Sheffield A No-Lose Proposition For The Mets

*Note: My website is down, so I'm posting here until it's back up. Maybe the same fucking morons who decided to change the MLBlogs platform last year on opening weekend are trying to screw up other avenues like Register.com now as well.

There are several reports that the New York Mets are close to signing free agent outfielder Gary Sheffield and I think it's a great, no-risk move for them to bring in a veteran bat and see if he has anything left for no money.

Sheffield could genuinely be finished, but the Mets aren't taking a major risk if they sign him and take a look for a couple of months to see if they can get some production out of him and provide some right-handed pop along with the drama of a guy hitting his 500th homer. If Sheffield can recapture even 70% of what he once was, he's still a big step up from Ryan Church or Fernando Tatis.

The idea of this signing reminds me of when the Mets signed Orel Hershiser during spring training in 1999. There was talk that the signing, along with another former star veteran, Rickey Henderson, was another example of the Mets grasping at straws and trying to dig into the past to find a fading veteran and thinking that he was going to contribute to a championship team as a final piece; but it turned out that both Hershiser and Henderson did have a great deal left to add to that veteran club.

Some may scoff at equating Sheffield with Hershiser. Hershiser had a reputation of being the equivalent of an extra coach on the pitching staff; he was well-liked by the other players and the media along with the staff. Sheffield carries baggage from so many well-publicized disagreements with various front offices and managers along with outrageous behaviors and comments at which even the most paranoid conspiracy theorists would roll their eyes; but one thing about Sheffield is that you won't hear any of his former teammates say a negative word about him on the field or in the clubhouse.

Sheffield plays hard; he helps his teammates; he plays through injuries and has been known as one of the hardest workers in baseball. Add in that he's got a winning pedigree and an edge that the Mets lack. If someone tries to take the liberties as Hanley Ramirez did when he walked by the Mets dugout on the last weekend of the 2008 season and told them, en masse, that they were going home and not to the playoffs, you can bet that Gary Sheffield would leap the dugout steps and be right in Ramirez's face.

The only issue is whether Sheffield is going to be healthy and whether he can still play; but the risk is minimal because he's not going to cost any money and he'll be on his best behavior to try and impress either the Mets or another interested team for next year. It's a worthwhile gamble.

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Mets Downfall Is Somehow Appropriate

• Marlins 4-Mets 2:

It somehow fits that the Mets downfall was caused by their completely unreliable bullpen, a

lack of clutch hitting and almost no production from any part of the lineup other than the first four hitters....*

* I have to stop here for a moment because as I was writing this, the TV was on with the closing ceremonies of Shea Stadium and I got up to have a look at the players being introduced after hearing the names Nolan Ryan, Hubie Brooks, Mookie Wilson, Ray Knight etc.

expecting to see the former players walking out and waving and instead saw cameras panning the stands, the outside of the stadium, the bullpens and whatever as if it were the stock footage that used to fill the screen in the 60s and 70s while people onscreen were having sex. Can they do anything right?

...and any team that gets no performance from their bullpen and no production from half their lineup cannot expect to win. A gutty effort from the erratic Oliver Perez was wasted; a clutch homer by Carlos Beltran to tie the game was wasted; and a solid job of managerial mixing and matching by Jerry Manuel was wasted.
It can be argued that the Mets were lucky to get as far as they did with that bullpen; as far as they did with that patched together lineup laden with journeymen and rookies; as far as they did with only 2 1/2 reliable starting pitchers; but winning teams don't complain; nor do they find excuses as to why they lost. The Brewers had every reason to throw their hands up in the air with problems that were almost identical to those of the Mets, but they rode their courageous ace C.C. Sabathia and clutch hitting from Ryan Braun into the playoffs. Their current circumstances don't bode well for them to get past three or four games in the playoffs, but at least they're there; at least they're going to be able to say they made it and they'll give their young players that experience for however long it lasts.
There are hitters that it's acceptable to give up a home run. I don't consider Wes Helms to

be among their number and it's a testament to the Mets problems that Scott Schoeneweis was unable to retire a mediocre infielder with little power simply because he's right-handed. Then Luis Ayala, who did pitch well more often than not for the Mets, allowed another homer to Dan Uggla, effectively sealing the Mets fate.
There are many ways to dissect why the Mets didn't make the playoffs again. It could be said that they were too reliant on one superstar starting pitcher and their stars in the lineup; it could be said that they pushed the envelope too far and wasted too much money on ancient veterans like Moises Alou and Orlando Hernandez; it could be said that they waited too long to replace former manager Willie Randolph; but that might have been the case whether they made the playoffs or not. That they didn't make the playoffs and that fact being a direct result of a combination of these factors doesn't alter the reality; and that reality is they were outgunned

in the bullpen and tried to make do with pitchers and players who weren't able to handle their jobs and there were too many question marks in their lineup and on their bench. Some of that was due to a misreading of talent; some was due to injuries; but whatever the cause, the end result is that those faults cost the Mets a playoff spot.
The implications of similarities between the collapse of 2007 and the loss of 2008 are inaccurate and unfair. They played as hard as they could with what they had, but simply didn't have the performers to get the job done. Instead of whining about what might have been, they can move forward in their new ballpark and take steps to correct those issues so they won't be in that exact same position for a third year in a row in 2009.

