The Mets Police

I enjoy having Vegas Rich on the site.   His comments always seem to stir things up:


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Daniel in the Lions Den":

"This is a guy you build your future around. A guy who never stops to try and make himself better, who works on his game everyday and dives around the bag at first like Ferris Fane."

Um, I can dive around first base too. That's not that hard. What is hard is hitting a baseball - and Daniel Murphy doesn't do that well enough to be a starting first baseman. Never did, never will.



stillmatickrican has left a new comment on your post "Daniel in the Lions Den":

the kid is a gamer and i agree with this post..

i'd rather see the team continue to play to the ballpark strengths than play to its weaknesses..

trading 2-3 prospects ( tops ) for carl crawford, who would essentially be here on a 1 year trial would be the best move we could make.

if he leaves, we offer arbitration and recoup the prospects we lost in the 2 draft picks we would pick up.

he would only cost 10 million...
he could hit in the leadoff spot and allow reyes to hit in the 3 hole


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Daniel in the Lions Den":

I'm a Murph fan , but I want to do whats best for the team..That said, there isn't much out there at 1b for an upgrade that wouldn't cost just about the rest of our farm system (i.e Price Fielder) Nick Johnson? please.. He has about as many HR's as Murph. We have two targets for LF, Jason Bey andMatt Holliday, we should full court press to sign one of them. Then we need to turn our attention to starting pitching..and we need plenty of it.

Let Murph play the 1st half of '10 and see what happens, if he doesn't get better, then bring Ike Davis up and see what he has got.


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Daniel in the Lions Den":

Where Murphy's bat makes the most sense is 2b. They should again try him there during winter ball. Castillo has done well, but if there's anyway to unload his contract they have to try, you cannot expect him to keep up this production. What we lose in Castillo's OBP, you'd gain in Murphy's extra base hitting ability. A secondbasemen with 15 HR/35-40 double potential is something the Mets haven't had since Alfonzo. Murphy has shown he has a decent arm, and a pretty good glove. His range couldn't be worse than Castillo's, who loses a step or two a year. It wouldn't hurt to try. 


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Daniel in the Lions Den":

.200 ISO over the last 7 weeks...since he's been a full time first baseman. You people need to chill. LF, SP, and RP is where we need help in '10, not 1B. 


My take:   I'm an odd duck.  I not only want to win, but I want to win in a certain way (for example, I prefer not to win by signing the ace of the Red Sox five minutes after they win their first championship in three generations - that player should have stayed in Boston), so I'd like to win with Murph at first than some random free agent.


Can someone become a Met?  Of course  - Keith Hernandez sure did.


Do I never want free agents?  No.  I think it's important to grab the final piece of a puzzle when you can.


However, the last commenter nails it.  We need lots of things, and with it looking like the Wilpons are going to watch the budget, I'd rather grab some pitchers and a LFer and try my luck with good ol' Murph at first.  Plus I bought my kid a Murphy shirt that I'd like to get another year out of.


note:  I don't mind anonymous comments since it's a pain in the neck to log in, but sign your name or nickname in the comments so we can get a feel for your style/vibe/etc.


Final thought:  Wasn't it "Dan Murphy" that was good last year?  I think we had "Daniel Murphy" this year.




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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'

Jerry isn't messing around!

Daniel Murphy will be the Mets every day left fielder.

What's that you say?  This guy was basically promoted from Double-A last year and the Mets have yet to play even an inning of spring training?   Jerry doesn't care what you think.

"I've seen it. I'm confident. The way he swings the bat I'm confident that he can handle that. I don't have a problem with that."


Since Manny Ramirez isn't coming, this is a good thing.  I'd rather hope we get 15 years out of Murph in left rather than one year out of someone from the leftover pile like Tatis.

I love what a maniac Jerry is.   He's wonderfully entertaining.   I kind of want to see him actually stab someone for not running out a ball.

What does everyone think of these jerseys?  If the Mets insist on incorporating black (and that they do) these aren't bad.   I'm not crazy about the orange underarms, but they aren't as hideous as the all black were.


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