Three years, $36 million dollars. Regret much, Mets?
Oliver Perez, the man who signed the above juicy contract this past offseason, has been simply brutal this season. In four starts, he's allowed 23 hits, 20 earned runs and 15 walks in only 19 1/3 innings. Considering he's throwing less than five innings per start, he's putting the Mets in huge holes early in the game in addition to over-taxing the bullpen.
Apparently the Mets aren't going to let his colossal contract stand in the way of the betterment of the team. According to the New York Post, Perez had a "lengthy meeting" with manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya following his latest stinkbomb.
With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.
- Not Ready for Primetime: Someone has to win the AL Central. Next Thursday either the Twins or White Sox will take the field at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay with a shot at winning the World Series. But after a bullpen meltdown in Chicago and terrible Francisco Liriano start in Minneapolis, it doesn't seem like either team wants it very much.
Roughly a week ago, I wrote about how the Central race was the only one with any real drama, about how the NL wild-card race had lost its appeal because the Mets and Brewers seemed so fragile. Now, the opposite seems true. While the Mets and Brewers run their aces out on three days of rest and scrape and claw for every run, the Twins and White Sox seem determined to back into the playoff picture.
Of course anything can happen once a team gets into the postseason, but the Rays would be an exceptionally tough opponent even if the Twins or White Sox were playing well right now. With both teams playing poorly, it doesn't seem like the winner of the division will matter too much. Either way, it could be a quick first-round exit.
Paul Lo Duca has been on the DL most of the season with a broken wrist, and isn't going to be back until close to the all-star break. That's too bad, because it means we're not going to hear nearly as many great quotes out of Lo Duca as we normally would. Thank goodness that the Nationals let Lo Duca travel on the road trip to New York (the Nats don't usually let injured players travel, but gave Lo Duca a pass because he lives in NY), or else we probably wouldn't have heard Paul's take on "Cheer-gate" and Nelson Figueroa, courtesy of his appearance on WFAN (through Adam Rubin's Mets blog at the Daily News):
"I don't know. I'm not a big fan of it to be honest with you. I'll be honest with you. You know, we're struggling. Guys are just trying to have a little fun. I think they saw Figueroa getting a little upset, so they amped it up a couple of notches. I do think it's a little bush league. At first it started off as a little fun, until he got mad. I don't agree with it. But, also, Nelson Figueroa has nine wins in the big leagues and he needs to keep his mouth shut."
So I'm confused, it was all right until Figueroa got mad ... but Figueroa shouldn't actually tell anybody he's mad? I see. Sounds like Lo Duca didn't want to take sides and just hate each side of the argument equally.
Speaking of hate, some who formally loved Lo Duca now may hate him because of his appearance in The Mitchell Report, which was more than a mere cameo. Until now, all we've heard from Lo Duca was the prepared apology. While on WFAN, he went into it in a little more detail.
Every kid's been told by his parents, probably more than once, that life isn't fair. Nelson Figueroa would probably agree with that sentiment. He worked his tail off after a 2004 stint with the Pirates, traveled anywhere they'd let him pitch and made it back to the big leagues with the Mets this season. He made a couple of decent starts but quickly dropped below the standards of a major league starter culminating with last night's poor performance against Washington.
If he reads an account of his reaction to the Nats razzing of him from the dugout, he mocked their lowly position in the standings by saying "they are who they are," it must be particularly painful. The Nationals may be bad but they're major leaguers, something Figueroa isn't anymore. Also painful is that the razzing was led by Elijah Dukes.
Dukes has talent that Figueroa can only dream about, but he's done everything in his power to squander it without making an impact on anything but police blotters. That talent, though, gives him chance after chance while Figueroa has to go to Taiwan and back for a few weeks in the bigs. Like I said, life isn't fair.
Remember way back at the end of 2007, where teams were complaining about the excessive celebrations of the New York Mets? Well guess who's complaining this season about excessive singing and dancing of other teams? That's right, it's Mets pitcher Nelson Figueroa ... after getting shelled by the Washington Nationals on Monday night:
Figueroa was fuming over the behavior of some of the Nationals' players during the third inning, whom he accused of singing and chanting as he pitched to Austin Kearns with the bases loaded and the score tied, 3-3.
"They were cheerleading in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls," Figueroa said. "I'm a professional just like anybody else, so I take huge offense to that. ... I think they need to show a little more class and professionalism. They won tonight but, in the long run, they are still who they are."
So it seems that the shoe is on the other foot this season. Playing the role of the shoe is Nats' outfielder Lastings Milledge, the very same player at the heart of a lot of the Mets' celebrations and dances last season.
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Milledge said. "We're not supposed to cater to anybody on the opposing team. We're not going to cater to him or anybody else, so whatever. We've been down the last couple days; we want to get something going. If you don't like it, you've got to just deal with it."
I for one especially liked those Elijah Dukes chants of "Sis, boom, bah ... dawg! Sis, boom, bah ... dawg!" Or something like that.
Three years, $36 million dollars. Regret much, Mets? 
With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in 
Every kid's been told by his parents, probably more than once, that life isn't fair. 
Remember way back at the end of 2007, where teams were complaining about the excessive celebrations of the New York Mets? Well guess who's complaining this season about excessive singing and dancing of other teams? That's right, it's Mets pitcher 
