The Mets Corporate Color

It's not a secret & it's well documented. The Mets Omar Minaya finds a way to get player to NY, as long as their the "corporate" color.

Late last night Mark Derosa was acquired by the Cardinals for Chris Perez & the ever famous PTBNL (player to be named later). Derosa would have been a perfect fit for the Mets (among other teams). Good lifetime OBP, a veteran hitter in a lineup, but most importantly, he's so flexible he can still play any position (likely the OF) once Beltran, Delgado, & Reyes come back. Derosa unfortunately wasn't the "corporate color" & Minaya likely never gave him a 2nd thought. Derosa is actually Italian, not Hispanic. Last year the Mets failed to get Casey Blake (American) when available. It may be a coincidence, but a disturbing trend nonetheless. Blake & Derosa as they type of hard-nosed players needed in Queens. This is apparent to everyone, except the incompetent General Manager of the Metropolitans. The Mets have a severe lack of "fire" in that clubhouse. They all seem so passive. & while blake & derosa aren't fiery guys, i can guarantee you they care & give a damn. Which is more than i can say for some of the players there. The player I'm most upset is at Carlos Delgado. Where is the "clubhouse leader" he was supposed to be? The biggest mistake Minaya made was picking up his option on a year Mark Teixeira was available as a Free Agent. Instead of take charge lead by example guys who hustle (& happen to be white), the Mets have settled for below average performers who seem to not give a damn about wins or losses.

So dig in Mets fan. Because this will not change until the culture changes. & the first change needed is right at the top

Sometimes Less is More

NBA Draft was last night & after digesting all the players drafted & the situations they are in, I've concluded that the less you did, the better off you were. Sometimes it's not a mystery why good teams stay good & why bad teams stay bad. In the below example I will talk about 4 teams. The Spurs, Magic, Timberwolves, & the Kings. Can you guess who are the winners & losers? Don't just guess. Take the same journey I did, & find out why.

The Winners

The San Antonio Spurs made the best pre-draft move by adding a 20 PPG scorer in Richard Jefferson, giving away 3 bench clogging players in the process. Then, with no first round pick, instead of trading up in a weak draft, they waited...& waited...& waited some more. Then before you knew it, they get the steal of the draft. DeJuan Blair, projected to go in the middle of the 1st round, fell right into their laps at 37. While other teams made noise (see Minnesota below), the Spurs made sense, getting the physical rebounder they needed. If Blair sticks (& he'll be giving every opportunity), this will allow Duncan to move over to center, while Blair just eats up rebounds inside & learns from one of the best coaches in the NBA. Blair finds himself looked over by less intelligent teams, but in an ideal situation with a Championship contender. & while many detractors will talk about the "health concerns," they fail to tell you he only missed 1 game at Pitt in 2 years.

The Orlando Magic instantly became the most exciting team to watch next year by trading for Vince Carter. So even with the pending lose of Hedo Turkoglu, the Best team in the East just got better, even trumping the Cavs move getting Shaq. Now guess who the Magic drafted last night? NO ONE. So why did they win? Because this was one of the thinnest & most overhyped drafts of recent memory. So instead of buying a lemon for 5 figures, the Magic walked off the car lot with their credit intact, walked to the next lot & wheeled off in a Bugati.

The Losers

The Minnesota Timberwolves did their best Jason Williams (White Chocolate Jason Williams) imitation on Thursday. They made all those extra moves & didn't score. From my perspective, Rubio is too much of an unknown for my taste. & why take risk at Point Guard? I would have drafted Jonny Flynn. But what do you know, they did pick Jonny Flynn...David Kahn has dreams of playing them both ala Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge. Really? If that was the thought process, why not draft Flynn & Curry? Curry is a much better shooter than Rubio, with much better range. So which of those 2 is playing Danny Ainge? Now Rubio is already angry, Ricky is already saying he might not opt out of his Euro contract...& who can blame him? Later the Wolves go on to draft Ty Lawson. That's 3 Point Guards in the first round. But it didn't stop there...their PG thirst not quenched they also drafted Nick Calathes from Florida (averaged 17 PPG & 6 APG). On a team that has holes at Small Forward & Shooting Guard, they drafted 4 PG. What was the point? This is why the Wolves are the Wolves. Poorly run franchise, still making bad decisions. The T-Wolves outsmarted themselves Thursday & no one else. When one of your very own players (Kevin Love) Twitters "what are we doing?" you have to wonder the same.

Lastly, the Sacramento Kings actually drafted 3 players last night. Yet did everything within their power, to assure themselves another Lottery pick next year. Mission accomplished. Tyreke Evans was a monumental reach considering 2 PG graded ahead of him (Curry & Rubio) were still available. When you think PG, you think ball distributor. Evans averaged less than 4 APG in Memphis. So instead of getting the passer they severely needed, they drafted a player that will back up star guard Kevin Martin at Shooting Guard with the #4 pick. Then with the 23rd pick, the Kings select obscure Euro leaguer Omri Casspi (pronounce it, I dare you). European players in the league exhibit certain skills like great passer, a good mid range game, & ball handling skills. Well Omri possesses none of these. His scouting report positives are: Good NBA size for a Small Forward, energetic, & "jack of all trades." I don't know about you, but when i hear "jack of all trades" my first thought is this guy doesn't do 1 thing great. Casspi averaged about 9 PPG & 3 rebounds per game. What "trade" do those stats fit under? Mediocrity if you ask me. Before the draft, the Kings desperately needed front court help, especially in the rebound department where they were next to last in the league last season. But wait...the Kings had one had 1 more chance to get it right...& with the 32nd pick they indeed do get it right. "Take that obscure blogger guy." The Kings had finally done it, they drafted Jeff Pendergraph, the 6'9 Power Forward from Arizona State that averaged 14 PPG & 8 RPG...Kings fans celebrated..."we got one right...we did it...YES!!!"...then the party ended, as Sacramento traded Pendergraph to Portland for Sergio Rodriguez & Jon Brockman. Brockman, while a great rebounder, is a 6'7 PF with nowhere near the athletic skill of Pendergraph. In fact, Pendergraph outscored & outrebounded Brockman in BOTH games Arizona State played against Washington last season. The Kings indeed. The Kings of bad draft day moves.

So to recap, The Spurs had 1 pick, the Magic had 0 picks, the Wolves had 4 & the Kings have 3. Yet the Spurs & Magic did more with less, while the Wolves & Kings continued to make inept decisions with extra picks.

Say it is Sosa

Another day, another of the 103 names from the "anonymous" test in 2003. At this point, the media would make a bigger splash releasing the names of 650 plus players that didn't test positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Somehow I feel like Jose Canseco has the entire list & is blackmailing MLB via phone. "Hey Bud Selig...it's me Jose Canseco. I have the list of the 103 players that tested positive in my hands." "I want $100,000,000 & admission into the Hall of Fame." "If you fail to meet my demands, I will leak the list one name at a time." "I have some juicy names Bud...don't make me do it"

The latest leaked name was Samuel Peralta Sosa. But was this really a shock? The real surprise came when he announced his retirement and proclaimed, "I always played with love and responsibility and I assure you that I will not answer nor listen to rumors. If anything ugly comes up in the future, we will confront it immediately, but with all our strength because I will not allow anybody to tarnish what I did in the field." Sammy as you all remember didn't answer questions in front of Congress, why set new precedent now would be my question. Sosa was a real "hero" to the Dominican people. And because of my heritage (Dominican), this is somewhat difficult to write. But Sosa was among the most fraudulent players to ever play in baseball. His phony smile, his kisses towards the camera, his annoying hop, his false enthusiasm as he ran out to RF in Wrigley...& we all ate it up. Lovable? maybe to the droves of groupies on the road. But I digress...Sammy even bought into his own hype, knowing his numbers weren't on the level, he sat out the 2006 season because "he was too proud to take a minor league deal" after a season in which he slugged a paltry .376. It was apparent to everyone, he was the Sosa of old. The real Sosa.

The book on Sosa before the 98 season was free-swinger lacking plate discipline that struck out way too often. At the end of the 97 season he had an OPS of .779, nothing to write home about. The very next year he won the MVP & his OPS EXPLODED above the 1.000 mark the 4 seasons after 97. Those are the type of stats, that will get you on Pepsi commercials. Of his 609 HR Sosa hit 336 after the age 30. Despite his increase in HR, Sosa actually struck out at the same rate from 89-97 as he did in 98-07 (23% of the times). So how did he become a "better" hitter without progressing as a hitter? A better question is how much more "evidence" is needed before you believe what every other expert in the game knew? I'm in the court of public opinion so I don't need much. & if the judicial system can convict a person of murder without a body, I can certainly convict Sosa of juicing, with this circumstantial evidence.

