twin killing

Even Marty Noble couldn't help but recognize the Mets reassertion of superiority over the laughably pathetic Philadelphia Phillies yesterday afternoon. After a three game sweep at Shea by Philly in early June helped kick off a maddeningly pathetic losing stretch for the Mets, the Amazins marched into Citizens Bank Park yesterday afternoon and asserted some older-brotherly dominance in the city of brotherly love. Philly fans really might want to consider packing it again until football season, when the E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles will surely continue to assert their dominance over my laughably pathetic New York Giants.

David Wright > Eli Manning

Aside from a near bullpen meltdown in game 1, the Mets pretty much owned the Phillies across the board Friday. Philly fans can whine all they want about career minor leaguer JD Durbin and the fact that he started the first game, but in addition to the fact that the Mets followed their 6-5 game 1 victory by beating Phillies ace Cole Hamels 5-2 in game 2, Durbin's outing would seem to illustrate the fact that the "deep starting pitching" that made the Phillies the popular Baseball Tonight pick to win the NL East doesn't look like it's as deep as Jimmy Rollins and co. thought when they anointed themselves as 2007's "team to beat." Maybe the Phils should have signed Jorge Sosa instead of Adam Eaton. Hahahaha.

Too bad Pat Gillick isn't Omar Minaya

All jokes aside, it was nice to see the Mets go into a visiting ballpark in a big spot, play good baseball, and watch the results speak for themselves. They even had some fun while they were doing their thing. 2 more wins this weekend and this Philly series might end up being reminiscent of last year's midsummer show of force in Atlanta.

Not that I'm getting too cocky. Okay, maybe I am, but it's fun to tease your younger brother, and since I don't have a younger brother, the Phillies will just have to suffice. Besides, to avoid losing a minimum of 2 games to the Mets in the standings this weekend, the Phillies will have to win both today and tomorrow. I'll take my chances.

More than anything else, yesterday's doubleheader should serve as a friendly reminder that yes, the Mets are better than the Phillies, in pretty much every way, and yes, the John Kruks of the world who picked the Phils to win the East this year are just fat and stupid.

No, really. They are.

After yesterday's clarification, whatever happens in the rest of this weekend's series is pretty much a formality.

(photos courtesy photofile.com, mlblogs.com, cantstopthebleeding.com)

more like sheep pen

The Mets bullpen hasn't exactly looked very bullish this year, at least of late. In the game that just ended, a 6-5 victory in game one of today's doubleheader against the Phils, Orlando Hernandez departed after 6 innings with a 6-2 lead. You can do the math.

Thank God for Billy Wagner. Today, after the rest of the 'pen (2 runs allowed for Guillermo Mota, one for Aaron Heilman) almost let this game get away from the Mets, he came into his old stomping grounds to a heavy chorus of boos and struck out the side in the 9th inning, shutting down the Phillies and any accompanying plans they might have had for a comeback. On the season, opposing batters are hitting under .200 against him and he's converted all but one of his save opportunities.

It's funny 'cause Billy Wagner doesn't pitch for the Phillies anymore

Aside from Wagner, Joe Smith, and Pedro Feliciano, however, the bullpen has been a little unreliable all season long. Aaron Heilman is a talented pitcher with an nasty tailing fastball and a superb changeup. Aaron Heilman, though, also has a dangerous proclivity for giving up the longball (Yadier Molina, anyone?) and is probably not pitching as well as he could be because he is a pouty little (not appropriate) and would rather start for just about any other team than suck it up, pitch in a role he's proven himself to be better in, and play for a winner.

Guillermo Mota version 2007 looks like he might want to consider going back on the juice and hope Major League Baseball doesn't catch him again. Aaron Sele is old, never pitches anyway, and isn't very good when he does pitch (5.26 ERA in 25.2 innings of work on the season). And we've already been over Scott Schoeneweis.

Stats aside, a good measure of a reliable bullpen can usually be found in one's gut. How comfortable do you feel when (insert relief pitcher here) comes into the game? Do you resign yourself to a loss, or a blown lead? Or are you convinced that that pitcher is going to come in and get the job done?

I get the latter feeling with Smith, Feliciano, and Wagner. Aaron Sele is like Tofu; I don't really get a specific taste in my mouth when he enters the game, but I'm pretty sure any taste I do pick up isn't particularly good. I'm moderately concerned when Heilman comes into the game, feel generally uneasy when Mota takes the mound, and place Schoeneweis into an entirely different category. I was literally praying against the negative premonitions I got when Scho entered the game in the 11th Tuesday night.

I don't think many Mets fans disagree with me here - essentially the team has 3 relievers that it can legitimately trust. The other 4 are question marks in some respect. Which means that when one of our starters leaves the game and it's close, we can only assume to have 2 innings or so covered. (Both Smith and Feliciano don't often pitch full innings) And that's assuming that Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano, and Billy Wagner can pitch every single night, which of course is a little presumptous.

Bullpen help is the name of the game, folks. The Mets don't need a starting pitcher. And our lineup, even with all of it's inconsistencies, is still better than most. The hopes of the Mets 2007 season may hinge on how comfortable you feel taking a lead into the 7th inning.

Or preserving a tie in the 11th

(Pics courtesy typepad.com, stubbornlights.org)

bad ideas

I had the pleasure of attending Tuesday night's Mets-Cardinals game with got ny sports? blogger Martin Burns. When we awoke yesterday afternoon in the living room of a ground floor Greenwich village apartment, we turned on Spike TV and watched an episode of "World's Most Extreme Videos" while waiting to eat breakfast.

Kind of like "World's Wildest Police Videos," except on at the same time as Maury

One of the first videos we watched was of a scruffy sideburn and goatee-wearing guy who looked like he was about 30 screwing around with some kids, a book of matches, a large metal garbage can, and a container of gasoline. These videos, of course, are all real. Remember that.

