Benjamin Grimm

Beltran 1 Dickey 3.5 Duda 0.75 Reyes 1 Tejada 1

He must be a jerk!

Duda 1 Gee 4.5 Pagan 1 Reyes 1.5 Thole 1 Turner 1

Okay, I'll amend that to say that he was perceived as a jerk. (I never had a problem with him either, although the earplugs thing was pretty stupid. And didn't he make a stink about an official scorer's call? Maybe he was a bit of a jerk.)

Careful... that's Jack Bauer's daughter!

I know. I'm really starting to realize how tiresome "optimism" can be.

So far this year: 6 extra base hits (4 doubles and 2 homers) in 140 at bats. And three of those XBH came in April, in which he only played 9 games. He started out fairly non-sucky, but that didn't last.

Yeah, and with Pool Zapper closing the games for the Yankees, they won't have to worry about Frankie's expensive option vesting.

There you go! I'll start calling some fence guys and get some quotes. I bet it can be done for less than $2,000.

The other thing to consider here is that Bay was expected to provide a lot more offense than Jim Fregosi was. I do think that Jason Bay is the worst free-agent signing in club history. The salary is very high, and the production (if you want to call it that) is very low. What can compare to this? Roger Cedeno was a flop, but not so high-priced. Bobby Bonilla? He was a jerk, but he produced. Same with Vince Coleman, although his best days were behind him. Who else is in the conversation? Glavine? Pedro? Tom Hausman? It's hard to argue that any of them turned out worse than Bay has so far.

I think they should just put up a fence; no major reconstruction required. Run a fence (and make it look like the one at Shea!) from left field to right field, however many feet in from the existing walls. The walls are so high that people in the seats would be able to see over the fence, and there would be no ambiguity about home runs. They'd either land in the seats or in the gap between the fence and the wall. And that gap would be a great spot for Joe Pignatano to grow tomatoes.

TransMonk wrote: It's not an issue of strength...he's just plain not seeing the ball... I don't know what the solution is...

It's almost impossible to imagine a scenario where the Mets could trade Bay without throwing in about $40 million. And if you have to do that, there's little point to it.

Holy crap... yesterday there was a seven-way tie.

The Bergen Record has a new nickname for Jason Bay: Slumpdog Millionaire.

ALL-TIME SCHAEFER STANDINGS, THROUGH JUNE 7, 2011 DAVID WRIGHT731.88CARLOS BELTRAN579.99JOS� REYES578.97Carlos Delgado321.46JOHAN SANTANA296.40MIKE PELFREY269.36Tom Glavine261.27Pedro Martinez225.79John Maine200.73Oliver Perez176.21Cliff Floyd174.86ANGEL PAGAN172.88Aaron Heilman154.70Luis Castillo147.99Pedro Feliciano130.67DANIEL MURPHY124.01Paul Lo Duca122.69Orlando Hernandez120.50IKE DAVIS114.07Jeff Francoeur108.80Ramon Castro106.39JON NIESE102.63Billy Wagner102.22R. A. DICKEY102.04Fernando Tatis96.48Endy Chavez87.25Mike Piazza83.40FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ80.83Ryan Church75.39Jos� Valentin74.70Kris Benson74.43Victor Zambrano71.62Shawn Green69.61Damion Easley69.59JASON BAY68.10Steve Trachsel65.76Moises Alou64.35Marlon Anderson64.16Mike Cameron61.04JOSH THOLE56.91BOBBY PARNELL54.78Duaner Sanchez54.42Jorge Sosa53.96Brian Schneider53.30Hisanori Takahashi52.48Lastings Milledge51.89Kaz Matsui51.72Victor Diaz51.10Scott Schoeneweis48.69Brian Stokes47.40Gary Sheffield46.94Jae Seo46.61Livan Hernandez46.08Joe Smith45.37Doug Mientkiewicz44.98Omir Santos42.66Alex Cora42.11Nelson Figueroa41.25Roberto Hernandez40.22Xavier Nady40.15Pat Misch39.53DILLON GEE38.38Chris Woodward37.81Tim Redding37.44Elmer Dessens36.65Sean Green34.77Rod Barajas34.72Ruben Tejada32.99Darren Oliver31.33Fernando Nieve31.07Heath Bell30.56Mike Jacobs29.14Guillermo Mota28.59Kaz Ishii27.40Chad Bradford27.30Miguel Cairo26.61Braden Looper26.46Ruben Gotay25.42JUSTIN TURNER24.63NICK EVANS24.22Julio Franco23.02Raul Valdes22.90Chris Carter22.35Cory Sullivan21.72Anderson Hernandez20.41Juan Padilla19.84CHRIS CAPUANO19.81MANNY ACOSTA19.21RYOTA IGARASHI17.56Alay Soler17.56LUCAS DUDA16.26Ken Takahashi15.41Carlos Gomez15.23Jeremy Reed14.75FERNANDO MARTINEZ14.70JASON PRIDIE14.64Claudio Vargas13.98Brian Bannister13.90Dae-Sung Koo13.53PEDRO BEATO13.46Aaron Sele12.81Henry Blanco12.60J. J. Putz12.51Willie Harris12.41Royce Ring12.00Jason Isringhausen11.88Dave Williams11.71JENRRY MEJIA10.91CHRIS YOUNG10.90Wilson Valdez10.26David Newhan9.54Taylor Buchholz9.11Manny Aybar8.53Luis Ayala8.39Jesus Feliciano8.14Danny Graves7.66Carlos Muniz7.54Mike DeJean7.32RONNY PAULINO6.71Jos� Offerman6.69Mike Hessman6.51TIM BYRDAK6.45Luis Hernandez6.41Ricky Ledee6.35Mike DiFelice6.14Robinson Cancel6.03Raul Casanova5.88Michael Tucker5.75Ramon Martinez5.50Jorge Julio5.37Brian Daubach4.79Ambiorix Burgos4.57Gary Matthews4.49Argenis Reyes4.38MICHAEL O'CONNOR4.26Gerald Williams4.22Mike Nickeas4.21Brian Lawrence4.18TOBI STONER4.15SCOTT HAIRSTON4.01D. J. CARRASCO3.60Jeff Conine3.51Geremi Gonzalez3.25Lance Broadway3.02Felix Heredia2.61Jos� Santiago2.59Eli Marrero2.41Shingo Takatsu2.40Matt Wise2.25Eric Valent2.17Joaquin Arias2.12Frank Catalanotto2.12Philip Humber2.04Trot Nixon1.97Tony Armas1.88Angel Berroa1.69Ricardo Rincon1.64Casey Fossum1.62Chip Ambres1.52Brandon Knight1.51Mike Matthews1.51Willie Collazo1.36Brad Emaus1.18Sandy Alomar0.91Henry Owens0.89DALE THAYER0.87Jon Adkins0.83CHIN-LUNG HU0.77Brady Clark0.70Darren O'Day0.69Ben Johnson0.62Jon Switzer0.56Blaine Boyer0.48Tim Hamulack0.47Andy Phillips0.44Eddie Kunz0.38Andy Green0.32Lino Urdaneta0.32Bartolome Fortunato0.28Jason Vargas0.25Jos� Lima0.12Emil Brown0.10Gustavo Molina0.02

