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It’s official. In order to make room for today’s start Jon Niese on the roster the Mets have placed Oliver Perez on the disabled list with what they are calling tendinitis in his knee . Yeah right, and if frogs had wings they wouldn’t bump their ass when they hopped.

That jokes refers to the fact that this is not a real injury. The Mets have twice asked Perez to take a minor league assignment so that maybe he can regain some confidence and enough stuff to become a productive member of the team. He has twice rejected them and instead of asking him, and being rejected, a third time, the Mets have simply decided to put him on the DL with a phantom knee injury.

This, however, only buys the Mets a little bit of time. He has to spend at least 15 days on the DL and then eventually has to play in some rehab games. After a certain number he must be activated or he has to give his permission to stay in the minors. We’ll see what happens with that down the road. Until then at least the Mets have 25 productive players (alright they actually only have 24 thanks to Henry Blanco ).

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The Mets were back at home last night so obviously they beat the Marlins 4-3. R.A. Dickey started and upped his record to 3-0. Francisco Rodriguez got the save, but not before he made it interesting by putting the winning runs in scoring position for Hanley Ramirez.

Here are some notes:

• Today is the day. Jon Niese is starting. It sounds like they may just put Oliver Perez on the DL instead of trying to get him to go to the minors in Niese’s place.
• Turns out there was more to calling up Omir Santos than we knew. Henry Blanco had a cortisone shot on Thursday because of a herniated disc in his neck. He’s not going on the DL yet…
• Jeff Francoeur is batting .471 with a .525 OBP, .559 SLG, and a 1.084 OPS over his last 10 games since meeting with Jerry Manuel.
• Three possible targets for the Mets in the upcoming draft: RHP Matt Harvey of North Carolina, 3B Zack Cox of Arkansas, and RHP Deck McGuire of Georgia Tech.

The draft is only a few days away on June 7th. The Mets have the 7th overall pick. GM Omar Minaya said that their strategy is to draft the best available player without worrying about his position.

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Related Stories

• June 3, 2010 — Mets Notes: Murphy, Castillo, Niese & Perez (0)
• May 17, 2010 — Jon Niese Left Game with Injury Scare (0)
• May 12, 2010 — Mets Score 6 Runs in 8th to Win 8-6 (0)
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Mets center fielder and DL frequenter Carlos Beltran actually played in a game today .

It was an extended spring training game, but still a game nonetheless. He went 2-for-6 with a pair of singles.

Beltran ran the bases, although he took it easy with the running.

The Mets have consistently stated that once he returns to baseball activity, it will take about six weeks for Beltran to return to the club. That would put his comeback date around July 16 if he doesn’t experience any setbacks.

Assuming everything goes well, this would be huge for the Mets. That would give Beltran a full-half season in the lineup. And, considering how close the NL East and Wild Card races have been, it should be enough time for the Mets to compete.

The next step for Beltran is to get into an actual rehab game. But I get the feeling this  ordeal will be a slow process. Let’s wait until he starts running at full capacity before we get really excited.

But this is big news.

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• June 2, 2010—Mets Notes: Santana, Beltran, Castillo, Parnell (0)
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The Mets made a few roster changes today, starting with putting second baseman Luis Castillo on the DL due to a couple of foot injuries. In his place, they called up infielder Ruben Tejada. They also designated struggling outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. for assignment and called up catcher Omir Santos in his place.

The biggest news is probably that they finally released Gary Matthews Jr. He came over from Los Angeles in a trade for Brian Stokes, and talk about disappointing, Matthews has been beyond bad while in Flushing.

In 36 games, he played mediocre defense and had a OPS+ of just 38 with a .190 BA, .266 OBP, .241 SLG, and a .507 OPS. He had a chance to win a starting job after Carlos Beltran had surgery, but he failed miserably, and Angel Pagan has been the center fielder ever since.

Castillo landing on the DL is certainly not surprising news. He has been dealing with a bruised left foot for what seems like all season now, and he recently hurt his right foot compensating for the left.

He saw the doctor today and obviously didn’t get good news. There is no word on exactly how long he’ll be out, but expect for him to miss at least two to four weeks.

The call-up of Tejada, 20, is not much of a surprise since Daniel Murphy is out for the season. Tejada had a short stint with the Mets early in the season. He played in just three games and had a .542 OPS.

In 51 games with Triple-A Buffalo this season, he has a .294 average, .341 OBP, .359 SLG, and a .699 OPS. All of those numbers are right in line with his career averages.

Tejada is a strong shortstop, but he has very limited experience at second and the Mets were not smart enough to get him some practice in Buffalo this week, despite the fact that it was obvious that Castillo should be on the DL.

Finally, the Santos move just confuses me. Maybe there is something going on that we don’t know about, but here is what we do know.

Santos, 29, is the third catcher on the Mets right now behind Rod Barajas, who has been having a career year with the bat, and Henry Blanco, who is one of the better defensive catchers in baseball. Santos is also having a rough season in the minors—in a combined 18 games, Santos is hitting .074 with a .416 OPS.

Considering that everyone has been complaining about what a waste of a roster space Oliver Perez has been, the fact that the Mets have decided to waste another roster spot on a third catcher is baffling.

The only thing I can think of is that the Mets might want him in an emergency during an interleague game where Barajas DH’s and Blanco catches.

Updated: Mets manager Jerry Manuel shed some light as to why they called up a third catcher: Henry Blanco is a “little banged up.”

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Related Stories

• June 3, 2010 — Mets Notes: Murphy, Castillo, Niese & Perez (0)
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The Mets suffered a pretty brutal 18-6 loss last night to the San Diego Padres that drops their record to 26-26 and into a three way tie for last place behind the Phillies and the Braves.

Here are some other notes

Hisanori Takahashi had his first bad start: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.

Oliver Perez ’s agent apparently told the Mets to put the pitcher on the DL so he could go to Florida and see a sports psychologist and the Mets declined.

Carlos Beltran supposedly expects to play in an extended spring training game within a week.

Daniel Murphy is playing second base tonight for Triple-A Buffalo—for the first time this year. With Ike Davis at first base Murphy should only be playing second base. I don’t understand why they waited so long to move him over there.

So the Mets could have found a way to at least temporarily rid themselves of Perez and they passed?

And as far as Beltran goes, I’ll believe it when I see it.

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May 26, 2010—Mets Notes: The Bullpen, Injuries, and Saturday’s Starter 

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May 12, 2010—Mets Injury Updates: Beltran, Murphy, Igarashi

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According to Andy Martino of the NY Daily News, the Mets are not interested in new free agent pitchers Dontrelle Willis, formerly of the Tigers, and Nelson Figueroa, formerly of the Phillies.

This is not really a big surprise considering the question marks surrounding these pitchers. Figueroa, who spent parts of two seasons with the Mets, recently bad mouthed the organization. Combine that with his mediocre career numbers, he has a 93 ERA+ in eight seasons, and this is not a surprise.

It is a little more surprising that they aren’t interested in the D-Train, but only slightly more. The Mets have big question marks in their rotation, but Willis is practically a walking question mark himself.

Willis, now 28, was once a star with the Florida Marlins. In 2005 he was 22-10 with a 2.63 ERA and a 152 ERA+. He was traded to the Detroit Tigers after the 2007 season and they signed him to a three year $29 million contract. In his first year in Detroit his skills almost entirely left him and he suffered a knee injury. He played in just eight games that year with an ERA+ of 49. The next season the Tigers put him on the DL for an anxiety disorder. By the end of that year he had only played in seven games with an ERA of 7.49.

Willis was actually effective early this season putting together a 3.75 ERA in 24 innings this April, but his four starts in May were not encouraging as he managed a 6.52 ERA in 19.1 innings.

For right now the Mets seem happy with Hisanori Takahashi, despite his poor performance last night, and R.A. Dickey. Jonathan Niese is also pretty close to coming off the DL. After that it is unclear exactly who they have, but they’re probably right in avoiding D-Train. Signing him would just be adding another problem to their already questionable rotation.

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Fernando Nieve is starting against the Milwaukee Brewers tonight and because he hasn’t started since last July and has primarily been a reliever throughout his career I thought now would be a good time to go over his numbers as a starter.

