Christmas Gift for the Irish Baseball Fan

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Joe Janish

It’s a week before Christmas but there is still time to get some last-minute gifts.

One that I recommend highly for ALL baseball fans — but in particular, those who happen to have Irish ancestry — is The Emerald Diamond.

The Emerald Diamond is a 90-minute documentary of the formation of the Irish National Baseball team, produced by my good friend and occasional MetsToday contributor John Fitzgerald. But I’m not hawking the DVD because John is my friend — but because it is a damn good documentary and indelibly entertaining.

Yes, they DO play baseball in Ireland, and their beginnings will remind you a bit of the original Rocky movie — playing on soaking wet makeshift diamonds located on soccer fields, using outdated and damaged equipment, attempting to transfer rugby skills to baseball, and the like. Whether you are Irish or not, you have to appreciate the lengths that the first men (and women) took, and the conditions they endured, simply to play baseball. It’s both fascinating and inspiring.

This quote from Jack Curry of the New York Times puts it succinctly:

Fitzgerald’s movie is a charming look at how baseball captivated some dedicated Irishmen. Those young men, supplemented by American-born players who had a parent or grandparent born in Ireland, transformed themselves from bumbling weekend warriors into respected competitors. Think of Rudy, the Notre Dame walk-on, and multiply it by about a dozen.

You can read Curry’s entire article here, and also find out more info from the official website.

The cost is $9.95 from Amazon, but the experience of watching it is priceless. Where else are you going to find a really cool Christmas gift for less than ten bucks?

Buy it here: The Emerald Diamond – Deluxe Edition DVD

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Phil Humber Claimed by Oakland Athletics

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Joe Janish

According to Bob Dutton’s tweet and MLB.com, the Oakland A’s have claimed former Mets prospect Phil Humber off waivers from the Kansas City Royals.

Ironically, Humber was placed on waivers to make room on the 40-man roster after the Royals signed another ex-Met — Jeff Francoeur.

Though Humber came nowhere near fulfilling the promise he showed as an ace pitcher for Rice, I’ve always had a soft spot for him. After leaving the Mets organization in the Johan Santana deal, Humber struggled in two AAA seasons in Twins’ organization — not a good thing for a team as deep in young pitching as Minnesota. He pitched most of last year for the Royals’ AAA team and his numbers don’t look great. But, he did compete in the PCL, which is considered a “hitters’ league”. Indeed, most teams in PCL averaged over 5 runs per game and .780 OPS (to put that in perspective, the average AL team scored a little less than 4 1/2 runs per game and posted a .730 OPS last year). The average PCL pitcher has a 4.78 ERA and Humber’s was 4.47 in 118 IP. Not great, but what stands out is his 1.5 BB/9 IP and 4.0 K/BB percentage.

Personally I haven’t seen him “in the flesh” since he left the Mets so can’t comment on his velocity, command, or anything else about his stuff. But the fact that the Royals were protecting him on their 40-man, combined with the Athletics jumping on him so quickly, suggests that there are people who believe that Humber might still have a chance to contribute in some capacity at the MLB level. And since he’s in the Adulterated League, I feel comfortable wishing him the best of luck.

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Steve Phillips Was Right After All

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Joe Janish

On national television in May 2009, Steve Phillips made the bold statement that the Mets should trade Carlos Beltran. This caused quite a ruckus in the blogosphere, but I supported the idea. Mind you, my argument for dealing Beltran was wildly different from Phillps’ — but the end result was the same.

Back then, there was still this fantasy brewing that the Mets were a playoff-contending team, and so people thought Beltran was central to their expected success — a “core player” so to speak. Phillips saw Beltran as a “flawed” core player — one who wasn’t as “perfect” as Albert Pujols or Derek Jeter (his examples). Ironically, the true fallacy of Phillips’ argument was that he bought into the same nonsense suggesting that the Mets would be a postseason team in 2009 — his feeling was that the Mets should trade Beltran for a player or players who had more “grit”.

It was dumb on many levels. But if “the ends justify the means”, then Phillips was right on target Continue reading →

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Would You Extend Jose Reyes?

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Joe Janish

The Mets have publicly admitted that 2011 will be a year of “assessment” and salary dumping — and if they can find a way to compete through this season-long evaluation, it will be a bonus. The “new normal” for Mets management is to avoid the long-term, back-loaded, handcuffing contracts that have put the team in their current state of misery.

And that’s fine — it makes good sense. It doesn’t matter that the Mets had the wherewithal to chase a player seemingly built for their home park (Carl Crawford) — just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

The Red Sox — a team whose home park may be the exact opposite of Citi Field — wound up spending far too much money and committing too many years for Crawford. As much as I would have loved to see Crawford running around the outfield pasture and basepaths in Flushing, his cost wasn’t congruent with the Mets’ long-term plan.

However, the Mets already have a player very similar to Crawford, but who plays a much more premium position. His name is Jose Reyes, and he’s on the brink of entering the prime years of his career.

He’s also in his walk year, and Sandy Alderson has publicly declared that there will be no contract extension negotiated before Opening Day.

