Braves 6 Mets 5

The Mets lose the game, the series, and two of their starting infielders — all in one Sunday afternoon.

Tonight’s Mets lineup against righthander Bud Norris of the Houston Astros:

Jose Reyes – SS
Josh Thole – C
David Wright – 3B
Carlos Beltran – RF
Ike Davis – 1B
Angel Pagan – CF
Willie Harris – LF
Daniel Murphy – 2B
R.A. Dickey – P

Dan Murphy’s hot bat (and cold feet) are back in the lineup, providing protection for Willie Harris in the 8 hole.

There was a lot of grumbling on Twitter, the blogosphere, and other media outlets about Terry Collins’ decision last night to pinch-hit Chin-Ling Hu instead of Willie Harris or Dan Murphy during a key moment in the game.

I’m not sure about Harris, but the reason why Collins didn’t send up Murphy could have been to “send a message”.

Note: this is a post by Matt Himelfarb. Please direct your comments to him.

So Brad Emaus’s short lived tenure in Flushing has drawn to a close, after the Mets announced they have DFA’d the Rule Five draftee.

I agree with

When asked about Dan Murphy’s attempted steal of third base in Saturday night’s game against the Braves, Mets manager Terry Collins explained,

“It was an error of enthusiasm. He was trying to create something that wasn’t there.”

Note to Murph re: that enthusiasm: curb it.

In case you are just crawling out from under your rock, Luis Castillo was released by the Mets on Friday afternoon. Soon after, Mets fans were dancing in the streets.

What I don’t get is why Castillo hung around this long. Further, why he was asked to report to Port St. Lucie in the first place, taking reps and at-bats from Brad Emaus, Dan Murphy, and Justin Turner. Further,why was Castillo the one dismissed from auditions first?

Here’s my point: if Castillo was

Since the Mets are playing the Nats today, I thought this article was appropriate: Dan Daly of the Washington Post did a boxscore-by-boxscore study of shortstop Ian Desmond’s errors, and found that they weren’t really that big of a deal.

Desmond has received a lot of flak for making 34 errors, but Daly discovered they only cost the Nats three games at most — and only one of those errors directly resulted in a loss.

In addition to this being apropos because of the Nats game, this information suggests that a poor defensive second baseman might not affect the Mets’ won-loss record this season. Maybe a hard-hitting second-sacker like Brad Emaus, Dan Murphy, or Justin Turner will win more games with the bat than they’ll lose with their iron gloves. Who knows? But this research on Desmond surely offers hope for the Dr. Strangegloves of the world.

After a long delay, Luis Castillo finally arrived on time in Port St. Lucie.

I know many people are miffed that Castillo didn’t get to camp a week ago, but he had a legitimate reason — his brother is going in for serious surgery next week. Even if he didn’t have a personal matter to tend to, I’m not sure that an early arrival would have made a difference one way or the other in regard to his chances of making the team nor in the way he is viewed by the new Mets management (the on-field and front office staffs included).

Yes, it would have been nice if Castillo showed up around the same time as the pitchers and catchers. But really, at this point, how would it have mattered? He’s been in pro ball for 15 years, and by now should have a good idea of what he needs to do to get ready for a 162-game season. You could say that by arriving early, Castillo would have “sent a message” that he’s “serious” about having a comeback season. But in all honesty, is that really what you want? Be careful what you wish for, the saying goes.

Let’s pretend Castillo had