The ultimate battle of good vs. evil: KTE MFYs!

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

The vile MFYs are like a wounded and very ugly animal, staggering [crossout]into Citi Field[/crossout] to their Death Star-like fortress in the Bronx for a three-game series against the gallant Mets.

The Yanks are 21-19, and are 4-6 in the last 10 games, coming off a shameful six-game losing streak that included a highly publicized tantrum from the over-paid, under-performing and completely chinless former catcher.

Meanwhile, our surging Mets, 21-22, have won practically every series this month and proved that they don't even have to hit decently to win. Heck, we're resting our best players on the vacation/disabled list so they're fresh for the meaningful games in September.

Now, it is true that there have been some unfortunate moments when the Mets have played the Yankees. And most of those have happened in the Bronx. The Mets have posting a 21-21 record against the Yankees over the last seven years, which you know drives Tom Verducci nuts and forces Bob Klapich to shed tears on his keyboard like, well, soft rain.

The Metsies can make a statement here, and send the Yankees into a spiral of despair. The Girardi deathwatch starts Sunday night if the Mets can take two of three.

And, after this unbiased and detailed analysis, I think it's possible:

Lineup

Shortstop
Derek Jeter, .255, 2 homers, 12 rbi
Nicknames: �Sweet Pants,� �Mrs. O'Connor�
True Yankee? The truest
Overrated/underrated: Extremely over-rated
Positives: Has more range than Yankee Hall-of-Fame shortstop Phil Rizzutto
Negatives: That's only because Rizzutto has been dead since 2007

Mets: Jose Reyes, who is NOT going to be traded

Advantage: Mets

Centerfield
Curtis Granderson, .266, 14 homers, 31 rbi
True Yankee? Nope
Overrated/underrated: Overrated. The Tigers are very happy with Austin Jackson, thank you
Positives: Spends minor league rehab assignments inspiring middle school kids, grants generous interviews with local education writers.
Negatives: Plays for the Yankees

Mets: Jason Pridie, a fine young player with surprising power and outstanding glove.

Advantage: Mets, though this one is close

First base:
Mark Teixeria, .255, 9 homers, 22 rbi
True Yankee? No
Overrated/underrated: Overrated
Positives: Five of the eight letters in his last name are vowels
Negatives: Bears a slight resemblance to Liza Minelli






Mets: Daniel Murphy. Did you see that play two years ago where the ball bounced off the bag, Murph dove and fired to the base to get the out?

Advantage: Mets

Third base:
Alex Rodriguez, .266, 8 homers, 24 rbi
True Yankee? Are you kidding?
Overrated/underrated: Overrated
Positives: Allegedly grew up rooting for the Mets
Negatives: So uncoordinated that he needs help feeding himself. Poor Cameron Diaz.



Mets: Willie Harris, who has proven to be an incredible fielder when playing New York-based teams

Advantage: Mets!!

Second base:
Robinson Cano, .287, 9 homers, 27 rbi
True Yankee? Working on it
Overrated/underrated: Used to be greatly overrated, now just overrated
Positives: Was almost traded for some decent players � offered to the Rangers for Alex Rodriguez, to the Royals for Carlos Beltran and to the Diamondbacks for Randy Johnson.
Negatives: Was named for a Fred Rogers television character. Oh, you're not buying the Jackie Robinson thing, are you?

Mets: Justin Turner. The Mets already have Beltran, and they want no part of Arod on Randy Johnson.

Advantage: Mets!

Catcher:
Russell Martin, .261, 7 homers, 22 rbi
True Yankee? Loses points for replacing TY Jorge Posada from behind the plate
Overrated/underrated: Used to be decent, now he's overrated
Positives: Russell Nathan Jeanson Coltrane Martin Jr has more names than Teixeria has consonants
Negatives: Lived in France for two years as a child, is likely to surrender.



Mets: Josh Thole, has never, ever lived in France

Advantage: Mets!

Right field:
Nick Swisher, .215, 2 homers, 15 rbi
True Yankee? He's barely a current Yankee
Overrated/underrated: Has been overrated since a decent stint with the A's
Postives: Swisher guest starred on two episodes �Better with You� and �How I Met Your Mother.�
Negatives: Appeared as himself, which is a guy who hit .219 for the White Sox and was booed even louder than Derek Jeter when I saw the game last year.

Mets: Carlos Beltran, who has hit more homers in one game this year than Swisher has hit all season

Advantage: Mets!

