I mentioned a few days ago I was going to try to form some kind of schedule for the site. On Sundays, I will bang out something called 20 Points, which is pretty much self explanatory. Just things I’ve seen from the prior week, and thoughts on the current happenings (and perhaps some delving into baseball history and such). A few days into the baseball season, and some observations about the Mets and around the majors:

1. First point, and this goes for the Mets and baseball as a whole…1 week is irrelevant. Now let’s continue.
2. Johan Santana is the real deal. Just nasty, nasty stuff.
3. Umpiring has been horrendous so far. Missed calls, erratic strike zones, just a pitiful job in several games I’ve watched.
4. Chien-Ming Wang is vastly underrated. I’ve waited 3 years for this guy to falter, and he keeps pitching well (’07 playoffs notwithstanding). He doesn’t strike guys out, but he’s a Brandon Webb-type, which is plenty good.
5. Johnny Cueto was impressive to watch. We’ll see if Dusty Baker can manage to ruin this kid by the end of the year.
6. The Mike Hampton saga is almost comical to watch.
7. The Pedro Martinez saga is not at all comical to watch.
8. Ken Griffey Jr. is 6 homers away from 600 for his career. If this guy had stayed healthy, we’d have been talking about him instead of Bonds.
9. Nice to see good early starts by the Royals and Orioles. Neither will last, though if the Tigers have health problems that division is anybody’s.
10. Fantasy Baseball owners shouldn’t look at standings until May 1.
11. Ben Sheets is Cy Young Award good if he can stay healthy.
12. The story of Rick Ankiel is truly remarkable.
13. The story of Jose Canseco is truly pathetic.
14. The early developing love affair between Cubs fans and Kosuke Fukudome is enjoyable to watch. Not a superstar, perhaps, but this guy can play. And Wrigley needs a character.
15. Sticking with the Cubs theme, watch for a big year from the terminally underrated Derrek Lee.
16. The whole Joba Chamberlain fist pump debate took up far too much talk radio time here for a couple of days. Between the Yankee haters and the Yankee apologists, it was enough to make you want to throw up. It’s simple…I hate it, but it’s a different game now than it was (which was Frank Thomas’ mature response to the antics). More grandstanding, more attitude. Anyone who thinks what he’s doing isn’t orchestrated isn’t paying attention. And that’s totally fine if you want to approve of his doing it, just don’t whine if someone takes him or another Yankee pitcher deep and Cadillac’s it around the bases.
17. The San Francisco Giants stink. Really, really badly.
18.  If there’s a worse investment than Barry Zito I would love to know about it.
19. Hate the Braves…love John Smoltz. What a gamer!
20. Barring injury (always a question with him) Casey Kotchman of the Halos has a breakthrough year.

One added thing…if any of you are trying to comment and can’t, please shoot me an email at gforceedit@yahoo.com. I’ve been at a bunch of blogs here in the past week where it has said I am not allowed to comment. Not sure if this is with the redesign of what, but I’d like to know if you’re experiencing such a problem here.

Thanks.

GH