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Weekend Notes

Updates were scarce this weekend, but I have a really good excuse. Cablevision customers with IO Digital Cable are being treated to a preview of MLB Extra Innings, a subscription package that features 35+ out-of-market baseball games every week. For those of you in the New York area with IO, you have to check this out.

I've spent the past week watching baseball, more baseball, and nothing but baseball. My girlfriend is on the verge of tears, but I am happier than I've ever been. It's 5PM on Saturday and there's nothing on TV? There is when you have MLB Extra Innings. Who cares if it's Pittsburgh vs Cincinnati? It's baseball, and it's the best thing on TV.

It also allows me to watch a lot of Oakland A's games, as cult hero Marco Scutaro makes a monkey out of Jim Duquette.

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Anyways, some news and notes about this weekend's Mets games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Is Art Howe the worst manager in history? It's a rhetorical question, of course. He most likely is not, but he is quite bad. Tyler Yates pitches a gem in his Major League debut on Friday, allowing no runs and no walks in six innings.

After hitting up a storm in Atlanta last week, the Mets bats went cold south-of-the-border. They managed a couple of runs off of Zach Day, and Howe decides to pull three of the Mets best hitters (Piazza, Floyd, and Phillips) for defensive replacements. Long story short, the Expos tie it up and the game goes into extra innings, and I'm stuck watching the likes of Vance Wilson and Eric Valent flail away effortlessly.

Of course, the Mets would up winning the game thanks to the bat of one of those replacements, Todd Zeile, who my girlfriend took to calling "Toddie Too Hottie" during his prior stint with the Mets. Regardless, the Mets win hardly clouds the fact that Howe bungled this one pretty badly, and was lucky to squeak out of it.

On Saturday, the Mets once-torrid now-horrid hitting continued, as they managed to plate zero runs against D'Back-castoff John Patterson. Al Leiter made his 2004 debut by tossing five shutout innings, but often going late into counts and throwing far too many pitches. Jae Seo, who apparently felt bad about all the bad, albeit deserved, things he said about Mets management, got the call and wound up losing the game.

Karim Garcia botched one fly ball pretty badly, but made a nice play on another that ended up fracturing his finger. It's not clear how long he'll be sidelined, though he made a pinch-running appearance late in the game on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, Tom Glavine looked sharp again as he cruised to his second victory of the season. He gave up one unearned run (on his own error), and the Mets got enough hitting to take the series from the Expos and head home 3-3. Glavine only has three strikeouts in 13.1 innings this season, so we'll see where he goes from here.

Of course, those of you who had "6" in the Cliff Floyd games-before-injury pool have a little extra change in your pocket today. Cliff has looked great at the plate so far, and it's not yet known how much time he'll miss.

Eric Valent hit his first career homerun today, so congratulations to him. He runs a little funny, but you couldn't smack the smile off his face the rest of the day. He also drew a walk, which is good in my book.