Not a Good Three Games

In the last three games the Mets are 0-3 and have scored 1.7 runs per game. In that time they've hit .220 as a club with zero home runs, and they've backed up their pitchers with six errors in the field including five in one game.

In other words, it's not the happiest of times for the Metsies. As for us here at Y2K, well, we've been on a little work-induced vacation the past couple of weeks. Between my job and GMAT prep I haven't had time to bring the posts like you're accustomed to.

The truth is there's more where that came from in the offing. Tomorrow I leave for my first big trip since 2006, going to Barcelona, Ibiza, and Paris. While I'm there I'll try to find time to write a few posts, but you never want to make any promises about these sorts of things. All of which is to say that things may be slow through the end of next week, but that we'll be back in force once the calendar turns to June.

In the meantime, here are a few quick hits on our boys:

1. Generally speaking I'm as big a fan of Jerry Manuel as they come, but a few things are starting to eat at me. For one thing, I don't think he's handling the Daniel Murphy situation ass well as he could. Murphy has the potential to be a big piece of this team for the foreseeable future; it's not a definite, but the potential's there, and it's on Manuel to realize that potential.

Earlier this year, playing Murphy made a ton of sense. But between his struggles there, Delgado's injury and Delgado's contract expiration, why not put Murphy at first and see what he can do?

There's word that's the plan, and if the Mets are giving Murphy work at first in non-game situations so that he's prepared whenever he makes the move, that I support. I just wish there were a little more clarity on the topic.

2. My other main Manuel criticism is that the Mets have proven themselves to be a bad fundamentals team. They get thrown out by country miles taking extra bases, they miss bases on their way home, they make stupid errors in the field.

I don't know that there's anything Manuel ever could have said or done to have ensured that Church would have touched third on his way home the other night, but the mental miscue wasn't an isolated incident.

If bullpen woes were the bugaboo last year, errors, both mental and physical, are proving the team's weak underbelly this year. They've given away too many games already, and as we've learned the past two seasons, you never get those games back.

That all said, I hate to talk smack about Jerry, so that's enough.

3. David Wright. Wow. Dude's hitting .361 and, thanks to suddenly becoming the most clutch hitter on the planet, is on pace for 116 RBIs. I hate to talk like this but it would be nice if he could start parking some balls, but so long as he keeps driving in runs I suppose there's little difference.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Almighty

(Sip here filling in for the big fella and ready to open a can of Whoop Ass on "America's Team." It's nice to come home.)





I sat there in shock last Friday as A-Rod stepped up to the plate at Camden Yards. Why was this guy getting such an ovation? Wasn't this game being played IN BALTIMORE? Weren't we supposed to hate this guy for essentially fully ruining our faith in baseball?

Yet there it was. A standing ovation by the "holier than thou" Yankee fans.



And then he went dong. Lord oh mighty. It was like the Pope had just blessed Citi Field. The guy got an ovation unlike any I could have ever imagined and so of course, some venom began to flow thru my veins as I thought about the almighty Yankees and their perfect fans.

Aren't these the same Yankees that get people arrested for not being respectful during God Bless America?

The same Yankees that throw you out of their stadium for wearing a t-shirt denouncing a player on the other team?

And aren't these the same Yankees that tell you to take your feet off the seat in front of you or god forbid you have the best seat in the house, that you must take your soda cup off the dugout?


These are supposed to be the Yankees. They claim to be carriers of the good lord's word, blessed by the father, the son and even the holy ghost!

Yet here they were, travelling 300 miles to cheer a guy that not only cheeted their sacred game and made a mockery of their precious pinstripes, but then proceeded to lie about it.

You know the old expression, "you can't have your cake and eat it too."

Well then, welcome to the world of hypocrisy that is Yankees baseball.

Which got me thinking a little deeper. Over the last 6 months or so it seems like baseball fans have grown resigned to the notion that most players in baseball cheat or have cheated at some point in their career. That performance enhancing drugs are as much a part of the game as sunflower seeds or chewing tobacco. The A-Rod story loaded the bases and then the Manny story closed it in the 9th.



So everyone in baseball cheats, then right?

Maybe not today when testing has become so rampant but certainly in the past. The McGwire/Sosa era, baseballs saving grace has one big asterix next to its name as we are now all fully convinced that that entire era of ballplayers was doping. That era had a lot going on. Homeruns, Record Attendance and oh yeah, one last thing:

The Return of the Yankee Empire.

The Bombers won 4 world series between 1996-2000.

That run spurned the Yankees from the gutter to the "World's Team." They once again became the symbol of baseball globally and the toast of the town locally. Their fans multiplied expnonentially and immediately became the most knowledgable and sophisticated fans in the game. Their players were the best and brightest. Their owner did things the Yankee way.

But it's all a hoax.

One big giant hoax.

All that we have learned from the last 6 months is that the Yankees shot back to stardom in the heart of the steroid era.

They should be as front and center in this mess as anyone else.

Already names like Clemens, Pettite and Knoblach have been linked to steroids. But really, who knows what else was going down in the Bronx?

The fact is, the Yankees embodied basically everything that is wrong in the game and used their tainted successes to take them to where they are today.

But the walls are collapsing in Yankee Stadium.

When Derek Jeter and Mariano go, so too does the Yankee Dynasty.



See people root for Jeter and Rivera because we have all kind of convinced ourselves that despite everything that has gone wrong in the game, that these guys have been clean. We have nothing to back that up except pure hope in good. It is for similar reasons that we assume that David Wright has not so much as touched a beer can in his short stint on planet earth.

But when Rivera and Jeter go what will the Yankees have?

1. Players that came to the Yankees for money
2. A stadium built for corporations
3. An owner who is the bratty son of a prick

The Yankees and their fans will have nothing to hold over the rest of baseball and the balance will be restored. I yearn for the day when the Yankees can't make payments on their $1.5 billion dollar castle because people decide they have had enough.

Vaya Con Dios,
Sip



Side note:

Can you see the following interaction going down?

Mets Music Guy: So Carlos, ever thought about a new song? You've been bumping to that "Muevas Aqui" track for 5 years now. Ever thought of trying something new?

Carlos Beltran: No

Mets Music Guy: Muevas Aqui it is




(Pics courtesy of aarontorees-sports.com, baltimoresun.com, daylife.com)

Goin'-Goin', Back-Back, to Itha-ca-ca

It was three years ago this weekend (give or take) that I made my first and, to this point, only trip to Ithaca, NY.

It was 2006, and my brother was about to graduate from law school. Those pre-recession halcyon days were a different, more carefree time for A.F.O.M.G. There was no worry about the GMAT, business school or the the next job. Life wasn't for the orgiastic future, that could wait. As a paralegal at a pre-TARP investment bank, I was working 9-to-5 and making more money than somebody who lived rent-free at home could know what to do with.

Best of all, the Mets were winning, and winning big. On this day in 2006, the Mets were 21-10. Back then there was no 2007, no back-to-back playoff misses on the last day of the season. There was only the daily joy of watching a really good team win a lot of games. For me, it was all orgiastic present.

* * * * *

This afternoon I'll return to Ithaca for my sister's law school graduation. The Mets are 14-13 now, half a game out of first place after winning four straight games against the Braves and Phillies.

It's a far cry from the heady start of 2006, but for the first time all season I've started to feel genuinely hopeful. Johan Santana is the most dominant pitcher I've ever seen. The non-Johan starters have come around and have produced a string of solid starts. The bullpen, Francisco Rodriguez in particular, has been solid.

And best of all, it looks like David Wright may have finally turned the page. As Jerry Manuel said after last night's win, a home run to dead center at Citi Field means you're doing a lot of things right. If he can keep it going, and if we can somehow get Jose Reyes to start contributing too, the offense may finally start producing the way we thought it would.

More personally, yeah I'm still panicking about what I'm going to do after my current job ends this summer, but the idea is that I'm going to take the GMAT a week from tomorrow, and from there Business School options will hopefully fall into place.

For now though, I'll take a nice weekend in Ithaca, NY (those gorges are something else, man) and some solid ball from my Mets.

* * * * *

One quick word on Manny Ramirez before I go. I know others have started saying it too, but this is the just the latest example of why baseball needs to institute stricter penalties for using performance enhancing drugs.

A 50-game suspension is peanuts; I think I read that Manny won't get paid for those 50 games, but he'll still collect every other penny of that huge contract he signed this offseason. For all the shame associated with yesterday's revelation, the incentive to use steroids was demonstrated yet again in the case of Manny Ramirez. First you get the steroids, then you get the power, then you get the mothereffin' money.

If a first offense resulted in a 2-year suspension without pay, no one but the most borderline, hanger-on former prospect would be tempted to uses the juice. It's as simple as that.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Stop the Presses!

Quick one for you all today.

Back in the day before I was one of New York Magazine's 50 Sexiest Bloggers, before I had status and before I had a pager, the young A.F.O.M.G. was a newspaper man first.

Some of my earliest memories are of a very young A.F.O.M.G. running down the hall to check, unlocking the door as fast as I could and leafing through the paper to find the sports section to see if the Mets had won or lost, the game having lasted too long into the night for me to watch to the end.

Journalism was always a passion of mine. At Nails' urging I joined the high school newspaper and became Editor in Chief. In college I worked my way up from Sports Editor my freshman year to Editor in Chief my junior year. The summer before my senior year of college I spent my nights covering the New England SteepleCats for a local newspaper and riffing with Cheddar Ben on all things NECBL.

Journalism's in my blood. To this day after Mets games I like predicting what's going to be on the back cover of the next day's Post and Daily News. I remember the old favorites ("Leit's Out!") and try to conceive of the new ones.

A private citizen, I've never been the target of blaring headlines telling me how much I suck, so that's a difference between me and members of the Mets. But come on, are they seriously going to stop providing the two New York tabloids in the Mets' clubhouse because they don't want their players exposed to "bad vibes" from the press?

Honestly, how soft is this team? Hasn't anyone ever heard of bulletin board material? Using the junk in the press for motivation?

Regardless, being a Met means being part of New York, and being part of New York means picking up your favorite trashy daily newspaper. I'm a Daily News man, Sip was always a Postie. Whatever, we had opinions and we wanted to hear what everyone else was saying about our favorite tean.

Not Mets brass apparently. In their latest effort to up the toughness quotient of the team (past efforts include signing Alex Cora and Gary Sheffield), the Mets have decided to stop offering New York's newspapers for fear that the team just can't take it anymore.

If this fails to improve their play, god only knows what the next step would be.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Over the Edge

Say this about Carlos Beltran. In his first four years in New York, he's had three really good seasons with the Mets.

One of those three seasons, 2006, was truly phenomenal. Beltran popped off for 41 home runs, 116 RBI, a .982 OPS, and collected the first of three straight gold gloves.

Lost amid all the Edge-gate drama of the past several days is the fact that the Mets have a lot of talent on this ball club, and as such, they still have the capacity to do something meaningful this season. Check out the standings. At 11-13, the Mets are only 3 games out of first place.

* * * *

I agree to an extent with Omar Minaya that players on this team don't have an edge, but hold on... he's only realizing that now? What part of Jose Reyes', David Wright's, Carlos Beltran's, or Carlos Delgado's (assuming he's referring to one of those four guys) game did he only come to understand in the first 20 games of this season? Seriously, where the hell has Minaya been the past three years?

This group has a lot of talent, and I'm not one of the people who think they don't care, but they do seem to lack a certain run through a wall mentality. Nobody's a better example of that than Beltran, whose incomprehensible non-slide in St. Louis set the Mets on their way to a 3-game (or was it 4-?) losing streak.

The good news, I think, is that this has become a full-on conversation topic. As critical as you can be of Minaya for sticking with this same core group year after year, at least he's made the issue headline material.

Did you watch the post-game show last night? In between "you knows" (somebody get the YouTube, I swear to god he said "you know" in between every three words), John Maine alluded to a "different attitude" in the clubhouse. Reporters questioned him on the topic directly. I'm sure he wasn't the only one to get asked.

This is a good thing. Maybe the Mets will use it as bulletin board material. It wasn't enough for the rest of the league to call them choke artists, but if their own management doing so is enough to send them over the edge and shake off their post-2006 coma, I'm all for it.

* * * * *

But back to Beltran. Edge or no edge, the guy can play, and through 24 games in 2009, he's making it look a lot like 2006 out there.

Daniel Murphy, for all his struggles in the field, appears to be the real deal at the plate.

A big part of what the Mets are missing right now is solid production from Wright and Reyes. If we're going to fulfill our potential we need those two guys to snap out of it. I mean, they hardly contributed at all in April, so how well can you really expect the team to fare?

The good news is we saw flashes from Wright last night, who went 2-4 with a double and key two-run homer.

The dinger is never going to enter into the "is Wright clutch" debate, but why shouldn't it? The Mets were down a run against a pitcher who had been tough all game, and Wright's blast put them ahead. It wasn't a white knuckle, bases loaded, two-out, bottom of the 9th kind of situation, but it was a clutch hit all the same.

The point is, the offense showed flashes last night. If they can keep it up, maybe -- as they did in 2006 when Beltran was rolling and the sky seemed like the limit -- they can make the pitching woes seem a little less pertinent.

- A.F.O.M.G.