Defeat the Empire

Hell, the west coast is always tough. Taking 4 of 7 out there isn't bad, especially 2 of 3 at former Pac Bell Park, where the Mets win about 20% of the time.

Turner Field is tougher.

The Mets got Atlanta at Shea about ten days ago, and despite Atlanta having Chipper Jones, Edgar Renteria, and Marcus Giles out of the lineups, the only win the Mets could muster was when Pedro Martinez opposed Jorge Sosa.

So as other fans cry "SWEEP!", I sing a different tune: win one game.

Last year, the Mets went 1-8 at Turner Field, the lone being being a dramatic comeback in the sixth game of the season. That's a winning percentage of 11%. If the Mets can go 3-6 at Turner this year, that's a 33% winning percentage and a large improvement over 2005.

The Mets made a smart move in the leadup to this series, using a scheduled off day to their advantage. Pedro will go Friday on five days rest, then Tom Glavine on four days rest, and Sunday will be Steve Trachsel on four days of rest. Victor Zambrano is skipped, which is good on many levels: a) he's bad and throwing him up against the Braves symbolizes a white flag, and b) Trachsel and Glavine are better on four days rest than on five.

The Braves will pitch two of their best three pitchers on Friday and Saturday in John Smoltz and John Thomson, and Kyle Davies is scheduled to throw on Sunday.

If we all thought through it logically, we could have come to this conclusion.

A 41-year-old power pitcher with back and knee problems, moving from the worst hitting division in the majors to the best, and also going to the crucible of Yankee stadium?

The decline that was inevitable wasn't even mentioned. Nobody called in on WFAN the day the deal went down to bring Johnson to the Yankees, that he wouldn't be as good has he had been for all those years in Arizona.

Johnson is hardly a liability, he's simply inconsistent and a few steps below the level of an ace. He started '06 with three decent starts, but left the last against Kansas City with "shoulder stiffness." And tonight against Toronto, after being staked to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, he simply was clobbered.

It's unlikely the shoulder injury is bad enough to put Johnson on the DL, but instead, it's a harbinger. Now at 42, he's going to come down with aches and pains that cause him to miss a start here and there, and limit his effectivness in other outings. Instead of skipping Shawn Chacon and adjusting the rotation so Johnson can come back on four days rest, the Yankees should start treating Johnson like the Mets do with Pedro Martinez; instead of running the Big Unit out there for 35 starts a year, they should give him an extra day off here and there and have him start 31 or 32 games instead. It's worked wonders for Pedro, who's dominated since moving to the National League.

Lastings: Lastings Milledge entered play Tuesday batting .357/.451/.595 with a HR and 4 RBI, as well as three steals at AAA Norfolk thus far. If Cliff Floyd continues to struggle in left field, or if either Floyd or Beltran get hurt during the summer, Milledge might show at Shea sometime in 2006. He's just about ready.

Everbody knows most of the '86 story. They know the 16-inning game six in Houston, the two-out rally in game six of the world series, and Jesse Orosco throwing his glove up in the air in celebration at the conclusion of the World Series. But to really understand the Mets' dominant and magical run in 1986, you have to go back to April and a series at the St. Louis Cardinals.

In 1985, the Cardinals won the NL East, edging the Mets by 3 games. This included a come-from behind win on October 3rd of that year, in a game that would have vaulted the Mets into a first place tie had they won. But they didn't, and lost an oppurtunity to go to the World Series.

The next year, the Mets started off hot. Sitting at 7-3 and riding a five game winning streak, the Mets rolled into St. Louis to play the Cardinals in a showdown of NL East heavyweights. Down 4-2 in the ninth and facing dominant young closer Todd Worrell, George Foster led off for the Mets with a double before Ray Knight grounded out. Then, with one out, Howard Johnson (pictured) cranked a long home run to right field to tie it. The Mets would go on to win the Thursday night game in ten innings and sweep the four-game series. That put the Mets 4.5 up on the Cards and effectively ended the Cardinal season. It was the ultimate April "statement series."

How does this tie into the 2006 Mets? The Mets face the Braves this Monday-Wednesday, and go in 5 up in the loss column. This is a huge series for the Mets, as we try to end 14 years of Braves rule atop the NL East. The pitching matchup for Monday decisively favors the Mets, as it's Pedro v. Jorge Sosa (0-2, 11.37).

20 years is long enough.

Starting 8-2 is nice, even after losing today behind an overrested Steve Trachsel. Some observations on the 2006 season thus far:

-Tom Glavine looks as good as I can remember him ever looking, maybe since 1998.
-Pedro is back. The toe isn't a concern, as I predicted.
-After watching a few tapes of him from last year in the minors, I said Brian Bannister reminded me of Mike Mussina. He's validating those lofty expectations.
-The bullpen has a chance to be real good, headed by Duaner Sanchez. Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner aren't 100% in form yet, but they will be in time.
-Steve Trachsel and Victor Zambrano will give us some headaches. They are fifth-starter types. The offense can carry them to .500 records or slightly better, however.
-David Wright has a real chance at an MVP award this year, if the Mets can win the division.
-Jorge Julio and Jose Valentin shouldn't be on this team right now. Heath Bell can contribute more out of the bullpen than Julio. When you carry just six relievers, you can't afford to have one that completely sucks. Last year, the Mets carried two for a great portion of the season and paid for it. (Danny Graves and Dae-Sung Koo)

I could go on and on, but the point is made. The starting pitching is a weakness, as was projected, but if Pedro and Glavine both pitch like aces and Bannister continues on the path toward a possibly NL Rookie of the Year, Zambrano and Trachsel's inadequacies can be compensated.

I turn on WFAN about 45 minutes after the Mets beat the Nats 3-2 at Shea, figuring to hear a little bit of a lovefest and some testimonies from fans in attendance about the wonderful experience they just had in being part of a sellout crowd. Instead, what do I hear?

Endless bickering about Billy Wagner's choice of "Enter Sandman" as his theme song when entering the game in the 9th inning.

It's an issue, of course, because it's Mariano Rivera's song that's played across town when he enters the game. But Mariano doesn't have the song trademarked or copyrighted, does he? He doesn't have an exclusive rights contract with Metallica. The song is available for use for ANYONE in baseball, and if Billy wants to play it en route to 40+ saves in 2006, more power to him.

Player of the Game, 4/3/06: Xavier Nady, RF. Nady went 4-for-4 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored. His double in the fourth inning gave the Mets a 2-1 lead, and they would never trail.

So I got bored writing team previews. Shoot me.

Tomorrow I can go back to what I do best: writing about Met games.

Bring on Washington.

Today's Schedule

Nationals (Hernandez, 0-0, 0.00) @ Mets (Glavine, 0-0, 0.00), 1:10 PM

Red Sox (Schilling, 0-0, 0.00) @ Rangers (Millwood, 0-0, 0.00), 2:05 PM

Yankees (Johnson, 0-0, 0.00) @ Athletics (Zito, 0-0, 0.00), 10:05 PM