We start a three game series with the Braves tonight to finish up our homestand before hitting the road.  Aaron Heilman takes the hill tonight, hoping to recapture the complete game 1 hit magic that he had in his first start against the Marlins.  Ramirez goes for the Braves.  He's a currently giving up about a hit per inning and has a tendency to walk some people so hopefully we'll be able to have another offensive outpouring that will offset any mistakes Heilman will make on the hill.  He's been getting hit this season by lefties, so the fact that we've got some left handed bats and switch hitters in the lineup might help us out tonight.  We're currently sitting one game back of both the Braves and the Marlins, so taking two out of three would be big.  With Pedro going tomorrow, followed by Glavine on Wednesday, we better hope that we win this game tonight, because we all know what kind of luck Glavine has had against his former team.

Well we were on the road for two game series with the Phillies  which we split.  I suppose that these series could have gone worse, but they could have gone better too.  For instance the game we lost agains the Phillies, Ishii made true on my prophesy by walking 6, striking out 2, and giving up 5 runs.  Despite this, the offense rallied putting up 4 runs in the ninth to fall just short of a come back.  The second game against the Phils was an offensive explosion.  Victor Zambrano had for him a decent performance (ie more Ks then walks), while giving up 8 hits in 6 innings.  The best thing he did all day was to drive in two runs to help his cause.  My boy David Wright had a grand slam in this game going 2 for 4 on the day with a walk and scoring 3 runs.  Victor Diaz continues to impress and I must reluctantly admit that even Doug Meintkiewicz is still over performing based on his career numbers, so maybe he won't suck this year.......we can only hope.

With our starting pitching staff falling apart before my eyes, it got me thinking about what our staff might have looked like.  With Trax hurt, Benson hurt, and Zambrano who will inevitably get hurt, our staff that looked OK at the beginning of the season is now looking like it's going to be in trouble.  Add the departure the stop gap know as Matt Ginter traded, we've got some serious trouble.  Perhaps we should have signed that old guy Al Leiter.  Not only was he with the Mets organization forever, but here was his line in his first start with the Marlins:

5 2/3 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts......it's food for thought.

I was kind of surprised by the opening day line up.  We had 14 hits on the day and only drove in 6 runs mostly due to our lack of clutch hitting.  I think with a few minor changes in the line up, Looper would have given up 5 or so runs in the loss instead of just 3.  Here's my line up card for opening day:

1. Reyes


2. Matsui


3. Piazza


4. Beltran


5. Floyd


6. Wright


7. Mientkiewicz


8. Valent

Swapping Beltran and Piazza would get Mike better pitches at the plate.  Since Piazza is on the way down in his career and Beltran is still on the upswing, this might help to increase Piazza's productivity at the plate, while essentially keeping Beltran's the same.

There is no way Doug Mientcanthit should be batting ahead of David Wright.  I don't care what kind of spring Mientkiewicz had, this is still the guy that had a .676 OPS last year.  Hitting in the 7 spot with Mientkiewicz ahead of him, Wright isn't going to see any pitches, and it's only going to set him back in his development.

One more thing....where is Victor Diaz?  I'd rather see him trolling around in right field than Eric Valent.  After all he did pretty well when he came up with the team at the end of last year.  I'd put Diaz in the 7 spot and relegate Mientkiewicz to the 8 spot.  Sorry Doug, I just don't like you...I have major issues with "defensive specialists."

With the beginning of a new mlb season, I figured this would be the perfect time to launch my new blog covering the ups and downs of the New York Mets season.  After all, a new season brings hope and promise....we are yet to trade away our young talent at the trade deadline when we are already 7 games back, and the Braves are still in sight.  Plus, I just finished my thesis in what should be my last year of college.....its safe to say that I'm not going to class for the rest of the semester.  What better way would there be to make use of my free time?  Without further ado, here we go.