Two of the three runs were knocked in by Daniel Murphy who if anything has shown an intangible of mental toughness. You can mock that all you want but think about how Murph has not had the best of weeks on the field but still has been able to put it behind him and play some good baseball. Yes I know his OBP is still woeful but cut a little slack here haters please. I guarantee you there are GM’s out there hoping the Mets screw this up and look to deal Murphy for a utility infielder.

Dear Carlos Delgado,

Sorry to hear about your set back in rehabbing from your hip surgery. Hope you get well soon and find an American League team to your liking for 2010

Sincerely,

The Eddie Kranepool Society

If any player should be given praise in this month of doom it’s Jeff Francoeur who is still busting his ass and playing hard. Sometimes we forget guys like Frenchy, D-Wright, Carlos Beltran who still have some pride.

Not for anything as this could be construed like a pimple on an elephants ass but why wasn’t Wilson Valdez playing more? Anderson Hernandez is a shell of his former Mets self where as Valdez has shown nice range and a good arm at short.

So with the Mets tanking and the football season under way I will be contributing some columns at NY Football Blog. Check out my first post under my football handle Mel Hein.

My in-laws have a time share in the Poconos so they invited us up for a couple of days and the only place with WiFi is the lobby of the main buliding so I had a choice, write about the latest Mets loss or hit the water park with the kids. Guess what won?

Last night we took a ride to Mount Airy lodge. This used to be the home of the heart shaped tub and mirrors on the bedroom ceiling. Now that’s all gone (which when you reach 50 is a good thing as I don’t even like mirors in the bathroom ) and the big thing now is video gaming machines. After 20 minutes and 40 bucks lost I had enough and luckily there were TV’s by a bar that had the Mets-Marlins game so I watched another Big Pelf inconsistent start. As bad as the loss was, I was pissed that I lost 40 bucks. My wife finds it very funny since oneof our favortie vaction spots before we had kids was Las Vegas. I loved to play cards, bet sports, shoot craps now I’m like a guy on a pension getting all pissed off losing 40 bucks.

I see the Mets won today in Miami by the way how do you schedule a day game in Miami in August? Good to see Tim Redding step up as well as Fernado Tatis and Angel Pagan but the guy who is coming around is Daniel Murphy. Sorry all you Murph haters!!!!!!

Enough Mets, there is a water slide waiting for my middle aged ass to hit

Later!

 

 

After yesterday’s ass whipping by the Braves a game where another player went down with a leg muscle strain and a player who allegedly is getting released by today pitched like his usual shitty self the thought came over me as maybe the Mets should get involved in a reverse pennant race, the race for the top pick in the 2010 Entry Draft.

 

Right now the Nationals again lead the way for the first overall pick in the next draft with a 26-65 record and lead the Mets by 17 games for that pick. Unless the Mets assign the rest of the big league team on the DL (not a bad idea, eh?) and bring up the whole Buffalo Bisons team then the Mets have no shot at beating DC for the top pick. The next team in line would be the Cleveland Indians who at 36-57 lead the Mets by a mere 8 games. Now passing the Indians could be done with the help of keeping Tim Redding not only on the team but putting him in the rotation and giving D-Wright the rest of the summer off and pitching Ollie Perez on two days rest.

 

Say this happened, no not Wright’s vacation or Redding and Perez every other day but say the Mets tank to the point of finishing with the second worst record in baseball, they would have a shot at drafting Bryce Harper.

 

You’ve all read about Bryce Harper, who has been hailed as the next great thing since the birth of Jesus. Harper just 16 years old will skip his junior and senior years of high school by obtaining a GED and enrolling in Junior College with the sole purpose of being drafted number 1 in the next draft. Now where this gets interesting is if the Nationals have that pick would they draft Harper who will probably ask for part of the franchise to sign after dealing with Scott Boras in their dealing with Stephen Strasburg? Can the Nationals shell out big bucks for two potential super start players? Would Freddy Skill Sets call in his marker with the Used Car Salesman to rig the draft so the Mets could get their hands on Harper? Am I drunk? Oh sorry no,  but when your team is 10 games off the pace and players are dropping to wayside every game the only thing to hang your hat on is securing a top 10 draft pick. Sad isn’t it?

