Willie Bending His Own Rules?

Ramon Castro had a beautiful play in the 2nd inning in which he had to run to retrieve a pop fly next to the net behind home plate. Was anyone surprised that Piazza did not start? I certainly did not expect him too.

I know Willie does not favor personal catchers, but right now, I have to assume Pedro and Castro have a little spark working together. Not that Pedro has not dominated with Mike as the catcher because he's mowed down everyone, but with Mike's lack of production and his needing more days off in his advanced age, why not? Since Willie has said he does not like personal catchers and will most likely not bend that rule, I have a suggestion. Let Pedro have a personal catcher in big games and against big name pitchers. He will presumably get some days against lesser talent and there will be days where Piazza makes plenty of sense to be the starting catcher, but Castro gets the nod in big games.

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Part of the reason I think this Mets team can be so good is the lineup that they can throw at you and the versatility is has. You lead off with three switch hitters, followed up by Mike Piazza. Then, the next two of three batters are lefties, but both lefties can hit lefties rather well and in Doug's case, just as well as he hits righties. Willie has the luxury of not having to write the lineup by the book and when everyone is firing on all cylinders, he can mail the lineup in for the rest of the year.

Cliffy    Vs LEFTIES   
      AB  HR  RBI  AVG  OBP
2002 154  10   24 .247 .304
2003 122   7   19 .262 .340
2004 113   1   14 .239 .296
2005  15   2    6 .400 .438 (through Wednesday's game) 
     389  18   57 .249 .313

Mienky     Vs LEFTIES           Vs RIGHTIES    
       AB  AVG  OBP  SLG    AB  AVG  OBP  SLG
2002  152 .257 .361 .408   315 .263 .366 .384
2003  168 .280 .363 .482   319 .310 .408 .433
2004  123 .220 .304 .325   268 .246 .336 .362
2005   15 .333 .389 .600    36 .250 .325 .361 (through Wed)
      443 .255 .346 .413   901 .275 .373 .395

Besides getting a rest day, the Mets starting lineup is basically immune to match ups. Of course some lefties or righties are absolutely devastating vs. a batter from one side of the plate, but those are few and far between and the true dominators dominate either side of the plate.

Roger Clemens take note. When Pedro retrieved Delgado's bat early in game as it made it's way halfway down the first base line, he handed it to him and did not hurl the projectile towards him thinking baseball had somehow melded with dodge ball to become a game dodge bat.

As Gary Cohen pointed out, the Mets have given up a first inning run in 12 of 15 games.

Jose Reyes went seven pitches in his first at-bat. The entire stadium was collectively on the edge of their seats awaiting the youngsters first walk of the season. Sadly enough, it did not happen.

The commentators when Alfonseca come out of the game with an injury:

Healy: I'm not a doctor, but I he could lose a couple pounds.
Robinson: I was just going to say that...salad bar..

If you are not reading Simply Amazins, your are a shit head. If you are one of those shit heads, you would have missed some classic making fun of Jeter, which is my favorite pastime.

Does it get better than this?

Note to Mets: Harper does not belong in St. Lucie.

The B-Mets are trying a bit to hard to be like the big club.

Say it ain't Seo. Sorry, I had to. Ishii's start is in doubt and I hope Jae Seo and his ERA north of 8.00 at AAA does not end up at Shea. Who should start? I have no idea, but it shouldn't be him.

Jon Heyman has a great read about Pedro Martinez.

From Newsday:

Marlins ace Josh Beckett said he "wasn't pleased" that Victor Diaz was slow getting out of the box Wednesday on what Diaz thought was a home run, which surprised the Mets outfielder. "If he was my teammate," Diaz said, "he'd see that I don't have the speed out of the box like Jose Reyes or Juan Pierre."

Diaz, who wound up with a triple, did go into his trot a little early, but Randolph was willing to give him a "mulligan" even if Beckett did not.

"Maybe he's just -- because he hit it so hard," Randolph said.

Victor Diaz getting some love is a daily occurrence and today is no different.

After Diaz's two-homer night Tuesday against the Phillies, Mike Piazza turned to pitching coach Rick Peterson in the dugout and said, "He's got to be one of the best No. 8 hitters in the league right now."

To which Peterson responded, "Mike, I don't think they're ranked."

But this is strange:

Unless the Mets can trade Cameron, which is unlikely at this stage, they see Diaz as a 2006 solution once Floyd's contract expires at the end of this season. That's why the front office wants him to get more at-bats at Norfolk rather than bench time in the big leagues.

Floyd's contract runs through 2006.

Poor, poor Nomar. Two consecutive batting titles to this. Anyone think he wishes he took that four year, $60 million offer from the Red Sox?

Pedro has a .112 BAA and a 0.52 WHIP. Nice.