Well, I guess it's a good thing they didn't sign Bubba, since he left the Rays for "personal reasons".

reyes cannot play more than one game without tweaking his hamstring and being unable to run properly. every season on every level he has suffered leg injuries, and this same injury has bothered him going back to last season. if by pessimistic you mean realistic, then yes. over under on games reyes plays this year? 70.

I agree with Bryan (cheer). And I'm hungover (boo).

It is not "wildly optimistic" to think Reyes will be on the Mets in 2006. He's young and has hamstring problems, okay, but he's young enough that they can afford to wait. I would say it's wildly pessimistic to think that he won't be on the Mets in 2006.

i think, at this point, it's wildly optimistic that reyes will be on the mets in 2006. after yesterday's "minor setback" it's obvious that reyes' very career is threatened by his hammies. every time he runs, which is a lot, the odds will be good that he will tweak his hammies. which makes it all the more curious that the mets still refuse to send him to a hamstring specialist.

the post reports that david wright could be up as early as this season, they quoted unnamed internal mets sources who pointed out that edgardo alfonzo also made the jump from double-aa bing to the majors.

also, there's been a 'minor setback' with floyd too. get him off the team. met fans shouldn't be further tortured by the tantalizing prospect of having his big bat in the lineup when in reality it hasn't and will not be in the lineup in anywhere near a regular basis in the future.

who would i rather have at 2nd right now, danny garcia or alfonso soriano.

who would've thought that our 2004 offense would be based on spencer and garcia. especially garcia, jeez if he weren't in the lineup we'd be worse than the spos.

it also seems doubtful that phillips will be on this team or in the major leagues in 2006. odds are better that he will be singing for a U2 cover band called 'october sky' or 'achtung one' or something. with ty wiggs on drums. i imagine he's a big fan of the drums.

You're right, I forgot about Wright. I also forgot that the Mets farm system isn't a wasteland anymore.

No need for a 3B.
David Wright is our best offensive prospect.
He was named #5 prospect in baseball by Baseball Prospectus.
So far this year in Binghamton (in 80+ plate appearances), his line is 380/494/662.
He'll almost definitely be our starting 3B in 2006, and if he keeps up anywhere close to what he's doing now, he'll be a factor next year.
Looking ahead to 2006, I assume we'll have:
2B Reyes
SS Matsui
3B Wright
LF Floyd
CF Cameron
C Phillips (Huber?)

that leaves RF and 1B, where we should be able to find some pretty big bats to go along with our otherwise reasonable lineup.

What about a 3B? I think any one of them would be an upgrade over Wigginton, who's clearly a bench player. I think I'd pick Lowell, he seems to be the best defensively and is the most reliable.

F an Ice Williams, why didn't the Mets pick up Double J?!?!

--Giants signed LHP Jason Jacome to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Fresno. Jacome, 33, last played in the majors in 1998. He spent last season in the Atlantic League.

There's a Rob Neyer column on ESPN talking about next year's free agent hitters. Since it's just about time to give up on this season, I guess we can start discussing who the Mets should get next year. Only names that jump out at me are Magglio Ordonez (who Ravi took instead of Bonds in our fantasy draft) and if he repeats his performance from last year, Richard Hidalgo. Delgado would be tempting, but he's a little old and we'd have to get rid of Piazza. RF seems like the clear place to get a big hitter for next year, so Magglio it is.

After bonds' IBB in the 4th tonight, he now has 500 IBBs for his career! That's about ONE SEASON of ABs taken away due to intentional walks. Hank Aaron is in 2nd place with 293 IBBs.

Good article about the work Rick Peterson does to prepare the pitchers for each game.

according to page six, pedro martinez was partying it up at the 40/40 club the night before shutting down the shtanks. troo.

There's another crazy idea for deciding who gets home field: how about the team with the best record? In the event they have the same record, the team with the fewest-ex Yankees will receive it, unless one of the teams is the Red Sox, who will win it automatically.

that's a damn fine interesting and original idea. it would give teams a real incentive to get better (to make it a real incentive, the 2 at-large spots would have to be doled out only amongst the top 4 divisions. ) but why punish good teams and make it really tuff on them by lumping them in with teams that also really really good. and because of off-season braziness, a team can improve/change significiantly over the off-season so i'm not sure that last year's w-l record is indicitive of who should be in premier divisions the next season.

this system may also go too far in the other spectrum of rivalries, in the current system, you can pretty much only establish a rivalry with teams in your division, and that is too limiting. but in this system, rivalries would change every year because there would be no continuity.
but it's a great idea.

The Mets signed Gerald "Ice" Williams!

Yes, perhaps he's the answer in the OF. After all, he's only 37.

I'll work on the schedules in a little bit, but here's an idea because I'm STILL really against the All-Star Game deciding what league gets home field, as I think the alternating year thing was fine. Really, what does home field advantage in the world series really mean? Last licks, DH. wacky ballpark dimensions and I guess the fans, (although I don't know if the fans in baseball factor into homefield advantage)? Anyway, back to the matter at hand, fuck this "now it's important" bullshit, I want to see John Kruk bat lefty against Randy Johnson, I want to see Barry Bonds pick Torii hunter over his shoulder aqfter getting robbed, I want to see Roger Clemens go crazy on the mound (oh wait...), I want to see any and all the players play andhave fun. So that game was a tie, WHY change everything?

My idea? How about whichever League wins more games during the season in Inter-league play, that team receives home field. And if somehow all those games end up even for al and nl, THEN use the All-Star Game for it.

Or they could just get rid of the DH, fire Bud Selig and hire me as the Commissioner of MLB.

Also, the union is probably extremely pro the unbalanced schedule...cuts down travel time. What really needs to happen is a realignment of teams/divisions. Can be done as radically as possible, imagine a tier system based on geography, like the new AL east, consisting of Yankees, RedSox, Braves, Marlins, and the Phillies. For the first year selection would be based on average w-l record since, let's say, 2000. The best teams would be in this top division and make for exciting games based on geography. The last place team in this new AL East would then be relegated the following season (or maybe do promotions/demotions every other year) in the the New NL East where only the winner gets to the playoffs...Mets, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Baltimore which would promote it's top team into the AL East the following year. Enough people say that once you get into the playoffs it's all a crapshoot, so you can't really say that it wouldn't be fair to lump all the good teams together, I think it would be beneficial, and force them to compete, with relegation mainly as a psychologial tool to encourage it. Furthermo', the schedules would still be balanced enough that each team would play one another throughout the year, and relegation would bring new rivalries in also. While we're at it, let's get rid of the leagues altogether! I'm sure it would never happen mainly because of how much money DHs make.

in the current system:
AL EAST
Yankees, Red Sox, Baltimore, Toronto, Tampa Bay
AL CENTRAL
Chicago, Minnesota, KC, Detroit, Cleveland
AL WEST
Texas, Anaheim, Oakland, Seattle
NL EAST
Mets, Atlanta, Phillies, Montreal, Marlins
NL CENTRAL
Cubs, Cardinals, Astros, Brewers, Pirates
NL WEST
Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies

NEW Hotness:
Division Troo EAST-Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, Marlins, Baltimore
Division Boo EAST-Mets, Phillies, Tampa, Montreal, Toronto

Division Troo CENTRAL- Cubs, Astros, White Sox, Minnesota, Cardinals
Division Boo CENTRAL-Pirates, Brewers, Tigers, Indians, Royals

Division Troo WEST- Oakland, Seattle, Anaheim, Giants, D-Backs
Division Boo WEST-Dodgers, Padres, Rockies, Rangers

The playoffs would be seeded by w-l record since there would be balanced schedules, it wouldn't matter where the seeds come from so say two teams in Boo Division East have great records, they would make the playoffs (the al and nl would be gone in this insane system remember) and maybe something like this (I'm going to give it an East coast bias, but obviously any teams would work):
1.Yankees 2. Oakland 3. Astros 4. Marlins 5. Mets 6. Red Sox 7. Pirates 8. Dodgers...so pretty much you'd get the winners of each division seeded by record and then two at-large spots based on record. This is crazy, I love it, here's playoff tree like this--

First Round--
1. Yankees vs. 8. Dodgers
4. Marlins vs. 5. Mets
3. Astros vs. 6. Red Sox
2. Oakland vs 7. Pirates

Interesting Matchups no?
Yanks vs. the Bums
Mets Marlins games--always fun
Roger Clemens trying to kill the red sox's dreams
Can oakland get into the second round past the upstart-feel-good pirates?

