The Damon news is tought to take, but I think Rosenthal is overstating things a bit. Red Sox season crumbling? Hardly. Yes, there's now a big hole in CF, but not one that is impossible to fill. Just as a starting point, here are the 2005 EqA's of Damon and some possible replacements:

Damon .291
Coco Crisp .290
Jason Michaels .285
Jeremy Reed .249

Actually, the best option probably would've been Mike Cameron (.284 last year + superior D), but the Mets have already traded him. Not like there's anyone on the Sox that the Mets were interested in.

All that said, the Yanks' lineup is looking pretty stacked. I'm still not sold on the rotation. The Unit has to show his age one of these years. Pavano is a big question mark. And I'm not sold on Wang or Chacon.

I like the idea of the Mets signing Dotel, but most pitchers aren't so great their first year back from Tommy John, so it's not exactly a slam-dunk signing for the Yankees.

The Mets would be even dumber if they sign Julian Tavarez to a rumored three-year deal. This guy is a total chump. I'd be down with getting Octavio "Please" Dotel. the yanks are in the hunt for him too.

look at this chump:

the cards are dumb. 3 years $13.5 mil for boo-per? (I was saying boo).

I'm not sure I understand the Lo Duca deal. If the Mets are both counting on increased revenue from SportsNet NY and looking for marquee stars to push ratings why not just bring back Piazza if you are not going to upgrade the catcher position? Lo Duca bottoms out towards the end of every season, he's only 3 years (or so) younger than Piazza with stats that don't exactly dazzle.
So if you're not going to upgrade the position or get younger, why not keep the best offensive player in Mets history and one of the most popular players they've ever had?

How have I never heard of this player?

4 Years, $43 M?? Really? No Offense, but in 4 years he'll be throwing about as fast as our own resident Billy Wagner.

the florida marlins report that there will be a "significant market correction" to their payroll.

uhhhh, do they think that the 10 remaining fish fans won't realize that they're dumping payroll again?

ESPN says the marlins are now actively exploring a move out of Miami. Good, they've never drawn, despite they're two world championships. Sure, they've been screwed by bad ownership, but both Florida teams were a terrible idea by M.L.B. Contract the Rays and Marlins and move the Brewers back to the AL.

Xavier Nady? I know I'm a bigger fan of Cameron's than most, but I really thought the Mets could get more than Nady. Maybe this is part of a master plan to package Nady for Manny, but don't the Red Sox need a CF? For that matter, it seems like a lot of teams need a centerfielder, and that one of them would've been willing to give more than Xavier Nady. I guess Nady can be part of a decent cheap platoon with Jacobs. At best, meh.

Unrelated Mets goodness.

Why is it that people with money cry about needing public assistance? Article on hidden costs for the proposed yankees/mets stadia.

Did Papi get screwed?

Epstein's left the Sox! Wow, pretty surprising, especially so since he's talking about leaving baseball altogether. Burnout perhaps?

The team Bobby V is facing in the Japan Series, the Hanshin Tigers, suffer from the "Curse of the Colonel"
in 1985, when the Tigers last won the Japan Series, celebrating fans uprooted a statue of the KFC Colonel after the clinching game and threw it into a river in Osaka. They have not won since..............................(and are now down 2-0 in the series thanks to MATT FRANCO!)

Meanwhile. the president of FOX blames short games for the ratings dropoff in this year's World Series!!!!!

Maybe it's the inane announcers and deluge of graphics and video-game crap that turns off much of the nation. good article today in the times revealing the "video-game" philosophy of Fox' baseball producers.

Marines are in the Japan Series! Check out the pic of Bobby V being tossed in the air by the team.

Leo Mazzone to the Orioles! Excellent, he's out of the Mets' division, and into the Yankees'. This will be the year the Braves finally lose the divison.

I think the end of the article sums it up absolutely perfectly:

In closing, let’s hear from the great Keith Hernandez who said, “You don’t win a World Series drinking milk.”

Screw Clemens. Go Sawx.

I can't see how it's possible to root for clemens and his robin, the boy wonder sidekick. they're wack and their whole "let's ride/lift together" relationship is just too weird.

wouldn't mind seeing jose contreras win the world series mvp. traded for esteban loiza and a bottle of rogaine. oh, and one of the great postseason peformers el duque even tho the chisox will never use their bullpen again.

Speaking of the 'stros, has anyone else noticed that they have zero Molinas on the team?

From Ravi: Modern Drunkard magazine article on the '86 Mets.

Speaking of the 'stros, has anyone else noticed that they have zero black players on the team?

Here's the dilemma for Yankee-haters: do we root for or against Clemens, Pettitte, and the Astros? I realize some of us may have other reasons for hating Clemens (i.e. trying to kill Piazza), but would the Astros winning the World Series be positive or negative for a Yankee-hater? On the plus side, there will be lots of outrage among Yankee fans, both for the betrayal by Clemens and the foolishness of the Yanks for not re-signing Pettitte. On the con side, Yankee fans may become even more self-righteous about the greatness and clutchness of the "real" Yankees like Pettitte and Clemens (ignoring that Clemens wasn't around for much of the dynasty).

I'm torn. I'll probably end up rooting for the Cards. Whichever side you choose, we can all rest easy at night knowing that the Yankees won't win.