In the video the man starts by pouring a reasonably large amount of gasoline into the garbage can, passing the container on to the kids so that they too can have a go at the gas-pouring. As soon as there's no more gas to be poured, the man strikes a match and begins trying to light the inside of the garbage can, starting with the inner-rim as the kids look on eagerly.

When nothing catches fire immediately, though, the man becomes discouraged and strikes another match, which he tries to move around the lower parts of the garbage can. When the man still struggles to get anything lit, he leans over the can, reaching down as far as he can and sticking his head in the top of the metal bin, presumably to get a better view of what he's doing.

Of course, the minute the scruffy man puts his head in the can, there's a small explosion and a fireball rushes upward as the man pulls his head out of the trash bin, screaming and running as the burst of flames that was on his head dies down and goes away. So extreme!

I feel bad when I watch "Most Extreme Videos" and someone falls off their motorcycle and gets hit by a car, a flaming car, and 2 Mack trucks before their mangled body comes to a screeching halt on the side of the road. It sucks, but it's really not their fault. And then I'm happy when the clip continues and I find out that somehow they had the foresight to wear 5 leather jackets and a gas mask and ended up living to give a taped video testimonial about their ordeal.

But garbage can guy was a legitimate moron. With a lit match in his hand, he stuck his entire arm and head into a trash bin that he had just doused the inside of in gasoline. I certainly didn't feel too sorry for him, and I wondered how he couldn't have expected what happened to happen. He was asking for it.

This looks like it was also a pretty bad idea

What does this all have to do with the Mets, you ask? Let's just say I was painfully reminded while watching the gasoline video of Scott Schoeneweis' appearance in the 11th inning of Tuesday night's Mets game. With the score tied at 3 after the Mets had drawn even on a dramatic double by Jose Valentin with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, after a scoreless 10th Willie Randolph turned to Schoeneweis to preserve the tie in the top of the 11th. Why, Willie, why?

Schoeneweis, of course, promptly gave up a tie-breaking leadoff home run on a 3-2 pitch to career minor leaguer Brendan Ryan (the home run was Ryan's FIRST CAREER EXTRA BASE HIT) and went on to give up another unearned run in the inning, eventually taking the loss in a 5-3 Mets defeat. When Willie took the ball as he left the mound, the manager and his pitcher barely made eye contact before Schoeneweis walked to the dugout to a chorus of boos that could just as easily have been for Armando Benitez.

That's saying something

Like the man in the gasoline video, Willie was asking for what happened by putting Schoeneweis in in the first place. And like the man in the gasoline video, he and the team were burned for it. It's true that the Mets were playing their second straight extra inning game, and Schoeneweis was one of only 3 relief pitchers left in the bullpen, (Joe Smith and the frequently used Aaron Sele were the other two) but even that doesn't absolve Randolph of any blame here. Scott Schoeneweis is terrible. Even before he started pitching really badly, (around mid-May or so) he wasn't exactly lights out. And since the month of May, he's failed to do pretty much anything right. During a 5-outing earned run-less streak that preceded Tuesday night's outing, Schoeneweis still had more baserunners than innings pitched.

Into the game for the Mets: Scott Schoeneweis

Joe Smith should have been in the game in that spot, no question. But the bigger problem here is what the Mets can even do with Schoeneweis, who was signed in the offseason to a 3-year contract worth 11 million dollars. The unofficial excuse so far for why Schoeneweis is even still with the team is that his contract is so prohibitive, but it's becoming more and more clear that independent of his contract, Scott Schoeneweis can't be counted at all. Ever.

At least Willie knows not to use Schoeneweis in the 11th inning of any more tie games...one would hope. But really, what should the Mets do? From a business standpoint, I guess he has to pitch. 3 yrs., 11 mil. From a baseball standpoint, though, players are signed and kept on teams in order to help the team win. And it's clear that by pitching, Scott Schoeneweis isn't helping the Mets in any way. Wouldn't it make sense to either release him or shut him down, (it is doubtful that he even could be traded) which would put the Mets in the position of effectively paying him not to lose games? They'd certainly be getting more for thier money.

Regardless, it's quickly being demonstrated that this guy needs to be shown the door. Sorry, Scott.

----

A few other notes from the game on Tuesday night, and the Mets/Cardinals series in general:

- What is up with the Shea faithful? After the Mets were retired in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Cards up 2-1, scores of people left the upper deck. In a one-run game! Then, with the Mets having drawn to 3-2 on a Paul Lo Duca home run after the Cards went up 3-1 in the 8th, another significant batch of fans left after Carlos Beltran grounded out to end the inning.

What is going on here? Mets fans are some of the most loyal fans in baseball...or at least I thought so. It just seems very uncharacteristic for anybody to leave in the 8th inning of a one-run game just because the Mets were losing. Maybe in LA. But not here.

-The other thing I noticed about the crowd on Tuesday night is that it seems to be taking a lot right now to get the fans at Shea to stand up and cheer (like prompting from the Public Address system, for instance). Other bloggers have commented on this all season long, but I definitely noticed it for myself the other night. The same collective hangover from last year, maybe, that I suspect the team still has? Perhaps. But the Mets could have one of the most dominating home-field advantages in baseball, and it's up to the crowd to take advantage of that. This is New York, for crying out loud. It's frustrating to feel like you're in the minority when you root enthusiastically and are nasty to the opposing team.

- It's been nice to see the Mets string together a few wins over the course of the past week, but the team is still flawed right now. What was supposed to be a dominating lineup has a lot of potential firepower night to night, but it has been maddeningly inconsistent all season long. Carlos Beltran leads the team in RBIs with 44. For a little perspective, David Wright had 71 going into last year's all-star break.

