Daily Archives: May 8, 2006
At his blog for ESPN.com, citing his company’s research department, Buster Olney writes that the Braves have never been more than 4½ games out of first on May 7…
However, at his blog for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, David O’Brien points out that while this statistic may be accurate, it is misleading because the Braves have in fact been farther behind later in the season, such as they were on June 1, 2001, when they were eight games off the pace, among other examples…
As O’Brien writes, “My point is, they have been as far or farther behind than 4½ games after May 7, and sometimes well after May 7.”…
…honestly, i hope this never even matters…let’s just hope they are far, or farther, or whatever, from first place come the end of september…
Will Carroll is back at it in Baseball Prospectus, again stumping that Billy Wagner is far more effected by his injured middle finger than he is leading on…
According to Carroll, the Mets should not make the same mistake as they did with Victor Zambrano, who informed the media yesterday that, despite his silence, he has long been bothered by the tendon issue in his elbow, which will have him on the shelf for the rest of the season…
“My finger does not hurt,” the New York Post quotes Wagner as saying, regarding Carroll’s report. “I can [stink] without having an issue.”…
…jeesh, i don’t know which is worse…stinking with an injury, or just stinking…
In the most recent Daily Dish at Baseball America, Matt Meyers writes about RHP Deolis Guerra and RHP Bobby Parnell, who were recently promoted to Hagerstown from the team’s extended spring training in Port St. Lucie…
…guerra is 17–years-old, and has a huge fan club within the organization, from what i can gather…he’s a big kid for his age, and its way too early in his career to get too excited, but he has a ton of potential and it’s nice to see him moving up the ladder…
Vinny, at Metsville.com, explains why he still feels the team should go after Dodgers LHP Odalis Perez, for whom he suggests an offer of OF Victor Diaz and RHP Heath Bell…
…that seems pricey, at this point, especially for o’perez…though, to make a deal for a starter in may, a team is going to have to pay a lot, especially one in a position such as the mets are in…i mean, everyone knows they need to do something, so they’ll clearly have to overpay if a trade is going to be made, which could be all the more reason not to make on, which i suspect they will…
Meanwhile, at American Legends, J. Mark English writes that the time has come for the Mets to go after free-agent RHP Roger Clemens, who he feels is worth any amount of money…
…i feel like if i just ignore the idea of clemens and the mets it will simply go away…it’s not that i don’t want him, or even that i want him, i just can’t bring myself to even think about it because i feel like i am dishonoring Mike Piazza…i know, i know, get over it, metsblog…but i keep coming back to this, and find i am still not over losing the 2000 world series, and clemens is still the source of much of my contempt…
Mets LHP Billy Wagner more or less tells the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand that Philadelphia hates him, painting himself as an outsider during his time playing for the Phillies…
…which, if is the case, makes me wonder what would’ve happened had the mets pulled out of the running for his services last off-season…
…at any rate…
Michael Radano of the Courier-Post quotes the team’s manager, Charlie Manuel, and RHP Cory Lidle as basically saying Wagner is a liar…
…cory should pass a note to billy during study hall and challenge him to a fight behind the swings…
…or, just play ball…
Yesterday in the New York Post, Steve Serby offered up a nice Q&A with Mets LHP Tom Glavine, who, as Jon Heyman reported in Newsday, recently tacked on an additional option year to his current contract with the Mets…
In the discussion, among other interesting comments, Glavine refers to his team as a “fun, goofy, outgoing group,”; he agrees to comparing David Wright to Chipper Jones; and responds to whether he’d get nauseous watching Leo Mazzone rock back and forth in the dugout…
…serby does a great job firing off questions to his subjects, and i find that i look forward to all of his interviews…this is a good one, and worth reading…
According to a company press release, SportsNet New York (SNY) delivered a 64 percent increase in household ratings over what MSG/FSN produced exactly a year ago…
…the question is: is this an indication of the great job by sny, or the mets, who are off to one of their best starts ever…
Braves 3B Chipper Jones, as quoted in an article by Murray Chass in the New York Times…
“They have a very good ball club. They’re not just built to win the East; they’re built for the long haul. They have all the attributes of a championship team – a great manager, a solid bullpen, good starting pitching, an everyday lineup that can throw up runs in a big way…
“The Mets are not going to fall through. They have too many good players. They’ve got great leadership. Willie is not going to let them fall through…
