10 days until pitchers and catchers

If you are a long time football fan, the conclusion of last night’s Super Bowl was something you thought you’d never ever see, the New Orleans Saints parading around with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. As great as a season as the Saints have had, I still had to pinch myself a bit watching Tom Benson, the used car salesman, more famous for his dancing after Saints wins at home, which were few an far between and for threatening to move the Saints to any city that would build him a stadium for free, talk about your Benson Boogie.

I have to admit the only time I saw the Saints on TV, back in the day, was during the weekly highlights show that NFL Films produced every week (the great John Facenda doing the voice over) because the Saints were never ever on television. Every week in fact the Saints games were usually the first highlights shown as they were so bad Ed Sabol wanted them out the way quick and every week we watched poor ol’ Archie Manning get his ass kicked. The Saints were so bad, their fans not only called them the “Aints, but there wore paper bags over the heads during games. Now they are Super Bowl Champs, Stunning!!!

I don’t really get to caught up in the Super Bowl commercials but my favorite was the Letterman/Oprah, Leno spot for sure. I also liked the Punxsutawney Polamalu one and the fiddling beaver (you can’t imagine how many disgusting thoughts went through my head during that commercial) and if I want to look at a bad body white man in his underwear, I’ll look in the mirror which is something I avoid at all cost.

Reading some of the critical Tweets on Twitter after The Who performed at halftime, at first pissed me off but then I just took it as ignorance from a generation that thinks Lady Ga-Ga is not only talented but cutting edge. They never saw Wendy O. Williams come out on stage with just a g-string or Joan Jet in a string bikini asking the audience “Do you want to touch me there, where”?. You can all laugh at Roger and Pete and say their old has beens but I was at Madison Square Garden in 1979 for one of the 5 night the band sold out MSG and I was at one of the greatest concerts ever, October 1982 at Shea Stadium with The Clash opening for The Who. I was there and you little shit’s weren’t but I’m not mad at you, I feel sorry for you. Now go back to your Taylor Swift CD LOL!!!!!

So when does Steve Phillips apologize to Mets fans for fucking us ?

First the Saints win the Super Bowl, and then Fernando Martinez wins the MVP of the Caribbean World Series? Are worlds colliding here? I hope this is an awakening for young Fernando that he excels during the spring and forces the Mets to bring him North and play center field until Carlos Beltran comes back. Angel Pagan is what he is, a fourth outfielder, Martinez is the guy who needs to grab this job in spring.

If you like coming to this site and root for the day that my head will explode, well this may be your lucky day. As the great Frank Costanza said “I HAVE A LOT OF ISSUES WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ISSUE 1: How the hell can any of you, my fellow Mets fans, see anything positive in acquiring Gary Mathews Jr. and don’t tell that I’m overacting negatively to this deal, if I want to fucking rant about a broken down valise of a ball player who sucks so badddddddddddddlllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy the Angels lined is fucking pockets with $20 FUCKING million dollars to get rid of him, I’ll rant and I’ll rant hard and I’ll rant all night long. And of course the Mets were the only dumb ass’ in baseball that would take him on.

I’m not pissed with GMJ (as we Tiwits from the Twitterland call him) and yeah he’s just going to a spare part being paid spare change but don’t you Polly-Wilpons see that this guy is could be taking up one of 25 valuable roster spots on this team? I hate to wish bad on someone, as we all know God don’t like ugly, but you have to hope that GMJ sucks so bad in spring that the Mets release him.

And to all of “Angel Pagan is an All Star” worshipers you need to get over that as well. I don’t want to attack Pagan who is a good player but some of you Mets fans have built this guy up to the point if I were Pagan’s agent I’d bring in your Tweets and message boards posting to make his case in arbitration.

Back to GMJ (take a Dramamine because this is going to be one rocky post, I’m going all over the road here ) this poor bastard is not even an average Major player anymore. Check this out from Ball Busters blog:

{After the Mets completed their trade for Gary Matthews Jr. on Friday, committing about $2.5 million and a middle reliever to land him, one talent evaluator dug into his team’s scouting reports, wondering if maybe his general impression that Matthews was a player in decline was wrong.

The reports for his team were clear: Matthews is a player to be avoided. Slow bat. Declining range. And above all else, a player who wants to be a regular and will be an unhappy distraction in your clubhouse when he’s not in the lineup every day.

Said an executive with another team of the Mets’ efforts to acquire Matthews, which have been extensive, including the discussion of one possible four-team deal this winter: “Baffling.”

His OPS the past three seasons: .742, .675 and .697; the last number ranked 90th among 104 outfielders with at least 300 plate appearances. His slugging percentage of .361 ranked 96th among 104 outfielders with at least 300 plate appearances. He is now 35 years old.

I asked a scout with a team not involved in this deal for his observations on Matthews’ play. His response:

“I still see Matthews as an expensive extra outfielder. The Angels knew they were fooled by his Texas numbers before they went after Hunter. He should still be able to play center field while Beltran is out, but he hasn’t shown any sock since he was outed for receiving shipments of HGH a couple years ago. His bat has been dragging through the zone the last couple years. Nevertheless, he should benefit from getting more consistent at-bats in NY than he had been getting in Anaheim.”

