Heyyyyyyyy. New York! New York! The New York Yankees are the World Champions! As a Met fan it's hard to find any solace in that. Yeah, at least Philly didn't win. Maybe I'm just bitter. Ehh.....maybe. But I don't want somebody I know to win the Mega Millions. I want to win. You play to win the game. YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!
How long until pitchers and catchers report? I'm a Knick fan. Danilo looks great, but other than that? Come on. I'm a Jet fan. We just got swept by the Dolphins. I got a lotta livin' to do 'fo I die. I'm not ready to commit that.
I found a little blurb I wrote about the Mets in July. Let's revisit that.
Ok, here's my take on Omar Minaya. What he did with the mets was like the equivalent of a poker player going in on a hand while committing like 90% of his chips. To Minaya's credit the pieces he put together were pretty good. He had a good hand. He had Wright and Reyes. Got Pedro. Got Delgado. Got Beltran. Got Wagner.
He thinks he has it. Those are good pieces; granted. Once he got Santana he thinks it's a wrap. But it didn't happen. It's like an even mix of under-achieving and injuries.
But it's reality. He did get Santana for Philip Humber and Carlos Gomez who are making NO noise. He did turn Kris Benson into John Maine and Jorge Julio who eventually became El Duque. He also signed Tim Redding and of course the infamous Luis Castillo and Heath Bell deals.
Nah, it's not his fault that Duaner Sanchez took that cab but it is his fault that he gave that kind of money to Moises Alou. Alou could fall out of bed and drive in runs but was even Minaya surprised when he got injured??? Yeah. Tough break. Minaya's core didn't work out but what is his contingency plan? It didn't work out. What are you gonna do now? Besides his "core" he throws pieces together. The real problem with that is those pieces are usually players in the twilight of their career doing a farewell lap around the National League.
A lot of times when his back is against the wall (twice right before the trade deadline) he tries to strike gold. Ex: Xavier Nady for Oliver Perez. Church for Francouer. BUT I have a way bigger problem with the 2nd one. We went in a huge circle with that one. At least Church was somewhat proven. What the hell is the difference between having L-Millz in the outfield and Francouer in the outfield? People have Francouer figured out. At least we could have fooled people with Milledge and got some value in return (what kinda happened with Ryan Church before they made him play with a concussion.) Yeah, Omar. We seen the S.I where Francouer was on the cover and they called him the Natural. He had a good first year and a half, and has a rocket for an arm. Since then? He has 11, 5, and 5 homeruns. PLAYING EVERYDAY. He wasn't on Steroids? Yeah, ok.
It goes deeper than this guy though. I remembered a couple of things that have ACTUALLY happened today.
-At 22 years old you're gonna re-teach Jose Reyes to run? You're gonna change the way somebody runs at 22 years old? That actually happened. Has Reyes played since? I forget what he looks like playing fvcking baseball. I got some memories but they're kinda foggy.
-Jose Reyes hurt himself he's limping around the field. Oh it may be his hamstring. Nope, it's his calf. He's fine, he's going to play. "Jerry Manuel: 80% of Reyes is better than 100% of a lot of players." He plays until he cannot walk. Try to find information on this. "Well, he'll be back at one point. I mean, he will play for the Mets one day. At some point after the all-star break but before 2010 most likely." That actually happened.
-Carlos Beltran this year was missing like 2 games a week. Until finally....he plays until he can't walk. He goes to get a 2nd opinion and the doctor tells him..what did that doctor say? I think it went something like "What were you doing playing baseball?" "Are you serious?" At one point they were even saying that it was career threatening?! A knee bruise? That actually happened.
-Again. Why invest so much in a player if you're that unhappy with one of his main tools. Running? Hitting? At 25 years old you're gonna completely change the way David Wright approaches an at-bat. "David, forget everything you know. Swing like this. This will be better in citi-field." This actually happened.