• Brewers 3-Cubs 1:

There will be vitriol from Mets fans directed at Cubs manager Lou Piniella for his choice of pitchers in a game that meant nothing to the Cubs and everything to the Mets and Brewers. This would be

unfair...to a point. There are two ways of looking at the situation: A) Piniella owes nothing to anyone including the Mets or Brewers and all he's required to do is use the players he feels are available for the game and keep them healthy and manage to the best of his abilities to win with the players he intends to use; or B) since the Marlins were doing everything they could to win the game against the Mets, the Cubs should've followed their lead and used their best players to keep the integrity of the pennant race intact.
It would be a knee-jerk reaction to overtly blame Piniella for the Cubs loss, but it wasn't exactly sporting of him to treat the game as a spring training exercise and use seven different pitchers, none of whom are going to be relied upon heavily (if at all) in the playoffs during do-or-die situations. While it's understandable for Piniella to rest catcher Geovany Soto before the playoffs begin, Mark DeRosa, their best hitter this year, couldn't play? They couldn't use Kerry Wood? They couldn't use Carlos Marmol? Was one game going to bother them either way heading into the playoffs to maintain the integrity of the pennant race?
Sabathia's heroism probably would've been rewarded somehow no matter what Piniella did;

the Brewers were playing with a little more than destiny on their side as they overcame everything from a collapse that was worse than that of the Mets in 2007, a desperation managerial change and functioning with only one reliable starting pitcher, they deserve to make the playoffs; but Piniella didn't help the cause of competitiveness by not taking the lead of the Marlins and Nationals and fighting to the best of their abilities to keep the game pure. Might Piniella have had it in his mind that he'd rather face the Dodgers than the Mets and Johan Santana in a short series? It's certainly possible and he's well within his rights to try and manipulate the situation to his team's best possible advantage in the playoffs, but that doesn't mean that it's completely fair.
The Mets did lose their game, so if they wanted to avoid having to rely on another team and

another manager, they could've taken care of their own business and kept destiny in their own hands, but the situation is what it is. This isn't an accusation of any wrongdoing on the part of a great and honorable manager in Lou Piniella, and his team is heading to the playoffs so he has a justifiable argument for holding out his most imperative stars, but that doesn't make it appear any better in the box scores to see those names when there were the names Marmol, Wood and DeRosa available just as the Marlins were fighting to win the game as if they were the ones in the pennant race.

The Mets Quantum Leap

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped

into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

How many times is anyone given the opportunity to correct a mistake? To be put into the

exact same position they were at an earlier time and right what once went wrong? And how many seize that opportunity and redeem themselves? Tomorrow, at 1:10 PM on the last regular season game ever to be played at Shea Stadium, the New York Mets will have that chance.
It was the last day of the regular season last September 30th that the New York Mets, beginning the day tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for first place in the National League East and with a chance to avoid the most monumental collapse in the history of baseball, took the

field to play the Florida Marlins. Before anyone had a chance to sit in their seats and settle in to watch the game, the raucous Shea Stadium crowd was silenced as Tom Glavine, in his last start as a member of the Mets, allowed seven runs in 1/3 of an inning. The Phillies, emboldened by the gift bestowed upon them by both Glavine and the Marlins, defeated the Nationals 6-1 to claim the NL East crown leaving the Mets to sit in stunned silence from that first inning onward, wondering how everything fell apart so completely that their season came down to this.
It was no consolation that the Phillies were swept out of the playoffs before their hangovers from the division clinching celebration had subsided; nor did it matter that the Mets went out and acquired the best pitcher in baseball specifically to avoid the fate that befell them in 2007. Until they're able to exorcise the ghosts from that collapse----new manager or not; new

players or not----it will always be there. Now, in the midst of another collapse, a small glimmer of light is shining for the Mets. Receiving the help they needed today in the form of a masterful, three-hit shutout by Santana on three days rest and a Cubs 7-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, tomorrow morning when they head to the ballpark, the Mets will be tied for the Wild Card lead and hold destiny in their own hands.
Facing that same Marlins team provides the Mets with a unique shot at a do-over; a chance to let the world know that they're not going to close Shea Stadium with a second consecutive collapse. Glavine is gone; manager Willie Randolph is gone, but the ghosts still remain. The ghosts that haunt the remaining players from last year's roster can be exorcised tomorrow. Oliver Perez, in what is likely his last regular season start as a member of the Mets, will have a chance to go out in the way Glavine wanted to; in the way that his former teammates will remember him fondly and say, "that guy came up big when we needed

him," instead of inspiring the head shakes and sideways glances that Glavine received with his indifferent reaction as he dismissed the devastation felt by the Mets and their fans and hustled back to Atlanta to rejoin the Braves as quickly as possible, a place he never truly left.
Last year at this time, the Mets were breathing a sigh of relief having been given a gift by the Washington Nationals as they beat the Phillies on that Saturday; the Mets had angered the Marlins with their excessive celebrations and a bench clearing fight marred a dominating performance from John Maine in a 13-0 Mets win. Now the shoe is on the other foot. The Marlins are the ones who have succeeded in making the Mets look sympathetic with their relentless yapping in the newspapers about how sweet it's going to be to knock the Mets out of the playoffs again. The circumstances are identical; will the Mets rise to the occasion, or will they be struck by that lightning for a second year in a row and

allow the Marlins to walk all over them and gloat about it for another year?
2008 is a mirror image of 2007, but the Mets are a year wiser; a year tougher and they've been presented with that Quantum Leap moment; a chance to put right what once went wrong and exterminate those ghosts that would haunt the site of the demolished Shea Stadium forever and they can close the place right, without leaving any ghosts, by seizing this rare chance at redemption.

