Depending on which newspaper you read this morning, Oliver Perez’s performance ranged from as bad as “discouraging” to as good as “a surprising success”. Oliver Perez is so unpredictable and erratic in terms of his performance, that even those who write about him can’t seem to agree how good or how bad he is on any given day. As for my take… It was three scoreless innings and given how bad he looked at the WBC, it was a solid performance. Next…
It’s not set in stone just yet, but it looks like pitching prospect Bobby Parnell will make the team and has earned himself at least a seventh-inning relief role when the Mets open the season in a little more than two weeks. Parnell threw two more shutout innings against the Orioles and has lowered his spring ERA to 2.89. “It would be very, very tough at this point not to take him with us once the regular season starts,” said Manuel. Nice!
Yesterday, Nick Evans played in right field in an attempt to strengthen his chances for securing a final bench spot. Evans has been one of the Mets hottest hitters in camp and leads the team in several offensive categories including homers and RBI’s. Manager Jerry Manuel said he will find somewhere to play that bat. Most of the writers that cover the Mets have hinted that the Mets could go with one less pitcher and a six man bench to start the season.
While Jon Niese was the biggest news-maker when he got optioned to the minors yesterday, the Mets also optioned catcher Robinson Cancel and right-hander Connor Robertson and reassigned right-handers Kyle Snyder and Matt DeSalvo and left-handers Jon Switzer, Casey Fossum and Heriberto Ruelas to their minor-league camp. And as I reported a couple of days ago, Rocky Cherry was offered back and subsequently released. All told, the Mets trimmed over a thousand pounds on their Grapefruit (League) Diet.
The Mets will face Tom Glavine and the Braves today, and the lineup card features Josh Thole at catcher for the Mets. Does anybody else find it telling that Thole is still in camp and Robinson Cancel is not? Also, Nick Evans is back at first base so the right field experiment last a total of just one day. John Maine makes the start for the Mets.
Over and out…
