One New York Life

In continuing my recent trend of finally getting around to books suggested by friends, occasional commenter and new mom Mazlynn suggested The Time Traveler’s Wife about a year ago and it kept getting bumped down the library list. In an unexpected twist, when I finally got it home, PLR saw it said “you’re reading that?”

“Yes,” I said. “[Mazlynn] suggested it. Why?”

“No reason, really. I’ve seen it on ‘you should read this’ lists in [a substantial list of girl magazines]. It’s just not something I would have thought you’d find.”

Uh-oh.

Spoiler bump here because the movie’s coming out soon.
Read the rest of this entry »

About a year ago, Inside Pulse’s Matthew Michaels invited me to join an e-mail list that started between he and some work friends some years ago. As the original guys went off in different directions, it’s added people. As of now, I think it stands around 25 people in politics, PR, legal, web, and other industries. Some are former Pulse writers. Last week former 411/IP writer and fellow WFAN listener Chris [Matthew Michaels's brother] sent around a bulleted list of sports points and complaints and one of the items ended up sparking a long e-mail firestorm. The bullet was:

Chris
–WFAN CALLERS — STOP IT! MIKE MUSSINA IS NOT A HALL OF FAMER!!!

At first, I let this go. I don’t usually get in to Hall debates because of the stupid subjectivity. But, eventually I found the arguments against to be so bad I had to respond. Some of these writers you’ll know. I’m not going to really identify any of them because I’m not entirely sure they want their names out there. I will note background info where I can. These will be unedited save for capitalization and spelling.

Justin
Mussina would be a Hall of Famer if he pitched three more seasons and reached the 300 win club.

Chris B
Maybe, but I even hate that Glavine is going in. Smoltz and Maddux were much better than he was. And, again, a guy like Schilling and Pedro deserve it for their short-term dominance, rather than these guys who just hung around long enough to compile without ever dominating.

Mussina a compiler? Can you really call a guy who had one of the best seasons of his career in his last year a compiler? Still, not quite enough to get involved. Especially as some other list members made the points I was going to make.

Peter
Citing Mussina’s Wikipedia page.
Mussina’s candidacy for the Hall of Fame has come under recent debate. “Do I compare to some guys who are in? I think I do,” Mussina told USA Today in 2006. The only other pitchers to match Mussina’s 17 seasons of 10 or more victories are Greg Maddux, Warren Spahn, Cy Young, Don Sutton and Steve Carlton; all are Hall of Famers except Maddux, who also retired after the 2008 season and thus is not yet eligible. Of the 23 eligible pitchers who have at least 265 wins and an ERA of 3.69 or less, 20 are in the Hall of Fame. Mussina’s consistency is often overshadowed by the dominant peaks of contemporaries like Pedro Martínez and Randy Johnson. Baseball writer Tim Kurkjian stated on the August 3, 2008 edition of Baseball Tonight “He’s a Hall of Famer. I’ve looked at the numbers and he’s in.”

Only five pitchers in the history of major league baseball have as many victories as Mussina and a better winning percentage: Lefty Grove, Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander,Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson.

Greg
There may be a movement brewing where guys who were quiet and got the job done will gain votes vs. guys that chased home run records and stole headlines. If he doesn’t get in on numbers, he may get in for being the right kind of guy for the voters in the years coming up. I say he gets in, but don’t care that much except that I think he’s one of the good guys and would be happy for him.

At this point – it seemed like the debate would be friendly. Perhaps neutral and the Sports Musings group would come to the conclusion that he’s a pretty good pitcher and it could probably go either way. Until this point, I hadn’t even chimed in… I’d just been reading the opinions. But then, the godfather of the e-mail list chimed in. Chuck is the resident hardcore Yankee fan. Loves sports, loves predicting, and as we learned in Atlantic City, loves red wine.

Chuck
Moose is not a Hall of Famer. Period. End of story. Actually, in my book, he isn’t even close. He is the classic two or three starter that hung around a while and pitched on good teams. Also a terrible big game starter.

And agreements started rolling in.

Chris B
Chaz, I agree with you, 100%. Wow. ;-)

Justin
He would have 300 wins if o’s gave more run support

And only one disagreement

Peter
He also pitched in the best division in baseball his whole career and still amassed 270 wins and the 6th best winning % of any pitcher with that many wins. That’s impressive. I’m sorry. People can knock him all they want but not many pitchers can say they pitched as well for as long as he did.

