Douchebag Journalists

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Phillies are certainly a lock to win three straight division titles, since they've already done so! (Does he even know what year it is? He also has Santana signing with the Mets in 2007, not 2008.)

He also says that the Carlos Beltran gamble has turned to vapor. Carlos did help lead the team to a division title; which is nothing to sneeze at.

[Centerfield]

There are so many contradictions in that article it's not even worth doing a point-by-point dismantling.

Everyone put down their pens. We now have the dumbest article ever written. Thanks for playing.

[metirish]

And if you are going to rebuild why stop at trading Santana, Beltran , Reyes and Wright would bring back a large bounty.....tours of CF would be packed I bet.

[MFS62]

I'd rate that piece a "C", for copious cuantities of ca-ca claptrap.

Later

(OK, so I took poetic license with the spelling)

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

There are so many contradictions in that article it's not even worth doing a point-by-point dismantling.

Everyone put down their pens. We now have the dumbest article ever written. Thanks for playing.

[Fman99]

I wish Klapisch would throw himself into a well, Baby Jessica style. Sans the rescue effort.

[ashie62]

There are so many contradictions in that article it's not even worth doing a point-by-point dismantling.

Everyone put down their pens. We now have the dumbest article ever written. Thanks for playing.[/quote:2uksok70]

Can't let these articles rent any room in my head

[metirish]

This just bothers the hell out of me.....Tim Kurkjian in his selection for his ALL-Decade Team has some fine picks....Kent at 2nd base is great I think.....but what gets me about his SS pick is not just that it's Jeter it's the stupid line at the end.

He batted .317 in the 2000s and finished in the top 5 in the league in hitting in 2000, '03, '06 and '09. His 1,940 hits were the second most in the decade behind Ichiro's 2,030. He won four Gold Gloves, and two World Series rings. And as important as all the numbers, he ran hard to first base on every play of the decade.

Did he really , I can't think of the specific games but I've seen him not run hard to first more than a few times and that's just watching him every now and then....

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=4753935

[Vic Sage]

well, you know what they say about sports writing...
A myth is as good as some bile

[metirish]

Seriously, how predictable is Herper?

The print edition has this headline for his article

Cash takes cuts, Omar goes down swinging

Online Edition

Brian Cashman lands Javier Vazquez for New York Yankees as New York Mets still silent

Javier Vazquez has never quite lived up to the hype, going back to the first time the Yankees traded for him, six years ago. In that 2004 season there was some feeling in the Bronx that Vazquez lacked toughness, but this time around he is not expected to be an ace, and fits perfectly toward the back of the rotation. So the Yankees made another smart trade here, again taking advantage of a team looking to deal a player for financial reasons. They plucked Vazquez from the Braves much the way they did Curtis Granderson from the Tigers, without giving up vital pieces of their present or future. Melky Cabrera got his share of pie-in-the-face hits last season, to be sure, but as a left fielder with moderate power he's much less valuable than he was roaming center. And while Johnny Damon still seems like the best fit for left field, GM Brian Cashman can sign cost-efficient Mark DeRosa if he wants and take bows for a nice offseason, now that he has deepened his rotation and created flexibility for either Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes to pitch out of the bullpen. All of which begs the question: Isn't this the type of creative dealing the Mets should be doing? Or is it simply that they are in denial about their need to upgrade their pitching to have any real chance at contending next season? Vazquez and Edwin Jackson are each better than any free-agent pitcher still available, and if the Mets may not have been able to offer anyone such as Max Scherzer, the power arm the Tigers acquired from the Diamondbacks for Jackson, they surely had enough to pry Vazquez away from the Braves. Maybe the Braves wouldn't have wanted to trade Vazquez in their division, but it's not like he's John Smoltz, with a history there. More than likely they just wanted the best deal in return for dumping $11 million off their payroll. In any case, this was a Yankee trade that focused still more attention on the inactivity of the Mets, and, at the very least, created more uncertainty as to whether they'll ever sign Jason Bay. Cashman, after all, said Tuesday that he has no intention of paying big bucks for a left fielder, but Mets fans - and for that matter, a lot of people in baseball - will believe that only when Bay and Matt Holliday are signed elsewhere. Then there was the talk Tuesday that the Braves may have unloaded Vazquez to free up money to make a run at Bay. They do seem to need a big bat to be serious contenders again, and probably wouldn't have a hard time finding a taker for Cabrera should they want to trade him now as part of their plan to pursue Bay. In other words, this was another day of torture for Mets fans, another reason to fear the worst from this offseason. Maybe Bay and his agent are just trying to squeeze that fifth year out of this contract, but the longer they go without taking the Mets' offer, the more reason there is to believe they're looking for another place to play. In the meantime, while there are still plenty of second-tier pitchers on the market, it's puzzling that the Mets don't seem to have any sense of urgency about acquiring pitching. More than once this offseason GM Omar Minaya has talked as if last year never happened for Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and John Maine, and they can be counted on as a reliable No. 2-3-4 behind Johan Santana. It could happen. But it's a huge leap of faith after last season. And so while Vazquez still has to prove he's more than a pitcher whose win-loss record rarely seems to be as good as his other numbers, right now he'd qualify as the Mets' second-best starter. Instead the Yankees say thank you to the Braves and tuck him nicely into the No. 4 spot, perhaps even No. 5. It's that kind of offseason. The rich get richer. The Mets get nothing. jharper@nydailynews.com

