the metropolitans: Egg On My Face?

I know most of you are very excited about the prospect of throwing in my face how Bannister had a great game yesterday and A Hern is 4 for his last 11. I say Hernandez still has a .174 /.174 /.174 line and that is never good when all three numbers are equal. More importantly, he is at least putting the bat on the ball more. In his first twelve at-bats, he struck out five time to one time in his last eleven. He also is making a charge to 3.00 pitches per plate appearance and has been seeing more pitches of late. All encouraging signs from him, but not enough to stall Kaz Matsui from returning and taking a starting spot when the time comes. He still needs to pick it up and luckily for him, he has a lot more time.

As for Bannister, the Nats had seen him two times in a month heading into last night's game. Though they are not a very good team offensively, they still have some good hitters. Seeing a team three times in the span of a month and half and Bannister being able to come out and toss seven innings of three hit, one run ball is impressive indeed. He only struck out one compared to four in his first start, but he has a 0.69 WHIP and a .116 BAA so far. He is doing what we hoped he could do so far and he gets to take on the hot Milwaukee Brewers this Sunday. Outside of JJ Hardy and Carlos Lee, they are not exactly stinging the ball so Bannister could be poised for another solid start. After that, he throws against San Diego, San Francisco, Washington again, and then Atlanta if everyone stays on course. His first real test against a mighty offensive team will have to wait until May 19th when the Mets travel Yankee Stadium.

I still stand by my original assessment though. When I look at Brian Bannister, he has to prove a lot to me. A guy like Mike Pelfrey or Justin Verlander can come out the gate and look great and we will expect that. Bannister’s stuff is ordinary and he does not have a knack for missing bats. Typically, that is not a great recipe for success, but some people can do it. Maybe Brian is one of those guys, but only time will tell.

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Minor Update:

The Tides are on a roll of sorts and made it two in a row against the Buffalo Bisons. Lima Time!™ led the charge by besting a solid pitching prospect in Jake Dittler. Lima Time!™ went six innings, gave up four hits, one earned run, walked no one, and struck out three. Heath Bell came in for the four out save and struck out three of the batters including a bases loaded strikeout in the eight. He now has six strikeouts, no earned runs, no walks, and no hits in 2.1 innings. A very auspicious start indeed. On the offensive end, Lastings Milledge went 1 for 3 with a double and a walk, Chase Lambin went 2 for 4 with two runs scored a double, and a walk, and Sandy Martinez went 1 for 3 with two RBIs.

The B-Mets won 8-7 to continue to keep pace with the big league club and upped their record to 5-1 by beating the Reading Phillies, who are keeping up with their big league club by going 1-5 to their 1-6. Evan MacLane gave up the first runs from a B-Mets starter and went five innings while giving up six hits, five earned runs, one walk, one homer, and struck out six. Anderson Garcia blew a save in relief and Orlando Roman picked up the win. Carlos Gomez went 1 for 4 with his fourth stolen base on the year, one run scored, one RBI, and a sacrifice. As for the rest, Jay Caligiuri went 3 for 4 with two runs scored, two doubles, one RBI, and one walk, Corey Ragsdale went 2 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI, Yunir Garcia went 1 for 4 with a run scored, a double, and two RBIs, and Jonathan Slack went 1 for 4 with a run scored, a double, a triple, and an RBI.

St. Lucie beat the Daytona Cubs 4-1 to increase their record to 5-1 as well. Mike Pelfrey picked up his first pro win by going six innings giving up four hits, no earned runs, one unearned run, and struck out seven. He is good. Carlos Muniz picked up his third save of the season for his ninth inning work. Ambiorix Concepcion cooled of a bit and pulled an 0 for 4 day at the plate with one run scored. Shawn Bowman went 0 for 2, but picked up two walks, Mike Carp went 1 for 4 with two RBIs, and Jesus Flores went 1 for 4 with a double and an RBI. Up for today? Alay Soler goes for his first win as a professional.

Hagerstown continues to make a push for .500 by taking their second game in a row against the Lakewood Blue Claws 3-2. Jon Neise picked up the win and rebounded nicely from his first start. Niese went five innings giving up no earned runs, two unearned runs, three hits, one walk, and struck out five. He brought his ERA down to 3.24 with that solid effort. Joseph Serfass picked up a two inning save for his first of the year. Fernando Martinez went 1 for 3 with a walk, a run scored, and a double to bring his average up to .280. Hector Pellot and Nick Evans both went 0 for 3 with a strikeout and Jose Castro, Rafael Arroyo, and Matthew Anderson each had an RBI.

Carlos Beltran may not exactly be a fantasy stud right now, but his eye at the plate is ridiculous. He is showing as good of an eye as I have seen from anyone and is stinging the ball when he makes contact whether they are hits or outs. His .238 average is not indicative of how good he looks. Beltran looks downright scary right now.

Delgado wanted no part of Dick.

"I was doing my routine," Delgado said with a smile. "I happened to be somewhere else. Go figure."

As for the fans, they seemed to be on Delgado's side and welcomed him with the Roger Cedeno treatment.

"When you've got 50 percent of America that's Republican, 50 percent that's Democrat, you're probably going to get mixed reviews," Wright said.

San Antonio is 'very viable' according to Jeffrey Loria.

The Marlins must decide if they can generate enough TV revenue in San Antonio, the nation's 37th-largest TV market. Miami-Fort Lauderdale is 17th.

Colin Powell, owner of the Washington Nationals? Maybe. Apparently he is part of an investment group looking to buy the Nationals. As for another group looking to land them headed by Tom Lerner, they are having trouble because of the lack of minority investors. While I am all for minority GMs, managers, owners, etc, shouldn't the best ownership group get to buy the team?

Mets 3B David Wright has at least one RBI in each of the Mets' first six games, a club record to start a season. ... Nationals 2B Jose Vidro went 0-for-4. He had at least one hit in all seven prior games.

Nice. So nice in fact, Dayn Perry is already writing sentences that include David Wright and the Hall of Fame.

Top seasons by third basemen under 23
Player          Year     OPS
Eddie Matthews  1953    1.033
Eddie Matthews  1954    1.026
Albert Pujols   2001    1.013
Dick Allen      1964    .939
David Wright    2005    .911

Since most players peak at around age 27, we're getting only strobe-lit glimpses of what Wright is truly capable of. What you're looking at is this: the early hours of a truly great career. Wright's skills, head for the game, knack for staying healthy and devotion to conditioning may serve to make him one of the greatest third basemen ever to play the game. Lest that sound premature, consider what he's already accomplished and what's likely ahead for David Wright.

Yeah, he's that good.

I'm sure this video is all over Mets sites this morning, but I'm late to the game. In case it has not, watch this hysterical and amazing recreating of the end of game six of the 1986 World Series. It was posted on the Soxaholix and also sent to me by Mike M.

Enough baseball...this is for Jake.