Second Place Applesauce

by Joe Budd on May 20, 2009 10:10 AM EDT in Applesauce

Back in second place. At least the good news about second place is that it's hard to choke from there.

Meet the Mets

We now have a general idea of what the Mets are like without Carlos Delgado; it has now been 6 games since the Mets have hit a home run. The good news, I guess, is that we can now have the leadership skills of David Wright... Nevertheless, replacing Delgado will not be easy. And a replacement will probably not come from a trade.

John Maine threw one bad pitch last night. He obviously did not watch his game.

Fernando Martinez hit two home runs yesterday afternoon for Buffalo, adding to his amazing run in May.

Metstradamus has it all figured out. Carlos Beltran needs a beard to become gritty.

Around the NL East

The Phillies continued their mini hot streak, winning their fifth straight behind Cole Hamels. The Chan Ho Park era in the starting rotation has come to an end. The JA Happ era has begun.

Jair Jurrjens has become one of the best pitchers in the National League. Jurrjens led the Braves in an 8-1 romp over the Rockies. Congratulations to Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Glavine has a new adopted son. John Smoltz has gotten married.

The Nationals are still bad, losing their sixth straight overall, and second straight to Pittsburgh. The fewest runs the Nationals have allowed in any of the six games is seven. 18,579 people showed up to witness the trainwreck. Elijah Dukes was placed on the 15 day DL.

Around MLB

Mike Hampton left his start last night with a cut thumb. He is expected to miss 6 months.

Red first baseman Joey Votto is still struggling with a mysterious dizziness.

The Cubs will finally have new ownership soon.

Welcome back Dontrelle.

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Comments

"the good news about second place is that it's hard to choke from there."

HA. Tell that to Phillies fans and the national media, who still insist the Mets choked last year despite being in 2nd place for most of the season.

by cjmulrain on May 20, 2009 10:30 AM EDT reply actions

Choke: Wild Card version

Mets solution: get Tokuchi Toua.

by Michkin on May 20, 2009 10:36 AM EDT up reply actions

Cubs sale

It’s good to see that Citi has enough money to finance the purchase of the Cubs and naming right to New Shea.

Thanks TARP! I’ve always wanted to own a Major League Baseball team.

by Reg Dunlop on May 20, 2009 10:33 AM EDT reply actions

F-Mart is a beast.

Based on the fact that Delgado’s injured, and our roster is currently giving Angel Pagan and Jeremy Reed significant playing time…his time may be now.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on May 20, 2009 10:52 AM EDT reply actions

I second that

Usually I am against bringing up guys early, unless we absoultely have to have a guy up for injury reasons. But, I am tired of looking at this corner OF sitaution and seeing that the saving grace is a 40 year-old Gary Sheffield. I am fully on this bandwagon

by meigs1414 on May 20, 2009 11:24 AM EDT up reply actions

Metstradamus may have a point

Hockey players grow playoff beards.
Hockey players are gritty.
Therefore, beards make you gritty. Q.E.D.

Funniest story I read about the Mets today: Woman gets arm stuck after dropping gold tooth in Citi Field toilet. As Jeff Foxworthy said, we are a classy bunch.

by JoshNY on May 20, 2009 11:00 AM EDT reply actions

I can't believe I missed that

That story is amazing. Well done.

by Joe Budd on May 20, 2009 11:06 AM EDT up reply actions

This one is good too

I blame the new-fangled stadiums with playgrounds and water slides and whatnot:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/2009-05-18-955239775_x.htm

by hotspur on May 20, 2009 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions

not related to today's news,

but i haven’t heard anything about Figgy being DFA’d again. at least when the mets jerked heath bell around, he had options. poor Figgy is going to have to go through the realization that nobody in the majors wants him again. dude should be starting over livan, or at least given a shot to prove he’s better than fatty.

by englishgrey on May 20, 2009 11:37 AM EDT reply actions

Niese>Figgy>......>Pitching Machine>Livan

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on May 20, 2009 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions

no congratulations to glavwad and smulch from me

totally screw the both of them.

All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.

by kendynamo on May 20, 2009 11:47 AM EDT reply actions

I respect Smoltz

Glavine can make out with a mountain lion

by cjmulrain on May 20, 2009 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions

i hope that mountain lion

glavine makes out with eats his big dumb head. then kills smoltz.

