After tonights game, as far as I'm concerned the season is over...

There's no way Pelfrey is gonna beat Webb tomorrow, and we'll be lucky if Santana can beat Haren on Thursday...

This whole season has been a joke, every single player except for Wagner has seriously underperformed, Willie has made every mistake possible along the way, and everytime we get teased by winning a few games we always find a way to come back and screw it up

Whenever we score a bunch of runs early, our offense gives up and doesn't get a hit for the last 6 innings of the game, whenever our pitching is un-hittable our batters get shutout by some nobody rookie making his second career start, then when we score 7 runs in a game, our starter throws 100 pitches in 3 innings walking 9 and giving up 8 runs. I'm sick and tired of seeing this night in and night out.

There is one word that sums up this whole season... inconsistency... the Mets never do what they need to do when they need to... and there's no reason to think any of that is going to change, 2008 is over time to start thinking about 2009.

Goals for 2009:
open Citifield
say goodbye to Pedro, Delgado, Alou and Willie
say hello to Sabathia, Teixera, FMart and a new manager to be determined at a later date Read More...

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So by now, you've probably all seen the home run hit by Carlos Delgado which was called a foul ball by the umpires in Sunday Night's Mets-Yankee's game. If you haven't, you can see it here.

This type of play is the kinda thing that makes me think about the rules and unwritten rules of baseball, so I thought I'd go over a few things about this call that were running through my head when I was watching this.

Now third base umpire Mike Reilly made the correct call calling the ball fair, and a home run. He was then over ruled by home plate umpire Bob Davidson, who was at least 90-100 feet further away from the play than Reilly, and the ball was incorrectly called foul.

First, how does this even happen? The other umpires are only supposed to "help out" if the umpire who is supposed to make the call doesn't see it, isn't sure, or needs a rule clarification. Davidson shouldn't even have any say on this play unless he is 100% positive that it was foul, which as Joe Morgan pointed out, could not possibly be, because the replay showed the ball clearly hit the foul fair pole.

Second, on a play like this, Willie obviously has to come out and argue, which he did. But, when we're talking about a 3 run homer getting overturned, it is the JOB... nay the RESPONSIBILITY of the manager, regardless of whether the call was right or wrong, to argue and get thrown out of the game. If this was Lou Pinnella or Bobby Cox or Joe Torre, there is NO WAY they aren't getting thrown out of the game over this blown call by the umps. It's almost like an un-written rule of baseball that's part of "the book". In a situation like this, you expect your manager to go get thrown out of the game. Apparently Jerry Manuel knows of this rule, because he made sure someone from the Mets was gonna get tossed over this call, so he went and got himself tossed, and took one for the team. This is a perfect example of Willie not doing the manager's job, this is part of the reason why some Mets fans want Willie to get fired. I almost feel more confident entrusting this team to Jerry Manuel, should Willie get fired, because he did the right thing here and got thrown out.

Third, it's this type of play that once again emphasizes why we need the instant replay in Major League Baseball. And I'm not talking about instant replay for any play, I mean we need to have instant replay for questionable home run calls, that only the umpires can challenge, and nothing else. Here's the justification... In a regular season game, there are only 4 umpires on the field, and they are all on the infield at least 200+ feet from the outfield fence. In addition, with these new stadiums putting fans "closer to the action" we've had more fan interference calls on questionable home runs than ever before. This is all the more reason to make sure you get the call right. There is no way an umpire 200 feet away can tell if a fan reaches over the wall by 3 inches, or if the ball hits the bottom of the foul pole or the first seat in foul territory. There are only two ways in which MLB can make sure they get the call right with more accuracy than they currently do. First, they can have 6 umpires for every game like in the playoffs, and put an umpire down each foul line, then a proper decision can be made about questionable home run calls. Since there is simply not enough umpires to do this, and because it doesn't solve home run problems to center field, this isn't a feasible solution. Leaving the other option which is to do what the NFL, NHL, and NBA all use... instant replay for questionable home run calls.

Fourth, since there is currently no use of instant replay in MLB, why didn't the umps make sure they got the call right by taking a lesson from the famous 1969 Cleon Jones "shoe polish incident"? Would it have been the end of the world if the umps looked at the ball for a black mark from the foul pole, or looked at the foul pole for a white mark from the baseball? ESPN showed over and over the mark on the ball, and the spot on the pole where it hit, so even without the use of the instant replay, they could have gotten the call right. Willie should have suggested this, because then there would have been a legitimate chance to change the call back in the Mets favor.

Fifth, I'm not sure if this is the case everywhere, but there was an obvious alignment issue of the foul pole and foul line at Yankee Stadium. I understand the wall is angled so the pole want right behind the line, but, I did notice, that the outer edge of the foul pole at Yankee Stadium was actually inside the foul line that runs up the outfield wall. Now if a foul ball hits the line, its fair, therefore, shouldn't the outer edge of the foul pole line up with the outer edge of the foul line? It appeared to me that this was not the case, at least at Yankee Stadium.

So even though the Delgado home run didn't count, I think we may learn a lot about the rules of the game of baseball from a play that just goes down as a long foul ball for a strike in the record books.
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This weekend the Mets took both games from our crosstown rivals the New York Yankees, during a rain shortened series in what may be the most important series of the year thus far. I refuse to call a two game series win a sweep, so we'll just say the Mets won this weekend's series, reclaiming bragging rights for the time being.

Of course to the Mets this weekend's series was bigger than the rival Yankees and the subway series, it was a make or break series to see how the team would react to the Billy Wagner Saga. See my thoughts on that here.

Saturday the Yankees jumped on Johan Santana early with a two run homer from Derek Jeter in the first inning. The Mets struggled early against Andy Pettite before finally breaking through in the 4th inning, batting around and scoring 3 runs to take the lead. From that point, Santana was brilliant retiring 10 straight batters at one point. The score stayed 3-2 until the 7th inning when Kyle Farnsworth came in for the Yanks, and gave up home runs to Jose Reyes and David Wright, giving the Mets 3 more insurance runs making it 6-2. Santana gave up solo home runs to Giambi and Abreu, before Willie turned the ball over to Wagner in the 8th inning for a 4 out save. The Mets would tag on one more run in the top of the ninth to make it 7-4, and Wagner once again stepped up, and shut the door on the Yanks in the 9th for the 7-4 victory.

Sunday the Mets went for the Series win, and they didn't disappoint. The Mets manufactured 4 runs off of Yanks ace Chien-Ming Wang in the top of the 4th around a controversial home run hit by Carlos Delgado which was over ruled by the umps (more on that in the next post). Then Oliver Perez gave up a single to Derek Jeter and a 2-run homer to Hideki Matsui, putting the Yanks right back in the game. But Perez settled down after that, allowing just 1 more hit to Jose Molina in the 5th. Perez was dominant, going 7.2 innings, allowing 2 runs on only 3 hits and striking out 4. The Mets went to town on Wang after that, Ryan church hit a monster home run in the 6th inning, and the Mets would bat around again in the 8th inning, off of Wang and Ross Olendorf, putting together a 6 run inning capped off by a 3 run homer by Jose Reyes. Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis sealed the deal, Mets win 11-2.

These were two big wins by the Mets in this series, they definitely showed up and did what they needed to do. The Mets came out and reclaimed some bragging rights for Mets fans, now they just have to go out and continue this good play in Atlanta and Colorado to try and turn this season around.
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Before I even get into this non-sense, I want to go back to Monday's 10-4 loss to the last place Washington Nationals. The expectations were high for the Mets to take at least 3 out of 4 from the pathetic Nats. However, the tables were turned, and the Mets dropped 3 of 4 instead and fell to a mere 20-19. Then we saw the New York media once again calling for Willie's job, pointing out that the Mets have been just a .500 ball club since last May, resurrecting the the epic collapse... again. Some serious questions were surrounding this team's troubles.

Then, the drama began following Thursday's 1-0 loss at the end of Billy Wagner's post game interview with the press...

“Can somebody tell me why the (bleep) the closer being interviewed and I didn’t even play, while they’re over there not getting interviewed? I get it, they’re gone. (Bleeping) shocker.”

In all honesty, I don't see how could any Mets fan could disagree with Wagner on this one. We've all seen the Mets lackluster play this season, and for any of these so called "team leaders" to be missing in action after dropping 3 out of 4 to the Nats is unacceptable.

