MLB – Page 5 – Keefe To The City

Jun 6, 2012

The All-Animosity Team

It’s time for the Third Annual All-Animosity Team, which consists of one player at each position, along with a starting pitcher, a closer and a manager from around the league.

Your team is up by one run in the eighth inning and the bases are loaded with two outs. Who is the last person you want to see coming to the plate?

Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Miguel Cabrera would be normal answers for non-Yankees fans, but ask a Yankees fan, and you might get Robert Andino, Carlos Pena or Howie Kendrick. Certain fans fear certain players differently, especially players on rival teams. I don’t feel confident when A-Rod is up against the Red Sox, but I have had Red Sox fans tell me they are scared when A-Rod is up. I could understand Derek Jeter or Robinson Cano (the most common answers), but A-Rod? If I ever get Mark Teixeira as an answer I might pass out.

Players that fan bases are scared of are usually also players that those fan bases hate. They are connected because usually hate players because of something they did to your team though there are times when you just hate a certain player because of who they are.

This brings us to the Third Annual All-Animosity Team, which consists of one player at each position, along with a starting pitcher, a closer and a manager from around the league. The standards to be considered for the team are simple and only one of the following three requirements needs to be met.

1. The person is a Yankee killer.

2. The person plays for the Red Sox.

3. I don’t like the person. (When I say, “I don’t like the person” or if I say, “I hate someone” I mean I don’t like the person who wears a uniform and plays or manages for a Major League Baseball team and not the actual person away from the game. I’m sure some of the people on this list are nice people. I’m glad we got that out of the way since I can already see Player X’s fan base in an uproar about me hating someone who does so much for the community.)

So, here is the 2012 All-Animosity Team with the winners from the previous years also listed.

C – Matt Wieters (2011 – Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 2010 – Jason Varitek)
Here are Wieters’ numbers against the Yankees this season.

14-for-30 (.467), 3 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBIs, .543 OBP, .767 SLG

The bad news is that the Orioles and Yankees still have to play 10 more games against each other this year. The worse news is that Wieters just turned 26 at the end of May. I have many, many, many more seasons of Wieters ruining summer nights for me.

1B – Adrian Gonzalez (2011 – Adrian Gonzalez, 2010 – Kevin Youkilis)
I really wanted to put Justin Morneau in this spot. Why? Well because Morneau is hitting .455/.571/1.273 against the Yankees this season with three home runs and four RBIs in just three games and 11 at-bats and he seems to hit three home runs in every series the Twins play at the Stadium. But Morneau never really stood a chance at making the team over Adrian Gonzalez.

Here are some quotes from Adrian Gonzalez following Game 162 of the 2011 season.

“We didn’t do a better job with the lead. I’m a firm believer that God has a plan and it wasn’t in his plan for us to move forward.”

“God didn’t have it in the cards for us.”

“We play too many night games on getaway days and get into places at 4 in the morning. This has been my toughest season physical because of that. We play a lot of night games on Sunday for television and those things take a lot out of you.”

“They can put the Padres on ESPN, too. The schedule really hurt us. Nobody is really reporting that.”

Forget that Gonzalez plays for the Red Sox. If you like the person who gave those excuses for the reason his team failed to make the playoffs then maybe you need to be on the All-Animosity Team of Life. If a Yankee had blamed the ALDS loss to the Tigers on anyone but themselves I would have turned into Nicolas Cage from any of these scenes.

2B – Dustin Pedroia (2011 – Dustin Pedroia, 2010 – Dustin Pedroia)
I hate to reuse what I wrote about Pedroia in this spot last year, but it still fits perfectly.

Pedroia is like Tom Brady for me. He has that winning instinct that you just don’t see all the time these days, he plays hard and he’s the type of guy you want on your team. But if I didn’t put him here again it would just be weird.

Even though I have a love/hate relationship with Pedroia and wish there was a way to get him on the Yankees while maintaining the same roster (Pedroia at second, Cano to third, A-Rod to DH, anyone?), if I didn’t put him on here people would think I like him, and that’s not the case.

3B – Robert Andino (2011 – Kevin Youkilis, 2010 – Chone Figgins)
(Note: Kevin Youkilis is the only player to make the All-Animosity Team at two different positions. This will likely be written on his All-Animosity Hall of Fame plaque.)

This is probably the only time Robert Andino will be viewed as a scarier hitter than Miguel Cabrera. Actually I know it will be the only time.

Andino is 10-for-27 against the Yankees in 2012, and it has a lot do with the fact that he crushes CC Sabathia (8-for-20, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBIs). Even though I don’t like Andino I will always have a special place for him in my heart for putting the dagger into the Red Sox’ 2011 season (or should I say the 1927 Yankees’ season?).

SS – Jose Reyes (2011 – Jose Reyes, 2010 – Jose Reyes)
I always look to the Red Sox roster before considering anyone else for any of the positions on this team, but when you have a shortstop platoon of Mike Aviles and Nick Punto, it’s hard to really hold any animosity toward them. In fact, I love the Red Sox’ idea of a shortstop platoon to create the superpower that is Mick Avunto. If I’m Ben Cherington, I give them both five-years deals. Why break up a good thing?

Mets fans were worried about Jose Reyes going to the Phillies and he ended up with another division rival in the Marlins. Do you remember hearing things like “The Mets have to re-sign Reyes!” and “I won’t watch a Mets game next year if Reyes leaves” from Mets fans last year? I do. But what happened when Reyes left the Mets for the Marlins and $106 million? The Mets became a likable team. They became a fun team to watch, even for someone like me who hates the Mets.

Jose Reyes was the face of what has gone wrong with the Mets since Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS and he needed to go despite Mets fans thinking he was part of the franchise’s solution rather than part of the problem. But I guess it’s hard to let go of a player Mets fans deemed “The Most Exciting Players in Baseball” even when that player requests to come out of the lineup to protect his batting title.