[Benjamin Grimm]

In other words, this was another day of torture for Mets fans...

[Guest Edgy DC]

In any case, this was a Yankee trade that focused still more attention on the inactivity of the Mets, and, at the very least, created more uncertainty as to whether they'll ever sign Jason Bay.

This trade had nothing to do with Jason Bay. The only thing it has to do with the Mets is that columnists like to stoke petty jealousies.

Fuck the offseason. I'm ready to go to war. On Ollie! On Pelfrey! On Mainer!

[metirish]

Per Metsblog

Yesterday, on WFAN, Mike Francesa said, �The Mets need to make a splash, for the sake of making a splash, to let people know they�re relevant again.�

As big a splash as Mike would make if he jumped in to a pool?

[Guest Edgy DC]

The one having a problem staying relevant is Francesa.

[MFS62]

Fuck the offseason. I'm ready to go to war.

On Ollie! On Pelfrey! On Mainer![/quote:200ubx5e]

We're ready to fight.
You, too, Brian Stokes!
Let's re-sign Brandon Knight.

...... (your serve)


Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

John Harper wrote: In other words, this was another day of torture for Mets fans...

This is, of course, stupid. I wasn't the least bit "tortured" by this trade, nor by the fact that another day has gone by without Jason Bay signing his name on the dotted line. But we (meaning the community of Mets fans) are partly to blame for this nonsense. There are so many fans that wear their angst on their sleeves that the perception that we're "tortured" or "suffering" does have some basis in fact.

[Fman99]

I love to believe that Javy the MFY redux will go about as well as the first version (4.91 ERA).

[ashie62]

The one having a problem staying relevant is Francesa.[/quote:3t373f4p]

He is relevant if people respond to him

[Guest Edgy DC]

Well, here's hoping that folks are tuning out in droves.

[ashie62]

Price of the shnooze puts out the 10 worst Mets moments this decade with glee..I found the link on www.cbssportsline.com for anyone who want to look.

He put Estes #1

[Guest Edgy DC]

Let's draw the most damning conclusion possible from an aside.

http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2009/12/omar_minaya_would_prefer_it_if.html

[ashie62]

Either Omar was misquoted,taken out of context or the Wilpons need to be very afraid.

Consider Omar was sighted at the NJ Nets-Minn T Wolves game at Izod..The 2 worst teams in the NBA..

He may be short of braincells..

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Tim Marchman of SI never fails to disappoint:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/tim_marchman/12/28/hot.stove.mets/index.html

"Take the Mets, a rich, lousy team that has made an ostentatious show of being willing to spend a lot to improve. With more than $90 million committed for next year before figuring arbitration awards for several young players, the team lacks a catcher, a first baseman, two outfielders and the semblance of dignity. Every one of their starters is inexperienced, terrible, coming off an injury or some combination of the three. They might be able to get better by signing the owners of Shea Stadium, the Brooklyn recording studio named after their erstwhile, much-mourned ballpark."