Masterpiece

The situation: the Mets are behind the Brewers by one game in the Wild Card.
The reality: if they lost today, their playoff hopes would likely be gone.
The solution: Johan Santana on three days rest.
The result: A complete game, three-hit, 2-0 masterpiece. And the Mets are still alive.

The Pros And Cons Of Starting Johan Santana On Short Rest

• Johan Santana called upon to save the Mets:

After the Mets bats failed to capitalize on another game rife with opportunities against a

rookie pitcher (albeit a good one in Chris Volstad), they're now in a predicament in which they have to look at the needs of the team in the short term as opposed to the long term. Johan Santana volunteered to take the mound on three days rest this afternoon to try and save the season. Here are the objective realities of such a maneuver:

He can't be counted on to go deeply into the game unless he keeps his pitch count very low--Santana's record in the few games he's pitched on short rest in the regular season is not good, but that's actually misleading. In three starts, his record is 1-1 with a 6.14 ERA and five homers allowed in 14 2/3 innings. That being said, the numbers were bloated due to a terrible start in 2002 in which he got shelled allowing three homers to a White Sox team that could really hit. That was also Santana's first year in the starting rotation at age 23 before he became Johan Santana. In the other games he pitched on short rest, he pitched quite well.

And one of the starts was in April of 2000 when he was a rookie and the three days rest came after a relief appearance of one inning.
The final time he did it in the regular season was also after a relief appearance four days earlier in 2003. Santana also pitched on three days rest in the 2004 ALDS vs the Yankees and pitched well in both appearances in that series. The pitch counts were important then as well because he only threw 93 pitches in game one and lasted five innings and 87 pitches in game four. His history has little to do with how he's going to fare today, but clearly he's going to have to be watched closely after throwing 125 pitches on Tuesday.

Santana isn't a short-term investment--Santana is 29-years-old and is signed to a very lucrative, long-term contract to be the Mets ace as they enter their new ballpark; he's one of the cornerstones of the organization and an asset as they try to lure free agents. Overtaxing him for short-term needs and risking injury a few years down the line isn't worth it. That's the

difference between the Brewers repeatedly throwing C.C. Sabathia on three-days rest and putting Ben Sheets out there this afternoon----what difference would it make to the Brewers if both Sheets and Sabathia get hurt after signing huge money contracts elsewhere? It's not their money and they're comfortable in the knowledge that the two pitchers aren't going to beg out of such important games and still be able to look their present and future teammates in the eye; plus I don't think Sheets is going to be able to last very long today given the ominous statements coming out of Milwaukee of how he's going to "give it a shot". That brings me to the next point...

The Brewers are still in a shaky position--They haven't the faintest idea of what they're going to get from Sheets if he indeed gets out to the mound to pitch; nor do they know how long he's going to be out there; the backup pitcher they're mentioning, Dave Bush, has been

adequate but not great lately and in two of his three starts this season against the Cubs, they've done a number on him. The Brewers have gotten yeoman work from their rotten bullpen over the past week, but how long are they going to be able to count on that? Plus Cubs manager Lou Piniella looked very agitated with the mental and physical mistakes his team made last night and won't want to enter the playoffs with his team flopping around on the field like, well, like the Mets.

The Mets have no choice--With the way they've played behind every pitcher not named Santana over the past few weeks and the reality of a loss eliminating them from contention, they have to roll the dice, put Santana out there and

hope that they jump on Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco (a pitcher they've consistently pounded), get a lead big enough to entrust to that bullpen (that would have to be a pretty big lead) and get Santana out of there after 80 or so pitches. They're going to have to make a choice if the score is 1-1 in the sixth inning and Santana's scheduled to bat after having thrown 90 pitches; other than that, they can only hope to get a lead, put some pressure on the Brewers who are scheduled to start at 3:55 and win their own game. The only other thing they can do is a rain dance around Shea Stadium so Santana will be able to pitch on his regular rest tomorrow and hope that the Brewers lose today. Actually, that's probably the best of all possible scenarios aside from a Mets win and Brewers loss.

*************************************

• Indians 11-White Sox 8; Roals 8-Twins 1:

With all the ridicule the Mets receive for their back-to-back collapses, the White Sox are authoring a collapse of their own. They started the Twins series up by 2 1/2 games with seven

to play and only one win away from effectively sealing the deal and they lost all three games; then they returned home to play the retooling Indians and a rookie starter in Scott Lewis and got pounded for eleven runs. And all of this was going on while the Twins were losing 8-1 to the Royals.
Javier Vazquez is scheduled to start for the White Sox today, but after his showing in the high-pressure game against the Twins (and in other high-pressure games throughout his career) and with how manager Ozzie Guillen has been so open in his low opinion of Vazquez's courage, I wouldn't expect much other than a quick hook.
Even with all of that, there's a window of opportunity for the White Sox just as there is for

the Mets; Glen Perkins is starting for the Twins and he's been knocked around in his past four starts; pitching for the Royals is Gil Meche, who's been very good in his last two starts and generally always gives a gutty effort.
I have a feeling that this division is going to come down to Monday afternoon as the Tigers play that makeup game against the White Sox and if that's the case, then the White Sox are in trouble because veteran teams who've had a rotten year like the Tigers would like nothing better than to have another team (especially one with a manager who's despised throughout the league) to join them in their misery. In a way, it would be far worse

for the White Sox to have their season come down to Monday afternoon because the Tigers have known that they were going home after the regular season ends; the White Sox expected to be in the playoffs and it would be a kick in the gut if they got knocked out the day after the season ended by a team that had nothing to play for other than the satisfaction of knowing they've knocked out one of their division rivals whom they don't like all that much to begin with.

A Small Ray Of Sunshine Amid The Rain From The Natural Disasters

• Mets 7-Cubs 6:

Just another ho-hum night in the lives of the New York Mets; trying desperately to screw

up their entire season with another late September swoon; getting stunning contributions from such ne'er-do-wells (or rare-do-wells) like Ramon Martinez and Robinson Cancel; having Daniel Murphy miss a sign, bunt with two strikes and strike out (which emitted a rare show of emotion from stoic manager Jerry Manuel); Ryan Church's bizarre, unintentional end-around slide that looked like the dance

John Belushi was doing at the end of Animal House; and coming back from a 6-3 eighth inning deficit to win on a Carlos Beltran single in the bottom of the ninth.
The Mets are playing with fire just about every night now; usually it's with the bullpen, but now it's become clear that Pedro Martinez is no longer able to provide anything more than six innings and (if they're lucky) four runs. It's like throwing darts at a dartboard to see which reliever to use and Manuel guessed right tonight with Joe Smith (who's usually reliable anyway). As for the appearance of the 35-year-old Ramon Martinez in the starting lineup----why not? He couldn't be any worse than Luis Castillo's been over the last month and the bloom is off the rose from the "find" made by the Mets stat-guys in Argenis Reyes. (There are generally reasons why players are relegated to the minor leagues for the majority of their careers.) There's no point in quibbling with anything as long as they win. Whatever works is going to be seen as the correct move and with the way the team is patched together with pitchers 3-14 on the staff, a win is a win is a win.

• Brewers 5-Pirates 1:

The game just ended about a minute-and-a-half ago and the Pirates are rotten. Just plain awful. The Brewers relievers did an above-and-beyond the call of duty job by keeping the game

close (admittedly against a Pirates lineup that would never be confused with the 1927 Yankees; or the 1627 Yankees----and I know they didn't exist then, that's the joke), but like the Mets, a win is a win is a win.
The problem the Brewers now have is that they have no choice but to pitch Jeff Suppan tomorrow night against the Cubs and play while the Mets are likely to get rained out. The Cubs, while resting their regulars periodically in the Mets series, didn't use Carlos Marmol last night or tonight and will undoubtedly be looking to get him some work in the Brewers series; they'll also want to make sure to play the games to win just as they did against the Mets. After the way this last month has gone, I'm not even going to speculate on what might happen this weekend with either the Brewers, Mets or Phillies. Anything can happen and I wouldn't be surprised to see a playoff game on Monday or even playoff games on Monday and Tuesday if all three end up tied----a realistic possibility.

• The incoherent Sarah Palin:

I generally don't indulge in capricious ridicule, but I'm trying to figure out what the John McCain campaign is trying to pull with Gov. Sarah Palin. They've kept her in a cocoon for a

month now, only letting her do select interviews with select reporters; keeping her under tight constraints and hoping to use her attractiveness and extreme right wing views as a shield for the fact that she's not only unqualified to be vice president, but she's incoherent, ludicrous and offensive to those that are able to look past their own agendas to accept what is best for the country.
For those that are still defending her after the video of her in church with a pastor whose sermons are far more frightening than anything Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor ever said, how is it possible to watch the two interviews that played today and still entertain the notion that she would be able to handle potentially being president of the United States in January? The brief time she spent at the podium following her tour of the World Trade Center site this afternoon showed her sticking to the basic, non-specific

talking points of "taking the fight to the terrorists over there" rather than risking another attack. That was bad enough, but the interview with Katie Couric in which Gov. Palin sounded like a twelve-year-old taking an oral exam and trying to say a whole load of nonsensical stuff in the desperate attempt to hit on a couple of the answers to the questions and score some points was inexplicable. Palin was quite literally making no sense whatsoever in her ramble about how Alaska is close to both Russia and Canada and how Russia utilizes Alaskan airspace, etc. And Katie Couric ain't exactly Mike Wallace when it comes to interviewing. At best Palin sounded incoherent and unprepared; at worst she sounded imbecilic.
Normally, this wouldn't be such a problem, but the circumstances surrounding this election make the Palin choice so dangerous that there's no way to know whether or not her blatant stupidity is going to result in a win for Obama. For all the polls that show Obama to be leading, there is always that possibility that people are saying one thing with the intention of doing another when they enter the voting booth. It may be because they're embarrassed, don't want to be seen as racist or whatever. Obama is so new, so different that it's hard to believe the polls wholeheartedly. Add in that Sen. John McCain is 72-years-old; not in the greatest of health and is evidently so desperate to get elected that he'll do and say anything to achieve that end, and this is a recipe for a dangerous disaster.
It takes a lot to frighten me, but the very idea of Sarah Palin as the president of the United

