John Delcos over at LoHud is reporting that Ruben Sierra has requested, and recieved, his release.  The 42 year old outfielder would have played with AAA New Orleans had he decided to stay with the Mets organization.  There is no word at this time if he has spoken with other clubs about playing.

I'm sure rumors will float around for the next few weeks, but this late into spring training I'm going to assume that this is it for Sierra. He chances were slim to begin with coming into the spring, I don't think the team had planned on carrying both him and Alou.

Its a slow news day, with the team taking a much needed day off, and I'd like to use it to address the Hot Foot Nation with a topic of concern. I touched on it over in the Bleachers during the game yesterday, but today I'll go into slightly more detail. 

The problem?  A-Hern

Now before you blast on over to the comments section telling me of the tremendous defensive skills of what at one point was our starting 2nd baseman, or tell me that his hitting has actually improved, though he has not quite yet proved capable of maintaining a respectable average while playing on a major league level, my problem is not with the young Mr Hernendez.  Its with the nickname.

Anderson Hernendez is a long name, and I understand the desire to not repeatedly type out Anderson Hernendez when writing about him. Its the sort of thing that can cause carpal tunnels or bloggers cramp. Likewise, I've even seen the occasional reference to David Wright as D-Wright.  And when A-Rod became A-Rod, that style nickname became the rage. Its great for him, but here in Metsville, I think we're better than that. For starters, sharing a city with the Evil Empire, our players are already compared by the media to their counterparts in the Bronx, especially Wright.  Why increase this via the use of a similarly styled nickname?  And could you see past Met greats doing that?  K-Hern? W-Back? HoJo? Ok, ignore that last one.

Perhaps, in time, Wright or Anderson Hernendez will do something to earn themselves a nickname.  Something people will mention when talking about Mex, the Kid, Mookie, Nails, Fonzie, or the Franchise.  But if not, so be it. We'll never forget Ron Darling or Mike Piazza either, and they didn't need a nickname.

So I call to you, readers and fellow metsbloggers alike, put and end to the A-Herns, the D-Wrights, the F-Marts. Before its to late.

As our pitching questions continue throughout the spring, what better time than a slow weekend to take a look at how some of our former pitching Mets are doing so far.  All stats are courtesy of mlb.com.

In Baltimore, Chad Bradford is struggling. In his appearance Friday vs the Twins, he hit three batters and gave up a homerun, and a total of 7 earned runs.  The loss for the day however, was credited to former Met Steve Traschel, who has a 8.18 ERA for spring. Kris Benson as mentioned earlier in the week, is mostly out for the season.

Over with the Royals, Brian Bannister has been able to start strong, but then struggles late. In his last appearance he went two scoreless innings and still gave up 6 earned runs for the day.

Darren Oliver on the other hand, is doing well in Anaheim (or Los Angelos of Anaheim I guess), throwing 2 scoreless innings earlier today, walking one and striking out one.

I know there's been a lot of talk lately about some of the pitching decisions made so far, but with the exception of Oliver for the most part would we really be better off had we held on to Bannister or Bradford? So far Omar's move that brought in John Maine and move out Kris Benson seems to have been incredible smart. And while some of the more recent pitching aquisitions, such as Chan Ho Park, have not yet proved similiar results it looks like we'd be in the same boat we are now if we'd held on to some of the players we lost this offseason.

A quick recap of tonights game for those of you still awake: Solo homerun from the new and improved Castro and one from Green, who went 2 for 2 tonight after struggling through most of spring training. Valentin returned after sitting due to a sore neck, supplying an RBI and a run (on an error by Cora). Milledge stole third, his third steal of the preseason, while Reyes was caught for the first time this year.

On to whats probably on most minds: Met pitching. Perez threw five scoreless innings as he continues to work his way to a rotation spot. He struck out 9 and gave up 3 hits, and its important to note those 9 strikeouts included Manny and Ortiz. Feliciano, Smith, and Schoeneweis each pitched a scoreless inning for a combined 5 strikeouts and one hit. Wagner struggled a little giving up the sole Sox run, but held on. A good sign for Perez who hopes to be a starter, and has less competition after Vargas and Humber were optioned earlier. If he can keep playing like this I wouldn't mind seeing him and Pelfry in the rotation, in the 4 and 5 spots.

Dan Lerner is a 3rd generation Mets fan, having watched games on TV on the lap of his grandfather as an extremely young child in the early 80s. His earliest memories of Shea are from 86, where his father brought him and his friends to games. They often waited to try and get Keith or Mookie's autographs, they never did. Once they got Randy Myers.  While they did get to go to the last home game prior to the playoffs in Houston, they did not get to see the World Series in person.  His parents went instead, because they felt the game would run too late. 

He's currently a good 370 miles or so from Shea in Western New York.  He owns a Pedro Martinez jersey, as well as a David Wright. Both in home white's and a 1988 blue road jersey. He thinks Keith Hernendez' number should be retired.  He also thinks Duquette hasn't gotten any smarter since joining Baltimore. He firmly believes that the Yankees deserve to never win another World Series.