Hump Day With Mets Mike: Where "You Shittin me?" has turned into, "Of Course"

Yo....What the hell is going on? And why won't it stop?




I honestly don't know where to begin, or if I even should, but don't worry loyal fans, IM GONNA. This Mets season is like an M. Night Shamalamadingdong movie; tons of terrible surprises, and you always leave super pissed off. (Side note, if you liked The Village I hope your computer blows up at the end of this sentance). The movie starts with the Mets in 1st after about 50 games, WAY TO GO METS!

Then the conflicts begin. DUN DUN DUN! Old man Delgado goes down with a case of broken dentures and a fractured hip. He is prescribed prune juice by the crack Medical Staff the Mets recruited from Devry University.

Immature Speedster Table Setter Jose Reyes goes down with a day to day injury. He is treated with Flintstones vitamins and kisses to his boo-boos and is now out for the year with gangrene.

Then Beltran's knees exploded or something. No treatment given. He's a good athlete, he'll have to heal soon, ya know?

What happened next? Its been a crazy blur. I feel like I took all the Morphene that was meant for the Mets DL.

Lets skip ahead to recent happy times, when our franchise third basemen got sniped in the head by a man so ruthless he goes by only KANE (spelling incorrect). Mets doctors rub Neosporin behind his ears twice daily.

The Mets season is sadder than this Pearl Jam song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvjTo-hRD5c&feature=related

The mood of this movie (or snuff film depending on your preferred level of hyperbole) has been set. Now here is the climax of the film. The last thing that made Mets fans happy has been taken from us. Complete heartbreak has occured. Wahburgers and French Cries are being served.

Now that Johan is out, what do we have? What are we gonna do now? Huh!? Its all fucked up now! What are we gonna do now?!

Nothing. For the rest of this miserable year, we're boned. This movie is sadder than the beginning of Rocky 4.

Now, for the bright side, for the resolution! Who will be held responsible, and what will change? Only time will tell. Actually, nah, Wilpon already did tell, nobody will be and nothing will!

See you for the sequel? I'm leaving this one early....

Never Have I Ever

Never have I ever had tickets to so many ballgames in such a short window of time. When I purchased my 15 game package this off-season, I chose the one I'm in ownership of primarily because it guaranteed me a seat to opening day. The fact I got tickets to three games each against the Phillies and Braves certainly helped.

I'm currently at a block of time in the package where there are 3 games in 8 days - Monday (9/17) against the Giants, Thursday (tomorrow) versus the Bravos, and a Monday (9/24) date with the rival Phils. At purchase time this seemed like it would be the ultimate stretch of the package. The dog days were going to be coming to an end and we'd be fighting tooth nail against our bitter rivals. These games would be a big part of defining our season. Such wound up not being the case. Never did I ever think we would be so far out at this point.

Never did I ever think 2/3 of our starting lineup for 5 games I would be in attendance for (add in tickets from a friend for this Friday and a Chicago trip next Friday) would consist of Pagan, Valdez, Sullivan, Santos, Tatis, and Sheffield. Never did anyone think this would be 2/3 of our lineup. I might even be a little too generous with that projection - who knows when Sheff's cranky hamstring is going to act up. Cross him off and put Jeremy Reed in there. Gulp.

"Never have I ever" is such an applicable concept for this season in general. "Never have I ever seen David Wright on the DL" - raise your hand. "Never have I ever seen Gary Sheffield in a Mets uniform" - raise your hand. "Never have I ever seen a team wear fake throwbacks on the field before" - raise your hand. "Never have I ever thought about a $65 million DL payroll" - raise that hand again. There's more - plenty more actually, and I'm sure they won't be the last ones we'll come up with before the end of this season either.

Chased Away

Not that anyone is expecting much from this bunch these days, but if you thought the Mets had a chance last night you thought wrong. Since 2005, the Mets are 13 - 3 at Chase Field. That's quite the respectable record. Who was the pitcher at the helm for those three losses you ask? Why none other than The Big Pelf.

Pelfrey is a career 0-3 pitching in Arizona. That means Victor Zambrano, Jae Wong Seo, and Alay Soler all hold more victories at Chase in their Mets career than Pelf does. The boxscore numbers in those starts for him are brutal. In 16.1 IP he has an ERA of 7.16 and allowed 20 hits while walking 10 and only striking out seven.

I'm getting tired of writing negative things. GM possibility #8 tomorrow!

GM Possibilites - #9 Dan O'Dowd

Well thank you John Heyman for playing the role of spoiler. At number nine on our list is current Colorado Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd, whose 2007 contract extension expires this year. O'Dowd got his start in the Baltimore Orioles organization which led to a position in player development with the Indians. He left Cleveland after six years as assistant GM and signed with Colorado as Executive VP and General Manager in October of '99.

Since his signing (though it can also be argued that it has lasted since the organization's inception), Rockies baseball has been defined by mediocrity. Only two of O'Dowd's nine seasons at the helm have resulted in winning records. This includes 2007's World Series team that earned him an extension. A lot of the clubs inadequacy had been attributed to the famous "Mile High" air. A game at Coors Field is known to have a score you're more likely to see at a Broncos game. Naturally this leads to making it difficult to recruit pitchers for your staff. Nevertheless, that is no excuse for O'Dowd making Byung-Hyun Kim an anchor to the Rockies rotation for two seasons.

This is another intricacy in O'Dowd's career, that of roster construction through the trade market. Some trades have been poor, such as the immediate flip of future All-Star Jermaine Dye at the 2001 trade deadline to Oakland for Jose Ortiz, Mario Encarnacion and Todd Belitz - three players who never played in a game past the 2002 season. Others have worked out favorably, like the 2006 deal that sent Jason Jennings and Miguel Asencio to the Astros for Willy Taveras, Jason Hirsh and Taylor Buchholz - all big pieces of their 2007 playoff run. This years offseason acquisition of Jason Marquis for veteran reliever Luis Vizcaino has been a big part of the Rockies success.

As far as contract signings go, he's given out a couple bad contracts. Most notably to Mets fans would be the 8 year / $121 million monster handed to great public school system proponent Mike Hampton. The other being the 9 year / $142 million extension he gave to franchise favorite Todd Helton in 2003. In O'Dowds defense, Helton has performed at a greater value than his yearly salary in 4 of the 6 seasons according to Fangraphs. Obviously the length of the deal is more the question as Helton is regressing at his age. Devoting 25 - 40% percent of your teams salary over the course of 6 seasons to one player also isn't the smartest of moves.

Now while major-free agent signings and contract extensions have not been a strong point of O'Dowd's career as Rockies GM, one cannot deny his department's record of scouting and player development. Naturally a top first round pick in almost every season of your tenure will help, but it never guarantees success. Notable players drafted (round, year in parentheses) and developed since 2000 include Garrett Atkins (5th, '00), Brad Hawpe (11th, '00), Jeff Francis (1st, '02), Troy Tulowitzki (1st, '05), and prospective '09 ROY candidate Dexter Fowler ('04, 14th).

There are a lot of pro's and con's to O'Dowd. Some of the pluses, including being a big name and the ability to come aboard with a scouting and development team that has had far greater success than the Mets over the last decade, make him a prime candidate. Why is he so low on the list? Well the Rockies are playing awfully well so far this year and have a shot at the Wild Card. If they make the playoffs I'm sure he'll inevitably receive another extension, just as he did in 2007. This is also essentially a team he built from scratch. Despite a down year in 2008, this is a good group they have. I'm sure he wants to see the damn thing through to a championship for the city, and will lobby for an extension himself.

Luis Castillo Throws it In

"Screw you guys, I'm goin' to PSL!"

Update: 1:30pm


"Hey! Wait for me!"

Update 2:13pm


"Hold the bus!!"

Five Run Streak

After a July filled with dashed hopes and a seemingly relinquished season, the Mets managed to rattle off a five game win streak with series victories against both the Astros and Rockies. Hope was built back up again for some. You yourself might have had one or two of those "maybe, just maybe" moments. All was quickly to be blighted when Arizona came to town to take three of four in our house.

Consider last night's loss in particular a micro-version of the past week. I entered the stadium feeling pretty good about a series split. Nelson Figueroa had been pitching well enough in Buffalo to make me feel as such - that and the other alternatives appeared no better. Key word there is appeared and only appeared.

Figgy gave up six runs in an inning and two-thirds. The crowd cheered at the sight of Jerry finally walking up the dugout steps to pull him for Tim Bearding (seriously Tim - that thing is out of control). That's right, cheering for Tim Redding. 38,000+ fans and I were already left despondent by the middle of the second. That was gonna be it. No way were we going to come back from this, especially against Dan Haren. Game over.

Then came the 5th inning. At this point I'm walking around the field level just casually taking in the game while enjoying a few oat sodas with a friend from Arizona. Crack, Cora hits a single. Grission single. Pagan walk. All of a sudden the bases are juiced for Castillo - he keeps the small ball alive. Wright follows suit. By the end of the inning we're only down 6 - 4. Hope was built back up. 6th inning quickly comes around. Murphy led things off with a shot to right. Now it's 6 - 5. Maybe, just maybe.

Or maybe not. First pitch Francouer and the rest of the Mets just couldn't get over the hump. They never really threatened after Murphy's shot. A week within a game and a game within a week both simultaneously ended with a loss. Hope dashed and built back up, rinsed and repeated, ending on a whimper.

GM Possibilities - #10 John Ricco

Yeah I'm a few days late - so sue me! Do I honestly think Ricco is only #10 on this list? No I think his chances are definitely a bit higher than a number of candidates should Minaya step down or get the axe at season's end. He's a familiar face, and we know from recent years how the Wilpon's like to promote from within the organization. This list isn't for Fred and Jeff though, it's for you guys who would like to see a change at the head of baseball operations. So let's take a look at Ricco in the #10 spot. (Note: no John Ricco is not in that photo.)

John Ricco has been with the Mets organization since April 2004. Prior to that he spent 12 years in the Office of the Commissioner and worked there in a number of different capacities. He spent the bulk of his tenure there as the Director of Contract and Salary Administration, essentially managing the Labor Relations department. At that position he also worked with Major League GMs, ensuring their compliance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Ricco carried all that made him a smash at the Commissioners office and brought it over to the Mets organization. Together with his two headed stat team of Ben Baumer and Adam Fisher, Ricco has formed one of the more successful departments within the Mets front office. Yes some bad contracts have been doled out on his watch, yet it has been well documented that Omar is known to go against his advisers, such as in this Post article from 2007. From what I've read about Baumer, I doubt ANY stat projection he handed Ricco was a green light to give Oliver Perez $36 million over 3 years.

Would promoting Ricco to the GM role be the worst thing in the world? Absolutely not. He's well liked within the organization. More importantly for the Wilpon's, he is relatively unknown amongst the majority of the fan base. Seriously - finding a photo of this guy is a challenge (not even the AP has anything). This makes it highly improbable a stir would be caused by his promotion.

The big question mark behind any advance of Ricco would be his stat personnel and the status of scouting head Sandy Johnson. Should there be a big front office shift who knows if they stay / have any incentive to stay given the state of the team. In my honest opinion for the betterment of the organization it might be the right move to really cut ties and move in a completely different direction.