The Deadline’s Passed… now the season begins.
I’m actually glad the Mets didn’t make a move. Part of me was afraid the Omar Minaya was gonna think he was in the World Series of Poker and go all in to get Manny when we really don’t need him. As good as Manny is, he’s 36 and it’s not worth trading a 19 year old outfielder with a bright future to get him. Fernando Tatis is a good enough outfielder and Ryan Church is coming back, so I think we’ll be fine. Sure, the Mets just got swept by the Astros and currently sit at third in the division, but its only August 3rd.
While I’m on the subject of the Mets, I’ll bring up Johan Santana. There is no one in baseball more frustrated than Johan Santana. He comes over from the American League, where he absolutely dominated, and you think that without having to face a DH, he’d continue his string of success. Especially since the Mets offense is pretty potent. But no. Its like he’s on Punk’d. I bet after every game, he’s wondering where Ashton Kutcher is gonna pop out from and tell him its all a big joke and he’s actually got 14 wins rather than 9. He’s going to have to pitch complete game shutouts for the rest of the season to see some wins. This Mets offense seems to take a day off when he pitches. And I can understand that since he’s the ace of the staff, he can shut down most teams. But score at least two runs, guys. Just one run, and then another one for insurance. He’ll do the rest. And when the offense does come through, when Johan leaves the game, how about the bullpen? I used to make excuses for Duaner Sanchez because of his car accident in 2006. Its been two years. Its time to pitch well again. Aaron Heilman was pitching pretty well earlier in the season and I was starting to think he didn’t deserve to be 1-5. I’m second guessing myself. Joe Smith has his good days, Pedro Feliciano used to be lights out, and I can’t even count on Billy Wagner anymore. Still, I think they can win the division because the Phillies and the Marlins don’t have the pitching necessary to do so. The Marlins are one of the worst fielding teams in baseball and they hit way too many balls in the air. The Phillies have a good offense but all the only pitcher they have that puts any fear in me is Cole Hamels.
The last thing about the Mets is the young guys. Nick Evans has come up from AA and the kid can hit. Today, they brought up Daniel Murphy to replace Marlon Anderson, and Eddie Kunz made his major league debut. All the analysts say that the Mets’ farm system isn’t that good, but Argenis Reyes, Kunz, Murphy, Evans, and Robinson Cancel have all come up to help. We’ve had Nelson Figueroa pitch for us, Jonathon Niese may be up at the majors at some point, and Mets fans are waiting for the arrival of Mike Carp and Fernando Martinez. So, yeah maybe we don’t have the prospects to give up for Manny, but I like our chances without him.
So, as always, here are few stories around the sports world that intrigue me.
– Talk about having a Napoleon complex. Steve Smith got suspended for two games after he broke Ken Lucas’ nose in practice. Good job, Mighty Mouse. The Panthers have you to blame if they start out 0-2.
– I understand that Ryan Grant felt like he deserved more money after last season. I mean, he rushed for almost 1,000 yards in about 8 or 9 games, and helped the team get to the NFC Championship… where to they lost to my New York Giants. But Grant must have forgotten how lucky he is to be even be in the league. He wasn’t drafted. He barely got playing time with the Giants, and he barely got playing time in Green Bay in the beginning of the season. If I’m not mistaken, Selvin Young got the majority of the carries early on before he got hurt. If I were the Packers, I’d wait until after next season to pay Grant the kind of money he got. Or at least make a lot of it incentive based.
– Did anyone catch Colt Brennan’s two touchdowns in the Hall of Fame game? He’s not going to start, and I don’t really he’s all that great, but its a nice little story for people that sympathize with third string quarterbacks.
– How about Aaron Ross’ fiancee in the Olympics running the 400 meter relay? Just another reason to watch the Olympics. Sanya Richards, look her up.
– Some guy in one of my fantasy baseball leagues had Francisco Liriano since the beginning of the season, and now he gets to reap the benefits of having a Cy Young caliber pitcher for the rest of the season. I’ll be honest, I’m just upset because he beat me to the punch.
– Yet another NBA roleplayer has decided to go play overseas. Carlos Arroyo (who would have been awesome playing with the Knicks under Mike D’Antoni.) signed a deal to play in Israel. Great. Note to David Stern: DO SOMETHING!!
– Finally, Chris Paul replaced Jason Kidd in the starting lineup on the USA team. Quite frankly, I’m not surprised.
Questions or comments, email me at s_talouis@yahoo.com
