Archie Bunker's Army

So the Mets fattened up their number two hole in the batting order and their defense in the middle by trading for Luis Castillo "for a future back-up catcher and no-hit centerfielder as form of concession." Of course the Twins never gave that much up for Castillo to begin with: chump change in the form of Travis Bowyer and Scott Tyler , both of whom could probably one-hit the Mets... Anyway, the trade is great for Mets fans but bad for Twins fans and Ruben Gotay fans. Of course no one worth their salt gives a toss about Twins fans but hey, I was getting rather fond of Gotay. I mean what did this poor bastid have to do beyond hitting .350, slugging .504, and hitting .433 with RISP to keep his job? He was unfairly labeled as a mediocre fielder. Ok, he only hit .235 against lefties but I was happy watching him, another young steal courtesy of Omar. Sure, Castillo is a natural #2 hitter but the Mets already had the second-highest production out of the #2 slot in the Nationa...

Maine and Rain - this combination spoilt any hope the Nats had of taking three of four from the NL East leaders. No, this isn't the official burial of the Washington Nats, just a chat about the rain... The Mets needed only their first two batters, Jose Reyes and Lastings Milledge to give them all the runs they would need in the rain-shortened shutout; a leadoff double and an rbi single. Neither rain, nor sleet nor snow can stop Mr Wright from driving Mets home... They had the added boost of Ramon Castro's two-run homer in the 4th and RBI singles from David Wright in the 3rd and 4th innings and that just about sums it all up. The Mets had their 11th win in 18 games since the All-Star break, salvaged a split with the lost boys of the NL East. Homers Know Best Couldn't help but ponder what effect hitting that homerun in the 4th inning against the Pirates last week has had on John Maine. Since then he's pitched a total of 8 scoreless innings and looks as dominant as he ...

Game One: Mets 3 Nats 1 Opener Hits Right Notes For six innings we were looking at a sort of Bascik Redux ; the going-nowhere-fast pitcher making an every-dog-has-his-day comeback at the expense of the Mets batting order. Saturday afternoon it was Tim Redding making fools of Mets for 6 long and drawn out innings, striking out 8 and allowing only a run and it wasn't until they could feast on the Nats bullpen, Saul Rivera in particular, that they looked like they might pull this one out. Nearly another low-scoring no-decision but saved by his teammates in the end... Indeed, it was helpful that El Duque had a good outing of his own, albeit against the offensive laughingstocks of the National League, putting on a pitching performance so lacking in that of Jorge Sosa the night before. And with Beltran out another day, teetering on the brink of the DL and Moises Alou having a day off because, well, two games in a row is a bit of a stretch apparently, Lastings Milledge got to be t...

Jorge Sosa , pack yer bags. Was the tag hanging out of the collar the final blow for Sosa? This was the ever-struggling Nats , dead last in the National League in runs scored, dead last in homers hit, a sinking ship to be torpedo'd to the bottom of the sea of franchises running on fumes. This was Sosa, 1-4 with a 6.90 ERA in his last 6 starts, surrendering one double after another as though he were pitching batting practice rather than the opening game of a home series against the Nats. The 4th double of the inning was off the bat of Nook Logan , a Nat who had struggled so much this season he'd recently given up switch-hitting to concentrate on right-handed batting and gave the Nats a 3-0 2nd inning lead for his troubles. Adding insult to injury, Sosa walked the opposing pitcher before Rick Peterson finally came out to the mound for a visit. Sosa's arm continued to drop on his pitches, the slider continued to flatten out, and it was just barely that he made it out of the ...

With Roberto Hernandez off in Los Angeles blowing leads, last season deadline trade between the Pirates and the Mets boils down to a swap of one solid outfielder, Xavier Nady and one solid but formerly-troubled pitcher, Oliver Perez . Last night they faced each other for the first time at Shea and for the first five innings the margin was decidedly in Perez's favour. Perez was outstanding those first five innings, allowing only a hit and retiring Nady both times he faced him, first on a fly out to Shawn Green and then looking at strike three. 3-Ribby Nady v. Ruinous Error Perez In the interim the Mets were not exactly pouring down the run support. Of course with Lastings Milledge playing centerfield in place of Carlos Beltran , with Damon Easley patrolling the land in left field long ago vacated by Moises Alou and with Ruben Gotay starting at second base, the Mets were lucky to have fielded a team at all, let alone a team of immense power and run-scoring ferocity. As it was...

