More Non-moves

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Joe Janish

Continuing to avoid the reality of yesterday afternoon, and following up to The Deal That Wasn’t, I was looking through some of the players the Mets were reportedly “after” during this past Hot Stove Season. Among some of the better deals not made:

Jorge Posada
Remember when the Yankees shook in their boots thinking the Mets would steal Posada away? Initially, the Yanks “dragged their feet” in their negotiations with the elder backstop, and as a negotiation ploy, Posada said the Mets were high on his list. There were legitimate sources suggesting that the Mets would offer Posada a four- or five-year deal to pry him out of the Bronx. Now that Posada has injured his shoulder, and some wonder if he’ll ever catch again, I’m glad the whole thing was a ruse.

Akinori Otsuka
There was a lot of buzz that Otsuka was bound for Flushing. Instead, he had season-ending elbow surgery.

Erick Bedard
Supposedly, the Orioles wanted a bigger package for Bedard than the Twins wanted for Johan Santana. Bedard is a fine pitcher, but has made only three starts this year due to a hip injury. Granted, it’s still early in the season, but if the Mets gave up all those players only to have Bedard spend the first month of the season on the DL, would we be freaking out right now? More importantly, who would you rather have — Bedard or Santana?


Luis Vizcaino
Early in the offseason, the Mets were desperate for bullpen help, and the former Yankee setup man was one of their targets. However, he priced himself out of the negotiations, demanding a three-year deal. He eventually received two years and $7.5M from the Rockies. He’s made two appearances, has a 27.00 ERA, and is on the DL with a shoulder strain.

Eric Gagne
The Gagne rumors came more during the July 31 deadline last season than during the offseason, but in any case there was a lot of buzz about him possibly coming to the Mets. The cost would have been several top prospects, and Omar Minaya refused to part with them. Thank goodness.

Noah Lowry
There was a lot of buzz surrounding the young pitchers of the Giants over the winter, with most teams asking for Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, and the Giants countering with Noah Lowry. There was at least one rumor that the Mets were considering Lowry, supposedly in return for Lastings Milledge (though I was hoping they’d go for Jonathan Sanchez). This spring, Lowry required surgery to repair his left forearm, and has been shut down for “the next three or four weeks”. Today, I’d rather have a starting catcher and starting rightfielder than a pitcher on the DL.

David Eckstein
The Wilpons personally escorted Eckstein around the Tri-state area and treated him to lunch, then pulled away a three-year contract offer when they found out he wasn’t Jewish. Actually, that’s not true — someone in the hierarchy thought it a better plan to give four years to Luis Castillo and his bad knees. This is another case of too early to tell, but Eckstein is off to a slow start — .248 average — and I’m not convinced he would have been any better than Castillo in the two-hole. Despite his “grit”, Eck doesn’t get on base very often and is not too speedy on the bases, despite being a leadoff hitter most of his career.

Yorvit Torrealba
Might be too early to tell on this one, but Yorvit’s .240 average thus far suggests he’s on the way to continuing his mediocre career. Certainly not worth the three-year, $14M commitment. However, his thumb is 100% healthy.

Chad Cordero
It seemed like every week there wasn’t a Lastings Milledge – to – Oakland rumor, there was one sending the outfielder (and two pitching prospects) to DC for Cordero. Omar Minaya has always been a huge fan of the reliever — he drafted him, after all — but imagine if any of those rumored deals became reality? The last one I remember was Milledge or Carlos Gomez plus Philip Humber plus Kevin Mulvey — the bulk of the package that eventually went to Minnesota for Johan. Today, Cordero is unable to throw 80 MPH, and for all we know, his career as a closer is over.

Posted in Hot Stove, News Notes Rumors | 5 Comments

Buzz: YOU are Full of Excrement

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Joe Janish

Not you, my friendly reader … I’m referring to H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger, who by now you may have heard went postal on Will Leitch of Deadspin during the CostasNow show on HBO. If you didn’t see it, the video segment is available on Awful Announcing (luckily, it wasn’t filmed in Wrigley Field so MLB can’t take it down), FireJoeMorgan has a great synopsis of the event, and Matt Cerrone had some choice words. In addition, Joe Posnanski wrote a long but enjoyable treatise on the “roundtable discussion”.