Second Round--
1. Yankees vs. 7. Pirates
5. Mets vs. 6. Red Sox

HEY! Pirates Yankees! Spirit of Mazeroski! Upstart-feel-good Pirates! Yankee aura vs. Pittsburgh grit!
In the other series, you have a rematch of the one of the best world Series? SURE YOU DO BECAUSE THIS SYSTEM ROCKS!

NEW FORMAT WORLD SERIES:
1. Yankees vs. 6. Red Sox

Need I say any more?

ty wiggs has got so much grit, so much hustle, so much HEH-AHT....that he has an ulcer. unbelievable. the post had a good line, they said the mets are bringing up infielder danny garcia to take wiggy's place. garcia is hitting .220 at norfolk so he should feel right at home with the mets. sad, but trooo.

Armando Benitez is on pace for 86 saves.

Fuck Dave Hanson.

So apparently the Mariners announcers and I (and Ravi) have something in common. They were talking about the scenery in the Pacific Northwest, and one said, "There was nothing like that where I grew up, on the South Side of Chicago." Then the other pipes in: "Not in Queens, New York either." Bizarre.

I don't like interleague play, but the real tragedy is interleague play with the unbalanced schedule. Without interleague play, the unbalanced schedule would be fine and more balanced.

I agree that the schedule should be more balanced. No need to see the Expos over and over. I'm also in favor of cutting down to one Mets-Yankees series every year. These "rival" series are probably the most unfair part of the schedule. Now I realize the Mets don't have a great chance anyway this year, but assuming they will one of these years, is it really fair that they have to play 6 games against the Yankees while the Marlins play 6 against the DRays? Plus, the fact that they play so much has kind of ruined the intrigue. One series a year would be enough. I'd go with something like this for the NL East:
15 interleague games (3 each against 5 teams)
12 games against each NL East team (48 games)
9 games against each of the rest of the NL (99)
How you divide up the 9, I don't really care. You could either alternate who gets the extra 3-game home series each year, or do it 5/4, with a 4game series in one park, and a 3 & a 2 in the other.

Some of the other divisions would need to be structured somewhat differently (because of more/less teams), but the math could work out if someone puts the time into it.

seeing as how the season is already in the toiled and we haven't even hit the second homestand yet, i propose a new topic. barry bonds and giants will be here exactly three (3) times this season, we play the giants, and all other non nl east teams, a grand total of 6 times each this season. i think most of us all agree that this is stupid, that the mets have been robbed of traditional rivals like the cubs, pirates, cards, dodgers and giants. let us use our fertile minds for that most noble calling that has called such luminaries as ghostface and prodigy and come up with alternative schedules MLB can use. Some could be pure, meaning no interleague, some brazy involving every team playing each other (full interleague) and some realistic (the mets must play the yanks 6 times a year).

Rick Peterson for manager, he looks like a mercenary from one of those syndicated "VIP"-type saturday-afternoon-WB show.

I don't like the outfield logo thing. Looks crappy in my opinion.

what's more amazing is that furdz knew about bobby v and where he is now.

if they fired art howe, is it reasonable to expect that don baylor would be the interim manager?

todd zeile player/manager?

damn yo. we got blog-jakked. by furdz, of all peoplez.

I harbor nothing but venom towards Fart Howe.

I am really sick of all the haters, especially in wfan 66 think the mets have a great squad this year..all the way from the young guys, the veterans. i mean what more can you ask but a chance to win...and we def have that this year, what with that no good egotist bobby..im not even gonna say his name..hope you like sushi or in the great words of inspektah deck Kondicihwa Bitches!!..any way sorry to get off track...i really proud of the mets..but the ticket prices..and the ball..and the uniforms.and the hats..what is that a rag to wrap around your ass?..where am i? when i was young i wanted to play baseball...it is a good sport...pass that shit...i hate myself....this is furdz i am so lonley i blog jacked you bittches...break all yall selves!!! boka boka boka...

words of confidence from the skipper:
"i knew we were going to lose three in a row at some point. we'll probably lose three in a row at some other point."

