Mets wrong to publicly criticize Johan Santana

I know the New York Mets have to do something to keep people interested, but picking a fight with the team’s ace seems like a pretty bad move.

Johan Santana, once again the ace of the Mets pitching staff after RA Dickey was traded to Toronto, came into spring training still trying to fully recover from the shoulder surgery that caused him to miss most of the last two seasons. I’m sure Santana didn’t expect to be criticized by his general manager Sandy Alderson for supposedly coming into camp out of shape. If Alderson had any problems with the way Santana handled his offseason training, or lack thereof, he should have taken it up with Santana and his agent privately rather than igniting a media controversy that pissed off his ace.

Sometimes managers, general managers or baseball owners will criticize players in the media as a way of motivating them. New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was a master at this as proven by his “fat toad” comment about a hefty Hideki Irabu or his condemnation of the relatively vanilla Derek Jeter for his supposed late-night partying. It’s unclear if Alderson was trying to pull a Steinbrenner to motivate Santana, a guy the Mets will need to pitch well if they have any chance of contending. If that’s the case, the criticism clearly had the desired short-term effect of getting Santana back up on the mound.

But I think public criticisms of baseball players tend to have a negative effect on the long-term relationships between ballclubs and players. Do you think there’s any chance Jeter has forgiven or forgotten the remarks by his general manager Brian Cashman during the negotiations for his last contract? If Jeter has another big season this year and declines his 2014 option, rest assured the Yankees won’t be getting the hometown discount that they’ll be looking for.

At least the Yankees don’t demand that their players play hurt. Unlike the Mets, the Yankees tendency is to hold a player back for his own good as they are now doing with Phil Hughes and his injured back. The Mets, for some reason, do just the opposite. They would rather a player go out and risk further injury rather than letting him take time to heal (they better hope Santana didn’t injury himself trying to prove his general manager wrong). The Mets would prefer to publicly criticize players who do not succumb to their demands. At least this time, Alderson put his name to the criticisms rather than engaging in an anonymous smear campaign. But it still seems like the wrong approach.

Random Yankees thoughts: spring training edition

There can be only one Evil Empire.

I know the nickname was meant to insult the New York Yankees, but I have always loved it and many Yankee fans and the organization itself have embraced it. Now, even the law recognizes that the Yankees are in fact the Evil Empire and are entitled to legal protection for the nickname. I guess we should thank Boston Red Sox President Larry Lucchino for pinning the moniker on the Yankees (and for the profits that came with it).

·         I love Lady Gaga’s music although I’m not always crazy about her antics. Still, I was looking forward to going to her concert at the Barclays Center (my first time checking out the new arena) with my sister. Unfortunately, Gaga’s hip injury and subsequent surgery put the kibosh on those plans. Never to fear because Alex Rodriguez is on the case. The Yankees third baseman reportedly spoke to Gaga (an archenemy of ARod’s supposed one-time paramour Madonna) to reassure her about the procedure. I’m hoping Gaga makes a quick recovery and can resume her tour in 2013. But the best things come to those who wait. I attended a U2 concert almost exactly a year after it was first scheduled due to Bono’s back injury and it was definitely worth the wait.  

·         So a Core Four reunion is not in the cards. Jorge Posada has vowed that he will not pull an Andy Pettitte and un-retire after a year away from baseball. Not even the pull of another spring training with his best pal Derek Jeter could lure him away from the happy home life he is enjoying. If Posada was still capable of playing at his level, he would have a real shot at his old job with the Yankees, who will likely be desperate for offense and don’t really have a #1 catcher now that Russell Martin has joined AJ Burnett in Pittsburgh.   

 ·         I’m generally in favor of the planned switch of outfield positions for Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner as Gardy has more speed and is clearly the better fielder. I do worry that Granderson, in having to learn how to play a notoriously difficult left field at Yankee Stadium, will let any defensive challenges affect him at the plate, where he will be counted on to produce for the often offensively challenged Yankees. However, Mike Cameron raised a potential safety issue in making the switch, with Granderson having to relinquish his take-charge mentality in the outfield to avoid a collision similar to the one Cameron experienced with New York Mets teammate Carlos Beltran. I distinctly remember that terrifying accident and pray nothing even remotely close to it happens to Granderson and Gardner.  

Reyes still angry at Loria and Marlins

I can’t say I blame Jose Reyes for being pissed off at Jeffrey Loria and the Miami Marlins.

