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A day after being thrown at second base in yesterday's game, Mike Baxter went 3-for-4 with an RBI on Sunday

The New York Mets salvaged the third game of a three-game interleague series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon defeating the home team by a score of 6-5. The Mets took a 3-0 lead in the first inning and didn’t look back from there.

The Mets jumped on the board first as designated hitter Andres Torres drew a walk as home plate umpire Wally Bell gave the calls to the favor of the batter instead of young starter Henderson Alvarez. Mike Baxter who got the start for the second straight day capitalized with a double to right centerfield to put two runners in scoring position with David Wright coming up. The unofficial-official captain followed with a double of his own up the middle to plate two runs. Two batters later Kirk Nieuwenhuis “doubled” after Colby Rasmus made a diving catch that popped out of the glove as he came to a stop to bring home Wright.

With a 3-0 lead, Dillion Gee took the mound for the Mets and started in similar fashion to Jon Niese on Friday night as Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar reached based then got Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion on strikeouts. This time Gee got catcher JP Arencibia to retire the Blue Jays in the bottom of the first.

Ronny Cedeno got things started with a base hit in the top of the second and was moved over to third on a pair of groundouts. Mike Baxter then laced a ball over the glove of a diving Ben Francisco and made it all the way to third base with a run-scoring triple into rightfield.

After two of the first three batters reached via walk in the bottom of the third, rookie sensation who’s spent less than a week in the big leagues Yan Gomes singled through the left side to scratch across Toronto’s first run. Johnson and Escobar grounded out to end the inning and send the game to the third with the Mets up 4-1.

Jose Bautista cut the lead in half with a solo home run just inside the leftfield foul pole just above the 328 mark in the corner. Gee got the next three batters out with ease to hold the Blue Jays at bay to send the game to the fourth inning.

Baxter picked up his third hit of the afternoon with a single to the opposite field followed by Wright singling while behind in the count to put runners on first and second. Duda reached on a fielder’s choice that erased Wright and put runners at the corners, and was followed by Daniel Murphy who singled up the middle to bring home Baxter to give the Mets a three run lead back. Nieuwenhuis walked to load the bases, and Ike Davis hit a chop that came up on Johnson at second base and allowed Duda to score to put the Mets up 6-2.

Find out how the Mets hold onto their their lead after the jump.

After Escobar reached on a fielding error by Cedeno, the Mets played some nifty plays behind Gee to get him out of the inning. First Bautista hit one right up the middle but Murphy was positioned well and turned the unconventional 4-4-3 double play, then Cedeno redeemed himself with a throw that skipped off the FieldTurf in Toronto that was scooped by Davis to retire the side.

Both teams went down with ease in the sixth inning as the Mets faced Luis Perez who set down New York 1-2-3, followed by Gee’s sixth inning of work which saw him work around a leadoff single from Arencibia. On the third out of the inning Murphy intended to take the short route to retire the baserunner, but instead changed his mind mid-way through and threw the ball across his body to first to end the inning.

Gee hit Yan Gomes to start off the bottom of the seventh, but got the next two batters to bring up Bautista with a runner on second. Bautista singled through the shift to bring home Gomes which also chased Gee from the game to bring on Bobby Parnell. Encarnacion grounded out to end the inning to send the game to the eighth.

Davis doubled to Rajai Davis in right field and moved up to third base on a passed ball, on a wild pitch later in the at bat Davis scampered for the plate but was tagged out as Arencibia threw the ball back to the plate to Carlos Villanueva covering. Cedeno and catcher Rob Johnson followed up with back-to-back singles. Two batters later Baxter walked to load the bases but Wright struck out swining to end the threat.

Arencibia who made the nice play in the top of the inning, started things off with a double in the bottom of the eighth and came around with a second consecutive double off the bat of Eric Thames to trim the lead to two. A pair of batters later Colby Rasmus broke his 0-for-20 slump with a base hit up the middle to score Thames to make the score 6-5, Gomes came up and struck out on a 101 MPH or 162.5 KMH pitch for the second out. Tim Byrdak came on to face Kelly Johnson and got him to fly out to Duda to hold the Blue Jays’ bats in check.

