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The Mets are above .500 for the first time since April 18.
Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite, because I am so easily swayed in sports.
The thing is, I watch sports to have fun – and, when it isn’t fun, like the first weeks of the season, I panic. I can’t help it. Then, when the team starts winning, I perk up and get totally wrapped up in the winning.
Sports is about emotion, I am more and more convinced of this every day. And so, if things are going badly with the team, I feel angry and annoyed; and when things are going well, I’m happy and pumped up. It’s not complicated.
I guess this isn’t hypocritical, it’s just human nature.
“It’s why it’s not wise to make judgments early,” Francisco Rodriguez told reporters, when asked about the team’s recent 
play. “We’re playing good now. Last week… you know.”
I just hope the Mets ‘keep their foot on the gas,’ as WFAN’s Craig Carton put it this morning on air.
“We’ve always been confident,” David Wright told reporters following yesterday’s win. “Now the big test is in these next games, now that the hype of the Philly series is over, to keep it going.”
Agreed, because it’s moments like this - winning five of six, sweeping the Phillies and Braves, looking strong, getting my hopes up, and moving to within striking distance of first place - when the Mets slip on a banana peel, lose two of three to the Pirates, and stir up panic among fans again.
sometimes….
anyway thanks frankie for saying what some of us have been saying all along..dont make judgments so early and hastly…things can change just like that.
dude, dont mention a 2/3 loss to the pirates
We can possibly have a 10 game winning streak.
Matt:
No need to apologize. You are not a reporter or broadcaster or paid to be level emotionally or fair minded.
You are a fan. You started this blog because you are fan. You created this blog for the fans. What most fans and readers of your blog prefer is when you are fan like.
If we wanted a reporter, we would watch the news.
We dont need spin. We come here to let off steam. We prefer the lead blogger (i.e. you) to be like us.
So no need to apologize.
Please don’t group US as all of US. I don’t come here ever to let off steam. I have better management of my steam than to need to come here to vent.
I come here for intelligent Mets baseball discussion because I can’t find it where I live.
agreed….unfortunatly this is the only site that gets alot of traffic and i look foward to coming here for good baseball discussion. It used to be that way but now its just getting rediculous. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and is entitled to vent but dont knock us fans that actually take a realistic approach to discussing the game…that is what upsets me.
You mean like this comment you posted before…
Mets found edge on edge of cliff.
Manny pregnant, Mrbillwhatever the father….
VERY intelligent/classy/mature real…
What, your saying you dont think MrBill is a dbag?
LOL
Thank you Mrbillwhatever, I appreciate the compliment. I will continue doing things to make you happy.
How’s the little Manny?
This guy is MrBill. The little avatar he has I think is the clay figure named MrBill.
LOL! Yes, this is a very hard day for “fans” like The Amazing Mr Bill Wright Clutch Etc, who is very nervous that his reason for joy—mocking the Mets and their fans—may indeed be ending for a while….
And mrbill, you are a completely ridiculous presence on here with LESS than nothing to say, ever, and TRS is doing everyone a favor whenever he turns another of your ludicrous pronouncements into a joke which adult Met fans who want to see the team win can laugh at.
Agreed
I don’t come to this blog to let off steam and the sky doesn’t fall when the Mets lose a game, like it does for you Matt. I love your blog, but there is a large majority of people that come on this blog and they say silly things like “trade our core players” IE. Wright, Reyes or Beltran and I believe it’s laughable.
Or you could just relax and enjoy baseball.
LOL!!
lol that might be too much to ask for some people…
what else can you do voluntairy, on a daily basis that gives you almost nothing but stress and anger… god I love baseball!
;)
these seem to be the games that tripped us up last year…bottom dwellers getting the best of us. let’s not do that again.
Since Oliver Perez won’t be pitching tonight, maybe that means we can actually beat the Pirates.
Or maybe we can give him a Pirates jersey and have him sneak into their clubhouse and make believe the trade never happened? Wonder how long it would take for the Pirates to notice. The guy couldn’t even crack their rotation.