The season is a third of the way through and Reyes has no home runs and 12 RBIs in 247 plate appearances this season. But hey, Reyes was going to be the future of the Mets!

LF – Delmon Young (2011 – Delmon Young, 2010 – Manny Ramirez)
Delmon Young probably would have been taken off this list, but then he went and hit home runs in Games 1, 3 and 5 of the ALDS. I will never forget John Smoltz’s comment about watching out for a first-pitch fastball from Rafael Soriano to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning after the Yankees had just come back to tie the game with two runs off Verlander. That first-pitch fastball changed the series. I’m just glad David Robertson was sitting in the bullpen after not pitching in Games 1 or 2 and after being rested for the final two weeks of the regular season by Joe Girardi. Now that’s good managing.

CF – Josh Hamilton (2011 – B.J. Upton, 2010 – Vernon Wells)
I think I’m one of the only people that isn’t a Josh Hamilton fan. I get his whole “comeback” story, but if you’re a Yankees fan and you root for Hamilton maybe you forgot about these numbers from the 2010 ALCS.

7-for-20 (.350), 6 R, 1 2B, 4 HR, 7 RBIs, 3 SB, 8 BB, .536 OBP, 1.000 SLG

Do you still like him?

It’s insane that it’s June 6 and Hamilton has 21 HR and 58 RBIs after homering just 25 times in 121 games last year and 32 times in 133 games in his MVP year in 2010.

RF – Jose Bautista (2011 – Magglio Ordonez, 2010 – Magglio Ordonez)
The only way Magglio Ordonez wasn’t going to win this award was if he retired, and that’s what he did. On Sunday the Tigers had Magglio Ordonez Day and everyone was respectful and cheering and some of the Yankees took part in the pregame ceremony by sitting in the dugout and acknowledging the career. I watched the game from the couch and booed as if Ordonez was 50 feet from me in right field.

I have yet to find a Yankees fan that was sad to see A.J. Burnett get traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, but I’m pretty sure Jose Bautista wasn’t happy about Burnett’s departure from the AL East.

I don’t like Bautista because of what he does against the Yankees and what he does to any wager I place for or against the Blue Jays. If the Blue Jays are somehow in the race for the division down the stretch, I will have no choice but to bet on them every game to ensure that Jose Bautista does absolutely nothing.

SP – Josh Beckett (2011 – Josh Beckett, 2010 – Josh Beckett)
There’s no one who will ever take this award from Josh Beckett. If Jered Weaver drilled Derek Jeter and forced him to miss a significant amount of time he still wouldn’t be in the conversation even when you combine such a terrible act with his relation to Jeff Weaver. Now if Jered Weaver injured Jeter for a lengthy period of time and then upon Jeter’s return he injured him again for another lengthy period of time, then maybe we can talk about replacing Josh Beckett here.

The thing that takes the fun out of Beckett being my No. 1 Most Hated Athlete To Look At (which is completely separate from being on the All-Animosity Team) is that the city he plays for hates him. The same city he won a World Series for in 2007. Red Sox fans obviously want him to pitch well so the team wins when he starts, but at the same time they aren’t upset when he loses. It’s a beautiful thing.

CL – Jose Valverde (2011 – Jonathan Papelbon, 2010 – Jonathan Papelbon)
Goodbye, Jonathan Papelbon. It was fun (not really). Now it’s time to say “Hello” to Jose Valverde.

I don’t know if I will ever get over the fact that the Yankees faced him three times in the ALDS and didn’t get him to blow any of the three games. This ultimately led to the Yankees’ demise, well this along with the heart of the order’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position and failure to get the big hit, and CC Sabathia coming up short twice and Joe Girardi using Luis Ayala more than David Robertson.

There can’t be any fan base that likes Valverde aside from Tigers fans. There just can’t be. No one wants to see Valverde succeed with the amount of time he takes between pitches and his version of the Electric Slide that he does after successfully converting a save. But maybe other fan bases don’t hate him as much as Yankees fans because we’re used to seeing Mariano Rivera walk toward home plate and shake the catcher’s hand after a save rather than moonwalk across the mound or dance like your wild uncle at a wedding who hung out at the bar for the first three hours and is hearing “Call Me Maybe” for the first time.

Valverde’s perfect season of going 49-for-49 in save opportunities was hard to watch, but I’m glad he has come back to his old self in 2012 with a 4.64 ERA and 1.594 WHIP.

Manager – Bobby Valentine (2011 – Mike Scioscia, 2010 – Joe Maddon)
Did any other manager have a chance? In a league that boasts hipster Joe Maddon, the genius Mike Scioscia and Fidel Castro supporter Ozzie Guillen, it’s Bobby Valentine who stands alone.

Whether it’s Bobby V taking shots at the Yankees during spring training or having stories written about him building a fence in the offseason (I helped my dad build a deck last summer and no one wrote a story about me), or doing weekly spots on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York, or calling out Kevin Youkilis for really no reason or supporting Josh Beckett playing golf after missing a start due to a back problem, there’s always a reason to dislike Bobby.

I just want to take this time to thank the Red Sox ownership group for not letting their new general manager do his job and for going over his head and making Bobby Valentine their manager. Thank you.

Blogs • MLB

Dec 7, 2011

Mets Make Moves To Salvage Mess

The Mets responded to the departure of Jose Reyes with a busy Tuesday night in which they traded Angel Pagan and signed a pair of free agents. Rich Coutinho joined me for an epic email discussion to talk about the moves.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on Dec. 7, 2011.

The Mets delivered their fans a dagger on Sunday night when they failed to meet or exceed the Marlins’ offer for Jose Reyes, and on Wednesday, Reyes was introduced as a member of the Mets’ division rival.

Right after the Mets watched their franchise shortstop, who has been with the organization for 12 years, leave through free agency, Sandy Alderson spoke with the media and made the Mets’ finances known and what people could expect from the team in the near future as they play with the payroll of a small-market team in the country’s biggest market. Then on Tuesday night, Alderson went on a spending spree and changed the look of the 2012 Mets with a pair of free agents and a trade with the Giants.

With all of the madness of the Winter Meetings, Mets beat reporter and WFAN.com Mets blogger Rich Coutino joined me for an epic email discussion to talk about the Mets’ early offseason moves and the impacts of the series of deals they made on Tuesday night at the Winter Meetings in Dallas.

Keefe: I told Sweeny Murti on Monday (in an epic email discussion for Friday on WFAN.com) that I made sure I called my dad to thank him for being a Yankees fan and for raising me as a Yankees fan following the latest Mets debacle with Jose Reyes signing with the Miami Marlins (typing Miami Marlins is going to take some getting used to).

All season Mets fans were dragged along like a gullible group chasing a $20 bill in a parking lot that’s attached to a fishing line. They figured that the Mets refusal to turn Reyes into a few pieces for the future meant that they would be re-signing their franchise shortstop, who they originally signed in 1999. Now Mets fan are left with nothing, and while watching Mets fans agonize over the state of their team never gets old and being obnoxious to my friends who are Mets fan, even this is a little much.

Back in May I wrote about Yankees fans being fortunate that the Steinbrenners are the owners of the Yankees and not the Wilpons, and on Monday you wrote about Sandy Alderson doing the best job he can under this Mets ownership. But now, just two months removed from another disastrous season in Queens, the Mets are likely headed for another one in 2012 with the other four teams in the NL East in a much better position than them.

So what is going through the minds of Mets fans right now and those that cover the team?

Coutinho: I honestly thought once they did not trade Reyes at the deadline, they would make every effort to sign him. Sure, letting the market set itself was a risky strategy, but when you really think about it, the market on Reyes for whatever reason did come down from the “Carl Crawford” plateau. And then came the Marlins, who I honestly never thought would top $100 million, but they did. I do believe the Mets had a dollar amount in mind and it was five years for $85 million. The reps for Reyes always felt he would get a $100-million deal and given the fact the Marlins and Mets were the only suitors, I give them so much credit for getting this done for Jose.

Reyes is a superstar worthy of this money when you consider guys like Adrian Gonzalez, Jayson Werth, Carl Crawford and Matt Kemp have all signed bigger contracts recently. I think the thing that upsets Mets fans is that they had Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez and now they don’t have any of them, even though most had accepted the fact they would lose two of the three. They understood K-Rod was a money issue and Beltran did return them a big-time prospect in Zach Wheeler. But losing all three is too much to swallow and that is why Mets fans are so upset.

Keefe: Sandy Alderson addressed the media and gave the public an idea as to what kind of financial situation the Mets are dealing with as they move forward. And even after all of this, Bud Selig is still allowing the Wilpons to own the Mets and to continue to destroy the franchise. Now the Mets will be playing in the country’s biggest market with a small market payroll.

I guess the next most logical thing to ask is what do the Mets do with David Wright? The Mets are sort of in this weird place where they need to be in complete rebuilding mode, but they really aren’t. They still have Wright and Jason Bay and Johan Santana on the payroll, and there isn’t much they can do regarding the latter two right now.

Wright is probably the last thing keeping Mets fans from completely losing hope and from the Mets ticket offices from being overtaken and the front office being held hostage. But is there really any point for the Mets to hold on to Wright any longer? The Mets aren’t exactly in a position to win right now and don’t look like they will be in one within the next few years. The Phillies are already a contender, as are the Braves and the Nationals and Marlins are on the rise.

Should the Mets just say, “Eff it!” and move Wright and rebuild this entire thing?

Coutinho: I would say no. Coming off an injury season, David Wright is severely undervalued now and will not get the prospects back that he would in the middle of the season when teams are in desperate need and David has produced his customary numbers.

The other reason is the Mets are in a tough situation, but not a hopeless on. Look at the Diamondbacks, who lost 90 games in 2010 and won their division with over 90 wins in 2011, and they did it with the same cast of offensive players (maybe less if you consider Stephen Drew was hurt most of the year). How did they do it then? They got Ian Kennedy and Daniel Hudson to pitch at an All-Star level and had a great closer in J.J. Putz, who was finally healthy for them. Nobody and I mean nobody picked them to win the NL West. It is a good blueprint for the Mets to follow but certain things must happen.

Johan Santana must return to the form of being a pitcher with a 3.00 ERA or lower and they must have a second pitcher to give them a solid 3.30 ERA season. R.A. Dickey did that last year while Jonathan Niese, though inconsistent, has the stuff to be that type of pitcher. Clearly, there are a lot of ifs and quite frankly, they’ll also need a reliable closer. My feeling is you start the season hoping this could work and if it doesn’t, you look at Plan B and around the break you try to pry prospects from teams and in the process, shed more payroll.

There’s also the additional wild card team in 2012, which can put additional teams in the playoff picture. That could mean the Mets might have more available trading partners at midseason than they normally would. In regards to the Mets’ payroll, $100 million, to me, is the minimum it should be at in this market. The chances are it will be a tad lower than that on Opening Day, but a good start could entice the Mets to add on if the situation presents itself. I try to compare the Mets’ situation to other companies that might have lost $70 million last year. Do you think any of them would add employees or would they cut payroll? Now it is fair to concede with a cut payroll, but expectations should be lowered as well in regards to both wins on the field and ticket sales.

The Mets are in a tough spot here and granted much of it is self-inflicted, but Sandy is playing this correctly. He can’t just do things because the fans demand it with the way things change in a hurry in this sport. Who ever thought that Texas would be in back-to-back World Series in a league that houses the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays? Who thought a Cardinals team with a payroll less than $100 million could win it all when most left them for dead in late August? Sandy can’t afford to make a move now because he lost Reyes. He must resist the temptation to overreact to the reaction.

