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Pitching In

The Mets wrapped up their three-game series in Los Angeles last night, taking two-of-three from the first-place Dodgers. Mets pitchers continue to be effective, as Jae Seo picked up his first win of the season, and Stanton and Weathers gave up one hit apiece in finishing the game off.

The Mets pitching staff is tied for last in the National League in strikeouts, but are second in the league (to Philadelphia) in fewest walks allowed. What does this mean? Well, the Mets staff, particularly the starting rotation, is not built for power. They largely rely on generally-good command and good team defense (did I actually just say that?). Despite not putting up gaudy strikeout numbers, they have been doing an excellent job of keeping hitters off the bases.

As mentioned before, the Mets are second in the league in fewest walks allowed. They are fifth in WHIP at 1.326 and first in the league in homeruns allowed, having surrendered only 15 through 22 games this season. Atlanta and San Diego are tied for second with 19 homeruns each. The Mets are fourth in OBP against, first in SLG against, and second in OPS against, mere percentage points behind league-leading Florida. Mets pitchers have given up only 23 doubles this year, nine fewer than second-place Chicago and Los Angeles.

Given the above figures, it's not surprising that the Mets are first in the National League in Rob Neyer's Beane Count. Here is the description of this "metric" from ESPN.com:

Concocted by ESPN.com's Rob Neyer and named for Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, the Beane Count is derived by summing a team's ranks in home runs hit, walks drawn, home runs allowed, and walks allowed.

Can we reasonably expect the Mets to keep pitching this well all season? Who knows. They're doing what GM Jim Duquette said they would, which is rely on pitching and defense, and hope the offense can scratch out enough runs to win some ballgames.

Unfortunately, it looks like they'll be scratching out those runs without Jose Reyes for a little while longer. Reyes pulled himself out of a rehab game when he felt some pain in his leg while running out a grounder. It's not disastrous, but he definitely won't be back this weekend and is questionable for a return next week when the Mets get back to Shea.

The Mets Suck

That is all.

Sick Little Wiggie

Ty Wigginton was placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Mets on Thursday, though the official "injury" hasn't been disclosed. Wigginton was hospitalized on Wednesday with faintness and dizziness, perhaps caused by too much swinging and missing. Danny Garcia, who was hitting .222/.364/.278 at AAA Norfolk, was recalled to take Wigginton's place on the 25-man roster.

Back In The "W" Column

Congratulations to Tyler Yates on picking up his first big league win along with his first big league base hit. He should have won his first game against Montreal a couple of weeks ago, but it's good that he got it out of the way.

Yates' final line looked like this:

5.2 IP, 5H, 1ER, 3BB, 1K

Even with his disastrous start last week against the Braves (in the rain), Yates' ERA for the season (and his career) is a respectable 3.86. Despite a strong outing, Yates was pulled with two outs in the sixth for, *gulp* John Franco. By some act of God, Franco retired Brian Schneider on a groundout with runners on first and second.

Yates breathed a sigh of relief, and then watched his relief turn to irrevocable despair as Mike Stanton trotted in to start the seventh. Much to his (and everyone else's) surprise, the hefty Stanton pitched two effective innings, striking out two (in fairness, one was Tony Batista), and scattering two hits. With this outing, Stanton lowered his ERA almost three-and-a-half points, from 11.57 to 8.10, leaving him well shy of Grant Roberts' team-leading 17.36

Despite his best efforts, Braden Looper was unable to give this game back to the Expos, retiring Tony Batista on a groundout with the bases loaded.

Ty Wigginton hit his second homerun of the season and drove in another run with a sac fly, but continues to struggle mightily at the plate. His complete inability to take a pitch in critical situations is staggering. With the Mets leading 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth, the Mets loaded the bases on a Todd Zeile phantom HBP, a Mike Piazza walk, and an Eric Valent single. Wiggie comes up with one out, knowing (well, I knew anyway) he could sit on a fastball in his zone.

So what does he do? He swings wildly at the first pitch as it scrapes the ground in front of him. On the second pitch he mercifully grounds into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning -- mercifully because I no longer had to watch his wretched grasp for the subtleties of the game.

Also of interest is that, even though the Mets won, they allowed ten hits to an Expos team that came into the game with a 2-10 record and sporting a .200 team batting average.

Karim Garcia looked good at the plate again, hitting his second homerun of 2004 and hitting the ball hard throughout the game. Mike Cameron continues to miss the ball with his bat at an alarming rate (now 17 strikeouts in 13 games). He has walked eight times and has an OBP of almost .370, and has been superb defensively, so it's not all bad.

