The Power of HooDoo

Epic Fail

2009-08-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

Jesus, can't the Mets do anything right? I mean, this entire season has been a double serving of fail. But the one remaining major league-caliber position player on the team gets beaned in the head, and you can't even retaliate properly? FAIL.

Santana, your heart was in the right place, you just couldn't get it done. Just like the Mets always can't get it done.

God, this reminds me of another time a team spectacularly failed to protect their star player after a concussive beaning. Thankfully the Mets don't have any shameful incidents like that in their past, the memory of which I would have to kill with cheap bourbon. Yes, thank God that never happened.

PS -- Matt Cain, I'm sure it was an accident. But tipping your hat to the crowd afterward was not.

Pencil

2009-07-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

I remember one time when I was a kid, maybe six or seven or something, and I saw my grandfather* sharpen a pencil with his pocket knife, and thinking it was the most bad-ass thing I'd ever seen.

"Holy crap, I didn't even know you could do that!"

Which just goes to show how easy it is to impress a six-year-old. Also shows that grandpa used to routinely carry a knife. Just sayin'.

* My dad's father, the shoelace salesman, not the farmer; eighth grade education when he came to this country, interesting guy.

Fuck You, Omar Minaya

2009-07-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Are you shitting me? For real? You go to hell. You go to hell and you die!

Rageohol

2009-01-22T18:24:00.001-08:00

Today I am filled with rageohol. It's like alcohol, except your body produces it naturally.

Not Baseball, But Awesome

2008-10-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

I could watch this clip every day and twice on Sundays.

Also, congratulations to the Rays on making the world series. Your continued existence depends on how quickly you are able to eviscerate the Phillies. That is all.

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I Don't Know If Anybody Else Remembers . . .

2008-09-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

. . . this, but it's obvious what the choice should have been. Hey hey hey.

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Beast King GoMets!!

2008-09-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Man, this is awesome. I wish I'd thought of it first. Also, I am totally stealing this image for my fantasy team next year.

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Sorry I Have Not Been Posting

2008-09-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

Ten! (In A Row)

2008-07-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

Tied with the Phillies! Down is up, black is white; we are through the looking glass here, people. Despite the poor start by Santana, I was weirdly confident the Mets were going to win this one. I don't know what kind of deal Fernando Tatis signed with the devil, but apparently it was a good one.

Holy Crap

2008-07-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Uggla. Can an All-Star nod be rescinded? Jesus.

That Was A Close Shave

2008-07-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

Hooray! The Mets are back over .500! Although, this game ended up way more interesting than it should have. I didn't get to see the first six innings -- how was Pedro?

He's still got a terrible ERA, but I'd like to take a look at his peripherals and see if Pedro is as done as everyone's been saying. Later, maybe. I looked at all of the spreadsheets I can for today. Yes, it does occasionally happen.

Ugh

2008-06-24T17:57:00.000-07:00

Well that sucked, and no two ways about it. Dropping back under .500, coupled with this loss tonight, has already made my first point here inaccurate, but the playoffs are still possible. Not likely, certainly not the way the Mets have been playing, but possible.

God, there's nothing like letting the worst team in baseball get on a winning streak.

On the plus side, at least somebody seemed pissed off about it. Sure, too little, too late; but it's better than nothing, I guess.

The Mets Can't Do Anything Right

2008-06-17T08:58:00.001-07:00

Well, this is probably the right decision, but god this was handled badly. Really, if you're going to fire Willie Randolph, you should have done it like three weeks ago, rather than letting him squirm for almost a month and then dragging his ass out to California.

Really, if you're going to fire him, you should have done it last October. Glargh.

Quarter Century

2008-06-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

Well, there's not really a good way to bring this up, but today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of my sister. Yeah, it's a crummy anniversary, but you know what? Fuck you. I don't like it any more than you do.

So I've been without my older sister for a quarter century now. Wow. Do you know who says things like that? Old people. But you know what? I'm not that old. I was only 9 when she died. She wasn't that old either: 11 years and 12 days. She died so long ago that in a lot of ways I barely remember her, but I was just a fucking kid. I mean really, how much shit do you remember from when you were a nine-year-old?

One of the things that I do remember: after the funeral, my best friend Matt C. (as a nine-year-old himself) telling me what a shame it was, my sister not getting to play with all of the toys she'd just gotten. Of course, that was the only level upon which my best friend, another person who'd also been on this planet for less than a decade, could appreciate this event: she'd died, and she wouldn't get to play with all of the toys she'd just gotten. It's 25 years later and I still don't think that's funny.

Were she alive today, she'd be 36 years old. 36! My god, she'd have grey hair and wrinkles (like me)! Maybe even a husband and children. I might be an uncle many times over, instead of just once; I could have nieces and nephews galore, instead of just one. My whole life might be different.

