Blogging Mets

Josh Thole is back in New York on Tuesday to be examined for a possible concussion, suffered in that home plate collision with Ty Wigginton Monday night.

In a clean play, Wigginton’s shoulder slammed Thole in the face as Thole was tagging him out (left). Thole remained on the ground for several minuets before walking off on his own. However back in the clubhouse Thole complained of headaches, dizziness and feeling flushed.

It could have been far worse; Wigginton is not shy about barreling into catchers. In fact, Gary Cohen often points out that Wigginton was the last Met to run over a catcher, and that was back in 2003 or 2004.

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“Ty Wigginton, I’m surprised he didn’t crush him, to be honest,”  Terry Collins said.

Thole has had a concussion before, in 2010 while playing for Buffalo.

There is a new seven-day disabled list for concussed players. It is likely Thole will be placed on that, with Rob Johnson or Lucas May coming up to back up Mike Nikeas.

News Monday that will garner nary a tear from Mets fans — Guillermo Mota has failed a drug test for a second time and has been suspended for 100 games.

“The Giants are disappointed to learn of Guillermo Mota’s suspension,” his current team said in a statement.

Major League Beaseball said the former Mets reliever tested positive for the performance enhancing drug Clenbuterol.

Mota came over to the Mets for the stretch run in 2006 and pitched lights-out — he was 3-0 with an ERA of 1.00 with 19 strikeouts in 18 innings. But after the season we found out why he was so good when he tested positive for steroids and was suspended for 50 games.

Still though, in his infinite wisdom Omar Minaya thought it would be a good idea to give Mota a two-year, $5 million contract. Mota responded with a 5.76 ERA in 2007 following his suspension and was roundly despised by Mets fans for his poor outings. Minaya dumped him on the Brewers following the season.

Mike Piazza also hated this guy. The two brawled during a spring training game in 2003 (above), and when Piazza went looking for him in the Dodgers clubhouse after the game, he was suspended for the first five games of the season.

So Mota is gone, his career likely over. Good riddance, Mets fans say.

Ruden Tejada left Sunday’s game with what has been diagnosed as a strained right quadriceps, and a report on Monday says a trip to the disabled list for the starting shortstop is “very likely.”

Tejada was running to first on what turned out to be an infield single when he caught his spike in the ground and tumbled over the base (left). He stayed on the ground for several moments afterwards. He emerged with bruises on his face and he limped off the field.

A Mets source told the New York Post that the MRI results were “not good,” and it looks like he is headed for the DL.

“The final decision won’t be made until he’s evaluated. Tejada still thinks he can play in a few days,” the source told the newspaper.

But if it is longer than that, the Mets will likely make a move.

“I don’t know how bad it’s going to be. If they think it’s going to be five, six days, we’d probably have to make some move to get somebody here,” Terry Collins said.

In the meantime Justin Turner will start at short.

Thus far on the season Tejada is hitting .305 and is playing a very solid shortstop.

This should solve the Mets bullpen woes — D.J. Carrasco has been activated from the disabled list, with Jordany Valdespin being sent down.

Carrasco has been out and hardly missed since spraining his ankle during spring training. But he’s apparently been lighting up Triple-A and Single-A in his rehab appearances, allowing just one run in nine innings of work.

That’s where Carrasco belongs. He was a flop with the Mets last season, pitching to a 6.02 ERA in 42 appearances. He was banished to the minors where he was just fine. But for some reason Sandy Alderson felt the need to sign Carrasco to a two-year, $2.4 million deal before 2011, so the Mets have no choice but to at least give him a shot.

Hell, he can’t be any worse than the rest of the bullpen. Wait, he’s proven that he certainly can.

Maybe it’s time for the Mets to stop playing dress-up and start playing winning baseball. After those photos that the Mets proudly posted to the team’s Twitter account showing players dressed in Western gear for their trip to Houston, the team is now paying homage to Cinco de Mayo with an arguably offensive, definitely stereotypical image on its Facebook page:

Yes, that’s David Wright on the right and Mike Nickeas in the center (along with bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello).

The Mets said the Western thing was to build team camaraderie, yet they went out and lost three straight to the lowly Astros. It’s nice to have a loose clubhouse, but grown men playing dress-up? It seems a bit silly, don’t you think?

So I was wrong when I predicted that Chris Schwinden would get one final chance to prove that he should be Mike Pelfrey’s replacement in the rotation — he’s been sent down to the minors, perhaps never to be heard from again.

Schwinden (left) had two chances to show the Mets he belonged and he failed miserably. Oddly, his pitching lines were nearly identical in both games — four innings, five earned runs for an 11.25 ERA.

The Mets announced that Miguel Batista would be the next to audition. The ancient poet-swingman has already started one game this season, lasting all of 3.2 innings and allowing six runs. His overall ERA is a sparkling 6.92. If he fails, Jeremy Hefner should be next.

The Mets are hoping Chris Young will be ready in a month or so. They were encouraged by a simulated game he threw on Monday but canceled plans for Young to pitch in a real minor league game. Young is coming back from the same torn anterior capsule surgery that Johan Santana had. Young had his a year ago — Santana was finally able to pitch a year and a half after his surgery.

Remember, Santana did some throwing last summer — a year after his surgery — and he had to be shut down. Everyone is different, and Young is said to be ahead of where Santana was at this point, but it is anything but a sure thing that Young will be able to come back anytime soon.

Lost in all the hoopla over David Wright’s .392 batting average and his broken finger and such is the fact that his strikeouts are way down this season.

Wright is a perennial 100-strikeout-per-season guy. His strikeouts have steadily risen over his career — from 113 in his first full season to a peak of 161 in 2010 (he struck out 97 times in just 102 games in 2011).