Bullpen Woes, Bullpen Blows

I didn't really get to watch any of the game last night, but I was fortunate enough to hear the Mets latest bullpen implosion on the radio. Prior to that, while Tom Glavine was looking like Tom Glavine, I was at Applebee's, where every TV set was tuned to the Yankees/Red Sox game, wearing my Manny Ramirez shirt, drawing countless dirty looks, and cheering on my second-favorite team.

I'm a Met fan. Normally, such a declaration would draw a chorus of snickers, "Sorry to hear that"s, and consoling pats on the shoulder. Not here, though. Unlike the rest of the Yankee-loving free world, this is Met territory. I am a Met-loving Yankee-hater. There is no such thing as a Met fan who also likes the Yankees, and don't let anyone tell you differently. Some people claim to like both teams, but those are always Yankee fans who root for the Mets except when they play the Yankees. They sympathize with the Mets, and figure some of their aura and mystique could rub off on the Mets simply by pulling for them. Thanks, but no thanks.

Yankee fans don't hate the Mets because the Mets don't pose a significant threat of any kind to the Yankee empire. I've been reading my advance copy of Jeff Pearlman's new book, The Bad Guys Won, about the '86 Mets (I'll put a review up as soon as I'm finished with it), and it recalls a time when the Mets were the only baseball team in New York that anyone cared about. A time when the Yankees were second-class citizens, and the Mets were the biggest thing in sports, possibly even in pop culture. I'm about halfway through the book, and it's really a great read. There's so much insider information straight from the players about the players, it's almost alarming how little if anything was taboo.

Anyhoo, as I started saying before, Tom Glavine pitched a helluva game on Friday night, giving up only one hit through seven innings, only to watch the Mets bullpen give the game away. Orber Moreno (I jumped the gun on him a little bit, huh?), Mike Stanton, and Stormy Weathers were completely useless out there, while giving up six hits, a walk, and seven earned runs. Thanks to the newfound power stroke of Eric Valent, the Mets came back to make the score 7-6, only to fall short.

Okay, so 5-5 after 10 games isn't so bad. We could have won this one, the game we lost in San Juan, and had leads in the two games we lost in Atlanta. With anything resembling a bullpen the Mets could easily be 7-3. Oh well, I guess I should be happy with .500.

Nice Win

The Mets picked up a nice win last night over the Braves on Jackie Robinson Day, 4-0. Al Leiter pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing three hits while walking three and striking out two. Leiter has yet to allow a run in two starts this season. What continues to trouble me is Leiter's horribly inefficient pitching.

Despite pitching effectively, Leiter had to be pulled in the sixth inning because he had already thrown 104 pitches. The Mets were fortunate that the bullpen pitched well yesterday, because they haven't on many other occasions this season. Orber Moreno and Braden Looper were both nasty last night, and could form a dominant 8th/9th combo similar to that of Anaheim (K-Rod and Troy Percival) and Houston last year (Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner).

Mike Piazza has been struggling a bit at the plate since the Montreal series. He looked so dominant against the Braves in the opening week, but has been missing his pitches of late.

Kaz Matsui continues to get on base at an alarming rate, scoring two runs and drawing his 9th and 10th walks of the season, the latter being intentional. He is already garnering the type of respect, offensively, that Ichiro does in the American League, as opposing teams are fearful of pitching to him in big situations.

Ricky Gutierrez, despite playing a respectable second base, has been pretty hopeless at the plate. This lineup will be much more intimidating when Jose Reyes comes back, whenever that is. Batting him second behind Matsui will cause other teams fits, and allow Floyd (hopefully) and Piazza plenty of RBI opportunities.

One of the biggest plays of the game last night was Karim Garcia's two-out, pinch-hit RBI single off of lefty C. J. Nitkowski. If only for one at-bat, Garcia showed he can hang in there against a lefty, even while nursing a finger injury. Jeff Duncan, also a lefty, followed Garcia's hit with an RBI single the other way, giving the Mets some breathing room.

What's His Name?

If you're like me and my friends, you bicker about how baseball players names should be pronounced. Some are more ambiguous than others, like the White Sox third-baseman (CREE-dee) or the Indians closer (RISK-ee). If you haven't discovered it yet, ESPN.com has added a new feature to its player pages. Underneath the salary of certain players is a pronunciation guide.

