All That and Chile Miners Too!

It’s getting more difficult to focus. Definitely. There are a lot of things happening worthy of some commentary, that’s for sure, Brett Favre’s, um, sticky situation, the Mets hiring a GM, the Yankees looking a little vulnerable (though the Twins folded nicely, bent, folded and mutilated even). My favorite team (and God only knows why), the Mets, are starting over, hiring a GM who’ll run the show. The football Giants have been looking good lately and the baseball Giants are, like the Yankees, looking vulnerable, for totally different reasons. My adopted team this year, the Texas Rangers (they’re easy to like if you forget about George Bush and who’s more eminently forgettable), finally put away the Rays in a ridiculous series that featured great performances by the “away” team in the home park. Even the Knicks and Nets are beginning to become print-worthy.

I’m so tempted to just come out and say that Brett Favre is a pig, evil incarnate, one hell of a quarterback, if you don’t count all those turnovers. And then, what a surprise, a 41 year old guy has tendinitis! Bummer. The Vikings would be a pretty good team otherwise. But I can’t really come down on him until it’s clear whether he really took a picture of his privates and sent it out as a text message to his latest, um, amour? Anyway, I never liked Favre so anything I said would be just piling on.

As for the Mets, one burning question keeps coming to me. And that is, “Where did it all go wrong, Omar?” We were looking so good for a while back in ’06 and then we folded in ’07 and ’08, and then we really fixed all the problems in ’09 only to have the most ridiculously horrible streak of bad luck and injuries ever to befall a major league club. Things were never the same after that. The Wilpons closed the checkbook after Jason Bay and Oliver Perez. 2010 was a little interesting early before the team just folded up its tent right before the mid-season and right through the mid-term break.

To my mind, Omar is just unlucky. They say you make your own breaks, and there’s some truth to that, but really, he’s got that Mr Mxtplyk (from Superman) hanging over his head. I mean, could anyone have figured Ollie Perez would so utterly fail? Well, maybe. But still, he was Pavano-bad and worse, if just because he kept showing up, like a bad apple, a really rotten one, to the core, as they say. And then there was Jason Bay. If Bay hadn’t run into that wall, he would have been boo-ed out of the stadium when the Mets returned to CitiField. He was that bad.

It was right around then, I figure, that the Wilpons decided not to send good money after bad and let Minaya play out the season with what he already had, which was, sadly, not nearly enough. It’ll be a different GM and manager who reap the benefits of R.A. Dickey and Ike Davis, Josh Thole and that nifty second baseman. And that’s a shame, because there was a lot to like about the Mets before their tailspin. An acquisition then would have made a big difference. But it is what it is, or was what it was, I guess.

Jerry Manuel will be missed for sure. That he couldn’t make a third or fourth place team finish first is no reflection on him. He was funny, wise, ironic, and totally in the game mentally, almost too much at times. But you can’t hold that against him. He won as many games as he lost. And managers do win and lose games for sure, just as much as bad umpires if not more, although that’s hard to imagine. To me, 2010 was the year of the bad umpires, even more than it was the year of pitching.

Omar will be missed too, by me at least. Omar was a very personable guy, and if not for his road-rage-like tirade against a New York reporter, you could say the guy never made a mistake in that respect. Omar’s clubs played exciting ball almost all the time. Too often, that excitement kind of petered out in the really big games. That will ultimately be his legacy but not to this guy. As I said, the man was just unlucky. I’ll look forward to the new administration. I can’t imagine that they’ll be more likeable though than what we had.

The Twins stink in the post-season. ‘Nuff said. That the Yankees beat them means nothing. The Twins never had a post-season game they couldn’t lose. Without getting into cases, the Twins never faced a Yankee they could look in the eye. Every Yankee pitcher and every player in pin-stripes became a superhero. It was disgusting to watch.

But let’s review. There is Sabathia looking a little worn, a Pettite who pitched one good game, a young guy in Hughes who may get rattled in a big one, and a psycho-Burnette who’ll maybe be bad and maybe be good. If pitching wins post-season games, if that’s true, then the Yankees are in big trouble. They might finish off the Rangers, who were a little too happy after their win over the Rays to suit me, but even that’s pretty questionable. The Rangers match up pretty well with the Yankees position for position. They have pitching too, and not just Cliff Lee. C.J. Wilson, Tommy Hunter, Colby Lewis, they’re not too shabby. If you match 1-2-3-4 vs 1-2-3-4, closer vs. closer, setup guy vs. setup guy, the Rangers should be more than competitive.

We’ll see if the Yanks are the best team money can buy. The Phils and Rangers spent some too.

The Giants and Jets…..what can you say? Both teams are playing great football. The Giants do have an offensive line, even without Sean O’Hara. The Jets do have a secondary, even without Darrelle Revis.

All of that and Chilean miners too, life is good.

More On Mets (Get It?)

Okay, you’re expecting some Mets news here so here it is…..the Mets still stink. They are a little more fun to watch though. And taking 2 of 3 from Washington sure beats losing another series. Of course, it hardly matters now.
Thank God they’re not still pretending to contend. Now we can watch all the rejects in their farm system. Of course, the new guys are outperforming anything the regulars ever put together. So what does that tell us?
Bad things can happen when a team sits on its laurels, watching every significant deadline for adding players go by with barely a twitch. A flower grows way faster than the Mets moved this year.
Of course, that can only mean the ownership, aka Jeff Wilpon, has totally lost faith in the general manager. At this point, that can only be a good thing. Omar Minaya is a personable fellow but he hasn’t done much towards fashioning a championship team. I think a break is needed for Mr. Minaya. Have you ever considered fishing, Omar?
Let’s recap, 2006 was a tough year, 2007 was even tougher, 2008 was incredibly bad, 2009 was a hard luck year and 2010 has been another tough year. Hmmm, not good. There are a lot of teams that have done more with less.
Minaya does have time left on his contract though. If Wilpon hasn’t been in a spending mode, to say the very least, he may not jump at the idea of firing Minaya, who he seems to like despite his failures. There are some signs though that the two of them are already planning for next year, even if Minaya may not be the ultimate recipient of the benefits of the plan.
Here’s my take on the Beltran, Perez and Castillo flap (they didn’t attend a hospital team visit). Wilpon is greasing the skids for getting rid of all of them. If he can turn the fans against these guys, principally Beltran as it’d be difficult to suggest any Mets fans like crazy selfish Ollie or poor picked-on Luis Castillo, it’ll be easier to trade him for a lesser player, and let’s face it, these are the Mets, they’ll inevitably make a bad deal.
I’ve put my request in for a second baseman. I think this Tejada little guy is really slick with the glove, and I like watching him in the field, but he’s really got to show me something the rest of the way. I hope he does. If you’re going to have a weak spot in the lineup, it may as well be at second base.
Some team will want Beltran though, especially if they can negotiate a lesser rate for his services. Carlos Beltran, minus the attitude, would be a hell of an asset for any team. He’s still the most feared batter in the Mets lineup. Of course, that’s saying very little.
It’s fun to speculate though. The Mets could use a pitcher for sure, even if Dickey and Niese continue their winning ways. Who knows what Mike Pelfrey can do going forward? Not even Mike could tell you. But he is a hard-throwing right hander, as is the new kid Mejia. They probably mix things up pretty well for the two left-handers, Santana and Niese, and then of course, there’s the knuckleballer Dickey, who doesn’t even resemble other knuckleballers!
The Mets aren’t that far off really from some respectability. The bullpen isn’t really that bad with Takahashi and Purcell and perpetual Pedro out there. You can have the other two guys. So they need a couple of relievers on the pitching side of things.
On the hitting side of the ledger, the current depth chart shows a left field of Lucas Duda and Chris Carter, a ridiculously weak spot. Carter’s a pinch-hitter. Who knows about Duda? But Jason Bay will be back and maybe he’ll return to some semblance of a power hitter. In center, there’s Beltran or his replacement, In right field there is Pagan, not too shabby.
Then there will be an infield of Ike Davis at first, Tejada at second, Reyes at short and David Wright at third base. Davis will hit better next year for sure and he hasn’t been so very bad this year either. I don’t care for his backup though, this Hessman fellow. A nice big guy who can hit for power would be a nice addition.
It looks as if Josh Thole is a keeper at the catcher position too. He seems to be a tough out when the pressure is on. The Mets don’t have a lot of talent in that area….that’s for sure. Maybe Beltran’s replacement can at least be a guy with good stats for hitting with runners in scoring position. And maybe Bay will start pulling his weight.
The Mets could use a good utility guy in the infield too, a Ryan Theriot type guy who can play second base or shortstop. Even better would be a power-hitting second baseman/shortstop, even one that would just backup Tejada on one of his prolonged slumps, or one of Reyes’s prolonged injuries. How about Theriot and that magnificent Jose Uribe?
When you think about it, what makes the difference between the Mets and the Padres right now? And the Padres, despite their recent slump, may still outlast everybody else in the NL West. The Phillies and the Braves, though, would still be the class of the division unless Bay and Pagan and Wright and Reyes and even Ike Davis all hit and play to their capabilities.
Okay, enough about the Mets. It is, after all, football season. The Giants open up against the Panthers. They’ll lose, but by a less embarrassing score than last year, when the Panthers killed them 41-9 in the last game played at the old Giants Stadium. Look for Carolina to take the opener, but only by a 27-24 score.
Those crazy Jets finally signed Revis. But that doesn’t mean they’ll win Monday. Ravens 17-13.

A Second Baseman for Beltran?

Okay, so the Mets are still stinkin’ up the joint. Santana should’ve pitched a perfect game if he wanted to really win, so he’s got no one to blame but himself. Yeah, it was Pittsburgh and anyone would think somebody on that sorry Mets roster could hit a Pirates pitcher, even a promising one like Zach Duke.

But these are the Mets, featuring Carlos Beltran, who couldn’t be bothered to try to steal second when down a run in that late inning, I forget which, it’s not important. What is important is that he just stayed there. Yeah, I know, you go for the win on the road, yada yada, Jerry goes with the book all the time, and it says you don’t go for the tie on the road.

Screw that! Screw Beltran and screw Manuel and his book. This is supposed to be a team that feels it’s still in the race. This is a team that needs to scratch for runs. But if it’s best player is going to lollygag there on first base when the team desperately needs to score, why should anybody else do anything?

This is one sorry situation. Dump Beltran. I’m tired of this. Somebody’ll take him off our hands. And he’ll play great for them, no doubt, but he won’t play hard for these guys, Minaya and Manuel. And since those two are the management right now, and possibly into the future, let’s start thinking about what kind of player we want in his place.

