"I don't think he could beat me up anyway"

I got nothing today, so I offer these bits and pieces....

Baseball Prospectus' The Week In Quotes for September 13th through the 19th is out. As usual, it had some gems.

Dustin Mohr on Barry Bonds:

"I started talking to him from day one. I'm not intimidated by him...I think he's a good guy. He has a pretty fun side to him. For me, he's a joy to be around. There's a myth going around that if you sit in Barry's chair, he's going to beat you up. I've been on the chair a lot of times, and he says he doesn't care, so long as he doesn't want to sit there."
--Mohr

"I don't think he could beat me up anyway."
--Mohr

Pete Rose gives some of his opinions on Barry Bonds:

"It will take him two more years and he will have to be lucky in terms of no injuries...but how is he going to get hurt? He only trots. He doesn't play defense anymore, he can't throw, and he can't run. How's he going to get hurt? How's he going to pull a muscle?"

Leave it to Pete Rose to class up the joint with his always insightful comments. Barry is old and does not run as hard as he once did, but he is certainly not as little or agile as he used to be. Barry plays the game. He may not run like he is 25 being that he is 40, but he has a desire to win.

Check out the entire article, it's always a good read.

Piazza on his status with the Mets next season:

"I think we need to sit down and talk after the season," he said. "It shouldn't be a taboo subject. Respect breeds respect. We're all professionals and if they want to do something, they should sit down with me and my agent and tell us what they are thinking, and I think we will. What do they think is best for the team? How can I fit in to help the team get better? If they have ideas, I'm all ears."

"I would hate to feel I'm a burden," he said. "I just don't know, which is why I think we need to sit down and talk. They should get their house in order, find their direction, and come to me with plan A and plan B. We shouldn't be afraid to talk about the obvious."

Mike, c'mon now. The odds of this team doing anything that can misconstrued as direct and open communication will not happen. First it will start with a leak to to the media to Jon Heyman, then the finger pointing will start as Fred Wilpon points to Rick Peterson and Peterson then points to Livesly and Goldis and Goldis then points to Leiter and Leiter says Wilson Delgado is too cocky and Duquette finally accepts responsibility, then they will bring up the idea of possibly moving Piazza to right field (done through the media of course), and then come to Mike after it has become a media disaster. Asking for honesty at this juncture with this team's front office?

The sad part is, Piazza basically gave them the opening to approach him. He let them know he is open to anything. The questions is, will they take him up on it? They should talk to him either way, it is only fair to him, but we know how it will most likely go down.

Mets.com did a small piece on a few Met rookies who could factor into the equation for the 2005 Mets.

Diaz's future with the Mets is likely tied to what the club does with Richard Hidalgo this winter. New York plans on exercising its $2 million buyout of Hidalgo and then renegotiating with him. If Hidalgo then doesn't re-sign, Diaz could get a chance at being the everyday right fielder in 2005.

Several club executives have already said they don't view Diaz as a bench player. And it's unlikely that he will return for another full season in Norfolk. So unless he is dealt, expect the multi-talented native of the Dominican Republic to be part of New York's outfield mix next year.

If this has any shred of truth, then they may want to consider actually letting him play. Cliff may be ready for action today, so it is likely that the Mets will keep in running Floyd and Hidalgo out there. If the Mets believe that Victor Diaz has nothing left to prove after hitting .294 with 24 homers at AAA, then this lack of playing time is truly perplexing. The other thing that does not show up in Victor's end of the year numbers, is the fact that he kept getting better every month. He had a bit of an adjustment period before really picking it up and hitting just like he has always done.

Maura Villareal, who is Ugetha Urbina's mother was kidnapped on September 1st and is being held for $15,000,000 ransom. Urbina has left the Tigers to go to Venezuela. It actually makes you wonder how it does not happen more often in these poverty stricken countries. It is clearly a danger for this mega rich ballplayers to have their families open to this kind of tragedy. We all can only hope this turns out for the best.

Since I have a vested interest in the Mets success being that I am hopeless addicted to Mets baseball, I'm offering up some help for Jeff Wilpon's hot temper and his "physically imposing" actions when he loses his temper.

Anger Management:
A Ten-Step Program

1) Accept that most things in the world are out of your control.
2) Accept that it is your choice to get angry about those things.
3) No one makes you angry.
4) Life is unfair. Waste no energy lamenting or trying to change that fact.
5) No one likes to be around an angry person. No one feels like helping an angry person.
6) So why be angry? Maybe you really don't want your problems solved. Maybe you just want to complain and wail and gnash your teeth.
7) Take stock of yourself. What do you want?
8) ou should smile more. Your face won't break.
9) Anger is a weed; hate is the tree.
10) Anger makes a rich man hated and a poor man scorned.

Just keep that in mind Jeff, no one likes to be around an angry person and no one feels like helping an angry person, but more importantly Anger is a weed and hate is the tree. #10 is classic too.

Alright, quick, if you were going to put money on a game in which Matt Clement is starting against David Weathers, who do you put the cash on? In his first start since 1998, David Weathers registered a win by going five innings, while allowing only two hits, one earned run, and struck out five. Matt Clement did not even make it out of the third inning. Awesome job by Weathers.

Everyone's favorite closer Armando Benitez continues his dominance by notching his 44th save and has an other worldly 1.10 ERA. No matter what he does, I'm glad he's gone. I'll never forget him blowing game one of the 2000 World Series.

Bulletproof? Mariano Rivera has a 0.00 against 12 teams this year. Of the five teams that did score runs off of him, four are in the AL East. While he does have more innings pitched against his AL East opponents, it is really nothing that significant, and yes one or two runs will bloat your ERA when you are closer. But it cannot be overlooked that these teams have seen him more than the others over the years. In 2004 Mariano has a 3.38 ERA against Toronto, a 4.09 ERA against Baltimore, a 4.66 ERA against Boston, and a 1.96 ERA against Tampa Bay. I guess the point I'm trying to make is Rivera is not as automatic against teams that have seen him enough. My one friend has a theory that pitchers just need to be patient. Do not swing because of his cutters are off the plate anyway. When they face Boston in the playoffs with their suspect pitching staff and a closer that Boston has seemingly figured out, it could spell an exit for the Yanks at the hand of the Sox. I know the Sox got pummeled this weekend, but the Yankees are not invincible by any means.

I do not think the woman getting mauled by a flying folding chair is funny, but take a look at this picture.



Look at the one woman with the blonde hair, she has this horrified look on her face that is pretty funny. In fact, all the woman have looks of concern on their face. Then look at the guys. Not only do they not have concerned looks on their faces, they all seem to be deriving some sort of pleasure out of the fracas. One thing overlooked in this entire situation is the accuracy that Frank Francisco can throw a folding chair. Had Mr. Bueno not ducked letting the chair hit is wife in the face, it would have been a direct hit.

Is it me? Am I reading this wrong? U.S. Cellular Field is more conducive for hitting home runs than Coors Field?

I checked the stats to see if they back it up. Sure enough, the White Sox have hit 130 homeruns in their comfy confines and only 83 on the road. As for the Rockies, they have hit 106 homeruns at home and 87 on the road. Who knew? Not me, that is for sure. Overall, Coors is a better hitter’s park with a park factor of 1.238 compared to 1.091 with U.S. Cellular field. I just never knew it was a launching pad in Chicago.

LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUMMMMBLLLLLLLE!!! The battle for last place starts today. Who wants it more? Or who wants it less I guess I should say.