The Mets Comeback; Paul DePodesta's Blog; The Rays' Attendance Woes

• Mets 7-Marlins 6:

    Much of the Mets slumber has appeared to be due to a lack of energy and interest, but they've been unlucky as well. Carlos Beltran has been stinging the ball lately, but many of his hot shots have been directly at someone. Last night, in the bottom of the twelfth inning, he hit another screaming liner that passed directly through where Hanley Ramirez would have been standing had David Wright not been running on a 3-2 pitch. Part of the credit for that goes to manager Willie Randolph for sending Wright (I might not have done the same thing); but part of it is due to pure luck.
    As Duaner Sanchez started work in the eleventh inning, I was mentally organizing my words for an accurate description of Sanchez's lost velocity. His changeup was puttering in at 81; his fastball at 88-89. Both numbers are a drop of 5-7 mph from his pre-injury norms. Then he started ripping the ball and cutting loose as he hasn't since his return. Suddenly, the fastball was around 92-93 and he looked like he'd broken through a mental block that was preventing him from unleashing as he did before. Not only that, Sanchez brought something that many of the Mets relievers don't have because it's not in their personality---- he's mean. Sanchez looked irritated that Logan Kensing knocked him down as he was trying to bunt and looked out menacingly at the Marlins pitcher. When he was the eighth inning guy in 2006, Sanchez was always willing to drill someone, glare or announce his presence with some swagger. That, despite the home run he allowed, is a good sign for his future if he's able to keep it up.
     There have been reports that the Mets are trying to acquire a "high-energy" guy for a low price to infuse the clubhouse and the lineup. That could be someone who can run or someone who has a big mouth, big personality and has provided big hits in his career. Scanning the teams that have fallen out of the race, I don't see anyone who has speed and would provide an impact at a corner outfield spot, but there is a guy like Kevin Millar who has those attributes, bats right-handed, plays first base and the outfield and doesn't shut up. I'm sure he's available, but whether Orioles baseball czar Andy MacPhail is ready to start dealing with his team playing relatively well is a question; and MacPhail doesn't just give players away. I looked at the Padres roster to see if there was anyone who could provide anything described above, but unless they're willing to deal Adrian Gonzalez, there's nothing there. Speaking of which...

• What is this obsession Rob Neyer has with Paul DePodesta and his torturous blog?

    I understand Neyer has a personal affection for DePodesta; I understand that they believe in the same things as it goes into running a ballclub, but the way he promotes DePodesta's ponderous ramblings is painful. The link----DePodesta Blog----explains why the Padres traded for Cha Seung Baek and what they think they can get from him, blah, blah, blah. Let me say right now for the record that the Padres are going to get nearly nothing from Cha Seung Baek, so this deal was a non-entity.
    Now maybe DePodesta is an effective number two or background guy in an organization, but his tenure as the Dodgers GM, which was a Hawk Harrelson-level disaster, should preclude anyone from taking him and his justifications too seriously, just as his role in Moneyball served as a Kevin Trudeau-style infomercial inducing one easily duped owner to put him in charge of his baseball team, with the results we saw during those nightmarish 20 months in which he destroyed the Dodgers.
    I don't see how anyone can look at anything DePodesta says as having any weight considering how poorly constructed the Padres are and how barren everyone says their minor league operation is. The same people have been in charge for years now, so they created this mess and they have no one to blame for it but themselves. Any self-justification in the form of an "insider's view" is transparent, but only if an observer sees what's there and not what they want to see. I'm still waiting for him to break into a few bars of the Harvard school song as part of a blog entry. Will that be treated as gospel as well?

• The Rays, an exciting young team that is playing well, are still not drawing fans to the ballpark:

    The notion that Florida is such a dead baseball town is disproved when one looks at the Rays attendance from their first year in the league. It's interesting to note that in 1998, they drew 2.5 million fans to that monstrosity known as Tropicana Field. The numbers have dropped precipitously since then, but that first year proves that there are people who want to see a baseball team in Tampa Bay. The Marlins have had one year in which they've drawn three million and a few years of two million-plus.
    It may be that school isn't out yet and that many aren't willing to invest their emotions into a team that may or may not be for real, but to latch onto the Rays small attendance numbers so early is unfair. If they hang around in their current position (in playoff contention and ten or so games over .500) and the fans still aren't coming, then it may be time to look seriously at the problem, but they're creating a buzz now because they're playing so well; perhaps it's going to take some time to reach the casual baseball fans of Tampa Bay who aren't aware of it yet or aren't ready to believe it's for real.

• The on-field, roughhouse celebrations are eventually going to get someone hurt:

    I know it's all in good fun and it's just guys screwing around (we've all done it), but eventually someone is going to get injured in one of those roughhousing celebrations after a game-winning hit. If I were a manager, I'd tell my players to calm down with the irrational exuberance before someone gets hurt.