This is the last post that we will be making to ryancooke.mlblogs.com.
Starting today, www.defensiveindifference.com is open and ready to go.
Please tell people about this and let the world know.
Comment as well and let us know you’re reading!
Matt Grasso
Joel Sherman of the New York Post has reported on his Twitter Page that Carlos Beltran had osteoarthritis in right knee and had surgery on that knee today. According to Sherman, Beltran had this surgery with out the permission of the team. Although, he does mention that there are conflicting reports. According to SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt, it will take 12 weeks before Beltran can return to baseball activities. It was reported last year that Beltran may require surgery, but now, as he began pre-season training, the pain began to show up again. According to Burkhardt, Beltran had this surgery done in Colorado by Dr. Richard Stedman, not Dr. David Alchuck, the Mets team doctor.
If it is true that Beltran went without Met permission, then this could cause a HUGE disaster internally. 
This leads to the question: does Pagan or F-Mart get the right to play center field?
I think that will go all go down to Spring Training. Martinez will have to prove what he can do, but I think Pagan will win the job. He showed what he can do last year and I think he could really be a good player if he gets his head straight.
I believe Martinez is still trade bait for the Mets and they don’t want to play him at the major league level, at the risk of losing value.
Chances are Beltran won’t be back until May or June and until then, do you see an Angel in the Outfield or will you be seeing F-Mart drop F-Bombs in Citi Field?
Posted by Matt Grasso
Update by Matthew Mayer
Big news out of Flushing today! Ryota Igarashi is going to wear number 18……That was a joke. He really is wearing the number, but thats the most breaking news I’ve had to report this week. Thanks to Cerrone for the tip.
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Sorry for the lack of posts in the time since the Jason Bay conference. It has been a very slow Mets news week. But, rumors are starting to surface about a possible Bengie signing as early as Friday. Also, the Piñero situation should heat up in the next few days.
So again, keep reading. And please, let us know you are out there. Comment on posts, we love to hear from you.
Posted By Matt Grasso
Today I will be evaluating what is considered the biggest weakness in the New York Mets, the starting rotation mainly Ollie Pelf and Maine. These three starters for the New York Mets have all shown glipses of greatness and potential during their time as Mets but their have been many things stopping them from reaching their true potential.
PELFREY: Pelfrey had an outstanding 2008 and great begining of the 2009 season, until his infamous three balk game in San Fransico. Pelfrey went through a very
dissapointing and frustrating 2009. I dont know what it was but somewhere in the middle of the season he forgot how to pitch and got the yips. His sinker wasn’t sinking his slider wasn’t sliding and he couldn’t control a single pitch. At one point it got so bad that after getting yanked from a game at Coors Field in Denver he jogged around the parking lot in order to get the game off of his mind. In my opinion he was a subject of the Verducci Effect. The Verducci Effect happens to even the best putchers. An example is Justin Verlander. He had an awful season in 2008 and rebounded to Cy Young form in 2009. I expect a comeback like this from Mike Pelfrey next season.
Prediction 15-9 3.42 ERA
MAINE: Maine is one of the players who the saying ” Great when healthy” applies to. Its too bad he hasn’t been healthy since 2007 when he went 15-10 with a 3.33 ERA. At the end of last season when Maine recovered from his injury he showed glimpses of the 2007 John Maine. He was locating his fastball well and throwing good offspeed pitches. The “Maine Thing” ( pun intended) is for him to become more effective with his pitches. If he can stay healthy and work on becoming more effective I think Maine will have a solid year
Prediction 11-9 3.97 ERA
PEREZ: Now this one is the toughest. Oliver Perez is probably thr most nerve wracking and aggravating player to watch some days and other days he looks like Sandy Koufax. Oliver has shown he can be great like in 2007 and in 2004 with the Pirates but for some reason I get the feeling that hes not all there. I’ve heard from many people that Ollie is a nutjob. Well at least theres some good news, Oliver Perez went to a Training Facility in Arizona in order to get in shape for the 2010 season. I expect Ollie to bounce back from last year to somewhere like 2008 form.
Prediction 10-8 4.22 ERA
Ryan Cooke
In a statement through the Assosciated Press, Mark McGwire said:
“I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era. I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It’s time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I’m sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn’t take any, and I had bad years when I didn’t take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn’t have done it and for that I’m truly sorry. After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I’ll do that, and then I just want to help my team. During the mid-’90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years, and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too. Baseball is really different now — it’s been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players’ association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I’m glad they did.“
This is big news to the world of baseball. McGwire hit 583 Home Runs in his career, including 49 in his rookie season and 70 in 1998. While this is not surprising, it certaintly is shocking that he would come out with this now. He recently signed on to be the hitting coach for the Cardinals. This also comes only a few days after manager Tony LaRussa said that he would want McGwire to play a game this season
.
This does make you wonder what comes next.
I think McGwire should take the first half of Oprah and then have Tiger Woods take the 2nd half to talk about this.
I do think this is terrible for baseball, but at the same time is good. It is bad because one of the heroes of game was a cheater. But, it is good because it shows that we are starting to get over the “Steroid Era.”
Fasten Your Seatbelts baseball fans, this is not going away any time soon.
Today, Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman signed a 30 million deal for 3 years with the Cinncinati Reds. My point to be made here is, the Reds have been looking to dump massive salary in order to sign more players in the upcoming offseason. Now, they go out and sign a pitcher for 30 million? I believe, the Reds must have a deal out on the table with another team in order to dump salaries of either Harange or Arroyo as well as 2nd basemen Brandon Phillips. In a perfect world, I see this happening:
The Reds, Mets and Cubs all get involved in a 3 team trade. In this trade, Luis Castillo is sent to the Reds, and a prospect from the Mets is sent to the Cubs. The Cubs then receive Brandon Phillips from the Reds, as well as hand over a prospect to the Mets. To finish up the trade, Aaron Harang, or Bronson Arroyo is sent to the Mets. Oh how sweet that’d be
Post by Matthew Mayer
Hey everyone, just wanted to give everyone a little run down of how my day went yesterday and what the kids clubhouse casting call was like at the SNY studios. Well, first off, i woke up at 4 o clock in the morning (probably the only bad part of the day). Jumped on a train, and got into the city around 615. After arriving into the city, I proceeded to grab a quick snack and head to the SNY studios.
