If anyone has ever uttered the phrase, “There is no such thing as too much baseball,” they might not have seen this weekend’s Mets versus Phillies series. I remember years ago reading a biography of Hank Aaron that included a tale of Hank getting sick from eating eight slices of pizza as a boy. Around 4:45 on Sunday, while not so breathlessly waiting for my first glimpse of Dana Eveland as a New York Met, I had a similar sensation. Thankfully Lucas Duda ended the latest madness in time for me to get a quick breath of fresh air before Monday arrived again. My lungs thank you for that Mr. Duda.
A few other quick thoughts from my lost weekend.
* I could never get too upset about Abreu. I figured he would mostly pinch hit, and that idea intrigued me. Now he is playing a lot and again I can’t see the harm. Who is he blocking? When we do have a lead, Terry needs to get him out of there late in games, but that is nitpicking. So far Bobby has been a big surprise, a positive one. I wouldn’t have predicted this level of success.
* Along those lines a little bit, Lagares heads to New York for an MRI. To stay positive, if Lagares goes on the DL, Chris Young pretty much has to play every day. He won’t be perceived as in anyone’s way, so any possible outside pressure on the guy should decrease. Hopefully he can step it up, because how he has been playing is tough to watch and not helping the New York Mets or Chris Young.
* Montero is headed back to Vegas, and he could be stuck there for a bit. The command that was advertised wasn’t there, but it was only a few games. Hopefully we see Rafael back before too long, and I wouldn’t mind if it has to be in a bullpen role in 2014.
* Speaking of the bullpen, you can’t play all these long games unless they are doing their job. Black looks way better than the guy we saw this spring. Black reminds me of Parnell in that I wonder if he would be better off sitting at 95 than at 99.
* Jimmy boldly predicted the All-Star game for Familia. It’s a little late now for that to happen, but Familia is showing the type of day-in-and-day-out performances now that make that prediction look more interesting.
* Speaking of the All-Star game, Jon Niese is quietly pitching like someone who belongs on the team. Awesome job by Niese going deep in yesterday’s game when it was absolutely needed.