And this is where I finally had to join the fray. The talk about wins had become just too much.

Tom
The “wins” stat is the most retarded hall of fame statistic ever. “Hey, let’s use this stat which largely has nothing to do with pitching to figure out how good of a pitcher you were.” If you insist on using them, though, 120 games over .500 is pretty ridiculously awesome.

And thus arrived former IP writer Coach Coogan.

Coogan
Is it me or is he not as good as Bert Blyleven was? And BB isn’t in … …

Interesting debate, though. Agree it could either way and I wouldn’t be offended if he got in.

To end part one, I’ll present the e-mail that got myself and my friend Mike fully in to the debate. Remember: hardcore Yankee fan.

Chuck
Ok, I’ll play this installment of why Mike Mussina is not a Hall of Famer:

In part two, Hulse and I dismantle the previous e-mail and former IP/411 writer Mark U joins the fray — with the bad guys.

This is being cross-posted on the email group’s new blog — Original Sports Musings.

Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosopher’s 2008

Brewed By: Brewery Ommegang
Brewed In: Cooperstown, NY
ABV: 9.8%
Type: Belgian-style Ale with Kriek (cherry lambic)

What They Say: Cynics can’t believe it, Epicures hail it a sensation, and Pythagoreans just can’t add up what makes this luscious blend of rich malty ale and cherry lambic so delightful. It might be the flavor of dark chocolate and cherry cordials; it could be the way it acquires wisdom and grace in the cellar. Maybe it’s a conundrum. What’s your theory?

The essence of wonder is a unique and masterful blend of strong malty ale and authentic Belgian Kriek. Our philosophers deduce that this powerful marriage of cherries, roasted malts, and dark chocolate will only achieve more wisdom and coherence as it broods in the dark recesses of your cellar.

Website: Relatively generic. The newish big thing is to have rotating images beneath a your navigation bar. I don’t love it, really, but it’s inoffensive. But, give me an easy, clear navigation bar at the top and whatever you do underneath it is your business. Also, points for having a the ability the buy their beer online. Probably important if you’re heading to Cooperstown and want to know what you’re getting in to.

Why I Picked It: This was actually a Valentine’s Day gift that sat in the refrigerator until recently. I was going to take it out and drink it in May but instead held off a couple more months so I could coincide the review with Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown. I tip this beer in honor of Rickey. Sadly, I was very close to finally getting to this brewery when PLR and I went to the Finger Lakes back in May. Cooperstown is between Syracuse and Albany, but it’s impossible to understand how soul-sucking driving in Western/Central New York can be. Everything is hours from everything else and the Thruway warps your mind. By the time we’d driven for roughly seventeen hours, we decided to just go home.

–

Presentation (5): When I used to work at Price Chopper renting VHS tapes and plotting the death of the public, there was a rack of Ommegang bombers near my department. One of the bottles was Hennepin Ale which I had to purchase because The Big Show and myself lived in a dorm with the same name at Siena. I’ve always loved Ommegang’s bottles. I love that they’re corked. I love the lion logo branded into the cork. I love the gold foil thing that holds the cork in. I love that they date the year on the bottle in bold lettering for aging purposes. I love that the zeroes in 2008 are branded Os. If I had a complaint about the Three Philosopher’s Bottle, it’s the boring white label. 4

Originality (5): Whenever a brewery mixes Beer X with Beer Y and tries to make something good out of it, I always give them credit. Chocolate and cherry is a pretty common pairing, though. 4

Body (10): The reddish color of this beer hints at the huge amount of malts and cherry. It manages to pull off a thin body coats the tongue. It’s very carbonated — which one can expect with a quadrupel. Oddly, the crazy amount of carbonation leads to almost no head. This doesn’t bother me because I find the whole “head” thing overrated, but there’s nothing there. 7

Taste (10): To note: I’m not a huge fan of cherry lambics — I generally think they’re way too sweet — so this beer’s claim of a cherry lambic blend had me on my heels. However, apparently a hint of cherry is OK when blended with dark, bitter chocolate malts. There’s a blast of yeast upon first opening and the odor follows through in the glass. The yeasty taste always lingers in the background underneath the bigger flavors, but stays noticeable. A little dry for my tastes, but the flavor is a home run. 9

