Wednesday Applesauce
by Joe Budd on Apr 8, 2009 10:11 AM EDT
in Applesauce
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PrintThe worst day of the baseball season has come and gone, and we have baseball again! It should be a clear night for tonight's Reds-Mets game, but a high of 35 degrees. Awesome.
Around the Mets
The "big" controversy this week is the FOX blackout of the first hour of Saturday's Met-Marlin game. The Marlins have scheduled the game for 6:10 to accommodate a Flo Rida concert. The problem is that FOX has the rights to all MLB action before 7:00 on Saturdays. This means that SNY is contractually prohibited from broadcasting the first 50 minutes of Saturday's game and it is causing a minor uproar among the blogosphere (a boycott here) (a letter to MLB here).
After attending games at both parks, Andrew Vazzano does one of the first competitions I've seen between Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium.
Don't worry guys, Jerry Manuel is upset about the hitting with runners in scoring position too.
I missed Johan Santana's 90 second handshake parade with the entire bench on Monday afternoon. Here's the video. The real question will be does he do it after he gets pulled in the 3rd inning? How will we feel about it then?
Would you do a David Wright for Evan Longoria trade? I don't get the absurd partisan feelings about Wright. We should just be thankful that we have a really really good third baseman (something that the team has lacked for most of their history) and not hate on him when he doesn't hit .450 with RISP.
All that is left of Shea now is a memorial in the parking lot. That seems so crappy, yet so fitting.
In Met ticket news, the Mets have begun auctioning off some of their remaining Opening Day tickets. Also, if you are interested in Bernie Madoff's Met season tickets behind home plate, they are now at a discount. Instead of $80,000 they are now priced at $60,750. What a steal.
So, maybe the worst seats in Citi aren't THAT bad...
Rob Neyer doesn't really understand what the Mets are doing with Ryan Church. He ranks him their second best outfielder.
Around the NL East
Charlie Manuel decided to split up the Philly lefties in the batting order, but it still failed to produce many runs (none in fact) as the Braves and Jair Jurrjens shut out Philadelphia 4-0. Jamie Moyer made the start for the Phillies and was slightly better than last year's debut. Kelly Johnson and Chipper Jones each homered for the Braves.
Scott Olsen made his National debut against his former team the Marlins and it didn't go well. Olsen gave up 8 hits and 8 runs in 3 innings in Washington's 8-3 loss. Prior to the game, Olsen dissed Miami as a baseball town, comparing it to the Gulf Coast League. The Marlins are continuing to impress the national media, as have the Braves. Florida is starting to convince me. Atlanta will have to do a lot more, but that's just because I'm blinded by hatred.
By the way, did you see Lastings Milledge's attempt to make the play in center field on Emilio Bonifacio's opening day inside the park home run? Aren't you glad that we have Beltran?
The Phillies have been invited to the White House to meet President Obama next Tuesday during their off-day. Of course, it appears as though any visiting team has a right to visit the White House.
Around MLB
New Padre closer Heath Bell got the first save of the post-Trevor Hoffman era in a 4-2 victory over the Dodgers. Bell struck out the side in the 9th to close the game.
Ailing Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy threw out the first pitch at yesterday's Red Sox home opener against the Devil Rays. The Sox won 5-3.
Newly acquired Astro Jeff Keppinger got an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th, giving the Astros a 3-2 victory over the visiting Chicago Cubs.
Wow, Canadians apparently can't handle the combination of beer and baseball.
The video from Joba Chamberlain's DUI arrest has made the internet. In it he takes shots at New York City drivers and Yogi Berra. This has to be embarrassing for the Yankees, even though he doesn't say anything that bad. Yogi is pretty short and New York drivers are pretty crazy.
Home run king Hank Aaron celebrated his 75th birthday party late at a party in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.
Stat Fix
The New York Times has an article on computer simulations. One Met aspect of it, apparently Willie and Jerry both sacrificed a good number of times.
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One quibble
“Florida is starting to convince me. Atlanta will have to do a lot more, but that’s just because I’m blinded by hatred.”
The Marlins are beating up on a team that lost 102 games last year while the Braves are beating up on the defending champs. Now, obviously the Nats will be better than last year and the Phillies will (hopefully) be worse, but I think it’s way too early to be impressed by the Marlins.
It's a small sample size
But I do like Florida’s starting pitching and that lineup is pretty darn good with Hanley, Uggla, and Hermida. Plus Bonifacio is going to be a fun player to watch. You’re right, it is too early to be “impressed”, maybe surprised is a better word for the quality of play so far.
I can't think of a single reason anyone
anyone would think it would make sense to trade Wright for Longoria. Even Longoria’s “clutch” stats are worse than wrights.
I would trade for Tony Parker
That dude can rappé better than Wright and Flo Rida put together.
The Nye Mets are my favorite squadron.
on the blackout
Fred Wilpon should be on the phone with Selig right now ripping him a new one on why Mets fans can’t see their team’s entire game in their own market. Totally Absurd.
The Wilpons are one of the owners with the most to gain from the awful black out rules
It’s why SNY is such a successful company. They have exclusive rights to the mets home games for their market, which is a pretty massive market. It’s the same with the Yankees and YES and the Red Sox and the NESN, there’s really not much of an incentive for them the way things are set up now.
that may be
but I can’t imagine they are happy about this. Heck they can’t watch the team if they stay in New York. At the same time, this is really the fault of the Marlins for starting the game at 6:10. Why can’t Selig just insist they start the game at the regular time?
