Ron Darling said tonight that with cortisone, you feel a numbness for about two days.After getting swept by a Mannyless Dodger team, I think we can all use a little of that action.
How about more for J.J. Putz who, even though the first round of cortisone gave him his zip back, still can't get him a hold when it was sorely needed.
Or maybe more for Jose Reyes, who left the game after aggravating his calf injury. Now who knows how long he'll be out.
Or some for the new shortstop, Ramon Martinez ... because he couldn't do any worse playing while numb.
The one good thing to come out of Wednesday night's broom job was Daniel Murphy's initial first base foray, in which he looked more Keith than Kingman with a couple of sparklers in the field. Makes you wonder what took the braintrust so long to figure this one out. Now all Murph needs to do is start hitting like Keith and ...
and the Mets will still need a shortstop.
But at least the Mets and their fans will get one thing they need tomorrow: a day off.
***
Lisa from Subway Squawkers was kind enough to bring me more insanity from Steve Phillips as he tries to defend his stance on Carlos Beltran: "While Beltran does have talent, I just don't see him as a winning player. Even after my comments on Sunday night, Beltran let a fly ball drop in between himself and Angel Pagan in the Dodger game."Why let the fact that Pagan didn't have the good sense to get out of the way of the center fielder calling him off six times get in the way of validating Phillips' point, right?
"I see him putting up numbers but not making plays to win games. I would take Torii Hunter, Grady Sizemore, Curtis Granderson, and Nate McLouth over Beltran, and use the financial difference to improve the team in other ways. Beltran isn't a $17 million dollar a year player. He just doesn't have the kind of impact for that kind of money."He's right, Carlos Beltran isn't a $17 million a year player. He's an $18.5 million a year player. Torii Hunter, so you know, is an $18 million a year player, with one more season on his contract than Beltran. Congratulations Steve, you saved -$16,500,000 on that one. Ponzi schemes have more financial security.
"Many people think that Alex Rodriguez is the best player in the game, but he's never won anything. I look at Beltran in a similar fashion as Rodriguez--a great talent that just doesn't seem to have what it takes to win championships. Maybe the Mets can keep him and add pieces to the core around him and still win. But when you're dealing with a budget and the screams of immediacy in New York, I'm not sure the Mets can wait to piece it together around him."Why not? The Mets waited to piece it together around Tsuyoshi Shinjo? Yes! Let's get Shinjo back! S-H-IN-J-O and Shinjo was his NAME-O!!!!! YES!!!!!! SHINJO MAKES PLAYS TO WIN GAMES!!!!!!
Oh, and so does Steve Reed. Remember him?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to put on my sunglasses, as the trophies from all those championships that Hunter, Sizemore, Granderson, and McLouth have won are starting to blind me.
***
On a serious, sad note, many condolences to Scott Schoeneweis and his family. Keep them in your prayers tonight.
10 comments:
Phillips comments are sadly typical of idiots like him, who believe some players have some sort of cosmic moral superiority over others by their "ability to win" as if winning is willed by a solitary player.
Sure, I've been down on Beltran at times because of various isolated plays, but that is not going to blind me to the fact that he's a damn fine player, who contributes mightily to the Mets efforts to win ballgames. And centerfielders of this high quality do not grow on trees. And for a former GM, Phillips has no concept of what is good market value. Hardly surprising, actually.
And of course, he uses this argument to bash Alex Rodriguez's alledged "unclutchiness" yet again. What tiresome bullshit. You wanna know what seperates this perception of "choker" and "champion"? Why, it's the great Mariano Rivera, who's been proclaimed as the best closer that ever lived, blowing a save, including a steal by Dave Roberts where he was safe at second by about a milimeter. That's how close these things are.
Sure, the memory of Beltran taking strike three in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS is a rough one. But it was far from the only failure in that series, it was just the last one. And unless he wins a World Series one he's going to be stuck with. That's baseball history for you, which is more about moments than anything else, and there's nothing wrong with that. But using it as a stick to beat a player's entire career is mind numbing.
Oh yeah, I see the Mets are back to their lackluster offensive ways. And look who hit two doubles and drove in the Mets only run. Of course the Mets lost because Beltran couldn't use magic to make one his teammates get a clutch hit, and he lacked the mojo to rub JJ Putz's arm like Mr Miyagi, making it strong and true. It's all Beltran's fault. The bum.
P.S. What happened to Gabrielle Schoeneweis is heart wrenching. It reminds me that no matter how much we rant and rave about this and that, we're all just having some fun around here, and that other things are of much greater importance. I've been married for over 12 years, and every day with my wife is a gift. My deepest sympathies to Scott and his family.
Way to screw around with our emotions. Poor Scott. :-(
so they bring back reyes prematurely and he 'reaggrevates' an injury that he never fully recovered from. i would expect this from most other teams, but not the mets...
Maybe we should use Beltran's money to get Burnitz, Alomar, Vaughn and other players well past their prime? Phillips . . . what a joke.
Murph killed us at the plate last night, but patience is key here. He's going to hit - got to give him time. And I would, at this point, bring up a shortstop who can simply field the position. Forget about his bat - no way we can continue with Martinez at short.
We're getting killed with injuries, no doubt, but it would be nice to see guys like Church, Murphy and Castro get a big hit once in a while.
Can Sammy Sosa play shortstop?
This is two nights in a row that Beltran and Wright came up in the 8th inning in a close game, both got on base, and both proceeded to twiddle their thumbs as the remaining Mets hitters could do nothing to plate them.
I crawled out of my Cortisone Dip for THIS? Truly sad re: the Schowenweis family. Nightmare of nightmares.
James Allen, well said. Please keep writing. That was good stuff.
One additional thought. The Mets have exactly ONE 5-tool player. I can't believe how many people don't see the value there.
Things have looked... better. In honor of this coming weekend's games and the necesssity to root for the Yanks, we've made some changes to RwR:
http://tiny.cc/sRs1D
Thanks Weesle, I appreciate the compliment.
To expand upon the point about the seemingly random list of names thrown out as players Phillips thinks are "winners," guess who, by FAR has the better career post season OPS than all of them? (Actually, Beltran had a great 2006 NLCS, 8 for 27, 3 HR's, 4 BB, 1.054 OPS, so it's not just a "Houston in 2004" thing.)
And I don't know why McLouth was mentioned, as the next big game he plays will be his first. (He's a Pirate for chrissakes.)
This, of course, proves nothing in particular, those other guys are fine players, they just don't have the "winner" gene that many baseball talking heads like to conjure up.
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