Mets Game 69: Win Over Orioles
Mets 5 Orioles 0
Another day, another shutout.
Another day, another shutout.
Just another ho-hum day at the office for lunch pail-toting R.A. Dickey.
The Mets beat up on a club from the AL Beast.
For a while there, it looked like the Bisons might hang in there long enough to beat the mighty Yankees. In the end, however, we found out the difference between MLB and AAA.
The Mets couldn’t beat Roy Halladay, but they were able to beat the Phillies on a night that Halladay pitched.
From Mets PR:
METS STATEMENT REGARDING David Wright
“Last night, David Wright jammed the fifth finger of his right hand. An X-ray revealed a small fracture at the middle joint of the finger. This is a non-operative injury. The finger will be splinted and reevaluated tomorrow. David can return to baseball activity as tolerated.”
As a catcher, I’ve fractured both of my pinkies countless times but never missed a game because of it. However, I have no idea of the extent of Wright’s fracture nor the pain — every break is different. From my own experience, such an injury shouldn’t have any effect on his throwing, but it will affect his hitting — which is a damn shame since he started out red hot. From my perspective as a righthanded hitter, a broken right pinky is not as bad as a broken left pinky; but, in my swing, the bottom hand was more dominant as I tried to drive the bat down to the point of contact and put backspin on the ball (which required the bottom hand to lead and control the swing). If Wright’s style is similar, his swing shouldn’t be affected too adversely.
As for putting the pinky in a splint, well, I never did and have two crooked, crazy-looking pinkies to prove it. Ronnie Lott would probably suggest that Wright have his little finger removed if it can get him on the field faster. Not sure I’d go that far, but, that’s what Ronnie would do.
In the meantime, we’ll likely see Ronny Cedeno and Justin Turner taking turns at the hot corner. If Wright heads to the DL — which I cannot imagine happening — perhaps we’ll see Jordany Valdespin promoted and installed at 2B, with Daniel Murphy moving to 3B. I know, I know — Terry Collins insisted that Murphy would stay at 2B “no matter what” but he also said that Murphy wouldn’t be removed in the late innings of games when they were ahead, either. On the other hand, natural third baseman Zach Lutz might also be an option, as well as Josh Satin.
Let’s keep our, ahem, fingers crossed that David Wright won’t be out for more than a day or two.
After being swept in rather embarrassing fashion at the hands of the playoff-bound Milwaukee Brewers this weekend at Citi Field, it became clear to Mets players, fans, and management that this incarnation of the New York Mets has no shot at reaching the 2011 MLB playoffs. So the prudent move right now for the organization to do is to utilize the last month and a half of this season to deeply evaluate the organization’s talent levels especially in the upper tiers (Double-A on up to the Majors). The best possible way to do this is to get some of these young players actual MLB game experience, which is exactly why the MLB created the whole “expanding rosters to 40 players on September 1st” rule. Here are some top candidates for the Mets to call up from he minors to fill out the up-to-40 man roster:
In case you missed it, Rule 5 pick and Opening Day second baseman Brad Emaus was returned to the Toronto Blue Jays; he will report to AAA Las Vegas.
For those unaware, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
I find it mildly surprising that