The Mets had a two-on, one-out scenario in the top of the ninth but neither pinch-hitter Scott Hairston nor Ronny Cedeno could do anything as both batters struck out. Frank Francisco came on for the bottom of the inning and walked Escobar, followed by Bautista poking one through the big hole on the right side to put the first two runners on. Encarnacion struck out swinging, as did Arencibia after him for the second out of the inning. Thames came up and Francisco got him swinging to end the ballgame and salvage the third game of the series for the Mets.

Game Ball: Mike Baxter, was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle hit the ball hard every time it was put in play. He was walked in front of David Wright in the top of the eigth but Wright struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning. Baxter still only has one home run on his Major League record book which came last season with the Mets.

The Mets will hop on a plane with their Pierogi suits on which aren’t as fashionable as the hockey jersies and will make their way to Pittsburgh for a three game set with the Pirates at beautiful PNC Park. Johan Santana will return to the hill as he faces off with another left-hander in Erik Bedard.

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Based on the events of the past three days (and some other events before then), it might be time for Terry Collins to make some changes to the Mets bullpen. Frank Francisco has done a terrible job in the ninth inning so far, but that doesn’t mean that moving him to the seventh or eighth will automatically straighten him out?

Just leaving him in the ninth would almost definitely result in Francisco getting better results than he has. His past performance is evidence of this.

While pitching in the hitter’s havens of Arlington and Toronto for the past four seasons, Francisco has not once had a season ERA above 4.00. His ERAs for the past four seasons are 3.13, 3.83, 3.76 and 3.55. Sure, those aren’t figures that will remind anyone of Mariano Rivera or Jonathan Papelbon, but that track record is just as good as anyone else in the Mets bullpen.

Francisco’s FIP and xFIP were below 4.00 for all four years as well. It doesn’t make sense for Francisco’s ERA to suddenly blow up to while pitching in a pitcher’s park in the inferior National League. Even if you believe that pitching in the ninth inning is more difficult than the eighth or that pitching in New York is tougher because of enhanced media pressure (there’s no evidence of either), the jump in ERA is still more likely the result of a small sample size.

If Terry Collins does get impatient and decides that now is the time to change his closer, let’s hope he decides to go with the more talented Bobby Parnell instead of the more experienced Jon Rauch.

Rauch has been pretty good this season, with a 2.93 ERA in 15.1 innings pitched, but there’s a couple of red flags that indicate his ERA could be going up soon. First of all, Rauch doesn’t have very good stuff so far this season. His strikeouts per nine innings is down to 4.11 from a career average of 7.14, which means Rauch is missing less bats and allowing a lot of contact. The low ERA is probably the result of a .235 BABIP (batting average on balls in play). Although Rauch does have a relatively low career BABIP against him of .278, the .235 of this season is very likely unsustainable.

Also, Rauch is a fly ball pitcher who hasn’t allowed a home run yet this season. Over his career, Rauch’s performance has bounced up and down with the amount of homers he’s allowed. Although, this is something a pitcher can sometimes control, it’s a bad combination for someone to have a low strikeout rate and a low ground ball rate. That’s what Rauch is working with this season, and it’s a good reason to leave him out of high-leverage situations.

Parnell, on the other hand, playing the best baseball of his career. He’s striking out about one batter per inning while working on a career low 1.69 walks per nine. A 53.1% ground ball rate and a 2.25 ERA (2.36 FIP) are also great signs for the Mets future closer.

Because Francisco’s ERA is not going to stay at 8.56, Terry Collins will be praised no matter what he does. Leave Francisco in the ninth, and Collins’ faith will be rewarded. Move Francisco to the seventh or eighth, and he’ll pitch better in the new role. The only thing Collins shouldn’t do is move someone who isn’t Bobby Parnell into the closer’s role.

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Frank Francisco struggled for the second straight out and twice in the series against the Marlins

It was a pretty ho-hum afternoon in Miami, Florida as the Mets and Marlins played into the ninth inning tied at two. The Mets bullpen imploded today with the exception of Jon Rauch who pitched the eighth inning, meanwhile DJ Carrasco, Tim Byrdak and Bobby Parnell didn’t pitch in the game.

Prior to the game the pitching matchup on paper was well in favor of the Marlins who were riding on Carlos Zambrano who entered with 16 straight shutout innings, he continued that stretch into the first as he set down the Mets 1-2-3.

