Takahashi Crystals

What Have You Learned? Darren O'Day

What Have You Learned is our very special off-season series that will outline what you've learned, what I've learned, and hopefully what the 2009 Mets have learned about themselves, others, and 2010. Today, because our blogger is still very bitter about what seems to be an extremely minor, we look at the departed Darren O'Day.

Today, we woke up to more sobering news about the state of the New York Mets. Today's news: The Mets have released Ken Takahashi.

The news here is not that Takahashi was released, but the 40-year-old who is most famous for giving up a three mile long home run to Raul Ibanez was the end result of putting Darren O'Day on waivers. The departure of O'Day, so that an injured Mike Pelfrey could remain on the active roster, turned into Nelson Figueroa for a start ... which turned into a pissed off Nelson Figueroa when he was designated for Casey Fossum ... which turned into one, awful, unmemorable appearance in a Mets uniform ... which turned into Ibanez's three run HR off Takahashi.

And now, he's gone. This means that the Mets have nothing to show for O'Day, who threw for a 1.94 ERA and an 0.95 WHIP in 55.2 relief innings for the Rangers.

It also means that I never got a chance to use the fact that O'Day studied animal biology in college ... which probably cost me a great blog involving Oliver Perez and farm animals.

What does this teach us? It teaches us that asset management is non-existent in Queens. And that sheep in Texas are lucky to have a guy like O'Day on call. Think of how helpful he could have been to those cats that live underneath Citi Field. They'll never know what they're missing. Unfortunately, we do.

What have you learned?

Timing Is Everything, And Pat Misch Doesn't Wear A Watch

Nice day you picked to pitch a complete game shutout, Pat. On this Yom Kippur prelude where the revised schedule had the Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants, and the Rangers all playing at the same time, it's quite possible that you could fit everyone who watched all or part of your gem in the Marlins locker room, with room to spare for everyone in the stands. Of course, when you gave up eight runs in eight minutes, there was nobody to take away your spotlight as it shone with the intensity of a thousand fires on you, and only you.

Game of your life? Get in line. You're fifth on the runway for takeoff. As we all know by now, such is life. But it's no reason not to have a party to celebrate the occasion. So scale your catch, debone it and fry it. Set a place for Hanley at the table while you're at it, and make reservations for him to complete next week's foursome since he'll need a tee time soon.

But don't wear your costumes to dinner. (Really? Ken Takahashi has to wear a costume for rookie hazing? He's a man! He's forty!!!)

Heroics In A Vacuum

Had it meant anything, it would have been an instant classic. Then maybe somebody from Philadelphia staying in New York for the weekend would have to endure an airing of Saturday's game on SNY over the Christmas holiday as a InstaMet Classic, just like I have to endure repeats of the Phillies pasting the Mets whenever I go to Atlantic City.

Instead, we'll just have to deal with the consolation that David Wright's two home runs, the last one being the two-out, two-run top of the ninth shot to give them a 10-9 win, put him right at the team lead in dingers with Gary Sheffield. Surely, flashbulbs will be going off in the stands with every David Wright swing from here on in anticipating David taking over the club lead ... an important milestone in Met history.

Too bad Mike Pelfrey missed all of it, as after his horrible outing in which he coughed up a four run first inning lead, he changed into his running gear, left the clubhouse, ran around the Citizens Bank Park parking lot seventeen times, beat up five Phillies fans, ran up the Rocky steps, beat up the Rocky statue, ran to Geno's to pick up cheesesteaks for the team, beat up Geno, ran to the Liberty Bell, rang the bell, beat up the bell, then ran back to the clubhouse, ate all the cheesesteaks, then beat up Ken Takahashi when he found out he missed everything including Frankie's knee buckling pitch to Jayson Werth. Then he beat up Frankie Rodriguez.

Anger management is a bitch, isn't it?

In an unrelated story, Brian Schneider says he doesn't expect to return to the Mets in 2010. He came to this conclusion when he found out that his locker at Citi Field was donated to a youth baseball league, and that he had to use Jerry Seinfeld's mold infested suite to dress and store his catching gear. That, and every time he falls asleep on the team bus, he wakes up at a Motel 6 in Kansas City ... and they don't even leave the light on for him.

Oh, and the only batting helmets left for him are those Gazoo helmets that Wright doesn't use anymore. The signs don't get clearer than that.

A Hank Size Hit, Baa!

Maybe the whole Jerod Morris/John Gonzalez thing was all an elaborate rouse to get Raul Ibanez mad enough to smack a Ken Takahashi pitch five miles over the right field fence to break the Mets hearts ... again ... in extra innings.

Nah, considering how much Takahashi missed his target by, Mary Poppins would have hit that pitch over the fence. So mad has nothing to do with it.