It wasn't a pretty beginning. After striking out the .238-hitting Nate McLouth , 12 of Tom Glavine's next 19 pitches were called balls as he walked the less-than-formidable trio of Sanchez, LaRoche and Bay to load the bases with Xavier Nady coming to the plate. The future Hall of Famer looking frazzled early on... The night before of course, the former Met smacked an RBI double in the first inning of his homecoming and quite frankly you began to sense after Glavine's miserable outing with a six-run lead against the Dodgers the last time he was on the mound was no fluke, but a pattern. Glavine induced Nady into grounding into a double play however and by doing so, deflating Pirate hopes early on in the game. Thereafter, Glavine was reasonably effective, allowing a lone single in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings. HeeHeeHeeHoHoHoHaHaHa, It's Only the Pirates... By then, thanks in large part to the suddenly inspired Paul Lo Duca , who until last night had been hitting a hig...

Sure, it was Xavier Nady's grand return to Shea and sure, he doubled home a run his first time up. How fragile and alone was Ian Snell feeling at that moment? Pity it wasn't Oliver Perez out there dazzling from the mound and hitting homers from the plate like the other steal-deal by Omar, John Maine , was last night But it didn't matter much anyway. The rapidly-fading Ian Snell was there to hand out the runs like candy to children from a paedo and the Mets were rolling to an 8-4 victory, their 8th in the first 12 games since the All Star break. Maine Has Joined The Homer Club, Finally Cracks A Smile At Home Following Maine's improbable, hell, incalculable two-run homerun in the 4th inning that gave the Mets a 6-2 lead, Maine seemed to gain an almost zen-like aura, tossing shutout innings the rest of his outing before ceding control to the bullpen. Most incredible perhaps of all was that despite smacking his first career homer, his first career hit for extra bases ...

Bring on the Braves... There will be more downs in this 2007 season but they won't be as low as June's and they won't stop the Mets from repeating as NL East champs. That's what it feels like anyway after the Mets completed their 4 game series in Chavez Ravine, winning 3, the finale on an RBI single by Met a no-name named Chip Ambres who got his first (and perhaps only) hit as a Met, and avenged a three game sweep suffered at the hands of these once-formidable-looking Dodgers only a month ago. Having missed all but the final game of this series due to more floods inundating the lands around me , it was heartening to see the series closed out in glorious, victorious fashion. To recap for anyone else who like The Army, was stuck in the hometown of Tricky, Massive Attack and Portishead , I've assembled a little Winners and Losers compilation. Team Winners: Mets : Momentum reaffirmed with a post-All Star break push towards defending their title. Kemp Says Oops in 9t...

Ok, everyone. Feel free to break out your Joe Smith Piñata . Helloooo Keeeeeds. My name eeees Yo Esmiff. Please beat me repeatedly with a stick... The Mets came aaaaaall the way back from deficit, rallied hard to tie the bloody game in the 8th, really - the whole team felt this was the Mets' game by now - only to see Joe Smith enter the game in the 8th (why? we're still checking on that) and walked a guy on four pitches with one out, allowed a ground ball single (to be fair with David Wright protecting the line at 3rd and widening the infield gap) and then, after a mound visit, after he convinced Rick Peterson he was man enough to get the job done, allowed a single to Geoff Blum that gave the Padres the lead right back and well, BLEEEEEEEEEEW the game. How did Smith feel about this hideous act? "It's horrible." Yes, indeed it is. On the other hand, a night after the Mets underwent what we all thought was a revitalisation at the plate, they were steamed by...

