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.

A PIECE IN PLACE

I was very happy to hear that the Mets re-signed Luis Castillo, so at least second base is solidified for the Mets. It's a 4-year deal for Castillo, who is 32 years old right now. That's pretty good all around.

Castillo is a smart ballplayer, his intelligence at the plate stands out to me. He knows what to do in all situations...just a good hitter. The Mets need more folks like him.

It was a big day for free agents. Mike Lowell re-upped with the Red Sox, it looks like Mariano Rivera is re-upping with the Yankees, and Tom Glavine went back to the Braves.

I hate the way things ended with Glavine. I hate that I'll remember him with the Mets as the man who got rocked with everything on the line on the final day of the season instead of the man who won his 300th careeer game with the team. I hate that he's now going back to Atlanta. I hope the Mets hang an 8 on him every time he pitches against them from here on out.

Incidentally, this morning on ESPN Radio, when they were talking about GM's who need to make moves, Omar Minaya's name came up as someone who needs an ace, and someone who says he will get a number-one - or -two starter this off-season. And for the first time I heard Jose Reyes' name come up in something other than pure speculation on my part. Just throwing it out there, for whatever that's worth.

FANTASY: The fantasy NASCAR season came to an end Sunday. What started as a whim to pass the time between the Super Bowl and spring training turned into a weekly obsession and lots of fun. I really enjoyed it...finished 4th out of 12 or so people.

Playoffs in fantasy football are looking bleak as of last weekend.

WEBB SLINGING

Enjoy this now, because it might not happen again for another twenty years. Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks is chipping away at one of my favorite kinds of records - a streak.

In this case, it's a consecutive-scoreless innings streak. Webb, after pitching a complete-game shutout against the Braves on Friday, is now at 42 straight scoreless innings, 17 away from the record, set by Orel Hershiser in 1988. Hershiser broke a record set in 1968, which broke a record set in 1947 (I think). So, this being 19 years since Hershiser, we stand a shot at seeing it broken...and I'm loving it.

Webb pitches again on Wednesday night against the Brewers, and what's nice about this streak is that it doesn't matter if Webb gets a decision - the streak will continue. For instance, if Webb uses a lot of pitches, but doesn't give up a run, and comes out after six innings, he'll pick it up in the next game. If he goes nine, but the Diamondbacks can't get him a run, it doesn't matter - he's continued his streak. It's unlike a perfect game or a no-hitter in that regard - whether or not he factors into a decision doesn't factor into the continuation of the streak.

This is one of those types of streaks that I always tried to build in video game baseball. Sometimes, if I was on a roll against the computer, I'd try to lower my ERA by having one of my pitchers get on one of these scoreless innings streaks. Even in doing that, though, I don't think I could challenge Hershiser's 59...that's how impressive this is.

Webb extended his streak in pretty strong fashion Friday night - he stopped a hot Braves offense cold in its tracks. He will need to do the same Wednesday night against the Brewers - they scored 8 on Saturday, 6 on Sunday, and 9 in beating Arizona on Monday...and they have some big bats in their lineup. Good luck, Brandon Webb - for your next few starts (so long as they don't interfere with my fantasy stats or Mets playoff hopes), johnnymets.blogspot.com will be rooting for you.

BIG WIN: The Mets blew a few leads Tuesday night against the Padres, but pulled out a dramatic win in the bottom of the ninth inning against Trevor Hoffman.

John Maine struggled, but left this game with the lead - and Scott Schoeneweis (not helped by a misplay by Lastings Milledge in right field), Jorge Sosa, and Billy Wagner all almost turned that into a loss. The Mets trailed 6-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth (Carlos Beltran did exactly what I called for him to do on Monday - he stayed hot coming back home - he had all 5 RBI for the Mets up to this point), when Milledge redeemed himself with a leadoff single. Mike DiFelice (doing great work filling in for the injured Ramon Castro and Paul LoDuca) bunted Milledge over, then pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson tied the game with a single up the middle. After a Jose Reyes bloop single, Luis Castillo continued his near-perfect play since joining the Mets with a game-winning base-hit, scoring the hustling Anderson from second.

