The Mack Attack - 5-7-8

By John Mackin Ade
Posted Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May 6, 2008

Mets News

C Ramon Castro will return to the Mets roster this weekend.

RP Matt Wise pitched one inning of scoreless, hitless relief (2 Ks) in a rehab assignment at Lucy last night.

Mets manager Willie Randolph admitted yesterday that the constant negativity from the fans at Shea Stadium so far this year - an obvious carryover from last September's epic collapse - has turned the road into a welcome refuge. "In our mind, we moved on," Randolph said of last season's historic meltdown. "Obviously, the fans are having a tough time moving past that." Met players and officials were struck by how supportive and mild-mannered the fans were in Arizona, even when the hometown Diamondbacks struggled. It was a far cry from Shea in April, when even 2-1 counts on opposing hitters drew boos. -- NY Post

Top ‘On-Base-Percentages’ (OBP) in Mets Organization:

 

1. 1B Mike Carp/B-Mets .403

2. 1B Lucas Duda/Lucy .396

3. 3B Dan Murphy/B-Mets .396

4. 3B David Wright/Mets .394

5. C Jordan Abruzzo/Gnats .393

6. OF Ryan Church/Mets .378

7. 1B Nick Evans/B-Mets .368

8. OF Chris Aguila/N.O. .375

9. OF Jesus Feliciano/N.O. .371

10. OF D.J. Wabick/Lucy .351

11. OF Angel Pagan/Mets .347

12. SS Jose Coronado/B-Mets .347

13. OF Ezequiel Carrera/Lucy .340

14. 2B Luis Castillo/Mets .340

 

Mets Contracts

Eddie Kunz rhp – 2008 - drafted 2007 (1s-42) (Oregon St.), $0.72M signing bonus - ML service: 0.00

 

Zephyrs

 

The New Orleans Zephyrs' May struggles continued on Tuesday as they fell to the Fresno Grizzlies at Zephyr Field, 3-2.

Fresno got home runs from Justin Leone, a two-run shot in the first inning, and Scott McClain, a solo blast in the sixth, off Zephyrs starter Tony Armas, and it was enough to hold up as the Z's lost their sixth in a row to open the month of May.

New Orleans rallied for two runs in the bottom of the sixth on back-to-back doubles by Anderson Hernandez and Michel Abreu and an RBI single by Jesus Feliciano, but could draw no closer.

Armas (1-3) gave up the three runs on six hits in six innings and notched six strikeouts for his third consecutive quality outing. Brian Stokes, who lasted just one-third of an inning in his start against Portland on Sunday, rebounded by tossing two perfect innings of relief. Nate Field also contributed a scoreless ninth.

 

 

B-Mets

Eddie Camacho pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief last night in the pitchers duel against Reading, and Caleb Stewart hit his 2nd home run in the season during the 12th innings, and the B-Mets went on to a well earned 2-1 win Monday night,

 

Through Monday night’s game, the B-Mets have given up 44 runs and 45 hits over the past 3 games

 

They have also lost 11 of their last 12 home games

 

Lucy:

 

On RBI singles by Lucas Duda and Jacob Jacobs in the bottom of the 7th innings, and back to back home runs by Leivi Ventura and Jamar Hill, let Lucy to come back and pulled out an exciting one, 6-3. RP Ryan Coultas closed in out with 2.0 innings of scoreless ball to earn his first save of the year,

 

Gnats:

Boy, I tell ya, the Gnats (like the B-Mets) can really let an opponent bust open a close game, Savannah was up, 5-2 after 5 innings and everything seemed to be heading to another come from behind victory. Wrong, taco breath!

 

 

Minor League Bios

David Rivas 1B S R 6-0 170 1-11-88 Maracay, Venezuela

Rivas began his professional career with the 2006 VSL Mets, hitting .219/.293/.271 in 155 at bats.

He was invited back in 2007 and hit .264/.337/.357 in 235 at bats, including 3 HRs, 9 doubles, 32 RBIs and 6 SBs.

I expect him to come stateside in the spring of 2008.

 

 

Luis Rivera 3B R R 6-1 183 1-25-84 Florida International

Rivera was originally drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 49th round of the 2002 draft, but chose to attend Florida International University instead. In 2005, he was signed by the Chicago Cubs as a free agent and assigned to the Mesa Cubs where he hit .282 with 9 stolen bases in 27 games. He started 2006 with the Peoria Chiefs but was released by the Cubs after only 10 games.

The Mets immediately assigned him, assigned him to H-Town, and then transferred him to Brooklyn. He waisted no time in proving the Mets made the right decision to sign him by batting .272/.317/.304 and representing the team in the NY-Penn league All-Star game. Rivera played a few games in 2006 winter ball for Carolina of the Puerto Rico League.

 

In 2007, Rivera played a short time for the GCL Mets (.207 in 29 at bats), but spent the majority of the season in A ball with Savannah (.254/.290/.304 in 138 at bats) trying to fight for a starting position. There was an injury in Binghamton, creating the need for an emergency infielder to be sent there. Well, the Mets chose Rivera, who stepped into the AA B-Met starting lineup and never gave it up. He ended the season leading the team in hitting (.316/.409/.351 in 57 at bats).

 

Rivera is a native of Carolina, Puerto Rico.

 

Ex-Mets:

 

From ‘The Hardball Times’ article on ‘Super-Subs’:

Jim Hickman - I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was delighted when Hickman came out of nowhere at the age of 33 to put together that brilliant season with the bat in 1970. He'd always been a rather obscure player, but somehow was one of those guys you root for, even when he's on the opposing team: He just seemed to be an unassuming hard worker who never had a bad word to say about anyone, and for whom nothing ever seemed to go right. That said, though it is the case that it was Hickman's bad fortune to be stuck on those terrible early Mets teams, it was in another sense his good fortune: Since those rosters were perennially bereft of a legitimate center fielder, the ever-juggling Casey Stengel gave a lot of playing time in center to the not-exactly-swift-afoot Hickman. "Gentleman Jim" gamely gave it his best effort, but alas here was Roger Angell's 1963 description of the results:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/superdupersubs-part-2-1941-1970

 

Armando Benitez returned to the mound for Single-A Dunedin on Monday and pitched a scoreless inning

 

This Day In Mets History:

 

1970 - Wes Parker hits a triple to beat the Mets in the tenth inning. The three-bagger completes the cycle for the Dodger first baseman.

1991 - Darryl Strawberry returns to New York as a Dodger with mixed results. A crowd of 49,118 mostly booing fans watch him hit a two-run home run, and they cheer when he makes the last out of the game with the potential tying and winning runs on base in the 6-5 Met victory

2005 - At the age of 46 years and 257 days old, Julio Franco of the Atlanta Braves becomes the second-oldest player to homer in big league history. Jack Quinn, a pitcher who accomplished the feat when he was 100 days older, hit a home run for the A's on June 27, 1930

2006 - With a 8-5 victory over the Rangers, Joe Torre joins Joe McCarthy (1,460), Casey Stengel (1,149) and Miller Huggins (1,067) as the fourth Yankee manager win a 1000 games. The Bronx Bomber skipper has compiled a 1,000-645 record during his 11-year tenure with the team.