NL East

The Monday Night Baseball game on May 12 (in which the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets) reminded me of a couple things.

Derek Lowe can pitch like an ace when needed, even if he doesn’t strike people out; he can get so many grounders it is ridiculous.

Jerry Manuel is a terrible manager. Pedro Feliciano is a lefty specialist, and Matt Diaz is a platoon player who destroys lefties. The bullpen gets the blame, but this one was on Manuel.

Well, not only can the Baltimore-Washington area lay claim to cultural diversity, great seafood, and the heart of American government, but it is also home to three of the worst owners in professional sports.

Peter Angelos, Ted Lerner and Daniel Snyder (not surprisingly) - are the worst owners in all of pro sports as compiled by Sports Illustrated.

Now that Oliver Perez has been airbrushed out of the Mets team picture (no record of him even existing can be found anymore), the Mets can’t seem to lose. In fact, the last game they lost was when the erratic lefty made his last start a week ago Saturday.

Seven games and three series sweeps later, the Mets have shot to first place. The combination of quality starting pitching, timely (and a lot of) hitting and the season-long success of their bullpen, along with aggressive base running, have turned the team around.

It remains a heated debate. If Billy Wagner had stayed healthy in 2008, are the Mets the team winning the division, winning the World Series, and spending the next four months bashing their division rivals?

While it is all speculation and hypothetical, there is valid evidence to support that had Billy Wagner kept his arm intact, the Mets would have proceeded to win the NL East. That aspect of the question remains plausible.

The Mets defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 8-4 at Citifield today, and they completed their three game obliteration of the Pirates, outscoring the feeble opponents by a 25-8 margin.

The win was the Mets’ seventh straight, and they are just red hot right now.

Eight men in the starting lineup had at least one hit, and leading the way with two hits a piece was Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, and Omir Santos. Castillo, Beltran, and Santos also led the way with two RBIs each.

On Friday, the Marlins announced that Dolphin Stadium will now be known as LandShark Stadium. This comes off of the Marlins business relationship with singer Jimmy Buffet, who owns a brand of beer call LandShark Lager.

Tonight, Jonathon Niese gets the chance that he has been longing for ever since he was sent down to Triple A in the spring. He will get the chance to show the Mets what he’s got when he faces the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citifield tonight, and he could make Oliver Perez’s trip to the disabled list last a bit longer.

A few weeks back, I attended the Mets' opening practice at Citi Field with my fellow B/R writer, Lou Cappetta. 

The event was more of an opportunity to check out the intricacies of the new park and sneak a peek at all of our favorite players up close.

We decided to sit in center field to get a good view of the action and also get a chance to catch some long bombs.