As cool as this feature is, even cooler is trying to find players whose name pronunciation is made up of funny words. The best I've found thus far is Albert Pujols, whose surname, according to ESPN, should be pronounced "POO-holes". Get it? See what you can find.

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.

* * * * * * * * * *

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.

More Good News

According to the New York Post, Booklyn Cyclones manager Leon Lee has resigned from the team after being arrested for two counts of "exposure of a sexual organ". Two counts? Come on, man. The Mets have been a PR disaster the past few years, and it doesn't look like it's going to get better any time soon.

Lee managed the Orix Blue Wave in Japan last season, and is the father of Cubs first-baseman Derrek Lee. When he was hired in February, Kevin T. Czerwinski had a nice article about him on Mets.com.

In better news, Mets 3B stud prospect David Wright has his latest column up at Mets.com, so check it out.

Kazmir Hurt

As bad as the Mets pitching has been thus far, we Mets fans know that the future looks brighter. The Mets have a plethora of young arms in the system that promise to lead the 2005-and-beyond Mets to postseason glory. A top-three of Scott Kazmir, Matt Peterson, and Tyler Yates beckon us, waving from their cushy seats along the ticker-tape parade. Oh, by the way, Kazmir is hurt:

Scott Kazmir, the Mets' top-rated pitching prospect, was forced to leave Thursday's season opener between the Class A St. Lucie Mets and Vero Beach after suffering from pain in his midsection.

[...]

"I was running yesterday [Wednesday] and I felt like, when I stopped, that my midsection, my abs and both my groins were on fire," Kazmir said. "I thought it was all right but then it felt tight again tonight."

On fire? That sounds good. I am sure more details will follow, but it could be a pulled groin or an abdominal strain, if we're lucky.

Stay Positive

Okay, so there is a lot to feel bad about regarding these last two sh*tbombs against the Braves. However, I am going to avoid blasting the Mets horrendous pitching in favor of praising their monstrous bats.

Through three games this season, the Mets have scored 25 runs. It took them seven games last season to reach that mark. The Mets are hitting .322 as a team, getting on base at a .397 clip and slugging .602. That's a .999 OPS, slightly higher than Alex Rodriguez in 2003. Of course they won't keep this up, but they've effectively hit like a team full of A-Rods.

The Mets have 8 homeruns, 3 stolen bases, and 15 walks through those three games. To me, the walks are the most promising. Jason Phillips and Kaz Matsu have four walks apiece, with Cliff Floyd and Mike Cameron drawing two each.

It's obviously early, but it looks like the Mets could score a lot of runs this season, allthewhile surrendering many more. The Mets travel south today to play the Expos at the newly-renovated Hiram Bithorn Stadium:

The dimensions have been altered to resemble Montreal's Olympic stadium, so it's not as much of a bandbox. There is also new artificial turf, and the seating capacity has been increased by about 6,000

Opening Day

So here we are, opening day. As I will try to do from time to time this season, I kept a running journal of the game tonight and will transcribe it for you here. If you enjoy it, let me know, and I will try to bring them to you more frequently.

PRE-GAME

I'm watching Geico Mets on Deck, and they mentioned that Steve Trachsel's player option for 2005 has now been guaranteed, and a 2006 option has been added. Trachsel is no star, but he'll eat up 200 innings and give you league-average performance or better.

Tom Glavine will face Russ Ortiz tonight, and the TV reminds us that Glavine went 0-4 against the Braves in 2003 with a 10.35 ERA, while Ortiz went 21-7 for the year with a 3.81 ERA. He also led the league in walks. He is a nice pitcher, but very overrated.

We also learn that Jose Reyes is doubtful for the Mets home opener on Monday.

Since the pre-game is kinda dull, I switch over to the Yankees/Devil Rays game. Carlos Zambrano starts for the Rays and after starting Kenny Lofton off with two nice pitches for strikes, proceeds to waste three pitches before getting Lofton to fly out to left.

Derek Jeter comes to the dish to a chorus of boos from the Tampa faithful. Jim Kaat, the Yanks color commentator tonight, echoes my sentiments on the farce that was the two regular season games played in Japan last week. He suggests that they should have been exhibition games played after the season, and I agree.

Jeter, heretofore known as Captain Fantastic, draws a walk. Zambrano looks pretty crappy thus far and, as I write that, surrenders an opposite-field bomb to Alex Rodriguez, 2-0 Yanks. It's going to be a long season. For me.

