MEET THE METS - LUIS CASTILLO

A preview of the 2008 Mets, presented in the expected batting order, followed by pitching rotation, followed by impact bullpen/bench players. Today we focus on second baseman Luis Castillo.

2007 (with Mets - 50 games): .296 avg, 1 HR, 20 RBI, 37 runs, 10 SB, .371 OBP

Until the Mets traded for Johan Santana, I would argue the best thing they did this off-season was lock up Luis Castillo. He's a sure/shore thing - he'll shore up the second base position, and he's pretty much a sure bet to hit .300.

Second base has not been a position of strength for the Mets in quite some time - probably since Edgardo Alfonzo was in his prime. With the current crop of Mets, Jose Valentin was the next option, and he's a big dropoff from Castillo - 2006 was the best year Valentin will ever have, and the 45 strikeouts Castillo had all of last year are about a month's work for Valentin in one of his usual years.

I think the presence of Castillo will help make Jose Reyes a better hitter, too. Castillo has such a good approach at the plate, and is the perfect number two hitter. He'll drop down a perfect bunt when that is called for, go the other way in the right situation, and he's smart running the bases, too. He was also one of the few Mets who maintained a high level of performance through September (.404 OBP, 31 hits, 6 doubles, 2 triples) when everyone else was contributing to the collapse. I distinctly remember breathing a sigh of relief whenever Castillo came to the plate, because he always came through. How does that benefit Reyes? He's someone Reyes can continue to learn a positive approach from, and he'll allow Reyes the opportunity to steal a base, then bunt him to third so he can score a run.

Castillo and Reyes up the middle, with Beltran in center, give the Mets one of the best defensive 'up the middles' in baseball. Sure, he's on the wrong side of 30, and he's a bit banged up, but the guy knows how to hit, and he's still one of the best second basemen in the game - or, at least, in the National League. He makes the Mets better. I don't know that there's much more to say about him than that.

RED SOX VS. INDIANS MONDAY NIGHT

Cleveland, OH - Writing a quick update from the hotel in Cleveland, right across a parking lot from the Quicken Loans Arena...just beyond which the light towers from Jacobs Field are visible. That's where we (The Wife, The Baby, and I) will be Monday night for the Red Sox vs. Indians.

It's an exciting game for The Wife because she's seeing her Red Sox. It's exciting for The Baby because she's going to be wearing her cute little pink Red Sox outfit, and she's hoping the NESN cameras will find her. For me, that was going to be the exciting part of the night as well, besides seeing the stadium. Wednesday night will be a bobblehead night in Cincinnati - I just felt the American League game was lacking something. Not anymore.

The news came out today that the Red Sox will be recalling Jon Lester for the start on Monday night in his return to the Majors after a battle with cancer. That's a far cry from a Julian Tavarez start. I'm really psyched. I should have realized something was up when earlier in the day I saw that the Southern Bureau had picked up Lester in the fantasy league. I liked watching Lester pitch - I like seeing some of these young guys come up and do well - and by all accounts Lester seems like a good guy to root for. Which I'll be doing in person Monday night.

METS INJURY NEWS: Lots has been happening while the Mets have been out West, thought it was worth catching up on.

Thursday (or maybe it was Wednesday) the Mets signed Marlon Anderson - I forget where he was released from this year - but the former Mets' bench specialist has been getting significant playing time in left field this weekend. Now that I think of it, Anderson might have been released by the Dodgers before the Mets signed him. I could look it up...but I'm on vacation.

Then Jose Valentin fouled a ball off his leg on Friday night, and it turns out the leg is broken. I saw Valentin limp off the field Friday night as I was packing heard the injury news driving across New York state on Saturday. The Mets recalled Anderson Hernandez (Name Game alert - Marlon and Hernandez = Anderson Anderson!), who had been hitting very well recently at Triple-A. Ruben Gotay will still see the majority of time at second base. I hate to say an injury is good news, but Valentin was hurting the Mets by being in the lineup - his knee was really in bad shape, and he said he was playing through the pain to reach an incentive for at-bats in his contract which I think kicked in another year for him. And Willie Randolph kept playing him, even though he was visibly only at 50-60%. So it's nice that now there's no choice in the matter...unfortunately, Valentin might not be back all year.

Finally, from the injury front - about a month until the return of Pedro Martinez*.

OOPS: I don't know what I did to poor Mike Maroth - but he gave up 10 earned runs in his last start for the Cardinals, and he's just been awful since coming over in a trade. I hope he turns it around.

ENDY MAKES SURE METS' FIRST EXTRA-INNINGS GAME ISN'T A DRAG

Mets 2, Rockies 1 12 innings (NYM: 13-6, COL: 8-13)

By this time last year, the Mets had played about a dozen extra-innings games (slight exaggeration). Tuesday night, the Mets played their first extra innings game of 2007, and made staying up later than expected pay off.