In case you don’t have the time or desire to follow those links, I’ll give you my own quick rundown. In short, Bob Costas hosted what was supposed to be a roundtable discussion, with the goal of having Bissinger, Leitch, and Braylon Edwards discuss the future of blogs and sports journalism. That goal was not quite reached, because 15 seconds into Leitch’s first comments, Bissinger cut him off, saying, “…I really think you’re full of sh*t …” Bissinger then condescendingly asked Leitch if he’d ever read W.C. Heinz (no one’s sure why) but Leitch answered in the affirmative, and that seemed to really send “Buzz” off his rocker. Bissinger was a raving lunatic from then on, trying to make the point that “blogs are dedicated to cruelty, they’re dedicated to journalistic dishonesty, and they’re dedicated to speed”. Costas supported Bissinger by readingly aloud the most profane READERS COMMENTS he could find on Deadspin (actually that’s not true; Costas probably doesn’t know how to use the internet, and had one of his production assistants or maybe the key grip find the worst comments for him).

It got uglier, but the best description I’ve read of the exchange was from Posnaski:

The rest of the conversation seemed to me to be Buzz hitting Will about the head with an umbrella, and Will saying, “Would you please stop hitting me with the umbrella,” and Buzz continuing to hit Will about the head with the umbrella, and Will saying, “Damn it, ow, stop hitting me you crazy old man,” and Buzz hitting him about the head some more with the umbrella. I love the phrase “about the head.”

Why am I addressing this roundtable-turned-altercation here? Because every “important” sports blogger is covering it, so I figure I better, too, if I want to be “important”. Also, it’s a day off for the Mets, and I’m trying hard not to think about yesterday’s 13-1 loss.

Although Buzz Bissinger did a fine job of making a mockery of himself, I’m still offended by some of the things he said, and will take the time now to lash back. First, a personal offense to start off: Mr. H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger, what kind of a pompous arse goes by his first two initials AND a nickname? “H.G.”? What’s that? A subliminal method of aligning yourself with H.G. Wells? Reminds me of a former colleague of mine who referred to himself as “W.P.” in his byline instead of Bill or William. Annoyingly pompous, in my opinion.

Bissinger insinuated that bloggers were not of the same intellectual level of Pulitzer Prize winning sycophants such as himself. I use the word “sycophant” because I can — although I’m a lowly blogger I have a B.A. in English, authored several books that have been translated into dozens of languages, and used to work as an editor for a highly successful international book and magazine publisher. However I have not won a Pulitzer Prize (yet), and have never read the books of W.C. Heinz — though I have read Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Ring Lardner, John Steinbeck, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, John Kennedy O’Toole, John Barth, Raymond Carver, David Halberstam, Jim Bouton, Homer, Ron Sukenick, Flannery O’Connor, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Charles Einstein, Bill James, Daniel Okrent, Michael Lewis, Roger Angell, Roger Kahn, Bernard Malamud, Voltaire, Pat Jordan, Philip Roth, Jancis Robinson, Eliot Asinof, William Goldman, Charles Bukowski, Vladimir Nabakov, Jerzy Kosinski, Thomas Pynchon, Ovid, and hundreds of others. I like to consider myself “well read”, and feel my library is “eclectic”. But apparently it’s incomplete without W.C. Heinz (and Bissinger, for that matter … but hey, I saw the movie).

Here at MetsToday, I rarely — if ever — include profanity in my posts, and even hesitate to use the word “suck” (though I admit I have a few times). The people who comment here uphold a similar level of respect, and though the discussions get heated, they’re never cruel. We may criticize performance, but do not make personal attacks. I’d like to think that the content is entertaining and somewhat intelligent without being ostentatious or inaccessible. But to hear it from Bissinger and Costas, every sports blog on the internet is exactly like Deadspin — a wild party of potty-mouthed degenerates who are degrading sports journalism.

In truth, Deadspin is not that bad — it’s entertainment of a different sort, and not for everyone. This event reminds me a lot of the early days of the world wide web, when some people pointed at the porn sites and decried the internet as the gateway to hades. Let’s get serious — if you’re going to lump all sports blogs into one pile represented by Deadspin, then you don’t understand the medium, you’re ignorant of the true realm of sports bloggers, and you have no business going on HBO spewing your opinion. Bissinger and Costas are no more qualified to speak about sports blogs than I am about rocket science — and you don’t see me on the Discovery Channel blaspheming NASA, do you?

I’m off the soapbox … more Mets stuff coming soon.

Posted in Around the Blogs, News Notes Rumors | 7 Comments

Mets Game 25: Loss To Pirates

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Joe Janish

Pirates 13 Mets 1

OK, so, I watch Xavier Nady lead off the second with a walk, I go to the kitchen to fix a sandwich and a glass of Ovaltine, I come back to the TV and it’s 7-zip. I shake my head, consider dumping the Ovaltine for tall glass of vodka, but decide instead to go forth with the original plan and hope for the best. After all, just because the Mets have completely demolished any possibility for productivity so early in the day, doesn’t mean I should do the same.

Nelson Figueroa came on in the second inning and pitched three decent innings, but the game got uglier in the sixth, when Jorge Sosa gave up another five runs (one earned). Like Ollie, Sosa was victimized by errors, but, again, he also didn’t do much to “pick up” his teammates, allowing four hits — three of them doubles.

The lone run scored by the Mets came on an RBI double by April’s MVP Ryan Church in the bottom of the sixth.

Notes

Oliver Perez’s line: 1.2 IP | 2 H | 5 BB | 2 K | 2 ER | 7 R

Angel Pagan struggled with the wind and sun in leftfield all day. He was charged with only one error but it appeared as though he

In reality Ollie was lucky to be charged with only two earned runs. Yes, Luis Castillo made a key error early in the inning, then later flubbed a rundown, but Perez did nothing at all to stop the bleeding. Five walks in less than two innings is inexcusable.

Aaron Heilman threw two perfect innings. Hallelujah.

Church and Carlos Delgado collected the two Mets hits on the day. The Pirates pitchers did, however, walk nine Mets.

Next Game

Thankfully, the Mets are granted mercy tomorrow, given the day off to think about this awful game and to travel to Arizona. Next game is in Phoenix on Friday at 9:40 PM EST against the Diamondbacks. John Maine faces Micah Owings.

Posted in Mets 2008 Games | 4 Comments

News from M*A*S*H Unit

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Joe Janish

mash200.jpgAbout 24 hours ago, we were told that Moises Alou might miss another few months due to an undisclosed ankle injury. Today, however, we are told that Alou has been cleared for baseball activities and will join the team on Friday in Arizona. The “team” being the New York Mets, the “big club”, the guys who play at the MLB level. I won’t hold my breath, as Moises may strain his wrist brushing his teeth between now and then.

In other news, Brian Schneider’s mysterious thumb infection has not responded and the backstop remains in the hospital. Time to call in Dr. Gregory House?

While Alou’s hernia miraculously developed into a phantom ankle sprain, Schneider’s issue has been termed both “a staph infection” and “not a staph infection”. The latest explanation is a

“mixed organism infection caused by normal skin bacteria”, and that, while it was partly associated with staph, it was not the more serious kind of problem usually associated with a staph infection.(source: New York Times).

Super. Clear as mud. Oh, and to make things more confusing, there hasn’t been any official word that Schneider has yet left the hospital, but Omar Minaya stated that “You could even see him back here (today)”. Maybe “here” meant the hospital?

More certain is that Matt Wise will return to the team for the weekend series in AZ — which means either Joe Smith or Jorge Sosa likely will be sent down to AAA to make room. My money is on Smith, who is pitching more effectively but who has options.

In addition, Jose Valentin’s neck is feeling better, and he also has been cleared for baseball activities. He will be hitting off a tee and long tossing in Port St. Lucie, according to Adam Rubin.

Also, that guy who used to be the backup catcher — the one who resembles Shrek — is still limping. I forget his name but I think his dad used to sell convertible couches.

Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez continue to soak in the sun and fun in their extended Florida vacation. Neither are likely to fly north until the temperatures rise above 80 in the NYC area. Similarly, no news on Jason Vargas, though his non-brother Claudio pitched five innings for Port St. Lucie on Monday, giving up one run, no walks, three hits and striking out 6. Nice outing, but remember he’s facing 19-year-old A-ballers.

Posted in Mets Injuries | 7 Comments

Go Get Botts

Posted on April 29, 2008 by Joe Janish

Jason Botts of the Texas RangersAs was pointed out by loyal MetsToday readers Micalpalyn and DaveVW, Jason Botts has been DFA’d by the Texas Rangers.

