Questionable early exits of two opposing pitchers made for Monday morning quarterbacking Tuesday night in the Bronx.

New York managed to tie the series 2-2 with a 6-4 win, but not without a lot of head scratching from this lifelong baseball fan.

Yankee starter Sonny Gray was in the midst of a stellar performance matching the equally impressive outing of Astros all-star Lance McCullers.

After walking the leadoff batter in the sixth, a catcher’s interference put runners on first and second, provoking a jittery Joe Girardi to relieve Gray for the very reliable David Robertson. Mind you, at this point, the righty had relinquished one hit on a total of 85 pitches.

Robertson lost the battle with the first batter, a walk to Jose Altuve to load the bases. Carlos Correa went down swinging on an 85 mph curve, but Yuli Gurriel laced the 32-year-old’s slower offering to left for a bases-clearing double. Gurriel got greedy and was gunned down at third by Didi Gregorius’s relay to Todd Frazier. Alex Bregman ended the rally with an infield ground out.

McCullers was still sharp in the bottom frame, retiring the side in order. Houston made it four-zip off a double by Marwin Gonzalez, who scored on an error by Starlin Castro as he lost his footing trying to field a bad hop ground ball from Brian McCann.

In the seventh, Aaron Judge jacked a solo shot to center, sending Astros skipper A.J. Hinch to the mound to give McCullers the hook – a move that may haunt him forever.

“He was throwing the ball great at the end of his outing,” Hinch said of McCullers, “and we got him out after the one pitch. We had the pocket for Devenski with the two lefthanded hitting guys.”

Chris Devenski in relief made a mess of McCullers’ masterpiece, surrendering a triple to Gregorius and a sac fly to Gary Sanchez, cutting Houston’s lead in half. Joe Musgrove came out of the pen to put out the fire retiring Castro and Aaron Hicks via a ground out and fly ball to right.

Shane Greene, money throughout the regular and postseason, retired the Astros in the top of the eighth in order.

Musgrove returned from a previous inning well done, but as soon as Frazier lined a sharp leadoff single to left, you just knew that the series was heading back to Houston. And if you had any doubt, it was immediately erased when Chase Headley hit a pinch-hit single to left, advancing Frazier to third, taking second on a botched rundown.

With no outs and two runners in scoring position, closer Ken Giles became the third Houston hurler to try and stop the comeback bleeding, but New York wasn’t in a conceding state of mind. Brett Gardner got the baby bombers within one scoring Frazier on a ground out to second. Then Judge, the rookie who makes everyone in Yankee Stadium rise, doubled deep to left making it a 4-4 game.

“They were very patient at the plate,” Giles said. “They stayed off some good pitches. It wasn’t because we were unraveling as much as it was they were slowly driving us into the ground.”

Gregorius singled, and Sanchez, who sat this one out behind the plate, delivered in front of it with a go ahead two-run double, which held up after Aroldis Chapman picked up the save with a perfect ninth.

“There’s no doubt the crowd had an effect on the game,” Astros DH Carlos Beltran said. “This place is loud, same as it was in Houston.”

All I can say, it’s beginning to look a lot like Cleveland, or worse yet for Houston, New York redemption for being humiliated in 2004 by Boston.

The post Epic Comeback By Yankees Ties Up Series With ‘Stros appeared first on Metsmerized.

Yes I know Opening Day is about three months away yet I found myself daydreaming during the Curtis Granderson introductory press conference yesterday. Who/what could I be daydreaming about you may ask?

Was it Jennifer Love Hewitt ? No.

Was it Jessica Alba in a string bikini ? Nope .

Could it be about the ’71 Dodge Demon 340 that I lusted over since I was 13 ? Nuh-uh.

Then what could it be that I was fantasizing about while our newest outfielder was talking about all the good things he heard about the Mets faithful (a mixture of good old-fashioned playing to the fan base with a pinch of brown-nosing thrown in for good measure). Try possible enthusiastic calls by either Howie Rose or Gary Cohen when The “Grandy Man” hits a game changing or game winning homerun or makes a stellar catch in the outfield.

So here are the Top 5 calls for Curtis Granderson when does something amazin for the Mets.

1. “IT’S A GRANDY SALAMMY!!!!!”