Last year there was a lot of hooey about Red Sox fans losing their meaning or existence if the team won. Obviously, that was nonsense.

but meanwhile, there is another faction of fans who are at risk of actually losing their reason for existing.....Yankee-Haters.

Now what? it's barely October and there are no yankees to root against. Time to once again watch baseball?

In an upcoming book, Mad Dog includes Mariano Rivera in his list of the 10 best baseball players of all time. TOP 10 OF ALL TIME!

the Sawx fan at work still remembers, and is not pleased by, my june-ish claim that the yanks would win the division byt a handful of games.

Fuck the Yankees indeed.

"Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing"-George Eliot

Fuck the Yankees.

I hadn't noticed until he got the win against the Mets last night, but Dan Wheeler is following up on his breakthrough playoff performance with a hell of a season. After the Mets traded him last August (while using roster spots for Franco, Stanton, etc), Wheeler pitched 8 scoreless innings in the playoffs. So far this year, he has a 1.54 ERA in 46.2 innings, with 47 Ks and 12 BBs.

Billy, if everyone in the Mets lineup sucked as much as Cameron, the Mets would be in first place.<sup>1

1</sup>According to BaseballSuckspectus.com, Cameron's SAAP (suckiness above average player) is -9.83. Multiply that by 8, and the Mets' lineup would have a league worst (or least suckiest) SAAP of -78.64.

Good to see Cameron back to his old tricks. 4 Ks in a game? Was Sam pitching?

It's time to dust off the website I made up last season with a name I can't remember... something like "mikecameronsucksprospectus.com"...

Sports Guy's quote of the day:

"You're not going to play for me if you don't put out." -- Mets manager Willie Randolph

As I make my final preparations to fail the Bar tomorrow, I'd like to point out that on May 11, I took issue with all the Jason Giambi doubters in the media and the Yankee organization who wanted to send him to the minors.
Since that time, he's had the second best OPS in baseball (behind Derrek Lee).

Playoffs?
Prospectus' Playoff Odds Report has the Mets at about a 25% chance of making the playoffs.
And, actually, looking at the standings, it doesn't seem that far-fetched.
Conceding that the Braves will probably once again win the division, the wild card is pretty wide open. The Mets are 5 back of the Nationals, but like many, I think the Nationals are due for a decline, and I think it's very likely that someone (Astros, Cubs, Mets, Phillies, Marlins?) will pass them. I don't necessarily think it'll be the Mets, but they are (very slightly) leading that pack right now. If a bunch of things go right (Meinty and Beltran starting to hit), the Mets could squeeze into the playoffs. Ya gotta' believe!

Don't fuck with Cow-Bell Man.

Hey, the Mets signed another guy to a big deal who'll never make the majors (most likely)!

From espn.com:

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The New York Mets have signed a 16-year-old outfielder in one of the richest deals for a prospect from the Dominican Republic.

Fernando Martinez got a $1.4 million contract last week, even though he can't play in the United States until he turns 18.

"I didn't expect something of this size," Martinez said Saturday at his home in Rio San Juan.

Even with his lucrative deal, Martinez said he wants to attend college and study business administration. The Mets included $100,000 to pay for his studies as part of the package.

Martinez, who bats left-handed and throws righty, was signed by former major league shortstop Rafael Bournigal, the Mets' director of international scouting.

Because of his arm strength, a number of scouts had expressed interest in Martinez, comparing him to fellow Dominicans Raul Mondesi and Jose Guillen.

The Mets have a baseball academy in the Dominican and a team in the Dominican summer league. The training complex in San Cristobal is in operation all year long.

Three facts:
The Washington Nationals are in first place.
The Nationals have the second best record in the NL.
Today, the Nationals' cleanup hitter is Carlos Baerga.

That is the most useful bit of information Gammons has ever provided. Seriously.

from Gammons:
According to the Korean News Bureau, South Korean Doosan Bears' pitcher Park Myung-hwan twice lost his cap while delivering a pitch and each time frozen cabbage leaves fell off his head twice in a game on June 19. The frozen cabbage leaves inside the cap were used to keep his head cool.

The Korea Baseball Organization has been moved to rule that wearing cabbage leaves inside a baseball cap constitutes an "alien material" that may disrupt a game, prohibited according to the organization's rules, the organization said in a statement Tuesday.

From Will Carroll's column:
"The Mets have been looking for first base options and are hoping that Roberto Petagine becomes available at the start of July."

Hooray!

Yeah, I never understood why new stadiums weren't built in NYC. The Mets should have requested a new one right after 86, or even 88. I'm not really sure what the Yankee situation was, but I'm surprised there wasn't more pressure to renovate or replace their stadium after their late-90s run. And $800 mil? WTF?!?!

whatever your opinions are on public financing for stadiums or building new stadiums in general, i think it's worth noting that there has not been a new stadium built in the 5 boroughs since Madison Square Garden in 1968.

