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There was no Mets game on yesterday for us to recap, MLB was kind enough to give us a day to regroup before heading south to the worst place on earth to face off against Omar Minaya's Ruben Amaro Jr's aging wonder on the brink of collapse. There are some obvious parallels between the way both the Mets of the last several years have been constructed and the current Phillies squad, and that's led to quite a few people out there being less in awe of a team that won 102 games last year than you'd usually see. Both teams are currently pretty banged up, and while we'll likely see a pair of excellent pitching matchups to start the series there might not be much in the way of offense out there.
Speaking of Omar Minaya, Ken Rosenthal has a piece up about the infamous Bartolo Colon deal. It's hard to believe that was 10 years ago now, although it actually seems like longer since the Expos were moved. Nothing really groundbreaking here, but a day after we had a piece up looking at some of Omar's good work we really need toknock him back down.
Andy McCullough talked to Kirk Nieuwenhuis about the recruiting trip that helped to make him a Met. I have a hard time picturing Kirk being too small to play college football, but I'm a 170 lb. weakling writing about baseball in my mom's basement.
The Metsies have been better than most of us expected to start the year, but Brian Costa has an area that we could drastically improve on. Personally I just want to see us have more opportunities to practice, although I likely won't mind if we just win every game 10-0 and never get another opportunity.
Around MLB:
Pat Burrell is retiring as a Phillie. A tree just fell in the woods.
Speaking of the Phillies, they too have a Mike Pelfrey. His name is Joe Blanton. Remember when the MSM was convinced he was a front of the rotation starter? Ha! Actually remembering when he and Livan Hernandez were the "prizes" of the winter is kind of funny.
Talking Chop took a look at the amount of innings the Braves are getting out of their rotation. SSS warning, but it's not good at all. While it may not be the only reason for their slow start, averaging under 5 innings per start will kill a bullpen rather quickly.
The Nats vaulted to the top of the division with a walk off win in extra innings last night. After blowing the lead in the ninth, they won the game as Ryan Zimmerman got aboard by being hit by a pitch and scored on a wild pitch.
Out west, the Dodgers have been rolling to start the season. Former Met Chris Capuano got the WIN METHOD yesterday as the Dodgers improved to 6-1 to start the season.
The D-Backs have been rolling to start the year as well. With their 3-1 win last night they remained just a half game back of the Dodgers at 5-1.
Finally for today we have an interview over at Fangraphs. After an interesting Q&A with Matt Harvey yesterday, David Laurila talked to Michael Schwimer today.