KAZ'S LOYAL FANS RIP METS GM O.MINAYA

"SO MAYBE KAZ IS BEING MADE A GOAT BY GM."

I'll repeat it again, as I have before when Kaz is healthy. It's time for him to waive his partial no-trade clause to go play for a team like Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Kansas City.

Once he's out of Shea, where he was overhyped by the management when he was signed, they unfairly hyped him to be the next Ichiro Suzuki. The management all the way up to Mr.Wilpton and Mr.Duquette. The NY media attacks him more than any other player in New York than I ever seen in my life. Some fans at Shea jump to all-time lows at their statements(calling for the Mets not to sign another Japanese player). This is an ethnocentric comment, like it or not.

Like former Mets manager and now former Chiba Lotte Marines manager Bobby Valentine said about Kaz:

"Once he signed with the Mets, he couldn't be successful."

"It's not his ability it's his circumstances"

"Jose Reyes was the child prodigy of the New York Mets and he's a shortstop. Once they said Matsui was going to take his position he was in a no-win position."

"I was asked by then-GM Jim Duquette and then-manager Art Howe what I thought of Kazuo Matsui. I told them my concerns about the exceptations, but they thought I was overeacting."

It looks like Bobby Valentine was right once again, Kaz Matsui was put in a position by the Mets where he was overhyped by the team, and then let to feel the burn.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getsp.pl5?sp20050713a1.htm

I AGREE WITH YOUR SUMMARY....I NOW BELIEVE THAT THE GM WILL EAT HIS CONTRACT $$$ AND TRADE HIM IF POSSIBLE,THE WAY HE TALKED IT SEEMS HE HAS AMPLE BODYS AT 2B.THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE METS NEED PLENTY...ANOTHER OF',A 1STBASEMAN,A CATCHER AND 3 PITCHERS 1 STARTER AND 2 IN BULLPEN....KAZ IS NOT THE PROBLEM.

I am a big Mets fan. It is very unfortunate the way he is treated in New York City, and he was clearly over hyped by the Mets. He is consistantly bood. I hope for his sake that he is traded, though I would like for nothing more than to see him succeed in New York City and shut his critics up.

However, he has not adjusted to the way the game is played over there. Maybe he is pressing too much? He clearly has the physical ability to hit a major league fastball, but he consistantly swings at horrible pitches, and his numbers have been dropping. Maybe he can salvage what is left of the season, and be the player he has the potential to be.

Hopefully, maybe, the Mets will trade Kaz to a team on the West Coast, like Seattle, LA, or Anaheim. Kansas City even.

Here I believe Kaz has a better chance of succeeding. Kaz, I still believe, is a major-league caliber hitter, though his fielding needs work on. His major league career has been shadowed by injuries. He has been villified, but was also overhyped. He and the Mets were both put into a terrible situation, where neither are winners, but all are losers.

What were David Ortiz's numbers in his first two years? Why did the Twins let him go? The Mets better be careful before they let go of a great player! Kaz is a great player, but like all professional athletes do, he is just having bad times.

My reply may come a couple of days late because I don't look at these boards daily, but I continue to be surprised at the shifting of blame from Kaz fans towards everyone and everything except Kaz himself. At what point is it not going to make a difference that he's so popular in Japan?

I ask again, have any of you seen him play in a Mets' uniform? I never heard the Mets' front office refer to Kaz as the next Ichiro. If you guys state that he was such a great player in Japan, why is it a problem if the organization hyped him to be a great player?

As for him being "attacked" more than any other player by the media, you've got to be kidding me. Roger Cedeno, Armando Benitez, Bobby Bonilla, the list goes on and on. Kaz is not even the most critizised player on the Mets this year. Beltran is, and for good reason.

Anyone who thinks the Mets should never sign another Japanese player is being foolish, but let's start giving Kaz at least some of the blame.

And if anyone is going to critizise the New York media, it certainly should'nt be Bobby Valentine. He brought some respectability to the Mets by leading them back to the playoffs, and slowly destroyed that respectablity with his ego and by not treating his players with respect. This is the same media he fed off of.

The Mets wouldn't have moved Reyes "the Prodigy" if Kaz hadn't insisted on playing short.

I guess it was also the media and fans that made him forget how to field grounders and how to make an accurate throw to first.

Did you ever watch the Star Trek Next Generation episode where Q takes Piccard into the Continuum or Q's home world? Just a dusty, flat road with a couple of people in rocking chairs. Piccard asks "What is this?" Q says, his world. They sit in their chairs and say nothing because everything on everything has already been said.

Such is the case with Kazuo Matsui.

- Anyone who thinks the Mets should never sign another Japanese player is being foolish, but let's start giving Kaz at least some of the blame.

The Mets just signed Shingo Takatsu to a minor league contract. It's a low-risk contract with high rewards if it works out.

- And if anyone is going to critizise the New York media, it certainly should'nt be Bobby Valentine.

I'm not so sure Bobby Valentine was really critizing the New York media. He was stating his mind as to why Kazuo has had such a hard time adjusting. His opinion was a right one, they had Jose Reyes there, a top prospect, so Kaz was in a no-win situation. Bobby V's worries were well justified.

See also this e-mail that I recieved from Robert Whiting about Kazuo Matsui that is interesting about the situation.