Baseball Tonight started again yesterday at 4:30 in the afternoon. A personal favorite of mine, Tim Kurkjian, was on dishing out his analysis next to Kruk (the former Philly and thus Philly lover) and no Steve Phillips (which is fine by me). Anyway, they counted down the top 10 web gems for the Spring. (If you are a baseball fan who lives under a rock, web gems are basically the best defensive plays of the day, in this case it was Spring Training until this point).
Coming at #3 was the amazing diving catch by Jose Reyes in Santana's last start.
The number 1 play of the Spring was made by the future, the teenage hitting machine, #67, Fernando Martinez. I missed the date of the catch but it was basically a diving catch in the OF, but it wasn't a dive forward, he dove running backwards towards a wall in foul territory.
Also, this morning, Tim Kurkjian was on good call/ bad call on Sportscenter where 56% of fans said that the Mets were the team to beat in the NL. Tim confirmed it saying that it was a good call. He said you could make that argument for 9 other teams in the NL because they are all packed together. He talked about how Santana takes stress off the rest of the Mets pitching staff.

Have you ever been to a promotional giveaway or tribute day  in a Minor League game? If you have, you probably remeber it because those are some of the most memorable baseball games that a fan can attend. Well the promotions that are about to be mentioned here are not only memorable, they are from major league teams.
Before we dive into the specific promotions, there was a ticket deal offered by the Kansas City Royals that I had to share. This season if you buy two 81-game season ticket packs in the upper deck, you get an additional two seats for the entire season for free. So 4 seats for the season for the price of 2. Thats a team that has attendance issues.
Not leaving Kansas is our first memorable promotion that will take place on April 12 when Minnesota comes to down. That night, the Royals will be bringing back their powder blue jerseys (I still don't know why). To celebrate the return of powder blue, the first 20,000 fans will be receiving Billy Butler Replica Jerseys, that look pretty nice.
On that same day, in Seattle, the Mariners will be celebrating JJ Putz's facial hair. The first 20,000 fans will be receiving a patch to stick on their chin. You might remeber a similar promotion in the 2006 NLCS when the Cards gave their fans the Spezio look. The difference here is that the JJ Putz soul patch as they call it, will be on a picture of his face, which really sends this promotion over the top.
In Detroit on April 15th, the Tigers will be celebrating Justin Verlander's no-hitter by giving out 10,000 copies of his no-hitter performance on DVD. This really impressed me because usually DVD sales are a way for a team to make more money, and they sharing a great moment in Tiger history with the fans, which is really good for baseball.
On the 26th, Tampa Bay will be giving out Cow Bells to the first 10,000 fans wearing Rays gear, meaning they will have bells left over. Anyway, if you have watched a game at TB on TV, you know that sound travels very well in that dome and the prospect of 10,000 cowbells is scary, that could literally bring down the house. The game will be against Boston.
Finally, on April 27th, the Brewers have selected Corey Hart and Richie Weeks to fight chewing tobacco. The two will be featured in a comic book that will be given out to children 16 and under as they and the "rest of the B-squad" (quote from their website) fight the tobacco monster.
When baseball and creativity get together, the result is wonderful.

Out of the four games featured here, only game 18, Saturday's game, was the only blemish. The earned runs on the pitchers do not tell the whole story as the Mets made three key errors, (Delgado, Castillo, A Hern) that lead to unearned runs as well as earned runs. That being said here are some highlights from the box from this game:
Casanova 1-2, R, RBI, HR
Delgado 1-3, R, RBI, HR
Pagan, 1-3, R, SB
Clark 0-1
Santana 5.0, 5H, 4R, 3ER, BB, 5K, 4.50 ERA
Wagner 1.0, BB, 2K
Heilman 1.0, H, K
The rest of the box can be found here. There were some bright spots in this game as well. First off, some power out of Delgado was nice to see. As a team, the Mets also had 12 K's recorded by their pitchers this game. Smith added in two of his own, although he struggled in his inning giving up 2 runs. The amount of strikeouts the Mets had though is fantastic and when you look at their staff, its exciting to see that the Mets have a rotation and a bullpen that strikeout their opponents. The easiest way to prevent another team from scoring is not letting them hit the ball into play.

