Minor league veteran Mike Hessman seems as if he's contractually obligated to appear at least once per season in our Blast From The Past section. And why not? The man takes pride in his defense at third base—at the age of 32, when most sluggers like him have retired to first base/DH roles—and he keeps bashing home runs. Those two traits have kept him employed for 15 seasons, the past nine at the Triple-A level. Now playing for Buffalo after extended stays with Toledo and Richmond, Hessman has clubbed four home runs in his first seven games of this season. His career total in the minors has swelled to 315, which leads all active players by a healthy margin. Bonus points to Hessman for hitting every single one of his Triple-A round-trippers in the International League, where cheap home runs are scarcer than in the Pacific Coast League. - link
But for those of us concerned about the future of spring training on Florida’s Atlantic coast — only four teams remain on the I-95 corridor — a look at the bigger picture is somewhat more alarming. Have you noticed what’s happening across the state? Have you seen the attendance figures in places like Clearwater, Fort Myers and Tampa? Have you compared the size of those crowds to the turnouts for the Mets here and Florida Marlins in Jupiter? Seven of the Grapefruit League’s 10 best-drawing teams, including the top three, train on the other side of the state. - link
Credit Angel Pagan for busting down the first base line on his grounder to short in the fourth inning. Rather than hit into an inning-ending double play, Pagan beat out the relay throw, allowing a run to score. The next batter, Pelfrey, singled home another run. "That was big for us," Jerry Manuel said. "We had to scratch any way we could." - link
Surprising fact of the early season: with 8 games and 35 PAs Jeff Francoeur has six walks. That puts him in the top 35 for number of walks and walk rate. Last year his walk rate of 3.6% was 4th worst, and he did not collect his sixth walk until June 2nd (he finished with 23). His best walk-taking eight-game span last year was 6/2 to 6/10 when he took four walks. In 2008 it was 7/27/08 to 8/2/08 when he had five walks. And back in 2007 he had two eight-game six-walk spans (4/11/07 to 4/18/07 and 9/8/07 to 9/16/07). So Francouer has had such periods of patience in his past, but they are relatively distant and very rare. - link
Niese isn't someone who gets a lot of swings-and-misses with his breaking balls, but he's gotten none yet this season. His breaking pitches have been ripped for five base hits. He's allowed more hits with his hook than he's gotten outs (four). In the first eight starts of his career, Niese allowed only six hits with his breaking pitches, and got 33 outs. Perhaps most indicative of his issues so far, Niese has thrown his breaking ball 12 times with a two-strike count. That has yielded four hits, and no outs. - link
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