In his inaugural post he wrote:

So, I’m here, and I’d like to be a part of the conversation. I’ll do my best to reply to comments/questions, though I can’t promise punctual responses or regular posts. After all, just like everyone else out there, I already have a job.

I think its pretty cool that somebody like him is doing this.  Naturally, because he has a job and is associated with a team, he can’t spill industry secrets or the formula for a winning team (not like he ever found it) but he is already dropping nuggets of well-thought out analysis. He also has addressed questions he’s gotten from readers, which is pretty neat - knowing that he cares about what people are asking him and the fact that he’s taking time to answer questions.  This blog is a nice gesture on his part.

I’m a bit curious about the name though…

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Last year, Darvish was 15-5 with a 1.82 ERA, and has already won the Japanese equivalent to the Cy Young award.

While Darvish is five years away from Japanese unrestricted free agency, he can be posted to MLB teams, similar to the way stars Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka have come over.  According to Caple, if Darvish were posted, peopole expect the posting bit to exceed the $50 million paid by the Red Sox for Matsuzaka, and perhaps exceed $75 million.

Caple quotes Trey Hillman, Royals manager and previous coach of Darvish in Japan, ”The curveball is just not fair. Honestly, it’s just not a fair pitch.”

Caple also profiles how Darvish is almost a rockstor in Japan in terms of popularity.  Trey Hillman likens Darvish’s popularity to Michael Jordon and Tiger Woods.

Really just a fantastic and informative read.

If he is posted, I have to imagine the Mets would be interested in a young SP stud that they could acquire without having to give up prospects, or even draft picks.  Yet, the idea of paying $75 million just to negotiate with the guy seems a little insane to me, but so is the market.

I’ve never heard anything but rave reviews on this guy, and I know Japanese baseball isn’t the same as baseball here, but he was 20 last year and in a full season had a 1.82 ERA. That’s just nuts.

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Hat tip to The’Ropolitans for the video

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On last night’s game:

“Those are tough but in a long season they are gonna happen. You gotta just forget about them and move on.”

On the Nationals nonsense in the dugout:

“It caught my attention a couple of times. I’m not used to seeing that in the Big Leagues. But I wouldn’t use the term Bush League to describe it. I think Figueroa’s performance affected his reaction to it.”

More on Figgy:

“He’s more than capable, he knows what he’s doing. The roster move is giving every performance more attention. But he’s been solid.”

On seemingly endless side stories with this team:

“Things get blown out of proportion. A lot more are made of these things than are discussed in the clubhouse. The Wagner/Perez thing was a story everywhere but here…. We barely discuss these things.”

On the clubhouse:

“I’ve been in a few and this is a great one. Everyone is loose. We had a great road trip, faced some top teams. Everyone enjoys each other, this is one of the best clubhouses I’ve been apart of.”

On this weekend’s Yankee series:

“I’ve never been involved in something like this so, yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I’m really excited. Even though it’s at Yankee Stadium I know there will be Mets fans there and I’ve never played there before so, it should be exciting.”

On Scott Schoeneweis:

“Yeah, I was happy to see him get a good hand. With what he’s gone through, it’s nice. He’s really come through for us.”

On how he feels with the Pitching staff:

“I’m feeling more comfortable even with the injury setback. I don’t have to think as much, I’m getting used to their movement. I can just stick with the game plan.”

Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts wrapped the interview by telling Schneider that it has been reported that Nats OF Elijah Dukes was the ring leader of the dugout antics from last night. So, maybe he should be dusted or plunked tonight. Schneider responded thusly:

“I’d rather strike him out, keep him off base. That’s the way I’d take care of it.”

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• Adam Rubin at the New York Daily News reports that Joe Smith sent down to make room for Wednesday’s starter, who is likely to be either Adam Bostick or Willie Collazo. Hopefully this is a temporary move and Smith will return with the team after Wednesday.
• “The Zen of Bobby V,” a documentary about Bobby Valentine living and managing baseball in Japan will air tonight at 9pm on ESPN2. The New York Times has details.
• Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News reports that Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez of SNY will broadcast Thursday’s Mets game from the upper deck behind home plate.

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“They were cheerleading in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls,” Figueroa said after the Mets lost to Washington, 10-4, in the series opener. “I’m a professional, just like anybody else. I take huge offense to that. If that’s what a last-place team needs to do to fire themselves up, so be it. I think you need to show a little bit more class, a little bit more professionalism. They won tonight, but again, in the long run, they are who they are.”

Ok, maybe that is true, maybe that is why the Nats are a last place team because they are a Bush League team and act like one. But maybe this Mets team is a .500 team because they cry about everything, the negativity at Shea, the booing, the injuries, being asked about last season, the Ollie/Wagner thing and the weather. Can someone just show some backbone. Hey, Figgy you don’t like what the Nats were doing in the dugout? Shut them down. Or maybe send a message by knocking someone on their a**.

When the Mets fell behind by five funs and it was still relatively early I thought this would be a great time for them to make one of those comebacks that good teams, teams that are going to have a special season make. But It was hard to muster up any optimism and that proved to be correct. So, here they are a .500 team and nobody is upset at themselves. Other than the few D. Wright and Willie Randolph cliche’s that are verbalized after every loss. I know the season is a marathon, don’t wanna get to high, don’t wanna get to low. I get it.

There just doesn’t seem to be any scrappyness, if that is a word, on this team. No, fight. Down by five and you just know it’s over. I hope I’m just frustrated and this team proves me wrong. But it just seems they take any excuse to whine after a game about something other than their bad play.

Note: Reader Rigginsorama points out in the comment section that Figueroa did indeed hit two batters last night. A bad omission by me. I do recall one of them. I chalked it up to Figgy having a tough time gripping the ball due to the weather. But he did hit two batters like Rigginsorama brought to my attention. So, my bad, maybe Figgy was trying to send some kind of message and if so, good for him.

Figueroa’s quote via Adam Rubin of The Daily News.

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The Mets had 12 hits, but not in a manner that scored runs. Reyes went 2 for 4 but was caught stealing second. Alou doubled on a 3 for 5 night. Easley and Wright both had solo homeruns.  

Poor pitching more than anything else tonight. You can try to blame the cold, but its not like it was magically warm up on the mound during the half innings that the Mets were up to bat. Who cares what Dukes was doing, if you get rattled that easily you shouldn’t be playing in New York, or you’re Ollie Perez. I’m sure Straw heard 100x worse coming from the stands in the outfield. The Mets have always seemed commited to Sosa, but with his struggling and Smith still performing, one has to wonder whats happening when its time to reactivate Matt Wise. Offense wise, 12 hits is a good sign, but when 9 of the 12 are singles its generally not going to be enough to win ball games. Unless of course, they all come in one inning.

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The email exchange centered around the accuracy of details of Delgado’s contract as published in the one of Graziano’s recent sidebars. Graziano did not publish the email today to set the facts straight. He published the email to show all his readers that Sloane is “insane” as he clearly headlined - “Breaking News - Delgado’s Agent is Insane”

Sloane does prove himself to be a number of things, mostly unprofessional for calling Graziano a retard. He even got a yo momma dig in there for good measure. Nobody is arguing that Sloane is a normal human being.

But the post raises questions about whether the same rules that guide journalists’ stories should loosely guide what they write on their official newspaper blogs. Graziano argued via MetsBlog that since he published the email on his blog and not in the newspaper, it was kosher. According to Graziano, the blog is supposed to show the funny side of the beat writer’s experience.

While the email is in and of itself kind of funny, I think publishing it was an abuse of Graziano’s power. As a journalist myself I can’t count the number of times I wish I could publish a PR person’s rant after the fact. It happens on a weekly basis- flacks and sources call up to complain after a story runs even when they did not call you back for comment in the first place. I’ve been called names(although never a retard) and had my sourcing questioned. It’s part of the job - you argue your point, you print corrections when they are warranted and then you write your next story.

I’m sure it’s not news to other journalists that Sloane is insane, and so these sorts of exchanges should be saved for the press box. I’m not as sure that Sloane’s comments fall under the definition of what is news for most readers. It’s a slippery slope. We like to see how some of the sausage is made but I found this example a bit vindictive. While official newspaper blogs can be a little bit looser with some standards and should share some behind the scenes stories, I don’t see how they can have carte blache to fire missiles even at those that are “insane”.

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Considering the size of Shea, the amount of food served, and that the hot dogs taste suspiciously like Jose Valentin, who no one’s seen in weeks, 58 violations isn’t that bad. Especially since its in the same city that had a KFC where rats were videotaped running rampant. Lets face it, its a miracle half the beer doesn’t contain jet fuel particles that filtered down from LaGuardia. Hopefully they’ll have this number down to 40 once Citi Field is open.

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Nelson Figueroa , the once and future Hometown Hero, takes the mound. Figgy is 2-2, 4.81 ERA. Pretty good for a guy who almost had to play in Mexico. He’s coming off his worst start of the season, a five inning, five run, eight hit affair that resulted in a loss by just one out in LA. However, Figgy is an Brooklyn boy, and he’s back at Shea tonight, where he’s 2-0 with a 3.32 ERA. Add in his 2.76 career ERA against the Nats, and maybe we got ourselves a nice little ball game. Thats right, getting Figgy with it.

He’ll face Odalis Perez, who is still hunting for his first win of the season. Perez is 0-3, but only has a 3.43 ERA, and has served up 34 strikeouts. He’s given 55 of them to the Mets over his 17 career appearances against the team, during which he had a 3.93 ERA. He took a loss last time he met the Mets, in the 6-0 blowout, of which he gave up 2 runs and walked 4. While he does have five no decisions, the Nats won three of them.

Lineups courtesy of Mets Blog:

• SS Reyes
• RF Church
• 3B Wright
• CF Beltran
• LF Alou
• 1B Delgado
• 2B Easley
• C Schneider
• P Figueroa

In hopes to be more like Arod, Luis Castillo is out with a quad injury. There is no word on if he will get the DL hook, though its safe to say if he does they might wait until Wednesday when they need to call upon a pitcher to do so.

With Luis out, Ryan Church comes back to the sacred second in the batting order spot, and Damion Easley joins the lineup, batting seventh. Church by the way, leads the team in average (.321), HRs (7), runs (28), and bad jokes in blogs about churches (308). He’s hitting .364 against his former team, including one home run and two doubles.

Moises Alou meanwhile, is .318 against the former Montreal Expos, over 280 at bats. In a slightly smaller sample size, he’s .375 against Perez, in 16 at bats. He’s hit in his last five games.

Lastly, Carlos Beltran , whose May is better than his April, is .375 against Perez, and had a home run in his last appearance against the Nats. It was his last home run till he knocked one out yesterday afternoon against the Reds.

Game time is 7:10, and you can watch it in all its glory on SNY, or enjoy the sweet tones of Howie on WFAN. If you prefer reading, join us in the Hot Foot Bleachers where we’ll discuss the game, Mets baseball, and other blogs that Keith Hernandez reads.

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My favorite was his Gary Carter. Funny stuff.

Via Yard Barker

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Nice.

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Hat Tip to Awful Announcing for the video

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We rounded Shea, passing gates E and D, and Mom wondered if we shouldn’t just enter at the next gate, lest she risk missing out on the pink Mother’s Day Mets hat. I assured her I’d scour the stadium and secure a hat for her if gate A (the gate printed on our tickets) was out. No problem, there were plenty left, and after Mom collected her hat, we headed up the escalator to the Mezz box. Whoops! The escalator stopped at the Loge level and we had to walk up the rest of the way. “They just don’t care about Shea anymore,” my brother said.

I found my seat and, still convinced of the warmth of the day, removed my jacket. I checked the lineups and said to my brother, “I don’t think Junior Griffey is playing, he’s not number three, is he?” A woman in the row in front of me interrupted: “He’s three. He’s playing.” I love Mets fans.

Twenty minutes later I put my jacket back on. The wind swirled around the stadium something fierce and it turned out to be lousy baseball weather after all. An older woman next to me said, “I came prepared.” When I say “older,” I’m wildly underselling it. This nice lady had to be eighty, at least, and she had on a fairly light jacket herself. If she could brave the elements, I would’ve had to be the biggest wuss on the planet to complain about them myself. So I didn’t complain.

“What’s the score?” the elderly woman asked. I told her the Mets were winning 3-0.

“Who’s pitching?” she asked. I told her Oliver Perez.

“We always see Oliver Perez,” she said.

Later in the game, she told me she had “been a Met since 1962.” (Note: she definitely said “Met” and not “Met fan,” which I found endearing.) By the end of the game, she was saying, “Jose always pitches when we come.” Hey, she held it together for quite a while, and she has been a Met since 1962, so I think we’ll all cut her a little slack.

Mom enjoyed the win, and the lack of the boos that went with it. Seriously, I don’t think I heard a single boo of a Mets player. Even Scott Schoeneweis got applauded. See Scott? All you have to do is pitch well!

As for the rest of the baseball, Ollie threw a nice game, but still walked too many guys (four, which was one more than the line I’d set when my brother asked me, “what’s the over/under for walks by Oliver Perez?”). Carlos Beltran looked completely locked in even on the pitches he lined foul. I don’t think he’ll keep up his pace of 4 RBIs per day, but I think he’s going to have an excellent season. I was happy to see Joe Smith come on and get a strikeout. I still hold out the faint hope that the Mets won’t send him to New Orleans, and will instead part with the largely useless Jorge Sosa (11 strikeouts, 9 walks, and a 5.66 ERA—who cares if he’s out of options?). Mets.com, however, is trying to quash all optimism by printing sentences like: “The move, now not likely until Wednesday, appears to be what it was initially — Wise activated, Joe Smith optioned.” Come on Front Office, that’s the move of a poorly run franchise.

After Smith closed out the eighth, our offense staged a mini-rally before faltering, and the Reds were due up for one last time. Then we transported to another baseball universe. I could’ve sworn I saw David Ross get up, make an out, and then, after the umpires had a long discussion with the managers, come to the plate again. For those who haven’t heard, Ross wasn’t supposed to lead off the inning, Corey Patterson was. But they got up in the wrong order. My eyes hadn’t deceived me; it turned out that after Ross got up, they realized that he had batted out of order and declared him out (even though he had already made an out), but then he was up again, in his correct spot in the batting order. After Ross’s second at-bat—a hit, no less—an even longer discussion ensued among the umpires. I started yelling out things like, “You’re the best, Dusty!” and “Thanks a lot Dusty, none of us wanted to go home anyway.” In looking over the rules, it seems the umpires got this one right—if Ross had got the first time, he still would’ve been declared out and then come up again. I can’t believe there is a scenario where the same guy is allowed to get in the batter’s box two straight times. Baseball, you learn new things about it every day. Maybe that’s why Mom and I come back year after year.

Happy Mother’s Day to all Hot Foot Moms. And of course, Let’s Go Mets.

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Philip Humber, who was the Mets first-round pick in 2004, third overall, started out the season in Triple-A Rochester. He is 1-4 with a 5.29 ERA in seven starts, also appearing in three games in relief.

Kevin Mulvey, first pick of the Mets in the 2006 MLB Draft, also started out the season in Triple-A Rochester. Mulvey is 2-4 with a 4.03 ERA in seven starts and currently has 36 strikeouts, tied for ninth best in the International League.

The young 19-year old Deolis Guerra is pitching for the Fort Myers Miracle in Class-A Advanced. So far this season, in six starts, Guerra is 3-1 with a 4.32 ERA.

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Among the options include Brian Stokes, Adam Bostick, Tony Armas Jr. and Claudio Vargas.

Stokes pitched on Friday, which would put him in line to make a Wednesday start. He has been very up and down in his last few starts. In his May 4th start, he couldn’t make it through two batters, giving up six earned runs. His start this past Friday was much better, with Stokes going 8.1 innings, giving up just four hits and one earned run for the 3-1 win.

Bostick is 2-1 with a 3.89 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 39.1 innings pitched (8 starts).

Armas Jr. is 1-3 in seven starts with a 3.02 ERA in 28 strikeouts. Armas last pitched last Tuesday, going six innings and giving up three earned runs.

Finally, Claudio Vargas, who signed on with the team just over one month ago, is 1-1 in two starts with a 4.91 ERA for the Zephyrs. Vargas last pitched Thursday, May 8th.

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Pedro threw a 60 pitch session, part of which was a bullpen session and part was batting practice.  About the session Omar Minaya had to say, “It was a pretty good session. He threw all his pitches.”

According to Puma, Minaya refused to set a timetable for Pedro to throw in a simulated game, which presumably will be the next step.

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For the second day in a row, the Mets had back to back homeruns, todays courtesy of Beltran and Church in the fifth. Reyes looked good, going 3 for 5, two stolen bases, and his eight double of the season. Castillo tripled in his first at bat, on a two for three day, but was later pulled due to a sore quad. We can’t complain too much, I couldn’t walk to third from home let alone run out a triple. Marlon Anderson and Moises Alou had doubles of their own.

Are the Mets finally heating up, or is this just another tease? The Nats come to Shea tommorow, so we’ll find out then.

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After a earlier rain out washed away “Jets Night at Shea” it has now been rescheduled for Tuesday, July 8. Joe Klecko, Wesley Walker, Greg Buttle, Emerson Boozer, Randy Beverly and John Schmitt will be in attendance. For more info on the activities planned check out Bart Hubbuch at the NY Post’s Mets Blog.

Also, tune in to SNY at 6:00PM tonight and check out the documentary “Playing for Peanuts,” Jack Curry of the NY Times writes:

Anyone who watched Wally Backman play for the Mets and who has heard about his sad, twisted story will probably enjoy the film.

The website for Playing For Peanuts describes the Doc thusly:

“Playing for Peanuts” is a new TV show about minor league baseball. The show uses reality TV and documentary techniques to follow the South Georgia Peanuts in their inaugural season. The Peanuts are made up of a mix of rookies and veterans, all hoping to get back into affiliated minor league baseball. The Peanuts are managed by former Major League second baseman Wally Backman.

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