METS SET SIGHTS ON STARTING PITCHING

Music to my ears. I know most of you have a deep respect for wood a la Larry David, but without pitching you can have all the ash, maple and old hickory you want, you won’t win. Pitching wins period.

The top pitcher around that the Mets could get is Roy Halliday but the cost both player/prospect wise and money wise makes Halliday a dream that won’t come true. The next on the list is John Lackey, who is doable. Contract wise that is. If it takes an AJ Burnett 5yr/$82 mil deal to get Lackey here so be it. Sure he comes with a warning label as he hasn’t made over 30 starts in the last two seasons but the Mets are dessssssssssssperate for a #2 to Santana’s #1 and the they can piece together the rest of the rotation by adding two of the usual suspects from Jason Marquis, Joel Piniero, Randy Wolf, Jon Garland, and the coming off injuries, Ben Sheets, Erik Benard, and Noah Lowry, and my trade up specials Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo and Gil Meche to go with Mike Pelfrey as the 4^th or 5^th starter then and only then will progress be made in Flushing.

By the way I agree with this from Mack’s Mets to make John Maine the 8^th inning set up man to Frankie Rodz and I would also make Ollie P a reliever as well and have Bobby Parnell and Perpetual Pedro Feliciano as my 7^th inning mix and match set and throw Sean Green in for shits and giggles.

Nothing gets accomplished here until the pitching is squared away.

“WHAT THEY ACTUALLY LIKE THAT BLUE AND ORANGE STUFF”?

Can’t you just imagine, Jeffey Skill Set saying that? How out of touch can you be about your fan base and the history of the close to <places right pinky to right corner of mouth> $1 billion dollar baseball franchise he and his family own?

The Skill Sets had to be hit over the head by their fan base to paint the walls blue and orange, add a Mets Hall of Fame that even the great unwashed can gain entrance to, and go back to the uniform that the vast majority of Mets fans revere.

METS-MARLINS IN SAN JUAN, WHO NEEDS TWO?

So MLB wants the Mets and Marlins to play a series in San Juan which would be taken from the Marlins home schedule. Now how does this help the Marlins? The only time they get big crowds at Your Name Here Stadium is when the Mets come to town, plus with the construction of a new ball park shouldn’t the Marlins be trying build a better relationship with their fan base so they fill the new place once it’s up? The weird thing about the Marlins fans is they support the team very heavily through TV and Radio so maybe it doesn’t matter if they play in San Juan or San Quentin.

Also in this story there is a blurb about the Mets looking at signing Jack Cust. Hopefully it’s for a bartender’s job at the Acela Club.

And general manager Omar Minaya – or whomever is in his role – will have to answer them one by one.

John Maine, though, may have made the team’s job just a little easier after his 7-inning, 5-hit, 1-run, and over 100-pitch  performance against the Houston Astros. The outing proves he is fully healthy from and back from his shoulder woes which kept him out for almost three months this season.

“I think you need to remain optimistic,” said manager Jerry Manuel, no sports betting pro in his own right. “He has shown improvement since his time back. He has been getting a lot of ground balls which means he is getting life on his pitches, which has been his trademark. When you see that against the one of the better hitting lineups in the National League, it gives us a lot of hope.”

Hope is what the Mets need as they head into this crossroads off-season. If you look at the Mets staff, it  is pretty much Johan Santana and lots of prayer. Yet, a healthy Maine may have saved Minaya a novena or two.

There’s no doubt the Mets will need another pitcher, no matter how good Maine plays and those are better odds than some college football odds. After Santana, the drop-off is just that large. But a healthy righthander will take pressure off Oliver Perez and Mike Pelfrey on the back-end. And if the team goes out and gets, say a Roy Holladay or some other 1A to compliment their ace, they still will need a guy like Maine as a No. 3.

“I want to go out and be consistent,” Maine said. “I am not going to win 20 games, but I want to be a guy who goes out there and gives the team a chance to win everyday.”

If Maine performs like he did tonight, then he will. The pitcher came in with a strong slider which complimented his fastball. When he does that, the righty becomes very hard to hit.

Yet, all of this will happen next year. The season is over, but Maine now has peace of mind, because he can go into this off-season knowing he’s fully healthy.

“I think I am feeling fine the last few starts,” he said. “I am feeling fine. I had some questions from this year and now pitching answers them.”

And with that, one off-season Mets question is now answered.

There are still plentyof seats on the Daniel Murphy bandwaggon for all of you who jumpped off after his rough start.

