Mets Notes - 6/3/10

1. I have no problem with Jerry removing Santana tonight when he did. What are ya gonna do. Sometimes bullpens blow it. But why the move to take out Dessens for Rodriguez?

2. Raul Valdez looks like he has nothing. What happened to him? Is he hurt?

3. The Jesus Feliciano thing doesn't surprise me, except to the extent that anyone batting .400 is surprising. We knew he'd be good. We also know that he a) isn't a center fielder, b) doesn't walk all that much and c) doesn't hit for power.

He's a good little player, but his BABIP in the minors right now is .426, which won't last, even if you are hitting line drives 22.4% of the time, which he is.

His OPS in Triple-A last year was 730. The year before it was 749. Even if he did elevate his game, he's probably no better than a .330/.380/.430 hitter in the minors... which translates to what? Maybe a .290/.340/.390 hitter in the majors?

I hope he gets called up and wish him luck, as I do all Mets. If his OPS is higher than the 700-730 range I'll be real surprised.

4. Courtesy of Metsblog:

# Carlos Beltran might rotate in and out of right field when he returns.
# Beltran is making tremendous progress, and might play in an extended Spring Training game as soon as tomorrow.

For Mets fans, this has to be the biggest news of the day, right?

5. Why would Jerry have Angel Pagan's first game as our #2 hitter (with a chance to stick there) be against a tough left-hander? Angel has a 842 OPS against righties and only a 642 OPS against lefties. Way to set him up to fail, buddy.

6. Another interesting split on Pagan is OPS by batting order position (seven starts or more):

First: 795
Sixth: 866
Eighth: 541

7. Sorry to Armando Galarraga tonight for losing the perfect game. It goes without saying that he deserved better. But you have to give it to Jim Joyce as well - he was a class act in admitting to his mistake and apologizing right away. Galarraga I think said it better than anyone when he said "nobody's perfect." Class.

As a side note to this, does anyone wonder whether Galarraga is better off having been robbed of history rather than making it? Does this make him somehow more famous than the others who have accomplished the feat of pitching a perfect game? He has, of course, the only 28-out perfect game now. I hope for his sake that he does well despite the blown call, and that he still has his share of all that he earned in accomplishing what he did.