In an article for Mets.com, beat writer Marty Noble explains how the Mets could give Jorge Sosa a shot in the rotation until either El Duque regains his form with the new leg kick or Mike Pelfrey realizes how good he can be if he harnesses his control.

I wouldnt mind having Sosa has a stopgap for a few weeks to give El Duque some more time to experiment with his new leg kick. Although, having Sosa in the rotation would be a hit to our bullpen for the time being…

In his latest mailbag for MLB.com, Marty Noble touches on subjects such as El Duque’s inevitable move to the bullpen, what was the most glaring reason the Mets missed the playoffs, and why Jose Reyes’s slump could have been influenced by the absence of Julio Franco.

Mets By The Numbers interviewed our favorite Mets curmudgeon and historian, Marty Noble. Here’s a preview, and one of my favorite sections of the interview…

Robinson has been there as long as any player. Except maybe John Milner.
Milner was lazy. He had a bathrobe that was Howard Johnson colors: orange, turquoise and white. He could have gone 60-for-60 in the previous weeks but if he had that bathrobe on, he wasn’t playing. If he had gone 0-for-48 and didn’t have the bathrobe on, he was playing. He wouldn’t say anything. If he had the bathrobe on he’d just walk away. Not a nice person. He once had a wine bottle by the neck and threatened me with it. I called him “the Hamper” not the “Hammer.”

You’re ruining my childhood memories.
He wasn’t a good guy.

I don’t want to give too much away but there are a ton of great stories in here, including one where Tom Seaver and a former Mets manager almost came to blows.

This is a really excellent interview, which was passed along to me by Greg Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing, who has been known to turn a clever phrase or two.

It just goes to show you that if you ask Marty good questions, he’s filled with anecdotes that we never suspected given his cranky mailbag bedside manner. This is another side of him i’ve rarely been exposed to and I really enjoyed reading it.

Fire Joe Morgan rips into Marty Noble’s mailbag, in particular, his usage of the RBI statistic to judge player performance.