Game 19 was the B-squad away game for the Mets in their Sunday Split Squad bill. There's not much to talk about from this game so here are some box highlights, the rest of the box can be found here.
A Reyes 1-4, R, RBI, 3B, .481 BA
F Mart 1-3, 2 RBI, .310 BA
Pagan 0-4
Mendez 2-4, 2R, 2RBI, SB
Sosa 3.0 IP, H, 4K, .75 ERA
Those were Mendez's first AB's of the Spring, he was batting all the way down the order, and he delivered. With the Spring winding down, I doubt he will get more AB's, but its always nice to get a glimpse of someone else in the Mets organization. I feel like a broken record when I say this, but Sosa is really impressive. He just knocked in another 3 innings, allowed a hit, had four strikeouts and lowered his ERA to below 1. He is a reliable fall back plan for El Duque and Pelfry.

In the second game, the home game on Sunday, it was the long awaited debut of Pedro, and it was worth the wait. The boxscore can be found here.
Reyes 1-3, R, RBI, 3B
Delgado, 1-2, RBI, 2B
Anderson, 3-4, R
Pedro 4.0 IP, 4H, BB, 4K
Wise, 1.0, 2K
Schoenewies 1.0, H, 2K
Stokes 1.0, 6H, 4ER, BB, K
First off, another great day in the strikeout market for the Mets, with 9 K's as a team. Four key strikeouts came from Pedro, who used his whole arsenal of pitches. He looked good, and helped to show the world that the Mets rotation is more than one pitcher. I've been reading a lot of 2008 preview magazines, who rank the Mets 3rd if printed before the Santana trade, due to lack of depth of reliable starting pitchers. If they were published afterwards, it talks about how the Mets health overall is a question and how they just do not have the tools. An effective Pedro gives the Mets best one-two punch in the National League at the top of the rotation.
Wise and (I cannot believe I am about to say this) and Schoenewies, if they keep playing the way they have been playing, really help this bullpen that ran out of gas at the end of last year. Stokes got shelled in this game. He couldn't get outs.
In terms of offense yesterday, Marlon Anderson came back strong.

Yesterday had the best game out of the four here for offense notes.
Reyes 2-3, R, 2SB
Chavez 1-2, RBI, SB
Wright, 2-3, R, 2RBI, SB
FMart 2-4, 2R, .326 BA
Perez 5.0, 2H, R, 0ER, 0BB, 5K, ERA 4.61
From those lines listed, it might not look like the best offensive day, but Reyes and Wright haven't had many days this Spring when they are both dialed in, especially at the same time. Reyes stole 2 bases like we all expect of him, and the Mets were the normal Mets by stealing a total of four bases. FMart continued his current tear with two additional hits. The good Perez showed up today, and hopefully he will show up next time out.

If we had this conversation before March 10th, statically speaking, Pagan looked like a much better player to fill in for Alou. However, over the past week, from the 10th to today, our conversation would be very different. Over the past week, against all teams, starters have been getting more playing time, and this is when roster moves are finalized. A player can hit up minor leaguers all he wants, but what he does against the major league caliber is what can make or break that player.
Throughout spring, Pagan's BA has been .351 and OBP has been .373. His BA is amazing. Clark on the other hand, thanks to his past week, is riding a hot streak that has raised his BA to .302 and his OBP to .412.
Specifically over the past week:
Clark 7-16, 3BB, .438 BA, .526 OBP
Pagan 5-22, .227 BA, .227 OBP
Pagan has hit a slump, and Clark has hit a hot streak. That spot on the bench has never been Pagan's or Clark's but this past week brings both of them up on an even playing field. Personally, what I think will happen is close to the start of the season, when Alou's condition is better known, he will be placed on the DL for the right amount of time and both Clark and Pagan will make the roster. Then it becomes a continued competition for who stays and who goes when Alou gets back.
On top of all of this, do not count Endy out for the platoon out if he is healthy enough by the start of the season.

