Edgy MD

Penny sez it was all Bobby's fault. Miami Marlins� Brad Penny says days of discord with Mets are over BY CLARK SPENCER CSPENCER@MIAMIHERALD.COM Don�t look for Brad Penny to take aim on an old nemesis, the New York Mets, when he faces them Tuesday. Those days of discord are long over. �That�s so long ago, I barely remember it,� Penny said of his role in an infamous feud that erupted between the two teams in 2001. �You�re talking about fights 13 years ago.� When he takes the mound on Tuesday at Marlins Park, Penny will be focused on trying to revive his career, not reignite old tensions between the two division rivals. That wasn�t the case during the spring and summer of �01, when relations between the teams deteriorated into a classic feud that some believe played a role in the firing of Marlins manager John Boles and simmered for years afterward. It all stemmed from separate incidents in spring training. The first was when Penny struck Mets catcher Mike Piazza with a pitch. The second came after Mets rookie Tsuyoshi Shinjo hit a home run and reached down to touch the plate ceremoniously after rounding the bases. That action drew a sharp rebuke from then-Marlins catcher Mike Redmond, who is now the team�s manager. �I wouldn�t do too much of that here,� Redmond was quoted as saying back then. �Pitchers won�t take too kindly to that.� Fast forward to May 24 at Shea Stadium. The Mets were leading by eight runs in the eighth when Shinjo broke an unwritten rule by swinging at a 3-0 pitch. That angered the Marlins and the following day, Penny hit Shinjo with a pitch. While Penny now denies hitting Shinjo on purpose, he was quoted at the time as saying: �He deserved to get hit. For what he did last night. He deserved to get hit; 11-3, you don�t do that.� Mets manager Bobby Valentine came out of the dugout, walked to the first-base line, and stared down Penny. Todd Zeile followed with a home run off Penny, after which he showered the pitcher in expletives. Benches for both teams cleared, but no punches were thrown. But Penny said what angered him most were comments by Valentine that appeared in the next day�s newspaper. �I think Bobby Valentine had a lot to do with it, with the stuff he was saying in the paper,� Penny said. �And as a manager, you can say whatever you want. You don�t have to bat. I really would prefer him to have to step in at the plate.� Penny said he was so upset and, for the first time ever, revealed he confronted Valentine the next day in the Mets manager�s office. Penny was waiting for him when Valentine entered. �I talked to Bobby about it,� Penny said. �He said he didn�t mean any of it. He said he was just trying to fire his team up.� While Valentine was making a scene on the field during the disturbance, Boles took no active role in the flare-up, and there are many who feel that might have been a factor in his being fired three days later in Pittsburgh. The spat didn�t end there. �I vowed that [Zeile] would never hit another home run off me again,� Penny said. �And I don�t think he hit very well against me after that.� When the pitcher and hitter came face to face in subsequent showdowns, Penny often threw behind Zeile�s back as a warning. Though Redmond declined to be interviewed for this article, he has said previously that Zeile turned to him after one of Penny�s warning shots and said, �Is this ever going to end?� Eventually, it did. Other than Penny, who is back in a second go-around with the Marlins, the combatants have all been dispersed and the memory has largely faded. There is no great animosity between the two rivals, who are fighting for third place and not a whole lot else as the season winds down. The Mets, more than any other team, have given Penny the most trouble over his career. He is 5-13 against them. �We got to change that [Tuesday],� he said. And let history rest eternal.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: "Unwise" is putting it charitably. Nonetheless.

Did they pronounce it the German way, with the invisible R?

Everybody joins Bo Porter soon. But this is the sort of thing playing the kids yields. It's a tough trade-off, but one they've made nonetheless. Hopefully there's some payoff.... someday.

Oh, Campy.

Flores has made some square contact, but he's been swinging with his arms only and getting nothing behind his hits. Don't know if that's him getting fooled but having great hand-eye coordination to still get good wood on it, or it's his lazy feet at it again.

Still trying to see what you did there.

Dilson making a bid to play somewhere today. Also making a bid for a cycle.

He claims it was an accident of history that took him off short as a pro, that his first manager never looked at him over there. But he was moved from third to second by the Bucs. That could indicate what they thought of his arm. He's in the picture --- and indeed has to be in the same sense that Flores has to be, since the Mets have second and third occupied --- but it's as a dark horse at this point.

Ozuna, you are so nailed. Get in the dugout and find your glove.

Herrera played 27 games at short for the minor league Mets this season, his first ever as a pro, so I imagine he's not only part of the discussion among the Mets braintrust, but they've forced him into the discussion. If their observations of the results were positive, I imagine he might elevate in the discussion, but that'll come when it comes. I would guess right now the team will try to avoid using him there for now, under the "We don't want to put too much on him" reasoning that tends to prevail in the Mets' dugout.

