Mets.com reported that Moises Alou’s return from the DL will be postponed due to weather in Florida. The rain washed away Moises Alou’s rehabilitation efforts Wednesday for the second time this week. So he flew to New York with plans to play for Double-A Binghamton on Friday instead. He will end up missing the series against the Phillies, but the Mets are hopeful that Moises will be ready to play on Monday. We need him back.
The Metropolitans finally decided to place Luis Castillo on the 15-day DL this morning, according to Mets.com. Argenis Reyes from Triple-A New Orleans will take Castillo’s roster spot, and they also recalled outfielder Chris Aguila from New Orleans on Thursday, optioning reliever Carlos Muniz back to the Zephyrs.
I’m thrilled that Castillo was placed on the DL, and I would be even happier if they just got rid of him. Unfortunately, Castillo is another old injury prone player on the Mets that Omar did not have a backup plan for so he is better than our other current options. However, the Mets have a much better record when Castillo is not in the 2 hole.
This afternoon, Jerry Manuel joined Chris Russo of WFAN in his weekly spot to talk about the status of the Mets. To hear the interview in its entirety, click here.
It is always intriguing to hear what former Mets have to say about the team. Most players give the politically correct garbage which I’m a fan of, and sometimes you get the angry players like Lastings Milledge and Paul Lo Duca. Milledge was so immature and never said anything good about the Mets after being traded. Lo Duca bashed the Mets down in D.C., but he was kissing their rear ends when he was on WFAN with Joe and Evan in New York. That’s a hypocrite.
Today, the New York Daily News found out that Scott Kazmir had this to say about being traded to the Rays in 2004…
“It turned out to be a blessing. If that doesn’t happen, I don’t pitch in the majors as soon as I did. If that doesn’t happen I’m not on this team, sitting in first place and hoping for October.”
The article also explained that Kazmir thought it was “a huge shock” when the Mets traded him, and he felt “heartbroken” because he never got the chance to make it to the Majors. I want to make two points about this. First, the Mets have always lacked the knack for spotting talent. It always seems like players that come up the farm system play better after leaving the Mets. Second, the players also seem to like it better not playing in New York.
Earlier this morning, ‘Joe and Evan’ of WFAN were joined by Brian Schneider in his weekly spot after a bad loss in St. Louis. To hear the interview in its entirety, click here.
The Mets recalled Tony Armas Jr. from Triple-A New Orleans so he can start tonight against the Cards, according to Mets.com. To make room on the roster, the Mets designated Andy Phillips for assignment. After making the start tonight, the Mets intend on using Armas in the long-relief role once occupied by right-hander Claudio Vargas. In 17 starts with the Zephyrs, Tony compiled a 5-7 record and a 2.54 ERA, striking out 88 batters and walking just 20. For his career, Armas holds a 3.98 ERA against the Cardinals.
According to Anthony DiComo of Mets.com, Moises Alou “was scheduled to play in a rehab game for Class A St. Lucie on Monday, and though the game was postponed due to rain, Alou could still rejoin the Mets when they travel to Philadelphia this weekend.” That’s great news for the Metsies because they will be in Philly during the weekend. The upside is that Alou is always productive when he is on the field. The downside is that his age is making it difficult for him to stay healthy for an extended period of time. Alou has be placed on the DL three times already this year.
In this week’s ‘25 BEST MOMENTS AT SHEA’, Brian Costello of the New York Post lets us know what No. 13 is…
Pope is king of Queens
SHEA STADIUM
Oct. 3 1979
In the second papal visit to New York, Pope John Paul II made Shea Stadium one of his stops during his seven-day tour.
The appearance in Queens was his last day in New York and a torrential downpour soaked the more than 60,000 people gathered to see the pontiff. The rain cleared up as soon as the Pope reached the stadium, causing some of the visitors to say they had witnessed a minor miracle.
The Pope gave a rousing speech about the qualities of New York City and spoke in four different languages, getting loud applause from the different ethnic groups gathered there.
“Above all, a city needs a soul if it is to become a true home for human beings,” the Pope said of New York. “You, the people, must give it this soul. And how do you do this? By loving each other. Love for each other must be the hallmark of your lives.”
Even when the Pope’s English broke down, the crowd gave him a big cheer. When he referred tot the city’s large buildings as “sky scrappers” or pronounced all the C’s in “Connecticut,” the crowd gave him warm applause.
Crowds that went four deep and covered up by umbrellas lined the route the Pope used to get to Shea Stadium. The Pope rode in a white truck with a handrail and the papal seal on the side. He was surrounded by police and secret servicemen.
During the Mass, the Pope sat on a 109-year-old oak chair that had been found in the basement of St. Augustine’s Church in Bay Ridge.
At the end of the Mass, the Pope blessed the crowd, spoke the Latin words of the blessing then said “Good-bye.” Thousands raised crucifixes, rosary beads and pictures. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” played as he departed for La Guardia Airport.
Jon Blau of Mets.com reported that the Mets activated Ryan Church as expected. To make room on roster, the Mets placed Trot Nixon on the 15-day DL on Sunday with a left groin strain. I was unaware that anything was wrong with Nixon. According to Jerry Manuel, “He played as hard as he could, battled as hard as he could. It limited him somewhat, but he would never mention that it did. He just wanted to play, so hopefully this will give him a chance to heal and rest up a bit.” I guess that’s why I didn’t know anything about it. Let’s hope that Trot comes back healthy.
I was just about to write a post bashing Jose Reyes for another base running error during today’s Yankees-Mets game. While I was looking for more Mets material, I found out that Jeremy Cothran of The Star-Ledger already had this to say about Reyes…
I could waste a ton of column inches on how Jose Reyes is one of the more dynamic shortstops in baseball. And I could also waste a lot of column inches on why he just drives you up a freakin wall.
Case in point, the fifth inning. With two outs, Reyes gets picked off second base (which I predicted would happen to the Ledger’s Lisa Kennelly). Getting picked off is going to happen when you steal bases, but there is absolutely ZERO excuse to get picked off second with two outs. David Wright was at the plate and a base hit would have scored Reyes.
Inexcusable.
I couldn’t agree more. Jose wasn’t stealing, he got picked off with 2 outs with Wright at the plate. On top of that, Pettitte got confused before he even threw to second which delayed the pickoff attempt. This means that Reyes had even more time than normal to get back to second. The Mets were losing 2-1 at the time. These poor base running decisions have become common for Reyes in ‘08. I stopped defending Reyes after he stopped playing for Willie last season. I know that on any given day he can be the best player in baseball, but he has more things that I don’t like than I do like. He quickly became one of my favorite Mets. He lost points for not performing in the ‘06 Playoffs, but I made the excuse that he’s young and will make it up in the future. In ‘07, he was on fire for the first half of the season and disappeared down the stretch when it mattered most…all because Willie benched him for not running out ground balls. In ‘08, he is an average player offensively and defensively. He keeps making these base running errors. His attitude sucks. My love for him has faded, and he needs to finish ‘08 as strong as he began ‘07 for my love for him to come back.
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