Last week there was a list of roster moves on the Mets website that "narrowed" the field for the final spots in the bullpen and the bench. Basically, it showed that our future pitchers are not being considered for the pen for the start of the season, which is fine because they need more time and we have enough people now that are ready for the pen.
The players that got optioned to AAA are:
    Adam Bostick
    Willie Collazo
    Carlos Muniz

The players that got optioned to Minor League Camp to Re-Assigned:
    Robert Parnell
    Eddie Kunz
    Juan Padilla
    Andy Cavarzes
    Brant Rustich
    Ivan Maldonado
    Jon Niese
    Ryan Cullen
    Saloman Manniquez
    Anderson Machado
    Ben Johnson
    Michel Abreu

Jon Niese was one of the pitchers on that list that was really impressed with. Since the recent trades, he has continued to jump higher on the prospect list and his Spring Stats make a good argument for him. Over 2 games, 4.0 IP, 3H, ER, BB, and 5K. A while ago, I wrote about his previous stats here.
I was also a big fan of Abreu at the start of Spring Training. He got off to a good start, first with the Michigan game, which is not reflected in his stats, when he blasted a two run shot to tie the game in the ninth inning. The next day he had a hit, but then after that he really slowed down. His stats for the spring were 14 AB, 3R, 2H, 2BB, .143 BA. He also got injured and lost about 5-7 days of AB. He could have been an interesting story this Spring, but it wasn't to be.

The Mets had the baseball jumping off the bats again yesterday, but the real story yesterday, and what seems to be the big story for every game in the past week has been the pitching. Maine was an ace yesterday. He went 5 innings allowing 3 hits, a walk and striking out 6. He dropped his ERA down to 2.63. His total spring stats now are:
13.2 IP, 11 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 14 K
He leads the Mets pitching staff in innings pitched and strikeouts. He is striking out 4.67 batters for every batter he walks. Last season, he walked 75 and struck out 180, which is the same as striking out 2.4 batters for every walk given up. If this is a reflection of what we will get this year, that will be amazing. As I am sure all of you out there remeber, Maine was having a statistically amazing first half of the year that started to break down right before the All Star break, and then continued to break down as the season went on. If he has a great start to the season, that would be nice, but it would be great if he can pull it through all the way till the end of the season.

Other Notable pitching performances yesterday:
Schoeneweis 1.0, H, 2K
Register 1.0, K
Batting Notes from Yesterday:
A. Reyes, 3-5, RBI, (.545BA this Spring)
Beltran 2-3, 2R, 2B
Delgado 1-4, R
Clark 1-3, R, RBI, 2BB

Sorry about the lack of updates, I have been bogged down over the past few days. Anyway, here are some notes from the last three games, which included our B Squad one run loss to Boston Starters, a win against Baltimore, and the third loss of the spring to the Cardinals.
There really isn't much to talk about with Tuesday's game. Chavez continued to come back taking 4 AB, but had 0 hits. Pagan went 1-3 showing off his speed with a triple. Easley knocked a hit in and Church had an 0-2 day.

Wednesday was a key due to some of the excellent performances from the pitching staff:
Perez 4.0 IP, 3H, ER, K, Game ERA 2.25
Wagner 1.0, H, K
Heilman 1.0, 2K
Smith 1.0, K
The offense wasn't bad either. Reyes, although he only had one hit, and reached on an error played with a lot of energy.
Reyes 1-3, R, 3B, SB
Pagan 1-2, R, 2RBI, HR
Pagan also had an excellent game knocking in a homer to take the lead for the Mets. The swing looked awesome, Pagan is very dialed in right now.
On the comedy side, the Mets played a four inning prank on Castillo which started with gum on his cap, then two more pieces of gum, and ended with a plastic cup on top of the gum.

Thursday was another grade day of pitching for the Mets despite the loss. The pitchers that will be on the Major League Roster did a great job:
Pelfrey 4.2 IP, 6H, ER, 2BB, K, 1.93 Game ERA
Wise 1.1, 3H, ER, K, 1.23
Feliciano, 1.0, 2H, 0.00
Sosa, 2.0 2H, ER, BB, 2K, 1.00
For Sosa and Wise, it was their first runs of the Spring that they let up, but as you can tell by their Spring ERA's they both deserve to be in the pen. On another note, Schowenweis, who if you read here often, you know I am hyper critical of, has been doing well this Spring as well. So the competition for the pen is alive, well, and fierce. On another note, it felt great, I mean GREAT, to light up Looper for 4 runs which was done with this offense (I have a dart board made of paper that has different Mets officials and players that I really do not like on it, and Looper is the third ring out):
Chavez 2-3, R, 2RBI, 2B
Reyes 2-3, 2R
Beltran 1-2, RBI
FMart 2-2, 2B
Pelfrey 1-2, R