States is terrifying. She's not just inexperienced anymore; every time she opens her mouth, she's proving herself to be woefully unprepared and bottom-line uninformed and unintelligent. The incoherence of her answers in every interview she does would normally disqualify her and by proxy, the man who picked her as his running mate. I have to believe that enough secular republicans are going to look at the situation and realize that the risk is too great and vote for Obama with an eye on 2012, but that's not necessarily what's going to happen. I've made it clear that I'm not a supporter of McCain (I liked him in 2000 and this isn't the same guy), but I could live with him as president if he'd picked Mitt Romney or someone who would be a competent president. That is not the case with Sarah Palin and I can only hope that people watch the interview and put personal beliefs aside and send her back to Alaska because she's completely inept and a true danger to us all.

The Mets Are A Natural Disaster

• Cubs 9-Mets 6:

I don't think anyone who's watched the Mets for any significant length of time and has any baseball intelligence at all didn't see what was coming after they failed to score in the bottom

of the ninth inning with a runner at third base and no outs. This is not an isolated incident with the Mets as they find situations in which it's difficult not to score, yet find a way to accomplish the feat. Apparently, the "MVP candidate" David Wright has never heard of the term "shortening your swing based on the situation" because with Daniel Murphy on third base, Wright was hacking away as if he were looking to get his face time on SportsCenter with another walk-off home run instead of simply driving in the winning run with a fly ball. But, that's not why the Mets are the baseball equivalent of a natural disaster.
Like a hurricane or earthquake, there's no judgment or intent to injure; like any natural occurrence, what is simply is. Anyone who knows the Mets knew what was going to happen after they failed to score with that tailor-made opportunity in the bottom of the ninth. Just like the game against the Phillies in which they blew a 7-0 lead and ended up in extra innings, there was no way they were going to come back and win. The situation was such that I stopped watching the game. So confident in the Mets ability to demolish their playoff chances in the most painful way possible and quite likely give up a home run, I went downstairs to empty the dishwasher rather than watch it happen, because I knew what was going to happen and didn't have to watch.
Unlike the writer Stephen A. Smith, who claimed that he "didn't have to" watch the end of a

Jets-Patriots playoff game in January 2007 because, he wanted to imply, his innate football knowledge gave him the foresight to see the future but he was in reality talking out of his posterior, I truly knew what would happen...*

*I have to make a note here about Stephen A. Smith. As much as I rip him for his lack of even the most basic knowledge of baseball and football (he didn't know which team was in which division during his ill-fated TV show on ESPN), I read his column in ESPN the Magazine and the man's a very good, talented writer; skilled with the language, coherent and well-organized.

...because of that, after emptying my dishwasher, I walked back upstairs, looked at the TV

and saw Derrek Lee standing on second base, that the score was 7-6 and with Aramis Ramirez at the plate said, "Uh oh"; seconds later Ramirez deposited a Luis Ayala pitch into the left field bleachers to effectively end the game right there and then.
This isn't a function of any collapse; it's just the Mets being the Mets; being the thing that they are with no other definition necessary; whether or not they pull themselves out of this is another aspect of the Mets. As a franchise, they've fought out of worse situations than this (1973, 1986, 1999); and they've stumbled under the weight of themselves (1988, 1998, 2006, 2007). Which version they'll be this time will be discovered in the coming days, but no one who knows the team can feign surprise, because this is the Mets, for better or worse.

• Brewers 4-Pirates 2:

I'd suggest putting the brakes on the idea that these two wins against the Pirates (and

three in a row overall) have righted the Brewers sinking ship. C.C. Sabathia is showing far more courage than his body can handle and these taxing starts on three-days rest are going to haunt him in the coming years if he's not careful.*

*One note about pitchers. I contend that it's not the number of pitches per se that are causing the injuries, but when the pitcher gets physically tired, loses his leg drive and proper mechanics and deviates from throwing properly and as stress-free as possible, thereby overtaxing his arm and getting hurt; and Sabathia, while in shape for baseball, isn't exactly a bastion of physical fitness; but the Brewers know that they're not keeping him, so what do they really care about what happens with him after 2008?

Watching chunks of these two games made me see how bad the Pirates really are. I would be deeply concerned with the new management team because in addition to this embarrassing tete-a-tete betwen Scott Boras and team president Frank Coonelly as to whether or not Pedro Alvarez agreed to a deal or not, the deals that GM Neal Huntington

made at the trading deadline to shed the remaining marketable veterans on the Pirates roster are getting a horrible review in the short-term.
In dealing Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte to the Yankees as part of one deal, the return had to be equal or better than what they would've gotten if they'd dealt both separately. With both players being in heavy demand and playing positions that were desperate needs for so many teams, the Pirates have to hope that Jose Tabata regains his lost luster as a prospect; that Dan McCutchen develops (and he's about to turn 26, a bit too old to be a "prospect"); that maybe the talented Ross Ohlendorf can become a useful pitcher as a starter or reliever (I'd make him a starter); and realize that Jeff Karstens is a soft-tossing journeyman. The return on that deal looks weak.
Then there was the three-way deal in which Jason Bay ended up with the Red Sox and

