Boy oh Boy! I couldn’t be any more pumped by the happenings in free agency this week. First, Benji Molina turns down more money with the Mets to go back to the Giants and the Joel Pineiro decides to take the same deal from the Angels that the Mets offered. Normally, I would be going off the deep end about the Mets not doing what it takes to win but in these cases I couldn’t feel any better about the Mets decision making. Well, actually I could. They would never have offered them anything to begin with but I saw their rationale on getting two mediocre players for short term deals. I should be insulted that both players, especially Molina, would turn down the opportunity to be Mets to go elsewhere. Trust me, I am not. Good for both of them. I see the decision making in both cases. Both guys took the California deals. It certainly wasn’t for tax purposes. Both states bend you over and anally rape you with a rusty pipe but at least in California the scenery is nice and the people won’t destroy you for being overpaid and mediocre. I would make the same decision. Really, enjoy sucking elsewhere. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mets rejected a trade of Fernando Martinez, Jon Neise, Bobby Parnell and 17 year old SS Ruben Tejada for Roy Halladay. Let me clarify. The Mets turned this down. Seriously. Are you fucking kidding me? Really? Omar, are you out of your rat fucking mind? If some one would have asked me yesterday what the Mets should give up for Roy Halladay I would have told them anyone but Johan, Wright and K-Rod. Seriously. Those three guys would not have gone because of money anyway. I would have traded Reyes. But JP Riccardi comes knocking and doesn’t even ask for your top pitching prospect or top infield prospect. You turn him down. Nice work douchebag. Read the rest of this entry »

After watching the Mets totally persevere and beat the Cardinals last night, I am rethinking my overall disgust and dismissal of the 2009 season. A few things have me thinking this way. First off, the Mets play in the NL East, and as we all know, the NL East blows small boys at sleep away camp. Secondly, they have Johan Santana and Frankie Rodriguez. Now granted, other dudes pitch the other four days and you need to at least get to the 8th to see Frankie, but still they have both those guys. Thirdly, David Wright is leading the league in hitting and his BABIP is .464. Both of those things are givens which will not at all change or deviate. Ever. In a million years. But the fact he has hit only 4 Homers will totally change since it is a relatively small sample size and David hits about 30 homers a year. So with those givens in mind here are my thoughts on how and why the Mets will overcome in 2009 even though Beltran, Delgado, Reyes, Putz, Maine and Perez are on the DL.

1. After the real Tim Redding showed up last night, the Mets rotation is complete. The Tim Redding that let’s up 6 runs in 4 innings is gone. This man held the mighty Pujols at bay. With Redding, Old-reliable Livan Hernandez and the diamond in the rough Fernando Nieve, the Met rotation is totally equipped to handle the Pelfrey yips and the loss of Maine and Perez. I mean come on. The Phillies would give their left teste to have that foursome behind Cole Hamels. That wasn’t a joke.
2. Who needs homers? Or Doubles? Or anything more than a single? This team is gritty. With grinders like Alex Cora, Luis Castillo, Daniel Murphy, Fernando Tatis, Jeremy Reed, Ryan Church, and Omir Santos who needs power? These guys see pitches. They get on base. It is baseball how it ought to be. I mean getting 17 hits and 4 runs is old school.
3. Razor Shines is aggressive. He is the third base coach. His belief in challenging the defense may get his man thrown out at third or home 85% of the time. But that team needs the other 15%. They are gritty. They need to win gritty.
4. Brian Stokes is the next Joba. Or K-Rod. Or Mariano. Or Putz! He got Albert Pujols to ground back to the pitcher for an inning ending double play. Obviously, a man of his caliber will bring it at all times. I mean think of who he goes up against the next 3 weeks. Pujols, Teixeira, A-Hole, Utley, Howard, Braun, Fielder, Nyjer Morgan. These guys are the real deal. He is totally better than they are.
5. Gary Sheffield is a true power threat, and I am certain he can hold up playing everyday for the next three weeks. I am disregarding the fact they gave him a day off today after putting Beltran on the DL.
6. Jerry Manuel
7. An extra 2-10 weeks of Fernando Martinez proving himself, in Centerfield, will be entertaining to watch. Or painful. But mostly entertaining. I hope.
8. Their schedule up to the All-Star Break is filled with faltering teams. After they finish three more with the Cardinals, they have the Yankees, Brewers, Pirates (make up game), Phillies, Dodgers and Reds. All of these teams are very flawed and beatable.  If they can go 12-7 in those 19 games, that is not asking too much. Is it?

Here’s the truth, with the Mets missing three of their most important hitters, 2/5ths of their starting rotation, their 8th inning guy, and key backups in the outfield and infield they are 1.5 games out of first. The Phillies are missing half their bullpen, Ibanez and their starters suck (not Cole Hamels edition) and Jimmy Rollins is flirting with Emilio Bonifacio as shittiest everyday player in the NL East. If they can hold down the fort until Reyes, Beltran and the starters get back they are getting as big a trade deadline acquisition as any team. If they get Delgado and Wagner by August 1st and Putz by August 15th, I really like their chances. I know all of that is not going to happen. But if most of it does, I do have a thought on how to put this team over the top. Read the rest of this entry »

See this Jeff Wilpon! Manny could win a World Series MVP for you!

If there is anything I learned over the last week, if you want to find out what Met personnel think about Manny Ramirez, catch them at a charity event. Last week, David Wright expressed his love of Manny at a Children’s Hospital. Yesterday, Met Manager Jerry Manuel talked about his love of all things Manny at a Soup Kitchen. Here is what Jerry had to say: Read the rest of this entry »

I am done with Plaxico Burress. As I waited for all the details pour in on Saturday, including my nervous phone call to Monkeykong which included two shot jokes in three sentences, I felt that the Super Bowl run was now over. But as I thought about it and then watched the Champs dismantle another “good” team, I realized they don’t need him. Plaxico is one of those players who needs everyone’s constant attention. It is good when he needs double coverage in the field opening up the offense. It is bad when you have your friend and teammate trying to cover up your mess and possibly putting himself in a position he never would have been without you.