2. “IT’S A GRANDER- SON!!!!!”

3. “THAT ONE WAS GRANDED FOR LIFE!!!”

4. ” THAT BALL WAS ENGRANDED INTO THE PEPSI PORCH!!!!”

5. “GIVE THAT MAN A 100 GRAND BAR!!!”

But then after I stopped fantasizing I realized that our broadcasters are not named John Sterling and realized that this exercise was a moot point…

And with that said….. HERE COMES THE INFAMY!!!!!

Mets alumni celebrating a birthday today includes:

Utility infielder from the ’03 season, Jay Bell is 49 (1965).

Mets outfielder from the ’00 season, Derek Bell is 45 (1968).

Other transactions of note includes:

The New York Mets traded utility infielder,  Felix Mantilla to the Boston Red Sox for pitcher, Tracy Stallard, third baseman, Pumpsie Green and utility infielder, Al Moran on December 11, 1962.

The New York Mets traded utility infielder, Ted Martinez to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder,  Mike Vail and utility infielder, Jack Heidemann on December 11, 1974.

The New York Mets released pitcher,  Bob Apodaca on December 11, 1979.

The New York Mets traded gold glove second baseman, Doug Flynn and middle reliever,  Danny Boitano to the Texas Rangers for pitcher,  Jim Kern on December 11, 1981.

The New York Mets traded shortstop, Frank Taveras to the Montreal Expos for pitching prospect,  Steve Ratzer on December 11, 1981.

The New York Mets traded outfielders, Kevin Mitchell, Stan Jefferson and former first round draft pick, Shawn Abner to the San Diego Padres for outfielder,Kevin McReynolds, pitcher, Gene Walter and minor league infielder,  Adam Ging on December 11, 1986.

The New York Mets traded shortstop,  Rafael Santana and minor league pitcher, Victor Garcia to the New York Yankees for reserve outfielders, Phil Lombardi, Darren Reed and minor league pitcher,  Steve Frey on December 11, 1987.

The New York Mets traded utility infielder,  Jeff Gardner to the San Diego Padres for pitcher,  Steve Rosenberg on December 11, 1991.Rosenberg never appeared is a game for as a Met.

The New York Mets signed 2 free agent pitchers, Steve Trachsel of the Toronto Blue Jays and Kevin Appier of the Oakland Athletics on December 11, 2000. I hated those signings at the time and I still dislike them today because this was when the Mets ownership and front office announced that the were not going to spend the money on a certain shortstop/third baseman who happens to be facing a 200 game suspension for PED use and instead gave us 2 mediocre pitchers.

The New York Mets signed free agent outfielder, Tsuyoshi Shinjo on December 11, 2000.

The New York Mets traded reserve outfielder,  Bubba Trammell to the San Diego Padres for middle reliever, Donne Wall on December 11, 2000.

The New York Mets traded reserve outfielder,  Alex Escobar, middle reliever, Jerrod Riggan, reserve outfielder, Matt Lawton, pitching prospect,Billy Traber and minor league first baseman,  Earl Snyder to the Cleveland Indians for  second baseman, Roberto Alomar, pitcher, Mike Bacsik and Danny Peoples on December 11, 2001. This trade should have been the steal of the century – intead it turned out to be one of the worst Mets trades ever !

The Los Angeles Angels signed spot starter/middle relievers,  Darren Oliver of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 11, 2006. I like most Mets fans wished that the Mets made an attept to re-sign him.

The New York Mets traded starting pitcher,  Aaron Heilman, reserve outfielder, Endy Chavez, and middle relievers Joe Smith, Jason Vargas,along with  minor league first baseman,Mike Carp, pitching prospect, Maikel Cleto and minor league outfielder, Ezequiel Carrera to the Seattle Mariners for relievers, Sean Green, J. J. Putz and reserve outfielders, Jeremy Reed on December 11, 2008.

The Mets drafted middle reliever, Darren O’Day from the Los Angeles Angels  on December 11, 2008.

One year to the day, the Chicago White Sox signed set up man, J. J. Putz of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 11, 2009. Putz should have been part of a completely overhauled bullpen in ’09 but by mid-season he sustained a shoulder injury. Needless to say a firestorm of controversy Putz claimed the Mets tried to steer him away from surgery and pitch through the injury !