The switch-hitting slugger has been a low-risk, high-reward, under-the-radar target here at MetsToday since about 1949. OK, maybe not that long, but it sure feels that way. Now it appears he’s there for the taking, available for a scrub A-ball non-prospect.

For those who haven’t been following, Jason Botts is the poor man’s version of Adam Dunn. He’s 27 years old, stands 6’5″, weighs 250 lbs., can play both first base and left field adequately. He hasn’t yet made his mark in the big leagues, but has a career OBP of .390 in the minors and began to mature as a power hitter in the last three years. He strikes out a lot, but puts the ball over the fence fairly frequently and will also take a walk. There’s no guarantee he’ll be a success in MLB but he has proven all he can prove at AAA and will now come cheaply.

He’s out of options, and the Rangers kept him on their 25-man roster to start the season after batting .313 in spring training and beating out fellow out-of-options slugger Nelson Cruz for the last spot on the team. However, after the first month of the season, Botts is batting only .158 with 18 strikeouts and two homeruns in 38 at-bats.

With Moises Alou supposedly returning by the weekend, perhaps now is not the time for the Mets to chase after an enigma such as Botts. After all, to make room for Alou, the Mets will have to demote someone — most likely catcher Gustavo Molina. The next most likely to be demoted position player is Angel Pagan, and as much as I salivate over the possibility of putting the orange and blue onto a horse like Botts, I’m not convinced he’d be more valuable than Pagan at this point in time. Though, Pagan has cooled off, and he is essentially redundant when you consider that Endy Chavez is on the roster. Further, Pagan has options. If by chance the Mets can grab Botts for next to nothing, it might be worth the gamble, as there are ZERO MLB-ready homerun hitters in the Mets’ farm system.

Most likely, Botts would be a bust — though an inexpensive one. But, there’s that tiny chance of catching lightning in a bottle — as the Tampa Bay Rays did with Carlos Pena last year, the Padres did with Adrian Gonzalez, and the Indians did with Travis Hafner prior to the 2003 season. And guess what? All three of Pena, Gonzalez, and Hafner were originally Rangers’ property. Huh.

To refresh everyone’s memory, here are previous mentions of Botts on this site:

Forget About Botts

Latest On Botts

Three Guys to Get Right Now

Roster Room

Posted in News Notes Rumors | 3 Comments

Mets Game 24: Win Over Pirates

Posted on April 29, 2008 by Joe Janish

Mets 4 Pirates 4

It took eleven innings on a chilly night in Flushing, but the Mets eventually wore out the Pirates thanks to some good old fashioned small ball.

Endy Chavez — who had three hits on the night — ripped a leadoff single in the bottom of the 11th, advanced to second on a balk, moved to third on a bunt by Marlon Anderson, and scored on a booming fly ball to the deep rightfield corner that went unplayed by Xavier Nady (who was appropriately playing shallow to guard against the bloop or line drive single).

Johan Santana — who hasn’t had his best stuff yet this year — didn’t have his best stuff but battled through six innings and 114 pitches to keep the Mets in the game. When he left, he had a 4-2 lead, but the Pirates tied it against the Mets’ back end of the bullpen, scoring a run each against Duaner Sanchez and Billy Wagner.

Notes

Wow! Willie pulled off a double switch! In the 11th inning, Randolph expertly inserted Jorge Sosa on the mound and Marlon Anderson at first base. The move was made after Carlos Delgado made the last out of the 10th, so Sosa would not bat for a really long time. Well done, Willie! Randolph also attempted a squeeze with Luis Castillo earlier in the game, proving that he is aware of his team’s presence in the National League. Next lesson: wheel play.

Remarkably, Aaron Heilman appeared in the game and did not give up a run. However, it took a heroic tag at home plate after a wild pitch by Scott Schoeneweis to make that reality.

Jose Reyes may have finally busted out of his slump. Reyes reached base six times, going 3-for-3 with three walks, a run, and an RBI, and was letting the ball get deep — key to his success. (That means he’s waiting longer on pitches before committing to swinging.) He has such quick hands, all he needs to do is trust them — something he tends to get away from. This isn’t rare — it’s something nearly all hitters have an issue with at one point or another.

Billy Wagner finally allowed a run, but it was unearned because leadoff batter Ryan Doumit reached base on Reyes’ fifth error of the season. Is that kid on drugs?

This win marked the Mets’ third in a row, their third walkoff victory, and put them three games over .500.

Hey, welcome back Straw Man! Darryl Strawberry appeared on SNY’s Nissan Post Game Live to discuss the contest with Matt Yallof. Straw looked good, and sounded good, and had good things to say. After his rollercoaster life — the result of more bad decisions than good — it’s great to see him come full circle and be (sort of) back with Mets.


Next Game

The Pirates return to Shea for a day game, it will be a 1:10 PM start. Oliver Perez will face his old team and Tom Gorzelanny. Weather reports say it will be sunny and in the mid-50s.

Posted in Mets 2008 Games | 2 Comments

Figgy Loses a Turn

Posted on April 29, 2008 by Joe Janish

figgy.jpgAs a result of yesterday’s rainout, Nelson Figueroa will get skipped when his turn comes around the next time in the rotation — which would be Sunday at Arizona.

Instead of Figgy, Johan Santana will go to the hill.

On the surface, this appears to be a good idea. After all, Santana has a few more Cy Young Awards than Figueroa (though, Johan’s never pitched in Taiwan).

However, the part I don’t get is why are the Mets passing over Figgy’s turn instead of Mike Pelfrey’s? Pelfrey is scheduled to pitch the day before, on Saturday. Looking at the stats, the two pitchers aren’t very different thus far this year — they’re both 2-1, their ERAs are similar, and they both average a little over five innings per start. The only contrast is in strikeouts per nine innings (Figgy is nearly 3 Ks better) and WHIP (Figgy: 1.34; Pelf: 1.75). But through only around 25 innings, it’s too small a sample to compare them strictly on the stats.

Outside of the stat lines, it “feels” like Figgy has had better starts so far. In all but one of his starts, Figueroa has been good to great. Pelfrey, on the other hand, has been good, great, terrible, so-so — in that order. On the plus side, Pelf has induced 43 ground balls in 22 innings, while Figgy has only 28 GBs in 25 IP. Pelfrey’s problem, however, is that many of those grounders have found holes.

I’m not suggesting that Figgy should be getting his turn on Saturday instead of Pelfrey, but curious to the thought that went behind the decision. My best guess — and it makes sense — is that Figueroa is more experienced and effective coming out of the bullpen than Pelfrey, and if long relief is needed this week, Willie Randolph may be more comfortable knowing Nellie Figs is available. The only other thing is the ground ball factor; Chase Field in Arizona is not a bandbox, but it was 11th in MLB last year in home run rate (right behind Miller Park in Milwaukee). In addition, the D’Backs offense is on a rampage right now, first in all of MLB in runs scored and third in the NL in homeruns. Perhaps the surprising bats of free-swinging Conor Jackson, Mark Reynolds, and Chris Young factored into the decision to start the sinkerballing Pelfrey.

Whatever the case, I’m not happy about the West Coast swing coming up so soon. Those games ending after midnight EST make for cranky mornings.

Posted in Pitching Staff | 16 Comments

The Deal That Wasn’t

Posted on April 29, 2008 by Joe Janish

Barry Zito T-shirtYou may have heard by now that Barry Zito has been demoted to the bullpen, after an atrocious start to the season for the San Francisco Giants (0-6, 7.53 ERA).

As Mets fans, why should we care?

Because for every time we weep when the names Scott Kazimir, Brian Bannister, and Nolan Ryan are mentioned (among others) — players that were sent away only to become stars — we should also be thankful that certain deals didn’t happen.

For those with a short-term memory, Barry Zito was — in the minds of the fans and pundits — the number one target of the New York Mets during the 2006-2007 offseason. And for about a year before Zito was on the free market, it seemed as though the Mets were perpetually on the “verge” of acquiring Zito from the A’s in return for Lastings Milledge.

The Mets did, in fact, offer Zito a contract during the winter of 2006 — one for five years and $73M. Scott Boras laughed at the offer, claiming he had a $110M offer from the Giants (we didn’t believe him). Imagine now if the Mets caved in to Boras’ demands, and handed Zito a nine-digit contract? Most likely, there would be no Johan here, and the organization might be in dire straits.

As my friend Hot Toddy quipped, Barry Zito’s current contract commitment makes Carlos Delgado look like a bargain. Hat tip also to Toddy for finding these great T-shirts.

Posted in News Notes Rumors | 13 Comments