The Mets Police

Ronnie sent this one over, adding...

They rarely link to (Rob) Neyer over @  (other site I have no issue with) but you don't drink the Kool-aid:


Can we not sugarcoat this thing? Perez's start last night was just short of a disaster.
Neyer's piece is here. 

I agree, that was not a good start.

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Today's Top Story, which I won't put any better than the Times will...I'll just add that we might as well find out if Niese is good.  Throw him in the Phillies fire.  

We know that the Mets and the rest of MLB don't believe in Figueroa, so all I am saying is Give Niese A Chance.

PHILLIES 6, METS 5

Perez Struggles, Putting Future in Doubt

By BEN SHPIGEL

Published: May 3, 2009

Another miserable outing Saturday left Oliver Perez embarrassed and General Manager Omar Minaya considering yanking him from the rotation.

Because he has more than five years of service time, Perez, who has a minor league option, would have to agree to a demotion.

“If I need it, then I have to go because right now I don’t help my team,” he said. “Right now, I don’t feel I’m doing my job.”

He added: “I feel embarrassed. I’m not doing anything for the team. That’s not easy.”

In case Mr. Minaya is wondering, Derek Lowe is 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA.

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Whoa..I'm catching up on yesterday (was at Yankee Stadium) and I just read in the Post that ...

Perez gave a putrid performance in his final spring training start yesterday. The $36 million left-hander failed to get out of the first inning against the Red Sox at Citi Field, walking four batters and giving up a grand slam before getting booed off the mound by most of the 38,695 fans in a 9-3 Mets loss.

Are you kidding me???!!


Are you crazy?  It's an exhibition game.   Maybe he was working on something.  Maybe he just sucked.  We know he's fragile, sometimes awesome and sometimes terrible - why would you pile on during an exhibition game?  How is he supposed to feel about Mets fans this morning?

I'm never accused of being Mr. Met or positive...and I complain more than anyone...but booing this guy in the final spring training tuneup (after everyone defended the WBC to me for a month)?   Any of you that did that yesterday is an idiot.   Stay home.


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I thought I'd write about actual baseball, instead of the business of, for a change.

Since you all read the same things I do so I'll get right to it rather than act like I'm the newspaper.

1. Oliver Perez pitched well.

As I said last week, everyone remain calm. It's the spring. All pitchers have good outings and bad outings. Last week was panic-time, now everyone will be singing this guy's praises.
I think we know what we have in Ollie. He's a guy that more often than not will give a good to very good outing, but we'll never really be able to trust him. In a Game 7 he's just as likely to give up 5 runs in 5 innings as he is to throw a shutout. Root for this guy but never trust.


2. Dan Murphy to bat second.


I think Murph represents everything that "fans like me" want. Scrappy, homegrown, came out of nowhere, unhyped and unheralded. Like that Dykstra kid that came out of nowhere once on Monday Night Baseball.
I hope he's real and plays with 5 and 7 for ten years.
I'm a little concerned that they are throwing him in the deep end, but with any better option playing in LA, hey let's go for it.



3. Livan Hernandez is the fifth starter.
If you watched spring training at all this is a no brainer. He has been at worst the third best, and maybe the second best all spring. This might be this year's great pickup that continues the Legend of Omar Minaya. I suspect it will be.

Hernandez doesn't need to win, he just needs to eat innings so that we don't go to the bullpen in the fifth every 5 days.



4. Jerry closed the door on Pedro


I hope Pedro finds happiness in Oakland or Houston or the Long Island Ducks. Farewell Four Inning Pedro.



5. We all seem to think Pelfrey is good


It was just 11 months ago people were sick of him, then the light went on. I hope it stays on because there's nothing like a homegrown young stud pitcher. Does he have 15 wins in him?



6. The how many games will K-Rod save discussion?


I saw metsblog polling the fans on how many saves K-Rod will get. For those of you picking 62 or more, if this guy sees north of 45 saves then Jerry isn't managing right.


7. Zeus is messing with me


I don't like Friday's forecast


8. The solution to the Iron Triangle (ugly car repair shops) will be....


Seems like most of New York discovered that it looks like Baja California over past 126th. That's not going to last long. I predict the solution will be the Islanders new arena. I'll flesh that out when I have more time.
I also dig that 126th Street is an actual place and part of the lexicon after all these years.

9. Opening Night is still a night game.


This is still a mistake no matter how the Padres feel about it. I am adding the Padres to the list of teams I put hexes on.

10. Two new stadiums!


Did you ever think NYC would get not one but two new baseball stadiums? In the same year? If I had told you on 9-12-01 that in eight years we'd have two new parks you'd never have believed it. Amazin'

From Newsday:

"I just don't believe in denying a player the opportunity to represent his country," Minaya said. "I could never stand in the way of that. That's something that's very special. We're all committed to it. Oliver Perez is the best pitcher in Mexico right now. How can you tell a player, the best pitcher in the country, that he can't participate?"


Like this.

We pay you $36 million dollars to pitch for the Mets.  Not Mexico, not your friend's softball team, not even on the Wii.  Protect that arm.