In the bottom of the 12th inning, with runners on second and third and two out, Endy Chavez laid down a perfect drag bunt to bring home Shawn Green, and the Mets kept themselves a half-game in front of the Braves in the NL East with a 2-1, 12 inning win.

The dramatic win was set up by some drama in the 10th. After Billy Wagner had given up a run to the Rockies in the top of the 10th, Damion Easley hit a pinch-hit, 2-out, 2-strike home run to tie the game at 1, and force more extras.

The 12 innings (and the tenth inning comeback) nearly made you forget that Orlando Hernandez turned in an outstanding start in this game. El Duque went 7 innings without giving up a run, surrendering just 4 hits, walking two, while striking out 5. He was lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh in one of many early failed Mets rallies. They blew a lot of chances to win this game early. But that's not to take anything away from Rockies starter Aaron Cook, who also went 7 scoreless innings.

The win was the first in the young career of Joe Smith, who gave the Mets two-thirds of an inning, retiring the two batters he faced. Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweis also had scoreless outings in this one.

It should be noted that in the 11th inning, with the winning run at second, David Wright had a great at-bat. He managed to work a walk, but he fouled off a few pitches, and looked the most locked-in I've seen him look all year - sort of like David Wright last year. It made me wonder if there's been something else on Wright's mind all month - because Tuesday night was the first night I really felt he looked like himself. For what that's worth. He finished 2-for-4, with one strikeout.

The Mets and Rockies play an afternoon game on Wednesday, getaway day. Mike Pelfrey against Josh Fogg.

Extra Sugarfree Gum johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: Damion Easley. Easy call here - without Easley, Endy never gets a chance. Can't do much better than one at-bat, one home run...and in a very important spot.



MONDAY NIGHT'S RESULT - Mets 6, Rockies 1

VALENTIN'S DAY - Jose Valentin earned johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game honors with a homer and 4 RBI. He was 1-for-2, scoring just once - he had a sacrifice fly in addition to a 3-run homer, single-handedly lifting the Mets to a 4-0 lead by the 4th inning.

John Maine benefitted from Valentin's outing, as well as Carlos Delgado's first home run of the season, improving to 3-0 on the season, and the Mets jumped back into first place, a half-game ahead of Atlanta.

I was a bit under the weather, sorry I didn't write. I'm feeling better Tuesday night, but I'm told this bug I have could last 7-10 days. Bad headache, coupled with a nauseous feeling. It may or may not include vomiting. It did for me.

TURNING TWO...HUNDRED: I've been thinking about this all season, since the Mets turned four double plays on Opening Night in St. Louis. I finally did the math tonight. I thought the Mets were on pace to set some sort of record for double plays turned in a season. They are, if my calculations are correct. They're on pace to turn more than 200 double plays right now - the team record is 171. So there's a new feature this year, and it's called "Turning Two...Hundred":
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: 2 SEASON TO DATE: 26 TEAM RECORD: 171

**OK, there's a problem here. The Mets' media guide has the team record at 171, done twice - in 1966 and 1983. But mlb.com says the 1999 Mets had 294 double plays - reasonable, since that was a great defensive team. But mlb.com also has every 1999 team as the top 30 in double plays all time. So I think something is wrong there. I need to straighten this out before we take Turning Two...Hundred too far off the ground. I also need to get the all-time record straightened out, too, because I'm having a hard time believing the 1999 Devil Rays turned almost 400 (although they probably allowed a lot of baserunners...)

SNY: I haven't commented on this yet this season, but Lee Mazzilli has been doing pre-and-post-game studio work for the Mets on SNY this season. I can't comment on his performance, because I usually don't watch the pre-and-post-game studio work. The past couple of days, I've caught a bit of the pre-game shows, and for some reason, Dave Gallagher is doing the job. I haven't been too impressed...but I'm more impressed that he has remained visible enough to actually have a high-profile job like this. Dave Gallagher - I hold a grudge against him because I think he was the first Met to wear number 8 after Gary Carter. He was one of the "ordinary guys" I always think of, too, when I think of the early-90's New York Mets...Bill Pecota, Jeff McKnight, Dave Gallagher. I seriously considered naming one of my fantasy teams after him, but went with Jeff McKnight, because I really do hold that number 8 thing against Gallagher, unfair though that may be.

