Define "Hitter's Park," Please

Game 102 - Mets

Astros 3, Mets 2
Record: 52-50

The Mets have hit well in that new glorified wiffleball park in Philthadelphia, but they struggled to circle the bases in Colorado's stratospheric boon, and last night they flailed away in that softball field in Houston. What is it about these supposed hitter's parks that's confounding the Mets? They're afraid of getting hit by their own carom off the left field wall? They don't want to maim a fan with a line drive? Please, people, use these silly atrocities to your advantage.

Pedro held the Astros to two runs over eight innings. In other parks, that's a shutout. It's not going to get better than that in (Someone with) Minute (Intelligence) Maid (This) Park; in fact, with Benson/Glavine/Ishii slated for duty, it's going to get increasingly worse. The time is now to start racking up the runs. There were opportunities squandered all over the place last night, beginning in the first inning. Bases loaded, nobody out, they managed one run on a sac fly. Pitcher Ezequiel Astacio, who entered with an astro-nomical ERA of 8.24, seemed energized by that lack of Met productivity. Yet another struggling pitcher that the Mets revitalize. Here's an idea, Willie -- put in those bench guys tonight; it seemed to work in Denver.

I mentioned that Ishii will pitch Sunday, but I'm hoping he's long gone from the rotation by then. With the trade deadline some 60 hours away, there may be some transaction that deems his services unnecessary. More likely, however, is a bad trade that infuriates the Township to no end. See any post from early August of last year for an example.

Blogs throughout the 'sphere have spelled out what the Mets fans want out of this trading season, or really what we don't want. We don't want underachieving stiffs, which it seems Omar Minaya is exclusively interested in. We don't want guys whose numbers will plummet at Shea (that includes Alfonso Soriano, whose OPS is all "S" in yet another hitter's park), and we don't want older for younger unless that older is a top-tier talent. We don't want to hand over prospects like Lastings Milledge, Yusmeiro Petit, and Gaby Hernandez unless it's going to garner someone of serious clout, not a mid-grade player who needs to have his problems tinkered with by the brain trust in Queens. I'd apologize for another tired reference to last year's debacle, but it's still fresh, it's still painful, and it's still a terrible trade no matter how many "solid" outings Zambrano logs. Omar, please. I'd rather see nothing get done than another chunk removed from the Mets' foundation.

And on a lighter note, I'm glad to see that I was right about something else that should not have happened. Here's my plea against making the Bad News bears re-make, and here's Sports Guy's review crushing it.