The World Before Later On

Well, it's Spring Training and there's not much of consequence going on, so that means it's time to draw groundless conclusions from inadequate evidence. In this spirit, I watched one of the reasons to temper your expectations for the 2005 Mets, Kris Benson, pitch four innings against Vance Wilson and the Detroit Tigers this afternoon.

Prior to the bottom of the second inning, Rick Peterson was shown speaking about his attempts to "fix" the thirty-year old former first overall draft pick. The crux of it was that Benson needs to "dominate the bottom of the strike zone". And in that second inning, Benson was quite effective, as all of his pitches seemed to be either low or outside the strike zone (or both). In the third inning he had trouble finding the strike zone early, but pulled things together to end the inning on a strike out on a nice low fastball. But in the fourth he had a lot of trouble with balls up in the zone, leading to several hard-hit balls, including a two-run home run by Rondell White. Benson wound up allowing two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out three.

So what have we learned? Well, Rick Peterson's probably not done working his magic. As meaningless as four innings of Spring Training baseball may be, Benson didn't do anything today to show that he's a different pitcher than the overhyped disappointment of the last three years. Anyone counting on Benson to be much more than a mediocre innings-eater this year must have a lofty opinion of Rick Peterson's reparative talents.

In news that may have an impact on the composition of the Mets' opening day roster, Victor Diaz smacked a home run to left off of Detroit starter Nate Robertson in his second at bat. It's sounding more and more like Mike Cameron will be back in time to play right field in the season opener, but Diaz showing off his power is always good news.  ¶ joe | 9:18 PM |