ASTROS 3, METS 2

Not that it matters, but the Mets lost to the Astros. I wish I could come up with something better to put as a headline certain days, but there's not much to write about other than the spring training games. Nothing worth mentioning out of this game.

FLOYD'S HEALTH: Apparently Kirby Puckett's death was a wake-up call for Cliff Floyd. Floyd's father suffered from kidney problems as a young man, so Floyd is getting his kidneys checked out. I don't think there are any immediate concerns, but Floyd says kidney problems are such that you could have a problem and not know about it far in advance. Floyd says he hopes others follow his lead and have any potential problems checked out.

MORE ON WYLIE: The day after I write about Rule 5 pick Mitch Wylie, the Mets' website has a feature on him....hmmm. I got a couple of things wrong - well, just one thing wrong, and a couple of more facts to add to the story. The wrong thing is that I said as a Rule 5 draftee, Wylie would have to stay on the Mets' 40-man roster...it's actually the 25-man roster, so he'd have to break camp with the team. Unless he mysteriously comes up with an injury around final cut time, ends up on the DL, and that injury lingers until there's an open bullpen spot or September call-up time. The other info is that Wylie started out in the Chicago White Sox organization and then went to the Giants. At one point, Wylie was 15-4 in AA with the White Sox. He pitched OK in AAA with the Giants last year. He's 28 years old.

FANTASY BASEBALL NEWS: Here's what I'm doing for fantasy baseball this year. First of all, my friends and I (basically, the entire readership of this site) are doing a 4-team league, using only players from the American League East and National League East. The categories are different too:
Offensive: RBI, SB, K, AVG.
Pitching: Saves, Walks, K, ERA
There are 6 total positive categories, and 2 negatives (Walks for pitchers, K's for hitters). It should be a fun league, and it should be interesting. One of the players thinks he has a "blockbuster" strategy - he will use just one pitcher, in one game, all year, and try to win all of the offensive categories, plus ERA. I'm not worried.

Secondly, the same four are also doing a "Favorite Teams" fantasy league, with a bunch of statistical categories. We draft our favorite teams (I have all of the Mets, obviously), and see which is the best fantasy team. It's the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, and White Sox. I'll keep you posted on the progress of that.

I'm not doing any serious NL and AL fantasy teams this year...I'm taking a year away from that. I'll see if I miss it, and if I need to get back to it next year. I certainly haven't missed all the usual prep work I put into the draft, which is usually this time of year. I am, though, working on some sort of baseball pool, similar to a season-long NFL pool, with weekly, or monthly, payouts. I'll let you know if I come up with anything.

Finally, here's where you get invited to play along with me. Probably my favorite of all of these baseball fantasy games is "Beat The Streak" on mlb.com. You pick baseball players everyday, and all you have to do is pick who you think will get a hit (it can be the same person everyday, if you wish). The goal is to beat Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. There are also prizes for 30, 40, and 50-game streaks, I think. I usually just play by myself, but this year, I'm inviting all of my readers, and whoever else wants to join a league, to play against each other. The person with the longest streak at the end of the year wins a johnnymets.blogspot.com hat. (If such a thing exists by then....boy, I really hope I win - I should be the one to get the only johnnymets.blogspot.com hat in existence.) It's a really fun game, and I get addicted to it every year. Unfortunately, I think my longest hitting streak is only about 15 games. I will let you know as soon as I set up a Beat The Streak League. It's awesome for nights the Mets aren't playing too - it really gives you something to root for in the other games you're watching.

BLAH BLOGS: The New York Daily News has an awful thing going online - a blog between a man and a woman, one being a Mets fan and one being a Yankees fan. They just insult each other and write crappy things. Seeing that, I realize I MUST become the official blogging partner of SNY - they need me and I need them. Still no e-mail link on their website, though - looks like regular mail is the way to go. (Also, still no word on DirecTV in the Massachusetts area....I guess I'll have to settle for Mets games, not necessarily Mets programming.)

I'm taking the weekend off - I'll be back possibly Sunday, possibly Monday.