Poker Face: A-Rod Could Face Suspension for Card Game

I was just about to write about how I jinxed the Mets with my presence last night (more on that in a later Squawk) when I heard the big news that Alex Rodriguez could face suspension from Major League Baseball for being rumored to have played in high-stakes poker games.

First off, as was emphasized the last time A-Rod played in one of these poker games, it's not illegal to play in them. It is illegal to charge admission into the games, or to take a cut of the pot. In "Guys and Dolls" talk, good ol' reliable Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra in the movie) would be in trouble, not Sky Masterston (Marlon Brando in the film.) But I digress.

Also, as ESPN New York Wallace Matthews' interview with an MLB executive notes, while the league has two investigators working on the case, "MLB has yet to positively determine that Rodriguez took part in the games," but that same executive is talking to Matthews about suspension time , saying that "Because he had been warned about this before, I would say a possible suspension would be very much in play." Glad to know MLB is talking about punishment before finding out if he were actually involved in the crime! Who said due process was dead?

This same exec tells Matthews, "I could see us trying to pursue this a lot further. The truth is still out there somewhere." Good grief. Are they going to get Scully and Mulder on the case?

Someone else quoted in the article said:

"Bud's totally fed up with him," said a baseball insider. "It's like there's something new with him every day and it's impossible to keep up with it."

Actually, it's been very quiet on the A-Rod front in recent years, unless you consider being fed popcorn by Cameron Diaz in the Super Bowl the scandal of the century.

At any rate, whether or not Bud Selig is tired of A-Rod drama shouldn't matter. What is at issue is whether he broke the rules of baseball. And if playing poker for money is against MLB rules, then shouldn't that be enforced with events involving the team, like poker games in clubhouses and on team planes? Heck, I seem to remember Rickey Henderson and Bobby Bonilla playing poker when their New York Mets were losing a playoff game, yet there was no big investigation of them.

Anyhow, my friend Stacey Gotsulias had an excellent point in her "Spreadin' the News" blog. She noted that six players have been arrested this year for drunk driving, and none of them were suspended from baseball for their DUIs. As Stacey notes, "If MLB isn’t going to suspend people for being arrested, why are they going to suspend someone for not being arrested for something?" Excellent point!

Finally, would any of this be the subject of an MLB investigation if it weren't A-Rod? Of course not. Former Met Jeff Francoeur wrote a $50,000 check last year to then- Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels. Jeff said $35,000 of it was to repay a loan from Samuels (who made 80K a year) so Frenchy could buy his parents a car in cash without his parents knowing the cost.

As Craig Calceterra wrote in the article linked above, "No one ever suggested that Francoeur did anything wrong... but it did raise eyebrows."

But imagine if it had been A-Rod instead of Francoeur. Would "fed-up" Bud Selig have looked at it differently?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Don't make Francoeur the scapegoat for Mets' woes

In 2006, Omar Minaya dealt starting rightfielder Xavier Nady at the trade deadline in a panic move to find a replacement for injured Duaner Sanchez. Now there are reports that the upcoming trade deadline may see the Mets move the player who has been their starting rightfielder most of this year, Jeff Francoeur. Depending on what the Mets can get in return, it could be another panic move.

A month ago, Francoeur was seen as one of the main reasons the Mets had better chemistry than they had had in years. His arm contributed to the Mets being much stronger defensively, which has help the pitching staff exceed expectations.

Francoeur has been up and down at the plate, but he did bat .310 with an .801 OPS in June, when the Mets were winning their way into contention.

Once Carlos Beltran returned, the Mets had four outfielders for three spots. Angel Pagan was having the best season, by a wide margin, but Jerry Manuel decided to go by past performance and salary and initially reduced Pagan to a platoon role with Francoeur.

Manuel also installed Beltran in center field, despite his bulky knee brace and the fact that Pagan was doing a great job in center, and batted Beltran cleanup even though he had been out for a full year.

Last year, when Billy Wagner returned after being sidelined for a long time, he was eased back into action, not thrown right back into the closer role. This year, Wagner has returned to being one of the best closers in baseball.