Hey, did you know we dipped behind San Diego? Well, we did. Would be nice to undo that. This SHaMarlin team we're playing now is where the SHaMets should be, if the hitting didn't fold, edgin' into the periphery of the Wild Card race. We can un-make that and hopefully get some traction against them that, if it means little up front, could carry over into 2015 when both teams get an ace pitcher back from surgery. TeamWLPCTGBNGBWashington7758.570��Atlanta7265.5266.06.0Miami6669.48911.016.0YOUR New York Mets 6473.46714.025.0Philadelphia6274.45615.531.0 TeamWLPCTGBNGBSan Francisco7462.544-1.0-1.0St. Louis/Milwaukee7363.537��Atlanta7265.5261.51.5Pittsburgh7165.5222.02.5Miami6669.4896.516.0Cincinnati6671.4827.520.0San Diego6471.4748.525.0YOUR New York Mets 6473.4679.531.0Philadelphia6274.45611.041.5Chicago6176.44512.553.5Arizona5779.41916.085.0Colorado5482.39719.0115.0

And due in further part to a Dildong!

Porter and his GM had been butting heads and complaining about each other to the pres. Porter also raised some eyebrows when he called his team into the tunnel between innings last week to have an in-game team meeting. Pretty sure Lawless was a Spring Training Met, or something. Was clearly and consistently the worst hitter in the league with the mid-80s with the Cards, but Whitey liked his defensive-replacement skillz or his savoir faire or something, because he carried Lawless for the better part of four years. The guy absolutely killed it in 1987, going .080 / .179 / .120 // .299 with two hits, one double, and no RBI in 29 plate appearances, and then somehow made the post-season roster and then hit a game-winning homer in the World Series against Minnesota. Incredible. Also the only player ever traded for Pete Rose.

Oh, I think there's nothing wrong with being the captain and not being the the best player. I think he'd love to have few Beltrans and Delgados knocking him into the fifth hole.

Yesterday was a rare day, with experience big leaguers like Curtis Granderson and Daniel Murphy out of the lineup, more than 50% of the team's experience, as measured by game appearances, belonged to a single guy, David Wright, who had exactly 1,500 games to his name entering the contest. OrderPlayerPos.GPct.1Lagarescf2218.0%2den Dekkerlf592.1%3Wright3b150054.6%4Duda1b47817.4%5Floresss812.9%6Nieuwenhuisrf1836.7%7Herrera2b20.1%8Reckercf1244.5%9Geesp1013.7% I imagine if we look hard enough, we can find a Met who carried over 70% of his team's experience out there. Still, I wonder how alienating it is, being an institution out there with a bunch of guys who may just be passing through, who've mostly done time in the minors this season, who are still adapting.

There's an old proverb (Irish?) that reads, "At night, all cats are gray." I think the Mets bullpen, as the team clings to fourth place on September 1, is something akin to night, for the Post sports section.

Some cut-rate Timberlake is doing a show 9/27, I think. Not sure if booking postgame talent is her office, but if so, I would have fired her after Cheap Trick cancelled. U of P economics, and a nu mother. I get the idea that she was big into the design of their dynamic pricing scheme. Not above making an appearance at Rugby Expo 2012. [youtube:y8c00f59]FFEfNKBLTC8[/youtube:y8c00f59] Terry probably shouldn't have let the press in on the notion of giving her some time in the outfield.

Actual difference: .0096112999150383, if my calcs are correct.

Daniel Murphy hasn't just been a .300 hitter this season. He's been a .300 hitter in a year of dominant pitching. Now on the disabled list, Daniel checked out with the ninth-best batting average in the National League, .016 behind leader Justin Morneau. He checked out at the right time, by golly, because many of the hitters with the top batting averages in the league then went into slumps and swoons, falloffs and funks, letdowns and lethargiae. Murphy, therefore, by standing still, has somehow been trending upward, and now sits fifth in the league in batting average, less than .010 behind Morneau. RKPlayerTeamAVG1Morneau, JCOL.3112Harrison, JPIT.3103Revere, BPHI.3084McCutchen, APIT.3075Murphy, DNYM.3016Ramirez, AMIL.3017Goldschmidt, PARI.3008Span, DWSH.2989Lucroy, JMIL.29810Puig, YLAD.298 Do we make a campaign out of this? Keep him on ice (bleh) and hope for the best? What to do? All this and more in Studious Metsimus.

The article also speaks of a character named "Relied pitcher Vic Black." Very relied is Vic.

I suggested Terry was unwise to sing to the press at the top of the thread.

Still, he leapfrogged Lannan, Gorski, Leathersich, Chism, Cuan... even Matz!

I was going to make a joke about both pitchers going the distance, but then realized that this actually was true. "High School Game in Japan Lasts 50 Innings, Four Days." And the next day, both their arms fell off.

10-1, 1.10 ERA, with 114 strikeouts and only 17 walks in 73 1/3 innings. I'll take it!!