Brady Clark has been around in Baseball for a while. In fact this is his second time with the Mets. In 1996 he was signed by the Reds and stayed there until he was traded to the Mets in 2002. When he was signed, he was only 24 years old. He was one of four players that were sent to the Mets for Shawn Estes. Another notable player in that group is Pedro Feliciano. Here is his stat line with the Mets in 2002:
10 G, 12 AB, 3R, 5H, RBI, .417 BA
Before 2003, he was claimed off waivers by the Brewers. In 2003 he played 9 games in the minors and the rest were with the big league club. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, he was with the Brewers full time, playing in 138 games or more each of those seasons.
Last season he played in the majors with the Dodgers and the Padres:
Dodgers: 47 G, 58 AB, 7 R, 13 H, 5 RBI, .224 BA
Padres: 21 G, 49 AB, 6 R, 15 H, 6 RBI, .306 BA
In total his MLB stats are:
778 G, 2007 AB, 264 R, 557 H, 36 HR, .278 BA, .387 SLG
Spring Training 2008:
30 AB, 2 R, 8 H, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 SB, .267 BA, .300 SLG

It is safe to say that he has spent most of his career as a spot starter, a pinch hitter, late inning player, and not a full time starter. The advantage that he has over Pagan is that he is older, he will be 35, and is more experienced in this role. The maid disadvantage is that Pagan is really hitting better right now, and he could be the youth spark the Mets need right in the OF thats aging from left to center. Also young guys have the potential of turning into something great. Clark is someone to keep around though, you never know when he could end up on the bench because of injuries and he can still produce. He will also be helpful when rosters expand in allowing the starters to rest games, or not play full games.
(all information from thebaseballcube.com)

We are getting to that point in Spring Training where the bench and the bullpen will start to take shape. By looking at who goes out and when now, we can try to piece together who of the 50 at camp will be going with the team on March 31st. Game 12 (win over the Astros) and 13 (tie with Boston) were good examples of starting to our starters and regulars in more action.
The pitching in the 3-0 shutout of the Astros as you can guess was very good:
Maine 4.0 IP, BB, 3K, Dropped his ERA to 4.15 but more importantly, and more amazing, he did not give up any hits. He was then followed by Wagner who allowed a hit and that was all in his inning of work striking out two. Heilman followed him up with 2 innings of scoreless relief giving up a hit and striking one out.
The Offense wasn't too bad either:
Reyes 1-3, R, RBI, HR
Pagan 1-3. R, BB, 2B
Wright 1-2, BB, 3B
The key here is the consistency of Angel Pagan who is starting to prove to the Mets that he can fill in for Alou at the start of the season.

In yesterday's game, pitching was the star over hitting once again.
Santana 4.0, 2H, 4K, 4.00
Wise 2.0, 2H,
Feliciano 1.0, 0H
And some offense notes:
Pagan 1-3, R, 2B
Clark 2-3
Easley, Delgado, Beltran, Schnieder: 0 Hits
Besides the obvious of Santana having a great game for the Mets, and what we expect out of Santana. It is important to look at Wise here. Wise is trying to get in the pen. And his constant being in games in the Spring is showing that he is in the running for a pen spot.He has appeared in five games so far for  six innings and he still has a 0.00 ERA. It will be tough to get a spot in the Mets Pen, but Wise is showing that he is worth it.
So between these two days, we have seen two Mets starters excel, 3 pen regulars excel (Heilman, Wagner, Feliciano), and hopefully, a new addition to our bullpen excel.

Mike Pelfrey has been an interesting story for the Mets. He was touted as the Mets new ace of the future for a while, and then as a starter of the future. He has struggled and at the same time, showed signs of great things to come. Lets look at where he has come so far since 2006:
Spring Training Stats:
2006- 1.29 ERA, 2 G, 7.0 IP, ER, HR, BB, 6K
2007- 5.48 ERA, 6 G, 23. IP, 14 ER, 3BB, 5K
2008- 7.56 ERA, 3 G, 8.1 IP, 7 ER, 4BB, 4K
MLB Season Stats:
2006: 2-1, 5.48, 4G, 21.1 IP, 13 ER, 12BB, 13K
2007: 3-8, 5.57, 15G, 72.2 IP, 45 ER, 39BB, 45 K

First off, lets breakdown his stats for Spring Training 2008. He wen 5.0 IP without any BB and without any ER (Technically, 7.0 scoreless innings in a row). Over 1.1 Innings, he let in 7 runs. He hit a rough spot and started to struggle. This has been the main critique that I have had of Pelfrey over the past few years is that he gets through the order fine the first time around, then struggles when trying to get through it again. Still, his Spring, without these 1.1 innings has been very good when compared to his 2007 Spring and his 06 and 07 MLB season.
Even though his ERA's in all categories have been rising through the years, I feel that this year in the MLB, his ERA will dive below what they have been. There was an article on mets.com today about how Pelfrey is trying new perceptive tactics this season to allow him to pitch more efficiently, its an interesting article, go check it out. It really talks about the need for him to do this because he was tipping pitches, that is more than enough reason to explain his inflated statistics.
(all stats from thebaseballcube.com and mets.com)

Since the road game with Baltimore ended before the home game with Florida, it is safe to say that the Mets had a 7 game winning streak, mostly by their B team, which was then broken by A team with a 12-4 loss to the Marlins. (The B-squad beat the Orioles 4-1). That being said, the Spring Record, which does mean nothing but is fun to look at, is now at 7-4, after starting 0-3.

Lets start with the road game:
There has been a lot of articles and news about trading Sosa, I have never been for this because lets say El Duque cannot pitch for one reason or another, and Pelfrey starts to really struggle again, Sosa makes a great substituted into the rotation, and he is good in the pen as well, that being said here are some stat lines for today.
Niese 2.0, 3H, ER, 2K, 2.25 ERA
Sosa 3.0, 3H, BB, K, 0.00 ERA
FMart 2-3, R, .333 BA
Lucas (3B) 2-4, R, .429 BA
Anderson, 0-2, BB, 2K

And now the Home game:
Reyes 0-4
Clark 0-5
Church 2-2
Chavez 1-3, R
Easley 1-4, R, 2RBI, HR
Schnieder, 1-2, R, RBI, HR
A Reyes, 2-4, R, RBI, HR
Pelfrey 3.1, 7H, 7 ER, 4 BB, 3K, HR
Schoenewies 1.2, 2H, 3K, 1.80 ERA
Sanchez, 1.0, BB, K
Stokes, 1.0, H, K
Register .2, 5H, 3ER, K, HR, 5.79 ERA

So there are some statistical highlights from the two games yesterday and there is a lot to point out. The first is that Pelfrey had a scoreless 2.0 innings to start the game, and then allowed 4 runs in the third inning, came back in the fourth, and allowed 3 runs then. Register also self-destructed yesterday. Register's destruction is more damaging to his hopes for making the major league club because there has been a lot of good pitching for people trying to make the pen, and this one bad day for him drops him way down the list, because he was an outsider looking into the MLB before spring training started.
There was a large amount of Mets making comebacks from injury yesterday as well. Marlon Anderson struggled in his first day back while Church had a good day at the plate with 2 singles in 2 AB, Chavez came back strong going 1-3, Easley had one hit in 4 AB, but it was a homer and Schnider had a good game too with his homer.
In fact, before Friday, Gotay was the only Met to hit a homerun this Spring. Then there were 2 on Friday, and three on Saturday. (And as I was writing this, Jose Reyes hit one today), so welcome back power.
We are heading towards the end as starters go longer, and that door into the bullpen is closing.

Yesterday was the first day that I was able to see a Mets game live, and it was basically watching the New York Mets in five years from now. First off, before we get to some stats, how bout that field? I have never seen a baseball get stuck in the ground from just landing on it, and it happened twice. That shows the difference between Spring Training Fields and Major League fields, which have efficient draining systems.
Some stat lines from the game:
Pagan 2-4, R, RBI (6), .438 BA
A Hern 0-4
Saenz 2-4, 2R, 2RBI, HR
FMart 1-4, R, SB, .292
Cancel 1-3, 2R, 2RBI, 2BB, HR
Figueroa, 3.1, 3H, BB, 2K
Wise 1.0, 2H, 2K
The reason I highlighted the title of this entry with Cancel is because he was playing first base. I really know more as a catcher, which can been seen on one the entry about catchers in the Mets system that can be found here. I am assuming that he has played 1B before, and that he was playing it yesterday to get some practice at the 1B bag as injuries have destroyed the lineup of 1B's in our system.