A healthy Carlos Beltran playing up to his great ability could be the best player on the Mets. I hope Beltran regains that form as soon as possible. But until he does, he should be playing right field and batting fifth or sixth.

Jason Bay's first half was far from a complete disaster, except for the lack of power. He hit .275 with an OPS of .801 through June 30.

But in July, Bay is batting .169 in July with an OPS of .466. Francoeur's July has been even worse - .114 batting average with a .329 OPS.

Right now, both Bay and Francoeur deserve to be losing playing time. And Beltran should be easing his way back to fulltime duty. The Mets should be rotating all three, giving each of them a couple of days off each week, while hoping that one of them catches fire.

In the long run, Bay is a much better player than Francoeur. But this season, Francoeur has had a couple of hot streaks, while Bay has had none. In 2010, is Bay any more likely to go on a hot streak than Francoeur?

Even if Francoeur ends up on the bench, the Mets could use the outfield depth. Beltran is just back from a serious injury. Before this season, Pagan was very injury-prone. Bay is over 30. If someone gets hurt and there's no Francoeur, do you really want to see Chris Carter playing fulltime (so much for defense) or Jesus Feliciano called back up?

As for chemistry, that's not enough to keep Francoeur on the team if he is not producing on the field. And maybe his chemistry isn't so great when he's on the bench. Alex Cora is supposed to bring chemistry, but that doesn't mean the Mets are better off with him in the lineup. Likewise, if Beltran and Castillo produce, that will be all the chemistry they need.

Maybe what's messing with chemistry is the Mets' unwillingness to play players based on merit, going back to the beginning of the year, when John Maine and Oliver Perez were in the rotation and Mike Jacobs and Gary Matthews Jr. were in the starting lineup.

Now Beltran is hitting cleanup and playing center, Ollie is back on the team, Francoeur could be traded, and the most people think the Mets's biggest problem is pitching when the team can't hit.

Trading Francoeur for a mediocre starter could make the team worse.

At least the Mets kept Josh Thole - now they just have to get back to having two catchers like most other teams.

As for rumors that Manuel's job is in jeopardy, someone should take the fall for all the strange decisions going on with this team. But are they Manuel's alone, or is someone telling him to play the high-priced players whether or not they are productive?

What Jeff Francoeur and George Strait have in common

I was trying to figure out what Mets player Jeff Francouer's at-bat songs were - they're country, of course; I think one of them is Kenny Chesney, and one is by Brad Paisley, but I don't know which songs they are.

But while I didn't find the song titles via a web search, I did come across this interview, which describes Francoeur's love of country music:

Q – What is one thing that most people don’t know about Jeff Francouer?

“That I want to be a country music singer worse than you could ever imagine. I would actually give up my baseball talent to be a country music singer and most people don’t know that.”

It was at this point that he told me about one of his habits when he is out in the outfield. He said that when he is standing there and no balls are coming his way, he has been known to start singing a country tune every now and then, sometimes singing a classic George Strait tune to pass the time until he is involved in the action.

Maybe that's what the rest of the Mets need to do - sing George Strait songs to pass the time! I have a few suggestions of Strait songs for Francoeur and the Mets to sing:

• Fool-Hearted Memory
• A Fire I Can't Put Out
• Let's Fall to Pieces Together
• Famous Last Words of a Fool
• I Cross My Heart
• I'd Like to Have That One Back
• Today My World Slipped Away
• We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This
• The Chill of An Early Fall
• I've Come to Expect It From You
  

Come to think of it, country music and the Mets have a lot in common - misery!

And there is one Strait song that best fits how the team - and their fans - must feel right now: "I Hate Everything."

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Yankees enjoy first place to themselves, while John Henry Twitters about his 'frustrating' Red Sox

Big news in Yankeeland. No, not that the Bombers have first place all to themselves, but that the Brett Tomko era is over. When is his Yankeeography coming out?