Keefe: I’m sure Mets fans appreciate your optimism.

If Santana does come back and pitch the way he has in the past and you couple that with R.A. Dickey’s 2011 season, then you have something working at the top of the rotation. No, it won’t be easy for the Mets to score runs, but if they can build a stable rotation and one that has a true ace then maybe, just maybe they can hang around during the summer.

At the same time, I’m hoping Johan comes back and is healthy and dominant and the Mets decide that paying him to play for a non-contender isn’t worth it, and the Yankees take him off their hands and relieve them of some payroll. A healthy Santana behind CC Sabathia? Yes, please. But I know that many people are skeptical about what kind of pitcher Santana will be when he returns to the mound, and if he will be anywhere near the pitcher he once was with the stuff he once had, or if he will become the left-handed version of Freddy Garcia.

There were reports on Tuesday that the Mets were part of Mark Buehrle’s list of the final five teams he would sign with, and then there were reports and direct quotes from Sandy Alderson that disputed those claims with Alderson saying that the Mets would not be in contention to sign Buehrle. So maybe this is just Buehrle’s agent (who Alderson didn’t know the name of) using the New York market to drive up the price for his client?

This is good news for me since I’m still holding out hope that he joins the Yankees rotation, but it’s not good news for Mets fans, who might have been expecting the ownership to treat them to one solid free agent this offseason.

Last season the Mets rotation was pretty healthy with five starters making 26-plus starts, and Dillon Gee and Jonathon Niese combining for 53 starts and proving to be viable young arms for the Mets’ future. Aside from Gee, Niese, Dickey, Pelfrey and Capuano, the Mets only used four other starters (Chris Young, D.J. Carrasco, Chris Schwinden and Miguel Batista).

And in the bullpen, after trading Francisco Rodriguez, the Mets juggled the closer role between Bobby Parnell and Jason Isringhausen in an effort to transition Parnell into the role as the closer of the future, but it didn’t really go according to plan.

What do you think the Mets rotation will look like heading into spring training and the season? Who is the next Chris Young or Chris Capuano for them in a low-risk, high-reward arm? And how do they rebuild the back end of the bullpen?

Coutinho: From what I understand, the Mets inquired about Buehrle, but the price was too high. I think he is an absolute horse and would be a great NL pitcher and no worse than a No. 2. If I were the Marlins I’d go with him over C.J. Wilson or Albert Pujols if I could only sign one more free agent. As far as the Mets rotation, I see Santana, Niese, Dickey, Gee, and possibly Pelfrey as No. 5 starter if they tender him.

As far as a reach with starters, why not Rich Harden? I love his stuff and with last year’s high ERA he might come cheap. His K/IP ratio was over one per inning, so I think he might be a low-cost, high-reward type of pitcher the Mets could snare.

I do think the Mets will get a closer, but do not think it will be one of the big three left (K-Rod, Francisco Cordero or Ryan Madson). I think their hope is to stockpile guys relievers like Octavio Dotel, Jon Rauch, Frank Francisco, Chad Qualls or Todd Coffey and develop the back end that way. I thought Jonathan Broxton would have been a good gamble for them, but I agree the Royals overpaid for him at $4 million.

Aside from the relievers they obtain, I think Tim Brydak, Manny Acosta, Pedro Beato, and Bobby Parnell are in the mix as well. Beato and Parnell were spotty at best, but both have live arms and are worth another look. Brydak was solid vs. lefties all year and Acosta turned heads in the season’s final two months by finally realizing you have to throw a breaking pitch even if you possess a plus fastball. (Take note, Bobby Parnell).

The thing I noticed in second half last year after K-Rod left, is that the Mets crashed and burned in so many games from the seventh inning on, and you know what I say about a bullpen, Neil: a good one can cover up weaknesses, whether they be light hitting or starters not going deep in games. On the other hand, a bad bullpen can make every blemish an eyesore and I firmly believe in today’s game, the bullpen can make or break a team no matter how much hitting you possess.

The Cardinals refurbished their bullpen at the deadline, and so did Texas and not coincidentally, both teams made it to the Fall Classic.

Keefe: The Mets were busy on Tuesday night. First they signed Jon Rauch to a two-year deal worth $12 million and they followed that up by trading Angel Pagan to the Giants for Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez. Then they went on and signed Frank Francisco to a two-year deal. And just after hours after you gave me your take on what the Mets’ game plan should be to bolster their pitching staff, your theory on the Mets’ plan to rebuild the bullpen by stockpiling arms couldn’t have ended up being more accurate.

I think the trade of Pagan was a great move since both teams traded guys off down years in hopes of rejuvenating them with a chance of scenery. I don’t think Pagan is actually as good as he was two years ago, and I’m a big fan of Torres’ even if he’s getting up there in age. I haven’t seen as much of Ramon Ramirez since his departure from Boston and the AL East a couple years ago, but I know he has the ability to be dominant in the back of the bullpen and was for long stretches of time in the best division in baseball. Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco also have the ability to be lights out, but they both have had their fair share of struggles the last few years.

Coutinho: I think the Mets got better on Tuesday night. Don’t get me wrong I would rather have Jose Reyes, but Sandy Alderson really improved the team with these deals.

Rauch and Francisco have ability and pitching late innings in the AL East does test your ability. The trade of Pagan was necessary because there were rumblings in the Mets clubhouse that Pagan’s attitude changed dramatically in the second half of the year after the exodus of his mentor, Carlos Beltran. Torres is not the athletic specimen that Pagan is, but he is a much better defensive centerfielder and a great off-the-field guy. He has speed and could bat leadoff although the Mets may have other ideas about the leadoff spot.