Lastings Millidges is hitting .325/.374/.442 since he joined the Pirates. I’m just sayin’. Why do get the feeling the Pirates will see a post seaon before the Mets.

Big Pelf was fantastic yesterday and watching him pitch like that verifies why I love the big lug. What drives me nuts though is his next start he could tank just as easily and that’s is the madness that is Mike Pelfrey.

How can the Mets bring Carlos Beltran back now? Who is going to lead Brooklyn to a NY-PENN League championship?

Maybe John Maine can start the first game for Brooklyn against Mahoning Valley instead of against Philly?

If you put Corey Sullivan’s brain with Angel Pagan’s ability you’d have a solid ML player. Pagan has talent but on the baseball field he’s dumber than a sack of rocks.

I see where SNY is going to add a couple of gimmicks to their game telecasts next week. One game there will be a silent inning where Gary, Keith and Ron will not speak for a full inning. Another game, SNY will let Gary stay home and allow Ron and Keith handle the play by play. Now that should be fun.  What would be even better is having bloggers do commentary during a game like a Mystery Theatre 3000 sceanrio, that would bring the network an Emmy.  

Enjoy you Labor Day

I give J- Man credit for he has much more patience than I’d ever have with the way the front office keeps making him play short handed to the point that Livan Hernandez and Mike Pelfrey wore spikes last night in case either pitcher would be needed to pinch run or hit. How embarrassing would it have been if the Mets went to extra innings with a chance to win the game and the choice of the bench to hits was either Livan or Big Pelf?

I’m trying to figure out the rational for not DL’ing Reyes now instead of waiting until Friday? Does Omar feel the Nats are so bad he only needs 23 players to beat them? Does Omar feel that Reyes is not hurt as badly as he is letting on and wants him to “man up”? I hope that’s not the case because one thing you can say about Jose Reyes is he never comes out the lineup so he really must be hurting not to be back on the field. As far as Reyes calf injury and now Ryan “The Red Headed Step Child” Church with a hurtin’ hammy maybe it’s time to review the Mets training staff and the stretching routine they’re using.

Carlos Beltran is going for an MRI today and lucky for him the Mets are home as the only place they can go for MRI’s is in NYC

Of course the red caps that were worn around MLB were for a good cause in helping veterans through the sale of the caps to baseball fans but did all the players have to wear them? Red does not go with everything especially blue and orange. The Mets uni last night looked like an explosion at the Dutch Boy factory.

Even the most critical Omar observer (Rich?) has to admit he hit a gold mine by signing Gary Sheffield. But just how long this will last is the question.

Rumor has it, there was a kid on the NY Thruway this morning with his thumb out and a cardboard sign that read $iti Field on it.

Congrats to Sonia From The Block on being named to the Supreme Court. Judge Sotomayor as you remember she issued an injunction back in 1995 against MLB to stop the owners from implementing a Collective Bargaining Agreement and then opening camps with replacement players saving the game from embarrassment.

 Singin: don’t worry bout a thing,

cause every little thing gonna be all right.

Singin: don’t worry (don’t worry) bout a thing,

cause every little thing gonna be all right!

AAahhhhhhhhhhhh ya mon, sing you little brides, and pass the Ganja as we look at the where da 25 mon rosta is as of today:

PITCHERS (12)

Johan Santana LHP

Mike Pelfrey RHP

Oliver Perez LHP

John Maine RHP

Livan Hernandez RHP

So much for worrying over Santana’s elbow as he was in Cy Young form yesterday. As I look at Big Pelf I keep a bucket of cold water near by to cool me off as I have visions of a Co-Ace running through my head. With all the bullshit Joba talk in the NY media they are missing the break out player of the year in this town in Big Pelf  FUCK JOBA!!!! Ollie Perez went on a Mexican Rumspriga with the WBC and came back all fucked up. His mechanics were a shambles causing him to pitch like he as back in Black and Gold, but between Old School Dan Werthen and OP’s role model Johan Santana he is back to just plain old unpredictable Ollie. If John Maine were hurting I’d be worried but he claims emphaticly that he feels fine but is having trouble locating pitches and finding his comfort level on the mound. Let’s hope he finds his “happy zone” in the next two weeks. The very svelte Livan Hernandez has grabbed the 5^th spot by the cajones and won’t let go. I’ve heard he’s an innings eater, any truth to that?