New York City has the oldest stadium in the NBA. (every team save the nets, knicks and warriors plays in a brand-new or very recent stadium)

New York City has the oldest stadium in the NHL. (every team save the isles, devils, rangers, oilers and flames play in a brand-new stadium)

New York City (metro area) has one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL. (the other old stadiums in miami, oakland and san fran have all been renovated)

New York City has the third oldest park in the National League (only Dodger and Wrigley are older)

Every other major city in Canada and the U.S. save NYC has built a new stadium since around 1990, most built two or more. (chicago 3, boston 2, seattle 3, cleveland 3, miami 2, toronto 2, los angeles 2, anaheim 2, houston 3, philadelphia 3, cincinnati 2, st. louis 3, detroit 2)

Major global cities like london, paris, barcelona, tokyo and munich have all built massive new stadiums.

Moreover, you could make the argument that every stadium in the metropolitan area is a depressing dump.

oh, except for the gleaming new $42 million Carl Ichahn Stadium on Randall's Island built for all those track and field meets that happen all the time and draw so many people.

i forgot the new Arthur Ashe stadium, which is an eyesore and is used for for 14 days a year and the 2 single-a ballparks, which are nice but quaint.

Quotes from Carl Everett:

"They need to implode Wrigley."

"it's proven that 99 percent of baseball fans have no idea what they're watching."

"I don't believe in gay marriages. I don't believe in being gay."

is there a reason why heilman never pitches?

if so, I just might like to know what it is.

Forget about Graves' attitude, what about his almost-8 ERA? Geez, how do other teams put together bullpens of scrubs who all end up with era's around 3 but the mets get guys like this?

reyes has twice as many walks as fancy pudge rodriguez in only 39 more ABs.

The Draft!
Mets take Mike Pelfrey. Sounds like a solid pick. Big college pitcher with a fastball that reaches 97 and has good sinking action. Scott Boras represents him.
Craig Hansen, the St. Johns closer, surpisingly fell to 26, where the BoSox used their second pick on him.
Interestingly, after only taking one HS player in the first 10 rounds over the last 3 drafts, the A's abandoned the "Moneyball" approach, and took 3 HS pitchers in the first three rounds.

For what possible reason did the Mets sign Graves? If he flipped out on fans in Cincy, what's gonna happen with fans in NYC?

what jon miller does not know is that I also boo matsui when he gets a hit.

Keeping with the boo meme, during the Mets game last night, Jon Miller mentioned that Matsui is more often referred to as MatBooey by the fans because they boo him whenever he gets out.

New Stat?
Bob Brenly: "LaTroy led the league in boos per innings pitched."

I think Zambrano watches game tapes of Ravi's starts.

Stupid Dodgers, signing Erickson- he's 1-4 with a 7.22 ERA.

gotta like the attention to detail with the managers in that cartoon.

meanwhile, peep randy johnson's deep intensity and passion for playing for the yanks against the mets.
"Why should I make that game any more important?"

once again, his sentiments speak for the yankees as a whole, who treat this thing as a big yawn.

How do the Braves keep winning?

The thing about the US is that, besides Sheets, Prior, and Mulder, everyone is 30 or older. DR's starting lineup is ridiculous. Pujols, Vlad, Manny, and Papi in 1 lineup?!?!?! G'damn.

Excerpt from an interview with Michael Lewis:

"The news just can't be intelligent about baseball because news by definition is small samples. Because it's daily, right? The most typical opinion in sports is the opinion about something that just happened. If you listen to them, they are always rationalizing the most recent events. If someone hits a home run, it becomes a reflection of that person's whole career. And they make these vast generalizations about the home run. If someone walks in the game winning run, it's a reflection of that player's character. So it's always taking some event that just happened and trying to make it signify more than it does. There's an inherent idiocy in baseball commentary. It's particularly idiotic in baseball commentary because you do have this pool of data that's available from which you can actually make some pretty intelligent statements which is just being ignored in that moment because you want to explain that moment."

I agree completely with Lewis, but there's clearly no solution in sight because the daily papers need something to talk about, so they need to build up the importance of what happens every day. Otherwise, there's no reason to buy the paper. Plus, it's human nature to want to attribute greater meaning to every single event.

And all this is why I found it so hard to keep doing Baseball and Booze each week of the season, because there's not much that can be intelligently said about what happened during a single week of baseball. The preseason was always more fun to talk about because you could talk much more broadly about what had been done during the offseason and what we could expect at the macro level for the season.

Completely unrelated, Baseball America has projected rosters for the World Baseball Classic. This is gonna be awesome. The US has the strongest team. DR is close. The US has a lot more depth, but I don't think it'll matter much in this format. Each team is probably only going to need 3 starting pitchers. The US and DR lineups are pretty even, but DR's pitching is a little lacking after Pedro. Venezuela, on the other hand, has Johan and Zambrano, plus KRod out of the 'pen. But, their lineup is weak. PR and Japan are the only other teams that have a chance as far as I can tell. Then again, based on everything said above, any reasonably good team can win a one game semi-final or final, so overanalyzing the rosters is probably foolish.

Crap, I thought I wrote that it was from espn.com, sorry.

Numb3rs-

http://nytimes.com/2005/05/13/sports/13numbers.html

Wall Street Journal ALSO has an article (front page!) on why pitchers don't choose single digit numbers in today's issue, but alas, noone has a username/password for it.

Also, Brad, and everyone else, please source whatever articles you cutnpaste. Just a pet peeve of mine, but a viable one I think.

