Newsday provides updates on several injuries.

The Brian Bannister show comes to Shea Stadium today, as he looks to
continue his impressive rookie campaign. He will be contested by Ben
Sheets, who will be activated today after starting the season on the
disabled list. In four career starts vs. the Mets, Sheets is 2-1 with a
5.32
ERA. Both career victories against New York have been at Shea
Stadium.

Brian Bannister is showing everyone that spring was no abberation. Granted, the Nationals are not a world class organization, but they're major leaguers with some decent bats that include Soriano, Zimmerman, Vidro, and the sweetest swing in baseball, Nick Johnson. They're no humps, and Bannister has mowed them down twice in less than a week. They've had the benefit to see Bannister pitch, and he fooled them regardless. It will be interesting to see how Brian fares against a stacked lineup like St Louis.

Bannister was cruising with a 2 hit shutout until the 7th. Bannister's only blemish was a barely fair dinger by Soriano in that inning. Bannister got out of the inning with only that run being scored and Heilman came in and made quick work of the Nats in the 8th, leading the way to give Wagner a chance to exercise his arm. It seems Willie wants to get Wagner some work despite the large lead because of his shortened spring, allowing him a perfect opportunity to gain some innings to work out the kinks.

The bats were alive today as well. Wright continues his torrid pace in the 4th with a double to bring home Beltran who singled ahead of him, thats 10 RBI's for “The Franchise,” folks. At least 1 in every game. Floyd hit a sac fly to bring home Delgado who had singled and advanced to third on Wright's double. 2-0 Mets.

The Mets scored 2 more in the 5th when Anderson Hernandez reached on an infield single, moved to second on Bannister's sac fly, and scored on Reyes' single. Reyes then scored off a smoking double by Lo Duca. 4-0 Mets.

Bannister helped his own cause and showed he is nice with the bat as well, hitting a double in the 7th inning and then scored off a trademark triple by Reyes putting the Mets up 5-0.

In the top of the 9th, Carlos Beltran hit an absolute bomb to right field. The monster is out of the cage folks. A two run blast with Lo Duca on base off a single. 7-1 Mets. Bannister earns his first win, and earns even more respect for an already impressive start.

The chance for Brian Bannister to show he can be a major league starting pitcher in New York begins at tomorrow night in Queens. When spring began, he was an interesting prospect in the Mets organization. Among Yusmeiro Petit, Gaby Hernandez, and Philip Humber, Bannister was rated the lowest among them by Baseball America. By now you know the story, when spring training was over, Bannister had put together a dazzling 0.95 ERA in 19 innings and stolen a job that was all but assumed to be given to Aaron Heilman with Kris Benson and Jae Seo shipped elsewhere. Great performances in spring don't always lead to similar results in the regular season, but Bannister showed he had the mental toughness to grit his way through trouble. That is part of what led the Mets to believe he had what it takes to deal with the stress of a more pressurized situation in a packed major league ballpark.

Bannister recently added a change up to his repitoire of fastball, cutter, and curve. He began trying to learn from the master, Pedro Martinez, but after finding for him the two seam change didn't take enough speed off he settled upon using a four seam grip taught to him by Duaner Sanchez, the “other” guy in the Mets pen.

Who is Brian Bannister? Bannister is 25 years old. He is the son of former major-league pitcher Floyd Bannister. He was something of a phenom in high school. He was All-Region and All-City in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

He went on to play for USC where he posted ERA's
of 4.35 in ten games out of the bullpen in his freshman year and 2.80
in thirty-five relief appearances as a sophomore. He sat out 2002, due to elbow surgery. However, he returned in 2003 to play his
junior year which was also his first year as a starter. In eighteen
games (fourteen starts), Bannister compiled a 6-5 record with an ERA of
4.53.

He was a seventh round pick in 2003 by the Mets and assigned to the Mets single A Brooklyn Cyclones. He posted a 4-1 record with an ERA of 2.15 in twelve games (nine starts) with the Cyclones. In 2004, he was assigned to play for High-A St Lucie, and had a bit of a sophmore slump, earning a 5-7 record with a 4.24 ERA in twenty starts. Bannister was promoted to AA Binghamton despite his poor showing, where he had a 3-3 record and an ERA of 4.08 in eight starts. He began turning it around again in 2005 in Binghamton, where he posted a 9-4 record
with a 2.56 ERA in eighteen starts. This earned Bannister a promotion to AAA Norfolk, where he compiled a 4-1 with an ERA of 3.18 in eight starts.

Bannister is also a talented photographer. His work can be seen at Beauty and Sport He runs a photography studio, Loft 19, in Phoenix. Bannister graduated from USC with a degree in fine arts.

Quick Hit : Six degrees of separation connecting Franco to Deacon White, recorder of major league baseball's first-ever hit. That's right: Franco played with Tug McGraw, who played with Yogi Berra, who played with Bob Newsom, who played with Charley O'Leary, who played with Sam Thompson, who played with White — who, in 1871, inaugurated this league.