Tuesday Applesauce

by Joe Budd on Mar 17, 2009 10:13 AM EDT

Hey all. Sorry for disappearing yesterday. I was saying a long good bye to my old apartment and didn't have the time or energy to do a quick hello to the Applesauce crowd. Anyway, happy St. Patrick's Day and here's today's news:

Around Port St. Lucie

There was no game yesterday, as the Mets took an off-day before this afternoon's 1:05 game against the Braves. Jonathan Niese and Bobby Parnell are scheduled to make their pitch to be on this year's opening day roster.

Hopefully, they won't ever need him, but the Mets signed Junior Spivey.

The Mets have named Julio Franco and Mike DiFelice managers of Single-A teams in their minor league system.

Rocky Cherry has been put on waivers and will probably return to the Orioles. The bullpen will probably survive, and looks like it will include both Darren O'Day and Bobby Parnell.

The Mets Police has named the All-Irish Met Team. Enjoy.

It's official, Shea Stadium is gone.

This New York Magazine article is a few days old, but it's definitely worth a read. 2006 was an amazing year where the Mets played fun, loose, exciting baseball, and it just didn't work out. That team, with almost all of the same players, is still here, but they don't have that same excitement, that same youthful joy. It's a shame, but that's what happens when a team collapses. It hasn't brought a winning maturity yet, instead it has brought a fear of a repeat.

Around the NL East

Chipper's injury plagued Spring has ended his run at the WBC. Meanwhile, another old Brave is doing enough to make Bobby Cox happy.

The Phillies are doing some roster cuts, but mainly I just wanted to highlight a player named Antonio Bastardo.

Nationals starter Shawn Hill made his return to the mound yesterday after a year of injuries, throwing a shutout inning and striking out two. Jordan Zimmerman went another four shutout innings and struck out six.

Cole Hamels is returning home from camp to have his elbow examined.

I could've put this up in the Met section, but since it's bad news about Lenny Dykstra, I'm going to label him a former Phillie. Apparently the former steroid addict is also a lousy boss who uses homophobic and racist slurs.

Around MLB

The Rays are close to naming their fifth starter, and it probably won't be David Price.

I love Bobby Valentine. The man has a dream about Japanese baseball and he's going to keep trying to stay involved.

The Padres have signed Duaner Sanchez.

The Astros have signed Ivan Rodriguez. The Mets still have Ramon Castro.

Have a great day everyone!

Tweet Comment 12 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

what a shock about dykstra

couldn’t have seen that coming after that real sports interview on hbo

by englishgrey on Mar 17, 2009 10:54 AM EDT reply actions

real sports

bleh. i will say that every now and then they break a good story or report on something cool, but most of the time its a bunch of self important journo snobs jagging each other off over how serious they are taking the subject of sports. the fact that they failed so horribly in sniffing dyskstra’s obvious bs goes to show how worthless that are at real investigative reporters.

HELLO HELLO MR WILPON. WE WANT THE MANSION NOT THE CONDO.

by kendynamo on Mar 17, 2009 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions

It's amazing

How valuable Castro is in short playing time, hopefully Jerry wasn’t serious about trying to get Schneider more bats at the expense of Castro’s.

Also considering how long Chipper has suffered with oblique injuries I was shocked the Braves didn’t shut him down immediately when it first happened, especially considering how much their team needs him if they want to compete. If Reyes or Wright got a hang nail I would want the mets to shut them down.

And I’m gonna buy some malt liquor later and pour it out in memory of Rocky Cherry =/.

by Gina on Mar 17, 2009 10:58 AM EDT reply actions

Rocky Cherry

has one of the all-time funniest names, if you ask me.

Love Bobby V, hope he continues to be awesome in Japan.

Couldn’t they have made Old Man Franco a player-manager? I’m sure he could still hit single-A pitching!

What would it take to get the Rays to trade one of their young starters? Obviously Price isn’t going anywhere even if he doesn’t make the rotation out of camp, but presumably one of them will have to be moved at some point, right?

Will Leitch is a tool with this piece of mumbo-jumbo: “If they don’t win big, the team’s essential fallacy will really be exposed.” But I have to hand it to him for not gloating about his crappy fucking Cardinals beating the Mets in 2006.

by JoshNY on Mar 17, 2009 11:11 AM EDT reply actions

I imagine it would take more than we have to offer to get one of those starters

by Gina on Mar 17, 2009 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions

I would love to see Franco as a player-manager

That would be a great draw.

"One of the nice things about baseball is that there are no rules you can't break." - Jim Bouton

by Prince on Mar 17, 2009 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions

yeah, you're probably right

and if Omar wasn’t going to trade F! for Johan then he isn’t trading him for Andy Sonnanstine either

by JoshNY on Mar 17, 2009 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions

I like Leitch and Deadspin

But I really don’t care for what he writes about the Mets. He gets a lot of facts wrong and I don’t think his perspective as a guy who hasn’t followed the team for that long is terribly relevant. Maybe he’ll be better in a few years or something.

A Cards fan moving to NY and writing about the Mets for NY Magazine? Why should I care?

by James Kannengieser on Mar 17, 2009 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions