After the 2nd ridiculously dominant performance in 3 days by a Cuban pitcher wearing a Mets uniform — in this case, a complete game 2 hitter by Alay Soler — optimism in the Flushing camp stemming from such performances by guys not named Martinez or Glavine, has to be running rampant. And because Chris Russo doesn’t work on Sundays, I would like to lend a hand by opening up discussion on the topic of Omar Minaya’s cynical attempt to appeal to the Cuban community.
It’s also nice to see that Arizona are hopping on the CSTB bandwagon in blaming Jason Grimsley for their recent slide. Which makes perfect sense. How can Conor Jackson or Chad Tracy execute routine plays in the field when their heads are filled with questions about blacked-out names in an affidavit?
Though I’ve exhausted myself over the past 2 years in making every possible excuse for Kaz Matsui (if not Jeff Wilpon’s lovely wife), Jason from Faith & Fear In Flushing has a reasoned take on Kaz’ miserable tenure with the Mets.
First off, let’s not overthink this: Kaz was bad. Yes, there were flashes of ability. Yes, he battled injuries. Yes, he worked hard. Yes, he seemed to be a good teammate. Those things deserve to be taken into consideration. But they don’t change the bottom line: For three straight seasons, Kaz Matsui was a well-paid liability to a team with high aspirations. You may not deserve boos for that, but you’re certainly not going to get cheers.
¢ I have no doubt that part of the convulsive booing of Matsui was a frustrated restatement of that original question: What on earth happened to this guy? We were told we were getting the Japanese Cal Ripken Jr., and the guy who showed up was the Japanese Russ Adams. Nobody’s happy feeling they got sold a bag of goods.
¢ As our commenters have noted, you can’t boo management, so you boo its proxy. That’s not right, but it’s not so mysterious. (Hell, I think the GM should have to be on the field and announced to the crowd before at least one game each month. I remember how thrilled I was a few years back to get the opportunity to boo the living shit out of Steve Phillips. Hurt my throat. Felt like victory.)