Two starts in and Fernando Nieve is looking like a solid waiver wire pickup, although we’ve been down this road before with guys like Alay Soler, Jorge Sosa and most recently Nelson Figueroa. Lets just temper our expectations a little before we start getting a little bit too giddy. Nieve had a 4.91 ERA at Class-AA Binghamton and a 3.70 ERA at Class-AAA Buffalo before he was called up.
In his last three games, first baseman Daniel Murphy has picked up seven hits. After hitting .324 in April, Murphy slumped terribly in May with a .176 batting average. So far in June, he is batting .273. I still don’t know what to make of him, but I do know one thing… If he’s not going to give us the prototypical power you look for at first base, than he has to keep his average in the .300 to .315 range to justify annointing him as our everyday first baseman in 2010 and beyond.
Later today, the Mets will aim for consecutive wins for the second time since May 29, and Johan Santana will be hoping to rebound from a string of subpar performances. Johan has seen his performance slip since going all the way back to May 16. He is coming off of the worst start in his career where the Yankees blistered him for nine earned runs. Former pitching coach blamed his knee, but Santana said there was nothing wrong with his knee and that he has had just normal aches and pains here and there although none of them serious. All eyes will be on him today.
