1) Question: What is this team’s attitude?

Assessment: By all accounts, it has been superb. There is a different chemistry in the Mets clubhouse than I have previously seen. The Mets have shown a remarkable resiliency to bounce back from adversity and Sunday’s win is just another example. There have been no issues about a lack of hustle, and no finger pointing. Both Jeff Francoeur and Angel Pagan said the right things about the prospect of reduced playing time as Carlos Beltran is about to be activated from the disabled list. The only sour note was, surprise, Oliver Perez’s refusal to accept a minor league assignment, instead, waiting for the disabled list to leave the roster to work on his issues.

2) Question: How healthy is this team?

Assessment: Injuries sabotaged the 2009 season, and injuries have cost Beltran and Daniel Murphy in the first half, and Jose Reyes for nearly a month. Beltran is due back to start the second half, but there’s no timetable for the return of Murphy, who reinjured his knee while on a rehab assignment. Murphy was playing second base at the time in preparation for a position change. After treating Reyes with kid gloves in the wake of his thyroid issue, the Mets rushed him back from an oblique injury, which he aggravated Saturday. There’s no telling how long he’ll be out. Luis Castillo is on the disabled list and his is another injury where the Mets tried to have him play through. Fortunately, his replacement, Ruben Tejada, has been more than filled the void. Reliever Kelvim Escobar, penciled in as a set-up man, is out for the year with a shoulder injury. The Mets are still trying to find an eighth-inning solution. Oliver Perez and John Maine are currently on the disabled list.

3) Question: What is the status of the three pitching questions, Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and John Maine?

Assessment: Pelfrey made a point of saying he understood this trio represented a significant key to the Mets’ success this season. Perez and Maine are on the disabled list, but the team upgraded with R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi. Pelfrey was superb for much of the first half but has been going through a dead arm period and has been largely ineffective over his last five starts. Perez balked at a minor league assignment, but an injury was found that conveniently landed him on the disabled list. He has been sound, and somewhat effective, in his rehab assignment. Look for the Mets to activate him shortly after the break and send Takahashi back to the bullpen. There’s no timetable for Maine’s return.

4) Question: Who is fifth starter?

Assessment: Fernando Nieve, Jon Niese, Nelson Figueroa and Hisanori Takahashi were in the mix in the spring, but Niese won the job and has been very good since coming off the disabled list. Niese has been so good that management tabbed him untouchable when Seattle asked for him in trade discussions surrounding Cliff Lee. Figueroa is now in Philadelphia, while Nieve is in the bullpen. Takahashi replaced Perez in the rotation and pitched well at first, but clearly showed he’s more valuable in the bullpen. The Mets are searching for a fifth starter in the trade market, as there are lingering questions about Perez and Maine.

5) Question: What is the make-up of the bullpen?

Assessment: Jenrry Mejia went north in the pen in an undefined role, but eventually went to the minor leagues to work on being a starter, when he was injured. Losing Escobar went a large part in opening the door for Mejia, who threw hard, but never grasped the eighth-inning role. Bobby Parnell, who appeared to wash you last year, now appears to be the arm having the inside track in the eighth inning to start the second half. Ryota Igarashi was the guy at one time, but pulled a hamstring and hasn’t been the same since. He’s now in the minor leagues. Nieve and Pedro Feliciano were over worked early, and still have heavy workloads. The distribution of work should be improved when Takahashi goes back to the bullpen.

John Delcos has covered Major League Baseball for over 20 years, including more than ten in New York on the Yankees and Mets beats. You can read Delcos on his blog, http://www.newyorkmetsreport.com, where he hosts a chat room for each Mets game.

Over at Metsblog, Matthew Cerone asks the question Should the Mets add a character race like the Brewers Sausage race or the National President Race?  Now to me, all these racing games at the ball park reek of the bush leagues but if the Mets were to have one at $iti Field why not use rats ?

First, this city is known for it’s rat population (4 legged and two legged) so finding rats to work cheap wouldn’t be a problem. There are also plenty of cats on 126th St who frequent the shop shops and sometimes meander over to the ball park so you could have a cat chasing the rats just to speed up the festivities.

Have one rat per boro.

