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Hello Rene Rivera!
In case you missed it, Omar made his biggest splash of the off-season (next to the Fernando Tatis deal that is) by inking free agent catcher Rene Rivera to a 1-year contract.
Who’s Rene Rivera you ask? Oh, well he’s the 25-year old catcher who hit .227 in 53 at bats with Seattle last year. Unfortunately a look at his minor league stats doesn’t give us much hope for improvement but I guess he looks like a fairly athletic guy.
Normally I’d say don’t get your hopes up for Rene making an impact but considering I became a fan of that Ninja Turtle Robinson Cancel last year, I suppose anything is possible.
It’s funny cuz although you wouldn’t necessarily put catcher at the top of the Met wish list this off-season BMF is happy to see Omar chasing after backstops.
Don’t get me wrong I’d be happy going into next season with the Schneider/Castro/Cancel triumvirate. I like all 3 of those guys but let’s be honest - none of them wow you and all are replaceable.
Schneider is great at calling games but can’t hit. Castro hits and is good defensively but the guy can’t stay healthy. Robinson Cancel is a career minor leaguer who can’t really hit a lick… but he does run pretty damn well for a catcher!
Regardless it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to recognize the wear and tear of receiving can derail a player’s season on any given pitch. So why not stock pile ample catchers with big league experience?
Word is O has talked to the Rangers about Gerald Laird as well. Texas has a surplus of catchers and Laird’s a nice player whose game won’t hurt you anywhere. Quite frankly if we did acquire him I’d prefer to pair him with Castro and let Schneider move on down the road.
Jason Varitek is another name bandied about but I can’t get too excited about a 36 year old catcher who hit .220 last year I don’t care how many rings he wears.
Of course Pudge’s name will always mentioned but I’ll take a pass on him too. He’s better than his .219 average with the yanks last year but a 37-year old backstop is not the direction we want to go.
Gee, it sure would be nice if Omar had protected Jesus Flores from the Rule 5 draft a couple of years back. If he had we’d be sitting on one of the youngest, promising catchers in the game. Instead we’ll get to watch him come into his own for the Nats.
But I’m not looking back so much as I’m looking forward so I’m more than happy to have Omar out there trolling for catchers.
And in the meantime while everyone else is impatiently waiting for news on K-Rod, Manny or Lowe BMF will take my 4th string catcher and be happy for the day!
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Re: Plaxico Burress
COMMON SENSE RULE OF THE DAY:
“If you’re wearing so much bling that you need a gun to protect yourself than YOU’RE WEARING TOO MUCH BLING!!!”
What an idiot. I mean street cred is nice and all but I hope that fool didn’t waste all his money cuz he’ll be giving back most of that signing bonus and where I come from street cred don’t pay the mortgage!
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Mojo Kitty rocks the batting helmet for luck!
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
The Mets are once again becoming a joke right before our eyes. First, the second major choke job in 2 years to the Phillies. Second, the very name of the stadium they play in is of a company that is broke and has to be bailed out by taxpayers. Thirdly, the team old, the farm system gutted, Omar flailing around trying to sign overpriced bullpen guys, and the team seems to be going nowhere. I guess we had our little run. Oh, and let’s save the “team to beat” crap. I do not want to hear it this year. Welcome back to sucksville.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
CAPSLOCK=DISABILITY ACCOMODATION
WELL, MJ, I GUESS YOU’LL HAVE TO BE CONTENT TO SPREADING THEM HOLDING YOUR ANKLES FOR SPIDERMAN AND/OR THE YANKIES. UNTIL WE HIRE NOSTRADAMOUS AS A GM, I GUESS THERE’S NO PLEASING YOU! ONLY THE FAMED SEER COULD HAVE FORESEEN THE DEMISE OF CITIGROUP, THE PEN (ala NON-EFFECTIVE RETURN OF SANCHEZ & TOTAL NON-RETURN OF PADILLA) AS DONE DEALS TO BE COUNTED ON. FACTS ARE SIMPLE, I , FOR ONE, WOULD PREFER THAT CITIFIELD BE NAMED AFTER A FLAWED CORP GIANT, RATHER THAN BEING THE BYPRODUCT OF QUESTIONABLE GOV’T FRAUD. EVERYONE KNOWS THE PHILLIES HAVE BEEN HISTORICAL SHORTFALLERS UNTIL WE BECAME COMPLICIT. THE LAW OF AVERAGES STATES EVENTUALLY THE PHILLIES “STAYING CLOSE” WOULD PAYOFF. GOING FROM A SUB-.500 4th PLACE 2004 SEASON TO JUST MISSING THE WS IN ‘06. SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED THE DYNASTIC BEGINNING YOU, NEOFANS EXPECTED. WE ROOT FOR A TEAM THAT HAS A BUDGET HIGH ENOUGH TO BE #1 IN THE NL; BUT #2 IN NYC. THAT’S NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF OR TO COMPLAIN ABOUT. THERE CERTAINLY ISN’T AN ABILITY TO RUN “IN THE RED” FROM OPERATIONS AS THERE IS IN THE BRONX. THE YANKEE LEAD IN TITLES PRIOR TO ‘62 IS INSURMOUNTABLE. IT’S CERTAINLY ABOUT TIME METS’ FANS REALIZED THIS, AND IGNORED THE PINSTRIPED FANS AS IRRELEVANT TO WHAT THE METS ARE ABOUT. THE YANKEE FRANCHISE VALUE @1B IS CERTAINLY A GOAL; BUT NOT A REASON TO DECRY OUR TEAM’S EFFORTS. CHEER UP YOU COULD BE AN ATLANTIAN WITH NO HOPE FOR THE SPENDING INCREASE NECESSARY TO REBUILD COMPETITIVENESS. MJ, ONCE AGAIN SMILE FOR SPIDEY AND STOP POSING AS AN ACTUAL MET FAN. DON’T FORGET TO SPREAD ‘EM FIRST!
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
This is a joke. This is the best they can do?.. It’s great theyll be opening a new stadium 4 games back in the loss column. Sometimes I just hate this team.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
MJ, who’s the bigger joke the Mets and Citi Field or the person who doesn’t understand that the WHOLE WORLD is broke not just Citi Bank. Nobody saw this coming. NOBODY!!! And BTW, naming the stupid stadium is the least of their issues.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Having seen year’s/era’s of bad Mets baseball sprinkled with a few (two) miracles I’m all for backing up our team. In fact some of most favorite memories of Shea was watching bad baseball. You can forget the thrill of going crazy when Dave Kingman hit a ball in the air only to suffer the disappointment of a pop out to the shortstop. Once we accept the fact that a WS is out of the question the situation the Mets are in becomes much easier to deal with and enjoy.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
see..i’m a mets fan..
and thats the one thing i hate about mets fans..they’re always so quick to put down the team
“sometimes i hate this team”
“once we accept the fact that a world series is out of the question”
you people make me sick
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
oh..and “welcome back to sucksville”
all of you..you make me want to vomit
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Um, yeah it sucks that nothing is happening…but the Arbitration deadline just hit and the Winter meetings don’t start until next week…what the E’ff do you guys want???
As for the catcher situation…I’d rather take Schneider over Castro…Schneider isn’t a great hitter by any means, but I think he’s better (in the field and hitting) than what we saw last year…Castro can’t be depended on to stay in the line up…every chance he’s gotten to get playing time, he’s always come up hurt…rumors also say that Castro is known in the club house as being a Non-gamer…
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
So many years rooting for bad Met teams, and I can honestly say that I’ve never uttered the words “I hate this team”. People are acting like this team finished 20 games below .500 last year. Sucksville? Does it suck that they couldn’t get the job done the past two years? Yes it does suck and clearly the team has flaws. And ‘06 was fantastic and it did appear the Mets were poised to become perenniel division winners, but it didn’t happen. It’s not as if they didn’t contend for a playoff spot this year. It was a disappointing but ultimately exciting September. It came down to the last game of the year. Do they need changes? Of course they need changes. The hot stove is just warming up. It never hurts to have depth at catcher but I’m not going to get to excited about it either. Let’s see how it shakes out this offseason and more importantly when they start playing the games. and if they suck, oh well at least it will be easier to get tickets when everyone jumps off the bandwagon. Either way you slice it, 05-08 is one of the better stretches the Mets have ever had in the regular season (of course the eighties would be the best and 98-01 would be comparable to the present, the 69 team quickly fell back to .500 and just good enough to win in 73.) I just watch root and enjoy (and agonize) and hope that the season isn’t over by July and if it is so be it. Then I look forward to call ups. Because as you all know we had no players in the minors last year as per all the experts and then out of nowhere Danny Murphy pops on the scene and lights it up. I was born in 76 so obviously I don’t remember the dark ages of the mid 70’s to early 80’s. But I do remember the 90’s and the beginning of this century and some of the putrid teams we had and still rooting hard for them.
Let’s go Mets-always a fan
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Could be worse, we could be Cubs fans
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
thank you JoeyBrooklyn1976..oh..and i was born in 77, lol.
I’m willing to bet that all these people putting down the team are kids..when i say kids..i mean teenagers.. 16-18 years old..around the age where they think they know everything
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I would love the new stadium to be called “Gil Hodges Stadium” .. or just “the Gil” …
he will, of course, on Dec 8th, probably get screwed again by the Hall …
I also like “Bailout stadium”
or simply “The Bail” ..
September 1st, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I had to read your post twice to get the full impact of it. I appreciate reading what you have to say. It’s unfortunate that more people do not comprehend the benefits of coaching. Keep up the good work.