Out of the Box

This is a continuation of my piece on Mets Geek from yesterday. Now that Doug is tied for the fourth highest double play total in the National League, including three double plays in a row spanning from his last two at bats on Monday and his first at bat last night, it may be time to give him a rest. I'm not saying bench him, but start working in other players at first while he is struggling. For one, Willie is intent on giving Miguel Cairo more playing time, so why not give him some starts at first? Doug has had a chance to work out of his slump, but right now, the team is floundering and needs as much punch in the lineup as it can get.

In a more radical decision, why not start giving Cliffy some starts at first base? The Mets had the Piazza experiment, which was an unmitigated disaster, and they might as well try the Floyd experiment. Can it really go much worse? I firmly believe it cannot hurt since the Mets really do not have many viable options at first base and though people Brian Daubach as an option, I am skeptical of what he can bring. Yes, he is killing AAA, but so did Raul Gonzalez when he hit .358/.431/.475 in 2003, so I have my reservations. In the off-season, Floyd volunteered to play first, which is a position he came up through the minors with until his early days with the Montreal Expos. Throw him in a couple games and see how it works out and if he proves to be a decent glove over there, think about bringing up Victor Diaz to play left field. Floyd is a good athlete and I have every reason to think he could be pretty good over at first. If Eric Valent and Jason Phillips can play first for first time in 2003 and 2004 respectively and do a good job, maybe Cliff can be adequate. What is the worst that can happen? The Mets lose three in a row?

It is time for Willie and Omar to get a little aggressive with this team and do what needs to be done whether it be in the lineup or the pitching staff. I understand their desire to keep Doug Mientkiewcz's glove in the game, but at this point, he is hitting like a pitcher. His .150 average in May is abysmal even if he is buried in the eighth spot from here on out. His .543 OPS is all too much Joe McEwing and not enough to warrant his name in lineup night after night for his glove. His glove does not matter much if the Met are not scoring runs. Randolph needs to start shaking things up and if Doug starts to come around, let him back in everyday. But right now, first base needs to start being rotated and other players, whomever they are, need to be given a shot. It really can only do good things for this baseball club.

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What did David do to Willie? Did he steal his subway sandwich with double meat off his desk? Marlon Anderson hitting in front of David Wright? C'mon Willie, get your head from your ass. Your insistence in making David Wright prove himself while wasting scoring opportunities is out of hand. Maybe Willie wants a balanced lineup and does not want two or three easy outs at the bottom of the lineup, but he would be the only manager in the league that puts his best hitter in the all important seventh spot. Eventually Wright will be moved up because not even Willie can keep him down there forever, but what is taking him so long?

There really is not much you can say about Phil Spector's hair.

UPDATE: Thanks to SonnyD for pointing out Phil's uncanny likeliness to Gammo.



Even funnier though, when you do a google search for pictures on Peter Gammons, you get some interesting stuff. Check out the third picture down from the left.

Doug Mientkiewicz got locked in a hotel stairwell and had to descend six flights before finding an open door. Then the taxi he took to Turner Field had a tire blow out. "Other than that, my life's turning right around boys," Mientkiewicz said.

From the Star Ledger:

The Mets are 20-47 at Turner Field.

That is ugly, ugly, ugly.

What's a guy gotta do to get top 20 hot prospect status for Baseball America? In the first three games after coming back from his injury, Lastings hit .000/.077/.000 in twelve at bats. Since then, he has hit .429/.484/.589 in fourteen games with two homers and five RBIs.

Brian Daubach made an appearance as an honorable mention since is not actually a prospect.

Minor update:

• I'm not really sure what happened in the Hagerstown/Lexington game, but I do not really care. The scoreboard has the game ending with the home team not batting in the 12th of a tie game. I could probably look to find out who won or why it ended abruptly, but the only thing that matters is Gabby Hernandez's six inning, one hit, four walk, no run, and six strikeout performance. Gabby's ERA is down to 2.76.
  
• St. Lucie lost to the Yankees and Milledge went 1 for 4. Milledge has gotten a hit in thirteen of his last fourteen games.
  
• Norfolk lost to Pawtucket 3-2. Jae Seo continues to pitch ridiculous with a seven inning, four hit, one run, two walk, and eight strike out performance. His ERA is down to 4.14. Steve Coyler tossed a shutout inning in the game.