Today's random Thoughts
Some things I wanted to catch up on:
Ricky Gutierrez was designated for assignment (DFAed) to make room for Cliff Floyd who came back from the DL. Gutierrez did nothing to distinguish himself (in a positive way) in his short stay with the Mets. Couple that with the emergence of Danny Garcia and Gutierrez becomes the obvious choice.
James Baldwin was DFAed to open a spot on the roster for Matt Ginter. Ginter started in place of Al Leiter yesterday and pitched well enough to keep the Mets in the game against Roger Clemens and earn his spot as number five starter of the moment. Baldwin was lousy in two starts for the Mets and one has to think that his career is probably over.
The Grant Roberts situation just keeps getting wierder. First Art Howe stops using him. Then he gets DFAed. Then he claims he's injured (even though he never complained about being injured before he was designated). Then Mets team physicians say he's not injured. Then he gets a second opinion who says he is injured. Then it gets really weird. Roberts is on an operating table partially anesthetized when a call comes from Mets officials saying he cannot have surgery because Mets team physicians say he's not injured. So Roberts gets outrighted to Norfolk instead of getting cut. I'm dying to see what happens next in this odd soap opera.
Art Howe announced that Mike Piazza is transitioning from a Catcher/First Baseman to a First Baseman/Catcher meaning that he will start to play more first base and catch maybe once or twice a week. It'll be interesting to see if this is just an experiment or if it's serious and how Piazza's defense improves at first with the increased playing time. I'm still trying to figure out how Eric Valent fits into the first base situation. Valent has been taking grounders at first base recently. What's the point in doing that if Piazza is going to be there so often? Stay tuned.
Howe got thrown out of yesterday's game for arguing a call. It's nice to see Howe show some fire. Unlike a lot of Mets fans I think Howe is a serviceable manager. That doesn't mean he's the right manager for this team but I don't think he's as bad as many of the other Mets bloggers think.
