More Shea demolition photos...

...via Matt Cerrone and Metsblog:

http://www.metsblog.com/2008/10/14/view-my-photos-of-demolition-from-shea/

Still so weird.

Sad face

Just thought I should put something new up here, you know, in light of recent developments. Plus the Phillies won Game 1 of the NLCS tonight. Christ.

Off-season commentary is forthcoming. In the meantime, feel free to peruse the following links:

-Shameless plug: Me on the Mets getting bounced (maybe you've already read it)

-For video and pictures of the dismantling of Shea, go to:

http://video.wnbc.com/player/?id=720161#videoid=720161
http://sheagoodbye.blogspot.com

It's pretty jarring, actually, to look at these pictures. I haven't spent nearly as much time at Shea as some Mets fans, but it's still where I saw my first baseball game, and it's still where I've seen the majority of baseball games I've attended over the years. I was never actually there for any of the great Mets moments in my lifetime, but it's still the location of some pretty good times connected with the Mets, and I still called it home. A seat that I probably sat in at some point has probably been taken apart by now, a urinal that I probably used removed. And by the time the Mets play another regular season game, all that will be left of Shea is a spray-painted baseline in the Citi Field parking lot.

As Mets fans, we should all take a moment to appreciate the significance of big Shea's date with the wrecking ball. It might not have been the nicest stadium in the world, but it still means something to all of us. Citi Field is going to be great, if expensive, but in the meantime let's take a look at those pictures, and the others like them that will follow, and reflect on what won't be there next season. Let's think about what it will look like the next time the Mets make the playoffs, when the backdrop for the next chapters in Mets history won't be our familiar longtime home. How weird it's going to be. I think it's especially difficult to imagine because Shea has always fit the Mets so perfectly - it's somewhat inferior, and dirty, and second-rate, but it's blue-collar, hardscrabble, definitely lovable, and it's been through a lot. The Mets basically represent that in a baseball team.

At some point I'll go up with a post about my favorite Shea moments. In the meantime, do yourselves all a favor and take a moment to reflect.

RIP, Big Shea.




(Images courtesy metstradamus.blogspot.com, sheagoodbye.blogspot.com)

A win and they're in (sort of)

Well, here we go again. Isn't it funny how history repeats itself? (Let's hope not exactly)

Although the Phillies clinched their second consecutive division title today, Johan Santana came up HUGE on three days' rest and the Brewers laid an egg, so we go into tomorrow needing only a win to prolong the season to at least Monday. If the Mets and the Brewers both win tomorrow, the last regular season game at Shea will be a one-game playoff for the wild card, on Monday night. If the Mets win and the Brewers lose, we've got an NLDS date with the Cubbies. If the Brewers win and the Mets lose, we're screwed. And if both teams lose - well that's just downright embarrassing.

The road to this point might have been slightly different, but it's scary how similar this last weekend of the season is so far to last year's. The Mets, trying to save face, playing the Marlins at home, and losing an ugly game on Friday night. Saturday brings an electrifying win - last year for the sheer gravity of the blowout and the brawl, this year for Santana's dramatically affirming performance; affirming, that is, as in Johan being worth every little bit in personnel and money that we paid for him.

Last year the Phillies lost on Saturday and we went into Sunday in the exact same position - a win forces no less than a one-game playoff. This year the battle is for the wild card, who will probably end up being the sacrificial lamb in the Cubs' eventual road to an unfortunate and quirky defeat in the NLCS. Oh well. Stranger things have happened.

But here's hoping that one way or another, the last game of the season, at Shea, against the Marlins, will be different in '08 than it was '07. Hopefully Oliver Perez won't reprise the role of Tom Glavine. If he can generate a quote from Jerry Manuel remotely along the lines of what Manuel said after the game today, we should be in good shape:

"How many did he pitch? How many did he throw?" said Jerry, grinning. "Wow, wow, wow, wow. I think if I had to describe that one, I would say that was gangsta. That was real gangsta."

Gangsta indeed. I don't know about anyone else but I'm pumped for tomorrow. It all comes down to this.


(Image courtesy espn.com)

It's a pennant race

Carlos Beltran's game-winning hit helped the Mets rebound from Wednesday night

3 games. Tied in the wild card. 1 game back in the division.

Last night's win was electrifying - one of those faith-restoring victories that made me excited for the coming weekend. If the Mets go on to make the playoffs, Ryan Church's game-tying slide in the 8th will be remembered as one of those bizarre plays that alters the course of a season at just the right time. Dude was dead to rights, and he found a way to slip into home plate under Koyie Hill's glove after somehow avoiding the lunging Cubs catcher while tip-toeing around the home plate dirt.

So can we pull it off? At the very least, we're going into a decisive weekend with momentum, as opposed to despair.

And I like that Johan - as opposed to Tom Glavine - will be pitching a potentially decisive last game of the season. Of course, we have to get there first. Fasten your seatbelts.


(Image courtesy newsday.com)

You only get so many chances

If the Mets go on to miss the playoffs, tonight's game will turn out to be the perfect metaphor for exactly why. You only get so many chances.

I tuned in during the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Mets down 6-5 after Oliver Perez gave a 5-1 lead back to the Cubs. With Jerry Manuel taking a gamble, the light-hitting Ramon Martinez dropped his first hit as a Met into a perfect spot in the right field gap for a leadoff double. Jose Reyes put down an average bunt, but Ronny Cedeno mishandled the throw covering first, and the Mets had runners on first and third with nobody out.

You almost can't even get too worked up about this inning. Daniel Murphy lined out, doubling Jose Reyes off first - unlucky. David Wright's flare to left went a little too far, settling in Alfonso Soriano's glove for the final out. Nothing you can do about supreme misfortune, although I contend Reyes should have been running there, to prevent exactly such a situation.

Mets bullpen holds the Cubs, we go to the eighth inning. Carlos Delgado leads off with a double. Carlos Beltran comes through with a flare into center - this one drops and it looks like Delgado might be able to score, until Luis Aguayo, most likely self-conscious and perpetually casting doubt on himself for all the other terrible decisions he's made in the third base coach's box, makes another one, holding Delgado. Still, the Mets have first and third with nobody out - again.

Ryan Church strikes out. First and third with one out. Ramon Castro comes to the plate - Beltran steals to take out the double play option with the slow-footed Castro up at bat. But Castro ends up grounding out anyway, the runners hold, two outs. Endy Chavez pinch hits for the pitcher's spot and is intentionally walked to bring up Ramon Martinez again. Luckily, Martinez works out a walk, and the Mets don't totally waste the threat. 6-6. Jose Reyes is up with a chance to give the Mets a lead...but grounds out to end the inning. 6-6.

The bullpen holds again in the ninth, giving the Mets another chance to pull it out, and then victory looks certain when Daniel Murphy leads off with a triple. Wright, Delgado, Beltran coming out. On 3-2, with Keith Hernandez insisting that a strike ends the game (in the form of a Wright hit), Wright chases a pitch out of the zone. One out. Delgado and Beltran are walked, but that means the bases are loaded for my man Ryan Church. Church hits a sharp ground ball, but the Cubs get the force at the plate. Two outs. Ramon Castro, looking less-than-confident, swings through strike three to send it into extras.

So pretty much, despite putting a man on third with nobody out in each of the last three innings, the Mets scored a total of one run. On a bases loaded walk. It was like a bad re-enactment of Groundhog Day. And if you've read the recap, you know what happened in extra innings tonight. You only get so many chances, but the Cubs finally took advantage of theirs and put the game away with a three run rally in the top of the tenth. The fans left - I honestly don't blame anyone who did - and the Mets went silently in the bottom half.

As I've written many times in this space, we've grown accustomed this year (since Jerry Manuel took over) to the Mets somehow finding a way to respond to these gut-wrenching, "you can't lose that game" type of losses. But if the Mets couldn't find a way to win this game, they might as well be SOL.

You're only handed a victory on so many silver platters. The Phillies lost - this game would have tied us up in the loss column. The Brewers won, so this was a must-win for the wild card chase, although with the way we've played the Cubs' b-squad this week, if we do win the wild card and have to face them in the NLDS, we're out of the playoffs in three. Mark my words.

The point, though, is that for all the resiliency, for all the excitement and the tenacity this team has shown at times, you've still got to put it away. What happened to the Mets? One month ago, they would have pulled this one out.

This isn't a repeat of last year. No, last year's team was complacent and lazy - that's not what's befallen the '08 Mets. It's something far different - something that cuts beyond Jerry Manuel, beyond Omar Minaya, and falls squarely on the shoulders of everyone in the Mets locker room right now, from Jose Reyes to David Wright. This year's story, if it continues to play out as such, is one of possession and loss. Something within the Mets - calling it fire, or desire, or killer instinct doesn't quite do it justice, but something - something gave them an ability to find wins in difficult places, to play .600 ball over the summer and make themselves relevant. They were tough. Gritty. But that's all gone now. Whatever that something is, they had while they were storming back over the summer, and now they've lost it. When it came time to cash in tonight, this team looked totally afraid and inept. That's something that Jerry Manuel can't change. The bottom line is: if the Mets want to make it to the playoffs this season, this whole team better grow a pair, and fast.

If we fail to make it happen in these next four days, I'll be at a loss for how to respond. How do you even care about upgrading a roster that, despite its shortcomings, was still good enough to make the postseason? Any future move the Mets make, any success they have from April to August, will bear the cross of two consecutive September crap-outs. A new manager won't fix that. Minaya's four-year extension has nothing to do with it. It's something the players have to deal with on their own, exorcise by themselves, the sooner the better. Just ask the Cubbies. Which reminds me: are we really about to have our season ruined by the team that hasn't won the World Series since 1908?!? Lord have mercy.

I'd love to believe, and the Mets have pulled bigger ones out of their you-know-where before, but I just don't see it happening this season. You only get so many chances, and right now, we suck.


(Image courtesy nydailynews.com)

"Preachers Preach"

That's what Jerry Manuel says, in reference to the team meeting he presided over last night before another unfortunate loss, marking another unfortunate chapter in another September swoon, setting off a round of premature obituaries from the ESPN talking heads, conjuring up doomsday images of another year that looks like it might end up being lost, all due to a late-season inability to beat the Washington Nationals.



“We just touched base on where we are, and try to get back in the direction we were headed, remind them of the good baseball we played and the good baseball we’ll need to play," said Manuel. "Preachers preach, and I just wanted to let them know where I am.”

If there's one thing that's currently tempering my feelings of despair at the thought of another September collapse, it's my hope that Jerry Manuel really is a much better Manager than Willie Randolph. Sure, the Mets have done a total 180 under his leadership this season, but there's one point we've all been making since April: the only thing that can settle us Mets fans at this point is a trip to the playoffs, to make up for what was lost a year ago. Until Manuel gets us there, all of the July and August excitement that got us back into the race is meaningless.

If Manuel is indeed a preacher, with the capacity to will his team go out and get it done on the field, now is the time to show it. Throughout the summer his calm but actually effective, assertive-when-it-needs-to-be leadership has paid dividends for the Mets. I can't imagine that Manuel hasn't had a certain amount to do with this team overcoming one unfortunate circumstance after another this year, and now it's time for the Mets to snap out of a second straight solemn September and get it together for 12 more games. Then it's a new season.

The bullpen woes are getting awfully frustrating, sure. But the Mets have blown an unprecedented amount of unblowable games this summer, and they were 3 1/2 up until the start of the weekend. As it stands, the visibly flawed and now Fernando Tatis-less New York Mets are one half game out of first place, locked in the tightest of possible pennant races.

This is what September is made for, and this year the Mets aren't frantically looking in the rearview, unable to prevent their car from going off a cliff. This year they actually know what second place looks and feels like. Remember that last season the Phillies didn't take over first place until there were just two games left. This year, there are 12 for the Mets to mount one last turnaround.

I still believe that this year's Mets team is fundamentally different. Consistency is far less important, seemingly, than resiliency. Remember that 1-5 road trip at the beginning of August? They looked pretty bad then too. But this team seems to have an indomitable capacity to look terrible, and then somehow get it back together. The amount of screw-ups that the '08 team has endured and come back from should inspire them to find something within themselves that allows them to endure and prevail in the face of one more. And it's not as if the Phillies aren't also flawed.

The bottom line is that this could still break either way. But I have faith that the Mets can pull if off; this season there shouldn't be any sense of "boredom" because they think they're too good. They know they need to step it up, now. The sense that they'll have to if they want to win another division title seems much more acute than last year, and they also know that one final charge to the post season will scream "this is a new year!" and shut everyone up once and for all. Then we can all relax and enjoy an October baseball schedule that will include only one New York team, not named the Yankees.

So yes, I believe. Ya Gotta. I can only hope the Mets, this year, will justify that faith.


(Image courtesy cbslocal.com)

Nice bounce-back win

Delgado was 3-4 with 2 jacks and 3 RBIs. What's gotten into this guy? I don't know, but I like it

6-3. And it only took nine. Phew.


(Image courtesy news.yahoo.com)

Not a good game to lose

It's not like you needed me to tell me that. It's pretty much universally recognized that blowing a seven run lead against your division rival in a late August game with first place on the line is not very advisable.

Shades of 2007 - watch out!!!! Tonight's game was the supreme manifestation of every fear that Mets fans have relative to our blossoming rivalry with the Phillies. This was like the game where we had a ten run lead and Philly almost came back and won. Except this time, they, you know, did end up winning. They're the team that doesn't quit, scores lots of runs, finds ways to gradually erase early seven run leads.

Mets fans have been conditioned to panic. This game sucked, but to characterize it and everything the result supposedly stands for so simply and viscerally would betray many of the facts in this situation. Like how we're (still) 9-5 against the Phils this season. Or how our success since Jerry Manuel took over can widely attributable to the fact that despite their own issues, the Mets themselves have made a habit of responding positively to setbacks - not quitting has been pretty central to this season's turnaround.

Or like how the Phillies have at least as much of a propensity to screw it up in the big spot as we do. Had they not stumbled over the summer, the Phils should have put us away earlier in the season when we couldn't buy back-to-back wins with Willie at the helm.

Get over it already. The Phillies have a bunch of good hitters, so they score a lot of runs. Sometimes, they don't score those runs until they're already down by 7. It happens

That said, it's still impossible to overlook the fact that you just can't blow a 7-run lead on your division rival, in a pennant race, in a game to determine sole possession of first place. Despite all the renewal, it sure feels like the Mets have had a lot of these games this summer. Just think of where we'd be had we held a few more of these leads.

It might be nice to win at least one of our final seven games against Philadelphia this season. Looks like it might once again be pretty important for the Mets to tap into some more of that newfound resiliency. What a long strange trip its been.

The Grateful Dead would be proud

(Image courtesy michpics.wordpress.com)

10 of 11...somehow

Do you hear that? It's the sound of a rejuvenated Shea crowd, cheering loudly and confident in a tight game that the Mets will find a way to pull it out. That crowd - and the Mets' ability to both excite and win improbably - has always been a hallmark of the Amazins' success, when they've been successful. That's what made it all the more painful to watch the team sleepwalk through a year and a half under from early '07 through the middle of this past June.





Of course, the crowd was never much help. It seemed that over the same period the only time anyone got out of their seats at Shea, or clapped their hands, or said, well, anything, was when the scoreboard or loudspeaker indicated that any of those things were appropriate.

Everyone used the term "malaise" to describe what the Mets seemed mired in through the first couple months of '08, appropriately. The entire aura around the team seemed very lethargic, from their ineffectual manager to the aforementioned crowd. No one was having any fun. People went to games to boo. It was like watching an old married couple that can't really stand each other anymore. Kind of sad.

Not everyone seems to notice these things, and maybe I'm just overreacting, but watching the end of the Braves game the other night, you could tell the fans were really into it. The players feed off that energy; every Met in the dugout was on the top step with their cap turned inside out, and when Omar Infante dropped Carlos Delgado's soft liner to left to score the winning run, the whole stadium went nuts and the Mets all celebrated like they were 12 years old and Jerry Manuel was going to take them out for ice cream after the game. When Delgado put the Mets ahead to ignite a five-run eighth on Tuesday night, it was the same deal.

There's a fundamental difference between a crowd that's on its feet because they're supposed to be, and a crowd that's on its feet because everyone in the stadium is just that stoked. The '07-beginning of '08 crowd would have been cheering for the Mets to pull out that win the other night, but it would have sounded tepid, dispassionate. It's just not the same.

What a difference a few months make. I went to two games within about three weeks of each other, at the end of July and beginning of August, and there seems to be a real positive buzz around Shea these days. It's as if everyone is just glowing at the fact that this season has somehow been rescued from the gates of hell. Carlos Delgado...hitting? Everyone is just so high on success right now.

Often times you appreciate something that much more when it's been taken away. After the Mets raised expectations astronomically in '06, only to fall short and then deliver last year's double downer, we're all just happy that the Mets are playing with passion again. Somehow or another, it's translating into victories, bullpen woes be damned.

Any team is only as strong as its weakest link, and the Mets are no different. How far they end up going this season will correspond directly to the amount they're able to win despite the ongoing issues in the 'pen. One thing that's encouraging, though, about this latest winning stretch, aside from the fact that Mets for once are finally beating up on crappier teams: despite being repeatedly undermined by injuries, a terrible bullpen, and other glaring flaws, they have been relentlessly determined to win. And they have. At a 39-21 clip since Jerry Manuel took over (as of tonight's win), the Mets have been playing like that for the better part of two months now.

Win or lose, that's a team I can always cheer passionately for. Judging by the recent tone of the Shea crowd, I think most Mets fans agree.


(Image courtesy newsday.com)

Mets bullpen blows it again

I've got to hand it to the Mets for becoming relevant again this season. They've been fun to watch and have taken the season from a pretty deep low point (basically the entire Willie part of the year) to a situation where they're in contention and are likely to at least stay in the mix through September.

It's unlikely the turnaround will turn into a playoff berth, however, if they lose many more games like the one today.

Another rough day for Heilman, and the rest of the 'pen

You just have to win when you hand your bullpen a 5-1 lead. You just have to. Who can we even trust out there to get anyone out? Eddie Kunz?

This Mets team has showed a lot of resiliency since Manuel took over, and they've needed it. Billy Wagner is the most reliable member of the 'pen, and he's got 7 blown saves. Will Billy's forearm get better? I hope so. It makes me uncomfortable to say it, but we need the dippin' Virginian more than anything right now.

As a this year move, getting Huston Street from the A's at the deadline is looking better and better in retrospect. When it comes to building a sustainable franchise, however, it's not really ever a good idea to trade your two top prospects for another team's relief pitcher (even if he is a closer). Nobody wanted to trade Fernando Martinez, (rightfully so I think) so the collective calculus seems pretty much to have been for us to leave it be and see how far the current squad can take us.

Might as well enjoy the ride...


(Image courtesy nydailynews.com)

1-5 road trip

Well, at least we can all temper some of that excitement, right? Relax a little bit, and remember that the last thing this Mets team is going to do is run away with this thing. Curb your enthusiasm.




Breathe in, breathe out.

All it took for the Mets to lose first place and (potentially) four games in the NL East standings was one 1-5 stinker of a road trip. A sweep at the hands of the also-ran Astros, and all of a sudden there's some gum in the gears.

It's not as if the Mets were going to win every single game for the rest of the season. 10 straight had to end at some point. But then the Mets responded in kind with consecutive series wins in big tests at home. We began using adjectives like "resilient" to describe the team, even batting around words like "mettle" and "guts" when talking about our players.

I'm hoping these last six games were an isolated incident, and that it just didn't go well on this road trip. Looking back, you can tell it might not have gone so well when you figure that the Mets in the last week managed to lose individual games started by Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, and Oliver Perez, who had all been brilliant lately. Pelfrey lost for the first time in nine starts. After pitching to a 1.38 ERA in the month of July, Perez had a rough, though not horrible day today (4 ER in 6 IP). The bullpen wasted another strong effort from Johan Santana, who once again seems to have been removed from a game too early (with one out in the 7th, and a 4-1 lead on just 103 pitches). Did I mention that John Maine got hurt?

It's that bullpen that seems like the biggest ongoing cause for concern. Duaner Sanchez's fastball is topping out at 86 MPH. Aaron Heilman has been pitching better, but he's been exposed time and time again and you can't rely too heavily on the guy. Billy Wagner's arm hurts, and when he is in there, he's turning into a slightly more lovable version of Armando Benitez. The other guys are going to have their hiccups, and they picked an unfortunate time to experience them together. Hopefully Eddie Kunz can be an effective reinforcement, because there wasn't a whole lot out there at the deadline for anything other than Omar Minaya's firstborn child.

Look, if one thing has been made clear over and over again this season, it's that these Mets aren't that good. They've proven they can compete for the division, but we also now know that in the post-Willie Randolph era the momentum halting 1-5 road trip is still a part of the team's repertoire. Jerry Manuel has proven himself to be a much better manager; that doesn't mean that the Mets don't have some issues which go beyond the guy leading them.

What this road trip has done is turned the Mets' upcoming home stand into another test. It will either get worse, and the Mets will go 2-4 or lose comparably to the Padres and Marlins, or the Mets will again display some of that newfound resilience and regain their footing. One thing's for sure and that's that Chris Carlin wasn't kidding on WFAN last Friday when he called this the "don't screw around portion" of the Mets schedule. The hardest team we play before a quick two-game series in Philly beginning on August 26 is the aforementioned Marlins, who we'll see this weekend.

Another thing's for sure and that's there is more than enough room in October for a flawed Mets team coming out of the NL East. If this remains a close race, anything can and will happen. There are going to be some peaks and valleys in the season, and with the Mets competing against other teams that aren't that good either, this road trip won't look as bad if the Mets can just prevent it from getting out of control. We know that that won't necessarily be easy, but we've also been given reason to believe that it can happen.

In the end, what are the Mets going to do? At this point, anyone's guess is as good as mine.


(Image courtesy nypost.com)

Mets skip trade deadline rager

If you didn't believe the Marlins would still be a threat with just a third of the season to go, you've officially been put on notice.




And that was before the Fish almost landed Manny Ramirez.

The Marlins handed the Mets their first series loss in over a month yesterday; the first for Mike Pelfrey since before Memorial Day. The Mets got out of Miami with a solid win on Tuesday night, but all in all you've got to be a little bit concerned about the Marlins. The team leads the league in come from behind wins for a reason. They fight hard, even if they play sloppy, NBA Jam baseball (see Dan Uggla) in a football stadium.

Not that the Mets didn't play hard in losing 2 of 3. Jerry's still got them playing inspired, tenacious baseball. Ultimately they've got some obvious shortcomings, and they can't be expected to win every game or every series. Mike Pelfrey's going to have a bad start. It happens. Let's just hope the bullpen gets it together and Ryan Church makes it back soon.

It's a new and nice thing for me to feel confidence in the Mets. I actually thought they were going to win last night. While they may not win the division in the end, I still think they will. When it comes to an important game, or responding from a tough loss, I have a newfound faith that the Mets will get it done. As I mentioned in my last post, it's interesting that resiliency has become a sort of hallmark for a team that was disturbingly soft just a little bit earlier in the season.

We could have used some reinforcements at the deadline, but with nothing available for anything less than Jon Niese or Fernando Martinez, sometimes no news is good news.

****

Still, this was one of the more active trading seasons in recent memory. The Mets got to the party and decided to lay off the keg. Wise.

But with Mark Teixiera, Ivan Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr., Manny Ramirez, Xavier Nady, C.C. Sabathia, Rich Harden, and Jason Bay all trading places in the last month, there were definitely some winners and losers this July. Let's examine.

The big winners:

New York Yankees: Much as it pains me to say it, the Yankees owned the trade deadline this year. Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte for Jose Tabata, a maybe prospect, and several scrubs was a bigger steal than the Mets getting Johan Santana by default. Then they got Pudge Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth, and saw Manny Ramirez get traded out of the AL East. Add to that the fact that the Rays got no major reinforcements, and the Yankees seem poised to walk away from 2008 having bought out the rest of the league. Once again. It's pretty depressing.

Still, you've got to give Brian Cashman some credit. The Yankees wouldn't have been able to engineer those deals if they weren't able to take on limitless contractual obligations, but still: he got three key parts for peanuts.

Chicago Cubs: Already in good shape, they added Rich Harden. If he can stay healthy, they'll be in as good shape as ever to break their now-100 year curse.

Milwaukee Brewers: Added C.C. Sabathia. The downside? They added C.C. Sabathia. That was a "this year" type of move, and if they can't pass the Cubs or make a playoff run as the wild card, they'd better be able to sign him. As we well know by know, the prospects in those trades often aren't insignificant.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Just one game out of first in a crappy division, now they've got Manny Ramirez. They gave up some talent, but no Clayton Kershaw, and nothing from their big three of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and James Loney. And they kept the Marlins from making a deal for Manny. Thanks, Ned Coletti!

Manny's going to the beach...not the one in Florida, thankfully

Los Angeles Angels: ...of Anaheim. They were already the best team in baseball, and they added Mark Teixiera. They'll probably resign him. LAA of A has really flown under the radar this decade. They've been good just about every year, won a title, and they've got a good chance this year to win another.

The losers:

Boston Red Sox: Get Jason Bay for Manny Ramirez AND two prospects. If that doesn't sound fair, it's because it's not. The Sox basically paid to get rid of Manny. It's understandable that they wanted him out of town, but I have to question the approach here.

Jason Bay is no Manny Ramirez. Without Manny, and with the Yankees' reinforcements, the Sox basically have the third-best chance at this point to win the AL East. They still could squeak into the playoffs and make some noise, particularly with their pitching, but all in all the outlook for the Sox isn't so good right now.

If you're going to give yourself less of a chance because you want your disgruntled superstar out of town that badly, you might as well at least trade him for prospects in a forward-looking move. Instead, the Red Sox gave up two more of their own prospects and overpaid - dramatically - for Jason Bay. They're going to regret that.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Made out pretty well in the Bay-Ramirez deal, netting two prospects apiece from the Sox and Dodgers, but still got a pretty weak return when you consider the fact that they just traded two of their starting outfielders and one of the better lefty relievers in the game. There's a reason they haven't had a winning season since the early 90s.

Some other trade deadline notes...

The Reds and White Sox also made a pretty big deal involving Junior Griffey, but I don't really know as much about the players being exchanged there. That deal gives the ChiSox a pretty good chance to hold onto the AL Central, while the Reds make a deal they had to make and get a couple of young guys to aid in their rebuilding effort. Both winners.

Watch out for the Indians in the next couple of years. This year is a real disappointment for Cleveland, but they sold high on another superstar (Sabathia), just like they sold high when their luck ran out in the early 2000s. They've got a strong young nucleus, and stand to have some money now to bring in some lower-profile reinforcements. I say they're poised to make another comeback sometime soon.

****

With exactly a third of the 2008 regular season to play, the Mets head to Ten-run Field in Houston tomorrow night for Pedro's return (how many times have we said those words in his short Met career). With 54 games left, the Mets currently sit 1 game from first place, with the Marlins knocking on the door just 1 more game back in third. The Braves are 9 out, just traded Teixiera, and are unlikely to make any noise, but you can never be too complacent with the team from Atlanta, especially as a Mets fan. It's going to be a wild ride. Stay tuned.


(Images courtesy nydailynews.com, photobucket.com)

Unconventional Wisdom

The winning streak ended last Saturday. The Mets lost a devastating game to Philadelphia last Tuesday night. Ryan Church is still on the DL, and yet the Mets have still won 14 of 17 and continue to play exceptionally well.

A previous post in this space might have enumerated the Mets' myriad deficiencies, starting with Mike Pelfrey's lack of guile, Oliver Perez's lack of focus, Johan Santana's lack of aceness, the Mets' lack of two starting outfielders, and the downward arc of Carlos Delgado's career. It wasn't looking too good for the Mets this season, regardless of who was managing our team.

I was largely in alignment with the mainstream, but the Mets' recent surge has made many people look foolish, myself included. Pelfrey is 7-0 in his last nine starts. Johan and Perez just fired gems against the Phillies. Carlos Delgado has four home runs in his last nine games while hitting at a nearly .400 clip in month of July. And the Mets have won 14 of 17 without those two starting outfielders. Sometimes, you'd rather be wrong.

I was at Shea on Tuesday night, for my first game in 2008. I have tickets to the August 8 tilt against the Marlins, but I figured I'd try to go support the team for at least one of the games in the all-important Phillies set and get an extra game in before the big ballpark is ushered out and going to Mets games becomes a triple digit affair in the money department.

The atmosphere was electric. The Mets and Phils, tied for first place. Santana pitching. A full house on hand. Insults and peanuts, thrown in the direction of every Phillies fan in attendance over the age of 18 (you've got to draw the line somewhere).

Two home runs (one by Delgado) and eight strong Santana innings later, and the Mets have a 5-2 lead going into the ninth. Billy Wagner is unavailable, and Jerry says Santana's done, so it's up to Duaner Sanchez to close the door.

All of a sudden, Sanchez and three other relievers can't get a Phillie out. One six-run ninth later and Phillies win, 8-6. A boisterous ride home on the 7 train, ruined.

This was devastating. The worst loss of the season. A nine inning microcosm of last September. You don't lose that type of game and go on to win a division, I said on the ride home.

But what happened next? Two games and two Mets victories later, and we vault into first for the first time since early April...9-4 for the season, so far, against the Phillies. One game after that, and we're up by two after another Phillies loss, and another sensational performance by Pelfrey.

What we're seeing from the Mets right now is some serious resiliency, the hallmark of any good team. It was only this morning that I was able to fully process the fact that this winning stretch has required the Mets to really bear down on a few occasions. That loss on Tuesday night? No big deal. A blown lead that first night in Cincy last week? We'll put up a four-run ninth. The second game of this remarkable turnaround was the one in Philly where Tatis put us over the top in the 12th after Jayson Werth temporarily ruined Billy Wagner's (and my) afternoon.

It's interesting that Jerry Manuel has gotten the Mets to internalize everything that Willie Randolph ever talked about but could never actually get his team to put into practice. The Mets are fighting, and battling, and finding ways to win games. Manuel's "guys" are playing with the kind of inspiration and loyalty to their manager that Willie could never quite inspire. After Tuesday night, he would have given the media some positive nugget to chew on about battling back in the next two games of the series, but the Mets likely would have found a way to roll over again. That's assuming that if Willie was still around, this last Phillies series would have even been important at all.

And it's somewhat unfair for me to still be ripping on Willie Randolph. It's possible that the Mets' recent success has less to do with Jerry Manuel, per se, and more to do with a team responding to any new face, or the right guys being hot at the right time. Still, it's hard to argue that Jerry has pushed the right buttons. The cerebral Manuel's calm sense of urgency, with a twist, certainly appears to be trickling down throughout this entire Mets team.

Can they keep it up? Everyone on the Mets is stepping it up right now, from Delgado and Pelfrey to Robinson Cancel and Argenis Reyes. Reyes and Wright have rounded into form and are poised to put up numbers as good as anything we've seen from those two. Santana is a second half pitcher, and you have to like what you saw in a big game last Tuesday, even if he didn't end up getting a much-deserved win.

There is a lot of season left, and we don't know if Delgado can continue his pace, or if Pelfrey will keep being dominant, if Ryan Church will come back, if the bullpen will hold, if Carlos Beltran will finally get it going consistently. But I do remember how I felt about the Mets from around this time last year until about a month ago, and I like this a lot more. Regardless of what happens between now and when the leaves change, the Mets have turned their season around, and it's finally fun to watch again.


(Image courtesy nydailynews.com)

Nine wins

Does there have to be an all-star break?

(Image courtesy www.newsday.com)

Assessing Jerry Manuel

If the Mets fail to make the playoffs this season, it won't be because of their manager. That bears repeating, because for most Mets fans that would have been an entirely different statement just a few short weeks ago.



With tonight's win, the Mets have improved to just 13-10 since Jerry Manuel took over the team. On paper, that doesn't look that much better than the .500 ball they've been playing for close to 14 months now. In the Mets' recent 12 game stretch of three consecutive important four-game series, they began by splitting the first two (4-4) and only finished 7-5 because they took three of four in Philadelphia. Last night's win in Philly and the game tonight against San Francisco are all that currently separates the Mets from .500.

There's a lot about the Mets right now that doesn't look a whole lot different. Billy Wagner can still blow a save against the Phillies, and Aaron Heilman can still lose a game to the Cardinals. Ryan Church is still out with a concussion. Moises Alou should still retire. The Mets still beat the living daylights out of the Yankees in game one of that two stadium doubleheader, only to lose the nightcap to Sidney Ponson.

But while I might a month ago have attributed inconsistent play and any team shortcomings to a failure in managerial leadership, the difference right now is that I've quickly grown re-accustomed to the feeling of confidence in my team's manager, something that's obviously been lacking for quite some time. As most Mets fans, I suspect, will do if the Mets don't go anywhere this season, I'm prepared to chalk any failures up to the fact that this team might just not be that good. If the Mets don't go anywhere this season, it will be because the rest of the offense has had to prop up Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, and starting outfield slots in right and left that have been lacking a starting outfielder for significant portions of the season. It will be because Aaron Heilman, 0.64 June ERA and all, will always be unpredictable, and Billy Wagner seems to be far from ironclad when it comes to closing out big games.

These issues weren't Willie Randolph's fault, and they're not Jerry Manuel's fault. So why was Willie blamed for the Mets' collective failures (fairly in my opinion) while Manuel seems to be enjoying our (my, at least) affection and confidence?

There will almost always be a honeymoon period with any new manager, especially when they replace someone who became as deeply unpopular as Willie Randolph. And part of the initial satisfaction with Manuel seems to have come from the fact that he differs from Willie when it comes to a few key things that seem to have annoyed everyone most about Randolph. Still, Jerry Manuel has already endeared himself to Mets fans in a way that I think was always elusive for Willie Randolph.

Manuel is also a calming influence guy, but he's already been ejected three times and he doesn't find arguing with umpires to be pointless. He seems to place more value on conspicuous action, when necessary, to protect players (witness the Carlos Beltran situation with Brian Runge) or team dignity. He believes in setting roles for the bullpen. He talks about the need to play fundamentally sound, but before tonight's game actually got his team together to work on fundamentals, instead of just trusting the players to figure things out for themselves. Manuel seems to be a bit more willing to try new things in order to solve lingering problems. He has the advantage of having done this before (six years in Chicago), but in general he just inspires more confidence as a manager than Willie had been since really the end of last summer.

I just like the way this guy runs the team. At this point, I propose the Mets keep Jerry Manuel, regardless of what happens the rest of the season. Where Willie Randolph led the Mets through intentional dispassion and a Torre-like lack of managerial personality, Jerry Manuel seems to be more of a Met guy, already having established himself as a Gandhi-quoting cerebral type with an edge that comes out when necessary, like during the Beltran vs. Runge situation, the argument last night over the ridiculous Ryan Howard home run call, or the "tongue-in-cheek" comment his first night on the job about knifing Jose Reyes if he acts up again.

Mets fans were leery of Manuel because he came directly from Randolph's right hand. But it's also clear from the early body of Manuel's work and the other coaching changes on the staff that this is a fundamentally different Mets leadership at this point. Manuel may have worked with Willie, but he's his own man with his own ideas, and he's taken the team in his own direction. Mets fans understandably didn't like the idea of another Willie guy taking over for Willie, but the fact remains bench coaches don't play a very assertive role and Mets fans knew hardly anything about Manuel before he was promoted. To a large degree, I think we've all been pleasantly surprised more than anything else.

In replacing Willie, the Mets tapped the easiest resource, an experienced manager out of their own dugout - this seemed less than exciting for those of us who would have preferred a more radical change, and admittedly, Jerry Manuel was not on my short list of favorite candidates to take over the Mets. Regardless of my prior feelings, however, or what happens the rest of this season, I must now admit that the Mets careful, risk-averse solution has for the moment left the Mets with a manager with whose leadership I am at least comfortable, and I think its hard to dispute the fact that the Mets were fortunate to have a guy like Jerry Manuel so readily available.


(Picture courtesy nydailynews.com)

And the sky hasn't even fallen...

...Not yet, anyway. Carlos Delgado just hit two home runs and drove in nine in this afternoon's double dip opener, the Mets first ever win in any game played as part of an intra-city, two stadium double header.

The second home run stoked the fears of sky-loving citizens everywhere, but it seems like everything's holding up alright.

Game 2 starts in about ten minutes. It's Pedro vs. Sidney Ponson, who I'm told won't be allowed to pitch with his customary jagged bottleneck.

Sidney Ponson everyone!

15 runs sounds good to me. Can it be duplicated? It's high time we fix the broken record.

Mets outslug Yanks in opener (sny.tv)

Images courtesy emptythebench.com, nydailynews.com

Battle of the Manuels

If the Mets somehow come roaring back this season to make the NL East race interesting, who wins the division may come down to an epic battle of the Manuels.

VS.

It should be CRAZY.

Aside from that, let's run through a few more points regarding today's news.

As mentioned, the Mets managed to screw up a move that should have been seen as a real potential rejuvenator for this team. Now everyone's talking about how little class the Mets and Omar Minaya have, and where most fans have wanted to see Willie go, we all really just feel bad for the guy at this point. In true Mets fashion, we've managed to generate negative vibes from what should have been a positive move. Nice.

So instead of being happy when I heard the news, I just sort of shrugged, and thought first about how our organization really can't seem to do much of anything right. How in god's name do you get your fans to react negatively to a move they all pretty much were calling and chanting in the seats for?

Only the Mets...and you do it by lacking the fortitude to make the move when it would have been bold and ballsy. Instead you cave into the pressure of your city's media, and then send subtle hints in your press conference that you shouldn't be blamed for the way it was done because in the end it was really the media who drove you to do it in the first place. “You guys do your job very well,” said a sarcastic-sounding Minaya to his media gathering (Thanks to metsblog for the quote). Was he hinting at the aforementioned pressure?

Second point, and for this we'll go counter-intuitive for a second. I might submit that maybe this whole debacle is a net-plus, because with the just about universal consensus that the Mets screwed this up, now the pressure is off the new manager and coaching staff, with more attention focused on how badly we screwed up. Yeah? Wishful thinking I guess, but maybe the negative attention on Omar lets Jerry Manuel relax a little bit for his first few games.

My third point is also one I made earlier this morning, and that's that this team has some other issues. It's got some talent, no doubt, but unless Jerry Manuel can wave a magic wand and get Carlos Delgado to hit and Moises Alou to somehow lose 10 years, there are still some issues on this team. I've been beating the Delgado and Alou thing to death, but they're the most glaring ones. In his press conference, Omar made the rare move of taking personal responsibility, noting that he bears some blame for the team he put on the field. Time to get to work, Minaya. The issues with Alou and Delgado may be a little harder to resolve, but the Mets could start getting their roster in gear by not carrying three catchers and promoting another guy from triple-A (Pascucci or Aguila) to fill out the bench and step in occasionally at, you guessed it, first base and left field.

So the Mets have a few more kinks to work out, but the other at least is that with the end of this whole saga, (Omar said unequivocally that Manuel is the manager for the rest of the year) everyone can chill out and focus on baseball again. Now that Willie's gone, Omar can think about how little sense it makes for a major league team to carry three catchers.

And while many fans are unsatisfied with the promotion of Jerry Manuel, I really don't think any of us know that much about the guy. Bench coaches rarely speak to the media; I don't even think I'd ever heard Manuel's voice before I watched some clips from the presser. He's got a smooth voice that Matt Cerrone over at metsblog compared to a radio DJs - I'd say it sounds more like a cross between Barry White and an old black preacher. His post game pressers will be fun to listen to, soothing if nothing else.

But that's neither here nor there. I'm encouraged because although he's not the fiery guy that many of us might have wanted, he's probably the best choice for an in-season replacement. He's here, he knows the team, and he probably is a little bit more outwardly fiery than Willie. He, not Willie, took on the umps forcefully after that blown call on the Delgado home run/foul ball against the Yankees. And regardless of his motivational techniques, he's new and he's bound to have some new ideas. For all the fuss about Willie's demeanor, we forget that a new manager also brings with him a few plans for how to shake up the lineup and the bullpen and get his own winning mix out there.

So don't sleep on Jerry Manuel. There's really not a whole lot to lose at this point - we either turn it around this year, or Manuel's probably gone and we get a new manager next season with a few new players as well.

In the meantime, with the drama over, hopefully we can all remember how much we love our Mets instead of how much we don't like our manager. Send some positive vibes; with Santana on the mound tonight the Mets have a chance to win a second straight series. A new day has dawned and we can all move forward.

Let's go Mets. Now let us go forth and be fruitful.


Images courtesy cnnsi.com, jamd.com

Fired Willie

As of around 3 am Eastern Daylight Time this morning, Willie Randolph is no longer the manager of the New York Mets.

Two ex-Mets

After a win? Now that hardly seems fair.

A win, no less, in which Aaron Heilman struck out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter with two men on in the seventh to keep another lost lead from fully slipping away. A day after Robinson Cancel gave Willie a temporary reprieve, even the embattled Heilman couldn't save his erstwhile manager.

I should be happy, right? I'm just not so sure if this even matters. Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto are also gone, although Nieto in this situation is pretty much an extra in Omar Minaya's drama. And it's all even unfolding under the bright lights of Hollywood! Well, Anaheim, but Arte Moreno's not counting, so why should you?

But I'll refer back to the point I made yesterday: this Mets team has a few more problems than anything Willie's done. If Omar Minaya's got any guts he'll release Carlos Delgado and Moises Alou tomorrow, and follow through on his four years old pledge to make the Mets younger, faster, and more sustainable. I don't know, however. His bungling of the Willie situation would lead me to believe Delgado and Alou aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Did it just occur to Omar last night that Willie deserved to go? Not last October 1, or at any time in the last three weeks? Was Omar waiting for the right moment? If he was, I dare say that it's not right to fly the manager of a New York team out to California to tell him he's lost his job, after his team wins. If Willie was going to go, he should have gone before the Rangers' series, before game 2 yesterday, or after the next Mets' loss. Or at any time in last three weeks/8 months. The Mets really screwed this up, and despite calling repeatedly for his head this season, I actually feel bad for Willie Randolph.

On the bright side, we can write Rick Peterson's obituary as Mets' pitching coach. He catches a lot of flak for the Victor Zambrano "10 minutes" claim, but in a cleaning house like the Mets just performed, he had to go too. He's been here too long, and the Mets aren't pitching well enough. Plus the guy's full of it and thinks he knows everything. I'm ready to see what Dan Wharthen can do. As for Tom Nieto: Tommy, it seems we hardly knew ya. Any words of wisdom for Ken Oberkfell?

Jerry Manuel will take over as manager, with Oberkfell (formerly the AAA manager) coaching first and Wharthen (formerly the AAA pitching coach) assuming the same duties at the major league level. Luis Aguayo, the New Orleans team's field coordinator, will step in as Manuel's bench coach.

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry! We'll see what Manuel can do to fix the mess...



Images courtesy nydailynews.com, tshirthell.com

Robinson Cancel saves Willie's skin

With his first hit in...nine years? As pathetic as the 2008 Mets' season has been, you know things are getting interesting when the third string catcher wins the game with his first hit since Orel Hershiser was pitching for the Amazins'.

Which brings me to my next point: the third string catcher? The Mets' roster management has been so bungled in the past three weeks that its left me with a healthy doubt that anything can change this season with the current hierarchy.

Extending well beyond the status of our beleaguered manager. Two or three weeks ago, whenever it was we got swept by the Braves, I was fairly confident that the firing of Willie Randolph had the singlehanded potential to turn these Mets around and get us on a roll toward the playoffs. A fiery type - Lee Mazzilli perhaps? - could have gotten this thing fully turned around.

Now I'm singing somewhat of a different tune, inspired by Jim Mora. PLAYOFFS?!? Let's hold a lead first. Or replace our injured starting right fielder with someone other than, say, a third string catcher.

Apologies to Robinson Cancel, who makes Ramon Castro look like Kate Moss

This Mets team is deeply flawed. The flaws carve a canyon far deeper than the depth of any of Willie Randolph's ineptitudes. Would I still like to see Randolph fired?

Maybe, but I'm not so sure it would make any difference at this point. Perhaps Willie would do a better job if, say, the Mets had a starting left fielder. Or a real first baseman. Or a bench that included hungry players who have put up numbers in AAA and earned a chance at the major league level. Instead of, you know, Marlon Anderson and his sub-Mendoza line batting average.

Where's Chris Aguila? Hitting over .300 with good power in New Orleans, he was up for a day last week, until Omar Minaya somehow determined that Cancel was a better option. Then there was Abraham Nunez, and Nick Evans, and, heck, Raul Casanova, all promoted over Val Pascucci, the 6 foot 6 first baseman/left fielder in triple-A who's got 10 home runs in just over a month with the Zephyrs.

Nunez had one hit in about three weeks with the AAA club. Raul Casanova, like Cancel, is also another catcher...a waste of space with 25 precious roster spots. Nick Evans came from double-A. Omar Minaya doesn't seem to have the attention span anymore to perform any General Managerial duties other than making a blockbuster trade.

I'll tell you what I can't stand: that the Mets continue to trot out a old first baseman who doesn't look like he gives a crap, despite his .240 average and power numbers in a two year decline. Or that they don't have the balls to release the 42 year-old left fielder who's played all of fifteen games this season due to three different injuries. Or that their pitching coach seems like a better fit at a zen monastery or on a self-help bookshelf than in a major league dugout. Why isn't anyone talking about Rick Peterson (myself included)? The Mets' pitching hasn't exactly been stellar this season.

All I'm saying is that the Mets' travails these past couple of weeks have made it abundantly clear that this whole thing is so much bigger than Willie Randolph. Do the Mets have some quality pieces? Sure. But if the Mets rallying to win 7 of 9 and then going 3-6 in their next three series has taught us anything, it's that this is absolutely not all Willie's fault.

I used to think that in order to save 2008, the Mets would have to man up and fire Willie. Now it seems clear that in order to save 2008, the Mets are going to have to grow a pair and find a way to cut the dead weight. Omar Minaya should dump Delgado, Alou, and Rick Peterson. Then learn that the 23rd, 24th, and 25th men on the roster are just as important as Wright, Reyes, and Beltran, and perhaps give some of those minor leaguers who have earned it a chance when the Mets have a roster vacancy.

The Mets need change, but it's of the more wholesale variety. What they do with Willie Randolph doesn't matter. Several smaller but still significant moves are both more pressing and can easily match firing the manager for shock value. I don't want to root for Carlos Delgado in October, or a pitching staff that's still led by the Mullet, or the Jacket, or whatever you want to call him. Which is convenient, because there's a good chance that with the present orange and blue formula I won't face that dilemma.

In true Mets' fashion, the job status of Willie Randolph is what's being truly mismanaged. I'm thoroughly convinced, though, that if the Mets want to catch a good Phillies team this season (or the two other teams in front of them), they might want to look at some other potential improvements.


Image courtesy bp1.blogger.com

In a weird place

I'm not sure what to make of the Mets' 4 game sweep at the hands of the cellar dwelling Padres. Which is interesting, because two weeks ago, I might have picketed Shea. Right now, I'm just confused.

I feel bad for not having written anything on Wednesday. I missed a chance to talk about how well the Mets were playing - that's in the past now. Perhaps it was Gary Cohen who jinxed it, when after Wednesday's win he told Matt Yallof on Mets' Post Game Live about how badly the Mets were going to beat up on San Diego this weekend.

You couldn't blame Gary, really. The Mets went into San Diego having won 7 of 9. The Padres entered Thursday night's game with a 24-37 record, and the distinction of being the worst hitting team in the National League. The latter held up over most of the weekend, as the Pads scored just two runs in each of the first three games this weekend. Unfortunately, two is more than one, so by this afternoon's game the former stat had improved by a factor of three.

Fast forward to the eighth inning of today's game, with Duaner Sanchez on the mound, the Mets up 6-4, and two Padres on base. Sanchez powers a 93 mile-an-hour fastball by Scott Hairston for the second out. He bears down well, and seems poised to get out of the inning with Jody Gerut coming up next. The catch? Gerut's a lefty, and Sanchez is a righty, so the first law of over-managing states that Billy Wagner, the lefty, is forced to come in to face Gerut and try to nail down a four out save.

There are libraries of conventional wisdom to vindicate Willie Randolph's decision here. Your closer's ready; bring him in to set up the lefty vs. lefty match-up and end the threat in the 8th.

But it's interesting to note that while Randolph did the conventional thing, Pads skipper Bud Black saw something in Gerut, opted not to pinch-hit, and Gerut came through with an RBI single. 6-5. Tony Clark follows with a three-run homer, to give the Padres an 8-6 lead they wouldn't relinquish. Oh, snap. Sunny San Diego wasn't so sunny this weekend for the Metsies.

I didn't like taking Sanchez out there for the mere reason that he just looked like he was getting out of that inning. And he looked pretty disappointed walking off the mound when he got the hook the moment he struck out Hairston, as if he too was wondering why people act like it's a felony to have a right-handed reliever pitch to a left-handed batter. And for christ's sake, it's not like Jody Gerut is Tony Gwynn.

Willie's known for going with his gut quite frequently, and it often backfires. The gutsy thing to do today would have been to leave Sanchez in to face the lefty, trusting in his capability after a big K to get one more out. Today, Willie went by the book, and it backfired.




But what's more interesting to me is that Willie ultimately chose to go with a barely-warm Wagner instead of a pumped up Sanchez. Especially knowing that Wagner has trouble coming in in the middle of an inning.

In the broadcast, Keith Hernandez said that Willie made the right move. Matt Cerrone agreed - twice - in his post-game remarks on metsblog, as if trying to preempt the all-but-certain anger of his site's readers.

And to be fair, we wouldn't be talking about any of this if the fastball Wagner zipped by Clark the pitch before the home run had been called a strike. It was a strike. The Mets should have been out of that inning. Instead, we're all left only to ponder.

The Mets need to figure it out, and soon. Sanchez should have stayed in. But I can't even fault Willie for anything else these last four games. The Mets aren't playing listlessly anymore; now they're just losing. I really am confused, because for nine beautiful games the Mets were fun to watch and looking solid again. Now, I'm left only to ponder.

30-32, 100 to play. 7 1/2 behind the first place Phillies...ugh. They'll turn it around, right? I mean, right? Time's running out on "it's still early."

I just want my team back, and I'm still waiting.


Pictures courtesy padres.com, mets.com

The NY Times OP-ED Page Does Baseball

Former Cub, Phillie, Yankee, and Texas Ranger Doug Glanville waxes poetic in today's New York Times about the Cubs' heartbreaking loss in the 2003 NLCS against the Marlins. Glanville was a reserve on that team, but I would recommend his piece as a must-read for anyone else who watched or remembers that series. The Mets were irrelevent at the time, but after a 95 loss campaign I was still focused on what was both a riveting and in the end pretty disappointing post-season. With the Cubs and Red Sox both in 7 game LCS series that year, that's probably the closest we ever came to seeing an epic World Series battle of two cursed organizations; of course, in perhaps the most authentic fashion the Cubs and BoSox both lost that year and we were instead treated to the double downer Marlins and Yankees show.

It's interesting that with both teams (Cubs: 39-23, Red Sox: 38-26) looking pretty good right now, we could be set up for a Cubs/Sox battle in 2008. But of course, the number of cursed organizations in such a potential battle has since fallen to one (twice).

Note the other fans not named Steve Bartman also reaching for the ball

Anyway, check out Glanville's piece. Let's all hold hands and pray for the health of Johan Santana's bruised shoulder, as the Mets try to leave California with a winning record.

The Problem With Being Preordained (New York Times)


Image courtesy generalstupidity.wordpress.com

Perez

You get the distinct sense that if Oliver Perez can't put it together this year, he probably never will. It's still the bottom of the first inning right now, and Perez has already given up a single, a double, and a home run. Just a little triple and he'll have pitched for the cycle! There's a walk. Oh man, this is SO exciting.

This last week has been promising, don't get me wrong. But if the Mets are going to go anywhere this season, I don't think they'll be able to count on Ollie Perez. Just as I finished that last sentence, Ray Durham pounded a two-run double into the left-center field gap to give the Giants a 4-0 lead. Just as I finished that last sentence, Ryan Horwitz launched an 87 mile-an-hour straight ball into the left field bleachers for the second home run of the inning and a 6-0 San Francisco lead. This is getting old.

In general, I mean. Willie Randolph is out of the dugout and Oliver Perez officially just lasted 1/3 of an inning. That's Tom Glavine game 162 stuff right there...except for the part about Perez not being a Hall of Fame pitcher. But I digress; OP has just been horrible this year. I don't know whether he can't handle expectations, or whether last season really was just a fluke, or whether he really is just a crazy head case, but the exciting, energetic lefty the Mets thought they'd stolen from Pittsburgh has proven to be more of an enigma than anything else.

When you win 15 games one year, hire Scott Boras as your agent, and are entering the walk year of your contract, you have to be pretty special to pitch the way Perez has thus far in '08. Special, in this context, is not a term of endearment. Perhaps it's all part of some elaborate scheme on Perez's part to stay in Queens. He knows the Mets aren't likely to give him a Gil Meche contract. But maybe he doesn't want to pitch anywhere else, so he's doing his best to insure that there's no chance in high heaven he gets a Gil Meche contract, and the Mets will be the only team that wants to sign him.

Next question: is Oliver Perez capable of that kind of cold calculation? I don't think he's very smart. Scott Boras probably is. But I do think that Billy Wagner hit it on the head when he said that trying to talk to Perez about pitching is like talking to a brick wall. Even when Perez pitches well, you kind of get the sense that it's all smoke and mirrors and the slider somehow goes over the plate and it all just finds a way to work out. I certainly don't have any confidence that he'll be able to duplicate his success from start to start; in fact, I've never not been nervous before a Perez outing. Any optimism is always cautious.

Oliver Perez is the pitching equivalent of a really attractive girl with a horrible personality

It just doesn't look like he thinks or cares enough about the science and the head game behind pitching. Where Johan Santana pitches, Oliver Perez throws. And you can't be a consistent and successful major league pitcher by just throwing.

I don't know how much longer the leash is going to be on Perez, but a 15-game winner, however erratic, probably deserves at least a few more starts. The question after that is what the Mets should do if Oliver Perez still can't figure himself out. Send him to the minor leagues? Trade him? Who takes his spot in the rotation? Quite frankly I just hope the kid can realize his immense potential. We've seen it, which is why it's all the more frustrating when he gives up 6 runs in 1/3 of an inning.

****

The Mets did look good on this last homestand. They'll play 7 straight in San Francisco and San Diego, and if this isn't just another flash in the pan they should be able to win some more games here against the NL West's bottom feeders. I can excuse a loss tonight, after the Mets arrived in San Francisco at 4:30 this morning and Perez didn't really do anything to help anyone's cause. In general, I'm trying to hold off on judging the big picture anymore with these Mets, because that's driven me crazy for the last year and the whole thing just kind of keeps repeating itself.

All I want is to see them play well, and maybe provide the added bonus of being fun to watch. The wins usually follow. Two comeback victories in the same week is a phenomena that I'm not used to, and it's really amazing how much it looked like everyone on the Mets just started having a good time in the middle of last week.

****

6-2 in the sixth now. I slotted myself in to watch this entire game, but with a 5:30 wake-up tomorrow morning, it looks like Oliver Perez might have punched my ticket to sleep. It's worth noting that Claudio Vargas pitched magnificently in relief of the lackluster Perez tonight. Somebody wants to stay on the team...


(Image courtesy mikesmets.com)

What would you do?

Tell me I'm not the only one who remembers that show. I don't even remember the content, so much as the advertisements for it and the "wha- wha- what would you do?!?" theme music. Is that show still on? I wouldn't know. It's probably been replaced by Hannah Montana.

The title, however, is ever relevant to the current state of the Mets. I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but this Mets team has been playing like one for just about a year now, and there truthfully is not a whole lot else to talk about besides the Mets' inconsistency, gutlessness, and what should done about it. Everyone's talking about Willie Randolph, and there's only so many times you can say the same thing in slightly different ways.

And everyone should be talking about Willie Randolph. If we want to get philosophical about this, we can note the many ways that it's not entirely his fault. It would certainly not be fair to blame him entirely for the Mets' ugly level of underachievement.

Omar Minaya flew to Denver last night to reiterate his support for Willie:

"Willie Randolph is our manager," Minaya said when asked if Randolph's job was in imminent danger. "He has my support. He has our ownership's support. I am here to support Willie. I'm here to let him know my support, to encourage him and to let him know we believe he can get this team on track. Willie's totally dedicated to doing that, and I believe he can do that."

Not sure what this gesture on Omar's part is about, but he's giving every public indication that the Mets are going to stick with Willie. Part of what he said later, though, sort of ticked me:

"You'd like to be better than 22-23. I think we have a team that's better than 22-23. That being said, I am one to look at the big season, the big picture. It's about playing 162 games, and the goal is to win at the end of the season. The goal is to get to the playoffs. The goal is to win the division first. You have to look at seasons not in a 20- or 40-game window. On Sunday, we beat a very good Yankee team, and then we went to Atlanta and lost to a very good Atlanta team. As a general manager, I try not to look at things only in the smaller window. I try to look at the bigger window." (Mets.com)

This attitude epitomizes everything that's wrong with the Mets right now. If Omar Minaya is really looking at the big picture, he sees the Mets' 74-79 record since last June 1. I just don't know how after the four game sweep in Atlanta Omar can even get off bringing up the nice Yankee wins last weekend. If we're going to follow that logic, we can point to several of the Mets 74 wins during this period and say we played well, so you can't always look at things in a smaller window. The problem is the always predictable following up of the good games with, say, a four game sweep in Atlanta (or Philadelphia).

Fact is, there's something fundamentally wrong with this Mets' team, most people know it, and it's been that way for quite a while now, longer and longer every day. Omar comes off sounding slightly delusional with the suggestion that we can continue to stay the course and things will naturally straighten themselves out. You'd think he spent some time crafting the Bush Administration's post-war plans for Iraq.

Let's not get too political, but to use another analogy, the theme for these Mets is the same as the one that's propelled a young Illinois Senator to the brink of the Democratic Presidential Nomination. We need change!




Whoever's at fault, it's just not working for the Mets. If the definitition of insanity is indeed doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then the Mets are absolutely clinical right now. I think June 1, 2007, to June 1, 2008 is a pretty decent sample size, and the results, as I mentioned, have not been pretty for the Metropolitains. Something needs to change, because this team, as presently constituted, is going to ride out this season doing exactly what they've been doing for the last calendar year.

And the Manager, fairly or unfairly, is often the first to go. It's not necessarily about the degree to which Willie deserves to be fired - for the record, however, I do think he's earned it. Most importantly, though, when evaluating the status of Willie Randolph's job, we have to ask whether he's contributing anything legitimately positive to the Mets right now that might help reverse the flow of water into a ship that's clearly sinking.

So there's my question, I suppose, to anyone who thinks the Mets shouldn't fire Willie. What do we gain by keeping him around? How does he help us save 2008? Because as dire as things seem right now, 66% of the season is yet to be played. Mets fans more than anyone else should know right now that the trajectory of an entire season can change in two weeks. There's no reason that such a dramatic turn of events can't happen in the Mets' favor this season if we make the right moves, as we Met fans tend to forget in the current toxic orange and blue climate that we root for a team that came roaring back in '69, '73, '99, and '01 - even if we did ultimately fall short in a couple of those years, all was not lost.

But it's going to take something. For a historically cautious franchise, the only way to save 2008 might be to bite the bullet and make an uncommonly bold move. Because it's painfully clear that there needs to be something significantly different about this Mets team, and soon.

(Images courtesy rugratonline.com, obamamedia.files.wordpress.com)

No Good

Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

(Image: nydailynews.com)

Johan Santana, Mets lose 4-2, swept by Braves in Atlanta (Daily News)
Santana, Mets swept by Braves, fall below .500 (Newsday)
Mets undone by Braves' late rally (Mets.com)

Sunday Night Special

Maybe I'm in such a good mood on this Monday morning because I had the fortune to be pleasantly surprised last night. Who doesn't like a good surprise?

I'm a naturally optimistic person, but when your favorite baseball team underachieves to a chronic .500 record for the better part of a year, makes you look silly every time you try to figure them out, and constantly loses the Sunday night game after you thought they showed you something on Saturday afternoon, you learn to be cynical. Just a little bit, as Willie Randolph might say.

So I was a little bit surprised last night. And while nothing that the Mets did over the weekend makes a lick of a difference until they can, say, win 8 of their next 10 or something like that, they definitely did look good. They hit in the clutch. Oliver Perez pitched well. They responded to adversity: first "f---ing shocker," then the nonsense in the fourth inning last night.

Everyone loves Derek Jeter and it makes me sick. I mean, it's all a little ridiculous. Like when Carlos Delgado rips a shot down the left field line in the fourth inning last night, where it bounces off the foul pole and richochets into the stands (on the foul side) for a three-run homer. Anyone who has ever umpired a little league game knows that that's still a home run.

Where's his Edge? I'm talking about his car, of course

Mike Reilly, the third base umpire and the only guy on the field with had both a good look and the authority to make a decision on the matter, hesitates for a second and then signals fair ball, home run. Derek Jeter argues. Everyone loves Derek Jeter. Mike Reilly begins to doubt himself becaues Derek Jeter said it wasn't a home run, then lets Bob Davidson, the home plate ump with a decidedly worse view of the play, overrule him, and the ball is called foul.

The replays clearly showed a home run. But we don't have instant replay in baseball: only Derek Jeter, whose word is clearly more valuable than an umpire's initial judgment. Willie Randolph argues a little bit, Jerry Manuel argues a little bit more and gets ejected, but ultimately the home run is nullified, and the Mets are still only up 3-0 instead of 6-0.

So what happens next? Does Chein-Ming Wang find his stuff and manage to strikeout Delgado with the reprieve he's been granted? Will Oliver Perez find a way to blow a 3-0 lead, where things might have been a little bit more secure if he had been given six?

Delgado makes us all feel a little bit better and gives a bit of an f-you to everyone by ripping a single through the right side. Ryan Church scores and the Mets are ahead 4-0.

It looks like things could still take a turn for the worse when Perez immediately gives two of thoes runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Jeter single and a towering home run by Hideki Matsui. Perez is pitching okay, but he looks erratic. What else is new, I guess.

But Perez gets out of the fourth, then puts up three and 2/3 more scoreless frames while the Mets put up seven more runs. Church, who also prevented the Yankees from taking an early lead with a nice sliding catch in right in the second, hits a shot out to center field in the sixth. 9 home runs for Church in the early going, 5-2 Mets. Two innings later, David Wright leads off with a double, scores on a shallow sac fly, and the Mets mount a two-out rally to score five more runs in the 8th and put the game out of reach. Jose Reyes caps it off with a three-run shot, then goes Fred Astaire all over the Yankee Stadium field.

Reyes was in a good mood after hitting a three-run homer in the eighth

So there you have it. We did look good this weekend. But we really can't infer anything more until the Mets come back from Atlanta and Colorado next week. With the help of a double header tomorrow, they'll play four games in Atlanta between Tuesday and Thursday, then go out to Coors Field for the weekend. I'd like to see the Mets win both of these series. Is that too much to ask? In any case, the next week is the difference between this Yankee series being another chapter in the Mets' adventures around the .500 mark, or a potential launch point.

Over the past year, I've learned to temper any expectations with this team, but the weekend showed once again how good they can be.

(Images courtesy orbitcast.com, mets.com)