And that’s because … ? Continue reading →

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Comparison: 1990 Mets and 2011 Phillies

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Joe Janish

The 1990 Mets looked great on paper, headed by what looked like the best starting rotation seen in Flushing since the days of Seaver, Koosman, and Matlack.

It looked like this:

1. Dwight Gooden
2. Frank Viola
3. David Cone
4. Ron Darling
5. Sid Fernandez
6. Bob Ojeda

Doc was 100% healed from a shoulder injury that marred his 1989 and at 25 years old, and primed to regain dominance as the most feared righty in baseball. Viola was only 30, two years removed from a Cy Young Award, and considered the top lefthanded starting pitcher in MLB. Cone was coming off a so-so year (for him), but put up numbers similar to those that helped him go 20-3 in ’88. Both Darling and Fernandez were coming off of 14-win seasons, and seemed to be turning a corner — many thought ’90 would be the “breakout year” for each of the previously inconsistent pitchers. The rotation was so deep, Ojeda was banished to the bullpen, despite still having enough stuff to be a #3 or possibly #2 on another club.

On offense, the Mets had returning Continue reading →

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Done Deal: Phillies Sign Cliff Lee

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Joe Janish

Perhaps feeling pressured by the Mets’ rabid activity over the past two weeks (signings of DJ Carrasco, Boof Bonser, and Ronny Paulino; hirings of Dave Hudgens, Jon DeBus, Ken Oberkfell, and Mookie Wilson to coaching staff), the Philadelphia Phillies responded by signing Cliff Lee to a 5-year, $120M contract.

Interesting … so all along, it was NOT about the money, because Lee was offered something in the neighborhood of $150M and 7 years to sign with the Yankees, and around $135-140M to stay in Texas. In the end, Lee was genuinely happy in Philadelphia, and apparently never wanted to leave the city of Brotherly Love to begin with.

What’s more interesting is how the Phillies are able to sign Lee now, but were financially unable to keep both him and Roy Halladay this time last year. I guess they made a boatload of money by selling out all of 2010 and then pre-selling out their 2011 season tickets? Also, they likely will be making a salary-dump deal, and do have a significant amount of cash coming off the books after 2011.

Of course, the Mets were never in the running for Lee, nor any free agent costing more than $2M per year. As we know, the Mets have the heavy liabilities of a brand-new ballpark and a TV network to weigh them down. Additionally, there are those contracts handed out like candy by Omar Minaya over the past 5 years. Just because the Phillies can spend $160M+ on their payroll doesn’t mean the Mets can reach that figure.

So here is the potential Phillies rotation, as of this moment:

1. Roy Halladay
1. Cliff Lee
1. Roy Oswalt
1. Cole Hamels
5. Joe Blanton

As everyone knows, there are only 4 aces in a deck of cards, thank goodness. Otherwise we might see the Phillies acquiring Zack Greinke next. If that “Phearsome Phoursome” can stay healthy and pitch the way we think they can, the Phillies might have the best starting rotation since the 1971 Orioles (but hey, even with all that pitching, the Orioles still didn’t win the World Championship).

Considering that Lee was offered a seven-year deal from the Yankees and either a 6- or 7-year deal from the Rangers, the Phillies’ 5-year contract appears to be a bargain. Yes, it’s a gamble to give five years to a 32-year-old pitcher with chronic back issues, but if Lee can give them two good years and help them to at least one World Series appearance, it’s well worth it. Of course, we won’t know for sure until we see what happens over the next five years.

Posted in 10-11 Offseason | Tagged , | 28 Comments

Cliff Lee to Sign with Phillies?

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Joe Janish

Throughout the Cliff Lee Pursuit of this offseason, a “mystery team” has been mentioned as an afterthought while the Yankees and Rangers seemed to be the frontrunners. In some ways, it reminded me of the 1992 Presidential election between George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, with Ross Perot running on the Independent ticket.

Except, Perot never had a chance.

Whereas, if we are to believe the rumors of this evening, Perot … er, the mystery team … not only has a chance but may well win the election … er, pursuit.

And that mystery team is the Phillies.

Discuss ….

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Insight On New Mets Batting Coach Dave Hudgens

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Joe Janish

Adam Rubin at ESPN-NY just posted an article about new Mets batting coach Dave Hudgens, with direct quotes from Bobby Kielty, who played under Hudgens in Oakland.

Interestingly, Kielty claimed that Hudgens didn’t force patience and OBP on his hitters:

“He’s not,” Kielty said. “He’s going to take the player and pretty much what he’s good at, he’s going to try to make sure he’s performing the way he performs. I don’t think he was ever about taking a player and making him a guy who is going to go up there and walk — a guy who is going to go up there and take pitches. From what I remember, he always was about being aggressive and finding the pitch that you’re looking for. If you don’t see it, you take it, and that kind of works into walks. That was his whole kind of thing — when you get pitches to hit, we’re not going to go up there taking them. That’s what I saw from him. … He wasn’t going to go change somebody. He was going to let them do their thing, and if they start struggling, he might bring some things up. But he wasn’t a guy who has one certain philosophy. He was willing to work on what guys needed to work on.”

In a related story, several Mets reported early to spring training upon hearing the news that Hudgens was hired.

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