 

With the New York Highlanders celebrating their annual Old Timers Day today, many Mets are wondering “where’s ours”? And of course managements response is “Yesh, too much work, not interested” Dave the Lawyer who has moved up the organizational ladder from Head Shyster to Minister of Bullshit, claims lack of fan interest, lack of sponsors and it cost too much as reasons for no celebration of the Bruce Boisclair’, Johnny Lewis’ and Roy McMillan ’of our past. So what the Minster of Bullshit in the Court of Skill is telling the fans is the organization is lazy, unimaginative and really couldn’t give a shit about the teams past as we have seen with our new state of the art park that not until there were embarrassed (yet again) Mets management will address (like moving the retires numbers and the old Home Run Apple from the back of the visitors bullpen to maybe a more heavily trafficked area). It seems ownership is in denial about the teams past and as is the case most times have no grip on the feelings of their fan base. If any group of people deserve to be embarrassed it’s Mets fans for having clueless owners in control of our beloved franchise.

It will be great to see Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan at the 1969 World Championship celebration but the best reunion will be of Nancy Seaver and Ruth Ryan

Man is still taking heat for his crack on the Mets quacks but as we see Gary Sheffield has gone from cramps in the leg to a tweaked hammy. I getting to the point where I think Manuel really doesn’t like being here anymore as that remark tells me he is fed up with the overall ineptitude with the organization.

As much as I think Tim Redding sucks, it’s really not fair what the Mets are doing to the guy just put him out of his misery and stop leaking new to the press then back track but then again what am I thinking only an organization with strong leadership would do that.

By the way why is Tony B the “high ranking official” on this road trip? Where is Omar? Getting his nursing degree?

My 13 yr olds have do or die game today at 2PM it’s win or go home and I’m not ready to end this season. I will be pulling out all stops before the game. I’ve instructed the kids to be at the field by 1PM. I have not shaved in two days so I have a good scruff going. I have a big bag of sunflower seeds that I’ll eat while giving my pep talk and my trusty fungo bat will be in hand and whoever drifts off during my talk will get a shower of shells and the barrel of the fungo pointed at them. The theme will be THE SEASON WILL END TODAY!!!!! I better make sue I do this all the way out in centerfield, it won’t be pretty

 

 

 

 

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.

Looks like the shake up we have been looking for will be internal as OP, Angel P and Jon Neise are ready to pitch in and F-Mart goes back to Buffalo and Tim Redding and Fernando Nieve go back to obscurity.

I’m sorry I’m missing Manny Being Manny in Flushing tonight and you can boo him and call him a cheat but if he were the Mets left fielder life would be a lot easier and first palce would be closer to reality than a pipe dream.

Time to cook lunch yummmmmmm sloppy joes while standing ankle deep  in mud

No problem here with Mark DeRosa going to the Cardinals for pitcher Chris Perez and a PTBNL. Then Mets equivalent to Perez is Bobby Parnell and I wouldn’t trade Parnell for a 34 year old rental player. The Mets problems are beyond adding DeRosa.

With all due respect to some of my Highlander buddies (Ben Kabak, Alex Bleth, Rebecca Glass) just observing Highlander fans most of the young ones are clueless when it comes to not only the rules of baseball or the strategy of the game but have no idea at all about their teams history. The older ones have a Pavlovian way about them as soon as you mention the name of the team they all bark out “26 Championships” I guess what I’m saying they’re a sad bunch. Our team may not win much but we’re a better class of fan.

A little bit of Tim Redding is good a lot of Tim Redding…..ahh…not so good. If there is one pitcher on the Mets that is the picture of a mop up guy in the pen, it’s Tim Redding.

Ol’ Cholly Manuel laced into his team after a another loss on Friday night and his club responded with a 10-0 win over the Blue Jays. After losing two straight to the Highlanders, Jerry Manuel took his team to the Lemon Ice King of Corona and told them it’s not their fault we have a lot of injuries and “You’re all winners YEAH!!!!!” Maybe that’s why Ol’Cholly has a ring and J-Man doesn’t. I’d love to see J-Man lace into his team and remind them this is the big leagues and they need to compte like big leaguers even if he doesn’t believe half of his roster belongs here.

I hate to bring up this Michael Jackson is dead thing again but there are a few things bothering about this whole Jacko worship that’s on going. As I stated the other day I was not a big fan of Jackson the man or the music. Pop music is not what I listen to I’m a Garage/Punk kinda of guy plus all the folks who think that Jackson was the greatest showman alive obviously had never seen a Stones concert, a Queen concert or a Plasmatics concert but that is neither here nor there

My biggest trouble with Jackson is the fact he slept with little boys, and that is fucking sick. My feeling for this does not just lie with Jackson but with the Catholic church as well and it’s the reason why I have no respect for the clergy any more.

