Pelfrey Comes Up Small, And Other Stuff

Talk about coming up small, Charlie Brown...we need speak no other name than Mike Pelfrey. After the banged up, hobbled up, crippled up and just plain throwing up version of the Mets lost the first two games of the Pittsburgh series, you would think, YOU WOULD THINK, after an unplanned off-day yesterday, that they might find a way to crawl out of their miserable hole and salvage the final game of the series....

Nada, nope, negatory, good buddy. Instead, Mike Pelfrey comes up way short and the Mets get swept by the Pirates. SWEPT. BY THE PIRATES. BY.THE.PIRATES. One of the worst teams in the league with an organization and management possibly worse than ours.

I say possibly, because lately, that's truly up for debate. In fact, I'm starting to think the Mets' organization has no clue how to manage medical issues, on top of the no clue they already have in the areas of manager, general manager, and owner. And while we're at it, we can throw in player and personnel management, here, if we want.

But back to the subject at hand, which is the piss poor pathetic performance of one Mike Pelfrey on an afternoon when his team really, REALLY needed him.

As Charlie Brown has been wont to say.... *sigh.* Yes, Virginia, today the Mets finally played some "small ball," but in typical Mets fashion, they eschewed the conventional meaning of the term and did what the Mets all-too-often do...they bastardize the meaning of the term into something exquisitely horrible and painful to watch.

And here's something interesting vis-a-vis our erstwhile division nemesis, the Atlanta Braves. As sports fans are now aware, the Braves pulled off a trade with the Pirates yesterday, giving up three prospects for outfielder Nate McLouth, which, when I heard it, caused me to have the following thoughts: (a) it's obvious the Braves had a need in the outfield, more particularly, in center field, since what they were getting out of CF this year was a pathetic interstate batting average; (b) amazingly, the Braves were ABLE TO IDENTIFY this need; and (c) they went out and filled the need with an appropriate player, a young guy with chops and a good track record thus far, not some crippled up old guy, or some cheap marginal guy, or some guy who has no idea how to actually play the position which he'll be asked to play on a daily basis, or some guy that probably can't play the position but they're going to force him into it anyway because they think he can be good, not that he's ever proven it, mind you; and (d) problem solved.

They also released Tom Glavine, thus ridding themselves of an ineffective and oft-injured player, in a decisive manner, understanding that they would have to eat the rest of his contract, but knowing that addition by subtraction is sometimes very wise. Very wise, indeed. Especially when you want to move strongly forward.

I ask you, Mets fans, when's the last time the Mets did something, ANYTHING, as simple and smart as what the Braves have just done?

Don't even answer that. Don't even.