The Brewers blew out the Mets 8-0 on Tuesday. But — outside of those concerned with the Mets’ growing runs scored/runs allowed gap — you know, who cares about the game itself. The most interesting moment of the night was the spirited discussion betwixt Terry Collins and David Wright in the Mets’ dugout during the seventh inning.

Here’s the setup if you missed it: In the top half of the seventh, D.J. Carrasco was ejected by home plate umpire (and SNY announcer portnameteau) Gary Darling for plunking Ryan Braun with the first pitch immediately following a home run. The plunking appeared unintentional, for it would have been the most accurate pitch Carrasco has ever thrown in a Mets uniform. Regardless, Collins feared the Brewers might retaliate with similarly errant pitches. He removed his best hitters, Wright and Daniel Murphy, for their protection. Wright was visually displeased, caught on camera speaking emphatically with Collins and reportedly demanding to stay in the game. Collins said “no,” Wright said “what,” Collins said “You can do what you want Dave, but the next time you see me coming you better run.” Jordany Valdespin pinch hit for Wright. The third baseman appeared to speak calmly with Collins later in the same inning, so I assume things are cool now.

Breaking down reactions of the various parties:

1. I liked David Wright’s reaction. He didn’t want anyone else taking a pitch for him, and he made sure his teammates knew as much. Nevermind the baseball side of things — as a human being, that’s pretty cool. If someone you admire refuses to let you to take a punishment intended for him or her, that means something. Leadership is a buzzword now beaten into meaninglessness by politicians, and job and college applications. But I think Wright’s reaction is what leadership is supposed to be. Wright unofficially captains the third-youngest team in the National League. That sort of stuff matters coming from him.

Also he’s hitting .400.

I suppose yelling at your manager on camera may not be the best example for the Padawans, but in this case — Wright showing his teammates he’ll literally fight to take a pitch for any one of them — it can be excused as a necessary display.

Oh, also, Wright is hitting .400.

2. I also liked Terry Collins’ reaction. Wright and Murphy have been the Mets’ best hitters in 2012. (I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence.) Wright is playing with a broken pinkie, and he’s (maybe) just now recovered from being beaned by Matt Cain in 2009. The Mets can’t afford to lose either one to an errant pitch. Collins’ job is to protect his players from opposing pitchers, umpires, and even the player himself. Collins did his job in this case.

3. D.J. Carrasco is the goat here. He had one job last night: soak up innings in a blowout. The only way Carrasco could fail — the only way! — was to get himself ejected. The only way he could get himself ejected was to give up a home run and then plunk the next batter with a first pitch fastball. I guess he could have flipped off the umpire or something. Whatever. Carrasco did the one thing he couldn’t do, and made things even worse by hitting the opposing team’s best player. He gets a double F* for this one.

*A Double F = a Frank Francisco. Like an F-minus, but worse.

4. Collins kinda sorta totally threw Carrasco under the bus during the postgame presser. I’m not sure the long reliever is long for this team. You know how the Knicks originally hired Mike Woodson as a “defensive coordinator” of sorts? The Mets should get a “bullpen coordinator” for Sandy Alderson.

5. The Brewers did not plunk any Mets in retaliation. It seemed Carrasco’s pitch was without intent, and the Brewers may have seen it as such. All may have been for naught. We’ll see how it goes when the Mets meet the Brew Crew again in  . . . looks at calender . . . oh, September. That’s a long way off. We’ll probably all have forgotten by then.

6. If any game demanded a pitching appearance by Mike Baxter, this was the game.

The final grades: David Wright get an A+ because he’s hitting .400. Terry Collins is downgraded to a B for refusing to pitch Mike Baxter. D.J. Carrasco has probably flunked out.

Once again, that didn’t go all that well. Notes on the Mets-Giants series after the jump: (more…)

Well that didn’t go all that well. Notes on Mets-Braves after the jump (more…)

I’ll be “Blogging Live On Game,” or “BLOG”-ing for short, today’s Mets-Braves game. 12:10 start. Check back in about an hour and refresh for updates as they come: (more…)

Notes from the weekend’s Mets-Braves series. Take the jump: (more…)

Let’s start here: I’m not one for the term “pitchers’ duel” — it’s not as if Johan Santana and Stephen Strasburg took turns yesterday beaning each other with fastballs until one begged for mercy. (Note to self: Possible All Star Game skills competition?) They came face-to-face just four times, pitcher against batting pitcher, ending in three strikeouts and a pop up to left. So it’s not as though the two directly competed as equals. Only indirectly. Santana battled Strasburg’s friends, Strasburg battled Santana’s, and one pitcher’s friends played better. That’s not really a duel in the Hamilton-Burr sense. More like a duel in the dead-’90s-rapper sense, a duel in a loose sense. Maybe we just need a better name for these things: Pitchers’ showcase? Pitchers’ exhibition? Pitcherspolooza? (more…)

So, after some reflection, I believe I’ve come up with the actual philosophy behind these rankings. What I’m really getting after is this: If you were an expansion team set to play in 2014 with the sole goal being to field a competitive team in 2014 – that is, you care about 2014 and nothing else – and you can only pick current Mets players, whom would you take and in what order? The only other limitation being that the player must be under team control in 2014. That’s the idea here. Young players and prospects.

That’s the guiding philosophy. So some of the movements in this edition of the rankings are due to a fuller realization of the philosophy. And some come from spring training observations and performance. And some come just because. (more…)

“You do realize it’s a spring training game, right? Like, it’s a meaningless game. Half the players aren’t really trying. They’re just working on stuff, their pitches, throwing strikes, watching the baseball. That kind of stuff.”

“Yeah. I know. But they’re all meaningless games, when you think about it.”

* * *

Here are the privileges of having a press pass in the Mets’ spring training complex: (more…)

Meet the Mets: A series of haphazard, preview-type posts focusing on particular Mets, leading up to the 2012 season. Here’s the first one. It’s about Mike Pelfrey. (more…)

I haven’t listened to all of the podcasts in their entirety, so maybe this is an issue that you’ve talked about already, but what’s up with all of this Tejada hate out there about his show up date? My understanding is that it’s been affected to some degree by a visa issue, but I had to stop after reading about 5 comments on Metsblog on the post about his projected arrival today. People are already branding him as acting entitled to the SS position and questioning his devotion and drive, simply because he will show up to spring training on time or perhaps a day late due in some part to a work visa issue.

- Evan, via electronic mail

We did briefly address this topic — Ruben Tejada’s on-time arrival to Mets camp — on the Mostly Mets podcast. Ted Berg addressed it last week as well, so I’d recommend that post.

But I do want to address the principal players, Ruben Tejada and Terry Collins, with regards to their roles in this non-story story a little bit further. (more…)