The explanation behind the status

Never before have I received so much feedback from one Facebook status. I called the Mets' 4-5 record a disgrace.

And I'm seeing people, including people I haven't seen in years, telling me "Man, you have to calm down. You have a bullpen. It's a long season. It's a marathon, not a sprint." The deal is this. By no means did I say the season was over. But what I have watched this past week is the same crap I have been watching from the Mets since June 2007.

The home opener was depressing enough. Balk + Duaner + Heath Bell and we lose the first game in CitiField. Interesting how a former Met reliever closed out Shea Stadium and two former Met relievers closed down the first game in the new ballpark.

But the swing game on Thursday against San Diego was a carbon copy of last year, minus the bullpen ineptitude. It all started out so promising. Bottom of the first: Two on, Delgado hits a shot to Westchester County for a 3-0 lead. Then perhaps the most important starter on this team, John Maine (I say that because his success or failure may make the difference on how this team does, since he has potential, but is coming off surgery), gives it all back in the third inning. Starring such All-World players as Everth (I actually had to look his first name up for this) Cabrera, Chade Headley, Jody Gerut, and Kevin Kouzmanoff. Walk, single, sac, single, single, ground out, intentional walk, bases loaded single, single. 5-3. The Padres scored five runs in the third inning. The Padres! A team that was projected to lose 100 games. Five runs! The Padres don't have five-run weeks!

Let's look at the rest of the game and I'm going to focus on the Mets at-bats, but first I credit the bullpen for holding the Padres to one run over the final six innings. Third inning: Two on with one out, Church grounds out and Castro strikes out. Fourth inning: Murphy doubles down the foul line and Reyes goes to third base. He would have scored, but Steve Bartman's distant cousin who is wearing a Mets hat shows up and picks the ball up. So it's a ground-rule double and Reyes has to stop at third base! With two outs, Wright strikes out looking and the threat dies. Fifth inning: nothing. Sixth inning: Cla Meredith replaces Jake Peavy: nothing. Seventh inning: Edwin Moreno pitching: more nothing. Eighth inning: Our old buddy Duaner comes back in. Church reaches on a bunt single and Castro drills one into the left field seats. Now San Diego leads 6-5. Castillo flies out and Sheffield walks. That's about as productive an at bat as he has had to this point. A walk. Up comes Jose Reyes against the ex-Met who is throwing 75 MPH smoke. What does he do? 6-4-3 double play. Inning over. Ninth inning: We know who is coming in. That fat bastard Heath Bell. the ex-Met, who recorded the first save in Citi Field, which he bragged he would do for weeks, who was traded for a pair of stiffs in Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins, who has done more interviews in three days than Rod Blagojevich did in public image rehab tour, promptly retires Murphy and Wright. Delgado extends the at-bat to ten pitches and strikes out looking. Game over. Under .500.

I am losing my patience with Daniel Murphy on defense. Jerry Manuel does not even trust this guy to throw a ball home for a play at the plate. Reyes is running out to left field, getting a flip from Murphy, and then throwing the ball home. How embarrassing is that? How can this kid be the everyday left fielder when he can't throw the ball on the fly from shallow left field? And the Mets signed Sheffield because they want to make him an everyday player. This guy is 40 years old and cannot run. And the Mets now play in a park with the largest outfield in baseball. And there are a pair of defensive liabilities out there patrolling the corners. Ryan Church, who this organization has all but ostracized, should be playing every day.

I have seen Florida's exuberance and energy. I don't see how they will collapse. They will certainly win 85 games at least. With that rotation, that much speed, Hanley Ramirez hitting third, and Fredi Gonzalez as their manager, they are brutal to play against. Throw in the Phillies and Braves, this does not leave me feeling very inspired.

And what will the Mets do against the Cubs? Against the Dodgers? Against the Braves? Need I say against the Phillies?

