6/26/08

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Phillies accused of stealing signs

According to Phillies Nation, a MLB official believes the Phillies may have been stealing in their recent series against Boston. It must not have worked very well, as the Phillies dropped two of three to the Red Sox.

From the Boston Globe:

Major League Baseball has not received a specific complaint about the Red Sox being victims of sign stealing, but the Phillies have been investigated for this in the past. The Sox played the Phillies last week, and one major league official thought the Phillies were taking Boston's signs. The Sox won two out of three in Philadelphia. Sox general manager Theo Epstein had no comment on the topic.

Spygate 2.0? Now, for me as a Giants fan, this would set up nicely. The Patriots get blamed for cheating and go on to lose the Super Bowl to the G-Men. Now that the Phillies are catching flack, does that mean the Mets will beat them in the division...or even the NLCS?

A man can dream, right?

Reader comment: Longest ever?

Here is a reader comment posted a few days back, with a new section added last night. Tom, whoever you are, this is some serious stuff for a comment! Here it is, originally posted on June 20:
The Mets may actually be coming along a little bit now. I watched the game with MLB TV with the home (Angels) announcers, so I don't know if people with SNY caught the statistic of the Angel's being 201-2 in the last three seasons when leading after the 8th inning.

For the Mets to be able to beat them was somewhat impressive.I've noticed some weird things about the Mets lately though. When the Mets are done one or two runs (especially when they gave up a lead), they're bullpen throws great. People don't realize it, but Scott Schoeneweis has improved a lot. I also think Pedro Feliciano is one of the most underrated lefty relievers in the game.The problem I've noticed are two big things. One, when they're down say 4-3 like they did when Perez gave up the lead, they go into what I call crap mode with the bats.

The second problem is when they do get a lead, they're bullpen begins to collapse. It happened last week when Joe Smith gave up three runs and it really angered me when Billy Wagner blew three saves in a row.If there's one thing that should have angered Met fans more than anything else, it was the constant using of Aaron Heilman in pressure situations. Heilman was lost his solidness and the Mets can't afford to be giving him loads of opportunities to rejuvenate himself. That's what AAA is for. The same problem existed with Guillermo Mota last year. I blame Minaya for not designating him for assignment too. The one thing I like about Jerry Manuel so far is that he's more out to designate roles. Hopefully, that means Aaron Heilman will be the ''mop up'' man.

Another thing is that the Mets simply have to get as much for Oliver Perez as they can. Honestly, Oliver can be a great pitcher at times, but he just isn't the guy you want to put out onto the mound in an important game. It's not even that he caves under pressure situations because he pitched great in game seven of the 06' NLCS, but he's literally like going to Atlantic City and playing black or red on the roulette table. I just can't stand watching him pitch and walk lots of people.The Mets have to continue to stay at least around .500 and hopefully at least a couple games above it by the All-Star break to determine how competitive they are.

The two four game sets against the Yankees and Phillies can make or break this season. Since pressure was put on Pelfrey about losing his role to Vargas, he's stepped up. He should be at least 5-6. In a playoff situation, you only need 4 pitchers. I'd rather have Pelfrey out there than Perez. Plus, who knows, maybe El Duque can actually pick the right time to stay healthy this year. Even if the Mets are competitive, I'd trade Oliver Perez. Right now he's 5-4 with a 5.06 ERA which isn't the most attractive so now isn't the time, but by the deadline if he's ERA is in the mid-4's and he still has a .500 type record and is healthy, the Mets could bring back a couple of decent prospects for him. Or maybe a good hitting OF. Unless Minaya's an idiot (he's half Genius/half Idiot in my mind kind of like Perez's pitching and the Mets abroad), he'd have to realize Perez is not the 14-15 million a year for a mediocre pitcher. The same production could come out of Livan Hernandez for one-third to half the price. And especially Kyle Lohse, who's having a good year.

I don't know how interested the Pirates would be in a guy like Perez if they aren't competitive, but if they Mets could swing a three way trade with a team that needs pitching that can send prospects over there possibly with a couple lower-level prospects from the Mets, the Mets should try to get Xavier Nady back. That way they can use him as their 1B or as their LF until Fernando Martinez is ready. The Pirates are too cheap to give Nady the money he'll want. Not even counting Pedro and Perez, the Mets have a lot of money coming off the books between Alou (7.5 mi), Delgado (16 mi), O. Hernandez (6 mi) and even 3.2 mi between J. Sosa and Wise.

Also, I know Robinson Cancel had a nice hit against Texas, but I can't comprehend why he's been on the roster for like twelve games and has two at bats. I don't know how good Castro could be at 1B, but they'd be able to utilize his bat against lefties instead of using Delgado. Also, Jose Valentin's had 42 at bats in the minors, so he's got to be healthy by now. He should be on the time with Church, Alou and Pagan injured. He'd help a lot more than Cancel in Manuel's plan to give Wright and Reyes more rest.