Toronto’s not a bad place to land (I do love Canada and Canadians). But I understand why Reyes is still so angry at his former boss for trading him after just one season in Little Havana. It was further proof that Marlins ownership cares nothing about the players or the fans, who will end up paying through their noses for that brand spanking new stadium.

After leaving the New York Mets, Reyes probably thought he would find stability and peace in South Florida. But that didn’t last very long as he was traded this past offseason to the Blue Jays. At least Reyes will still be paid very well to play baseball north of the border.  

Reyes is not the only former Marlin to vent against his former bosses. Mr. Perfect Mark Buehrle called the Marlins a bunch of liars after the huge trade that made the Jays instant contenders for the American League East division title (thanks a lot, Loria). I doubt many free agents will be willing to sign with the Marlins, who refuse to give no-trade clauses, despite the lure of sunny South Florida.

The Marlins have screwed their fans left and right, but they’re not the only ones getting screwed over. Even time can’t heal all wounds.

Cashman forced to navigate latest ARod drama

Brian Cashman would love to stop talking about Alex Rodriguez as much as I would love to stop writing about him. Unfortunately, ARod has made that impossible.

The latest twist in the ARod saga came via the Daily News, which reported that ARod is worried that the New York Yankees or Major League Baseball are conspiring against him following the Miami New Times report on his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. It’s not paranoia if they are really out to get you. It seems clear that the Yankees are looking for any possible loopholes to rid themselves of ARod once and for all and I’m sure Bud Selig & Co wouldn’t mind seeing him disappear from the game forever. But ARod isn’t helped by this report, which continues to add fuel to a fire that is burning out of control.

Now Cashman is no saint either, having exposed the Yankees and his family to scandal through his affair with a woman accused of stalking him. But Cashman shouldn’t have to shoulder the responsibility of answering questions about the latest PED accusations against ARod because it wasn’t his decision to rehire ARod after the Yankees third baseman opted out of his contract in 2007. That decision was made by his bosses, the Steinbrenner brothers, so they should be the ones with the cameras and recorders in their faces trying to explain the situation.

Unfortunately, the responsibility for answering these very legitimate questions has fallen on Cashman because he is the Yankees general manager. He has to walk a very fine line in providing enough information to feed the hungry press – a near impossible task because it’s clear the Yankees do not have all the facts – but not providing answers that could be seen as interfering with an ongoing investigation.

I bet Cashman wishes he was the general manager of any other Major League Baseball team right now. Except maybe the Mets.

Baseball's moment of truth almost here

Baseball’s moment of truth is almost here.

I’m eagerly awaiting the 2pm ET release of the names of the next inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday (I’ll get some work done while I wait). There’s some thought that none of the candidates will reach the necessary 75% threshold to be enshrined in the Hall. I hope that’s not the case. Not because I think it will be so terrible to have an empty dais in Cooperstown this summer, but because I think there are some very worthy candidates deserving of induction.

Of the holdovers, I really hope to see Jack Morris and Tim Raines make it in this year. Morris received 67% of the vote last year even with the outspoken opposition of the stat geeks who hate his 3.90 ERA and wins above replacement numbers. But he was the epitome of a big-game pitcher and tossed one of the most memorable games in baseball history: a 10-inning shutout of the Atlanta Braves that won Game 7 and the 1991 World Series for the Minnesota Twins. It’s going to be an unbelievably tight vote, but I’m really rooting for him to reach that magic 75% mark.

Raines has made a steady climb toward that 75% threshold, but he received only 48.7% of the vote in last year’s balloting so it would be a gigantic leap for him to get to that magic mark this year. But one of the best base stealers of all time deserves to get in. His resume is impressive: 2,605 hits, 808 stolen bases, the 1986 National League batting title and seven All-Star appearances. Oh, and he helped the New York Yankees win the World Series twice, serving as a mentor to future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter. Put Raines in the Hall.

Of the newcomers, Craig Biggio is the standout for me with his 3,060 hits, seven All-Star appearances, five Silver Slugger awards and four Gold Gloves. I’m especially rooting for him to get past this notion that he is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer. To me, that’s a silly argument. If he has Hall-worthy numbers, getting in on his first try shouldn’t matter. And I don’t think it’s fair that he may have to sweat out the voting for the next few years if he doesn’t make it in this time around, because the competition will get very tight with guys like Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas on the ballot for the first time next year.