The Houston Astros signed middle reliever, Jon Switzer of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 11, 2009.

There were reported sightings of Mo Vaughn in Orlando yesterday- but it turned out to be Shamu at SeaWorld!!!!

The post This Day In Mets Infamy With Rusty: The Possible Granderson Calls Edition appeared first on Metsmerized.

If you are a Mets fan, you know that David Wright is still with team, or that Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are in Toronto and St. Louis, respectively. But what happened to guys like Nick Evans or Rod Barajas? We have the answers.

11 Players who made it into a game in 2010 with the Mets, are still employed by the team. That would be the aforementioned David Wright, Ike Davis, Ruben Tejada (Although he is currently with Triple-A Las Vegas, he is still on the Mets payroll), Lucas Duda, Justin Turner, Jon Niese, Pedro Feliciano (Although he made another stop in the Bronx, he is with the Mets once again), Bobby Parnell, Dillon Gee, Johan Santana, and Jenrry Mejia.

10 players are employed by another Major League team. That would be Jose Reyes, Angel Pagan, Beltran, Josh Thole, Henry Blanco, Joaquin Arias, Mike Pelfrey, R.A. Dickey, Francisco Rodriguez, and Oliver Perez.

As you may know, Jose Reyes was traded from the Miami Marlins to the Toronto Blue Jays this past offseason in a blockbuster deal involving Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, and now former Met, John Buck. Reyes now puts on his uniform in the same locker room as R.A. Dickey and Josh Thole, who were traded together this past offseason from the Mets for Travis d’Arnaud, Buck, and Noah Syndergaard (don’t forget Wuilmer Beccera!). Angel Pagan was traded to the San Francisco Giants prior to the 2012 season for outfielder Andres Torres and pitcher Ramon Ramirez who have both since played again for the team they were traded from.

Carlos Beltran was traded at the deadline in 2011 to the Giants for Zack Wheeler, but has since made his home in St. Louis playing for the Cardinals, where he has enjoyed a couple of very nice seasons, including an All Star appearance this summer. Henry Blanco, who served as the Mets backup catcher in 2010, beat out Josh Thole for the same position on this year’s Toronto Blue Jays team, but was released and then signed by the Seattle Mariners who made the corresponding move by releasing 2012 Met alumni, Kelly Shoppach. Blanco played in Arizona for the Diamondbacks in 2011 and 2012.

Joaquin Arias, of whom the Mets received for Jeff Francoeur late in the 2010 season, played for the Kansas City Royals in 2011, and was then given a championship ring after serving as Pablo Sandoval‘s ninth inning defensive replacement in 2012 for the San Francisco Giants. He has been a key hitter off the bench for the Giants in 2013. Mike Pelfrey, after failing to play a month in the 2012 season, was signed by the Minnesota Twins, where his 5-10 record and 5.06 ERA is good enough to keep him in the starting rotation.

Francisco Rodriguez was traded to the Brewers in 2011 for Daniel Herrera (yes the 5-6 guy) and a minor leaguer, but was traded to the Baltimore Orioles at the deadline this year, downgrading from a closer to a setup man. Finally, Oliver Perez signed a two-year deal with the Seattle Mariners in 2012 and is proving to be an effective arm out of their bullpen. You would think that Perez’s ERA of 9.72 with Henry Blanco behind the plate would be the highest among catchers who have caught the Mexican native, but no. That award goes to Josh Thole, who provides Ollie with a sparkling 16.20 ERA.

Eight players are in the minor leagues with another organization. They are Mike Nickeas, Mike Hessman, Luis Hernandez, Mike Jacobs, Nick Evans, Hisanori Takahashi, Fernando Nieve, and Pat Misch.

Mike Nickeas, who was in the same deal that sent R.A. Dickey north of the border, is currently with the Blue Jays Triple-A team, the Buffalo Bisons, a team Nickeas has played for many times when they were the Mets affiliate. Nickeas has failed to make the Majors this season, playing 55 games in Buffalo. Mike Hessman, who is seven home runs shy of 400 for his minor league career and one shy of 15 for his Major League career, is currently a member of the Louisville Bats, the Triple-A team of the Cincinnati Reds, where he is teammates with base stealing extraordinaire, Billy Hamilton. Hessman played in Japan in 2011 for the Orix Buffaloes, and was with the Astros Triple A team in 2012.