The spots where Castillo gets the day off from Easley can be replaced by Valentin so Easley can stay more fresh in LF/1B against lefties. The way how Kenny Lofton's able to adapt to new teams quick and produce, he might be worth taking a shot on too. Kind of like Nick Evans, I think Trot Nixon was a guy had a first great game, but hasn't been productive since.Minaya's got to start using his mind better, otherwise he'll turn out like Bill Bavasi.

I don't think it's much of a coincidence that the firing of Willie came shortly after such. It probably got him nervous. The Mets were 3-1 in Willie's last four games, so the firing really came at an awkward time.I've looked at the Mets record and noticed in their previous thirty games they've had a weird order too. Following the 2 game series against the Yankees in May, the Mets went on a 1-7 in eight games. Than after that, they went 7-2 in nine games. Than after that, they went 1-6 in four games. Now, they're 4-2 in their last six.

If they were to sweep the Rockies this weekend, they'd be 7-2 in their last nine identically to the same pattern following a nearly identical losing streak. They're on a little role now so anything is possible.Or a more simpler way to think about this streakiness the Mets have come across since the Yankees series, the Mets went 0-5, than 8-4, back to 0-5 and now 5-3. Either way, they're 13-17 in their last 30 games which isn't that good. Even if the Mets were able to take one out of each of those 4 game sets against ATL and SD which wouldn't have been a lot to ask for, they'd only be 3.5 games out of the NL East and Wildcard.

I think we should be watching the Wild Card just as much as the NL East now too because the horrible Royals just swept St. Louis.What's really killed the Mets are those two 0-5 slumps. The right time to fire Willie would have been following the Padres sweep. I think this is really the time though when the Mets turn it around. All it takes is one good streak to make yourself competitive. Either that or lots of other teams need to play crappy. Now's the time though and all of us can breath now that the deadbeat and guy who thought he could fix Victor Zambrano in ten minutes are gone.

That was only part one...Obviously since that was posted the Mets have played a few games and some news has come to light. Still, pretty good analysis. Here's the rest:

No problem. Yeah, you were right about Valentin. Valentin probably wouldn't have been able to help the Mets too much. He probably would have gotten injured again. I remember last year I kept on hearing a lot about replacing him because of injuries, even though the more plausible reason would have been to replace his .241 average.

Minaya was smart to pick Castillo up because he was really good, but he's only mediocre this year. The Mets are still playing mediocre baseball. On Monday and Tuesday, they simply couldn't drive in runs. The Mariners scored eleven runs and had 15 hits. The Mets had 8 hits, which is still more than half of Seattle's, but no runs. I went to the game on Tuesday and saw Perez once again not have it. It used to have been that he'd have one really good start and than a bad one, but now it's starting to side more the wrong way. Heilman's gotten a little better lately (I think Jerry's taken my advice on him being the mop up man lol), but if a starter pitcher with lots of starts has an ERA higher than him, that's not good. It's amazing how he has a .500 record, yet Pelfrey has average one less run a game than him. And Santana's average two less, but only has one win above .500. Sometimes judging on wins isn't always adequate, although more often are.

I like Jerry Manuel's energy though. I don't think he would have gotten in that umpire's face who showed up Beltran. Hopefully the Phillies lose tonight, because the Mets would only be three out. I don't think anyone would think that'd be possible with the Mets technically below .500.

Texeira's come on a little bit too now, but I'd expect the Yankees to compete for him. The Braves probably won't trade him even if they are around .500 around the deadline. He'd make some sense though. Pat Burrell could be an option in the outfield too. He's had some solid years and he wouldn't be able to kill the Mets anymore.

With Robinson Cancel, it didn't make much sense. If Castro were pinch hitting against lots of lefties it'd make sense, but the Mets have a bad habit of liking to hold onto useless catcher's who in their 30's. He'll be gone now that the Mets picked up Andy Phillips.Even though he hits righties better than lefties, he might work out good for them. Plus, now that the Mets should be getting back Church for the Yankees series, that'll be good too. It'll give the Mets a reason to get rid of Nixon, who was on a 1 for 24 slump.

When I said he in the last paragraph of message 5, I meant Willie. Than again though, maybe he would, although he appeared burnt out at times. They really got to do something about the LF situation, because Alou will never be healthy. He'd probably make a great player on a video game. Pagan has really fallen out of the picture too, but Chavez has done better lately.

The Andy Phillips move makes some sense too right before this series against the Mets, because he might be able to give them some stuff he knows on the pitcher's staff. Willie may have actually been a little bit of a weapon for that, although a lot of their roster has changed since the end of 04'.Phillips was on the Yankees last year and hit .292 for them, so he might be able to help them out a little bit. The Yankees have really been turning it up lately too.

This will definitely be an important series. Not really even because of the hype, but because they need these games while the Phillies and Marlins aren't playing well.

And if you read all that, like I did, then you deserve a pat on your back. Great stuff, Tom!

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.

6/25/08

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!