Archie Bunker's Army

"You win championships with a 25-man roster." Omar Minaya Well, you certainly don't win them with 10 man rosters. Nonetheless, whilst the temptation is to maintain a steady drone of hi-fidelity off-season whinge, I am now in a position to reluctantly admit that with hindsight, the off-season hasn't been the unmitigated disaster we all like to believe it's been. True, there is no shortage of Manny Wanters , those irresponsible minds who believe all problems can be solved by throwing money at them, (I mean really, why MUST the Mets sign Manny, just for the additional headaches and nausea sure to follow?)but in the meantime, Omar has been a reasonably good job at building the 2009 Mets. Lest yea forget, months ago, the bullpen was the biggest Achilles Heel in the history of baseball, (for those in love with hyperbole). Now look at it. A weakness turned into a strength. PLUS, no more having to watch Heilman hang his homer surrender monkey head or listening to Sch...

What a holding pattern. After the desperate Braves shook up the regime by paying over the odds for Derek Lowe and calling Omar's bonehead bluff to keep the sales figures low, the quiet on the free agent starting pitcher front has been deafening. Not that the Mets don't desperately need a starting pitcher to complete the rotation, ( Omar just spent a month's worth of vocal chords explaining to the world why he has to take care of the "pitching situation" first ), as though its some dirty little secret that can't be spoken about openly, i.e. that other than Omar, no one appears much interested in Oliver Perez or the rest of the lot at the minute. But I can't help but wondering we've somehow missed the boat and we're kicking around other peoples' garbage here, shopping in some pathetic third world trinket market for something a forgotten relative will find charming in an enigmatic sort of way a few months down the road. Hell, even Johan has chim...

So the Braves have given Derek Lowe another year but only $4 million more on a deal to get him . $4 million more. You have to wonder why the Mets didn't up their offer without increasing the length of the deal. Could it be because Omar is infatuated with Oliver Perez despite Olly's hair-pullingly frustrating penchant for lapses in concentration and focus? That Omar, despite his offseason moves, deep down loves to confound and demoralise Met supporters with puzzling moves? Can't speak for his motivations other than well, he likes Olly. Wants to make him a cabana boy for Yacht Club of September Choke and give him scads of cash and years to blow it in. But if he wasn't willing to part with enough beans to sign Lowe leaving Olly as the de facto favourite, why isn't auld Randy Wolf getting a closer look? Their numbers were nearly identical last season. Wolf had two more victories in one less start despite a 0.08 higher ERA. Wolf had a FAR better walk to strik...

Still pondering whether or not this is a joke: Mets new uni "patch" to commerate the mockery of the franchise... Frighteningly similar to Domino's Pizza logo. Well, well. The Chimps in the Mets marketing department should be congratulated for their consistency. This is what a little less than a year after that idiotic theme song which turned out to be an Rick Astley internet hoax. No one ever bothered to listen to my theme song . But really, rubbish logo, rubbish songs, choking dog team, what a laughable combination. But wait, it gets worse! According to this reliable source , with the Braves so desperate, they've offered the 35 year old Derek Lowe a four year $60 million contract leaving the Mets to slop up the messes of the likes of Oliver Perez for another excruciating three year period. Of course, nothing's official yet. Maybe it's all another internet hoax.

If the latest rumour mill is to be believed, the Mets appear to be close to signing Tim Redding to fill the fifth spot in the rotation. Smart move, if it comes to pass. Once you've carefully read the headline and realised after the initial shock, that thank christ, Redding isn't meant to be the answer to the stall in the negotiations to sign Derek Lowe . And of course, once you've gotten past the initial nausea of thinking jesus, the bottom-dwelling Nats didn't even tender this guy a contract even though he led the team in wins so what's wrong with him? Well, if you read this you'll find that as a rotation star, he was rubbish, however as a fifth starter... "The more you look at it, the more last year's Tim Redding seems like the "real Tim Redding" durably giving you a bunch of innings barely worth that of a 5th starter. Of course there is value in just having innings eaten up. The Nats bullpen has annually been killed by the fact the team...