Rack'em Up!

So you're talking about what? You're talking about...
(puts his cigarette out)

...bitching about that sale you shot, some son of a bitch that doesn't want to buy, somebody that doesn't want what you're selling, some broad you're trying to screw and so forth. Let's talk about something important.

PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN!!!

Coffee's for closers only.

from Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

I’ll be brief.

I joined a baseball fantasy league this year. It is the first time I have ever done anything like this. Don’t get me wrong, I love sports, football specifically, but I follow baseball with interest. The difference being that in football I watch, read and generally care about ALL of the teams. Whoever is playing on Sunday I watch. It could be a Bucs/Seahawks and I will still find it interesting. With baseball, my attention is all local. Mostly Mets but I’ll flip to the Yankees as well. If both those teams stink and are out of it you could easily find me watching a rerun of Mannix on TV Land rather then a baseball game…even if it is the Playoffs or the World Series. In direct comparrison, I NEVER miss an NFL Championship or Superbowl. So, with my dispassion for the diamond fully documented, I entered this league on a lark. What the heck, I said to myself, the competition might add some spice to something I might otherwise have not really cared about.

Well, I am hooked on this trash! I never could have imagined how engaged I could become in such trivial information. Every evening questions burn in my mind, questions that demand answers. Did Felipe Lopez steal a base? How did Hank Blalock do against Joe Saunders? Is Garret Atkins finally going to break his season long slump? Why am I awake at 1:00 AM, sitting alone at my desk in a dark room, sipping a tumbler of Seagram's Seven Crown and staring at a picture of Heath Bell on Yahoo’s Stat Tracker?

And I never even heard of these guys last year!

It is truly amazing how something that had absolutely no meaning to me not that long ago can come to consume my intellectual faculties. But enough rambling and back to the purpose of this post.

My fantasy team has three closers – the position most responsible for the “Save” category for scoring purposes. And they are not bad either -Scott Downs (Toronto), Heath Bell (San Diego) and Mariano (If you don’t know what team then you are probably not reading this anyway.) All three have so far produced one save this week. Cause for concern? Not really, because the guy I am up against only has one – the sub-par- on his knees every night thanking Jesus he still has a job - Huston Street (Colorado.)

My opponent is beating me.

From MLB.com this is the "play by play" recap of the top of the ninth inning of yesterday's Rockies/Rays game:


The score: Colorado: 4 Tampa Bay: 1

Upton singles on a line drive.
Crawford singles on a line drive (Upton to second)
Upton steals third, Crawford steals second
Longoria strikes out swinging (One out)
Pena strikes out swinging (Two out)
Zobrist single on a line drive (Upton scores from third, Crawford scores from second)
Gross puts ball in play - (Three out - Game over)

...and Huston Street notches his 15th save. A complete joke.

The Ace-Hole crafts another gem...

Conversely last night in Baltimore, Francisco (K-Rod) Rodriguez who is, as you all know, the Metropolitans highly paid “brilliant” closer – comes into a one run game in the ninth and proceeds to walk the ballpark, gives up a rope, blows the save and loses the game. But, don’t worry Met fans…he’ll get a whole slew of three run cream puffs to get that total up to 60 for the year lickity-split!

One last thing, for all of you out there using expressions like “lights out,” “un-hittable” and “phenomenal” to describe these guys, I looked up one more stat on MLB.com that will support your descriptions. Huston Street, in the league for 5 years, has 109 saves which puts him just shy of the top 100 all-time list – not bad. K-Rod, with about seven years on the mound, has 225 making him number 33 - totally awesome! At number 18 is Rich Gossage, closer for the Yankees in the 1970s. His 310 total saves looks impressive but it took him over 20 years to accomplish. Just judging by the respective ages of Street and Rodriguez I have little doubt that they will BOTH pass Gossage on the all time leader board. Not only do I think it is inevitable, I think it will be fairly soon.

But you know what? No matter what kind of numbers you throw at me, you will never convince me that EITHER one of these guys are half the pitcher that was The Goose.