Left field:
Brett Gardner, .261, 7 homers, 22 rbi
True Yankee: Not likely
Overrated/underrated: Who? Not rated at all.
Positives: Has a higher average, more homers and more rbi than Derek Jeter
Negatives: Despite this, he was punted out of the leadoff spot in favor of Jeter, and was banished to the bottom of the order.

Mets: Jason Bay, who had a big sac fly against the Nationals this week!

Advantage: Mets!!!

Rotation:

Game 1: RA Dickey, 1-5, 5.08 vs TBA
Game 2: Chris Capuano, 3-4, 4.78 vs TBA
Game 3: Mike Pelfrey, 3-3, 5.11 vs TBA

What the hell? The Yankees are so afraid of the Mets' Trio of Terror that they refuse to post their probables. CC Sabathia pitched against the Orioles on Thursday, and Bartolo Colon on Wednesday.

Advantage: Mets!

Closer:
Mariano Rivera: 13 saves, 3 blown saves, 1.80 ERA
Francisco Rodriguez: 14 saves, 1 blown save, 0.83 ERA

Oh, sure. Frankie has been known to punch an occasional relative. But Rivera, well, we won't go there. And he's a cyborg. Frankie shows some emotion, at least.

Advantage: Mets!

[Ceetar]

I think you wrote this on Tuesday. but good stuff. I'm disappointed the Yankees won tonight, going to 23-19 because it means in no way can we make them back to .500. And we need to sweep to pass them in the win % column.

with some well coordinated efforts with the Nationals (they haven't scored since like last week, so they're due) against the O's we can make it so come Sunday night, the Mets are closer to first than last, and the Yankees are closer to last than first. (Might need some help from Texas too. or a couple of Phillies to go on the DL (oh, Vicky and Blanton? okay then))

[Edgy MD]

Ten Questions for the Mets

1. Beltran at DH and Fartinez in right or the opposite?
2. Would it be pointless to activate Angel Pagan in the midst of this series?
3. Can they reach these Yankee Stadium III walls?
4. How about Bay in center for a game? Are you that desperate?
5. Nick Evans: will you get some time against a lefty?
6. Is Josh Thole replacement-level guacamole? Will this be the series Terry tilts the job to Paulino?
7. Can Roosevelt Avenue Dickey answer the bell?
8. Evans/Martinez/Turner/Pridie/Tejada -- will the big light make these guys look like the minor leaguers they were so recently?
9. Bobby Parnell, will you answer the bell?
10. Pedro Beato --- will a writer try and pin you down on which team you were a fan of in your school boy days and your knee pants? Will you convince me that you have the right answer?

[ashie62]

Looks like Pagan is abit aways.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Superb KTE, M-GIM.

Right Said Fred Garcia is going for the Sith tonight.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy DC wrote: 1. Beltran at DH and Fartinez in right or the opposite?

I think the plan is for Martinez to DH the first two games, and Beltran the third.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Ceetar wrote: I think you wrote this on Tuesday. but good stuff. I'm disappointed the Yankees won tonight, going to 23-19 because it means in no way can we make them back to .500. And we need to sweep to pass them in the win % column. with some well coordinated efforts with the Nationals (they haven't scored since like last week, so they're due) against the O's we can make it so come Sunday night, the Mets are closer to first than last, and the Yankees are closer to last than first. (Might need some help from Texas too. or a couple of Phillies to go on the DL (oh, Vicky and Blanton? okay then))

I wrote it late Thursday, but I think they're still stinging from that six-game slide despite a couple wins over the Orioles and one against the Rays. We can take 'em!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Nice work!

Believe Gay Jay ('Not a True Yankee But a Certified, Genuine Douche') Burnett opposes Capuano in Game 2.
Game 3 is Ivan navI vs. Big Pelf.

The big question for the Mets in this series is whether Dickey can regain his old form and give us the mo. He's gotta be better than the other guy, I know that's not asking much considering he's Freddy Garcia but here we are.

Looking forward to introducing Pedro Beato to these fucks.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was thinking pretty much the same thing. Dickey needs to step it up and set the tone early. If he doesn't (and I fear he won't) it could be a nasty weekend.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

As at the commencement of this series, the Mets are 160-1 to win the World Series on Betfair. Very, very tempting.

[Bunt the First Two]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Nice work! Believe Gay Jay ('Not a True Yankee But a Certified, Genuine Douche') Burnett opposes Capuano in Game 2. Game 3 is Ivan navI vs. Big Pelf. The big question for the Mets in this series is whether Dickey can regain his old form and give us the mo. He's gotta be better than the other guy, I know that's not asking much considering he's Freddy Garcia but here we are. Looking forward to introducing Pedro Beato to these fucks.