STERLING: God forgive me for the following: So I was listening to a lot of WFAN in New York over the weekend (Thursday through Saturday, truth be told). On Thursday, driving down to New York, I got to hear a little of Joe Benigno's mid-day show - I enjoy listening to him. They were giving John Sterling crap because of his call of the previous day's home run by A-Rod...actually, maybe this was on Friday...I'm getting my days confused. Regardless, they were making fun of the call where Sterling was saying..."An Aaaaaa-Bomb, for Aaaaaa-Rod." Now, I think Sterling is a dope, and can't stand listening to a Yankees game on the radio. But on Saturday, Benigno had Sterling on his show, and was interviewing him, and I'll be darned if it wasn't a great interview. Sterling came across as intelligent and knowledgeable. I can't believe it - it almost made me change my opinion about him. But then I started to dislike him even more, because if he's that coherent in an interview, he should be enjoyable to listen to during a game.

Also on WFAN, on Friday (I confused my days in the above paragraph, I apologize...but I know Sterling was interviewed on Saturday, when Benigno was filling in for Russo, and I know I heard the following on Friday), Mike & the Mad Dog interviewed Theo Epstein heading into the Yankees-Red Sox series. It was a fantastic interview. Epstein was great, and when Chris Russo asked him about the Doug Mirabelli trade (for Cla [Russo actually pronounced it like it is spelled, instead of 'clay', which I thought was hilarious] Meredith and Josh Bard), Epstein was honest, and called it an awful trade for the Red Sox. He went on to say that the Red Sox will never be impatient again. The intelligence and honesty that Epstein showed in this interview made me remember why I liked listening to his press conferences when I was working in TV. And showed why the Red Sox are lucky he came back as general manager.

BEAT THE STREAK: I take personal responsibility for David Wright's 0-for-15 slump. It was all because I kept picking him for Beat the Streak. He finally got a hit Tuesday night, so he's off the hook. I have a one-gamer, and I go with Jimmy Rollins to tie my season high on Wednesday.

ANOTHER SEASON UNDERWAY....

Mets 6, Cardinals 1 (NYM: 1-0, STL: 0-1)

When you consider that the Mets played a great game on Sunday night, you also need to keep in mind that the Cardinals (defending world champions or not) are not very good. So just keep that in mind.

But that said, Sunday night's game was a great way for the Mets to kick off their season. The funny thing about the Mets productivity was where it came from. The top of the lineup was a bit late to the run-scoring party, and it was Shawn Green, Moises Alou, and Jose Valentin who played very good games for the Mets.

Carlos Delgado, RBI machine, actually did get the scoring started. He had a 2-run double off the left field wall in the third inning off Chris Carpenter. (The ball was badly misplayed by So Taguchi.) In the fourth, the Mets added a few more on a 2-run single by Paul LoDuca and another RBI single by Carlos Beltran. Lo Duca hit second, by the way, and David Wright hit fifth. It seemed to work pretty well.

Jose Reyes looked a little anxious at the plate - he finally got a hit in the ninth inning (and then was picked off of first base) - so maybe a little opening night jitters for him. At the plate, I think the Mets showed only a little of what they're capable of all year - they were definitely not all clicking at the same time - and they still put up 6 runs!

It was in the field that the Mets surprised - pleasantly. They turned four double plays, Tom Glavine fielded his position very well, and Jose Valentin capped a solid defensive night both personally and for the team with a diving stab on a grounder up the middle, turning a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded and 1 out in the eighth inning, where the Cardinals were mounting a comeback.

Other defensive highlights:
-It wasn't much, but Paul LoDuca played a squeeze bunt in the third inning perfectly, throwing back to David Wright to get the runner coming from third base.
-Carlos Beltran gunned David Eckstein at the plate on a Preston Wilson single in the sixth inning. The grounder up the middle went right to Beltran, he came up throwing, and threw a strike to LoDuca.
-To begin the sixth, Moises Alou stretched out headfirst and robbed Adam Kennedy of a base hit.

The only disappointment was that this game got a little too close for comfort at a couple of points - Glavine clearly got tired toward the end of his outing, and the bullpen wasn't outstanding - they were helped by the great defense. Joe Smith debuted, and wasn't great. Billy Wagner was his old self in non-save situations, taking forever to retire the side in the ninth.

But a win is a win - and the Mets are 1-0. Too early to start with the magic number?

DIRECTV JOHNNYMETS.BLOGSPOT.COM PLAYER OF THE GAME: A new feature here on johnnymets.blogspot.com. I'll pick a player of the game, Met or not, and post their numbers here every night. Sponsorships are subject to change. For Game one, though, the winner is Tom Glavine, who went 6 innings, giving up 6 hits, one run, and striking out 2. He definitely tired at the end, but benefitted from the run support, working with a cushion, and able to pitch out of his jam. He picked up career win 291, and is 1-0 on the season. I like unblemished records. Also, this was a gem that the ESPN broadcast showed - Glavine is now 136-0 when he has a 5-run lead (which he did when this one was 5-0). I like that number a lot.

