Month: March 2016

MLB Pulls a Goodell; Drops Utley Suspension

On By themetssiah1 Comment

Chase Utley did nothing wrong during Game 2 of the 2015 NLDS when he knocked over Ruben Tejada on a takeout slide. There I said it. MLB has said a lot of things since that day, but their words don’t matter. Their actions have consistently driven home the notion that Utley’s slide was completely acceptable and encouraged. And we already knew this. Let’s be clear. MLB said they dropped Utley’s pathetic 2 game suspension because of the way the rule was inconsistently enforced in the past. Ummm it wasn’t inconsistently enforced at all. It was never enforced. It was consistently never enforced. Takeout slides have been occurring forever. And the MLB never punishes anyone for the action. In fact, MLB has consistently encouraged the following league sanctioned lifecycle of the takeout slide:

1) Double play ball is hit.   2) Runner uses takeout slide to break up double play by illegally going out of the baseline to illegally interfere with the fielder.   3) Play is broken up and opposing fielder is injured.   4) Opposing team is angry.   5) Opposing team’s pitcher throws a baseball at the takeout perpetrator the next time he steps up to the plate.

And so the cycle continues. It’s really hilarious that in the context of the takeout slide, MLB has preached all offseason about how the culture must change and player safety must be the priority. And in an effort to discourage the old takeout slide culture they have…refused to punish the existing behavior. And not only that, in essence by repealing Utley’s suspension they have said, “we will let the Mets pitching staff handle Utley’s punishment with a beanball to the face”. Perfect! Player safety problem solved. Thank goodness.

If you want to know how MLB will handle takeout slide decisions in 2016, look no further than their handling of this. They had their first test right here, and they completely bungled it. They got the initial call wrong in October 2015. They got it even more wrong upon replay review. They admitted they didn’t understand the rule after the game, and also admitted they got it wrong in the game. Then they didn’t discipline the player essentially saying they were wrong when they said they got it wrong in October.

It’s going to be fun in May when we play the Dodgers and the biggest question before the series is “When are the Mets going to try and nail Utley with a 95 MPH fastball?” I wonder if Matt Harvey will appeal the 5 game suspension he is bound to get for beaning Utley, and if Yoenis Cespedes will appeal his 5 game suspension for fighting in the ensuing brew-ha-ha. We shall see, but at least we can put this whole thing behind us now. Well actually no. We can put it behind us once we nail Utley. Unless the Dodgers want to retaliate for our beanball. Then we will have to wait for retaliation 2.0 to put it behind us. Thanks MLB!

Media Lie Alert: Jacob deGrom Underpaid and Upset

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Yesterday, as a symbolic and meaningless protest, Jacob deGrom (as advised by his agent) refused to sign his 2016 contract. His 2016 salary of $607,000 is obviously low relative to other Cy Young contenders, but unfortunately as a player with less than 3 years of service time he has no say in the matter. MLB players in the first 6 years of service are controlled by their current team. The first 3 years of service they receive marginal pre-determined raises. The next 3 years their salary is determined through arbitration and is brought more in line with their current market value. Jacob deGrom does not yet have 2 full years of service time, and therefore he’s part of the overworked and underpaid club. And he can’t change that until he’s a free agent after the 2020 season.

The action of not signing his contract means nothing. It’s something his agent told him to do to help give him leverage in future arbitration hearings. It’s actually inspired me to refuse to e-sign my 2016 tax return. Stick it to the man. That being said, this is a non-event. In fact, deGrom went out of his way to say this is a non-event. He said,  “Absolutely not, I am not pissed, I am not upset at all. I love pitching in this organization, I have a lot of respect for them and I hope to be pitching here a long time. This was a business decision that my agents felt was in my best interest.”

I’m only blogging about this to call out the media fabricated story in the Daily News:

Oh no!!! It looks like our players are unhappy. They all have gripes and are playing hardball! What do we do?

It’s really a joke that newspapers are able to print straight lies. The Yankee controlled Daily News propaganda machine is at it again. All spring training, the only Yankee articles I’ve seen have been about how the league’s most notable cheater Alex Rodriguez has reformed his ways and is an inspiration to all players across the sport. Clearly an objective take on a player that was nearly banned from the game for his regular steroid use. He’s a real role model for future generations.

Anyway, the point is that this season everyone will be against the Mets. Every team in the league will be trying to bring us down. And the New York media will try to bring us down all season long from within. Fabricated problems around Harvey. Fake feuds in our pitching staff. It’s just going to be article after article. And it’s because we represent a change in the narrative. The Mets winning the World Series doesn’t fit the New York baseball script. Last season the media didn’t expect our run. We were in the World Series before they even had time to react. But now they’ve had an entire offseason to plot and scheme about how to take us down. So don’t be surprised when Michael Conforto is hitting .210 over a two week stretch in May and the Daily News is leaking fake stories about how the team wants to demote him to AAA. It’ll be a “Confortunate Downfall”. Then it’ll be how Yoenis Cespedes is Cespe-pissed with Terry Collins’ management style and Curtis Granderson is Grumperson about his playing time. The BS will just go on and on. So all I am saying is be prepared and don’t believe the crap the media spews out. If I can make up name based pun headlines all day, just imagine what the media has in store for us in 2016.

Mets Face Off Against Dan “The Ambassador of Inclusion” Murphy

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Today, the Mets travel to Viera, Florida to take on Daniel Murphy and the Nationals in their Spring Opener. Murphy seemed excited about kicking off the Grapefruit League schedule against the Mets saying, “It should be fun tomorrow to really fire up baseball again.” When asked about his feelings on the New York media Murph said, “It’s not the first time I’ve spoken to the New York media. They treated me fairly. It would be good to see them again.”

However, the conversation turned serious when our favorite Christian fundamentalist Murphy was asked for his thoughts on Yoenis Cespedes and his recent purchase of a Grand Champion Pig at the St. Lucie County Fair. Murph denounced the actions of Cespedes saying, “The Bible is clear on this as Leviticus states: And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.”

He also seemed concerned regarding the effect of Cespedes on his former teammate Noah Syndergaard. Although he struggled to name the specific biblical passage, he took some time to denounce Thor’s horse riding behavior stating, “I believe it is written man shall not ride with a horse; it is an abomination. Something like that.”

Pitching Matchup:

For the Mets, Rafael Montero will get the start. Montero was a top prospect before missing almost all of last season with a mysterious arm injury that was never really explained by the team at any point in time. Discomfort. He battled discomfort. I really hope the discomfort is gone.

And for the Nationals, we will see staff ace Max Scherzer. Beware the Eye of Scherzer.