Some People Should Keep Their Mouth Shut

I think it's always true that some people should keep their mouths shut. But the past few days, I think there a few more than normal.

• Jim Rice decided it was a good idea to use his speech to a bunch of Little Leaguers to rip Derek Jeter, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, according to LoHud. Peter Abraham asks if it's too late to vote Jim Rice out of the Hall of Fame for being a "no-class idiot"? Why exactly did they vote him in in the first place? Rob Neyer responds by saying: "running down today's players is nothing but boring, self-aggrandizing poppycock."

• Our next idiot is Jerry Manuel show decided it was a good idea to use David Wright's concussion as an opportunity to rip on Ryan Church. Earth to Jerry, despite the injuries to your team this year, you're not totally immune. You haven't done a bang up job. Your team failed down the stretch last year. And you're supposed to be a bigger person. Ripping a guy who is no longer on the team is petty and immature.

• Speaking of the Mets, their GM is not doing much to improve his reputation. From Rob Neyer:

  • Whatever else might happen today, this is going to rank as the strangest news of the day:

  Jon Heyman has reported that the Giants claimed Gary Sheffield off the waiver wire, but the two teams could not come to an agreement on a deal.

  Last night, I contacted one of my sources, a Giants front office official, who confirmed for me that Omar Minaya was asking for "high level talent” for his aging slugger, something that Giants GM Brian Sabean was not willing to part with.

  We were also told that there is a strong possibility that Minaya will be asking for the same type of "high level talent” for Billy Wagner, if and when he decides to finally move him.

  "Minaya just doesn't get it, does he? No, he doesn't. Maybe he'll blame it on Adam Rubin.

• Three's a charm with the Mets, it seems. This has to be the most bizarre. You knew that Gary Sheffield wouldn't be a good citizen all year long. Via the New York Post: "The Mets rejected his bizarre request for a contract extension. So Sheffield, according to sources, initially became verbally abusive, then demanded he be released or traded to the Marlins, then threatened to return home to Florida, and finally just pulled himself from the starting lineup." According to the New York Times, he doesn't remember this today but can't understand why the Mets didn't send him to San Francisco. Joel Sherman think that this guarantees Sheffield unemployment in 2010. Nice work, Sheff. No wonder no one wants to go watch the Mets.

• Lastly, someone made a claim on Jose Valverde but the Houston Astros pulled him back. Why? Their General Manager, Ed Wade, doesn't want to trade anyone but Ivan Rodriguez. Ummm...This team is going no place this season (9 games back in the Wild Card, 10 games back in the NL East, and -71 run differential) and they have Valverde, LaTroy Hawkins, Miguel Tejada and maybe a few other pieces they could dump, save some money, and maybe pick up a few prospects. All three become free agents after the season is over. Nice way to run the organization.
  

Some people are better off keeping quiet.

(pictures from the Providence Journal, Getty Images, Amazin' Avenue, New York Daily News, and Delaware Online)

Former Mets Dominating the American League

From Peter Gammons:

As of this weekend, Jason Bay and Nelson Cruz are 1-2 among American League outfielders in homers and extra-base hits, and seemingly certain to make the All-Star team. Talk about scenic routes:

Nelson Cruz

• 1998: Signed by Mets as undrafted free agent
• 2000: Traded from Mets to A's for Jorge Velandia
• 2004: Traded from A's to Brewers for Keith Ginter
• 2006: Traded by Brewers with Carlos Lee to Texas for Francisco Cordero and Kevin Mench
• 2008: Cleared waivers at the end of spring training, accepted demotion to Triple-A

Jason Bay

• 2000: Drafted in 22nd round by Montreal Expos
• 2002: Traded by Expos to Mets for Lou Collier
• 2002: Traded by Mets to Padres for Steve Reed
• 2003: Traded by Padres to Pirates with Oliver Perez for Brian Giles
• 2008: Traded by Pirates to Red Sox for Craig Hansen, Brandon Moss, Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris

Amazingly, both of these guys were in the Mets system. In 3 seasons with the Mets, Velandia's line looked like .149/.281/.216. And Steve Reed pitched well in 24 games with the Mets, but left as a free agent when the season was over. The Mets weren't the only team who passed on those two players, but they sure could use them this season. Here is the homerun output of the Mets corner OFs this season:

  Cnt Player            **HR** Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
   1 Gary Sheffield       5   2009  40 NYM NL  46 137 112  26  29  5  1  20  24   2  19   1   0   0   3   2  1  .259  .394  .455  .849 79       
    2 Daniel Murphy        4   2009  24 NYM NL  51 174 150  21  36  5  1  18  19   1  15   0   3   2   2   1  1  .240  .322  .367  .689 *73      
    3 Ryan Church          1   2009  30 NYM NL  39 138 125   9  34  7  0   8  10   3  18   1   1   1   5   2  1  .272  .328  .352  .680 *9       
    4 Fernando Martinez    0   2009  20 NYM NL   9  35  30   3   6  3  0   4   4   0   4   1   0   0   0   2  0  .200  .314  .300  .614 /*97     
    5 Emil Brown           0   2009  34 NYM NL   3   6   5   0   1  0  0   0   1   0   0   0   0   0   1   0  0  .200  .333  .200  .533 /9       
    6 Jeremy Reed          0   2009  28 NYM NL  47  63  60   5  19  3  1   3   3   1  15   0   0   0   1   0  1  .317  .349  .400  .749 *7/839   
    7 Angel Pagan          0   2009  27 NYM NL  14  51  42   7  14  3  0   3   7   0   9   0   2   0   2   4  0  .333  .429  .405  .834 /978     

Stat of the Day -- Old Guys and RBIs

From Baseball-Reference.com (and why you don't sign guys past 33 to long-term deals...). An interesting list to say the least. You have two of the most famous players in the history of the game (the Babe and Stan the Man), two mid-90s warriors (O'Neill and Galarraga), two steroid players (Palmeiro and Sheffield), and now Raul Ibanez (who is working on his best season currently). A-Rod just reached 33, but as a Yankee fan, I hope he too is on this list in a few years.

Just 7 players have gotten at least 100 RBI in each season at ages 34, 35, and 36:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Raul Ibanez       2006 2008 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Gary Sheffield    2003 2005 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Rafael Palmeiro   1999 2001 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Paul O'Neill      1997 1999 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Andres Galarraga  1995 1997 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Stan Musial       1955 1957 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Babe Ruth         1929 1931 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons