Hopefully Mulvey is the next Jeff Innis.

Draft Thoughts
Sounds like a questionable draft by the Mets. Prospectus's Kevin Goldstein said "After Mulvey, who's anything but a sure thing, it's yuck with an extra side of yuck." Kevin Mulvey does sound like a decent pick, but sidearm pitchers generally have a limited upside, so it seems like a stretch to take one with a 3rd round pick. Who knows, maybe he'll be the next Quisenberry. Jeremy Barfield in the 9th round sounds good.

The award for the two best draft picks goes to the Brewers, who took a high schooler who throws 100 mph with the 16th pick and with their second round pick took Brent Brewer. His name is Brewer! And he's on the Brewers! I'm easily amused.

I like how they wanted Grims to wear a wire and try and find out about Barry. What is this, "New Jack City"?

Grimsley busted. States to cops that "everybody had greenies. That's like aspirin." And that until last year, clubhouses had coffee pots labeled "leaded" and "unleaded."
He also named a bunch of players who have used steroids, HGH and amphetamines, but they're redacted from the document.
The IRS agent who signed the report is the same agent behind the BALCO investigation.

Grimsley busted. States to cops that "everybody had greenies. That's like aspirin." And that until last year, clubhouses had coffee pots labeled "leaded" and "unleaded."
He also named a bunch of players who have used steroids, HGH and amphetamines, but they're redacted from the document.
The IRS agent who signed the report is the same agent behind the BALCO investigation.

possibly a bigger vernon wells fan than I am:
Vote Vernon

El Duque's career ERA is 4.20.

Wisdom from Matthew McConaughey:

"As the ball left Bonds' bat, booing turned to "oohing" as the ball flew upward and outward into the depths of the third deck. Fans stood to witness, and their jeers turned to cheers as the man, Barry Bonds, who played for the other team, put a mammoth steroid-free run on the board. "

"Barry, did you hit a homerun today?"
"No."
"It'd be a lot cooler if you did."

Out of context quote:

Martinez said the baseballs were "probably not the best-rubbed balls that I'll find in the league so far."

Randolph formally announced that Jeremi Gonzalez (1-2, 3.03ERA at Triple-A Norfolk) would be Friday's starter in Milwaukee, followed by Jose Lima on Saturday.

EWWWWWWWWWWWW!
But that's OK, because Mike Pelfrey may be the best pitcher of the last 50 years:

[Binghamton Mets pitching coach] Brewer said Pelfrey "resembles a Don Drysdale or a righthanded Randy Johnson with better command."

!!!!!

Does anyone else not like these two-tone batting helmets the Mets have? Pick a color and stick with it. Also, how pissed must Heilman be that they're not really considering him to fill in for Bannister. Granted, I think it makes sense cuz he's too valuable in the bullpen, but still.

Help for the bullpen? In Binghamton, Henry Owens has 27 Ks in 12 innings! 27 Ks in 12 innings!

Shinjo leaves the ballpark for a quiet life of nude modelling

a scary thought- if bannister has to miss any time, the options after heilman (who randolph steadfastly insists is muy valuable out of the pen) are darren oliver... and jose lima! ewwww!

Roberto Petagine update: his OPS is currently 2.750.

Billy Boy
Will Carroll has an ominous note about Billy Waggs in his latest column, stating that Wagner's middle finger has a torn tendon sheath and that this may be similar to the injury that sidelined Adam Eaton for up to 4 months. This might explain the loss of velocity. The last sentence of the note is particularly scary considering yesterday's performance: "focus on his control to better guage where this is headed."

At least Duaner is pitching well.

From the Post: For the third straight game, the Yankees turned into Men Without Bats.

men without bats! excellent.

Check out our new affiliated blog: Shea Hey!.

Ravi forwarded me the following excerpt from a Salon article which quotes Bill Clinton from a recent Larry King interview. Anyway, here's what our former President had to say (which I largely agree with):

"First of all, keep in mind that as I understand it Major League Baseball did not adopt a clear, unequivocal ban on steroid use with consequences, like the Olympics has had for years, until recently ... Well, my experience is in politics and everything else, if you're in a great contest with high stakes, people will do what it takes to win within the framework of the rules ... It's clear now that there is an overwhelming, perhaps unanimous consensus among the owners and the players and the representatives and the media that steroid use is not only bad for the players, it's bad for the game and it's wrong, and it should be banned and there should be consequences for violating the ban ... But I think we have to be careful looking back before that was the rule and even before that was the consensus ... We need to remember that baseball itself was highly ambivalent about doing anything about this, facing the truth and having strict rules for years and years and years. So now we have the rules. Let's go forward and enforce them. But I think ... looking back and looking down on people and trying to claim that, you know, things that happened five, 10 years ago in their careers weren't real because they did this -- I think that's a little hypocritical. Where were we then and why didn't we ban it then if that's the way we feel?"

oops, forgot to show the images of the new ballpark.
why would they keep it facing flushing? all i see when i see these pictures are $10 beers and $6 hot dogs.
oh, and here's a good article comparing competitive balance in baseball v. other sports...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=2388458&type=story