First Order Of Business: Beat Nats

First of all, I have to get this off of my chest:

I don't care whatever hair-brained scheme The Baseball Czar has thought up to justify it - making the Mets wear red caps instead of their normal ones is daft. Isn't there a more dignified way of honouring the war dead than a hideous Nats-red baseball cap?


Hey kid, get on the DL where you belong...

The whole thing gave the game a sort of charity game feel to it, like the result wouldn't count in the standings or something, not to be taken seriously which, given that their opponents were the Nats was probably what it felt like anyway. Pink bats and pink arm bands is one thing but red caps, woa. I draw the line there.

And the Mets win the game on another instant replay wherein the umps took like half the night to make a simple decision.

Yeah, it's all good that in the end, like the two days previous, the decision was in the Mets favour. But red caps and instant replays and suddenly I feel like the game's been hijacked by cyber monkeys hell-bent on ruining the game's integrity.

Still, Sheffield's three-run homer counted at the end of the day. You couldn't tell one way or the other if it should have been a homer. Two out of the three replays the Mets were involved in, that was the case - you simply couldn't tell but you could easily waste 5-10 minutes trying to make sure you couldn't tell.

Why stop there? Why not make every player run around the bases twice before it counts? Why not stop the game in between every pitch to forensically review the location where it crossed the plate lest they get a ball or strike call wrong. (And believe me, you could catch about 50% of these balls and strikes calls by the umps as wrong.) Think that doesn't effect a pitcher? Doesn't effect a game?


Doesn't Maine look like he's harbouring some painful secret about himself?

Ok, it was only the Nats, but John Maine managed to pinch out another victory and allow only one run over six innings of work. That makes him 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA for May.

Inexplicably, Bobby Parnell followed up his 100 mph on the radar gun show by walking three batters in the 7th, giving up a run and forcing Pedro Feliciano and Double J to clean up his mess for him and save the Mets from suffering from a humiliating game-tying rally by the Nats.

It was a forgettable game for most which is likely the case when Angel Pagan is your lead off hitter and Ramon Martinez mocks the starting batting order with his .088 batting average.

It's time for the Mets to make decisions. I know the front office, led by Omar, like to sugar coat everything and put everything in its most optimistic light but that sort of optimism is stupid and costly. They need to get Church AND Reyes on the DL and release Martinez. Then call up a shortstop/second baseman to fill Martinez and Reyes slots on the team and call up F-Mart and give him the chance to fill the outfield rotation. I'm sorry Angel Pagan is an accident waiting to happen out there - did you see how he charged through into Beltran's territory to take that fly ball last night?


Should Beltran and his dodgy knee by out there sliding?

The Mets need to be ruthless during this run of fluff they'll be facing while they recover from that road trip. They need to use this to propel them to a good streak of wins, maintain or hopefully improve their position in the NL East and by the time Reyes and Church are back, they'll be returning to a first place team.

Courtsey of Flushing University, My latest piece...