Mostly Mets

Blogging mostly about the New York Mets since 2004.

Oswalt Upset With Danny Garcia

Reader Sam M points out Tom Verducci’s current column on the Sports Illustrated website in which Roy Oswalt complains about something Danny Garcia said to him during a game. Oswalt was upset because Garcia showed him no respect. Oswalt goes on to complain that if he would throw at Garcia the umps would give him a warning. The basic gist of the article is Oswalt’s lament how rookies of today, particularly hitters, have less respect than in the past.

I say Oswalt is just being a wuss. He’s probably right about younger players in general having less respect. If he feels that strongly then by all means he should throw at the guy just like pitchers of yesteryear always did. Last I checked throwing at a guy was just as illegal 25 years ago as it is today. I don’t advocate throwing at guys but since Oswalt brought it up if Garcia’s lack of respect ticked off Oswalt that much then Oswalt should take his chances and throw at him instead of complaining to a reporter. That’s what Don Drysdale would have done.

Comments to this post

Top Ten Least Popular Yankee Stadium Souvenirs

lefty at YankeesSuck.com has a very amusing top ten list.

Comments to this post

New Format

I hope you like the new 3 column format I implemented today. I changed to this format because it brings all the sidebar links higher up on the page making them easier to access. Also, with the old format these sidebar links were hidden when viewing archived items because of the color scheme. By putting the sidebar items in their own boxes with a different background I have resolved that issue. Besides that all of the features present in the old format are here too. Use the comments link below to let me know what you think of the new look.

Comments to this post

YM&TR on the Grant Roberts Situation

Vinny at Yankees, Mets & the Rest has written a post about Grant Roberts’s shoulder surgery with a cute punchline.

Comments to this post

Time To Be Optimistic, Cautious

Based on the last few games you’d figure us fans would be on top of the world. And we are. Our team has won four out of the last five games capped with a dramatic finish on Sunday. They were expected to lose all five due to the level of the competition (Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte & Roger Clemens).

So why not be optimistic? Because these are the Mets we’re talking about here. If history has taught us anything it’s that five games does not make a season. You could be on top of the world one day and trampled on the next.

What’s my conclusion? It’s OK to be optimistic. (As you can tell by my post after James Baldwin‘s first start I believe in optimism and not judging people too quickly.) But while we’re being optimistic it’s also important to be cautious. The road to hell is paved with people who, after beating the toughest of competitors, fell to the lowest opponents. Let’s hope these Mets don’t join them.

Notes:

Both the New York Post and the Stamford Advocate have pieces on Braden Looper.

There are rumor circulating this morning that Grant Roberts will have surgery soon. The rumors are coming from this story in the New York Daily News. My take? There’s obviously something going on behind the scenes here because this situation is just too weird. I’m very curious to see what the whole story is once the smoke clears.

Comments to this post

Can That Really Happen?

Sammy Sosa sat out yesterday’s game with back spasms brought on by sneezing. Go figure.

Comments to this post

Today’s random Thoughts

Some things I wanted to catch up on:

Ricky Gutierrez was designated for assignment (DFAed) to make room for Cliff Floyd who came back from the DL. Gutierrez did nothing to distinguish himself (in a positive way) in his short stay with the Mets. Couple that with the emergence of Danny Garcia and Gutierrez becomes the obvious choice.

James Baldwin was DFAed to open a spot on the roster for Matt Ginter. Ginter started in place of Al Leiter yesterday and pitched well enough to keep the Mets in the game against Roger Clemens and earn his spot as number five starter of the moment. Baldwin was lousy in two starts for the Mets and one has to think that his career is probably over.

The Grant Roberts situation just keeps getting wierder. First Art Howe stops using him. Then he gets DFAed. Then he claims he’s injured (even though he never complained about being injured before he was designated). Then Mets team physicians say he’s not injured. Then he gets a second opinion who says he is injured. Then it gets really weird. Roberts is on an operating table partially anesthetized when a call comes from Mets officials saying he cannot have surgery because Mets team physicians say he’s not injured. So Roberts gets outrighted to Norfolk instead of getting cut. I’m dying to see what happens next in this odd soap opera.

Art Howe announced that Mike Piazza is transitioning from a Catcher/First Baseman to a First Baseman/Catcher meaning that he will start to play more first base and catch maybe once or twice a week. It’ll be interesting to see if this is just an experiment or if it’s serious and how Piazza’s defense improves at first with the increased playing time. I’m still trying to figure out how Eric Valent fits into the first base situation. Valent has been taking grounders at first base recently. What’s the point in doing that if Piazza is going to be there so often? Stay tuned.

Howe got thrown out of yesterday’s game for arguing a call. It’s nice to see Howe show some fire. Unlike a lot of Mets fans I think Howe is a serviceable manager. That doesn’t mean he’s the right manager for this team but I don’t think he’s as bad as many of the other Mets bloggers think.

Comments to this post

Shut Up, Michael Moore!

I know this isn’t a political blog but…

I wish movie director Michael Moore would shut up already. He recently ripped into President Bush at the Cannes Film Festival. I’m not necessarily opposed to his opinions (sometimes I agree with him and sometimes I disagree with him) and he’s just as entitled to his opinions as everyone else. I’m just getting sick of his holier than though attitude and his thinking that he knows better. His movies and his mouthing off in public surely call attention to issues but if he truly wants to make a difference then he should do things that make a difference. Donate some ridiculously large sum of money somewhere or run for office or something. Anything. But please shut up already!

Comments to this post

Quick Post

I don’t have much time to write this morning so I’ll be quick.

The Mets managed to prevail in Houston yesterday beating the Astros bullpen to capture their 4th win in 5 games. Why is this so important? Because in those 5 games they faced Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte & Roger Clemens. These are 5 of the top pitchers in the league. And even though they didn’t necessarily beat one of these pitchers (for instance Clemmens was dominant in his innings yesterday and was already out of the game when the Mets tied and eventually won) it showed that they can at least hang in there and compete with the best of them. Let’s just hope they don’t turn into one of those teams that rise to the occasion when competing against the best and then show how lousy they can truly be when play against lesser opponents. (That happens every year to the Knicks.)

Comments to this post

Mets Notes

I have alot to say today so let’s get to work!

Vance Wilson started at catcher and had his second consecutive strong outing hitting a 3 run homer that gave the Mets a 3-1 lead, a lead which they would never relinquish. The Mets went on to win the game 7-4.

Jae Seo pitched 5 decent innings but left the game with a blister on his right index finger, the one with the broken fingernail. Art Howe has said that Seo will make his next start on schedule.

Wilson filled in at catcher while Mike Piazza started his second consecutive game at first base. Jason Phillips started at catcher on Wednesday.

As expected, Cliff Floyd was activated before the game and hit an RBI single in the 9th inning of last night’s game. To make room for Floyd the Mets designated Ricky Gutierrez for assignment. Gutierrez was made expendable by his poor performance and the emergence of Danny Garcia as a serviceable infielder.

On April 26 I reported that Al Leiter was pitching with a sore shoulder. Leiter refused to get it looked at because he felt that at this point in his career he would not have surgery. In that post I said the following:

I respect his (Leiter’s) decision of not wanting surgery but if this is going to cost him innings and/or effectiveness then he owes it to his teammates to get it checked out and see what the issue is and learn how to deal with it. That’s part of being a team player and a team leader.

Well it turn out that my words were prophetic. Leiter will miss his scheduled start on Sunday (against the Houston Astros and Roger Clemens) because of the shoulder. Leiter has flown back to New York to have his shoulder examined today. I’m no medical person but I have to question the wisdom of not getting it checked out earlier. Who knows if he could have avoided missing a start if he would have just gotten it checked out earlier? And what additional damage may have been done by pitching in this condition? The answers to these questions are secondary. The real issue is that we should not have to question a guy like Leiter who, as a team leader, should know that his health is an important ingredient to the teams chemistry. When you’re hurt you don’t wait for it to get worse. You get treatment right away and minimize risk.

On the subject of injuries, Grant Roberts will be getting a second opinion on his arm “injury” today. Mets team physician Andrew Rokito determined there was no serious injury. If the second opinion, Cincinnati Reds team physician Tim Kremcheck, determines that Roberts is, indeed, injured then Roberts would be eligible to file a grievance against the club for designating him for assignment while injured. The part that I don’t get is how Roberts would be eligible for such an action when he hid the injury from management and didn’t reveal he was hurt until after he was designated. I’m sure if management knew he was hurt they would have attempted to help him deal with it, though with how the Jose Reyes hamstring situation has been handled who could blame Roberts for keeping the injury to himself. Either way, I’d be very curious to see what his argument is considering he was withholding information from management.

Comments to this post

Powered by Wordpress | WP Premium theme by WP Remix
Copyright 2007. Mostly Mets. All rights reserved

• Home
• MostlyMets Store
• Sitemap