The crown jewel though could be Ramirez who has a nasty slider and good heat. More importantly, the Mets have rebuilt their bullpen with three guys that could be penciled into the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Add in Tim Brydak as a lefty specialist and Manny Acosta, who impressed in August and September, and you might have something here. It also affords the Mets the luxury of swing-and-miss guys in the ‘pen and I think not having a solid ‘pen cost the Mets at least 10 games in 2011.

Clearly, there is still a lot of work to do, but Sandy Alderson gets rave reviews from me on a night in which he both reshaped and strengthened the Mets.

Blogs • MLB

Jun 16, 2010

Roy Halladay Now Just Another NL Starter

This column was originally posted on June 16, 2010. With a World Series rematch and possible World Series preview taking place in the Bronx, there is only one place to watch it: the right field

This column was originally posted on June 16, 2010.

With a World Series rematch and possible World Series preview taking place in the Bronx, there is only one place to watch it: the right field bleachers. So, I did just that on Tuesday night in the Bronx, thanks to Bald Vinny.

Aside from the postseason, it was the best bleacher atmosphere I have experienced in recent memory (as seen in the picture where the man in the Steve Carlton jersey is the focal point of the YMCA), and also the worst Roy Halladay performance I can remember in recent memory. Sure there was the Fourth of July last year and August 4 as well, but he also dominated the Yankees in every other performance in 2009.

Last night was supposed to be different for Roy Halladay. He was making his return to Yankee Stadium as a Phillie, trying to prove that he is the same old Doc, even if he now pitches in a league where you pitch around the No. 7 hitter to face the No. 8 hitter, and pitch around the No. 8 hitter to face the No. 9 hitter. Considering Halladay pitches for the team that is supposed to have the best offense in the National League and doesn’t ever have to face the Phillies lineup, he only faces three, sometimes four good major league hitters in most starts. Roy Halladay was supposed to show up to the Bronx on Tuesday and represent the tilt of power between baseball’s best in 2009, and make Brian Cashman rethink his stance on giving up the farm for Roy over the winter. He failed to do both.

Halladay looked a lot like every other National League pitcher when it comes to interleague play. Here is the man I refer to as the best pitcher on the planet letting up six runs over six innings. Don’t get me wrong, I will take that kind of performance from Roy anytime he starts against the Yankees, but it’s sad when the man who once dominated the AL East for 11-plus seasons proves that all of these NL starters with sub-2.00 ERAs deserve an asterisk next to them.

Here is Roy Halladay vs. the NL this season:

8-3, 95.1 IP, 81 H, 19 R, 16 ER, 12 BB, 84 K, 2 HR, 1.51 ERA

And here is Roy Halladay in two interleague starts vs. the Yankees and Red Sox:

0-2, 11.2 IP, 16 H, 13 R, 12 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 4 HR, 9.56 ERA

I will back up Roy Halladay’s abilities and go toe to toe with anyone who wants to argue anyone else as being the best pitcher in the world, but he is making that hard to do. Doc has only had 12 starts as an NL pitcher after 287 in the AL, and it’s like he already forgot his roots. Spoiled by a league in which the bottom third of the order is harder to sit through than my ride to the Stadium on the 4 train in which two overweight men had me pinned between the subway doors and their beer bellies, Roy seems to have forgotten about stacked lineups, designated hitters and the meaning of offense in baseball.

The most enjoyable part of playing interleague games at home is that there aren’t any double switches, intentional walks to face the pitchers or outs given away because the hitter at the plate is a pitcher who last swung a bat in his senior year of high school. I don’t care about National League fans still talking themselves into thinking that their league plays the game the way it is supposed to be played, or that it is the “pure” form of the sport. It’s 2010, and it’s time to let it go. It’s time for the NL to adopt the DH. Enough is enough.

In Happy Gilmore, Shooter McGavin tells Doug, the head of the PGA Tour, “I just saw two big, fat naked bikers in the woods off 17 having sex. How am I supposed to chip with that going on?” Well, over the weekend I was watching the Blue Jays play the Rockies (I’m not sure why), and I had to watch the Rockies intentionally walk Jose Molina, so they could face the Toronto pitcher. I would say watching anyone intentionally walk Jose Molina is as painful as watching fat, naked bikers have sex. How am I supposed to take the NL seriously with that going on?

In all honesty I think I would rather face Jose Molina over any pitcher in the league after watching his at-bats in the Bronx over the last three seasons. The intentional walk was the first time a Jose Molina at-bat lasted more than three pitches and didn’t end with a swinging K. I don’t want to live in a world where Jose Molina is intentionally walked, and I don’t think anyone else does either.

But back to Doc and the demise of the two-time defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies …

I feel like I owe the Mets an apology. Prior to the season I didn’t give the Mets a chance at winning the division. I’m not sure if it was the Halladay trade, the fact that the Phillies had been to the last two World Series or me simply choosing against a Jerry Manuel managed team, but I pretty much saw this summer as a lost one for Mets fans. How could I have been so naïve?

Yes, the Phillies have the best lineup in the NL on paper, but without Jimmy Rollins, the lineup isn’t the same, and even with him, their pitching staff outside of Halladay (outside of his two interleague performances) is abysmal. After Doc, it’s a steady drop off to Cole Hamels, and after Hamels it’s a freefall to Kyle Kendrick, Joe Blanton and Jamie Moyer. I’m not sure if the Phillies will survive the 162-game season, and if they do, maybe they could survive a five-games series, but a seven-game series? Not a chance.

Do I think the Phillies are bad as they have been? No. But I also don’t think they are as good as they were when they started the season and everyone thought they could run away and hide with the division. We’re talking about a team that got shut out by the Mets for an entire three-game series.

I’m sure Roy Halladay and the Phillies will be happy when interleague plays ends, the way every other NL team that has to face the AL East and every NL starter is. It might have been one start against the Yankees, and it might just be two starts combined against his old foes from the AL East, but the man who was once the most feared pitcher on the planet is now part of baseball’s retirement home: the National League.

It’s the same place Johan Santana resides, and where Cliff Lee might go this offseason. It’s the place that has allowed Jamie Moyer to pitch into his late 40s and might let him pitch until his children’s children have children, and the place that extended the career of Randy Johnson until he could get win No. 300. It’s the home of the pitcher hitting, sacrifice bunts and wasted outs

It’s the National League: Baseball’s natural performance-enhancing drug.

Blogs • MLB • Yankees

Apr 16, 2010

The 2010 All-Animosity Team

The Yankees’ series win over the Angels felt too easy. It was strangely and almost eerily easy. Sure the Yankees nearly blew both their wins over the Halos with a shaky bullpen and some shakier

The Yankees’ series win over the Angels felt too easy. It was strangely and almost eerily easy. Sure the Yankees nearly blew both their wins over the Halos with a shaky bullpen and some shakier managing, but they came away with the series win despite those things. Even though the Yankees won their third series in as many tries to open the 2010 season, I feel like they could have and should have swept the Angels. And if Javier Vazquez didn’t lay an egg against Joel Pineiro, maybe they would have.

I think the Angels are close to forfeiting their title as an elite team in baseball. Now this isn’t as sure of a thing as it was for me to put the finishing touches on David Ortiz’s career as “Big Papi” last week, but I believe we are watching the Angels’ slow fall from grace. This doesn’t mean that the Angels won’t wind up winning the West – a division in which even the A’s have a chance – it just means they are no longer the threat they used to be.

I used to look at the Yankees schedule and search for series the Yankees could win, series they could split and then series against the Angels. The Angels were their own separate entity on the Yankees’ calendar and they deserved to be. The most wins you could pencil the Yankees in for against the Angels in a three-game set was one, and then hope they get lucky and win a second game.

Mike Scioscia might very well be the best manager in baseball and the Angels might run one of the best fundamentally sound organizations in the game, but they have slowly pulled key pieces of their franchise out like blocks from a Jenga tower, and their carefully constructed foundation looks ready to crumble.

Prior to the Yankees’ ALCS win over the Angels last October, I would have rather had the Yankees play any team other than the Angels. I would have gladly gone through the physical and emotional grind of another Yankees-Red Sox seven-game series if it meant the Yankees wouldn’t have to face the Angels. But after the Yankees beat the Angels in relative ease in October, it became obvious that the team built to expose every flaw of the Yankees over the last decade was no longer capable of doing so.

Howie Kendrick’s three days in the Bronx best summed up the state of the Angels. Kendrick, a career .409 hitter against the Yankees in 31 games, left town after going a miserable 1-for-11 with a walk. Over the last few years, Kendrick had become the biggest Yankee killer since Ortiz, and as a favor to the pure fastball hitter, the Yankees always made sure to give him a steady diet of middle-of-the-plate heaters.

Kendrick wasn’t the only Angel who consistently hurt the Yankees though; it was the entire lineup one through nine, the starting rotation and the bullpen. I grew to despise Chone Figgins, Garret Anderson and Vladimir Guerrero and was pessimistic about the Yankees facing John Lackey and Francisco Rodriguez. But all those players have left, leaving the Angels with a completely different cast of characters to try and keep the Halos as the best in the West.

There is no one on the Angels I fear the way I used to, and because of that, there is no one I have a strong dislike for on the team anymore. With the Angels looking like they will experience a decline in success, my animosity has turned to other players around the league that aren’t just Red Sox. Here is my All-Animosity Team in the majors:

Catcher: This is the only lineup in which Jason Varitek gets to start for, so I’m sure he would be happy to be a part of it. During Varitek’s freefall over the last couple of seasons, the fact that he was more of an automatic out than National League pitchers wasn’t an issue in Boston because Bostonians were made to believe that he could call a great game, and that was enough to offset his atrocious abilities at the plate. Now that he has been relegated to a job formerly held by Doug Mirabelli and Josh Bard, we will no longer have to see Varitek stand up behind the plate for a high fastball, or see his uniform with “C” on it with any frequency.

First base: Kevin Youkilis plays the game hard, and he is the textbook example for a guy you’d love on your team, but hate to see playing against your team. His entire look, demeanor, unorthodox batting stance and approach to the game is worth despising, and that’s before you factor in his .317 career average against the Yankees. Youkilis has taken over as the most feared hitter in the Red Sox lineup, becoming one of the toughest outs in baseball, and therefore my disgust with him has grown ten fold.

Second base: Everything about Dustin Pedroia’s game says that I should like him. His blue-collar style of play, knack for big hits and bigger defensive plays are the qualities anyone would want in a player on their favorite team. But he falls under the same category as Youkilis as a player you hate, but would love if they were on your team. Pedroia is the last person I want to see at the plate for the Red Sox in a big spot, and for that, he gets the nod at second base.

Third base: I could write an entire piece on the daggers Chone Figgins has dealt the Yankees in his career. Figgins had been the most important hitter to get out in the Angels lineup for opposing teams and allowing him to reach base meant stolen bases and runs scored. Without Figgins the Angels are a different team, and with him the Mariners are as well. The Yankees have yet to get a taste of Ichiro and Figgins hitting back-to-back, but I’m sure when they do it will include a lot of pitches, infield singles and stolen bases.

Shortstop: If Jose Reyes didn’t play for the Mets, I probably wouldn’t mind him, but he does, so I do. My dislike for Reyes began when Mets fans began the debate as to whether he was better than Derek Jeter, and they even believed they had sufficient evidence to support their case. But Mets fans will believe anything, including the idea that their one-man rotation can keep them in contention this season.

Left field: I didn’t even want to look up Manny Ramirez’s career numbers against the Yankees for a fear of flashbacks and cold sweats, but I know he is the right person for left field. Manny’s removal from the AL East was as relieving as Dom’s removal from Entourage, and his departure immediately destroyed the middle of the Red Sox lineup. Seeing Manny share a dugout and high fives with Joe Torre has only added to his career of torment for Yankees fans.

Center field: Vernon Wells’ demise since signing that albatross contract should be enough for me to forgive him for his clutch hits and web gems throughout his career against the Yankees. Wells appears to have found the talent that J.P. Ricciardi thought was worth giving $126 million, and the Yankees don’t see the Blue Jays until midsummer, but something tells me that Vernon will solidify his spot in this lineup at some point.

Right field: With 20 home runs and a .311 average against the Yankees, Magglio Ordonez and his floppy flow is an easy pick for right field on the All-Dislike Team. It was Magglio’s home run in Game 4 of the 2006 ALDS that got the ball rolling for the Tigers offense as they put an end to the ’06 Yankees. Now Magglio is hitting behind former Yankees prospect Austin Jackson and former Yankee Johnny Damon and ahead of Miguel Cabrera in the Tigers lineup. There will be plenty of more opportunities for me to increase my animosity for Magglio.

Starting pitcher: The 2003 World Series is plenty for any Yankees fan to forever hold a distaste for Josh Beckett. Then he went to the Red Sox and that just made everything worse. Even though I am not as worried about him on the mound as I am with Jon Lester or John Lackey, since the Yankees seem to hit him around (5.51 ERA in 18 starts), there is just something about Josh Beckett that makes me not a fan. I don’t think it’s the oddly uneven dirt patch on his chin, the 53 necklaces he wears during starts or the fact that he is always getting bailed out from taking a loss, but it’s something. I’m just not sure exactly what it is.

Closer: When The Departed came out, I liked the song “Shipping Up To Boston.” I even had downloaded it on iTunes. I haven’t played it since Jonathan Papelbon began using it as his entrance song, and after “Sweet Caroline,” it is the only other song that makes me cringe now. Papelbon’s stare and infield dance routine are bad enough, but him thinking he is somehow greater than or equal to Mariano Rivera only makes his personality less appealing. Papelbon hasn’t been as lights out as he was when he first took over as closer of the Red Sox and his fastball seems to have lost a step. I can only hope it loses all the steps.

Manager: For Joe Maddon it’s a combination of things. It’s his glasses, his “I’m 56 years old, but I manage a team of 20-somethings, so I’m going to act hip” attitude and his cockiness about the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Maddon is the creepy old guy that is a regular at popular colleges bars, and becomes a school wide icon and a fixture in the background of Facebook photos. It’s time he lost the Drew Carey glasses for some normal old-guy glasses and became more worried about the fact that he has only one lefty in his bullpen and it’s Randy Choate, and less worried about being hip and cool with his player.

Blogs • MLB

Mar 5, 2010

The Mets with the Most to Lose

No one knows what to expect from the Mets this season. If everything goes right and they catch a few breaks they could potentially win the division, though the wild card is probably a more

No one knows what to expect from the Mets this season. If everything goes right and they catch a few breaks they could potentially win the division, though the wild card is probably a more realistic goal. But as good of a chance as the Mets have of making the postseason, they have just as good if not better a chance of missing out on the postseason for the fourth year in a row. It’s hard to argue for or against any prediction when it comes to the 2010 Mets because it’s hard to predict success or failure for a club that has erased all expectations.

On Monday, Daniel Murphy told Mike Francesa that the team “is built to win now,” and Omar Minaya looked like the guy from the Miller Lite commercial trying to say “I love you” when he told Francesa that he believes in his team this year. Forget Mets fans, not even the players or management know what to expect this season.

The Mets are at a crossroads after gradually getting worse since their Game 7 defeat against the Cardinals in the 2006 NLCS. If you had told me before Game 7 that the Mets wouldn’t win a single postseason game over the next three years, I wouldn’t have believed you. I don’t think anyone would. As a Yankees fan, I was legitimately scared of the Mets’ rise in 2006 and the idea that they might make a run at being the toast of the town; the same way the Jets did this winter by becoming more relevant than the Giants. But here we are, 31 days away from Opening Day 2010 and the Mets’ last postseason win was against the Cardinals in Game 6 of that NLCS.

The conversation of breaking up “the core” of the Mets has become as much a part of summer as Wiffle ball and lemonade, and Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel’s job statuses have become day-to-day as this point. Mets fans are at their breaking point if they haven’t already broke, and what has gone on the last three seasons can’t go on any longer … at least not with the same team and front office.

Right now, Mets fans are just happy baseball is back because it gives them actual games to talk about, and there is no longer a need to dwell on last season. But how long that happiness lasts will depend on how well the Mets perform. Stuck in the same city as the World Series champions and in the same division as the National League champions, Mets fans are in a unique position that no other fan base in professional sports can relate to.

The Mets will either return to the postseason this year and buy some much needed time with their fans, or they will extend their October-less streak and the Wilpons will change the look of the team like a dirty diaper, which is what they have become. Some players will stick around even with another losing season in Queens and maybe some front office executives will avoid the ax. But there is definitely more at stake for certain members of the organization than there is for others if the Mets don’t win. Here is what’s at stake for those players and personnel if the Mets lay another egg in 2010.

5. Does that offer in Boston still stand?
Jason Bay is living the high life … for now. He is the new guy in town and everyone wants to rave about his well-mannered personality and delightful clubhouse presence. But it’s also spring training and no one cares if the new guy is hitting the ball out of the park as long he is showing up to the park, isn’t injured and is friendly with the media.