Beato, Beato
Girls praying at the grotto
'Don't let my Daddy face him, Lord
'Cuz Daddy won't do squatto'

[Frayed Knot]

Time Sked + TV Alerts for non-NYers:

Fri: 7:10 PM -- MLBN lists tonight's telecast as Cubs at Red Sox OR Mets & Yanx, so check your local listings for your time and area

Sat: 7:10 PM -- FOX Network, presumably with Buck & McCarver. Not sure if this is going national of if they have other regional games lined up for that slot.

Sun: 1:10 PM -- TBS takes this one as their national (though not exclusive) Sunday afternoon game. This is where Ron Darling hangs out on Sundays when he's not doing SNY games.
It's rare that this game is NOT on ESPN's SNB but when given the option of Cubbies at Red Sox for the first time since some guy named Ruth was pitching in the WS the execs at Bristol soiled their pants just at the thought and let the NY-v-NY match stay in the daytime.

[Frayed Knot]

Freddie ('s dead) Garcia, AJ (Gay Jay) Burnett, and Ivan Nova (we'll just call him John New) are listed as probables for the Yanx.

[Guest themetfairy]

Excellent knowledge michigan - we are now ready to go to war on the Eve of Judgment Day!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm surprised that, after so many years of interleague play, the Cubs had not yet gone to Boston. The Mets have been everywhere by now. I wonder if the NL Central having more teams is the reason that the Cubs (and presumably the Astros, Reds, etc.) haven't yet visited every American League city.

[Ceetar]

The Second Spitter wrote: As at the commencement of this series, the Mets are 160-1 to win the World Series on Betfair. Very, very tempting.

I got 165:1 on Bodog in December.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Out of ipecac syrup?

Read espen's Jeter's magic mo-Mets.

[TransMonk]

Great job, Michigan.

CNNSI says:
Yanks in 2013 may look ugly

[Edgy MD]

My friend John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press reminded me of a classic thought uttered by Sparky Anderson years ago, when he considered what is the hardest thing for a team to overcome. His answer: �An aging star.� The Yankees have a bunch of them. Those aging stars have made 2011 an eventful year already, though the season is still young and the Yankees are, this minute, leading the wild-card race. There�s a whole lot of accomplishment on this team. It could be foolish to write them off.

The fear-of-the-aging-star stuff always bugs me. Why are managers so afraid of this situation? You're going to get fired eventually anyhow. Rusty Staub was hitting fine (very fine) for the Mets in 1981, but the team came back from the strike and Joe Torre didn't see any point to trying to pass him off as a fielder anymore. He moved Kingman to first, Rusty to the bench, and he played three and a half more years and was part of the dawn of a new golden age for the team. Everybody happy and the star goes out in style, right?

[metirish]

Great KTE MGIM , plenty of laughs too.....

Saw Ian O'Connor on ESPN the other night and the host John Buccigross ever so earnestly asking O'Connor where "Jeter ranks in the pantheon of MFY great"...fifth best ever according to O'Connor.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

"Don't get hit by a falling star" is one of those baseball truisms. Jim Riggleman said it in an an interview the other day, I believe he attributed it to... Joey Amalfitano?

[Frayed Knot]

The pct of Yanqui runs this season which come off HRs has fallen to a mere 51%. Earlier in the year it was up near 65%.
I'd have to go through every team to see if that's still tops (which I'm not going to do) but I'm sure it is and I bet it's not close.

ML average overall is 32%; Mets are right there at 33%


Only Granderson is still cranking them out at the same rate as early in the season.
Russell Martin has 7 but 6 came in April
7 of Cano's 8 came in April too
Teixeira hit one last night but 8 of his previous 9 were prior to May 3
Posada had 5 of his first 7 hits go over the fence but has just 1 goner since April 14
Even ARod's 2 the other night to give him 8 overall were only his 2nd & 3rd since April 23

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Looking forward to introducing Pedro Beato to these fucks.

"I hate the Yankees," said reliever Pedro Beato, speaking as a native New Yorker, not out of any actual animosity for the crosstown rivals. "My family � I can tell there are no Yankees fans. "I think I know more than those guys, not the older guys obviously because they�ve been in this situation. I�ve been to games. I know how crazy the fans can be. As a player you shouldn�t let that get to you. I know it doesn�t get to me. I�d rather play in these situations than play in a game where there�s not that many fans. That�s the whole excitement of the game, how the fans get into the game, how they cheer their team, the loudness and craziness of the crowd."

