Poll Results: Fire Willie if no Playoffs

According to my poll results, if the Mets should fail to make the playoffs in 08' should Willie be fired, 8 people said yes, 3 people said no. These results are not scientific.

Question: Do you care about Spring Training Games?

With the Mets spring training pitching schedule coming out which you can view here, it got me thinking to ask if you care about spring training games. I for one don't put much effort into it, but id like to see the players succeed. I'll watch them in and out, i'll probably start really watching them around the end Spring Training when the lineups are regular and the SPs go more than 5 innings. I guess I just answered by question, but: Do you care about Spring Training Games? - for the 1 person viewing this site a week, feel free to write about it in the comment section, in the poll ill put up, or just do nothing, sit there picking ur butt while the whole world passes by, and you just sit there being a waste, you people who do that MAKE ME SICK!

My Condolences to the Wright Family

According to Newsday, David Wright left the team to fly to Norfolk, Virginia to attend the funeral of his grandmother who passed away recently. My condolences go out to David and the entire Wright family for this passing. R.I.P.

Lidge Gets Hurt

According to the National Post, Phillies closer Brad Lidge injured his right knee on Saturday. He reportedly caught his spike on the mound and injured it, Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee played it down saying :"It's pretty soon to know what's going on in there," he said. "We'll know more on Sunday. He'll get looked at by our doctors in the morning and we'll have a better idea where we're at and what we have to do." Lidge seemed optimistic saying : "It was my push-off leg," Lidge was quoted on the team's website. "I just caught the spike. I threw the pitch but it felt like I pulled something in the knee. It didn't feel real good after that. Because of where we are in spring training, there's no reason for me to push it. It swelled up a little, but I'm optimistic I just pulled some scar tissue or something. We'll take a look at it (on Sunday) and be smart with it."

I for one have a couple personal opinions on this, while it will be good for the Mets since Lidge could be a very good closer, I would love nothing better than for the Mets to sweep the Phillies while the Phillies are at full strength just to shut those front runners up.

Flashback Caturday: 9/30/07

Ahhh Tom Glavine's debacle. I remember it very vividly. I woke up with the Mets on my mind, took a piss, shower, and ate. My girlfriend called me up and told me she has 5 tickets to the Mets game. I went to the train station and it turns out only me, her, and her girlfriend were going. After using the train ticket machine I got back some of those fucking annoying big ass coins. Looking to spend some of those huge ass fuckin coins, I bought some Vitamin Waters (My name is Krusty The Klown, and I am a vitamin water addict, at first my body rejected it, but the Essential Orange, XXX Pomegranate, and Multi-V Lemonade are orgasmic). I wasn't feeling too well maybe it was the prolonged collapse or the tacos that Humberto Gonzales Omar Rodriguez Minaya made last night. After boarding the train my girlfriend's sexual healing ringtone went off, that caused some onlookers to cower with fear from the EVIL DESTRUCTIVE TEENAGERS. The train quickly went on, we snuck in some alky and with a left and right turn of the head we chugged them down fast, I really didn't want or need the beer, I just did it to be a tool. I quickly skimmed over the Newsday sports section, ahhh we got a vet on the mound, they pounded the ball yesterday, and hey no unbelievably negative disgusting column from Wallace F#$king Matthews! Life was good, no way in toilet would they lose! Ohhh boy was I wrong, the train was running late, so at around 1:08 I checked up on mize fonez on teh intranetz, Tom Glavine (no expletives needed for that vile name) already had the Mets losin' by 3, as us 3 were walkin' on the walk made of board I checked my phone like a crack fiend. Check, losin by 4, check losin by 5. I told my GurlFwend damn they're already losing by 5, that led to a brutal WTF from people walking by. With her best Kelly Ripa esque response she said "It's okay!" Yeah seriously that's all I need now you fucking kunt. No I really didn't call her that, she woulda ripped my head off, but it probably wouldn't have mattered then, the thing I think about the most in my life, my favorite thing to live for the Mets were in the middle of perfectly executing the worst collapse in MLB history. We got off the train in a heap of people, I slowly crept down the stairs, not really wanting to go face that debacle. We quickly got to our seats, I didn't actually believe my phone, but then I hear this booing, and whos that? Jorge Sosa? I did not have any idea what was happening.

Lets play ball..........

I really just want them to start playin some fuckin' ball.


Just sayin.....

Johan on SI Cover

The newest edition of SI came out and drumroll please...... Johan Santana is on the cover!

