The Mets made a few roster moves today. Jeromy Burnitz and David Cone both wound up on the disabled list, as expected. And Jason Phillips got sent back down to Norfolk. Phillips has shown some ability to hit in the minors, but the Mets clearly have more important holes to fill than that of third catcher.

On his way back to the majors is Joe McEwing, who hit .316/.435/.474 in 19 at bats in AAA, but hasn't looked like any kind of threat against major league pitching in quite some time. He had been one for six with the Mets before being sent down. I suppose if they put him at shortstop he couldn't be any more useless than Rey Sanchez, but that's not saying a whole lot.

Also coming up is pitcher Pat Strange. While I'd really like to see Aaron Heilman at the major league level soon, Strange has put up the slightly better numbers so far this year at Norfolk, and does have a little bit of major league experience. Last year he pitched eight innings for the Mets, giving up one run on six hits, walking one and striking out four. So far this year, while Heilman has given up more walks than I'd like to see (10 against 22 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings), Strange has struck out sixteen while walking just five in 17 2/3 innings, along wih a 2.04 ERA and a 2-0 record. Strange and Heilman have both given up 20 hits despite the dispairity in their innings pitched, though. Strange is also the younger of the two at 22 to Heilman's 24. I don't know yet whether Strange will assume the fifth spot in the starting rotation or come out of the bullpen, but given the way this season has started out, I'm all for giving some young guys a shot to impress at the major league level.

And in an instance of the Mets actually doing something I wanted them to do, outfielder Raul Gonzalez will be joining the major league roster. The 29 year old hit just .260/.297/.375 over 104 at bats with the Mets and Reds last year, but he's been tearing up AAA pitching so far this year, hitting .383/.464/.533, and if he can manage to push the hapless Roger Cedeno out of the starting lineup, I couldn't be happier to see him. Hopefully the outfield will look something like this while Burnitz is out: Cliff Floyd in left, a Timo Perez/Tsuyoshi Shinjo platoon in center, and Gonzalez in right. Unfortunately Floyd will be playing with an injured Achilles for the rest of the season and will apparently have to take a day or two off each week, but five days of half-speed Floyd in left is still better than seven days of full-speed Cedeno in center.

So, overall, nothing huge will likely come out of these moves, but I look forward to seeing what Strange and Gonzalez can do.  ¶ joe | 3:11 PM |