Major League Jerk has noticed that the Mets don't just lose, they lose badly:

4/12/09 Marlins 2 Mets 1: This game was the Easter Sunday special. Josh Johnson vs Johan Santana. Johnson was the tits, he let up one run in a complete game. Johan let up no runs and got the loss. Yes, no runs allowed and got the loss. Why? Daniel Murphy dropped a fly ball in left field that allowed a run to score and put another guy at third.  This loss stunk because they maintained a theme of blowing Johan’s starts. This time they did it with Johan in the game as opposed to the bullpen doing it. The Mets left 8 men on base.

5/18/09 Dodgers 3 Mets 2 11 innings: This game is as bad as it gets. In the top of the 11th, Ryan Church, who had been ice cold, got a 2 out single. Then Angel Pagan, who was 4-6, hit a long drive into the gap in left center. Ryan Church scored from first. There was one little problem. He missed third base. He F***ING MISSED THIRD. The Dodgers appealed and he was called out. [*** mine]

In the bottom of the inning more horseshit, with a man on first Xavier Paul hit a pop up to right center. Beltran and Pagan went for the ball. It was Beltran’s ball but Pagan kept charging and then pulled up as Beltran pulled up and the ball dropped in. After that the Mets loaded the bases and Brian Stokes got a big out. With one out, a ground ball was hit to Jeremy Reed, who was playing first base for the 8th time in his life. He fielded it cleanly, but rushed the throw home and threw it over the catcher’s head. The Dodgers win it. Overall, the Mets had five, FIVE, errors in the game. 15 men were left on base.

...

6/12/09 Yankees 9 Mets 8: This was a see-saw battle. With the Mets up 6-5, the Mets newest 2nd lefty, Jon Switzer, came in to face the colder then cold Hideki Matusi who promptly but one in the second deck in right field at Yankee Stadium. The Mets came back to tie it. In the 8th, The Yankees brought Mariano Rivera into a tie game. He walked Carlos Beltran and then gave up a rope double to David Wright to score the go ahead run. In the Bottom of the Ninth, Frankie Rodriguez was doing his typical high wire act. He had saved 16 games in 16 chances so far. He let up a one out single to Jeter. Jeter stole second on Johnny Damon’s strikeout. With 2 outs K-Rod pitched around Teixeira and walked him. He then got Alex Rodriguez to pop up to shallow right field. Luis Castillo got under the ball and dropped it. He dropped the f***ing ball. He then threw the ball to Alex Cora at second when he should have thrown home. Teixeira, hustling the whole way, scored from first beating the throw and the Yankees won it. The Mets left 17 men on base

I call curse! Yes, you read it hear first. I say a Braves fan hid a Chipper Jones jersey under the new home run apple.

The Angels are second to last in home runs in the American League. Neither Bobby Abreu nor Vlademir Guerrero have flashed any sign of power this year. Fortunately, the Angels have two infielders hanging around the home run leaderboard in AAA, second baseman Sean Rodriguez (21) and short stop Brandon Wood (14). While Wood is still destroying pitchers in Salt Lake City, Sean Rodriguez has finally been called up following the demotion of Howie Kendrick. However, it looks like at-bats will be hard to come by for S-Rod. Steve Bishop of the LA Times:

"When Izzy goes five for eight [as he did against the San Diego Padres for a couple of games], it's tough to take him out," the Angels manager said Sunday. Remember, this is the same manager who has had Izturis batting third on occasion.

What about platooning the right-handed-hitting Rodriguez with Izturis, who is a much more effective hitter left-handed? Nope, that doesn't seem in the plans, either. "We want to keep Izzy fresh," Scioscia said, "but we're not going to platoon. We'll give Sean some playing time."

This is no knock on Izturis. He's a solid little player with good skills. But despite what occurred during the sweep of the pathetic Padres over the weekend, the Angels are still glaringly short on power. ...

That's why Rodriguez would be so welcome. Sure, he struck out a lot in the PCL (67 times in 202 at-bats, compared to 36 in 160-plus at-bats for Brandon Wood). But his ability to hit the ball out of the park could elevate the punchless bottom part of the Angels' lineup to a new level.

Izturis can't do that.

Do I still wish Wood were in the big league lineup? Absolutely. But I understand not wanting to change the whole defense, especially with Figgins playing at an All-Star caliber at third. When Howie Kendrick was sent down to rediscover his batting stroke, there was no question Rodriguez was the right one to replace him, not just on the roster, but in the starting lineup as well.

Izturis has an OPS of .687 this season and a career mark of .716. He's 28 years old, it's unlikely that he will get much better all of the sudden. That's ok, he is a pretty good sub, but not more. The 24 year old Rodriguez on the other hand has an OPS of .989 this season and had a 1.042 last season. He has nothing more to prove in AAA and now with Kendrick in the minors, he should take over second base immediately.

MLB.TV is Major League Baseball's online service that offers live streams and archives of all games over the internet, available as a regular and a premium service. The premium subscripers get high-definition resolution and a special game summary called condensed games that only show the final pitch of every at-bat, allowing baseball fans with time contrains and abroad to keep track of their favorite teams and players. Or so they thought.