To the fans: Let the games do the talkin'

Throughout this whole off season Mets fans and Phillies fans along with some Braves fans have been arguing over who has the better team. They've been comparing the rotations, bullpen, lineup, etc even who has better unis. These arguments almost always go nowhere because people let their bias's do the thinking. So I say to you all (probably only 3 of you) please, just let the games do the talkin'. Sure it's fun to compare and critique each persons team but I usually just say "wait til the games start" because I'm fairly certain the Mets will defiantly let the games do the talkin' this year. Just wait Phillie and Braves fans, just wait. I know I sound like a hypocrite since I said that I liked Beltran's comments but that means something, arguing about who has a better #3 starter does not.

Oswalt to Santana: What are you smoking?

This past Friday, in the Houston Chronicle, Roy Oswalt made some peculiar comments regarding Johan Santana and him coming to the National League.
Oswalt said: "Santana is smoking something, I believe," Oswalt said. "He's got to realize this isn't the American League. He's got to get up on the plate." This was a response to when someone told him Santana had guaranteed he'd win a Cy Young.(Which I don't really remember Johan saying anything to the effect of that) Later in the article he stated he wasn't ready to give the Cy Young up to him by a long shot. I like this, this is good for baseball. It seems as if the Mets are slowly but surely getting a target on their back from everyone lately, I'm definitely looking forward to some all-out baseball next season. From the Phillies, to the Braves to now Oswalt im looking forward to an all-out battle.

He also said "It's a little different when you got to run the bases and actually hit," Oswalt said, alluding to the designated hitter rule that allows American League pitchers to focus on pitching. "You don't just sit over there in the dugout and just pitch."

Ummmmm what the fuck? OH REALLY ROY!? I like Roy, I really do since he's a true competitor and a bulldog by a starting pitchers standards, but from throwing at Uncle Cliffy a few years back and now this, ive really lost some respect for him. (If only Peter Angelos went along with the trade in 06 Id love him though :)

(I apologize in advance for this badly written piece lolz)

What ever happened to Eric Valent?

With all this talk about Johan Santana and his newly minted # 57, this made me remember another player with the number 57. Left handed hitter Eric Valent, the player who broke Mark McGwire's minor league home-run record (somehow I really don't remember which home-run record he broke but it was good!) after bouncing around with the Phillies and Reds for a couple of years he finally got a chance to play for a significant amount of time in 2004 under Art Howe's tutelage. In 270 at bats, Eric batted .267 with 13 homeruns and 34 rbis. His career highlight came on July 29th when he hit for cycle, he also hit three pinch-hit homeruns in late August. It was one of the few bright spots on that disturbing season, I don't know about you but he turned into one of my favorites (there's actually a fan site about him). After a nice 2004 he was the 25th man on the roster in 05, new manager Willie Randolph let him rot on the bench and let him pinch hit after days and weeks off. He batted .186 with zero homeruns and 1 rbi in 43 at-bats. Since then he has been out of baseball, doing "stuff" after doing some intense research I have found out what that indeed "stuff" is. After he left the Mets he started working with this man - Crayton Tygree, Cray (as Eric likes to call him) owned a couple of Harold's Chicken Shacks out in South Side, Chicago. Cray wanted Eric to take his chain to the next level, so he told him to get Malcolm-Jamal Warner from the Cosby Show, to try out Cray's "bockmazing" chicken. After hitching a ride on Lucie Lucy Liu's camel toes back, Eric went to New Jersey(EW) and said and I quote "Hello thar! Jamal, please come to Chicago and try the "Bockmazing" chicken!" They took a ride back on the toe again and once they got to the shacks, the "bockmazing" chicken was all gone. They looked around and saw the culprit, BARTOLO COLON! He had eaten every last morsel of the chicken, Valent (now with Cray and Jamal by his side) said: "WHAT THE FUCK FATTY!" He took him by the arm and kicked his fuckin' ass! If you have been wondering what has happened to the 2004 Cy Young winner, there's your reason. So, after this excursion Valent said "That's it, Im out!" He quickly ran to Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite after they were talking about a TV show where a guy uses HGH, after that he lived in Deleware for two years. The last known thing about him is he made this hawk make one of the most disturbing rants ever uttered on the radio, television, intranetz, etc (other than this.) So there you go, the Eric Valent story if you must, that is his story. Most of this is true but I might have "misremember ed " or "misheard " it somewhat.

Which NL East foe is more of a threat to the Mets?