Ralph Kiner has repeatedly lamented over Wright’s strikeouts, saying he is just too good a hitter to be striking out so much. As usual, Kiner is right. Power hitters will strike out, but they will also hit .260. Wright is a career .302 hitter.

Wright has spoken often about the off-season retooling of his swing, getting back to the basics of what he used to do. Obviously it is working, and it is also resulting in far fewer strikeouts. Over the first month of the the season Wright struck out just 14 times. Extrapolating that over a six month season, that’s 84 strikeouts.

If Wright can keep his strikeouts to fewer than 100 it would be a great accomplishment and show that his best days are in front of him, not behind him.

It doesn’t look like we will be seeing Matt Harvey in a Mets uniform anytime soon. Sandy Alderson has made it clear he doesn’t think Harvey is ready for the big leagues — in fact, no one in the organization does.

Fans have been clamoring for the phenom to step into the rotation to replace Mike Pelfrey, especially after seeing Chris Schwinden struggle in his two starts. However Alderson said that ain’t happening.

“Aside from Matt himself — and I love that he thinks this way — there is no one in the organization who feels he is ready to be in the major leagues,” Alderson told the Daily News.

Alderson tempered this rather harsh assessment by adding that Harvey is “a work-in-progress who we hope turns into a masterpiece.”

Harvey is not exactly setting the world on fire in Buffalo — in six starts thus far he has a 4.80 ERA and his strikeouts are down. He is averaging fewer than a strikeout per inning while in the lower minors he far exceeded that figure.

I guess this makes sense. If he were mowing down AAA batters I would join the chorus to promote him. But that does not appear to be the case, so perhaps more seasoning is on order.

“When we bring him up, we hope to do so and not have to send him back,” Alderson said. ” This is not about filling an immediate need.  This is about the long-term stability of the organization and the team.”

Sandy Alderson spent much his his energy and most of his available budget this past winter rebuilding the bullpen. A month into the reason it appears Alderson wasted his time — the bullpen’s performance is on par with last year’s crew of relievers.

Closer Frank Francisco has five saves but also a 6.97 ERA. Ramon Ramirez has been up and down and something of a disappointment. Jon Rauch has been good, but he just had his first bad outing. Let’s hope that is not the beginning of a trend.

As far as the holdovers, Manny Acosta had a brutal road trip to raise his ERA to 9.69. Miguel Batista sports a 6.92 ERA (that includes one failed start). Only Bobby Parnell and Tim Byrdak have been pitching well.

So what can the Mets do? Well, Francisco and Ramirez are not going anywhere — they make too much money, and besides, it is far too early to give up on them.

Acosta and Batista are different stories. Acosta was pretty good for the Mets the past two of seasons, but I think we’ve seen the ceiling on him — he will never be more than just an adequate pitcher. I would give him a couple of more outings and if he doesn’t turn things around, then he’s gone.

Batista is 74 years old, so maybe his time has come.

The Mets have some decent relievers in the minors. Robert Carson, who was briefly on the team but saw no action, is pitching well down in Binghamton. Plus he’s a lefty; the Mets could use another one in the pen.

Another lefty, Chuck James, is pitching well in Buffalo. Fernando Cabrera is Buffalo’s closer and so far has a 0.79 ERA and five saves. But these guys are both only 20, so perhaps they are not ready.

I’ve written previously about how difficult it is to build a bullpen. By definition middle relievers are mediocre pitchers — not good enough to be starters, not good enough to be closers or eighth inning guys. So it is pretty much a crapshoot.

Alderson has shown a willingness to admit his mistakes and move on (Blaine Boyer, anyone?), so if these poor performances continue, I think we’ll see Alderson make some moves to get rid of the offending pitchers.

One month ago if you told Mets fans that on May 1 the Mets would be three games over .500 and a game and a half out of first place, I think most of them would be pleased. Well, that’s where we find ourselves today.

So many people pegged the Mets as one of the worst teams in baseball, destined for at least 90 losses, if not closer to 100. Well so far the team has defied those expectations. If the season ended today, the Mets would be the second Wild Card. Sure, it would be a shockingly short season, but the Mets would be in the playoffs.

How have they done it? Well, pitching and hitting (obviously!). The starting pitching has been solid –the fact that  Johan Santana is even on the mound, let alone with a 2.25 ERA in five starts, is astounding. Jonathon Niese is living up to predictions that he will have a breakout year. R.A. Dickey has been his usual steady self, and Dillon Gee has been just fine. Mike Pelfrey was pitching well before going down with season-ending Tommy John surgery. It has yet to be demonstrated that the Mets have a fifth starter in their organization, however.

The revamped bullpen has been bit a shaky, especially lately. It is going to have to stabilize in order for the Mets to keep up their current pace.

The bats have been excellent. David Wright is hitting .389. Who even remembers that he fractured his finger? Daniel Murphy is hitting as expected. Lucas Duda has four home runs — that averages out to 24 for the season. I think we’ll all take that. Ruben Tejada has taken Jose Reyes’s spot and run with it — his defense is sterling and he is hitting near .300. Josh Thole is finally hitting like he is supposed to. Kirk Nieuwenhuis came out of nowhere to be the leading candidate for Rookie-of-the-Year, hitting .325 and coming through in the clutch time and time again. Jason Bay was looking better until he got hurt.

The only disappointment offensively is Ike Davis. He is hitting just .185 but has three homers. He has been looking more comfortable at the plate in recent games and appears to be breaking out of his slump.

Terry Collins has been doing a masterful job managing this team. He really seems to know his players and how to get the best out of them.

Overall it has been a superb first month of the season. Now the Mets face the difficult task of repeating that performance five more times. I think this team has it in them to do it.