And of course, that's what this is all about. How would my life be different, if she were still alive? Would it be better? Well of course it would, I'd have my sister -- but would I be the same person? Would I be an asshole? I like to think that I turned out OK. But would my wife be my wife if I were a different person? She loves me how I am; but if my childhood had been like everybody else's, would she love me more? Or not at all?

And there we are. Who am I? Sometimes my memories of her are so clear, and then other times it's like I can barely remember who she was. It's been so long. She died 25 years ago; I have friends from high-school or college who don't even know I had a sister.

I still miss her though.

How Many More Times Will I Have To Post This?

2008-06-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

No more than 99, at any rate.

Science! It Works, Bitches!

2008-05-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

Or at any rate, Billy Wagner does. Wow. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a closer brutalize three hitters like that. I'll be going to the game on Sunday night, so I hope the Mets can get go 3-1 on the Dodgers. Man, that'd put them a whole game over .500! Holy crap!

Happy Birthday

2008-05-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

Yay.

Mets Creep Back Towards Mediocrity

2008-05-28T21:15:00.001-07:00

Well, my pledge to not watch the Mets for a week lasted all of one day. Gar. Anyway, Mets win a series against the division leaders, so I guess I should be happy. Of course, if you have to rely on home runs from Endy Chavez and Luis Castillo, you're not going to win too many games.

But screw it; a win is a win.

Got a new article up at MetsGeek about Willie Randolph's atrocious bullpen management, too. Apparently judging the impact of managers is all the sabermetric rage (Thanks, John).

Also, the 'Geeks jokingly switched the site to RaysGeek, so we could finally follow a winner. Funny. The Mets have since won two in a row, so I assume that it'll stay RaysGeek until the Mets lose. A player on a streak has to respect the streak.

I'm Fucking Done

2008-05-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

That's it. Fuck it. I'm not watching any baseball for a week. I'll check back in after Willie is fired. Which should be sometime early next week. Tuesday, I'm guessing.

What's amazing about this team is that they're finding brand new fucking ways to lose each night. Sometimes it's the bullpen . . . sometimes they can't score any runs . . . sometimes it's crummy base running, or defensive errors, or Mike Pelfrey starts. Fuck.

That's It

2008-05-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

This team stinks.

It Is Time To Face Facts

2008-05-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

The Mets are not going to make the playoffs. Especially not with season-thus-far MVP Ryan Church getting another concussion. I can't wait to see more of Marlon and Endy.

Coincidentally, the pic above also accurately depicts how I feel right now.

Jeez, I Haven't Posted Over Here In A Long Time

2008-05-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

So, if you're one of the three dudes who read this thing regularly, I've had a couple of new things up over at MetsGeek: one on Nelson Figueroa, and a new one on Mike Pelfrey.

The one on Pelfrey I actually really like. I got to look into some of the Pitch-F/X data that Josh Kalk's been putting up; I think that shit is fascinating. One of the things I didn't get to go into was the pitch/count information, especially when combined with the results from Pelfrey's splits on B-Ref. Like, nobody this year has swung at a 3-0 pitch from Pelfrey. Nobody. Or, on 3-1 pitches Pelfrey is allowing a 2.650 OPS. Glarg.

Anyway, I think that kind of stuff is really interesting. On the other hand, I also fill out spreadsheets for fun.

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Gas On The Flames

2008-04-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

That sucked ass.

More Pelfrey! Also, The Oxymoron At MetsGeek

2008-04-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well done again, Mike. What was most encouraging about tonight game for Pelfrey, just like last time, was the ratio of ground balls to fly balls: 12-4. If Big Pelf can maintain that kind of ratio he's going to have a great year. I can't remember the exact numbers for the various types of balls-in-play, but something like 80% of fly balls become outs; around 70% of ground balls turn into outs, while line drives only become outs around 25% of the time. So why are ground balls good, if they're less likely to turn into an out than a fly ball? Because fly balls that don't turn into outs are much more likely to turn into extra-base hits. You can't hit a home run on a ground ball.

Well I mean you can (inside-the-park job) but it's extremely unlikely.

Anyway, I also got something up again over at MetsGeek, this time on the oxymoron Angel Pagan, who went 1-3 with a walk tonight. Man, I am starting to get really thirsty.

Pelfrey: The Worm Is Turning

2008-04-09T23:28:00.000-07:00

Nice to see Mike Pelfrey get some run support tonight. I know he didn't pitch especially well last season, but if memory serves he was either awful or OK. He only had one that one start in ATL where he pitched really, really well. Like, he had a bunch of starts where he pitched well enough to have a 50-50 shot at winning, but he couldn't win a single one.

Anyway, bad luck for Boudreaux, in this case, is good luck for Blank. El Duque is going to be wearing a protective boot for at least a couple more weeks; which means that Pelfrey, for three or four starts at least, is no longer auditioning for a job. Maybe he can relax a bit and just pitch.