Before the Johan Santana trade the NL East was widely considered to be a three-team race between the Mets, Phillies, and Braves. Phillies fans were boasting about there division title being handed to them, the Braves fans were boasting about a 3some of Smoltz, Hudson, and Glavine. Then Johan Santana came along and propelled the Mets to early season NL Champs favorites. I'm not ready to write off the Phillies or Braves yet, but it does seem as if the Mets should win the NL East. The Phillies and Braves should be healthy competition all year, they both have negatives and positives.

Phillies
Pros - Have a good core of Rollins, Utley, Howard, and Hamels. They still won the Nl East last year, have a very good offense, dominated the Mets late in the year.

Cons - Pitching, pitching, and pitching, after Hamels their rotation is a 2 out of 5 at best. Myers has always had the stuff but he's never had a very good year and he beats stuff,(Jrolls meat and his wife) their bullpen is a huge question mark, if Lidge can regain form it will be good though.(After his first blown save in Philly he'll be run out of town.)

Braves
Pros - They are still the Braves, as long as Larry, Smoltz, Cox, and new ones such as Francoeur and McCann are there they will be in the Mets heads. Hudson and Smoltz provides a nice 1-2 punch that few can match. Their offense now with the addition of Teixeira is still very good. They have a fine bullpen.

Cons - Even though Andruw Jones had a down year, Mark Kotsay is hardly a good replacement for him. Second base is a pretty big hole, don't have a true closer. Chipper gets injured numerous times throughout the year.

After that AMAZING analysis I would have to think before the season starts the Braves are more of a threat to the Mets than the Phillies.

Read: 5 Spring Training Questions

Scott Miller, at cbssportsline writes about 5 questions regarding the Mets, the number one question is regarding if the psyche of this team can bounce back(I think it can), the die-hard fans won't read anything knew from this but it's still a nice read. Scott Miller also provides a nice 3 page report as to how Johan has changed the scenery of the franchise. Among other things in the article, I was happy to hear that Omar still thinks about the 2006 NLCS, Omar said : "But I didn't get over two years ago when we lost to the St. Louis Cardinals," Minaya said, picking the thread of unraveling back up. "I still think that after Endy (Chavez) made that catch and we had the bases loaded and couldn't get a run in ... there is no day you go through without thinking it over."

Opinion: Beltran's Message

On Saturday, after talking to reporters at Port St. Lucie he said among other things, "To Jimmy Rollins: We are the team to beat." "Let me tell you this," Beltran said. "Without Santana, we felt, as a team, that we had a chance to win in our division. With him now, I have no doubt that we're going to win in our division. I have no doubt in that. We've got what it takes." I like this very much, not only were the Mets "soft" last year but a leader was not really present. After Lo Duca left it seems that the only vocal leader is Wagner. I'm all up for Beltran to take control of this team, this will be in fact his 4th season in a Mets uniform. This will be bulletin board material no doubt about it, heck check the Metsblog comment section. With the addition of Johan Santana the Mets are indeed the team to beat, I'm defiantly looking forward too it, while also being nervous.

Who will get the fifth spot?

Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez VS Mike Pelfrey

"El Duque" Pros - He is a proven veteran, can still get it done, has post season experience, has many different variations with his pitches and angles.

Cons - Injuries, injuries, injuries, oh and injuries. Although he has been pretty good for 2 years he has gotten injured in the most crucial spots, I.E. post season 06, September 07. If he can stay healthy the spot is just about his. Just stay healthy Duque.

"Pelfrey" Pros - He has zip to his fastball, good hard sinker, tall, will get time to shine, did well in September last season while every other starter was failing, he's never been truly hurt from what I remember.

Cons - Still unproven, Willie Randolph usually favors the veterans, has never had a real good run of starts that most young pitching phenoms have(I.E. Phil Hughes, Francisco Liriano Francisco Liriano, Jon Lester),

Chances for El Duque - 75 %
Chances for Pelfrey - 20 %
Tony Armas JR. - 5 % (Need not be spoken about)

Hello There.....

Coming out of Noo Yawk State I present to you "Jason Phillips Gatorade"! I would first like to thank teh intranetz for allowing me to write up on hur. Aswell as Matthew Cerrone for leading by example and giving me reason to write a blog about my Mets. The reason I am making this blog is to express my love and addiction to the Mets in a journalistic way, I will begin to at 12:10 to write about my Mets. Feel free to comment and "TELL YOUR FRIENDS." - Babu Bhatt