Hampton left today's game early due to a minor right-groin strain. This is the same leg with the hamstring injury. According to mlb.com, he got the first batter out in the second and then Cox and a trainer came out of the dugout to pull Hampton out of the game. After the game, the Braves released a statement saying that it was precautionary and listed Hampton as day-to-day.
Every Brave fan across the nation start to hold their breath...

For the Twins, Liriano made his first start since Tommy John surgery today. He went 1.2 innings, 2H, BB and a K. No runs, so a good day for his progress back to the mound. As we are on the topic of the Twins, lets see how some old friends did today:
Gomez 2-5, 2R, RBI
Mulvey 2.0, 2K
Humber 2.0, H, 3K

Finally, I was watching today's game on ESPN, and last year, I cannot locate the specific entry, I wrote about why watching Nationally broad-casted games annoy me because every time they say the same thing about the Mets. For the past several seasons it has been Franco is the oldest player in the game (they even made a big deal about this AFTER the Mets got rid of Franco), they talk about Reyes being the most exciting player in the game, and they talk about Wright being a nice guy. This might not sound like a big deal, but generally I only get to see Mets games when they are national games, or away games with the Nats and Braves, so I hear the same things about them all the time.
The reason I bring this up again is it just occurred to me today, that no matter what lead or nonlead the Mets have this season in the NL East, the announcers on these channels will want to remind the audience about the collapse.
Looks like during night time, nationally broadcasted games, I will be muting the TV, and hoping for the WFAN 660 signal to trickle down consistently to Maryland. (I am going to try to get MLBtv this year to see Mets games with SNY to avoid this problem all together)

One of the players making a good argument for the bench, especially with all of the injuries, is Angel Pagan. In the 2008 season, he will be 26 years old and will be an important player for the Mets who need depth.
Here are some of his old stats:
Spring Training:
2004: 3 Games, no AB
2005: 5G, 0-5
2006: 24 G, 42 AB, 13 R, 16 H, 10 RBI, .381
2007: 15 G, 27AB, 5 R, 6 H, 0 RBI, .222
MLB Regular Season: 148 G, 318 AB, 49 R, 81 H, 39 RBI, .255

And in this Spring Training:
8 G, 28AB, 3 R, 12 H, 5 RBI, .429
I also wrote about Pagan once before, and that can be found here.

If he continues in April, what he has done in March, then he will be a fine player for the Mets off the bench. I am worried though that we are walking into a David Newhan situation, who had amazing Springs for the Mets, and performed very poorly off of the bench for the Mets in pinch hit situations.
Update:
I just saw his double on ESPN, and it was a really nice swing that he deposited into Left Field. That swing was destined to send that ball into double territory.

First off, over the last 8 official Spring Training games, only Gotay had a homerun. Thats alright though because even though its only Spring Training, winning 5 straight games feels good no matter what.
In yesterday's game (Game 7):
Pagan was an offensive star hitting 3-5, 2 RBI, bringing his total for the season to 5 RBI, .423 BA.
F-Mart went 0-5. A Hern, Tejada and Clark all notched in stolen bases during the game.
Pitching wise, Maine did well allowing 4 Hits over 3.0 IP, with 3 K and ER. Of course the only mistake he made was a homerun, and I phrased it that way is it always seems that his mistake is the long ball. Felciano had a good inning too, besides his 2H and BB, he did strike out two. Sosa did not allow any runs over 2.0 IP despite allowing 3H and 2BB. Stokes and Wise had good days too, you can see their lines here.

