Mets Continue To Mess With Daniel Murphy's Head

Today it was announced that manager Terry Collins is moving the slumping Curtis Granderson from the cleanup spot and replacing him with...who else? Daniel Murphy:

Terry Collins is considering moving Curtis Granderson out of the cleanup spot, the manager said after Saturday’s game.

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Update 10:30 a.m.: Granderson will bat second on Sunday. Daniel Murphy will bat cleanup.

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Granderson, who signed a four-year, $60 million deal this past winter, went 0-for-5 earlier in the night. He left six runners on base.

I've been saying for years that besides David Wright, Daniel Murphy is the best hitter the Mets have--a consistent .280 to .300 guy who could easily score around 80 to 100 runs for you and drive in around 70 every year all the while playing a decent 2nd base...if the Mets just left him alone. And just looking at Murphy's career stats, he's more then proven this. But this is the Mets organization, a woeful program operated by Fred Wilpon that hasn't won it all in 28 years and here's yet another reason why. Instead of leaving Murphy (a homegrown talent who always plays hard regardless of the situation) be, the inept Mets management continue to show a willingness to screw with his head. Whether it's constantly putting Murphy on the trading block, incessantly trying him out at different positions, getting into his head when he goes through a periodical slump or in this case, panicking and moving a guy with a lifetime total of 39 home runs to the cleanup spot all because your new multimillion dollar CF is off to a bad start...it's always Murphy who gets the short end of the stick. Will they ever learn to just leave Daniel Murphy alone? He's earned that right.

Matt Harvey Decides To Have Elbow Surgery

ESPN.com:

New York Mets right-hander Matt Harvey has elected to undergo Tommy John surgery that will sideline him for the entire 2014 season, general manager Sandy Alderson said Friday.

Dr. James Andrews will perform the procedure later this month.

Harvey had been steadfast in saying he planned to rehab and undergo a throwing program over a six- to eight-week period in order to be able to pitch next season with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

Alderson and other team officials, however, had portrayed that strategy as an uphill battle and regularly had suggested surgery was the likely route.

The GM indicated Friday night that Mets doctor David Altchek and Andrews agreed that Tommy John surgery was the prudent route, although they also were willing to let Harvey try the throwing program to disprove the need for the procedure.

"Based on the conversations that I had with both of the doctors, I felt this would be the right decision," Alderson said. "So in that sense I'm happy Matt has reached the same conclusion."

Harvey reached the surgery decision without ever going to the Mets' complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., to begin the planned throwing program. He recently had been getting physical therapy at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

Easily the right decision. There's essentially a 50/50 chance that Harvey returns to his original form, but even that's better than his chances if he'd gone with rehab IMO. Now the Mets should sign definitely Dice-K to a one-year deal, at the very least.

Wlipons Must Pay Trustee, Go To Trial

Just sell the damn team Fred...please:

The New York Mets are preparing for the baseball season, and the team's owners will have to prepare for trial.


U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled Monday that Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon, his family, businesses and charities must pay as much as $83.3 million to the trustee trying to recover funds to net losers in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. He also ruled that the sides will go to trial March 19 over an additional $303 million that trustee Irving Picard is seeking.


Of the approximately $83 million, only $1.7 million is associated with Mets accounts. The rest is associated with other Wilpon businesses and charities.


The Wilpons' lawyers had filed a motion to have the case tossed entirely, but that was rebuffed by Rakoff in Monday's ruling.


"We are preparing for trial," Sterling Partners, one of Wilpon's holdings, said in a statement. "We look forward to demonstrating that we were not willfully blind to the Madoff fraud."


As a matter of law, Picard had contended, he was entitled to $83,309,162 in Ponzi scheme profit allegedly made by the Wilpons in the immediate two years before Madoff's arrest on Dec. 11, 2008.


The Wilpons had asserted that because they thought they had $500 million invested with Madoff at the time his scheme was discovered by authorities, they actually were losers -- despite withdrawing more money than they had deposited with Madoff.


Picard believes he also is entitled to $303 million in principal invested by the Wilpons with Madoff because, he alleges, they had warning signs a fraud might be occurring. Rakoff has set a high standard for Picard to be able to collect principal -- "willful blindness," meaning the Wilpons would have had to all but have known something was awry with Madoff and purposely looked the other way.


Rakoff wrote in Monday's decision that he is skeptical that Picard can prove to a jury that the Wilpons acted in bad faith with respect to their investment with Madoff, but Rakoff decided the trustee had enough evidence and witnesses to allow him to try to attempt it at trial.