Manny Ramirez on the Dodgers. Andy LaRoche (whom I'm convinced the Pirates were as interested in the marketing ability of uniting him with his brother on the corners of their diamond as they were a cornerstone to their rebuilding project) has looked overmatched at the plate and clueless in the field. Brandon Moss and Craig Hanson have talent, so they may end up as useful pieces; and young Bryan Morris is at least three years away from the big leagues. The fact that the Dodgers gave up on LaRoche so quickly would be a red flag for me because the Dodgers development people have the results to indicate they know what they're doing and even though they were getting a star like Manny, wouldn't have just dumped a player they had as high an opinion of as everyone else seemed to as was the situation with LaRoche.
In essence, that Pirates lineup isn't at all scary, so the Brewers should be beating them.

Now tonight will be a major test because they've activated Yovani Gallardo to take the start. Gallardo was supposed to miss the entire season with a knee injury, but has returned. The Brewers don't have much of a choice than to try Gallardo (unless they want to put Sabathia out there again), but I'd question what kind of performance they're going to get from him (his numbers in his minor league rehab starts weren't very good), and they're not going to be able to get him too deeply into the game, which will put things in the hands of that awful bullpen.

• Will the Mets recover from this? Will the Brewers seize their opportunity? And how will the weather forecasts in New York affect everything?

It's a four game season now with everything all even. The game tonight will depend on whether or not the Mets score some runs early and get a decent performance from Pedro Martinez. The fans and media grasp tightly to what happened

the day before more than the players do. Once the game starts, there's not going to be any "what-if?" lamenting on the part of the players. They might try a little too hard with runners in scoring position; they might hold their collective breaths when the bullpen enters the game, but it won't be as a direct result of one game.
With the Brewers beating up on the Pirates, it has to be remembered that they're going to play the Cubs this weekend and while Cubs manager Lou Piniella is being prudent with his players, he's also managing the games to win. That they're going from playing one contender in New York to Milwaukee also adds into that equation because Piniella's not going to give the Brewers an easy time after the way his team battled against the Mets. The Brewers "recovery" from their dreadful slump will be judged by how they play this weekend.
The weather forecasts in New York are also very important. It's supposed to rain all weekend to the point that the games are in jeopardy. The media is suggesting that the possibility of rainouts and doubleheaders are a disadvantage for the Mets, but I see it the opposite way. If the Brewers are forced to play while the Mets are sitting in their clubhouse playing cards, the pressure will revert to the Brewers. Add in that the Cubs----knowing that if tonight's game is rained out, there's a very real possibility of having to play a makeup game in

New York on Monday to decide who's going to the playoffs----are going to do everything possible to avoid that and play as hard as they can to eliminate the Brewers if necessary actually gives the Mets an advantage. And at this point, I don't think the Mets would refuse any divine intervention to get them into the playoffs because what they're doing on the field isn't working, so maybe if they sit around and watch the Brewers implode, they'll have more success. They can't do much worse than they have in the past two Septembers if they're not playing. Mets manager Jerry Manuel's a spiritual guy, raising his arms to the sky and saying, "Let it rain!!!" wouldn't be such a bad idea since they've tried just about everything else.

Skipping Tonight's Debacle, Here's Tomorrow Night's Gameplan For The Mets

Moving quickly past another game in which another Mets pitcher allows another opposing

pitcher to hit a grand slam, here's tomorrow night's lineup and gameplan should they choose to accept it.

• Lineup vs Cubs lefty Sean Marshall:

1. Jose Reyes-SS
2. Ryan Church-RF
   
3. David Wright-3B
4. Carlos Delgado-1B
5. Carlos Beltran-CF
6. Ramon Castro-C
7. Nick Evans-LF
   
8. Argenis Reyes-2B
9. Johan Santana-P

Marshall is a tall lefty who doesn't strike out many, and walks more than his fair share; he hasn't started all that many games in the big leagues this year although he has always been

a starter in the minors. The Cubs probably aren't going to expect more than five or so innings out of him, so the Mets have to wait him out. Church looked a bit better at the plate tonight and moving him into the second slot in the lineup between Jose Reyes and Wright should give him some good pitches to hit. I'm convinced that Luis Castillo is a bad luck charm and they need to get him out of the lineup. While Argenis Reyes isn't much of a hitter, he's had some useful moments this year and there isn't this aura of bad luck floating over his head as there is Castillo.

• Pitching to the Cubs:

Cubs manager Lou Piniella is playing these games to win, as he should. The regular lineup is going to be in there for the most part. Johan Santana can't fall behind any of the Cubs bashers so they'll be geared up for his fastball. If, worst case scenario, the Cubs knock Santana around, Brandon Knight should be the long man; if Santana gets into the seventh or

eighth innings, Joe Smith is perfectly equipped with his sidearm delivery to deal with the Cubs righty-centric lineup. I don't even want to see the likes of Aaron Heilman even picking up a baseball to hold it, let alone to warm up. Pedro Feliciano should deal with the lefties and Luis Ayala should be allowed to close.

