June 17, 2010: Thursday Night Mets Links and Open Thread
New York Times – David Waldstein has a GREAT story about Chris Carter’s legally blind grandfather who just saw Carter play at Progressive Field. This is an early frontrunner for tomorrow’s Feel Good Friday link.
ESPN New York – Adam Rubin reports that Jason Bay is not in the starting lineup tonight.
MetsBlog – Jason Bay wanted to play tonight, but according to the new rule, you don’t play the day after almost sustaining a serious injury.
The Jewish Week – A strange story here… The Mets are being sued by Kosher Sports, for allegedly barring the concession company from selling its food at Mets games on Friday night and Saturday. The Mets claim the lawsuit is without merit.
ESPN – Buster Olney has a rundown on the pitchers that the Mets may trade for. My money is on Jake Westbrook or Kevin Millwood.
SNY – Michael Salfino says the Mets have a hole at second base, but he doesn’t think Akinori Iwamura is the answer.
BrooklynMetFan – BMF says Angel Pagan is the Mets’ MVP so far this season. Hard to argue with that…
TONIGHT’S GAME
Tonight, the Mets (37-28) go for the sweep against the Cleveland Indians (25-39). R.A. Dickey (4-0, 2.78) will bare his knuckles against possible future Mets hurler Jake Westbrook (4-3, 4.62).
Here is the starting lineup for tonight’s game vs. the Cleveland Indians, courtesy of the Mets PR Dept.:
Reyes SS
Pagan CF
Wright 3B
Davis 1B
Francoeur RF
Carter DH
Blanco C
J. Feliciano LF
Tejada 2B
Dickey RHP
Bay rests his charley horse, Jesus Feliciano gets a start, Frenchy moves up in the lineup, and the Animal provides him protection. Let’s hope R.A. Dickey’s knuckler keeps dancing.
Post your comments, links, pictures below …
Home – .321 avg, 9 HR, 23 RBI, .445 OBP, 1.133 OPS in 112 AB
Away – .227 avg, 4 HR, 11 RBI, .306 OBP, .681 OPS in 128 AB
Knowing how Arizona's home field tends to bring out the best in batters, while CitiField tends to bring out the worst, I would have to assume that, if acquired by the Mets, Johnson would be due for one HUGE drop off in production. Not to mention he's hit only about .250 with 4 homers since the end of April. It seems to me like those in the "Get-Kelly-Johnson" camp haven't brushed up on their research, and are just arbitrarily looking for the 2B with the best overall offensive numbers who will likely be available come the trade deadline. In my opinion, Johnson would be a terrible match for the Mets, and should be no one of whom the team is considering trading a prospect of the caliber of Reese Havens or Mark Cohoon for.
I still think the Mets are best off giving Castillo the benefit of the doubt and allow him to retain his position when he's healthy. Imagine if the 2009 version of Castillo were playing on this 2010 team? Forget about 10 games over .500, we'd be running away with the division. He deserves the chance to come back and prove that he can still be that player. And if he's not, then let Ruben Tejada and Alex Cora spell him during his droughts. They've certainly proved to be more than capable thus far.