Transplanting Myself Out Of Earshot

I'm taking my wife on a weekend trip to celebrate our wedding anniversary, so I won't be able to post until Tuesday. This also means I'll miss Lima's start tonight (thankfully) and Pelfrey's start tomorrow (unfortunately). Pedro's been placed on the DL, but hopefully he'll be off of it and fully healthy by the time the All Star Break is over. Have a great weekend and All Star Break everyone! Wherever you're planted, Lets Go Mets!

Shaky Pete

During last night's broadcast, Gary and Ron told us that Pedro Martinez would throw a bullpen session today which would determine whether Petey would be able to start one of Saturday's games. Today in Newsday, David Lennon says that a start Saturday is very unlikely, and we probably won't see martinez start until after the All Star break.

Fortunately, the Mets pitching was just ducky yesterday, as El Duque turned in a real nice performance against the Pittsburgh High School team. The Mets beat the Bucs 5-0. They scored all their runs in the first inning, and in fact they got all their hits in the first inning. It looked like it was going to be a laugher early on when the Mets beat up on Kip Wells, but it turned out to be a pitchers duel for the next eight innings. After the first, Wells bore down and pitched five more innings without allowing a hit. John Grabow came in the seventh and shut the Mets down for their last two turns at bat. El Duque was great too, going seven innings and striking out 7, with Bradford and Dirty Sanchez pitching a scoreless inning each.

Gary and Ron talked about this during the broadcast, but if the playoffs started today, El Duque is my #3 starter. Of course its a good thing the playoffs don't start today because we're missing one of our aces!

Clear Your Friday Night Schedule - Pelfrey Might Make ML Debut

I'm going out of town this weekend when the Marlins roll into Shea, but you'll want to do your best to get near a broadcast this friday night. According to Newsday, the Mets considering promoting Mike Pelfrey to pitch Friday night's game.

According to a team official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Mets are seriously considering a call-up of their top pick from the 2005 amateur draft.

Pelfrey, 22, has won four of his last five starts for Double-A Binghamton. He has a 4-2 record and 2.71 ERA in 12 starts, walking 26, striking out 77 and allowing 60 hits in 66 1/3 innings. He made his most recent start Saturday, a seven-inning, 11-strikeout victory over New Hampshire.

General manager Omar Minaya said yesterday he doesn't feel motivated to promote Pelfrey to have a better idea of the team's needs with the July 31 non-waivers trading deadline approaching. But he also didn't rule him out for Friday.

That would be a much better idea than handing the ball over to Jose Lima!

Willie Drops Hammer on Feliciano; Mets Win

Before this afternoon's game Willie Randolph, in response to Feliciano's public second-guessing of the manager's pitching moves, said "I've been around winners my whole life. That's not what winners do."

The Mets showed what winners do do, by beating the Pirates in come from behind fashion, 7-6.If you decided to avoid the Mets game today in favor of more traditional Independence Day festivities, you missed Jose Reyes kneeing Cliff Floyd in the head and giving him a mild concussion. They were both going after a ball, and Cliffy tried to dive out of teh way but caught Reyes's knee in his big forehead. He's day-to-day. You missed the Mets scoring four runs to stake Tom Glavine to a 4-3 lead. You missed Aaron Heilman cough up Tom Glavine's lead and, with the bases loaded, walk in a run. You missed Xavier Nady finally come through with runners in scoring position, off Transplanted Ex-Met Roberto Hernandez in the bottom of the eighth to put the Mets up 7-6. You missed Billy Wagner's essentially uneventful ninth inning save. Mostly you missed the Mets finally win a damned game.

So there you go. Oh, you also missed this: Heath Bell has been optioned back to Norfolk and for the second time this season, it's Lima Time.

Crack In The Clubhouse: Feliciano Mouths Off

Willie's gotten a bit of a pass for his in-game strategical mishaps because of the sense that he has a strong command of his clubhouse, and the respect of his team is more integral to the Mets winning ways than any particular in-game decision. Although we've heard a little chirp hear and there from guys like Billy Wagner, for the most part it's been evident that the club respects Willie and will go to the wall for him. Well, if Willie wants to keep that respect, it might be about time to drop a hammer. The Mets play has been embarrassing over the past week, and now we start to read quotes in the papers from a player, Pedro Feliciano, who's unhappy with Willie's decisions. From Newsday today:

Feliciano questioned the decision to bat for Darren Oliver, who went 1 1/3 scoreless innings, with the Mets down 3-1 in the sixth.

"I don't know why they pinch hit," said Feliciano, who pitched two innings Sunday before allowing six hits and three runs in 1 1/3 innings last night.

"Oliver is the long reliever. He has to pitch like three at least. They say the bullpen's tired, so let him go three or four. I don't know who messed up, but somebody messed up."

Ooh boy. I'm anxious to hear what the response to that will be. Willie's got to keep control of this clubhouse during this period of poor play. Otherwise, it might be time for Sweet Lou in 2007.

Profanity Laden Tirade

I have done my best to avoid using profanity on my blogs. I've tried to challenge myself to be a better writer by staying clean. I almost didn't even post tonight because I am so angry about the Mets that I honestly don't know how to express my frustration without a lethal combination of F-bombs.

The Mets are bad right now. So bad. So bad that people are coming out of the woodwork down here to comment on how bad they are playing. These are the same people who, during the offseason, were completely oblivious to Omar Minaya's offseason triumphs. People who don't even know who Omar Minaya is. People who six weeks ago were asking how the Mets were doing, completely unaware of the Mets dominance. But now? Now they start paying attention. Or something. At work I'm getting e-mails from vendors, asking what's up with the Mets. It's killing me!

What's also killing me is that I have to talk about Joe Morgan again. This guy annoyed the hell out of me Sunday Night, but I mention him because he bitched and bitched for like 17 innings about Willie leaving in Alay Soler for so long. Jon Miller speculated it was because Willie needed to save his long man Darren Oliver for the Monday game. Morgan said that was a bad decision because you need to do everything you can to win the game you're playing, not worrying about tomorrow's game. They talked on and on and on about it. Finally Soler was lifted, and Heath Bell came on, presumably because Oliver was getting the start tonight. So I tune in tonight, expecting to see Darren Oliver, and instead I see John Friggin Maine warming up. What the hell??? Kranepool says that even Darren Oliver thought he was getting the start tonight.

But no. Soler was sent down to Norfolk with a "calf injury" and John Maine was called up. Hey by the way am I the first guy to comment that John Maine looks like Beck?




















Oh, another "by the way:" If you do an image search on Yahoo for "John Maine Mets" you'll get like 4 pictures of Anna Benson.











Yeah, so anyway Willie left Soler in for too long Sunday night so he could save Oliver for tonight's game, which he didn't even start, and sacrificed a possible win on Sunday for a game they didn't win on Monday. Just friggin' great.

Were these all of a sudden the Art Howe Mets? What was with all the runners left on base? Reyes and LoDuca set the table well, reaching base a combined five times between them, but the heart of the order Beltran, Delgado and Wright left them completely stranded. So much for the "where Reyes goes the team goes" theory.

Dammit!!!

By the way, Transplanted Ex-Met Kris Benson allowed six runs on nine jits in five innings in his last start for Baltimoreon Sunday in a 10-3 loss to Atlanta. Benson was pitching on three days rest.

Oh, and one last thing. If anyone thinks that Interleague play is going away anytime soon: think again.

So Damn Sloppy!

Notes from Sunday night's Mets/Yankees game, the rubber of the 3 game set. Only one word can describe this game: Sloppy!

Sloppy announcing: Jon Miller and Joe Morgan are unbearable to listen to. They provide zero insight. When Joe Torre had to pull Jaret Wright in the 2nd, Jon Miller explained that Torre did not want to have to pull his starter so early, especially with another game tomorrow night. No kidding Jon! Wow, really? A manager expects his pitcher to last into the third? Gee, willikers.

Sloppy pitching. Jaret Wright was bad; Soler was terrible. From coughing up a four run lead before you could blink to throwing away a ball on a pick off move to giving up a friggin salami to A-Rod, this guy pitched like a gutless weasel the whole time. During a Mets turn at bat, the cameras caught El Duque instructing Soler on how to go after hitters. Soler promptly walked the leadoff batter. In the midst of his third inning meltdown, Mullethead Peterson came out and implored him to throw strikes. Of course Soler kept throwing junk off the plate and the nightmare continued. Soler is a great fifth starter against bad teams in games that are meaningless. At home or in big spots, he comes up small.

Sloppy Shaving: What's with Juicin' Giambi and all that scruff on his face? I thought the Junkees had a no facial hair policy? Any Yankees fans out there who can explain this?

Sloppy Dress: My wife has a hard time with the baggy uniforms sported by guys like Cliff Floyd. She says that with the way the uniforms taper at teh bottom, wearing oversized uniforms just make them look fat. She thinks Jose Valentin wears the uniform the correct way. Listen Mr. Porn Star Mustache Man! Stay away from my girl, man!

Sloppy Baserunning: Speaking of Valentin, he was tagged out at the plate by Posada trying to score on Franco's double, partially because he failed to slide. Miller and Morgan beat this dead horse so bad you couldn't even tell it was a horse anymore, but they blamed Xavier Nady for not being in the right position to tell Valentin there would be a play at the plate.

Sloppy Fielding: In the bottom of the fourth, one pitch after David Wright saved a couple runs with a snare of a Bernie Williams grounder, throwing Giambi out at the plate with the bases loaded, Xavier Nady dropped a two-out fly ball hit by Andy Phillips, allowing two runs to score and making it 11-4 Yankees. The Junkees would score two more in the inning with a Melky Cabrera double off Heath Bell to make it 13-4. In the top of the fifth, Bernie Williams botched a play of his own, misplaying a Julio Franco fly ball that became a double, driving in Valentin to make it 13-5, but when the half inning ended, that was enough for me. This Transplanted Mets Fan has work in the morning. I look forward to facing Pittsburgh tomorrow and putting this interleague crap to rest until October.