Gary sez the weather man expects the rain to stop around 8:30 but I can’t imagine they get this game in tonite…

Sorry to put an end to the good vibes after blowing out the Dodgers but BMF is nothing if I’m not keepin’ it real - and the real deal is we’ve got a fundamental problem with the likeability of this Met team.

There’s an old television term “Q Rating” which is basically a way to quantify a person, or a show’s, likeability. Just for kicks BMF applied it, in a very non-scientific way, to our 2008 NY Mets and sadly, I’m afraid the team’s overall Q Rating is frighteningly poor.

The most important criteria for happiness in sports is the fanbase liking it’s own players. To me this even takes precedence over winning, as I’d rather have a group of likeable, competitive guys as opposed to a bunch of creeps even if they do manage to win a WS.

Perhaps a lot of yankee fans would beg to differ, considering they’ve spent years rooting for the un-likeable likes of Gary Sheffield, Randy Johnson, Jason Giambi, A-Rod, and so on. But we’re Met fans and we come from a long history of loveable losers. While no one wants to be a loser unfortunately this current crop of Mets just aren’t very loveable.

The Shea Faithful’s patience has been shorter than ever before and while there are certainly players who remain fan favorites there are an inordinate amount of unpopular characters wearing the orange and blue so let’s take a look in no particular order:

Johan Santana - Q RATING: FAIR and RISING- Despite the silly booing incident I believe Mets fans are ready to love him but simply haven’t had time to fully bond just yet.

Ollie Perez – Q-RATING: FAIR DOWNGRADED from GOOD - We used to love OP but it’s hard to root for a guy conspiring with Scott Boras to leave the organization. Add to that 1 phat arbitration victory against 2 measly regular season wins and you’ve got a downgraded Q Rating. In addition I’ve heard rumors of Perez being more concerned with chatting on his cell phone while at an autograph signing than talking to and looking his fans in the eye.

USS Maine – Q RATING: VERY HIGH - Met fans love this guy. He’s unassuming, works hard and goes about his business without a hint of ego.

Pedro – Q RATING: remains VERY HIGH - We all love Peety but I doubt anyone expects him to contribute anymore. That said Pedro helped turn this organization around and for that this Met fan will always be grateful.

Schneider – Q RATING: HIGH - The Shea Faithful have definitely taken to him in his short stint as a Met. But he’s still a new guy so I expect his rating to improve.

Church – Q RATING: HIGH and RISING - Ditto the above until this past week when he officially began surging towards fan favorite status.

Delgado - Q RATING: VERY LOW - Next to impossible to root for at this point. After a great ‘06 his Q Rating tumbled due to poor production, lack of accountability, and diminishing defensive skills. I don’t care what your personal history is snubbing the fans on a curtain call is only gonna make things harder on yourself. Of course CD arrived with built in excuses for people to dislike him with his God Bless America baggage and the public claims that Omar and Tony Bernazard were playing the race card to sign him back in ‘05.

Luis Castillo – Q RATING: MEDIUM and DROPPING - BMF used to love Castillo… way back in 2000 when he was on my fantasy team! Nowadays he’s an aging vet with a 4-year contract and 2 cranky knees. I try to cut Castillo a little slack cuz I believe Omar had a backroom deal that inking Castillo would also net his best buddy Santana. Still, he’s not a guy who the Shea Faithful have been able to really get behind especially when a cheap and viable option like Ruben Gotay was sent packing.

Reyes - Q RATING: VERY HIGH - I love him and as a homegrown Met I’ll live and die with JOse, Jose, Jose no matter what. Reyes has enough credit in the fan bank to overcome the immature mistakes he may have made.

Wright – Q RATING: VERY HIGH – Ditto above. Only I can’t recall ANY immature mistakes this cat has made.

Beltran – Q RATING: MEDIUM and DROPPING - BMF is dying to root for LosB. I even bought his jersey when he first arrived but his tepid public persona and his incredibly frustrating lack of living up to potential has prevented him from ingratiating himself to the fanbase. I try and give him some extra rope because he’s a quite guy by nature but it’s not easy when he continues to show an inability to produce unless he’s 101% healthy. Of course the postseason is a different story but even then many fans are left with the lasting memory of strike 3 looking.

Alou - Q RATING: MEDIUM - This guy drives me absolutely crazy. Our franchise is being held hostage by a brittle old man in order to get his bat in the line-up for maybe 80 games. But I don’t even fault Alou. The guy is a freak of nature the way he ropes balls but it’s difficult to root for someone you expect to be hitting the DL tomorrow.

Billy Wags – Q RATING: VERY HIGH – The Alpaca is the rare NY athlete who actually climbed out of the Faithful’s "dog house" to become a fan favorite. Some of his own clubhouse may not be crazy about him publicly chastising teammates but the truth is someone needs to kick this team in the ass if the manager isn’t doing it.

Heilman – Q RATING: VERY LOW - This one time fan favorite has really seen the worm turn on him. Remember when it was en vogue to say Heilman should start? These days you can’t find a Met fan who thinks he should step on the field at all.

Scott Schoeneweis – Q RATING: MEDIUM and RISING - The Scho has seen an up-tick in popularity among fans who are actually paying attention.

The Big Pelf – Q RATING: HIGH – Here’s a guy you can root for. A big homegrown kid with a world of potential fighting to prove he belongs in the bigs. I know he’s frustrating at times but so goes the learning curve for young pitchers. GO BIG PELF!

Nelson Figueroa – Q RATING: VERY HIGH - A local Brooklyn kid who grew up a rabid Met fan and makes it to Shea is classic feel good story. Sure he may not be the best pitcher on the team. He may not even be with us next month but every Met fan knows this guy cherishes every single breath he takes with the big club. And quite frankly that’s refreshing to see.

Duaner Sanchez – Q RATING: HIGH – Sanchez is a funny case because he was hugely popular even after the taxi cab incident but when he showed up fat and late to spring training last year his Q took a major hit. But a crappy early season Met bullpen has given him savior status thus allowing him to regain his high approval rating.

Randolph - Q RATING: VERY VERY LOW - Willie had 2 strikes against him when he arrived in Flushing: he was a career yankee and a Torre disciple. Since most Met fans never bought into Torre’s greatness Randolph was a hard sell from the get go. Honestly BMF rooted for Willie longer than most but when I watched him run out of players last year by making a bone headed pinch running substitution I finally reversed course. I can’t stand it when we hear excuses like, “he can’t execute for his players”. No it’s more like, “he can’t motivate his players”.

El Duque – Q RATING: VERY LOW - I don’t even consider Orlando part of the team anymore but regardless I’ll assign him a well-earned poor Q Rating. Even if he does somehow stagger back onto the field everyone knows he’ll pull up lame when he’s needed most.

Omar – Q RATING: MEDIUM – Omar has been knocked off his pedestal in the average fan’s eye by an under performing team and a number of poor decisions. But BMF still considers him one of the better GM’s in the game and he’s got a lot more rope than Willie does in my book.

The Wilpons – Q RATING HIGH - The father son ownership duo have done a great job of improving their likability over the past few years. Gone are the days of “Freddy Coupon” nicknames and the cries of, “Compete with he Yankees or sell the team!”. From where I sit the Wilpons are the best owners in NY and do a great of letting their employees run player operations. But I suspect their Q Rating will begin to wane if the team continues to flounder without anyone being held responsible.

***

While no one needs to read BMF to understand this is all largely a case of “collapse hangover” the truth there’s a great lesson to be learned here:

When your team sleep walks through the majority of the season only to implode at the end CHANGES MUST BE MADE!!!

The cold hard fact is the manager should have been sacrificed after last season’s debacle. And if Willie wasn’t sent packing SOMEONE damn sure should’ve been sacrificed just to show the fans what happened is unacceptable.

Instead the Mets chose to remain loyal to the current hierarchy. While it’s a noble decision to stand by your employees disregarding your fan base has proven to be the wrong move.