I think Mike Piazza, even though he played for the New York Mets, absolutely deserves to get in on his first try. I know that there are people who are suspicious about him and the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs. But there was never evidence of any kind that he used PEDs so I don’t think you can keep him out based on suspicion alone. When you look at his resume, he is clearly deserving of induction with his .308 batting average, 427 home runs, 1,335 runs batted in, 12 All-Star appearances, 10 Silver Slugger awards and 1993 National League Rookie of the Year. I shudder to think how good his numbers would have been if he had not been catching all those years.

I won't bore anyone to death by repeating who I think shouldn't be in the Hall. I'm expecting the PED cheaters to be shunned by the baseball writers, at least in year one on the ballot

Who will be the chosen ones? Will there even be any chosen ones? The answer is a mere 18 hours away.

Thanks to Phil Hoops via Wikipedia for the Tim Raines photo and slgckgc via Wikipedia for the Mike Piazza photo.  

Mets give fans lump of coal by trading Dickey

I just opened my email this morning to see the New York Mets are having a holiday ticket sale, which I find amusing since they just gave their fans a big lump of coal by trading RA Dickey.

Sure, the Toronto Blue Jays gave up two top prospects who might turn out to be baseball superstars. Or like so many hot prospects before them, they could crash and burn in the big leagues, especially in the glare of the New York City spotlight (if they even make it that far). But we knew Dickey could handle the heat because we saw him pitch his way to the National League Cy Young award in 2012.

A question that still lingers is if the Mets, who were portrayed as being on the fence, ultimately decided to trade Dickey because he had the nerve to express his frustration with the pace of his contract negotiations at the team’s holiday party. While I agree that the timing was terrible, I completely understand Dickey’s frustration and am bewildered that the Mets traded him rather than give him the same, very reasonable deal the Blue Jays did. Sandy Alderson firmly denied that Dickey’s comments had anything to do with the trade and I do believe it was driven more by the Mets simply not wanting to pay their ace that much money on a team that’s probably going to be pretty bad for the next few years. But I wouldn’t put it past the Mets to make such a petty move.

Even if you think the Mets made the right call in getting such talent for an ace they didn’t want to pay to keep, the problem with the move in the short term is that there is now one less reason for Mets fans to bother showing up at the ballpark. The Mets had to prove that they are committed to putting a quality team on the field right now and trading Dickey runs counter to that.

Holiday gift packs for Mets fans are available today, but I doubt Mets fans will be reaching into their wallets to get them.

Random baseball thoughts: winter meetings edition

The New York Yankees are in such a tight spot with their unexpected third base vacancy that they are willing to throw $12 million at aging nemesis Kevin Youkilis, formerly of the Boston Red Sox, to try to fill the hole left by Alex Rodriguez’s injury. The Yankees have long had a reputation for spending whatever it takes to get their man. But the Yankees are only trying to overpay Youkilis because they were rejected by several other third basemen, including Eric Chavez, due to their newfound stinginess.

There can be no mistaking that the Yankees are serious about sticking to their budget, which means Yankee fans will probably not get Josh Hamilton under their Christmas tree (and despite his talent and home-run prowess, I don’t think New York is the right place for him anyway). While a blockbuster move can never be ruled out, I suspect the Yankees are more likely to make do with what they already have.

 ·         The Yankees’ stinginess is making Scott Boras’ job a lot more difficult. He convinced Rafael Soriano to opt out of his contract after Soriano had a terrific year closing games in place of the injured Mariano Rivera. But without the Yankees, Soriano’s market is very limited. I’m sure Boras never expected to see the day when the Yankees closed their wallets this tightly, but now that it’s here, the super agent is going to have to figure out a new strategy to get his clients the megadeals that they have gotten used to.

 

·         It was nice to see the New York Mets lock up their only remaining franchise player in David Wright. As the Yankees are learning, good third baseman are very expensive and letting Wright test the free agent waters would have bitten the Mets in the ass. Now if they can only get RA Dickey signed to a long-term deal, they can go a long way toward making their disillusioned fan base happy again. I know they can get a nice package in return for Dickey following his Cy Young campaign, but you have to give Mets fans a reason to keep coming to the ballpark and signing Wright alone just won’t do it.

Dickey lone bright spot in bad season for Mets

A hearty congratulations goes out to RA Dickey for capturing the National League Cy Young award in a decisive victory.

Dickey was the lone bright spot in a bad season for the New York Mets, the only reason I even bothered to watch Mets games this season (when they weren’t playing the New York Yankees of course). He joined legendary Hall of Famer Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden as the only Cy Young award winners in New York Mets history by winning 20 games – on a bad Mets team that only won 74 games – and leading the National League in strikeouts, innings, complete games and shutouts.  

Aside from now being an award-winning pitcher, Dickey is a remarkable human being. He literally has climbed the highest mountains to help others. His bravery in writing a book detailing the sexual abuse he suffered as a child should be acknowledged and rewarded.

But that’s not why Dickey won the award. His was a season for the ages and deserved the recognition. It’s just too bad it happened in such a down year for the Mets. But it did give Mets fans something to hold on to and that should be celebrated.

Thanks to dbking via Wikipedia for the RA Dickey photo.

Sad divorce for Jason Bay and Mets

Talk about a marriage that was doomed from the start.

The New York Mets have announced that they are parting ways with outfielder Jason Bay after three years of marriage. It’s not a surprising announcement given that Bay never turned into the player the Mets were paying him to be. And of late the Mets have been perfectly willing to eat contracts just to get a declining or problematic player off their roster.

It was never clear that Bay really wanted to play in Queens. He waited three weeks before accepting the Mets’ contract offer back in 2009. At his introductory press conference, Bay insisted that he really did want to play for the Mets. But I always had the impression that Bay only signed with the Mets because he could not get a better offer from the Boston Red Sox, even though he was a New York Yankees killer in his time with the Saux. I was perfectly happy to see him land in Queens, preferring the Yankees only face him six times a year instead of 19.

It’s really sad that the marriage between the Mets and Jason Bay didn’t work out. But the upside of a divorce is that both parties can make a fresh start. Hopefully, Bay will find his old self in a different uniform and the Mets can open up his spot to someone who can make a difference in that lineup.

 

Thanks to slgckgc via Wikipedia for the Jason Bay photo.  

Random baseball thoughts: All-Star edition

That was an embarrassing performance by the American League All-Stars, who got spanked by the National League 8-0 and lost home-field advantage for the third year in a row. Remember when the American League had that 13-game unbeaten streak in All-Star contests? That is now a thing of the past. What was most disappointing was that the early drubbing made the rest of the game a total snoozefest. I got so bored that I fell asleep and missed the last two innings of the game. I didn’t even know that Melky Cabrera won the Most Valuable Player award until this morning. Good for him.

I     * I can’t say I was thrilled to see Justin Verlander laughing it up on the sidelines after getting pounded for five runs in the first inning, putting the American League in a hole they didn’t have a chance of climbing out of, especially since “this time it counts” gave the National League home-field advantage in the World Series. I bet Verlander will rue his performance if he finds himself pitching Game 1 of the World Series for the Detroit Tigers in some National League ballpark.

       * Just when you thought Kansas City Royals fans couldn’t behave any more despicably, now comes word that Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees had to have extra security guard his family during the All-Star game because of the disgraceful behavior of Royals fans upset at Cano for supposedly snubbing their hometown hero Billy Butler in the Home Run Derby. I thought the merciless booing of Cano was extreme, but this just takes it to a whole new level. To be fair, Yankee fans have been guilty of similar boorish behavior as Cliff Lee’s wife reported getting spit at and beer thrown in her direction during the 2009 World Series. But that doesn’t make it right, either in New York or Kansas City.  



Bud Selig and Joe Torre both expressed remorse for Cano’s treatment at the hands of Kansas City fans. Hopefully, it will be enough to convince them that they are setting these players up for this kind of treatment by putting them in the position of having to choose the Derby participants. Major League Baseball should retake control of that responsibility. They can be assured that they would be safe from that type of vicious treatment since most fans couldn’t pick baseball officials not named Selig and Torre out of a lineup.  

* You have to admire R.A. Dickey, not only for the way he has dominated opposing baseball teams this year with that knuckleball, but for what he has survived in his life to get to this point of tremendous success. My admiration for him grew stronger this week as he expressed disappointment over not starting the All-Star game, a start that he earned, without criticizing National League manager Tony LaRussa for taking the start away from him. Dickey is a class act. I make it a point to turn on the Mets games when I know he is starting just to watch him pitch. I’m rooting for him to continue his fantastic run in the second half. 

