The silver lining

The Mets got lost last night in San Diego 8-3. Starter Livan Hernandez got shelled to the tune of 7 runs in 5 innings by a Padres offense with exactly one legitimate major league hitter. Conversely, the offense mustered only 5 hits and three runs against a San Diego pitcher I can't be bothered to look up. All three runs scored in the top of the 6th helped by two walks and an error. On the bright side, no Mets players went down with a season-ending injury, bringing their current silver lining streak up to one.

2009 in pictures

On opening day the Mets lineup looked like this (click for larger):



After a brutal two game series that saw two more position players lost to injury, the lineup looks something like this (click for larger):



And that doesn't include injuries to, at various times, starters John Maine (out for season), Fernando Nieve (out for season), Jon Niese (out for season), Oliver Perez (sadly, not out for season), and reliever J.J. Putz. Not to mention backup outfielders Angel Pagan, Fernando Martinez, Ryan Church (pre-trade), Alex Cora, and Brian Schneider. It's always tough to tell fans of a team with the second-largest payroll in baseball that we have to look to next year, but, uh, we have to look to next year when some of these guys are hopefully healthy.

2009 in under 60 seconds

What's it like being a Mets fan this season? This cartoon from the grandstand sums it up perfectly:



Keep in mind this was made BEFORE starting second baseman Luis Castillo "mildly" sprained his ankle slipping on the dugout steps on Tuesday night. Also it was before Jon Niese completely tore his right hamstring from the bone (fucking OW) Wednesday afternoon. It was definitely before Gary Sheffield pulled up lame with yet another leg cramp Wednesday afternoon. Fuck.

Fun with plate discipline

Since coming to the Mets, Jeff Franceour (not pictured) has been one of their better hitters. Granted with this mix of minor leaguers and David Wright, it's not that hard, but still, Frenchy has been capable of generating actual runs. He also has a reputation for being somewhat aggressive at the plate. ESPN.com has a feature on their box scores that shows the total number of pitches a batter saw in a particular game. Perusing the box from last night's loss to the Diamondbacks you see that Frenchy went 0-4 with a strikeout and saw 6 pitches. That means in the three at bats he didn't strike out, he made an out on the first pitch, and in the other at bat he struck out on three pitches! For you fucking football fans, imagine a quarterback going 0-4 in pass attempts, where his 4th pass was an interception returned for a touchdown. That right there, that's not good, unless you play for the Lions, in which case it's pretty average.