If you're like me and actually sat through most of last night's game then you've already seen the horror. If you're not then you should consider yourself lucky. The Mets were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. The one hit was a double by Ramon Castro in the first inning. Seven of the outs were strikeouts. The Mets were issued seven walks by Houston pitching and managed to bring only one of those baserunners to the plate.
For his part, Victor Zambrano pitched adequately. Not great, but adequately.
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Three news/rumor bits.
1) Willie Randolph was on WFAN yesterday and indicated that Victor Diaz will begin taking grounders at first.
AA: Good way to get Diaz more at-bats and Mientkiewicz fewer at-bats. I like it.
2) Jose Offerman was signed by the Mets. Whee! He was assigned to AAA Norfolk.
AA: I said "Whee!" didn't I? Believe it or not (I don't), Offerman is only 36. I could have sworn he was at least 41. He is a career .273/.360/.374 hitter, which isn't nearly as bad as I thought he would be. He has virtually no power, but he has actually been fairly adept at getting on base, particularly at drawing walks. Not sure where he fits in, but that's not really my problem, now is it?
3) Gotham Baseball is reporting that the Mets are in discussions with the Giants to trade Kaz Matsui for favorite son Edgardo Alfonzo, with Fonzie presumably playing second-base if a Shea return were to happen.
AA: If I recall, Fonzie has two years left on his deal with the Giants, which would be a wash with the two that Matsui has left. It would be nice to have a hitter in the lineup who won't strike out 100 times this year, and certainly the fans still love the Fonz. That said, in his first two seasons with SanFran fonzie hit .259/.334/.391 and .289/.350/.407, both pretty lousy. Alfonzo is a bit below-average defensively at third (-3 according to UZR), and could be expected to be even worse at second (second is harder to play than third). I guess overall I would be in favor of the trade, though it's not like we'd be getting Fonzie circa 1999-2000.
Amazin' Avenue Daily Web Links
- MetsGeek.com: Re-evaluating Kazuo Matsui (Damien Heath)
- FlushingsFuture.com: Minor League Notebook: June 9, 2005
- FlushingsFuture.com: First Year Player Draft: Mets Day Two Review
- The Hardball Times: Freaky Batting Leaderboards (Studes)
- FoxSports.com: Look for Mets to emerge from NL East pack (Dayn Perry)
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