Luis Hernandez, who played all of 17 games for the Mets, is with the Indians Triple-A team, after playing in the Texas Rangers organization in 2012. Nick Evans is the only 2010 Met alumni playing in Double-A. Evans, who is a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks affiliated Mobile Baybears, was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in 2012. Mike Jacobs was the placeholder at first base until Ike Davis came up in 2010 but he is now with the Diamondbacks Triple-A team. Jacobs also stopped in Colorado Springs, Toronto, and Mexico. Hisanori Takahashi, who has 12 games started and 21 games finished as a Met, has played in the Majors with the Angels, Pirates, and Cubs. He is now a member of the Colorado Rockies Triple-A team. Fernando Nieve hasn’t played in the Majors since 2010, but he has played with the Astros, Dodgers, Indians, and currently the Athletics, all in Triple-A. Finally, Pat MIsch has seen time with the Phillies and Tigers Triple-A teams.

Five players are not currently with a Major League organization. The names are Jeff Francoeur, Rod Barajas, Jason Bay, John Maine, and Sean Green.

Francoeur was traded to the Rangers for Joaquin Arias in August of 2010. He spent the rest of the year there. Frenchy played in Kansas City during 2011 and 2012, but was released midway through the 2013 season. The Giants picked him up, where he played 22 games. Francouer was designated for assignment of August 20th, and released two days later. Barajas played with the Pirates in 2011 and 2012, before being signed by the Diamondbacks. He ultimately lost the bid to be Miguel Montero‘s backup, as the DBacks went with Wil Nieves instead.

Jason Bay, who was released after the 2012 season much to the delight of Mets fans, was signed by the Mariners for the 2013 season. He hit a home run in his first spring training at bat, but after a disapointing season, was released of August 6th to make room for Mike Morse. John Maine spent 2011 in the Colorado Rockies minor league system, and pitched for the Scranton/Wilkes-Bare Yankees for all of 2012. He played for the Miami Marlins in April of this year, but was released on April 22. The sidearmer, Sean Green pitched with the Brewers in 2011, before playing with the Texas Rangers’ Triple A team in 2012. He also pitched with the Somerset Patriots in 2012 of the Independent Leagues but has not found a team since.

Six players have officially retired. They are Luis Castillo, Alex Cora, Fernando Tatis, Gary Matthews Jr., Frank Catalanotto, and Tobi Stoner.

Luis Castillo was released by the Mets at the same time they released Oliver Perez. Castillo signed a minor league contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, but after a disappointing spring training, he was released, at which time he retired. Alex Cora was released by the Mets in August of 2010, and he played the rest of the year with the Rangers. He played with the Washington Nationals in 2011, and was signed by the Cardinals in the spring of 2012, which didn’t work out. He is now a baseball analyst for ESPN (his brother Joey does the same work for MLB Network). Fernando Tatis was injured of July 4th of 2010. He was placed on the DL the next day and was transferred to the 60-day DL 10 days later. That turned out to be his last major league game as he retired after the season.

The “Son of the Sarge”, Gary Matthews Jr., was released by the Mets on June 15th, 2010. He signed with the Reds on June 24th and played the rest of the year with their Triple-A team, before retiring. Frank Catalanotto was designated for assignment of May 10th, when the Mets brought up Chris Carter. After failing to sign with another team, he retired in March of 2011. Finally, the German-born Tobi Stoner was released by the Mets in March of 2012. During that season, he played in the Independent Leagues with the Bridgeport Blue Fish and the Somerset Patriots. He retired before the 2013 season.

Four players are currently playing in foreign countries. Chris Carter, Manny Acosta, and Ryota Igarashi are playing in Japan, and Jesus Feliciano is playing in Mexico.

Carter (no not the former A’s prospect) played in the Tampa Bay Rays and Atlanta Braves Minor League system in 2011 before moving to Japan to play with the Seibu Lions in 2012 and 2013. Carter is 3-26 (.115) with three RBI in nine games this year. He is teammates with Kazuhisa Ishii. Manny Acosta pitched for the Mets through 2012 but signed with the Yomuri Giants in 2013 after being released. In 14 games he has an ERA of 5.54. His teammates include former major leaguers Scott Mathieson and John Bowker.