Yankees play it safe with ace CC Sabathia

I knew things were going too well for the New York Yankees.

The good vibes from a terrific performance by Phil Hughes extending the Yankees winning ways and the controversy over the catch that wasn’t a catch have been quickly cast aside by news that CC Sabathia is heading to the disabled list. It appears to be a relatively minor injury, but the Yankees, cautious by nature, are nottaking any chances with their ace, putting him on the DL instead of just skipping his turn in the rotation in the hope of a quick recovery. Can’t say I blame them.

CC being injured explains a lot about his inability to hold a four-run lead against the New York Mets last weekend. Yes, his defense failed him miserably, but he usually pitches around errors. And perhaps my expectations for CC are unfairly high (though he has mostly lived up to and surpassed them in his Yankee years). But the fact that he allowed that game to be tied by the Mets really took me by surprise. It’s not like the CC we know and love to blow that kind of a lead and the injury may explain why (although Sabathia would never use it as an excuse because he is a no excuses kind of guy).

Joe Girardi didn’t seem too pleased by Sabathia’s failure to inform the team of the injury he first felt on Sunday night. But he can’t really be surprised either. His ace is a bulldog who always wants the ball. He wanted to only miss a start rather than go on the DL with what he probably sees as a nuisance injury rather than a serious one. But CC lost that argument to Brian Cashman and Girardi, who know it’s more important to have their ace on the mound in September than late June, particularly with the Yankees on such a winning streak.

With the Yankees going so well, they can afford to be without their ace for two weeks, particularly with the All-Star break coming up. But it can’t be for much longer than that or the Yankees could find themselves in trouble. 

Feisty Mets put up a good fight

I have a lot of respect for a Mets team that just lost five of six games this month to their cross-town rival New York Yankees.

If the Mets miss out on the baseball playoffs this year by a couple of games, they are going to rue the 2012 versions of the Subway Series. But in truth they played pretty well this weekend, putting up some good at-bats against the Yankees top two pitchers in CC Sabathia (who hasn’t really pitched like the ace we all know he is despite his solid numbers) and Andy Pettitte (who had a rare misstep in his inability to escape a first-inning jam on Friday). They might have even swept the Yankees if not for manager Terry Collins’ debatablepitching moves although he can’t really be blamed for being afraid to go to his shaky bullpen.  

But the games were all pretty close, which was great because the Subway Series always has more meaning when the Yankees and Mets are both competitive. Despite their lack of power and shaky bullpen, the Mets are still within striking distance of the Washington Nationals for the National League East division lead. It will be a lot of fun this summer to see if the Mets can hold on and compete for a division title or one of those wild card slots. It would be terrific for the franchise if the Mets actually make the playoffs. It could help banish the dark cloud cast by the Bernie Madoff scandal for good.

The Mets were scrappy on the field and very feisty off of it, seemingly never believing the conventional wisdom they are out of the Yankees league. This feistiness was reflected by Mets closer Frank Francisco’s eagerness to start a minor New York tabloid controversy by calling the Yankees “chickens.” Francisco did back up his trash talk by closing out the Mets’ sole victory in the Subway Series although he also quickly headed to the disabled list. Was he really hurt that bad or is he the real chicken? We probably won’t know until next year, unless the Mets and Yankees somehow meet up again this year in the World Series. How awesome would that be? 

Subway takes NY Mets for a ride

The New York Mets were feeling pretty good about themselves this year, with the first no-hitter in franchise history highlighting what had been a season of overachieving. That has all come crashing down in the last week, with the New York Yankees, to no one’s surprise, landing some painful and perhaps fatal blows.

In the first game of this year’s Subway Series on Friday, the Yankees treated Mets ace/no-hitter extraordinaire Johan Santana like their personal punching bag. Then the Mets could not get much going against a resurgent Phil Hughes apart from a couple of solo homers en route to another loss. Finally, a comedy of errors on Sunday (actual errors, not metaphorical ones), led the Mets to waste a 3-0 lead and ultimately succumb to the Yankees when Russell Martin hit his second home run of the game to lead the Yankees in a walk-off victory, which, FYI, should never be celebrated by leaping onto home plate.

Can the Mets recover from this weekend’s sweep? Perhaps, but the Mets’ weaknesses were exposed for all in the baseball world to see. The Mets cannot hold a lead to save their lives, with an angry Jon Rauch not even waiting until Martin’s ball landed in the seats before walking off the mound in disgust and shame in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday. Their starting pitching has been very good, but it’s not good enough to survive all the errors in the field. And with the exception of David Wright, the Mets just cannot hit consistently.