The Mets need some wins like this - to remind them that they are the type of team that can win games like this. The Mets lineup is clicking right now.

-The Braves lost, but the Phillies won, so Philly stays 5 games back, the Braves are 6.

-I'll be in New York through the weekend, so this is the last post for a bit. I'm going to Friday night's Mets-Dodgers game, so when I'm back writing next week, I'll have an update on the progress of CitiField.

THE PROBLEM AT SECOND BASE

Right now, there is no problem at second base for the Mets...and there might not be for a few years. Luis Castillo was a great trade acquisition - by far an upgrade over Jose Valentin - and the Mets would be wise to give him a three-year deal at year's end. But that doesn't hide the fact that the Mets have had problems at second base for the past three years, all because of one man - Kaz Matsui.

It's not that Kaz Matsui was so awful with the Mets (though he certainly wasn't good...and I was an ally of his for a long time). It's more what the Mets missed out on by committing to him for as long as they did.

First of all, the Mets dodged a big bullet in the failed "Move Reyes" experiment. When they first signed Matsui, the Mets wanted to appease him by putting Reyes at second base and allowing Matsui to stay at shortstop, his preferred position. Reyes risked injury, and Matsui was an average (at best) shortstop, so that came to an end after one season. Thank goodness.

When the Mets had signed Matsui, they were coming off a year where a young man named Marco Scutaro had shown promise in a September callup. Scutaro was shipped to Oakland as Matsui became a Met. Scutaro put up decent numbers in the Bay Area on some playoff teams...those could have been years where he was a Mets second baseman. But he wasn't, because of Kaz Matsui.

The Mets traded Ty Wigginton in 2004 because he had become their regular third baseman, and they needed to open up third base to bring up David Wright. The Mets traded Wigginton because they couldn't move him to second base (despite his tremendous versatility), because that position was being blocked by the money they had invested in Kaz Matsui. Wigginton has been a very good hitter and player with a few teams since his Mets days - but imagine if the Mets had been able to keep him as a second baseman - they would have had three-fourths of their infield coming from their own farm system. Too bad.

Finally, and most recently, there is the case of Jeff Keppinger. I've liked Keppinger since his quick call-ups, and followed him for a while in the minors. I had thought that when the Mets finally gave up on Matsui, the position would be handed over to Keppinger. There was a time last year when I thought Keppinger actually earned the job out of spring training. You may also remember a couple of years ago when Keppinger was hot at Triple-A, and was on the fast track to a call up, and he was spiked on a sort-of-cheap-play at second base, and ended up breaking a leg. Anyway, I feel like the Keppinger star has been rising for some time - but it may finally have arrived. Keppinger was called up about a month ago by the Cincinnati Reds (the Mets had traded him to the Royals a year ago for Ruben Gotay...who, incidentally, is hitting .340), and since then has been on fire. Keppinger is hitting .368 in about 30 games, with 20 RBI. Another missed opportunity for the Mets.

But all's well that ends well...and though I may wonder what could have been with some of these young guys manning second base for many years, I'll take the here and now, where an established veteran could be filling the role of what had been the missing piece on a championship team.

3/4 SEASON CHECK-IN

We're almost at the three-fourths mark of the season - 11 games left until that point. Since I didn't do a mid-year check, I'll do it at the 70% mark.

This year has been strange. It seems like the Mets have been fighting an uphill battle all year, but they still have the best record in the National League (and third best in the majors). It seems like most of the offense is still trying to get it going...as they have been since April. Even David Wright, who has heated up considerably since his early part of the season, doesn't seem like he's clicking on all cylinders.

Some things you had to see coming - I said early in the year that neither Jose Valentin nor Damion Easley would be the second baseman for the Mets come October. I didn't exactly foresee Valentin going down to injury, or, for that matter, either one playing as well as they did most of the season, but the fact that Luis Castillo is now the Mets' second baseman is definitely an improvement I've been hoping for since March.

But there were other things you didn't see coming - Shawn Green is just five back of Carlos Beltran in terms of games played in the outfield this year - who would have thought he would have logged the most games in the outfield this year? And after he seemed to have turned the corner last year, Beltran is back to his struggling self as a Met - looking like he's never seen a curveball.

The pitching has been by far the biggest, and most positive, surprise. From John Maine, who is having an outstanding season, to Oliver Perez, who has been a solid starter, to consistent Tom Glavine, giving the Mets a chance to win each time he goes out, to even the contributions of Jorge Sosa, who is now pitching out of the bullpen. The pitching has saved the Mets' season, because it took the offense so long to get going. The bullpen has not been as good as last year, but the most important member of that bullpen, Billy Wagner, is having one of his best seasons.

A lot of people were down on the 2007 Mets from the beginning of the year. But so far they've proven those people wrong, hanging onto first place from the get-go (or, at least, mid-May). Now, they are poised to get some key players back (Pedro Martinez*, Carlos Beltran), while some other key players start to find their way (Delgado, even Wright and Jose Reyes). That could result in the 2007 Mets looking a lot more like the 2006 Mets heading into October.

MONTHLY RESULTS: I haven't updated this in a while, but it seems worth doing, since May seems so far away:

April: 15-9
May: 19-9
June: 12-15
July: 13-14

The Mets are off to a great start in August - 4-1 through Monday. They have a lot of ground to make up after a couple of pretty poor months there.

YANKEES-BLUE JAYS: This Alex Rodriguez thing isn't going away. The Blue Jays threw at A-Rod on Monday - retaliation for when he yelled to try to distract the third baseman on a pop up earlier this year. Then, on Tuesday, Josh Towers threw at A-Rod. I would bet that if the opportunity presents itself, Wednesday's starter will also throw at A-Rod. The Blue Jays seem to have been extremely, extremely bothered by this incident...and it looks like they've been waiting for this series to exact revenge. I just hope no one gets hurt - you know how I feel about brawls.

NEW FEATURE: I draw your attention to the poll on the right. I don't have many readers, so this won't be the sample size of, say, other sites, but I thought it looked neat. Please, give us your two cents.

JOHNNYJETS: I hate to toot my own horn, but I was checking out johnnyjets.blogspot.com today, and I was pretty entertained by what I wrote at the end of last year. Therefore, I have decided to give the Jets site the same revamped treatment as this here Mets site. Check it out when you get a chance...there's also an update, and there will be more periodically leading up to the season.


Also, please let me know if you have ideas for the name of either site - I'm still reconsidering a change to this site name, and the Jets one definitely needs one. I invite your feedback.

FOOTBALL H.O.F.: Speaking of football, I didn't watch the induction ceremony, but I did see the highlights of the NFL Hall of Fame inductions. I've never been a fan of Michael Irvin...but hearing the clip where he talks about how last year's NFL Hall of Famers are all great people, in addition to football players, made me almost like him. Almost. A little humility (meaning humbleness, not embarrassment, just so we're clear) goes a long way, Michael.

ROUGH ONE AT WRIGLEY

The Mets lost to the Cubs on Saturday at Wrigley Field, 6-2. John Maine got rocked in the third inning - he went two-and-two thirds innings. Hate to see him pitch poorly - but outings like this have definitely been few and far between. The ridiculous thing is that Maine looked absolutely dominant through two innings...and Ted Lilly looked hittable. The opposite turned out to be true.

The Mets came out on the wrong side of a call at first base in the Cubs' big inning - Ryan Theriot hit a slow roller up the middle which Jose Reyes fielded and gunned to first, but the umpire called Theriot safe. Replays showed he looked to be out. Should have been the third out...the Cubs went on to score 6. Tough break for the Mets.

The good news to come out of the game - Moises Alou is still alive and well - he hit two homers to account for both Mets runs. And Luis Castillo looked like he has a clue at the plate, which had not been the case through his first few games as a Met.