I wonder if Omar truly believes what he said, or if the Selig mafia got to him.

"We always have to take into consideration what's in the best interest of the game, what's in the best interest of the players. We just can't think about ourselves only. That's just not the right attitude."

I would prefer to have a General Manager who puts the Mets first.

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So with this week's Ollie-gate, I'm wondering about this Dan Warthen fellow.

The great Santana panic of 2009 came from the mouth of Mr. Warthen, and now Ollie's weight gain is topic du jour again because of Dan.

Jerry showed skill last year dealing with the media, which was a nice change from Willie Randolph.   Does Jerry let Dan do his dirty work, then Jerry can swoop in and play good-cop and give a funny quote?

I know nothing about being a pitching coach.  Mel Stottlemyer was good, that's about all I know.  A co-worker observes that John Maine was a better pitcher during the previous regime.  I don't know if that's about Maine's arm, head, or the coach.  I just thought I'd throw it out there because it's an interesting observation or at least coincidence.

To me, this is much a-do about nothing.   While I do love being the king of "told ya so", and it seems all agree that the WBC wasn't the best thing that ever happened to Oliver Perez, it's important to remember that pitchers have bad statistics in the spring.  You have a bad outing.  You have a dead arm period.  Whether it's Maine or Perez everyone needs to remain calm.

I suspect that Jerry is crazy like a fox, and wants Ollie to lay off the donuts and let Dan do the dirty work.

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The Mets and Oliver Perez have agreed to a three year, $36 million deal.

Ollie is lefty, only 27, and proved he can pitch in New York.   That's a solid signing.

My question to Mets fans is:  Is this team any better than 2008?

Now that Ollie is back, here's a similar to what lineup you can expect to see every 5th day.  Ready?

SS Reyes
CF Beltran
1B Delgado
3B Wright
LF  Evans
2B  Martinez
RF Church
C Castro
P Perez

Impressed?  That was the lineup they started on September 28th when Shea closed down.

Want to swap Martinez for Luis Castillo?  Great!   You say Murphy/Tatis/Pagan/Random Dude is better than Evans?  Great!

Does this team actually seem any better?

How about this rotation?  Santana, Perez, Maine, Pelfrey and your choice of Pedro or a random guy from the Nationals.   It's the same team.

2008 had an all-star closer.   2009 will have an all-star closer.

It looks like the Mets think last year's team was good enough except for the bullpen.  Hopefully J.J. Putz and K-Rod won't blow thirty games like last year's crew did.  To be fair to Omar, maybe if they didn't blow 5 of those games you have a much different season.

If you look back to Opening Day 2008 and Willie's boys, they basically started the same offense that they did on closing day - just swap the LF and C for different names with similar abilities.

One last thought about the lineup because I can't ignore it and don't know why the Mets do.   I'm just going to swap in one name.  I'm not going to run any stats.  I'm not going to worry about lefty-righty.  I'm just going to replace one name.  Tell me if you'd be willing to go to war with this?




In the Daily News, Adam Rubin has the payroll at about $135 million.  The Wilpon Cap is rumored to be at $160 million.   Hmmm, there's an extra $25 million there.  I wonder what kind of player you could get with that kind of change?

New York Sports Examiner
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Pure genius!

The Mets and the Wilpons outfoxed us all this week.  We all took the head-fake and didn't look at the man behind the curtain.  Well played.

First they felt us out with "Baracklyn."   A few loudmouths like me took the bait but most of you kept your heads and focused on the real story - Derek Lowe.

When Baracklyn didn't work the Wilpons unfurled their secret weapon: The Patch!

The blogosphere went nuts.   The internet went nuts!  For a few hours The Patch was one of the most ridiculed things in the world (thanks to Yahoo).

(Oh and by the way we didn't sign Lowe)  Yeah how about that stupid patch!!!!!!

Well played Wilpons.  You distracted us all, but we're back now.

We don't care about The Patch anymore.   We don't care about Bernie Madoff and financial rumors.  We don't care about banks and signage.  We care about pitching, left field and second base.

This team is not ready to win the east, never mind the World Series.   There's one ace starter, two guys that seem like they might be good pitchers, nobody starting the fourth game of the season and a so-so pitcher from the Nats on Day 5.  

Where's Manny?   Where's Ollie?  You have the money ($40 of it is mine, thanks again for that "order charge" on my partial plans.)...or maybe you don't?  Could this Madoff rumor be true?   Or do you just not like pitching?  

I know, stop asking questions Mets Police - keep your eye on the patch, and The Apple and the black uniforms.



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Derek Lowe got his money and his fourth year.   I guess it's hard to give a 35 year old a fourth year, thing stend not to work out (cough, Pedro) with that fourth year, but on the other hand it's the price of doing business these days.  The old one stupid owner theory.

So I'd like to be mad and throw things but I get it.

So we're back to Oliver Perez.  Guess who represents him.   Guess who knows the Mets really need starters.  How much do you think a 27 year old left-hander is going to cost now?   Ollie, you can buy lunch.

What are the Mets going to do, say no?   Tim Redding is a fifth starter....they need a four, and by four I don't mean Four Inning Pedro.

This Randy Wolf fellow intrigues me.   He used to be pretty good back when with the Phillies before the Tommy John surgery.   He might be worth a gamble.

..
Morgan Stanley Stadium in 2010?   Is there a single person out there who thinks the present Name Which Shall Not Be Said (until they stop using taxpayer money to name ballparks) will last 20 years?   The Washington Post printed the following:

"I think within 12 months, Citigroup no longer exists," said William Smith at Smith Asset Management, who owns Citigroup shares. He has been calling for a breakup of Citigroup for years, and believes the government will force that fate in piece-meal fashion over the coming year.

The Boston Herald has a piece about Roger Clemens not making the Hall of Fame.  Absurd.  Like I said about Rose unless you're going to re-write the results book, Clemens is a Hall of Famer.

I may have to start my own Pantheon Of The Famous and invite Rose, Bonds, McGwire & Sosa to be in the inaugural class.

Finally, The Times says you can still get premium seats at Yankee III.  20 games will only set you back seven grand.

SPORTS / BASEBALL

Yankees Try New Strategy to Market Premium Seats 

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: January 14, 2009

The Yankees have hired a division of a residential real estate brokerage, Prudential Douglas Elliman, to help sell unsold premium seats and luxury boxes at their new stadium.

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Some quick hits.   This patch on the left showed up today.   I think we all agree it is awful and stupid.  It doesn't say what inaugural season.   Is it a trick to fool a future archaeologist to think the Mets first season was 2009?

I find it very interesting that it doesn't mention the corporate sponsor.  You know the one that takes taxpayer money and gives it to the Mets.

Does $20 million not get you on the uniforms?  Are the Mets actually sensitive to the taxpayer backlash?  Are they worried that the name of the stadium may change if something happens to the name of the bank corporation?  It has to be one of those three reasons, right?

The good news is now we finally know what the 2009 uniforms will look like.   I have previously asked why are Mets uniforms a state secret?  At least now we know something.   Pinstripes with black shading is back.  Unlike the recent black uniform variant rumor I believe this one to be true because the always excellent Uni Watch reported it.   By reported it I mean killed it.


..

Now the quick hits.  The New York Post showed that Taxpayer Field already has rust on it.  It's hard to tell from the picture in the left here but in the Post you can see it.  I apologize to all taxpayers for displaying the name of the bank but I don't have an hour to photshop.

Tonight I read the Mets are offering three years to Ollie.  That's good.  He's a nice middle of the rotation guy, and we know he won't melt in a tough spot.  Let's just make sure we don't need to hand him the ball in Game 162.

A co-worker suggested how the Yankees will wind up with Manny Ramirez.   The Mets need to sign Andy Pettitte and then five minutes later the Yankees will announce NO NEED TO LOOK OVER THERE HEY LOOK AT US WE SIGNED MANNY and hold the press conference on the same day.  

Finally, let's not even start in yet about the Baracklyn Cyclones.   No that's not me trying to be funny.  It's real.   Here's the teaser video, it's yet another stupid thing the Wilpons do, which is why you need Mets Police, and we'll have a full rant about this in the morning.




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Continuing with our theme of Santana & Maine and pray for rain.....we'll get Rain on Friday which is good (instead of Pelfrey), Pelfrey and Santana for Saturday's doubleheader so that's a split, and Perez vs Johnny Cueto on Sunday - Perez is due for a great game....so the Mets Police predict the Mets take two of three, and the Reds lose their heads (see below)

The Mets have this wonderful habit of getting stars from other teams. Vince Coleman, Bobby Bonilla, even Tom "Cylon" Glavine. I'm here to expose Pedro.

Pedro draws my wrath for several reasons including not being at Opening Day 2008. Apparently "Pedro being Pedro" has a flexible schedule, and also doesn't require winning any clutch games.

In 2005, his first season as a Met, Martinez posted a 15-8 record with a 2.82 ERA, 208 strikeouts, and a league-leading 0.95 WHIP. It was his sixth league WHIP title, and the fifth time that he led the Major Leagues in the category. Opponents batted .204 against him. Great! They finished third with a whopping 83 wins! That's three fewer than the legendary 1976 Mets that you can't name five players on.

Martinez started the 2006 season at the top of his game. At the end of May, he was 5-1 with a 2.50 ERA. Great! This guy is 20 and 9 as a Met! Awesome right? Let's take it from here.

Beginning on June 6, Martinez went 4-7 with a 7.10 ERA in a series of spotty starts interrupted twice by stays on the disabled list. The Mets went to the playoffs without him.

2007? The right-hander went 3-1 in five starts with a 2.57 ERA. But his last start was a crucial 3-0 loss to St. Louis in the final week of the 2007 Mets' historic collapse.

2008? 4 innings.

So since June 6, 2006 this guy is 7 and 5. Whoopdedoo. He's 27-17 as a Met. He has won 7 more games than Tom Seaver since June 2006. Maine is 22-16. Perez is 17-13.