What do you think Jason Bay says to himself when he sees the lineup card and reads that he's batting 5th in the Mets order, and Mike Jacobs is in the 4 hole? Maybe he thinks, "Well, it makes sense because Jerry's splitting up the lefties. Wait, there are no lefties to split. Well, he wants to split up the righties. Split up the righties...I liked it better in Boston."
When I coached Little League, I toyed with batting my best hitter first, Ichiro style. We're conditioned to expect the best hitter in a lineup to be in the 3 hole, but an argument can be made that if one player is going to get that 5th at bat at the end of the game, it's better to see Ryan Zimmerman up there against a closer than Nyjer Morgan. I'm not saying I'd bat Zimmerman leadoff, but I would bat Bay 4th, and Jacobs 5th. I'd bat Gary Matthews Jr. not at all, and I'd bat Jeff Francoeur on his cranium.
It seems like on bang-bang plays at first, umpires get the call right 50 percent of the time. Incidentally, they could also flip a coin and get the call right 50 percent of the time.
Sometimes Keith Hernandez really gets on a roll when everything that comes out of his mouth for half an inning is wrong.
This is definitely starting to feel like a very long season for the Mets. Too many Maine/Nolasco matchups aren't going to lead to a lot of wins in the Mets column.
I want more!
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