Wilson Valdez is back with the Mets. He has a career .215 BA. He doesn't take many walks (.258 OBP) or hit for power (.285 slugging). He steals, on average, a base per year, His glove may be the weakest part of his game. He just may be the worst player currently in the big leagues. Let's put a positive spin on this, though. He's the 750th best player in the majors. To emphasize this, I suggest that he wear 750 as his uniform number.

While the Mets were flushing their season down the toilet against Philadelphia (again), the Binghamton Mets were playing an exciting game that they would eventually lose in 11 innings after coming back from an 8-2 deficit with three runs in the 8th and 9th. I took some picturs that you can see here: Binghamton Mets photos - 7/4/08 The first pitch was thrown out by Captain America. The game was sold out, with fireworks following the game. Enjoy the photos!

The NY Mets have a special set of rules for how Binghamton Mets relief pitcher and closer prospect Eddie Kunz can be used. One of the unbreakable rules is that he can only enter a game to begin an inning. On Sunday (April 19th), the B-Mets got clobbered by the Portland Sea Dogs to the tune of 13-2. Their bullpen is on the thin side, and the starting pitcher Jose Sanchez only went 5.1 innings. Robert Paulk was brought in to pitch in the 8th inning. With two outs, he allowed 10 consecutive hits before the manager absolutely had to get him out of there. Since they weren't allowed to insert Kunz unless it was to begin an inning, they put in Jonathan Malo, a second baseman. Kunz was brought in to pitch a scoreless 9th.

A vanload of us are driving in from Binghamton, NY to see a couple of games at Shea this summer. We were thinking of going to a weekend day game, parking somewhere in Queens and taking the subway to the game. Any ideas on where we can park in Queens? Any ideas on a good pizza place or something like that to grab a bite after the game? We'll have some 12-16 year old kids with us. Thanks, folks.

Derek Jeter did NOT win the MVP!!!!  Some guy who's French or something won - and he's not even a Yankee!!!  Some sportswriter in Chicago thought that there were five baseball players who were better than Derek!!!  How is this possible?

So I woke up this morning - the first full day after this abomination - with great trepidation.  To my surprise, though, the sun rose in the east.  I can only assume that the earth is still spinning normally, in spite of this great travesty against all that is good.

So - what happens now?  Can the commissioner overturn this decision and appoint Derek MVP?  Can we take the vote away from any baseball writers who insist on voting for non-Yankees?  

Help me to deal with this confusing situation.

Announcement:  I will no longer defend Steve Trachsel.  I will no longer correct the spelling when bloggers spell his name "TRASHEL".  Since he is the longest standing member of the Mets, I cut him lots of slack.  Now, I am done.  

 On Saturday night, Steve Trachsel got punked.  He got punked worse than anyone I have ever seen get punked.  The opposing pitcher, Jeff Suppan, was batting.  He winked at Steve Trachsel - twice.  Once on the first pitch, once on the next pitch.  

 At that point, Trachsel should have thrown at Suppan.  Trachsel didn't have to hit Suppan - putting him in the dirt would have been just fine.  Nobody should be allowed to embarass a pitcher that way without paying the price.  In baseball, grudges have lasted years.  In this case, immediate retribution was available - Suppan was still standing in the batters box after the second wink, and Trachsel was still on the mound, preparing to throw a baseball in the general direction of Jeff Suppan (I won't call what Trachsel perpetrated on Saturday "pitching").  Instead of throwing at Suppan, Trachsel grooved a pitch, which Suppan turned on, hitting a homer, and burying Trachsel.  This is very likely the end of Trachsel's career as a Met.  Sad to see it end with Trachsel getting so completely and thoroughly punked.  Bob Gibson is probably somewhere muttering to himself and shaking his head.  Perhaps Steve Trachsel should read this excerpt from Wikipedia:

 Gibson was known for pitching inside to batters. Dusty Baker received the following advice from Hank Aaron about facing Gibson:

    "'Don't dig in against Bob Gibson, he'll knock you down. Don't stare at him. He doesn't like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don't run too slow, don't run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don't charge the mound, because he's a Gold Glove boxer.' I'm like, 'Damn, what about my 17-game hitting streak?' That was the night it ended."

 One more word on Jeff Suppan (who is now in the top 10 of my personal hate list).

 Jeff Suppan is not Babe Ruth.  Jeff Suppan is not Cy Young.  He's a career .500 pitcher with an ERA in the mid 4s.  If this series goes 7 games, then Suppan will be the likely starter.  Our Mets will then return the favor by punking Jeff Suppan.  Justice will be done.  After Suppan gets knocked out in the first inning of game 7 of the NLCS, we'll see how much he feels like winking.

 The just completed Florida series charecterizes the Mets 2006 team, and may be a preview of their post-season chances.  What happened in this series is a good predictor of what the Mets will do in the post-season.

The Mets should win in the post-season - as they did win this series.  Anything can happen, though, and they came awfully close to losing this rubber game in the Florida series.  To extract things even further, the 9th and 11th innings of the 9/13 win in Florida typify the Mets of 2006.

 The Mets won because they were "lucky".  In the 9th inning, Delgado tied the game on two outs on an ugly ground ball poke that just made it through.  Pure "luck".  BUT that was set up by David Wright starting off the inning with a single, and Cliff Floyd gutting out a walk.  Randolph made a smart move, pinch-hitting Delgado for Milledge.  (By the way, the game would not have been a one-run game if Milledge hadn't flashed some leather earlier in the outfield, while also getting a couple of hits plus getting robbed once).  Credit also goes to Mets management, who went out and got Delgado, along with the rest of the supporting cast - especially the bullpen (who got the "W" last night).  The guy that Delgado replaced at first - Mike Jacobs - was struck out in the bottom of the 9th inning by Heilman, who was busy pantsing the Marlins line-up in his two stellar innings.  So this inning demonstrated the Mets depth, the results of the good moves made by management, some smart in-game management by Willie Randolph, some clutch hitting by the clean-up hitter Delgado, a key supporting hit by Wright and a key walk by Floyd, and stellar bull-pen pitching.  

 In the 11th inning, we have another clutch contribution by another Met who has been bringing it all year - Jose Valentin.  He started with a double (due to his hustle).  New Met Shawn Green got hit on the toe by a pitch - making a positive contribution.  To support my point, I am going to ignore Ledee's failed attempt to ground into a double play.  Ledee barely counts anyhow.  

Then, with Valentin on third - the Mets having put themselves in a position to win - more "luck" occurred in the form of a wild pitch.  Also typical of the 2006 Mets, they seized this opening and finished the job when Reyes came through AGAIN in an RBI situation, as did LoDuca.  Then, with a three-run lead, in came Wagner to nail the lid shut.  Plenty of luck - most of which the Mets made for themselves.

 So - they CAN win, they SHOULD win - BUT they can also lose.  They came close last night.  THIS is the 2006 Mets.  I'll take my chances with them, and I'm looking forward to October.

I was at Humber's debut in Binghamton last night.  I posted a couple of pix at www.flickr.com/photos/elliotniman.  Click on the "Binghamton Mets" set.  Humber's results were mixed - he left behind but the red-hot B-Mets came back to win.

Here's a link to one of the pix:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliotniman/207149195/in/set-72057594133248998/