Whose the All Star now? King of the Hill For A Night The guy who threw six innings, gave up six hits, walked more batters than he walked himself, allowed 3 earned runs and went hitless at the plate? Or the guy who threw 7 beautifully pitched, 2-hit shutout innings, had a hit, scored and even stole a base? That's right, El Duque . The other guy, Jake Peavy , the one who started the All Star game only a week ago on the other hand, earned his 4th loss against 9 victories. Shall we mention that the All Star is now winless with two losses in his last four starts whilst Duque improved to 6-4 and lowered his ERA to 2.90? It wasn't just the pitching that earned the Mets this rare West Coast victory but the fact that with 8 hits they managed to score 7 runs. Of course this could be immediately attributed to the effect of HoJo re-introducing early batting practice. Or perhaps mere coincidence? Hardly. And just one night removed looking like somnambulists, they were led by the likes ...

It takes more than another round of gout to keep the Fat Man down. If the Mets were looking for something to blame for Monday night's tepid 5-1 loss to the Padres they needed look no further than the East-West coast trip they underwent collectively to get to San Diego in the first place. Was it merely a dream sequence in the midst of somnambulism that brought the game to 2-1 after six innings? And when violently shaken awake in the 7th by Joe Smith's perturbed two batter-two hit-one run sequence or worse still, Aaron Heilman's embittering three hit-two run pasting over 2/3 of the 8th inning which included a humiliating homer by former Met Mike Cameron , was this the latent sign of jet lag we were all hoping they could forstall until after the 9th inning when they were asleep in their hotel chambers? Nontheless, Jo Sosa, like Oliver Perez before him, performed admirably in his return from the DL, tossing 6 reasonably quiet innings of two-run baseball before succumbing to f...

I know, I know. Taking three out of your first four after the All Star game is enough to get the heart racing again following the break but not so fast - these were the Cincinnati Reds, after all. We're hungry - bring us some more NL Central Division lambs to slaughter - that's 15-6 now against this meagre little division. Now if we take two of three from the Padres on the West Coast it might start feeling like reality, we'll see. Nice to see Oliver Perez fresh rested off the DL coming back to toss 6 reasonable innings, allowing 2 runs and 6 hits whilst striking out 6. Worrisome were the 3 k's, perhaps but shake off the rust and this was nearly a very encouraging return. I dunno, it's difficult to maintain concentration with Mr Met dressed in combat fatigues and Keith Hernandez cracking jokes about Mr Met needing some war paint on his baseball head because otherwise he's such an easy target. And the two of them in the booth just guffawing acting generally g...

Matt Belisle was tailor-made for the plate-befuddled Mets, or so you thought prior to the game. 7.44 ERA over his last 8 starts and an NL-worst .386 average for hitters against him with runners in scoring position, the fatted calf for anxious Mets batters who can't hit their way out of a wet paper bag with runners in scoring position this season. So, with one out in 7th, men on first and second and the game tied 1-1 with Belisle on the mound and Carlos Beltran and David Wright coming to the plate, you had the feeling this should be the Mets' moment. But it wasn't. Instead you had the pair of them striking out like buffoons against a second-rate pitcher who hasn't shined in months, making one wonder yet again, where is this sudden satori at the plate now that the Mets have juggled hitting coaches? Forunately for Tom Glavine , a superb 8 inning, 2 hit 1 run performance didn't end in misery and regret owed to Mets meat and potatoes hitters turning into sour mash an...

Official Assignment of Blame: "I didn't feel good at all," Maine said. "I didn't prepare myself normally like I would every five starts, and it's just bad." 1. John Maine who was absolutely and uncharacteristically miserable against the first 4 batters he faced in the game, all of whom scored on a Brandon Phillips grand slam homer to give the Reds a 4-0 lead with none out to start the game. 2. Paul Lo Duca for the weak double play grounder with the bases loaded to end a potential rally in the 3rd. The Mets were only down 4-1 at that point. Lo Duca is looking down the barrel of an 0 for 17 slump. HoJo anybody? Is there a HoJo in the house? Two games against the stinkin' Reds, 7 runs... 3. To a lesser degree, David Wright for striking out standing there, unswinging with men on first and second, none out just before Lo Duca killed the rally off for good. Anything but a strikeout looking might have broken the game back for the Mets. What do...