Shortly after arriving at the studios, I realized there was virtually no one there, and that I had gotten up a little too early. However, I was the 7th person on line, so there are far more crazier people than I. I waited in the silence of the cold until a few SNY employees passed out some forms that I had to fill out; basically your typical, can we show you on tv?, what kind of experience do you have? and blah blah blah. I got all those filled out, then noticed a script sheet on the bottom of the pile of forms. It read something along the lines of this ” Hi, I’m _______ and your watching kids clubhouse. Welcome back to kids clubhouse. Ever wonder how the grass stays so green at Citi Field? Well, we hung out with the grounds crew to see just what goes on to keep the field looking this great before every game. Come on!” (actually, thats exactly what the script read). I had to memorize that, and shortly after, Mr. Met comes running out with his own personal camera crew. Sure enough, the crowds cheering Lets Go Mets! in a matter of seconds.
I waited in the blistering cold for about another hour until they finally let me in at around 915. I was the first of my group to go, so i walked right into the main studio where almost every SNY show is filmed. There sat Kevin Burkhardt, Chris Carlin and another woman who I wasn’t familiar with. They made me stand on a marker and read my memorized lines. I got it on the first try and Burkhardt proceeded with “Wow, he got it on the first try, nice job!” After that, came the interview. Numerous questions about my prior experience and my being a Met fan were asked, I handled each and everyone of them as if Grasso was asking me in Spanish class. They all seemed extremely impressed with my answers and they actually were having conversations with me. It was amazing.
When it came time for the next participant to go, I was stopped by an SNY producer who said “Your name is Matt right?” I of course nodded my head, then she replied with, “Could you please do an exit interview with the crew from SNY?” I agreed and followed her back into the cold where the camera man and interviewer were waiting. They asked me basically the same things Burkhardt and Carlin did but I did however get a blog mention in as well as a few shots of my Go Big Pelf shirt. That interview was the cherry on the cake for my day (and it was only 930am). I am really greatful for the oppurtunity that SNY gave me to do this casting call, and I have high hopes to possibly land this job. Like I told Carlin and Burkhardt in the studio, “I will be here someday, just depends on when someone gives me a job.”
Post by: Matt Mayer
Today Matthew Mayer of our own Defensive Indifference tried out for the the lead on the SNY tv show ” Kids Clubhouse” best wishes to Matt and good luck.
Ryan Cooke
***** Update by Matt Grasso*******
While Matt was trying out, he made a couple of tweets about the situation:
Also, while speaking to Matt, I was told the following:
I am DVRing the 10:00 Sportsnight and if Matt makes the show I will attempt to post his segment on Defensive Indifference.
We will keep you updated.
I will also be starting an article twice a week called “Down on The Farm” about
the Mets top minor league prospects. I will start this article by talking about Brad Holt. Brad Holt was taken in the first round in the 2008 draft for compensation of losing Tom Glavine to the Atlanta Braves. Since he has been drafted he has done nothing but impress. In 2008 in his first year out of college he put up a fantastic season going 5-3 with a 1.87 ERA and averaging 11.9 K’s per 9 innings. After getting promoted to St. Lucie last year he kept up the pace from last year on an offensive deprived team going 4-1 with a 3.12 ERA but struggled a little bit with injuries when he got promoted to the Mets AA team in Binghamton. There is no question that he has great stuff the only question is will he be a late innings reliever or a solid starter. In a couple of years I can see this situation turning into much like the Joba Chamberlain situation. I think he will start in AA and recover from his season plaguing injuries last year and put up some solid numbers. Some where in July I think he will get promoted to Buffalo and will end the season with a Spetember callup pitching out of the bullpen and spot starter.
ML Comparison: Javier Vazquez
Ryan Cooke
I am going to be starting a daily article called “Player Evaluator” where i will be evaluating a player and predict what they will do and more for next year. The player that I will begin this section with is Jeff Francoeur also known as Frenchie and yes just incase you are wondering that is a picture of me with my Jeff Francoeur jersey ( yes I do own one). In my opinion I can
see Jeff Francoeur having a huge year next year in his first season as a New York Met. For some reason I have a feeling that he will be a Met for a long time along with Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran. I get the feeling that the organization likes Jeff Francoeur and the grittiness he brings to this team. Whenever I watch him play he is smiling he has quickly developed into one of my and from what I understand, most Mets fans favorite players. He had some pretty great numbers with the Mets for only about 70 games. During his 72 games of patroling Right Field for the Mets he hit .311, 10 HRs with 41 RBIS which translates to about 23 HRs and 92 RBIs if he can keep up the production he had on the Mets he will be a very great addition to our favorite ballteam.
Also from what I saw he was a great addition to the Clubhouse. He was a guy that the reporters went to besides David Wright and somebody David Wright seemed friendly with which hasn’t happened since 2006 with Cliff Floyd and Paul LoDuca. I think Jeff Francoeur is a great influence on David Wright and the rest of the ballteam with his infectious gritty personality.
I also think he would do some damage with Jose Reyes David Wright Carlos Beltran Jason Bay and potentially Carlos Delgado all batting ahead of him
MY PREDICTION .283 22 Hrs 81 Rbis
Defensive Indifference 