But jeez, you couldn't wait until next week to accuse Ibanez of enhancing his performance?

Oh, you wanted serious analysis. Well guess what? Got none. Gotta admit it's tough to ignore the three season trend of the Mets losing all these extra inning games where they have leads and then ... they don't, and attribute it to lack of heart and what not. You sure as hell could say it in '07. Last season was more the bullpen than anything. I can't explain year three. Yeah, blame Takahashi, but a Fernando Tatis sac bunt helped to do them in yesterday, and the lineup card helped to do them in tonight.

But losing two out of three to the Phillies in extra innings at home is a stark reminder that there's still a gap to be closed that seems wider than four games before the Mets can say they're on par with the Phillies. For me, that gap can be closed by getting some injured players back, but most of it can be closed by Omar Minaya and Snoop Manuel. We all know how Minaya can help close the gap. (Whether Minaya knows how to do it is anyone's guess. I guess a good start would have been signing Ibanez, but ... ah forget it. I can't tell you I saw this coming with a straight face either.)

As for Snoop, not for nothing, but isn't it about time we move David Wright (three hits on Thursday) past Gary Sheffield (three hits for the month) in the lineup? No? It's just another managerial decision that would have brought the Mets the fourth run on Thursday, as Wright would have knocked in Beltran in the third and given them the fourth run to prevent extra innings. I mean if you're going to put what is amounting to be an automatic out between Beltran and Wright, then just have the pitcher bat fourth.

Oh, speaking of the pitcher, guess who was put on the disabled list tonight? Thaaaaaat's right, John Maine. Yeah, just a dead arm, right? From the team that once let Mike DeJean pitch with a broken ankle. Different doctors, same misinformation. And on the very day that Orlando Hernandez finds work. Now which over 40 starter who's been out of the league for two years are the Mets going to turn to?

***

As you may have heard by now, a self described construction foreman has announced that he buried three Phillies jerseys in various spots underneath Citi Field while he was working for Hunt Construction. This of course brings to mind the David Ortiz jersey that was temporarily buried underneath the new Yankee Stadium (didn't seem to help Ortiz until this week).

Well, now is probably as good a time as any to admit to you that before I started this blog, I too worked for Hunt Construction while it was working on the Citizens Bank Park project, and I left some items underneath the Phillies' stadium. Here's just a partial list:

• 25 Mets jerseys (5 pinstriped, 5 gray, 5 white, 5 black, and 5 of those pink ones that the girls like to wear
• A Ty Wigginton t-shirt
• A hat signed by Timo Perez
• A set of used jockstraps worn by Jason Phillips
• Certificates of authenticity for each jockstrap worn by Jason Phillips
• Mustache clippings from Jeff Kent
• A home run ball off the bat of Raul Gonzalez (only five of which exist in the whole world)
• The deck of cards used by Bobby Bonilla and Rickey Henderson
• An empty jar of peanut butter signed by Tony Tarasco
• Bake McBride

No, seriously. Bake McBride is buried underneath Citizens Bank Park. Here's an exclusive photo:

I've also equipped each item with a tracking device which enables me to spot exactly where each item was buried. Using exclusive infrared technology I've mapped out the exact spots in the ballpark where you can find these items:

McBride actually moves around through the built in crawlspaces under the park, where he acquires sustenance from leftover cheesesteaks dropped through a pipe behind the Tony Luke's stand.

Needless to say, my efforts were fruitless. Maybe I should have used memorabilia from a higher grade of player. Oh well, you can dig if you want.

Even MacGyver Gets More Run Support

I'm starting to think that MacGyver had more to work with than Johan Santana.

I'm also starting to think that if you gave Johan a rubber band, some cellophane, and a three inch swatch of sandpaper that he could build an armored tank trained to shoot lasers at Jayson Werth.

The Mets lineup, meanwhile, seemed to go up to the plate against Chan Ho Park with rubber bands instead of bats, as they only managed one hit in six innings against him. (As the kids like to say: WTF?)

The good news, besides the Mets 1-0 win against Philly on the strength of a physical error by Pedro Feliz and a mental error by Werth (not to mention Carlos Delgado's blinding speed on the play) is that the lineup's pathetic performance against Park has bought him a few more turns in the Phillie rotation, possibly buying the Mets a couple more games in the standings as Park implodes.

But that's speculative. Hey speaking of explosions, let's see how Johan is coming with that tank:

Wow, Johan really can do it all. Very nice.

Oh, and I guess they really couldn't take Oliver Perez's musings in the dugout, as he's finally on the disabled list with patella tendinitis (it's the fanciest name they could come up with to confuse us into thinking that this is an actual injury). Jon Niese takes his place on the roster and will start on Friday instead of Ken Takahashi. If Niese does well, then perhaps you can call him "Ollie Pipp".