What do we need? Let’s see….

A relief pitcher would be nice but that’s not the biggest problem right now. Geez, we could use a second baseman, especially if Castillo is going to go away. I’m willing to give Ike Davis another year at first base. I know he’s not absolutely killing the ball but he’s a player and it’s just his first year in the majors. That guy could become a star.

There’s Reyes at short, he’s a keeper as much as he drives everybody crazy. Then there’s sorry-butt Wright who tries to play third most of the time. In the outfield there is Bay, or will be, in left field once he gets his head right, and Pagan could play center and Francoeur, who’s beginning to try to have better at-bats at least, in right field. He’ll do for now.

Thole looks like a keeper at catcher and Blanco can back him up, that’s not optimal but Thole has done some things that show promise, a lot like Mr. Davis on first.

The starting pitching has been amazing, all things considered….Santana, Dickey, Niese, Pelfrey and take your pick, either Takahashi or Misch.

But we need a second baseman. Ruben Tejada is not the answer. Let’s take a look at what’s available. And who might need a centerfielder like Beltran when he’s playing hard, the way he used to when he was a happy camper.

First, let’s eliminate some. Cano, sure, he would ever play for the Mets, then there’s Prado in Atlanta, a hell of a player, and Phillips in Cinci. I don’t think the White Sox would part with Alexei Ramirez either. Polanco in Philly is getting older so might be available but that would be like bringing in another Castillo, only better. I can’t really see the Brewers getting rid of McGehee either, too much power, the same is probably true for Dan Uggla.

There could be some other untouchables too, like Pedroia for example, but consider that we’d be offering up Carlos Beltran.

I know everybody seemed to want Orlando Hudson. Whether Mr. Hudson agrees is my question, and that’s assuming the Twins would part with him. Their centerfielder is Denard Span though, and he’s pretty good, but doesn’t have much power. Beltran would be an upgrade but probably an upgrade not really required. The Twins have Morneau and Mauer already, and Kubel so…….forget Hudson.

Kelly Johnson in Arizona is a very nice player, good hitter, but the DBacks have Chris Young in center. But, looking over in their left field, there is only Gerardo Parra. There’s a possible deal in the making. The DBacks could use an experienced player like Beltran to round out the youth in Young and Justin Upton in right.

The White Sox have an interesting situation with infielders. In addition to Alexei Ramirez, who actually plays short most of the time, they have both Gordon Beckham and a youngster named Brent Lillibridge who has some good numbers in limited at-bats. As streaky as Beckham had been, they might consider a move for a Beltran. Their outfielders are Alex Rios, Carlos Ruiz and Juan Pierre. Juan Pierre especially could probably be replaced. I’d love to get Beckham. But Lillibridge too is an intriguing possibility.

The Rockies have Clint Barmes manning the keystone sack and have a nice guy at third base in Ian Stewart, who can also play second base. Stewart is backed up by Melvin Mora, an experienced hitter. I’d be interested in either Barmes or Stewart. The Rockies need help in the outfield. Seth Smith plays left and Ryan Spilborghs plays right field for them. Neither inspires any fear in opponents.

Stewart’s batting .267 but has belted 17 homers, with a goodly number of runs and rbi’s. Barmes isn’t the hitter Stewart is but plays hard all the time and adds to a lineup, at the very least. Luis Castillo can back him up but he won’t be around forever….or will he?

How about Rickie Weeks from Milwaukee? That would be a coup. The Brewers outfield could definitely use a Carlos Beltran. Although they are solid in left with Ryan Braun, their centerfielder is Lorenzo Cain. Their right fielder is Cory Hart. Maybe Beltran would be just what the Brewers need. Rickie Weeks is batting .274 with runs and rbi’s in the 80’s and 70’s respectively. That would be a pretty even trade, Weeks for Beltran, especially if the Mets picked up some of his salary.

I never thought I'd be happy to see Beltran leaving.

Beyond the Croaaroads

The Mets are scary bad. And the worst of it is that the guys who need to perform the best when it counts wind up doing the worst. I’m talking about Jose Reyes and David Wright especially but even Mike Pelfrey could qualify, depending upon your point of view.

Reyes was dreadful at shortstop. Wright was horrendous at third. (I know, I’m struggling for adjectives for bloody awful or, in Italian, “disgraziada”. Pelfrey hasn’t shown much for quite some time now but I was sure hoping it was a temporary thing, his lack of any stuff that can get outs.

So I’ve finally come down to earth. The Mets have some talent but they spit the bit when it counts, when the game is on the line. And you could say it was just one of those things, it was Atlanta where bad things always seem to haunt the Mets. But there is a pattern of failure among these “core” Mets. I miss Delgado….the Mets miss Delgado.

Delgado used to perform in the clutch, Delgado and his silly little notebook, recording the details of every single at-bat, scowling at his failures and lighting up the stadium with that wide smile of his….yeah, I think the Mets miss him too.

The most prestigious batter is now Beltran, Beltran, who hit all those homers for Houston way back before the Mets signed him, Beltran who could play center in his sleep, always gliding, moving fast but not really seeming to, and bangin’ the ball around the yard with pretty good regularity.

But there is that at-bat against Wainwright in his history too. And he was part of the collapses that mark this franchise. And let’s not forget his penchant for trying to steal third all the time, at the worst times, and almost always failing to do so.

Beltran went hitless yesterday. He’s now batting .215. You can’t really lead with numbers like that. He’ll come on eventually, it is to be hoped, but it’ll be too late. And I’m not even trying to pick on Beltran. But the Mets needed something last night.

The best player for the Mets yesterday was Luis Castillo. He managed 2 of the 6 hits they got and didn’t make any critical errors, as did Wright and Reyes twice. Josh Thole, the new catcher, got a big hit in a big situation. That’s just two of the eight positions in the lineup though.

Everybody picks on Castillo. I even belittled him mercilessly when he dropped that third out popup by Arod last year. And maybe he doesn’t have the range that you’d like to see. But he’s a pretty nifty second baseman more often than not. He’s usually doing the right thing at the right time, something you can’t really say about Reyes, most notably, but also Wright and Beltran.

The future of this franchise looks good though. Ike Davis, for example, has been remarkably clutch this year despite his miscue last night. Josh Thole looks very promising at the all-important catcher position. And they look to be guys who’ll lift their game when it counts.

But, for now, it’s just Reyes and Wright and Beltran. Jason Bay is hiding out somewhere and I don’t think any of the Mets are sorry about that. He almost never delivered of his promise either. He wasn’t the spectacular failure of an Ollie Perez but he was more of a quietly consistent one. And his DL stint makes it easier to field 3 pretty good outfielders. That’s assuming Francoeur is good, of course, but he’s dangerous only if he gets a fastball over the plate. Great arm though.

As a team, these guys just don’t measure up. When the chips are down, when they find themselves in Atlanta or Philadelphia or Florida, or when they’re playing another determined team, they come out second best.

When your stars fold up their tents, when they keep swinging over any pitch that breaks, when they fail to make the big double play because they don’t feel like making that tough throw to first with a guy in their face, when they make side-arm throws that go astray or make throws without setting themselves because it looks so good when it works, that’s when the game is over.

Much as the game was over last night. Maybe they just don’t like Takahashi. God knows that Japanese fellow was trying his best. But his teammates let him down, time after time after time. It became difficult to watch. It was that ugly.

I’d sit Reyes for a while. He looks like a guy who’s tired, who’s not having fun, who’s a little tired of playing the game. Wright was never a slick third baseman but it seems to me that he’s getting worse. I’d sit him more often. But there isn’t even a backup for third base on the roster, as unbelievable as that might seem.

I’ll be looking to the future now. I’m guessing Omar Minaya will be gone and I suppose the broom, when it comes on by, will take Jerry Manuel right along with him. That move seems inevitable, although the GM Minaya has a couple of years left on his contract. If the 16 mill Ollie Perez situation doesn’t take him out, it’ll be the 16 mill Jason Bay mistake.

I think some trades of any of these “core” guys are warranted. There have just been too many failures. I would trade Reyes in a minute. He doesn’t even steal bases anymore. Then I’d look to unload Bay and then Beltran. They’d have to be more successful somewhere else. I’d trade them while their residual value is still pretty high. Bay’s fortunes especially could reasonably be expected to soar in another city. Boston comes immediately to mind.

The Mets are beyond the crossroads. There have been several of them actually. The Mets missed the right path every time. It’ll be no different in Philadelphia.

The Mets need a drastic change.

Keeping Manuel Will Be in the Cards (and D-Backs)

Okay, so the Mets stink. It’s not as if they’re not trying. (That makes me feel so much better). It’s just that they have trouble with breaking balls. Okay, sometimes they don’t get around on the hard heater either. But really, sliders, hard curves, splitters, those nasty hideous changeups, they’re enough to drive a team to distraction. And that’s what happened in San Francisco, Cincinnati, Arizona and Los Angeles.

My last column just killed Jason Bay. Shortly thereafter, Bay had the best game of his Mets career. Go figure. But then he reverted to form, more or less. He just doesn’t have any effect on most games. But he ran into the wall for his team in that incredible spectacle that Santana pitched late last week. And Beltran did nothing. Oh, and Wright did nothing.

Reyes made another stupid play in a game the team was supposed to be intent on winning. There are events in a game that just change the momentum. Some days teams deserve to win. Some days they don’t. Reyes sets the tone. Or doesn’t.

So who’s playing well? Obviously, Santana is. Dickey, Niese, Pelfrey….(notice any theme here?), yes! They’re all pitchers! Not only did the Mets lose all those games, they managed to waste all those good pitching performances. Pitchers are fragile and inconsistent, unless their name is Santana, and the good efforts can’t continue for too long.

The Mets have nothing going for them other than pitching and a couple of interesting rookies.

Jerry Manuel, the manager of course, is befuddled. Wouldn’t you be? He’s beleaguered. Omar’s in his corner but nobody’s in Omar’s corner. Omar’s got to deliver this year with the hand that he dealt for himself. That much seems clear. Howard Johnson, the batting coach, is under fire too, or at least could be expected to feel some heat.

It’s a bad team situation too, exactly the situation most Mets fans really feared, that Carlos Beltran’s return would influence team chemistry, which had seemed good and settled with Bay, Francoeur and Pagan. As inconsistent as they were, the fielding was great and they all seemed to contribute to that team feeling.

