We’re living in a golden age of third basemen! Weeeeeee!

Second base is the new third base! How chic!

Centerfield is so hot right now! Yowsa!

What’s next? A pitcher who throws lefty and righty?

Fifteen games into the season, I’m already tired of dealing with all the articles/blog posts about what the Mets need to fix. To illustrate my point, here’s just a sampling of what people have written just over the past few days regarding what’s wrong with the New York Mets:

• The team is incable of hitting with runners in scoring position (4/20)
• The team has no “gangstas” (4/22)
• The team lacks a “killer instinct” to “finish strong” (4/24)
• Offense is “out of sync” (4/23)
• Team brass wanting to wipe Doc Gooden’s autograph from the stadium wall (4/20)
• Pitchers not pitching deep into games (4/22)
• Lack of a 38-year old pitcher who had a 5.61 ERA in 2008 (4/24)
• Gary Sheffield is “causing confusion on the roster“(4/24)
• Pitchers need to be demoted (4/24)
• Not enough stolen bases (4/21)
• Tickets are way too expensive (4/21)
• Everything (4/23)
• They’re in “passive mode” (4/24)
• The outfield wall of Citi Field should be blue (4/21)

Earlier this week, Umpbump reminded you about where we stand on the Hall of Fame candidates. Here’s what some other folks on the internets are saying about the eligible players:

• Joe Posnanski examines the merits of each and every Hall of Fame inductee in an attempt to better understand … something. He must have been an unbelievably hyper child.
• Baseball Think Factory alerts us to another great minor league gimmick. The Golden Baseball League (GBL) announced today that they have offered professional baseball superstar Rickey Henderson $1M if he elects to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown as a San Diego Surf Dawg. Henderson played the entire 2005 season for the San Diego Surf Dawgs in the inaugural season of the Golden Baseball League. I don’t want to throw cold water on the Surf Dawgs, but last I checked players were no longer allowed to choose which cap they wear on their HOF plaque.
• Fox Sports’ Tracy Ringolsby chastises Rickey Henderson for not knowing when to hang up his cleats, saying, “From the Mets to the Mariners to the Padres to the Red Sox and Dodgers, Henderson put on an uncharacteristic performance. The last three years he struck out more than he walked for the first three times in two decades. His hit a paltry .228. He stole a total of only 72 bases, a figure he had surpassed in seven single seasons.” Why you gotta focus on the negative, Tracy?
• The Hardball Times’ Tom Tango makes his case for Tim Raines induction by comparing him to the best leadoff hitters already in the HOF.
• Boy of Summer thinks Harold Baines is not a Hall of Famer. Rob Neyer agrees. But MLB.com’s Scott Merkin thinks Baines belongs. Here’s my favorite line from Merkin:

Clutch hitting for Baines, who turns 50 on March 15, led to an amazing 1,628 RBIs despite only topping the 100-RBI plateau in 1982 (105) and 1985 (113) with the White Sox, and with Baltimore and Cleveland in 1999 (103).

As Neyer points out, Baines wasn’t particularly clutch. His impressive RBI total is due more to longevity — Baines played until he was 42. And good for him. But sticking around a long time doesn’t get you into the Hall of Fame. If it did Jamie Moyer would be a first ballot lock.

• LoHud Yankees Blog says older players should be judged by outdated statistics: “Nobody cared about on-base percentage in the 70s and 80s. Rice’s job was to swing for the fences. But now we know OBP matters. But Jim Rice can’t get in the DeLorean and take more pitches because it would make the Baseball Prospectus guys respect him more.”
• Athletics Nation’s Baseballgirl says she is feeling more forgiving of Mark McGwire lately, and wonders if BBWAA members feel the same.

We may only have another day to enjoy this, Sox fans, since Josh Beckett and his craptastic oblique will be taking the mound for Boston tomorrow and who knows what will happen. To get the maximum enjoyment out of this moment—and I am still doing secret little cha-cha moves up and down the corridors at work when I think no one can see me—here’s a roundup of links:

Yahoo’s Jeff Passan goes for goosebumps and raises the specter of Aaron Bleepin’ Boone.

Sox&Dawgs never gave up. No, really! (I sort of gave up, but gave up while still firmly believing that if they only put their freakin’ minds to it, they could come back. If that makes sense.)

Center Field is glad the Sox stuck it to the TBS broadcast crew, who did indeed start talking about the Rays-Phillies World Series before the game was truly ovah. (Thanks, announcerboys! A little reverse-jinx action never hurts.) And as we know, it ain’t ovah ’til the Big Papi swings.

Kevin McNamara homes in on the Crisp at-bat.

Fenway West has the wooooo-creepy numerology take.

Red Sox Monster highlights Curt Schilling’s (really awful) first pitch — the only pitch he threw from the mound in Fenway all year. Which, yes, means it cost 8 million dollars. But clearly it was worth it for a little bit o’ that bloody sock karma, right?

Joy of Sox notes that after falling behind 7-0 and intentionally walking Carlos Pena, the Red Sox only had a 0.6 chance of winning. If you turn the chart upside down, it looks sort of like the Dow.

As a bonus to her great recap, Amalie Benjamin has a video detailing the superstitious behavior of some Sox players during the final innings.

King Kaufman assails the fans who left early. Shame!

Tony Massarotti says “Wow.” And has a kind of creepy quote from Beckett: “Tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.” But before you get all Macbethian like I did, he’s just clarifying when he’ll talk to reporters.

