9:30PM we will take your phone calls so if you want to discuss the Mets, Yankees or anything else in MLB give us a call at (646) 595-4462

If you can’t join us live, you can here the show on the podcast either at Kranepool Society, Blogtalk Radio or at our PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL site.

 First of all the game is at 1PM, so why not see the doc either at 9AM or in the afternoon ? It’s not like Reyes is going to go a full 9 today. Why can’t the sawbones come to Mets camp to see Reyes or even co-ordinate with the Mets training  and medical staff to handle this in camp?   Besides it’s Thursday, everyone knows that doctors take off on Wednesday to play golf. 

Reyes says this had absolutely nothing to do with his legs that his hammy is dandy so that makes this trip to the doctor even more curious.

You would think with the teams track record on medical issues and the fragile psyche of  it’s fan base the front office would handle this a bit differently.  

So now let’s add Beltran’s knee, Escobar sore arm, Frankie Rodz pink eye to this mystery doctors appointment of Reye’s to the legend of the Mets front office reign of error

Reading this Q & A that Duk conducted on Yahoo with Jason Bay shows Bay as “we” and not a “me” kind of guy. The fact that Bay said that ” about 30 or 35″ Mets hung out at Duffy’s in St. Lonesome to watch the USA-Canada hockey game tells me that the comrade  that has been missing is coming back to the Mets.

Last night on Pro Baseball Central, we had Brian Costa, Mets beat writer for the Newark Star-Ledger on as a guest and when I asked him how things were down in St. Lonesome, he felt bad about letting us know the weather is very Un-Florida like, temps in the upper 30’s and 40’s, as he knew as we were speaking,  we here in the NY Metro area were in the midst of a snowstorm.

I know it’s the “in” thing around these parts to bitch and moan about this awful winter weather and believe me I’ve had enough of this shit as much as the next irate New Yorker , but what gets me is the shock of some people that the month of February sucks, weather wise that is. It’s always sucked. It’s winter, we live in the Northeast get over it.

Speaking of last night’s PBC, in addition to Brian Costa, we also had John Delcos join us as well as Mike Henderson of Nationals Pride, who gave us some great insight into the Nationals and what to expect from the DC team this season. So while you’re vegetating during this “Snow-Acain” click on the to the podcast here at Kranepool  Society or at our page on Blog Talk Radio and sit back, relax and be entertained .

One more piece of news about myself and Blog Talk Radio. I’m putting together my own radio progam on the network called, THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN, and the first episode will air tonight at 11PM ET. This will be like a test run and will run until 11:30PM but this Wednesday March 3rd,  I will do a full hour show  that will air live from 5PM to 6PM ET (when you first start a show on Blog Talk Radio your options are a bit narrow)

Whereas PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL is a Mets intensive show, THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN will encompass all news and views from MLB and a smattering of other sports topics that are newsworthy. I also want to bring on bloggers and baseball writers from other teams to get a more broad view of the happenings  around MLB.  But a big part of what I want to do with THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN, is to interview authors of baseball and other sports books along with folks at SABR who write outstanding essays in the various publications that SABR publishes.

I’ve received a lot of books and publications and after I read them, I find myself asking questions on how the subjects were researched and many more who, what, where and how’s.

I am in touch with many of these writers and bloggers and I’m putting together a guest list, so you can keep checking here at Kranepool Society for those announcements and if you’d like to be a guest on the show just drop me an e-mail at sinymets@aol.com

So if you’re up late tonight tune in and call in the call in number for THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN is (646) 727-2465

You can join in the conversation as well by using our call in line at (646) 595-4462

If you can’t join us live, you can listen to the podcast right here at Kranepool Society or on Blogtalk Radio or at our PBC site as well.

Join us tonight at 9PM ET for PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL on BLOG TALK RADIO. Our guests will be Brian Costa, Mets beat writer for the Newark Star-Ledger calling us from Port St. Lucie and Mike Henderson of the Washington Nationals blog, NATIONALS PRIDE.

You can join in the conversation as well by using our call in line at (646) 595-4462

If you can’t join us live, you can listen to the podcast right here at Kranepool Society or on Blogtalk Radio or at our PBC site as well.

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