Jason Giambi, AKA The Great Giambino, draws a walk, and Zambrano looks utterly lost out there. He's thrown 8-of-20 pitches for strikes...err...make that 9-of-21 as Gary Sheffield cracks a two-run homer to right-center, 4-0 Yanks.

The Mets game is starting, so I'll leave the Yankees to wallow in their own stupendiosity (yea, that's right).

TOP FIRST

Kazuo Matsui takes a first-pitch fastball from Russ Ortiz and launches it over the centerfield wall. Ortiz left the ball up and Kaz took him to the house, 1-0 Mets. Ricky Gutierrez knocks a single up the middle, and Cliff Floyd hits a shot to right-field that I'm sure is a goner. I guess it went off the end of the bat, because, much to my chagrin, J.D. Drew catches it at the wall.

They show a replay of Matsui's homerun, and of course Keith Hernandez has something bad to say about Kaz. Something about his shoulder flying open. I don't know, I was watching the homerun again.

It's unbelievable how horrible I am at judging the ball off the bat. I make Roger Cedeno look like Mike Cameron. Every time someone hits the ball hard and in the general vicinity of the outfield I scream something to the effect of "Get out!" or "Gone!", while the ball falls safely into the glove of a waiting outfielder (or infielder in some cases). I did this on Floyd's drive and proceeded to do it again on Mike Piazza's fly-out.

Ok, this one I know isn't going out. Cameron flies out to right, inning over.

BOTTOM FIRST

Glavine is on the hill and just misses the outside corner. Misses again. Now up high. Sinker down the pipe. Nice pitch down-and-away that Rafael Furcal fouls off. Furcal dunks one into centerfield, as Cameron plays it on a hop.

First pitch to Marcus Giles and he does some yardwork, a two-run shot over the centerfield wall, 2-1 Braves. It's going to be a long season. For me.

Glavine very quickly runs the count to 3-0 on Larry "Chipper" Jones. And there's ball four. Glavine looks rattled already, ten pitches into 2004.

A friendly call from the umpire goes for Strike One on Andruw Jones. Jones then hits a comebacker that Glavine fields, starting a double-play with Matsui as the pivot.

Battery Boy himself J.D. Drew come to the plate. Don't remember the batteries? From the box score from 5/19/2001 when Drew's Cardinals visited Philadelphia:

Drew, who spurned the Phillies after being selected second overall in the 1997 draft, was booed each time he came to the plate. After homering, the ball was thrown back onto the field. In his first appearance back in Philadelphia in 1999, Drew was pelted with batteries.

Glavine runs the count to 3-2 on Drew and gets him swinging at a nice changeup.

TOP SECOND

Jason Phillips leads off and plunks one in between the Joneses (Andruw and Chipper) as the ball rolls to the wall. It looked like Goggles might get three, but he retreated, content with a leadoff double.

Karim Garcia has a nice productive at-bat, moving Phillips to third on a groundout. Ty Wigginton is up, and looked foolish on a breaking ball. A foul ball, and he's quickly down 0-2. Another foul, and he goes down swinging on the high cheese. Way to put the ball in play, Ty. Way to get the run home.

Glavine grabs some twig and heads to the plate. Looks at the first three pitches and finds the count 2-1 in his favor. A foul and a fastball up and it's a full count. He rolls a grounder to Mark DeRosa at third who makes a nice diving stop following by a piss-poor throw to first as the ball gets by Julio Franco. Jason Phillips trots home to tie the game at 2 and 2. Glavine goes to second on a single and an error.

Kaz comes up for the second time in two innings, and Kaz rips the 1-1 pitch down the right-field line. Glavine scores easily and Kaz is standing on second with a two-bagger. For those keeping score, that's 2-2, 2 RBI, and a 4.000 OPS for Mr. Matsui.

Gutierrez grounds out to Furcal to end the inning, Mets lead 3-2. Now lets see if Glavine can put the Braves back on top. I'd like to note that it's nice to see the Mets score a couple of runs with the bottom of the order.

BOTTOM SECOND

Any truth to the rumor that Julio Franco had a cameo in The Passion Of The Christ as himself? Glavine is missing his spots early on, but three groundouts and he's out of the second. Gutierrez looks pretty sharp at second, and Wiggie is fine at third as long as the ball is hit no greater than six inches to his right or left.