Tomko, who was released yesterday to make room for Sergio Mitre, hadn't even pitched since July 11. On the other hand, another Yankee who hasn't played in ages, Cody Ransom, scored two runs in yesterday's victory. Until last night, he hadn't played since July 10.

Incidentally, if anything bugs me about Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman this year, it's the way that roster spaces are wasted on players who are never used. Angel Berroa was another player who shouldn't have been on the roster. But now he's a Met, which is fitting, somehow.

Speaking of the Mets, does Jeff Francouer dropping a fly ball last night make him a True Met?

I probably should give Squawker Jon and his team a break, though. They look as hapless as Teddy Roosevelt does in the Washington Nationals' Presidents' race each night!

Back to the Yankees. Mitre gave the Yanks about as much as Chien-Ming Wang had been doing in his last few starts before getting hurt. Mitre started out poorly, then settled down, then had a shaky sixth inning. He got a nice ovation from the crowd for his game. It was a positive start in the right direction, and Mitre's first win in two years. And really, anything else Mitre can provide over what Wang would have given the team will be a plus.

I also appreciated how Alex Rodriguez and the Yanks manufactured a run last night without a hit. That was a highlight of the night.

Another highlight was seeing the Red Sox's John Henry gripe about his team's lousy play on Twitter. He called the Sox's week "frustrating" and wrote, "Tough night in Texas." Boo bleeding hoo!

At least he didn't complain about the Yankees' spending $400 million in free agents this time. Thank goodness for small favors.

Speaking of big-spending teams, how come nobody gripes about how the Sox have enough money to release Julio Lugo, even though he has $13.5 million on his contract? Just wondering.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Mutts and Jeff: The Francoeur trade

It's becoming a tradition - when a team gives up on a highly-touted young player, they send him away for Ryan Church.

First the Mets traded Lastings Milledge for Church and Brian Schneider. Now the Braves have acquired Church for Jeff Francoeur. In both cases, the flashy young player's star had fallen so far that his team was willing to trade him within the division.

When the Mets traded Milledge after the 2007 season, they probably had no chance of getting Francoeur, only a year older than Milledge but coming off back-to-back 100-RBI seasons during which he hit a total of 48 homers. Now Milledge has been sent to the minors and traded yet again, while the Mets have Francoeur and Schneider to show for him.

So from the point of view of the Milledge deal, this latest deal is a good one. But it is far from clear that the Mets would not have been better off keeping Church, who hit .307 in 75 at bats in June and was one of the few solid parts of the lineup - that is, when Jerry Manuel deigned to play him.

Trading Church for Francoeur is a desperate gamble. The Mets badly need a power hitter, but Francoeur's 29-homer season was three years ago. Last year, Church actually out-homered Francoeur, 12 to 11. And Francoeur had twice as many at bats as Church - 599-319. Omar Minaya touts Francoeur's arm and defense, but Church was strong enough on defense that the Mets sometimes used him in center.

Ryan Church got a raw deal with the Mets when they mishandled his concussions. Then he seemed to end up in Jerry Manuel's doghouse. Let's hope this move was exclusively to improve the team and not in part to get rid of Church.

But desperate times do call for desperate measures, so gambling on the upside of Francoeur may not be that bad an idea. You never know when a team gives up on a young player too soon.

Friday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Giants were apparently willing to trade pitcher Jonathan Sanchez to the Pirates for second basemen Freddy Sanchez. The Giants had dropped Sanchez from the rotation and the article described him as a reliever.

Last night, Sanchez was summoned back to the rotation after three weeks in the bullpen because Randy Johnson was placed on the DL. And he pitched a no-hitter. Bet the Giants are not trading him now!

Sanchez, by the way, is a young lefthander who gets a lot of strikeouts but gives up a lot of walks. Kind of like another young player whose team gave up on him - and traded him to the Mets.

It's been three years since Omar Minaya acquired Oliver Perez and saw him follow a 3-13 season by going 15-10 the following year. Even the prospect of a similar turnaround from Francoeur has already made this dismal season more interesting.