Game Recap: Cardinals 5 -- Mets 4

Johan Santana made his first "start" as a member of the New York Mets, and quickly got taken deep by a man who has one major league at bat in 3 years.

Santana pitched 2 innings, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits. Juan Gonzalez, who has only had one AB in the majors in the last 3 years, took Santana deep with two runners on base in the first inning.

Johan, #57, Mets blue and orange. I can get used to that.
It's just so fitting for the Mets to acquire the best pitcher in baseball and have him give up a 3-run home run to a man that been trying to come back for three years, isn't it?
(Adam Rubin has Santana's mid-game post conference.)

Both Billy Wagner and Aaron Heilman threw perfect innings of baseball.
Nelson Figueroa, Joselo Diaz, and Ricardo Rincon each tallied a scoreless inning.
Duaner Sanchez also pitched an inning, allowing a solo home run to Albert Pujols to lead off the inning, but shook off the rust and completed the inning without any further damage.

Luckily, no one tried to lay down a bunt while Wagner was on the mound.
Great to see Sanchez back and feeling good. Goggles, how I've missed you.

Eddie Kunz allowed one run to score on 2 hits in the top of the 9th inning. Kunz struck out one.

Jose Reyes led off the game with a single, going 2-3 on the day with a run and an RBI.
Brady Clark, who is a non-roster invitee, played the entire game, going 2-5 with 2 singles and a run scored.

Unfortunately, I just don't see any room on the team for Clark, as much as I'd think he'd help the team.

David Wright went 1-3 on the day, driving in one run. Moises Alou also drove in one.
Ruben Gotay came in as a substitution, and added a solo home run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

Nice to see Gotay with some power. If he gets his shot this season, which I think he will since he is out of options, I'd love to see some power out of his bat along with some consistency of course.

(Doug Benc/Getty Images)

Juan-Gone takes Johan deep

It's the Mets, would you really expect him to cruise through this?

Yes, I know, first spring training start, but isn't it funny how Juan Gonzalez took Johan Santana deep for a 3-run home run in the first inning.

Juan-Gone has had ONE at bat in the majors in the last three years.

I just find this hysterical.

Update: Santana is done. 2 innings. 3 runs on 4 hits.

Here we go

Let the Johan Santana Era begin...

Line-up vs. the Cardinals, part duex

The Mets will take on the St. Louis Cardinals in their first home game of spring training at 1:10 p.m.

Here are the line-ups via Adam Rubin:

Mets
SS Jose Reyes
RF Brady Clark
3B David Wright
1B Carlos Delgado
LF Moises Alou
DH Ryan Church
C Ramon Castro
CF Angel Pagan
2B Anderson Hernandez

Pitchers:
Johan Santana, Billy Wagner, Aaron Heilman, Ricardo Rincon, Duaner Sanchez, Nelson Figueroa, Eddie Kunz.

Santana will be fun to watch, but I really want to see how Sanchez handles real batters.

1:10 on SNY. The moment we've kind of been waiting for.

Leap Day signifigance?

Does anyone find it significant that Johan Santana is making his first "start" on February 29th, or "Leap Day?"

Think the Mets are taking a "big leap" by acquiring Santana and pushing them to that next level to try and secure a World Series title?

Think on it.

Also, Check out Marty Noble's Leap Day column.

"I'm ready to go"

Duaner Sanchez, who hasn't pitched in the majors since a taxi accident in 2006, will pitch in todays game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Sanchez missed all of 2007 as well with a hairline fracture in his shoulder. Sanchez was scheduled to pitch in yesterdays game against the Cards, but woke up with soreness and was scratched.

Bart Hubbuch in the NY Post quotes Sanchez as saying: "I'm ready to go."

Pretty exciting stuff today. Johan Santana will make the start, and Sanchez coming in for an inning will be great to watch. I'm confident Sanchez can make a full recovery and return to the dominant pitcher he once was.

Happy Santana Day

Today, February 29, 2008, Johan Santana will make his first appearance in a New York Mets uniform to face another teams batters.

It's a 1:10 p.m. game, with the St. Louis Cardinals traveling to Port St. Lucie to take on the Mets at Tradition Field. That leaves us with just about four and a half hours of waiting to see that first walk out to the mound and hear the cheers and claps from all the lucky fans down in PSL.

The game will be televised on SNY.

Mets are Kurkjian's pick; #1 Top Play

On SportsCenter Tim Kurkjian has chosen the Mets to win the NL East.

This post is really just a way to mention that Quinnipiac University's basketball team made the #1 play on the Friday edition of SportsCenter. Check it out if you get a chance, DeMario Anderson drains a half court three-pointer as time expires to beat CCSU.
Go Bobcats!

Nats blogger sick of Church

Over at Washington Nationals blog, Capitol Punishment (great name, by the way), is calling out Ryan Church for opening his mouth about the Nats use of him.

Chris Needham, who penned the column, gives Church a lot of credit for dealing with everything that he did, like being called out for being too laid-back. He then explains that Church opening his mouth is getting on his nerves.

From CP:

But at the same time, good riddance. The team is better with [Lastings] Milledge than it is with him. And Church's biggest asset to the team always was how cheap his contract was relative to the league-average performance he gave. Now that he's making north of $2 million, that value starts to erode.

I hope he enjoys NY. I hope he enjoys putting his foot in his mouth at some point this year. And I hope he enjoys the choruses of boos he's going to get when he flails weakly at a breaking ball in the dirt.

I can easily see Church getting grilled by the media and fans in NY for being too laid back. Look at how we treat Willie Randolph and Carlos Beltran. Both these guys are very laid back in the public eye, choosing (at least before a few weeks ago, Beltran) to stay quiet and reserved, and dealing with things behind closed doors.

If Church fails to preform in NY, or goes through a slump, fans are going to jump all over him and his laid-back California attitude. Hopefully, Church will have a thick enough shell to deflect all the trash talk and be able to shine in the New York spotlight.

Oh, and to Capitol Punishment, good luck with Milledge and Elijah Dukes, they should be a handful.

Jon Niese profile

Jon Niese, the newly appointed best pitching prospect in the Mets system, will get the start on Saturday against the Dodgers.

Niese, who went 11-7, with a 4.29 ERA in High A ball with the St. Lucie Mets last season. Of the 27 games he started, he tallied two complete games in 134 innings. Niese struck out 110, while walking only 31.

Niese will be taking Pedro Martinez's position in the rotation this go-around, until Pedro is ready to pitch in early March.

Adam Rubin profiled Niese in his latest post on his blog Surfing the Mets.
From Rubin:

Niese, the top southpaw in the Mets’ minor-league system, features a 12-to-6 curveball (picture the hands on a clock) that you don’t see much from lefthanders anymore, with Barry Zito one notable exception.

As our new "top prospect" he'll see a lot of attention over the next few years. It's so hard to pick a guy out from A ball and crown him a top prospect, especially after only one year.

The term prospect is thrown around so wildly recently, it has lost it's true meaning. Pretty much every player is a "prospect" now if the show the tiniest bit of ability. That's why they were picked up by a team in the first place, because they have talent. The baseball gods need to limit the use of "prospect" to those that show true major league level potential.