Today's Lineup:

Today's Lineup

SS Reyes
CF Beltran
3B Wright
1B Delgado
DH Lo Duca
RF Green
C Castro
2B Gotay
LF Gomez

Beltran in the 2 whole? I like it, give Reyes more protection. He is the key to the offense anyway. Gomez at 9 gives the team 2 leadoff hitters essentially. Hopefully the Mets take some better swings at that breaking ball of Clippard's than they did in the first game.

"The" Most Electrifying Player In Major League Baseball

"Joseeeeee Jose Jose Joseeeee... Joseeee, Joseeee!"

"Can you smellllllllllllllllllll... what Jose...is...cookin'"

What more can I say? Jose laid the smacketh downeth last night going 3 for 3 with 3 stolen bases and a MONSTER homerun off the facing of the upper deck in left field. Wow. For some reason, Clemens threw J-Hova a curveball(?) that hung in the air longer than a red-eye flight. "Hovito" smacked the cover off the ball and had a little grin on his face as he trotted around the basepaths. We all know Jose gets a bit homer happy once he gets one so let's hope this last blast doesn't go to his head.

Make no mistake though, from an offensive standpoint, Reyes single-handedly won the game last night, accounting for all of the runs scored and providing countless other opportunities for his teammates to drive him in.

But when those teammates are Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado... boy I tell ya. How many pitches down the middle of the plate will Beltran just stare at this year? He lets too many pitches in his wheel house just flutter past him. Swing the freakin' bat!

And Carlos numero dos? Delgado? Well he was 4 for 4... in strikeouts. Dude had more K's than a Klan convention. Right now Delgado is looking like a nerd in a room full of virgin supermodels - he couldn't hit it if he wanted to. 4 strikeouts? Here's a golden sombrero for you mi amigo.

Now let's talk about Carlos the 3rd. Carlos "Go Go" Gomez. This kid is the truth. Check it out. First, Gomez bunts his way on in the 3rd inning. And it wasn't even close. I'm starting to believe those rumors that he may actually be faster than Reyes. Then, he steals 2nd which allows him to score on a little punch single up the middle by Reyes.

But the play of the night happened in the 4th inning. Miguel Cairo hits one deep to left field and for some reason the ball kept carrying and carrying. Gomez, fighting off at least 5 Jeffrey Maier wannabees, leaps up and snatches the ball, lands and then throws a MISSLE back to second base that doubles off Hideki Matsui. A defensive gem. Like I said, this kid is the truth.

Oh and what can I say about Ollie P.? I asked y'all yesterday if you were down with O.P.P. and what was Perez's response? "Yeah you know me!"

After some shaky innings early on, Perez settled in and straight dominated the Yankees, retiring 12 straight until giving up a double to Jeter in the bottom of the 8th. 7 1/3 shutout innings from "El Loco"? I'll take that any night.

Funny thing from last night - Ollie P. is pitching to Matsui in the 6th. For some strange reason he drops down Joe Smith style and fires a pitch to Matsui that Matsui fouls off. The camera shot zooms in on Rick Peterson and all you see is Peterson drop his head like "No No No what are you doing, Ollie!" Classic.

Speaking of Joe Smith, he pwns A-Rod. He comes into the game, runner on second and Pay-Rod represents the tying run. Smith promptly gets Mr. "foot-in-mouth disease" to ground to Wright, ending the inning. Gotta love the kid's guts.

Then Wagner comes in and 1-2-3, "Ballgame over, 5-game losing streak over, the Mets win, theeeeeeeeeeee Mets win!"

Now only if Tom Glavine can step it up tonight...

(Big-ups and shoutouts to Greg Schiano, coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, for throwing out the first pitch in last night's game. Keep choppin' wood baby!)

Holla back.

From around the Web

Here is some good stuff.

Bob Klapish on the Subway Series from the Bergen Record
Moises Missing? from Mets Today
A Reversal of Fortunes for the Yankees and the Mets from the New York Times
Comparing the Starting Pitchers to Alcohol from Batting Cage Hero

You Down With O.P.P.?

Yes... Stray-Rod, God himself (also known as Derek Jeter) and the rest of the team with the jailhouse pinstripes are hot as a firecracker right now. They've won 9 straight against the cream of Major League Baseball - the Pirates, White Sox and the Diamondbacks (I'm trying really hard to keep from laughing).

