http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glii-kazad8

- Somehow I managed to NOT make a post about Anderson Silva’s miracle triangle armbar a week ago. The dude is fucking amazing. Just like seemingly everyone else, when Silva was taken down in the 5th round I thought the match was over, but he had enough strength left after getting punched more than in his entire UFC career to pull that shit off. Wow. GSP-Silva needs to happen ASAP.

- It’s amazing how It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is now AT BEST the third-best half-hour of television on FX. Archer and Louie have had amazing first seasons, while Sunny is in decline. Shit, The League had a fantastic first season, too.

- My ability to not buy shit has increased tenfold. The Bourne Trilogy on Blu-ray for 35 bucks? Months ago, I would’ve jumped on that like Tiger on a blonde cocktail waitress, but now I just want to sell more things. I apologize for the Rick Reilly/Jay Leno-esque joke.

- It always feels good watching guys who make a living playing golf miss 5-foot putts. Then I remember they make hundred of thousands, if not millions, of dollars playing golf.

- I need to play a roto fantasy league for money next year. And a keeper league. Maybe combine the two for ultimate fantasy baseball action.

- I don’t touch upon controversial subjects on here much, especially not legitimately important controversial subjects, but the Ground Zero Mosque bullshit is ridiculous. I won’t dedicate a full post to it because it’s too fucking simple. It’s a goddamn community center two blocks away, not even within view of Ground Zero; it’s not the 100-foot-tall minaret-topped building most people envision when they think of mosques. I understand the outrage of some relatives of victims, but some people in that group didn’t want any reconstruction at the WTC site at all. Sorry, but fuck them. I totally empathize with their grief, but life needs to go on. Republicans meanwhile, politicize a building that SHOULDN’T BE A FUCKING ISSUE, but vote against a bill that would actually help people directly affected by 9/11.

- Girls grow up way too soon. I’m going to stop checking out hot girls in the mall, because I’m sure they are all 16 years old.

- I’m not surprised at Scott Pilgrim vs. The World totally bombing, losing to Inception‘s 5th weekend. If it weren’t for Edgar Wright’s involvement, I would think the movie looks incredibly awful. Since I doubt most people care about that fact — if they were even aware in the first place — $10 million sounds about right. But I’ll still go see it; I don’t want to risk Speed Racer-like regret.

- David Wright is now officially having the worst offensive season of his career. It’s cool how Wright and Jose Reyes have declined right when most players hit their prime. Really. Fucking. Cool.

Now all that has turned to fucking shit. David Wright is back to being totally fucking cold. Jason Bay is getting WORSE. Carlos Beltran is clearly not 100%, yet he’s put in CF even while he’s wearing a goddamn knee brace. There’s a guy named Angel Pagan who played CF the entire first half and was one of the best fucking CF in the National League, but because Beltran has a massive ego and expects to play CF, he can’t be moved to RF to accommodate the player who’s NOT WEARING A FUCKING KNEE BRACE. Angel Pagan has EASILY been the second-best player on the team, and probably the most consistent. At least Jeff Francoeur isn’t playing.

But maybe that’s why Jason Bay feels the need to stand in for him? To generate the lost suckage? Holy fucking shit. 0-6 with 4 Ks. Remember last year when we all wondered where David Wright’s power went? His SLG at the end of the season was .447. Jason Bay’s is currently .403. Brett Gardner’s SLG is .399. BRETT GARDNER. This is NOT a guy renowned for his power stroke. This Bay contract is turning out to be a bigger disaster than I expected. Sure, he can bounce back in the next two months, but he’s not going to get any better over the length of the contract. This is BAD.

Oh, and I got to watch Oliver Perez pitch tonight out the bullpen. I want him to pull a Carlos Zambrano and just get himself kicked off the team. Somehow he didn’t blow the game, but he came pretty close, with only the D-Backs total ineptitude saving his worthless ass. Less than worthless. Please Ollie, be gangsta and stab someone else shitty on the team, preferably Alex Cora. You’ll be suspended indefinitely, and hopefully Cora will never play baseball again.

Can I even manage to spew any bile Jerry Manuel’s way? He did double-switch Ike Davis out of the game so he could move Alex Cora to 1B and Luis Castillo to 2B. That was totally awesome. And he keeps starting Barajas, who has a OBP of .265. Sure, he hit a home run. WHOOP-DE-FREAKING-DO. Maybe if he didn’t, I would have been able to go to sleep two pointless hours ago instead of watching 14 pathetic innings of baseball.

I hate this team.

Anyhow, hit the jump for baseball number goodness.

5/16

Oliver Perez: 27 K, 28 BB, $12 million. Carl Pavano: 34 K, 7 BB, $7 million.

I ripped Pavano as much as anyone for the shit he pulled with the Yankees, but he has been legitimately good this year (outside of his last start after this post, naturally). Perez’s contract was, is, and will forever be terrible.

5/18 (belated 5/17)

Brett Gardner: 17 SB, 1 CS. Baltimore Orioles: 9 SB, 10 CS.

This is me just making sure everyone knows how awesome of a base stealer Gardner is. He’s really, really awesome. At this point, he has taken away the title of “New York’s Most Exciting Player” away from Reyes. Shit, Angel Pagan is his closest competition at the moment, not Reyes.

5/18

Pedro, 1997-2003: 1408 IP, .940 WHIP, 213 ERA+. Koufax, 1962-66: 1377 IP, .926 WHIP, 167 ERA+.

I’m going to whip out FIP here. Pedro over his years: 2.39, 3.40, 1.39 (!), 2.17, 1.61, 2.24, 2.21. Koufax over his years: 2.54, 1.88, 1.74, 2.04, 1.73. Basically, other than the 3.40 in 1998, Pedro was as amazing a pitcher as Koufax was. Only Pedro pitched in one of the highest-scoring eras in baseball history. In Fenway Park. In the AL East. Koufax pitched in the greatest pitching era since the dead-ball era in Dodger Stadium. This is what accounts for the MASSIVE discrepancy in ERA+. In case you don’t know, that 213 ERA+ means Pedro was 113% better than the average pitcher (67% for Koufax).

I just want to get across that Pedro Martinez was better than Sandy Koufax. But the old people that still think otherwise don’t read this blog, unfortunately.

5/19

No-hitters by people with one hand: 1. No-hitters by New York Mets: 0.

Jim Abbott > Tom Seaver.

5/21

Ubaldo Jimenez: 8-1, 0.99 ERA, 58 K. Zack Greinke, 2009, thru 9 starts: 7-1, 0.82 ERA, 73 K.

I remember many people saying Greinke had already locked up the AL Cy Young at this point last year, but considering the way Roy Halladay is pitching (and his team), Jimenez has some work left ahead of him.

5/21

Pedro Martinez, 2000: 1.74 ERA. Roger Clemens, 2000, 2nd in AL: 3.70 ERA.

Almost a full 2-run difference. That season Pedro’s ERA+ was 291. In closing, Pedro Martinez in his prime was the greatest pitcher baseball has ever seen.

I love Johan. He’s been one of the few guys on this Mets team that I’ve never been truly disappointed in. And I’ll never forget that gem he threw in the second-to-last game of the 2008 season.

But: he’s signed to a massive contact through at least 2013, with a club option for 2014. Roy Halladay will be making less over the same period and at this point looks like he will easily be the superior pitcher over the next few years. I can’t get on Omar for the contract, but I really hope Johan can stop his decline and at least maintain his performance of the past two years. I’m just not sure that’s going to happen. Pedro Martinez was all but done being Pedro at 33. I see Johan as basically Pedro-lite, and he turns 33 in two years.

If you want to see pretty graphs detailing Johan’s decline since his epic 2004 season, hit the jump.

Striking out guys at a progressively lower rate is never good.

Walking guys at a progressively HIGHER rate is never good, either.

Combine the two and you get:

Well, that’s just bad. Shit.

Of course, when you strike out less guys, that means more guys are making contact. Hopefully those guys making contact aren’t making good contact.

I guess not. Now, pitchers don’t have much control over their BABIP, but they do have a bit. Johan is fooling batters just a tiny bit less each year.

So more guys are making contact, and that contact is apparently getting better (or the Mets’ fielding is just worse than the Twins’, which is very possible). That equals:

So far this 2010 — no thanks to that debacle on Sunday — batters are hitting him like he’s an average pitcher. Fuck.

So guys are hitting for a higher average off of him and also walking more. That can only mean one thing:

More and more baserunners.

Now, I don’t get why Fangraphs doesn’t have graphs for FIP and xFIP, and I could easily make graphs for them myself, but instead I’m just going to post his SIERA for the past 7 seasons in big bold digits. (SIERA being a superior metric for measuring future performance than xFIP.)

