It's Mets For Me: Off-Beat, Tangentially Relevant Mets Ruminations

Off Base Since 2005! Mets commentary from the counter-intuitive to the unintuitive and all the intuitives in between. ** "Through the use of humor and gross inaccuracy...a certain truth can be gained." Rob Perri ** (pester me at:itsmetsforme@gmail.com or follow me @itsmetsforme on twitter)

Monday, May 12, 2008

At last!!

The quest for certainty has been man's preoccupation since at least Descartes. Reflecting upon the visit of the last place Nationals to Shea, whereupon the band of misfits easily walloped our local boys and presumptive contenders, we can now say two things with all the confidence in the world.

1. Figuero sucks. And I say this in the nicest possible way. Figgy literally pitched and played his way to designation (for assignment). For good measure, he threw away a key ball to the plate. It was fun having a well-traveled Mets fan pitching for us, but enough is enough. A good back story isn't enough to be a regular feature for a team with playoff aspirations. Every inning before the first pitch, the Nats would trot out to man first and second base to start things off, or at least it seemed that way. If you can't handle the other team's pitcher (O. Perez, 3-3, 2RBI), well. It's a pity Figueroa couldn't harness any anger he might have felt when Elijah Dukes, apparently high on his own supply, led a bizarre little league cheer for fellow socially awkward outfielder Lastings Milledge as he batted.


2. Sosa. Sucks. I don't mean that in quite so gentle a way as with #1. There's nothing else to say on that score.

I don't care if they give a guy named Guiseppe a start, the pitchin needs fixin. Still to be grappled with are the following questions: Did you think they had a shot to come back at 6-3? 10-3? Have they come back from a sizable deficit this season yet? Does this team have a higher gear? At least the Mets are falling behind in one key area. The WNBA finally came up with a slogan dumber than the '07 Mets ("Your season has come"): "Expect Great." What is their target audience, illiterates?

Fire Rick Down.

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posted by I.M. Forme @ 6:29 PM  

10 Comments:

  • At 7:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I don't agree about Figueroa. He started off literally perfect in his first Mets start and though he has had a bit of faltering, I definitely believe that it was too soon to let him go. He has been about as reliable as Ollie Perez who definitely is not getting DFAed. Worse yet is the prospect that Figgy will be picked up by a rival like the Braves a la Gotay and really show us up. Who is gonna fill in for him in the rotatoin until if and when Pedro comes back? Look, a few weeks ago I was Figgy who? I haven't been totally sold on him, but I have become a fan. Not sure if his excellent early performances or his great jobs around the globe in the past year have been flukes, but it seemed he should have been given more of a chance. OK, maybe I'll become of Claudio Vargas after a nice job today and maybe onward, but I'm quite sure that our pitching depth isn't deep enough to just give Figgy away. Hopefully at least he'll come back to New Orleans.

     

  • At 9:31 AM, Blogger I.M. Forme said…

    You don't say anything about Sosa--how do you feel about that one? I bet Figgy will go unclaimed. He is a journey man after all, and I wish him well on his continuing journey. The bloom was off the rose, especially apparent when he hurt himself throwing wildly to home. One mistake the Mets made in seasons past is to keep going to inferior starters, so perhaps they are trying not to make the mistake again.

    Rick Down sure made it through unscathed, but the Mets seem to have signaled a commitment to fielding the "best" team they know how. They have shown some flexibilty by sending Heilman to garbage duty until Sanchez shows that he isn't quite ready (will his velocity come back?). The bad news is that it's Lima Time--audition time--for the rotation again, never a good sign for a $130 mil plus team.

     

  • At 9:48 AM, Blogger Jaap said…

    Well Figgy shot his wad. The adrenaline first two Shea starts carried him a ways and thereafter, pffft, like the air out of a tyre.
    Whingeing about the other team, no matter how bush they acted (what else to expect from Dukes and Milledge, etc.?), is lame. That's about get angry at others other than yourself. I'm not sad to see him go and agree he isn't playoff calibre member of pitching staff. I'm keen on seeing if they ink fat Freddy Garcia at some point this season. That might be a smart move.
    Sosa is a lucky man - gotta keep him - how else do you have 2nd highest win total on the staff despite being one of it's worst pitchers? I'd keep him for long relief of Perez just to make sure the blowouts stay blowouts and we don't have to worry about staging a massive comeback.
    I wonder what Peterson is doing to earn his paycheck these days...
    I'm more concerned with set up relievers given Heilman and Sanchez sputtering around all season so far. Aren't there any more Nats or O's staff we can fleece in another trade?

     

  • At 10:21 AM, Blogger I.M. Forme said…

    By the way, i made this post before the transactions never actually thinking the Mets would shitcan these two. No, i thought, better to lose an effective Smith so as to guarantee more innings for Jorrible Soso. But Omar threw me a curve. So that's progress.

    The Mets really need to win the next two against Warden Acta and get "into a nice little rhythm" so we don't have to bemoan the results of the subway series next week.

    Duanar worries the heck out of me.