For the love of Pete…put the Kool Aid down.

Contributed by:
Larry B
Staff Writer for:
Therightsideofhistory.blogspot.com

A Bitter Pill

My alarm clock goes off every morning at 6:30 to the tune of WFAN, a local sports talk radio station. Normally, you get sports updates, sprinkled with Boomer & Carton’s crass attempts at garnering more ratings. This morning, however, as I’m struggling to get out of bed in preparation for another day at work, Carton delivers a bombshell. You are probably going to say that I’m blowing this way out of proportion, but I don’t care! As the blow was being dealt, hitting me harder than last years Mets collapse, I just couldn’t believe my ears: Len Berman of NBC Sports had been fired!


This is an absolute atrocity, this man is a sports reporting legend that has been in the business for over 25 years! A local TV sports news icon that I religiously tuned in to watch, in either hopeful expectation, or regretful despondence, contingent upon whether the Mets had won or lost that particular day. Mr. Berman was a pioneer for his trade creating his monthly highlight reel tabbed ‘Spanning The World’. Len Berman played an integral role in lighting my fire for sports during my adolescent years and now he is the victim of what NBC execs are calling ‘budgetary concerns’! What a bitter pill to swallow and how difficult it was for me to hear Mr. Berman on this mornings radio show saying things like, “I guess all good things must come to an end”. All good things must come to an end, this is indeed true, but they should come to an end in a noble way. Look, I’m not downplaying our recent economic downturn, and I understand the sour economy has also forced stations everywhere to retrench, but at a certain point you say, ENOUGH! At what point do you recognize that certain people’s contributions to society are so rich, that respect is warranted? I’m a sucker for nostalgia, and Mr. Berman for me represents a part of my past that I never want to forget and never will! The only negative thing I can say about Mr. Berman’s whole character is that he is an insufferable Yankees fan, but hey, nobody’s perfect! Once again, one of the nice guys gets hosed by a bunch of pimply-faced, back-stabbing, hedonistic, self-seeking, money-grubbing execs. No need to worry though Mr. Berman, because in our eyes, you are the true winner!

The Torpedo Job

Contributed by J.P.G.

We are just a couple of weeks away from opening day, so perhaps this a bit premature, but if the Mets fail to make the playoffs, there will be one man and one man only, to blame. It won't be Omar Minaya, or Jerry Manuel. It won't be the Wilpons. It won't be Reyes, Wright, Beltran or Delgado, either. It won’t be any of the bums vying for the 5th starter’s spot or other targets of our collective ire, such as Luis Castillo or Brian Schneider. Then it's gotta be Heilman, Shoeneweis, Sanchez or Ayala, right? Wait, all those guys are gone. Well then, who is it you ask? It's not a player, coach, or any member for the Mets organization for that matter. The man responsible for the Mets potential 2009 demise is none other than Bernie Madoff.

Now I'm not suggesting that anyone remove SNY from their favorites button of the remote control. Nor am I saying it's time to wave the white flag before the season even begins. The Mets have a solid team. In my opinion, they have the best starter, the best one-two punch at the back-end of the bullpen, the best center fielder and lead-off man in all of baseball. From top to bottom, the Mets are a talented team that has a realistic shot of winning it all.

With all that said, the Mets had a chance to go from a legitimate contender to the prohibitive National League favorite had they been more aggressive in a market that saw salaries for All-Star caliber players completely bottom out. Orlando Hudson, a brilliant defensive second baseman with above average skills offensively was allowed to go to the Dodgers for $3 million. The perfect replacement for Luis Castillo was allowed to slip away for less than what the Mets paid Scott Shoeneweis two years ago. They tried to low-ball a possible future Hall-of-Famer* in Bobby Abreu by offering him about $3.5 million. I don't love Bobby Abreu. He's soft, afraid of the wall, and he's left-handed, while the Mets’ are crying out for a righty slugger. Even so he would have been a major upgrade over Ryan Church in right. It is pretty obvious there was no chance he was coming after the Mets demonstrated a Pittsburgh Pirate-esque display of financial prowess when dealing with the aforementioned Abreu and Hudson. In a down market, a mega-market team like the Mets needs to strike while the iron is hot. They had the wherewithal to at least sign two of those guys. Or did they?...

