Mike Baxter Is

[Edgy MD]

So how about this guy? The SandyMets, bit mostly in the ass by Willie Harris, opt this year against pursuing the alleged value of a veteran lefty pinch hitter on the bench, choose the Queens boy, which peals chimes of PR-over-baseball thinking, and he's... performing. Outperforming, in fact, many or most of the Rick Ankiel-set higher-ticket vets that the Mets passed over in favor of finding a useful dude on the AAAA carousel. Did you think we'd be here after his first at-bat of the year, striking out in a scoreless tie with two on, two out, looking at three consecutive pitches?

Here's to the guy, and here's to his cousins Chris Jones, Matt Franco, and Eric Valent --- the few fellow bench players in Mets history who arrived and performed despite not having much to show on their big league r�sum�s.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, he's certainly no longer a shoe-in for demotion. I remember we were all thinking that he'd go down to Buffalo when Torres returned, but by the time Torres was ready, Bay was hurt.

Now when Bay comes back, does Baxter go away? The Daily News said that it would be either Baxter, Turner, or Nieuwenhuis. I'm not sure I like any of those choices.

[Edgy MD]

The News is wrong. I wouldn't handicap it that way at all.

I'd have it like

Valdespin 60%
Davis 25%
Nieuwenhuis 8%
Baxter 5%
Turner 2%

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: The News is wrong. I wouldn't handicap it that way at all. I'd have it like Valdespin 60% Davis 25% Nieuwenhuis 8% Baxter 5% Turner 2%

Depends if Tejada beats Bay back I guess. Going to need to lose two of them if everyone stays healthy.

[MFS62]

While listening to my Baxter Turner Overdrive CD, I'm voting that Valdeapin gets sent down.
Later

[metirish]

I think Cohen or Darling or maybe it was Hernandez described Baxter as the perfect bench player......he certainly is doing a job very well.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Baxter seems to be our only bench player with usable speed (that is, speed and at least enough baseball instinct that its value isn't nullified).

So far this year, he seems the personification of the Mets' patient aggression approach-- he's hitting those first-pitch fastballs in the gaps like Duda should be. He's cheap, he's feelgood, and he's happy to be here without just being "happy to be here."

Sandy has eyes. I would bet significant money that it isn't Captain Whitestone 'Spinning back to Buffalo.

[G-Fafif]

Mike Baxter is good at pinch-hitting because he was a teenage Mets fan in Bayside on July 10, 1999, and witnessed Matt Franco receiving adulation for taking down the Great Rivera. "I wanna be like that someday," the kid affirmed. Then his dad told him all about the exploits of Kranepool and Staub and Boisclair, and it only reinforced his determination to someday come off the Mets bench and do great things from the left side.

That's my theory, anyway.

[Lefty Specialist]

I think Valdespin goes first, Ike goes second. Duda goes to first, and Nieuwy goes to RF.

Sorry Ike, .164 just doesn't cut it.

[metirish]

I'm betting that in a years time some of us will have a hard time remembering what Baxter looked like.

[ashie62]

Baxter..a rich man's Jason Pridie.

[metirish]

Ashie62 wrote: Baxter..a rich man's Jason Pridie.

Pridie, exactly the fella I'll conflate Baxter with.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think this is the guy I'll conflate Baxter with:

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: Ashie62 wrote: Baxter..a rich man's Jason Pridie. Pridie, exactly the fella I'll conflate Baxter with.

Baxter have a hot wife?

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Lefty Specialist]

I knew that was coming, but somehow, I couldn't look away.

[metirish]

The thread has taken a turn for the better, no offense Baxter!

[Edgy MD]

...blocked...

[Vic Sage]

... currently living here!

[Edgy MD]

Is that H.E.R.B.I.E.'s chamber on the right?

[ashie62]

Terrific!

[Valadius]

a home run short of the cycle at the moment.

[Chad ochoseis]

A dog. But a dog who thinks. Watch out for those guys.

[Edgy MD]

... the leadoff hitter tonight for your New York Mets.

[Lefty Specialist]

Nieuwenhuis batting second. I hope they don't collide in the on-deck circle when one of them is swinging a bat.