Voting for Wednesday night's jarring loss to the Brewers will close some time over the weekend. Please try to get any lingering votes submitted today. Schaefer POTG 6/8/11 - Brewers 7, Mets 6 In other news, I'd like to give a shout-out to all the Schaefer voters. This has been a great year for Schaefer so far. We're getting good participation, in most cases player names are spelling properly, and it's become a lot more uncommon for me to need to prorate any votes (when the point total exceeds ten). Great job everyone!

Murphy 1 Niese 4.5 Pagan 1 Pridie 1 Rodriguez 1.5 Tejada 1

Fman99 wrote: All of my ideas on fixing the problem involve [crossout]setting him on fire dropping him into a canyon feeding him to genetically engineered dinosaurs in a resort run amok[/crossout] an extended stay in the minor leagues. Yeah, I've been thinking of making him Buffalo Bay for a while.

themetfairy wrote: As far as an all-time favorite Met, it's The Franchise, hands down! Not a bad choice, but I'm put off by his off-the-field peevishness.

Right now it's Jose, because he's currently The Man. One of my first favorite Mets was Rusty Staub, because my nine-year-old self thought it was cool that he wasn't married. (Now I'm a bit suspicious about the possible reason for that.) My all-time favorite is now, and probably forever will be, Mookie Wilson. The reason I don't think Mookie will ever be supplanted is because I'm older now, and my overall enthusiasm for the Mets will never again be what it was in the 1980's.

I hope we'll have to wait eight to ten years for the "after Reyes" period to begin.

Slumping A's fire Bob Geren, name Bob Melvin new manager By Seth Livingstone, USA TODAY The Oakland A's, in the midst of a nine-game losing streak, fired manager Bob Geren and replaced him with Bob Melvin on Thursday. Melvin, like Geren, is a former big league catcher. He previously managed the Seattle Mariners (2004-04) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2005-09), compiling a 493-508 record. Geren, a close friend of A's general manager Billy Beane, had not only lost games recently, he seemed to have lost the confidence of veterans in the clubhouse, most notably pitcher Brian Fuentes, who had been demoted from the closer's role. The A's have received better-than-good starting pitching all season. The offense, defense and bullpen let Geren down at times. But communication -- or lack of it -- might have been Geren's real undoing. Things got ugly when the bullpen, including Fuentes, faltered and the A's lost their sixth consecutive game 4-1 to the Angels last month. After the game, Fuentes, who had been filling the closer's role with Andrew Bailey on the DL, was critical about how his manager used him and that lack of communication. "There's just no communication," Fuentes said. "Two games on the road, bring the closer in a tied game, with no previous discussions of doing so. And then, tonight, in the seventh inning, I get up. I haven't stretched, I haven't prepared myself. If there was some communication beforehand I would be ready to come into the game -- which I was, when I came into the game, I was ready. Just lack of communication. I don't think anybody really knows which direction he's headed." Fuentes, replaced as closer by Grant Balfour, was asked how he thought Geren has handled him. "Pretty poorly," he said. How much communication does he have with Geren? "Zero." According to the Oakland Tribune, Geren also indicated he was reluctant to use unproven pitchers in crucial late-inning situations. Former A's closer Huston Street of the Colorado Rockies told the San Francisco Chronicle that Geren "never good at communication." Street added : "I don't want to speak for anybody else, but it was a sentiment reflected in many conversations during the two years I spent in Oakland, and even recently when talking to guys after I left. For me personally, he was my least favorite person I have ever encountered in sports from age 6 to 27. I am very thankful to be in a place where I can trust my manager."