Baseball received another black eye today as it was reported that Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for failing a drug test.

In a statement Manny said:

Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons. I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I’m sorry about this whole situation.

My Initial Thoughts:
1. I was not shocked but a little surprised.

2. I wonder what this will do to his Hall of Fame chances. Imagine the type of speech Manny would give? That would be great.

3. This would have been a nightmare for the New York Mets had they paid a large amount of money to bring him to New York.

4. I will admit, I wanted the Mets to sign Manny in the off season and I still want him now. Why? Because a 112 games of Manny Ramirez is still better then 162 games of Daniel Murphy / Gary Sheffield / Fernando Tatis.

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Series Take-Aways:

• Johan Santana has been lights out:  Santana picked up right where he left off last season. Here is a look at Santana’s stats this year:  2 W – 1 L | 19.2 IP | 27 SO | 0.46 ERA.
• Citi Field First: Saturday’s 1-0 win was the first shut out at Citi Field.
• Met Offense: The Mets offense left 10 men on base today and continues to be inconsistent. I said it before the start of the season that I was most concerned about the offense. The Mets are not going to get hot and go on a winning streak if this offense doesn’t turn around.

Who’s Hot and Who’s Not:

• Who’s Hot? How about Luis Castillo? Castillo is batting .400 and is 4th in the NL in average. 
• Who’s Not? How about Fernando Tatis? Tatis has not had many chances this year but he’s yet to get a hit this season.

Next Up For The Mets:

• The Mets go on the road for three in St. Louis on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Hopefully the offense will get on track while on the road.

Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

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