Now if you bring up this part of Jackson’s life to a fan of his you get called al kind of names from a racist (which is funny as the guy went above and beyond to be white) or a heartless fuck. And that is because the truth hurts. But his fans and the media have given him a pass on his past crimes and have treated him like an American hero in his passing.

Michael Vick didn’t sleep with little boys (as far as we know) but he did maim, torture and kill animals which is still despicable and I would love to see Vick tortured the same way he did to those dogs. I’m not some crazy PETA zealot but I do own pets and I’ve been around dogs and just the thought that this scumbag gained the trust of the dogs then made them fight and the ones who weren’t fighters he killed makes my blood boil. Again if you are anti Vick you’re a racist, and a heartless reactionary and the man severed his time and deserves another chance. Not to me as Michael Vick is nothing but a fucking coward and also he wasn’t a very good QB either but he will get a chance some place and his past history of cruelty and murder of dogs will be replaced with cheering fans and enablers

What I’m getting to in my long winded way is Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds are just some of the biggest stars in baseball who have been found to use performance drugs to enhance their play on the field and to recover from injury to stay on the field. Of course their actions were wrong as taking PED’s they way they did were unlawful but for the most part not against the laws of baseball well not until the jig was up and the Used Car Salesman acted with shock and horror that players were using PED’s, a performance worthy of an Oscar.

In no way do I condone the actions of the players involved in what is now the Steroid Scandal Era (especially since I’m reading American Icon which will become the essential reading when people look back on this time in baseball) but what I don’t get is how these players are treated worse than a guy who slept with little boys and a guy who killed dogs?

I just wish there was the outcry for the actions of Michael Jackson and Roger Vick like there is for Manny Ramirez who of the three committed the lesser crime.

 

The only baseball I watched last night was my Babe Ruth team back in action after three straight rain outs and the boys had some rust on them in this game. Too many graduation parties, school dances and time off to text, play video games and just get a bit lazy. All this rain (it is pouring as I type this and I’m trying to explain to a newly hired inspector that part of his initiation is to go get a veteran like myself his lunch when it’s raining)  not only has me looking at 5 games to make up but I haven’t got them out to practice either and it bit us last night as my  archenemies, walks and errors came back to haunt us, and was the prime reason we dropped a 13-4 decision to a team coached by a guy I can’t stand, umpired by a real dick head and played at a facility that is a shit hole. So how was your evening?

 

Looking at the box score and reading the game story it seems Tim Redding was well, Tim Redding , back to his sucky self.

 

 I was surprised that J-Man brought in Bobby Parnell in the 6^th after he was ordained the set up man. 

 

J-Man can you please play Daniel Murphy play every day at first base? How is that Fernando Martinez who is clearly a not ready for prime time player but gets to play every day and Murphy who was all the rage coming into the season gets buried like he was Ryan Church’ twin brother?

 

Today is Dave Schneck’s birthday. Who is Dave Schneck? Schneck played outfield for the Mets back in the early to mid 70’s. He showed some excellent power in the minors but it never came together for him in the bigs. His claim to fame is batting clean up in his first major league game sandwiched between Willie Mays and Rusty Staub. But Schnecks greatest contribution was to the country as he severed in combat in Viet Nam. Happy and Healthy birthday to Dave Schneck.

 

The best part of this video from The Mets Police is the music. If I were the closer for the Mets this would be my entrance music.

 

No need for Omar to make a panic trade for as long as the Phillies continue to suck at home and now with Raul Ibanez out for 15 days due to a groin strain the Fucks From Filly are not going to get a big lead and 3 games out in June is nothing for Mets fans to get their balls in an uproar over.

 

If I’m Jose Reyes I’d be trying to get back as soon as I could because the “As Jose goes, so goes the Mets” is starting to become an urban myth. If I could only have one guy back from the long line of causalities on the DL it would be Carlos Delgado as his power and run producing has been the missing ingredient while Alex Cora has played a stellar short stop and his been getting on base at a better rate that Reyes.

I could never tell which one was Mlli and who Vanilli

Of all the injuries the one that hurts the least (no pun intended) is losing J J Putz. With Bobby Parnell, a rejuvenated Sean Green, Brain Stokes and Pedro Feliciano to go with Frankie Rodriguez the bullpen is robust and is a big reason not to give up the ship.