Counterpart Jon Niese worked around a leadoff walk to former Met Jose Reyes to match Zambrano with a zero in the first.

The Mets got their first hit of the game as catcher Rob Johnson singled with one out in the third and was bunted over to second, but the offense was unable to bring him around. New York broke through in the fourth inning after Kirk Nieuwenhuis and David Wright started things off with back-to-back singles.

The two runners moved up on a passed ball by John Buck, which allowed Nieuwenhuis to score on a groundout by Lucas Duda. The next batter was Daniel Murphy who went to the opposite field with a single to bring home Wright and put the Mets up 2-0.

Niese continued to roll on the mound scattering five hits through six innings of work before being pinch hit for by Ike Davis in the top of the sixth. Ramon Ramirez came on next and allowed a triple to Emilio Bonifacio followed by recent Met killer John Buck launching a game-tying two run home run over the left centerfield fence. Ramirez allowed a single to Reyes and did a brilliant job holding him on base for as long as he could and eventually Hanley Ramirez to strike out.

Edward Mujica relieved Zambrano and got the Mets out in the eights, while Rauch did the same in the bottom of the eighth inning. In the top of the ninth Marlins’ closer Heath Bell came on looking to keep the game tied and got Duda out for the first of the inning. Murphy doubled and Ronny Cedeno walked, Jordany Valdespin grounded out to move them up before Mike Baxter was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Justin Turner was up next to face Bell and was looking for another epic at-bat to the one he had a few weeks ago at Citi Field. This time it only took Turner seven pitches to lace a double to the opposite field and put the Mets up 4-2.

Then came Frank Francisco looking for the save and allowed a leadoff triple to Bonifacio followed by a walk to put runners at the corners with no one down. Pinch hitter Greg Dobbs came up and did what he did two nights earlier and blooped a single into right center to bring home Bonifacio and trim the deficit to one. Terry Collins brought on Manny Acosta to replace Francisco who had lost his composure on the mound and berated the umpire during his exit.

Acosta allowed a sacrifice fly to Reyes to tie the game at four before getting Omar Infante to pop up for the second out. Austin Kearns was hit by a pitch to load the bases and bring up the artist formerly known as Mike Stanton. First pitch fastball was sent well into the deepest part of the park near the hideous home run structure for the walk-off game-winning grand slam.

Game Ball: Jon Niese pitched six shutout innings while leaving with a 2-0 lead, Jon Rauch and Justin Turner get a piece of the pie too for their contributions.

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Over the weekend in an article about American League East bullpen woes, Boston Globe writer Nick Cafardo mentioned that the Mets are getting calls about relief pitcher Bobby Parnell. There’s a lot of demand for bullpen arms due to the abundance of relief pitcher injuries and/or ineffectiveness across the league. Does that mean the Mets should trade a part of their future?

So far this season, Parnell has been fantastic. He struck out 16 batters in 12.2 innings while only allowed two walks. His 2.84 ERA would be even lower if not for a relatively high .361 BABIP. Additionally, Parnell’s 55.6% groundball rate this season would be a career high if he can keep it up all season.

It’s not a huge sample size, sure, but right now Parnell is by far the best Mets relief pitcher. Plus, it’s not like he’s been completely awful in recent years. In 2010, he had a 2.83 (2.25 FIP) in 35 innings and last season he had a 3.64 ERA (3.21 FIP) in 59.1 innings. At age 27, it wouldn’t be a huge shock for 2012 to turn into a career year for Parnell, and now more than ever it behooves teams to develop a closer from within the organization.

This off-season, Jonathan Papelbon signed a four-year/$50 million contract to close games for the Phillies while Heath Bell signed with Miami for three years and $27 million. The Mets needed to shell out $12 millon over two years just to get Frank Francisco on the team. I think Francisco is fine, and I’ve got nothing against him, but the point is that closers are overpaid across the board simply because they pitch the ninth inning. Oftentimes, they don’t even pitch in high leverage situations.

With Parnell, the Mets have a pitcher in his prime who doesn’t hit free agency until 2016. If given a reasonable extension, the Mets can have him on the team for the next five or six years. After Francisco’s contract runs out, he’ll likely be named the team’s closer. With Parnell handling the ninth inning, the Mets would have a decent closer as well as some extra money in their pockets that they wouldn’t have to spend on an expensive free agent closer. That’s as long as Parnell doesn’t get traded this summer.

