TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

With about a quarter of the season remaining now’s as good a time as any to take a look and see how the Mets stack up against the competition for the all-important last 17 games of the season. Somehow, after one of the more frustrating seasons in recent memory, the Mets find themselves tied for first place with the Phillies on August 14th with 42 left.

I don’t think I’ll start with the bullpen. I’m happy today.

C - Brian Schneider/Ramon Castro: Considering the Mets are now carrying three catchers, I guess we officially have to break out the dreaded “P” word for Schneider and Castro. The Mets let Paul Lo Duca partially because of his PR problems and partially because he wasn’t particularly good at baseball anymore. They replaced him with….. him from the Nationals. Mets bloggers citywide want Ramon Castro to be the starting catcher in all situations. A quick glance at his splits against righties, his… uh… portly body type, and his time logged on the DL are three pretty obvious reasons why Mets’ brass isn’t exactly falling over themselves to put him in the everyday line-up — but Castro is a great player to have in reserve. He’s probably one of the best offensive back-up catchers in the league, he murders lefties, and a third catcher on the bench gives Manuel the freedom to use him in a late-game pinch hitting or DH role vs. lefties. For me, I enjoy making comments about his gigantic jaw and how the ball doesn’t stand a chance when he really gets his mandible in to one.

1B - Carlos Delgado: Rumors of Delgado’s demise were, apparently, greatly exaggerated. In the interest of full disclosure: I did jump on the “just release him” bandwagon after his atrocious first 40 games which saw production of .224/.303/.359 with only 5 HR and 34K. At one point, I believe I hopped on the “platoon him with Sexson” bandwagon when I realized that OPS vs. righties was about 250 points higher than his OPS vs. lefties and if you combined him with Sexson’s exactly opposite split they made one pretty mean first baseman. Then, on June 27th, Carlos the Bond Villain (Not to be confused with Carlos the Poodle Owner) hung 9 RBI on the Yankees in the first game of day/night crosstown doubleheader. He’s put up a line of .318/.417/.662 with 14 HR and 31K in the 42 games since then. At the very least, Delgado’s likely earned himself his (in light of what Mark Teixeira is going to demand) completely reasonable $16M option next season. At the very most, he had his sniff of the post-season in 2006 and wants to get back. I can think of worse options at 1B right now — and he’s in Milwaukee having a cheesesteakportabella eating contest with CC Sabbathia.

2b - Argenis Reyes/Luis Castillo/Damion Easley: As someone who’s staunchly defended the Luis Castillo signing because of the reasonable price-tag vs. Castillo’s relative production, even I have to admit that the fact we could easily drop 95-year-old Damion Easley in to the role and actually become BETTER on offense does not bode well for the next three seasons. Castillo has been hurt (and now his rehab has been delayed for “personal reasons”) and the Mets seem to be splitting time between Easley (who seems to have found out it’s midnight) and Reyes (another in the looong line of incredible on defense/ineffectual on offense 2b prospects). If Castillo doesn’t return, it would be not terribly surprising to see the Mets give new prospect Daniel Murphy some time at 2B. He was, apparently, a 3B prospect in Binghampton who asked to get playing time at 1B and 2B to increase his chances of getting up to the show. In his first 30 at-bats for the big club so far he’s racked up 14 hits, with 2 HR, 2 doubles, 1 triple, and 9 RBI with 6 BB vs. 5K. Murphy’s been filling half the sixth-string role in Left Field following the injuries of Alou and Anderson and has yet to play the infield at the major league level.

3b - David Wright: Earlier in the season when the team was going bad, Wright had a murderous look on his face at all times leading me to believe he was either going to remove the intestines of a teammate or start carrying around a pet muskrat named “Emma” through whom he’d take all his media questions. As it turned out, soon after Jerry Manuel took over, he gave Wright a day off and he’s been relatively stable since. Dude just needed a break. Considering the bullpen and Reyes pretty much jobbed Wright out of the NL MVP last year, I have very little concern with him falling apart down the stretch.

SS - Jose Reyes: When Reyes is good, he’s really good. When he’s bad, he’s a petulant basketcase who throws tantrums on the field and falls apart like Brad Lidge after a Pujols home run. Jerry Manuel seems to have curbed these tendencies better than Willie Randolph. It’s argued (on SNY… seriously) that Reyes’s benching after failing to run out a pop fly in August 2007 is what led to his meltdown September line of .205/.279/.333 in the midst of what was, before then, a killer season. I don’t THINK Reyes is going to have a mental breakdown like he did last season, but crazier things have happened. Manuel seems to have the power to discipline Reyes and not cause catastrophe where Willie Randolph didn’t. I have no idea why or how… just that it seems true.