(Quick side note - Whenever I see that photo of A-Rod "thrusting" himself into Jeter and Jeter making that "ouch big daddy" face, I can't help but picture P. Diddy somewhere in the background whispering "take that, take that, take that.")

OK let's state the obvious. The Mets right now...errrr.....let's just say they aren't playing too well. We know this. But what better remedy for a losing streak than beating the red-hot Yankees in their god-awful building 2 out of 3. Can it happen? Absolutely.

Here me out. First off, we have Roger "how in the world has he avoided all of the steroid speculations" Clemens pitching game 1 against "El Loco" Oliver Perez. Here's a fact - the Mets absolutely kill Roger Clemens. To say we pwn him is putting it lightly. Clemens is 3-5 with a 5.09 ERA against the Mets in 10 regular-season starts. To me, Clemens is like Armando Benitez. Really good when nothing's on the line, but come any big games or the playoffs... wildly overrated. Plus Ollie P. has already slayed the mighty beast once this season so it's not impossible to think he could do it again.

But the way the Mets are playing right now Oliver Perez is liable to jump over the first base line, trip over a broken bat tossed in his direction by Roger Clemens, break his left arm and be out for the rest of the season.

Still, I'm liking the Mets chances in this one. You down with O.P.P.? Oliver Perez's Pitching? I am. Mets win game 1, 4-3.

Game 2 - Glavine vs. Clippard. The Mets ALWAYS have problems against pitchers that they've never faced before. That explains why Clippard looked like the second-coming of Tom Seaver in their first meeting. However, does anyone honestly think Clippard will dominate the Mets like he did the first time the Mets faced him? In the words of Whitney Houston, "Oh hell to the naw." Glavine scares me but I still think the Mets have the advantage in this game. My prediction? Mets win game 2, 6-4.

Game 3... now this one is tricky. I know we don't want to admit it Mets fans but Wang is good. Wang already is what Mike Pelfrey is trying to be. A pitcher with a heavy sinker that batters just beat in the ground like Ike beat Tina (thanks Biggie). But El Duque is big time in situations like this. Unfortunately, his last time out doesn't really leave me too encouraged. So as they say, you can't win 'em all. Yankees win 5-1.

Looks like the Mets Geek is thinking just like me on this one.

So there you go, it's that easy. The Mets take 2 of 3 and away we go. "Losing streak over... Subway Series over... the Mets win... Daaaaaaaaa Mets win!"

Holla Back.

The Circle of O

I finally read the article in Sports Illustrated today on Omar Minaya by Gary Smith. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It is a great article on him, his style and personality. Teams usually take on the personality of the coach. But this team is a little different. This team has blended together the personalities of both Willie and Omar and that is what makes the Mets so fun to watch.

Another interesting comment from the article was when Fred Wilpon told Omar, "We've become irrelevant in New York City, you got to come home." That could not have been a more true statement. Too bad this did not happen before Kazmir was traded. But we can't complain too much. Now we have young stars with more on the way combined with proven veterans and a new stadium coming. The future looks bright, even if the last two weeks have been awful.

Mets Blog Roundup...

Here's a quick peek at what my fellow Mets bloggers are talking about today:

MetsBlog.com talks about how Brad Penny was arguing with Shawn Green because he thought Green was relaying pitch location to the batters from second base. He makes a good point that Penny should have changed signs or used a pitch indicator.

Lonestar Mets says it's Groundhog Dog once again as last night's game was pretty much like the night before.

On The Mets Beat, The Mets blog over at Newsday.com, Billy Wagner has some interesting quotes on the lackadaisical play of the team.

Over at Faith and Fear in Flushing, everyone's tired of writing about how bad things are for the Mets right now.

And the MetsGrrl has some good news for us Mets fans... sort of lol

Mets Lose... Again

Hmmm a Penny for my thoughts? THIS is the team that's supposed to have the best offense in the National League? Oh and don't look now, but the Phillies are only 2 games back. I'm not too worried about them though - their bullpen sucks, their park is a joke and they have no closer. However... they do have a formidable lineup at the top (with a REAL number 2 hitter by the way). I mean seriously what does Willie have against Lo Duca? The guy did a great job in the 2 hole for the team last year. If it ain't broke don't try and fix it. He does the little things and doesn't strike out which is key for a number 2 hitter.