THIS IS SPORTSCENTER: David Wright is clearly a star. He is in a new "This is SportsCenter" ad on ESPN. I saw it on Saturday night, not during the game on Sunday night. Wright is good in the commercial - he has some acting in his future. I bet he hosts Saturday Night Live within a year.

THE KID'S KIDS: Sadly, there will be no Kid's Kids this year - because there are no Kid's Kids. Gary Carter will not be managing in the Mets' organization this year - he is reportedly upset - or in the words of the Florida newspaper article I read - "Disagrees" with the Mets this offseason regarding their preferred assignment for him. (I think that means he's mad he didn't get the first base coaching job that Howard Johnson got instead.) Carter was on hand about a week ago for a Mets spring training game where his St. Lucie Mets were honored with rings for their Florida State League championship. I'll keep my ear to the ground and see what other news pops up about Carter this year, but again, there will be no regular feature.

BEAT THE STREAK: The 9th inning single by Reyes got me a 1-game streak. I'm going to try Chase Utley on Monday against John Smoltz.

BACK TO NEW YORK, BACKS TO THE WALL

Cardinals 4, Mets 2 (STL leads series, 3-2)

There is no way I ever thought the Mets would be facing an elimination game this entire season. I never saw it coming. The Cardinals were nowhere near as good as the Mets this season - but their pitchers right now are making the Mets look silly at the plate.

It started right out of the gate - the Mets had a chance to jump out to a first inning lead and failed. With men on first and third, David Wright struck out on a bad pitch (actually, a good pitch - but a bad pitch to swing at). He redeemed himself with a big double later, in the 8th inning, but was left stranded, with Carlos Delgado on third, after a Shawn Green pop to center and a Jose Valentin strikeout (looking). There's about 10 other guys on the Mets' roster I'd rather see up in a clutch situation than Valentin, by the way.

It wasn't all bad for Valentin - he had the only 2 RBI for the Mets on the night, driving home the first two runs of the game in the 4th. Tom Glavine, though, uncharacteristically gave the lead right back - giving up a solo homer to Albert Pujols, then another run before getting out of the 4th tied at 2.

Glavine got into a huge jam in the fifth, (aided by Chad Bradford), but Bradford and Feliciano got out of it with the Mets trailing just 3-2. Feliciano gave up a bad homer to pinch-hitter Chris Duncan in the sixth making it 4-2.

The Cardinals have done in this series what made the Mets so successful all year long - whenever the Mets scored, St. Louis has answered right back. And some uncharacteristic events have surrounded the Mets - swinging at bad pitches, Tom Glavine throwing half his pitches out of the strike zone (80 pitches - 40 ball, 40 strikes), and Jose Reyes reverting to his old, non-getting-on-base self. He needs to start setting the table back home to get the Mets offense working.

The Mets have their work cut out for them as they return to Shea - now having to face Chris Carpenter in an elimination game. Hopefully they can get to him like they did Friday night.

I'll admit it - I'm very nervous. John Maine hasn't given me any reason to believe he'll fail, but it's different from him starting Game 1 of the playoffs - one bad pitch now and the season is over. I'm really nervous. And should there be a Game 7 (fingers crossed), it's looking like Darren Oliver might get the start. I know how great Oliver's been all season, but Willie Randolph has been reluctant to mess with his bullpen and people's roles all season - it makes me nervous that things would go topsy-turvy in the season's biggest game. But there's a ways to go before that.

MORE CARDINALS PRAISE: Man, the St. Louis defense has been outstanding. David Eckstein by himself has saved about 5 base hits that could have changed this series (either leading off an inning or with men on base) by diving around the field. Everyone else has been solid too - they're not making any mistakes in the field. (We'll see if Eckstein's hand getting in the way of his bunt late in the game Tuesday night affects the way he's playing defense - he looked like he really hurt his hand.)

Tony LaRussa even had the good sense to not find a spot in the lineup for Scott Speizio Tuesday night, even with his hot bat. He was awful in left field Sunday night, and LaRussa went with a stronger defense, which was a good move. (Although I didn't know that Scott Rolen isn't speaking with LaRussa because he started Speizio over Rolen in Game 2.)

Also, the stat that amazed me Tuesday night was that the Cardinals bullpen has made the opposition go 0-for-31 now in the post-season with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. That's incredible. They have some young arms in that bullpen that are better than I've been giving them credit for. And I think they're in the Mets heads now too. If Jose Reyes swings at another off-speed pitch in the dirt I'll cry.

SUPERSTITION: I really did all I could here. I wore the right hat - I even changed pants late in the game because I thought the ones I was wearing weren't working. I'm out of ideas. I don't know what I'll do Wednesday night.

These games are absolutely killing me on school nights.