To their credit, knowing that their position is precarious, the Mets didn't sit on their hands during the All-Star break even though they own a 2-game lead in the NL East. Whilst a night without Rick Down as hitting coach didn't appear to have any magic, restorative powers for the Mets (8 hits, 3 runs against the lowly Cincinnati Reds) his removal and the arrival of Rickey Henderson , who will serve as hitting coach, first base coach or some sort of super duper double secret base stealing team guru, depending on who you talk to. The change that DID matter, for a night anyway, was the replacement on the roster of the 48 year old Julio Franco with the controversial Lastings "Mr Misunderstood" Milledge . Very difficult to imagine Franco churning around those basepaths at lightning speed, scoring from first base on a single and executing that sort of slide at home plate. You don't make slides like this using a walker or leaping from a wheelchair... I've decided ...

I'm taking the last day of the All Star break to relax. In the interim, I leave you with a couple of Louis CK videos to enjoy: And here's more american,funniest of all.

Perhaps inevitable in all but style, its time to join the legions of bloggers looking back on the first half of the season, grading out the key players and results. As it turns out, this has been much more long-winded than I expected so to ease the eyes at times I will, in true Archie Bunker's Army tradition, give the eyeballs a well-deserved break here and there for what one might call a Fit Bird Break . ***** Catcher: Paul Lo Duca - Hopefully there is no foreshadowing in his having finished the first half with an 0 for 8 night in the Mets' 17-inning victory over the Astros. That came on the heels of his two game suspension for an outburst the month before and for which he must earn at least a few bonus points for passion, however misguided. Hitting under his career average thus far this season owed in part to his horrific .217 average at Shea and his overall .150 batting average for July. He's hitting a meagre .194 with RISP although to his credit, he is hitting .414...

Since the 34th game of the season the Mets have played .500 ball. Sunday's miserable 8-3 beating saw them split their series against the Astros but finished the road trip on a 5-6 note. Incredibly, or perhaps thanks to the mediocrity of the NL East, the Mets still maintain a two-game lead over the Braves going into the All Star break. The first 33 games were outstanding, the final 54, well, so-so, filled with more downs than ups and yet again, the NL East lead is maintained. On Sunday, with three of their starting pitchers on the DL ( Pedro , Sosa and Perez ) they enlisted the assistance of Dave Williams fresh from his own stint on the DL following surgery for a herniated disc in his neck. "Fresh" might be too strong a word. He lasted all of 3 1/3 miserable innings in allowing 10 hits and 8 earned runs, departing with a 21.60 ERA. Offensively, with replacements like David Newhan (who raised his average "all the way up" to .218 with a pair of hits) and the 4...

Lots of things to remark upon over 17 innings, a five hour 19 minute marathon most of which gets forgotten in the wee hours of the morning or as, for example, the first inning fades into the fifth which fades into the ninth and thus into the twelfth and thirteenth innings. There were two primary game-changing moments in the latter stages; Carlos Beltran's stunning catch in the 14th inning, the twisting, spinning, stumbling uphill grab of Luke Scott's smash on Tal's Hill that would have won the game for the Astros under most any other circumstances. "You've got to change the way you run. If you run the way you normally run, you're going to hit it and fall down. As soon as I hit the warning track I started doing kind of like high knees, and when I felt like I was on top of the hill the only thing I needed to do was look for the ball. The ball was going to the right side, and I saw it all the way." Of course he doesn't mention that Joe Smith , making h...