The Yankees must be thrilled by the sweep of their cross-town rivals, although they would never publicly admit that. The Mets have gotten praise for overachieving this season while the Yankees have been criticized (including by yours truly) for their mediocre play even though the two teams had roughly the same record before the weekend. But the expectations are far higher in Yankee land and the Bronx Bombers are not supposed to struggle for more than a few games in a row. You now get the sense that the Yankees have really started to right the ship, with all elements of their game coming together (if they could only just hit a little better with men in scoring position).

So this weekend’s Subway trip was long and unpleasant for the Mets. They’ll be hoping for a smoother ride in a few weeks at Citi Field.   

Hughes silences Santana talk with dominant start

Johan Santana’s no-hitter has some people openly talking about the New York Yankees making a play for the Mets lefthander. But the Yankees would have to sacrifice one of their young starters in return and the name that has popped up, of course, is Phil Hughes. Today, Hughes once again showed the Yankees and their fans why they should not give up on him.

The Yankees almost traded for Santana once, but balked at giving up the young Hughes as part of the package. I think it was the right call for Brian Cashman back then and I hope he makes the same choice if the Mets make their ace available. I don’t think anyone would knock Cashman if he traded Hughes for Santana, but it seems like the Yankees general manager would prefer to stick with the younger, less expensive pitcher. And I don’t think the Mets would really consider trading Santana to the Yankees, not unless they want to start a mutiny in Queens. They certainly can’t do so right now while they are overachieving, but if they were to lose momentum and consider giving up their ace, they would demand a king’s ransom in return.

Not that I wouldn’t love to have Santana in the Yankees starting rotation. No question CC Sabathia and Santana would make a fearsome 1-2 punch. Hughes hasn’t yet fully reclaimed his first half 2010 dominance that had him being mentioned as a possible #2 to Sabathia. But this afternoon, Hughes brushed off a terrible start in his hometown to put forth a dominant performance against a Detroit Tigers lineup with two very dangerous hitters. Again staked to an early lead, he didn’t falter this time, even after giving up a solo home run to Prince Fielder. In fact, he got better as the game went along, so much so that Joe Girardi showed tremendous faith in sending Hughes out to finish what he started, a brilliant, confidence-boosting move by the Yankees manager.

I know some Yankee fans are frustrated by the inconsistency of Phil Hughes, but they shouldn’t be so eager to sacrifice him for Santana. Today, Hughes once again proved what he is capable of. 

Congrats to Santana and long-suffering Mets fans

Congratulations, New York Mets fans! Your suffering is over. No longer will you be mocked for never experiencing one of the greatest accomplishments in baseball history.

The Mets have been overachieving all season, surpassing all expectations and playing to within a game of first place in the National League East (and one game better than the New York Yankees). Now a Mets pitcher has finally accomplished a feat that some people doubted would ever happen: Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in franchise history. After all the near misses and the agony of watching former Mets throw no-hitters and perfect games for other teams, this one has to feel good.

It seems right that Santana is the guy to make Mets history, especially considering how well liked he is all across baseball. The congratulations quickly started pouring in when word of his no-hitter got around and the praise all seemed quite genuine, with many of his former teammates expressing pure joy at their friend’s feat.

Santana has had a terrific career, winning not one but two Cy Young awards. The Mets have had so many terrific pitchers over the years, namely the great Tom Seaver. But Santana is the one to finally put the Mets on the map when it comes to no-hitter pitching history. He did right by the Mets and by Mets fans, saluting them for their support that night and through his struggles with that injured shoulder. He also made a short and simple clubhouse speech that choked me up a bit when he told his teammates that they all did this together.

And a big bravo to Terry Collins for having the guts to let his “hero” stay in that game despite the possible damage throwing so many pitches could do to Santana’s surgically repaired shoulder. It was not an easy call. Yankees fans remember when Joe Torre pulled David Cone from a game against the Oakland Athletics with a no-hitter through seven innings in his first start coming back from an aneurysm. Collins wasn’t going to do that, not to his ace, not in front of those long-suffering Mets fans, who have stuck by the team through September collapses and Bernie Madoff.

Congratulations to Johan Santana for a feat 50 years in the making. And to those hard-core Mets fans, including my uncles, who stood by the Mets through all the tough times. You all deserve this moment.  