Frankie Rodriguez RHP

JJ Putz RHP

Sean Green RHP

Bobby Parnell RHP

Pedro Feliciano LHP

Darren O’Day RHP

Brain Stokes RHP

Sure this bullpen leans more to the right than FOX NEWS but if you’re going for quality then this is your pen. O’Day and Feliciano will be the new righty/lefty tag team and Stokes has earned a long man spot as well. Parnell has shown a high octane fastball that J-Man has fallen in love with. Warlord Jerry can go to this bullpen with confidence

CATCHER

Brian Schneider L

Ramon Castro R

Like Casey said, “without a catcher you’d have a lot of passed balls”

INFEILDERS

Carlos Delgado L

Luis Castillio S

Jose Reyes S

David Wright R

Alex Cora L

Nick Evans R

Time to tip my Mets cap to Luis Castillo who has been outstanding this spring. The only reason he will be relegated to the 8 hole is due to the lack of right hand hitting in the bottom third of the line up and that Daniel Murphy’ bat is to valuable to hit that low but days that Shrek catches or when Tatis plays that would move Castillo up to los dos. Is it better to be an everyday player in Triple A or a bench player in the big leagues? That’s the Nick Evans dilemma. I’d say bench player in the bigs 

OUTFIELD

Daniel Murphy L

Carlos Beltran R

Ryan Church L

Jeremy Reed L

Fernando Tatis R

If the Mets leave Livan Hernandez off the 25 man until he’s needed (which looks like the plan ) then Bobby Keilty has a great shot of going North. Just watching Murphy will be worth paying for an overpriced ticket to $iti Field. Between Murph and Big Pelf they will be the BIG story in NY Baseball this summer not those over priced mercenaries in the South Bronx.

Ken Davidoff is going to compile his 25 man Mets roster as if opening day was today so I thought I’d post mine here and the caveat is “if today was opening day” so of course this list is subject to change.

STARTING PITHCERS (5)

Johan Santana

Mike Pelfrey

Oliver Perez

John Maine

Tim Redding

The first four spots are locks the fifth spot I give to Redding not on merit but on the fact that he has a $2mil contract and that Freddy Garcia can be left in extended spring training. Livan Hernandez is an option which would shift Redding to the bullpen which is something I would be against doing but it would be the option the Mets would make if they had to finalize the roster today. Don’t forget the Jeri-Curl shadow of Petey lurking in the background and Joh Niese becomes the Bison Ace

RELIVERS (6)

Frankie Rodriguez

J.J. Putz

Sean Green

Pedro Feliciano

Ron Villone

Brian Stokes

The last spot goes to Stokes but I hope the Mets can work out something with the Angels to keep Darren O’Day and let him go to Buffalo. Mat DeSalvo has looked good this early spring but he’s a NRI so he’s have to be real charming to take at spot off the 40 man roster.

CATCHER (2)

Brian Schneider

Ramon Castro

The Pudge to Mets talk is still strong as Rodriguez has looked good in the WBC and has made it no secret he’d love to be a Met. Two things could either happen here. The Mets find someone to take Castro and his $2 mil salary and in turn they sign Pudge or this is the swift kick in his fat lazy ass that Shriek needs desperately

INFIELD (6)

Carlos Delgado

Luis Castillo

Jose Reyes

David Wright

Alex Cora

Fernando Tatis

Tatis is valuable not just for his righty bat but for his swingman status from infield to outfield. Cora will spell both Reyes and Castillo and could become a major payer for the team this season as I get the feeling that J-Man will being giving both Reyes and Wright more days off during July and August.

OUTFIELD (6)

Daniel Murphy

Carlos Beltran

Ryan Church

Jeremy Reed

Bobby Kielty

This will be interesting to watch. J-Man has taken a shine to Kielty and I’ve been a fan of his as well he has that “somethin’ somethin’ that you like in a ball player. The problem here is Marlon Anderson and his contract. Anderson is guaranteed  $1.5 mil for 2009 and pre-Madoff that would be chump change now that Omar is on a strict budget this salary will be tough to swallow as Anderson at that price (or any price to be honest) is untradable

Omar Minaya and Jeff Wilpon with Johan Santana last year. (Tomasso DeRosa/NYSD)

The Mets  have called, not one, but two press conferences this week.

On Wednesday, they will introduce Francisco Rodriguez to the media at the team’s holiday party which will take place at the Citi Building in Long Island City. “Santa” Mike Pelfrey, John Maine and Jerry Manuel will also be there.

Then on Thursday at Citi Field, Joseph Jason Putz will have his introductory press conference.

So it will be a full week for the Mets. And we will have live reports.

Also PBC returns on Thursday at 9 p.m to recap the week.