CLASSY ACT: This is the real reason I decided to write today, and you might want to bookmark this, because I'm about to say something nice about the Braves. I forgot to mention this the other day, when I wrote about Renteria's injury, and the Braves crumbling against Houston. Before the game, the Braves recognized Craig Biggio, and his 3,000 hits. That's nice enough. But they gave him a check for $3,000 for the Sunshine Kids, the organization Biggio has represented for about as long as I can remember. You may remember Biggio wearing the pin in his hat with the organization's logo - at the right. If I'm not mistaken, and sadly, I don't think I am, Major League Baseball asked Biggio to stop wearing the pin because it violated uniform code. I think he still wears it during spring training. Anyway, he did a nice job of raising awareness for the organization, and it was very, very nice of the Braves to recognize Biggio's accomplishment in that way. There. I said it. The Braves did a nice thing. Now I hope they lose the rest of their games.

BACK FROM VACATION

I don't expect you all to be monitoring my whereabouts at all times, but I will tell you that I am back in Massachusetts after logging roughly 1800 miles on the Johnnymets-Mobile (see graphic above). I think I've mentioned this, but since The Wife took over the scheduling of the stadium trips, the whole experience has been much more fluid and organized. Instead of hitting a random stadium on a whim, we have well-thought-out trips that cover a couple of places. This year, it was Ohio - visiting Jacobs Field in Cleveland and Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. We also stopped in Rochester, New York on the way out, and drove through Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the way back. All very nice stops (except Rochester...not much going on there).

For those of you wondering, The Baby did very well considering that's a lot of time for a baby to be cooped up in a car. She's so good. There will be more on the trip later in the week, but before I get to a recap of what's happened with the Mets in the past week, a few of the highlights during the trip (not counting the ballparks) and since we've gotten back:

• A real treat on the ride from Cincinnati to Gettysburg (aside: The Wife originally thought this was a 4-hour trip, which would have been a breeze. She discovered last week it would be a 7-and-a-half hour trip. Whoops. It was not a breeze.) - While looking for some good radio to keep me awake one hour into the long trip (lots of Christian music out there, incidentally), I found ESPN Radio - Mike & Mike in the Morning, with Mike Greenberg and Tim Kurkjian. And they had as a guest none other than Hall of Famer Gary Carter. This was Thursday morning, and he was preparing for Hall of Fame festivities, and plugging something for MasterCard. Then, I started to lose reception on ESPN Radio right after that interview, so I found Fox Sports Radio, and they had none other than Hall of Famer Gary Carter plugging MasterCard. Back-to-back Gary Carter interviews....good start to the day.
  
• Before I left, I used the search function on TiVo to find a 'Scrubs' episode in syndication - the episode where Janitor organizes an air band. When we came back, it was waiting for us, so that was a nice mini-surprise. It's probably my favorite episode, a laugh a minute, though I wanted there to be more air-banding. It really came in the 'Scrubs' wheelhouse, too - where they were treating Mrs. Wilk, and Mandy Moore was J.D.'s girlfriend. That was a great stretch of episodes. On a related note, Comedy Central seems to have done away with the 11am-12 noon back-to-back 'Scrubs'. That was always a nice treat for The Baby and I for her 11:30 bottle...we'll have to change our routine...because we don't watch MADTV.
  
• Also a bonus - two 'Flight of the Conchords' waiting for me on the TiVo. The first was the first bad episode I've seen...I deleted it so it doesn't ruin The Wife's blossoming enjoyment of the show - she doesn't have to know about that episode. The second one from this past Sunday was funny enough - lots of Murray, that's always good.
  
• The digital camera worked all through Cleveland, and then for the Cincinnati Zoo...but when we got to Great American Ballpark, the camera gave some sort of error message. After a lot of cursing and frustration, I went to Plan B (Plan A is that I need plenty of pictures of these stadiums, using the digital camera), buying a disposable camera at the team store. $20. Yikes. So the Cincinnati pictures need to be developed from a store, and then I'll write about the trip - that's why Cincinnati comes late in the week (approximately Thursday. Cleveland will be tomorrow.)
  
• Did lots of reading over the trip, mostly Harry Potter. For those of you wondering, the final Harry Potter was a much more satisfying ending than The Sopranos. I like my closure. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but I'll give this piece of advice - it was very helpful for me to re-read the sixth book before reading number 7. I had forgotten a lot of important details. JK Rowling is a genius.

