Murphy Deserves First Crack (Flushing University)

If Daniel Murphy's future is not at first base, then it also isn't with the New York Mets. So forget about renting a first baseman in Carlos Delgado's absence and give the kid a chance. Read more here ...

Roster Moves: Finally!

What the hell has Omar Minaya been waiting for?

The MSM finally jumped all over this in the last day or so, but the Mets have been pathetically slow to admit that a player is injured and to put him on the disabled list. Jerry Manuel has been playing short-handed in some form or fashion for the better part of three weeks now, and these roster moves still won't give him a full team. Carlos Beltran is out until at least Friday with a bone bruise; I expect that he will pinch-hit once over the weekend, not play for another three or four days and finally go on the DL late next week.

Reyes is the key to the 2009 season. If he is hobbled or even limited for a long period of time, the Mets will struggle to reach the 85-win mark when all is said and done. (Yes, I still think they're only an 87 to 89 win team anyway.) There is simply no competent replacement for him offensively or defensively, which Minaya tacitly admitted to when he purchased someone named Wilson Valdez from the Indians instead of looking for a temporary internal solution.

Church is a prime candidate to be non-tendered in the off-season anyway, so his loss isn't nearly as damaging to the Mets' fortunes. With Daniel Murphy playing first base and Gary Sheffield in left field, the Mets can use Angel Pagan, Jeremy Reed and super-prospect Fernando Martinez is center field and right field. Pagan and Reed are better cast as fourth and fifth outfielders, so Martinez has a chance to permanantly wrest the starting job away from Church.

STARTING PITCHERS
Johan Santana
Mike Pelfrey
John Maine
Livan Hernandez
Tim Redding

RELIEF PITCHERS
Francisco Rodriguez (closer)
JJ Putz
Brian Stokes
Bobby Parnell
Sean Green
Pedro Feliciano
Ken Takahashi

CATCHERS
Ramon Castro
Omir Santos
Brian Schneider - DL

INFIELDERS
Daniel Murphy
Luis Castillo
David Wright
Ramon Martinez
Fernando Tatis
Wilson Valdez
Carlos Delgado - DL
Alex Cora - DL
Jose Reyes - DL

OUTFIELDERS
Gary Sheffield
Carlos Beltran
Fernando Martinez
Jeremy Reed
Angel Pagan
Ryan Church - DL

Pelfrey Gets By With Help From His Friends (Flushing University)

Despite astoundingly low strikeout totals to start the season, Mike Pelfrey has begun to re-establish himself as the type of starter the Mets hoped he would be. But unless he starts striking more batters out, will he be able to sustain this level of performance? Read more here ...

Roster Moves: Delgado Out Indefintiely

The Mets are dealing with their first major injury of the 2009 season, as Carlos Delgado is undergoing hip surgery because of a torn labrum and a bone spur. There's no definitive time-table for his return, but there is some concern that Delgado may be out for the rest of the season.

Losing your cleanup hitter is never a good thing, but the timing is actually advantageous for the Mets. Daniel Murphy's future in New York may be at first base, so the Mets have a golden opportunity to give him a month or so of relatively low-pressure exposure to the position to see how well he takes to it. With Gary Sheffield and Jeremy Reed both hitting well and Angel Pagan now looking for at-bats (he was recalled to replace Delgado on the active roster), there would be no shortage of candidates to play left field while Murphy works out at first.

Of course, Fernando Tatis has been tearing the cover off the ball lately and Murphy has been slumping, so there's no reason to hand the job over just yet. What has bothered me the last few days has been how Jerry Manuel has been spelling Tatis when he's not playing first base. The Mets have an excellent defensive outfielder in Reed, who has virtually no experience at first base. The Mets have a comically bad defensive outfielder in Murphy, with no experience at first base. Guess who has been seeing more time there?

Alex Cora is also going to be out for awhile, but unlike Delgado he has no one to blame but himself for his injury. An unnecessary head-first slide into second base on Sunday resulted in a torn ligament in Cora's thumb, which will lead to an extended stay on the shelf. It also led to the frightening specter of Fernando Tatis playing shortstop for a few innings as Cora's replacement on Sunday.

Ramon Martinez will take over the utility infielder's role for the Mets while Cora is on the disables list. Too bad, because Cora had been hitting well in Jose Reyes's temporary absence and was building a case for replacing Luis Castillo at second base when Reyes returns.

(By the way, Castillo is hitting .205/.302/.250 since being moved back up the top of the order on May 7. Hey Jerry, some of us still think that Castillo should be batting eighth!)

As for Cora's injury: too many baseball players today insist on the head-first slide, which does not get you to the base any quicker and does not make you any more difficult to to tag. Did anyone happen to catch Pagan's foot-first slide into home last night to tie the game at 2-2? He might be the only player on the Mets with enough baseball acumen not to slide head-first in that situation.