     

  • At 3:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Y'know, as soon as I finished that post, I realised that I hadn't mentioned my satisfaction with the Jorrible reassignment. It was due. Hey, the guy had his good moments, but we can't have a manager-in-training and a long-man in-training - too much to ask for. Then, there is the eternal question - Which came first the Garbage Time or the Poopyface? And did we need to keep Sosa so Sosa could run Garbage Time duty for Heilman's messes and vice versa. Quite a tag team. OK, I should be kinder and gentler and more serious. Figgy deserved better, I still say. Yes, he got excited and off track, but we would never throw Ollie under the bus for that, which he does regularly. It's not that Figgy necessarily deserved more rope to hang himself or not, but yes, it's Lima audition time and I would think that considering what Figgy has shown, that they would have preferred, as I would have, to avoid that. Maybe none of the auditioners will be as good as Figgy. Yes, I'm not a big one for just keeping some lousy pitcher in the rotation to find his groove, but in the month of April, ALL of Figgy's starts were pretty darn good. It's just his 2 May starts that weren't good. If we want to describe Figgy as blowing his wad, I don't know what we'd say about Willie.

     

  • At 7:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    POOPYFACE being put in tonight to replace Varga's excellent outing and his being giving such a long leash, in my opinion, not only hung himself to a minor league assignment or semi-permanent John Franco's father garbage time patrol, but should be the final managing nail in the coffin of one Field General William Randolph.

     

  • At 8:13 PM, Blogger I.M. Forme said…

    Awful, terrible miserable game.
    Vargas was a bright spot that makes me feel better about Figgy. maybe he too will pitch his ass off until Pedro gets back?

    Poopeyface needs some time in the minors, ala the Steve trashcan special. Can he be sent down?

    Cver, are you saying Willie has to go?

     

  • At 4:31 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    YES!!!! FIRE WILLIE TODAY - THIS FUCKING SECOND!!!! DON'T WAIT! DO IT NOW!!!!! He has earned a one-way ticket to Palookaville! He showed that he is begging to be fired last night by putting Heilman in and leaving him in. Here's a list - Mike DeJean, Felix Heredia, Braden Looper, Guillermo Mota, Jorge Sosa, Aaron Heilman. OK, Willie and the jacket tested their guys and to a certain extent you have to do that and let them work their way out of it. But HOW MANY FUCKING LOSSES did that cost this team over the LAST FOUR YEAR?!! Probably about 30 losses would be my ballpark figure. OK, Omar put these guys on the roster. But, first of all, the GM and Field Manager have to have an understanding - a rapport. The manager has to be able to tell the GM who he needs and wants to get rid of and to a certain extent, the GM needs to "service him". Of course, this doesn't always work and obviously guys need to be able to work their way out of "funks", but Willie needs to, what's the work? Oh yeah, MANAGE. He can't. I mean, he can, a bit, but this was the last unfuckingbelievable straw as far as I am concerned! If he isn't totally brain dead, he should know that Heilman is about as suspect as a reliever can be right now. We missed at least playing a 163rd game by one game last season. Every game counts. These are the Nationals! This was our night (another On the Waterfront quote). Willie obviously cared, but since I believe that he is a good guy and did care, then he is obviously too much in the "test his guys" "the season is a marathon" mode. This is what cost us last season's playoffs. It's fucking OVER!!! IT HAS TO BE FOR WILLIE!!!! GOODBYE and GOOD LUCK!

     

  • At 4:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    IMFM - my buddy, let me just add that I really think that this is the game that got Willie fired. Yes. The Wilpons won't let Omar keep him after this. They are watching and there will be some attempts to make Heilman the "fall guy" for both of them, but it won't wash. I think it's practically a done deal. They might give Willie another week or two while they "brainstorm" who will replace him, but I really think he's gone. Meetings will quietly be held soon, if not today. I could be wrong, but I would nearly guarantee that Willie won't last past the All Star Break, but more likely will be fired by the latest June 10th.

     

  • At 10:06 AM, Blogger I.M. Forme said…

    wow Cver, Poopeyface really gets to me, but he really irks you! I'm shocked at your passion!

    So let's say they do shitcan Willie, then what? I am worried about the effects of upheaval, not so much who replaces him per se. But the Wilpies track record on this one does not inspire me either.

    The team needs a spark and a winning streak pronto. Wright and Reyes are having off seasons, as far as what we expected, and I guess Beltran too. Johan is underwhelming, Maine is getting better, but Ollie seems lost and the rotation never seems to have recovered from losing Pedro. The pen has been a problem always except '06 right? It boggles my mind why Omar never got this taken care of. The saviors, Dirty and Wise, have no velocity on their pitches which frightens me.

    Willie's bullpen management is a trigger for fan frustration, but I wonder, where is the jacket in all this? If he is such a guru, why has he been unable to advise Willie properly over these years? My feeling is the two men don't step on each others toes as they are the product of different regimes.

    But ultimately, it's the listless nature of the team that bothers me. This of course could be shaken up by a leadership change, but I wonder...

     

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