Tuesday's Minor Thoughts

1. Whether you want SP Brad Holt to be a Met some day, or you're up to him being packaged this month for a desperately needed Queens bat, you still both wanted him to pitch well tonight. Success in the majors comes a lot easier mentally if you dominate in the minors, and it's time to Holt to string a bunch of great AA performances.

2. http://www.metsblog.com/ had an interesting survey today, asking their loyal following if you were willing to trade Brad Holt, Fernando Martinez, and Wilmer Flores for P Roy Haliday. At 5pm the voting was 54% yes and 46% no. I voted also and voted no, which was my first instinct; however, if I could do the vote over, I'd change that to yes, if he would first sign an extension. I truly would like to get this outfield filled out for the next few years so the Mets can move on to other holes, and if it takes a Johan Santana kind of prospect exit, that's fine with me. We can go back to saying the Mets minors suck for a couple more years and take pressure off the kids.

3. Speaking of Wilmer Flores, he's starting to light up in A-ball. It's hard to go to these games at night, watch this kid, and realize he's younger than my fax machine. After today's game, he's hitting .284 for the season, which includes an OPS of .684. Yes, his slugging is only .360, but he has only made 10 errors this season, far less than expected. Again, he's 16-years old. He's the same age as C Bryce Harper, who just quit the last two years of high school to go into the draft next year. The difference here is Flores is already 27th in BA in the entire league

4. Regarding Binghamton's rotation, Jake Ruckle returns Wednesday to the B-Mets rotation. Ruckle has pitched 10.0 scoreless innings since coming back to the team he pitched for last season. He was a rising prospect before going down with a season ending injury last year. Time was needed to bring back his velocity and he's looks to be back on track. The Baseball Cube gives him a 100 rating for control, he's only 23-years old, and his lifetime Mets record is: 25-16, 3.29, 1.19.... Remember this name.

5. I reported in my "Mets Stuff" columns this morning that one of the baseball scouts told my friend, Adam Rubin, that there isn't a single Mets prospect on the St. Lucie team. I know manager Tim Tuefel hates when someone puts these kind of stories on the bulletin board (he used to pull mine down even if it had positive info), but he might want to put this one up and light a fire under a bunch of guys that were once thought of having a future in Queens... me? Well, I think the scount is correct at this point, and I just reduced the last two players there that I had listed as "maybe babies" to "below the radar", SS Reese Havens, and RP Jimmy Johnson.

6. If you study the St. Lucie roster from the beginning of the season, it becomes quite clear that the best of this team (Holt, Jenrry Majia,and Ike Davis) has moved on to Binghamton, yet at the same time, the best of Savannah (Josh Satin, Sean Ratliff, Flores, Robert Carson, and Jeurys Familia) are still in Savannah. Would the Mets rather win a playoff game in Savannah, than reward players that should move on?

7. No roster moves today.

8. No word on either the Ruben Tejada injury last night in the B-Mets game, or where the heck is OF Cesar Puello in K-Port. My contact in Binghamton did email me back last night saying he had no word on Tejada... K-Port seesm to have joined Lucy, in no return emails, no updates, no game recaps, or keeping their web site updated.

9. Got a peek at the Mets lineup tonight... it does make one wonder how many more games out of first will it take before the Mets move on this year, trade Livan Hernandez while he has playoff value this year, and replace the Argenis Reyes', Fernando Tatis' and the Jeremy Reeds' of the world and give the play time to the kids. But, that's me.

10. Before anyone sends an email... I've been a Mets fan since 1962... and have followed this team this closely for many years before there was something called a web site. I know baseball. And I know when a team isn't going to make the playoffs. Jose Reyes is nowhere close to coming back. Ditto J.J. Putz. Carlos Delgado is probably shot for the year, and Carlos Beltran has been ordered to only ride a stationary bike before the all-star break. Trust me, this team is done for the season.

Mack