Adam Rubin reports that the first group of guys not making the roster have been sent over to the minor league camp. According to Rubin the players cut are Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, Brant Rustich, Ivan Maldonado, Adam Bostick and Mike Nickeas.

First round of cuts means…nothing. Absolutely nothing. These were guys who weren’t going to be making the active (or the 40 man) roster anyway, short of the 50 or so people ahead of them all boarding a flight for that Lost island or something. But its good to see Ivan Malonado is off in the system, should they need to fill the ‘name no one call spell’ roster spot that has been shared by Show and Amburglar.

Mets prospect Lastings Milledge has been medically cleared to play rehab games.  Lastings, remember him? He played for hte Mets, at some point. Long long ago. He's expected to start in the Gulf Coast league this weeekend.

Fernando Martinez, of the Binghamton Mets (the Beeee Mets), has been placed on the DL with a broken right hand.  Much like most Mets who have been injured this season, he is an outfielder.

Its the Curse of Vince Coleman I tell you. Oh, and I still refuse to call him F-mart.

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.

Anthony DiComa over at mlb.com asks the question: with some of the injured Mets likely to return soon, who will be sent down?  DiComa feels Carlos Gomez will go first, then Ben Johnson.

I'm not entirely sold on Alou being the first one back, but as DiComa points out Gotay is doing well, which makes him being sent down when Stache returns less likely. I think regardless of who returns first of Stache, Green and Alou, Gomez will go down first.  As the young guy who got called up more because the guys ahead of him was hurt, he needs to be playing more.  He's got good speed, and shows signs of potential, but its hard to argue that he's ready.  I doubt they'd send Newhan down, but it'd be nice for him to go before Johnson, or at the very least before Gotay.  Assuming shipping Newhan to AAA isn't an option I think the ideal order of sending down would be Gomez first, then Johnson, then Gotay, regardless of order of returning Mets.

Speaking of which, I think we'll see Stache first, then Green, and Alou last. Just a gut feeling, I have no medical background (short of some shoulder injuries), inside information, or justification. I could very well be wrong. In which case, I'll pretend this post never happened.

Recently premoted and demoted reliever Lino Urdaneta has been suspended after testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. He is the third Mets player (Jorge Reyes and Mota) to fail a test, and the second Mets reliever.  Lino had pitched just once for the Mets, lowering his ERA to 81 from infinity.  For the Zephyrs he'd pitched 10 games, getting six saves with a 5.8 ERA.

Man, whats going on with our releivers? I assume he hasn't been taking them too long, being the man with the infinite ERA and all.

Burgos has been brought back from AAA New Olreans, and Urdanetta has been sent back down. Bugos pitched just five innings for New Orleans, giving up three runs.  In Thursdays game he pitched two scoreless innings of relief. 

At least Mr Infinity has shed his infinite ERA in his brief stint with the Mets.  Burgos wasn't horrible when he was here. His outings won't be the sort of thing we look back on in 20 years when blogging over at neverforget2007.metsblog.com, but at least they weren't the type of thing to burn memories of hatred either.  Thanks to Gary for the tip.

Just a quick look at whats a brewing in the minors. 

For those who missed it: Add AA B-Mets first baseman Mike Carp to the ever growing list of injured Mets prospects.  Milledge and Johnson are both still on the DL in New Orleans.

Pitching prospect Vargas just had a tough loss, giving up four runs in just a tad over three innings.  He's now 2-3 witha 5.23 ERA. It was his third straight loss in a string of bad starts for him, during which he's given up 15 runs in 13 innings.  His last win was April 17th vs Memphis. Sosa and Urdanetta were probably the two pitching stars of  New Orleans, and it could be a tough season down there if both remain with the Mets for a considerable amount of time.  The only other starter with a winning record is Chan Ho Park.

Chip Ambres had a bit of a flourish early in the week, going 3 for 4 Monday then hitting a homerun Tuesday.  He's hitting .264 and is expected to play everyday with the other infielders currently injured.  Big name prospect Carlos Gomez is hitting .294.  His speed has contributed to 15 stolen bases (six in the last ten games), though he his hits have been primarily for singles.  He's had just two extra base hits in the last two weeks. Ricky Ledee, the prime suspect should Alou's knee become worse and require a trip to the DL, has gone hitless in five of his last ten games during a stretch that saw just one multihit game. So lets all just hope Alou stays healthy.  Should Ledee continue to struggle and Gomez and Ambres continue to play well, I'm sure Ledee will be moved down on the Next to Be a Met Chart.  Based on experience, I would assume Ambres would get a shot prior to Gomez.

Aside from the injuries to Lastings and Johnson, some might be wondering what else is going on down in the farm system.  So lets take a quick look.

Ricky Leedee, who was kind of briefly a Met last season, had a grand slam earlier in the week as part of a 4 for 5 day that helped the Zephyrs beat the Isotopes (Marlins AAA) 17 to 8.  Leedee followed this up by striking out five times Thursday and twice on Friday.  He's now batting .314, the slam was his sole homerun so far. Just remember, one bad diving catch by Alou, and he'll be in blue and orange.

Victor Diaz had four RBI's, which would be much cooler if he was still with the Met organization.  Now a Redhawk, he helped the Rangers AAA team defeat the Zephyrs 5-1. Mike DiFelice had the sole Zephyr RBI in the game, which took place yesterday.  It was his 8th RBI of the season,  he's now batting .360

Carlos Gomez went 0 for 4, this ended a 21 game streak in which he reached safely.  He's stolen 10 bases so far, getting caught 3 times.  The speedy Gomez has an OBP of .366, including 9 walks.

Robinson Cancel has been moved from the B-Mets to the Zephyrs to replace Lastings on the roster.  I…don't know anything about him.  Anyone?

Ruben Gotay has hit in seven straight, including a 4 for 7 day in Tuesdays romp. He's currently looking like the most likely option should we need second basemen (ie, Stache or Easley gets hurt).  Anderson Hernendez is..well, playing like Anderson Hernendez.

Up on the mound Chan Ho Park continues to survive thanks to the Zephyrs offense.  After Tuesdays win, he's 3-1 with a 7.29 ERA after 21 IP.  He's given up six homeruns and 17 runs total. I think the chances of us seeing Park promoted get smaller and smaller as the season goes on. We'll see Dave Williams first.  Jorge Sosa is the current cream of the crop.  3-0 with a 1.38 ERA.  He's given up just 4 earned runs, while striking out 24. 
should Pelf continue to struggle, I'm guessing Sosa will get the first shot at the 5 spot.