In his retirement speech Sammy arrogantly said, "I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don't I have the numbers to be inducted?" Wait you will Sammy...& wait & wait. To answer your question Sam...yes you do. You do indeed have "the numbers". What you don't have is the integrity. & before 1998, you didn't have the talent. Luckily for you Sammy, you might not need either to be eventually inducted.

How Baseball Has Become ESPN's Illegitimate Son

ESPN is celebrating it's 20th year of broadcasting baseball. It's never been more apparent, that it's become the 3rd or 4th fiddle to any other Sport carried by the "World Wide Leader" & it's partially their own fault.

You would think ESPN execs would sell out their own mothers to broadcast a Yankees-Mets game (which would draw huge nationally because of NY especially with Santana pitching). Instead, they'll televised two teams that won't draw nationally what the NY game would. Why? Because on a day the "sister station" ABC runs Game 5 of the NBA Finals, ESPN purposely picked a game they knew less homes would tune into, in order to protect the ratings for ABC & the NBA. The Sunday Night Game between the Cardinals & Indians while intriguing for me to watch, obviously has LESS national appeal then some of the other series being played. I count at least 3 games that would have drawn better numbers than this one. Mets-Yankees, Red Sox-Phillies, & I can make an argument with the Dodgers-Rangers. All huge markets that would draw better nationally than Cards-Tribe. This game was originally an afternoon game when the schedule was out, magically rescheduled. ESPN will of course, have the Mets-Yankees on June 28th as the Sunday Night game. While MLB is somewhat a victim, they also share part of the blame for selling their own game short & not making it more recognizable nationally.

MLB's non-existent marketing scheme leaves them vulnerable to becoming the #3 sport to football & basketball in the near future. They are already losing younger & minority viewers to the NFL & NBA. Meanwhile the NFL had a campaign in order to attract more Spanish viewers with the Futbol Americano spots. ESPN polling showed that among Spanish dominant Hispanics only 32.8% of respondents considered themselves NFL fans and 8.7% called themselves avid NFL fans. Compared to 64.4% of English dominant Hispanics are NFL fans and 34.3% called themselves avid NFL fans. So the NFL went out & marketed the sport to people who technically don't watch the sport. In fact, ESPN Deportes has been broadcasting NFL games in Spanish the last couple of year. Brilliantly done by the best marketed sport in the world...

MLB has no such plan. Consider this...unless you're a fantasy guy or live in LA you don't know who Matt Kemp is. Yet he's one of the elite young talents in the game playing for the 2nd biggest market nationally. If you aren't a baseball fan, you couldn't pick someone like Ian Kinsler out of a lineup, if he had his uniform on. Yovani Gallardo is unrecognizable outside of Milwaukee. Who's Joey Votto? I could go on all day. These players are all less recognizable than someone like Mark Sanchez & likely have less jersey sales than someone like David Lee, but are more impactful players in their sport. They are part of the large influx of young talent baseball has had lately. While I don't personally like Dustin Pedroia, MLB lost a huge opportunity not promoting a 5'5 160 pound player as the AL MVP to young kids. Remember the Chicks Dig the Long Ball campaign? MLB needs something similar. There's no reason players wearing helmets & mask are more recognizable.

Mets Lose in Excruciating Fashion...What Else is New?

I avoided writing this last night because i didn't want it to be reactionary towards the disaster in the Bronx yesterday. For those not keeping score the Mets lost the first game of the Subway Series last night 9-8, when Luis Castillo dropped a can of corn pop up of Alex Rodriguez's bat. So it wasn't the loss obviously, it was how they lost it.

Losses are always more memorable than wins. Just ask Yankee fans as I'm sure they can tell you about the Dave Mlicki CG Shutout in 97 when Interleague play started. But this loss was beyond devastating. As soon as Castillo faded back, you can see him possibly dropping the ball. Then, inexplicably, he throws the ball the 2nd base while Teixeira rounds 3rd...laughable, if not so tragic. Clearly Castillo wasn't paying attention to the situation or the field of play. I've seen a lot of heart breaking plays in sports, this is near the top of the list.

The only good that can come of this is the Mets go into a tailspin, missing the playoffs, resulting in a massive head rolling session in Queens, starting with the GM responsible for bringing Castillo to NY & ending with Jerry Manuel's firing. When Alex hit the ball to "end" the game, my thoughts were, "headline tomorrow, A-Rod fails in the clutch again" instead he's bailed out, by a player I said the Mets should release (last week on TSP Off Air). I'm sure the good fans of Yankee Stadium will give Castillo quite the ovation when introduced today (if he plays). Deservedly so

Lost in all this though was the sheer HUSTLE by Mark Teixeira, who scored all the way from 1st base. That's the type of heart, leadership, & heads up play needed in Flushing.