Unlike some people, I don't care about the little intricacies of the ballpark. I don't give two cents about the color of the seats, about the ushers wearing red shirts, about some people not being able to see the left or right field corners. I care about performance on the field and I care about winning a championship. Because what I see is a weak rotation after Johan Santana, a much better bullpen, terrible defense in a pitcher's ballpark, and the same lineup that rarely gets big hits in big spots. And another thing. Brian Schneider is beyond hideous. I would take Todd Hundley or even Mackey Sasser out of retirement over this guy. the bottom line on this team is this. After three heartbreaking finishes in a row, how much more motivation should this team need?

And as I started this blog, another thing happened. The Mets took a 3-0 lead over the Brewers in the first inning tonight. Sound familiar. I did not feel comfortable. I said to myself, "They will not score more than five runs for the game." It is now the sixth, so there is some time left. But they have done nothing since that first inning. And Ryan Braun just drilled a three-run homer over the left field fence and Milwaukee now leads 4-3.

I deleted the last sentence I was going to write. Sheffield just hit a homer. Tie game. I want a sweep. That's not asking for too much, is it?

1-0!!!

The Rangers defeated the heavily favored Washington lowercases to take 1-0 lead in this best of 7 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series. Going into this series, I was one of maybe 20 people who thought the Rangers could defeat that high octane Washington offense. My father, my uncle, and many other thought I needed medication to get my brain back on track again. Well tonight, they silenced our nation's capital and all the critics indeed. Now I still think winning this series will be a tremendous struggle. I know a lot of things have to break just right and tonight, they did:

1) Wash goalie Jose Theodore has to play down to his billing. He is not very good, clearly inferior to Henrik Lundqvist and the King must steal at least two games in this series. If the Rangers cannot score more than two goals a game, they will not make it to a Game 6. That's exactly what happened tonight. The Rangers were outshot 35-21 and the puck must have been in the Rangers' end of the ice at least 40 of 60 minutes. But Henrik made great save after great save and Theodore let in four goals that all could have possibly been stopped.

2) Alexander Ovechkin is clearly the best player in the world. The stats sheet said he played 26 minutes, it felt like 40. Mike Green is the best offensive defenseman in hockey. He scored 31 goals this season, more than any Ranger and more than all Ranger defensemen combined! Throw in Nick Backstrom, Viktor Kozlov, Brooks Laich, Michael Nylander, and Alexander Semin; they are loaded. That is the #2 power play in hockey. The Rangers PK is #1. And the Rangers PP has been putrid all season. So the special teams are huge. Now tonight, Washington went 2 for 7, which is ok. But the Rangers went 2 for 4 and those PP goals made the difference. The thing is even on 5 on 5, Washington controlled the play far more often than the Rangers. So it is vital for the Rangers to avoid unnecessary penalties.

3) Some Ranger must emerge as a prime time performer. Captain Chris Drury has been that, but he is injured worse than expected and missed tonight's game. The fact that the Rangers won without him amazes me. All day long, I was very confident the Rangers could win tonight. I was rubbing my Henrik bracelet, taking co-workers down with knee-on-knee hits. Five minutes before game time, I found out Drury skated in warm-ups and decided he could not play and the immortal Aaron Voros would suit up instead. I felt deflated. But Ryan Callahan hustled and hit hard just like he has all season, Wade Redden actually played steady defense, and Scott Gomez scored three points. With Drury out, Gomez really stepped up.

A few other things.

1) I don't expect the Rangers to win Game 2 on Saturday. After the Caps lost in the first round last year and with them dropping the first game at home, they know what they need to do. I know this is against the way they have played all season, but they need to tighten up on defense, protect Theodore, and not focus on offense as much. They really don't need to focus on offense; they have enough talent. They will probably win Game 2 by a score of 4-1. I do wonder if Caps coach Bruce Boudreau (a huge wresting fan by the way) will play Theodore all series or if he will have to insert Simeon Varlamov, a guy I have never heard of.

2) Chris Drury has to play for the Rangers to win this series. He is the key to their PP and plays his best in the playoffs. His teammates need his leadership. and he needs to accept the responsibility of leading them as well.