Here are Nieve’s numbers against the Brewers:

4 G, 2 GS, 1-1 record, 5.11 ERA, 12.1 IP, 19 H, 7 ER, 4 HR, 3 BB, 10 K, 1.78 WHIP.

Here are his numbers as a starter:

18 G, 5-6 record, 4.11 ERA, 96.1 IP, 96 H, 44 ER, 17 HR, 38 BB, 60 K, 1.39 WHIP.

Here are his numbers as a reliever:

68 G, 2-3 record, 4.61 ERA, 70.1 IP, 61 H, 36 ER, 10 HR, 40 BB, 62 K, 1.44 WHIP.

So his numbers historically against the Brewers have been kind of rough, but the sample size has been small. As a starter his numbers are similar to coming out of the bullpen only slightly better. He seems to cut down on both his walks and strikeouts as a starter which probably means his velocity is down a bit and he is focused more on hitting the strike zone (He’s not as wild, but slightly more hittable).

I think what you see is what you get out of Nieve. Meaning, that not much should change tonight with him out of the rotation as compared to a reliever. His biggest problem seems to always be the home run. To bad he’s not pitching in Citi Field today, but every pitcher probably wakes up and says that to himself.

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Johan Santana and the Mets got in a pitcher’s duel agianst the Brewers yesterday, but lost 2-0 as Yovani Gallardo went the distance.

Here are some notes:

Ryota Igarashi showed some rust. He could only get one out before giving up the game winning homer.

Wearing a pad around his wrist, Rod Barajas returned and went 2-for-3.

Apparently Daniel Murphy is going to have to play his way back to Flushing.

Ken Davidoff of Newsday expects the Mets to try to trade for either the M’s LHP Cliff Lee , the Indians RHP Jake Westbrook , or the Orioles RHP Kevin Millwood .

A year ago yesterday the Mets were in first place .

Baseball is a long season and it is really important that while everything that has happened so far is important to remember the season is far from over.

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Some notes from yesterday’s Mets-Phillies game to start your day:

• The Mets’ 3-0 win yesterday over the Phillies capped off a 16-0 three-game sweep.
• Mike Pelfrey is becoming the ace of the Mets staff. He is 7-1 with a 2.54 ERA this season.
• Omar Minaya spoke with reporters yesterday, revealing two important tidbits:
  • Without getting into specifics, he said the Mets are looking to add pitching.
  • With the seventh overall pick in the draft, the Mets are going for the best available player as opposed to drafting based on positional need.
• Rod Barajas didn’t play yesterday and is day-to-day with a bruised wrist.
• Fernando Nieve will indeed start this Saturday against the Brewers.
• Jon Niese will start this weekend for Single-A St. Lucie and should return next week.
• Carlos Beltran still has not resumed baseball activities beyond light running and hitting. There is no timetable for his next step.

At this point, there is still reason to doubt that Beltran will play at all this season. The Mets could use his bat with all the close games they’ve lost and with the NL East and wild card so tight right now. Losing his offense could be a deal-breaker for the Mets’ playoff chances.

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The Mets have shutout the Phillies in back-to-back games this week thanks to unexpected, but amazing performances by R.A. Dickey, and Hisanori Takahashi.

Takahashi

Takahshi has been especially impressive since joining the Mets rotation. In two starts against the Yankees and Phillies, he has pitched 12 shutout innings, struck out 11, and walked just one.

Opponents have a .540 OPS against him.

I think his rotation spot is safe for the time being.

Jose Reyes

Reyes is also starting to heat up. He has a .985 OPS over the last six games. He has gone 11-for-28 with a homer, a triple, and no strikeouts.  He’s also swiped a pair of bases in that time.

Rod Barajas

Barajas injured his wrist in the seventh inning last night while trying to catch a Jenrry Mejia curveball. He had x-rays taken after the game that came back negative. Barajas is day-to-day, and might even play tonight.

Jon Niese

Niese, who has been out with a hamstring injury since May 17, is expected to throw a side session today. If it goes well he will start a minor league rehab assignment where he is expected to get at least one start before being activated off the DL.

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