The usernames on here are Amazin’… We were thisclose to writing about how Omar should have signed Manny – yesterday! Just goes to show, we don’t know everything guys like Omar know.
I think it was a coincidence.
No way Omar could have predicted this.
And if you’re ever going to start Ollie, the Pirates would be the perfect choice, no?
the way he is throwing..i wouldnt trust him to go after a little league team lol
Matt, as a baseball fan, you had better pace yourself. As a fan of a team that’s in the fight, it’s always a long summer of ups and downs – lol.
Off Topic – PED penalties.
We talk about suspensions and whether they are too long or too short or just right.
Query whether baseball should also focus on team, and whether that would put more incentive on the team to ensure their players are clean.
For example, Manny and the Dodgers. Who know if Manny’s PEDs played a large part in the Dodgers MLB leading record. But if it did, note that for every W of the Dodgers was an L for their opponent. What if teams are penalized as well. What if teams are forced to forfeit their W (meaning opposing teams would have their Ls convered to Ws). Would that be fair?
On the onside yes. The team with the L was disadvantaged by the player who too the PED.
On the other side, there is no certainty that such team would have one.
Perhaps the appropriate penalty to the team is the current penalty (i.e. losing their player (and in the case of the Dodgers their best player)) for 50 games. And perhaps that should be incentive enough for team to be proactive about making sure their players are clean.
As for MLB, I am surprised that there is not a procedure that a player could follow where by if they needed to take a drug, that they submit the drug to MLB for permission prior to taking it. If MLB clears the drug, then there should be no ramifications. In the case of Manny, according to the Media, he did not think the drug he was taking was a violation. If there was a procedure like above, he would have had a method to avoid the failed test.
Curious if anyone know if there is such a procedure.
there is no “procedure” but the players ALWAYS have access to mlb personell to double check to see if the ingredients in certian medicine are banned or not. Question is why wouldnt they..ESPECIALLY since how strict the testing is these days and not doing your due diligance may taint your career forever…why take that chance. If its true manny took ED treatment(which doesnt look like its the case anymore) and he was really innocent…why not take it to the mlb and make sure all the ingredents are cleared.
I’m not taking Manny’s side but, maybe its something he doesnt want others to know about.
Last night i said maybe i heard it was something for erectile disfunction, i don’t know if my friend was being funny, but they did sound serious. I did find out that there is something in it that is against this drug policy. So it is possible
Now i know i’d take the hit and not admit i have a problem getting an erection to the whole world. You don’t want any woman knowing that, so imagine worlds population. I laughed my arse off when i found out Kaz Matsui was on the DL last year for hemorrhoids.
It’s just food for thought thats all.
well i was kidding yesterday that manny may have a ED problem and at a certian point yestserday it seemed as if i was right. They later said in the news that manny had a drug that is usually perscribed to infertale women. Now why a dude would need that is beyond me but bob costas explained that roid users use this at the end of a cycle to restart the bodys production of testosterone. I could be explaining it wrong but doesnt look good for manny right now
Yea i heard about them using that to hide the steroids and cycle the testosterone..however it’s explained.
Carlin said it best on LoudMouths last night. The best way to stop this is have the players take the test, if they fail, they cant play baseball anymore. Its that simple.
while harsh…i agree. This rule of 50/100/life is pretty stupid and forgiving. I guess their take on it is that peope will make mistakes and will be branded a user for life but we will not take away their passion to play the games…idk its just very tough imo.
as a concept I think it would actually work best in stopping the use.
If you knew your team was going to have to give up all of its wins when you played it would be the second harshest penalty from the perspective of the user, and the harshest on the teammates. This would create a culture of preemtively outing users for the sake of the teams record.
On the other hand it would be a logistical and statistical nightmare.
For instance, Romero of the Phillies… If you take away all the Phillies wins in which he pitched they wouldn’t have made the postseason, but he was suspended after the WS. Do you replay the playoffs in March?
Not to mention which pitcher do you give the L to when the team won the game on the field in May but a players tests positive in August?
You can’t. They could do what the NCAA does and make teams with violations ineligible for postseason play for some years.
