Scrapped Is The New Battled

When a reporter asked Snoop Manuel what he thought of the Mets' fight after the game, I immediately thought "uh-oh".

"I thought we ..."

Oh no, don't say it.

"I thought we scrapped."

Whew, that was close. Because the last word I want to hear after losing on a walk-off hit in the ninth is the b-word.

Not that b-word.

No no, Art Howe's b-word. You know, battled. Whether you scrap, or you battle, a loss is a loss is a loss. So I'm not sure that scrapping is going to make me feel any better than battling. I was, however, impressed with the big hit that Jeremy Reed came up with to tie the game at 4-4 in the ninth. Big hits were at a premium last season, and their horrible RISP number tonight mean they're at a premium again this season (lovely). But the fact that Reed got a huge one can mean only one thing:

Happy trails Marlon. Write if you get work (and save your former team $400K in the process).

Yeah, there weren't enough big hits to go around, and a whole bunch of people are going to point to Luis Castillo ... because it's easy, and because it's good for ya' too. Not to be a shill for Luis, but I'll say this: That pitch he took in the seventh inning? That was a good six inches inside, and it started about a foot and a half. For me, that didn't even fall under the category of "too close to take". I don't understand how you could call that a strike, personally.

But here's what worries me about Castillo: The swings that he's taking look like they're moving through the zone, that he has bat speed. But the balls he's hitting, whether they're on the ground or in the air, die. What looks like a gapper off the bat is an easy fly ball. What looks like a screamer up the middle rolls harmlessly into Hanley Ramirez's glove. Now I don't condone cheating, but nobody's checking bats anymore (they're too busy checking urine tests.) If he's got some super balls or some wine cork lying around ...

(The previous passage was satire. Cheating is bad. Metstradamus does not condone cheating. Bad blogger.)

Well, back at 'em tomorrow, with Livan Hernandez on the hill at 6PM. Of course, you can't see the first hour because Flo Rida is having a post game concert (get it? Flo? Rida? Florida? And it's Miami! How clever!!!), and he has to get home at a decent hour so the game has to start during FOX's exclusivity window, and will be joined in process by SNY at 7PM.

Of course by then, the Marlins could be up 11-3 so maybe this whole blackout thing could work out in your favor ... but Livan will still have to pitch eight innings and run his pitch count up to 305 to save the bullpen, so even this abbreviated game could be quite interesting.

And apropos of nothing, I've had quite enough of Emilio Bonifacio.

***

The other big story is John Maine starting and having a very soothing outing tonight. It will be nice to have only one starter to be worried about rather than two.

And speaking of Oliver Perez, I have a feeling we're going to spend the bulk of April and May linking Perez with the guy who the Mets should have signed in his place, Derek Lowe. But if Ollie's season keeps going the way it has, then forget about Lowe ... Perez is going to start being compared to Kris Benson. Remember Kris Benson? Of course you do. Well, at least you remember his wife, who couldn't save him earlier in the day on Friday. Benson was absolutely torched by the Tigers today ... giving up eight runs (seven earned) in five innings, striking out three and walking two. His ERA on the season: a healthy 12.60.

The only thing separating Benson from Perez, basically, is two thirds of an inning, so take the following punchline with a grain of salt. Still, Benson's ERA, bad as it is, is a full four runs lower than Perez, at 16.62. And Benson's coming off what ... fifteen surgeries on his elbow and shoulder? Let that protect you and comfort you like a heavy blanket, a fireplace, and a warm cup of cocoa on a January night.

Kris Benson! Four runs!!!

Anna Phanatic

Looks like Anna Benson has a new outfit for next year's Christmas party:

Joke Of The Day

Q: Why did Brian McNamee inject Roger Clemens with steroids in his buttocks?

A: To prove he had better aim than Shawn Estes.

I'm sorry. That's, like, the worst joke ever. Look, it's almost four in the morning and I'm trying to keep my mind off the fact that Kris Benson is probably going to pitch a no-hitter against the Mets this season after he signs with the Nationals. I'm in need of some cough syrup and some Tums, thus my jokes remain simplistic, one-dimensional, and not very good. Not to mention cheap at the expense of Shawn Estes. I'm just bitter that there's no Shawn Estes jerseys on eBay for the Christmas season. Please forgive me. I'm a mere product of society.

Mommy I Don't Want To Play With Omar Any More, Omar Cheats!

From the proprietor of the Ketchup On Your Ice Cream blog:

"Don't give up hope ... and if all else fails we could swing a deal to trade for an Orioles pitcher ... it'll probably be Victor Zambrano again though and not Bedard."

Thanks for the attempt to cheer me up. But you see, that's not an option. And you'll love the reason why:

"Baltimore owner Peter Angelos is believed to be averse to trading Bedard to the Mets (assuming the O's can't sign him to an extension) because of the fleecing of John Maine and Jorge Julio for Kris Benson in their previous dealings."

Oh, yeah right. We're the three card monty dealer on the corner who's just going around ripping everybody off. "Ooh, we can't deal with them, they're too smart for us...they're devious!"

Oh stop! This is why nobody goes to freakin' Orioles games any more. Peter Angelos is averse to trading Bedard to the Mets for the same reason he was averse to trading Miguel Tejada to the Orioles for the same reason that he's averse to building a halfway decent baseball franchise that has been run into the ground in the last ten years...because he doesn't have a clue!

Peter, once upon a time our devious underhanded organization was so devious and underhanded, that we traded Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, and Lastings Milledge for a defensive catcher and a journeyman outfielder. But obviously those trades begin to reveal a grand master plan that will only be evident to everyone in about fifty years as we try to take over the world, right?

If we're this great savvy organization when it comes to trades, then you've got problems. Seems to me that you were the guys that misread John Maine's potential. Don't worry, it happens (again...Kazmir.) If we didn't get him, somebody else would have. You threw him in to the Julio deal because you didn't want to throw in Adam Loewen. Omar wanted Loewen, you threw in John Maine. Jim Duquette threw in John Maine...you know, the same guy that traded Kazmir. You hired him after that! And the guy you hired actually succeeded in somewhat returning the favor for the Kazmir trade by throwing in John Maine in the deal. The guy you hired chose to throw him in.

And we're the ones you don't want to deal with?

Is this the reason that "nobody likes the Mets prospects"? Maybe it's a rouse that all the owners in baseball are colluding on. Maybe, just maybe, everyone actually loves the Mets prospects but are so worried that each Mets trade is another brick in the wall of world domination that you're so worried about, that nobody will trade with us because Omar uses his super-secret mind power to trick guys into including middling starting pitchers in their deal only to have him become a star when the leave your team and come to the Mets. Yeah, that has to be...because it's been like that for years.

You don't want to trade Erik Bedard to the Mets, fine. See if I care. Nobody is trading an ace to the Mets these days anyway. But don't hide behind your own stupidity stemming from trading John Maine for Anna Benson. "Ooh, they fleeced us! Mommy!!!" Stop it! Just stop it!

Excuse me while my eyes roll so fast that I used them to bowl a 300 at the latest PBA event.

The X (Met) Files

It all seems a little too convenient, doesn't it?

It's February 12th and all of a sudden Kris Benson is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff?

I mean, call me a conspiracy theorist, but it's too strange a coincidence when a pitcher gets diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff in February after he was already diagnosed with a bum elbow last August, giving the Orioles plenty of time to poke around the arm and find something, which they don't find until now.

Sure you can chalk it up to "The Oriole Way", which lately has signaled incompetence...but with a former teammate still looking for a job the same week as training camp, and all of a sudden there's an "injury"? And it's just wee bit too convenient that Steve Trachsel is just ready to step in and play the good soldier with a $3 million contract to pitch for the O's in 2007?

All that, plus Anna Benson is nowhere to be found, and I'm not supposed to believe that foul play was involved?

Think about it for a second if you will: Steve Trachsel gets divorced at the end of the season, Kris and Anna briefly split up in the middle of the season, and now all of a sudden it's February and Trachsel just kind of shows up in Baltimore to take Benson's spot in the Orioles rotation (and perhaps Benson's woman as well?) All that's left is for a lawyer to step up to a podium and announce that the late J. Howard Marshall is Steve Trachsel's father.

It's just too freakin' bizarre...and I haven't even delved into the fact that noooooooow MLB decides to give playoff teams until the first day of the playoff series to change their roster after the Mets lose a chance to replace Anderson Hernandez with Dave Williams...the same Dave Williams who coincidentally came down with an injury of his own which will keep him off a mound until May or June. Hmmmmmmm...

The truth is out there.