“The way Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine are pitching, they’re not going to have extended losing streaks. It just seems that nobody can score any runs off them, and with their lineup, they can throw the bats and balls out and, without even trying, score a couple runs a game.”…
…why is chipper always trying to do this…honestly, i’m starting to think he’s a mets fan…i mean, who has more love for the mets these days than this guy…he’s always complimenting them, and his kid is even named shea for pete’s sake…
…at any rate, this is a great column by chass, who provides a variety of quotes from chipper, including a rant about how the reason for atlanta’s struggles is because the team’s owners refuse to spend money, like a big market team, such as the mets…
For what it’s worth, the Braves have the fifth highest payroll in the National League, more than all teams in their division except the Mets, who they trail by roughly $10 million…
In the second inning of Sunday’s loss to the Braves, Mets C Paul Lo Duca was ejected from the game for spiking the ball and cursing home plate umpire Angel Hernandez…
With one out, Braves C Brian McCann dashed from third base towards home as Braves RHP John Smoltz hit a weak grounder in front of home plate. Lo Duca grabbed the ball and reached towards the passing McCann, who ran by and touched home for a run scored, though repeated instant replays show that McCann was out. Hernandez called McCann safe, however, and Lo Duca spiked the ball while pointing and screaming at Hernandez…
…first off, the spike was hysterical…he jumped to the air and pegged it to the dirt, as though he just scored a touchdown…classic…even funnier, however, was Bobby Cox, who came out to argue a subsequent goof-up regarding the play’s other base runners…cox was also tossed, and then proceeded to waltz around the infield kicking dirt between first and second…what a clown…
Braves C Brian McCann, as quoted in the New York Post…
“He barely got me…The umpire was blocked.”…
…so, basically, even mccann thinks he was out…
Turns out that Lo Duca was not just irritated about the missed call, which was compounded by a remark made by Hernandez earlier in the game…
Lo Duca, as quoted by a collection of newspapers…
“When the umpire said ‘I’m going to give you a couple of inches off the plate, but I’m not going to give you 4-5 inches because you’re not John Smoltz,’ I’m trying to protect my pitcher…
“A lot of stuff goes on that you guys don’t know about. Now you understand why I overreacted a little bit.”…
…calling bud selig, mister bud selig…i’m thinking it may be time to investigate this joker…
If you recall, back in 1998, Mike Piazza reacted similarly to Lo Duca on a play with Hernandez in Atlanta, spiking the ball and yelling, as well…
Mets OF Cliff Floyd, as quoted by David Lennon in Newsday…
“A lot of us have had confrontations with Angel Hernandez, and it’s not over. Hopefully, we can pass him again…
“He’s a great guy. I just feel like something’s going on. I’ve been thrown out by him three or four times. I was thinking nothing but ‘Here we go again.’ I just feel like so many people have a problem with him, it’s a shame. Everybody talks about this guy…
As Floyd points out, the Mets are not alone in their frustration with Hernandez, as this thread from Spudart.com displays…
…thanks to timothy for the link…
…here’s the thing, remember opening day, when lo duca and the rest of us thanked the gods of baseball for calling Alfonso Soriano out on a play when he was clearly safe…we all knew he was out…and we all knew what the gods giveth, the gods taketh away…so, there you go…consider us paid in full…
At his blog for ESPN.com, Buster Olney cites three talent evaluators, or scouts, as saying that 
A’s GM Billy Beane loves Mets OF Lastings Milledge so much, he would make a Milledge-for-Barry Zito deal “right now.”…
In Olney’s opinion, the Mets should not trade Milledge for Zito, though he would understand if they did…
…i agree…my gut says to not make a move…the cushion they have built for themselves by winning so often so early allows the team to sit back and make a wise decision, as opposed to make a knee-jerk reaction that could hurt the team for years to come…
…for what it’s worth, the buzz around business side of baseball seems to be that zito already has a plan in place to pit the two new york teams up against one another for his services come this off-season…therefore, unless he absolutely prefers the mets, with his former pitching coach, Rick Peterson, to the yankees, or any other team for that matter, it would not make a ton of sense for him to negotiate a contract extension with the mets before the season ends, which is something the mets would certainly demand from beane were a trade to be discussed…
Aside from Zito, Olney writes that players such as Twins RHP Kyle Lohse, Marines RHP Gil Meche and Royals RHP Scott Elarton could be the best options for a team looking to upgrade their rotation via trade…
…talk about a rag-tag bunch…i think i’d rather wait for Mike Pelfrey and Alay Soler…
