ROSTER SHAKEUP

The Mets shuffled a lot of people around today, in a bit of an effort to shake things up:

One was out of necessity. Angel Pagan was placed on the DL, Fernando Tatis was called up. (Yes, Fernando Tatis - he of the 1999 Cardinals, with 34 homers and 107 RBI. Can you believe 1999 was almost ten years ago? And that this was the best picture of him I could find?)

Another was a move not made - with options remaining to be sent down, Joe Smith was not - he stayed with the big club.

Jorge Sosa and Nelson Figueroa were sent down, replaced by Matt Wise, who was activated off the DL, and Claudio Vargas, who was called up.

I think they should hold off on engraving the Mets onto the chamionship trophy. I'm not sure these moves qualify as a "shakeup".

And now I have to comment on this, which I just learned after the first pitch by John Maine tonight. He hit Felipe Lopez, which was apparently a message from last night, when the Mets got whupped by the Nationals, 10-4.

Apparently, and this is so utterly ridiculous I can't believe it, Nelson Figueroa got upset at the Nationals because they were rhythmically clapping in the dugout. And it rattled him. And he called them a bunch of "Softball girls", or something like that. And even the Mets announcers just called what the Nationals did "bush league".

You know what, get off your friggin' high horse. There's nothing wrong with what the Nationals did. First of all, baseball needs more cheering, and people who give a crap about what's happening on the field. And second of all, if they only did it to rattle the pitcher, and didn't give a crap whether it was inspiring their teammates, there's one way to show them it doesn't work - don't let it get to you. And Nelson Figueroa let it get to him. And gave up 10 runs to the worst team in baseball. And that's unacceptable. That's bush league. That's a softball score. You deserve to be sent to the minors after that. And not come back.