I would make them ineligible for that particular season. I don’t think it should be spread over a certain number of years. That would be like MLB cutting off its nose to spite its face (attendance figures).
That was kind of my point, you can’t…
Can’t do your idea either, how would teams sell tickets when they know in advance that the team is banned from the playoffs? MLB couldnt let a plan that ruins revenues be put in place.
Thats a good idea but, then that team would suffer for 1 player. Fans wouldnt goto games if they knew there team was playing for nothing. They’d lose lots of money. The team suffers enough by losing a player for 50 games. If he did the crime..he should serve the time alone. The team shouldnt suffer if they genuinely didnt know. Players should be drugged tested before they even sign a contract. I dunno if they do, but they should.
Test before ST, before the season starts, before all-star break and at end of season.
As for MLB, I am surprised that there is not a procedure that a player could follow where by if they needed to take a drug, that they submit the drug to MLB for permission prior to taking it.
There is. Right now if you need to take a drug on the banned list and it’s prescribed by a legit doctor, you apply for an exemption. Players do it all the time for ADD drugs and dozens of exemptions are given every year.
Further, there is already a written list of drugs that are banned and the one Manny took is on that list. If he can’t read, then have Boris check the list for him via the MLBPA. No one else needs to know.
There is absolutely no legitimate excuse for what Manny did.
LOL, Manny taking Women’s fertility drugs. Now that’s funny.
Well, it is clearly because his balls are SO gigantic and swollen with heart and grit, that doctors have thrown up their hands in trying to treat the condition, so female hormones are all that they can think of to try and neutralize it…..
LOL, I could only imagine.
As Keith (Ron?) said during last night’s game, MLB doesn’t test for masking agents or HGH. He said they should adopt same testing system, however flawed, as the IOC.
Testing, no matter how stringent, is always going to be flawed. There are newer, undetectable drugs being synthesized everyday.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8470
I don’t know if you can read this (I have a BP subscription, but this might be free acces), but this is a great article from Baseball Prospectus a few months back discussing the new wave of PEDs.
I am pretty sure Ron/Keith are wrong on this point. Standard tests do test for some masking agents and MLB’s testing program is as strong as any sport in this country.
I am also pretty sure that with the exception of the highly flawed current HGH test and out of competition testing schedules, MLB’s testing is as good as the IOC’s. IOW, MLB is testing for every steroid/masking agent that the IOC does.
The current HGH test used by the Olympics is highly flawed because it can only detect HGH used within 24 hours of the test. It’s useless.
Bottom line, there is not much more MLB could do right now except for increasing penalties and out-of-season testing.
im glad dwright knows what needs to be done.
no relaxing for the pirates
you relax in november.
Wright always SAYS the right thing.
:)
Is Chan Ho Parking Lot next to Dave Kingman Fallout Zone?
***** THE VOICE *****
LOG VER: 5.0-A
=== Tale Of Two Stadiums ===
Stats provided by MLB.com
Total HR’s at Yankee Stadium = 47
Total HR’s at CitiField Stadium = 24
NYY at Yankee Stadium have hit 23 HR’s
Ranking them 2nd in MLB for most Hr’s hit at home by
the home team.
NYM at Citi Fields have hit 10 HR’s
Ranking them 25th in MLB for most Hr’s hit at home by
the home team.
Visiting teams at Yankee Stadium have hit 24 HR’s
Ranking it 3rd in MLB for most Hr’s allowed at home by
the visiting team.
Visiting teams at Citi Fields have hit 14 HR’s
Ranking it 15th in MLB for most Hr’s allowed at home by
the visiting team.
Good stuff.
Good Job Voice, these stats are quite interesting.
I like your random posts, voice, but the bold is jarring. Other people need to use bold for specific emphasis, and if people start bolding their entire posts then the ability to emphasize within a post is lost.
It seems as tho the Pirates have given the Mets fits but the Mets are 8-5 against them the last two years. In 2006 they got swept in Pittsburg but it mattered not in the end.
This year the Pirates are 3-0 against the Marlins and 2-1 against the Braves in part of a hot start they had. Now they have lost 9 of thier last 10 and the Mets will be missing two of the Pirates top three starters.