For Cole Hamels, honesty not the best policy

For Cole Hamels, honesty was definitely not the best policy.

Hamels’ candor about intentionally plunking Washington Nationals rookie phenom Bryce Harper earned him a five-game suspension. For me, the most surprising aspect of this whole situation is that it seems that people are criticizing Hamels for his honesty rather than actually hitting the kid. Nobody seems bothered by the fact that he had no good reason for plunking Harper, who got the best revenge by stealing home.

I must have missed the part when Cole Hamels was appointed keeper of the flame. It is not his job to try to return baseball to its glory days by plunking batters. Those days are over and for good reason in many ways. Hamels could have made the same point by throwing a pitch inside without hitting Harper. In that sense, I agree with Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, who called Hamels “gutless” and “fake tough.”

But I do give Hamels some credit in that he is a National League pitcher without the protection of the designated hitter so he knew hitting the kid would earn him his own hit by pitch, which Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann quickly delivered. Hamels wasn’t doing a Roger Clemens impersonation, where Clemens hit guys left and right, including future New York Yankees teammate Derek Jeter, with impunity because he generally didn’t have a bat in his hand. Who could forget the one time the New York Mets try to retaliate and hit Clemens, with Shawn Estes missing the target completely.

But I’m disappointed that Bud Selig and Major League Baseball did not come down harder on Hamels. A five-game ban for a starting pitcher just pushes his next start back one day. To me, the punishment didn’t fit the crime because it should have been a longer ban, one that would have actually forced Hamels to see the error of his ways and served as a deterrent. But it sure put other pitchers on alert: if you hit a guy intentionally, it’s best just to lie about it because the truth will cost you.  

Thanks to Mel Rowling via Flickr for the Cole Hamels photo. 

Billy Beane gives insight into his Moneyball world

My professional and personal interests once again collided at a conference I covered last week when I got to hear a keynote speech by Billy Beane, who provided tremendous insight into how he used the “Moneyball” concept to build a playoff-caliber baseball team despite limited resources.

The Oakland A’s general manager was nervous and edgy on stage, maybe due to a phobia about public speaking (hard to imagine for a person with his job title) or perhaps somewhat intimidated by talking in front of a crowd of insurance professionals who Beane insisted were much smarter than him (he was speaking at the Risk & Insurance Management Society’s annual conference). Beane seems to have a bit of a complex about his intelligence, cracking several jokes about his much smarter former right-hand man, Paul DePodesta, now an official with the New York Mets.

It’s shocking to realize this, but the A’s in 1992 had one of the highest payrolls in baseball at $48 million. But as other teams’ payrolls skyrocketed, in large part thanks to lucrative television deals, the A’s payroll rose at a much slower pace.

“For us, the biggest risk that we can have is actually doing things like everybody else because if we do things like everyone else, we’re destined to finish exactly where our payroll and revenues say we are,” he said.

To his credit, Beane dismissed the notion that he and DePodesta created the Moneyball concept. He specifically named Bill James (who Beane said deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame) and others that advocated the use of mathematical analysis to build baseball teams for years before Beane did, but were generally ignored because they were outsiders.

But for a while, Beane and his team used the Moneyball theory of player evaluation better than anyone else in baseball, focusing on players with strong on-base percentages and other unrecognized metrics that were important to winning games. For instance, he drafted a young Nick Swisher, a player now with the New York Yankees who is known for his OBPexcellence, out of college.

“That’s passé now because the highest paid players in the game are guys that get on base,” he said. “Back then, 10 or 12 years ago, it was about the seventh highest paid statistic in the game. People were paying for skill sets that didn’t necessarily correlate strongly to winning.”

Beane talked about how teams with greater resources could invest in players that had all the skills, the way the Yankees once invested in a young, high school shortstop named Derek Jeter, who could run, throw, hit and play defense.

“Those guys cost $20 million a year,” he said. “We couldn’t afford that. What we needed was guys who did one thing really well and what they did really well had a huge impact on winning.”  

Beane adopted this philosophy out of necessity, of course, due to his miniscule payroll, but he still deserves a lot of the credit for the Moneyball concept taking hold in Major League Baseball.

The GM was quite funny and self-deprecating, noting the disappointment of women when they see him rather than his movie star alter-ego Brad Pitt, and his own unsuccessful baseballcareer, launched after being the 23^rd pick of the 1980 Major League Baseball draft, which ended with a career stat line of a .219 batting average, 66 hits and 29 runs batted in.