Ryota Igarashi played with the Mets until 2011. He then played in the minor leagues with the Yankees and the Blue Jays in 2012 though he pitched in the majors with both teams. He is now pitching with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks where he sports a 2.15 ERA in 36 games. He is teammates with with Vicente Padilla and former Mets minor leaguer Wily Mo Pena. Jesus Feliciano, who has signed with the Mets four different times in his career, played in all of his 54 career games with the Mets in 2010. He played with the Buffalo Bisons in 2011, the Durham Bulls in 2012, and he is now playing in Mexico with the Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz. He has only played in three games with one hit.

One player is currently a coach. Elmer Dessens is the assistant pitching coach for the AZL Reds in the Arizona League (The Arizona equivalent to Florida’s Gulf Coast League). And here’s a fun piece of information. The manager of that AZL Reds team is former Met, Eli Marrero who the Mets received in 2006 when they traded Kazuo Matsui to the Rockies.

Well, now you know what happened to the 2010 Mets. Next week we’ll look at the players from Citi Field’s inaugural year, 2009.

LGM

The post The 2010 Mets: Where Are They Now? appeared first on Metsmerized.

After a good beginning, Jonathon Niese was lit up and the Mets couldn’t recover, losing the opening game of the series versus the Braves 6-4.

Game Notes

Jonathon Niese was strong until the fourth inning, which would prove to be his last – giving up six runs, with NONE of them being earned thanks to a David Wright throwing error on a possible inning-ending double play. Niese’s final line was four innings, five hits, six unearned runs, three walks and four strikeouts, Jonathon has looked fatigued in the latter half of the season, and he had thrown 92 pitches in his four innings of work.

The bullpen received another good day’s work, with a rare appearance from Sean Green. Mr. Green went two innings, striking out two and walking one. Amazingly, he didn’t look god-awful and his pitches were moving. Manny Acosta, Elmer Dessens and Pedro Feliciano came on to finish the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Seeing the bullpen being used a lot is good at this point of the year to gauge who may be returning next year (Feliciano? Green? Dessens?) and to see everyone get some work.

The offense had a major outburst in the second inning, all sparked by an Ike Davis walk on a close pitch that lead Braves manager Bobby Cox to get ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Josh Thole would follow Ike with a single to right-center, allowing Ike Davis to get to third. Lucas Duda would knock an RBI single in to score Ike Davis, Jon Niese hit a bloop RBI single and Jose Reyes hit another RBI single. Lucas Duda brought the score to 6-4 with his first MLB home run, an absolute beam to the Pepsi Porch.

Reyes, Carter, Beltran, Wright, Davis and Thole combined to go 1-23 with one RBI, six strikeouts and one walk.

Ike Davis is 11/11 in his K/BB for September. Much better.

Lucas Duda, enormous day. 2-3 with another multi-RBI day. His last two games, 4-7 with four RBI and one strikeout.

Turning Point

The David Wright error was huge. With Derrek Lee and Matt Diaz running, it was almost tailor-made. If Ruben Tejada even managed to turn one out, he could’ve changed the inning.

Game Ball

Beginning to agree with Joe D on game ball’s for losing efforts, but can’t deny Lucas Duda his just-due for his first MLB home run.

On Deck

The Mets will look to tie the series, sending Dillon Gee to the mound as he faces off against Tim Hudson. Game time is 4:10 P.M.

The post Niese Crushed, Mets Lose 6-4 appeared first on Metsmerized.

Adam Rubin tweets that the Mets have decided to use reliever Sean Green’s final option and keep him at Triple-A Buffalo. Green’s rehab assignment was set to expire. He has a 5.40 ERA in seven appearances with the Bisons.

**Original 8-10-10**

Reliever Sean Green appears close to a return to the Mets.

Green, who is the last remaining player acquired from the Seattle Mariners in the J.J. Putz trade back in December of 2008, has made only one appearance for the Mets this season.

He landed on the DL after a relief appearance in April against the Florida Marlins with what originally was diagnosed as a strained rib-cage muscle. Eventually, it was discovered that Green actually had a cracked rib.

In that one appearance, he pitched an inning struck out one batter, gave up two hits and a solo homerun for a 9.00 ERA.