I guess it was hoped Santana would be enough of a distraction to fool the fans into thinking this was a different team but we Met fans are sharper than that. Firing Randolph would have cost a few million bucks but it would’ve been money well spent not to have the players subjected to all the vitriol out at Shea since opening day.

The fans wanted to see someone held accountable for that catastrophe and since the fans pay everyone’s salary they took it as an insult that no one was made to pay, and a slap in the face when ticket prices went up.

Demanding someone’s head for a team collapse may sound barbaric to some but BMF is all about real talk here and if you don’t believe me just take a trip out to Shea where the natives have become restless unlike ever before because they don’t have a lot of “Q” love for the majority of their players.

Finally!!!!

Now THAT’S the kind of game we needed. I’m not saying all Met issues have been solved – far from it – but at least we can all breathe easy for the next 2 days until Friday nite’s tilt back at Big Shea.

Johnny USS Maine stepped up and big gamed it like we’ve all been waiting for since he dominated spring training. Maine worked quickly rolling through the Dodger lineup and coming within a whisker of a complete game shut out – 1R, 4H, 2BB, 4K, 8.1IP.

Had Ryan Church taken control of a shallow pop up to open the 9th it might not have fallen in and resulted in a double which eventually cost USS the shut out.

But there’s no room in any Met fan’s heart to be mad at team MVP Ryan Church who has another big day going 3-4 with 3 runs scored and a HR. Church is the definition of a player who blossomed when given the chance to play everyday. Hey, Frank Robinson is a HOF’er in every aspect of the game, and I’m ain’t knocking the man, but I’m just saying he/or Manny Acta never gave Church the AB’s he needed.

The beauty of this romp was the role players all contributed big time to salvage the final game in LA and likely saved Delgado and Co from a lot of additional heat at Shea come Friday.

Check out the numbers from these super subs:

Marlon Anderson: 2-5, 2B, RBI, 2R
Raul Casanova: 2-4, 2B, 2RBI, 2R
Angel Pagan: 1-2, RBI, R, SB

Pagan also made a hi-lite catch when he went into foul territory down the LF line to catch a ball in mid-stride. Pagan was only a step or so from the wall when he gloved it and impacted so hard that he flipped heels over head (head over heels really makes no sense to me) and landed in an empty section of Dodger stadium.

Some fans in the seats might have helped break his fall but the noon start time hadn’t allowed enough Angelenos to fill the stands.

BMF was concerned as Pagan was slow to get up and when Willie Randolph climbed into the stands to assist his young OF’er things looked like they might be really bad. I mean jeez you pretty much never a scenario where you want to see your manager IN the stands during a game.

Pagan eventually climbed to his feet, shook it off and played on. As he returned to his position he watched the replay on the scoreboard along with the Dodger Stadium crowd and SNY cameras caught Pagan laughing at himself on the replay. When the Dodger fans gave him a classy ovation he smiled and doffed his cap to the crowd.

Pagan stayed in the game but left 2 innings later after he stole a base on a pitch out. Presumably his left shoulder had tightened up on him.

The Mets actually batted around TWICE (when was the last time that happened?) and did a great job of spreading their hits across the entire lineup. In fact every starter, expect for Reyes but including Maine, got at least one hit while 7 different Mets drove in runs.

There’s no way to know for sure but it was almost as though playing some of the subs injected a little energy into the lifeless Mets.

This Dodger game was the diametric opposite of last Wednesday’s getaway day debacle vs the Pirates at Shea and boy does it feel good to be on the right side of one of these lopsided scores.

***

BMF firmly believes the positive Met energy was in the house thanks to regular BMF’ers BlondiesJake and Fort Greene Met Fan – who left her sick bed in Brooklyn to see the game.

In case you weren’t reading the in-game thread BlondiesJake scored himself 6th row behind home plate tickets and was on screen most of the game. But the best part was Jake, his lovely wife Lara, and his beautiful Mom were all rocking GO BIG PELF shirts!!!