"The Court remains skeptical that the trustee can ultimately rebut the defendants' showing of good faith, let alone impute bad faith to all the defendants," Rakoff wrote in Monday's decision. "Nevertheless, there remains a residue of disputed factual assertions from which a jury could infer either good or bad faith depending on which assertions are credited."

RELATED: $83M question: Will Wilpons lose Mets?

After Another Lost Season For The Mets They Must Resign Jose Reyes

As I write this the Mets are four games below .500 and 11.5 games out of the wild-card spot. If it matters any they're also 20.5 games behind the Phillies. In other words the 2011 season is over and it's time to look towards 2012. Now mind you, the 2011, considering the circumstances, Mets have played well and when all's said and done this is still Omar Minaya's fault/team. But the big question that has to be on Met fans minds is where do we go from here and to me, that starts with the Mets being left with no choice but to resign Joe Reyes.

I mean, so many injuries and visits to the disabled list for such a young, seemingly fit 28yo man is startling (to say the least) and its Sandy Alderson's job to find some kind of solution to the problem. But without Reyes this team just has no hope, it's that simple. And no it doesn't mean you give Reyes a blank check, because Reyes and his agent need to be fair to the Mets and honest about themselves and Reyes' injuries too. But the Mets must resign him, they just must. Their future literally hangs in the balance.

With Jason Bay Being A Complete Bust, Mets Need To Keep Carlos Beltran

Mike Francesa says it all the time and I completely agree with him: Carlos Beltran is under appreciated in this town. Yeah, I was mad too when ended the 2006 season with Beltran's bat lying on his shoulder while watching that nasty Adam Wainwright curveball, but that team had no business being in a Game 7 against a team they were much better than in the first place. To think too what a difference a healthy Pedro Martinez or David Wright hitting close to his average could've made in that series.

But getting back to Beltran, when healthy, as his 5th All-star appearance in 7 years as a Met proved, he's still one of the best in the game. Consider too, the possibility of five 100-RBI seasons as a Met along with three Gold Gloves and let's not forget that the guy has repeatedly stated how much he wants to stay a Met. Sure, he'll be 35 next year, one could make the case that he's back to playing on such a high-level only because he's after that one last big contract and the local media's been practically begging the Mets to get rid of him. But here's the biggest reason to keep Carlos Beltran a Met: there's no one out there who could replace him and thanks to Jason Bay being a  flat-out bust, the Mets would be God-awful without him. I mean, a horrible Bay, Angel Pagan and the oft-fragile Fernando Martinez does not leave you wanton for Mets tickets next year, much less any chance of competing with the Phillies and Braves in the NL East. In other words, the Mets must keep Carlos Beltran.

Did Ike Davis Quit On The Mets?

ESPN.com:

First baseman Ike Davis expressed skepticism he would be able to return to the New York Mets this season.


Speaking to children at Coleman Country Day Camp in Merrick, N.Y., on Long Island, on Tuesday, Davis candidly described his left ankle as "not good."


"But next year I will be back and healthy," Davis told the campers. "I promise."


When told of Davis' comments, manager Terry Collins said he was not resigned to the first baseman missing the remainder of the season, but he added, "I'm surprised he would say something like that."


Davis later told reporters, "I'm not throwing in the towel. In three weeks if I'm not healthy, I'm not playing this year."


Davis injured the ankle in a collision with third baseman David Wright by the pitcher's mound at Coors Field in Denver on May 10 and has not returned to the lineup because of lingering discomfort when he attempts to run.

Why else would Davis come out with that weird statement today about possibly not coming back this season? I don't know Ike Davis from Adam, but rarely have a seen a player act so nonchalant when it comes to returning from an injury. After his sizzling start this year, I thought Ike was ready to take this team by the horns and maybe lead them to a wild-card birth. But then he twisted his ankle and what once was supposed to be  short 15-day stint on the DL has turned into maybe being out for the season. And I know that he's a laidback guy and all, but at no time during this whole mess did Davis seem urgent on coming back and of course, the Mets medical staff being who they are found another way to make things worse. Granted, injuries are injuries and each player is different, but with Albert Pujols just coming back early from a broken wrist that was supposed to sideline him for six weeks, Davis' longterm absence from the Mets lineup deserves more scrutiny and maybe even some shame.

Jose Reyes Going On The DL Is Good For The Mets

Simply put, Reyes going on the DL today is yet, another reminder of no matter how great he is, he can be just as fragile. No wonder the only thing Fred Wilpon got right in that New Yorker article was that he won't be getting Carl Crawford money. No wonder any owner outside the Mets thinking of signing Reyes to some outlandish dead this offseason may want to back off upon seeing him on the DL, yet again--which in turn, is a good thing for the Mets.