Sosa, Figueroa Designated

Let us all rejoice.

Yeah, last night was the "straw that broke the camels back" in the case of both of these guys. Figgy had been a nice story, but he had a whip over 2 and an era over 7 in his last few appearances after being a nice surprise earlier. Sosa is just brutal. Like the Mota of last year, though atleast they cut their losses with Sosa. Figgy wasn't needed with guys like Armas, Vargas, Bostick, Niese, Vargas all capable of getting filling the 5th spot in the rotation. Last night was killer though, the Mets looked to be getting into a bit of a groove as a team, and Figueroa did everything in his power to give that game away, giving up runs in each of the innings following the Mets getting him a lead. Sosa then came in and made absolutely sure there would be no comeback. It is nice to see that Joe Smith wasn't the casualty of Matt Wise's return solely because of the fact that he had options. He has been great out of the pen for them so they made the right choice. Thank you to Figgy for a few good starts for the Mets, and good luck if you end up somewhere else. As for sosa, I hope he ends up somewhere else in the NL east.

It confuses me to no end how the Braves once got a 13-3 record and 2.55 ERA out of Sosa. I think they replaced him with a robot that year or something.

I was always happy to see the Mets put him into the game when they were playing the Braves, and I agree with nrmax that I'd be more than happy to see him land in, say, Philly?

I was a bit surprised when the Mets re-signed him because I felt he was obviously a one-hit wonder. Also, I wish the Mets had dealt him when the Tigers were mildly interested in him towards the beginning of Spring Training. Regardless, I'm glad they are both off the team...

Sosa's only decent in the odd number years
2005- good
2006- horrendous
2007- decent
2008- awful

Got his panties in a bunch? That chanting crap is so bush league its not even funny.

"Yeah it is such a shame that grown men playing a kids game should enjoy themselves and have fun."

Ok, what are you talking about? This is baseball, not some game you play in local parks or back alleyways! Its a somber and miserable job, and each clubhouse has a huge neon sign saying "no fun allowed" that the players should respect...

...Next thing you know they will be wearing their hats insideout, playing practical jokes on eachother and worst of all ~ all rushing onto to the field to celebrate walkoff home-runs at home plate like a bunch of 3rd graders…

“A common theme in these debates seems to be a lot of the older people and veteran players who have been around the game for a lot of years seem to call these kinds of things bush league, while younger fans and younger players will say it is youthful exuberance or simply trying to gain a competitive advantage over the opponent.”

…Yeah, but its not like all of this stuff is isolated to the last few years. I mean, look at the people complaining about Joba and KRod today when Eck was much more dramatic years ago. And I sadly have to consider John Kruk correct on that one; he pointed to hitters watching their HRs as more problematic than a closer being excited when the roles are reversed. And then if you wanna be absolutely honest, Satchel Page was said to be rather over-confident and eccentric on the mound from what I’ve heard. Or what about Ty Cobb and his base-running antics? Or worse yet, his incident with Honus Wagner... Then when everything is said and done, one of the most storied moments in the history of the game should probably be called rather “bush” but you don’t hear too many people whining about the Babe calling his shot do you…

And then, how far should we take the “bush” thing ~ I mean, a SB threat getting a blatantly huge lead off of 1st could be considered “bush”, but that’s just always been part of the game. How about lining your SS up on the right-side of the bag? And its not only the players and managers getting into these types of things ~ what about the clubs handing out “thunder sticks” to cause distractions for the other club, or those cheesy little videos on the score board playing “hit the road jack” when the pitcher gets yanked, or mascots as a whole…

So where I can also see both sides of the fence on it, taking the nature of the game and its history in as a whole, and realizing that its rather selective when so much else is just glossed over, well…

Honestly, the Mets completely mishandled Sosa. 2005 wasn't the only good stretch he had. He won his first five or six starts with the Mets and had an ERA around 3.00 even at a time in 2007 when the rest of the Mets were in a terrible funk (mid June). They should have either had him start out in the rotation, or cut ties with him right away. His versatility is so overrated. He's a guy that NEEDS to pull it back a notch, pound the zone, etc. NOT let it rip for an inning and then ditch. I don't care how rubbery his arm was or how cool he was pitching back to back days. He should have been a starter or off the roster from a beginning. If he got off to another hot start, the Mets might have sold high on him (not for much mind you, but Omar's a master of weaving another team's trash into treasure, see Ryan Church, Oliver Perez, John Maine, etc.).

"Honestly, the Mets completely mishandled Sosa. 2005 wasn't the only good stretch he had. He won his first five or six starts with the Mets and had an ERA around 3.00 even at a time in 2007 when the rest of the Mets were in a terrible funk (mid June). They should have either had him start out in the rotation, or cut ties with him right away. His versatility is so overrated. He's a guy that NEEDS to pull it back a notch, pound the zone, etc. NOT let it rip for an inning and then ditch. I don't care how rubbery his arm was or how cool he was pitching back to back days. He should have been a starter or off the roster from a beginning. If he got off to another hot start, the Mets might have sold high on him (not for much mind you, but Omar's a master of weaving another team's trash into treasure, see Ryan Church, Oliver Perez, John Maine, etc.)."

The problem with Sosa is he can't get Lefties out....at all. He needs to be put into situations where he only really sees Right Handed Batters, which is definately not as a Starter. The Mets had the right idea last year when they used him situationally in the bullpen, but this year for whatever reason they decided to try him as a Long-Man, which was never going to work because, again, Lefties hit .375 off of him. I guess they tried it because Joe Smith was better as a ROOGY and took all of those situations for himself.

Does anyone really think players don't talk smack at one another on the basepaths, at the plate, or heckle from the dugout, or that while cheering isn't "bush league," but organized cheering is? Gimmie a break.

Yeah, Elijah Dukes is just a completely different story. I wouldnt even have the guts to throw at him on purpose. Did you see the way he was looking at the umpire after he got called out on a pitch right down the middle? He looked like he seriously wanted to murder him. Even like 5 minutes later, they showed him sitting in the dugout, staring out towards homeplate looking deranged. But the guy does have all the tools to be a superstar, maybe he just needs to do some yoga or meditation or something to calm himself down.