The Blue Monster, reminiscent of Boston's Green Monster is the left field wall at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which is one of the best and most beautiful stadiums in the minor leagues , and is one of my favorite parks I have ever been to.

The Blue Monster was designed by the same man who designed Camden Yards, and many other of the new stadiums that are great places to see, and have changed all of the ideas we have about building a stadium. The Blue Monster has a manual scoreboard and seat son top of it which are great, and give you a great view of the game, and home plate, and for snaggers it is a great spot to wait for home runs. It has a video board on top of the scoreboard that shows players stats, as well as advertisements and if the Bulls score, some mocking clips at the other team (example: A player on the Tides ran in and dove for a ball, but missed and they played the Simpsons character going "ha ha").

The Blue Monster got a mascot in 2007 when "The Blue Monster" came into existences. He is the Bulls' assistant mascot if you would to Wool E. Bull.

The Bulls were shut out and had a total of 3 hits so there is not much here, but I will do my best.  Matt Joyce who they acquired for Edwin Jackson had one of the hits while batting third in the line-up. The other hits were from Elliot Johnson and Jon Weber. The Bulls had trouble hitting when they needed to and they were 0-6 with RISP. They left a total of 5 men on base to the Tides pitching staff.

Top prospect David Price pitched today and was dreadful. He allowed 3 earned runs over 3 1/3 innings and looked horrible. The most alarming stat was his 4 walks over those innings, as he fell behind hitter after hitter all day, and he threw 75 pitches, and only had 39 of them for strikes.  After that they went to Jason Childers who allowed a run, after that they would stumble along facing the same problems as David Price.

I already spoke about Price and Joyce. Justin Christian (formerly of the Yankees) was 2-4 with a run scored on the day, Scott Moore hit a home run and was 1-3, Oscar Salazar was 1-4. Some names on the Bulls you know would be Adam Kennedy (of the Angels) who was 0-2 and his day ended early as he was pinch hit for, Justin Ruggiano was 0-4, way to support me there Justin!  Ray Olmedo (Reds) took an ofer.  Reid Brignac was hitless as well...

Justin Ruggiano was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004 draft, 25th over all. He is projected as a 4th or 5th out fielder someday, but in the games I have seen him in, he could be a 25-30 home run guy. He has a nice swing that can generate some power, and has hit home runs in most of the games I have attended.    He has played for Tampa before, and in 2008 he had 81 Plate Appearances and hit 2 home runs with 7 RBI while only hitting .197, or collecting 15 hits.  His stats so far this year are 1 Home Run and 3 RBIs, and he is off to a slow start (the home run he hit was at the game I went to), he has struck out 20 times in 57 ABs or 1 K for every 1.85 ABs, so he will have to cut back on those, last year that stat was 3.34 ABs per K. He walked every 11.68 ABs, and for a reference Albert Pujols walked every 6.16 ABs, which is very good, so he will have to find his patience and plate discipline if he is to get back on his game.

Defensively he made 1 error last year, and is probably above average there, he can run most balls down, and can play all 3 spots so he is a versatile guy, which is always a good thing in scouts eyes, he made an error in his time at the big leagues, but he played three games in Fenway which has to be the worst park in the MLB for a young out fielder. He stole 20 bases last year, and 26 the year before so he has good speed, and could be a 30-30 guy, but that is very optimistic, at worst he is a 20-20 guy. He has an ok arm, but did not get any assists last year, but you have to factor in the Blue Monster, which makes left field very small and keeps a lot of runners on third.

As of now this is my last post....

(Kathy WIllens.AP)

This is a photo of Mrs Robinson and Jerry Manual posing for pictures on Jackie Robinson Day at Citifield, it is a big day for them because of the museum and the Robinson Rotunda that Citifield Features as its Main Entrance. For me this is very touching as without Jackie we would not be discussing Jerry, and there would be no controversy about Rivera wearing Number 42 after it was retired throughout the Big Leagues. 

She was in the SNY booth in the bottom half of the first and I realized how young she looks even though she has been through so much and is in her 70s, and that makes me happy as I hope she lives extra years for the years of life from Jackie we lost, today is a great day in baseball and it is personally one of my favorite days, behind Opening Day, but ahead of the All Star Game.

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In the minors we had the B-Mets play today.

