Pat Andriola

Enjoy.

Really great stuff.

Enjoy.

Yup.

The winning quote? "I see a little bit of Jeff Francoeur in Jacobs, in the sense both are gritty, hard-nosed players. These are exactly the kind of players the Mets want to fill the locker room with next year. Maybe their style of play will rub off on their teammates as well." FSM help us.

Madone.

Go ahead guys, I wrote it, so rip this one to parts if you like.

The most fun I've had watching Razor all season. Ask him questions and watch him answer. Hysterical.

Hey guys, thought you may find this piece I had over at THT interesting. I've always felt that Maicer was under-appreciated, and hopefully he gets more credit down the road.

Thought you may find this interesting, and I was wondering if you guys had any ideas about this semi-phenomenon at all, considering you've watched him play this year. Thanks.

Two years ago, in a Sports Illustrated cover story called "Mix Master," Mets general manager Omar Minaya boasted that his success came from ignoring sabermetrics, which he called "paperwork." "Look, if you want paperwork, I’m not your guy," Minaya told SI’s Gary Smith. "I see the job in bigger terms. Paperwork, that’s false hustle. It takes away creativity." This day just keeps getting better.

1 Jason Heyward ATL OF 2 Madison Bumgarner SF LHP 3 Mike Stanton FLA OF 4 Justin Smoak TEX 1B 5 Buster Posey SF C 6 Neftali Feliz TEX RHP 7 Chris Tillman BAL RHP 8 Brian Matusz BAL LHP 9 Jarrod Parker ARI RHP 10 Tim Beckham TB SS 11 Alcides Escobar MIL SS 12 Jesus Montero NYY C 13 Matt LaPorta CLE 1B 14 Wade Davis TB RHP 15 Freddie Freeman ATL 1B 16 Jake Arrieta BAL RHP 17 Jeremy Hellickson TB RHP 18 Yonder Alonso CIN 1B 19 Brett Wallace OAK 3B 20 Michael Taylor PHI OF 21 Carlos Santana CLE C 22 Desmond Jennings TB OF 23 Austin Jackson NYY OF 24 Dominic Brown PHI OF 25 Logan Morrison FLA 1B 26 Kyle Drabek PHI RHP 27 Jason Castro HOU C 28 Pedro Alvarez PIT 3B 29 Mike Moustakas KC SS/3B 30 Eric Hosmer KC 1B 31 Josh Vitters CHI 3B 32 Lars Anderson BOS 1B 33 Tim Alderson PIT RHP 34 Ben Revere MIN OF 35 Christian Friedrich COL LHP 36 Aaron Hicks MIN OF 37 Casey Kelly BOS RHP/SS 38 Martin Perez TEX LHP 39 Jason Knapp CLE RHP 40 Matt Dominguez FLA 3B 41 Michael Bowden BOS RHP 42 Peter Bourjos LAA OF 43 Pedro Borbon TEX OF 44 Mat Latos SD RHP 45 Jhoulys Chacin COL RHP 46 Jennry Mejia NYM RHP 47 Derek Norris WAS C 48 Jaff Decker SD OF 49 Matt Moore TB LHP 50 Angel Villalona SF 1B I really don't like this list.

My post at MetsGeek from a few days before the season started: "Finally, we have Livan Hernandez. I could not be more against this guy being the fifth starter. An admitted anti-Pedro on the Mets guy, I would still love Pedro over Livan’s rather large rear end. The guy had a 6.05 ERA last year in 180 innings (why, oh why, was he able to pitch that much? What happened to natural selection?). His strikeout-to-walk ratio was 67:43. His WHIP was 1.667. Yet, he has outperformed another pitcher who hasn’t been healthy in almost four years, and he gets the job. Would I rather have Jon Niese? Yes. But more appropriately and likely, I would be all in favor of giving the job to Nelson Figueroa. His stuff is good, man. It really moves." I know, this isn't exactly Nostradamus-esque. I just found it funny to look back on.

I have no problem ripping on the Mets, but he was just factually incorrect here. He starts by ripping Francessa ( a plus), but then this: -The Mets have an injury-riddled, top-heavy roster, no prospects, an inefficient GM and a manager better suited for open-mic night at The Improv. Gosh, what’s not for Roy to love? I’m sure Johan Santana would give his New York experience high marks. I mean, really? I won't get into the Omar and Jerry stuff, but to say they have no prospects is absurd. You don't have to go very far to see some big bright spots in the Mets farm system which we have covered extensively . Even if you ignore MLB-ready players like F!, Niese, Parnell, and Evans, you still have Ike Davis, Jenrry Mejia, Brad Holt, Wilmer Flores, Jeurys Familia, and Josh Thole in your upper tier, and some quality guys like Havens, Marte, Tejada, and Carson below them. -Haven’t the Mets learned that getting rid of all their prospects and building a team based around a few stars isn’t a sound plan? Their organization is so bereft of talent that they signed Angel Berroa and rushed him to the majors. This fake deal wouldn't have rid them of all their prospects. They'd still have Flores, Davis, Holt, and Mejia. Those are some damn good guys to hold on to. The Mets have Berroa on the team because their starting shortstop (Reyes), backup shortstop (Cora), and backup-backup shortstop (Martinez) have all spent time on the DL. And all this coming from a Yankee beat writer. Not only was Berroa on the Yankees a few weeks ago, but they have made their living keeping a few stars (Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Pettite) and just having different high-priced guys compliment them over the years. Look at how one person described it: In the spring of 1999, the Yanks traded for pitcher Roger Clemens and signed him to a big contract. From there the Yanks began to transition into a roster that looked more like their worst stereotype, a filthy rich team intent on buying all the best talent. After Clemens, a parade of all stars or former all stars joined the fold: Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Raul Mondesi, Hideki Matsui, Gary Sheffield, Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Bobby Abreu. The Yanks no longer looked like a baseball team but rather a fantasy league team in real life. Besides that, the Mets found their success in 2006 (and high win totals in 05,07, and 08) by supporting their "core" with "stars" like Wagner, Delgado, LoDuca, Alou, Pedro, Glavine, etc. I usually love Peter's stuff, but this one bugged me. I'm all for objective critiquing, but not undeserved bashing.

And another part of me dies.