Last night over at his LoHud blog, John Delcos poses the question: Is Mike Piazza best Met position player ever?

Lets face it, theres only two legitimate players to consider in a Best Mets Position Player Debate: Mike and Keith.

Mike, an eight year Met, the best hitting catcher ever. Some of his time here included the teams less than steller years, but he excelled. Just shy of hitting .300 for his stint here, 220 homeruns, 655 RBIs. He often led the team in homeruns, runs, and probably at one point or another led in most every offensive category. Eighteen mulithomer games, eleven games where he notched at least four hits. Well liked by the fans, he received a standing ovation in his first visit back after leaving the team.  He always played hard, he feuded with the Rocket, his main weakness was he never was much of a defensive catcher.

Then there's Keith. While Mike might be the best offensive catcher, Keith is generally regarded as the best defensive first basemen of the era. Eleven golden gloves, seven while a Met. The first captain of the Mets, and one of only three to date. His batting average is comparable, .297 with the Mets to Mikes .296, he had 10 games of his own that involved four hits but his power numbers are lower. Though keep in mind, the 80s were not a homerun era like the late 90s were. More importantly, Keith taught the Mets how to win. One of the veterans on the 80s team, he provided the leadership in the clubhouse that helped give fire to the 86 and 88 teams. An argument can (and should) be made that he too deserves to be in the hall, if for anything else based on his long stretch in which he dominated defensively. He will not be eligible for consideration again till 2011.

Both were great players. Both leaders. But overall, Keith was the best. While lacking Piazza's power, he still had the potent mix of agressive defense and excellent hitting, that when combined with the personality he used to lead the Mets to victory makes him the greatest all time Met position player.

Adam Rubin of the Daily News reports Mike Pelfrey will get antoher shot, the club is most likely going to use him for the upcoming double header against the Phils. He's 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA down with the Zephyrs.

Pelf is probably hoping the Mets have remembered how to play baseball by then. They're probably already putting him on a short leash when he comes up for that series, so he'll need his A game. Assuming of course, Pelf has learned how to pitch his A game yet.

Beltran has recently come out and admitted he's still having some issues with his quad, and while he says its not the cause of his plate struggles, chances are its at the very least a factor. We can blame part of it on less plate dicipline (a first pitch pop up?), but my years of medical training (watching House) makes me think the Quad is having some effect.

That being said, he's defense has not struggled, on top of which, we're not exactly overflowing with outfield options.  Lastings is one to two weeks from resuming running. And thats running. Add another one to two weeks on top of that before he'd be activated. And then at least another week in AAA before he'd have teh rust shaken off to be ready for a call up. Endy is gone, month minimum.  Alou is no closer to a return then he was when he was first placed on the DL. 

So that leaves the options as thus: play it out. Leave Beltran in for a bit more, assuming his injury doesnt get worse, and see if he gets out of his slump.  If not, start this thinking process over. Second: bench him. A radical move. But temporarily make Beltran the highest paid bench player in the game. He can do the Endy style pinch hit, late inning defensive substitute, but keep his playing time to the minumum.  In this scenerio, Gomez would probably get shifted over and Ledee and Easley could platoon in left. This keeps Beltran around, but puts less strain on him perhaps giving him a chance to heal. The third option, the DL. Give Beltran a full 15 days off, and roll the dice with on of the AAA guys who is still currently in one peice.  The primary options would be Ben Johnson or Chip Ambres.  Again, the question here isn't who replaces Beltran's bat, since he's slumping, but who replaces his steller D.

Food for thought for scenario 3: Chip Ambres is hitting .373 for the month of June, including a series against Iowa where he went 13 for 21. So far this month he has 4 HRs, 2 doubles, 13 RBI's, and 16 runs. Jesus Feliciano is hitting .315 overall, .371 for June, but with lower runs (8) and RBIs (3). Johnson is still struggling a bit since his return to the Zephyrs.

If I was in charge (a scarey thought, I'm no Omar) I'd go with option two. Call me crazy. Tell me you don't make a multimillion dollar bench player. But I think its worth a try. Put Beltran in the Endy role. Keep him active so we can put him out there to protect a lead (assuming we get leads), while letting someone else take the at bats. Shift Gomez to center. Could Ledee or Easley really do worse at the plate? And the shortened playing time would hopefully let Beltran get back to (or at least closer to) 100% without removing him as an option should the immediate need arise.

All this being said now, there is the other issue: Beltran seems to have fallen to the A-Rod Zone with some fans. Its been mentioned by others, elsewhere as well. No matter what Beltran does, he gets crap from the fans. If he plays hurt, he should sit because he's hurting the team.  If he sits, he's weak. If he's quiet, he's hiding something and needs to speak up.  When he speak's up, he's wrong too. Personally, I think there are very few reasons one should boo one of our guys.  So as long as Beltran isn't cheating, roiding, or getting caught doing coke off of a stripper, stop giving him a hard time. If my quad was hurt I'd probably take some time off, and I don't play a professional sport. Unless you count drinking as a sport. You don't? Oh well. He's out there every day, putting his body on the line for the team. So cut him some slack.

John Delcos over at LoHud reports that Alou has taken two steps back, and is pretty much starting his treatments over from the beginning. According to Omar, at best we're looking All Star break, but don't rule out NEVER. 

Yeah. Thats exactly what we wanted to here. That Alou might not be back this year. It sounds like…well like they have no idea whats going on. Alou's injury is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a conundrum, wrapped in a soft tortilla shell. Mm….delicious.