Then of course, Luis Castillo came back from his injury (which seemed to linger, he still doesn’t walk right). Alex Cora and one of those interesting rookies, Ruben Tejada, had been manning second base pretty adequately before his return.

So it wasn’t just Francoeur who was dislodged from the lineup. It was three of the “guys”.

To compound an already horrible situation, Oliver Perez, perhaps Minaya’s most storied and prominent failure in his Mets career, returned to the club as a reliever and gave up last night’s game-winning home run to James Loney. Ollie’s pitch was up and hittable.

Managing this whole situation required a lot of finesse. Manuel could have played Francoeur a little more or Beltran and Castillo a little less. He could have left Perez on the bench. And there were once again those game situations that could have been managed differently. He obviously zigged when he should have zagged throughout the entire road trip.

Minaya likes Manuel though. He’ll decide whether it’ll do himself any good to get another manager who’ll do better with this group. He’ll be thinking for this year only. There is still a slim chance that his team can come back. They are 7 ½ games out of first in the division and just 6 games from securing a wildcard. He may feel a shakeup is absolutely required for his moribund bunch. There are still 63 games left to play. They are returning home, a place they managed to win 30 out of 46 times throughout this year.

I wouldn’t change managers at this time. Doing that would just be one more shakeup of a team that’s been shaken enough, if not stirred. I would at least wait to see how the team plays in the friendly confines of CitiField, even if the opponents are the always tough Cards and then the D-Backs, who just finished pummeling Minaya’s team in Arizona.

But, as tough as those teams are, the Mets seem to have the advantage at Citi. It’s almost impossible to hit a homer there and that benefits the Mets. It’s a huge place that favors speed and that’s something the Mets have in abundance. Results don’t lie and 30-16 speaks volumes. They can throw a lot of arms at you, Santana and Pelfrey and Niese and Dickey….even Takahashi throws opponents a curve once in a while. Heh-heh.

Unfortunately, the Cards will open up with Wainwright on Tuesday and the pretty remarkable Jaime Garcia on Wednesday. They’ll be facing Niese and Takahashi. Wainwright has given up a few runs to the Mets in previous games but not Garcia, who gave them just one hit over 7 innings. The advantage for the first two games would seem to be with the Cards.

But Johan Santana starts on Thursday and he could be pitching to bring the Mets back to .500 if they lose the first two games. That he faces one Blake Hawksworth can only bode well for our Mets. Friday’s probable starters are Ian Kennedy against Pelfrey, and that game may turn out to be the pivotal game of the Mets future. Can Pelfrey and the Mets overcome Ian Kennedy at home, given Kennedy’s last dominant performance against the Metsies in Arizona, given that they lost that exact same pitching matchup 13-2?

If the Mets can split with the Cards and just take 2 of 3 from the D-Backs, they’ll have the confidence to face the Braves and Phils. If not, I think they’ll be done. If they can’t perform at home, how could they possibly go on the road again to have success against the division-leading Braves and then the Phillies?

Keep Manuel for now.

It'll Be Interesting

Good pitching, no hitting, how many teams have you said that about over all the years of your life? Almost none of them win when it counts. The Mets did everything they could in San Francisco to be that team. That they won the 4th game with the Giants was a gift from the worst umpire in the game.

It sure made for good entertainment. I was mesmerized. Once again the Mets pitched great. Johan Santana made it interesting though, getting into trouble and then pitching his way out. He went a full 8 for our Mets and gave up just 1 run. But the Mets only got 3 and the closer gave one away again.

The closer was, and is, K-Rod of course. But then he got the win for the boys in their ugly gray road uniforms. K-Rod is nothing if not lucky. After the Giants banged him around to tie the game in the ninth, here came the winning run around third, there we saw him cross the plate before the tag, but Mr. Cuzzi didn’t see it that way. He said the runner was out. So the game stayed tied.

Then, wonder of wonders, Jason Bay gets another hit and Ike Davis does what he always does, which is drive home the run. So they take the lead, K-Rod gets in a little trouble again in the tenth but then strikes out the last and worst hitter on the Giants (which is hard to be), and the Mets got off the hook.

The Mets can’t hit good pitching, and that’s what the Giants had. And the team they’re playing on the field isn’t the strongest. Not that it ever really was. Having no Jose Reyes doesn’t help. But the bottom of the lineup doesn’t scare anybody, Francoeur, Blanco and Tejada yesterday, and somebody called Justin Turner batted second. (And managed to score a run).

So if Bay and Wright don’t produce, then there’s Ike Davis and Pagan. Trouble is, of all those guys, Bay has done the least. I’m rooting for him, God knows we need to, and he did get three hits yesterday, but they were Jason Bay type hits, singles and stuff. It’s good that he can run fast. He gets respect from opposing pitchers but that’s all. A lot of times, Bay has looked happy to walk.

But the Giants have good pitching, really good pitching, especially if you can’t get to their middle relief, which the Mets did yesterday only. The rest of the time, it was Zito and Lincecum and Cain, making their very decent number 4 starter, Anibal Sanchez, look puny.

The Mets won’t run into that kind of pitching very often but every team has got some good ones. This west coast swing isn’t easy either, I’m sure, with Arizona and LA on the agenda after having opened the swing in that city by the bay.

But they’ll be facing tougher lineups than they saw in San Francisco. The Dodgers especially can be dangerous, but the Cards, with Pujols and Holliday, come back to CitiField for three after that. So I fully expect the pitching performances to go South a bit. But then they would have to. The Mets pitching has been terrific. Niese and Dickey have balanced out, and then some, Maine and Perez.

They have to start hitting though and the pitching has to stay good. They’ll probably try Perez again, crazy Ollie can always come back, and maybe pitch better than has Takahashi for the last month. The Mets would appear to need a fifth starter, if Takahashi can’t pick it up.

I don’t really expect the Mets to pick anybody up either, not anybody you’ve heard of. I’m sure we’ll see Perez again. I think Minaya is probably on the hook to win with what he has. At the very least, he’s working with a short rope. So I don’t really expect a big story in that direction, ie pitching.

The Mets have come up short though in their last 3 series against the cream of the league, Cinci (surprisingly), Atlanta and San Francisco. If the pitching is there, the hitting isn’t. If they manage to hit, the pitching falls down.

I think they’re just not good enough. At full strength, they’re a heck of a lot fun to watch though, and they could go on a run. If Reyes comes back strong, and Castillo can solidify that lineup a little bit, the defense is tough, the pitching is very pesky and that manager isn’t as bad as everybody seems to think.

Manuel was questioned for taking Santana out in the ninth. Not me, there was no reason to push him when he had already thrown 117 or so. Manuel knows the race is a long one. It was K-Rod who messed up and K-Rod who would be lucky enough to save the day….if not the game itself.

Manuel is juggling a lot of pins. Many times, things work out. Like using Bobby Parnell. Bobby Parnell’s been good since his return, much better than anybody could have expected. He’s the eighth inning guy lately (and one time the ninth) and not perpetual Pedro. But the relief staff is not deep right now, a fact that hasn’t even hurt them lately, not with good starting pitching and Bobby Parnell.

Manuel always is thinking long run. He won’t put himself or his team out of it. But he can only play with what he’s got on that bench. And although you love to see the Tejadas and Carters and Turners, especially when they play well, as Turner did yesterday, they’re not exactly Jason Kubel, y’know.

But there’s a reason we’re seeing all these new people, people we’ve never heard of. They’re obviously restricting any big expenditures. There have already been some bad ones.

But the Mets will keep things interesting. Jerry will juggle these guys and Omar will find something cheap to plug the gaps. They have to.

No Time to Panic

Okay, the Mets are stinkin’ out the joint but at least there’s Phil Mickelson. And that pilot who landed in the Hudson River with all passengers totally fine. There are lots of contemporary heroes. But don’t look for any at Citi Field.

Oh sure, things looked great after that first game. Johan pitched a gem. I haven’t forgotten that. But then there was Maine. Maine did the same thing he always does, disappoint. But what the hell, I expected that. And the Mets came back in that one, to tie it at 6, but the scoring was illusory as they did it with walks, and some truly horrible Marlins relief pitching.

Then Niese went out and pitched great but the Mets bats weren’t really there. Pagan and Francoeur got a couple of hits each but the rest of the lineup got just four more. Still, to that time, the Mets were just 1-2, and maybe it was just good pitching from the Marlins that got them.

But then Pelfrey looked better than expected, and showed a nice new pitch in his repertoire. So things are looking up, I think, when Pelfrey starts in the future. The Mets bats were back too, with new catcher Rod Barajas banging two homers and Jeff Francoeur continuing his hot hitting with two homers of his own. Now the Mets were even again, with a 2 and 2 record after four.

Crazy Ollie was up next though, another John Maine, only crazier. Perez had a typical Perez performance but he did go 5 2/3 giving up just 4 runs. And Igarashi, Perpetual Pedro and new guy Jennry Mejia gave up just 1 hit over the last 3 innings. Mets bats weren’t there again, however, except for Francoeur . Even with that though, they could have won and lost only because they got robbed by a great fielding play. So they could have been 3 and 2. Only bad fortune made them 2 and 3. And Santana would be going the next day.

But Johan threw some bad pitches and gave up a big homer to Willingham. The Mets bats produced just two runs. They got those two runs from a most unlikely source too, from Mike Jacobs, who will hit a homer once in a while, but more often will pop up or fan completely. Francoeur once again had a multi-hit game but with less actual effect, as things turned out.

So the Mets are 2 and 4. Manager Jerry Manuel assumed responsibility later on, needlessly I thought, but what the hell, what difference does it make when you’ve got guys like Mike Jacobs hitting behind Jason Bay, or Gary Matthews? Come on, would you pitch to Bay? If you would, what kind of pitch would you be throwing?

Let’s recap though. The Mets lost two games by one run and one game by two runs. The pitching really hasn’t been too bad. But Matthews and Mike Jacobs aren’t the answers. Angel Pagan should play center, not Matthews. And Tatis could play first, if you really want a lineup. Here we go…Reyes, Castillo (or Cora, they both have similar games), Wright, Bay, Francoeur, Barajas, then Tatis (playing first) and Pagan batting eighth, just to get some speed at the back of the order.

The Mets are currently 18th in batting average among the 30 MLB teams, about the same in runs scored, but significantly better in on base average. They’re pretty bad in slugging pct and home runs as you’d expect. What this all indicates to me is that they need some power (they need Beltran back pretty badly) obviously but they could improve things a lot with a better lineup. And that lineup doesn’t include Matthews or Jacobs.

