Weekend Notes
It was definitley an interesting weekend for the Mets. The VÃctor Zambrano incident on Friday, John Maine‘s visit to the DL and a renegade umpire in the weekend finally against the Braves. Renegade umpire? That’s right. Angel Hernandez, yesterday’s home plate umpire, reportedly told Mets emergency starter Jose Lima that he was going to call a different strike zone for him than for Braves starter John Smoltz. Hernandez supposedly told Lima:
I’m going to give you a couple of inches off the plate, but I’m not going to give you 4-5 inches because you’re not John Smoltz.
Hernandez also blew a call when Paul Lo Duca tagged out a runner heading home. Lo Duca was so upset by the call that he spiked the ball, which allowed a runner to advance since time wasn’t called and got Lo Duca ejected.
A quick Google search on Hernandez shows up several bad reviews of his umpiring. I’m curious what kind of processes are in place within the MLB umpiring crew to dicipline people who mis use their on field authority (like Hernandez did yesterday).
Anyway, Zambrano’s injury appear to be something that’s been bugging him since he came to the Mets in the Scott Kazmir trade. So he’s been pitching for a year and a half with pain. He says he did it because he knows how highly touted Kazmir was and what would be expected of him. Did he ever stop to think that what’s expected of him is that if he’s hurt he should do what he has to do to get better so he could put up the best numbers he possibly could? Now we’ve had to sit through a year and a half of a guy with a bad arm puttin up numbers that are below his potential because he was too short sighted to understand what the fans wanted from him: a healthy pitcher who can pitch well.
Now the question becomes who will pitch in Zambrano’s slot in the rotation? And with Maine out too who will take the next start in that slot of the rotation. Brian Bannister isn’t eligible to come off the DL in time for that start. Lima didn’t pitch well enough to warrant another look at this point in time and with the bullpenn running so smoothly it doesn’t look like they’ll want to move Aaron Heilman into the rotation (even temporarily) and risk messing with the chemistry. The most likely person to take the next open spot is Jeremi Gonzalez. But stay tuned. This situation is going to get interesting. It’s a good thing the team started the season well as they now have a lead to play with while they figure this stuff out.
On the note of the Zambrano-Kazmir trade The Metropolitans has a nice opinion on why talking about the trade is still relevant and not just sour grapes on Mets fans part. I’ll forgive the mistake that Omar Minaya was responsible for the trade (how can you say it should be a reminder for someone who wasn’t there hence unable to remember). Former GM Dan Duquette was the guy who pulled the trigger on that one.
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