Efficiency (10): Brutally, dangerously, and gloriously efficient. The excellent flavors and high ABV is not accompanied by an overpowering taste. One bottle is plenty for an evening and it’s accompanied by a surprisingly reasonable price. It comes in at just around $10 here so I’ll presume it’s a bit less everywhere else. 10

Versatility (10): A couple of problems here. It’s super strong — really more of a wine or a port. It’s not a “sit down and watch a Mets game” beer. I’m also pretty sure I didn’t decant it correctly. I only had a white wine glass available so that’s what I used. However, the super strongness and huge flavor kills the versatility, but its ability to be used as a dessert port, an apertif, or a dinner drink props it back up. 5

Total Score: 39 (of 50) – Great beer.

If I’m making an early call, it takes a certain kind of douche to guilt his supposed best-friend in to going back to the island on which her mother was brutally murdered. I mean, what makes you pick THAT place to have a wedding when money is no object? This sounds like a douche who might not have a problem murdering his entire wedding party to make a point.

Nailed it..

I love breakfast. It’s the only meal I consistently go out for. It’s the only meal I’ll go out by myself for. So, since I was in Mechanicville last week I decided to go to the newest breakfast location in my town. So, bear with me, this is a new format that may sink or swim.

The Ugly Rooster

7 days; 6:00 am – 3:00 pm

Location: When I was a young snob, this building housed a small corner grocery store called Michele’s (pronounced: meh-KEL-lee’s). Michele’s specialty was deli sandwiches on entire loaves of Italian bread. Seriously, go to the grocery store, look at the 1 pound loaf of Italian break, slice that bastard lengthwise, and throw lunchmeat on it. That was the Michele’s Super Sub. They closed when I was in middle school. The story I was told said the owner’s scheme of stealing entire packages of lottery tickets and paying the state with the winning tickets while keeping any profit for himself eventually ended the way you’d expect. In my young snob days surrounded by my scheming Italian family, I have absolutely no problem believing this is exactly what happened. I think there was a flower shop there for a while until it eventually reopened as Penny’s Main Street Cafe which PLR and I visited at least once a weekend until they decided to actively seek out the worst waitstaff in the Capital Region. Now, round three gives us the Ugly Rooster. It features the same hours of Penny’s — 6:00 – 3:00 with no dinner service. Or, actually, Mechanicville is 98% senior citizens so 2:30 might be the dinner rush.

Parking: Street. But there is plenty of parking on Saratoga Avenue and Main Street. One of the benefits of being the only business for three blocks, I guess.

First Impression: The decor is largely the same as it was when it was Penny’s. Gone is the somewhat tacky knick-knack shelves. I don’t recall seeing the somewhat shady pie case either. Sadly, still included are the floor-to-ceiling mirrors on the north wall, which leads me to believe it might second as a strip club during the evenings. What it actually leads me to believe is that there must be some horrible deformities under the mirror because I can’t imagine any other case in which gigantic mirrors are better decor than rustic exposed brick of a 100-year-old building.

Menu: They had a generally good looking breakfast and lunch menu. The breakfast menu featured things like a cinnamon bun french toast, a jalapeno and scrambled egg wrap, and, my eventual selection, the Benedict omelet — a krab and asparagus omelet topped with Hollandaise. Even though I’ll probably never actually have lunch there (I go to places on weekends at noon and have eggs. It’s how I roll), I checked out the lunch menu. A good assortment of burgers, sandwiches, and tacos. Were I to go there for lunch, I’d probably get tacos. One complaint — with tacos as a lunch options, I would have loved to see a Spanish/Mexican option on the breakfast menu. Maybe a huevos ranchero wrap or something? I guess I could count the jalapeno and egg wrap but that combined with coffee might actually cause the creature from end of Spaceballs to emerge from my belly. Also, I found it odd that they’d feature a dish with Hollandaise but have no actual Eggs Benedict option. I can understand not including the scourge that is Canadian bacon, but you have sausage patties and asparagus. Those are two Benedict dishes that I’ll always order above the Canadian bacon version.