And I should say
I can understand why teams want to keep their exclusive rights in places where there local channels are broadcasted. What I don’t understand is why FOX was given such a ridiculous deal where no one can watch games other than the ones they show, how is that beneficial to anyone but FOX? And why teams are allowed to maintain rights on the edges of their markets from maps drawn 30 some years ago, since I seriously doubt Cincinnati has any future plans to have a network that broad casts all the way to North Carolina. Also why MLB doesn’t have some sort of deals with the owners that allows these games to be shown on MLB.tv and MLBn I imagine even if it led to raised prices more fans would be willing to pay for those services if they knew games they care about weren’t going to be blacked out anyway.
fox
i’m sure FOX paid a lot of money to broadcast the saturdays games (and the playoffs and world series), so i understand why the owners would agree to give them such severe blackout rights.
but you’re right about teams being blacked out on the fringe of their market. rather than have these archaic maps drawn, the rule should be that a team is blacked out only in areas where the residents can subscribe to all the games through the local cable provider. thus, in any area where people can order SNY, the mets should be blacked out. if there’s no access to SNY, then the resident should be able to watch the games on mlb.tv or MLB Extra Innings.
I understand fox likely paid a lot of money
But I have a hard time believing the money is more than what they could make in the long-term by continued national exposure of their teams. Obviously some of the bigger teams, like the Yankees and the Sox and the Cubs and us don’t have this problem but a lot of franchises that are smaller or newer, lacking in history but with young players and the chance to seriously compete in the near future would probably be a lot more likely to add to their fan base. Even in the long run in terms of health of MLB I don’t see how giving a network such an exclusive deal is in their best interest, how can they expect younger kids, who they supposedly are already having trouble drawing in, to be interested when they limit the number of games on so much.
well
i think the national exposure of playing a game on fox (which is fairly regional but usually extends outside of a team’s usual market) is probably greater than any national exposure a teams is likely to get from allowing everyone who subscribes to mlb.tv or MLB Extra Innings to watch all games without any blackouts. i would think most people subscribe to those services because they already follow a team and want to be able to watch all games, whereas the fox broadcasts are likely to attract more causal fans who may have not been exposed to the teams playing in their region that weekend.
i also think it’s a little easy to exaggerate the harms of the blackout policy. yes, it can be a huge pain in the ass sometimes, but most fans get to watch the vast majority of their favorite teams games. with 162 games a year, the fact that a small percentage of games may not be available is not going to keep younger fans away from the game.
I'm not saying that by itself is gonna keep young fans away from the game
I’m saying it’s just compounding an issue they already have. And I’m not sure how national Fox’s broadcasts are.
yeah, trade wright for longoria!!!
that was classic bozo fan logic. i loved it. i also love how one of the commentors pointed out that trading wright for longoria doesnt open a spot up at 3rd for murphy.
also, as an out of market fan, its tough to work up sympathy for you guys and the 1 hour of game youre going to be missing. maybe if i listen to this teeny tiny violin for a little while longer.
HELLO HELLO MR WILPON. WE WANT THE MANSION NOT THE CONDO.
Yup. I can’t even pony up the cash for MLB.tv so I’m watching the DBacks every day. w00t
by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on Apr 8, 2009 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions
and listening to mlb radio. so its not that bad.
by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on Apr 8, 2009 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions
While we're at it
Lets just swap Reyes for Jeter. A-Rod was down with that idea. Screw Reyes’ extra speed, power, athleticism, defense, youth, etc. None of that compares to Jeter’s clutchness.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 8, 2009 1:39 PM EDT reply actions
Have you been to his website?
He’s got outtakes . . .
'Oh yes, I know all about that duty-of-a-citizen stuff. It doesn't go. There are exceptions to every rule, and this was one of them. When a man risks his liberty to come and root at a ball-game, you've got to hand it to him. He isn't a crook. He's a fan.'
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Apr 8, 2009 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions
real men drive for foci
it packs 4 cylinders of fury the likes of which no woman can resist.
HELLO HELLO MR WILPON. WE WANT THE MANSION NOT THE CONDO.
The ban on beer in Canada
is a good idea considering what happended in the opening game. If fox banned beer sales for an hour, well let’s just say No Beer and No Mets makes Joe something something.
No Beer and No Mets makes Joe...
drink whiskey.
We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!
It's really hard to resist as cliche as it is
but in all seriousness, Suntory Yamazaki 12 Year Aged Single Malt has the best price to quality ratio in my opinion.
For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.
We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!
Jerry should be upset with the lack of scoring with RISP
" WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU'VE WITNESSED A GRAND HANDSHAKE PARADE? "
by LOUtheMETandNATSfan on Apr 8, 2009 3:20 PM EDT reply actions
April:
It’s the new August!
I’ll panic if/when this becomes a trend and the team starts losing games as a result. 1-0 on April 8? Too soon.
'Oh yes, I know all about that duty-of-a-citizen stuff. It doesn't go. There are exceptions to every rule, and this was one of them. When a man risks his liberty to come and root at a ball-game, you've got to hand it to him. He isn't a crook. He's a fan.'
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Apr 8, 2009 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions
Wright-Longoria
I know the discussion of this began with a post that was sub-Vinny-from-Staten-Island-on-Mike-and-the-Mad-Dog in its inanity about Wright’s clutchiness, but it’s an interesting idea. Thinking about it, neither team would benefit. The Mets would get a guy who MIGHT be great, but has yet to prove he can be a consistent .400 OBP, .530 SLG guy the way DW is. On the flip side, the Rays get a guy 2.5 years older with much less time under contract (Wright has 3 years left on his deal, and Longoria is, I believe, under contract with options until 2016). The Mets would give away the proven production they desperately need right now, and the Rays would give away the cost-controlled upside they need to compete with NY and Boston in the long run.
P.S: My apologies if there’s anyone who posts here who is Italian and from Staten Island
2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?
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