Chicken Met-tles

All right, so maybe the sky isn't quite falling. Let's accentuate the positive for a second...

• The Mets lost 2 out of 3 games to the Braves with an outfield which contained Jose Valentin and Endy Chavez, rather than Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd.
• The Mets have six more games against Atlanta before May 8th.
• Tom Glavine can hardly be faulted for this latest loss against Atlanta, giving up one earned run in eight innings.

Unfortunately, that's it.

Yeah, it's an April series, and there is plenty of baseball left...along with plenty of baseball against Atlanta left to go. But with all of the off season moves that Omar Minaya has made, with the fast start the Mets are off to along with the Braves slow start and their penchant for injury and their loss of Leo Mazzone, this was a chance to make a statement that the tide has turned...that the Braves are not what they used to be...that being better on paper makes all the difference.

Instead, the Braves are proven bulletproof.

So what that the Mets traded their 22 for a tek 9 and an uzi? The Braves keep coming like Freddy on Elm street. They rely on what little stars they have left, and they came through like champions. And now the Braves know they can withstand adversity and go after the new and improved (but same old?) Mets. This may turn out to be a blessing in disguise...a reminder that teams, even banged up teams like the Braves, are not eliminated in April...especially not teams that are on a fourteen division-title streak. But it sure is an undisguised blessing and confidence boost for Atlanta.

No Larry Jones this week? No problem for Atlanta, as Andruw decides that he's going to hit enough home runs for both Jones'. Another one today makes four for the series...with no protection from his Hooters lovin' friend.

Tim Hudson also decided to wait until the Mets series to become Tim Hudson, chucking a complete game three hitter...making it six hits in two days against the Braves. And this is what I'm going to cry about tonight. It's spilt milk, I realize. But we need some reminding.

You're more than welcome to argue with me that it's pointless to keep harping on the Scott Kazmir trade. It's an argument that I've made to other people. The regime that made this horrible mistake is gone, what's done is done, and it's time for the Minaya Era to lessen the effects of this mistake. We can do nothing but look forward.

But you can't sit there at your laptop and type to me that it doesn't bother you one little bit that the Braves went out and got a Tim Hudson for absolutely nothing, while the Mets go out and trade their number one prospect for Victor Zambrano, who after all this time still has not been fixed.

The difference here is this: The Braves play their prospects like the stock market...it's something the Mets have begun to do as well under Omar, but still have a ways to catch up. John Schuerholz knows when his prospects have the most value, then suckers some poor team like Oakland that needs to dump salary into taking a deal they think is going to work for them, without giving up equal value. The one thing Billy Beane needed to get back in the Hudson deal was an offensive second baseman. Yet Billy Beane somehow could not get Marcus Giles back in the deal. Instead, for a 92-39 pitcher, Oakland got the bullpen version of Zambrano (Juan Cruz), a fringe outfielder (Charles Thomas), and one decent prospect who might never pan out (Dan Meyer). The three were prospects at the zenith of their usefulness, and Schuerholz not only recognized that, but maximized their value.

We'll see if Omar did the same thing with prospects like Gaby Hernandez (traded for Paul Lo Duca), Mike Jacobs, and Yusmeiro Petit (both traded for Carlos Delgado). The kitty returned from those prospects are playing major roles with the Mets. Unfortunately, so is the lack of kitty returned for Scott Kazmir, who in reality, could have been traded for Hudson if Jim Duquette hadn't jumped the gun in July of '04.

And as the Mets continue to pay for the mistakes of days gone by, I still look at the puddle of milk on the middle of the floor and cry.

***

Will David Wright blog about his three errors today?

Not in his newest post, which came after the game today. But I will:

Wright's two errors that cost the Mets the second run today came against the back drop of many fine plays Wright made. But one quick observation: Wright's throwing errors seem to come when he charges the ball and throws on the run. His throws tend to sail high. I wonder if Rick Peterson can fix that in ten minutes.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I want Peterson within 100 feet of David Wright.

But I do give David credit for blogging after a tough loss. When you read the latest entry, his head is obviously still level and he's not letting his tough fielding performance, or the fact that the Mets lost two of three to the Braves, get to him. He's certainly more even keel than me...but is that saying a lot?