Service: I should get this out of the way early. I have exactly two pet peeves with servers. One: I want to be acknowledged quickly when I sit down — especially at a seat yourself breakfast place when I haven’t had coffee yet. Two: My coffee should never be empty. Ever. Both of these pet peeves were right on the border of being violated, but they were saved at the last instant. The service was good. My waitress did seem a bit frazzled by her table of seven but she was also only running three tables including my table of one. Toward the end, a guy who I’m assuming was the owner came out to ask how everything was and filled my coffee. Well done, sir. Stick save and a beauty.

The Meal: I decided on their “Benedict Omelet” with a side of sausage. The Benedict omelet was an asparagus and krab omelet topped with Hollandaise sauce. I ordered the omelet for two reasons. 1) I love crab and spinach omelets so I was perfectly willing to give krab a try for $6 and 2) Hollandaise. Hollandaise is on the short list of stuff (bacon, puff pastry, Hollandaise) that makes every breakfast meal better. The Hollandaise topping on an omelet doesn’t add as much as I thought it would. I understand its use here: omelets usually get a good amount of saltiness from pig products. Using crab and asparagus removes that natural saltiness so what better way to replace it than with buttery awesome? The omelet itself was perfectly cooked and delicious. Zero complaint about the omelet, but I think if I ordered it again, I might have to commit the cardinal sin of asking for it Hollandaise free. The sausage patties we’re generic sausage patties but good. I’m pretty sure their rye toast was from the large 1-pound rye from Price Chopper which, as someone who made them for four years, I’m perfectly fine with. Choppers in-store breads are money and their rye toasts up in to delicious, crispy goodness that holds up the crispy even when drowned in butter, which these slices happily were.

The Bill: $9.83 for coffee, omelet, home fries, toast, and sausage. Can’t beat that with a sword.

Final Thoughts: Really great first experience. Highly recommended.

With the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince nearly ready for release, NBC decided to jump on underage wizard-mania by finally launching their Merlin series. The set-up is simple. Merlin is sent to Camelot by his mother to be under the tutelage of wise man Gaius because he has innate magic that he can’t control. The problem is King Uther (Anthony Stewart Head – Giles from Buffy) has rendered all use of magic a capital offense in Camelot. When Uthar took over Camelot, people used magic for ill and the realm was suffering. So Uthar killed all the dragons and banned all magic. Of course, it seems somewhat counter-productive for Merlin’s mother to send him to the same town as the king. Since, you know, Merlin can’t always control his magical abilities.

The Good

• Anthony Steward Head is far and away the best member of this cast and it’s not even close. You know how in the beginning of Star Trek TNG there was Patrick Stewart and a bunch of other people who weren’t Patrick Stewart? This is like that but way worse. The only reason it isn’t a total trainwreck is because Head pulls off disdainful royalty in a situation where he actually IS disdainful royalty. As such, in situations where he has to yell at subjects it’s totally believable that he’s frustrated with their insolence and wants them dead.
• Arthur is appropriately douchey for a 17-year-old, gift-to-the-universe prince. Arthur and Merlin’s relationship begins with a fistfight and ends with Uther making Merlin Arthur’s personal servant. This relationship is strained in the first two episodes but it grows at an appropriate pace given the time frame and the story they want to build toward. Which, I presume, will be Arthur and Merlin growing to respect each other.