I don’t understand their thinking. Didn’t any fantasy player know that Mike Jacobs and Gary Matthews were real reaches? Did they really think Gary Matthews was a significant improvement over Angel Pagan? Did they think Mike Jacobs was going to be more consistent? And how long are they going to stay with these guys? Sure, Jacobs hit one out yesterday, but with him, it’s a roll of the dice, loaded dice against the roller.

The Mets have been unlucky too, I might add. Yeah, they lost three games of four by tight margins, but they’ve also been victimized by nice plays and they haven’t had much luck at third base defensively, with Wright unable to come up with hard ground shots to the third base side twice that I can remember. Tatis can’t really play a nice third base either. So put him at first.

But there’s no reason to panic. For Manuel to say they weren’t ready isn’t really accurate to my mind. They were ready. They just aren’t good enough hitters as a group to hit Livan Hernandez, who pitched a beauty of a game. He apparently was “up” for the game, facing his former teammates, for most of whom he’s pretty familiar.

Francesa is saying this afternoon that Manuel is feeling the heat, that he needs a good start, and that after six games, pressing the panic button indicates your job is in jeopardy. And maybe that’s true. Jerry says a lot of stuff, including yesterday something about revelation that was particularly pithy, I thought.

Rather than feeling for his job though, I think Manuel was just trying to take the heat away from the players, some of whom have really been pitiful and most of whom have been average. Maybe he’s taking responsibility for that stupid lineup he’s been putting on the field. Maybe he’s protecting Minaya, who, if there is a culprit in these proceedings, should really be at fault.

The roster is unbalanced really, with too many outfielders and not enough corner infielders. With this team, to have either Pagan or Matthews on the bench while guys like Jacobs and Tatis are in the lineup, is not really sensible.

And yes, I know Daniel Murphy’s coming back to play first.

Spring Means Nothing

I certainly hope it’s true that the spring means nothing. I know it means rain for me. And I probably haven’t nearly seen the end of it. Thank God for sump pumps and hoses and drains that still take more water than you’d think was possible. It’s meant rain for the Mets too unfortunately, and it just doesn’t look that promising right now. A Mets fan has to hope the sun is just around the corner.

Maybe it’s just that they’re always playing the Cardinals and the Marlins, who share the stadium down in nearby Jupiter, Roger Dean stadium. In case you’re wondering, Roger Dean is a local car dealer. I had been hoping he was a pirate or something, but alas, no. Both those teams are good though, if the games I’ve seen are any indicator. I have to think that. The alternative is too depressing.

Who knows, maybe today will be the start of a turnaround. Stranger things have happened. Murphy just made a horrible baserunning blunder and got hurt in the process. Maybe that will get Mike Jacobs on the team. At least he can hit the ball out of the park on a regular basis. I mean, if you’re going to hit for a low average, you may as well have some power. Dave Kingman would look good to me now.

Things could turn around too. Sean Green, who had been so bad as to be almost scary, just pitched two very solid innings. Of course they’re down by five so that really isn’t such a tremendous deal either. And here comes Kiko Calero into the game after watching Fernando Tatis have another totally inconsequential at-bat.

I don’t even know who started. The broadcast team is keeping it to themselves. It was probably Ollie though, judging by the score. Hmm, looks like Calero has a nice slider anyway, and he did do a nice job last year for the Marlins. (Somebody should tell these ladies in the stands behind home plate that they really should make an attempt to keep their knees together).

The guessing continues as to the composition of the bullpen. (Matt Holliday just hit his second homer of the day off Calero, about 420 feet to dead center, what a shot). The broadcast team seems to think it’ll be Francisco Rodriguez for sure and Pedro Feliciano for sure and everything else is up in the air. Fernando Nieve is out of options, I understand. I like Igarashi and Calero. Kelvim Escobar may return to form too. Then there is the kid with all the talent they’ll hold down, God knows why. (Yeah, I know why but I don’t agree).

Hope springs eternal for Jose Reyes, though, and I love his quote about feeling that he was Japanese, with all the pens and cameras following him around. Newly acquired Jason Bay just hit one out of the stadium. Wright still looks like Wright. Beltran is still out and probably won’t be returning for a little while yet. I refuse to speculate on him anymore. Angel Pagan is actually starting to look like not such a bad alternative to Beltran, not to mention Fernando Martinez, another young talent who won’t get called up until it’s too late to matter.

Mike Jacobs is up now and I’m hoping he hits another long one, just to make GM Omar Minaya a little crazier. Minaya’s supposed to make a decision by Friday on his final roster. It should be interesting. As a Mets fan, you have to hope the mid-season roster will look quite different from the one we are witnessing right now, barring a complete turnaround in their play once the season gets under way.

The Mets seem to be playing their cards for the future, no matter that their present may very well dictate the futures of the GM and manager Jerry Manuel. I just heard catcher Omir Santos will be starting the season in Buffalo, a fact that makes me sick. I just can’t get excited about Rod Barajas. In fact, I can’t make heads or tails on why they picked him up in the first place. He must think Barajas and Henry Blanco are an upgrade but you couldn’t convince most Mets fans of that.

I’ve defended Minaya for ages now, but I’m beginning to think I’ve been wrong about him. Not only is the present not too rosy, but the future doesn’t look that good either. Where are the pitching prospects other teams seem to have coming out their ears? Yeah, we have a first baseman in Ike Davis, a centerfielder in Fernando Martinez, and a pitcher in this Mejia(sp) who are supposed to be great (but not great enough to call up), but what about the pitching?

The starters inspire no confidence whatsoever, not even from this eternal optimist when it comes to the Mets. It’s as if God handed all the concentration and focus to Johan Santana, but withheld it totally from all the rest. Pelfrey, Maine, Perez…..what a mess! There has to be a short leash on these guys if they don’t turn it around pretty soon, especially for Perez and Maine. It’s beginning to look like the classic “addition by subtraction” situation.

K-Rod’s on the mound now, thank God. Only Sean Green’s done anything on the mound today. K-Rod just threw the nicest curve I’ve ever seen to record another strikeout. It looks as if the ninth inning will be secure, but it’s anybody’s guess how many times the Mets will arrive in that ninth inning with a lead.

Baseball’s a funny game though. Sometimes those teams appearing quite dead in March turn it immediately around once April rolls around. A Mets fan has to hope for that eventuality. I’m hoping Minaya will start showing some concern for his own immediate future. I’m hoping he gets a little less patient with players who have given him nothing in return.

Meanwhile, spring means nothing, spring means nothing…..

Results Beat Process Anytime

Thank God for John Mara. The Giants boss was just as fed up as I was with the horrid pass defense, finally pulling the plug on the defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan . Judging by his rather harsh (but then it had to be) words, he must have been remarkably patient all year.

While I’m happy that the Giants finally made a move in that direction (I’ve been calling for Sheridan’s ouster for quite some time now), I think there’s certainly more that could be done. The secondary coach, the linebacker coach, and even the GM could also be considered for the boot.

Even considering the injuries and lack of pressure on the passer, the Giants corners and safeties were deplorable. If they weren’t totally out of position, they just stood by while the receiver made the catch. I’ve blamed the coordinator all year because nothing seemed coordinated. But surely the GM bears responsibility for the talent he brought in. And surely the secondary coach could have imparted some useful information as to how to cover people.

What saves the GM, Jerry Reese, in my eyes is the fact that he had that fantastic draft class of a few years ago. And the Giants certainly have plenty of talent on offense. Except for the front four though, there isn’t really much talent on defense at all. His very few high draft choices in the secondary, Kenny Phillips and Aaron Ross, were both hurt this year. Safety Michael Johnson was the 224th pick in 2007. Corner Terrell Thomas was pick 63 in 2008 but was only marginally competent. The rest of the acquisitions (free agents) were awful all year…CC Brown, any of the multitude of Johnsons, Aaron Rouse….if he played the secondary, he was incompetent.

The head coach, Tom Coughlin, also gets a mulligan, but only for now. His retention should definitely be considered temporary. He’s been the Giants head coach for a long time. Maybe the players have had it with him. They certainly haven’t responded to his pleas for playing hard.

All that being said, I really think the problems are fixable. With a good defensive scheme (what was wrong with Spagnuolo’s?), and Phillips and Ross returning in good health, half the secondary problems go away. The rest of the secondary roster, except perhaps for Terrell Thomas, have to go. A change in scheme should go a long way towards fixing any pass rush problems.

It’s to be hoped the new defensive coordinator will pay more attention to the effects of his teaching on a week-to-week basis than his predecessor, who was proudest of his consistency in his teaching method without regard to the results. (This last is almost too preposterous a position on which to comment).
Process is great. You will hear a lot about process from guys like Eric Mangini, whose Cleveland team finished strongly but still wound up with 4 or 5 wins (who’s counting?). Process gets you a situation such as the one that totally shut down Newark Airport yesterday. Process gets you the New Orleans situation after Katrina. And I’m sure process has a lot to do with the ridiculous war in Afghanistan.

Give me Rex Ryan anytime. Rex had a huge problem, quite literally, when his defensive tackle, Kris Jenkins, went down. He brought somebody in, coached him up, and the Jets soon resumed their proficiency in defending the run. When Mark Sanchez, his rookie QB, started turning the ball over, he initiated a simple color-coded sideline communications system to keep the QB on track.

When the Giants run into problems, they try to hide them. Actually, the hiding comes only after the denial that there is a problem at all. When Coughlin was forced into a corner to comment on his defense, he first obfuscated the problem by shunting some of the difficulty over to his offense. Then he said he wasn’t making excuses.

Keep it simple, make it work. Forget process. And, if we have one more year of uninspired play from the Giants, I’d say forget Coughlin too. And maybe Jerry Reese isn’t quite as brilliant as I had originally thought. He seems a lot better at the draft than he is at picking up replacement players in a pinch. No doubt he has a process for the draft. Heh-heh.

Well, that’s quite enough about those disappointing Giants, especially when we have a playoff contender in the New York Jets. Their impressive win over the Bengals on Sunday was a really good sign. I don’t care that neither the Bengals nor the Colts before them had anything to gain from the game. The Jets could have still lost. They could have assumed an easy contest and mailed it in. They didn’t. They played 120 minutes over two games of playoff football. Kudos to the Jets.

While I don’t think their rematch with the Bengals next Sunday will go nearly as well as the first game, I do think the Jets will win it. The injury to David Harris will definitely hurt though. He’s been the leading tackler for the Green and White for quite some time now. And while the Bengals will run more effectively with Cedric Benson rather than Larry Johnson, I can’t imagine it making a huge difference in the final result.