Jake also made his way over to Fort Green Met Fan and her crew, who also managed to hook up with great seats - 4 rows behind the Met dugout. Jake found them thanks to Fort Greene Met Fan’s in-game thread post:

“sitting four rows back behind the center of the mets dugout in a blue met hat. Look for one Jew and three Koreans, that’s us!“

Hilarious!

I gotta tell you I got the biggest kick out of the BMF’ers taking over Chavez Ravine!

Can we all enjoy a day off now please. There will be plenty of tie to complain about this team but EVERYONE from ownership to the fans deserve a day of rest.

It’s a patchwork line-up today against Brad Penny, who the Mets generally do pretty well against…

Reyes
Castillo
Wright
Beltran
Church
Pagan - lf
Anderson - 1b
Casanova
Maine

I sure hope they win this game or it might get ugly at Shea friday nite…

Technically it was the Asian combination plus Jonathon Broxton but BMF wasn’t gonna let that white boy was ruin my headline. Plus don’t Hiroki Kuroda, Hong-Chih Kuo and Takashi Saito deserve a nickname???

Actually Kuroda didn’t really hold up his end of the combination as the Mets jumped out to leads of 3-0 and 4-1 only see Nelson Figueroa slowly give it back.

But the real downfall Tuesday nite was the offense’s inability to cash in on multiple run scoring opportunities – bases loaded no outs, 2 men on here, 2 men on there. The bats definitely had chances and when we’ve got a 5th starter like Figgy out there the O has to step up and deliver a little to help the guy out.

Ryan Church was on both ends of the HR ball as he cranked his 5th of the year in the 1st but then failed to catch Blake Dewitt’s shot that kicked off the top of the wall.

I guess Church though it was gone, or maybe he was momentarily stunned as he sat on the warning track while the ball rolled away from him. I would’ve thought he could see the ball or the umpire waving his arms to signal the ball was still in play but by the time Church came to his senses Dewitt was already well on his way to an inside-the-park homerun.

BMF isn’t sure which was more shocking to see Moises Alou steal home or Luis Castillo drive in a run. Alou swiped homeplate on a double steal, which to me is the cheap way to do it but I still gotta give Moises Old-lou props for stealing home with a headfirst slide. And even BIGGER props for not getting up and walking directly to the DL afterwards.

Carlos Beltran sat with “flu-like” symptoms. When asked what was up with Beltran in the post game interview Willie sounded less than enthusiastic when answering “he just doesn’t feel well. It’s hard to know if Randolph’s terse answer stems from frustration at the loss, contempt for media, feeling the noose tighten around his neck or disappointment in Beltran’s inability to play.

Probably all of the above.

***

BlondiesJake was at last nite’s game and got the chance to meet Mike Pelfrey during pregame warm-ups. Jake, being the BMF soldier that he is, told The Big Pelf he was part of the crew over here at BrooklynMetFan.com and would be wearing his GO BIG PELF SHIRT wed afternoon. Pelf thanked Jake and admitted to seeing and getting a big kick out of the Mets Weekly segment on the Go Big Pelf t-shirt phenomenon. Jake reports that despite Pelfrey’s talking to Scott Boras during warm-ups The Big Pelf is a very nice guy.

Quick Hits:

• Carlos Delgado continues to look terrible at first and only slightly encouraging at the dish.

• Psssst - Aaron Heilman threw TWO SCORELESS INNINGS!!!

• Does Matt Kemp make a nice running catch down the line in foul territory every night or is it just me?

• Has Andruw Jones lost a step? He sure looked like it when he came up short on a shallow fly to center. My guess is 4 years ago Jones catches that no problemo.

• BMF was shocked to see a “Sin City” strip club commercial air on SNY during tuesday nite’s game. I caught this game on an upper west side time warner (?) cable system so maybe it was a spot sold on local airtime I’m surprised the Wilpons let that happen… if they’re even aware.

• Does this latest loss render Willie’s statement about the Mets finding refuge on the road irrelevant???

• BMF new puppy pix coming this week FER SURE!!!

This is kind of a big game for us…