Gasp! I agree will Wallace Matthews

In my life long love/hate relationship with Wallace Matthews, I usually find myself shaking my head and pounding my fist when I finish up reading his columns. Only once in a blue moon do I sit here and nod "Why yes, Wally...you're actually right!"

Well today is one of those days (it's also Square Root Day, which only happens nine times a century -- coincidence? I think not).

Matthews column today focuses on Johan Santana's elbow and how the Mets magically declared him fit as a fiddle after zero medical tests and 31 pitches on a mound.

Yet based on one bullpen session, in which Warthen acknowledged Santana threw at about 80 percent velocity, not only did the Mets proclaim him recovered from whatever elbow woe caused him to be scratched from starts Friday and today, but they canceled plans to fly him back to New York for an MRI.

I'll concede them the weather yesterday, which made flying home iffy at best, but how can they possibly declare Santana healed when no one more qualified than a pitching coach has even looked at him? One with glasses, no less?

He's so right it hurts.

The Mets better be taking the utmost caution with their prized possession. He is the single most valuable person to the franchise, both monetarily and talent wise.

My train of thought here is that he will hang around in Florida a little while longer before heading back to New York for tests once the weather is a bit nicer. There is no reason not to heed caution and get him tested no matter what. Haven't they heard "Better Safe Than Sorry"?

Santana is a gamer. He pitched through the pain of a torn meniscus last year -- what makes them think he's going to proclaim himself injured now?

I would also like to know why he has to go to New York. The Mets have been hosting spring training in Florida from their inception, first in St. Petersburg and now in Port St. Lucie. Could it have occurred to them in that time that maybe the better thing to do is to find a doctor in Florida whom they trust instead of shipping every injury back to New York for "tests."

I'm sure there are plenty of MRI machines in the state of Florida with all the old people escaping to warmer weather. They break their hips a lot, if you hadn't heard.

The Mets need to get Santana tested, be it in Florida, New York or Kalamazoo. He's too important to the team and there is no need to make assumptions about his arm without taking a good, hard look at it.

Because you know what they say about assumptions...

Somehow, this Citigroup thing is the Mets fault

Only Wallace Matthews could place blame on the Mets for the economic downturn.

In his latest column, Matthews writes:

The Mets should be embarrassed to emblazon their new park with the name of an outfit whose players performed even worse than the team did last year. They should be ashamed of using your money to advertise their (worthless) services. If they had any ethics, they would cancel the deal now and start looking for a sponsor that can actually pay its own bills.

But they don't, and they won't.

Right. Because it's the Mets fault Citigroup is laying off 52,000 and just got a check from the US gov't.

The Mets should just say, "You know what, take your $400 million, I'm sure with this economy, companies will be lining up around the corner!"

You're crazy, Matthews. If a team turned down $400 million right now, they'd be insane. This isn't the Mets fault, and don't try to pin it on them. Citigroup screwed up, and was lucky enough to get our money to save their butts. As I said yesterday, think of it as one giant commercial. They can do whatever they want with their commercials, why should we be able to say what they do with their naming rights.

Downright silly.

Want your blood to boil?

Just read this:
Mets are legends in their own minds by Wallace Matthews.

It makes a few seemingly unfounded arguments and exploits them to make his "point." Enjoy.

Wallace Matthews and I agree, again

I'm starting to get a little worried. This is the second article where I've agreed with what baseball curmudgeon Wallace Matthews has had to say.

In his latest article, Matthews believes that the Mets should "rally around Wagner."

Since Billy Wagner went down, the Mets have lost only 11 games. Roughly half of those can be blamed on the bullpen, so it's nothing extremely out of the ordinary. The team can win without him, and Matthews wants them to stop making excuses and win even if they don't have their closer.

Rather than take this as yet another excuse for failure, built-in reason No. 629 for why once again, the $140-million Mets just couldn't quite get it done, they ought to try something new this season.

Such as winning in spite of Wagner's injury, rather than losing because of it.

The Mets haven't done their best, at least as well as I think they could have done, since Wagner went on the DL on August 3. They've only lost 11 games. Think about that, would they have done the same if Wagner was there, or maybe even worse?

The Mets have been able to patch together the bullpen since the few days following losing their closer. Luis Ayala, though hittable, has been able to convert five saves so far, and a handful of guys have also picked up some along the way.

My vote for closer, right now: Brian Stokes. This guy has really come out of nowhere and has been able to get guys out with consistency. His fastball is lively, and he has poise on the mound. Ayala is decent, but I'd like to see what this guy can do.

With or without him, the Mets have to win. Since there's no chance he's coming back anytime soon, the Mets need to buck up and prepare for life without their closer. Win or lose, it's because of the team on the field, not the guys on the DL.

Pick up Deglado's option on one condition: Jerry stays too

I know I wanted the Mets to wait until the season was over, to see what Carlos Delgado could do during that final month of the season, but no more. The Mets should reward him, and strengthen the team, by picking up his option for next year, as long as Jerry Manuel is the manager next year, too.

Deglado has gone on a tear, as Wallace Matthews points out, almost exactly to the date of the firing of Willie Randolph. For once, I can't fully disagree with what Matthews said, as it's is based on actual fact (somewhat). Matthews believes Delgado and Randolph were not the best of buds, so...Delgado purposely stunk it up? While that may be a bit outlandish, one cannot deny the numbers.

Since July 27, ten days after Maunel took over, Delgado has hit more home runs and driven in more RBI than anyone in the national league. Pretty scary stat.

I attribute Delgado's resurgence to his patience at the plate and the use of his diary, a crucial item that was missing for the better part of the beginning of the year. Apparently, Delgado had forgotten his diary at home on his kitchen table. When his wife finally went home again, she picked it up and brought it back to him. And the results are on the field.

As of now, I firmly believe in bringing Carlos Delgado back for another year. Otherwise, the Mets will either have to take a chance on Mike Carp, move Daniel Murphy to first (which wouldn't be such a bad idea) or break out the checkbook, or two, to try and sign Mark Teixeira.

While the Mets are working out Delgado's option, they should really be focusing on giving Manuel a contract for a few more years. He knows what to do with his players and the media, and can manage a team and a bullpen. I love him, the players seem to love him, and it makes sense for everyone involved.

Omar Minaya, get it done.

Wallace Matthews never fails to make me angry

I don't want to be the team's excuse maker, but Wallace Matthews, the most miserable man in sports writing, is at it again.

His latest article, "Let's hope listless Mets aren't back again" does not fail to get my blood boiling.

Here's the opening line to the article:

It took awhile - well, only three innings, really - but I succeeded in finding people who wanted to be at Shea Stadium even less than I did last night. Unfortunately, they were wearing Mets uniforms.

You're a journalist. You cover sports for a living. It's late August, and you're at a game with a team in first place. And you don't want to be there?

What is wrong with this guy? Hundreds, if not thousands of people, would love to be in his shoes right now, but apparently watching baseball and writing about it for a living just makes him more upset at life.

Matthews:

Yet there was no fight in this team, something we have seen time and again the past three seasons, regardless of whether the manager's name was Willie or Jerry, the venue was home or away, the opponent a contender like the Phillies or Cubs, or doormats like the Astros.

Does he really expect them to win every game? The team had won 10 of their last 11, and one stinker by John Maine makes this team listless? Yes, the team was set down in order from the third inning of Friday night's game all the way to two outs in the fifth inning on Saturday's game.

Things like that are going to happen. The team will hit a slide, they'll fall into a rut. What Matthews seems to forget is that they Mets actually won Friday's game due to a strong pitching performance from their starter and their bullpen.

Instead of bashing a team that just pulled off a nice run of wins, find something real to gripe about, please.

Was he watching the same game??

I'll start you off with a quote from Wallace Matthew's column...

"It took Willie Randolph 12 years to manage his first playoff game, and a little over two hours to nearly manage his team out of it.

In his first postseason game as a manager after 47 as a player, Randolph seemed as geeked up as any of his players. Vying for Micromanager of the Year, an award thought to have been retired around here with the departure of Bobby Valentine, Randolph yanked one pitcher too soon and stayed with another too long. He played it safe when he should have gambled, and gambled when he should have played it safe. Working with a shortage of quality starters for the playoff run, Randolph found a way to use half his staff in Game 1. Somehow, he managed to get outmanaged by Grady Little."

...im sorry, i dont think we were watching the same game...? i saw a manager pull a rookie pitcher in his first playoff start while he was still ahead of the game, to possibly be used in game 4 (or long relief of Wild Thing Perez)...

...i saw a manager rely on his bullpen, which has been oh-so-good this year...
...this is the same manager who would leave in pitchers too long at the beggining of the season, remember? but he has changed, learned, and he had to adapt quickly to this new situation with 2 starters out...

...im sorry sir, but you are dead wrong...what you saw was great managing, its too bad you missed it...