WOW! words of wisdom from up on high, the captain of the ship. i know i speak for the rest of the shea faithful when i say that i am inspired, made confident, and emblazened by these words.

Johan Santana is KILLING my fantasy team. It's embarassing.

while they do seem to have relaxed their policy somehwhat this year, the past two years they have been strict, i recall seeing garbage cans by the security desk by the gate entrances filled with bags of chips, plus nothing allowed in with a plastic cap, only thermoses.

Chump, both of us have already brought food and drinks to Mets games this season, and yours passed through security.

Gammons really is a moron, and just gets by nowadays on his name, much like Mike & the Mad Dog (those fuckers).

Ryan, what were you doing reading the Christian Science Monitor?

Ooh, time for Politics & Booze!

on a somewhat related note, i believe that this is the third year in a row that the Parks Dept. has raised the parking rates for both shea and yankee stadiums (the parks dept. technically runs both the stadiums and most of the lots in the area and licenses out parking rights for some lots or runs some lots outright through the municpal parking corporation). it's obvious to all that there is little to no maintenance costs associated with these lots, they are simply vast stretches of asphalt (or garages at yankee stadium) the ny post revealed that parking at the 2 stadiums is one of the biggest cash cows for the parks dept. surprise, because it's pretty much pure profit. what if the parks dept. actually put their effort into parks, like municipal stickball lots?

and while you can bring food into both stadiums, it has gotten particularly harder to do so, especially at yankee stadium where they stop just short of a cavity search and have a longer list of banned items than shea. there's something particularly obnoxious over both stadium's security policies as both stadiums are public property, built, rebuilt, and maintained with precious parks dept. budget dollars. both security policies are obstensibly for security, but as mushnick has pointed out, it's merely a smokescreen to weed out more food being brought in to sell more food. mushnick pointed out that at pnc park in pittsburgh (i think, might be different new park) the stadium opened without any water fountains, which are required by law. the owner claimed accidental oversight, that's a pretty big oversight, in the months where no water fountains were in place, sales of bottled water skyrocketed.

were you guys aware that pac bell park is now SBC Park aka Stick Ball Croo Park?

I think Bonds is more motivated to pass Ruth than Aaron because (1) Ruth is white and (2) Ruth is generally considered the best player ever. Hitting more homers than Ruth is another check in Bonds' column when debating best player ever. I don't think the righty/lefty thing matters because there's no serious argument that a righty is the greatest hitter ever. Ruth, Bonds, Williams - all lefty. The best righty hitter would probably come down to Hornsby, Foxx, Mays, Aaron, maybe even McGwire or Thomas. Gammons recently called Aaron one of the 3 greatest players ever, which is just plain wrong. Aaron had tremednous longevity, but he was never quite on the highest level of greatness. Using OPS+ as a rough guide, Aaron ranks 22nd all time. And his best season ever ranks 70th all-time. Bonds and Williams have both had 6 better seasons and Ruth had 11 better and 2 tied with Aaron's best.


On an unrelated note, I just read an article in the Christian Science Monitor complaining that the cost of going to a baseball game is preventing a large portion of the population from being able to attend. According to TMR's Fan Cost Index, it costs $155.52 to take a family of four to a ballgame. The FCI includes 4 average priced tickets, parking, 4 soft drinks, 2 beers, 4 hot dogs, 2 programs, and 2 adult-size caps.
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU NEED 2 PROGRAMS FOR? AND DO YOU NEED TO BUY 2 HATS EVERY TIME YOU GO TO A GAME?

Actually my argument isn't so much with the Index, it's with the premise of the article. The Index is calculating the average cost of a game, maybe on average people buy all that crap. But if the complaint is that people can't afford to go to a game, the average cost isn't relevant, the lowest reasonable cost is.
There are a bunch of Mets game that have $5 tickets available. I'll be conservative and assume that you'd want to take your kids to a weekend game, which probably has few $5 options. Let's say a "bronze" game for $12. That's $48 for 4. Parking, I believe is $10, or you can generally find free parking on the street and walk a little bit. If you take the train, a Metrocard would probably cost a little under $14, assuming your kids aren't young enough to ride free and the parents don't have unlimited cards for work.
Food? You can bring your own. I made a tasty sandwich for myself on Opening Day. And you'd probably be feeding your kids if you were just sitting at home all day, so that's really not an additional costs.
If you want to splurge, get your kids an ice cream and a program. Let's say one program and one snack per kid to keep them quiet. That's probably another $10-12 bucks.
So, I think you can do it as cheaply as $48, or as much as $74.
That's not really all that expensive for an afternoon of fun for your family.
We live in a city where movie tickets cost $10.25 and if you want to see a popular movie, you have to buy in advance online for another $1.50. That's $11.75 for something on a screen. $12 for a live major league baseball game is pretty reasonable.
Compare that to any other major sport or a big-name concert or a Broadway show. Heck, it costs at least $10 to go to a damn museum.