Plax is Plax. Steve Smith told us that earlier in the season. For all the talent and all the attributes that make him a special football player, he ruins it it because Plax always needs to be Plax. He has to be a difficult teammate. He has to follow his own rules. He can’t be content being paid a ridiculous amount of money to play wide receiver for a World Championship football team. He is the only player on a defending Super Bowl Champion that has the Super Bowl hangover. Think about that. You see it with whole teams. Players leave. Players get paid. Players get comfortable. The hunger is gone. With 52 other guys on the team that is not the case. With Plax it is. It is sad. Read the rest of this entry »

With news that Walt Jocketty is rumored to be willing to deal Homer
Bailey and one other player for Jermaine Dye, I feel it may be
informative to look at how valuable Dye actually is. Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading the various New York newspapers this morning (Online for free. I love America) and I came upon this article in the New York Daily News. Apparently, Pedro Martinez wants to return to the Mets for one more go around. He feels he left business unfinished and that the rehab of his injuries and death of his father provided plenty of distractions where he did not do his best to help the Mets. I harbor no ill will towards Pedro. Really, I love the guy. But if the Mets are going to get better, he can no longer be depended upon to help them win.

When the Mets gave Pedro that 4 year $54 million deal in 2005, there was an expectation that he would not live up to the salary of the last year of that deal. We were right. What we didn’t expect was that he would not live up to the second and third years of that deal as well. The Mets problems of the last few years were not all on Pedro Martinez. But he is not blameless either. Not that he did anything wrong. The man got hurt. Real deal hurt. Not Carl Pavano hurt. But his presence was one of the reasons the Mets never looked to overhaul and improve the rotation. He was always coming back. No matter how mediocre he looked, he was still Pedro. There was a belief that he would turn back the clock and give you that old time Petey performance. It has not happened in years. And because it didn’t, it adversely effected this team. Read the rest of this entry »

I was watching the Jets/Bengals tilt yesterday (I am in NY and I am stuck with Jets games when they are on, it blows asshole) with the Bengals down 12 points at the two minute warning. The Bengals had all three timeouts and needed two touchdowns to win this thing. Their defense had been decent and had caused some turnovers, so doing this was not out of the realm of possibility. Even with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. So of course this game ended 26-14. Jets. The same 12 point disadvantage. Why? If you said it was the Jets stellar defense you would be so fucking wrong it would be ridiculous. If you said it was Ryan Fitzpatrick’s ineptitude, I would tell you it was not. He was pretty good in the second half and was moving the football. If you said it was because Marvin Lewis makes Herman Edwards look like Vince Lombardi, I would tell you that you are the winner. Marvin Lewis fucked this game up big time. Am I saying that the Bengals could have won this thing? No, it was a long shot. But Marvin fucked up the Clock Management so bad he gave his team no fucking hope. Let’s take a look how. Read the rest of this entry »

For those who follow my exploits both here at MLJ and over at The Big Lead, you know that I am a HUGE Met fan. Big time. For those who are new to this, yes, I am a Met fan. I love my Mets. I follow them nightly and I write about them and get a lot of heat for my over the top Met love. But I ask for some of you to pay some attention. I am able to step away from the pom poms and look analytically at my team and dissect the Mets problems and offer some quick fixes for the Mets to get them over the hump these last 12 games. Before I do, I want to acknowledge the work of Fernando Tatis. Last night, he made an awkward attempt at a diving catch on what should have been a bloop single. In the process he separated his shoulder and is done for the year. I have made many posts and comments on this sight comparing the dude to a God-like creature and essentially attempting to build my own religion around him. Truthfully, I admire what the guy did. He recreated himself after leaving baseball 3 years ago and without returning to his juicing ways. He hustled. He provided a lot of big hits. He learned to play 3 new positions on the fly and was competent to good at all of them. He was just as big a catalyst for the Met Resurgence as the Big 4 and he was one of those stories you absolutely love in baseball. Hell, I got a Met Jersey T-Shirt made up with Tatis 17 on the back. I thank you oh Great Tatis for all you have done for the Mets and for me in both my rooting and blogging. I hope you come back next season. Now with that out of the way, my advice for The Mets as they attempt to reach the playoffs with 12 games left. Read the rest of this entry »

The Met Bullpen has reached a point where just saying it leads to giving up 2 runs. It is an insult to humanity that they exist. I have never been more angry or annoyed at a group of guys (unless you count my daily feelings about my fellow Jerks). This group, Pedro Feliciano, Scott Schoenweis, Duaner Sanchez, Joe Smith, Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner should be rounded up and shot. They are no good to the rest of mankind. They are the most hideous awful bullpen of the modern age. I don’t have numbers to back me up but the Brewers trot out Solomon Torres and Guillermo Mota plus the wonderful post steroid Eric Gagne and they manage not to blow 4 games a week. I use the term abortion a lot. They are not good enough to be an abortion. They are a botched abortion. Some fucking freak of nature that makes everyone else sick. But alas the rest of the NL East stinks on ice and the Mets manage to remain 2 games out. The Mets have strong starting pitching and a good lineup that leaves more runners on base than any other team in baseball. But they do score runs so it is not as if they are doing anything. So if the Metropolitans are to fix this mess they need to do something quick and do something drastic. Here are my thoughts: Read the rest of this entry »