If the Mets trade a relief pitcher this summer, it should probably be Francisco, who won’t return the type of assets that Parnell would, but he’s relatively cheap and has been acceptably effective so far. With Parnell, the Mets have a part of the future that they would be trying to build by trading veterans, so he should be off-limits to all but the most tempting of deals.

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This afternoon at Citi Field, RA Dickey and the Mets look to take the  rubber game of  this three game series.  Yesterday afternoon, Johan Santana finally get his first win of the season, and first in 611 days.  Although he didn’t have he best stuff, Johan gave a solid 7 innings of 3 run ball, to move to 1-2 on the season.  Daniel Murphy had an excellent day at the plate, going 4-4.  It was nice to see the bullpen finally preserve a lead instead of blowing one.  Bobby Parnell and Frank Francisco pitched scoreless 8th and 9th innings to preserve the 4-3 victory.

Today’s game can be seen on SNY and heard on WFAN AM 660 at 1pm

Starting Lineups (via Metsblog.com)

On The Mound

R.A. Dickey (3-1, 4.45 ERA) will get the call today for the Amazin’s.  Once again Dicky had a fantastic knuckle ball working in his last start in “Yoozdin”, but as in his previous starts, he was a victim of one bad pitch.  Dickey had a no-hitter broken up in the 6th inning, and a few pitches later, a bad knuckler was deposited into the LF stands.  ”But I had no business not going into the eighth or ninth with the stuff I had (Monday),” Dickey told the Mets’ official website. “It was just unfortunate that I gave up some runs and had to come out of the game, because I was only at (77) pitches and I felt fantastic.”  R.A. is 2-0 this year at Citi, with a 2.08 ERA.

Trevor Cahill (2-2 3.13 ERA) will oppose Dickey today for the Diamondbacks.  In his last start, Cahill threw 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball in Tuesday’s 5-1 victory over Washington. Cahill struck out 5 and walked 1 after giving up 12 walks in his first four outings.  ”That’s the best he’s thrown for us,” manager Kirk Gibson told the Diamondbacks’ official website. “Much more into the zone, commanding the zone early and often, and when you can do that, you can get early swings, and he got some early outs and kept his pitch count down.”  Andres Torres is the only Met who has ever faced Cahill.  He’s 2-for-9 with 2 doubles.

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Ike Davis is beginning to show signs of life again, and for opposing teams...that's not good.

The New York Mets held a 4-0 lead heading to the bottom of the eighth, but a grand slam from the Rockies tied the game sending it to extras two innings later. The Mets got a one run lead once again, but another homerun tied it for the second time. New York got the lead back in the top of the 11th and held on to take two of three from Colorado in their weekend series in the Mile High City.

The Mets started off with a bang sending nine batters to the plate in the top of the first inning against ageless wonder Jamie Moyer. Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Ruben Tejada started off with back to back singles, and two batters later David Wright double to left field to bring them around. Lucas Duda reached with a walk and Scott Hairston broke a career 0-for-9 against Moyer with an RBI single to open up a 3-0 lead.

Opposing Moyer was another left hander in Mets’ ace Johan Santana who worked around a two out single to the opposite field taken by Carlos Gonzalez. Santana got out of the inning and retired the next three in the bottom of the second as well.

In the top of the third Hairston reached on a one out single, before Ike Davis collected his second hit of the game and pulled his first double of the season down the right field line. Josh Thole struck out for the second straight time before Moyer got his counterpart to strikeout, needing 75 pitches to get out of the first three innings.

The bottom of the fourth saw Gonzalez lead off with a single for the Rox followed by a stolen base, Santana got the next three batters inlcuding striking out 41-year old Jason Giambi to end the inning. Hairston led off the top of the fifth with a rocket to third base that was stopped nicely by Chris Nelson that was scooped out of the dirt by Giambi on the other side of the diamond. Two batters later Thole got some redemption after striking out the first two times before lining a homerun over the right centerfield wall to increase the lead to 4-0.

Nelson doubled with one out off of Santana, followed by pinch-hitter Jonathan Herrera sending one deep into the left centerfield gap that Nieuwenhuis layed out for and robbed an extra base hit. Santana got the next batter on a comebacker to retired the side.

