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

The proposed new Mets ballpark will have the exact same (lame) view of downtown Flushing, U-Haul building and all. -sigh- do they not realize that if they turn the damn thing around it will face the trees of the park with the skyline above them??

Here's a link to a letter our pal chaynz posted on the reasons to get rid of Chief Wahoo, scroll down to the March 17th posting. Down with Wahoo!!!!

http://www.thechiefsource.com/2006_03_01_chiefsource_archive.html

Don't know why I'm thinking about moves that can help the Yankees, but they should really think about signing Carlos Pena, who was released by the Tigers. He could become their regular first baseman, which would allow them to move Giambi to DH in place of Bernie. Pena would be an improvement over Bernie at the plate and an improvement over Giambi in the field. Plus, Giambi would be more likely to stay healthy while DHing. Bernie could still get some playing time as the fourth outfielder and DH against lefties.

Here's a question that has nothing to do with fantasy baseball: how bad is Reyes' injury history? Or, more to the point, his projected injury future?

Bonds was almost a Brave!
From an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about Scheurholz's book:

He begins the first chapter by revealing that in March 1992, Schuerholz and Pittsburgh GM Ted Simmons negotiated a trade to bring Pirates star Barry Bonds to Atlanta in exchange for pitcher Alejandro Pena, young outfielder Keith Mitchell and a prospect to be named later.

"I was euphoric," Schuerholz writes. "Barry Bonds was a Brave! . . . There seemed no limits to what we could achieve over our approaching several seasons."

The morning after the GMs agreed to terms, the Braves were setting up a news conference to announce the deal at their West Palm Beach, Fla., spring training home when Schuerholz phoned Simmons, who told him he couldn't do the deal, apparently because Pirates manager Jim Leyland was furious that Bonds was being traded with a year left on his contract.

MC Hammer's letter to Barry Bonds.

greatread:
http://www.joesportsfan.com/WeeklyMLB1.html

These two articles (at Beyond the Box Score and Hardball Times) indicate that the Mets' ideal lineup would look something like this:

Wright
Floyd
Beltran
Delgado
Diaz/Nady
Reyes
Lo Duca
Pitcher
Matsui

(or you could switch Beltran and Diaz/Nady)

You're right. More Lima info from a NYTimes article:

Lima swooped into the Mets' clubhouse late Thursday morning wearing a silver three-piece suit, a black fedora and diamond earrings roughly the size of a bottle cap. He primped and preened for photographers in front of his new jersey (No. 99) and promptly proclaimed that he owned more than 2,000 suits.

"I've never worn the same one twice," he said

You say "final note" as if this is the last we will hear from Jose Lima. You will be proven wrong!! Rickey and Lima, who will form the third prong of the Holy Trinity?

Meanwhile, the yankees invited scott erickson to camp.

in somewhat related news, Arby's is still offering 4 roast beef sandwhiches for $5.

One final note on Jose Lima. According to Prospectus, Lima amazingly holds both the AL and NL records for worst single-season ERA for a pitcher with at least 30 starts. The AL record was set last year when he had a 6.99 ERA. The only favorable thing I can say about Lima's season is that he had a 3.79 ERA in July.

I like the way the Times described the Lima deal:

"The Mets signed another player Tuesday who fits into the nothing-to-lose category."

Except, you know, baseball games.

Oh, hi everybody!

From the "Bad Idea Jeans" Department:

maybe the Mets should not base their ad campaign for this year around the playoffs. for example, they have an ad on the back page of the post today that reads "Plans for October?"

let's play consistent .500 baseball first.

It's Lima Time!
Mets sign Lima to minor league deal. ugh.

Rickey's back (sort of)

Mets Acquired Abreu!
Michel Abreu. Cuban 1B.

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Sox will look to move Graffanino once they sign A-Gonz due to a glut of middle infielders. The Mets should jump on that. Seems like a better option than Kaz Matbooi or Bret Boo-ne.

Bonds is out of the WBC, and Pedro indicated that he'll be in. The momentum shifts back to DR.

And the Benson trade? Eh, as much as Julio sucks, I don't think it's a bad deal. Benson's a mediocre starter and makes $7 mill a year. And this Maine guy sounds like has a chance to be a mediocre starter himself. If we still had Seo, I think I'd like this trade. Damn Seo trade!

these awards don't compare to the stickball awards.

stickball hall of fame?

may be an old topic, but now that piazza's met tenure is over, i have my doubts that he will go in as a met. his most memorable moments came as a met, and he spend equal time with both the dodgers and mets, but his best years came with the dodgers. looks like we'll be stuck at one hall-of-famer, and he won't let us forget it, big-boy.

is bob murphy in the HOF?

First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence

Willie McGee a Hall of Famer?
What are some of these writers thinking????
I was looking at some of the past voting records, and Joe DiMaggio didn't get in on his first try!!! Neither did Yogi Berra!! 10 World Series!! Probably the best catcher baseball had ever seen in his time.

For what it's worth, if I had a BBWAA card, I'd be voting for Dawson, Blyleven, Rice, John, and probably Gossage too. I always think that pitchers get the short staff when it comes to the Hall of Fame.

Hey Ryan-
The Hutch Award was created and given to the Major League ballplayer that best exemplifies the fighting spirit and competitive desire of the late Fred Hutchinson.

The Lou Gehrig Memorial Award was created by Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity to recognize the Major League Baseball Player who best exemplifies the spirit and character of Lou Gehrig, Columbia '25, both on and off the field.

Babe Ruth Award was discontinued aftrer 2002, and was awarded by the NY chapter of BBWAA to honor the player they felt was the World Series MVP. The last winner...David Eckstein.

Roberto Clemente Award is not given for the best tragic plane crash death...(from mlb.com) "The Roberto Clemente Award presented by John Hancock is given annually to a player who demonstrates the values Clemente displayed in his commitment to community and understanding the value of helping others."

Good article about Minaya from the Sun.

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.