And Carlos Delgado still isn't hitting. The Mets have two solid run producers in Wright and Beltran, but this year there is a glaring hole in the middle of the order that wasn't there last season, and it's because the Mets don't have the thunderous run-producer that Delgado was last year. I'm not quite sure what the solution is to this problem, other than for Delgado to stop playing horridly, so I guess we'll just have to continue to wait, hope, and see.

In general, though, the lineup needs to produce with a little bit more regularity. The team is winning games again, but if the Mets are 10 games over .500 and in first place by 3 games at the end of June, after losing 15 out of 20 or whatever it was, while all year the hitting has still not really come around to its full potential, just think of what could be. That's why I'm still a little frustrated. This will be a big road trip coming up as we head on to Philly for 4, (including a Friday doubleheader) Colorado for 3, and Houston for 4 before we pack it in for the all-star break.

- For the love of God, can the Mets please start hitting against bad pitchers? We faced Todd Wellmeyer on Tuesday night and scratched out just 2 hits through the first 7 innings. Then we only got 2 runs off Anthony Reyes (by the way, he's 0-10) in last night's rain-shortened contest. Mike Maroth did have pretty good stuff on Monday night, but he's still Mike Maroth. Come on. And if another example is necessary to illustrate the Mets' struggles against weak pitching, I submit one Tyler Clippard and rest my case.

-I wrote about Julio Franco on Monday, and my opinion still stands. This guy cannot be the go-to pinch hitter for the Mets. He grounded out to second to end the threat we had mounted in the 9th after tying the game on Tuesday night, leading to a collective "ohhhhh" from the crowd. And while I realize that he and Damion Easley were the only 2 options to come off the bench in that scenario, I still would rather have Easley up there. Easley can hit a fastball.

Not to mention the fact that Ricky Ledee would have been available to pinch hit in that spot had he not been used the at-bat before for Carlos Gomez, a move that I still don't understand. When you're managing with a somewhat short bench, as Willie Randolph is right now, you can't be using up pinch hitters to hit for guys like Gomez, who may be a rookie but still is fully capable of pulling his weight and thus shouldn't need anybody to bat for him late in a tie game. I'm a steadfast Willie backer but that move was not a good one. Kind of like bringing Julio Franco up to pinch hit one batter later. Kind of like bringing in Scott Schoeneweis to pitch two innings later. Not a good game for Willie Randolph.

----

Even with some of the team's shortcomings, it's still going pretty well for the orange and blue right now. And even though we're playing the Cardinals 4-A squad this week, it still feels good that we've beaten St. Louis 5 out of 6 this season. Hopefully we can make it one more tonight before this weekend's big series against Philly.

Let's go Mets.

(Images courtesy www.primetv.co.nz, www.guzer.com, www.blogger.com, www.metroactive.com)

old man franco

...From the notes section of today's New York Times article on yesterday's Mets game...

INSIDE PITCH

Shawn Green started at first base in place of the struggling Carlos Delgado, who had asked for a day off, according to Willie Randolph. Delgado had what Randolph termed “atrocious” numbers against Joe Kennedy (5 for 36), and Randolph said he was going to give him a rest anyway.

Julio Franco, who usually starts at first when Delgado does not play, was unavailable to play the field because his right knee was bothering him. Franco, who said he hurt the knee walking down stairs at Yankee Stadium last weekend, walked as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning.

Are you serious? Julio Franco hurt his knee walking down stairs? Really? And it's taken over a week for this stair-related knee injury to heal enough for Franco to play first base, where movement in the field is almost an afterthought?

Even David Ortiz finds a way to play first in NL ballparks

Many Met fans have been calling all year for Franco to either retire or for the Mets to release him, given his age, inability to hit a fastball anywhere except right field, and the resulting clogging of the Mets' 25th roster spot. You can count me out of this camp. I've always valued Franco's presence on the team, if nothing else for the wisdom and leadership he brings to the Mets clubhouse.

Franco did help Carlos Beltran adjust to New York

But the clock is ticking on old man Franco. For the love of Christ, he's 49 years old! And while his clubhouse presence and veteran leadership abilities certainly can't be discounted, he is becoming more and more of a liability when it comes to what he does on the field. Franco's 2007 stats are as follows: in 46 at-bats, mostly as a pinch-hitter but occasionally as a spot-starter, he's hitting .196 with 1 home run and 8 RBI. He's drawn 10 walks and struck out 13 times.

I'm not a stathead - I tend to value veteran leadership over VORP, and I think there are many important factors other than raw statistics in considering whether a player belongs on a team or not. I for one am happy that Omar and Willie seem to take these things into account when making player and personnel decisions.

But who else has seen Major League 2? At the end of Spring Training, veteran catcher and one-game playoff hero Jake Taylor is cut because the Indians can't afford to carry 3 catchers and Taylor's knees are simply too broken to allow him to make the team as the second catcher.

You felt bad for Jake, but the Indians had to do what they had to do

Taylor is told that he can stay with the team as a coach, but that he won't be able to make the 25-man roster. While he initially objects, he eventually is asked to run the team when manager Lou Brown is hospitalized following a heart attack, and winds up leading the Indians to the World Series.

While it seems that Willie Randolph is in no danger of suffering a heart attack any time soon, the Mets could learn something from Major League 2. Like Jake Taylor, Julio Franco has had a distinguished career that has taken him from Major League Baseball to the Mexican Leagues and back. But like Jake Taylor, Julio Franco is now too old to hold a roster spot on a contending team that needs all the weapons it can get.

Franco was an excellent addition to the team last year, and has played a big part in helping to make the Mets into the National League powerhouse that they've become over the past two seasons. (June 2007 notwithstanding) I've stood by Julio all year long, in deference to the old wise man and his intangible characteristics. But there also comes a time to move on. And if the Mets could make the difficult decision not to retain Cliff Floyd after last season, surely they should be able to recognize when a solid bat off the bench becomes more valuable than a 49-year old who's baseball-playing skills are fading fast. Even a ridiculously in-shape 49-year old who's baseball-playing skills are fading fast.

All jokes aside, Julio Franco could probably beat me up

I'm sure that Julio Franco will make a damn good manager one day. For now, though, the Mets should offer him a coaching job.

(pics courtesy boston.com, getty images, sportspickle.com, and NY Daily News)

crazy-eyes lo duca

In the sixth inning of a scoreless game last night, the Mets had runners on second and first base and one out. Paul Lo Duca was hitting and after taking strike one, took a called strike two that the Met catcher apparently thought was low.

Lo Duca instantly stepped out of the batter's box and walked toward home plate umpire Marvin Hudson, barking at the umpire as Hudson took off his mask and shouted back at Lo Duca. After calming down for a brief moment, Lo Duca must have said a few more words to Hudson, because something pushed the home plate ump far enough over the edge to toss Lo Duca out of the game.

And he wasn't too thrilled

Lo Duca followed with a tirade that only he'd be able to throw, getting in the faces of Hudson and then crew chief Ed Montague while Willie Randolph, Jerry Manuel, and Howard Johnson all tried unsuccessfully to restrain him. While Lo Duca shouted and pointed in the faces of both umpires, his Brooklyn-born, no b.s. eyes seemed to be shooting poison darts. If looks could kill, Lo Duca would be wanted for murder right about now.

Paul Lo Duca doesn't mess around

After giving up his argument with Hudson and Montague, Lo Duca left for the locker room, but not before throwing his batting helmet, bat, elbow protector, and catching equipment onto the field. As he stormed toward the clubhouse, Lo Duca departed to chants from the crowd of "Paul Lo-Du-ca...clap clap clap clap clap..."

Finally! During the Mets recent losing spell, this blogger and many others have been clamoring for the Mets to have someone - anyone - get into a fight, or throw some stuff, or just get angry enough to possibly kickstart the team out of their 4 for the month of June rut.

Kind of like what Shawn Green did to Brad Penny a couple weeks ago in LA...oh wait

And while Lo Duca's meltdown wasn't the all-out brawl that I at least was waiting and hoping for, it reeked of a concerted effort on his part to be the sparkplug the Mets have seemingly lacked. The pitch wasn't even that low - he couldn't have been that irritated about a borderline strike call.

Of course, Lo Duca's theatrics would have accomplished nothing if the Mets had stayed true to June form and found a way to lose last night. Ironically enough, though, backup catcher Ramon Castro would go on to lead off the ninth with a double and score the game-winning run on another double by David Wright. A walkoff 1-0 victory.

This afternoon, the Mets scored more runs than they've scored in over 30 days (10) and beat the Athletics 10-2 to complete a three-game sweep over the A's. It was a dominating victory for the Mets where the team once again clicked on all cylinders.

The Mets first series win in 6 tries and first 3 game winning streak in nearly a month could have nothing to do with Paul Lo Duca's "offensive" (in Hudson's words) outburst, but that doesn't change the fact that the Mets fiery catcher and emotional leader seemed to see an opportunity to be the charge in the Mets dead June battery and took advantage of it, despite now facing a possible fine and suspension in return.

Or maybe Lo Duca really is just a crazy loose cannon who completely overreacted about a minor call, and independent of his actions the Mets were able to scratch out a victory last night and cruise to another one this afternoon. Who knows.

Either way, though, it looks a lot better for the orange and blue than it did on Friday. This week's 4-game series against St. Louis will go a long way towards determining whether the Mets have left the June swoon behind, or whether we fans should consider pulling a Lo Duca.

Let's take it to the defending champs this week...(again)

(photos courtesy Newsday, Getty Images, and the CW11)

what is going on?

What is going on?

I said on Sunday night that I would wait until the conclusion of the Twins series to reevaluate the state of the 2007 Mets, hoping that they might be able to swing a series victory against Minnesota to get themselves back on track.

If the Mets were a train right now, they would have already been involved in a severe and fiery derailment in which needless amounts of children were killed. They also would have run over those deer, unintentionally.

Well, the Twins series has concluded, and my evaluation is extremely poor. If Carlos Delgado ever did this poorly in school, his mother would have surely brought out the belt.

And I don't think he'd have that smile on his face

What happened? The Mets struggles are beginning to threaten even my serial optimism when it comes to the team; I thought for sure that Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano were going to lead the Mets to the playoffs in 2004, and yet I'm still not sure what to think about the 2007 squad right now.

It's just that what I've come to enjoy most about the Mets since Omar and Willie took over was the general attitude of winning; of excellence. I wrote about the Mets announcing crew yesterday - part of why I enjoy listening to Gary, Ron and Keith so much is that I honestly believe that the team's commitment to having a strong broadcast crew is a reflection of a general commitment to doing things well, and doing things right. To being the best.

On the field I've come to love watching the Mets as they are presently constructed (and managed) because they win by playing the game right - they hit cutoff men, they sacrifice bunt (successfully), they hold leads, they come back and win...or at least they did. Part of why this losing spell is so irritating is because it's so early 2000s. This is exactly something I'd expect from the debacle that was the 2002 Mets. It's terrible.

They're just not doing any of these little things. Take last night's game, for example. Even after Ollie gave up a 2-run job to Torri Hunter that made the score 3-2 Twins, we were still in the game. We had already blown leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but nothing had gotten out of control.

Until the 6th inning. Leadoff double. Fly out to right to move the runner to third. Perez is out of the game hoping his bullpen can bail him out. Joe Smith comes in and promptly allows Ollie's runner to score. 4-2 Twins.

Don't worry about last night, Joe. It's okay. I could never be mad at you.

But that wasn't even the worst part. Okay, a 2-run lead - still overcomeable. Until Scott Schoeneweis comes in (why, Willie, WHY?) and gives up a first pitch 2-run double to Joe Mauer. 6-2 Twins. For all intents and purposes, game over - especially with the way we've been playing.

Worry about last night, Scott. You're a terrible pitcher.

Another one of the little things. The Mets now can not only not hold a lead, but they can't even stop the bleeding when their opponent has the lead and give themselves a chance to come back. When did this happen?

As depressed and discouraged as I am about the way the Mets are playing, I continue to maintain faith. Ya' gotta believe, no matter how dire things may seem. But my faith is being tried right now. I've gone from "I know things will turn around" to "I hope things will turn around" to "Ohhhh...(sugar!)"

"The fact that we're still in first place is great," said Shawn Green after last night's game. "But we've got to get this thing straightened out."

Thanks, Shawn! Indeed, though, that's about the only saving grace with the June swoon. The slide continues and we've still only lost 3 games in the standings.

But there remains a certain swagger that the Mets are missing, or at least a certain something. Some attitude. That "we're going to beat you and there's nothing you can do about it" look on their faces. At the very least, I'd like to see something that might convince me again that the Mets can be a championship team this year. Because I was convinced, and now I'm not so sure. Check out this post from got ny sports?. "The slide" is pushing the confidence of Mets fans everywhere.

One day at a time, I guess. If only we had that kid from "Angels in the Outfield."


(photos courtesy of danchristart.com, ahorre.com, bmets.com, mlb.com, filmbug.com)

favorite, least favorite announcers

Newsday SPORTS WATCH columnist Neil Best is currently running a fan poll to determine the most liked and disliked New York sports announcers and radio personalities. You can access the poll and accompanying article by clicking here, and Best will publish the results in his Sunday column this week.

I don't mean to sound too negative or (partisan?), but I was thrilled for the opportunity to voice my distaste for the Yankees announcers. All of them. I've been complaining about John Sterling, Michael Kay, and co. for years.

routine fly ball to Bernie...Bernie settles under it...and ohhhh what a catch by Bernie Wiliams!

Speaking of bad announcers, how happy am I as a Mets fan that Fran Healy is no longer calling Mets games. It was tough there for a few years. I was rooting for my beloved amazins', while at the same time absolutely despising the man who was calling our games. I'm somewhat of a stranger to self-hatred, and this was positively bizarre.

this guy was so bad

The Mets have since gotten it right, though. When Gary Cohen did radio play-by-play, I would occasionally solve my problems by turning down Fran and just listening to Cohen on the radio while watching what was happening on TV.

Now that Cohen is in the TV booth, I don't have to worry about any of this brouhaha. Along with Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez, Cohen helps form an all-star announcing crew that actually makes the game more enjoyable to watch, rather than having to be compensated for in some way. Complete with Kevin Burkhart in the stands interviewing fans and famous people, the Mets have definitely done well assembling broadcasters and sports personalities in the post-Fran Healy era.

nice job, Mets!

As far as last night's game goes, the combined oratory skills of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King couldn't have done anything to make the Mets' 9-0 drubbing at the hands of Johan Santana and the Twins sound or look any better. As many errors as hits (4), 7 runs in 3 1/3 innings from Jorge Sosa...it just wasn't pretty.

But enough of this hot streak-cold streak garbage. The Mets are what they are, and what they are is 38-31 and a game and a half up in the National League East on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007. Forget however many losses in however many games, or what it means when we win a game to end this losing streak or that losing streak; I'm already convinced that the media has been jinxing Carlos Delgado all season long by proclaiming his struggles over every time he goes 3-4 with a home run, and we certainly know what's happened there...people really need to stop saying the Mets have snapped out of it, or whatever, after each game they win. There's no snapping out of anything. There's 162 games and however we finish at the end of those 162. And then there's however many more we play between then and when we start next year's 162, and so on and so forth.

And hopefully we'll win as many as possible, but for crying out loud no more of this hot/cold high/low business. Slow and steady wins the race.

Let the team play, and trust they're all doing their best to play well, trust that they'll win, and trust that they'll find a way to make us all happy as Mets fans. It's not like the guys the Mets are trotting out there right now haven't done anything to earn that trust.

and everybody's happy!

There was the 3-0 win against the Tigers, and Friday's game against the Yankees, but until about a half hour ago it had been over 2 weeks since the Mets had beaten an opponent by more than 3 runs. As fate would have it, the Mets 7-1 June 2 victory over the Diamondbacks also happened to be the only other game the team won during that stretch, but still. Even the two other Met wins that prevented them from being on a 15 game losing streak headed into last night were only a little bit satisfying.

But oh, what a difference some good starting pitching coupled with production from the middle of the order makes! Last night the Mets actually looked like the Mets, circa 2006-most of 2007 so far, rather than doing their best impersonation of the Mets, circa 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004...you get the idea.

Carlos Delgado has looked a little too much like another big first baseman who played for the Mets recently...not naming any names

Really, though - the Mets can lose the next 2 games to the Twins and on Wednesday we can be right back to square one talking about how much the team sucks right now, but they did look good last night. John Maine pitched brilliantly, (7 1/3, 4 hits, just one run) Carlos Beltran hit a well-struck RBI double in the 8th, Delgado had a home run and would have had a 2 run double in the 5th if not for a circus catch in left by Jason Kubel (who?), the Mets even had a big 2-out hit in the sixth (Lo Duca's 2-run single)...there really isn't anything that I could find to complain about if I wanted to.

Aaron Heilman even pitched a scoreless inning

But I said on Sunday night that I was withholding further judgment on the state of the 2007 Mets until Wednesday night. Here, then, this is me withholding judgment. Last night's game doesn't get cast in bigger picture terms until the entire Twins series gets cast in bigger picture terms after tomorrow's game.

This was good, though. It wasn't a stop the bleeding win, but a win win, a dominating win, a win that on the part of the Mets almost said "we may have lost 12 of 15, but we don't care because the teams chasing us are the Braves and the Phillies and all we have to do is play decently again and we'll have our second straight division title under wraps."

Last night, the Mets were definitely more than decent enough.

next game: tonight, Jorge Sosa (6-2, 3.42) vs. Johan Santana (6-6, 3.19). I have no expectations.

...from metsblog.com...

Mr. Met is SO much cooler than the Phillie Phanatic:

in-game blogger

They say you shouldn't make promises you can't keep, so surely it's potentially dangerous for this blogger to write running commentary on even one Mets game - because, you know, you give a cupcake to even one classmate, and you have to give one to the entire class. In case this analogy is too vague, please don't expect me to in-game blog every Mets game. It just happens to be a Sunday night, and the Mets just happen to be playing their crosstown rivals for the final time this season. So, here goes. Right now, we'll pick it up with the score 5-0 Yankees and the Mets batting in the 4th. Ugh. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez appears to still have feelings for his ex, and it is hurting his current relationship. Despite allowing 5 runs through 3 innings, though, Hernandez is still in the game and will try to escape further damage. What's going on right now:

Top 4, 2 outs: Check that - middle of the 4th, Yankees coming to bat. Carlos Beltran just struck out on a filthy sinker from Chien-Ming Wang. I might consider this okay if Beltran wasn't already 5 for the last week and a half. It was one filthy sinker.

Beltran hasn't been doing enough of this lately

Bottom 4, 2 outs: Shawn Green makes a nice diving catch in shallow right field on a flare by Melky Cabrera. Green really isn't that bad a right fielder. He's just slow. He must have been playing in.

Bottom 5, 0 outs, 6-0 Yankees: Johnny Damon just did a replay of Game 7 2004, only this time he's done it for the Yankees and without the bearded look. A high fly ball by Damon over the short Yankee Stadium porch in right field lands in the seats for a solo home run.

Would you cut your hair for a million dollars?

Bottom 5, 1 out: El Duque hits Bobby Abreu in the back with a high fastball. I hope it was intentional, but I doubt it.

Bottom 5, 1 out, Abreu on first base: Scott Schoeneweis is warming up in the Met bullpen. Pack it up, boys!

Bottom 5, 2 outs, 2 men on: El Duque's night is officially over. Scott Schoeneweis has come on in relief, and after The Show manages to strike out Hideki Matsui, it's on to the 6th inning. 6-0 Yankees.

Top 6, 0 outs: ESPN announcer Jon Miller points out for the second time in 2 innings that "It's all New York, tonight" at Yankee Stadium for the Subway Series. He must really like that line.

Bottom 6, 0 outs, Robinson Cano on first: It would be really nice if The Show could handle a weak comebacker. I suppose it doesn't matter if he continues to be so unhittable, but...oh wait.

Top 7, 2 outs: I really, really wish David Wright would kill that dopey leg kick that he's added to his swing this year. He's rebounded nicely from a horrendous April, but I'm still longing for the 2006 version of D Wright. Yeah, the one that hit .300 and drove in runners in scoring position.

Too many video games

Top 7, 2 outs, Wright on first: David Wright strikes out, but the ball bounces away from Jorge Posada, allowing Wright to go to first base. Carlos Delgado has just scored Wright with a double, and now Jose Valentin stands at the plate with Delgado on second and the score 6-1 Yankees.

Middle 7, 6-1 Yankees: Jose Valentin hits a sharp ground ball, but right at Robinson Cano. Time to stretch - Delgado is stranded at 2nd.

Bottom of the 7th, 2 outs: Ruben Gotay just made a nice play on a hard ground ball hit by Johnny Damon, only to be outdone on the very next play by David Wright. Derek Jeter hit a hard ground ball to Wright's...right...but David made a nice diving play and threw out Jeter at first. Speaking of Gotay, though, he's been a nice little pick-up for the team. He plays smooth defense, hits a little bit...for a reserve/spot starting middle infielder that the Mets got from the Royals for nothing more than Jeff Keppinger, he's done pretty well. Abreu grounds out to Carlos Delgado - 3 outs.

Top of the 8th, 1 out: Gotay hits a hard single to left. Told you so. Runner on first for Carlos Gomez.

Top 8, 1 out, Gotay still on first, 1-2 count: Carlos Gomez swings at everything.

Top 8, 2 outs: After several weak foul balls, Carlos Gomez strikes out swinging. He's like a dog that's cute but can't stop using the bathroom in the house. In other words, Gomez is talented, he just needs some refining. On an unrelated note, I think "Taiwan Lightning" is a great name for Chien-Ming Wang. Thanks Jon Miller. Jose Reyes strikes out on a 95 mile-an-hour sinker from Chien-Ming Wang to end the inning. I've got to hand it to Taiwan Lightning, he's not bad.

Bottom 8, 0 outs: Stop flipping your bat, A Rod. You hit a double. Just drop it and run. I guess you have to do things your way if you're Alex Rodriguez.

Rodriguez will still need to perform in the playoffs if he ever wants to live this down

Bottom 8, 0 outs: Aaron Heilman gives Jorge Posada a nice-looking straight ball, and Posada rips it over the short porch in right for a 2-run homer. 8-1 Yankees.

Top 9, 0 outs: Chien-Ming Wang is going back out for the 9th - he'll try for a complete game with the Yankees up by 7.

Top 9, 0 outs: Ramon Castro starts things off in the Met 9th with a ground-rule double. Beltran's up with Castro on second.

Top 9, 0 outs: Whoaaa Nelly! Carlos Beltran hits a line drive single to right field that looked like a sure double but will nonetheless score Castro, making the score 8-2. Can't kill Beltran for not getting to second, his quads hurt.

Top 9, 2 outs: David Wright, version 2007, hits into a 5-4-3 double play. For some reason Joe Torre is out to pull the "The Toast of Taiwan" with an 8-2 lead and the bases empty in the 9th. Taiwan Lightning gets a standing ovation as he walks off the field from what remains of the Yankee Stadium crowd, and Mike Myers comes on to face Carlos Delgado.

- Carlos Delgado just struck out looking for the 11th time in 14 career at-bats against Mike Myers, sealing an 8-2 victory for the Yankees. -

I'm actually not too concerned. The Mets looked better this weekend, and didn't really lose anything. They still lead the NL East by 1 1/2 games. Tonight's game wasn't great, but the Mets didn't even play that badly. The Yankees were just on tonight - did you watch Chien-Ming Wang pitch? Not that this was a particularly welcome development, but despite my hatred for the Yankees, Matthew should worry about Matthew and a true Mets fan needs only to worry about the Mets. How's that for some Kindergarten wisdom?

Ultimately, the far more important thing will be for the Mets to take at least 2 of 3 from the Twins this week. The great thing about this cold spell for the Mets is that after 12 losses in 14 games they're only in first place by 3 fewer games than when this whole thing started. All they have to do is start playing .500 baseball for a week or so and they'll be right back on track.

It can only go up from here

Let's see how we can do against the Twinkies, and reserve our judgments for Wednesday night. They may well be unwelcome judgments, but even in that case, we can surely wait until a few days from now to tear anymore of our hair out, can't we?

It'll be okay. With the Mets still in good shape standings-wise, once they start playing well again they'll be sound as a pound. I'm confident in this team. Everyone's saying that the team is confident in themselves, despite the losing. It's only a matter of time before that confidence is rewarded, right? Here's hoping.

more links

Please note that I've posted more links on the right hand side of the page. Everything that I've put up is good - or I wouldn't have put it up - but in particular I would recommend Hot Foot, Chicks Dig the Pitcher's Duel, and Misery Loves Company.

For a little stroll down memory lane, check out "Bobby's Way"...yeah, that Bobby, now blogging about his transformed life as Japanese league manager/celebrity/most desired man in Tokyo. What a guy. You know, I always liked Bobby V - that said, I can completely understand why there are many people who don't feel the same way I do about the former Mets manager. The same things that make him endearing also rub a lot of people the wrong way.

Hard to deny the humor in this, however

Peruse, though, peruse away. Like Marco Polo traversing the vast, uncharted hills of Kubla Kahn's Asian empire, I'm just becoming introduced to the thousands of personal webpages that make up the Mets blogosphere, let alone the sports blogosphere, not to mention the general blogosphere. Enjoy those links and I'll keep posting more as I find more cool sites. Eventually I'll probably stop saying anything when I add new links, so be sure to keep checking what I will hope will be an ever expanding list.

METS UPDATE, vol. 3

The Yankees have just beaten the Mets by a score of 11-8. The Mets mounted a threat in the 9th, after singles by Carlos Gomez and Jose Reyes scored two runs and loaded the bases for Carlos Beltran with two outs. Beltran, however, popped out to end the game and seal the victory for the Yankees. I wish I could say I was surprised.

takin' care of business...finally

As some readers may know, when the Mets win a game at Shea Stadium, immediately after the game ends Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business" begins to blare from the stadium speakers. I'm not sure when this started, but for the last two years "Takin' Care of Business" has become somewhat synonomous with the team's success.

These guys took care of business

That's what the Mets have done since the beginning of 2006 - business is winning and the Mets have been pretty consistent in taking care of it. It has always seemed like the perfect song for this team; Willie Randolph has always done his best to run the Mets like a trusty, reliable, well-oiled machine. A machine that you can count on day in and day out to get the job done. A machine that is there when you need it most. For all of last season and the first 50 games or so of this one, the Mets were a winning machine - takin' care of business, every day.

But then 10 losses in 11 games made the team look more like a broken Kelvinator than the winning machine that its fans (myself included) had taken pleasure in getting used to. They were doing anything but take care of business - to use a more anthropocentric analogy, the Mets looked like a strung out 40-year old sleeping on his mother's couch. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but...you get the idea.

This guy doesn't look like he's taking care of business

Wait, though...wait...waaaait...oh sweet mercy! It's Friday night, June 15th, 2007 and the Mets finally win a game, looking much more like the well-oiled machine than the strung out 40-year old. In language Willie Randolph might have used, it was a nice, tidy, 2-0 victory over the Yankees.

Roger Clemens even pitched well (6 2/3, only 2 runs). Oliver Perez just pitched better. (7 1/3, no runs; and God it feels good to say that) The Mets probably should have scored more - they did have their chances against the Rocket - but they still did all the things that have been so key to their successes over the past couple years. Getting on the board early? Check. Jose Reyes played big in this game and produced both an RBI single and a towering home run to right to get the Mets going. Good defense? Absolutely, highlighted by several nice plays by Carlos Beltran and a great third inning catch by Carlos Gomez with Jeffrey Maier's hand in his face. Good pitching? Aided by the defense, Ollie Perez shut down the Yankees and turned in another inspiring performance. After Perez's departure, Joe Smith got A-Rod to ground out with Derek Jeter on second base to end the 8th, and Billy Wagner hurled a 1-2-3 ninth. A good win for the orange and blue.