“Initially they thought it was a strained intercostal — like a strained rib muscle,” Green said Monday, before the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons series opener. “I was down there [in Port St. Lucie] rehabbing that for about three weeks and it wasn’t getting any better, so I asked to get reevaluated and got another MRI and they saw the fracture. It was like a stress fracture. It was about seven to eight weeks off completely from that. It’s been a long process. I had to start over, from scratch.”

Green has returned to his standard low three-quarters arm slot, after going submarine with the Mets this year in spring training. He figured the change to the drastically lower arm angle probably this year resulted in the rib fracture. So what was Heilman’s excuse?

Green is finishing up his rehab start and the Mets are not likely to keep him in the minors and burn up his one-year contract so Green’s return is only days away. More bad news for the Mets who already have a basketball full of problems already.

Green is making $975,000 this season and is arbitration-eligible. There’s always a chance the Mets could trade or nontender him this offseason. But because Green is likely not due a pay raise off a lost season, it would seem reasonable to expect he could remain and be a factor in the 2011 bullpen. Sadly it’s true, despite the fact that NO Mets fan wants Green in the bullpen after what we saw from him last season.

Since joining Buffalo, Green has allowed five runs on nine hits and a hit batter while striking out four in 5 1/3 innings spanning five appearances. Yeah, five appearance, five innings, five runs.

The post Green Staying In Buffalo appeared first on Metsmerized.

For those of you who don’t like the idea of Alex Cora playing everyday, have no fear as Luis Castillo will be making his return shortly, tweets Andy Martino of the New York Daily News.

Castillo will be playing his final rehab (0-2 in his first game) starts this weekend and will be returning to the Mets in time for the Los Angeles Dodgers series. The Mets have 20 days to activate him.

Mets reliever Sean Green began his rehab Thursday by throwing a scoreless inning for St. Lucie. The Mets now have only 30 days to activate him.

Fernando Tatis was placed on the 60-day disabled list after successful shoulder surgery yesterday. SNY is reporting that he is likely done for the season. I don’t see the Mets resigning him. So he may have had his last appearance as a Met.

The post Sean Green, Luis Castillo Close To Return, Fernando Tatis Out For The Season appeared first on Metsmerized.

When the Mets made their final cuts today, it opened the door for plenty of second guessing from diehard Mets fans and media alike. The Mets never make it easy on themselves…

One of the more peculiar decisions the Mets made in finalizing their 25 man roster today, was deciding to keep reliever Sean Green over some other more worthy options.

In his final tuneup of the season today against the Orioles, Green was as bad as he’s been all spring long. Unable to even complete his inning of work, Green allowed two hits, a walk, a hit batter, and four earned runs including a homerun to Nolan Reimold.

He finishes the spring with a 6.94 ERA and a 1.72 WHIP.

Green was already in jeopardy of losing his bullpen spot even before spring training started mainly because he was so ineffective last season when he blew three saves, lost four games and posted a 4.57 ERA.

He had to go out there and absolutely win himself a job. In my opinion he did not.

Surely the Mets saw the same Green we did, so how did he possibly make the bullpen over Pat Misch or Bobby Parnell or Kiko Calero?

You know what, I can even see Calero going down to build some arm strength, no biggie… But I was still surprised to see Misch (1.38 ERA) cut so early, and then I figured that somehow Raul Valdes (2.04 ERA) would win that final spot today, but it wasn’t meant to be. 

So how did Green pull it off? It wasn’t past performance? It wasn’t his spring performance?

The answer may be money…

Green had minor league options and the Mets could have sent him to Buffalo without the risk of losing him, but because they owed him $980K dollars, the decision was made to keep him on the roster over a more worthy player.

The decision to keep Green wasn’t made with the intention of keeping the player who could help build a better bullpen. Winning had nothing to do with it. This was all about saving a buck.

Bad job Omar… Or does this have the Wilpon’s fingerprints all over it? Either way this was a small market mentality that shouldn’t be tolerated when you play in New York, baseball’s grandest stage.

The post How Did Sean Green Nail The Final Bullpen Spot? appeared first on Metsmerized.