The Bad

• The play between the characters is really, really bad. Merlin and Arthur’s first and second meetings are awkward (Merlin tells Arthur to stop using a servant for moving dagger throwing practice and later deftly uses magic to best him in combat.) Also, the play between Merlin and Gaius is frustratingly transparent. When Merlin uses magic to make life easier in the confines of his room, Gaius comes in and says “you aren’t using magic again are you??” like a frustrated parent. It’s lame.
• I don’t know if I’m in to Merlin The Angsty Teenager. One of my biggest problems with Harry Potter (and Buffy, if I’m being honest) is how annoyingly fatalistic they were. The story of the “unfairness of destiny and duty” has been done enough. To do it again, there has to be a new spin on it. Harry Potter actually got annoying in the sixth and seventh books because he took the weight of the world on his shoulders and refused help (considering Rowling’s book is an amalgamation of a dozen other fantasy stories, this is unsurprising.) Buffy did the same thing. Merlin whining to the dragon about his destiny with Arthur is to be expected but it’s got be done less, well, whiny. We get it, it sucks being blessed by magic in a world where it’s a crime to practice magic. It’s also horribly unfair that you weren’t born a noble. But, you’re in a situation to change your station. Something the rest of the realm doesn’t have the option for. My concern is that the show will devolve in to Harry Potter with Giles replacing the Wizard’s Council.
• In the second episode, Uther hosts a knight’s tournament. One of the entrants uses a highly-illegal shield with snakes that can animate at the bearer’s command. In the semi-finals of the tournament, the knight cagily uses the shield to disable his opponent. Merlin brings this to Arthur who brings it to the king and the king dismisses the word of the servant. So, let me get this straight — the word of the servant doesn’t count over the word of a knight even though the word of the servant said the knight was using a highly-illegal shield and the knight he defeated just died of snakebite? And the king wouldn’t check it out? On top of that, why would the knight who was very clearly winning take a chance at getting caught? I get the message they wanted to send but they could do it in a bit less contrived way. At this point do we really need more aggressive reminders that living in a monarchy sucked?
• I can appreciate the need in the modern day for a diverse cast — but Arthurian characters? Really? Like — Guinevere is a pretty major character in the universe and it seems like ethnicifying (I think I like that word) her in to a minority servant girl and turning Lancelot in to a Spanish commoner is not really an honest interpretation of the characters. At all. Like — are they planning on explaining how a 13th Century prince is going to marry a lowborn servant girl? And, it leads to sloppy writing. Like, by making Lancelot a commoner and Uther’s subsequent refusal to let him serve because commoners can’t be trusted, one would assume they are trying to send a message about the unfairness of having two classes of citizens. However, choosing to use the knight who eventually steals Arthur’s wife (now, the aforementioned lowborn servant girl) and leads to his death was probably not the best decision. Especially considering if the story plays out as it should, the commoners who Arthur fought tradition to raise above their station are eventually going to lead to his death. Ultimately, it makes a pretty cook tragedy, but is it really the one they plan to tell?

The Rest

After the first two episodes (after which the bulk of this review was written on the train), I wrote the following paragraph for this section: It’s not very good. I only watched the first two but still have three more recorded and I’m really in no rush to watch them. If it wasn’t a summer show or if it was conflicting with something else, I would probably give up on it. But, considering I’m only actively watching 3 shows right now (this, True Blood, and Next Food Network Star) it’ll probably make it under the “nothing else on” rule. I don’t expect this to have much traction even with the Harry Potter movies coming out.

Since then, I’ve watched the other three recorded episodes and the show has found a little groove. Much of the bad relationship stuff I was complaining about has kind of fallen to the wayside and they’ve been a little gentler with the sledgehammer of plot. I’ve found myself surprisingly in to it. Though I don’t think I’ll retract my statement about its ability to find traction. The show is only getting about five million viewers. In somewhat telling news for NBC, though, that was its second highest rated show of the week.

Pale Ale
Brewed By: Saranac Brewery (Matt Brewing Company)
Brewed In: Utica, NY
Type: Belgian Ale
ABV: 5.5%

What They Say: Saranac Pale Ale is a classic english pale ale brewed with six specialty malts and aggressively-hopped with hand selected english kent goldings & fuggles hops. Look for a rich, fruity hop bouquet, a copper amber color , and a smooth, full-flavored taste with a crisp finish that only comes from a genuine top fermented ale.

Website: As was mentioned, Saranac’s website is very good. All the stuff on their site is easy to locate. If I had one complaint, it’s that I couldn’t find the Adirondack Trail Mix page.

Why I Picked It: Saranac’s Adirondack Trail Mix is their core beer sampler pack. If I had to rate their beers based on popularity, I’d put this particular beer third behind their IPA and their Adirondack Lager. Since I got the 12 Beers of Winter digitized, I wanted to spend six weeks getting the Trail Mix in here, too.