Another former Met!

NEW YORK -- Chicago White Sox utilityman Jorge Toca was among 11 players given 15-game suspensions Thursday for violating baseball's minor league steroids policy.

	Toca

Toca, 30, is hitting .273 with eight homers and 19 RBI with Triple-A Charlotte. He appeared in 25 games with the New York Mets over the 1999-2001 seasons, hitting .259 with no homers and 32 RBI in 175 at-bats while playing first base and left field.

Toca split 2004 with Cancun in the Mexican League, Montreal's Triple-A team at Edmonton and Detroit's Triple-A team at Toledo. He signed a minor league contract with the White Sox on Jan. 4 and spent part of spring training in Chicago's major league camp.

either way, reports of the yankees' demise were greatly exaggerated.

everyone hoped on this kill the yanks bandwagon, but obviously the worst perpetrator was the ny post. on sunday, joel grr-man had a 3-page (!) story on the reasons for the end of the dynasty. but while roc-a-fella may be fading the yanks aren't.

they head west to beat up on the mariners and a's again, which will give them the perfect head of steam to come to shea and ravage the mets.

the glass is always empty.

oh, and the post has already christened tom glavine as "tom horrific" his mike vick name is Dante Arizona.

Whoa there ryan...let not let the statistics blind us [you]. While Giambi might have that OPS, let's look at his actual numbers. His OBP is still a solid .386, but at the same time, he's slugging .325 -- same as Tony Womack. Combined with the fact that he has displayed an Aram-like ability to not make contact with any outside pitches this season and that the ancient Tino Martinez is valued as a better defensive player than him (Giambi's made 3 errors in 4 games) AND that he's been declining for 2.5 seasons now, it's safe to say that Giambi is not an elite player anymore, and in my opinion he's not even a passable player anymore. In fact, is you beleive the numbernazis at baseballprospectus, he's just barely above average w/a WARP-1 at .3.

For a $13.5 million player to be hitting less than his weight, well, that's just unacceptable. Who knows what's going on in his psyche, but the press has always made Giambi seem like a emotional person, so maybe this gigantic sucktitude is a result of psychological issues. Whether, and where, these issues (psychological and physical) can be best resolved is still up for debate. I say, if he agrees, the Yanks send him down until Tino cools off (i.e. returns to being old and bad), and hope that he can get his confidence back up in the minors, and see what he can provide if/when he returns.

And I thought of a new nickname of Tom Glavine. Remember how Tom Seaver was "TomTerrific" (before he became "Tom Crazy old man" in the broadcast booth), I'd like to christen Tommy G. as "Tom Terrible."

I got home last night, and the first thing I heard when I put on Baseball Tonight was "the big story out of New York" about Giambi meeting with Torre and Cashman to figure out what's wrong. Everyone's saying he has to go to the minors.
Giambi's clearly off to a poor start, but just to put it in perspective, here's the OPS's for some Yankees:

Giambi .711
Posada .709
Matsui .688
Womack .655
Bernie .603

Giambi's hitting better than half the lineup.
Some other pretty good hitters with a lower OPS than Giambi:
Durazo .708
M.Young .692
Loretta .686
Beltre .629
V.Mart .620
Lowell .587
Chavez .555

And looking back to last year, here are some OPS #s through May 10 of 2004:
Jeter .519
Huff .554
Ichiro .695

Boy, those guys sure were done.

i recently read that the mets could have a glut of starting pitching by the all-star break, with pedro, glavine, benson, zambrano, ishii, heilman and trash-el.

wow, what a collection of crap!

who needs kazmir? who needs the quik-e-mart?

Mike & the Mad Dog both think that trading Cameron for Tanyon Sturtze is a perfectly reasonable idea. Sturtze's ERA:
2002 5.18
2003 5.94
2004 5.47
2005 4.97

Tom Glavine needs 164 innings for his option ($8m + $2.5m in incentives) to kick in.

For absolutely no reason, I present some random Dave Mlicki facts:
-He made over $20 million during his career!
-If things had gone differently, he might have been a pretty good reliever. In 1996, his only season out of the 'pen, he had an 83/33 K:BB ratio in 90 innings, with a 3.30 ERA. His most similar player after that year is Tim Worrell.
-His 2 most similar players are Sidney Ponson and Pete Schourek.
-Mlicki has a career postseason ERA of 0.00 in 5 innings, but is 0-1.
-In June '98, he and Greg McMichael were traded to the Dodgers for Nomo. McMichael was traded back to the Mets a month later.
-McMichael was originally acquired by the Mets in a trade for Paul Byrd, who came to the Mets in the same deal (Burnitz to the Tribe) that brought Mlicki.
-McMichael's most similar player through the age of 29 is Dooley Womack, whose real name is Horace Guy Womack.

Jason Phillips: .313/21 rbi
Ramon Castro: .192/2 rbi
Kaz Ishii: ????

I'd like a do-over on that trade.

Well, it comes down to Yanks management deciding that they wanted Unit and Bernie rather than Beltran and Vazquez. I don't see how that makes any sense. 2 guys on last legs, who could maybe go 2 more years at most; or 2 guys who are still in their late-20s and could anchor a team for a good 5 years? Someone want to explain that to me?

Reyes couldn't even bat in the 8th last night without laughing. Apparently Dougie Mient was on the steps trying to get everyone to be quiet, and gave him a big hug after he grounded out. Awww.

I love RCN cable. But I hate Glavine. Think he'll accept a demotion like Trachsel did back then?

I also hate how the NY papers are so pro-Yanks. Even when they lose, they make the back page ahead of the Mets. Dicks.

The Mets are giving every ticketholder from last night a free ticket to one of four games.
Apparently, when the count went to 3-2 on Reyes last night, the fans were chanting "walk, walk, walk". Troo.

Here's an article in which Tom House says he was using steroids in the '70s.
"House estimated that six or seven pitchers on every staff were 'fiddling' with steroids or growth hormone."

Big news of the day seems to be the Yankee moves. Cano in, Bernie out. Womack and Matsui moving.
It seems like a panic move to me.
Cano (or "Canoe" as Mad Dog is calling him) has been tearing it up in AAA, but his career isn't that impressive overall. PECOTA projects him to hit about as poorly as Bernie's been hitting so far. And he's apparently a terrible defensive player.
And as poorly as Bernie's hitting, Womack is hitting just as poorly. Considering their track records, why not bench Womack if you're so desperate to get Cano in the lineup. Womack will probably end up being the worst hitting LF in the majors. Really, the Yankees need to get a CF, which they should've realized over the offseason. But, do they really have anything to trade at this point? Cameron would be a perfect fit, but there's nothing I'd want from the Yanks in return.

And Unit's going to miss a start, which is nice. Wang and Henn in the rotation? It seems like the Yankees chose the wrong year to stop carrying 7 starters.

Anyway, it's nice to see the Yankees in panic mode. They'll probably trade for a CF, get Clemens back in August, and make the playoffs again. But, maybe this is finally the year where things go wrong.

mushnick will be all over the 2 hour, 15 minute rain delay at shea tonite. why not call the game and do a double-header any of the next 3 days the phils are in town? instead they play before an empty house in miserable conditions and piss off the fans that came throo in the rain at 7 and left after an hour.

i'm just mad because the game was supposed to be on espn and i waited around watching the reds and cards but when the mets game finally started espn never switched back or put it on espn 2, even tho espn 2 was showing absoutely nothing.

The Channel 11 news just came on during the Mets' rain delay. The lead story was Selig's new tougher steroid plan (3 strikes, you're out!). For some reason, while the anchor was explaining the story, they showed highlights from today's A's-Mariners game. They then cut to a clip of Canseco walking and wearing an A's jersey, which I guess somehow linked the steroid story to today's A's game.

And congrats to Jose Reyes, who finally got his OBP above his batting average... by getting hit by a pitch. Actually, the replay indicated that the pitch never hit him, but still good. And what do you know, he scored! Now all he needs is a walk. Come on, Jose, all I'm asking for is one walk. Just one! OK, I'm probably going to ask for more after that, but I'll be happy with one for now.

wouldn't a savvy manager see these stats and not start 'tom horrific' agains the braves?

Glavine's had eight reunions with the Braves since departing as a free agent after the 2002 season, and he's 1-7 with a 9.36 ERA.

true.

I don't think it's dumping to trade piazza and glavine. obviously major moves like this happen mid-summer and not now so we'll see how the mets are then. but i do not think the mets are a playoff team. we were a game out last year but we all knew it wasn't happening but instead they make the move for right now.
even if we make a run for the wild card to the end of september, i don't think it's worth it to hold on to glavine and piazza, especially since piazza is a free agent after this season.

not that i want any of their poop prospects, but wouldn't glavine look good in pinstripes? him and the big unit can have contests to see who can makre the more droopy dog face.

I think Chump is right that Floyd should be the one to go if we make a move. Cameron's value is at an all-time low, and Floyd's is on the rise. That being said, I don't know if I'd be in such a rush to make a move. Floyd and Cameron are both questionable health-wise, and Diaz is still somewhat of an unknown. He's putting up huge numbers, but it's only been a month, and this performance is pretty out of line with his minor league performance. I think he'll be a pretty good hitter, but I'm not 100% sold that he's going to be that good this year. I think I'd wait a little while to make a move. Once Cam comes back, work Diaz into the lineup a few days a week, which should help to keep Floyd and Cam healthy. If the Mets are going to win this year, considering Floyd's injury history, I think they need a pretty good 4th outfielder. Plus, this way, we'll get a little more time to see if Diaz is for real before we count on him to be the starter for the rest of the year.
As for Piazza, I think it's a little early to start thinking about making mid-season dumps considering that it's April and the Mets are a half game out.

victor diaz has definitely earned the right to stay up in the biggs, but cameron is coming back soon. rumor has it omar is still trying to unload him, which i think is a mistake. cliff floyd's trade value increases by the day, he should be the one to go as there is no telling when his next injury will be. glavine should go by midseason as well. piazza too, he has thrown out 1 of 21 base-stealers this season.

I think the mets will be around a .500 club this year. no reason to hang on to these three veterans.