Something strange from last night... Brad Penny strikes out Shawn Green with some 97 mph high heat. Then he walks all the way up to the batter's box to say something to Green. Green gives him this look like "Huh" and then they both go to their dugouts. Very strange.

Here's my guess as to what Penny said to Green:

• "Dude, we f*cking pwn you guys right now"


• "Dude, did you see that? Obviously you didn't the way you swung at that high cheese. Hah!"


• "Dude, Alyssa Milano is blogging about this right now. Can you believe it? She's so freaking hot"


• "Dude, why does Willie have you batting number 2? You can't bunt, you're slower than Lo Duca and you look stupid with no hair"

You guys can thank me later for that picture link ;)

Ok back to the game. Here's a positive - D. Wright's hit streak is now at 15 games. Nice to see him turn it around after that slow start.

So anyway, that's a 9-1 loss and an MLB-worst 2-10 record in June. Here's the game recap if you feel like throwing up. Holla back.

Mother's Day Fun

Just a few pics of MetsBrotha, PR Domer, and the fam during this year's Mother's Day game. Oliver Perez was filthy that day.


From left to right: PR Domer, Brother Domer and the Mets Brotha himself


Mets Brotha and Mrs. Mets Brotha


Momma Domer and Sister Domer. She has a crush on Oliver Perez

Omar on SI's Cover

Omar, Willie and the Mets are on the cover of SI this week. hope this is not going to jinx the Mets anymore than they already are.

June Struggles

The Mets are 2-9 in June. The most surprising aspect of the current run of bad baseball is that the offense and the bullpen have been the problem. While some of the drop off in offense has been due to injuries and a lack of a consistent lineup, there has still been a lack of timely hitting. The Mets are struggling to convert on scoring opportunities and that should scare you. That is what winning in the playoffs is all about.

And now the bullpen is springing leaks. Wagner blows a save and Joe Smith and Feliciano show they are not perfect. Luckily baseball is a long season and the Mets have the infrastructure to fix things with Omar, Willie, and Peterson.

So what do the Mets need?

1. A healthy Alou. Having him in the lineup caused some serious matchup headaches. With him you can go with a left-righty rotation in the lineup with a nice mixture of speed and power. A lineup with Alou-Green-Valentin batting 6, 7, 8 is deep and balanced.
2. A healthy Pedro. The Mets need a headhunter at the top of the rotation. Someone who gives you a mean streak. The Mets seem to lack that right now. They have a group of true professionals, but they are lacking a little attitude that all championship teams have.
3. But the main thing the Mets need right now is to get everyone going in the same direction. Reyes and Beltran were hot, but Wright and Delgado were struggling. Now we have a reversal of that. The scary thing for the rest of the national league is that the Mets lineup has not played to their potential yet.

Let's hope they bring their 'A' game this weekend against the suddenly hot Yankess.

Urghhhhhh...

Ok this is getting out of hand. In case you're just getting the news, the Mets lost AGAIN. WTF? I mean seriously, anyone watching the game tonight can not feel too good about this team at the moment. First thing I noticed... John Maine's fastball is a thing of beauty when it's rising through the zone and riding inside on right-handed hitters. This is what makes him effective, the sneaky speed on his fastball.

However, when the fastball levels out... oh boy. I mean, 3 straight homeruns to the 7, 8, and 9 hitters tonight? And not only that, the freaking Dodger pitcher, Kuo, smacks a homerun off of Maine, tosses his bat like he's Babe Ruth reincarnated and then takes a nice little stroll around the bases. So what do you think happens the next time he comes up? Nothing. Not even a brushback from Maine for showing him up. Come on Mets, show some cajones. I think that would have been just what this team needed to breathe some life into this bunch.

So there you go - Mets lose 4-1. The only bright spot? Well David Wright continues to smack the ball around. 14 game hitting streak. Sweet. Oh and Carlos Gomez is one fast mofo. I like the kid. And say what y'all want about Lastings Milledge, but the energy and enthusiasm he brings to the field is something this lackluster team could use right now. Can't wait for him to heal up and get called back up, especially since Moises "Aaachooo" (you know, cuz he's hurt or sick all the damn time) is looking older than Julio Franco. Holla back.

This Is A Test

This is a test post for Mets Brotha. I am testing 1-2-3. Go Mets!