Marlon Anderson had his appeal hearing this morning and was "sickened" by the umpire's report of the Sept. 15 incident. Anderson was tossed after flipping his helmet in the direction of plate umpire Dan Iassogna, but he was accused of doing much more than that in the report.
"He said I said the f-word three times," Anderson said. "Anybody who knows me knows I don't do that. He said I screamed it from the dugout. I have better words to use than that ... It makes me sick to my stomach. That's not who I am."
Anderson received a two-game suspension for his actions. But in light of the recent Milton Bradly episode, which actually resulted in the suspension of umpire Mike Winters, Anderson is likely to have his cut in half.
It was surprising to see Carlos Gomez in tonight's lineup against Nats lefthander Mike Bacsik rather than Lastings Milledge. As usual, manager Willie Randolph bristled when asked about his decision, but begrudgingly said it was for defense. With Beltran's knees hurting, the speedier Gomez can cover more ground than Milledge, who is a much better hitter.We'll see if the tradeoff works tonight.
Orlando Hernandez was not in a very talkative mood, but as far as I can tell, he'll try a simulated game tomorrow. El Duque had his right foot taped and was messing around with some different-sized pads -- presumably for his bunion -- as he shuttled from his locker to the trainers room.
Comments (8)
If we lose the division and make the worst collapse ever, Omar should dismantle the bullpen and start over. Mets fans are crying uncle and getting spanked!
Good to see Duque pitch tonight. I guess Willie wants to get him ready for his next start on April 4th, because it looks like our postseason has come and gone.
As much as I have been ragging on Willie's managing, the person you really have to blame for this whole debacle is the man who put together the bullpen, Omar Minaya. While he was busy ignoring the Mets most consistent reliever last year, Chad Bradford, watching him sign with the O's for less money than he ended up giving journeyman Schoenweis, he didn't waste a second throwing a ton of money at Mota, despite the fact that he's a gutless (ask Piazza) cheater who had to miss the first 50 games of the season. Add to that trading away young pitchers Bannister, Lidstrom, Ring and (most conspicuously) Heath Bell, and you had a disaster in the making. I remember reading that Billy Wagner told Bell that it was clear the Mets weren't going to give him a shot and that Bell had no idea what he did to get himself in the doghouse.
The difference this year between the Mets and Yanks is that, while both teams had big question marks with their pitching, the Yanks were lucky to find out they had trouble early, so they could make adjustments and give rookies like Hughes and Joba a chance to gain experience for the playoff push. Unfortunately for the Mets, they didn't see how thin their relief staff was until it was too late, after the trading deadline passed. And they didn't handle their rookie pitchers well either, especially Joe Smith who started strong but was farmed out during his first slump, hurting his confidence and not allowing him to learn to work it out at the major league level. So, in my opinion, if anyone should get the ax for this historic collapse, it should be the man who assembled this roster. It doesn't take too much talent to throw boatloads of money at stars like Beltran, Pedro, Wagner and Alou. The talent comes in putting together the entire 40 man roster, and when it was put to the test, it faltered.
You are of course right about Omar but the problem goes much deeper than just the bullpen....
Look at the starting staff he told us could win...two over forty year olds as your #1, #2...one with a history of injuries....they got about what they could expect from Perez and Maine (especially early in the case of Maine) but never had a #5....and now Pedro comes back and because he can only go every 6 days, it fouls up the rest of the rotation...and of course the fact that none of them give you more than 5 innings (except Perez) means your poor bullpen is further exposed.
But there's more...on the surface it seems the Mets are scoring plenty of runs but that's only on the surface...let's look at some individual players..David Wright, very hot right...where's the power? And let's see two weeks ago on Saturday afternoon two on and one out down by 2, what does he do? He strikes out...big deal on Sunday he hits a home run to cut a 5 run deficit to 4. And then thereis his defense which opened the floodgates in Washington on Monday night and the error that cost them the Thursday game in Florida.
Beltran same game Saturday weak fly ball to end the game, but I will give him the three home run the next day that tied the game unti Mota and Sosa blew it...but then again why were the Mets trailing by 2 runs to begin with other than his horrible play in center field that day.
Let's talk about Alou...29 game hitting streak..how many rbi's? How many home runs...yes a big hit Tuesday night to plate 3 but that still left them 1 run short and let's not mention his defense in left field.
Delgado....trailing by one run tying run on second, Keith Hernandez is showing holes in the defense you could run a truck through and he's swinging for the fence to become a hero.
Don't get me started on Reyes...there are the Mets Tuesday night still trailing by one run in the ninth inning and he's doing his bouncing thing in the dugout with a grin a mile high...wait for them to tie the game at least and let's not mention how his failure to cover second base on the ground ball to Delgado in the first base hole cost them 3 runs or the two errors in the Sunday game against the Phillies opened the floodgates there.
Power...the Phillies need a home run they have Rollins, or Howard or Burrell...how many 3 run home runs has our wonderful collection put up when they needed it the past month...and how many grand slams have our wonders hit this year (I'll give you a hint, it's less than one).
The team has been ill constructed rom the start and yes Willie sometimes doesn't have a clue but to put the entire blame on him is ridiculous.....
And folks are right about the inability to plan ahead...obviously the bullpen stunk so the Yankees went ahead and made one of their top prospects an eighth inning man...why wasn't the same done for Pelfrey or one of the other starters...and why do the Yankees pick up all these studs and we get guys life Pelfrey. Where are our scouts, Omar, scouting in the Dominican and the rest of Latin America.
So what next after this season mercifully ends on Sunday because even if they sneak in with this pitching staff and this lack of clutch hitting and lack of power they ain't going anywhere.
So let's see it's bye bye LoDuca to be replaced by whom...Pudge Rodriguez...of course he fits in with the rest of the Los Mets.
Now of course, as Omar tried to explain on the M&MD show a week ago, sometimes you make moves and they backfire, it happens to everybody. And nobody can account for the regression of Wright as a power hitter and the injury plagued season of Delgado but somebody please tell me one move this year that has worked....
Yes it's Willie's fault to a degree but the big mystery is how Omar, a man who built and brought in all the young players Washington used to score 32 runs against this vaunted Met pitching staff the last 3 games can't do the samething here.
Heads will have to roll and we might as well start from scratch because there ain't no help on the way.
Well said Jeff I agree 100% with you.
I wanted to put my fist through the TV the other night at the sight of Reyes hopping around like a school girl. People question the maturity of a kid like Milledge. Take a look at the two supposed Poster Boys for the Mets of the future.
I think there is alot more to be seen behind the scenes of this team. like a power struggle between our GM and Manager.
So, there are some FA's and things to take care of in the offseason. This team was being built to take us into the new stadium with excitement and enthusiasm. Simpler said being built for the $$$$$ reason of filling the new stadium. So if they collapse I wonder how many seats will open up for the new stadium? Instead of turning away partial ticket holders will they be begging them to take partial plans? I say this because if this team collapses that is a huge Choke! If it makes it to get bounced in the first or second round that is a huge choke!
Then with personnel changes and things that have to happen next year. How excited are many fans going to be next year? Which to me means that this team will be signing quite a few big name FA's to fill the seats next year and the following in the new stadium.
This is NY. If the product stinks they go for the names to put in lights. After last year and heading into this year it looked like this team was heading in the right direction. If this year is a total bust this team is destined to take steps backwards.
FOR THE $$$$$!
let's hope they sneak in and do a 2006 Tigers reversal, except the WS choke
Alph, you can come to my house and watch the games. These other guys are too negative. He he he...
Let's go Mets! Let's go Mets!
Let's face it there is plenty of blame to go around not matter what happens in relation to the post season. Omar needs to be taken to task for his refusal to bring on any number of non latino players. His statement that he would have no problem with an all Latino team is very telling. If anyone said they would be ok with an all white or black team they would have been severely chastised. Omar not only didn't get scoulded he went out and replaced non latino players with latino players. Some where an improvement but others were questionable. Randolph is a joke. This isn't the Yankees or the American league and he didn't learn much on Joe's knee. Rather he has failed to motivate his team and lost control. Managerial mistakes in a game are expected but keeping players head's in the game and getting them to play hard for you is not his forte. Give me Manuel or Acta for that
Well said Metsman!