When asked if he was hurt, Ohka conceded "a little bit."
But he wouldn't elaborate.
"I don't want to tell you," he said.

clemens stats so far are str8 up dumb:

YEAR	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	HR	BB	SO	K/9	W	L	Sv	P/GS	WHIP	BAA	ERA
2005	4	4	0	28.0	16	1	1	6	32	10.29	1	0	0	74.5	0.79	.165	0.32

Ishii threw 11 straight balls.
He's no Ravi.

I'm not sure how long this 'trend' can last, but i'm enjoying this rash of complete games. I went to dodger stadium today and watched Jeff "Dream" Weaver twirl a 5-hit complete game. I pay to see the big boys pitch, not chumps like john franco.

On a related note, i'm sure everyone else has been reading the articles hinting at the fact that it's the relievers who have been the real juice-abusers, and now that The H is O, scouts have been noting relievers losing a bit of zip and endurance.

Not John Franco, he just keeps chugging along. And Mike Stanton.

A new era begins!

"KC- Joe McEwing was called up from the minors on Wednesday April 13."

why do i have a funny feeling, as the 0-3 mets head into atlanta, that the piazza/randolphy 'victory cigar' will become a running joke for this team?

the mets, for the past 4 years now, have a disturbing habit of making ordinary pitchers look like the second coming of ferguson jenkins.

Obviously, I didn't see the Mets opener on Monday, but this caught my eye from the Prospectus recap:
"Wagner throws his obscene slider to Reyes. The pitch so befuddles him that with the pitch a foot inside and at his shoetops, Reyes swings and misses at it--and gets hit on the foot with the pitch. "

Not quite as ridiculous as Saro getting hit in the chest while swinging, but still pretty funny.

As of this moment, Jason Giambi has been hit by 3 pitches this year. Every other batter in the majors has combined for 6. He's back, baby!

It's hard to say what exactly needs to be done to make the Mets better, cuz they seem to have done that. Other than a bullpen, the only thing I can say is that they need to cut down on injuries. However, I see no reason why they can't finish ahead of Washington and the Braves at the very least.

all i care about this year is the mets getting to .500, which could still leave them in 4th, but still, I'd be happy with it. The other goal i wanted to see accomplished this year already happened with the waiver of super joe. will he pull a mel mora with the royals? hahahaha.

According to the PECOTA depth charts on Prospectus, the Mets are projected to finish 4th. Here are the win totals for the division:
Phillies 88
Braves 81
Marlins 80
Mets 79

The Mets projection is still based on Trachsel starting, so it'll fall a win or two once the Ishii trade is taken into account.

[Tues. update - somehow, the Mets are now projected for 81 wins, partially because they're projecting more playing time for Piazza now that Phillips is gone, which is somewhat dubious. Braves were bumped up to 82, so we're in 3rd. ZIPS projections have Mets in 2nd with 88 wins, 2 games behind the Phillies. Huzzah!]

I'm watching this absurd Congressional hearing right now. Hall of Famer Senator Jim Bunning took a pot shot at Barry Bonds by stating that Willie Mays and Hank Aaron didn't hit more homeruns in their late 30s than their late 20s. I didn't choose those two players, he did. Unfortunately for him, his statement isn't really accurate for Aaron. Aaron had his career high in homeruns at the age of 37, hitting 47 homers despite only playing 139 games. Aaron missed a lot more time in his late 30s, but if you look at his numbers per at bat, he hit a lot more homers than in his late 20s. Aaron had his best HR rate when he was 39. In fact, his entire late 30s was his best period. His rates during his age 35-39 seasons rank as 5 of his best 6 HR rates. In total, from age 35-39, he hit one HR per 11.8 ABs. From age 25-29, he hit one HR per 15.1 ABs. That's a pretty significant difference, almost 11 HRs over the course of a 600 AB season.

Now I just heard Bunning complain that the ball is "much more souped up" than it was in his day. Why stop at juiced players? Let's have a Congressional hearing about juiced balls.

Wait, now he's complaining that pitchers aren't pitching inside anymore! And that the fences are too short! Sadly, I'm not making this up.

Nice to see that our tax dollars are being spent on a worthy cause.

Morons.

Absolutel Morons.

In a mets.com poll, joe mcewing received 54% of the vote, by far the winner, in a poll asking which backup infielder the mets should keep.
marlon 'the bird' anderson is my choice. why? because his name is not joe mcewing.

It's the sequel to Being John Malkovich.

being jose oquendo?

Best class ever!

ummm, I'm not quite sure what to say about this.

Just put the game on at mlb.com, and there's super joe, striking out as usual on a head-high fastball.

"Joe McEwing, who doesn't figure to make the team as a backup infielder, has drawn some interest from his former club, the Cardinals. Arizona and Anaheim have also inquired about him"

doesn't figure to make the club??? what!!?!?!?! my man super-joe???

Amusing read- The Best Roto Team of All Time

http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/analysis/news?slug=rotowire-hellimeotoeam&prov=rotowire&type=lgns&league=mlb

regarding Chump's post on homegrown players, at least the Mets will have Darryl around this spring training for his memories as a living whatcouldvebeen for all the kids in PStL.

-Learn from me kids, don't make the same mistakes I did. More specifically,
-David, remember to cut the coke first, then inhale.
-Jose, first you ask for sex, then you buy the dope, NEVER do it the other way otherwise they'll charge you for possession too.
-I remember in 86, me and Keith buried a key under the mound. I always knew that mustached bitch dug it up in the offseason.

&c.

The Mets hired Jerry Krause. Huh?

from my maznan Joel Grrrman:
Over four decades is it really possible the best position player that a big-market team like the Mets has been able to develop and keep for an entire career is Ed Kranepool? My kingdom for a Tim Salmon.
Wright has a gap-seeking compact swing that already jeopardizes Bernard Gilkey's team record of 44 doubles. (again imagine position players so bad that Bernard Gilkey owns a team record).

Pat Mahomes? That means we're in for some good lip lickin'

pat mahomes is back with the mets!!!

(played by michael jordan in the todd pratt movie)

i've read that petit could be up to fortify the bullpen by midseason, but he will likely begin the year at AA.

who is this kazmir guy? is he any good? hmm, guess the rays are just savvy drafters.

Prospectus came out with it's top 50 Prospects list. The Braves' Andy Marte is #1, which is bad news for the Mets. NY-related players:
13. Eric Duncan, 3B, New York (AL)
14. Scott Kazmir, LHP, Tampa Bay
15. Yusmeiro Petit, RHP, New York (NL)
19. Lastings Milledge, OF, New York (NL)

Discouraging article in the Times about Reyes:
Mackie Shilstone, a sports-performance expert "said he examined the 21-year-old Reyes for three days last October and determined 'in no uncertain terms' the root of Reyes's problems... Shilstone said he advised Reyes to visit him for two more weeks before playing in the Dominican Winter League and to see him for two weeks after the league ended to make any necessary adjustments to his conditioning regimen.
"'He chose none of the above,' Shilstone said. 'We didn't get to put all the pieces together. So I can't sit here and tell you the deficits are gone. I think the jury's out.'
Shilstone said he gave Reyes a 'partial plan,' about a fourth of an overall regimen that Shilstone feels is necessary to really put Reyes on safe ground. Shilstone surmised that Reyes, following his plan, began feeling better and thus assumed he was healthy."
Reyes said "he does only some of the exercises that Shilstone recommended because there were so many of them."

But don't worry. Omar's on top of things. When asked what Reyes is doing differently these days, he responded "That's a good question. I'm not sure. We monitor it with our trainers."

Let's face it, the Mets bullpen isn't going to be great this year. Looper's an okay closer, DeJean pitched really well in his brief stint last year, and then nobody else is really guaranteed a spot. Koo sounds like he could be a lefty specialist. Strickland could be a righty specialist (.570 OPS against righties last 3 years). Scott Stewart? Moreno? Seo? Ginter? Heath Bell? Blake McGinley? Heredia (ugh)?
It doesn't sound too disastorous, but none of those guys are striking the fear into the hearts of batters, either.
So I glanced at the PECOTA projections, and I was surprised to see a Met reliever with such a good projection.
Jose Parra ranks 25th in projected EqERA (ERA adjusted for ballpark), right behind Mariano Rivera, and right ahead of Curt Schilling.
Granted, it's based on very little data. He pitched 42 innings last year (14 in majors, 27+ in AAA), and only 23 pro innings in the 3 years before that. And he didn't finish the season because of a hip flexor injury.
Still, his #s were good in both AAA and the majors, and the Mets don't have many sure things in the bullpen, so it'll be nice to have him in Port St. Lucie.

Oh, wait, he won't be there because the Mets released him in November. Instead, he'll be pitching in Japan for Orix-Kinetsu.

you know it's spring training when you start reading "victor zambrano" and "unhittable" in the same sentance.

unless mike cameron is being vociferous and active about wanting out, why the hell would the mets try and move him??

Red Sox have it locked up again (from espn.com):

The Red Sox agreed to a minor league contract on Tuesday with first baseman Roberto Petagine, who played in Japan the last six seasons.

Petagine, 33, won three Gold Gloves, two home run titles and one Central League MVP award while playing for the Yakult from 1999 to 2002 and Yomiuri the past two years. The Red Sox invited him to spring training.

In parts of five major league seasons, he hit .225 with 10 homers and 43 RBI in 193 games for Houston, San Diego, the New York Mets and Cincinnati

In Japan, he hit .317 with 223 homers and 594 RBI in 756 games.

Petagine, 33, is a left-handed hitter and an excellent defensive first baseman who will try to take the place of Doug Mientkiewicz, recently traded to the Mets.

Nice little post showing that according to PECOTA, the Mets have the 2nd best lineup in the division. This is a pretty simplistic analysis, so I wouldn't start buying playoff tickets, but worth taking a glance at.

Wow, what timing! According to this column in USA Today:
"Look for Boston to sign Japanese superstar Roberto Petagine. He'll be a left-handed bat in left field and and come off the bench as an ideal successor to the departed Doug Mienkiewicz."

Unfortunately for the Sox, Petagine's coming off of a down year. Here's his avg/obp/slg for the last 3 years in Japan:
2002 .322/.438/.649
2003 .323/.457/.683
2004 .290/.409/.561

Supposedly, his knees are shot, and his defense is crappy. But he certainly has a good shot at still being a really good hitter.
Oh, and apparently, he played 86 games in the outfield in 2003, so I guess he could play some out there. How much worse can he be than Manny in the field?

