After a very frustrating and quiet off-season the Mets seem to be making their move and it appears a plan is in place. Whether this was the original plan or not is unclear but at least it looks like a plan. The Mets are attempting to surround their very talented but also very fragile core with character.
First they ensured early that their player/coach Alex Cora returned even if they over payed by a million, and today they brought back their inspirational story/ lucky charm in 2007-2008 Fernando Tatis. Two of their signings are known as hand nosed, lunch pail types in Jason Bay and Henry Blanco. We all heard last year when Jeff Francoeur came over that he would bring a football mentality to the locker room. Chris Carter was described as a Shelly Duncan type when being described after the trade. And they've been linked to two more great clubhouse figures in Frank Catalanotto and John Smoltz.
But what is making me put it all together is Josh Fogg, yes; I agree he's a mediocre pitcher who will probably be in Buffalo more then New York. I'm not trying to make this signing into something it's not but what I was trying to do was figure out why they picked Fogg over all the others pitchers they could have signed on one year minor league deals.
I kept reading article after article about what a great clubhouse guy he was ( Colorado beat writer Troy Renck described him as
a baseball version of Vince Vaugn in Dodgeball), which kept bringing me back to every other player they've been linked to lately.
Then I read an article on how he got his nick name "Dragonslayer" and I thought man if Ollie, Pelfrey and/or Maine with their talent could have his mentality they'd be incredible, which brought me back to the plan ( could you image Ollie or Pelfrey taking the mound against the other teams ace in a playoff race with his own teammates messing with his head).
Maybe the plan without throwing the core under the bus is to surround them with guys who can teach them to be mentally tough and win...
Holliday paused for a moment to interrupt his thoughts about Peavy, smiled and said, "I can't believe we have to rely on Josh Fogg."
In other words, no sweat. The Rockies head into Monday's one-game playoff having won 13 of their last 14 games.Fogg (10-9, 4.79) is known as "Dragon-Slayer" in the Rockies clubhouse because he has been successful in a number of matchups against aces from other teams this season. He beat the Diamondbacks' Brandon Webb on Sept. 2, beat the Red Sox's Curt Schilling on the road on June 13, beat the Astros' Roy Oswalt on June 7, beat the Yankees' Mike Mussina (a one-time ace, anyway) on June 19 and outpitched the Dodgers' Brad Penny two weeks ago, although Fogg didn't get the decision in that Rockies' win. Now it's Peavy, in the biggest game of Fogg's seven-season career.
And Holliday is dissing him. "I've got that all year," Fogg said. "Go ask 'Tulo' [Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki]. He'll tell you we've got no chance tomorrow. He tells me all about it. 'No way you can beat Peavy. No way you can beat [Derek] Lowe' He likes to mess around with me. But that's just part of the game. You go out there and make pitches, you can beat anybody on any day." source ESPN
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