—–

Presentation: As you might recall, Saranac’s labels are all basically the same. A label of some color combined with a logo of some color with a watercolor painting of some Adirondack scene. This is no different. I’ve been giving them an ongoing 3 because of the relative ease to recognize their product. 3

Originality: There’s not a whole lot here. Every brewery does a pale ale with their own play on the recipe. Saranac’s isn’t much different. 1

Taste: This is a much hoppier version of the ESB reviewed in 12 Beers Of Winter. Other folks have pointed out that the ESB seems like a small tweak to this recipe. I pretty much agree. The base flavor the same with a bolder hop presence. The citrus combined with strong hops just doesn’t work for me. The ESB is a much better version of this recipe. 7

Body: It pours amber with a minimal head. It’s light and crisp and right on the border of being refreshing until the hoppiness descends on the tastebud like a buzzard on a gutwagon. The whole experience is just very bland for me and nothing I’d go out of my to have again. 6

Efficiency: As mentioned, the light and crisp taste and relatively high alcohol content make for a pretty efficient beer. Unfortunately, the heavy flavor and cloying hoppiness just makes it something you can’t drink in volume or with any speed. 5

Versatility: This beer works well if you’re looking to grab a six pack of something different. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it, but wouldn’t sneer at it either. That said, the pale ale thing has been kind of played out and I’m sure you could find a better introduction to Saranac. 6

The Snob Says: A decent take on the British Pub Ale, but not quite as good as their ESB.

Final Grade: 28 (of 50) – Good beer.

Tim Horton’s is coming to NYC on Monday!!!!!!!111ONE!ELVENTY!!!

Current Record: 37-39
June Record: 9-18
GB (NL East): 3.0 (Philadelphia)
GB (Wildcard): 3.5 (St. Louis)

1) The day before Carlos Beltran got placed on the DL, I wrote a few paragraphs about how the team was unwatchable. I mentioned that, largely, the bullpen had been fixed and most of the issues evident last year were still evident this year. I questioned what the excuse would be now. That question was answered the next day when Carlos Beltran was placed on the DL before flying to Colorado to visit a microfracture specialist. The team tried to downplay it but guys generally don’t go to visit the Dr. James Andrews types unless there’s a reason for it. Beltran is simply the latest in the list to go down for extended time. Fans got spoiled last season. Wright, Beltran, Reyes, and Delgado missed a combined TOTAL of nine games. There was no way they were going to replicate that but I don’t think anyone could have predicted it would be quite this bad. This is an excuse I can buy.

2) What that means for the Omar/Jerry haters of the world is their retribution will be delayed another year. A rash of injuries can’t be put on the upper management. All they can do is tread water until the All-Stars get back and hope to make a huge, Astros/Rockies-like run for the Wildcard in August and September. This isn’t meant to be construed as a “poor us” excuse. It’s simply a statement of fact. The team is full of holes.

3) The absolute last thing they should do is the thing being suggested by a sadly large portion of the fanbase and an expectedly large portion of Yankee fans — make a panic trade to fill in the gaps. The problem is there are too many gaps. The absolute best case scenario for the Mets is grabbing “a bat” from some organization further out of it than they are. The sad facts that too many people are blatantly ignoring are the Mets farm kinda sucks and most of the “gems” are currently filling injury holes on the 25-man roster. If it’s true that the Giants want Adam Dunn, there is no earthly way the Mets can compete with the Giants’ Cy Young factories in Connecticut and Fresno. If the Red Sox want Nick Johnson, there is no way the Mets can compete with their minor league talent. And, while the Mets fans are currently freaking out over the fact Omar Minaya is blatantly ignoring their pleas, they’re also ignoring the fact that the last time the Mets made a panic-trade to fill in a hole, they sent Scott Kazmir to Tampa for Victor Zambrano. That move cost Steve Phillips his job. The same Steve Phillips, by the by, who tried to convince the ESPN Sunday Night audience that trading the best center fielder in baseball for prospects was a good idea. Which is why the Worldwide Leader’s Sunday Night broadcast is an even bigger joke this year then last year. The team is playing .300 baseball. A window-dressing trade that screws 2010 and beyond to help them play .350 baseball is really, really stupid.

4) And the laundry list of people everyone wants is stunning. Nick Johnson — to replace one injury prone 1B with a new one. Matt Holliday, who has revealed himself to be .270 hitter in .330 hitters clothing like everyone with access to baseball-reference knew he was. Adam Dunn — because what the team truly needs right now is a downgrade at defense. And Cliff Lee — except only by sending A-ball trash and no-one who’s currently filling out the major league roster. The only valid trades right now are for Cliff Lee (because he’s signed through 2010) and Roy Halliday (also signed through 2010, but will almost certainly involve taking on Vernon Wells’s contract). Either of those trades costs Jose Reyes, the best prospects remaining in the farm, and probably other stuff. Then, next year when injuries happen, there will be even less bodies to fill holes.