Tejada hit a one out single to start off the top of the sixth off of new pitcher Josh Roenicke, he became the first Met to collect 10 hits in a three game series since Edgardo Alfonzo did it back in the 2000 season also in Denver. Murphy however followed it up by grounding into a double play. Santana then worked around an error by Daniel Murphy who was playing deep in the hole at second and was unable to field the ball cleanly.

To lead off the seventh Wright walked but Roenicke got the next two batters while left-hander Rex Brothers came on to get Davis looking. Miguel Batista came on to pitch the bottom of the seventh and got two of the three batters he faced via strikeout. Meanwhile Brothers came back on in the eighth inning and struck out Thole, followed by pinch-hitter Zach Lutz to strike out as well, Nieuwenhuis got his second hit forcing the Rockies to bring on the right-hander Edgmer Escalona to face Tejada who reached on an error before getting Murphy looking.

–See How the Rockies Tied the Game the first time, and more after the break–

Right-hander Jon Rauch came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning and got former Met Marco Scutaro to fly out prior to Dexter Fowler getting a base knock up the middle and walking Gonzalez. Rauch got Troy Tulowitzki on a comebacker that moved up the runners, then walked Michael Cuddyer to load the bases. With Todd Helton announced as a pinch hitter the Mets went to lefty Tim Byrdak who allowed the pinch hit grand slam to Helton to tie the game at four. Bobby Parnell came on next and struck out Ramon Hernandez to send it to the ninth.

Rockies closer Rafael Betancourt came on in the tie game with no chance at a save and walked Wright to start off the inning, Duda grounded up moving Wright up to second who was running on the pitch. With Hairston up, Betancourt balked and moved Wright to third before Hairston struck out looking. Davis was up next and worked the count before lining out to Scutaro on a bullet, stranding Wright at third. Parnell meanwhile got the Rockies 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings.

The Rockies took out Betnacourt for Matt Belisle in the top of the 10th who got Thole to groundout, then pinch hitter Mike Baxter dunked in a single to reach base and later came all the way around when Nieuwenhuis doubled down the leftfield line. Mets’ closer Frank Francisco came on to seal the deal in the bottom of the 1oth and allowed a one out homerun to Gonzalez to tie the game that just cleared the tall fence in rightfield to even up the game. Tulowitzki reached on an infield single to Wright, and Cuddyer struck out swining to bring up Helton. The franchise first baseman walked, before getting Hernandez to pop up to Davis to send it to the 11th.

Wright and Duda singled off of Belisle with Duda’s hit moving Wright first to third. Hairston replaced Duda on the base paths with a groundout, followed by Davis poking a pitch through the left side to bring home Wright. Thole followed it up by grounding into a double play. Davis was pulled during the next inning as Murphy moved to first base while Jordany Valdespin came on at second base who doubleswitched to get Ramon Ramirez in to pitch. Ramirez got the first two easily and then faced Scutaro who launched one to deep leftfield that made the hearts in every Mets’ fan sink, thankfully for the Mets Coors Field was large enough to hold the ball as Hairston made the catch against the wall to end the game.

Game Ball: Ike Davis…slowly but surely he’s coming back. Today he went 3-for-6 at the plate with the go-ahead RBI in the top of the 11th. Johan Santana comes in for a close second after allowing no runs on a pair of hits in six innings while striking out five.

Up Next: The Mets fly down to Houston tonight and will meet up with their fellow 50-year old organization for the last time as National League foes. Earlier today the Reds defeated the Astros in Cincinnati and will throw Bud Norris against R.A. Dickey who will start the series for the Mets. Andres Torres will be activated from the 15-day DL while it is expected that Lutz will be sent back to Buffalo, after the catch Nieuwenhuis made in centerfield today there will be an outcry about Torres playing center but Nieuwenhuis can handle left just as well. First pitch tomorrow night is set to be thrown at 8:05 p.m.

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What's in a Number?

A few days ago, former Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels pleaded guilty to stealing $2.3 million worth of memorabilia from the Mets. As part of his plea bargain he was banned from Citi Field and attending Mets’ games ever again (who actually wins that one?). Samuels during his many years with the Mets organization was always given the responsability of issuing numbers to players prior to spring training, so it got me to thinking about all the new players who will be in spring training and what numbers were and weren’t issued and decided to put in my two cents into the conversation of whom should have what numbers and so on.

• #1 - Not in use, Should be Ruben Tejada for reasons explained at #11
• #2 - Justin Turner
• #3 - Josh Satin, I doubt we see him this year, have fun in Buffalo
• #4 - Mike Nickeas, moved from #13, I don’t mind the change
• #5 - David Wright, that one wasn’t going to change
• #6 - Omar Quintanilla, I don’t want to see him in Queens unless Murphy gets hurt
• #7 - Bob Geren, Usually after a player of high prominance like Reyes leaves they leave it vacant for a year or two
• #8 - Not in use, nor should it be ever again…but should NOT be retired now
• #9 - Not in use, still hoping Ronny Paulino comes back, oh wait Baltimore signed him
• #10 - Terry Collins
• #11 - Should be Tim Teufel, hence moving Ruben Tejada to #1
• #12 - Scott Hairston
• #13 - Ronny Cedeno, good number for a middle infielder (“Fonzie”)
• #14 - Retired
• #15 - Valentino Pascucci, I was against giving it out right after Beltran was traded and feel it should be out of circulation in 2012
• #16 - Rob Johnson, not making the team so it won’t matter, should be out of circulation if not retired for Doc
• #17 - Needs to be retired, but at least Charlie Samuels’ replacement doesn’t give it to bums like Satoru Komiyama, Jose Lima, Fernando Tatis, David Newhan, Dae-Sung Koo…should I continue?
• #18 - Tim Teufel, should be out of circulation but at least Straw’s former teammate has it
• #19 - Daniel Herrera, anyone but Roger Cedeno works for me
• #20 - Adam Loewen, could make the team if he beats out Mike Baxter which isn’t the hardest thing to do
• #21 - Lucas Duda
• #22 - Not in circulation out of respect for #WillieHarrisFace
• #23 - Mike Baxter, maybe he’s in Queens maybe he’s in Buffalo..time will tell
• #24 - Not in circulation because of Willie Mays
• #25 - Ricky Bones, not really a coaches number, but it was his playing number
• #26 - Tom Goodwin, if Ruben Tejada didn’t take #1, Not sure why Goodwin didn’t take it
• #27 - Pedro Beato, now that he’s not required to be on 25-man roster, may stay in Buffalo as future closer?
• #28 - Daniel Murphy
• #29 - Ike Davis, there was talk of him changing to #20, I would have been upset since I just bought his jersey last year
• #30 - Josh Thole
• #31 - Will be retired eventually, or will the Mets wait too long like other former Met hall-of-fame catchers?
• #32 - Jenrry Mejia
• #33 - Vinny Rotino…WHO?
• #34 - Mike Pelfrety
• #35 - Dillon Gee
• #36 - Chuck James, could be the second lefty out of the ‘pen if Herrera doesn’t work out
• #37 - Retired
• #38 - Garret Olson, longer stretch to be second lefty out of ‘pen if Herrera and James don’t work out
• #39 - Bobby Parnell
• #40 - Tim Byrdak
• #41 - Retired
• #42 - Retired
• #43 - Robert Allen Dickey
• #44 - Jason Bay
• #45 -
• #46 - Manny Acosta
• #47 - Miguel Batista
• #48 - Frank Francisco, “Armando Part II” needed a number close to Armando
• #49 - Jon Niese
• #50 - “The Fans” Cheesy promotion considering this is the Mets 51st season in reality
• #51 - Dave Hudgins, hitting coach moved down one spot from #52
• #52 - Ramon Ramirez, likely coming out of the bullpen this season
• #53 - Jeremy Hefner, comes over from Pittsburgh, likely be in Buffalo this year
• #54 -
• #55 -
• #56 - Andres Torres, some guys just like random high numbers (Scott Schoeneweis?)
• #57 - That doesn’t belong to anyone, right?
• #58 - Fernando Cabrera, I have a better shot of making the 25-man roster
• #59 - Dan Warthen
• #60 - Jon Rauch, big man needs big number
• #61 - Jordant Valdespin, if he impresses enough this spring I could see him making the roster with injuries to Turner, Murphy or Tejada
• #62 - Lucas May, fourth string catcher aka backup at Buffalo
• #63 - Chris Schwinden, September callup
• #64 - Josh Stinson, Triple-A this season, bullpen in 2013
• #65 - Zach Lutz, went to a Division III school and he played for his dad YOGI Lutz..ok the only reason I knew that was because the college I work for is playing them this season.
• #66 - Armando Rodriguez, the love child of two of the greatest closers in Mets’ history, he’s Buffalo/Binghamton bound
• #67 - Cesar Puello, on his way to Binghamton, or possibly Port St. Lucie this year
• #68 - Matt den Dekker, on his way back to Binghamton
• #69 - Not given out because of 1969 World Series
• #70 - Matt Harvey, back to Binghamton for you too
• #71 - Wilmer Flores, staying in Port St. Lucie, Binghamton later this season
• #72 - Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Buffalo or BUST!
• #73 - Robert Carson, maybe Bingo maybe B-lo
• #74 - Reese Havens, more seasoning in Binghamton before being bumper up to Buffalo…if healthy
• #75 - Jeurys Familia, quick stop in Binghamton, will be in Buffalo very quickly
• #76 - Juan Lagares, Buffalo and a September callup to Queens with a much lower number
• #77 - DJ Carrasco
• #78 -
• #79 - Dave Racaniello, changes to something new every year it seems
• #80+