Meanwhile, speaking of management, kudos to Mets GM Omar Minaya for finally locking up Jason Bay, filling that left field slot with a pretty terrific hitter. If he can indeed get Molina to catch, the Mets will have a pretty awesome lineup as Beltran, Delgado and Wright all return. And Jeff Francoeur should be ok after his thumb problem.

The pitching is a different story. Kelvim Escobar is a good pitcher if he can get healthy but it seems like a shot in the dark. I would hope they still try to get a better arm for that up and down starting rotation. It’d be a big shot in the arm for a young and erratic staff.

The Open, Blackouts and Budgets

Wow! This U.S. Open women’s bracket is really sumthin’. A 17-year old young woman from Georgia just beat Maria Dementieva, and she looked great doing it. Dementieva didn’t give it away either. Oudin took it.

Oudin won it on an ace. But there were some long rallies and some wicked forehands mixed in. And this is all happening right up there in Flushing Meadows, hard by Metsland.

Tennis continued into today, of course, and we got to see Maria Sharapova, who only even needs a last name because of one Maria Kirilenko. I love the U.S. Open. And this Open may be enjoying the best weather of any U.S. Open ever. Just a good time for everybody in a beautiful setting.

Today though, the Mets won again, for once not losing the first game of a series. So that’s pretty good, and they beat Carlos Zambrano. The Mets pitcher was Bobby Parnell and, after about five horrid outings in a row, he shut out the Cubs for seven innings. So that’s two in a row for my sorry team, the first time they’ve pulled that off since July 30th.

But one thing definitely caught my eye today, and pretty soon it will be all too apparent to football fans in lots of places. Commissioner Goodell expects that 20% of NFL games will be blacked out this year. That’s one out of five for you math minors. In New York we may be safe but what about the six or seven cities every week that can’t sit back and watch their local football team on TV.

I can’t imagine the uproar. For example, in Denver (which may or may not be one of the cities in trouble), folks can sit home on Sunday morning and see NFL action starting at 10 AM. Then they’ll take a little break maybe and see another game at 1 PM. If the Broncos are blacked out, that goes a long way towards ruining your Sunday morning.

Too many Sundays like that and maybe football fans will have to develop an alternative life style. I can’t even imagine what that would be…maybe attendance at churches will soar to the heights but I don’t think so. People will go skiing or take a ride into the mountains for a day trip. Maybe they’ll realize what they’ve been missing and forget about the vicarious thrills of hard hits (yeah, even in Denver) and bad behavior (especially in Denver).

Can anything be worse than trying to get into a team’s fourth exhibition game? Oh My God! Lots of offense if that’s what turns you on, but the whole game is played by folks you’ve never heard of. And may never hear from again.

The Jets had Sanchez on the field for one series against the Eagles second team. He was great again, going four for four to that nifty tight end, Dustin Keller, twice and once to Cotchery in the end zone. Other than that, they managed to lose the game but nobody really cared.

The Giants game was even more boring but I guess Sinorice Moss made a case for himself, if anybody really cares about Moss. I know he’d shown nothing for at least two years. If I were the Giants, I’d drop him anyway. It’s a little late in the game to decide to show up and play.

Baseball’s getting a lot crazier. I just watched Jim Thome belt out a hit for the Dodgers! I can’t get used to this. Meanwhile, Giambi banged out another big hit for the Rockies. Cliff Lee is pitching for the Phils. Pedro Martinez is too, and he beat Lincecum the other day. And that’s only a tithe (well maybe a mini-tithe) of the players who’ve changed teams since the break.

Everybody’s just picking up players willy-nilly. I wonder if teams feel a little better this year about dumping salaries. Makes sense to me. But it sure does make things confusing. And things are confusing enough, especially if you’re a Mets fan.

I mean, really, what kind of curse got laid on this team! Not only did all the players get hurt but the friggin’ owner went out and lost a lot of his money too, probably more than a a tithe. It’s really not fair. Not only is our present messed up, but now our future doesn’t look that rosy either.

Ah well, I guess in this economy,you just have to roll with the punches, and if the recession or depression or whatever it is we’re in the middle of, finally starts to intrude on our fantasy sports world, I guess we had it coming. It’s certainly intruded on everybody else’s life. Why should we be immune?

Maybe the Mets will become like the Pirates, developing young players and then dumping them at peak value. Even if it could be for just a couple of years, that would be very depressing. Not that it’d be all bad to see young guys playing the game, especially after the years of watching aging fellows not quite living up to what they had done in the past.

I know one thing. I’m really tired of watching Pelfrey. He’s finally made it to my list. How many times can he pitch a good one only to look like a Little Leaguer the very next start. Enough with the head cases already. We already have Ollie Perez, that’s more than enough.

Aah, Minaya will think of something. If anybody’s adept at picking up serviceable players for just a little money, it’s him. And things aren’t totally bad, I suppose. Beltran’s supposed to be showing his face next week, and I guess Reyes will be back next year. Delgado’s gone but so will that salary. If Omar is free to spend it, all will be right with the world.

Meanwhile, Mets fans can try to imagine the Yankees in a short series with just about anybody with two good starters and getting their arrogant butts beat.

How Unlucky Can You Get?

How unlucky can you get? Our lovable Mets are testing that question this season and continued their inquiry yesterday as Jeff Francoeur, on what should have been a single to center (on any other team), hit into an unassisted triple play for outs one, two and three of what was looking to be a very promising inning.

The national media concentrated on how unusual the play had been in the annals of professional baseball, how it was one of the only times in the history of baseball that a game had ended on an unassisted triple play. To me, though, they missed the boat. The real question is how unlucky one single team has been in any recorded baseball season.

And now we hear that Omar Minaya is returning. I could live with that. I mean, if this guy has been the unluckiest person in the whole wide world this season, it only stands to reason that his luck must change for the better, everything in life following the natural rhythms of the universe. A new GM might begin a whole new cycle of misfortune.

The GM likes the manager and I do too. Who’d we go to? Randolph? Valentine? No thanks.

But then I hear that the team will reduce its payroll for next year. That’s not good. While it may not be as bad as it may sound, as quite a bit of salary will be coming off the books, much of it paid out for a remarkable lack of production, it could hardly be interpreted as a good thing.

I still think Madoff’s Ponzi scheme may be seriously affecting Wilpon’s handling of this team, despite statements made to the contrary. How could it not? And maybe that piece of serious misfortune was the unkindest cut of all, coming at a most inpropitious moment in time, when opening a new expensive stadium for a team that’s setting records for snake-bitten-ness. (I know it’s not a word, no letters please). Wilpon may have killed a spider, that’s supposed to bring bad monetary luck.

Call it what you will…cursed, plagued, gremlin-infested, the evil eye, this Mets team has them all at the same time. So maybe Minaya walked under a ladder while a black cat was ambling by. Maybe he spilled salt after breaking a mirror, or, even worse, he stepped on a crack. Anyone watching baseball has seen a variety of pitcher-types jump over the baseline. Oliver Perez comes immediately to mind but he’s not the only one.

And it certainly didn’t help Perez out yesterday. Once again, he stunk out the joint, lasting about 2/3 of an inning after giving up six runs. Maybe he should try digging his spikes into the line, then stomping on it. He couldn’t possibly be any worse. His pitch selection and location stink too, any nobody will be happier than I to see the back of Brian Schneider.

I keep thinking of that trade with the Nats a couple of years ago that brought us Church and Schneider, while we sent off Lastings Milledge and Paul LoDuca. We’ve had nothing but bad luck since. Church is already out of here, thank the baseball gods, and now there’s just Schneider. That may bring more good luck than you would ordinarily think it possibly could. That original trade must have been done for specious reasons totally unfair to LoDuca. And if anybody could cast a jinx, or throw an evil eye, my guess is that LoDuca would be just the one.

Besides just letting Schneider go, maybe we could do some other things that may help, like throwing salt over our left shoulders. Seriously, the Mets need a lot of help.

As this is written, for example, the Phils are kicking our butts. It’s just 5-2 now in the 4th, but things could get worse in a hurry, as it’s Cliff Lee, one of the premiere pitchers in the majors, going against our Bobby Parnell, one of the league’s least accomplished. The two runs we have on the board were unearned.

While the Phils picked up Lee to flirt with another World Series, we’re trading Billy Wagner to flirt with disaster. But that’s ok, I guess, maybe we’ll get a guy in return who can help us down the road, and for less money, as that is increasingly going to be an issue. And besides, if it makes Papelbon unhappy to trade Billy to Boston, I’m all for it. What an idiot that guy is.

And, speaking of bad luck, we just hit into another irksome double play, Sullivan having been retired after trying to scramble back to first on a hard-hit liner to Utley at second base. I thought he was safe but the umpire called him out. (I absolutely promise that a future article will deal with the total incompetency of umpires this year, for balls and strikes and on the bases).

That’s all I have to say about the Mets. Let’s just pray the bad luck doesn’t spread to the Jets or Giants, or the Knicks and Nets either. (I don’t care about hockey). I do so want to enjoy my autumn (and perhaps winter for the Giants). But there have already been articles written about the demise of the much-ballyhooed Giants defensive line.

The Giants looked awful this weekend against the Bears. Not that anything about exhibition games should be taken seriously, but the team was curiously lifeless for the period of time that I could devote to an exhibition.

The Jets go tonight, of course, and Mark Sanchez will get another chance to impress. I sure hope he does because I’m not too anxious for another year of quarterback controversy. Let’s end the controversy right here,okay. Sanchez will be the QB, Clemens will be the backup. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

(And now it’s the Mets Takahashi, a 40-year old rookie, facing Ryan Howard, whose 2 dingers and 5 ribbies have paced the Phils). An omen perhaps? Howard struck out.

Fresh Meat

There are a lot of people out of work and I’m sure some of them are qualified to run operations for the New York Mets. That I could root for a team that tolerates the crap that Bernazard had been handing out makes me sick. I mean, it’s the Yanks who are the Evil Empire, right?

Well, apparently not. It looks like Bernazard had run the Mets farm system like a bad warden in a Turkish prison. And a NY Daily News reporter blew the whistle on him, forcing a very unwilling Mets hand to fire Bernazard. So they decided to turn a little heat back on the reporter, alleging some kind of inappropriate behavior by the News’s Rubin.

