Good afternoon my fellow Mets fans, how are you today? Welcome back to another edition of Stir-Up Sunday! Well, this week marked the beginning of a 10 game homestand for our New York Metropolitans, and 6 games through, things are looking pretty good. A record of 5-1 has propelled us back to the .500 mark for the first time in a good 2 weeks. And it all starts with solid pitching. In the 5 victories this week, the Mets staff did not allow more than more than 2 runs, where in the 1 defeat, 9 runs crossed home for the visiting team. It all stems from solid pitching. The offense thus far on this homestand has averaged 4 and a third runs per game. It’s not an incredible figure, but I’ll take it. Despite slumps from Jeff Francoeur – .175 his past 10 games – and the notoriously streaky David Wright – .171 in his past 10 games – and also despite some new injury woes of Ryota Igarashi (hamstring) and John Maine (spasms in his elbow) the team has been winning, and that’s the most important thing right now. It’s just so wonderful how a nice string of wins can dampen all of the negative qualms that still surround this team. Keep on truckin’ guys, keep it up!
On Friday, the highly-rumored move of placing Jose Reyes into the #3 spot of the batting order finally came to fruition. For Jerry Manuel, it just reeks of desperation, and I’m just not crazy about it. But hey, I suppose not too long ago when the Mets were wallowing around in the basement of the NL East, the Mets were a rather desperate team. And desperate times I suppose call for desperate measures. And of course, since the Mets haven’t yet lost with Reyes in the 3 hole, not a lot of criticism is necessary. But still, he’s hitting above our best hitters (Wright, Bay, Davis, and Francoeur). Doesn’t anyone else feel like this totally neutralizes his gift of speed? It’s kind of a two sides to a coin deal here. If Reyes attempts to steal and is successful, then he moves up a station on the base paths making the RBI easier to attain for our best hitters. However if he winds up getting caught stealing, he completely takes the RBI opportunity away from our sluggers. So far since the Mets are winning, I’m willing to overlook this, but I still don’t feel like Reyes’ skill set projects him as a #3 hitter. He’s a stud leadoff hitter, why can’t he just stay there?
And finally, here’s a little something that caught my eye and got the wheels in my head to turn a little while back. I’ve neglected to touch upon it, so I’m going to do so now. Mike Pelfrey has been downright awesome, showing much more to me than I ever thought he would so far this season. He’s 3-0, with an ERA under 1, and he’s even 1 for 1 in save opportunities to go along with it. I’ve read at a couple of different places, that Pelfrey is giving a lot of his early season success to Mets backup catcher Henry Blanco, even going as far to say " I’m probably not as good as he made [me] look…" Hmm, what do you know? On one hand, I’m very happy that employing a no-bat catcher has paid off like it has. We more or less signed Blanco and Rod Barajas for that matter to aid the weak-looking starting rotation, and so far, it appears as if they’re doing their jobs to a T. On the other hand, it looks more and more like Blanco is turning into Pelfrey’s personal catcher, even getting the start tonight at 8 PM when Pelfrey takes the mound. Personal catchers are a touchy subject with me. What would happen if Blanco was to go down with an injury? The guy’s not going to be around forever in the game either; he’s a good 12 years older than Pelfrey is. I am happy Pelfrey is finding success, but I want the success to be of his own doing. Once again, the Mets are winning lately so I’m going to overlook these trivial matters, but at the same time it’s some very tasty food for thought. When Blanco one day isn’t at the Mets services, will Pelfrey go back to imploding every game he pitches?