With all the injuries the Mets will have to reinvent themselves into a team of strong pitching and they must play stellar defense and keep the mistakes at a minimum especially on the base paths.  There are good aggressive plays that sometimes bite you in the ass like David Wright taking a chance on going to third on the botched pickoff play in the 6^th that took a solid throw by A-Hern to get him. Then there are just bad base running plays like Carlos Beltran in the 1^st trying to get to third with no outs on a hit and Wright trying to steal 3^rd with no outs in the 10 th.  You can get away with mistakes against the awful Nats but with the schedule that is coming up against the top teams in baseball it helps best if your head is not up your ass.

So Adam LaRoche thinks it was “classless” of Carlos Beltran to say the Pirates are not a good team and the Mets should be embarrassed to lose three straight to them.  When your organization has not had a winning record in 17 seasons and you trade away an outfield of Jason Bay, Nate McClouth and Xavier Nady and get next to nothing of substance in return, I think your anger should be toward the management of your team and not the opposition who is just echoing what all of baseball knows that the Pittsburgh Pirates are a joke.

LaRoche may get a chance to tell Beltran what he thinks as he may get lucky and get traded to the Mets. I wouldn’t mind getting LaRoche and Jack Wilson to play first and short for the Mets and I bet it wouldn’t cost much either.

I’m a fan of Daniel Murphy but let’s face facts the Mets are dire need of a power bat and if Murphy who has looked great at first base isn’t going to hit then he needs to go to Buffalo so Omar can add a power bat at that possession. It’s not personal Danny Boy its business.

Watching and listening to Tom Glavine bitch and moan about his release by the Braves is more embarrassing than annoying although I find myself yelling “grows some balls” at the TV when MLB Network shows Glavine’ presser.

There is nothing better than MLB Extra Innings. Not only do you get to see every baseball game but when the Dodgers are home or west of the Mississippi River you get to hear Vin Scully. I’ve forgiven Scully for his bias against the Mets in the 1986 World Series and as I watched last night as the Phillies and Pedro Feliz gave the Dodgers a win it was this from Scully that made the game worth watching:

  

It’s about quarter of nine in Los Angeles. That makes it about quarter of six on the beaches at Normandy, in France. And 1944, June the sixth, tomorrow, that was the invasion of Europe.

We heard the names: Sword, Gold, Juno, Utah and Omaha. Those were the names of the beaches as the British, Canadians and the United States invaded Europe.

 Let’s go back to this one.

 At quarter of six on the beaches of Normandy sixty-five years ago, something like forty thousand fell in the invasion that was called Operation Overlord. The bloodiest beach was Omaha.

And then of course there was that area called Pointe du Hoc. You probably saw that in the movie The Guns of Navarone, where the GIs had to try and climb thirty-foot cliffs and the Germans were on top of the cliffs shooting down at them

So, do us older guys a favor. If you have children, would you please take time out tomorrow and tell them the sacrifice that was made sixty-five years ago?

 Freedom is not free. Boy, a lot of fellas gave their lives so that we could be sitting here watching a baseball game.

Please don’t forget it.

      

Thanks to Sons of Steve Garvey to this  

 

 

 

Then to top of the day, the Atlanta Braves send a message that they ain’t going anywhere by pulling off a deal for Nate McClouth and telling Titan Tom Glavine to go home and make brownies.

 

The Reyes situation is a puzzling. I never question a guy who says he’s hurt but at some point, which hopefully is today when Reyes comes back to NY to see the quacks, a determination needs to be made on how this injury affects the team for the rest of the season. If this is going to be a chronic problem all season, then I’d expect Omar to quietly but out feelers for a shortstop (Miguel Tejda?) who is major league caliber. It’s ok that Omar has found some putty players like Wilson Valdez, Ramon Martinez, and Angel Pagan (before his yearly injury) but the fairy dust wears off quick with players like this. The Braves see this and look at the NL East landscape and say why not us? So out goes Titan Tom Glavine and in comes the young stud Tommy Hanson. As for us? Welcome the newest dumpster dive prize, Emil Brown.

 

Heads up news from upstate, top prospects RHP’s Bradley Holt and Jennry Meija have been promotes to Bingo and both will start this weekend. Keep you eye on Holt as he may just bypass Buffalo and go right to Flushing to offset the suckitude of Tim Redding.

 

Tonight on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL we will discuss today’s Mets-Bucos game, the injury epidemic with the Mets and a look around the minor league system. We will be joined by Bert Sugar, who will be talking about his new book, Bert Sugar’s Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game, (Running Press) You can listen live at Blog Talk Radio or listen to the podcast at PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL.