A Nice Place To Be

Why is this Mets team so hard to root for? Maybe it’s that Atlanta is already about 7 or so ahead of them for the wildcard. Maybe it’s just that Pelfrey’s pitching. Maybe I can’t believe that Daniel friggin’ Murphy had been batting cleanup. And Duda’s playing first base. I know I like some of those other guys, Turner and Tejada and Thole and all those new pitchers who’ve been doing so well.

But when is Reyes coming back?

I’m watching the Mets-Dodgers game, of course, the one that starts at 9 PM Eastern, and it could be worse as they are 3000 miles away. But I do get to watch the Yankees and the Mets this way. So life is good, unless you begin to think that maybe you’re just a little tired of this whole Mets situation…all the uncertainty.

It’s not as if you can even be happy when they win. They’re a .500 team basically. And that’s with Reyes and Beltran and K-Rod. What happens when they hit the dusty trail? What happens if just one of them leaves? I guess that’s what I’m witnessing now, the Mets playing Tejada at short, in a lineup that doesn’t terrify anybody even with Reyes.

And thank God they’re playing the Dodgers tonight, a team that’s not likely to overwhelm anyone, and a team that has its own ownership problems. Ethier’s been pretty quiet but they do have Loney and Kemp, especially Kemp. Their pitching is a little suspect, and overall as a team they’re not scaring anybody, or exciting anybody either, just like the Mets.

When you watch the Yankees, it’s a whole different deal. Usually that consistent winning just aggravates me when it’s the big-spending Bombers from the Bronx. But they just keep winning all the time. If they need somebody to pitch or somebody to hit, they go and get them. Some of them are even easy to root for, players like Granderson and, um, Swisher.

Tonight the Mets heroes have been Beltran and Bay. I guess you could credit Pelfrey too as the Dodgers are still scoreless. But he did pout when Collins took him out of the game. He remimds me more and more of John Maine and what’s he doing now?

This game is finally heating up a little as Beltran and Paulino just managed a couple of singles, there are no outs and I love watching Bay lately when runners are on base. And, whoa!! Bay hits the three-run homer, his second of the day! And he’s not going anywhere. WooHoo!!

Now it’s the rather healthy looking Isringhausen trying to keep this thing rolling along. Izzy hasn’t been super lately but he has had his moments. And Tejada just made a diving stab of a Uribe hard grounder to his left and calmly got the force at second. But Izzy won’t make it easy as he walks some Dodger nobody. But he gets another weak-hitting Dodger, Ellis to fly out to center. And, wadda ya know? Here’s still another weak hitter at the plate. Izzy might get through this day.

And he does. Izzy gets a weak ground ball to end the 8th. The 6-zip lead would seem to be insurmountable. And the Dodgers have no closer either. It seems as if Donnie Baseball has his work cut out for him in La-La land.

Duda just muffed a hard grounder from the Dodgers’ venerable shortstop, Rafael Furcal. But, lo and behold, he then grabs a short-hopper to get the force. All is not lost. Maybe he really can play first. Mets reliever Carrasco now has two outs in the ninth….and now three. The Mets win the game, 6-0. Not too shabby.

So that ends the sports day at 1 o’clock in the morning. Of course, there will be the Mets post-game show but they’ll kill it with commercials. The YES network will be showing a re-play of the Yankees-Indians but, even with Granderson and Cano on my fantasy team, I can’t really see myself doing that.

But the commercials finally end and the show features Jason Bay. Deservedly so. And he’s all humble pie and graciousness. Maybe he’s over his troubles. Maybe he just had a severe case of the first-year with a new club syndrome. Maybe he’ll make this club a little more fun to watch, maybe even a lot more fun.

Maybe I’m just getting carried away. The World Series Champion Giants are next on the schedule as we approach the All-Star break. The Mets will see some better pitching for sure, names like Vogelsong and Lincecum and Cain. Those fellows could definitely screw up your chances for getting wins.

The Mets are 44-42 now and have 2 more with the Dodgers before they even get to the city by the bay. They’ll have to face the Dodgers Kuroda and Kershaw too so, all in all, things don’t look too rosy for our heroes before the break. If they can split the remaining two with the Dodgers and take just one of three from those tough Giants starters, they’ll be 46-45, creditable but not very much in real contention for anything.

What will the Mets do? Re-sign Reyes? Keep Beltran and K-Rod for the rest of the year? I’d love to see it. If the big guys all stay, maybe these upstarts can even make a run for a wildcard. After all, Atlanta isn’t so formidable either, especially if Bay can really keep producing.

Niese, Gee, Dickey, Capuano, Pelfrey. Can these guys keep going out there and giving the Mets a chance to win? I think they can. The relievers haven’t been too shabby either. Maybe they won’t be too hard to watch after all!

Keep the big guns, Sandy. To hell with the prospects. You’ll give Mets fans something to shout about, maybe even a wildcard spot. You have to believe, right? As long as we have Jose and Carlos playing for new contracts, that’s a nice place to be.

Just Too Much

Well, what can you say? The Phillies were just too much for the Dodgers. Too much pitching and especially too much hitting, too much confidence, too much ability, too much faith, in one another and spiritually too for some.

That lineup is pretty awesome. In fact, it was awesome last year before they added Ibanez and then Werth got that much better with more opportunities to play. But adding SP Cliff Lee was probably the clincher.

If any team matches up with the Yankees, who will probably clinch tonight against the Angels, who looked thoroughly beaten in Game 4 of their series, it’s these Phillies.

So far, two position players have dominated. Arod and Ryan Howard. Two pitchers have dominated as well. That would be Sabathia and Lee. You could say the Yanks have the better relievers, I suppose, but the Phils’ Lidge has looked much better lately while the middle relief Yankees pitchers have let down somewhat. Neither Joba nor Phil Hughes have been very good lately.

If there’s an edge, it’s in the home Stadium. Because the American League won the All-Star game, the Yankees will have the home field edge. But with two cities just about 90 miles apart, I’d be surprised if every player didn’t just sleep in their own beds for the entire Series. (Whether that would help whatsoever is another question, but it’d be pretty impossible to answer).

All we’ve heard lately from the Yankee media is Arod, Arod ad nauseum, of course, but at least he finally deserves it. What is it now, 5 homers and 11 or 12 rbi’s? Sabathia’s been unhittable. Rest? He don’t need no STINKING rest.

The Phillies don’t get as much press but Ryan Howard is a beast. He’s one of those rare animals who actually love getting up in those pressure situations, confident that he can end the proceedings with one swing of the bat. Arod has been Howard-like in this post-season but there is only one Howard.

Anyway, an outstanding Series it promises to be. Can ANYBODY hit Sabathia? Can ANYBODY hit Lee? The most likely scenario will be that the two or three games between those two aces will be decided in the late innings by relievers, another impossible situation to really predict. I’m assuming they’ll face each other but that may not be the case, given Girardi’s strangeness. Or is it Cashman’s nonsense? It’s hard to tell with the Yankees.

Then there’s Burnett and Hamels, Blanton and Pettite, and maybe even Joba and Pedro. How great would that be? All I know for sure is that it’ll be a World Series I’ll enjoy thoroughly, and probably a seven-game affair. (If it ends in four, I’ll be inconsolable).

This is all premature, right? The Angels can still come back? I don’t think so.

Ya Can't Go Back?

Who says ya can’t go back? Tell that to Jason Giambi. Tell that to Tom Glavine. And now Ken Griffey. Wouldn’t it be nice for all these once-greats to become future greats too? These are three players you have trouble rooting against. Even when Giambi was a Yankee, I couldn’t do anything but wish him well.

It’s shaping up as quite a season….one to remember. That is, if you like the Yankees and Dodgers. As far as I can see, if the Dodgers manage to get goofy Manny, they’ll be big trouble for any team, even the Yankees.

The Dodgers have re-signed Casey Blake and Rafael Furcal. And they just picked up a very nice second baseman in Orlando Hudson. They’ve got a pretty fair starting rotation and some very steady relievers, a team you can be sure that Joe Torre will use to his advantage, and theirs for that matter.

And who will be their competition? The friggin’ Padres? The Rockies? Yeah, there will be Arizona to contend with but that shouldn’t be all that difficult for a team with a lot of returning veterans, a team that came pretty close last year to winning it all. The Giants could make some noise though.

Lincecum, Cain, Zito, Johnson, Sanchez and Lowry….they’re the starters for the San Francisco Giants this year. Not too shabby, Jerry. Of course, the lineup doesn’t score too many runs, but maybe they won’t have to. I can definitely see the Giants winning a lot of games this year, and, once again, that NL West is nothing to write home about.

The Yankees will have it a little tougher. Make that a lot tougher. The Rays won the division last year, of course, and that was with some guys having bad years. The Red Sox just re-signed Varitek. That should make the pitching staff a lot happier, and, if nothing else, he is the captain.

Pedroia will be back, probably stronger than ever, and then there will be Big Papi coming off a down season. There’s another pretty fair pitcher on board in Brad Penny, and I see Rocco Baldelli listed on their depth chart behind J.D. Drew in right. The only position player on their team that I don’t like is Julio Lugo at short. And Orlando Cabrera is still out there…..

But it’d be a mistake to count out the Yankees. That’s really quite a lineup they’ll have. And one that should have a great deal of motivation to finally win something. I won’t run through the pitching again. We all know who they are. I don’t like their centerfield outlook, but hey, Nick Swisher will be a much tougher out than Melky ever was.

I’d look for better seasons from some of these Yankees too. They could have a lot of guys having last hurrahs. Godzilla, his knees have been fixed. Posada, he’ll be back, Damon, he should be just as good as ever, probably a little better.

A good pitching staff should help energize that entire team. In fact, it’s hard to believe the Yankees could have been so stupid as to waste an entire year with just two or three leigtimate starters. But then, Cashman was never that bright. If there’s a weak link on the Yankees, he’s it. Money can’t cure everything.

It’s a shame though that it looks as if it’ll be the same contenders again. But then it always looks that way. Who would’ve believed the Rays could go to the World Series last year? Except my brother, of course. And there were the Rockies before that.

Dark horses? I don’t know but I kind of like what the Oakland A’s have been doing, and I think the Marlins and the Cards might finally do something too.

The A’s added Matt Holliday besides Giambi and that should add about fifty to sixty homers right there. They’ll have a very improved lineup and it looks as if the team won’t be moving so that should give them some stability too. I’m not that crazy about their pitching staff but Billy Beane always seems to come up with something. And look for Jack Cust to put more than a few over the wall.

They’ll have the Angels to contend with though, so I wouldn’t look for them to win anything outright, but who’s to say they couldn’t grab the wildcard? The AL East teams will be knocking the heck out of one another so I wouldn’t imagine anybody’s record in that division will be too overpowering.

In the AL Central, there will be the Indians, another team I have hopes for, and the White Sox and Twins will be there too at the end. But somehow, those teams never seem to have much luck. So, the A’s might just have a chance to sneak in there. And if Giambi can help put them over the top, so much the better.

Just as the AL East teams will be knocking one another about, a similar situation should develop in the NL East with the Phillies, Mets and an improved Marlins team. The Cubs should win the NL Central again, but there’s not much else to contend with in the Central. So the Giants might just have a shot at a wildcard too.

Giambi may bring the A’s back but Glavine and Grifffey will have their hands full to have any effect whatsoever on the Braves and Mariners. I’m as romantic as the next guy, but there’s a limit to what I can believe. The Mariners have a LOT of question marks..

The Braves had nothing last year. They look to have nothing this year too. Not that this makes me very unhappy. If there is a team I hate in the NL as much as the Yankees in the AL, it’s the Braves.

But I’ll be hoping Glavine can make his mark on them anyway, while I wait for Griffey and Giambi to put thirty or so over the wall.

A Tribute to Manny

Yes, baseball is all about pitching and defense, but you wouldn't know it from the action on deadline day. Hitters carried the day. In three pretty huge surprises, Manny Ramirez went NOT to Florida at all, but wound up with the Dodgers, and gets to be Joe Torre's player, no longer his nemesis. Ken Griffey Jr. leaves the Reds after all those years. And Pudge of course will wear a Yankees uniform.

Only the Pudge trade could even be remotely related to pitching, as the catcher, of course, is one half of every pitching matchup. And Pudge will have to represent the defense as well, for Manny surely won't be a Gold Glover, and Griffey, though he'll play centerfield in his new role with the White Sox, is kind of long in the tooth to be able to make an impact that way anymore.