The Manhattan Rat could have on a Brooks Brothers suit to represent Wall St

The Brooklyn Rat could be a hipster type who has just discovered Williamsburg and Greenpernt (also known as GreenPOINT)

The Queens Rat could be Hiram Monserate

The Bronx Rat could be decked out in a Highlander uni

And last but not lease the Staten Island Rat would have tons of hair gel and a humongous crucifix around his neck .

I’m sure Shelly Silver could find a way to have para-mutual betting on these contests.

5 days until pitchers and catchers

  9 days until pitchers and catchers

I’ve had it uptohere with everyone panicking over the impending snow storm heading to NYC by tonight. Yes it is going to snow and snow a lot, about a foot and yes all the assholes will attack the local supermarket to buy 10 gallons of milk and 15 loaves of bread because we all know a snowstorm in NYC is worse than an earthquake in Port A Prince. 

Its fucking incredible how people shit themselves when they here of a snow storm coming. It snows, you shovel, it piles up and guess what? IT GOES AWAY!!!!!!! In the fifty-one years I’ve been breathing and living in NYC THIS HAPPENS EVERY WINTER. DDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL WWIIIIIITTTTHHHHH IIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT !

Now that I got that out of system, The Mets will now slice the center field wall in half to a new height of 8 ft. Also the player’s moms will be responsible on a rotating basis to provide orange slice for each home game.

Marcus Thames (as pointed out by our resident Highlander fan Michael) has signed a minor league deal with the Bronx Bastards. I called Omar Minaya for to ask about the Mets having any interested in Thames or any other free agent still on the market. Here is a transcript of our conversation:

EKS: Omar, with the team not making many moves this off season and basically going with the same starting pitching staff that was dreadful last season, is there any interest in a pitcher like Jarrod Washburn?

Omar Minaya: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

EKS: Marcus Thames signed a minor league deal with the team in the Bronx. A pretty good righty bat who can play outfield and first base, did you have any interested in bringing Thames into the Mets fold?

Minaya: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

EKS:  Thanks for your time Omar.

Sorry I got to go now and head to Shop Rite before all the olive loaf and liverwurst is gone. I don’t know if you heard but a BIG FUCKING SNOW STORM IS COMING!!!!!!!

You’re a Mets fan, and even with the underwhelming personnel moves this off season the  front office has made and the anger you have about this bunch of underachievers, you looked at the calendar today as see February 1 and you know that in17 days, pitchers and catchers will report to Port St. Lonesome.

You try to look beyond the fact the team has holes on the defensive end and the pitching staff can with either be solid or shit but you’re a Mets fan, you know that miracles can happen. But then, you read a story like this where J.J. Putz, the former Mets reliever now bullpen fodder for the Chicago White Sox, tells about his season with the Mets. A disclaimer Mets fans the following excerpts are graphic and may not be suitable for all readers. If you suffer from high blood pressure, night sweats and have heard voices in your head, proceed with caution.

Putz claims he was damaged goods when he arrived in NY via Seattle but (this is where it gets upsetting) he was never given a physical exam by the Mets. Here is what went down as per Putz:

  When the trade went down last year, I never really had a physical with the Mets,” said Putz. “I had the bone spur (in the right elbow). It was discovered the previous year in Seattle, and it never got checked out by any other doctors until I got to spring training, and the spring training physical is kind of a formality. It was bugging me all through April, and in May I got an injection. It just got to the point where I couldn’t pitch. I couldn’t throw strikes, my velocity was way down.”

 

So the Mariners sent a player not fit to pitch to the Mets probably realizing that the inept Mets front office would never notice. Do you get the impression that the rest of MLB thinks, the whole Mets front office fell off a turnip truck?

Now, as bad as that declaration by Putz was, it gets even worse as we see here in a statement that will be dissected and maybe, just maybe be what’s needed to be a   cleansing of the Mets front office of incompetence and give this organization the high colonic it needs. This is Exhibit A that the New York Mets organization is run by a bunch of fucking liars:

 Being hurt is never fun, especially when you go to a team like New York, where the expectation level is so high, and you’re not able to do what you know you can do. (The Mets) gave up a lot to get me, so it was disappointing and frustrating.”

 

Especially when the Mets told Putz not to talk about being hurt with the media.

 

“I knew that I wasn’t right. I wasn’t healthy. The toughest part was having to face the media and tell them that you feel fine, even though you know there’s something wrong and they don’t want you telling them that you’re banged up.”