I have a feeling this whole Alou Injury well end up with Randolph pulling Gomez and Smith aside, sitting them down, and telling them their good Uncle Moises won't be playing anymore because he went to go live upstate with a nice farm family.  He misses them, but he's having a good time there playing baseball in the big open fields and wrestling bears with Ricky Henderson.

Jerry Crasnick over at ESPN looks at the needs of various contenders, with the tops being the Dodgers (power hitting) and the Braves (a starting pitcher).  His look at the Mets:

Randolph said Shawn Green will be activated tommorow, and that Carlos Gomez will get to stay and play for a little longer now that Endy is a card carrying member of the Injured Mets Outfielders Club (free gym bag, with membership!). So that calls up the quesion, who gets voted off the Mets bench?

We can first just rule out the no brainers, the bench guys that are not leaving us. Castro, Franco, Easley. Well, and Gomez. So that leaves us with Gotay, Johnson and Ledee.

Gotay has been looking good. His playing time has been a bit limited, spending just 10 innings at second base, and getting 43 at bats. Though he started slow, he's hitting .302 overall and has done well in the field. He has the potential to be platoon second baseman that Anderson Hernedez never quite managed to be. Decent performance by as the season continues could earn him a solid bench spot or even a surprise replacement for Stache in the future.  Though only an infeilder, if platooned with Valentin, Easley can be used as the utility OF (Chris Woodward style).

Ricky Ledee is a tough call. As mentioned the other day, he was hitting in the upper .200s in AAA, looked cold his first night out and then had a good day Saturday in the Mets loss with 2 hits.

Ben Johnson seems to have yet adjust to mlb pitching. 0-2 for the day as I type this, he's hit in just 3 of the 8 games he's appeared in so far, for a .182 average, all of them singles. He's also walked twice, and has one RBI. Younger than Ledee (older than Gomez) he has the look of someone who still needs some more time down in AAA. He had been playing well, though was on the minor league DL for a spell after a diving play resulted in a shoulder injury.  He seems the most likely candidate.  Though he could with time be a better player than Ledee, he doesnt seem ready and the time in AAA will probably do him good. He would be my bet for the one sent down tommorow.

After that, it will probably be tricky. If Alou is back, you could concievable keep Gomez despite the desire for him to play more, since his speed would make him needed more with Alou and Green both in. If he's performing expect to see him stay, and Ledee to go down. If he's not performing, its probably safe to assume he goes down. Of course, should Endy return first, Gomez goes down no matter what.  With Newhan sent down, I'd assume there's a very good chance of Gotay keeping that spot on the roster, when both Alou and Endy are activated.

Jorge Sosa delivers another great start. Eight innings, 5 strikeouts, just four hits, and no runs.  You really can't ask for much more, especially from a guy who's supposed to be the bottem of our rotation.  He got some help, a couple great defensive plays from the team. A good barehanded play from Wright.  Two great catches in the outfield by Gomez.  Billy Wagner got back on the horse, after his first blown save since forever ago. He faced three batters, striking out the first two. Sosa gets the win, his sixth, going longer than he has so far as a Met. His ERA is now 2.64.

Mets offense, still a little quiet, but did what it needed to.  Wright and Delgado both hit homeruns for the second straight night. A Delgado sac fly in the 9th scored Gomez for the other Met run. Aside from the two homeruns, all the rest of the Met hits were singles. Paul Lo Duca went 2 for 4 as DH, and Gomez, Beltran and Stache had a hit apeice.

Being that they won, on two homeruns, its hard to complain about the Mets hitting. So the only 'bad' from tonight was an error by Gomez. And being that no one scored on it, and he did make two really great catches, I think we can let him have that rookie mistake.
 

Ricky Ledee went hitless in his first appearance of the season. Hopefully his readjustment to the pro's won't take too long. 

We won a game, so everyone can take a step back from that ledge. Every has a bad few games here and there.

Dave Lennon at Newday has an article today on Julio Franco, who apparantly is better than most think.  Franco is currently hitting .286 with 6 RBI's in pinch hitting situations.  He ranks fourth amongst pinch hitters, with Atlanta's Matt Diaz leading the pack at .350.

How does Julio feel about the criticism that he's too old and done from the fans:

The Mets face the Tigers in Detroit in the joy that is interleague play, as they continue on their quest to play every playoff team from last season.

Jorge Sosa takes the mound for the Mets, and looks to put the Mets back in the W column.  Sosa has proved he's still got it this season, going 5-1 with a 3.22 ERA. He hasn't faced the Tigers in four years, and did poorly last they met. Remember though, this is a different Jorge Sosa. A better Jorge Sosa. The Met Jorge Sosa. He's been extremely effective in his five wins, getting knocked around in Atlanta (5 ER, 4IP) in his sole loss. He'll face Chad Durbin (5-1), who has either won or got a no decision in his last ten starts. 

Lineup:

SS Reyes
RF Gomez
CF Beltran
1B Delgado
3B Wright
DH Lo Duca
2B Stache
C Castro
LF LeDee
P Sosa

The recently called up Ricky Ledee starts in left, giving Johnson a day off, with Gomez in right.   Paulie will DH and Castro will catch, giving a little rest to Lo Duca as well.  Lo Duca has played every game since last Saturday.  Hopefully the Mets will have some fire tonight, something that for the most part has been lacking from their offense.  With the DH in effect, chances are we won't see any of our bench tonight (Franco, Johnson, Gotay, Easley) unless called in as a defensive substitute.  Which means…we realistically won't see the bench. 

Gametime is 7:05 and can be caught on SNY and WFAN.  As always, come on by the Hot Foot Bleachers to talk the game, Mets baseball, and your burning hatred/glorious love of interleague play.