TOP THIRD

Floyd leads off. Let's see if he can get me to prematurely scream "Gone!" on a lazy fly to right field. No dice, as Floyd grounds out to Ortiz.

Gone! Finally it pays off, as Mike Piazza annihilates a first-pitch hanger, depositing it into the left-field bleachers. Larry didn't even flinch, 4-2 Mets.

Cameron (M-Cam or Cammie) rips one through the hole for a single to left.

Goggles (Phillips) comes to the plate. Cammie almost got picked off at first, but takes off on the 2-1 pitch and swipes second base easily.

New Brave Juan Cruz is already getting loose in the bullpen. Goggles takes ball four, and it's 1st and 2nd for Karim Garcia.

Garcia lines one off of Furcal's glove. Cammie had to hold up to make sure it wasn't caught, so he stops at third. Sacks are juiced for Wiggie.

Met announcer Ted Robinson reminds us that Wigginton has struggled against Ortiz. In nine frickin' at-bats! Jebus.

Wigginton chases ball four high and outside, so the count is full. Thank God, Ortiz walked him. 5-2 Mets, and Ortiz gets the hook. Ortiz' line:

2.1 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 1 K

Julio Lugo just hit a 2-run bomb, D-Rays tie the game 4-4.

Juan Cruz enters the game, and Glavine looks foolish at the plate against him. This guy flat-out throws gas. Glavine gets good cut in and lines one to short that Furcal makes a nice catch on.

Matsui draws a walk on a full count, Goggles trots in, 6-2 Mets. Matsui now has 3 RBI in his Major League debut.

Gutierrez (R-Gut) grounds to Julio Franco to end the inning. The Mets bat around and score the minimum possible, plating three (two on walks) and leaving the bases loaded. Nevertheless, they're winning.

I'm eating dinner now, so the notes get a little erratic.

TOP FOURTH

Piazza K's looking on three fastballs on the outside corner. Cameron walks on a full count. Cruz is being given a very generous strike zone. Goggles drives one off the base of the left-field wall scoring Cameron from first, 7-2 Mets.

TOP FIFTH

Matsui ropes a double and is now 3-3 with a walk.

BOTTOM FIFTH

Two fly balls, two outs land in Mike Cameron's golden glove. Jesse Garcia pinch hits for Cruz and is called out on a bunt that apparently hit him in the hip.

The Yankees are losing 6-4 in the bottom of the sixth. 1-161 here we come.

TOP SIXTH

C.J. Nitkowski, who, much to my surprise is NOT lying in a ditch in Dubuque, IA, comes in to retire Floyd and Piazza on first-pitch grounders. Cameron flies out to J.D. Drew to end the inning. KLarry Jones pokes one down the right field line that Jason Phillips looks just awful on. Showing terrible range and an awkward dive, the ball shoots into right field. arim Garcia is inexplicably playing Chipper to go the other way and holds him to a single.

We're just informed that Tom Glavine is on a strict 90-pitch limit for this game.

Tommy walks Andruw Jones on a 3-1 count, bringing J.D. Drew to the plate. Drew drives one the other way to the wall in left ... into the waiting glove of Cliff Floyd.

TOP SEVENTH

Antonio Alfonseca, his big gut, and his 5.83 '03 ERA take the hill to start the seventh. Alfonseca still gets it up there in the mid-90's, but he's a little wild and walks Jason Phillips on five pitches. Phillips is now 2-2 with two doubles and two walks.

Karim Garcia knocks Alfonseca on his ass as he shoots one up the middle into centerfield. Wigginton gets sawed off but is able to move the runners to second and third.

Glavine is done for the day as Rule V draftee Eric Valent pinch hits. Valent backs up Julio Franco at first, but can't score Phillips from third on the ground out.

Matsui, already getting some respect, is being walked intentionally to load the bases and bring up Ricky Gutierrez. Alfonseca runs the count to 3-1; now 3-2; now a backwards K. It's like the Mets are up there looking for walks with the bases loaded.

In my picture-in-picture I see Kenny Lofton horribly misplay a ball into a Jose Cruz triple. I guess that's Gabe White in there, but he looks kind of like Jeff Foxworthy.

BOTTOM SEVENTH

Matt Laughlin is talking to Tom Glavine's wife Chris who, by the way is a total MILF.

David "Stormy" Weathers comes out of the pen for the first of 70-or-80 appearances this season, and K's Julio Franco on a 3-2 fastball. Matsui ranges into left field to catch a flare off the bat of Johnny Estrada, and Weathers strikes out Mark DeRosa to end the inning.

