2011 MLB Season Game Thread: May

[Bobbob1313]

Stole Hanley's power Space Jam style.

[Chewford]

Exobytes.

[Metes]

There's a M. Wilson playing for the Mariners. Is that our Matt Wilson?????????????????

Mmmmmhmmmmmmm

[jOOj]

He has a healthy tan these days.

[HUGG]

Asdrubal Cabrera 5/5 2hr 5rbi 2r sb

.302/.363/.522 9hr 32rbi

He's on pace to hit 33hr this season. Coming into the year, he had 18 career hr in 387 games with a season high of 6.

good grief

[Metes]

Felix with 6 K's thru 3 IP... so unfair that MLB lets him pitch against the Padres

[jOOj]

Asdrubal Cabrera 5/5 2hr 5rbi 2r sb

.302/.363/.522 9hr 32rbi

He's on pace to hit 33hr this season. Coming into the year, he had 18 career hr in 387 games with a season high of 6.

good grief

Stem Cells.

[MiamiHomer]

Utley back for the Phillies tomorrow.

[Namaste]

LAPD tracks down one of the suspects in the beating of a Giants fan in the Dodger Stadium parking lot and the Giants walk off in 11 innings on the same day.

[Chewford]

Utley back for the Phillies tomorrow.

That is totally really great news. I am really, really fucking happy for him. Really for cereal. Hurray. What a great day for Canada and therefore the world.

[AdamRavs]

Utley back for the Phillies tomorrow.

Bad for the NL East great for my fantasy team!

[MiamiHomer]

No matter how low you set the bar, the New York Mets can find a way to limbo under it.

Just a week ago, the Yankees had the public drama for a change, with the front office squabbling with Jorge Posada over his self-removal from the lineup.

Then the injury-riddled Mets clawed back from 5-13 to .500 with a Subway Series-opening win in the Bronx on Friday.

Two subsequent losses were a dose of reality.

Now, Mets fans have to wake up to this: Principal owner Fred Wilpon -- who at 74 years old still very much has all his faculties -- goes for the nuclear option.

In a lengthy magazine piece -- which the organization undoubtedly thought would help the ownership family's image by telling Wilpon's rags-to-riches tale -- you first learn about how brother-in-law Saul Katz's endowment, and we don't mean bankroll, contributed to the building of the family's real-estate empire.

But the part that's buried in the New Yorker article is what will have the Big Apple airwaves abuzz Monday and beyond.

Wilpon decides to mock nearly all of his top players, while comparing his team to a pile of poop.

The principal owner says free-agent-to-be Jose Reyes ain't worth Carl Crawford money (seven years, $142 million) because he's always injured. He gives a backhanded compliment to David Wright, calling him a nice guy and very good but not a superstar. Wilpon saves his best material to describe Carlos Beltran.

The owner called himself a schmuck for giving Beltran a seven-year, $119 million deal off a record postseason with the Houston Astros in which Beltran slugged eight homers in 12 games.

Wilpon calls his team snakebitten and all but mocks Beltran for taking that infamous curveball from Adam Wainwright that eliminated the Mets in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series.

Fans may think those very things, with the possible exception of Reyes' financial worth. (Give Reyes whatever you have to in order to retain him, fans largely believe.) But the owner cannot say such stuff.

It was charming when the late George Steinbrenner publicly picked fights with players, but that was his personality quirk and designed for motivation. In Wilpon's case, it's just pathetic.

You would think having owned a New York baseball team for three decades, and with his cadre of public relations advisers, Wilpon would know better. But the Mets consistently have made the worst choices in presenting themselves to the public.

If you grant hours and hours of access to a reporter, you'd better be incredibly polished and stay on the message you're attempting to put out -- your rags-to-riches tale and how Bernie Madoff betrayed you. If you let your guard down and this comes out, well, beware the backlash.

Reyes may be a goner at the trading deadline or after the season, but Wilpon did himself no favors in the interim as far as their relationship, not to mention how the comments will be received by fans. Beltran is a goner too. But Wright is the face of the franchise.

It's been quietly whispered for some time by team officials that Wright is viewed by the organization as an elite complementary piece but cannot be the guy. But why say it publicly and antagonize Wright, who happened to play with an undiagnosed broken back for a month because he is such a gamer?

Irving Picard, the trustee suing the Wilpon family for more than $1 billion, should seriously take a step back and wonder if he really needs to keep sending out press releases to help his cause. The Mets' own self-destructiveness will take care of his public relations.

Wilpon uses the term "snakebitten" to describe the franchise.

Unlucky with some injuries? Definitely.

Snakebitten? No way. You largely make your own luck.

Wilpon rips Mets, sinks to new low

[Miamarlin21]

Reds option right-handed pitcher Edison Volquez to Triple-A Louisville.
--------------------
Braves sign infielder Julio Lugo
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Anddd former Marlin Josh Wilson was designated for assignment today by Arizona.

[jOOj]

Joey Bats, first inning dinger off Stem Colon.

[MiamiHomer]

His stem cells are better than Colons stem cells.