*I know the words Hall-of-Famer and Bobby Abreu don't seem to be synonymous with one another but if you don't think the guy has a shot at the Hall, think again. He has eight seasons of 100+ RBI, a career BA of .300 after 13 seasons, an impressive 318 steals and barring injury he is a lock for at least 2,500 Hits. If he sticks around until he's 40, a liberal projection of his career numbers factoring in a decline would be 1500+ RBI, 300+ HR, a near .300 BA, 2,500+ Hits and 350+ SB. With these numbers he's a slam dunk for the Hall-of-Fame. And this tainted baseball era, that he's never been once mentioned as a steroid user, will only enhance his Hall-of-Fame resume.

Does it annoy you that our team is moving into a virtual cash cow of a new ballpark, has the aid of lush revenue streams courtesy of a regional sports network and is receiving $20 million per year in stadium naming rights courtesy of us taxpayers…ahem…I mean Citigroup, and is acting like a stiffer miser than Ebenezer Scrooge! Do the Wilpon's spend money lots of money? Sure they do. The Mets’ $145 million payroll is nothing to scoff at, no doubt. But even the lowly Pirates significantly raised payroll when they moved into their new ballpark. The Nationals were prepared to fork over $180 million for Mark Teixeira until he chose the Evil Empire, then they dropped $10 million for Adam Dunn. Look at the Royals recent transactions; they signed Jose Guillen for 36 million over 3 years, Gil Meche to 55 million over 5 years, re-signed Zach Greinke for 4 years and 36 million. They even aggressively signed some veteran relievers over the past few off-seasons.* The Mets, on the other hand, with all the extra revenue decide to maintain the exact same payroll. I hate to compare the Mets to the Yankees, but it's hard not to when you live right next door. Does anybody think there would be a snowball's chance in hell that Luis Castillo would be starting at 2nd Base if the Steinbrenner family owned the Mets? Is there any doubt that Manny, the greatest right-handed hitter of this era, that final missing piece, would not be wearing an interlocking NY on his cap?

*Many people scoff at the recent signings of the Royals. Most criticize the team for moves they deem dumb and overpriced. I can't blame them though. They know that premium players will never sign with them if they can get the same money elsewhere. They have no other real choice than to overpay for 2nd tier talent and hope that their young prospects can carry them to the next level. At least their ownership, lately, is showing they care by giving their fans a reason to show up to the ballpark. Look at the Twins, before his death in January, team owner Carl Pohlad, with a net-worth of $3.6 billion, was ranked #102 on Forbes list of the 400 Richest Men in America, and yet he would routinely let his best players walk in free-agency despite being a playoff contender every year. So would you rather be a Royal’s fan, knowing that ownership, at least recently, is making an attempt even if they fail? Or a Twins fan, knowing that your team might contend, but will never take that extra step because their ownership won’t make the extra acquisition necessary? Who really wants that agony?

Whether it’s dropping the ball after getting humiliated by the Yankees in 2000 and not signing A-Rod that off-season** or failing to fix their mistake by signing Vlad Guerrero in 2003, the Mets have had a disturbing history of coming up small when great players are there for the taking. Do I want the Mets to be exactly like the Yankees with a bloated $200 million dollar payroll? No, but do I expect our team who, according to Forbes has the 3rd highest revenue dollars in the sport, to throw caution to the wind and sign the one or two players that could put the team over-the-top? Damn right I do. As Mets fans we should not only expect it, we should demand it!

**As for A-Roid, this is one of those ‘had we known then what we know now, we wouldn't be complaining’ deals. Maybe signing A-Rod in the 2000 off-season would have blown up in our faces amid his turbulent stay here in NY. But I will defy anyone who claims, with a straight face, they weren't pissed as all hell that the Mets didn't sign him at the time. With respect to Vlad, Met officials actually used the bogus excuse that ‘doctors didn't like what they saw in the medical reports’, what a disgrace!

So why do the Mets, in big spots, with a chance to steal the back pages of the local tabloids always come up small? In past years, it was being gun-shy after the big money disasters like Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Frank Viola, Brett Saberhagen and Mo Vaughn. Then Omar took over and it looked like the Mets had finally taken that next step towards accepting the fact that NY isn't a mid-market and that in order to succeed with the fan base here you've gotta spend. To the Wilpon's credit, I think they started to make strides. Omar was able to convince them that building slowly through the farm was not the answer, and that the fans would not tolerate his Scroogism. So what happened? What changed? Well, it's time we come full circle and get back to our boy Bernie Madoff. Wilpon has lost up to $500 million in the Ponzi scheme, but claims this wouldn't effect their baseball operations. Does anybody believe a team like the Mets, under normal circumstances, would have allowed a guy like Abreu to sign with another team over a mere $1.5 million? Does anyone believe that our 5th starter would be one of the three bums who need either A-Roids, Metamucil, or both, instead of Pedro Martinez, if everything was kosher? Does anybody believe that the Mets wouldn't have shown some interest in Manny, even if it was just to appease the fan faithful, if everything was A-OK? The answer is NO! Rot in prison Bernie, and savor it while it lasts, because your new penthouse after prison will be in that luxurious, palatial living space known as, hell! With any luck O.J will be your cellmate! -J.P.G.

More Cowbell

It’s that time of year again, when the grass grows and flowers bloom, marking the end of the flu season. Almost poetically, you start hearing a chorus of fans chanting the words of Christopher Walken in that SNL skit, “I've got a fever, and the only prescription...is more cowbell!” And then you see the elderly man in the stadium banging on that old instrument with a youthful effervescence, an image which coincides with the dawn of the new baseball season. For some this commencement is formulaic, but for others like me, it’s a time when heartbreak is forgotten and pain becomes a thing of the past, when there is forgiveness due to the promise of a brighter day. There is an old scripture that says, “…Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5). Well, fellow Mets fans, its morning time again in New York and our apparent incurable fever will now regress to a healthy temperature with a simple prescription called baseball!

Obviously, we have suffered these last two seasons with the collapse of epic proportions by our cast of ‘lovable losers’. The good news? There is only one direction left to go when you’ve hit rock bottom. Let’s pick ourselves right back up, dust ourselves off and start shouting from the top of our lungs that old familiar tune, ‘Let’s Go Mets!’ There should be plenty of optimism heading into this new season with our recent acquisitions of J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez to solidify the back end of our bullpen. This is an immediate upgrade over a bullpen that blew 29 of 72 save opportunities and pitched to a 6.23 ERA over the final 17 games last year. The Mets had more than enough offense last year. They were tied for 2nd in the NL with 4.93 runs per game and in total runs with 799. They also lead the NL in stolen bases with 138. The Mets starting pitching last year ranked 5th in the NL with a 3.98 ERA, and 7th in the Majors, which was better than the rest of their competition in the NL East. They also ranked ranked 5th in the Majors with 771 Ks from their starters. Just think, the Mets starters put up these numbers despite a variety of starters filling in for an injured John Maine and Pedro Martinez throughout the year. Their bullpen clearly fell short ranking 13th in the NL with a 4.27 ERA, the Phillies, Marlins, Atlanta and Washington all ranked ahead of the Mets in bullpen ERA last year. This, my friends, is what cost us our playoff berth!

We have all heard the old adage that baseball is a game of intangibles. Baseball purists argue ‘it’s the little things’ that make the difference. One intangible the Mets have going for them is failure, that’s right I said it, FAILURE. I once read a book entitled “Failure is Written In Pencil” by David Ireland, whose clear message is that we all have the ability to erase our failures and transform them into success. The Mets have suffered collapses that cannot be matched within the baseball world. They needed a leader who recognizes true success can be garnered through adversity, and they got one when Minaya made the decision to go with Jerry Manuel. Well, Skipper, it’s been said that you’re a spiritual and philosophical man, so I’d like for you to share the following message to our team this Spring:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now Mets fans, let’s unite, every single one of us, including the Cow Bell man and join together in this new season of hope and help our team persevere through our baptism under fire! And just to get you a little pumped up for the season, here's a video of what I hope we see a lot of this year:

Go Get Pedro!

Let me be transparent with my fellow Mets fans out there, I am sick and tired of Omar Minaya’s unyielding stubbornness! Here we are two weeks into spring training and we still have to deal with guys like Livan Hernandez, Freddy Garcia, Tim Redding and Jon Niese battling for a spot. That if Minaya had played his cards right there would be no contest. Minaya’s moves scream out the following argument. If “Unsteady Freddy” can recover from his shoulder surgery, then we could have a potential “Ace-In-The-Hole” in the words of our beloved GM. Or if ‘Livan the Large’ can recover from his knee troubles, maybe he can erase the memory of his putrid 6.05 ERA from his 2008 season. Or if ‘Tim the Terrible’ can duplicate his near 5 ERA from last year we could possibly get 180 innings of below average performances. Or lastly, just MAYBE ‘Jon Nubie Niese’ can make the jump from the minor leagues and be a successful starter at the major league level.

While I do like what I see from this promising young rookie, it doesn’t change the fact that he is still only a rookie with an average fastball ranging from 88-92MPH, who you would ideally like to see develop better command of all his pitches at the minor league level. Too often we have seen young pitchers try to learn their craft at the major league level and either get injured (i.e., Francisco Liriano) or get their confidence shattered (i.e., Jason Isringhausen) I think the latter is still seeing shrinks because of the Mets organizational blunders!

I’m sorry Omar, but your logic is completely nonsensical, especially when juxtaposed with your reasoning for not re-signing Pedro Martinez. Since you’re clearly indicating by your tepid interest that Pedro at 37 years of age may have nothing left or that he is too injury prone, I scream in response, Why the hell did you sign an alleged 34 year old 250lb pitcher with knee problems and a guy who’s had major shoulder surgery and was not half the pitcher Pedro was before the surgery to a potential 8 million dollar contract?

These personnel determinations display poor evaluation and decision-making skills Mr. Minaya! Why not roll the dice on Pedro as your No. 5 starter? The bottom line is that he has had only one poor season in his entire career and it happened to come last year a year that saw the death of his father and a delayed start to the season due to a strained hamstring. For any pitcher to be “right” his mind needs to be clear and he needs spring training innings under his belt to shake off the rust. Unfortunately Pedro’s last season was bereft of these two important elements of a pitchers game.

Let’s take a closer look at last season. After Pedro returned, June essentially became his extended spring training and unfortunately he got off to a rocky start. This is to be expected from a pitcher only one year removed from shoulder surgery. From July 07th through August 31st, however, in a span of 51.2 innings he pitched to a 3.51 ERA, a 1.28 WHIP and 42Ks. During this span Pedro exhibited signs of improved arm strength as his velocity increased from 83-88MPH in June to a peak of 93MPH in a game against the Phillies on August 26th. And as one would expect, Pedro bottomed out to finish the season, due to not having pitched for a full season and the mental strain that must have been afflicting him leading up the death of his father combined with a lack of conditioning due to not having a spring training.

I am not arguing that Pedro will ever be the pitcher he once was. What I am arguing is that Pedro clearly exhibited signs of being an above-average starter for a nice chunk of last season. That to me is a step up from the aforementioned grade-C starters. Already, Felipe Alou is singing Pedro’s praises as he pitches for the Dominican in the WBC, displaying a fastball clocked in the low 90’s and showing good command of his changeup this early in the pre-season. I fully expect Pedro, now 2 years removed from shoulder surgery to have a strong season for whatever team takes a chance on him this year. I just desperately hope that team’s our NY Mets! Let’s go Minaya, get on the damn ball!