Thursday, June 08, 2006

Who Ya Got?

The pitcher who's going on short rest?

Or the pitcher who's pitched a grand total of 8 and 2/3 innings in a month?

So who ya got?

If you were smart, you had the over.

It was pinball...a wild, wild game. How wild? The ESPN website ran a poll very recently...the question went something like this: "When someone has a big game, do you immediately suspect steroids?" I voted no.

But then Rafael Furcal went deep twice off Tom Glavine and I had to change my vote. Does it make me a bad person?

No seriously...here's what I thought: With all of the steroid nonsense happening, I wonder if guys have resorted back to bat corking. I wonder if hitters think that with the bigger fish that baseball is trying to fry, nobody is going to kill me about corking or souping up my bat with super balls. When I saw Furcal's first home run...the one where he reached out and hit a 385 foot one handed bomb...yes, I briefly suspected cork.

But it's probably that Brave envy that got to me again. Did it get to Tom Glavine as well? Must have...Furcal went deep on Glavine twice, and Glavine gave up six runs in 5 and 1/3 tonight. But we all know that Tom Glavine prefers normal rest...and any change in Tom Glavine's routine throws him off, and going on short rest certainly didn't help. Unfortunately, four days rest from this start lands on an off-day. Great.

Luckily for the Mets on a night when Tom Glavine was off his game, Odalis Perez was the opposing pitcher tonight...the same Odalis Perez that Ned Colletti has been peddling around the league, including to the Mets. This leads me to another thing that I wonder: If Omar Minaya was still in Washington or Montreal or somewhere other than Flushing, would Lastings Milledge would be a Dodger? Would Odalis Perez have been pitching tonight for the Mets? Would I have jumped off the back end of the upper deck...forcing construction of the new stadium to be built around my chalk outline?

Thank goodness we'll never know.

Because not only was Odalis awful, but Lastings Milledge was unreal tonight. You'll see the winning home run on the highlight clips...you'll also see the cannon that chucked Nomar Garciaparra trying to stretch a single into a double in the eighth. But it was the first inning triple that impressed me the most as he waited on an outside pitch and drove it to the right-center field gap instead of trying to hit it 500 feet as he usually did.

You know how the saying goes: "The best trades are the ones that you don't make because Jeff Wilpon is hogtied, gagged, and locked in the broom closet."

So stop one on this road trip is a successful one...and now on to Phoenix, where the Mets will catch a Diamondback team shaken up over the loss of bullpen stalwart and resident juice man Jason Grimsley (and by the way, if you want to speculate on who those "blacked out" names that Grimsley mentioned, check out the teams he played with post 1998, and come to your own conclusions). And the best part about going to Phoenix is that the Diamondbacks don't have a former manager that can visit the booth and tweak Ron Darling about beating him in a playoff series...because the Diamondbacks have never beaten the Mets in the playoff series...and certainly not a painful series in 1988. But at least Tommy Lasorda supports a good cause.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tommy - unfortunately, it is. He played on KC 2001-2004.
I have never heard of Beltran being accussed of steroids. Did I miss something.

Momentary Hockey Diversion:

Metstra - This Isles fan is NOT happy about Neil Smith. Too easy for Ranger fans to claim Isles needed former Ranger to help them. Also, I remember Don Maloney too too well.
Ted Nolan I like.

End momentary Hockey diversion

Lets Go Mets!

Toasty Joe said...

Perhaps the HGH is the explanation for Carlos' giant mole. No way that thing grew naturally.

Anonymous said...

I thought the same thing Tommy although I've never heard any accusations about him....but what the hell do we know! Please NO! I didn't look it up but was Damon on the Royals with Grimsley?

Toasty Joe said...

Grimsley played with Sosa and Palmiero in Baltimore and Canseco with the Yanks, so you gotta expect he's named at least those guys.

beezermess said...

Hey Ed in Westchester....

At least you have a GM now that has least won a cup and had made some good moves in the past unlike Milbury who has traded scores and scores of talent off Long Island...Brian McCabe, Zdeno Chara and Roberto Luongo to name a couple and then sign Yashin to an untradeable contract...Stop the bitching now...
Ted Nolan--best coach in hockey to have been out of hockey unfairly (black-balled by John Muckler in Buffalo)

I believe that Damon was in Oakland and played with Giambi...hmmmmmm.....

Good win by the Mets to take 2 out of three in Chavez Ravine...Question...what do you do with Milledge when Nady comes back...he is proving that he is worthy of the job right now...and how about Floyd? Maybe we can get out 30th number 5 starter for him since his contract is expiring...?

Thoughts?

something said...

Rob Dibble made a great point on his radio show on xm. He said that players need to start taking their own drug tests just to maintin their credibility right now because their union isn't doing anything to help protect it. He said a lot of players go out and do it already. I think that is a great idea. Go out once a month and get tested and then say 'f you, go check the tests - I hit that homerun or I struck him out becuase i'm just that damn good.' That woudl be pretty awesome to see players do that.

Anonymous said...