I wish one of you guys had the headlines/timeline of John Maine for the last year.
-John Maine feels good about the Mets chances in 08.
-John Maine experiences soreness in shoulder.
-John Maine hopes to return after all-star break.
-John Maine hopes to return in a bullpen role.
-John Maine won't be pitching for a while.
He's another one. What has he pitched in the last year/12 months? 25 innings? 5 starts. Do any of you know what exactly is wrong with him? I sure don't. His shoulder is sore? I heard he had bone spurs. Who knows.
But....again. This 2009 season. He's practically all-in just relying on his core. It didn't work. It's painfully obvious the Mets don't have money. Minaya's thinking. "Oh. All I gotta do is fix the bullpen? I'll get K-Rod. We're set now." Minaya has a habit of doing this - getting a premier player at one position and throwing somebody in the other open positions. Now the Mets are thrown together and some decent bench guys can't produce like every day guys.
There's a lot of times where it's deeper than Minaya. I think they totally mis-managed and destroyed Heilman. I really do. Church? I really don't wanna get into the flying to Colorado thing so I won't. But I have a bad feeling. And it's about...
DAVID WRIGHT.
Since this player has been 23 years old find me a quote of a player other than David Wright after the game. He gets called up he's in his early 20's, he puts it together right away. WHY IS HE THE SPOKESMAN FOR THIS TEAM?? Why isn't he solely concerned with playing 3rd base, he needs to explain why it is they lost after every game? None of the "veteran" players on this team can open their mouth? They're gonna destroy this kid. Watch. Or he's gonna destroy them.
They're gonna do something big/stupid. They're gonna trade Reyes or Wright. They don't have any other outs. This team is in for a huge overhaul and it's not gonna be fun.
I gotta take one thing back. I like Francoeur. I hated the move at the time. I really did. But that guy LIVES to play baseball. This guy would play with a broken arm while the rest of the team shakes the pitcher's hand after they strike out. "Great strikeout bro. You're an awesome pitcher dude!"
Whatevs. Let's make this team a contender again. (Last year was an anomaly. A freakish amount of injuries. A ridiculous amount. Still. Let's go Omar.)
C-
1B-
2B-
SS- Reyes
3B- Wright
LF-
CF- Beltran
RF- Francoeur
Lotta holes in that lineup that need to be filled up.
Catcher. Thole? The kid looked good. Looks weird to see a catcher choke up on the bat like that, but he looked good. Not ready yet. Let's sign Bengie Molina.
First Base. Omar's mouth is watering because look at the first basemen who are free agents. They're all washed up. Plus Omar said in the Daily News "don't be surprised to see Delgado in a Mets uniform next year." A Latino player who just came off a hip surgery in the twilight of his career? Wouldn't surprise me at all Omar. Daniel Murphy? Ok. The kid is a 2nd basemen. Failed in the outfield. Pretty solid defensively at 1st. I think he was 4th on the team in hitting last year. (He batted 250 something. SMH) He had no protection the lineup; it was his 1st full year in the majors. Truth be told, I'd rather see Murph at 1st than Delgado. Maybe a glimmer of hope here though. One of our top prospects is a 1st baseman. A young man by the name of Ike Davis. He's tearing up the Arizona Fall League. Rumors have it that they might let him compete for the job in spring training. We shall see.
2nd Base I hated the Castillo contract. You hated the Castillo contract. Guess what? He was solid last year. (Besides the game we don't need to talk about) Let's trade him though. Let's trade Gimpy and sign Orlando Hudson.
Left FieldCrawford. Bay. Holliday. That's it. Omar. Don't give us Johnny Damon. Please. I'm begging you. Crawford. Bay. Holliday.
The RotationSign John Lackey. Than sign Randy Wolf or Jason Marquis. I prefer Marquis. He's from Staten Island. He wants to be a Met. Omar has had a hard-on for Wolf for a while though so whatever. Just sign Lackey first.
K. Bye.
