STRIKE ONE!

Willie, Willie, Willie, Willie. Earn your keep? Earn your spot in the order? David Wright is your second best hitter. Why he needs to be a crusty veteran for you to understand that is beyond me. Some highly intelligent individual already put his two cents in, and it was not to bat Wright eighth. Doug Mientkiewicz has a career high of fifteen homers in 150+ games. Wright smacked fourteen in 69 games. Someone explain to my why his has to earn a place higher than eighth? It seems he made a pretty solid statement in 2004. Reyes seems to not be held to the same scrutiny.

Doug is the perfect guy for the 8th spot. He works the count and takes a walk, but will not be wasted power production at the bottom. He has a career high of 74 RBIs and a career high of a .450 SLG%. Wright hit 40 RBIs in 69 games and had a .525 SLG% in the first half of his rookie year. He will get better, much better. Who should be more towards the meat and top of the order? Understandably, Mike Cameron cannot bat eighth. We all know this. Reyes batting eighth for a guy who is anxious at the plate and does not work pitchers, will be ill suited for that spot. Kaz could fit the bill, but he looked like he was ready to breakout in the 2nd half of '04. If Willie puts Wright out there in the 8th spot, it will be one of life's greater mysteries. The Mets lineup is improved, but not good enough where a guy who can hit .290/.360/.550 with 30 homers should be in the 8th spot. These are the New York Mets and not the New York Yankees. Someone may need to remind Willie of that.

If he is going to take this approach with possibly the second most talented player on the team, I wonder how he will approach lesser prospects? Is Willie going to give young kids like Heath Bell a chance? Or will he favor less talented vets simply because they are vets. Age should not matter. Experience should not matter. What the player can contribute right now should matter. The Yankee Way © does not allow chances for young player to break through. I sure hope Willie does not engage prospects in that fashion going forward and I sure hope I'm overreacting and Wright will be moving up as soon as he starts stroking. However, this move makes no sense. People were wondering if Willie can actually manage, but he flunked his first task of writing up the line-up on a piece of paper.

* * *

"It tastes like ... burning" - Ralf Wiggum

Dan Perry has the ten burning questions of 2005. Guess what? I have answers to all of them.

1) July
2) No
3) No
4) No
5) Indians
6) Pretty good. The A's will finish in third place with lots of promise. Harden is a stud and Zito is still there. The rest will fall into place between Blanton/Meyer/Haren/Cruz or whomever steps up for the last three spots. Let's not forget, the A's did it with a Big Three for while without any significant help from the last two spots until '04 when Harden stepped up. They need one player out a pretty talented three to be that guy.
7) No
8) Yes
9) Clint Hurdle
10) 2nd place, wildcard

Eleven innings is all Pedro is getting this Spring. Hey, at least he is saving some mileage on his arm. Between Matsui's back and Pedro's back, Wilpon better spring for some top notch mattresses. What in the hell is going on here?

"I was up there at the plate [yesterday]," Floyd said, "and it was kind of hard for me to remember [that] I can put weight on this. You know what I mean?"

I think it is fair to say everyone can visibly see this.

"We're going to win," he said. "We're going to expect to win and we're going to win. People say, 'We're going to win, I think.' I'm not saying, 'I think.' "

That's what I like. None of this "we'll give it our best stuff". We are going to win.

Philly.com is doing series of articles on the NL East.

"Then I get to the Mets and I'm looking at the front page. I wasn't used to looking at the front page with the A-ranked free agents," Minaya said. And he laughed again.

Baseball America does a mid-season check on college's top prospects. Ricky Romero was a big mover and jumped to the head of the class for left handed pitchers. Alex Gordon has a disgusting .437/.574/.873 line with 30 runs, 7 homers, 21 RBIs, 11 SBs, and 20 BBs to 10 K's. The D-Backs will have to think long and hard about Justin Upton and Alex Gordon and who they take.

Baseball Prospectus predicts the win/loss records for each team. We all figured the NL East to be tight, and so does BP.

Team       W -  L
Phillies  90 - 72
Braves    82 - 80
Marlins   81 - 81
Mets      81 - 81
Nationals 74 - 88

They have no teams winning 100 and the Red Sox have the most with 99 and take the division from the Yankees. Unfortunately, the Yanks get the Wild Card. Is there any way they miss the playoffs all together? Nope, but I can dream.