Although I have to admit the whole affair was vastly amusing, Minaya’s handling of his press conference convened to fire Tony Bernazard was as bad as I could imagine, and I have a pretty vivid imagination. To go after the press anytime under any circumstances is pretty stupid, but to go after the guy who just blew the whistle on you is even worse.

I’m sure it made Minaya feel better. The sad thing is that Wilpon probably thought it was a good idea too. Knowing Wilpon is a very hands-on type of owner, it probably irked him quite a bit to have to fire one of his chief lieutenants. And he thought he could give Rubin some of the stuff he had been handing out. You could see the two of them, Wilpon and Minaya, putting their heads together and saying, “Yeah, let’s give that SOB some of his own medicine.”

While I can understand them feeling that way, I can’t understand them actually thinking it was the appropriate thing to do. This is New York, fellas. This is the good ol’ USA. I think these guys have lost touch with reality.

As a long-time Mets fan, I feel embarrassed. For my being so stupid over the years. For my thinking the Mets were the good guys all this time. For my thinking the Mets ran an organization that put some emphasis on baseball as a real game, a game that should be fun.

Now that I’m otherwise informed, I say get rid of the whole lot of them. I don’t want to root for Minaya anymore. And while I don’t think any amount of pressure would force the sale of the team, I say get rid of the Wilpons too. I don’t go for this feudal baron type of ownership. This is 20th Century America.

What the whole affair says to me is this. “We own the Mets and we’ll run it any way we want. There’s nothing you can do about it, and if you try, we’ll come after you.” Who wants to root for these guys? Even Steinbrenner didn’t do anything like this.

All they had to do was fire Bernazard and get out of Dodge. Case closed. Goodbye everybody. We’re sorry we run the Island of Doctor X. We’ll hire somebody better.

But no.

It’s a damned shame too because things are starting to look a lot better on the field. Our sorry team on the field has won its last three. After looking so very bad against the worst team in the league, the Nationals, the Mets totally turned things around against two good teams, Houston and Colorado.

And they did it in a big way. They pitched and they hit. First it was a starter from the farm system, Jonathan Niese, who went 7 innings and gave up just one run. Then Livan went out and pitched 7 innings more, giving up just 3 runs in a horrible first inning. Then crazy Ollie Perez managed to give up just 3 runs over 5 full innings. Meanwhile, the feisty Mets batters managed to score 25 runs in the three games. Unbelievable and totally unpredictable.

It sure has made my week though. Seeing Francoeur knocking in runs has been great. Everybody but Cora hit in the 10-3 win. In the 8-3 win, even Cora joined the attack and in the 7-3 win, the new core of the lineup, Castillo, Murphy, Wright and Francoeur, did the hitting while Fernando Tatis finished things with a grand slam.

The relief corps performed too. The only runs given up by relievers over the three wins were the two given up by their best reliever, K-Rod. Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano and Brian Stokes were outstanding.

So things are rosy in Mets-land, just about everywhere but in the front office. While the management tear themselves up, the players have been great and on-the-field manager Jerry Manuel hasn’t done anything to deter them. Maybe those crazy guys in the front office have unwittingly provided the only thing that could drive off all the team detractors….fresh meat.

But things won’t get easier. While the Mets feasted on some questionable pitchers in their little winning streak, they’ll now face Jason Marquis, a good young pitcher named Hamel and then a very good and hot hurler in Jorge DeLaRosa. The Rockies didn’t get to be a wildcard contender without pitching.

So it’ll be Marquis vs Pelfrey, Santana against Hamel and then Mr. Niese again vs. DeLaRosa. Even with Santana coming off a bad outing, it’s hard to think our local fellas won’t take at least one of these three. That would give them a split with the Rockies, which isn’t too shabby, especially given the prospect of having some of the injured return soon.

Given these front-office gaffes, maybe it helps explain the seemingly long stints on the DL for Beltran, Reyes and Delgado. Maybe there’s no real motivation to kill yourself for a bunch of bad guys. I hope that’s not true but the rumor has been that Beltran at least was not happy over the team’s handling of his bone bruise.

As a fan, my wish would be that we could go back to a time just before Omar put his foot in it.

Little Moves for a Long Stretch Run

Vacations are great but mine was interrupted by news from home, bad news mostly, especially from Pittsburgh, as the strange people manning the lineup for the Mets slogged their way through the schedule. Swimming’s nice, for sure, or just catching the rays (no, not those Rays), but as long as there’s access to a cable TV, you just can’t get away from how mediocre this sorry collection of a Mets team has become.

Today’s lineup doescn’t seem so bad though, not with Church back (even though he has a long way to go to regain my good graces) and manning right field, and Cora’s return to the lineup. And omigosh! There’s Brian Schneider catching. How’d they convince HIM to finally play? And holy cow! There’s the phee-nom, the guy too good to run out a fly ball, none other than Fernando Martinez.

Our heroes had a hell of a first inning though today, highlighted for me by doubles from two guys in my doghouse, Church and Martinez. Beltran has cooled off considerably though, and is now back to batting .340 after reaching the heights of the batting average leaders list. But at least the lineup looks like a major league lineup. That hasn’t been the case for some time now.

Of course the Phillies kept winning and winning, except when Lidge got involved. Lidge, the Phils non-closer, is keeping the Mets “in it”, although that term must be used advisedly, given all the injuries and the way they’ve been running the bases. That might be the saddest thing. Just when the team has needed to play smart, it’s been coming up dumb.

Still though, they are three games behind the Phils. That’s not too bad, and speaks to some strength throughout the organization. The only position that couldn’t be adequately manned lately was shortstop and that situation has just been ridiculous, something that couldn’t be dreamed up. Wilson Valdez has so far been almost adequate at filling in. But really, he’s been the fourth alternative, after Reyes, Cora and the other Martinez, Ramon.

All in all, we’ve seen a lot of outfielders, Sheffield and Reed and Tatis, and a lot of infielders and catchers. And nobody has really flopped, even Emil Brown, recently acquired and probably on his way out the door. Murphy has looked pretty good at first base after his adventures in left field, and, who knows, this team may even be ready to face the Phillies and Yanks in their next two series.

The pitching will match up pretty well, that’s for sure. Santana opens up against Happ, and the third game features Redding against old man Moyer. Game Two doesn’t look promising though, with Pelfrey going against Phils ace Cole Hamels. But, on paper anyway, the Mets should be able to pitch with the Phils and maybe take two out of three.

Then there’s the Yankees series and, well, who knows what could happen to our heroes between now and then. The biggest hurt for the blue team is the loss of J.J. Putz for a long, long time. But even with the loss of Putz, the Mets should be able to withstand it if Purcell, who has shown some ability, can handle the setup role. The Yanks aren’t loaded with relief themselves.

So lighten up, Mets fans. Sure, the Bombers have more power. They have some pretty fair starting pitching too, but if you can get into that relief corps, there’s a lot of room for cutting into a lead, or even extending a lead, if it could ever come to that. Just remember the rest of the division isn’t that great either, and the Phils can’t stay hot forever. Joe’s Dodgers have aleady provided a bit of the ice.

If the Mets can break even in these next two series, and there’s really no reason to think that they can’t, they’ll have survived and treaded water, if you will, while getting just killed with injuries. That’s not too shabby. Before you know it, Reyes will be back, and maybe he’ll really add some spark this time.

With Reyes back at short, with Castillo and Cora handling second, with a Murphy starting to look comfortable at first, and the hot-hitting David at third base, the Mets will once again be solid in the infield.

Church’s return, especially if he can start hitting, will help an outfield situation that really hasn’t looked too bad in the first place. Reed has looked good, and Tatis and Sheffield have been pretty much as expected. But the starting outfield should probably be Beltran, Church and Sheffield or Tatis and that’s not too problematic in my book. I think Sheffield hits better when he plays the field; it’s the DH position that he apparently can’t really handle.

It seems every Mets fan I turn to is looking for another bat. But surely with Beltran, Wright and Sheffield, the team should be able to score some runs. I’d much rather see a relief pitcher to replace Putz if there are any that become available. Delgado will be back before you know it (August).

The list of teams with big bats that go nowhere is a long one, much longer than the list of unsuccessful teams with good starters and an even stronger relief corps. Especially playing in CitiField, isn’t it built for pitching? Wouldn’t the Mets have less risk if they replaced the big arm they lost?

A move more typical of Omar was the one that moved reserve catcher Juan Castro to the White Sox for a pitcher, Lance Broadway. Hopefully, Mr. Broadway will soon live up to his name up in AAA Buffalo.

More than ever maybe, this pennant race is proving to be a long one, not unlike yesterday’s Belmont. The winner got the better trip while the stronger horse faltered in the stretch after showing some rankness after about 6 furlongs.

Maybe all this early misfortune will make this Mets horse a little stronger in the stretch.

Is This the Bottom?

Let’s see, first base, um, we have no first baseman. I mean, Murphy played the position, and very nicely too for his first time, or any time, but he doesn’t hit like a first sacker. Second base? Well, Luis Castillo is ok, I guess; doesn’t do much with the bat though. Shortstop? Well, nope. We have no shortstop. Jose is hurt and Cora is hurt. At third we have Wright and in center we have old reliable Mr. Beltran.

Who played left and right fields? Argh, who cares? Whoever they were, either Jose Pagan or Ramon Martinez or Church or any one of seemingly countless little guys with bats in their hand. The catchers do nothing either. Castro has been very boring, Schneider’s always hurt. Omir Santos has nothing.

This has got to be the bottom. Even if the Metsies managed to pull this last game out, things would still have been pretty grim. Only the pitchers have made things look respectable, but right now the Oakland A’s or the Giants look like Murderers Row compared to this horrid lineup of pushovers.

Well, it was the Dodgers, I guess, and they have pretty good pitching, to say the least. But things don’t get any better. Now our local heroes head out to Boston. It’ll be Johan Santana against Dice K coming off the DL in the opener and that might be the only possibility of an advantage in that series.

After the opener, hopefully a win, then it’ll be Pelfrey against Beckett and Redding against Wakefield. I can’t wait to see these cream puff Met batters try to hit Wakefield’s knuckler. If the Mets can win one of the three, it’ll be amazing.

Talk radio is driving me crazy too. Nothing like rubbing it in. Nothing like hearing how bad Minaya’s doing and Manuel’s doing ad infinitum. Manuel especially is taking a beating, and he really doesn’t deserve it, not with this lineup. I thought he could have batted Sheffield in the 9th cream puff number nine but, you may have guessed, Sheffield hadn’t taken batting practice as he was not feeling well.

