Early Morning Madness: Pearl jammin' edition

Last night's Mets game was far from Sad. It had a better Even Flow as the Mets went Deep three times over. They were Faithfull to the balls that were Given to Fly. The Mets have a Habit of Sometimes making me Smile. Maybe Manuel and Omar Minaya will want to put the Present Tense in the Rearviewmirror and start to Do The Evolution, shaking up the team a bit.

If you didn't know, all the italics are Pearl Jam song titles.

MetsGrrl beat me to it. She was at the Pearl Jam show last night too, and Mr. Eddie Vedder gave us this little quote, right before playing "Rats":

Oh, I was out at Shea Stadium the other night and they have big rats there.

** * **

Brian Runge, the ump that bumped Jerry Manuel, has since apologized to the manager.

From Manuel, on the apology:

Yes, he did (apologize). He felt very bad," Manuel said. "He had spoken to his father (former big-league ump Paul Runge), who actually is a good friend of mine. He felt very bad about the whole incident and I accepted it."

See? The world isn't totally evil.

** * **

Ryan Church will play for the Brooklyn Cyclones tomorrow night. He may DH, he may play the outfield, it all depends on how he feels when he wakes up tomorrow morning.

The way I feel waking up this morning, I don't even know if I'm suited to walk. Maybe Church should gauge it on how he feels around 10 a.m., just to let some grogginess wear off.

Mets make move; It won't work out

The Mets seem hellbent on attempting to pick off of other teams scrap heaps.

On Wednesday they added Andy Phillips off waivers from the Cincinatti Reds. Robinson Cancel was cast away.

I'm expecting somewhere in the range on 10 AB's before Phillips' Mets career is over. Someone needs to remind the front office we have a minor league system.

TSTDIA: Mets 8 -- Mariners 2

Rest does a David Wright good.

Sad

A fitting title, I feel.

This series against the Mariners is downright sad. The Mets had an easy shot at sweeping the series and giving themselves a brand new season under their new manager. Instead, they've been beat up in the first two games by a combined score of 16-1.

Hopefully, they can salvage a win tonight and head into the four game-three day series against the Yankees on a slightly better note.

I'm off to see Pearl Jam at MSG tonight, and now that I think of it, I wouldn't mind hearing them play "Sad."

Let's go Mets!

Maple bats

Ban them. Immediately.

It's as simple as that.

Maybe allow a few days to pass for current maple bat users to get their affairs in order and get some new bats shipped out to wherever they're playing at the time. After that, these weapons of mass destruction should be banned from Major League Baseball altogether.

It's simply not safe for the hitters, catchers, players on third base (Brady Clark spearing Carlos Delgado at third base in spring training), and especially umpires.

Though Carlos Beltran probably wishes he was using a maple bat last night.

Get them out of the league before someone is seriously injured, because I guess bleeding from the head isn't serious enough.

Fix the Mets

We're having a pretty nice discussion over at Mets Lounge about what everyone would do if they were the GM of the Mets.

Pretty simple, I think, but I have a few moves I would make now or in the very immediate future. All moves are in-house.

• Bring up Mike Carp. Send Robinson Cancel back to AAA. This would immediately put pressure on Carlos Delgado.
• Bring up Dan Murphy. Send Trot Nixon back to AAA. This would immediately put pressure on Luis Castillo.
• Look into trading Oliver Perez. If possible, pull the trigger, attempt to get at least two decent minor leaguers in return. Promote Tony Armas Jr.
• If Murphy/Castillo/Damion Easley doesn't work out, call Cincinnati or Baltimore about their second baseman. (via Wrighteous.)
• Don't hurry Ryan Church. Wait until Sunday to bring him back. Make sure he's 110 percent. The Mets need that bat.
• Platoon Endy Chavez, Marlon Anderson, Fernando Tatis in right field.

Anything I missed? Hit the comments for your suggestions.

We're about to have a beat writer throwdown

It all started with Jerry Manuel's "fertilizer" comment, which I called "the biggest non story in a long time."

On Tuesday, I linked to a David Lennon post about the NY Post blowing the story out of proportion. Apparently, I picked the wrong beat writer.

Just read this quote from Bart Hubbuch (the man behind the NY Post article), as he talks about the Keith Olbermann (yuck) video, in which he was ranked as one of the "worst people." The juicy part is italicized and bolded for good measure:

Here's the bottom line for Olbermann, the radio and blogger blowhards, one of my gutless, sycophantic counterparts (yeah, I'm talking about you, Adam) and all the cranks that have been filling my inbox with e-mails I never read and automatically delete:

Every reporter in the room at Coors Field laughed out loud when Manuel said the word "fertilizer." I know this because I was sitting right there. You know why we all laughed? Because every one of us knew exactly what Manuel was talking about.

The fans.

That right there is a potshot at Daily News writer, Mr. Adam Rubin.

Oh baby!! Somebody get Don King on the phone and tell him there is going to be a good ol' fashion fist fight in the press box at Shea Stadium tonight!! Yee haw!

Muniz gets another shot

The Mets have designated Claudio Vargas for assignment and called up Carlos Muniz for his spot on the roster.

While Vargas had been fairly effective as a long relief man, he surrendered four runs in two innings last night against the Mariners.

Muniz, who had a much lower ERA at the beginning of the year, is now sporting a 3.18 ERA in 28 1-3 innings pitched.

Muniz is 2008's Heath Bell and Royce Ring. Up and down, up and down. Tony Armas Jr. must be wondering what else he must do to get the call.

TSTDIA: Mariners 11 -- Mets 0

I can sum this game up in one word: Disaster.

You're the GM: Make your moves

Say you are the general manager of the New York Mets, what moves do you make to fix the team?

Hit the comments and post all your wonderful ideas.