ONE MORE NOTE BEFORE THE METS: MLB.com has what seems to be a cool contest going for the post-season. You've probably seen the commercials, with Dane Cook (why?), that have the actober.com website. They are releasing certain sets of classic post-season games on their website, and fans can re-create the moments however they want...the cleverest would win tickets or some such thing. I'm going to keep checking back, and when I see a scenario that inspires me, I'm going to win that contest. I have not been inspired yet...and I'm not sure I even understand all the rules yet. But I will.

THE METS

So the Mets played Pittsburgh and Washington while I was away, and they did OK. They took two out of three from the Pirates, and then split 4 games with Washington. The Washington series was a bit of a disappointment because of the way the Mets lost Saturday night's nightcap of a day-night doubleheader (the first day-night doubleheader at Shea Stadium in 35 years - pretty wild stat, I thought). They fought back a couple of times to tie the game, then gave up the lead one last time, and had a rally fall short.

People are criticizing Willie Randolph for a complicated situation Saturday night where he pinch hit Marlon Anderson, after he already knew he had to insert Ramon Castro into the game because Paul LoDuca got hurt running the bases (he might be hurt bad, incidentally). By putting in Anderson, Randolph used his last bench player, and was forced to pinch hit Tom Glavine in the ninth inning. The problem here is Carlos Beltran, who is hurt again, but hasn't been placed on the DL yet, so the Mets are wasting a roster spot waiting for a decision. He'll probably go on the DL Tuesday. Randolph defended his move, and I'm fine with his defense (that Anderson is a pinch-hitter, Castro is less comfortable in that role), and the bottom line is that the Mets had another chance to tie in the next inning and left a runner at third, so that wasn't the deciding play of the game. But I think Randolph's hands are tied with the Beltran situation.

The Mets have injury problems right now - Moises Alou is back, but Beltran and LoDuca might be out for a while now. Mike DiFelice was called up to replace Mike Pelfrey, who was needed for the doubleheader, and DiFelice gives the Mets depth at catcher, and then David Newhan was called back up and Anderson Hernandez was sent down because the Mets need outfielders, with Beltran now out (though not yet on the DL) and every other outfielder seemingly injured. Expect another roster move in the next couple of days if Beltran is disabled.

All told, though, the Mets are holding on. They're 3-and-a-half up on the Phillies, who play the Cubs Monday night in the only National League game. The Braves are a game behind the Phillies.

SPEAKING OF WHICH: The reports right now are that the Braves have agreed to a deal for Mark Teixeira in which they get the first baseman and pitcher Ron Mahay in exchange for Jarrod Saltalamacchia and another top prospect. They're saying this is going to shift the balance of power in the NL East. I know that Andruw Jones is playing better now, Tim Hudson has been pitching great, and Chipper Jones is having a very good season, and I acknowledge that Teixeira is a better option at first base than ex-Met Julio Franco, but I don't think Teixeira is a difference-maker. (He might be in East Coast Bias, where my lead is slipping more and more everyday...but that's another story. Hurry back, Pedro*.) I think it makes the Braves better offensively, but I don't know that it gives them the oomph to pass the Mets in the division.

The Mets have just countered (at this writing) by trading two minor leaguers for Luis Castillo. Castillo is coming from Minnesota, but you'll remember him making his mark in Florida. The important thing to note here, and what makes this a great trade for the Mets, is that Castillo has been an outstanding hitter over his career at Shea Stadium. He had one of the longest (if not the longest) hitting streaks at Shea for a visiting player, and definitely has a great career average there. He hasn't done as well recently, but the career numbers are staggering - I'm sure they'll be all over the papers tomorrow...I don't even know where to search for them right now...maybe Yahoo!.....they don't split the career stats. Castillo was 1-for-13 at Shea this year for the Twins. Maybe now that he's back in the National League, though.....

COMING TOMORROW: Jacobs Field Review, lots of trade reaction, I'm sure, too