3) If Nik Zherdev, a restricted free agent who I have defended all year, cannot produce in this series, he cannot come back next season. The Rangers should let him go and focus on signing Blair Betts, Ryan Callahan, and Nik Antropov.

4) Markus Naslund just took another penalty in the offensive zone.

5) Steve Somers should have four hours postgame shows after each Rangers playoff game!

Baseball Over/unders and predictions

I still have four days in Vegas that I have not blogged about. I need some motivation to finish it off. The great thing is since I can change the date and time of the post I can make it look like I did a month ago.

Speaking of Vegas, they have released their Over/Unders for baseball. And with my Rangers spitting the damn bit as always, I believe it is time to shift into that baseball mindset. The green grass, the blue sky, the peanuts and Cracker Jack, the dread of that first opposing baserunner.

So with two of my three least favorite teams starting the season tomorrow, I will predict the over under on the number of wins each team will amass over the 2009 season. Being blessed with a tremendous sense of clarity of vision, here's how it will go down.

Arizona- 86.5
Over
Atlanta- 83.5
Over
Baltimore- 73.5
Under
Boston- 94.5
Over
Chicago Cubs- 91.5
Over
Chicago White Sox- 79.5
Over
Cincinnati- 80.5
Over
Cleveland- 85.5
Over
Colorado- 77.5
Under
Detroit- 82.5
Under
Florida- 76.5
Over
Houston- 74.5
Under
Kansas City- 75.5
Over
LA Angels- 89.5
Under
LA Dodgers- 82.5
Over
Milwaukee- 80.5
Over
Minnesota- 83.5
Over
NY Mets- 88.5
Under (No joke)
NY Yankees- 97.5
Under
Oakland- 81.5
Over
Philadelphia- 87.5
Over
Pittsburgh- 69.5
Under
San Diego- 71.5
Under
San Francisco- 80.5
Under
Seattle- 72.5
Over
St. Louis- 82.5
Over
Tampa Bay- 87.5
Under
Texas- 73.5
Over
Toronto- 80.5
Under
Washington- 71.5
Under

Now for the playoffs. Let's start in the AL. I love the additions the Yankees have made with CC, AJ, Teixeira, and even the lesser heralded players like Nick Swisher. For the first time in several years, I predict the Bronx Bombers will win the AL East again with the Red Sox taking the wild card. Beckett, Daisuke, and Lester is the best 1-2-3 rotation is baseball. For the Central, a lot of people seem to be taking the Twins. I like them, but there is something about the Indians. I believe the White Sox don't have enough starting pitching (I am not sold on Gavin Floyd) and the Tigers are a mess. I'll take the Indians to emerge in a dogfight. For the West, it's hard to go against the Angels. They have lost a lot this offseason in K-Rod and the team's core is aging. But I still like them just ahead of Oakland, simply because the A's, like the Sox, do not have pitching.

In the NL West, the Dodgers have the best lineup with Manny, Ethier, Loney, Kemp, Furcal, Hudson, and Martin, but the Diamondbacks seem more balanced. They have a good young lineup, but they have better pitching and a better bullpen in my opinion. And don't forget last year, Arizona had the best record in baseball through 50 or so games. I will take Arizona to win the division this year. I hate to say it but the Bubbles of Chicago will come out of the Central. Although Kevin Gregg will turn into the new Latroy Hawkins before long. And then there's the East. I don't think the Mets are deep enough. In short, I love the bullpen. But the lineup is not deep enough. 7, 8, and 9 are automatic outs. And the starting rotation is a huge question past Johan Santana. John Maine and Oliver Perez may make or break this season. Philadelphia is deeper and tougher. I want that to change in the worst way, but now I need to see it change. I give the Mets no pre-season plaudits until they earn them. Philly wins it and I will give the Dodgers the wild card. Maybe if I don't pick the Mets to make the playoffs, they will actually do it!

I pick a LA-Yankee World Series with the Bronx Bombers bringing back the title to New York.