According to the daily news pitching coach Dan Warthen had this to say about Oliver Perez and his participation in the WBC;

"He came into camp in good shape. I thought he was throwing the ball well when he left, but I was a little bit reticent when he left here, and my worries have come to fruition," Warthen said. "I think he needs the camaraderie of people that push him.

"I think he's out of shape, the arm is out of shape. It's a combination. Since he's come back we really haven't seen the life out of the hand, the ball is just not jumping out right now....I think he's gained a little weight and needs to start pushing himself a little more."

I'm guessing Warthen isn't a big fan of the WBC to begin with, then again what pitching coach is?

Perez threw 92 pitches over 3.2 innings, gave up 6 runs and walked 6 during Wednesday's loss to the Tigers.

According to Warthen, Perez wasn't doing his workouts on off days during the tournament.

The bigger question here is Oliver Perez who was just signed to a 36 million dollar contract, goes to play for Mexico in the WBC, how is it that he isn't doing his workouts to get in shape for the regular season? You know the one that actually matters.

This is why teams don't want their pitchers in the WBC. Nobody on team Mexico is looking out for the Mets interests in getting Ollie ready for the season... the guy only pitched in 2 games over a 19 day span, and in one of those games he threw 85 pitches before finally being yanked.

Ollie better be ready for the opening week of the season. Maybe this criticism from Warthen will motivate him a little bit. Of course, Warthen has already shown himself to treat pitchers differently than Rick Peterson, which is probably a change for the better. Read More...

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Bhahahahahahahaha

Ok now that that's out of my system, for the second time, the Dominican team (made up of all stars like Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Edison Volquez, Robinson Cano, Miguel Tejada etc.) lost to the team from the Netherlands (who's best players are Sidney Ponson and Rick VandenHurk, and all but three have no major league experience).

The good news of course, is that Jose Reyes and Fernando Tatis are now out of harms way and wont be over exerting himself for a pointless tournament.

The other upset is Team Italy defeating Team Canada.

I was actually kind of surprised to see the talent the Canadian team had assembled this year. Justin Morneau, Russel Martin, Jason Bay, Joey Votto, Matt Stairs, Corie Koskie, and Pete Orr are all Canadian? who knew?

But Team Canada lacked pitching talent, and lost to Italy's powerhouse of Nick Punto and Frank Catalanotto. Lets be real, the best player Italy has in that dugout is hitting coach Mike Piazza.

You know, as funny as it is to see these star studded teams lose to teams with just a few major leaguers, I think it highlights an important problem with the World Baseball Classic. The fact of the matter is, the teams with less major league players should win most of the time.

Seriously, to these single A, Japanese league and Latin league players the World baseball classic is like their World Series, it is their opportunity to show the world what they can do, and why a major league club should take a shot on them. So naturally these guys are preparing themselves from months in advance, they are giving 110% for every game. Of course they are going to beat these major leaguers who A) don't really care about the tournament, B) Use the tournament as warm up for the regular season, and C) Aren't playing 50% let alone 100%.

There's really nothing they can do to fix this problem, no major league player is ever going to put the WBC before the regular MLB season. And if they only used amateur players or minor leaguers, it wouldn't garner enough interest from the fans to even warrant having the tournament in the first place.

Of course, the Commissioner wont admit this publicly, but Major League Baseball secretly wants these teams from the Netherlands, Italy, China, Australia, Panama, and South Africa to upset the powerhouse teams. That helps to promote the sport world wide. If team USA, Japan or the Dominican won it every year, it doesn't do much to promote the sport to other countries in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Read More...

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The Mets have released right handed reliever Duaner Sanchez.

I saw this coming following Sanchez's bad outing Monday in Port St. Lucie, where the Orioles smacked him around during his one inning of relief, where he had basically no velocity and no break on any of his pitches.

Duaner was one of the most effective relievers in baseball in 2006 not giving up a single run in his first 21 innings of relief and pitching to a 2.60 ERA before he was involved in a taxi cab accident which sidelined him for the remainder of the year.

He was never the same pitcher.

He re-injured himself trying to come back and missed all of 2007 as well.

According to Metsblog, the move will allow the Mets to save $1.6 million on their 2009 payroll. Read More...

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Jerry Manuel announced today that Johan Santana will start Thursday's spring training game against the Marlins. The game will be broadcast live on SNY.

Barring any setbacks, it seems like Johan is back on track to pitch on opening day.

The Mets buzz on WFAN and SNY the last day or so has been whether or not Johan is rushing back, or if they were babying him too much. I say let the guy pitch. Babying pitchers is one thing when your dealing with a young prospect, but Johan is an all star and a veteran. He knows when he's ok to pitch, if he says he's fine, then give him the ball, and let him pitch.

Take that Dan Warthen... Read More...

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For last week's results... click here Read More...

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Mike Pelfrey has been sidelined with a lower left leg strain since last week.

He's now walking around with a boot to take pressure off the strained muscle.

Pelfrey hopes to throw Wednesday, and then make a start on the weekend.

Ugh... I can only hope this is just some early pre-season wear and tear, and not some larger issue like a mechanical problem with his delivery. Read More...

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To view the results from our last poll click here Read More...

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Ok, I've been very quiet about my distaste for the World Baseball Classic, everyone knows the reasons people hate it; potential injuries, nobody wanting their players to play, it's right before the season, it cuts into spring training, nobody gives a crap who wins (including the players) etc.

These are among the common reasons people hate this pointless tournament. But as it turns out there is a new reason to hate it even more...

MLB is implementing a few new rules for this years WBC the most disturbing is this one...

starting with the 13th inning, each half-inning will begin with runners on first and second base, with the batting order intact. The applicability of the rule to the championship game of the tournament is under review by the rules and regulations committee.

Yes you read that correctly, in fact here's the MLB.com news story just so you know it's legit...

What the hell is this? This is dumber than the shootout in the World Cup. What is the batting team supposed to do? Put two random players on base? Maybe the last two batters from the previous inning? This isn't even baseball, you start with a runner in scoring position and nobody out? Are teams gonna bunt with the leadoff hitter to stay out of the double play and advance the runners into scoring position?

Dumb... Read More...

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Pitchers and catchers are due to report to Port St. Lucie in 19 days, and the Mets still have not landed a number 2 starter for their rotation.

Even more starling is that there are still over 100 free agents available. Just think about that for a moment; 100 players have no idea what team they will be playing for just 3 weeks from now. (Assuming they find a club by the start of spring training). Read More...

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Dear Omar,

As I wrote the other day, Mets fans want to see Oliver Perez or Ben Sheets in this rotation next year. Unless you pull off a trade, any other pitcher is not acceptable in the number 2 slot.

You have said yourself that you are focused almost exclusively on the Mets rotation. So any competent person would understand that to mean that you would be pursuing the number 2 starter that the rotation badly needs. Instead you're wasting time on guys like Freddy Garcia, Casey Fossum, Rob Mackowiak, and Cory Sullivan among other career minor league players. Are the Buffalo Bisons looking for a new GM? I think you'd be perfect for the job.

Please explain to me how any of these guys is a more important priority than Perez or Sheets? Is it more important to sign a guy who may pitch upwards or 30 games for the New York Mets, or a guy who will struggle to keep from being cut from a minor league team?

I will repeat this to you one more time... you already messed up with Lowe... sign Perez or Sheets or pack your things and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

With love,

Mets fans everywhere Read More...

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