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/pro_sports/baseball/mets/122281394_Buffalo_vs__Bronx.html

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: "Don't get hit by a falling star" is one of those baseball truisms. Jim Riggleman said it in an an interview the other day, I believe he attributed it to... Joey Amalfitano?

I agree, but what does it mean to "get hit" by one? To be forced to play them as they suck? To bench one and take all the shit from the fans? To have to pretend he's a great spiritual leader when he's disengaged and napping in the clubhouse?

I think a good manager is confident enough to dodge the first and successful enough at personnel management to effectively impliment the second. In the case of the third, well, managers have been lying about Jeter's character for 15 years, so that's not going to go away.

[metirish]

Pedro Beato - American Hero

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: My friend John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press reminded me of a classic thought uttered by Sparky Anderson years ago, when he considered what is the hardest thing for a team to overcome. His answer: �An aging star.� The Yankees have a bunch of them. Those aging stars have made 2011 an eventful year already, though the season is still young and the Yankees are, this minute, leading the wild-card race. There�s a whole lot of accomplishment on this team. It could be foolish to write them off. The fear-of-the-aging-star stuff always bugs me. Why are managers so afraid of this situation? You're going to get fired eventually anyhow. Rusty Staub was hitting fine (very fine) for the Mets in 1981, but the team came back from the strike and Joe Torre didn't see any point to trying to pass him off as a fielder anymore. He moved Kingman to first, Rusty to the bench, and he played three and a half more years and was part of the dawn of a new golden age for the team. Everybody happy and the star goes out in style, right?

That was 30 years ago. I mean, look at Posada. Maybe if Girardi had held a hard line on his decision it wouldn't have blown up as it did. In a way he has, he's no longer playing everyday, but there's no way Jeter's going to handle it _better_ than that. If anything, the Posada thing almost guarentees they won't try something funky with Jeter or drop him in the order this year.

Also, the Yankees HR average dropped yesterday when they bashed the ball all over the park off the emergency starter and the wet field certainly helped with extra bases. Used up all their runs yesterday.

[Frayed Knot]

Posada played 1B yesterday btw.
By the end of the game when they were up by a couple of touchdowns they had Russell Martin over at 3rd.

[soupcan]

Great KTE. I laughed, I cried. I give you an 'A'. You just missed out on your 'A+' because of this:

metsguyinmichigan wrote: The vile MFYs are like a wounded and very ugly animal, staggering into Citi Field for a three-game series against the gallant Mets.

For this series the MFYs will be staggering back to the boogie-down.

[Edgy MD]

"I hate the Yankees," said reliever Pedro Beato, speaking as a native New Yorker, not out of any actual animosity for the crosstown rivals. "My family � I can tell there are no Yankees fans.

Excellent.

I'm doing well getting answers here.

1. Beltran at DH and Fartinez in right or the opposite?
Grimmers says Fars for two and Beltran for one. OK. Give Carlos the middle game.

2. Would it be pointless to activate Angel Pagan in the midst of this series?
Looks like a no-go. Pagan went 0-5 last night.

3. Can they reach these Yankee Stadium III walls?
Remains to be seen.

4. How about Bay in center for a game? Are you that desperate?
It was dumb question, but it was late.

5. Nick Evans: will you get some time against a lefty?
Subbing him for Murphy and batting him fifth or sixth might be a great cahnfidence boost. Turning on one against Sabathia or Boone F. Logan even more so.

6. Is Josh Thole replacement-level guacamole? Will this be the series Terry tilts the job to Paulino?
Remains to be seen.

7. Can Roosevelt Avenue Dickey answer the bell?
Glad to see more folks than mice elf are watching this one closely.

8. Evans/Martinez/Turner/Pridie/Tejada -- will the big light make these guys look like the minor leaguers they were so recently?
Would be very deflating if some of these guys got over-exposed.

9. Bobby Parnell, will you answer the bell?
Threw a scoreless inning on Wednesday. Intimations are that the Mets aren't treating him like a major leaguer on rehab, but a guy with something to prove who needs to pitch his way back. That the Mets are that comfortable with their bullpen considering the state it was in just three weeks ago, or when Parnell was disabled, is amazin'

10. Pedro Beato --- will a writer try and pin you down on which team you were a fan of in your school boy days and your
knee pants? Will you convince me that you have the right answer?
Thank you, Pedro.

[seawolf17]

I love you, Pedro Beato.