We should know for sure how things shake out soon, but thought I’d forward a few ideas on the bench in case they’d like to check with me first.<\/p>\n
Raul Casanova<\/strong>, wearing\u00a0No. 30<\/strong><\/a>, looks like he’s going to start the year as the backup catcher to Brian Schneider. I don’t mind this. Casanova\u2019s not as bad hitter and he switch hits.\u00a0Ramon Castro<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0has missed large parts of the last two seasons with back injuries and will miss the start of this year. I like my scrubeenos more reliable than Castro\u2019s been, and hope for the sake of competition, and for the sake of having a lousy hitter as our No. 1 catcher, that Casanova makes his case.<\/p>\n I thought when\u00a0Olmedo Seanz<\/strong>\u00a0was canned the righthanded-hitting reserve job would go to\u00a0Jose Valentin,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0but he\u2019s hurt and may retire. Instead the Mets appear to be wavering between veterans\u00a0Brady Clark 93\u00a0<\/strong>and \u2013 surprise! \u2013\u00a0Fernando Tatis.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Angel Pagan<\/strong>\u00a0likely to be the starter in left while\u00a0Moises Alou<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0heals, and\u00a0Endy Chavez<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0the all-around defensive replacement, it may very well be Tatis, whose outfield experience is weak but who could also serve as a 3rd base and 1st base reserve. Tatis seems to be have been given a better chance than I’d anticipated given a dignified uni number (17<\/a><\/strong>) and fact he’s from early-90s Texas Ranger stock — USDA Prime as Omar is concerned.<\/p>\n Marlon Anderson\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>(2B, 1B, corner OF) and\u00a0Damion Easley<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(the only emergency shortstop) are the collective veteran lefty-righty pinch hitting tamdem. Let\u2019s hope they survive the season unscathed.<\/p>\n Also: * I\u2019ll be appearing with co-author Matthew Silverman at a book signing Saturday April 5, 3 p.m., at the\u00a0Barnes & Noble in Bayside Queens<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We should know for sure how things shake out soon, but thought I’d forward a few ideas on the bench in case they’d like to check with me first. Raul Casanova, wearing\u00a0No. 30, looks like he’s going to start the year as the backup catcher to Brian Schneider. I don’t mind this. Casanova\u2019s not as … Continue reading “Johnny Benchwarmer”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[281,351,173,174],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-damion-easley","tag-fernando-tatis","tag-marlon-anderson","tag-ramon-castro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":882,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions\/882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n* Pat Jordan fulfills the fantasy of every journalist who ever dealt with a difficult subject byblasting Jose Canseco out of the pa<\/a>rk. What a shot!<\/p>\n