In today's game, Fmart rebounded from his 0-5'er yesterday and smacked in two hits, including a double, over thre AB, scored a run and walked. He is now hitting .300 for the spring. Reyes caught the 0-4 bug today, he is hitting .278 this spring. AHern had a great day today as well going 3-5, R, RBI and is batting .296. Pagan had a hit as well.
Santana had game today that matched his ERA last year, 3.33. You have to like this outing as Santana is starting to settle down with the Mets. The rest of the Mets pen had great games as well, that box can be seen here.

The pitching has been keeping up very well with all of the injuries to the offense. We need some bright spots now with all of the dark spots. Pagan has to be looking really good now to due to all three of the starting OF being sidelined with an array of injuries. Lets just keep slugging, pitching, and healing.

Yesterday marked the third win in a row for the Mets and the third win in a row for the Mets where they took the lead in the ninth inning or later (yesterday they won in the bottom of the tenth). This brings their Spring Training record to .500, or 3-3. The biggest story of the day was Mike Pelfrey, who has becoming increasingly more important as El Duque keeps getting hurt. Pelfrey pitched three solid innings, the first pitcher on the Mets staff to throw three innings this Spring and allowed 2 H, keeping his ERA to 0.00.
Wagner allowed his first run of Spring, and besides that the rest of the box score looks good.

In terms of hitting, here are some notes from the box:
Abreu: 0-3, BB, Winning R (.143 BA)
Cancel and Tejada both had 2B
Castro had a 3B
Reyes 1-3, RBI, (.364 BA)
Wright 0-2, BB, (.176 BA)
Pagan 1-4, R, (.381 BA)
Pagan  continues to impress this spring by racking up the hits and nice work for the Catchers Castro and Cancel who both had extra base hits yesterday.


Lets also check in the Mets that were traded to the Twins in the Santana Trade:
Gomez 8 AB, 3R, 2H, 2RBI, 3BB, 2SB
Humber 2.0 IP, 2 H
Mulvey 2.0 IP, 5 H, ER
Guerro 1.0 IP, 2 H
Good luck guys, seems like you are fitting in fine

Murphy has been playing some third base for the Mets this Spring, and he was at Spring Training last year, so he's up for this edition of Get to Know a prospect. Murphy was drafted in the 13th round of the 2006 draft (394 overall) out of Jacksonville University where he put up some very impressive numbers in terms of BA over his three seasons there:
2004: .377 BA
2005: .329 BA
2006: .398 BA
Since then he has played in two seasons from the Minors from levels ranging from Rookie to High A.
2 Seasons in the Minors:
160 G, 582 AB, 74 R, 160 H, 35 2B, 13 HR, 88 RBI, 6 SB, .275 BA
Here are his Spring Training Stats over the last two years:
2007: 5 G, 6 AB, H, .167 BA
2008: 3 G, 3 AB, H, 2B, BB, .333 BA
So, already he has passed TB from his previous year of Spring Training. He is not in contention for a bench spot, but one has to assume that the 3B, who will be 23 by the end of this season should be fighting for a spot on a AA roster and if he keeps this up, there is no reason for him not be there. Lets see how the rest of his spring goes and how it will affect his assignment for the 2008 baseball season.
(stats from thebaseballcube.com and mlb.com)

Joe Smith was a huge surprise coming out of Spring Training 2007. At the start of last year, he had only one partial year in the minors. He really impressed in camp and made the team. He started out really good in the majors but slowly broke down over the season and had to go back to the minors for some time to regain his footing. This year ha has not been as dominant in Spring Training as last year, but his imposing and abnormal throwing style is what the Mets need in their bullpen to give it diversity and depth. So here is a look at some statistics of Joe Smith from Spring Training 2007 to Spring Training 2008.
ST 2007: 1.26 ERA, 12 G, 14.1 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, HR, 3 BB, 17 K
2007 ERA's Each Month:
Thru April: 0.00
Thru May: 1.52
Thru June: 2.90
Thru July: 3.03
July 27th - Sept 15th - Minors
Sept 16 to end of Season: 3.45
ERA season high: 3.56
ST 2008: 13.50 ERA, 2 G, 2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, K
(stats from thebaseballcube.com and baseballreference.com)

Basically this shows a few things. One, as a 23 year old last season, he got tired, which is expected and would have been really surprising if that didn't happen, as to this Spring, already given up more earned runs than last Spring, all I can say is that hitters have seen him before and are familiar. This won't be a trend though and he will have better outings. I feel that he has a spot in that bullpen, and he just has to buckle down to keep it. It is his spot to lose.

