I joined everyone’s favourite Canadian baseball enthusiasts, the fellows from Drunk Jays Fans, on the season debut of the Getting Blanked podcast to talk Mets, Yankees and sandwiches. Check it out.
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Category Archives: Baseball
Twitter Q&A-type thing
Believe how? Believe they’re a playoff contender or believe they’re better than a 5-13 team?
I figured the Mets for 84 wins before the season and I’m sticking with that now. If anything, the awful start should serve as a reminder to everyone about the trappings of small sample sizes. Yes, they looked terrible. But teams playing terribly always look terrible, and plenty of teams better than this one have endured 5-13 stretches.
It got really frustrating when people started pulling out the 1962 Mets talk, suggesting — seriously — that this club could challenge that one for the all-time loss record. It’s like everyone forgot the Mets have David Wright and Jose Reyes, among others. And yeah, a handful of good players does not a great team make — we learned that under Omar Minaya — but look at how awful the 1962 Mets were. Every guy in the Mets’ current rotation would have been the ace of that team’s staff. They combined for an Omir Santosian 82 OPS+.
The Mets are not going to win every game for the rest of the season. There will be more bumps along the way. But they don’t have a bad club and they never did. It’s easy to be blinded by all the negativity coming from large portions of the media and fanbase, but the Mets have a deep and pretty good lineup that should score a lot of runs. I’m not optimistic about Johan Santana’s return, so unless Jenrry Mejia is ready to become a good big-league starter by the end of the season the pitching should be shaky all year. But again, not nearly as awful as it looked in the first couple of weeks.
Here’s the link, since you can’t click through from that image.
What does “Designated Kisser” even mean? Actually, wow, I have so many questions.
For example: A) Is this supposed to be, I don’t know, sexy? Does anyone think this is sexy? B) Do they make underwear with Mets logos and quasi-racy nonsensical slogans for dudes? Because if not, that’s just sexism brother.
Also, I struggle to figure out which is the front and which is the back of women’s underwear. You’d think the bigger side would be the ass side but it doesn’t always work that way. I don’t really want to write about women’s underwear anymore. This is all making me very uncomfortable.
I’m going to vote for Jermaine Copeland, receiver for the L.A. Xtreme.
The week before the XFL started, I saw a headline on ESPN.com that said, “Jermaine Copeland excited for the XFL season.” So, wondering who Jermaine Copeland was and why I should care about his feelings on the XFL season, I clicked through. This is how the article started:
“Jermaine Copeland is excited for the XFL season,” said Los Angeles Xtreme reciever Jermaine Copeland.
Still funny to me. I don’t know if that makes him hardcore, and there’s no way to guarantee that talking in the third person wasn’t written in to XFL contracts, but he’s basically the only XFL player I can remember besides He Hate Me and He Hate Me seemed too obvious an answer.
That one’s easy. Taco Bell is not Latino food. Taco Bell is Taco Bell.
I love Mexican food, but I never go get Taco Bell when I’m in the mood for Mexican food, just like I never get Wendy’s because I’m in the mood for a cheeseburger. I’ve never had actual Mexican food that tastes anything like Taco Bell, and most Mexican places I know don’t even have seasoned ground beef as an option.
And I know people lash out at fast food on principle because it’s corporate and it’s bad for us and all that. But Taco Bell is delicious, convenient and cheap. I don’t owe anybody anything; the burden is on every restaurateur who’s not Glen Bell to come up with something that’s a better value if they want to tear me away from my Cheesy Gordita Crunch.
Humber Humber
Mets flying high
Here are photos of airborne Mets in last night’s game, courtesy of the Associated Press:
And here’s Murph, just because:
About Murph: Plenty of people were killing him last night for the run the Nationals scored in the 8th inning. Jason Bay attempted a sliding catch on an Adam LaRoche pop-up but it bounced off the heel of his glove, then Murphy wasn’t quick to cover second and LaRoche advanced.
First off, let’s not forget that Bay is hardly a rangy left fielder and that many Major Leaguers would have made the play pretty easily and without sliding. I suppose it’s easier to blame Murphy for a mental error than Bay for lacking the physical ability to make the play, but it’s not as if it was guaranteed that LaRoche would have been out at second even if Murphy were hugging the bag from the beginning. Also, Murphy was not responsible for the passed ball that moved LaRoche to third, allowing pinch runner Brian Bixler to score on a sacrifice fly.
Anyway, point is Murph is crushing the ball. All players make errors and we’re going to pick out and pick on Murphy’s because we have it in our heads that he’s a bad defender and we know he’s playing a new position. But when he’s hitting like this, you have to tolerate the mishaps knowing that he’s still producing more runs at the plate than he’s costing the team in the field.
Six in a row, huh? Probably shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, but at least this will quiet the 120-loss set.
Baseball Show asks the important questions
In which I ask three Mets to name their favorite sandwich, among other things:
Does Wilmer Flores suck now?
Toby Hyde investigates some recent doubt cast on the Mets’ top offensive prospect.
Even Lenny Dykstra trying to distance himself from Charlie Sheen
Lenny Dykstra’s lawyers are denying that Charlie Sheen bailed the former Phillie out of jail after his arrest for bankruptcy fraud. Dykstra is also being investigated for soliciting a naked massage from a woman applying to be his housekeeper, which is fishy to begin with because there’s just no way a man in such dire financial straits should be hiring a housekeeper. Via BTF.
Ike Davis: Awesome?
Among the bright spots for the Mets in the early part of the season is the play of young first baseman Ike Davis. Because of the amount of turnover on the Mets’ roster, on their bench and in the front office, Davis seems like he’s been in Flushing for a while now. But the 24-year-old has only 170 Major League games under his belt.
It’s silly to read too much into Davis’ hot start this season since it comes across only 95 plate appearances. But his .338/.421/.600 line in 2011 bolsters his career totals, and when trying to evaluate players it is best to use the largest sample of data available.
Davis can now boast a career 124 OPS+, precisely the average for NL first basemen in 2010. By the eye and by the stats, he has been excellent defensively at first base. And of course, Davis is a 24-year-old who entered big-league play last season with only 65 games above A-ball. So it’s reasonable to expect he’s still getting better.
It’s not reasonable to expect him to maintain this pace all season, since that’d place him among the very best hitters in the game and that’s a lot to ask for from anyone. But the hot start provides more evidence that he’s a viable Major League first baseman and can be a valuable piece of the Mets’ next contender, whenever that happens.
Also, his beard is good.
Minor League Report: Cesar Puello
Marry me Mikey P
Armed with the giant $105 million contract extension he signed last week, Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun had to figure that he’d see an increase in the already-large number of marriage proposals he gets from female fans.
But who knew one woman would try to separate herself from the posterboard-toting pack at Miller Park by printing her cell phone number above her suggestion? And yet that actually happened on Friday night as the fräulein above made sure to place all 10 of her digits on her very earnest offer.
Good writeup from Big League Stew of a strange series of events in Milwaukee that ended with Ryan Braun reaching a cellphone with a full voicemail box.
But as a Shea Stadium employee during the 2000 season, I can assure you that Braun is by no means the first handsome bachelor ballplayer to be offered phone numbers via posterboard.
Vendors had to be at games two and a half hours before first pitch to get assignments. That process only took about 20 minutes, so there was a whole lot of sitting-around time. Usually I found a spot in the field level and read while the Mets took batting practice.
As soon as the gates opened, almost without fail, about five to ten women would stream down to the the area behind the Mets’ dugout with signs like, “MARRY ME MIKEY P!” or “The Future Mrs. Piazza” with an arrow pointing down. Often they’d have phone numbers on them.
Whenever Piazza emerged from the dugout for warmups, they’d yell and whoop for him — like everyone did those days, understandably — and he’d often acknowledge the crowd with a tip of the hat.
Thing is, probably anybody in Shea Stadium that summer would’ve happily married Mike Piazza if he asked. He was that type of hero.
Tedquarters 