metirish

It's stupid, really frustrating to watch . I'm sick of reading how Manuel thinks outside the box, no he doesn't.

Taking Ollie out?, come on man

Hey Keith , Ollie has been in the big leagues since 2002....

It's in a different country you fuckng twat Jay-Z....you fucking fake prick.

I don't think he's changed his approach all that much , it would be interesting to view video form his best years in Atlanta to now. In fact that is your assignment for the weekend Batmag. You can report your findings here no later than Tuesday, cheers.

Lennon on Francoeur Lennon: Francoeur becoming an OBP machine DENVER It was Jeff Francoeur who once famously said, "If on-base percentage is so important, why don't they put it on the scoreboard?" In this day and age, many ballparks do, but that's beside the point. Back then, during his free-swinging time with the Braves, Francoeur would have preferred to see the statistic be wiped out completely. With his grip-it-and-rip-it mentality, Francoeur, an avid golfer himself, was like baseball's John Daly, a streaky player at his best and hard to watch when he was hacking away. When Atlanta traded Francoeur to the Mets last July, he arrived with a .282 on-base percentage, the fourth worst among NL starting players. His career mark of .308 was the lowest of any primary corner outfielder with 2,500 at-bats. To the "Moneyball" disciples, Francoeur was a punch line, the antithesis of what a general manager should build his team around. But no one is laughing at Francoeur this season now that he has transformed himself into a more intelligent hitter. Just look at the numbers. With two singles yesterday, Francoeur has hit safely in all nine games and is only one game short of tying Darryl Strawberry (1987), Robin Ventura (1999) and David Wright for the second- longest streak to open a season in Mets history. He is batting .438 (14-for-32) with three home runs, seven RBIs and - wait for it - a .513 on-base percentage. That Francoeur is reaching base more than half the time is mind-boggling for those who followed his career arc through Atlanta, where he was known for power and productivity but never patience. "I think I'm learning how to hit," Francoeur said. "I still have to remind myself sometimes that I'm still only 26, and I feel like I've taken a big step." This season, many of those steps have involved a casual stroll to first base. Francoeur's season high for walks is 42 in 2007. That was way up from the previous year's total of 23, both of which came in 162 games. By comparison, David Wright had back-to-back seasons of 94 walks in 2007-08 before dipping to 74 last year. At this rate, Francoeur is heading toward a once-unthinkable realm for him. He has six walks (second to Wright's 13) in nine games, which puts him on a pace for roughly 108. Francoeur has a more modest number in mind, and is pleased by what that number would mean to his development. "I honestly believe I'll end up walking 60 times this year," he said. "I don't see why not, and that's definitely going to help my on-base percentage. I think the one goal coming into this year was not so much to have thousands of walks but just become a better hitter altogether. Be a guy that is not just hot and cold, hot and cold." Unlike many aspects of hitting, this does not involve a mechanical adjustment. It's all about a mind-set, and perhaps maturity as well. He believes he's always had a good idea of how pitchers plan to attack him. But now he's thinking more about the situation: the outs, the men on base, the count and how that all factors into his approach. "If I had to boil it down to one word, I'd say awareness," hitting coach Howard Johnson said. "It's an awareness of himself, an awareness of the opposing pitcher. It's being able to meld all of those things together." Francoeur says leaving the hometown pressures of Atlanta for a new start in New York definitely helped him ease up a little. So has working with Johnson, who had a strategy for working with Francoeur as soon as he arrived. The two got together during the offseason for a hitting tutorial as well. Francoeur no longer is content to get by on the natural talent that made him a first-round draft pick in 2002. "I've hit close to 30 home runs," Francoeur said. "I've driven in 100 runs. I've done a lot of that. Now my goal is take that next step, to be a more complete hitter. And if I can do that, I can really help a team win. I think it's important for me to be able to get on base and let guys behind me like [Rod] Barajas drive the ball. I can score from first with those guys." 4 comments Rate Share Email Print

If we had 25 Gregs we'd win 120 games .

Agree with bucket....as long as you don't mind us abusing you then by all means take the mound again after your win, unless you feel like you need to be on regular rest?

Jeff Francoeur's advice helped me increase my profit margins by 15% in a down year... AND his lovemaking tutorial single-handedly saved my marriage! THANKS, Mr. French! and the proof is in the kid

Michael Kay blasts SNY for taking in booth calls during game seven of the season. I'l admit to tuning out when they took calls , I thought it was pointless , someone in the IGT remarked on it too. Anyway here is Neil Best SNY 'disappointed' in rival Kay's critique Michael Kay often has compared his dual role as YES' lead play-by-play man and 1050 ESPN's lead talk-show host to walking a tightrope. On Wednesday, he did a somersault off it, without benefit of a net. In a colorful radio rant, Kay ripped SNY for taking calls from viewers in the eighth inning of the Mets' lopsided loss Tuesday night in Denver, saying he was "flabbergasted'' and calling it "absolutely unconscionable'' and a gimmick YES never would use - "ever!'' "This is game seven,'' he said. "If it was game 145 and they are 30 games out and you want to juggle balls in the air and blow up balloons and make plastic animals out of them, I guess I understand. You're giving up in game seven by taking phone calls?'' Oh, my. If this had come from anyone else on 1050 or WFAN, it would have been run-of-the-mill sports talk venting. But Kay is no ordinary host, which was why SNY fired back. "Calls to the booth is something we introduced in 2008,'' spokesman Andrew Fegyveresi said, "and our fans enjoy the unfiltered interaction, just as they enjoy the unfiltered and honest approach from our broadcast team. "For a colleague who works for a crosstown rival to publicly question our integrity without first trying to find the truth is disappointing.'' That last sentence referred to Kay and co-host Don La Greca speculating that the calls might be plants, based on the assumption SNY never would risk putting random callers on live TV. (Fegyveresi said callers were put on a five-second delay.) It also was based on their assertion that the Mets might have tried to send a message through callers. "Is the Met organization trying to . . . get their point across without [announcers] saying it and saying, 'Well, look how angry the fans are?' '' Kay said, acknowledging it was a "conspiracy theory.'' Questioning SNY's motives is thorny ground for Kay, given the network's mostly solid track record for independence and the Yankees' occasional lapses into a more, um, hands-on approach with YES. But Kay rejected that notion in an e-mail Thursday, writing, "I hope they're not intimating that the YES broadcast is filtered and dishonest, because that is a ridiculous statement.'' Did YES have a problem with Kay's radio comments? "Michael wears two different hats,'' spokesman Eric Handler said. "In this case, he was expressing his opinion wearing the hat of the ESPN radio host.'' Kay wrote in another e-mail, "I was speaking as a member of the media, and I think they are selling their exceptional announcers short as well as giving up on their team in game seven.'' As to those who would question his objectivity, he wrote, "If any one crosses wires that that is why I said what I said, then they have a built-in bias against me and / or YES. "Whatever. I said what I said and I stand by it as a radio host, broadcaster and the play-by-play voice of the Yankees on YES. Yes, all three agree with me.'' On his show, Kay profusely praised that night's SNY announcers, Gary Cohen ("He could call a 100-0 baseball game and make it interesting") and Keith Hernandez, but he said if injected with truth serum, "They're probably embarrassed to take those phone calls.'' He also said this: "It's an admission by the people at SportsNet New York that the team stinks and nobody is going to tune in if we just show baseball, so we have to turn this into a circus act and take phone calls like a radio show.'' In fairness, SNY has taken calls during blowout victories as well as losses in the past. And surely there is room for a few diversions over 486 hours of regular-season baseball, isn't there? (YES finally added in-game reports from Kimberly Jones this season after resisting for years.) The Mets were trailing 11-3 when SNY opened it up for callers. Before doing so, Cohen cracked, "I think we should do it more. We could be talk show hosts in addition to doing the game.'' Said Hernandez: "There are too many talk shows now.'' Just a personnel observation about the booth. I prefer it when it's Gary, keith and Ron or just Gary and Ron but not so much just Gary and Keith. I think Ron makes Keith better.

The failure is mine . I own it for not picking up on your line.

Ceetar wrote: metirish wrote: AOL is still around? I only use AOL on my geocities website. People still use geocities? , I thought that shut down a few years back?

AOL is still around?

The kid has some skills , I think I'm more impressed with his fielding than hitting. They should have those dollar sign symbols flashing for the coach's eyes while he talks.

As for the Francoeur quote I can see him saying that, he just seems like a great team mate .

My thoughts were the same even as I was reading that soup......there are a whole lot of things missing form Gary Matthews game right now though.

Francoeur 1.5 Wright 1.5 Castillo .75 Valdes .5 Nieve .5 Feliciano .5 Iragashi .5 Matthews .75 Barajas .75 Jacobs .5

Pelfrey 5.5 Bay 1 Feliciano .5 Roriguez .5 Castillo 1 Francouer 1

Two to six weeks was the wide timetable given.

Wayne on the radio says only two of the five hits were hard hit, sounds , sounds like a great day.

" oh my it's Edgy, he's always edgy, edgy, edgy don't ya know"

Edgy DC wrote: Even though, when approached with a thimblefull of thought, makes no fucking sense at all. It's John Sterling , nothing needs to make sense....

I think Sterling just logged on to steal that stuff..... " oh it's Met Hunter the bunter don't ya know"