First our Double-A team faced our arch-rival's Double-A team and got beat by the Reading Phillies 4-1, it was a close game until a three run fifth from Reading, then a tack on run in the sixth making it 4-0, the pitcher for Reading was Michael Stutes, he is a solid prospect and is not a Top-10 prospect in the Phillies Organization, but has a great slider that could help him get big league hitters out. His final line was 5.0 innings 3 Walks, 5 Strike outs, and 2 hits, so the walks are a concern for him, and as a guy at Double-A he has time to fix that.

For the B-Mets the starting pitcher was Ryan Coultas, he is according to Baseball America not that much of a prospect, but ya' never know! 

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(Kathy Willens/AP)

Last night the Mets bettered their Citifield record to 1-1, with an uplifting win.

On the starting pitching side, we got good Ollie yesterday, as he went 6 innings allowing 1 run, and only walking 2, with his fastball reaching 90 for most of the night. Jerry Manual was pleased with it, and was saying how he went out with ok stuff, and dominated, so he can not wait for the Ollie with 94-95 MPH on the fastball. He used his change up very effectively, as well as his two breaking pitches, the one he throws for strikes, and the one he just throws to try to get hitters out. I am personally VERY uplifted by this performance, and I am not worried AS much about the Mets starting anymore, and we need to know about Mike Pelfrey now. Ollie's final lone was 6.0 IP, 3 hits, 2 walks, 4 Ks. 

(Kathy Willens/AP)

In the bullpen they had to go three innings, but it went well. 

First up for the pen was Carolina boy Parnell. He showed us all that nasty stuff he has, with that hard two seamer, to go with a hard fastball. The bullpen is looking great right now, and Jerry is looking great for keeping this guy with the big club. His final line was 1IP, no hits, no runs, no walks, and no Ks.

Next was JJ Putz, who went one shut out inning, and for some people who were doubting the trade involving Heilman that got rid of him. I do not know why you would do that, but what ever. Putz came in and allowed a hit, but no runs. His final line was 1 IP, 1 hit, nothing else.

In the ninth we went to Sean Green, he ahd a rough time, but did not blow the lead, by only letting two runs over the plate. His final line was 1.0 IP, 2 hits, 1 ER, 2 Ks, no walks, 1 HR.

(Kathy Willens.AP)

On the offensive side, we looked great as we scored 7 runs for Ollie, who did not need all of them, but he got some wiggle room. 

The offense was lead by Carlos Delgado's Home Run, which was part of him extending his hit streak to 13 games. He was 2-3 with a home run. Carlos Beltran was 1-2 with 2 walks and an RBI single which gave the Mets their first run at the time, making it 1-0. David Wright was 1-4 with a run scored, and 2 Strike Outs, he has to fix the Ks or he will strike out more than 200 times this year. Jose Reyes stole his first base since Opening Day and was 1-3 with a run scored. Finally Gary Sheffield was 0-2 with a great AB, and a K a walk, and a run scored, no #500 for him though, and we will have to wait for that. 

I am not sure if I will be able to get line-ups, if you do not have them by 5:20 you will not have them.

On the starting pitching side of things, Johan had maybe his best ever start as a Met, striking out 13 batters in only 7 innings, and really out pitched Johnson in every way. Johan was cruising along putting up 0s, until Daniel Murphy, with two outs and a runner on first, drops a routine fly ball to allow a run to score, and one to get to second, then Ronny Paulino hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 Marlins. Josh Johnson was brilliant as well, and as usual, the Mets couldn't touch him.

The Bull Pen was in for one inning of work and it did not allow any runs to score, it was a quiet day on this front.

The offense was shut down by Josh Johnson, and only got one run of of him, that run was an RBI base hit with two outs in the ninth, but Ryan Church would line out to left field to end the game, so not much here either. 

Rubber Game today, if the Mets win they can go home at 4-2, which is a very respectable record through six games, last year they went back home 2-4, after being swept by Atlanta. Josh Johnson KILLS the Mets, and it will be tough for us to get past him, but Johan is the best way of counter acting Johnson, as he hasn't lost a game in 10 months, and pitched a shut out on the second to last game of the season to keep us in the race.

In the starting pitching, no one gave Livan a shot to out pitch the younger Ricky Nolasco, but he did by a mile. He went 6 2/3 innings and allowed 2 runs, but the Mets gave him five, so he was good enough, and to be honest, on my depth chart he is higher than Ollie right now, the 36 Million Dollar man. Livan was using his slow curve that barely gets to sixty, and he was feeding on the aggression of the young Marlins line-up, just ask Cameron Maybin who looked flat-out silly trying to hit it. His final line was 6 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 4 Ks, 3 Walks, and 6 hits. Ricky Nolasco allowed five runs to cross the plate on him.

