You've got to be kidding me.

Now maybe Ishii will shut his big fat mouth and worry about walks. Not bad enough that our first 2 games were marked by Blooper's choke and DeJean's granny, Mr. Ishii promptly walks the entire Reds batting order just to test his theory.

Willie; Mets owned best opening day record and haven't been 0-3 since 1964. Exactly which Yankee mystique are you bringing with you ... the Yanks of the mid 80's?

Overeacting? Ha.

A generous Mr. Doyle suggested that perhaps I overreacted to the Mets opening night; and to that I respond ha! I have sat patiently and loyally as a Met fan for more years than I care to remember. The team was gutsy, hard-working, arrogant... and even when they lost were fun to watch.

Mr. Howe ruined all that. Every bit of life this team ever had oozed out over 2 long years...it's no wonder they didn't hit; because in the rare chance that anyone got on base, nobody could plate them anyhow. Between Mo Vaughn munching cheeseburgers in the dugout, Roger Cedeno practicing juggling in the outfield and Mike Stanton (redneck that he is) longing for his days in the Bronx that he practically willed the ball to land there; the team was apathetic.

Mr. Randolph still has me (I should hope so after only one game); but I would have liked to see someone running Blooper laps around the stadium all night to get the point across. Winning, like losing, is a habit, and coming from a team that would not tolerate failure -- I'd like to see a bit of that fire in the belly. I was pleased by the team's hitting, true. And REyes and Beltran came through in the clutch, and even Cliff Floyd managed to stay unhurt.

The season is long, and true, it was but one game. But someone better nip this thing in the butt before another season gets wasted away.

Holy Toledo Again

Forgive me for interrupting my relative quiet with horrendous vomiting sounds. Blooper's ninth inning undid an entire offseason of good will. Forget about Pedro's 12 k's. Who cares about the Beltran dinger. Looper was beyond bad.It's revolting. For g-d's sake; it was opening day, the start of a new era. At least Armando had the kindness of heart to let us build up our hopes before bringing us back to earth with a thud.

For my part, there's not much to do but tune these guys out till they earn some respect. Until that time they're just a waste of time. -- nearly as big as Mo Vaughn's (waist).

Wake me up at the trading deadline.

More Beltran Speculation

At 100 Million for 6 years or 110 for years, Beltran is a relative bargain.  We tend to always look at the negative aspects of a multiple year deal, but securing a quality ballplayer in his prime can have its advantages too -- and if the markets just follows the rate of inflations; saving an extra 2 mil or so a year isn't a bad thing.

Assuming of course that the team has done its homework.  You could make a case that Beltran is among the top 5 players out there (at least based on last year's numbers) and considering his age, speed and defensive prowess, he could maintain that position for a long time, but then again, there were people who made similar comparisons to the likes of Richard Hildalgo or even Magglio pre-injury.  In any case, I don't see many better candidates coming on the market in the next year or two -- and they certainly won't come down in price -- and I'd rather pay a small premium for that top tier guy -- vs. near-top dollar for a guy without that top-tier potential who's more likely to fall flat on his face.

Beltran wishing

Seems to me that beltran may falling into the mets hands, much like the arod and vlad ops, but hopefully minaya doesn't ley this op slip by.  I'm not one of those critical of the other moves -- arod was clearly overpaid and Vlad still has a fair amount of risk-- and figure we'll need to overpay if the yanks get involved, but if we can skate pass this weekend and pay fairly, this could be the start of a wonderful relationship.
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

On the right Trax?

Trachsel is a swell guy and all, but if we can ship him out for that quality bat that we need (and can't seem to find on the FA market); then so be it. Or for that matter, I'm not adverse to signing Odalis Perez and shipping him out in a deal.  Trax, Perez, Vasquez -- any of those guys on the back of my rotation are AOK with me.

 

Happy to hear that the Manny rumors are alive and well again; but not clear where we're aiming Cliff and Piazza (if he's still on the block).  Not real high on trading for E. Byrnes, but then again, I don't know that much about him.  Chad Bradford isn't exactly sliced bread.

 

Main theory is we need to have guys on base...should be number one priority.  Homers and RBIs are nice, but we have a few guys who can deliver on that, provided someone is on in front of them.   Here's hoping that 2005 doesn't include any 10-game losing streaks.

 

 

 

 

 

Mets asleep at the wheel?

Not sure what Mr. Minaya is doing, but seems like the time is right to do something. While the smaller fish and snapping up the smaller prey (but paying them the same top dollar) Milton?  Millwood? -- Mets need to add some bats in a big way.  I keep going back and forth in my own head about Delgado and Beltran.  Of  the two, I think Beltran is the sweeter deal, and may be ripe for the picking -- particularly on the heels of Yanks having to overpay for the Unit and $25 Mil luxury tax, but his .280 BA outside of Shea scares me a bit.  But if we can have him at $100 mil, what the hey.

 

As for Delgado, I would have liked to sign him 3 years ago for a 3-year contract.  I like his numbers, but just wish we could trade for 2 or 3 can't miss prospects who will show us increasing returns over the next 3-5 years, not diminishing ones -- thus Nick Johnson, maybe the 1B from Philadelphia, a Kearns or Pena from Cincy, etc. Maybe Diaz is one that the Mets already have; I'm willing to give him a shot at that.  Guess that means I'd be willing to take a flyer on a Mags in the same vein, if it ties up less money, and allows us to try and get a few of these pieces.   Hillenbrand for Floyd gives me some of the same benefits, and maybe if we can get a prospect back as well ....

 

But the time to strike is clearly sooner rather than later ...