Yankees fans are thrilled. Not only did they pick up one of the very best catchers in the game, but they won't have to face Manny anymore. Mets fans are happy too, for, although the Mets made absolutely no deals, they won't have to face a Marlins team with Manny on it.

All those pitchers who could have gone elsewhere, Washburn, the guys in Toronto (pick a guy), and just about every pitcher not playing for a contender, was fodder for the rumor mill. But the GM's went for hitting on the last day. And WHAT hitters!

Manny Ramirez is a career .312 hitter and he's hit 510 homers. Ken Griffey Jr. is a career .288 with 608 home runs. Pudge isn't really in the same class but he does hold some records for 4-hit games. And his .302 career batting average over so many years stamps him as an All-Star candidate as well, though he's hit "only" 293 dingers.

Dodgers fans should be especially happy. Over a 2-day period, they picked up Casey Blake from the Indians, another power hitter, and now they get Ramirez. The Dodgers weren't scoring enough runs, something Mr. Torre, after all those Yankees sluggers, can't really deal with. And now he won't have to.

Torre’s outfield juggling may not cease altogether, but he’s certainly holding some more powerful cards. The Dodgers hit only 74 home runs this year, next to last in home runs and fifth from the bottom in RBI’s in both leagues. Casey Blake has 11 homers and 58 rbi’s while Ramirez currently has 20 dingers and 68 ribbies. Dodger fortunes look much brighter as their pitching has been good, currently holding the league’s third best earned run average.

I know some of the Boston faithful think this was a good move, as they did get Jason Bay, a productive and powerful presence himself, in return for Ramirez. And, of course, he won’t be nearly the same pain in the butt.

How much of a true “distraction” he ever was for the Red Sox seems a bit unclear. For a guy who’s been a distraction, he sure gets more than his share of accolades from his team mates, former and present. Former Sox now with the Dodgers, Derek Lowe and Nomar Garciaparra had only good things to say yesterday. Big Papi was pictured hugging Manny the other day, no doubt his realizing their days as the top third and fourth hitters in the league would soon be at an end.

I think Manny’s problems were with management alone. All the players seem to acknowledge his hard work and appreciate that he is a family man, a guy who does his job and then goes home to his family.

Of course, the players didn’t have to worry about the gamesmanship Manny used in his all-out effort to maximize his income over his last playing years. And they weren’t on the hook for his salary. So, in the end, the Red Sox got off the 40 million dollar hook for just the 7 million they sent the Dodgers to pay Manny’s salary for the rest of this year.

Boston’s management may be happy for now, but I have a feeling they’ll be despondent in October. Jason Bay is just not Manny Ramirez, not only with the bat, but I have a feeling they’ll miss the way Manny’d play all those balls off the Fenway wall.

But, most of all, they’ll miss his sense of fun, his enthusiasm for the game and especially his pure hitting ability. Jason Bay can’t be Manny. He’s a one of a kind.

Boston’s management says they’re tired of Manny’s antics but those antics won them a World Series in 2004 and 2007. Jason Bay hits a hundred points less than Manny with runners in scoring position.

How many times have we seen Boston opponents intentionally walk Big Papi only to have to face Manny? And how many times had Manny stuck their strategy right in the eye? Manny has to be the best hitter in the league following an intentional walk. I don’t have any stats on which to base this claim, just an observation. If I had to guess, I’d say it was about .660.

Ortiz and Ramirez, Ortiz and Ramirez, Ortiz followed by Ramirez, how many times have those words struck fear in all but the Boston faithful? No more. For an avowed Yankee-hater (in general), these last days before the deadline have been an ominous sign of things to come, a portent of doom for the un-striped.

So, for an old baseball fan, I guess it’s interesting that Griffey goes to those other Sox in Chicago. And it’s kind of interesting that the Yanks got Pudge too. And, yeah, it’s the first time ever that three future Hall-of-Famers have been traded in the space of 24 hours. Cool.

For all that, the real story yesterday was Manny Ramirez going to the Dodgers. Churchill said it best, “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

For Boston, the few have lost a key man.