Update:
The Mets just won their third straight game and for the third time, they won in the ninth inning or later, this case in extra innings thanks to Tejada and Abreu (Tejada with the walk off RBI, Abreu with his second run that was the winning run), even though his BA has not been up to par, he has been in the clutch, which is a pretty good talent for the bench.

Our starting pitchers have had their share of ups and downs so far this Spring, but how about our NL East rivals, the Braves (3-1), and the Phillies (2-2).
On the Braves side, three of their big guys have starts under their belts being Glavine, Hampton, and Hudson. Glavine in his first outing pitched 2 innings where he let up one hit, which was a homer, and had 2 K's (4.50 ERA)
Hampton out of the three had the best first outing where he went 2 innings allowing a H and striking out one.
Hudson struggled, but still made it out. 2.0 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, K, (4.50 ERA)

On the Phillies side, two of their three starters went out for 3 innings. Which is surprising for this early in the Spring, and because its the Phillies, its a little scary.
Moyer had the best start going 3 innings, allowing a hit and striking out three.
Kenderik also went 3.0, had 3 hits, ER, HR, K
Hamels struggled, 2.0 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 HR, 2 BB, 2K.
This makes me feel better about Santana's first start. But I have to keep telling myself that not only is it Spring Training, but it is also the first week of Spring Training games, so none of these stats really mean anything yet, and they won't until they get more innings pitched.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of ups and downs, good pitching and bad pitching, and even some offensive notes for the first time this Spring, so lets catch up with the 2-3 Mets.

On Friday, all eyes were on Santana who had a rough first inning but settled down for the second inning where he allowed one hit and that was it. After that , Heilman and Wagner each through perfect innings.
At this point, one has to start wondering if the 2008 Mets will be the same as the 2006 Mets in terms of Heilman in the 7th, Sanchez in the 8th and Wagner in the 9th. My thoughts right now is that will not be the case as Heilman continues his success and Sanchez is recovering. I feel that for at least the start of the season Sanchez will be the 7th inning guy and then later in the season, Sanchez and Heilman will switch off being the set-up man.
Sanchez's line: 1.0 H, ER, BB, K, HR (When you look at a box score, it just has ones across it, which looks pretty cool)
Kunz: 1.0, 2H, ER, K
Gotay also had a Homerun in thsi game and Wright, Reyes, and Alou each had RBI's

Saturday was the first win for the Mets and it was over the Dodgers as the Mets won in the ninth inning by the score of 1-0.
That being said, you know the pitching had to be good.
First to talk about the stars of the game with the bats, Abreu went 1-2 (.250 BA this Spring), and scored the winning run and Clark had the walk-off RBI. Pagan had an SB in the game.
Now for the pitching:
Niese: 2.0, BB, 3 K
Sosa: 1.0, K
Feliciano: 1.0, 2H, K
Collazo: 1.0, BB
Stokes/Wise: 1.0 K
It was great to see a great game from Neise who's name is being tossed around a lot as being an up and coming prospect. He was one of the Get to Know A Prospect for this site in the offseason. With everyone doing well in this game, all of these people still have a spot in the ring to get in that bullpen.

Sunday's Game was importaint because it involved players battling for bench spots and pitchers going for those pen spots. First off, it marked the second day in a row that the Mets beat the Dodgers in ninth inning. This time the damage was mostly done by Pagan who when 3-5, 3 RBI's, SB. He is really doing well in contention for that spot on the bench.
Gotay and A Hern each went 2-5 as well
Castro had an RBI
Perez struggled in this game, going 2.0, 3 ER, 5 H, BB
Heilman followed him with 1.0, H, K
Schoeneweis then showed he can allow runs this spring by going 1.0, 3 H, ER, K
Smith did the dame, 1.0 2 H, ER
Lugo: 1.0, H, BB, 3K
Register: 1.0, K
This game just shows that the people who were in the pen and on the bubble last year, like Scott and Joe, have to start watching their performances at Spring as the contenders are bringing their A-game. Lets build a great bullpen.

Later in the week I will do a look at the Pen battle and a look a the bench battle. Lets beat the Braves today.