Shake Hands or Flex Finger

Recently LeBron James was fined $25,000 for skipping the Game 6 post game press conference. A lot was made about James leaving the court early & not shaking his opponent’s hand. Notice though he was fined for passing on the press conference & not the post game hand shake. What message does it send to me? The same one you’ll read about in this blog…who cares?

Now before you read any further, this is strictly my opinion, Russ Rosario. My co-host Joe Sarno COMPLETELY disagrees with me on this point. Now on to my view…

Once again the mass media whore jumped on this as if it was some egregious act. See, I myself like what the Pistons did in 1991 & walked off the court on the Bulls. I don’t like the friendly hand shaking GARBAGE. Don’t give me this sportsmanship crap. I just got beat, I am frustrated, the last thing I’m going to do is congratulate the next man. Truthfully, I don’t want to see sportsmanship in today's sport. I want heated competition while still respecting my opponent. In my opinion one doesn't have to shake hands or congratulate to show respect. It should be understood really. So often the media runs with stories of players on rival teams being “too friendly” to each other. So which way do you want it? Don’t say you can hate a rival & be a good sport. The hell with being a good sport. I care about ME winning. I don’t want to wish anyone else good luck. I just lost, I could give a damn if another team or player wins or lose. As a child I would walk off the field after losses REGULARLY. Of course once I was benched I took part in the hated post game festivities.

My point is this. I don’t want anyone else to pawn off thoughts on their idea of morality to me if I don’t agree with it. Much like the media & others have done to James the past 2 weeks. To me, sportsmanship is meaningless & should be a choice. It isn't mandated by the NBA to shake hands after a game, nor should it be mandated by the media, society, or the fan base. It doesn’t add anything to the game, in fact, I would argue it takes away from the competitive spirit of the game. I don’t want to see the Francisco Rodriguez walking over to Jimmy Rollins as he mutters, “great game man” or “better luck next time”. SCREW THAT. Pump a fist or hang your head as you walk off the field. You are hated rivals engaged in competition. Do you really want to see Derek Jeter hug Jonathan Papelbon & say, "good luck in the Fall Classic kid, you earned it..."

So i commend James for taking an unpopular stance & passing on the post game hand shake. Now I do take exception to James skipping the post game press conference. You have to answer questions & give us your thoughts & views as to what happened during the game & throughout the series (even though it was pretty obvious). In short…if you’re the King, answer your Kingdom. Ignore the peasants criticism on the congratulatory hand shake.

And Now at Shortstop...

Derek Jeter…But for how long? I recently asked a friend of mine his thoughts on Derek Jeter’s pending free agency in 2010. He had an intriguing response.

“That's the 1000 lb gorilla in the room. Obviously he can't be resigned to be the SS anymore. He would have to move to a corner OF spot and not sure that's the greatest of ideas. I guess you never know, but I don't think there's any chance he signs somewhere else. Definitely gonna be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Jeter, the Yankee Shortstop the last 15 seasons, in the OF? & this is the response from a Yankee fan. That’s as unimaginable as a move to a different team. I myself can’t imagine Jeter anywhere but at SS. Jeter, who has never been had great range for a SS is getting older. And you have to wonder where the Yankees & Jeter part ways in 2010. In 2003, Alex Rodriguez had to move to 3B even though many thought Rodriguez was the better defensive SS. Same friend told me it’s not out of the question Derek moving to 3B with Alex coming out of 2 hip surgeries and getting older himself. A move Cal Ripken himself made.

This is of course the challenge that meets every athlete, once they get older, no matter how beloved a figure in the organization, their bodies can’t do the same & must consider a different situation. That’s the problem in NY, they have entirely too many players that are not fit to play the field or the position they naturally play because of age & deteriorating skill. And as unimaginable as it is for Jeter to play anywhere but SS, remember how painful it was to watch #51 in CF a few years ago? Williams, once an exceptional athlete, no longer could track down routine flyballs. The problem will continue to get worse. Posada was this year’s exhibit A, with Jeter close behind, & Rodriguez after that, you wonder what the Yankees will do with so many DH type players. The same problem they have now, with Damon & Matsui. He's a great leader & a must have in the clubhouse, but how long before you stop running him out to Shortstop