I Believe In Bunting With a .538 Hitter at the Plate

The first clue to disaster should have been when the lineup was posted and Jose Reyes was batting second.  With all of Reyes’ struggles batting third, and with his renaissance which took place when he was back in the leadoff spot, why would anyone in the history of anyone decide to bat Jose Reyes second?  I get that Angel Pagan is stroking the ball well, but with Pagan on base you put Reyes in a position to bunt.  Jose Reyes, one of the most dynamic players in the game, sacrificing like he’s Paul Lo Duca.  Why?  Because bunting puts less of a strain on your oblique which is why he’s not batting lefty?  Then it’s completely inexcusable since he should, at that point, be on the bench.  And speaking of which, who didn’t have their heart in their throat when Reyes was stretching his side after diving back into second base?  Is a whole season of being more careful with injuries about to go down the drain?  What, were Prevention and Recovery smoking a cigarette in the lounge for this one?

Then comes Josh Thole bunting in the sixth inning … the .538 hitter referenced in the title.  I know, 7 for 13 is hardly a large sample size.  But for the love of God the man was ripping the cover off the ball.  So he sacrifices to set up the seventh and eighth hitters in the lineup with Tommy Hanson rattled in the sixth inning in a tie game?  Snoop Manuel might be the one person on earth to tell Forrest Gump to walk slow and take time to smell the roses.

Then before you know it, Melky Cabrera and Omar Infante are taking R.A. Dickey deep in the seventh and there went the baby with the bathwater.  You know how p.o’d I am about this?  That last analogy made no sense, yet I used it anyway.  That’s how blind with rage I am that the Mets got beat by Melky Cabrera.

In missing persons news, Nick Evans was brought up to the Mets today from exile alien abductionthe minors to have a right handed batter on the bench. My only regret is that with Country Time closing things out for the Braves now, that the right handed batter on the bench wasn’t So Taguchi.

Sent down to St. Lucie to make room for Evans was Ryota Igarashi, who “needs to work on his secondary pitches”. Umm, Snoop … Irony’s on line two.

And speaking of Jenrry Mejia, the prevailing thought is that his injury in Binghamton was the death knell for a deal involving Cliff Lee, who went to the Texas Rangers today instead of the Yankees who were rumored to get him all day until the last minute, meaning that Batman was able to reach his utility belt while strapped to the printing press.  The Yankees had offered Jesus Montero and a couple of other prospects.  The only Mets chance to get a deal done, reportedly, was to give up Ike Davis and Jon Niese, which means the Mets really never had a chance to do it.  What gets me is why the M’s would want young top shelf major league talent from the Mets while only asking for a top shelf prospect or two from the Yankees or Rangers.  As much as I want to go off on a rant against the Mariners for that (only because I want to go off on a rant about anything), it could have been because the Mets made it clear, right off the bat, that they wanted a negotiating window with Lee.  Hence, their price goes up.  As it was, the Rangers paid a lot for three months in Justin Smoak, so I’ll refrain from killing Omar Minaya … for now.

Maybe I’m giving him way too much credit, granted.  But don’t worry, there will be plenty of time to kill him for something.

What kills me, and it’s not something I can blame anybody for, is hearing stuff like “Mets now turn their attention to Ted Lilly.”  Nothing against Ted Lilly, but it reminded me of when I called the cat food company today, wondering when their food was going to be back on shelves after a recent recall, and the pre-recorded message said “The great news is that your cat’s favorite food will be back on the shelves in six weeks.”  And I’m thinking, “That’s great news?  You tell that to my cat who has to eat food she’s not familiar with because you forgot to put essential vitamins in your damn cans.”  Same with Ted Lilly.  The big fish goes to the Rangers, and will probably go to the Yankees in the winter (and with my luck announce it on an hour long SNY special while he gives me the finger), and the Mets go look at Ted Lilly at the discount rack.

Great news.

But I suppose that Lilly could get hot at Citi Field and make Omar look smart for a couple of months if a deal were to go down.  After all, he had a near no-hitter earlier in the year.  And he wouldn’t cost Davis or Niese or Thole or anybody of consequence.  But I’m getting us ahead of ourselves.  Of greater worry is whether Mike Pelfrey can bounce back and help salvage this series against the Braves, and whether Snoop Manuel will help salvage what’s left of his mind.