Theres this seasons numbers, can’t wait for the start of spring training!

First game is in 9 days!!

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When I look back on 2011, there were countless times when Mets fans just knew the bullpen was going to blow it.  Even when K-Rod was here, late inning situations were never in the Mets favor.  More times than not, K-Rod was in there in the 9th inning, walking that ever visible tightrope.  Hell, even at times during the early part of the season, his WHIP was higher than his ERA.

With the team clearly looking towards the future, Sandy Alderson needed to find a way to patch this team together the most cost-effective way possible.  The Mets obviously had no intentions of breaking the bank for Jose Reyes (even if they had the money, they shouldn’t have matched the Marlins offer) considering they suffered a $70 million loss in 2011.  When I got to thinking, “What’s the cheapest way to improve the team?”, the first thing that came to mind was the bullpen.

Below are the stats for the Mets bullpen from last year.  They were essentially the 2nd worst bullpen in the NL.

When Alderson finally waved the white flag last year around the All-Star break, he sent K-rod to the Brewers for lefty reliever Danny Herrera, who in 13 innings after the trade had a solid 1.13 ERA, and another reliever Adrian Rosario.

At the Winter Meetings, the Mets made another smart trade by sending arbitration eligible, and apparent bad seed, CF Angel Pagan, to the Giants for reliever Ramon Ramirez and CF Andres Torres.  Since 2008, Ramirez has a solid 2.77 ERA and a very respectable 1.21 WHIP.

Before leaving the Winter Meetings, Sandy and Co. still weren’t done adding to the bullpen.  They signed the back-end of the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen, set-up man Jon Rauch and closer Frank Francisco.  Although Rauch didn’t have the best 2011, he has been a pretty solid set up man/emergency closer for the better part of the past 6 or 7 years.  He doesn’t walk too many batters and that can be shown with his 2.6/1 strikeout to walk ratio and the career 1.25 WHIP.  Rauch’s partner in crime last year, Frank Francisco, saved 17 games for the Jays in 2011.  Francisco has been one of the better power relievers in the game over the past few years.  He boasts a 9.9 strikeout per 9 innings ratio for his career.

Between Francisco, Rauch, Ramirez and Herrera, I think the Mets have made a significant upgrade in the bullpen.  Herrera seemed to have a little bit of that Pedro Feliciano ability in him.  Rauch or Ramirez are certainly an upgrade over Izzy/Parnell, and Francisco is way better than anyone who closed for the Mets in the 2nd half of last season.

My math may be off, but those four are going to cost the Mets roughly $10 mil to completely revamp the back-end of one of the worst bullpens in the league.  I know most fans wanted that $10 mil to go into signing Reyes, but the truth is that we are in a cost cutting mode.  We just have to accept it, and understand that baseball is also a game of economics.  It really made no sense to go into battle with essentially the same garbage in the pen this year along with Reyes.  It’s a financially responsible move along with a good baseball move.  If Sandy could get something in return for K-Rod, what makes you think he can’t get something of value back for one of those four if a team comes knocking at the door around the trade deadline?