Mack Attack: Alou, Valentin On The Mend

Mets News

Jose Valentin has been cleared to begin initial baseball activities in Port St. Lucie, such as hitting off a tee and long-tossing

Change of rotation starts: Wed: Oliver Perez, Friday: John Maine, Saturday: Mike Pelfrey, Sunday: Johan Santana

OF Moises Alou rejoins the team on Friday.

Mets catcher Brian Schneider remains in the hospital with a staph infection in his left thumb, unsure when he'll be able to return to the team. "It's frustrating," Schneider told The Post in a telephone interview from his hospital room. "It's a bad infection. As a catcher, you know you're going to have your bumps and bruises. In nine seasons, I've only been on the DL once. It's fine if it's a hamstring or a contusion, but to have an infection in your thumb?" Schneider has been in the Hospital for Special Surgery since Thursday with the infection. Doctors feared the infection might spread, but it has stayed in the same spot. He is being treated with intravenous antibiotics, but the 31-year-old has not been able to kick the infection. Doctors cut the thumb yesterday to drain it. Schneider said the thumb was wrapped last night but doctors seemed encouraged after the procedure. The catcher has missed the last four games, and said he has been in a lot of pain. Mets general manager Omar Minaya tried to hide the severity of the injury before last night's rainout with Pittsburgh, saying it was not a staph infection and the doctors did not need to lance the thumb. -- NY Post

Xavier Nady's approach sounds similar, even as his name continues to surface as a possible target for the Mets, his previous employer. "I've been traded twice already, so I've learned you just go out and play the game the right way," he said. "Whatever team you're playing for that day, it's your job to win ballgames. You still have to prepare the same, and you still have to have fun." He was asked if he would prefer to remain in Pittsburgh, even if he is keenly aware he is most likely to go. "Heck, yeah, I'd like to stay. -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mets Contracts

Angel Pagan of - 1 year/$0.4015M (2008) - re-signed 3/4/08 - acquired in trade from Chicago Cubs 1/5/08 - 1 year (2007), re-signed 3/07 - 1 year/$0.327M (2006) - acquired in trade from NY Mets 1/06 - contract purchased 10/05 - agent: CSMG - ML service: 1.144

Possible 1B Option:

The Seattle Mariners have a guy in AA (Thomas Hubbard), hitting .361/.443/.590/1.034. They also have Richie Sexson batting .207 on their parent team.

Mets Minors:

As many of you know, the Mets minor league teams are not off to their greatest start. I was curious to see how many minor leaguers were either batting above .275, pitching below a 4.00 ERA (for starters), and posting below a 1.25 WHIP for relievers. I left out the Zephyrs on purpose since their entire team is above 24 years old:

1B: Mike Carp/B-Mets .376 - Nick Evans/B-Mets .326 - Josh Peterson/B-Mets .321 - Lucas Duda/Lucy .337

2B: None

SS: Jose Coronado/B-Mets .276 - Luis Rivera/Lucy .333

3B: Dan Murphy/B-Mets .358

OF: None

C: Sal Paniagua/B-Mets .300 - Jordan Abruzzo/Gnats .412 - Jason Jacobs/Lucy .344

SP: Jon Niese/B-Mets 0.71 - Michael Antonini/Gnats 3.80 - Angel Calero/Gnats 3.54

RP: Eddie Camacho/B-Mets 1.09 - Edgar Ramirez/Gnats 0.88 - Jose Beird/Gnats 1.15 – Wendy Rosa/Gnats 1.07 - William Morgan/Lucy 1.00

That’s it. 7 positional players, 3 starters, and 5 relievers.

Another thing worth repeating. There hasn’t been one move up the entire season by all 4 teams. The only movement has been sending players down, activating extended players, signing outsiders, and taking players off the DL. This is normally too early to start bumping players a level, but there sure has been plenty of juggling trying to come up with short-term answers.
And who says the Mets have depleted their system?

Zephyrs

P Claudio Vargas joins the team after rehabbing at Lucy.

B-Mets

LHP Edgar Alfonzo transferred to High-A St. Lucie.

Activated RHP Joe Hietpas from Disabled List.

SP Jake Ruckle got rocked again last night, giving up 6 straight hits (4 runs) to the first 6 batters in the 1st inning. No one has been a bigger supporter of Ruckle than I have been, but there sure seems to be something wrong here. It was nice to see that the Mets let him hang in there and settle down.

Lucy:

Send P – Roy Merritt to Brooklyn roster

Place OF – Brahiam Maldonado on DL

Add P – Edgar Alfonzo to roster from Binghamton

(have you noticed that all of the Mets moves so far in the minor leagues have either been move downs, players from extended, or players from the IR. No one has moved up.)

Gnats:

SP Angel Calero had a typical 2007 outing last night. He gave up 5 unearned runs in 3.2 IP due to costly errors. Strangly, his ERA actually lowered to 3.00.

A first hand observation… the Gnats are quietly becoming a far more competitive team. They have 2 starters pitching consistently, 3 relievers, and are starting to develop a 2-3-4-5 portion of their batting order. Add to that some new bats both from Lucy and Extended, and I believe we will see a much better May than the results they have put out in April.

Second baseman Michael Parker and infielder Joaquin Rodriguez will join the Sand Gnats and be active for tonight’s game versus the Hickory Crawdads, the New York Mets announced today. LHP Julio Polanco and catcher Tony Maccani have been transferred to the Brooklyn roster.

Parker, 23, was drafted in the 24th round of the 2007 amateur draft by the Mets out of George Washington University and spent all of last season with the Kingsport Mets. In Kingsport, Parker hit .298 with 4 home runs and 19 RBIs. He was named the Appalachian League Player of the Week for the period of July 30-August 5. During that time span, Parker was 7-for-15 (.467 BA) with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.

Rodriguez (‘J-Rod’), 23, spent some time with Savannah last season playing third base. With the Gnats in 2007, the Miami native hit .333 in 9 games (21 at bats) with 1 RBI. He spent most of 2007 with the Brooklyn Cyclones, where he hit .273 in 28 games.

With the Sand Gnats this season, Polanco was making strides as he had allowed just 1 run in his last 5.0 innings of work. Overall, he was 0-1 with a 6.32 ERA. Maccani played in two games for the Sand Gnats, appearing as a pinch runner in one and making the start at catcher in another.

Minor League Bios

Francisco Pena C 6-2 200 10-12-90 Dominican Republic
The Mets signed undrafted free agent Pena, the son of Yankees first-base coach Tony Peña, to a $750,000 signing bonus, in July 2006. He was first sent to the Mets Florida Instruction camp, where he remained for the remainder of the 2006 season.

Baseball America had one international scouting director (in 2007) termed Pena's body as "heavy and thick." Willie Randolph was quoted in January 2007 to say: "he's a little different than I remember. He's a big boy. I saw Ken Griffey and all those kids come through . . . Jessie Barfield's kid (Indians second baseman Josh). It's amazing to see how they've grown and to see the resemblance in some ways. You can see the evolution, and it's weird to look at that."

Pena, is considered to be one of the best catching prospects in the Dominican Republic's baseball history. His initial claim to fame so far in his career is he caught the controversial pitcher Danny Almonte on that infamous Little League World Series team.

2007 was, on paper, a disappointing season at Savannah (.210/.263/.283 in 367 at bats, 5 HRs, 18 errors), but this is a prospect in the making. I’m sure he will be back at the same level for the 2008 season. Scouts.com ranked Pena the 23rd top Mets prospect (Nov. 2007), Baseball America had him 21st (Jan. 2008), and Rotoworld put Pena at 8th, adding:

Unlike Tony Pena Jr., Francisco followed in his father's footsteps and donned the tools of ignorance. It was mostly his defensive skills earned him a $750,000 bonus from the Mets in July 2006. He certainly shouldn't have been expected to hit as a 17-year-old in full-season ball in 2007. That he finished as poorly as he did was discouraging, but he has a lot of time left to figure out what he's doing in the box. He could at least be good for 10-15 homers someday. The OBPs likely will always be subpar. He's due to repeat the Sally League in 2008.

Ex-Mets:

The Cincinnati Reds placed P Scott Sauerbeck on the 7-day DL.

The Florida Marlins placed P Gaby Hernandez and 1B Tagg Bozied on the 7-day DL

Scott Kazmir pitches Friday.

Tom Glavine has been reactivated.

This Day in Mets History:

1961 - At Milwaukee, Willie Mays slams four homers in one game in a 14-4 Giant win over the Braves. The San Francisco slugger is left on deck in the top of the ninth when the third out is made.

1988 - Reds' manager Pete Rose is suspended for twenty days and is fined $10,000 for pushing David Pallone after the umpire made a delayed call at first base in a game in a 6-5 Mets win at Riverfront. The Cincinnati skipper shoved Pallone twice after the ump accidentally pokes him in the eye.

1990 - With Dale Murphy and Ernie Whitt on base, Mark Lemke grounds to second baseman Gregg Jefferies who lobs the ball to David Cone covering first. The runner is called safe which leads the Mets starter having a complete meltdown vehemently arguing the call umpire Charlie Williams as the two Braves’ runners cross the plate to score.

2005 - With an enthusiastic RFK crowd chanting “Let’s go, ground crew” the inexperienced group puts on quite a show of ineptitude as they struggle for to put the tarp on a very soggy field during the second rain delay of the rain-shorten victory over the Mets, 5-3. New York files a protest after the game is called off in the bottom of the eighth claiming the field became unplayable due to Washington’s inability to cover the field during 37-stoppage of play.

And lastly:

The Pirates and Mets were rained out on Monday, giving Pittsburgh fans a little extra time to pull their Tom Gorzelanny bobblehead dolls out of their boxes and examine them closely for the first time. Fans received the bobble on Saturday as the Pirates took on the Phillies at PNC Park. Examining the craftsmanship, we see that it certainly is a handsome item, and ... hey ... is he flipping us off? Hey!

http://deadspin.com/385097/breaking-...-us-the-finger