All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.

by kendynamo on May 20, 2009 10:08 PM EDT up reply actions

The problem with Omar

Finished with Fangraphs and read about an interesting 1B in the Cubs’ system called Jake Fox. Fox is by no means a savior, but he is a very good lightning-in-a-bottle candidate who is being blocked by Derreck Lee and who (being a 27-yr.-old non-prospect) will be nearly free. We could use 1B depth badly and he seems to be a very good fit, as his SLG (not his OPS, his SLG) s hovering around 1.000.

The problem is, of course, that I know with certainty that Omar Minaya will not even think twice about him or any other solution which requires creativity/homework. He finds the most obvious answers to the most obvious problems and ignores everything else.

I will not allow the denigration of the life essence

by GenJackRipper on May 20, 2009 1:41 PM EDT reply actions

I don't think he finds the most obvious answers

I think he finds the answer that fits his rigid view of baseball and he’s familiar with. I.e no tall second basemen, no unathletic mashers…former expos.

by Gina on May 20, 2009 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Insert obnoxious commenter here

Latinos…

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on May 20, 2009 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions

My suggestion to all:

Everyone should leave work early today and go visit your parents, have dinner with them, and then go through the attic for your old Nintendo Entertainment System. Dust it off, hook it up, pop in your copy of RBI Baseball, and just play for hours.

Enjoy baseball in a pure way for just a night.

When you come back here for the next gamethread, you’ll feel much better.

by TheBigStapler on May 20, 2009 2:18 PM EDT reply actions

can I play it on an emulator so I don't have to trek out to NJ and hunt through the basement for a game cartridge?

by JoshNY on May 20, 2009 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes but you’ll need twice the cherry coke to make up for the compromised nostalgia factor.

by TheBigStapler on May 20, 2009 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions

I was a Bases Loaded guy

It had all these sweet fake players. I always played with Jersey, because they had Paste, the best power hitter in the game. 60 bombs, pre-PEDs.

by jasondg on May 20, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Ditto on Bases Loaded

although the clip of the bottom of the 10th of Game 6 being re-played on RBI baseball is awesome as well.

by meigs1414 on May 20, 2009 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes

That’s, like, the coolest thing ever.

by jasondg on May 20, 2009 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Baseball Stars all the way

That game was rad — build your own team, build player attributes and take on such classic teams as the Lovely Ladies, the Famous Monsters and the SNK All-Stars.

"The definition of edge is going out there and getting a few wins, and then all of a sudden you don’t have to worry about anyone talking about edge anymore," Wright said. "That's a thing in the past. Go ask Omar about that."

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 20, 2009 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions

hells yes

kinda gross how the lovley ladies used the same sprites as the other teams when they took the field. those pronounced crotch bulges gave me knightmares.

All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.

by kendynamo on May 20, 2009 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Baseball Stars

Was awesome. Remember inputting the codes and then answering that stupid question “When isn’t it?” to get a super team?

Still lost to the American Dreams far more often than not.

by Alex Nelson on May 20, 2009 9:02 PM EDT up reply actions

There were cheat codes?!

crap. Stupid pre-internet life.

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 20, 2009 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Although I agree with the idea

You’re going to have to factor in an hour for blowing on the game in order for it to work.

Ah the NES. What a great piece of technology.

by meigs1414 on May 20, 2009 3:07 PM EDT up reply actions

RBI Baseball is awesome

And perhaps the best part, they don’t have Steve Phillips doing color commentary. I will never forgive 2Ksports for putting that man in a video game.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 20, 2009 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions

I had Tecmo Baseball

awesome game, though nowhere near as good as Tecmo Super Bowl

by cjmulrain on May 20, 2009 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions

My fav is Ken Griffey Baseball for Super Nintendo

circa 1994.

by James Kannengieser on May 20, 2009 6:36 PM EDT up reply actions

Bah

In fantasy I just traded Stephen Drew, fresh off a hammy injury, for Dukes. I didn’t need Drew, I traded for J-Roll a few weeks ago after Drew’s miserable start, and I do have over 100 points in a 5×5 league, so I’m not sweating it too much, but the dude accepted my trade like, the second Dukes pulled up lame the other day. I still think it’ll pay off in the longrun.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on May 20, 2009 3:20 PM EDT reply actions