After sustaining a few weeks without any condensed games at all to start the season, the 15-25 minute long condensed games - now also available to non-subscribers for free - were changed to a new format at the end of May. Then, the summaries changed into extended highlight reels between five and eight minutes long, showing only selected at-bats - usually run-scoring plays or strike-outs - often skipping several innings completely and being generally perceived as rather confusing. MLB.com claims that change was made because of customers complaining about condensed games being too long, but some people suspect it had more to do with a new application for iPhone users that was launched recently. Customers have voiced their dissatisfaction in a thread in the mlb.tv support forum that extends over several pages (and that apparently had to be edited to remove additional pages worth of explicit comments), but have yet to receive any substantial feedback about if or when the format will be changed back or even whether their criticism has been acknowledged by MLB.

Considering that premium subscribers had paid about $110 for this year's service and that MLB would probably like them to renew their subscription for about $90, this behavior by MLB is rather puzzling. Leaving the question of alienating of your most loyal fan base aside for a moment, I have to wonder if there really is more money in iPhone users paying $9.99 for an app than in subscribers spending nearly ten times as much on a yearly basis?

It's all the rage to be on twitter (I'm on it, @adkwriter), and it's a blast to read some of my favorite writer's thoughts.  Be it Keith Law, Kevin Goldstein, Bill Simmons, or even guys I don't read other than for the gossip. 

Like Jon Heyman.  Who said this about a possible SF Giants-Florida Marlins swap, Jon Sanchez for Dan Uggla:

"i keep getting asked about jonathan sanchez for uggla rumor. i have to think the giants are a lot smarter than that!"

Really?  Let's look at their second base situation for a moment.

Currently, the Giants are employing Emmanuel Burris, a switch hitter without power, on-base or average skills.  He's hitting a robust .257/.312/.289.  I can see why the Giants would be "too smart" to pass up on spinning him (He did manage an OPS of .686 in 274 plate appearances last year, after all!).

How about Jonathan Sanchez?  I mean, Heyman is a quality writer for a prominent sports publication, it's not like he'd go and say something totally off kilter, would he?  Surely Sanchez has been flat out awesome, right?

Believe it or not, he's been awful.  5.19 ERA in 52 innings, a slim WHIP of 1.654 and a sparkling BB/9 rate of 6.2, which is about double what you want--Lincecum's is 2.8.  Sanchez does strike out a lot of batters, but even more seem to just pound him.  He's spent his entire career in the NL West, and he's never produced an ERA of less than 4.95.  Sanchez is what he is, an awful pitcher.

Now, to be fair to Jon, Dan Uggla hasn't been stellar.  .222/.342/.454 is not pretty, but there is one fine little stat to watch out for: BABIP, which stands for Batting Average on Balls In Play.  It's a wonderful way to see if a batter is slumping like mad or playing liked a Created Player from The Show.  It reads like a batting average, so generally anything in the .280-.320 range is normal, but each batter is different.  Ichiro is sustaining higher BABIPs because of his style, he hits anything within a square mile of the plate.  But, if Adam Dunn has a BABIP of .360, that sucker is coming down.

So, what is Dan Uggla's BABIP?  .234, about 50 points lower than I would think is sustainable for him.  So, essentially, you can bet on Uggla bringing his average to about .290 or so, which will help his OBP, which will make him a far more valuable player than he is now, and more valuable than Burriss, who's BABIP is .300.  Or, um, standard.  He's not unlucky.  Just awful.

So, Jon, um, do you still think a Uggla for Sanchez deal would be bad?

You tweeted, well, "that trade would be simply awful". 

If you don't believe me, Heyman is at @SI_JonHeyman.

Rany Jazayerli of Baseball Prospectus and dermotology fame runs a blog about his beloved Royals, titled RanyOnTheRoyals.  It's a must read for any baseball fan looking for some good baseball know-how.  This writer has certainly learned a few things from Rany.

But, eventually, we all make mistakes.  And Rany, bless his soul, whiffed on Saturday:

If he is, well, I have a move I’d like to suggest. I also would like to suggest that those of you who are reading this right now ought to take a seat, because you’re about to read something that might disturb you. Rest assured, this is not some cockamamie idea I came up with today. Well, it might be a cockamamie idea, but it’s an idea I’ve been considering since spring training.

I think the Royals should trade for Jeff Francoeur.

Yeah, that Jeff Francoeur. The one that’s become the bane of Atlanta Braves fans and the laughingstock of baseball.

Rany goes on to say that Francoeur has become almost underrated because everyone thinks he sucks.  Well, there is a good reason why, Rany.  He's absolutely awful at getting on-base, which is important, and it's not just because he can't figure out that crazy 'strike zone' contraption, but now the dude can't make contact (.244 average), and oh yeah, he isn't exactly a 30 HR guy.  He's Ryan Howard without the power, and no, kids, that's not good, because Ryan Howard more or less sucks too without his power (and, to be fair to Ryan, dude has a LOT of power).

Rany wonders if he's so talented--if he's that talented, why does he suck so bad?--that a change of scenery could help.  So you suggest Kansas City?

Well, it is a winning atmosphere, I mean, the Royals have winning seasons all the time.

Or not.

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I'll give credit to Rany, though.  It absolutely IS an idea that GMs should consider, but come on, he's toast.  Maybe next the Royals could trade Billy Butler and Alex Gordon to the Red Sox for David Ortiz.

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One more little dash thing.  Tomorrow, my newest Anything Goes piece will be up... and I'm going to give you the reasons why the Washington Nationals should not take Stephen Strasburg.