This game is being handed to the Mets on a platter; the Cubs are starting a young pitcher who's spent a chunk of the season in the minors and has alternated between serviceable and bad as a starter; they have to get to him, get to him early and give Santana a lead so the Brewers can look up at the scoreboard as their game starts and know that they have to win. As bad as the Mets have been responding to pressure, the Brewers have been worse. With a start time an

hour before the Pirates-Brewers game, the Mets can jump out and put the thought in the heads of the staggering Brewers that they have to win to keep pace.
These instances of getting runners on base with no one out and doing stupid things (Carlos Beltran trying to bunt for example) and letting their opponents off the hook isn't going to cut it. Jumping ahead, staying ahead and cruising to a win without having to rely on that bullpen should get the butterflies out of the entire organization's stomachs for one night at least and might wake them from this panic-stricken slumber once and for all to let them stagger into the playoffs; after that, I think I speak for everyone who has any connection to the Mets at all when I say they could get swept and no one's going to care; at this point, making the playoffs is enough.

No Matter What Happens The Rest Of This Season, The Mets Have To Rethink And Revamp Their Entire Bullpen

• Braves 7-Mets 6:

The past two seasons have highlighted the hit or miss nature of building a bullpen. Even

with Billy Wagner in 2007, the Mets bullpen was just as terrible in September as it's been in 2008 without Wagner. The strategy of bringing in veterans and continuing forward with what amounts to the same cast of characters with one or two changes isn't going to cut it; no matter what they try to do, the bullpen in 2009 can't be any worse than what they've trotted out there in the past two years.
Spending a load of money or relievers rarely works. There are closers who are worth the money and the risk. The Yankees had to keep Mariano Rivera even though he demanded an extra year that the Yankees were reluctant to give; whether or not it works out with Rivera, if there's any player who's earned a severance package for past production, it's Rivera. The Phillies took a chance on Brad Lidge and (even though in retrospect, they didn't give up anything to get him), he's been the difference between them and the rest of the NL East and is a viable Cy Young Award and MVP candidate.
As for the other "name" free agent relievers that signed contracts far above their value,

some like Francisco Cordero have provided what was expected, but that hasn't resulted in his team, the Reds, contending in the short term. As the Reds mature, that signing may be seen as having been astute; it also helps that Cordero is a good influence on the Reds young pitchers. The veteran journeymen like David Riske and Ron Mahay were negligible signings based on the bottom line. Mahay's been very good, but that hasn't helped the Royals all that much; Riske was average at best and then got hurt.
Looking at the top teams in the big leagues this season and the best ones have developed their own relief pitchers (the Angels, Dodgers, Cubs and Red Sox); and made smart, under-the-radar acquisitions (the Rays and Phillies). Teams like the Marlins just sign a bunch of guys who've been released or traded away for very little and give them a chance to pitch; they also let their younger pitchers have a shot. Teams have tried to build bullpens by signing recognizable names and it hasn't worked.
What I would do if I were the Mets would be to find a veteran closer to hold the fort in case of an emergency----names like Todd Jones or Brian Fuentes as potential stopgaps if they continue forward with Luis Ayala, John Maine or one of the young pitchers like Robert Parnell and they fail. Then I

would trade Scott Schoeneweis. Schoeneweis has been adequate for much of his time with the Mets despite the boobirds he routinely hears, but he's going to be in the last year of a three-year contract and they could get something for him. Aaron Heilman either has to be packaged as part of a trade or given a chance to start because this bullpen thing isn't working; the guy looks like he's on the verge of a nervous breakdown every time he goes out there and it's clear that he's at the point where he hates being in the bullpen. Perhaps a team like the Nationals, who have a large array of hard throwing and useful relievers and need starters would be interested in a swap along the lines of Heilman for Saul Rivera and Jesus Colome.
Another maneuver I would consider would be contacting the Tigers, a team in need of bodies in the bullpen, and see if they'd be interested in dealing the risky and injury-prone Joel

Zumaya (once he's given a clean bill of health). The Tigers would probably be happy to get someone like Heilman and/or Schoeneweis for a pitcher whose status is in question. Zumaya's a big risk with his injury history and flakiness, but with the way the Mets bullpen has been a wasteland, they can move forward as is or they can try something different. Scanning the waiver wire and dealing those that have been the main weak points over the past two seasons is a good place to start. They can't be any worse next year than they've been the past two Septembers.

• Phillies 5-Marlins 2:

I was watching Charlie Manuel as he walked out onto the field in today's game and it came to me. You know who he looks like? Former wrestler Dirty Dick Murdoch. Take a look:

Brewers Collapse Is The Worst I've Seen

• Reds 11-Brewers 2:

I'd say that everything looks to be the "worst" as it's occurring; that it's easy to forget other

instances where something looked so terrible and unbelievable that it was unlikely to ever be seen again. There are cases in which teams have collapsed and allowed another team to overtake them; then there are cases in which teams have played well enough to hold onto their lead, but another team just played better, caught and passed them and the blown lead took on the appearance of a collapse. That being said, this Brewers free fall is the worst I've ever seen in all my years of watching baseball.
Just from memory, there have been certain comebacks/blown leads/collapses that immediately come to mind: the Braves desperation second-half surge to catch and pass the Giants in 1993; the Mets stumbling out of the playoffs not only in 2007, but in 1998 as well (they also came very close to doing it again in 1999, but fought back into a one-game playoff for the Wild Card, which they won); the Red