 

There you have it. You can’t believe anything you hear out of Mets managment. What little shred of credibility the Mets front office had is gone now. Now you know why Carlos Beltran went outside the organization to get his knee fixed and you know why no free agents want to come to Flushing. $iti Field might as well be in Chernobyl, it’s that toxic.

What’s the over/under when Jason Bay’s knee blows out? 40 games?

As a Mets fan, I’m starting to feel like a weary traveler standing at the airport luggage carrousel waiting for my bags, and my bags have gotten lost.

Pitchers have gone around the free agent carrousel and the Mets just stand there waiting and waiting and waiting to the point where they are the lone team standing around with nothing to show.

Ben Sheets for $10 mil is a very steep price to pay but give the A’s and Billy Beane credit for taking a chance with Sheets. Beane is taking a shot that of the three things that can happen with Sheets, if  two of the scenarios work in the A’s favor, Beane and the A’s come out a winner.  He can stay healthy and become the Ace of a very young and potentially strong starting rotation and the A’s can be big time contenders in the NL West, or he can stay healthy and the rest of the team not play up to expectation and fall out the race where by Beane can flip Sheets for a couple of top prospects, or the worst case scenario, Sheets breaks down like a ’76 Pinto and the A’s are stuck with an expensive invalid.

But then again, Beane and the A’s management are competent and have watched Sheets throw and checked his medical reports and have given him a full medical by doctors who have cleared Sheets good to go, so with the odds in his favor Beane decides to spend Lew Wolf’s money and go for a post season berth.

Jeffey Skill Sets on the other hand, will take the money saved on buying much cheaper baseball labor to build an extension of his Hamptons mansion.

At some point one of our fine beat reporters in this town should really try to get through the Wall of Horowitz and get a sit down interview with Jeffey Skill Sets to get answers on how he feels that the baseball team he runs is the laughingstock of the industry.  The Mets have gone from an organization where every player agent made sure that the Mets were involved with their client during free agency to an organization that has become Plan Z (welcome Jason Bay) The Mets wanted John Lackey but John Lackey wanted no part of the Mets.  A pitcher coming from the American League refused to even talk to a team in the NL, that plays in a pitchers ball park, in the greatest city in the world, for a team with a big income. Stunning.

Jason Marquis begged the Mets to sign him but the Mets treated him like he had cooties. Bengi Molina? He’s a Met the MSM told us, it’s just a matter of finding a pen with ink in it. Molina is back with the Giants.  Randy Wolf? Never called Flushing.  “Mr. Minaya, Joel Piniero on line 1” WHO? Responds Omar. Jon Garland? No! Chone Figgins? No! Orlando Hudson? No! Aroldis Chapman? No! If he were 45 years old then YES! Russell Branyan? No! and on and on and on…………………………

This perception of the Mets is not a figment of Mets fans imaginations, it’s real, the baseball world shakes its head and says “How the fuck?” We can rant all day and night about Omar Minaya and Fire Omar, and Omar this and Omar that. Get over your Omar hate, this is beyond Omar. Omar Minaya is a bit player in the Mets moves these days.  If Omar were the baseball boss, Molina and Piniero would be Mets and Carlos Delgado would have a 5 year deal. But nothing gets done until Jeffey Poo says it’s done. That’s why we’re fucked.

I give Johan Santana a ton of credit not just for showing up at the mini camp but for coming on WFAN with Joe Bada Bing and Tinkerbell and being positive and optimistic about this team. The right man in charge could play this “the whole world thinks you guys suck” as a rallying cry but the guy that would play that angle perfectly has to prove himself on Coney Island this summer, while Cool Breeze Jerry works on his lounge act in Flushing.

I swear to Henry Chadwick that I hope I’m wrong that Wright and Reyes explode with career years and Daniel Murphy hits like I believe he can and that Bay and Frenchy  prove to be “corner-stones”, and Beltran comes back like a track star that hits 30 HR’s  and Big Pelf pounds that strikezone like a blacksmith and this team is not just competitive but contends for the NL East crown.

As negative as I’ve been all winter and I’m sure other Mets fans will say the same thing, none of us wants to go through another summer like last year.  As I look down the line on the big decision makers though in this organization though, it is very hard to get enthused.  Jeffey is clueless and Omar is ball-less, and the manager couldn’t care less.

