Mets Game Recap (ST) 3/6

Dodgers 6, Mets 2

or

Edwin "Action" Jackson 1, Pedro Feliciano 0

I'm not sure what this says about me, but my entire day was made when I got home from work and verified that the VCR had decided to accept my sacrificial offering of a DVD player in lieu of devouring my tape yet again, and had successfully recorded the afternoon Spring Training game.

It was a particularly long day, so it was nice to pop the tape in, sink into the couch, and just relax to the familiar sights and sounds of Mets baseball, which tonight manifested as garish orange blurs and Fran Healy exultantly mispronouncing "Encarnacion". With that fond backdrop for an evening in mind, imagine my irritation when the picture locked on an image of an almost certainly fake palm tree in front of predictably ugly Tradition Field. "We're having some difficulty with the feed," I hear the non-Healy voice admit. "We're working on it." My spirits took a hit after listening to the TV broadcasters attempting to offer radio-quality descriptions of the game, exposing the difference between the two as roughly equivalent to that between a blank canvas and a beautiful painting. I was still hopeful for a pleasant viewing experience until that same disembodied voice chimed in with, "You know, what I find surprising is that the Dodgers are breaking the rule for ST games that says at least four regulars should play in each game. They're not playing any tonight!" He quickly dashed the last of my hopes by adding, "Surprisingly, James Baldwin will be starting the game for the Mets tonight, as it looks like Jae Seo was hit by a ball during the warmup. It's nothing serious, just a little precaution to make sure he's OK and you folks at home continue to be disappointed with the quality of this game."

Finally they got their transmission fixed or persuaded Ralph Kiner to wear pants, and I got to see most of an entertaining if not very satisfying ballgame. Here are my thoughts:

Reyes cracks a single early down the right field line and the ball rolls over into the expansive foul territory and warm-up mounds. He tries his patented move of stretching what is for anyone else a single into a no-doubter double, and fails because the right fielder - Franklin Gutierrez, I think - navigates the mounds, scoops the grounder cleanly, spins and uncorks a perfect bullet a step ahead of our hero. It took an amazing play to get him; that's how fast and aggressive Reyes is. I'm more awed than worried by his attempts. They provoke the same invigorating shock that a basestealer does when he starts his charge, and I hope he has the judgment for both moves.

Piazza made a nice stretch off the bag at first, splitting himself awkwardly in a lunge toward home plate after an errant McEwing throw. It was a good play, nothing more - yet because it's Piazza all I could think of was him busting something. (This reminds me: there are several phrases I'm already looking forward to hearing every five seconds while watching Met games this year. One is "organizational philosophy" - particularly when described erroneously as a single word, as in "If I can sum up Rick Peterson's contributions in one word, that word is organizational philosophy". Another is "groin area", when used in reference to Piazza's horrific injury last season. Apparently there's a need to fill the uncomfortable silence that crops up after the word groin is spoken aloud. Honestly though, tacking on "area" to groin actually makes me take more time to think about it, which is probably the opposite of the speaker's intention. Hopefully Piazza's "crotch region" will remain intact and I will never write about this again.)

Baldwin looked hittable yet not particularly horrible. He made some nice pitches, too. Shouldn't be a candidate for the fifth spot, even if the only qualification necessary to nail it down is looking hittable yet not particularly horrible.

Legion Commander Cornelius Cliff Floyd stepped up for his first at bat with the intention of hitting a home run. Every swing was designed to kill the ball. He grimaced after fouling off a few fat pitches, then promptly connected with the same all-or-nothing swing and rocketed one over the fence in right field. Afterwards he threw on a headset and talked about feeling healthy and how he enjoyed being a dad, how his "girl" let him come down to Florida without her and the baby for a few days to get into the "whole Spring Training thing", how she was coming down soon. He was smiling and candid despite a quick, muttered way of speaking, and flashed a sense of humor. Healy brought up something about replacement umpires for some reason, and Floyd started to say, "Yeah, well, it's good to have these guys here, they're doing a good job -" and then the Met pitcher was squeezed on a strike call - " - except for that last call," he finished, not missing a beat.

In his first at bat, it looked like Jason Phillips squared to bunt with no one on. Frozen water runs faster than Phillips. I'm going to assume my eyes must have been mistaken. That, or he missed the initiating signal "Under No Circumstances Should You Ever" and only caught "Bunt".

Our defense's middle appears about as solid as Don Zimmer's, but the bad thing is it also seems to have the same probability of catching and holding onto a baseball. Reyes and Cameron both made errors today, legitimate ones, chucking the ball away with their gloves. Cameron also had a chance at a play at the plate, but launched what the broadcaster described as a "rainbow". What always impresses me about major league outfield arms is their ability to throw very far yet keep the ball's arcing to a minimum. I can chuck a baseball pretty far, but most of the time I fire off "rainbows" like the one Cameron showed off. Not a good day for him. I know Reyes is learning a new position, but he still makes too many mistakes on simple balls hit right at him for me to think he'll be very good defensively this year. Once he can combine solid defense with the quickness and rifle arm he's displayed at times, then I'll jump on his defensive phenom bandwagon. Then, or when someone proves my casual observations wrong by showing me his UZR is point five oh niner squiggly line x.

Edwin Jackson, the Dodgers' best pitching prospect, is the real deal. He throws heat, and his offspeed stuff has crazy movement. He threw three perfect innings, and not Scott Erickson innings (ie, lucky ones) - he made the Mets look stupid. I think I hate strikeouts and foul pop-ups more than any other outs. Hopefully we won't face Jackson much.

I'm a big Pedro Feliciano fan. He had a crummy day today, but I'm confident he'll turn into something good for us. I'm slowly learning to recognize our young pitchers by their deliveries, and in Feliciano's case, awful facial hair. Pedro looks like he hammered a black squirrel to death with his chin at some point in the offseason, and hasn't removed its carcass because he either hasn't noticed it's there or is just waiting for someone to comment on it so he can go Karim Garcia on them.

John Franco came on a little while after Feliciano struggled (Pedro started off well but hit a batter and unraveled after that) and gave the crowd something to cheer about. He struck out the side. I'm as skeptical about Franco's chances for success as anyone else, but he looked good. Afterwards he strapped on the headset and fielded some questions. Franco's a great talker, doesn't use too many cliches and isn't afraid to joke around. He was asked about Peterson's influence and said something I found surprising, which was that Peterson had helped him tweak his mechanics (by keeping his hands lowered, or in sync with his legs if you're curious), and also revealed that Peterson had been working with Leiter's as well. I always looked at Dr. Rick as someone who'd help our young guys out a lot, but who probably wouldn't have much to offer to the veterans. Or maybe I thought that the old guys wouldn't want him messing around with their mechanics or sticking glowing ping pong balls on their shoulders. It's cool to see that even the older pitchers are willing to work with him; maybe his techniques can wring a few more surprising seasons out of our aging staff.

Jeremy Hill looked very good in two innings. His delivery is very recognizable- it looks like he pushes the ball with his arm, like he's throwing his body at the plate. Someone to watch, even if his success came at the expense of the scrubs of the scrubs of the worst-hitting team in the majors.

I got another chance to see David Wright at the plate. He couldn't handle breaking pitches at all, and struck out to end the game. But he's young and he'll hopefully have plenty of time to adjust, if Wigginton can keep hitting frozen ropes (anyone else hate that expression? Makes me think of a Russian circus act). I'm sure he'll get better with time and effort, two missing ingredients that might have improved my ability to weave disparate and irrelevant thought chunks into a cohesive post.