How stupid is it that reporters have to ask the closer questions about why the team is struggling, when not only did Wagner not even play in the game, but the pitching staff and the bullpen which you could say Wagner is the leader of did its job during the series. Just in case anyone's forgotten, Wagner has given up only 9 hits in 17 innings this season, and has still yet to allow a run. Wagner is far from responsible for the Mets woeful play.

A lot of fingers were pointed at Carlos Delgado, who Wagner was most likely referring to in his comments. Certainly Delgado with his .230 batting average, .310 OBP, only 5 home runs and 19 RBIs has contributed to the Mets sub-par play, but the truth is most of our guys haven't been earning their paychecks.

Reyes' OBP is only .332, and thats including the Yankee series where he played well. Carlos Beltran is only hitting .250 with only 3 home runs, and let's not even talk about Luis Castillo who can't hit the ball out of the infield. We're hitting only .257 with runners in scoring position, and we simply cannot win unless Reyes gets on base.

Our team leaders in innings pitched in relief have been Aaron Heilman and Jorge Sosa who have pitched to a 5.82 and 7.06 ERA respectively. Whereas our guys who have been lights out; Wagner, Feliciano, Smith and even Schoeneweis, have been used in limited roles like lefty-lefty or righty-righty matchups. Thank god Sosa got DFA'd the other day to make room for Wise.

So tell me why was Billy Wagner wrong in what he said? When was the last time you heard an explanation from Reyes or Beltran or Sosa after they sucked it up on the field?

Thankfully Willie called a team meeting over this non-sense prior to the Yankee series, and seemed to smooth it out and get everyone's heads screwed on straight again. And like Keith Hernandez said, it was good that someone got this out there in the open rather than let it fester for the whole season.

Hopefully the mets winning both games of the Yankee Series has put this issue to bed, and maybe the mets will turn the corner in the coming weeks.
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Aaron Heilman is really trying to be quite the stud these days. He's managed to rack up 2 Ass of the Day awards in a week. Really quite the accomplishment. The sight of Heilman jogging in from the bullpen makes me physically nauscous now. And Co-Ass of the Day award goes to Willie Randolph who just looks like a complete ass trying to manage this bullpen.

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The Mets completed the sweep of the Washington Nationals tonight when Damion Easley scored the game winning run in the bottom of the 14th on a wild pitch by Joel Hanrahan.

After all the talk of the booing at Shea over the weekend against the Brewers, the Mets really needed to come out and put a few wins together, and thats exactly what they did. Even if it is the Nationals, who once again look like they're gonna be abysmal this year, any wins at all have to be confidence boosters for the Mets, and hopefully this week will help to put 2007 away for good.

Nelson Figueroa was brilliant once again tonight, going 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits, and had 7 strikeouts. Not to mention he had one hell of a web gem against a liner hit by opposing pitcher John Lannan, catching the ball behind his back on the follow through of the pitch. The only blip in Figueroa's night was a two run homer to Nick Johnson in the 4th inning. Not bad for a guy we were considering our number 7 starter coming into the season. Who needs Pedro when we got Nelson Figueroa???

The big hit of the game was Carlos Delgado's game tying single in the 8th inning. Holy crap did Delgado actually get a big hit in a big spot with two outs???

This weekend, the Mets will head out to Philly for a 3 game series with the rival Phillies. Johan Santana will take on Phillies ace Cole Hamels... talk about a match up of aces, it should be one hell of a game.
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The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Sunday afternoon. It was the second straight defeat at the hands of their division foes as the Mets fell below .500 for the first time this season.

It was over when: Mark Teixeria killed the Mets twice, first with this homer in the bottom of the eighth and then with his glove in the top of the ninth. I have a feeling that I'm gonna start to hate this guy very quickly.

Good: This Johan Santana kid is pretty good. Santana gave up one run over seven strong innings but was the hard-luck loser as the offense and Aaron Heilman gave him absolutely zero support. For the second consecutive game, though, the Mets refused to go down without a fight. They brought home a run (finally) in the top of the ninth and had the tying run on first when Brian Schneider hit a bullet down the first base side. Unfortunately, Mark Teixeira made a fantastic play, stopping the ball and making the flip to Soriano to end the game.

Bad: I already mentioned them both. The offense was dead for eight innings and by the time they showed up, Heilman had already given a two-run homer to Teixeira the inning before. You have your ace on the hill and you don't manage to give him a single freakin' run? Maybe the Mets wanted to give Santana a reminder of his days in Minnesota. Right now, Santana is the best 1-1 pitcher in baseball.

Ugly: Reyes: 0-4. Castillo: 0-4. Wright: 0-2, 2 SO, 2 BB at least. Beltran: 0-3, 1 BB, 2 SO including a pathetic at-bat in the top of the ninth in which he didn't take the bat off his shoulder once. Hey Carlos; I'll stop riding you when you start to earn your ridiculous paycheck. Oh yeah, Delgado went 2-4 today but he also left three men on base. I'll just sum all of this up. The Mets sucked at the plate for 8+ innings today. Yeah, they were facing John Smoltz today but Blaine Boyer, Will Ohman and Peter Moylan all held the Mets scoreless today. Are you kidding me?

Overall: Thankfully, I missed over half of this game. Once again, the Braves were the better team and they deserved to win. The bats better show up against the Phils this week. Performances like this at Shea will not sit well with the home fans, boys. Then again, playing like this in Atlanta angers me just as much. If we're going to be excited when the Mets beat up on the AAA-quality Florida Marlins, we have to be annoyed when they play like a Little League team against the Braves.

Grade: D. Which is sad because Johan Santana deserved better.
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The New York Mets crushed the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night, winning 13-0. The Mets win their first series of the season, going 2-1 in Florida.

It was over when: The Mets stepped onto the field. Seriously. They took a 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning and never looked back.

Good: Uh...where to start? David Wright had another 3 RBI game and Ryan Church drove in 3 runs as well. Jose Reyes had 2 RBI and Carlos Beltran had an RBI and his first home run of the season taken away by the umps. Even Carlos Delgado had a RBI tonight. Wow. Meanwhile, Oliver Perez was spectacular in six innings, striking out eight without giving up a single run. Nelson Figueroa was impressive in his first appearance as a Met. I could go on but if you're reading this, you can read the box score.

Bad: Luis Castillo didn't drive in any runs tonight. Seriously. That's it. The Mets won 13-0. You name something bad.

Ugly: The Florida Marlins. Period. The Mets should beat this team at least 70 percent of the time this season. Anything short of that is a failure. This is a AAA team out there and the Marlins have no business out there with the Mets. You almost feel sorry for Hanley Ramirez. Ok. You don't.

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The New York Mets won yet another Opening Day contest, defeating the Florida Marlins 7-2.

Good: Where to start? Johan Santana pitched like an ace, giving up two runs and striking out eight in seven strong innings. David Wright began his 2008 MVP campaign by going 2-4 with a walk and 3 RBI. All of Wright's RBI came on a two-out base hit int he fourth. Jose Reyes also came through with a clutch two-out base hit that brought home a run. You have to like how Aaron Heilman looked in the ninth, as well. Heilman sat the Marlins down in order, striking out two in the process.

Bad: Not much. Santana gave up a two-run home run, something that Mets fans may just have to get used to. Face it. Johan gives up the long ball. The bullpen created a Maalox moment in the eighth but didn't give up a run thanks to Jorge Sosa.

Ugly: Carlos Delgado and Brian Schneider. Neither had a hit on Opening Day but it really didn't matter. It's always nice when you have to be picky in this portion of the post.

Overall: This is what you like to see. Strong starting pitching, two-out base hits that drive runs home and a bullpen that doesn't give anything up. Every Mets fan is happy with this contest and it's especially nice to beat the Marlins after the final series of the '07 season.

Grade: A
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Continuing with our breakdown of the 2008 Mets, today we take a look at the situation at first base.

First Base:

First String: Carlos Delgado
This one is really a no brainer, then again so are most of the first string players. Delgado had a horrific year in 2007 setting career lows in Batting Average, Home Runs, Walks, RBIs, On Base Percentage, and Slugging Percentage. Simply put, Delgado had by far the worst year of his hall of fame career. It was clear that Delgado's struggles in 2007 were one of the main reasons the mets had trouble winning games the second half of the year. Delgado will try to put 2007 behind him, and get back to his usual 80 run 100 RBI 35 Home Run and .275 average season.

Backups: Damion Easley and Marlon Anderson
This has surprisingly been a topic of interest for a number of Mets fans, probably because the Mets have not listed anyone as a backup on their official depth chart. With Shawn Green not returning, and Jeff Conine retiring, the Mets really don't have anyone who has played a good amount of first base. Damion Easley and Marlon Anderson who played a combined 21 innings at first base for the Mets last year, and a combined 337.6 innings in their careers, are the most likely candidates to play first should Delgado get injured, or need a day off. No one else on the Mets 40 man roster has played more than one inning at first base in their entire careers. This makes it that much more important that Delgado has a healthy bounce back year.
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Kaufman’s Korner

Hello all and welcome to another edition of Kaufman’s Korner.

First, I would like to take the time to apologize for not writing since the day before Thanksgiving. I have been in the midst of graduating, moving, starting a job etc so I haven’t had the time, or urge to write. But now that I have settled in, I plan on writing a little bit more often.

In any case there are a lot of things to talk about. The Mets acquiring what many consider to be the best pitcher in baseball for a few high end prospects, some questions the team has going into the 2008 season, and a few basic predictions by yours truly as of this moment.

We all lived to talk about the Johan Santana saga. Nearly 6 weeks long, 20 trade proposals deep, rumor mill spinning more and more everyday, the Mets finally pulled off what many consider to be the biggest trade since Mike Piazza showed up in May of 1998. I think it is a great trade especially since the Mets got to hold onto what I believe are the top two prospects they have; Mike Pelfrey and Fernando Martinez. Pelfrey showed signs of coming around at the end of last year, and while Martinez hasn’t had an at bat above AA has one of the highest ceilings of any prospects in baseball. While I do believe that at least 2 of the prospects the Mets gave up will pan out to be solid ballplayers, the Mets did what they had to do to get a big name pitcher.

Johan Santana brings to the Mets 93 wins while just entering his prime, and has pitched at least 200 innings every season since becoming a fulltime starter. Pitching in the American League, he typically would win a minimum of 15 games a year while having an earned run average of around 3.50. Quite incredible considering that if you transfer that over to the National League-a typically weaker hitting league-you can possibly be looking at 18-20 wins with an earned run average at least a run lower. Imagine what that can do to the Mets record? These typical statistics not only make us say “Tom who?” but it takes a lot off a bullpen that you can expect to be worn down if Pedro Martinez throws a lot of pitches, Oliver Perez decides to not throw strikes, and El Duque is on vacation etc.

Now over the past few months Omar Minaya has made a few small moves before the big blockbuster of acquiring Johan Santana. He has signed Matt Wise, Ricardo Rincon, and Ruddy Lugo; all low risk high reward bullpen pitchers. Could these guys take the place of someone like Scott Schowenweis? That’d be amazing, yet doubtful. So while the rotation has a huge upgrade with Santana and a fully healthy (or so we think) Pedro Martinez at the top, the bullpen is still a question and could lead us to those antacid pills that we knew so well last year.

As far as the offense goes, we all know that Paul Lo Duca walked to the Nationals. So we acquired Brian Schneider to platoon with Ramon Castro at catcher; and Ryan Church to play everyday right field. I think Church will be a scrappy player who will give 110% in the field and at the plate. I see this trade panning out very nicely for the Mets, although another I question whether Ramon Castro can handle a full time catching schedule, and if Brian Schneider can hit .250. Other than that, we should see the same typical lineup, with hopefully more production from Carlos Delgado.

Now I will make a few basic predictions of what I would like to see happen.

1. Carlos Delgado will have a bounce back year. I don’t see Carlos Delgado having a year like last year, since his wrist was a major problem with his hitting last year. I believe he will fill in nicely at the number 5 spot and settle into the “secondary” RBI producer role well behind Beltran and Wright.

2. The bullpen will not lead Willie to talk about “Mama days”. I really hope this is true. If we can get a steady 7 innings out of our pitchers, give the ball to Heilman or Sanchez in the 8th inning, and then Wagner in the 9th, it will take a load off the middle relievers. Thank goodness Mota is gone.

3. Johan Santana will win 18-20 games. This is what this guy is getting paid to do. If he gets the run support, expect him to strikeout and set down a lot of lineups 1-2-3.

I hope you enjoyed reading this edition of Kaufman’s Korner. Until next time…
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Nothing much has happened on the Mets front since their historic collapse two weeks ago. All the players went home for the winter, hopefully with a bitter taste in their mouth. I know we can talk about all the changes that should happen but nothing like that will start taking place until the free agent period starts, which is after the World Series.

I know my colleague Jersey Dan wrote a nice article on Tuesday, but I feel the need to comment on a few things he said the Mets should do. First off, Delgado is signed through next year so there is no way the Mets are going to dump him. Yes, he was downright awful at times this year. However, he still put together a 24 home run 87 RBI season. And this is a guy who was struggling all season! I will take that from a backup hitter anyway. Hopefully we can get one more year of the same, before Delgado goes sayonara.

Second off, as far as the second base position goes, I love Ruben Gotay. I think he was a decent pickup and has potential to play a few solid years everyday. However, he still needs to share the duties behind Luis Castillo. Castillo was a godsend for the Mets even with his bum knee playing in 50 of 56 games down the stretch. Castillo is only 32 (we think) and hopefully will re sign. Gotay can take the once or twice a week Castillo needs to rest his knee.

As far as the baseball that is being played right now, the Rockies have looked mightily impressive. They have tied the 1986 Mets for winning 18 out of 19 games. It’s a nice story considering they have never have made it to the NLCS. Skip Carey has been saying it’s the first time the Rockies have made the playoffs, but that is incorrect. They made it as a Wild Card team in 1995 and were promptly swept by eventual World Champions, the Atlanta Braves.

I do not support fans throwing anything onto the field; however, it’s nice to see that Arizona fans do care about their Diamondbacks. I know I was curious and looked up to see how much tickets were going for, and apparently they were as low as $20 for a ticket to last night’s game. It’s a shame I don’t have money to fly out and see a game because it would probably be cheaper to plan a vacation in Arizona then try to get a ticket in Cleveland or Boston. With that being said, if the Diamondbacks win the series and their fans don’t buy up all the tickets, look for half their stadium to be rooting against them considering their tickets are cheap and available.

The last thing that I can comment on is the Boston vs. Cleveland series. I am looking forward to two great pitching matchups in CC Sabathia vs. Josh Beckett and Fausto Carmona vs. Curt Schilling. Hopefully they can have a pitchers duel that becomes a classic similar to Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens in 2003.
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Alright ladies and gentlemen, I know it has been entirely too long...but TUESDAY TWO CENTS is back! As a lot of you might be aware I have been computerless for quite some time now. This mainly has to do with me being poor and not being able to buy one yet, but that will be changing soon. I would like to apologize to all that have wondered where I am, considering I am an administrator in this group. It's good to be back again. Anyways, on to business.


Well as we all know, the Mets blew it this season. Last Sunday was quite rough on us all, and I hope to never feel misery of that sorts ever again. Of course being the New York sports fans that we are, the first thing we seem to do is find a scapegoat. I would like to clarify one thing though, there is not just one scapegoat, but there are many scapegoats. Willie Randolph is not the only man to blame for the Flushing Flush.

While the team could have been more motivated, it is not entirely Randolph's fault. Blame must also be put on Omar Minaya who put together a bullpen that went from best in the league in 2006, to steroid users. Blame, in my opinion, must also be put on Rick Peterson. While Peterson is great at developing pitchers, he seems to take no part in managing pitchers. Willie's expertise is definitely at managing the lineup, as he was a solid offensive second baseman for a quite a long time. Willie does seem to have trouble managing the bullpen at times, but if Peterson gave him any sort of advice I think that problem could be alleviated. Instead the Jacket has his face stuffed in a computer worrying about pitch counts and all other sorts of jazz. Get your head out of your Mac and into the game Rick, and help Willie out in a place that is obviously his weakness. Then there's Tom Glavine. The name makes me want to puke. Just one day after Johnny Maine pitches damn near flawless, our "ace" decides to do his best Dave Mlicki impression. Seven runs given up in less than two innings against a team with a mascot named Billy is just horribly inexplicable. Go back to Atlanta. Thank you for three years, you basically just rendered them useless with that lackluster garbage excuse of a start.

There needs to be a lot of changes this off season. Carlos Delgado needs to go. We need to get younger at first base, and Delgado's best days are definitely behind him. I love Carlos as a player, and he won his respect back for me as a man when he decided to start standing for THE National Anthem again. Go to the American League, be a DH, and end your career. Luis Castillo was a useless acquisition this season. Ruben Gotay is without a doubt the front runner for the starting 2B job going into next season. Especially since Anderson Hernandez couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a beach ball. If Lastings Milledge isn't starting in right field next season then I am becoming a Yankees fan...alright that was a joke, but I think you guys can understand how serious I am about that. Finally we need to get a bona fide ace, and fix that pitiful excuse of a bullpen we got.

Omar is going to be busy this off season. Mets fans are going to expect nothing less than a division title and payback on the Phillies. A pennant would be nice considering we haven't won one of those in seven years. Dare I mention it has been 21 years since we have won a World Series. Next year will show what Omar and Willie have when it comes to leading this team. They are facing a lot of pressure and are under a microscope...ummm scratch that telescope from all of the Tri State to get the job done. Here's hoping for a great off season.

In other baseball news.....

HOW BOUT THEM ROCKIES! This is without a doubt the feel good story of the year in baseball. If you would have told me that the Colorado Rockies would be four games away from the World Series in May, I would have been calling Bellevue for you. Big up to the Rock Dawgs, and I would love to see them in the World Series. Plus it was great justice to see them beat up on Philadelphia. This just goes to show that the only thing useful to ever come out of Philadelphia when it comes to sports is a fictional character that fictionally ended Communism in the USSR. Reagan didn't bring down the Berlin Wall...Rocky did.

The fire your manager wave is hot all over New York City, as George Steinbrenner, in yet another act of ignorance, will be firing Joe Torre for taking his Yankees to the playoffs every season of his 12 season tenure. Joe Torre is a class act, and he gets treated with utter disrespect by The Boss. It is not Torre's fault that Alex Rodriguez is useless in October, and the ace of his staff didn't show up to this post season. You ask any player in that Yankee clubhouse and they will tell you firing Torre is a horrible idea. Have some class George.

Finally, I'm just going to put it out there. NO ONE IS BEATING BOSTON. They are too good. They made the Angels look like the Reds in the ALDS. Their pitching is clicking on all cylinders, Manny and Ortiz look like Ruth and Gehrig, and that bullpen is awesome. Cleveland has nothing to match Boston after Sabathia and Carmona. Look for the Red Sox to take the series in 6. Rockies take out the D'Backs in seven. Both series' should be very entertaining to watch.

IN OTHER SPORTS...

I don't know about you guys, but it was very gratifying to watch the Giants front four demolish the Eagles on that horrible Sunday last week. It really saved my day, I'm not going to lie. My G-Men then followed up their demolition of Philly with a 35-24 comeback victory over the Paper Airplanes. Eli and Plaxico (STIFF ARM) looked great in the second half, and HOW BOUT THAT AARON ROSS. The G-Men, along with the whole NFC East is looking like the NFC East of the early 1990's. Everyone is good, except for the Eagles.

Also this calling time out RIGHT before a field goal is kicked. That bush league garbage needs to stop.

HOCKEY IS BACK!!!!

What seems to be the second most popular sport in the group has made it's triumphant return...unless you are a Devils fan of course. We look like garbage. Rangers are fans are already on my last nerve, as they are already running their mouths. The Rangers are the same story every season; a bunch of high salaries with no chemistry and no results by the end of the season. Until I am ever proved wrong I will continue with that philosophy. The Fishsticks are weak. I'll let Wassink handle the Pens.

THE CHASE IS ON!!!

Well not for Junior unfortunately. To add insult to injury my boy Dale blew his sixth engine of the year at Talladega (Man Race) last Sunday. At least he is sticking it to Theresa, the woman who is trying to ruin the Earnhardt name. Looks like Hendrick Motor Sports is going to be running 1-2 in points again as Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are motoring themselves away from everyone else. Wait until Junior joins that team next season...scary.

Finally I would like to give a shout out to my Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who finally won a football game this past weekend. Let's keep em coming boys. Oh and if anyone finds the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, please return them to Piscataway. It would be greatly appreciated. USC lost...HAHAHAHA. That's my Two Cents. Later on. JD.
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With only 7 games remaining in the regular season, the Mets are now 2.5 games ahead of the surging Phillies. The good news however is that the Phillies only have 6 games to play, which means they have one less game to make up the difference. The Mets continue to control their own destiny; If the Mets can win 5 of their last 7 games, they will win the division even if the Phillies win out. If the Mets can win 4 of their remaining 7 games (which is very doable), it would force the Phillies to win out, just to tie the Mets for first place.

After the Mets' struggles in Philadelphia and Washington last week, many Mets had lost hope, but the Mets responded in Florida taking 3 out of 4 from the Marlins, and appear to be back on track.

The Mets offense has scored 7 or more runs in 6 straight games, With Carlos Delgado finally back in the lineup, hopefully this power surge will continue.

The Mets now come home to finish out the season with games against the Nationals, Cardinals and Marlins.

Let's keep it rolling...
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The Mets seemed down and out after being swept by the surging Phillies on Thursday, three days later, things couldn't look brighter. The Mets headed into Atlanta over the weekend knowing they had to come with their A game, and they did. Turner Field has never been kind to the Mets in the month of September, but the "new" Mets we're up for the challenge.

The Mets outscored the Braves by a score of 3 to 2 in the final game of the series on Sunday to put the Braves back an insurmountable 7.5 games with only 25 games to play.

The Mets pitching was superb, allowing only 4 runs the entire series, and keeping the Braves big bats of Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira and Andrew Jones in check throughout the series. The Braves only got one extra base hit the entire series, which was Brian McCann's double in the 9th inning Sunday against Billy Wagner. The highlight of the weekend had to be the fantastic outing by Mike Pelfrey, who earned his first win of the season on Saturday allowing just 1 run on 1 hit over 6 innings. We hope to see more of this in the future from Pelfrey.

The hitting was equally as good, scoring 15 runs on 28 hits, with 2 home runs from Carlos Delgado, who seems to have his swing back, as well as homers from Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Lastings Milledge and Jose Reyes.

The Mets will look to keep the hot streak going, as Pedro Martinez will make his long awaited season debut tomorrow in Cincinnati, he will be faced by Reds ace Aaron Harang.
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Over the last six weeks, us Mets fans have suffered as our beloved Mets have played .500 baseball, and have gone up and down like a roller coaster at Six Flags. It seems like ever since Delgado hit that walk-off off of Armando Benitez in the last week of May, Benitez formulated a curse in which the Mets would not be able to hit in a clutch spot. Of course, I am just looking for a scapegoat and still have the optimism like Willie does, and there is reasoning behind my optimism.

After this tough west coast swing, we have seven games against the Pirates and Nationals. This would be the perfect time to get going, as the dog days of August are approaching quickly. Also, during these seven games we will see the return of Moises Alou (Remember him?), who should give the Mets, as Mike Francessa said, "The Big Bat" that they need. With Alou coming back, this means Lastings Milledge will platoon with Shawn Green in right, and hopefully light a fire under him, and increase his production.

I would be extremely SHOCKED if within the three-week period Alou comes back, the Mets didn't go on a massive tear, especially with Delgado (yes Delgado) hitting over .350 in July. Winning ten out twelve games is not out of the question once Alou returns, and a win streak like that is exactly what the doctor ordered.

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7: The month day and year on 7/7/07
7: The number of the Mets all star shortstop who was taken out of the game for failing to run out a ground ball the previous day
7: The number of letters in Houston, the team the Mets played on 7/7/07
7: The number of letters in New York, the city the Mets play in
77: the Mets magic number going into the day
77: The number of remaining games on the Mets schedule going into the day
421: Carlos Delgado’s career home run total after his 5th inning home run. (4+2+1=7)
7:07 PM CT: The time Carlos Delgado hit his 421st home run
7: The inning David Wright hit his 16th home run
16: The number of home runs David Wright has hit this season (1+6=7)
17: The number of innings it would take for the Mets to beat the Astros on 7/7/07
7: The number of the player who scored the game winning run
16: The number of pitchers used by both sides (1+6=7)

And for good measure…

Dave Williams will be making his 7th start for the Mets today, as the Mets look to take 3 of 4 from the Houston Astros before the All Star Break

7: The number of letters in All Star
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