Idiot.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

To be fair:

SANTANA: Injury
MAINE: Injury
PEREZ: Terrible/Injury
PELFREY: Sorta-Terrible
PARNELL: Inexperienced
NIEVE: Injury/Inexperienced
NIESE: Injury/Inexperienced

The Mets seem to bring out the irrational in Marchman, who generally produces tight, fact-based analyses... which are well-argued and -phrased, too. He was an obsessive Met fan before he was a pro, which would explain the frustration/ad team-inem stuff.

[Guest 86-Dreamer]

Marchman's first paragraph takes a couple of cheap shots, but is not too far off on the currrent state of the Mets starting lineup. Later on in the article, he argues that despite the mess they are in, they are probably doing the right thing by not throwing money at less than ideal solutions. Overall, I think it is a decent article.

Regarding his point about every starter being "inexperienced, terrible, coming off injury or some combination of the three":

SP Santana - coming off injury (accurate)
SP Maine - coming off injury (accurate)
SP Pelfrey - some may say terrible, but not I. (poor argument)
SP Perez - injured and terrible may be a complement based on 2009 (accurate)
SP Nieve/Dickey/Figgy/Niesse - you could apply one of those to each of these (accurate)

1b Murphy - not injured. has some experience. close to terrible relative to what you expect out of 1B. (good argument)
2b Castillo - experienced. does not look healthy, but says he is. terrible? stats say no buy eyes say yes .... (good argument)
SS Reyes � injured (accurate)
3B - Wright � None of these apply (Unfair)
LF - Pagan � currently healthy, but often injured (good argument)
CF � Beltran - coming off injury (accurate)
RF � Frenchy � nice guy, strong arm, decent finish to season. But, last few years have been pretty terrible (good argument)
C - Terrible. (accurate)

So I would say for 7 of 13 starting positions, Marchman�s statement is accurate, and that he has a good argument for 4 others. Only 1 is completely inaccurate/unfair.

[ashie62]

Marchman's first paragraph takes a couple of cheap shots, but is not too far off on the currrent state of the Mets starting lineup. Later on in the article, he argues that despite the mess they are in, they are probably doing the right thing by not throwing money at less than ideal solutions. Overall, I think it is a decent article.

Regarding his point about every starter being "inexperienced, terrible, coming off injury or some combination of the three":

SP Santana - coming off injury (accurate)
SP Maine - coming off injury (accurate)
SP Pelfrey - some may say terrible, but not I. (poor argument)
SP Perez - injured and terrible may be a complement based on 2009 (accurate)
SP Nieve/Dickey/Figgy/Niesse - you could apply one of those to each of these (accurate)

1b Murphy - not injured. has some experience. close to terrible relative to what you expect out of 1B. (good argument)
2b Castillo - experienced. does not look healthy, but says he is. terrible? stats say no buy eyes say yes .... (good argument)
SS Reyes � injured (accurate)
3B - Wright � None of these apply (Unfair)
LF - Pagan � currently healthy, but often injured (good argument)
CF � Beltran - coming off injury (accurate)
RF � Frenchy � nice guy, strong arm, decent finish to season. But, last few years have been pretty terrible (good argument)
C - Terrible. (accurate)

So I would say for 7 of 13 starting positions, Marchman�s statement is accurate, and that he has a good argument for 4 others. Only 1 is completely inaccurate/unfair.[/quote:3blbj3xx]


Thank you..

[metirish]

I like Marchman, used to like him when he was at the Post and the NY Sun...

[Guest Edgy DC]

He (and any of youse who would agree with him) is dead wrong about pretending December 27 is any sort of meaningful time to draw conclusions.

Come on.

[ashie62]

He (and any of youse who would agree with him) is dead wrong about pretending December 27 is any sort of meaningful time to draw conclusions.

Come on.[/quote:1l2m3vjc]


You asked for conclusions

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's regarding another story --- and you're failing, seemingly deliberately, to recognize irony. But I guess you're dealing your own, at my expense.

The thing about that Marchman article is that he ends up more or less defending the team after taking a few rounds of cheap shots at them.