TOP EIGHTH

Will Cunnane makes Floyd look silly on a breaking ball. Foul ball. Strike Three.

Breaking News: Yanks are being doubled up by the Rays, 8-4.

Piazza gets into a 2-1 hitters count and gets fooled on a breaking pitch, popping out to Julio Franco.

The Braves are also wearing a patch this season. Theirs has a home plate with the number 21 within, representing Warren Spahn, the winningest lefty of all time, who passed away this year.

Cameron flies out to his counterpart Andruw Jones to end the inning.

Yankes are now losing 9-4 after 7.

BOTTOM EIGHTH

Stormy Weathers is back out there for the eighth. Grounder to third, grounder to second, and a great sliding catch by Karim Garcia and Atlanta is out 1-2-3.

TOP NINTH

Two up, two fly balls to Andruw Jones. Wigginton at bat, Todd Zeile steps into the on-deck circle. Wiggie lines out softly to Marcus Giles at second, and we go to the bottom of the ninth, Mets still leading 7-2.

BOTTOM NINTH

The Braden Looper era begins with a terrible pitch that bounces at Larry Jones' feet. He follows that up with a 94 MPH heater and another one at 95, both fouled off. And a single into right field, and here we go.

Did anyone notice Armando Benitez picked up a save for the Marlins this afternoon? Did you also notice he gave up two hits, including a homerun? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Looper induces a broken-bat double-play from Andruw Jones, and J.D. Drew breaks his bat, picking up an infield single. Julio Franco grounds to Gutierrez who steps on second to end the game. Mets win! Mets win!

Final score, 7-2. Mets are 1-0 and are tied for first place in the NL East. Tom Glavine is over .500 for the first time as a Met.

Need some more good news? A-Rod strikes out swinging against Danys Baez to end the game. Devil Rays 9, $200-million men 4. Good night everyone.

Here We Go

Because Spring Training couldn't last forever, the Mets regular season opener is upon us. Tom Glavine goes to the mound for the second-consecutive opener, and my fear is that this season will begin -- and end -- in a similar fashion to last season. The worst part is that I feel much worse about the season now than I did when Spring Training began a couple of months ago.

Mets ownership has once again been guilty of overstepping their bounds, and it's really beginning to frighten me. Boss George across town oversteps his bounds, but in doing so he reels in Gary Sheffield or Jason Giambi. The Wilpon's stick their puss in the pot and come up with Scott Erickson. Jae Seo's once-bright future with the Mets has now been clouded by the Mets ineptitude, and I can't help feeling that they're going to bungle all of the things that seemed so promising back in February.

I'm happy to see Orber Moreno getting a shot in the bullpen. I'm happy to see Roger Cedeno get a fresh start somewhere else; a clubhouse favorite, Cedeno prohibited his family coming to Shea so as to not subject them to the maelstrom of disgust spewing forth from the Mets faithful. I'm happy to see Tyler Yates make the club, but not at the expense of Grant Roberts' return to the bullpen and Seo's return to the minor leagues.

I'm excited for opening day. The Mets are tied for first place, but those "meaningful" September ballgames seem so far away.

Reyes To DL, Bottalico Sent Packing

According to Mets.com, Jose Reyes will indeed begin the season on the disabled list. It is not clear how long he will be out for, though his hamstring will keep him out for at least the first week of the season.

Reyes' stint on the DL will allow the Mets to carry 12 pitchers, with Orber Moreno and Dan Wheeler coming north for the regular season, at least for the time being. When Reyes is reactivated, one reliever will be reassigned to AAA Norfolk. That leaves little room for journeyman Ricky Bottalico, who, despite a strong showing in Spring Training, was informed on Saturday that he had not made the team. Ricky took it like a man:

"I pitched well enough to make the team and I just didn't fit in. I wanted to prove that I was healthy and I did that."

Bottalico became expendable when the Mets decided to move Grant Roberts back to the bullpen. Had Roberts earned a spot in the starting rotation, Bottalico likely would have made the club.

"Basically what they said was that a day and a half ago I was on the team. But with all the things with Grant going to the pen, circumstances changed. I'm not upset, I just wish it happened earlier."

Bottalico shouldn't have a problem catching on as a middle reliever with another club.

Leiter Hit In Head, Mets Finally Win

In a scary moment, Al Leiter took a liner in the head off the bat of Marlins shortstop Alex Gonzalez. The shot didn't draw blood, but Leiter was left with a nice lump.