With nothing very positive to take from an uninspiring 4-0 shutout loss, the 5th loss in 6 games for the Mets, (another spin on the merry-go-round of losing) it is time to examine Mike Pelfrey's growing proximity to Anthony Young . Is this the inner soul of Michael Alan Pelfrey, the 2001 Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year? You might consider it absurd to compare Pelfrey's "slow start" to Young's fantastic journey down the motorway of 27 consecutive losses , an infamous mark of descent into the depths of sleazy inferiority. To whit: "Young made five starts in June. He lost all of them. (During one start, he burst into tears on the mound -- a problem that Young attributed to an allergic reaction.)" Following his 1-16 performance in 1993, Young was eventually delivered to the Chicago Cubs for a slap hitter by the name of Jose Vizcaino . Vizcaino went on to become the Mets Player of the Year in 1995. Vizcaino also went on to stab the Mets in the heart wit...

It seems a bit trite, petty even that three years gone from Carlos Beltran's free agent move to the Mets from Houston, Astros fans still boo his plate arrivals. It seemed even more ridiculous when he struck out his first THREE at-bats in last night's game, the second strikeout coming with two outs and the bases loaded, the Mets fostering a narrow 2-0 lead. But Beltran got his redemption in the 9th, homering for the first time in his career against the Astros, adding another run to the Mets first victory in 5 games, a welcomed victory out of the confines of Coors Field, far from the pitching embarassments of the last half of the week. Is this the official staff ace? Not only did the Mets win but they did so with a brilliant spot of pithing courtesy of John Maine who, in winning his 10th game of the season and 4th in a row, should have caused further embarassment to the muppets in charge of the All Star Game who left him off the squad. Maine struck out the side in the 1st inni...

So you've got El Duque on the mound, David Wright , who went into this game hitting .447 at Coors Field, hits a 3-run homer in the first inning and basically you feel almost comfortable in thinking, ok, losing streak ends tonight, right? Bzzzz. Wrong. One Man Does Not A Victory Make... Well, not immediately wrong of course. For an inning at least you could entertain such thoughts. But by the second, the leaking started. Brad Hawpe , 375 feet to right center field made it 3-2. Ok, it's Coors Field, it's 4th of July, homers flying out like illegal aliens from the back of a lorry at the border...anything's possible in a hitter's ball park. Not for the Mets hitters. Not even against a strawman like Josh Fogg . By the bottom of the 3rd the Rockies had tied it up after Sullivan stole his first base of the season, advanced to third on El Duque's wild pitch and scored on a long fly to right. Ok, tie game after 3 innings, still liking the chances. Sure, the Mets ...

Three games and three losses for July 2007. No amount of mound chatter was going to turn this into a successful outing Last night even more hideous than Tom Glavine's miserable 3rd inning the night before , was Zephyr Jason Vargas' pitching for the Mets. Now we can cut the kid a little slack. After all, I seem to recall 7 innings on May 17th against the Cubbies that ended with a walk-off homer by Carlos Delgado where Vargas threw a reasonable 7 innings of six-hit, five-run pitching (two homers and a 6.43 ERA to show for it). But there, kid. You've been cut your slack and then you go and hang yourself with the kind of atrocious outing that should make you happy to take the next bus back to New Orleans. I mean, wild pitch, balk, intentional base on balls, unintentional base on balls, 11 bloody hits, two of which were homers and 9 earned runs surrendered and you didn't even make it out of the 4th goddamned inning? What was this? Justin Vargas' impression of Germ...

As pretty as a loss is ever going to be... Well, at least we've still got Jorge Julio to kick around . He gave us our only two runs whilst on the mound for the Rockies in the 8th and perhaps in somewhat typical fashion, even if they did come sans walks , there was that wild pitch that scored Ruben Gotay . Otherwise, not much good can be said after the comedown from that somewhat euphoric grind over the Phillies on the weekend. Someone tell me again, why the fuck am I pitching in Colorado? And hey, let's face it, since the Mets were facing in Jason Hirsh , a rookie with one victory in his previous 12 starts, it was perhaps inevitable that they would twist him into the team ace - let's have a show of hands indicating the number of Mets victories against no-name, nowhere pitchers this season. And hey, let's add insult to injury because not only did Hirsh pitch the wind out of the Mets' sails, he added an improbable two-out, two-run single in that dreadful third inning,...