BEEZERMESS - Gee, thanks for reminding me, like I could forget what Mad Mike has traded?
Not bitching, just making a comment. I know many Ranger fans, and my earlier comment will come up.
Milbury's problem was not knowing how to trade. Drafted really well, trades, not so much. As for Yashin, Wang made that contract, not Mad Mike. *Insert gratuitous comment about Milbury/shoe/Ranger fan here* ;)
At the end of the day, they have an experienced GM, which is a plus. He can't be any worse than Mike, can he? Can't wait till October.
end hockey diversion

As for Damon, the way he jumped around after Cabrera's catch the other night, wasn't that showing up the other team? :)

Nice win for the Mets. Glavine gutted it out on 3 days rest. Gotta love the guy for stepping up and taking the ball.
Not sure what to do with Milledge. Don't think there is much of a market for Floyd. IMHO, I would be concerned in a playoff race with Milledge and Nady in the OF, two young guys, in addition to Wright and Reyes. I like the attitude Cliff brings to the table.

Metstradamus said...

Ed,

Interesting moves by the Islanders. They waited so long, supposedly for Laviolette back, I wonder if they got an inside tip that Laviolette was going to stay with Carolina anyway, so they moved ahead with Nolan and Smith.

Look around the Finals...and look at the Islanders connections there: Peca and Torres with the Oilers, and Laviolette with the 'Canes. Add that trades like the Luongo trade, and the awful Bertuzzi trade, and that's all you needed to know that Milbury had to go. When he took the job, the first thing he said was "F*** the Rangers". Ironically, everything he did after that f***ed the Islanders.

Neil Smith got somewhat of a bad rap when he was with the Rangers...he got blasted for trading young talent (the Laperriere/Norstrom trade was probably the worst of the lot), and the young talent he did keep didn't work (Christian Dube). Let's see if he can build a team without luring a Messier type talent. Remember, it's a different world in the NHL now with the cap. Neil Smith was one of the last GM's to take the "big ticket" route to winning a Cup. Can he adjust to today's NHL? And what you have to watch out for is how much time Smith spends stroking the media...perhaps at the expense of time spent on hockey operations?

And don't forget...Neil Smith actually started out as a player in the Islander system.

Nolan? I don't even know what to think of him having been gone so long. But with the guys the Isles had been relegated to lately...it's a chance worth taking.

But I wish your team luck...Rangers vs. Islanders is 100 times more fun when both teams are winning and relevant. Whatever happens with these two, it's addition by subtraction.

beezermess said...

If Laviolette came back, it would have meant only one thing:
Milbury admitting he made a mistake which he will never do...
And your right, he has drafted some great talent and I saw some of it yesterday...
Metstradamus....Neil Smith may have been the last GM to be a big ticket GM to win the cup, but in his commentaries on TSN and OLN, he has been a big supporter of the new NHL...I wish him luck int trying to undo the damage that Milbury did...
Hey Ed...I agree I like Floyd's attitude ever since Willie's been there, but you have to keep that kid in there...He should be given the chance like Reyes and Wright were given...

Anonymous said...

Metsra - If only I had the time to start an Isles Blog. Maybe a combo Mets/Isles, the whole Blue and Orange thing.
I agree on Pete L, they must have known he was not coming back. (beezermess - I agree, MM was going to have a hard time swallowing his pride if Pete came back). I blame Yashin, who blasted PL, as did Peca according to old stories. Funny that Peca now likes him, so maybe that was not the case.
I am sure I will warm to Smith. My concern about is him precisely what you wrote, can he get it done now, without an open checkbook? I do think he can do a good job, and there are some young pieces of the puzzle already there. I just hope Wang lets him buy-out Yashin. FIll in the blanks with better vets as FA. Cutting Yashin saves $5 million on the cap.
I agree, the rivalry is better when both teams are good.

beezermess - The difference between when DW and JR came up and now is that now they are in a playoff race, then, they were not, so there was a luxury in bringing them up and leaving them here. Not sure Freddy and Jeff want to rely on another youngster.

Cathie said...

Lastings Milledge is the coolest name in baseball.

Metstradamus said...

Daedalus,

Would you believe his brothers' names are Tony Jr. and Anthony?

It's true it's true!

Anonymous said...

Tony Jr. and Anthony? Sounds like George Foreman, who named all of his sons George.
NY is the leader is cool names, what with Lastings, D'Brickashaw Ferguson (Jets), Channing Frye (Knicks)Petteri Nokelainen (Isles), Sandis Ozolinsh. A cornucopia of fun!

Metstradamus said...

The Rangers also had, for a brief time in the preseason, the best name ever in professional sports:

Zarley Zalapski

Anonymous said...

Metstra - I remember Zarley! And would could ever forget...

Wait for it...


Reijo Ruotsalainen

and yes, I did have to google to remember how to spell his name, I was only missing the "i".

Metstradamus said...

And also don't forget former defenseman Per Djoos...pronounced Pear Juice.

Anonymous said...

HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE! lol, lol, lol....