The bull pen did a nice job as it allowed only 2 runs, and they were both charged to the same man. In the 7th inning after Livan came out of the game, Brian Stokes came in to face one batter, and he got a hit, so the Mets went to Pedro Feliciano, who got an out to get us to the eighth inning. In the 8th inning Jerry went to Darren O'Day again, who seriously needs a grief counselor, and if he doesn't he needs to be cut, as he allowed two runs (but in the ninth) and made us Mets fans start breathing a little bit more nervously. He ended up forcing Jerry to go to K-Rod who retired the last two batters and the Mets won, and we all sighed with relief.

On the offensive side, Luis Castillo proved himself, or at least for one more day, as he was 4-4 with three runs scored, and he had an RBI single, he was looking absolutely great. Jose Reyes had a home run that went for two runs, and is looking to have a great season this year, instead of a great 75% of a season like last year. Ryan Church continues to prove to us that he can play like the start of last year as he was 2-4 with a run scored, and is looking great.  Carlos Delgado was 3-4 with three RBIs. David Wright was surprisingly 1-5, but he made up for it in the field.

Some other notes:

Ollie has got to get in shape for the season, but I do not think this start means too much, as he was great for the first two innings and just needs to do that for 6 or 7 innings. Darren O'Day  was not on top of his game yesterday because he was sad over the loss of his friend Nick Adenhart, so do not expect that every time. Parnell is a great reliever and should stay in the Bullpen.

The Mets triple-A affiliate played its first game of the season, and lost to the Pawtucket Pawsox 6-4, Jon Niese got tattooed and allowed five runs in just two innings. Nick Evans who was also fighting for a roster spot was 0-4 with two strike outs. Bobby Kielty had two hits, and the Mets' top prospect Fernando Martinez had a double and a triple, but played DH, so he is still hurting apparently from the Caribbean World Series.

(Mark Mulville Buffalo News)

At double-A the Binghampton Mets have already played two games and have split them with the Yankees' Double-A affiliate, the Trenton Thunder. In the first game of their season the B-Mets won by a score of 5-3, it was a great game that was capped off with a game winning single by Emmanual Garcia in the top of the ninth. For good measure Josh Thole hit an RBI double to make it a two run game. Ruben Tejeda at the age of 19 went 2-4 with two RBI singles, so it was a very productive day for the young shortstop, who has a bright future. Shawn Bowman was 2-5 and is looking great, and could make it to the big leagues this year in my opinion.

In the second game against the Thunder, the B-Mets played them hard for 14 innings, but finally they would fall in the bottom of the 14th 5-4. The decisive blow was delivered by Yankees prospect Michael Veccionachi on a base hit up the middle. The Mets pitcher who allowed that was Right Hander Nick Abel. The B-Mets offense came from Lucas Duda who was 2-4 and from Caleb Stewart who was 1-7, but had a home run.

The Mets High-A affiliate lost to Sarasota 9-3, and the unlucky pitcher was Brad Holt, who allowed all nine of the runs, and walked a total of  four batters, but on the bright side he struck out five. For our offense Ike Davis was 2-4 with a double, and Reese Havens was 1-4 with a strike out and a base hit. Hector Pellot had a three run double, which was all of the Mets offense.

The Sand Gnats won their opener 3-0 over the Augusta Greenjackets. The Sand Gnats pitching came from Elvin Ramirez who threw six shut out innings with 1 walk, 4 strike outs, and 3 hits, the final three innings (and the save) went to Manual Olivares who allowed 1 hit, had 3 strike outs, and walked none. On the offensive side, Wilmer Flores was 0-3 with two strike outs, but played a sound defensive game. Andy Marte, another Mets prospect you should know was 1-4 with an RBI base hit. 

Check back later for a review of the Mets vs Marlins, and for line-ups, and an attempt to liveblog it, no guarantees. If you have any questions ask in a comment.

On the starting pitching side we got the Ollie that made us want to sign Derek Lowe instead, and the Braves are probably laughing, as we got Ollie, and they got Lowe who was great. Back to the game today, as I said in my liveblog of the game, Ollie was unhittable through the first two innings, and had an average fastball of 89.5 MPH, and there were questions about his ability to get that fastball up to the low 90s like it should be. He let the lead-off man on in the third with a walk, and then would allow an RBI single to Darnell Mcdonald, making it 3-1 Mets, but it was still a Mets lead, but then after that Joey Votto who had a great series, hit a three run home run to give them a 4-3 lead. He ended up walking five batters, which is the worst thing you can do as a pitcher. His final line was 4.1 IP, 8 earned runs, five walks, and 7 strike outs. Bronson Arroyo allowed five runs over six innings.

The bull pen was okay today, as some pitched effectively and kept us in the game, but some ended up costing us the game you could argue. First in came Darren O'Day, it was a good idea at the time with a bunch of righties coming up and they needed a ground ball for a double play, but he would allow a base hit up the middle and two runs would score and that made it 8-4 Reds at the time, but he would only allow that. Next came in Brian Stokes, who threw two shut out innings and really looked sharp, as he would not allow any runs as the Mets tried to tie it. Parnell and Feliciano would pitch a combined scoreless eighth, and there was no ninth as the Mets would lose in the top of that inning.

In the offensive side, we could have done better, as Ryan Church grounded into a force play at second in the first inning, with the bases loaded that would end up being a bad thing as if he got a base hit it would have been two extra runs for them and they could have tied it or took the lead, and Ollie could have had more confidence, Church would still get two doubles, and had a nice offensive day, and the Mets have scored 2, 9, and then 6 innings which is about 5.66 runs a game.

On the starting pitching side, Mike Pelfrey had a rough first inning allowing a two run home run to Joey Votto, and two other runs, to give up that early 2-0 lead given to him. After that though Pelf would settle down, and after throwing a lot of pitches in the first he was very efficient the rest of the way, and his final line was four runs, five hits, four walks, one home run, 2 strike outs, over five innings pitched. I thought that he was very good after a rough first, and you have to remember that this is still Opening Week, so the pitchers are not yet in mid-season form, so they will get tattooed this week, but by May they should be back to last year's form. Jerry Manual was not at all worried after the game as he said "We were as sharp as I'd like to see us play, I was a little disappointed in our defense, but we got just enough outs". So he was not worried about any of the pitching.

On the bull pen side the Mets had a tough act to follow after Monday's game, and they could not duplicate a shut out in the late innings, but they just got enough effectiveness in to be able to hold them to three runs off the pen, and considering last year we would have blown this game in the ninth, I am pretty happy. First Jerry went to Bobby Parnell, who got the first two batters, and then walked the next guy,and the guy after that, but came back to get his man, and his line was one inning pitched, two walks and one strike out. Next the Mets went to the only man left standing from last year's pen, Pedro Feliciano, who did what he does allowing two runs to score, his line was .2 IP, two hits, two earned runs, one strike out, and one walk. Next the Mets went to Sean Green he allowed a hit, but then got out of the jam, with the Mets still leading 9-5. Then they went to JJ Putz who allowed an RBI Triple to WIlly Taveras, but then got the next two guys out, so in would come K-Rod, and the Mets would win it easy right? Well he saved it as the score would indicate, but it was more of a Luis Ayala-type save, as he would load up the bases on one out, but then strike out Alex Gonzalez, and then get Lance Nix to fly out to the warning track in right center, so whether you were expecting a loss or having flashbacks, or trying to forget last year and trusting K-Rod(I did all three), he would get er' done as they say where I come from. 

On the offensive side, Jerry must have told them some deep dark secret for hitting with RISP, as today it seemed when there were RISP the Mets got them in, as they scored nine runs, led by Carlos Delgado, and Brian Schneider, yes Brian Schneider had a HUGE Three Run double in the seventh inning that at the time made it 9-4, but when they won 9-7 it ended up being the decisive play in the game. Carlos Delgado hit a two run home run off of Volquez in the first. and was 2-4 with 4 RBIs yesterday. The entire offense was doing great, and now Omar is looking good for not signing Manny.

Pitching for the Mets is Mike Pelfrey, who had a breakout year last year, but a not-so-hot spring training. Pitching for the Reds is Edinson Volquez, who also had a breakout year last year, and was acquired from Texas for Josh Hamilton. Mike Pelfrey was looking forward to having cold weather, but according to David Lennon, it is clear skies, and getting warmer in Cincinnati. 