If this gets done, that's one more reason for me to be a Sox fan.

[2/8 Update: Gammons says he's been signed for $750k. Sounds like a steal to me. Very little money, and if returns to pre-2004 form, he should end up forcing a platoon with Millar. Plus, according to ESPN, he's an "excellent defensive first baseman." I have no Japanese UZR #s, but if that's true, the Mets REALLY should've signed him (at least let him compete with Minky).]

well, the mets offseason moves are paying off in at least one category, they report a 200% increase over last year's preseason ticket sales and expect to have nearly 2 million tickets sold before opening day.

oh, the bullpen continues to shape up, tyler yates is out for the year.

Petagine vs Matsui
(edit from Ryan: Hideki Matsui)

2002 AVG OBA SLG HR RBI
Matsui 334 461 692 50 107
Petagine 322 438 649 41 94

2001 AVG OBA SLG HR RBI
Matsui 333 463 617 36 104
Petagine 322 466 633 39 127

wow.

Worst baseball record ever? Last year the Giants played veteran Kawai Masahiro until he he broke the world record for most sacrifice bunts.

had no idea helton was so good defensively. big mo cost us 27 runs!

Or they could have followed Ryan's advice from a few years ago and gone after Petagine.

Billy, here's the dope defensive stat you requested:
Based on his UZR from 2000-2003 (they aren't published for 2004), Mientkiewicz was the second best defensive 1B (behind Helton), and saved 17 runs per season over an average fielder.
Here are some relevant players:
Mientkiewicz 17
Tino 15
Travis Lee 13
Olerud 1
Delgado -2
Galarraga -12
Mo Vaughn -27

It's well known that I wanted Delgado, but since we didn't get him, it makes sense to get either Mientkiewicz or Lee. If Phillips is hitting well, maybe he can platoon with one of them. I think I'd go with Lee if he's 100% because he won't cost a prospect and will probably be cheaper, but I'm not really sure what his health status is.

Unless Ryan can provide some dope defensive stat, I am appalled by the Mientkiewicz signing. For stats like that, we could have thrown Phillips out there, or the huge dude from the end of last season, or even the kid we just traded (don't care if he's single A! bring 'im up!)

If he ever gets a hit, what are the odds the scoreboard would say "met-kiewicz"? Very good, I say.

To reiterate Chump's "wow", the 'stros had the balls to say they signed franco because "the postseason showed that we needed relief help". should have just said "we wanted an old, terrible pitcher."

D'oh!
Delgado signs with Marlins.
Paging Travis Lee.


Is he being over paid?
Is he unlikely to still be performing well in the final year of the deal?
Probably yes to both, but the same thing can be said for Pedro and Beltran. I've been saying all along that if the Mets are going to make these moves, they have to go all the way. As things stand now, they're probably the 4th best team in the division.

john franco signed with the astros for 700 g's.

wow.

sports illustrated also has an article this week about omar minaya and how his ethnicity is wooing marquee players to the mets and how, overall, the mets are becoming "latinized."
the article gives scant attention to the real reason pedro and beltran came here, and why delgado would come here if he does, dinero. plain and simple.
furthermore, I would say the mets have long been a 'latin' team, as have many other teams in beisbol. the late 90's mets, alfonzo, ordonez, mo-ti, harmando, cedeno, etc. i mean, i guess we now have our first 'latino' superstar (does kieth count? el sid?), but i think it discredits latinos as a whole to still view them as this cliquey, insular minority rather than a diverse force fast approaching majority status in los grandes ligues.

Good article by SI's Tom Verducci about amphetamines in baseball. My personal take on both steroids and amphetamines is that the issue should be the health of players. If a large percentage of players are using a drug to enhance their performance, it puts pressure on everybody else to do it. And it's unfair to the rest of the players to give them the choice of (1) not perform as well as all the enhanced players or (2) suffer short-term or long-term medical problems. I haven't really been convinced that either steroids or amphetamines are all that dangerous if done in a controlled manner, but I think that should be the issue: how damaging are these drugs.

Anyway, here are some excerpts from the article:

Caminiti: "I would say there are only a couple of guys on a team that don't take greenies before a game. One or two guys. That's called going out there naked. And you hear it all the time from teammates, 'You're not going to play naked, are you?'

Former outfielder Chad Curtis agreed with Caminiti: "You might have one team where eight guys play naked and another team where nobody does, but that sounds about right. Steroids are popular, but quite a lot more guys take [amphetamines] than steroids. I'm talking about illegal stuff. Speed ... ritalin, which is legal only with a doctor's prescription ... sometimes guys don't even know what they're taking. One guy will take some pills out of his locker and tell somebody else, 'Here, take one of these. You'll feel better.' And the other guy will take it and not even know what it is."

"Curtis added that amphetamine use is so prevalent that non-users are sometimes ostracized as slackers."

Is anyone really surprised that Cameron doesn't want to shift to RF now? He probably figured there was no way the Mets were getting Beltran and wanted to look good. Asshole.

Also, why isn't Blyleven in the HOF? Seriously, his stats stack up pretty well against most other players. Almost 300 wins, 3700 K's, a pretty decent career ERA (3.31). I mean, he lost 250 games, but still, I think he should be in.