Happy Birthday Gary Cohen

And a message from Gary, Keith and Ron....they have some great deals for a great cause!

A Big Happy Birthday to our own Gary Cohen!

52 years ago today, a baby boy was born in Flushing, Queens. And he never left.

Gary wants to celebrate by showing his appreciation for the GKR supporters he's gotten to know and love these past few seasons. On his day, he wants to give a gift to you!

We've still got tickets available for the final two GKR events of the season, the Pepsi Porch fest on July 29th and our extra special year-end event in the Big Apple area on October 2nd. With every order placed for GKR event tickets, you will receive a FREE GKR travel mug or a GKR recipe book - a value of over $20.00.

Don't wait - This one-time birthday offer is good only through May 13th. (Limit one gift per order.)

We expect to have a sell-out crowd at both events, so come spend an awesome day with your GKR friends. All net proceeds go toward the Nourishing Kitchen's resources for feeding New York's hungry.

Thank you, GKR-ers, for helping to knock hunger outta here!!!

Team GKR

Ike Davis Gets a New Sponsor

Well he sort of got a new sponsor.

Like many of you, I am addicted to Baseball-Reference.com and their amazing stats, so I jumped at the chance to sponsor Ike Davis when his page was unveiled yesterday

My favorite page to sponsor is Keith Hernandez' page.  The other two on my sponsor "hit list" are Ron Darling and Mookie Wilson, but thus far I haven't been able to grab them.

For the sheer number of hours I spend on their website, sponsoring a page or two is a nice way of saying thanks for all of their great work.

When clicking through the various Mets pages, I see a lot of my friends and fellow bloggers sponsoring pages--Amazin Avenue, Ted Berg, etc.  Its really great to see....what I truly hate is when someone spoonsors a page for nefarious purposes, like Johan Santana's page for example.  That really pisses me off!

So here is a screen cap of the newest Met and his newest "sponsor".

Who do you have?

Ron Darling Sees and Explains Mike Pelfrey's Flaw

I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon watching the Mets.

To be fair, I did get up early and "spring clean" my entire backyard, and there are about 25 bags of junk next to the house to prove it. I also found a huge snake in the yard, which I put in a bucket and transported to a nearby woods vice killing.

But I digress.

The main reason I got up early to my work in, was so that I could watch Mike Pelfrey get his work in.

My work was done better.

Mike Pelfrey continues to struggle, especially in the giving up homeruns department.  I've been very puzzled as to why Big Pelf is giving up the flyballs and homeruns at such an alarming rate, and I chalked it up to rust or confidence, etc.

Then Ron Darling mentioned the grip, and everything clicked as to why Pelfrey has fared so poorly.

Pelfrey's fastballs were coming in laser straight and up, at times, with a nary a bit of sink to them. The issue has been there all spring.

Ron Darling, the thoughtful broadcaster who has forgotten more about pitching than most of us will ever know, told us why...and then we could actually see why for ourselves.

Darling pointed out that Pelfrey has worked hard on a splitter.  He then gave us some real insight by telling a story about his own development of the pitch. He spoke about muscle memory and how his finger's got so used to being separated that it was hard to get them to go back together. This resulted in his former bread and butter pitches not performing like they had before he worked on the splitter.

It was really riveting stuff, especially as he correlated the story beautifully to what's going on with Mike Pelfrey. As the cameras panned in on Pelf's fingers, we could actually see the separation (now that we knew exactly what to look for), and when they were apart, as Darling mentioned, the fastball came in straight. When the finger's were in the proper position, back together, the sink was back.

For a Sunday spring training game in March, it was some of the best on the spot analysis I've ever heard.

I'm sure Dan Warthen and Mike Pelfrey are aware of what's going on, and thanks to Ron Darling, the rest of us are too.

I just hope they get the issue resolved, and soon.

27 Hard Outs

Now that the after effects from yesterday's crushing defeat have somewhat subsided, I'd like to focus on something that Ron Darling mentioned toward the end of the game.

27 hard outs.

Who gives them, and who doesn't? Who are the gamers on the team?

Let's start with Jeff Francoeur, who is the man behind Darling's comments.

In the 9th inning yesterday Francoeur made a wonderful diving catch that Ron Darling noted by saying, "there's a man that gives you 27 hard outs."

Jeff Francoeur is a gamer--he'll be back with the Mets and has the chance to get his career solidly back on track.

Corey Sullivan is another one--I like him for the bench next year. The guy is pure hustle in the outfield, runs the bases as hard as anyone on the team, and he plays high energy baseball.

Omir Santos plays hard--very hard. The guy has been beat up and battered and he digs in and does his thing. While not terribly gifted as a hitter, he has had some key RBIs this year, and he works his tail off. He is also hitting over .300 for the month of August.

Angel Pagan--he has had one or two tiny lapses this year, but the guy plays hard, runs hard, and might just be our centerfielder next year if Beltran moves to LF. I'd actually like to see Pagan in left a bit this year when Sheff isn't in there--put him in left and let Sullivan play CF.

Now I'm not going to come out and say the following guys don't have long stretches where they hustle a ton, but over the course of a season they have had moments where I questioned their desire: Brian Schneider, Gary Sheffield, and Luis Castillo.

Of the three, only Castillo will be back IMO. Luis hustles and plays hard--when he's doing well. He also has lapses in the field and pouts. That said, he's having a terrific overall season. He's a "26 out" kind of guy.

Brian Schneider--I wonder what is going on with him. His swing looks slow at the plate, his lateral movement behind the dish is off, and he has a different look about him this year than in seasons past. It could be injury, it could be seeing Church leave, it could be displeasure with any number of things--he needs to go.

The Mets made a colossal mistake in not letting Gary Sheffield go when they had a chance to get something in return. He played very hard for the team early, has had a few injuries, and he threatened to leave the team when he didn't get his way. It's typical Sheffield--play hard when he wants to play hard. I have no use for him at this point, and neither do the Mets.

27 hard outs...doesn't seem like much to ask.

The Daily Show Video: Ron Darling

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