Seems like the luck of the timing might be on the Mets side for a change. It has seemed over the last two years that the Mets run into opponents when thing are going well for that team. Nice to have it the other way for a change…
See, I always find it opposite. I am always weary of playing against struggling teams. To me, it always seems as if a struggling team is due for good luck and ready for a turnaround. Just as hot teams can’t stay hot forever, cold teams can’t stay cold forever.
I agree with you. Like the last few years they’d beat up on good teams..then like Matt said..teams like the Pirates, Nationals and last year Padres..get the best of us.
I get you, it seemed to me that those same teams came into the matchup with the Mets having won 4 of 6 or something.
exccept the Padres last year, thats was just bizzaro week.
Sometimes I get the feeling there’s only like 10 of us who actually come here: Me, TRS, DirtySanchez, Don’tmesswiththeJohan, etc, etc, and the rest are this Mr. Bill character.
blastphemy
or blasphemy haha
Nate, the Pirates are eventually going to be somewhat consistent – but not this season – and if the Mets don’t sweep this team, it’s a failure – just from a budget comparison.
I don’t agree with sweep, win 2 of 3, yes. Sweep…it’s hard to sweep anyone, especially with a staff like they have.
Uhhh….I don’t agree either. No matter how terrible the team and no matter the budget discrepancy between the teams, you should never EXPECT to sweep a team.
Humph…
A sweep or bust when Niese is one of our starters and Maholm is one of their starters is just unrealisted.
Plus, the pitching matchups make it more fair for both teams in each game.
It wouldnt be the end of the world if Niese struggled and then Maholm outpitched Maine. It wouldn’t be any fun, but its not far fetched…
Yea i’m not expecting a great outing by Niese..just keep the game close and go at least 5 innings. Didn’t the Pirates sweep the Marlins after their hot start?
I also have no particular expectations from Niese, but I am certainly hoping that he brings the same approach and stuff that allowed him to go 6 IP 3 H 8 K his last start in AAA. If he is able to do that, he should at least be competitive.
and competitve is all I ask from him today. I’m actually sort of psyched to see him, and where his stuff is.
Brettsabermetrician, you are too easy on this team – dare we call you Willie???
The Voice: Before we compare HR numbers at ChitiField or The House That Greed Built, subtract out the homers that DHs hit on 162nd Street.
Matt- That’s hardly analytical to subtract out the HRs hit by DHs. How many people are hitting HRs because the person behind them is not the pitcher. How many hitters are getting better pitch counts, because the lineups are deeper. You’d be better off to adjust by AL avgs and NL avgs…you’d get closer. Let’s wait until BP publishes their analysis of parks and then we’ll have what we need. Until then, these raw stats are interesting.
Even if you subtract the HR’s that the DH hits, the numbers at NYS are rather high.
The problem for them is that it’s harder to reverse a HR park than a pitcher’s park. Which is why the Wilpons were smarter in this area. They even mentioned that they would move the walls in at Citi at the end of the season if necessary. But they may not need to once the weather warms up.
You guys are right, there are a ton of factors – mostly DH-related, that help account for the difference. The other, more basic difference, could be that the pitchers just sucked that series. There is no doubt balls are flying out of the new address for “Greatness” at a higher clip. Personally, we like the way Chiti holds the homer totals down.
It also helps that Ollie is far far away from the team.
I’m predicting 8-5 thru the end of the Dodger series……
2 of 3 from Pitt (don’t expect Niese to win)
2 of 3 from ATL
3 of 4 from SF
1 from LAD (only because of the way the rotation works out).
Matt I understand you have long been a fan and get emotional. But you now blog hold an important position as a professional blogger of the New York Mets. You’re opinion is amplified by all the fans that read this blog and then go to Citi Field. When you are negative, whether it is rationale or not, you can feel the reverberations throughout the Mets fanbase. I feel like you should take more responsibility because other more even-headed fans are getting annoyed by all the panicking. It takes enjoyment away from this site and sometimes even the games.