This is excruciating though, I must say. Listening to all these Yankee fans, pretending to be Mets fans, calling in to THE FAN to urge Minaya to pick up Nick Johnson at first base. Nick friggin’ Johnson. The only guy who ever thought Nick Johnson was anything special was Brian Cashman. He was deluded enough to think Johnson was better than David Ortiz.

And speaking of Big Papi, he finally broke out of his homerless slump tonight by putting one over the wall in centerfield. So our boys will have him to worry about too. It wasn’t enough that they had Bay and Youkilis killing the ball, along with all the other real live threats in their lineup, Ellsbury, Drew, Lowell, et al.

Geez, maybe this isn’t the bottom after all. Maybe we won’t even take one game in Boston. Santana did get knocked around a bit in his last win. And Dice K, if he’s returning off the DL, has probably regained his form; otherwise, why bring him back?

Well, I guess it’s high time to look at the bright side. There must be a silver lining somewhere, or maybe just a copper lining. Church can’t be as bad as he looks, can he? He can only get better, going from horrible to mediocre would be nice.

And Daniel Murphy, judging by his debut at first base, really may have found his spot, which can only help him at the plate. Feeling comfortable is one of the keys to hitting. You have to be relaxed. You have to feel good about yourself, much as all those steroid abusers feel before crushing another dinger.

And Sheffield will be back Friday. He’ll make that lineup a little deeper. Reed really isn’t that bad. Ramon Martinez will have gotten that first game out of his system. That’ll give the Mets honest-to-God major leaguers at every position. Let’s not think about depth at this juncture.

And maybe after winning 11 in a row, maybe a huge swing back to the depths was in order with the universe.

But what happened to hitting the ball to the opposite field? Church NEVER tries it. Neither does Tatis. Neither does Castro. And they look foolish trying to pull outside pitches. They deserve benching, but the Mets can’t afford to bench anyone and still have major leaguers on the field.

But a change is needed. And not in management, in players on the field. I’ve seen enough of Church for sure. Dump him, just as he dumped the Mets the other night. I’m tired of seeing his sorry butt on the field, and even more tired of having people feel sorry for him. He’s a bad player. Get rid of him. Get another outfielder.

And while we’re at it, why not dump Schneider too? He obviously doesn’t play too much anyway. Sore fingernail, sore butt, give me a break. El Dumpo for him too. Undo that trade made for Lastings Milledge and LoDuca. Boy, do I ever miss LoDuca.

The good news, though, is that this can’t go on forever. And there are some good things happening in other sports. Hey, Orlando beat the Cavs in one hell of a Game 1. The Knicks and Nets will both get some pretty nice basketball players in the draft.

And if that’s not good enough for you, you can always check out Mark Sanchez in the latest GQ. WOOHOO!!

Joba's Bad But Omar's Looking Good

Joba Chamberlain is a better pitcher than he showed yesterday. He would have to be, wouln’t he? I hadn’t seen such tentativeness since Aaron Heilman. Did he throw any fastballs? It surely didn’t seem so.

The Yankees, my Dad says, are not a good team. He just doesn’t think they’re that good. Well, I guess I’d have to agree, given this little information. If they keep babying Joba and making him neurotic, it would appear, their chances are all that much slimmer.

Maybe it’s Jorge Posada that doesn’t agree with him. Posada had missed a lot of the Joba action last year. There were surely a lot of calls for breaking balls. And if a catcher can’t call a good game, it doesn’t really matter that he hits a little bit. One thing is for sure. If Joba has another game like this last one, I’m going to hide my Joba tee shirt. He looked that bad.

But the rest of the Yanks don’t really look that bad. I really don’t like Cano but he sure has been knocking the cover off the ball. Jeter looks really good too. Teixeira is starting to hold his own. Damon hasn’t been bad. Matsui has looked a bit off. Anyway, I’m not sure I agree with Dad on this one. The Yanks look pretty good to me, if the relievers hold up at all.

The Mets, what can you say? They did just enough to win last night, thanks largely to Sheffield, whose 500th tied the game late. It was a big big home run. And then Luis Castillo wins it for them with a slap to the left side, to deep short to score Delgado with the game-winner.

In one fell swoop, Omar looks like a genius. There have been no bigger targets of derision for Minaya than his acquisition of Sheffield and his retention of Castillo, or, better put, his failure to pick up another second baseman. Well, Castillo is hitting .387 and has fielded the position pretty well so far, better at least than Murphy has fielded his. And Sheffield showed what he can do at the plate. Big time.

Sheffield is now just 1 for 5 but that big knock should count for 3 or 4 hits. What a shot! And what a shot in the arm for our local heroes. I know Livan Hernandez was happy. He was off the hook after pitching really well and making one big mistake. Well, everybody was happy. I know I was happy.

So the Mets are even again at 5 and 5. They’ve lost three one-run games so far though. They haven’t been hitting in the clutch and were lucky to win last night, lucky that two old guys both came through when the game was on the line. If not for those two fellows, there would have been still one more one-run loss.

The Mets starters just haven’t been good enough. Livan has been pretty good despite his giving up that big homer last night. And Santana has been himself, which is to say….great. Then there’s Perez, who’s been himself also, which is to say….crazy. Maine and Pelfrey haven’t looked good at all, but not overwhelmingly bad either. And now Pelfrey’s a bit knicked up. Maybe it’ll help.

That relief pitching sure looks good though. Green, Putz and K-Rod. Jeez. It’s really kind of refreshing. If the starters pick it up even a little bit, I think the Mets will be in good shape. They can live with average performances from the bottom of the lineup, which in recent days had seemed like a long,long, long, bottom, starting with Church.

But last night they weren’t bad. Church managed to walk twice, Castro and Castillo each got a couple of hits and Luis had the game-winner. If they can pick it up a little on a more consistent basis, anything’s possible.

But we probably shouldn’t count on that core being so strong all the time either. Delgado’s been amazing, Beltran too but not last night, and Murphy’s been better than expected. Reyes is always a threat when he doesn’t over-slide the bags. (I pick on Jose because he deserves it sometimes).

So even with sketchy starting pitching, the Mets should be tough. They should be better than a .500 team as they are now. They have two more to play at home with the Brewers before taking on the Cards for three more in St. Louis. Those five games will help me guage just how good or bad they are as a team.

Time to wrap this up now. Santana just struck out Fielder and Reyes stole second. It looks like a good Mets start today, and if Castillo and Sheffield, who are both starting today, can continue to help out a little bit, it should be the beginning of a nice winning streak.

And Omar will continue looking good.

Mets All The Way

How unprecedented was this? Two new stadiums opened, and the Mets opened the nicer one against the Red Sox?

David Wright says it’ll be a lot of fun for all of us. He also talked about having it be a pitcher’s park with big gaps to suit his Mets team, which shows that he’s already thinking about how far they’ll go. And that’s a good thing.

Sports Illustrated says the Mets are going to win the whole thing. But Mets manager Jerry Manuel dismisses that notion. He knows his team has to learn to perform down the stretch, to hit in big situations, to hit to the opposite field, to make contact more often, and all those other things they haven’t done in the last couple of years.

The Mets are picking up Gary Sheffield. I understand they got him to replace Marlon Anderson as a utility guy and pinch hitter.. Let me try to look at the bright side of this. Sheffield can hit, some people say he’s a good team player, and in the last couple of years, he’s been hurt more than he’s played. So I won’t have to look at that dour countenance every day. And I don’t agree with Omar that Sheffield has that much upside, not anymore.

What this does is shut up all those fans who knocked Minaya for not picking up the big bat, especially a right-handed bat. That makes me think it was just a political move, something to ingratiate himself with the fans and with the critics. It’s still not clear as to how this will affect Murphy’s time, and Tatis’s time, both of whom are infinitely superior to Sheffield in my mind.

In any event, Sheffield’s negative affects won’t be enough to derail the Mets run to the NL East division title. They fixed the bullpen, they have just enough starting pitching (although we may see some really uneven performances from Perez, Maine and even Pelfrey). The lineup is our same happy Metsies but with an invigorated Castillo, a steady diet of Murphy and Evans and Tatis, and enough depth to outlast any conceivable injuries.

Everybody wants predictions. It seems it’s the the thing to do. So, let me give you my drift on the season…..

NL East – Mets, Florida, Phillies, Atlanta, Washington

The Phillies just can’t get it done again with that starting staff. Myers and Hamels and pray for rain. Florida will amaze with an extra year of maturity for all their young guys and some very decent pitching. Besides Nolasco and Johnson, they’ve got a young’n named Chris Volstad and there’s Anibal Sanchez too. Atlanta and Washington…ho-hum…. .

NL Central – Cubs, Cards, Reds, Brewers, Astros, Pirates

The Cubs are loaded for bear. Everywhere you look, there is strength. The starters should be amazing, five good ones, Zambrano, Lilly, Dempster, Harden and Marshall. The bullpen sports Gregg and Marmol. The lineup is outstanding with steadiness all around. The Cards look strong too but too many holes still. The Reds and Brewers will be competitive, the Astros are old and sick, and then there’s the Pirates.

NL West – Arizona, Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres

I hate to agree with my brother but he’s right. He asked, “Can you name one Dodgers starting pitcher”? I was able to name exactly one. The Diamondbacks look awesome in comparison. And if the Dodgers don’t win it, why should they even take second? The Giants will surprise with Lincecum, Zito, Cain, Randy Johnson and young Jonathan Sanchez at the helm and enough relief in Wilson, Affeldt and company to make up for any holes in their lineup.

NL Wildcard – The Marlins steal it from the Giants on the last day of the season.

AL East – Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, Jays and Orioles

The Rays luck with their healthy starting pitching can’t be expected to continue. The Yankees will have trouble getting the ball to Rivera with the lead. The Red Sox just seem to have everything. The starters match up well with anyone, including the Yankees. They have way better relief and a lineup that doesn’t miss Manny all that much. Unless Vernon Wells has the season of a lifetime, the Jays have no shot and then there’s the Orioles, improved but still looking up at the rest of this tough division.

AL Central – Indians, Twins, White Sox, Royals, Tigers

The toughest division to pick, any of these teams could win it but the Indians will have the best combination of pitching and hitting. Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, Carl Pavano and Westbrook upon his return provide lots of innings and a strong relief corps featuring Kerry Wood, Betancourt and Perez to outclass the Twins, whose starters will still need another year of seasoning. Liriano, Slowey, Perkins and Blackburn for the Twins…just too much youth there. This will be a real crapshoot though and nobody’d be happier than I’d be if the Royals somehow prevail. Good pitching…Meche, Greinke, Horacio Ramirez, Joakim Soria and Farnsworth but a weak lineup keep them an also-ran.

