Who's Hot, Who's Not - Fried Marlin Edition

I could get used to these new Mets :) After dropping 3 of 4 to San Francisco, thanks to a Batista start and a Francisco meltdown, the Mets re-grouped and swept the Reyes powered Marlins in three games. With a 4-3 home stand the Mets now head to the thin air of Denver, Colorado to play the Rockies and then to Houston, Texas to face the struggling Astros.

Who's Hot?

• Kirk Nieuwenheis- .286 AVG, HR, 2 RBI, 2B, 3B, 3 BB's
• Yea the average is lower than last week and he struck out in 32% of his At-Bats this week; But in fairness the Mets faced some awfully tough pitching this week. The fact that Kirk held his own, made some nice defensive plays and had 2 game winning hits keeps him on this list. By the way it is no longer a debate, Kirk is here to stay as Terry Collins announced that Kirk will remain with the team and play LF when Torres returns. Now we need to start wondering about Bay's future.

• Johnathan Niese- 2 QS, 13.0 IP, 3.46 ERA, 11 K's
• Niese has been turning in Quality Start after Quality Start giving the Mets the chance to win every time he starts. The team is now 3-1 in games started by Niese with the only lose coming from a Francisco meltdown. Combined with Dickey and a healthy Santana the front 3 of the rotation is looking EXTREMELY solid. 

• Jon Rauch- 2 Wins, 3.0 IP, K, 0.00 ERA
• Time to give some love to the bullpen. Minus the Francisco meltdowns and the continued awfullness of Batista (6.0 IP, 7.71 ERA, 2.833 WHIP) the rest of the bullpen is pitching well (13.2 IP, 0 earned runs, 0.909 WHIP). Rauch in particular has been extremely strong throwing 10 straight innings of scoreless baseball and only having a 0.50 WHIP so far this season. Plus he's tied with Dickey for the team lead in wins with 3.

Who's Not?

• Ike Davis- .087 AVG, 39% Strikeout Rate
• Boy it cannot get any worse for Ike right now. His timing is still off, he's striking out way to much, he's getting dropped in the order, and he even got pinch hit by JUSTIN TURNER (OUCH!!!). New team spokesman Daniel Murphy says Davis is starting to look better in the cage so hears to hoping that a couple of thin air aided blasts at Coors Field is the remedy Davis needs to get going.

• Frank Francisco- 1 Loss, 2.1 IP, 17.14 ERA, 3.333 WHIP
• Frankie Frank had a pretty rough home stand. He fell apart in extra innings in San Francisco and cost the team a possible win and has been walking way too many guys. His tight rope act has been scarier than K-Rod's so far. He did get a save in the last game of the home stand so lets just hope that is was just a hiccup in performance.

• Miguel Batista- 1 Loss, 3.2 IP, 8.44 ERA, 3.125 WHIP
• After Hefner came in and threw 3 scoreless innings to clean up Batista's mess against San Francisco, I was begging and pleading that Alderson would send him down to Buffalo and keep Hefner but alas it didn't happen. Not much else to say except that the 41 year old journeyman is washed up. Stick a fork in him, he's done.