smg58

Wood is presumably out of options, so we'd have to claim him, then put him back through waivers, and then hope he clears in order to send him to Buffalo. That would be doable only if every other team thinks he's worth nothing. In that case, we'd better know something they don't.

If you had sufficient confidence in Emaus to hand him the starting job out of spring training, then two weeks should not have been enough time to change your mind. That being said, I hope Turner gives out team a boost. What's done is done.

Given the way the team has performed over the past 2+ seasons, I'm surprised there would be any aversion to starting over. They don't have to get rid of everybody, but you could come up with perfectly valid baseball reasons to deal any of the expensive players on this team.

I can't see rebuilding further reducing attendance levels from what they are now. I don't see Beltran staying past June, one way or the other. I just wish Fernando Martinez could stay healthy long enough to take advantage of the likely job opening. I wouldn't mind seeing K-Rod pitch well enough for somebody to take a risk on that vest. I don't think the season is already lost. It's two weeks, and we've been in most of the games we've lost. And besides, we still have a better winning percentage than the Red Sox, who spent a hell of a lot more money this offseason than we did.

As for defense, I think the problems (outside of Beltran's general inability to run) are more mental than physical. Hairston and Harris have been above-average outfielders in the past, and Pagan is much better than he's looked so far. Emaus was probably thinking about the previous double play he didn't make when he bobbled the ball in the sixth (granted, the first play was tougher). I still think he'll be fine if he gives himself the chance to settle down. It's not like he's the only rookie who's ever looked shaky his first two weeks. As for the pen... Obviously the walks need to come down, and giving up a home run in that spot to a guy (Herrera) who had one home run in 300 ABs while playing his home games at Coors Field is not going to cut it. I think they can sort themselves out, and hopefully a good series this weekend will send them in the right direction.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Jason Bay is really screwing us this season too. I'm not sure he's better than what we have, unfortunately. He's most likely not a better fielder than what we've been putting out there (other than Duda, who's back in Buffalo), and our hitting really hasn't been the problem.

And again, the add-on runs killed us. And walks. And shoddy defense. I'm encouraged that the team still has fight, but they keep making things hard on themselves.

Byrdak should have pitched to Cargo. And I'm all for never throwing Tulo another strike again.

The whole damn staff is walking too many guys, and I just don't know why.

To say that Hairston needed that would be understating things by a lot.

Ceetar wrote: Those pitches to Jose looked low and outside from Street. And then he ended up expanding his strike zone and flailing at a pitch. If Jose is going to bend his knees that much and then take two pitches that cross the plate at the same level as his overly bent knees, he deserves to be two strikes in the hole. And if he then swings at the pitch that breaks in the dirt, he deserves to strike out. Half of me thinks that Parnell going from the eighth inning guy here to the closer in Buffalo ten games into the season would be an extremely ill-advised panic move. But the other half is really angry at him right now. I could almost forgive the home run, if it wasn't the second straight night where a reliever buckled in the face of adversity. The wild pitch and the horrible throw home were worse, from a mental perspective. The focus is on the pen, but the starters really need to get deeper into games, starting with Pelfrey. His game is control and pitching to contact, and he's throwing 100 pitches in 5 innings. Not acceptable. I don't have a problem with carrying an extra pitcher until Bay is healthy, because the pen is overworked. It's not like Duda was forcing the Mets to keep him up. The bizarre thing is that all of our relievers have legit major-league credentials -- except for Beato, who's naturally the only guy who's pitched well. They're better than this. They were much better than this only a month ago. I think the whole lot of them just need to settle down and get through this.

The bullpen is stocked with guys who looked a lot better in March than they do now. It's frustrating, but I still think they'll improve. Part of that is they've been worked a lot, but that's a perfectly good and valid reason to try and get one more inning from Young. You have to protect your relievers, too. Boyer is a good example of this. I'm not really sure why he beat out Acosta -- past performance ought to have favored Acosta, and two bad innings in March shouldn't have changed that. But he was unlucky in his first inning of work the other night, and he's given up home runs both times he's been asked to go two innings. I agree with letting Reyes run and not trying to bunt. Maybe Collins hasn't seen enough evidence that bunting isn't the best play in that spot, but every Met fan has.

Zim has an abdominal injury. Doesn't look to be major, but Alex Cora is playing third for the Nats today. Their lineup just got a lot less formidable.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Maybe he, like, Hulks out once you agitate him enough. (Might explain 2004's and 2010's performance spikes.) I figure last year had to do with playing in a friendly park for the first time, and 2004 was the result of juicing in a contract year. Then again, last year was a contract year as well.

Edgy DC wrote: Amazin'. Athletes have just got to keep poking the bear. They've just got to. Right. I just don't see how the pro of the humor value outweighs the rather large con of antagonizing a teammate.

Cohoon's first start of the year was fair: 5 IP, 1 R, 7 H, 5 K, 2 BB. Binghamton was winning when he left, but Akron scored five runs over the next two innings to win 6-4.

Last year I spent two days in second place. This year is shaping up differently. I'm hoping that all my players get their slumps for the year out of the way in the first two weeks. That, and Holliday only has one appendix to remove.

Given the sellers market for relief pitching in the offseason, I'm flat-out shocked we didn't lose Acosta. Again, as was the case with Evans, I'm not complaining. Boyer had a horribly unlucky 5th inning last night. I hope that whatever happens when Izzy is healthy is not unfairly influenced by that.

Textbook pitching against Bonifacio there. After Bonifacio went the opposite way and just missed a run-scoring double (it went foul), Dickey comes inside with two perfectly placed pitches for strikes two and three.

A few observations about last night: Pelfrey should use reverse logic and go with the high fastball as his out pitch, and also trust his curve more. The Marlins were sitting on the sinker with two strikes, and fouling them off until he missed the strike zone or, in Buck's case, threw something fat. Emaus can play second base well enough. He has to work on not fishing for breaking balls if he wants the super-high walk rate he's had in the minors, but you can't get him to bite on fastballs out in the zone. Wright had a really bad day at the plate, and Davis had a bad day on the field. Hopefully they mean nothing in the long run. I liked going for it with Hairston at that spot, he just got beat on some fastballs.

Apparently the Hernandez HR was set up by a bizarre play by Casey McGehee, who cleanly fielded a grounder with first and second and none out, then tried to make a tag-and-throw double play but failed on both ends.

Edgy DC wrote: I read that as "Happiness to all the stupid people of April," and I just left it as something I didn't get and didn't think again. There's something very appropriate about that translation, though. And of course, the best April Fool's jokes are the ones that are just believable enough. PS How old is Sid Finch now?

I always assumed he was three years older, like Ordonez. Like steroids, lying about age was done so much and with impunity that there were cases where you almost had to assume it.

It's true that everybody goes through a crunch at this time of year, and that certainly may have been a factor. But Evans is 25 and had a .907 OPS in the minors last year, and there are teams that need right handed bats. If Bay's injury costs him significant time, we'll be one of them -- let's face it, the chances of Beltran and Bay both being out at the same time at some point are good. So I'm obviously glad he's still here.

What's your team name?