Big loss today, as the Mets went down 11-3 on a poor start by Pellfrey.  Pellfrey gave up 4 runs, all earned, three of which came in the third.  Overall, he pitched five innings giving six hits while striking out two. Though not his best outing, he did manage to keep most of his outs on the ground (an 8-5 ground/fly out split).  Of more concern is Sosa, who played only a partial inning during which he walked two and gave us six runs on four hits.  Nall finished out the 7th for Sosa, facing 3 batters but keeping any from scoring. Heilman and Wagner each added one scoreless inning, facing 3 batters each.

It was also another slow day for the Mets offense, with just four hits.  Lastings Milledge reached on a run scoring error, and left the game in the 9th after being hit by a pitch. Jose Valentin is credit with both Met RBI's, off a double in the 3rd.

Not a great, but not a horrible outing from Pellfrey. He did go five innings, and considering he's a 5th starter, we're going to see him have days where he gives up five runs. The bullpen today is where we should have been focused as far as fears and the such.  Wagner threw a scoreless inning despite having pitched yesterday, and Heilman pitched a quick inning as well. The rumors since yesterday are that Sosa is being shipped down to AAA, and todays performance pretty much shows us why.  Adkins did ok, which is good in the sense that its likely he's on the trading block since he's out of options.

Hopefully Milledge is not seriously hurt, one would assume he is being x-rayed at the moment to check for damage. Some nice work by Franco today, aside from some confusion early on between him and Pellfrey concerning who was fielding a ball. That was arguable Pellfrey's fault, and it appeared the two briefly discussed it. Wright had another day batting second, I understand the logic of getting him more at bats, but I still liked him further down the order and Lo Duca batting 2 instead.

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.

By now, most Mets fans have read Phillies' SS Jimmy Rollins' proclaimation that his team is the one to beat.  Just in case you have not, J-Roll said…

“We're the team to beat. I can't put it any other way,” Rollins told reporters Tuesday. “Look at our team and what we're bringing. Look at the improvements we've made. You look at the rest of the division. The Mets had a chance last year to go to the World Series. They made it to the playoffs. They won the division. Congratulations, but last year is over. They can take that any way they want, but I'm just stating a fact.”

Needless to say, that caused the normally cool Carlos Beltran to heat up.  Beltran said…

“Good for him!” Beltran snapped. “What'd they win? What'd they win last year?”

You can read the rest of the story in David Lennon's Newsday article.

…look, over the last few years the Phils were supposed to either win the division, or take the wild card.  They've done neither because either their 'pen stunk, or their starting pitching was bad, or both….

…this is a different year, but I will say that J-Roll can do all the talking he wants.  We'll see who is standing come October…