Alex Speier reports that even with the hot, swampy breath of defeat steaming the backs of their grimy necks, the Red Sox dugout thrummed not with doubts, but with the steely resolve of a determined and indefatigable mantra: “Let’s win every pitch.”

Joe Posnanski calls it something out of a kid’s dream. Yes: yes. A wild, improbable, ridiculous dream! Why did we become prematurely middle-aged cynical farts who fret about the stock market and pop Prilosec before eating pizza? NO! Today my hair is shiny. My abs are like my college abs. I could eat a barrelful of chili-cheese fries smothered in jalepenos and buffalo sauce and wash it down with cheap tequila and not feel even the slightest singe along my esophagus. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t even need coffee! i just bounded out of bed, tingling with La  Belle Victoire. (But i did have some coffee anyway, just in case.) Maybe October comebacks are what Ponce de Leon was looking for!

The Boston Herald is reporting that Manny will get his haircut “some time this week” at a place called Fantastic Sam’s, in a promotional stunt that will benefit some Dodgers charities. But that won’t stop the Dodgers from selling “Manny bandannas,” replicas of the blue skullcap he wears under his baseball cap – with fake dreadlocks attached. “Maybe after he gets his hair cut,” Torre said, “He can wear one of those.”

It’s time to stop running. LoHud Yankees Blog points out that Bobby Abreu has been caught stealing eight times in 22 attempts.

Freakonomics tells us about a new study that finds that athletes often perform unexpectedly worse in front of supportive audiences than they do in front of neutral ones and that the higher audience expectations get, the worse their performers do. So stay dispassionate, Marlins fans. The team will be better off.

Larry Bowa has been vocal in his opposition to the new rule requiring base coaches to wear helmets. During a recent chat on Dodgers.com, he said helmets aren’t necessary and “if you position your body in the right way and take the blow in the back, you can recover from that.”

Joe Posnanski, who will return to Kansas City from China this weekend, struggles with whether or not he should head straight from the airport to the Bruce Springsteen concert:

Anyway, I saw an interview (Springsteen) did with the New York Post where he explained why will not retire and stop touring. He said it was because he had a big ego and that his son called him an ”attention whore.“ But here was my favorite quote:

“When it comes down to it, I like the way it makes me feel. And the way that I can make you feel when I do it … It thrills me, it excites me, it gives me meaning, it gives me purpose.”

See, that’s how Springsteen goes on living. He stays on tour. He performs. He likes the way he makes us feel.

I can’t miss Springsteen in Kansas City, can I?

I’ve seen the boss in concert twice. During this most recent tour, I’ve waited and waited for him to announce that he was coming to Phoenix, but the closest he got was L.A. He’s seemingly played every other city in America, including Hershey, Penn., Hartford, Conn., and Charlottesville, Va. What’s the deal, Bruce? No love for the Grand Canyon State?

Finally, there’s chaos in San Diego! Chaos! Shoot to kill!

(Via Big League Stew)

Hot dag, yo, are we the only sports blog not banned in China? Or are we in fact banned in China and we just don’t know it?

That is one looong cup of coffee: it had been 21years in between minor league starts for Tom Glavine when he took the hill for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

Sitting Andre Ethier in favor of Juan Pierre: not necessarily the worst decision ever.

If you could be pals with an athlete, would you pick Ryan Spilborghs? I would pick Tim Wakefield, so we could all go bowhunting together.

CJ Wilson’s not making any new friends.

Boston’s playoff odds are a little bit longer, post-deadline. But they get a little bit shorter if Joba keeps hurting.

The Tigers: Now Open 24 Hours. (Because they never close.)

Step right up, get your Saturday afternoon reading right here!

First, Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered has a must-read interview with Chili Davis on being the only Yankee to get a hit—and a home run, at that—in Pedro Martinez’s famous, 17-strikeout game in Yankee stadium from 1999.

Home Run Derby has the sad-hilarious (sadlarious?) pictures of some of the worst seats in America’s major league ballparks.

Squawking Baseball takes Buzz Bissinger to task for some inopportune words about baseball salaries.

Speaking of money, the Biz of Baseball links to a report that Harold Reynolds and Hazel Mae, formerly of NESN, will be joining the new MLB Network. I have to wonder if he will inappropriately hug her.

Joe Posnanski has a nice, long, director’s cut of a story he wrote about A’s reliever Brad Ziegler.

Sox Addict has ESPN leaving single, red socks in LA laundromats.

FireNedCollettiNow is discouraged by Manny’s inaugural GDIP. Given the name of the blog, I’m shocked, shocked.

And last week, while in North Carolina, I penned my weekly column for the Boston Metro about the Angels and their deceptively craptastic offense. Of course, later that same day, they acquired Mark Teixeira. Oops.

So the X-Files movie comes out on Friday, and I can’t help but wonder: will Mulder and Scully be looking for aliens, or that even more elusive creature…..the Last Eric Gagne Fan?

Here’s an item that should especially interest those of you who are now just waiting for next year: a mid-season update of baseball’s top 100 prospects. And if that’s not enough, here’s a look at the Triple A leaderboards.

Melky Cabrera waves to the fans mid-play and promptly commits an error. Just Melky being Melky?

I only wish I knew where Wendell “Send ‘em in” Kim would’ve ranked on this list.

A writerly look at Big Papi’s rehab stint in the minors.

A useful primer on the incredibly tangled web that is free agent compensation; good stuff to think about as the trade deadline approaches. Here’s the list of players who’ll be free agents after the season.

And finally, a Metro column in which I apparently begin to hallucinate.

What else should I be reading? Send me tips.