AL West – Angels, Rangers, A’s, Mariners

The Angels lineup is really powerful with Guerrero all fixed up, fleet Torii Hunter and Chone Figgins and seasoned veterans and hitters in Bobby Abreu and Juan Rivera will be too much for the rest of this division, even the Rangers, who’ll be handicapped by their uneven pitching. The A’s too will be much improved with their acquisitions of Holliday, Giambi and Cabrera but the talents of their unbelievably inexperienced starters will not outweigh their lack of seasoning. Just too much to ask. Seattle has a really nice pitching staff in Hernandez, Bedard, Silva and Washburn but Griffey and Beltre have had their day. It was yesterday.

AL Wildcard – Texas Rangers steal it from the Yankees on the season’s last day.

Playoffs – NL – Mets take it from the Cubs in seven.
Playoffs – AL – Red Sox take it from the Rangers in six.

World Series – Mets over Red Sox in 7 tough and memorable games. Beltran MVP.

They're All in Line for 2009

The big game is over. We can stop wondering what all those speedy world-beating Cardinals were doing in the eighteen seconds it took Harrison to traverse those hundred yards to pay dirt and no longer ponder the prevent defense that could’ve killed the Steelers in the end. We can just get out in the snow and play.

Omar Minaya sure got on with his life, and that of the Mets at the same time, by finally signing good old Ollie. That would be Oliver Perez, of course, the schizoid lefthander from, as John Madden put it while describing an Oakland lineman whose head was steaming in the cold, the University of Mars.

That moniker would certainly fit Mr. Perez. Maybe the kindest thing you could say about him is that he’s not boring. Masterful one game and horrible the next, Perez is usually at his best against the best and just as bad against the worst. He also seems to lose interest after five innings, a dangerous habit especially for a team that had such an, um…….. exciting bullpen.

But he’s a year older now and, while experience certainly doesn’t guarantee anything, that should do nothing but good for mad Ollie. It’s to be hoped that the 36 million won’t go to his head, and since nothing else seems to penetrate that skull of his, I doubt that money has one chance in hell.

So ends, I would imagine, the free agent acquisitions for the Mets this season. Yeah, Pedro is still out there as is “El Comedulce”, sweet Bobby Abreu. And who knows? If they’re allowed to keep the Citi money, maybe they’ll even swing a trade for Xavier Nady, who the Yanks may have soured on, incredible as that seems to me. Of course, if there’s a bad move to be made, Cashman will find it.

Nobody could say Minaya hasn’t been on point though. He needed relievers, he got relievers; he needed a couple of starters, he got some nice ones. There have been no flights of fancy, no 43 year old left fielders, no ancient pinch-hitters or second basemen, just good solid value so far, or so it would seem anyway.

If you’re into probability though, signing guys in their twenties beats signing a bunch of old men any day of the week. As much as I like Pedro, I hope he looks great in the World Baseball Classic and signs with Boston, or even the Dodgers where he can be reunited with Manny.

There are those who will say he should have gone after Ramirez, or he should have picked up Abreu, but I really think you need to reward your current people for jobs well done. That young platoon in left field did quite nicely in left field last year, and who says they can’t get even better?

A team needs life, and that life often comes from those unproven guys in the lineup, those hustlers, those young guns trying to prove themselves. It’s what the Yankees have lacked year after year, for the most part, unless you count the young pitchers they threw into the fire last year.

You may think that last crack is a contradiction. Why is it good to give a left fielder a chance but not a pitcher? It has to do with expectations of success, I think. I’d rather go with Murphy, who showed promise for much of last season, at a less critical position, left field, than go with a rookie at a critical position, starting pitcher, for TWO rookies who really hadn’t shown much at the major league level.

Starting two rookies at starting pitcher alarms the whole team. Starting a deserving 2nd year guy in left field is a reason for optimism. It shows that the team will reward hard work and solid play. Decidedly not what the Mets had shown when they ditched Nady for a potential relief pitcher who never panned out. (That was another flight of fancy).

The Mets depth chart currently shows Murphy and Tatis in left field. It shows Nick Evans at third base. Maybe they’re expecting Wright to get tired after his World Baseball Classic. He certainly seemed to be tired in some very big spots last year.

Those are the kinds of things I’d worry about as a Mets fan, drop-offs in performance from guys who have done it in the past. I’d like to see some depth at first base, and Nick Evans is not my idea of depth at third. Delgado, Reyes, Beltran and Wright have been real workhorses for the Mets for a long time. Probability says it can’t continue. Somebody’s got to break down.

I hate to even suggest the possibility of losing any of those core guys. Who plays center like Beltran? Who can come close to providing the all-around game you usually get from Reyes or Wright? Not anybody, of course, but really, there are currently only six infielders shown on the roster, one of whom is Alex Cora at shortstop, who’s a little long in the tooth himself.

Well, it’s still early. Maybe we’ll see some new blood manning those infield positions, especially when they get into a bind. Argenis Reyes filled in nicely at second base last year. And, despite Castillo’s horrible last year, there is reason to believe he’ll recover the form he once had.

Marlon Anderson did nothing last year. That should change too, at least part of the time, as he’s an old-timer too, but he’s the Mets’ current backup for Delgado at first base. There are three catchers, Brian Schneider, Ramon Castro and Robinson Cancel, a nice threesome. Schneider is solid, Castro is a clutch hitter and seems to be the designated catcher for Santana. Cancel delivered some big hits too.

All in all, though, the Mets are all in line for 2009. The core is solid, the pitching is very good all around, but there is no depth. Depth can be had fairly easily. Omar?

Mid-Lull - Tennis, Basketball and Hot Stove

Well, here it is again, the annual big lull, that is, the period between the end of the Division Championships and the Super-Duper Bowl. Even worse than that, we’re almost in the direct middle of the lull. What this means for me is that I start watching tennis again, pay more attention to the Knicks and Nets, and even try getting into hockey. The “hot stove” stuff from baseball is almost over, of course, and will Manny Ramirez ever get signed by anyone?

The Australian Open, the first major tennis event of the year, is in full swing now and it’s always interesting to see which established stars are going to bomb and which newcomers will knock our socks off.

This year it seems that Venus Williams has bombed spectacularly. She lost to some great forehands from 20-year old Carla Suarez Navarro while Ana Ivanovic was done in by an even younger Russian, Alisa Kleybanova. There aren’t that many big names left on the board either.

The biggest name, Maria Sharapova, has been hurt for some time of course. Serena Williams is still alive, though just barely from what I saw of her last match, as are some of the old reliables, Elena Dementieva, Nadia Petrova, Dinara Safina and Amelie Mauresmo. But it’ll be exciting to follow some of the up-and-comers, Alize Cornet from France, Victoria Azarenko and the Bondarenko sisters.

I can’t get that excited about the men, not only because they’re, well, men, but it’s always the same guys. How often do I want to hear about Nadal and Federer?

The Knicks may have found a new small forward in Danilo Gallinari. The 6’10” Italian is showing recently why he was a #1 pick with a display of shooting, rebounding and even some defense. David Lee has been showing he can shoot from beyond a few feet lately too, and the combination of the two of them playing together might be just what the Knicks have needed.

I was never too high on Richardson. But now there is Wilson Chandler. And, doing his best Marbury impression at times is little Nate Robinson. Jersey’s Al Harrington provides some height and toughness and can shoot, but not as good as he thinks he can.

But at least it’s interesting basketball, something the Knicks haven’t seen in oh, maybe three or four years now. There’s also talk of Marbury going to Greece. That’d be nice. Oh, and Eddie Curry’s still on the roster, although I wouldn’t expect to see him on the court anytime soon. What more could a Knicks fan ask for?

I think that, in order to really follow professional basketball, you’re forced to pay attention to the local teams. There just isn’t enough information to be had on the other teams. If your name isn’t Kobe or Lebron, the NBA isn’t interested. It’s a shame, really, this star system in the NBA, where rookies can’t get a break and the stars can’t commit any fouls.

And that’s the reason that Brook Lopez has been having a little trouble establishing himself. The league makes it virtually impossible for a rookie, especially a rook unlucky enough to be playing center. The Nets might be in trouble for a while now, as Devin Harris is hurt, Vince Carter seems unexcited, and they get only sporadic play from everyone else.

It’s amazing that their record is as good as it is. Guys such as Keyon Dooling, Bobby Simmons and Yi seem to play well enough in spurts to keep the team from falling totally into oblivion. And Lawrence Frank juggles things up enough to keep everyone on their toes.

At 19-23 now, though, they’re in danger of slipping beneath the Knicks in the standings. The Knicks are 17-24 and seem to be on an upswing. Not so the Nets. If you’re interested in seeing a whole hell of a lot of different combinations on the floor, though, the Nets are the team for you.

As for “hot stove”, there still are some blockbuster things going on. Prince Fielder just signed a 2-year 18 million dollar contract with the Brew Crew and, closer to home, the Phillies re-signed clutch outfielder Jayson Werth. He might be the best utility player on the planet and, as a result, managed to extract a 2-year 10 million dollar agreement from the Phillies.

That Werth contract makes me think we’ll see more of him this year, definitely a bad sign for Mets fans. And the Phils seem quite interested in keeping slugger Ryan Howard happy. He’ll be pulling down something between 14 and 18 million next year. Oh well, at least Mets-killer Pat Burrell will be somewhere else.

The Mets haven’t done much lately, but then they really don’t have to. Everybody’s making a big deal about left field and second base but, really, I’m content to watch Murphy and Evans and Tatis make a go of it. And, hey, Luis Castillo can only get better, right?

You can’t have everything. At least that’s my stance. I’d rather take a chance on that Mets left field situation than have “established” stars such as Damon, Matsui and Nady, although I do wish the Mets had never gotten rid of Nady. And, as much as I like Manny Ramirez, I don’t think I want to see him spend his last few years in New York. I can see another Andruw Jones situation developing.

As good as Manny has been, and as good as he was in his contract year, I can definitely see a guy like that retiring on his next team. Maybe he won’t practice so hard, maybe he won’t run as hard, and, worst of all, maybe he won’t even be as entertaining.

Well, I guess that’s enough to keep me entertained through the feared Media Week at the Super Bowl. I still think Omar Minaya might have an ace up his sleeve, though, and I’m kinda hoping the ace is a somewhat crazy left-hander named Oliver Perez.