"I'll be fine. I have a little headache and a little bruise about a half-inch above my temple. I saw it [the ball] and I thought I had it. It was knuckling a little bit and I missed it. I went black, but I didn't black out. But it was very dark."

The injury doesn't appear to be too serious, though Leiter may be questionable for his scheduled start on April 7th against the Braves. In other news, the Mets snapped their six-game losing streak by pummeling the Marlins 21-13. Ty Wigginton went 5-6 with 4 RBI and 3 runs scored.

Roger: Over And Out

After two miserable seasons in New York, Roger Cedeno has finally been set free from his purgatorial stay in the Big Apple. His savior? The St. Louis Cardinals have extended their divine hand to pull Cedeno from the bowels of baseball hell.

In exchange for Cedeno and cash to cover the majority of his contract, the Mets fill their void at fourth-string catcher by acquiring Chris Widger and AAA utilityman Wilson Delgado, who is best know for sharing the surname of Toronto hitting machine Carlos Delgado.

Many positives can be found in this move. The Mets clear a spot on the Major League roster for, presumably, a bullpen arm. They also clear a spot on the 40-man roster, and Roger Cedeno can finally bring his family to a baseball game.

This And That

I was away on business in the sunshine state this past week, so I apologize (again) for the dearth of new material here. Much has happened since the last time I wrote, so I will try to touch upon many of those things today.

Mets acquire Gutierrez from Indians

Gutierrez is a lifetime .268 hitter, but his .340 OBP is pretty good. He doesn't have much power, doesn't steal many bases, and actually has a lower career slugging percentage than Joe McUseless, but he can play the whole infield, won't cost the Mets much money, and likely won't cost them much in talent. I've yet to see the official terms of the deal, but Cleveland is reportedly picking up most of his mind-boggling $4.6 million salary in 2004 plus his $750,000 buyout in 2005, in exchange for a PTBNL. Though we appear to be cornering the market on light-hitting, multi-purpose infielders, this appears to be a pretty decent move.

Mets send Perez to White Sox for Ginter

It's about friggin' time. Timo Perez was a great story in the 2000 NLCS, a not-so-great story in the 2000 World Series, and a nightmare since. He's not completely useless against righties, sporting a .745 OPS against them since 2001. Despite the small sample size of 119 ABs, Timo nevertheless makes Neifi look like Tony with an otherworldly .393 OPS against southpaws over the past three seasons.

Matt Ginter, a right-handed reliever, will likely be assigned to AAA Norfolk. He was originally drafted in the 1st round in 1999 by the White Sox as a starting pitcher, and has since been converted to relief, putting up less-than-stellar numbers in the big leagues and decent-if-not-spectacular numbers in the minors. He could be a serviceable middle-reliever, or the Mets could try converting him back to the rotation. In any event, this move frees up a spot on the 40-man roster, likely for Gutierrez.

Panel Discussion of the 2004 NY Mets at The Shea Hot Corner

I've really got to hand it to Norm at The Shea Hot Corner, he did a terrific job putting together the questions and participants (including yours truly) in this roundtable discussion of Mets v2004. Check out Part One, The Professionals Weigh In and Part II, Electric Blogaloo.

Indians: Bradley's days with team are numbered

Indians' outfielder and board game creator extraordinaire Milton Bradley is officially on the trading block, with the Mets a possible destination. Here's the rub: he's kind of a jerk. He smacks a bit of Carl Everett: worlds of talent, but can't help getting himself into trouble.

As much as characters like Bradley have haunted the Mets in the past, I can't help but endorse his acquisition. Much like in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, against better judgment, I can't help but run back into the fire, only to return with a handful of snakes. The utter pointlessness of that analogy notwithstanding, Bradley's bat would be a big help to the Mets. He posted a 151 OPS+ in 451 plate appearances in 2003 with Cleveland, which included 64 walks and 10 homeruns. Bradley is what the Mets thought they were getting when they traded for Matt Lawton a few years ago.

Mets cover bases, ask about Beltran

Oh god yes. It may have only been a routine inquiry, but the Mets actually contacted Kansas City about the availability, now or in the future, of outfielder/blogger idol Carlos Beltran. The talks were described as "subpreliminary", so don't get too excited.

That's it for today. With opening day fast approaching, expect the posting to pick up, as I will attempt to put new material here as often as every day. Cheers.