Oh, and Winston, I believe your body can go wherever it wants as long as your feet are in the batters box. If the ball hits you while you're in the strikezone, I'm pretty sure it's still a strike. And it would be damn hard to hit the ball if you were hanging over the strike zone.

according to know-it-all and weirdo peter gammons, bonds has changed his mind about not wanting to pass aaron. he know is full-steam ahead on trying to pass aaron. at first, he didn't want to steal any shine from hank because he felt that aaron has long been unappreciated. his new spin is that by chasing the record he will bring more proper attention to aaron's career. they also estimate that he could pass hank by early 2006. it's a race between hitting the homers necessary and not having his forehead grow to the point where it blocks his vision.

if i stood over the plate with bat out i still don't think i could make contact with the ball.

the baseball and booze blog! hooray! I am back for now. the Red Sox game just got postponed, not because of rain, but because of yesterday's rain. Pretty ridiculous. Speaking of Bonds, the way he talks leads me to believe he has no intention of catching Aaron but every intention of passing Ruth, which he should do next year if he keeps it up. From all indications he wants to be considered the best left-handed hitter ever.

Does anyone else think Bonds has a good 2-3 years left in him to reach Aaron? It would seem to be entirely plausible unless he breaks his back or something.

Opening Day at Shea: great time. Yesterday way about the exact opposite of last year's horrible opener.
Boy was it depressing to walk into the stadium, look up at the scoreboard, and see that Shane Spencer and Todd Zeile are your 3&4 hitters for the home opener. But the Mets crappy lineup quickly destroyed Hampton. It sure felt good to beat up Hampton, and boo him out of the ballpark.
Sadly, however, it felt like the fans focusing all their energy on Hampton was a recognition that our team doesn't have much of a chance this year. Despite being the home opener and the 7th game of the season, we all seemed to feel that the season is over, but we at least had a big day against the evil Hampton who sold out and left for Colorado "for the school system" (wink wink).
Also, for the second straight year, there are some nice improvements to Shea. The scoreboards are much, much better, and the "NY" in the CF grass is really cool. Sure, Shea's not a great stadium, but if the weather's nice, I still have a great time at the ballpark, and the couple of little changes help. When it comes down to the idea of a new stadium, I'm just not convinced that after the first few visits, it's really going to make much of a change in how much I enjoy a Mets game. What would make a huge difference in my enjoyment is a winning team. I wish Wilpon would focus more energy on putting together a winning team and less on building new ballparks in Queens, Brooklyn, and Port St. Lucie.

660
Rob Neyer has a column up saying that there's too much hubbub about Bonds, that it shouldn't be a big deal that he's just reaching third on the homerun list. I think he's way off base. Whether it's right or not, homeruns are the biggest stat to most baseball fans. We all grew up with certain magical numbers in our minds. Roger Maris 61. Babe Ruth 60. Hank Aaron 755. Babe Ruth 714. Willie Mays 660. When I was a kid, I didn't know that Frank Robinson was fourth on the list, let alone how many he hit. It was simple: 3 guys had hit a lot more homers than anyone else. There were huge gaps between them, and an even bigger one to the fourth guy. The numbers seemed permanent, almost mythical. 755. 714. 660. Arguably, Bonds already broke into the class around 600 or 650 or somewhere in between, but it became clearest when he tied Mays. It's significant because he is the fourth man to join this long-standing elite group, and also because it's the first signpost on the way to 755. 660 is a big deal. 714 will be a much bigger deal. And 755 (if it happens) will be an even bigger deal.

I think the AP numbers included Mo's whole contract.

how in tarnation are the mets still ranked so high? who the heck are we still paying? i don't understand. we have ty wiggs and bono at the corners and pee-pee-man in right and mr. lisa guerrerro and tyler durden as our 4th and 5th starters and the red umbrella of the traveller's insurance group covering mo-mo's fat ass and we're still ranked 4th highest in the majors??

Well, I felt damn good about the Mets until that disasterous inning. Still, I'm glad Piazza and Matsui are playing well. I'm not that worried about Trachsel, he'll be fine. But without reading all the details on the contract, I don't see the big need to sign him to a contract extension. Trachsel is an OK starting pitcher, nothing more, nothing less.

On the FAN yesterday, Francesca said the Tigers could win it.

Best at bat of the season?:
Frank Thomas had a 17 pitch AB, including 12 straight fouls followed by ball 4.

Best manager in baseball?:
After the White Sox loss, Ozzie Guillen said "Go out and get drunk."

The AP's numbers on opening day payrolls have:
Yankees $183 million
Boston $125
Angels $101
Mets (unclear from article)
Phillies $93

The Yanks almost double the fifth highest payroll in baseball.
By the way, Brewers: $27.5 million.

anybody know anything about reyes being ready for the mets home opener in 6 days? i know his 15-day DL stint was made retroactive. and, in more heaseness, ryan, as you said saturday, home opener is trash-el, even with leiter being pushed back to saturday. d'oh, why do i always end up seeing trash-el? i've read in 50 million places that he is bound to be traded before july. meh.

the do-nothing mets seem content to go with what they've got and let us suffering fans "catch the energy" the dodgers get milton bradley and we stick with the spencer/garcia beast while rickey (not that rickey) will be our openind day 2nd baseman and our bench contains todd zeile and super joe. who needs bubba trammell when we've got all this proven talent? oh, and jae wong seo gets sent down after being the mets 2nd/3rd best pitcher last year. well, tuff kid, we got dis flame-thrower scott erickson throwing aspirins out dere.

just to belabor the point:

April 3- Marco Scutaro hit his fourth homer and doubled against the Giants.

Also: "The Mets will pay about $9 million of the $10 million Roger Cedeno is owed
over the next two years."

Wow.

Mets GM Jim Duquette confirmed yesterday that he has interest in acquiring Milton Bradley to play right field. The Mets likely will offer Aaron Heilman or Tyler Yates and perhaps one of their second-tied offensive prospects for Bradley.

--YES! TRADE HEILMAN!

Isn't Spencer on a minor-league or non-roster invite deal? I can't imagine there would be any real cost.

I say give the final spot to Roberts too, send Heilman and Yates down, and trade Erickson and Baldwin for bats and balls if possible.

Well, this post was originally going to be much more detailed, but my computer froze, so I'm starting from scratch.

I think it's a no-brainer for the Mets to sign Bubba and platoon him with Karim. I've felt along that Garcia is a solid half of a platoon, but Spencer's not so great. Trammell will be a significant upgrade. He and Spencer are both 32, career EqA:
Spencer .260
Trammell .276
Plus, I'm pretty sure we can cut Spencer at no cost. Bubba's had a pretty solid spring, too, which gets rid of some doubts about his performance last year (he only had 55 ABs anyway).
Like I said, no brainer. We should've gotten Trammell in the first place, now we have a second chance.

I think it's foolish and unfair that Seo may lose his spot in the rotation. He pitched well (3.82 ERA) last year for 188 innings. To judge him based on 21 spring training innings is ridiculous, particularly because we don't have any great options. Do you think the Sox are going to send Pedro down to AAA?

As for the 5th spot, I think I'd go with either Roberts or Yates (probably Roberts). Heilman has arguably had the best spring, but I'll defer to the Mets' judgment that a little more time in AAA will be best for his development. Using that same logic, Yates could probably use a little more practice, which is why I'd go with Roberts. Erickson has been unimpressive, dump him. No way it's worth paying him money.

I'd also give Orber Moreno the final bullpen spot. He's been lights out in spring training, much like he was in Norfolk last year. Bottalico has a long history of mediocrity.

Bill Pulsipher will be playing for the LI Ducks this year. I'm down.