Sox blowing their 14 1/2 game lead over the Yankees in 1978 (I don't remember that one firsthand----too young); the Blue Jays blowing a late September lead to the Tigers in 1987; and the Yankees awful finish in 2000 where there was panic everywhere until the playoffs started and they hit the switch.
With all of these instances I just mentioned, I don't remember a team having the wheels come off as they have for the 2008 Brewers in the past three weeks. It's one thing to lose; it's another thing to totally fall apart. The 1998, 1999 and 2007 versions of the Mets had no excuses for what happened to them late in the season; the 1993 Giants won 103 games, stumbled early in September, but started winning again----no matter how hot another team was, 103 wins should've been enough to get into the playoffs; the Red Sox of 1978 played well enough that they should've coasted to the playoffs, the Yankees simply played better head-to-head and overall; the 1987

Blue Jays lost their last seven games, the final three to the Tigers blowing a 3 1/2 game lead with seven to play, but they were playing the Tigers in four of those seven games and lost them all; the 2000 Yankees lost 15 of their final 18 games, but they weren't playing their closest division competitor, the Red Sox, over those three weeks, had built a lead that was safe enough to counteract such a stumble and turned the machine on in the playoffs.
This Brewers team led the Wild Card by 5 1/2 games on September 1; they had just completed a sweep of the Pirates and had won nine of ten when the Mets came into Milwaukee and won three straight to start this tailspin. Blame has been placed on the shoulders of former manager Ned Yost for his overreaction to the final game of the Pirates series in which C.C. Sabathia was seen to have been deprived of a no-hitter because of a bad call by the Pittsburgh official scorer; but that wasn't the impetus of this collapse. Once the games start, I find it impossible to believe that pitchers and hitters are in the middle of doing their jobs and thinking about how Sabathia was screwed out of his place in history; they just started playing poorly at the wrong time.
Their starting rotation was supposed to be anchored by Sabathia and Ben Sheets, but Sheets's injuries have left him completely unreliable and the rest of the starting rotation is mediocre at best. Their bullpen is awful; their lineup, while immensely powerful, strikes out far too much to be able to handle good pitching consistently; Yost was not a good game manager, nor did he have the temperament and focus on the main goal to steer the team out

of a crisis. (In Yost's defense, the combined managerial skills of John McGraw, Connie Mack, Whitey Herzog and Billy Martin wouldn't have known what to do with that bullpen.)
After that sweep at the hands of the Mets (including the first game from which Sheets removed himself with a strained groin after five dominant innings), the Brewers split four games with the clueless Padres; lost two of three to the Reds; and got mauled in Philadelphia; Yost was fired (rightfully, but too late) and they've continued to find imaginative ways to lose. Last night, Jeff Suppan, whose barely average stuff is mitigated by his control and gutty big game performances was throwing batting practice upon which the Reds were more than happy to tee off.*

*Speaking of which, I don't know who's operating and calibrating the radar guns around baseball, but if Suppan was hitting 88 with his fastball, as the readings were saying, then

Dick Cheney is about to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Oddly enough, there's still time remaining in the season for the Brewers to make another drastic turnaround, this one in a positive direction. They have two remaining games with the Reds, three with the Pirates, and three with a Cubs team that will be resting up for the playoffs. Things are bleak and on the whole, they look like they're waiting for bad things to happen to them; but they can still save themselves from the embarrassment of a total collapse by pulling themselves together for the last week even if it's in what looks like a hopeless cause. It makes no sense to give up now, but sadly, that appears to be what the Brewers have done.

• A manager in control:

Lou Piniella was walking out to the mound to remove Carlos Zambrano after the pitcher

was attacked by the Cardinals as if they were taking all their frustrations of the past few weeks out on him. As Piniella was nearing the mound, Zambrano started walking off before Piniella arrived to take the ball. Piniella saw this, gestured to Zambrano and told him to wait on the mound until he got there. Zambrano stopped walked back and waited for his manager. This was an example of a manager who's in control of his clubhouse and his team; such a thing reverberates through a team that the manager is not to be messed with and is very important to maintaining control. Piniella is no martinet; he lets his players be themselves as long as they do their job and play the game correctly, but if he let his ace get away with such a blatant lack of respect, then things could slide downhill very quickly. Such forcefulness is sometimes necessary to let the troops know who's in charge.
Years ago, when he was managing the Giants, Frank Robinson was walking out to the mound to remove Jim Barr from a game; Barr responded by flipping the ball to Robinson before his manager arrived and stalking past him; Robinson retorted by catching the ball with

one hand and using his other hand to grab Barr and fling him back onto the mound. (Fooling with Frank Robinson at any time was a bad idea.) The two engaged in a heated confrontation right then and there in which Robinson told Barr in no uncertain terms that such an action was a no-no. Piniella didn't have to resort to such extremes, but would have if the situation called for it. If a manager has such a handle on his players by disciplining them and still protecting them in the media as Piniella later did with Zambrano, it makes his life much, much easier and he can concentrate on trying to win games rather than worrying about what the players think about him because he's in charge, knows it, and most importantly, the players know it as well.

• Mets 9-Braves 5:
  

I'm going to believe(?) that with nine games to play and a three game Wild Card lead in the loss column over the Brewers (division schmivision), that the Mets playoff spot is relatively(?) safe(?). I'm going to believe that...for the moment...