Another weekend sweep of the Braves in sight, another hardy beating by Atlanta. But it's OK, because the Mets still have an 8-game lead in the division.
The problem is, the problems are starting. Victor Zambrano tore a ligament in his elbow on Saturday, and will miss the rest of the season. Here's the problem with Zambrano's elbow. This has been bothering him for a while now. A couple of the other players knew about it, but no one in management knew. And two pitches before Zambrano came running off the mound, mid-inning, in pain, he looked Willie Randolph in the eye and told him he was OK. Even though, on Sunday, he told the media he was not OK at that point. There are going to be major consequences because of Zambrano's stupidity.
- The most important consequence is that the Mets are in a hole with their rotation. In the past few weeks Brian Bannister, his replacement, John Maine, and Zambrano have all gone down with injuries. Bannister is almost eligible to come off the DL, but the Mets don't want to rush him back from his hamstring injury. Maine went on the DL just before Zambrano, with a finger injury, and Zambrano is out for the year. Jose Lima was just OK replacing Zambrano (5 runs in 5 innings...but this was not an ordinary outing - more on that later), and he'll probably get another start. The Mets are also big on Jeremi Gonzalez, who has been back and forth between majors and minors the past couple of years. It does not look like the Mets are going to mess around with their bullpen - they like the roles everyone is in there, and they won't be pulling guys out of the pen (like Darren Oliver or Aaron Heilman) to fill in for the injured starters.
- I call Zambrano stupid because while the Mets were concerned about his hamstring all this time, he was having elbow problems, and he kept his mouth shut. The Mets would never have let Zambrano go out there if he had said something, because they don't want to jeopardize his health. The problem here is that Zambrano was already on the verge of losing his job, just because of the whole fact that he was underperforming, and he was the guy they traded Kazmir for....but he still should have said something.
- Zambrano is supposed to be ready to come back by the beginning of next season. But the wild card is that this is an elbow Zambrano has had trouble with before - so it's not automatic that he will respond well to a second surgery. Also - do the Mets even want him back? Everytime he pitches, he carries with him the label "disappointing Mets trade". And now, does Randolph trust him? Zambrano lied to Randolph's face about his health, so why should Randolph believe anything Zambrano says in the future? He's opened up quite the can of worms.
The rest of the weekend wasn't so bleak. Both Friday night (Happy Birthday to my sister!) and Saturday afternoon the Mets came from behind to hand the Braves disappointing losses. And Saturday, with Randolph wanting to rest both Duaner Sanchez and Billy Wagner* (I can't believe he's gone this long without an asterisk...he clearly deserves one), Jorge Julio got the save. It wasn't the easiest save, but he got the save, and that's progress. It's also progress that Randolph would trust Julio in that type of situation, and get a positive result.
Also, Carlos Beltran* has homered in 3 consecutive games. It's not 2004's post-season Carlos Beltran yet....but he's certainly better than the 2005* edition.
The Mets have an off-day Monday, then they head to Philadelphia for 3.
FROM THE MOUTH OF THE WIFE: I forgot to mention this - but remember earlier in the week when Willie Randolph got thrown out of a game for arguing a called strike three call against David Wright? Well, the cameras kept cutting back to Wright in the dugout, steaming. Keith Hernandez (or Gary Cohen, I forget who) says, "And David Wright is hot. He's HOT in the dugout." The Wife, without missing a beat, says, "Yeah, he's hot." But I'm OK with it.
ALSO KEEP FORGETTING TO MENTION: When we were in San Diego, the Padres batters, like most other teams, come to the plate with their own music playing. Adrian Gonzalez, playing 1B that night, has by far the best music in the Majors when he comes to the plate. Not sure what it was that was playing, but it was catchy. And, since it was a 14-inning game, we heard it 6 times! He's only 23, so hopefully he keeps that music throughout his career. If the Padres are on TV, and they're home, and you have a chance to watch, and Gonzalez is starting - try to catch one of his at-bats. That's my public service announcement for the day.
THE KID'S KIDS: The St. Lucie Mets are expanding their lead in the division. They beat Fort Myers on Sunday, 9-6, to improve to 19-10 on the year. They're now up by 2 games over Palm Beach.Elsewhere in the minors, Boof Bonser took the loss as Rochester lost to Pawtucket, 5-2. Bonser gave up 3 earned runs in 6.2 IP, striking out 6, walking 3, and giving up 8 hits. His overall season stats are still impressive - he is just 2-2, but he has a 1.87 ERA. Still better than a lot of the Twins' major league pitchers.
FANTASY UPDATE: The What if Mets are back to .500...but it was a battle. They're 6-6- Dwight Gooden is 2-0, and leads the league in strikeouts. Robin Ventura is amazing, at the plate, and I think I may have figured out a way to tell if my guys are going to beat the opponent. I feel pretty good about the way my lineup is right now. I'm playing the Phillies for the next 4 games - my first division opponent. 6-6 is relatively good in the league - but I'm in the toughest division - including the Nationals/Expos, run by Kevin from Wilmington, who started 0-1, and rattled off 11 straight wins. So I'm wondering if he's really good, or if the teams he played are really bad. I'll find out when I play them, I guess. That can't happen soon enough - I'd love an 11-game winning streak.
BEAT THE STREAK: This will be controversial - David Wright was my Sunday pick, and he was hitless until his last at-bat, when he hit a fly ball that the center fielder dropped. It was ruled a double. So my hit streak is at 3. But I don't know what will happen when, in the coming days, that is turned into an error, which it has to be, and Wright's hit is taken away. I wonder how that affects beat the streak. Anyway, Monday, I like Vernon Wells' career numbers against Jeff Weaver, so he's the pick.
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