“That’s essentially Chapter 11 if you’re a baseball player,” Beane said. 

Big-spending Yankees have plenty of company

The big-spending New York Yankees suddenly have a lot of company.

This year, 11 baseball teams will spend more than $100 million in payroll and 15 will spend at least $90 million, according to this report. The most noteworthy new free-spenders are the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at $157 million. They spent a large fortune to pry Albert Pujols away from the reigning World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals and CJ Wilson away from their division rival Texas Rangers, who are coming off consecutive American League pennants.  

A close second is the suddenly flush Florida Marlins, who technically spent money they haven’t even made yet off their gorgeous new ballpark to lure Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhrle and Heath Bell to South Florida. Save for the Mets, the National League East should be an extremely competitive division and fun to watch, partly due to the Marlins’ expected resurgence. If my Syracuse Orange do not make it to the Final Four (and major doubt was cast earlier today by the crushing loss of Fab Melo), my back-up plan is to head to Miami to watch the Yankees play the Marlins in an exhibition at the new stadium (and, of course, to work on my tan).

But no one will ever outspend the Yankees in terms of total payroll, even with the Steinbrenners and Brian Cashman furiously working to get down to the magic $189 million threshold by 2014. The Yankees have absolutely no intention of lowering their payroll anywhere close to the point that they could be confused with the old Florida Marlins. But at least now they have some company closer to the top. 

Judge deals Mets owners a major body blow

Just when you think things couldn’t get worse for the New York Mets, they actually do get worse.

Whatever positive vibes the Mets may have had with the start of spring training baseball and the return of Johan Santana to the pitcher’s mound have been completely wiped out by the crushing news that a federal judge has ruled that Fred Wilpon & Co must pay as much as $83.3 million to the trustee overseeing the recovery from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

The ruling is not a fatal blow for the Mets owners, but it is pretty damn close. Not only do they have to give back the fictitious profits they received, they will have to endure a trial to determine if they should have to pay the more than $300 million principal they invested. The only thing the Mets owners have going for them right now is that the judge expressed skepticism about the trustee’s ability to prove the owners were willfully blind to the scheme. But since he left room to be convinced that that is exactly what happened, the Mets are in real trouble.

The owners insist that they will prevail at trial, but they have mishandled this entire situation, namely by playing the victim card. Their arguments that they were just as much Madoff’s victims as the rest of the bunch didn’t hold water when you considered that they were net winners in the scheme, meaning they received more money than they invested. The actual victims were those individuals who invested their life savings or retirement funds with Madoff and lost it all. If I had been in the Mets inner circle, I would have pushed for a settlement right after the judge’s previous ruling went mostly in their favor rather than defiantly prolonging the court battle. They may ultimately win the trial, but the damage has already been done.

I feel very sorry for the Mets players right now. They are being forced to answer questions about a situation they know very little about when they would much rather be completely focused on getting into game shape. When all eyes should be on Santana, who pitched pretty well this afternoon in a major step in his rehabilitation, people are whispering, sometimes loudly talking, about this latest blow and what it means for the future of the Mets organization.

It looks like Fred Wilpon and his family are going to have to pay, in some way or the other.  

Sad day as Mets family loses Gary Carter

My heart goes out to the New York Mets family and all their fans over the loss of Gary Carter.

It’s a terribly sad day in Queens even though the news of Carter’s death is hardly a surprise. He had been bravely battling brain cancer for months, but his prognosis seemed to be getting worse. I could sense the end was near when he was too weak to attend last month’s Baseball Writers of America awards, with his children’s emotional acceptance of the “You Gotta Have Heart” award on his behalf.

Carter had a lot of heart. There’s no question about that. He was a mentally tough individual but a steady force in baseball.  And Carter was a very deserving member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, with 11 All-Star elections (twice being named the Most Valuable Player of the game), five Silver Slugger awards and three Gold Gloves.

On a team of hooligans who proudly abused drugs and women, Carter stood out for his refusal to join the party. Carter helped the 1986 Mets win a World Series championship, but never let their bad behavior touch him. He was the voice of reason and responsibility for a team that desperately needed it. The Mets would never have won that title without his leadership and his baseball talents.

Rest in peace, Kid.

Thanks to MTLskyline via Wikipedia for the image.