His defense? Well, Mark Simon of ESPN Stats & Information sent along his year-by-year UZR/150 ratings from FanGraphs. Let’s just say there’s a trend in the numbers:

• 2002: 23.8 (1st among 107 outfielders with at least 500-plus innings)
• 2003: 6.6 (33rd of 105)
• 2004: 21.3 (9th of 107)
• 2005: 18.7 (15th of 112)
• 2006: 1.0 (46th of 108)
• 2007: -12.2 (88th of 108)
• 2008: -13.7 (94th of 112)
• 2009: -24.6 (109th of 115)

The winter’s market has had other guys who could have fit the role of extra outfielder. Randy Winn. Jeremy Reed. Endy Chavez, who reportedly is making progress in his rehabilitation.

To sum up the view of Matthews within the game: He can’t hit for average, can’t hit for power, his defense ranks statistically among the worst outfielders in the majors and, to top it off, rival scouts have been reporting that in recent years he has been a clubhouse negative.

If Matthews were a free agent, he would be a player who might get a $500,000 non-guaranteed minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. And yet the Mets opted to commit $2.5 million and to trade a serviceable pitcher in Brian Stokes to get a player whose effectiveness might have ended years ago.

Very strange.}

I threw up twice while reading that.  I don’t care if GMJ was PAYING the Mets to let him play, the guy is 35 years old, not very productive on offense and his defense has decline sharply every year. Yes, I know this just a temporary move until Carlos Beltran comes back and you may be right that I should save my anger with the Mets for more important fuck ups (I’ll get to one more in a sec) but I’m mad because is GMJ the only type of player the Mets can attract ? Think about it, they have tried to give away Luis Castillo who is ten times a better player than GMJ but with a $12 million dollar nut,  they can’t find a taker. The mere fact that the Artie Moreno would pay over $20 million dollars (just about the Pirates and Marlins total payrolls) to ship Mathews sorry ass out of Anaheim should have all Mets fans up in arms.

The one bright spot in this muck is Omar Minaya coming out and saying that the centerfield job is not Angel Pagans it’s an open competition, which of course I applaud. But it better not be just a two man event with Pagan and GMJ.

Issue 2:  First let me clean the spittle off my screen here as I was screaming as I wrote that last section of this post.

As you know I’ve been clamoring for the Mets to host a Fan Fest during the winter at $iti Field. I bring this up today for two reasons one, the Baltimore Orioles are having theirs today at Camden Yards and from reading the tweets from Orioles Prospects, the place is full of fans and players signing autographs and spreading good cheer. So on a beautiful sunny day in NYC what am I doing? Ranting like a fucking lunatic when I’d rather be at $iti Field and a Mets Fan Fest, which is where all of us Mets fans should be. But you’d have to have forward thinking management to do this instead of the Skill Sets whose version of customer service is out of the Henry Hill School of Business Management : “FUCK YOU, PAY ME!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Another reason why today would have been a great day for Mets-Fest is you could have tied in raising money for Haiti along with pushing your product. Charge everyone 20 bucks to come to the ball park with proceeds going to UNICEF for relief aid to Haiti. I bet there are tons of giveaways that weren’t distributed during the season, you could sell raffle tickets for them and for other used items like bats, batting gloves and the like and use that money for charity as well. I’m not saying the Mets are not charitable, in fact one of Freddy Skill Sets admirable traits is his generosity to charities but  not only would a Mets-Fest raise a ton of money for a good cause, it would also give the Mets some badly needed positive press.

End of rant……….a Jehovah’s Witness is ringing my bell time for an ass kicking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The white smoke has been emitted from the WFAN studios on Hudson St and Pontiff Mike has let word out that the NY Mets, pending a physical, will announce the signing of Jason Bay some time next week.

From reading the Tweets on this news, the Blue and Orange crowd there will not be a big rush on 44 BAY shirts.

Maybe the collars of the Highlander Nine are loose and comfy but that’s not the case for some of their fans. Most of the Highlander fans that I grew up with or the ones I know who are my age or a little younger, are still very feisty. When I mention 2004 to them, I’m greeted with a narrow eyed reply of “THAT AIN”T HAPPIN’ THIS YEAR YOU STUPID ASS METS FAN” Now, I tell them, “That’s what I want to hear” I want to hear you believe in your team. But the younger more inexperienced Highlander fan who jumped on the bandwagon late in life and thinks they are owed a parade down Broadway every year,  are really, really scared about tonight’s Game 6.

Last night just reading all the little Tweets on Twitter from the Neophyte fans of the Bronx Bastards, I was shocked, SHOCKED by the pessimism of these youngsters. Hey kids, your conduct is very unbecoming of a Highlander Groupie, in fact it’s down right embarrassing. Don’t you youngsters watch YES and don’t you listen to the Highlander Gospel according to John Sterling? Com’on put your boots on and put on your Swish-O-Licious shirts and root for your team and stop questioning your leader Joey G, especially for the way he has handled his relief pitching moves, they are right out the Old Torre testament. And how about some of you going out and buying some 43 MARTE or 91 ACEVES t-shirts to show what real fans you are? Shit, anynone can wear a JETER 2 or TEXIERIA 25 but it takes a real fan to wear a MARTE or ACEVES. And stop complaining about Joey G taking Alex Rodriguez out for a pinch runner, sure it was the asshole play of the series but you guys hate Rodriguez anyway? What? Oh alls good with A-Rod, Really? You’re sure? See it’s hard to keep up with you guys on who sucks and who is a living legend. See I thought Swish-O-licious was the greatest thing to hit the Bronx since Grandmaster Flash but word on the Grand Concourse is he FUCKINSUCKS. Eh, what can you do? I got to go, the Rally Monkey is hungry I’m going to Hunts Point to get him some plantains.