Some Metsian bookkeeping from Memorial Day 2012, when the caps were ugly and Jon Niese didn’t look much better:
• Jack Egbert, a righthanded reliever with a last name reminiscent of a weird comic I recall from my childhood (all the single-panel action took place in utero), pitched two-thirds of the ninth inning, making him the 930th Met since there have been Mets; the 35th Met to see action since Opening Day; the thirteenth new Met of 2012; and the 183rd Met to debut as a Met since Faith and Fear in Flushing began blogging.
• Vinny Rottino became the Mets’ 149th third baseman, or the twentieth to first try his hand at the position since David Wright made the traditional comical tracking of every Met who ever took an ultimately futile turn at the hot corner largely a thing of the past. One-timers since July 21, 2004, include Andy Green, Wilson Valdez, Josh Satin, David Newhan and Eli Marrero. I guess it’s still a little comical.
• Wright played shortstop for the second time as a Met, but while nobody can doubt he’s what they used to call a good team man, David’s no shortstop. At least on a potential 1-6-3 DP he wasn’t. But he’s David Wright and it was an emergency, so we won’t hold it (or his alarmingly sudden sub-.400 average) against him.
• The Mets have three shortstops, none of whom is available to play. Ruben Tejada is rehabbing. Ronny Cedeño is day-to-day. Justin Turner, after tripping over first base, is on the DL. (The Mets’ last full-time starting shortstop, the one alleged to be overly injury-prone, has played in 48 of his team’s 49 games thus far this season.) Omar Quintanilla is en route from Buffalo to become Met No. 931 Tuesday night.
• Chris Schwinden is also coming, presumably to replace Manny Acosta on the roster. Technically this is a pitcher supplanting another pitcher, but if you’ve seen these guys pitch in 2012, you’d question those job titles.
• Two days after becoming a member of Club Hessman — so named for minor league slugger Mike Hessman, whose home run on August 6, 2010, wound up being his only Met home run — Rottino has exited the group, thanks to homering again, if barely. Current Mets who remain club members in good if mostly powerless standing: Cedeño, Andres Torres, Jordany Valdespin, Mike Baxter, Tejada and Johan Santana. Charter members, from 1962, are Gus Bell, Hobie Landrith, John DeMerit and Rick Herrscher.
• Scott Hairston has taken sole possession of thirteenth place on the all-time Mets Citi Field home run list with four. One more dinger will tie him with Gary Sheffield and Rod Barajas for eleventh. One more after that will earn him a share of tenth place with…any guesses? Yes, that’s right: Fernando Tatis. Wright tops the chart with 25 blasts since 2009, giving him a ten-tater edge over Angel Pagan, who himself is one ahead of Carlos Beltran and two up on Ike Davis and Jose Reyes. Daniel Murphy’s next home park home run — he awaits his first homer of 2012 anywhere — will make him the sixth Met to reach double-figures lifetime at Citi Field. The same can be said for Jason Bay, who I’m told, somewhat surprisingly, is still a Met.
• With six runs batted in to lead the Phillies to an 8-4 victory Monday, Ty Wigginton, a Met between 2002 and 2004, has officially expended all residual goodwill from his heretofore moderately fondly recalled Shea tenure and should now feel free take a hike.
Fun piece. But I still like Wiggy.
Noticed some ex-Mets in the Transactions the last few days: Ryota Igarashi was DFA by the Blue Jays & old friend, John Maine was signed to minor league deal by the NY Yankees ! How ’bout that ??