Shawn Green announces his retirement

Shawn Green, who played for the Mets during the past two season, announced his retirement from baseball on Wednesday.

Green was partially open to a deal for a West coast team, but nothing popped up and he decided it was the right time.

From the Post:

Green, who is building his dream house in Irvine with his family (wife Lindsay and daughters Presley and Chandler), added, "I wanted to stay here with my family. Not travel around the country anymore. I enjoyed playing a lot. I enjoyed New York. But for me, it was time to be home."

Shalom aleichem.

Line-up vs. the Cardinals

The Mets will make a much shorter trip today, 40 minutes or so down I-95 to take on the St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter Florida. The game is at 1:05 and will not be televised.

Mets
Jose Reyes SS
Fernando Martinez CF
David Wright 3B
Carlos Delgado 1B
Moises Alou LF
Ryan Church RF
Ruben Gotay 2B
Brian Schneider C
Marlon Anderson DH

John Maine will get the start, and also scheduled to pitch: Duaner Sanchez, Scott Schoeneweis, Joe Smith, Ruddy Lugo.

UPDATE: Sanchez has been scratched after needed an extra day to recover. He will pitch tomorrow.

I can't wait to see what a 1-2 punch of Reyes and Martinez can do. Martinez is getting the start in center as Carlos Beltran is still recovering. Once Beltran is back, Willie Randolph said he will use Martinez in the corner outfield positions.

Gotay's going to get a lot of work at second, as Damion Easley will be more of a roving utility man more than a back-up second baseman this season.

I'm really interested to see what ALL of these pitchers will be able to do today. Sanchez, Smith, and Register are all very intriguing. To me, Schoe is the only lock to make the team besides Maine, and the other pitchers are all battling for one or maybe two spots to make the team right out of spring training.

Photo of the Day: Pelf

Mike Pelfrey looked good in 2 innings of work against a very powerful Tigers line-up.
Let's see how he pans out over the next few weeks, and how much El Duque hurts his own cause.

(AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Game Recap: Tigers 4 -- Mets 2

Going on limited coverage, here is what I came up with for todays game:

As I reported earlier, Mike Pelfrey pitched 2 scoreless innings, only giving up one hit and striking out one.
Matt Wise, Brian Stokes, Pedro Feliciano and Jorge Sosa all followed with a scoreless and hitless inning respectively.
Willie Collazo gave up all four runs in the bottom of the 7th inning. Collazo allowed a triple, a run-scoring double, and a two-run single.

Rough go for Collazo, but it's still wayyy too early to think this means anything for the season.

The only runs for the Mets came in the first 2 innings, on a sac-fly from Ramon Castro with the bases loaded in the first and a Anderson Merchado run scoring triple in the 2nd. Angel Pagan scored on Castro's sac-fly, and Michael Abreu crossed the plate on the triple. Ryan Church contributed with a walk to load the bases in the first inning.

Jeremy Bonderman, who was on the mound for the first two innings, did not use his breaking ball at all, while focusing on other pitches. Bonderman gave up 4 hits overall.

Don't worry, it's the first game and only a few players that will make the team took the 2 1/2 hour bus trip.

Pelfrey looks good in limited role

Mike Pelfrey started today against the Detroit Tigers, and what is pretty much their opening day line-up, pitching 2 scoreless innings.

Pelf gave up only one hit, an infield single to Magglio Ordonez, and struck out one batter.

David Lennon relays a quote from Pelfrey:

"I want to be on this team and I want to help them," Pelfrey said a few minutes ago in the empty visitors clubhouse. "Worse comes to worse, I think I’ll just try to make their decision difficult. I think the chances of the whole staff going the whole year without something happening is slim. If I don’t get out of spring training, then some time during the year I’ll get my opportunity. I look at it as there’s no way I can be mad. They’ve given me opportunities, I just haven’t taken advantage of them and that’s the bottom line."

The Mets got a run from a Ramon Castro sac-fly and an Anderson Machado triple drove another run in.

The Tigers are leading 4-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning.

You can't put much stock into what goes on in these early games, but it's still nice to see a good, short outing against a major league opening day lineup.

I like Pelfrey's attitude here, he knows he has a chance, and he's going to try his hardest to make the team out of ST. If not, he's willing to work down in AAA until his chance comes along. Great stuff.

Achoo! Kazmir sidelined with "stuffiness"

I guess the Mets knew his arm was prone to the common cold.

Hat tip to Sox & Dawgs for the link.

Line-up vs. the Tigers

John Delcos relays the line-up for the Mets game against the Detroit Tigers at 1:05 p.m, and also points out it's not much warmer down in Florida. It's about 36 degrees here, and it's only apparently 55 and dropping down in FL.

METS

CF Angel Pagan
LF Brady Clark
DH Marlon Anderson
RF Ryan Church
C Ramon Castro
2B Ruben Gotay
1B Michel Abreu
3B Anderson Machado
SS Anderson Hernandez
RHP Mike Pelfrey

DETROIT

CF Curtis Granderson
2B Placido Polanco
DH Timo Perez
RF Magglio Ordonez
3B Miguel Cabrera
1B Carlos Guillen
SS Edgar Renteria
C Ivan Rodriguez
LF Jacque Jones
RHP Jeremy Bonderman

The Mets are running the B, or even C, team out there against the absolutely stacked Tigers line-up.

Man, that's a good looking squad Jim Leyland is running out there today. If the Mets can squeak out a victory here, at least in the first few innings when the "starters" are in, I'll be pretty amazed.

Can we call it real baseball yet?

Sure, we finally have a game against a MLB team, but with Ryan Church being the only opening day starter to make the trip, does it really count?

Mike Pelfrey will also be at the game, as he is the slated to get the start. It should be interesting to watch Pelfrey this spring training because there has to be the thought in the back of his head that he can make the team with a strong performance and a little help from an injured Orlando Hernandez. Today's first game won't hold much water as to how Pelfrey will look when April rolls around, but as we progress through ST, we can start to see what he's really made of.

The Mets take on the Tigers today at Joker Marcham Stadium, 1:05 p.m.

Photo of the Day: A-Hern

The question remains, can you hit?
If not, the next question is why are you still on the team?

(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Heilman has to sing

According to Jeremy Cothran on his blog for NJ.com relays a few tidbits about todays game against the U of Michigan:

Because Aaron Heilman gave up a run today against the University of Michigan in a game that ended in a 4-4 tie, the ex-Notre Dame pitcher must sing the Wolverine's fight song. Obviously, he's not too happy about it.
...
Billy Wagner, the third Mets pitcher this afternoon, wasn't too happy when a Michigan player dropped a bunt on him in the third inning. The Mets closer shook his head at the hitter while waiting for the ball to come in.

Poor Heilman, that's got to be rough. I can't wait until he hears back from his ND teammates. Hopefully someone gets a recording of the performance.