Bay went from Pittsburgh to Boston and went from being “That Canadian guy from the Pirates that we only get to see during the All-Star Game” to being “The guy who made Red Sox fans quickly forget about Manny Ramirez.”

The same traits that Mets fans are using to praise Bay – his nice-guy routine and vanilla personality – will be used as ammunition against him if the team isn’t winning. As bad as the Boston media can be with just one team in town to worry about, Bay has no idea what the New York media and the city’s fans are capable of when things begin to go south.

Bay gave up the opportunity to hit in the middle of the order for a World Series contender to be the new guy on a team that could possibly win its division or be mathematically eliminated in July. He gave up a situation he was already comfortable in and a situation he already experienced success in. Now he will either be responsible for helping bring the Mets back to prominence or for helping extend a dark period in the franchise’s history. If it’s the latter, he will be left to think about “what could have been” in Boston.

4. 36 million regrets
If I’m Omar Minaya or Jerry Manuel and I have one final chance to turn things around, I wouldn’t want Oliver Perez in my rotation. There were other pitchers and more economically sound options for Omar Minaya during the 2009 offseason, but he decided to go all-in on Oliver Perez and ended up with a busted straight.

Perez made $12 million last year. For that amount of money, the Mets could have had Bobby Abreu ($5 million) and Randy Wolf ($5 million) and $2 million left over to split among their season ticket holders as an apology for their 2009 product. Instead, their return on investment was 14 starts from Perez at $857,142.86 per start and 127 base runners in 66 innings.

Perez’s current contract hasn’t been completely Carl Pavano-esque just yet, but it’s on its way. At least the Yankees had competition went they were courting Pavano, and they were actually outbidding other interested teams.

The Mets are still on the hook for two more years and $24 million for Perez, so he isn’t exactly going anywhere. The only place he is going is to the mound every fifth day – if he can stay healthy – and the Mets are going to just have to cross their fingers and hope for the best when he starts. Otherwise, $12 million is a lot to pay a Triple-A starter.

3. The Mets’ Donnie Baseball
David Wright is the core member with the least to lose, and because of that he isn’t grouped with the other two. He is the face of the franchise and he is the player the media looks to for answers, whether that is fair or not.

When Wright had the Mets one game away from the World Series in 2006 at the age of 23, he looked like he might be the centerpiece of the first dynasty on the other side of town. Now four years later, his career is looking to be more like Don Mattingly’s than it is Derek Jeter’s, as Wright is slowly creeping up on 30 and becoming a great player who happened to play on a bunch of bad teams.

Wright is the go-to guy in the clubhouse for the media, and the most popular player on a team whose popularity rivals Governor Patterson’s. He needs to be the leader of the team on the field and off of it more than ever this season. He needs to take control of the team and make it his team now that the veterans he came up with are no longer with the club.

Wright’s home run and RBI totals dropped off drastically in 2009, and that can’t happen again in 2010, even if Citi Field wasn’t built for right-handed power. Mets fans have refrained from turning on No. 5, but now it’s officially “David’s team,” if it wasn’t already, and the success of the team will be directly related with his own performance.

2. Break up the core
I have under June 1 in the “When will the ‘break up the core’ conversation dominate the tri-state area for an entire day” pool. And if it gets to that point, David Wright will be safe, but Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran won’t be.

It wasn’t too long ago that Mets fans tried to argue Jose Reyes’ abilities against Derek Jeter’s. That debate ended the same way it did for Red Sox fans when they tried to argue Nomar Garciaparra against Derek Jeter. Now Mets fans aren’t worried about Jose Reyes being Derek Jeter, they would be happy if Reyes could just stay in the lineup the whole season.

Reyes’ contract is over at the end of the season with the Mets holding an $11 million club option on him for 2011, which they will most certainly exercise. But after that, it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen with Reyes. Maybe he will be the pre-2009 Reyes or maybe his best days are behind him. No one can be sure, but coming off an injury-plagued year and already having health problems this season, Reyes has a lot to play for and a lot more to lose if he can’t regain his old form.

Beltran is in a similar situation to Reyes after being injured for a significant amount of time in 2009. Couple that with his recent knee surgery that the Mets may or may not have granted consent for him to undergo, and Beltran is going up against some serious pressure once he returns.

Beltran has more to lose than Reyes because he isn’t homegrown and because he is older. Mets fans love their homegrown talent and they will back them up – regardless of their abilities – until they are no longer a Met. With Beltran turning 33 this season and with just one year left on his contract following this year, the Mets will be more willing to find a new home for Beltran than they will be for the other core members. It’s just a matter of finding out if another home would even want to deal for Beltran.

1. Win or learn how to use Craigslist
Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya are a package deal, and at this point in their Mets careers, they can’t exist without each other because ownership won’t let them. And ownership shouldn’t let them.

Neither of the two will be looking at the same position with another team ever again if they can’t right the sinking ship in Queens. It either has to work out in New York or it’s back to being a first base coach somewhere for Manuel and back to scouting the bus leagues for Minaya.

Omar doesn’t deserve another chance with another manager, and Mets fans don’t deserve to have Jerry Manuel as their manager unless he can lead the team to the playoffs. Because of this, Mets fans find themselves in a Catch-22. The majority of Mets fans want one or both men replaced, but in order to do so, the Mets would have to miss out on the postseason again. No Mets fan is willing to concede 2010 and live through another season of misery in order to get a new regime, so they are going to have to live with the “M and M” boys for one more season.

Bob Melvin’s recent hiring in the Mets scouting department can’t be good for Manuel’s future and Jerry is certainly aware of this. And since Omar didn’t exactly give a straight answer to Francesa’s question asking if he no longer is making the decisions in the organization, it’s safe to say Omar knows were his fate lies as well. Winning cures everything, and it’s the one thing standing between a happy ending and a horrible breakup for Omar and Jerry in Queens.