Gary, Keith - slam Mets Japanese scouting!

[Guest KC]

I'm half-watching the Mets' re-broadcast of today's game and they're talking
about Iriki and they opined that the Mets have put a lot of emphasis on scouting
in Japan and had the noive to go so far as to suggest (after looking down the
list of the 9 or 10 Japanese players brought in) that maybe it ain't quite working
out so well and maybe it's time to re-think things.

I hope that this type of fresh analysis continues, but I doubt it. I'm sure that there
are many cell phones ringing off the hook to nip this shit in the bud. It was refreshing
while it lasted and I applaud these two high-profile guys who have their necks on
the line and tell it like it is in spite of Wilponinc.

[metirish]

I think it will last, Gary and Keith won't take any shit, and if SNY wants to be considered a place to go for sports then it should let them alone, I would hate for them to turn into the guys that call Knicks games...

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

wait, there's time for Eddie "Who Clipped my Gonads?" Coleman to opine that scouting isn't an exact science, and that the jury's still out on Matsui, and that people often underrate Shinjo's baserunning, and Yoshii was decent some days, and did I mention how hard it to scout ballplayers, especially if you're all jet-lagged? I did? Oh, well.

[Gwreck]

Bringing this back on topic, I think this sort of thing has the potential to develop into the type of situation that exists on Mets.com.

It's the official site, it's Mets/MLB-run, etc. but they've got a stand-up guy in Marty Noble there who will still point out when the team/Randolph/a player is doing something wrong.

Why do we necessarily think that management won't let the SNY announcers be critical? Because the Knicks did something like that?

[metirish]

Well it's my fault for bringing up the Knicks, I was just pointing out how a paranoid owner like Dolan controls things on MSG, a fine announcer like Mike Breen is reducded to cheerleading...I really don't think Wilpon is like that, plus he has partners so maybe that helps.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Did anyone really put much value into Iriki though?
I don't think we lured him away from any teams, I'm pretty sure he was cut. Anything good out of him would've been a surprise to me.

But yes, it is nice to see that Gary and Keith aren't just there to polish bats

[Guest KC]

OO: >>>it is nice to see that Gary and Keith aren't just there to polish bats<<<

The point is that the Mets' broadcasters for the most part don't polish bats.

If I gotta 'spain it, the satire just isn't much fun.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

="KC"]OO: >>>it is nice to see that Gary and Keith aren't just there to polish bats<<< The point is that the Mets' broadcasters for the most part don't polish bats. If I gotta 'spain it, the satire just isn't much fun.

I never said that mets announcers usually do, but it's still reassuring to see in a world of Dick Vitales and Micheal Kays

[Guest KC]

Sorry OO, has nothing to do with you - hold on, this thread is crashing.

[TransMonk]

Watching the game on MLBTV, I found it interesting that after the inning that they made the Japanese scouting comments, Keith went off during the commercial break:

Keith: Why would you bring someone [iriki] to camp that throws like that that? It's just a waste of time.

Gary: Because Willie likes the funk.

Keith: It's just a waste of time.

Gary: Our pitchers have thrown 80 pitches in 3 innings.

Keith: That guy couldn't get Molly Putz out.

Gary: Who?

Keith: Molly Putz


After the next inning:

Gary: Who's that? Oh, you think? They got Chad Bradford up in the bullpen. That's always exciting. (sigh) Get me to opening day. Let's hope we pitch a little better.

Keith: I'm not...I have not been confident with this staff like everybody else is.

Gary: Well, the guys who are pitching are not the...

Keith: I understand, I'm talking about the other guys too.


Commercial free insights into how the announcers really feel...the best thing about MLBTV this spring.

[metirish]

That's freaking cool TransMonk....any cursing going on...Keith sounds bored now...

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

awesome.

[Guest Rotblatt]

I got it as soon as I saw the headline, KC.

I like Gary and think he's actually pretty impartial. He'll call individual Mets out when they're lazy, and when Willie makes a stupid move, he'll say it's a stupid move.

[TransMonk]

No swearing...I've watched maybe 5 full games this spring. Darling is the one who says the most stuff between innings. SNY must know that some feeds don't break during the commercial break because during one of Heilman's starts Darling talked about him before the game during commercial. Said something about how his new delivery really paid off for him, how someone really messed him up his first couple of years in pro ball, and how he's got huge cahones. Then he said, "what we can't say cahones? But, it's cable." Then Gary said, "Only in SAP." and the booth erupted in laughter.

When I was young, we had a satellite dish, one of the old fashioned 10 foot tall ones where it took 2 minutes to change the channel while the dish turned. Anyway, we also got to keep the feed during commercials back then, and I remember Mike Schmidt cussing up a storm during the commercial breaks during the 1990 All Star Game. It was quite funny.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The between-innings banter is the super-secret hidden bonus gift from the angels part of the MLB.tv package. Guys complain about stupid things they said the inning before, rehearse the names of upcoming guys in their most sonorous voices, chat about where they're going for dinner, or just let their guard down, like Keith.

]Keith sounds bored now

Keith frequently sounds bored. He's a restless dude. There are a lot of dog days to a season, and I fear he may be better suited to the part-time gig. I think when he's bored he's prone to let his mouth get ahead of his head. I'm not saying he did that tonight, but he sure seemed to be during his ambiguous rant against the World Baseball Classic.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I agree with that. I'm sure Keith will be especially hard to listen to come August of a down year in Metland.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Here's to never getting any confirmation on that.

[metirish]

I think Keith gets bored aorund the eight inning, I have noticed this before, he'll be saying stuff like " swing the bat", "Come om ump, it's time for dinner".......but yeah I imagine if the Mets are out come August he'll be more frustrated...and I said it before but Hernandez and Darling sound so alike, tonight I didn't know for a bit who was with Gary.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

I think this phenomenon is one that can't last long, but I hope you guys who get to hear this between-innings banter will share what you hear with us who don't get it.

The reason I think it's not long for this world is the probability of the broadcasters saying something colorful that has legal problems. Not cursing,--stuff that they wouldn't want in print but is "published" on the Internet. I think their bosses will have them muted somehow between innings eventually. There's a reason that newspapers don't publish the notes reporters take, fascinating though that raw feed would be to see.

As I recall, from Richard Grossinger's collection BASEBALL I GAVE YOU THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE (or something like that) this banter used to go out in the early years of dish broadcasting and it gave Grossinger great insight into behind-the-scenes stuff, like the Mike Schmidt stuff but Mets-related. Great book, btw--Grossinger's an intense West Coast Mets fan who writes poignantly about the early 80s Mets.

Thanks for getting us started on a great topic, KC. You can write about baseball when you're motivated.