Here's a Surprise: The Mets are Driving Me Crazy

Coming off a semi-dramatic victory last night -- thanks to my boy Carlos Beltran -- this afternoon's game is a big one for the Mets. With ace Johan Santana on the hill, the Mets need to build off last night's resiliency and scrape together another victory to get things rolling.

But before we get to this afternoon's match-up, let's look back at a few of the disasters from yesterday's game that have since been swept under the rug (because it ended in a win).

First and foremost, there's Willie Randolph's decision to take Mike Pelfrey out of the ballgame in the 9th, after surrendering a bloop single to Stephen Drew. The facts: Pelfrey had given up just five hits in eight innings of work, including eight strikeouts and only a pair of early walks. He did, however, have 112 pitches.

On the other end, Billy Wagner -- Pelfrey's eventual replacement -- was coming off a horrific performance in San Diego in which he allowed a clean single to a lefty (journeyman Jody Gerut) and then a three-run bomb to old vet Tony Clark.

So what was Willie's rationale? Well, as always, he was doing his best to try to play things by "the book." The book says if you let a pitcher with a high pitch count go out there for the 9th and allows the leadoff hitter (of the inning) to get on, then you gotta yank him out. So, Willie did exactly that.

But c'mon. Can Willie think outside the box every once in awhile??? Give me a break!!!

Outside of the box, Pelfrey was throwing the best game of his Major League career against a first-place team that just couldn't figure him out. At times he overpowered them, in other instances he froze them with blazers on the corner.

Outside of the box, 112 pitches wasn't a pitch count that Willie needed to worry about. Pelfrey clearly had the game under control, and he's a young kid who throws predominantly fastballs and sinkers -- the strain on his precious arm isn't as bad as it would be for young guys who throw sharp breaking balls (the Mark Prior's, Kerry Wood's and A.J. Burnett's of the past.)

To Willie's defense, I know he was considering a few other factors. (1) Getting Pelfrey out with only one runner on would protect him from a potential game-tying home run off Wagner. Wagner doesn't like coming in with one runner on base, let alone two. I know that's a pessimistic way to think about one of the game's premier closers, but the fact is Wagner is prone to the longball when hitters know it is coming (like Mark Reynolds on a 3-2 count last night).

(2) Willie wanted to protect Pelfrey from blowing the game himself. You know the cliches -- "protect his confidence," "protect his psyche." If Willie had left him in there and made it his game to lose, and he blew it, we know many people would be saying "why didn't Willie go to Wagner?" today.

(3) He wanted to put Wagner back out there so he could shake off his terrible performance in San Diego, and get back on track. The Mets need Wagner to be dominant if they're going to continue playing tight, low-scoring games.

And what do I have to say about those three reasons? All BULLSHIT.

Sure, Pelfrey's young in baseball years, but he's a big boy in real life. He wasn't afraid of blowing that game last night, but he was damn sure terrified when Wagner was in there. Leave Pelfrey in there, and let him determine the outcome. If he blows it -- and let me make it clear that I don't think he would have -- then you pat him on the back when it's over and tell him "you still pitched a hell of a game, kid."

All right, deep breath. Moving on from there...

I CAN'T STAND Brian Schneider. But I don't really blame him, because he didn't trade himself to the Mets, and he doesn't play himself over Ramon Castro. Brian Schneider sucks. He's a .253 lifetime hitter. Sure, he's a catcher and their average averages are lower, but he's weak, has no pop and he swings like a 67-year old man. He grounds out slowly to second more than any player I've ever seen.

So if I don't blame Schneider for sucking, who do I blame? Omar Minaya and Willie Randolph, of course. Again, most of the blame has to go to Willie here. Minaya traded for Schneider, but he also brought us Ryan Church in the deal -- without question, Church was our best player for the first 1/4 of this season.

It's Willie's fault for sticking with Schneider as the No. 1 catcher. Yea yea, I've heard all the garbage about Schneider being great for the pitching staff and good defensively, but I don't care -- we need hits! We have to start hitting! And that means Ramon Castro should be the primary catcher. Besides, how great can Schneider be with the pitchers? Oliver Perez, John Maine and Aaron Heilman are all worse than they were last season.

I'm not saying Castro should play every single day behind the dish, because that's not realistic. Ramon's a little heavy and his weight has indirectly led to various injuries in the past, including one at the beginning of this season. Castro should start three out of every four games. In the other game they can squeeze Schneider in there, or even Raul Casanova who is probably a more dangerous hitter.

Speaking of Casanova, I didn't like the decision to send him down. I liked having the three catchers because it made Castro available to be our top pinch hitter, although Willie didn't really take much advantage of that. He's always too worried about sticking to "the book" and making sure he has a catcher saved for a potential extra inning situation. Because what happens if you use all of your catchers to hit and then the last one gets injured in extra innings on a freak play? Oh no, not the freak play injury! We have to send Robinson Cancel up there instead! Gotta save Castro!

C'mon!

All right, I'm getting too riled up. Let's just get a win today and keep going from there.