March 23, 2008

Santana, Martinez, Perez & Maine - And Pray For Rain??!!

(With apologies to the old Braves' refrain of "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain...")

Today's line for Mike Pelfrey, in his battle to lock-in the 5th spot in the Mets' rotation:

4 2/3 Innings, 8 Earned Runs, 13 Hits...

and that is FOLLOWING Orlando Hernendez's first official Spring game, in which his line was:


3 Innings, 5 Earned Runs, 4 Hits...



Do you think Omar might want to bring John Patterson in for a look-see?

Today was a really important day for the Mets' pitching staff, as, with a week away from Opening Day, the 5th spot in the rotation is one of a few spots still open on the roster (last arm in the bullpen and final bench spot are the others), and today, sadly, did NOTHING to settle this spot...if anything, perhaps Omar has to revisit additional options, such as Patterson, a Jon Niese early promotion, Nelson Figueroa, or perhaps something none of us have thought about yet (as long as it's NOT returns of Jose Lima, Brian Lawrence, James Baldwin or Scott Erickson, although either Lima's or Erickson's wives would still be welcome!)

The bench role might be resolved if Omar was to sign the recently released Reed Johnson, formerly of the Blue Jays, who would serve as a platoon outfielder with Chavez, Church and Pagan, although if they were to sign Johnson, Pagan's chances would seemingly be minimized as there's no way they can carry that many outfielders, even with Alou out at least another month and Beltran running around on weakened/recovering knees. Especially when you consider that the bench already includes super-subs, Marlon Anderson and Damion Easley! As much as I would have liked to acquire Johnson for nothing more than $$ prior to Spring Training, that was also BP - Before Pagan!

Here's hoping that Omar can make like Felix the Cat and pull something out of his magic bag of tricks before Opening Day, and fill out the starting staff and bench with equal doses of his magic!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

we have a dominant 4 but have no fifth starter...this is going to be interesting

Anonymous said...

who is el duque kidding??? he cant play anymore