2004 – 2.38
2005 – 2.73
2006 – 2.74
2007 – 2.76
2008 – 3.61
2009 – 3.55
2010 – 3.80

He hasn’t been the same pitcher since he came to the Mets (and you can argue it started his last year with the Twins), but he’s done a damn good job of hiding that fact most of the time. It’s just the times where he gives up a grand slam to Felix Hernandez, or walks 71-year-old Jamie Moyer, that one can plainly see he’s past his peak.

All graphs courtesy of Fangraphs.

OH MY GOD K-ROD YOU JUST WALKED THE GUY IN FRONT OF ALBERT PUJOLS YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE

THANK GOD TONY LARUSSA IS OBVIOUSLY FUCKING DRUNK AS SHIT

THE METS HAVE FACED A POSITION PLAYER PITCHING FOR TWO INNINGS AND STILL HAVEN’T WON

Yet they eventually won. Jerry Manuel and Tony LaRussa were competing to see who could win the award for Worst Managed Game of 2010 and LaRussa won. He double-switched Matt Holliday out of the game, allowing Albert Pujols to be protected by the pitcher’s slot in the lineup. Then he refused to pinch-hit for two relief pitchers when they came up to the plate with the bases loaded in the 12th and 14th innings. And in 19th, he had Ryan Ludwick steal with Albert Pujols at plate. He also mismanaged his bullpen totally, forcing him to use position players.

Fuck this, I’m done running down the disaster that was this pathetic display of baseball. Tony LaRussa fucking sucks more than Jerry Manuel. Pretty incredible. K-Rod also sucks at pitching. I can’t wait to pay him $17.5 million in 2012.

It’s funny how downtrodden I am after a win, but the Mets continue to break me after I thought I was already totally broken. Many fans point to Game 7 of 2006 NLCS as the most painful feeling, but at that time there was so much optimism for the future that it made the devastating loss a bit easier to swallow. The collapse redux in 2008 is what officially broke me. Now, in 2010, I have so little hope for the immediate future that it’s getting really fucking tough to give a shit. It took the Mets more than two full games to win a game — or just score a fucking run — in which they had their ace facing yet another 5th starter. It was beyond pathetic.

Oh, and Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a no-hitter today. Ubaldo Jimenez 1 – Mets 0.

The Mets had about as easy an opening week a team could hope for: three games against the Marlins, and three games against the Nationals. Both of these series were at home. Yet the Mets are currently 2-4 and in the cellar in the National League East. The good thing is that this only constitutes 1/27th of a full season. The other good thing is that I expected the Mets to do fuckall this season. They’re already 3.5 games behind the Phillies — a distance which will only increase as the summer rolls by. I just don’t enjoy watching the Mets lose a game where they are pitting Johan Santana against Livan Hernandez, a man whose age is listed at 35, but who is actually closer to 50 due to being from Cuba. The Mets couldn’t score a run off of him in seven innings. I’m glad I thought twice about purchasing tickets for what seemed to be a perfect Sunday game. I sat in my room staring at the TV mouth agape inning after pathetic inning. Superstitiously, I knew the game was over once Johan gave up a grand slam in the first inning, but some allegedly logical voice in my head told me the Mets should be able to score off a man who throws 85 mph fastballs. Logic did not prevail.

I just read a book called “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives”; I guess Sunday’s debacle was just a perfect example of all the coins landing on heads for the Nationals. But the book also says how our minds don’t exactly process randomness and probabilities and statistics correctly. My anger over this particular loss perfectly demonstrates this fact. Every fifth game, I expect a win, or at least a close game — not a 5-0 game for practically the entire game, until the Mets added a couple of trademark meaningless runs when it was already too late.

Of course, it isn’t just Sunday’s game. Mike Jacobs has sucked so bad that I find myself longing for Daniel Murphy. John Maine and Oliver Perez have showed no evidence of turning back the clock to 2007. David Wright still can’t make routine throws across the diamond. Gary Matthews Jr. has been up to the plate 18 times already; Alex Cora, 21 times.

Luckily, Matthews and Cora won’t continue getting those at-bats. Jose Reyes is back; Carlos Beltran will be back SOMETIME. With those two back, along with Murphy being an upgrade at 1B if he repeats his second-half performance last year, the offense will actually be formidable. Unfortunately, I don’t expect Jeff Francoeur to continue walking at record pace or slamming extra base hits. Somehow Francoeur has been walking so much while swinging at MORE pitches out of the strike zone; something’s got to give, and it’s going to be his OBP. But he gained a metric shitload of goodwill with me by launching a 275-foot laser to throw out lazy fucktard Adam Dunn tagging up from 3rd base. That was fucking awesome. With Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran manning the other two outfield spots, maybe — a big maybe — I can withstand Frenchy in RF.

The bright spots have been the starts of Mike Pelfrey and Jon Niese, but it’s hard to get excited from one start. It’s much easier to get pissed off at players that everyone knows suck…sucking. God, Mike Jacobs fucking SUCKS. At least Alex Cora made some nice plays that would have made Luis Castillo’s knees explode when he filled in for him. And Gary Matthews Jr. should NOT be playing over Angel Pagan. Fuck you Jerry Manuel.

Tonight, I get to watch John Maine pitch in Coors Field. I predict three home runs. I also get to watch Angel Pagan bat 8th because “Pagan at No. 8 is [Manuel's] way of testing him 2 spots in front of Reyes.” Are you fucking kidding me? Yes, because having the pitcher in between them is basically the same as one leading off while the other hits 3rd. Kill me. Or blow up the team from the top.

This post might end up being the longest stream-of-consciousness post I’ve ever made. I’m not going to be looking up projections or Vegas lines or predictions while typing it up. I’m not going to be calculating stats in spreadsheets. I’m not even going to link anywhere else, since I’ll just do that in my link post later today. This is going to be the same talk you would get from me if you ran into me at the bar right now, devoid of Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs (I would link, but that’d be already breaking my promise).

While I’m giddy about meaningful baseball kicking off again, my excitement is of course tempered by the knowledge that the Mets will be lucky to break .500. There’s no way Omar Minaya actually believes the bullshit he spouts during an interview with Mike Francesa on WFAN, specifically when he insists he has some sort of faith in the starting rotation. He calls back to past performance of John Maine and Oliver Perez, but the last year they were good was 2007. And it’s not about past performance. It’s about future performance, and there’s not much of a reason to believe that either pitcher will regain their best form — and their best form isn’t exactly mind-blowing. Maine doesn’t have the late movement on his fastball that allowed him to throw it so frequently years ago. Perez just did not have the same stuff this spring, much like when he pitched last season. Maybe he’ll walk less than a man an inning this time around, though. I guess I have to hope Mike Pelfrey and Jonathan Niese live up to their potential.

Shall I go on about the Mets before I spout my thoughts on the rest of the league? The Opening Day lineup has to the most pathetic $130 million can buy. Gary Matthews Jr., Alex Cora, Luis Castillo, Jeff Francoeur, Mike Jacobs, and Rod Barajas will make up two-thirds of it. REPLACEMENT LEVEL LINEUP GO! I would certainly play Angel Pagan over Matthews Jr. and if the Mets are going to have Ruben Tejada on the Opening Day roster, there’s no way I want a 20-year-old who has been tearing it up this spring sitting on the bench while Alex Fucking Cora plays SS. And if somehow he does well while Reyes is hurt, move him over to 2B. The results of such a move certainly wouldn’t be any worse than Daniel Murphy in LF last season. I don’t care about starting his arbitration clock. The Mets have a lot of goddamn money.

Johan Santana will stand out quite a bit in that disaster of an Opening Day lineup. Shit, he’s a better hitter than some of the guys in front of him. Together with David Wright and Jason Bay, he makes up the trifecta of players with any significant value until Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran come back. Daniel Murphy isn’t awful — especially if he repeats his second-half performance from last year — but he’s not exactly a heavy hitter for 1B, either.

Concerning David Wright, I’ve been predicting 23 HR for a while, but his spring — stupidly — has me a bit more optimistic at this point. He looks really good at the plate. If he took roids, I’m glad. He needed them. Bay will be the second-best hitter on the team, while covering a 20 square foot area in LF. I don’t know what the hell to expect from Reyes and Beltran once they return, I really don’t.

Have I written a diatribe on Jenrry Mejia yet? Oh yeah, I have. But the Mets didn’t listen to me and they’re going to put him in the bullpen. Fuck everything. Francisco Rodriguez will continue his decline. Pedro Feliciano and Sean Green combining for 8th inning duties isn’t a terrible idea, though. Bullpens are always tough to predict, I feel. Having said that, I do think the Mets’ has a very real potential to be a disaster, which undoubtedly is why they felt the need to put Mejia in it. Sigh.

I think I’m done with the Mets. Perhaps I’ll add additional thoughts when I get to the NL East.

AL EAST

Yankees 102-60

Red Sox 96-66

Rays 91-71

Orioles 74-88

Blue Jays 67-95

The Yankees are fucking stacked, plain and simple. They have $200 million to throw around each year and starting with last offseason, they’ve really learned how to spend it wisely. Supplementing the massive three deals they inked to cement that World Series title, they went out and grabbed Javier Vasquez and Curtis Granderson in two disgustingly good trades, despite what many Yankee fans may say about trading Melky.

The Red Sox aren’t exactly far behind — they just have a lot more value hidden in their fielding. No team’s lineup comes close to the Yankees, so the Sawx decided to grab a few defensive specialists who can also hit a bit in Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron, and also signed John Lackey to form an extremely formidable 1-2-3 combo. I think it’s the best in the majors, as Jon Lester will be phenomenally good.

And then there’s the rest of the division. It’s sad that the Rays are an afterthought, but I just don’t see them contending with the Yankees and Red Sox. They’ll put up a good effort through most of the summer, though. Poor Orioles and Blue Jays. I guess at least Orioles fans still have some young players to watch in Matt Wieters, Nick Markakis, and Brian Matusz. Jays fans have…Adam Lind? And oh, Aaron Hill. Yeah.

AL CENTRAL

Twins 84-78

White Sox 83-79

Tigers 79-83

Indians 76-86

Royals 68-94

As seemingly always, this division can go a lot of ways. I don’t see the Indians as a contender, though (the Royals go without saying). People might point to Joe Nathan going down as a reason why the Twins might not win the division, but he’s not as important as he might seem. No closer is. The Twins have a pretty damn good lineup that I think will carry them. The White Sox have the pitching. And the Tigers have a bit of both. Any of them can win, I think — but I have to put my fake money on the Twins and Joe Mauer.

I don’t think the Indians have an ace pitcher to trade away this season — unless Fausto Carmona makes a huge comeback. If his ERA is around 3.00 come August, I wonder which team he’ll end up with.

The Royals suck. If only Zack Greinke could pitch every game.

AL WEST

Mariners 86-76

Angels 85-77

Rangers 85-77

Athletics 75-87

My sabermetric leanings almost force me to pick the Mariners, with their emphasis on defense. The Cliff Lee trade created an insane 1-2 punch with Felix Hernandez (unfortunately, it won’t kick into gear until a month into the season). The Chone Figgins signing was also a great move. On the other hand, the Angels just always outplay their numbers. It’s uncanny. And the Rangers have an obscenely young team that I wish I was a fan of. This will be a very, very interesting division. I predict 1276453 mentions of how badly the A’s are doing and whether Billy Beane has lost his touch or whether MONEYBALL works anymore.

AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez, Mariners

I’m picking Mauer for the MVP, so I didn’t want to pick both of last year’s winners. So since King Felix was pretty damn awesome last year and I predict his team to win the AL West, I’ll go with him.

AL MVP: Joe Mauer, Twins

The best player in the American League, hands-down.

AL ROY: Brian Matusz, Orioles

He seemed popular in my auction fantasy draft. That’s enough evidence for me.

AL Champion: Yankees

Baseball playoffs are so unpredictable, so this is a pick that can get a bit creative, but I can’t bring myself to pick against this $200 million juggernaut.

NL EAST

Phillies 90-72

Braves 84-78

Marlins 80-82

Mets 78-84

Nationals 74-88

I’ve seen a few projection systems putting the Braves above the Phillies. I really cannot see that happening, barring a Mets-like injury bug befalling the Phillies. I’m talking Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth all going down. Sure, the Braves rotation is pretty solid all the way through, but the Phillies lineup is just too good. And now they have Roy Halladay. Brad Lidge also can’t be any worse than he was last year.

But the Braves will be good enough to contend for the wild-card (and I predict them to win it), as I think Chipper Jones has one good season left in him and Jason Heyward will have a solid season at age 20. I might actually be underestimating the Marlins, as opposed to the Mets. The Nationals won’t contend this year at all, but they definitely have the pieces in place for a possible run in 2011. Even if Stephen Strasburg pulls a Mark Prior, he’ll still be good for a year and a half before he falls off the face of the baseball earth!

NL CENTRAL

Cardinals 89-73

Reds 79-83

Brewers 79-83

Cubs 79-83

Astros 75-87

Pirates 70-92

The Cardinals — and then everyone else. This division is mediocrity defined. I can’t even bring myself to type anything up, because 1) I’ve used up my energy at this point, and 2) the Midwest sucks. Other than the Cardinals, all these teams could be dissolved tomorrow and I wouldn’t give a fuck. Keep Wrigley Field standing as a U.S. Historical Landmark signifying pure ineptitude.

NL WEST

Rockies 87-75

Dodgers 83-79

Giants 81-81

Diamondbacks 79-83

Padres 72-90

Yes, the Rockies. The Dodgers have Vicente Padilla lined up as their opening day starter. The Giants lineup is still godawful. The D-Backs are depending on Brandon Webb to regain his previous form and I’m not sure it’s going to happen. And the Padres only have one Adrian Gonzalez. A World Series game in November in Denver would be interesting.

NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay, Phillies

I love Tim Lincecum, but winning three Cy Youngs in a row is tough, and Halladay is going to eat the NL alive. The most formidable lineup in the league is the one he takes the field with. 20 W, 2.50 ERA, 220 Ks. Book it.

NL MVP: Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies

This is the biggest limb any prognosticator can go on. I am not predicting that Albert Pujols will win the NL MVP award. I just want ANYONE else to win it, and if the Rockies win the NL West on the back of another fantastic season from their sure-handed shortstop, I think this prediction has a non-zero chance of coming true.

NL ROY: Jason Heyward, Braves

Really, who else am I going to pick?

NL Champion: Cardinals

This time around, I don’t think the Phillies rotation will do as well in the playoffs. As amazing as Roy Halladay is, it’s practically impossible for him to be better than Cliff Lee was. Meanwhile, I think the duo of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright will actually win some playoff games. This is probably wishful thinking.

World Series Champion: Yankees

Yeah. Whatever.

So there we go. Are you ready for the season to start?

Tonight. 8:05 PM EDT. Yankees vs. Red Sox. ESPN. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Goddamn it.

I find myself getting a bit too excited about this season. This shouldn’t be happening, considering the medical problems and accompanying confusion is seemingly already at full throttle. While Carlos Beltran recovers from surgery, Jose Reyes has an overactive thyroid — maybe. At least Francisco Rodriguez is out of pink-eye containment. Injuries and medical conditions can be unpredictable, and when complications arise due to negligence, legal support becomes crucial. Trust an Anaheim medical malpractice lawyer to guide you through the complexities of your case, advocating fiercely for your rights and interests.

But the reasons I’m excited are the young players. That’s what gets any baseball fan looking to the future excited (you know, since this season is pretty much a lost cause). Ike Davis is crushing home runs and hitting over .500. Fernando Martinez is tearing the cover off the ball as well. And Jenrry Mejia looks ready to blow away big league hitters right now. Yet I shouldn’t be getting excited for this season due to any of that. One, it’s spring training, and barely over a week into it. Two, I’m pretty sure none of these guys will break camp with the major league team. And the one guy that seems to have the best shot — Mejia — I don’t want to start the season in the Mets’ bullpen. He needs to continue to develop as a starting pitcher, not only because that makes sense in any situation, but particularly because the Mets’ rotation doesn’t look like world-beaters going forward. The Dominican kid has ace potential, as evidenced by the stuff on display here. Please don’t fuck him up. Please don’t.

Meanwhile, David Wright seems capable of hitting home runs again, Johan Santana is not quite back in the pitching groove yet, and Oliver Perez still sucks. That’s all I’ve got at the moment. I just needed to check in.

Why do I care at all? I already knew the Mets weren’t going anywhere this year. Oh, you signed Jason Bay? Congrats, you made up for the black fucking hole in right field. At least the pitching market seems totally stagnant. Maybe the Mets won’t have to give Joel Pineiro more than 2/15. We’ll see.

But still, I can’t remember what I write on this blog or in IM or on forums, so I’ll just say it’s amazing how far this organization has fallen since 2006. Holy shit. Even after that devastating Game 7, there were at least five reasons to be excited about the next few years. And look what the fuck has happened. Jose Reyes never reached that imaginary MVP potential so many people were hoping and now he may have permanently lost a step. Beltran, who the fuck knows. David Wright had a power outage of historical proportions. Oliver Perez is a headcase. John Maine can’t stay healthy. Sigh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdiGFDkVEhg

Jerry Manuel
David Wright
Johan Santana
Mike Pelfrey
John Maine
Francisco Rodriguez
Daniel Murphy
Carlos Beltran
Jeff Francoeur

Reyes on the trading block, confirmed.