Today ended up being one of my dream days though, it didn’t start off strong.  When I got to Tradition Field, the Mets had closed off access to the back fields.  I hadn’t asked for a press pass, as I thought it wasn’t necessary.  Turns out the team hadn’t come out until late anyway, because it was the day the Players Association comes in and talks about any issues that have come up ( read: steroids) and they players vote for their reps.  It’s all good though once I got around the entrance to the stadium, because overall the Mets fans are great as are Cards fans, so we got into some good conversations.  Adam Wainwright was starting for the Cards today, and in case you aren’t a fan of either of these two teams, I’ll remind you that Wainwright was the Cards closer in the 2006 NLCS and threw the two curves which froze both Cliff Floyd and later Carlos Beltran to send the Cards to the World Series.  It had a little air of excitement since the Mets were running Santana out to the hill for the first time.

Often with the Mets I end up sitting with the players wives, which is great for gossip, but not so good for talking baseball.  Today though, I got to sit amidst the scouts.  You know those guys who hold a radar gun up for every pitch then record the results?  And luckily, I was with some guys who had been around for awhile so I was able to pick up quite a bit. The gentleman to my left had been with the Seattle Mariners since they were formed. He told me that Danny Kaye was one of the original owners of that team. Good small bit of trivia for you.  Another story I heard from a different scout was about the new Cardinals GM John Mozeliak, who had been with the Rockies when Walt Jocketty was an asst. GM there.  Jocketty said he needed a lefty who could throw BP and Mozeliak said he had one in the DR.  The guy he returned with was so good that when Jocketty went to the Cards as their GM, he took Mozeliak with him. Good story.

Now, onto the game.  Johann Santana, the guy who is supposed to bring the Mets a championship this year, started the game.  He looked pretty good, but wasn’t throwing at full velocity.  He topped out at 93, but really only one or two pitches got up there, and he had some good variation with his off-speed stuff around in the low 80’s at times. Santana only went two innings, getting through the order once. He gave up a couple of hits, including a home run, but really that is to be expected at this point in the spring as he finds out just where each of his pitches is and what they can do. He wasn’t the savior we all hope to see, but again, it is very early in spring.  Here is a warm-up pitch shot.

Johan Santana throws

Adam Wainwright, who is really a different kind of pitcher had a slightly better day in the pitching line, though again he is a breaking ball pitcher so hitters aren’t as used to seeing those types of pitches at this point.  Here is a shot of him pitching to David Wright.

Wainwright pitches to David Wright

Since I was sitting with the scouts, I got a little more info then I often have.  A couple of quick things about a couple of the Mets, Jose Reyes ran to 1st from the right side of the plate in 4.22 seconds, while Angel Pagan who is vying for a bench job did it in 4.13. I think Major League average is 4.6, though I’m doubting myself on that and will have to call someone to confirm. For you Mets fans, I’ll also tell you that if the season started tomorrow Duaner Sanchez would be useless to you.  Its never good to judge on one outing, but Sanchez looked far from ready to pitch.  His first pitch, a breaking ball, came in at 80mph, and his second didn’t break and Pujols hit it for a bomb of a home run.  He walked the next guy, and then was able to strike out a guy and induce a ground ball double play, but you need to pay attention the rest of the spring, because he just didn’t look as strong as others have been saying, in my opinion.  Good new is Billy Wagner looked great.  The Cards pitching, which after Wainwright included Parisi (who looked good for the most part, but not quite ready for the bigs–maybe in a month that will change) Ryan Franklin who had a bit of trouble, Garcia and Randy Flores both who were a little wild, but over all good.  It was a great day at the ballpark overall.