Finally, some housekeeping. Tim Redding is back and in the starting rotation, pitching out of the slot that initially belonged to Oliver Perez and was being filled by Jon Niese. He's better than Livan Hernandez, but that's not saying much. Nelson Figueroa came and went again, and to be honest I can't even figure out what part on the pitching staff he was on.

STARTING PITCHERS
Johan Santana
Mike Pelfrey
John Maine
Livan Hernandez
Tim Redding

RELIEF PITCHERS
Francisco Rodriguez (closer)
JJ Putz
Brian Stokes
Bobby Parnell
Sean Green
Pedro Feliciano
Ken Takahashi

CATCHERS
Ramon Castro
Omir Santos
Brian Schneider - DL

INFIELDERS
Fernando Tatis
Luis Castillo
David Wright
Jose Reyes
Ramon Martinez
Carlos Delgado - DL
Alex Cora - DL

OUTFIELDERS
Daniel Murphy
Carlos Beltran
Ryan Church
Jeremy Reed
Gary Sheffield
Angel Pagan

2009 Amateur Draft Coverage at Flushing University

More news: I'll be assisting Mack from Mack's Mets as he spearheads Flushing University's coverage of the 2009 Amateur Draft on June 9 and 10.

Mack has profiles of over 500 prospects that he has culled from personal interviews and personal scouting reports, as well as opinion from some of the best sources on amateur baseball in the country. FU's coverage will feature the best analysis you're going to get of the Mets' early-round selections - and I expect there will be plenty of debate over who actually gets picked! More details as they emerge.

For One Night, Carlos Quiets His Critics (Flushing University)

Carlos Beltran was criticized for a lack of hustle earlier this season. On Tuesday night, his hustle led to a Mets victory. Read more here ...

Bigger Role for Parnell?

It was interesting to hear Jerry Manuel's comments after last night's game (read to the bottom). With K-Rod tonight unavailable after notching saves in four straight games, Manuel said that JJ Putz or Bobby Parnell will be called upon if a save situation is in order against the Pirates.

It's another clear sign that Sean Green has fallen out of favor and that Parnell has moved ahead of him on the depth chart. I have to admit, I did not expect much from Bobby Parnell this season, but he has made positive contributions so far. He hasn’t exactly been dominant, but he’s been good enough to merit a longer look.

Parnell’s repertoire – a blazing fastball and average breaking stuff – is the stuff that relievers are made of, and so far he’s making the most of his opportunities. That may be why he was so unsuccessful as a starter, since starters need more pitches to give batters different looks the second and third time around the order.

So far Manuel has used Parnell carefully, usually allowing him to start innings instead of coming in with runners already on base. Perhaps Parnell’s appearance in the middle of the seventh inning of Tuesday’s 4-1 win over the Braves really was a sign that he will be called upon in higher-leverage situations in the coming weeks.

Tuesday night’s performance, in which Parnell entered with men on base and gave up a run-scoring double to Martin Prado before getting out of the inning, are the types of appearances that good relievers have to succeed in. Starters get a chance to work their way out of trouble; relievers generally do not.

Green Loses Grip on Bullpen Role (Flushing University)

Sean Green's poor start to the 2009 season illustrates a flaw in modern bullpen construction - relievers are haphazardly given rigidly defined roles and then have to fail repeatedly to finally be moved out of them. Read more here ...

More Thoughts on Out of the Blue

Please don't get the impression that, based on 25 major league at-bats, I think that Omir Santos is going to be a major league catcher someday. He's a 28-year-old light-hitting journeyman with absolutely nothing on his professional resume to suggest he'll ever be anything more than that. He was the subject of my Flushing University column this week because, really, how many other positive stories are there to write about the Mets right now?

The truth is, I don't have a whole lot of Met-bashing in me this early in the season. Surely there are fingers to point, but on May 1 it's still too early to call for wholesale changes. The Mets simply weren't that good of a team coming out of Spring Training, so it's hard to be shocked and appalled by a 20-game stretch of .400 baseball. I predicted between 84 and 87 wins for this team in 2009 and I'm standing by that.

Yes, I think that Santos may catch lightning in a bottle for the rest of 2009 and provide the Mets 150 servicable at-bats as Brian Schneider's backup. Even then, that's only going to happen if Omar Minaya finds a taker for Ramon Castro to free up roster space. He couldn't do it all winter and I don't think he can do it now.

To rely on anything more from Omir Santos is to disregard eight years of performance and to focus solely on a week's worth of plate appearances. I know it is the Met Way to build a roster on hopes and dreams instead of consistency and performance, but that doesn't make it the logical thing to do.