All I have is my ace pitcher preaching to me like Bob Marley, I hope he’s right. It’s hard to find Three Little Birds when it’s so damn cold outside

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!!!!!!

As per Brain Costa of the Star-Ledger via Twitter:

Mark your calendars: Mets announce that pitchers and catchers will report to Port St. Lucie on Feb. 18.

thank you to Jessica Burciaga, Playboy’s Miss February 2009 for posing for that pic for this post.

 

 

 

 

After watching Big Pelf suffer through another bad outing and a partial melt down on the mound where I think it’s now at least three straight stats that D-Wright had to go to the mound early to have a heart to heart with Pelf.  Add the struggle back from injury to John Maine,  Bobby Parnell’ difficulty making pitching adjustments the second time around,  Ollie P being Ollie P, Tim Redding not rehabbing correctly from off season surgery, not dealing with J J Putz injured elbow and back to the reporting to pitchers and catchers in late February when Johan Santana seemed to be on a training schedule that did more harm than good and the whispers that maybe it was a mistake caning The Jacket, Old School Dan Werthen should be squarely in the cross hairs of management to be the first coach relived of duties by the end of the weekend.

As much as Rick Peterson is one of the great pitching minds around it wasn’t a mistake to fire him during the season and when Old School Werthen came on board he made a difference but it seems to me that Werthen is either fed up or just out of ideas on how to get the best out of the Mets pitching staff. The most telling non-move from last night that brings me to this conclusion was the fact that Werthen never left the dugout in the first inning when Pelfrey was struggling with his command especially his fastball that was up, up and away, even Gary Cohen couldn’t believe that Werthen never came out after first Wright then Santos went out to check on the young righty as the situation was crying for an old head intervention. Maybe Werthen has given up, maybe he’s tired of going out there and spewing the same old advice, maybe he’d love to put his foot up Pelfrey’s ass but management is holding him back. Whatever it is, it’s a problem and one that needs to be addressed not for this season as this season is over but for 2010 and beyond.

Are you getting the vibe that J-Man may not want to be fired as Mets manager? Last night during his post game presser Manuel made a joke at the expense of the Mets medical staff, that validated those of us that have questioned the front office, the training staff and the doctors.  When asked about Gary Sheffield leaving in the 5^th with a leg problem, Manuel said “They’re calling it cramps,…. surgery is Thursday” and then he let out a laugh which translates to me Manuel saying to the fans “you guys are right this organization is a joke” After realizing that his boss will not be happy with his comment (J-Man has been called on the carpet about talking about making trades to bring in reinforcements) he tired to get SNY to not air the footage, fat chance Jerry besides you said nothing that we weren’t thinking ourselves.

Last night looks to be Tim Redding’ last appearance as a Met word in the NYDN is Redding will be released and another move in the minus column for Omar. I said back in spring that Redding looked fat and out of shape but just his track record alone should have been a red flag for the Mets to sign him. But don’t worry Julio Lugo is working out at the Mets academy in the D.R. and will be here once he passes waviers. The longggggggggggggggggggggg summer continues.

The headline on Adam Rubin’ story says” Mets Deny Claims That Jose Reyes Suffered A Set Back in Port St. Luice” The Mets are also denying that today is Saturday, water is wet and the organization is in FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All  Recogntion) mode.

That’s why I avoid Super Bowl parties. I’ve been dragged to a few in my day by my wife but even she would get annoyed with all the questions I’d be asked at these functions  asking to explain ever play and all the rules and that’s why I’ll be home in my Archie Bunker recliner enjoying the game.

What I look for today is who wins the turnover battle. Ben Roethlisberger has a tendency to throw picks and the Cardinal defense has been getting turnovers this post season so that is an intriguing matchup. Can the Steelers run the football and control the clock on offense and use a ball control offense as a defense to keep Kurt Warner and his wide outs on the sidelines? 

This game looks to be a very good matchup and from reading all the predictions from the experts most of them are split right down the middle. I have to say I’ve flip flopped all week trying to decide who I think will win but in the end I always go with the team that plays the best defense and that’s the Steelers So it’s Steelers 24-17 (right on the number) for me and Ring 6 for the Terrible Towlers.