The Mets will most likely use the same line-up that they did on Monday, as Volquez like Harang is a righty. The Red will use some of their other young outfielders, as they now face a righty as opposed to Johan, a lefty. 

The Mets star third baseman and Jerry Manual had great things to say about Daniel Murphy's day, Wright on the youngster said "He's got a tremendous idea of what he wants to do when he gets up to the plate... I like how he went up there with a plan, staying under control. When he needs to get into one, he can do it". So Wright has high praise for the rookie, and Matt Cerrone said "He may have a bigger man crush on Murphy than I do". I am a big fan of Murphy, and expect him to become a great player. Jerry said "Murphy is a tremendous young hitter, who makes adjustments during the at-bat, which is very rare", he then went on to compare him to Frank Thomas, whom Manual managed in Chicago.

The Mets were also speaking highly of the Pen'. JJ Putz said this: "If we can get 161 more of these kinds of games, I think everyone is going to be very happy", so basically he is either proposing that we become the first team to ever go 162-0, or he is just saying that if we are competitive every night, fans will be happy, I hope it is the ladder. Johan had this to say "If we are able to do that throughout the whole season we are going to be in pretty good shape... To see that, and get it out of the way in the first game, is definitely great for us, it brings our comfort level up", so he is trying to say, thank god the bull pen is good this year, Cy Young here I come! In nice terms. 

So overall the confidence level is at an all time high, and fans are expecting play-offs and a World Series, which of course based on one game is bogus, but if we can play this well for the entire season 100 wins is very much a possibility, and I believe that is possible.

(Al Behrman/AP)

Johan Santana was not at his best, but pretty close, as he got into trouble early and late, but over all only allowed three hits in 5 2/3 of work with four walks, seven strike-outs, and allowed one run on a sacrifice fly hit by Brandon Phillips. He overall looked very sharp today, and appears to be fully over the whole injury drama thing, as he was in command of the game. His change-up looked good the whole game, and he was locating pitches, his next start is scheduled to be on April 12th, against the Marlins in Miami.

The Bull-Pen was as sharp as I have seen it in thew last two years, as Johan got into trouble, and Jerry went to Sean Green who also came over in the Putz deal, and he retired Jay Bruce, and then had a 1-2-3 seventh, his final line was 1.1 innings pitched, no Ks, and no runs allowed. After him JJ Putz came in for the eighth, and allowed the first runner on, but would get the next three out to keep the Mets 2-1 lead, his final line was 1 IP, one walk, and no runs allowed. In the ninth the Mets big addition Frankie Rodriguez came in, and retired the Reds 1-2-3, as the Mets took the first game of the season, by dominating the late innings, something I would have laughed if it had happened last season.

On the offensive side, the Mets were lead by the young left fielder Daniel Murphy, as he hit the first home run of the Mets season off of Aaron Harang, to right center field. He also had an RBI ground-out off of Daniel Ray Herrera, who had loaded the bases to allow that to happen. Ryan Church had two hits, and looked great, and Carlos Delgado had two hits as well, Luis Castillo had a walk, a hit and a run scored and looked very good, and he is my comeback player of the year award prediction. 

As I am sure you have already heard, the Mets have signed Gary Sheffield to a one year deal worth 400 Thousand Dollars. According to plenty of sources, Sheffield was interested in Philly, and signed with the Mets because of promises of playing time. He will reportedly play both outfield spots as a platoon player, with maybe Church in right as that is was the main position he played before DHing in Detroit. He could also play first base if Delgado is not on top of his game, and platoon with Delgado there.  Last season he hit 18 Home Runs, while batting only .225. 

Last season for Detroit he was hitting for power and doing overall pretty well, but then he started to have injury problems and became mostly ineffective, and in August he was placed on waivers, and they tried to trade him or send him down, or something of the sort. As expected no one wanted the man who had a big mouth, could not hit, and could not field, so he was held on to by Detroit until the off season, when the tried to trade him, but failed. So they finally just ate his contract, and let him go.

The day after he was cut, there were numerous reports of three interested teams, two of them were named, as the Phillies and the Reds, but no one knew the third team. I am going to be honest, when I first saw him get released, I made a joke saying "watch Omar sign him!", then my friend laughed and said that he is not that stupid. Well when it surfaced this morning the third team was the Mets, my heart skipped a beat, I do not know why, but I was excited! So he we are now, with a man sitting at 499 Homers, along with Delgado they could both get to 500 this year, and let Citifield have a great opening season.