According to a post from MetsBlog, Adam Rubin, has been told by a major-league source that relievers Sean Green and Bobby Parnell both are expected to open the season at Triple-A Buffalo.

We posted on MMO that this would most likely be the case last week, and this would also suggest that both Nelson Figueroa and Hisanori Takahashi will be on the opening day roster a week from Monday, when the Mets take on the Florida Marlins.

In the same post, Matt also writes that catcher Chris Coste has been placed on waivers.

You might remember that Coste, the former Phillie, was embarrassed to admit he signed with the Mets and made some silly remarks about it at the time.

This looks like it paves the way for Omir Santos to join Josh Thole in Buffalo.

At this point, I doubt the Mets would trade Santos as has been rumored by some…

The post Sean Green and Bobby Parnell To Buffalo appeared first on Metsmerized.

Regarding the rotation, Adam believes that Jon Niese is still the front-runner to be the team’s fifth starter and writes,

The smart money still has Jon Niese claiming the final slot in the rotation over Fernando Nieve, with Hisanori Takahashi only on the fringe of that race, despite the Japanese lefthander slated for a pair of Grapefruit League starts, on March 27 and April 1.

I have a feeling that the winner of the competition for the fifth starter spot may still be undecided when spring training ends. I’d bet that we may see two to three of them each getting starts in April, with Jerry Manuel playing the hotter hand for the rest of the season. The fifth starter spot has been constantly in a state of flux for the past few seasons now, with over a dozen different pitchers trying but not succeeding in keeping a job in the rotation.

In the bullpen Adam writes that Bobby Parnell and Sean Green are in some jeopardy of not making the Opening Day roster, although Green would seem to be less vulnerable because his salary is $975,000 even if he’s in the minors.

I actually mentioned that both Parnell AND Green were dangerously close to losing their bullpen spots last week, especially when you consider the outstanding spring performances of Nelson Figueroa, Pat Misch, Ryota Igarashi, Hisanori Takahashi and Jenrry Mejia.

Rubin points to Francisco Rodriguez and Pedro Feliciano as the obvious locks, with right-handers Ryota Igarashi and Kiko Calero virtually assured of spots as well. Fernando Nieve is also close to locking up a bullpen spot leaving just two more spots that are yet to be decided.

He believes that Jenrry Mejia will most likely unseat Parnell with Green’s spot possibly going to free-agent lefthander Joe Beimel, whom he says the Mets remain in touch with. But if that doesn’t transpire, Hisanori Takahashi or Nelson Figueroa could make the team.

It’s starting to look more and more like Mejia could make the team, even though I’m still against such a move. Ironically, he could replace Bobby Parnell who was exactly in the same position Mejia now finds himself in. We had these same debates regarding Parnell last spring, and I wondered if promoting him to the bullpen would jeopardize his ability to be a future starter for the Mets. Now Parnell could find himself going back to the minors, and whether he returns as a reliever or starter is still to be determined. Now everyone is just as fascinated with Mejia’s fastball as they were with Parnell’s… Hopefully Mejia won’t suffer a similar fate…

I have a strong hunch that the Mets could possibly trade Sean Green to make room in the bullpen and create an opportunity for Misch or Takahashi.

The post Parnell and Green Could Be Out, Beimel Still In Picture appeared first on Metsmerized.

K-Rod had a nice season, but his dip from 62 saves in Los Angeles the year before to 35 with the Mets was both a reflection on the Mets having a bad season and him being a bit inconsistent.  His 3.71 ERA was also way inflated from his 2.24 mark the previous season.  Putz was pitching pretty well before blowing out an elbow and being put on the DL about a third of the way into the 2009 season.  And Parnell was great at times, and a gas can at others.

So now, how do you feel knowing that K-Rod is coming off a sub-par season, with Parnell, Kelvim Escobar, Jose Feliciano, Sean Green, Pat Misch and Ryota Igarashi behind him?  On paper, this bullpen is almost as much of a question mark as the starting rotation is.  That’s not to say they can’t overachieve and keep the team in games, but how likely is that?  And the rotation is not exactly the kind of group that will give the bullpen long stretches of rest at a time.  To the contrary, they will be called upon to pitch 2-3 innings each night.

So I ask you, how do you all feel about this bullpen?

The post Is our bullpen going to be any good? appeared first on Metsmerized.