Outside of that time he let Pat Burrell hit a home run off of him, Billy Wagner's been great this year.
(Creds to krupsjustsayin.blogspot.com for the photo)

Don't think I'm counting any chickens before they hatch...Jorge Sosa shut down Detroit last week and after everyone was ready to proclaim the Mets' cold streak over, they lost 5 more games in a row. But it was really, really good that the Mets won last night. They needed that game, and hopefully now they can get out of Yankee Stadium with at least one more win and start mowing through Major League Baseball again. Takin' care of business.

METS UPDATE: The Yankees lead 7-5 right now in the bottom of the 5th inning. Tom Glavine continues to do his best to make sure that he never wins his 300th game, as he gave back a 2-0 lead in the second inning and would be much further up the creek if it weren't for early home runs by Ramon Castro and Ruben Gotay.

METS UPDATE, vol. 2: A Miguel Cairo single has put the Yankees up 8-5. Scott Shoeneweis has come on in relief of Tom Glavine, which means we might want to forget about today and hope we can come back tomorrow night and take game 3 instead. We'll see what happens.

links

Be sure to check out the links I've posted for some other great Mets blogs. You can find these links listed on the right hand side of this page.

A brief description of what's up there right now:

- metsblog.com is widely considered to be one of the top team-oriented sports blogs on the internet. Check out this website - it's definitely somewhat of a one-stop shop for Mets information.

- yankees 2000 - promote the curse features a healthy diet of pro-Mets and anti-Yankees commentary, and explains why the Yankees have been cursed following their last World Series victory in 2000. I love reading what the writers over there have to say - it always seems like it's something poignant and usually funny about both the Mets and New York baseball in general.

- metstradamus, as far as i know, is just a guy who really likes to write about the Mets. Metstradamus puts up a lengthy and insightful post pretty much every day, and I've come in the last couple of weeks especially to really enjoy reading his stuff. It's good and you should take a look.

- got new york sports? isn't solely a Mets blog, but the writer is a huge Mets fan and blogs about the team in addition to commenting on other hot New York sports topics.

I'll try to get more links up soon...for now I've just put up the sites that I can't go too long without reading. Be sure to check out the official links that I've posted as well - WFAN.com, in particular, is a great website and a definite must-read for anyone else who has ever turned the radio dial to 660 AM and stayed up late at night to listen to the mellifluous voice of Steve Somers. Or maybe you just like the Mike and the Mad Dog show. Whatever your preference, there's no denying that WFAN.com is a great website.

Check out those links...as for the Mets themselves, they were embarrassed again last night (9-1 loss to get swept by LA) but they'll hope to rebound, I suppose, against Roger Clemens and the Yankees on Friday night. The Mets will send Oliver Perez to the hill, and hopefully they can snap out of this funk for long enough to beat the Yankees twice this weekend so I can at the very least have some bragging rights against my Yankee fan friends. The Yankees really could stand to be knocked down a peg right now, too. Despite a 9 game winning streak they're still 8 1/2 games behind the Red Sox and I would really like it if that lead didn't get any smaller.

The Mets will turn to Oliver Perez to try and right the ship against Roger Clemens and the Yankees

Enjoy your weekend everybody...and as always, Let's Go Mets.

no - really

ps, the Philadelphia Phillies are only 3 games out of first place. Dude, the Phillies?!? Really? It's nice to let your little brother feel good every once in a while, but any older sibling knows that there comes a time when you still must assert your dominance. They swept us last week. That was more than enough.

Hopefully this nonsense ends sooner, rather than later.

make it stop...please?

All right, this isn't funny. I mean, it was for a little while, right? The mighty Mets, in first place and 4 games ahead of the hated Atlanta Braves, rolling right along, a second consecutive division title starting to creep up on the horizon...losing? Hahahaha.

It's true that this team has had it's flaws all year. First David Wright and Carlos Delgado weren't hitting. Then Carlos Delgado wasn't hitting. Then Carlos Beltran got hurt. Then Carlos Delgado wasn't hitting. Then everyone got hurt. Then Carlos Delgado still wasn't hitting...you get the idea, but the point is that none of this mattered when we were approaching 20 games over .500. We were finding ways to win. Some way or another, we were finding ways to still look like the National League juggernaut we were last year. Life was good.

9 losses in 10 games tends to dampen a team's spirits, though. Now we're struggling. Now everything that was a concern, everything we were able to brush off before, is making us lose. What? This isn't okay. Can we get a clutch hit please? Or maybe, just for fun, hold a lead after the 6th inning? This also isn't 2004.

The Mets are just trying to keep us on our toes. They're teaching us, as fans, a lesson in complacency. We learned to be complacent last year, when the Mets won the division by 15 games. This year, though, David Wright, Jose Reyes, and co. are just trying to switch it up, cut it a little closer, make it a little bit more fun. But it's not funny. Please stop guys - really.

Here's to hoping we can get out of California with at least one win before we come back to the House that George Steinbrenner's tearing down for a big series with the surging Yanks. Jorge Sosa will oppose Brad Penny in about an hour at Dodger Stadium, and I'll hold my breath...

a blog is born

Greetings boys and girls!

BLEEDING BLUE AND ORANGE is a new Mets blog for the Poughkeepsie Journal. BBO will feature Mets insight and commentary, all from the perspective of a rabid Mets fan, while following the team over the course of the 2007 season and into the future. I'm Matt B. and I'll be updating BBO as often as possible - enjoy the blog and feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments section.

Take it easy,

Matt B.