5) And the sad fact is — these trade desires have been fueled more out of the Phillies being terrible then the Mets being any good. The Phillies got crushed in Interleague Play due to the untimely loss of their guy specifically bought to DH in Interleague/WS play Raul Ibanez. Because of this, the Mets and their around .500 record were able to stick around two games down, occasionally even pulling within one. This had nothing to do with the Mets’ ability to play .450 baseball — it had entirely to do with the Phillies hitting a 4-11 cold stretch in interleague. To note, the Phillies hit a FOUR-AND-ELEVEN cold stretch and we remained convinced the Mets’ were in it because they were only a couple back. Pay no attention to the fact the team couldn’t take the division lead in that stretch, themselves going only 6-10. If the division leader goes 4-11 over two weeks and you can’t get the division in that stretch — you’re not a good baseball team. You’re not even a .500 baseball team.

6) And, as evidenced by the Mets only scoring 3-runs in an entire series in Citizens Bank Park… the Phillies have apparently had enough of those shenanigans. Their complete and total domination of the Mets last weekend was only made less-depressing by the fact I didn’t really watch any of them because of the holiday. The parts I did watch were made worse by Poppa-Yard’s new and fabulous 52″ HD. They were just overmatched in every way possible. Their defense was shoddy, bad Livan popped in for a visit, and it was evident that most of the offense spent — or should spend — some time in the minors this year. The Phillies letting the Mets stay in the race is over. They swept the Mets out of their park and put an exclamation point on it with a 22-1 trouncing of the Reds. Oh, and their DH is coming back in a couple of days.

7) It’s sad to say, but the fanbase really needs to just settle in for a bad month and stop overreacting to every peak and valley. There is no savior in the system and there is no savior on the field. The team has a bunch of kids who we’re going to watch for the next few weeks to see what they have. What would be nice is to keep the PR machine under control. The same PR machine that convinced the fans that Daniel Murphy and his two-months of service time was going to be a 20/100 replacement for Manny Ramirez. He’s not. It was a terribly unfair mantle to put on him. It’s equally unfair to make Fernando Martinez flail to a .176 average as an overmatched 19-year-old. If there was ever a season in which to be level-headed, it’s this one. Be happy when the generic part you plug-in gets you through a few days a la Tim Redding and Fernando Nieve. But don’t assume because Nick Evans gets on a hot-streak for two days that he’s the answer to the season. Don’t assume because a 19-year-old guy who should be in Double-A is overmatched by Major League pitching and therefore sucks forever and should be traded. For once, take a lesson from the New York Giants and stay the course for a little while.

8) As a fan, I never noticed how hard it was to watch bad defense until I had to watch bad defense every day. Watching baseball every day, you start to take flawless 6-3s and 4-6-3s a little for granted. When both Alex Cora and Jose Reyes were on the DL and I was watching Ramon Martinez try to turn a double play, I started to notice it. When the gold glove center fielder was replaced with the tripping 19-year-old, I noticed it more. Now that the outfield is comprised of a 41-year-old DH, a corner outfielder playing center, and a Triple-A first baseman playing out of position, I appreciate a well-staffed outfield. Also, the next time someone mentions that bad defense can be “hidden” at first base — punch them in the face. Hard.

9) Ryan Church — one of the benefits of the lack of outfielders was that Jerry Manuel has had no choice but to put his petty nonsense aside and play Ryan Church in the field every day. Since Manuel has been forced to stop mismanaging Church, he’s responded by raising his average from .268 to .290 and, even though he’s been victimized by the team-wide power-drought via CitiForbes Field Canyon, but I’d like to think that even Manuel has to realize he’s the best option in right if the team is ever able to field a major league baseball team again.

10) There’s going to come a time sometime in July when fans are going to start asking for definitive answers on when and if the currently DLed players are coming back. If that answer isn’t a good one, Citi Field is going to quickly become a ghost town as people start saving their money rather than spend $100/ticket to watch a $100M team play minor league ball. This is good for me as I’ll happily troll Stub Hub for below face-value tickets to sit in the lower dish. However, this probably isn’t so good for a team to watch their new stadium turn in to Land Shark North.