Buck started to tail off a bit over the last week, so I thought his storybook month might have come to an end. But he lit up Horst for a garbage time homer to keep the fairytale alive for one more day.

Buck’s now third in the NL in home runs and first in RBI’s. The Mets haven’t had a catcher with this kind of pop since Mike Piazza left. Sure, Paul LoDuca had some solid seasons. But what Buck is doing right now is amazin’.

We shouldn’t expect this to continue. I really think Buck just started the season hot and will trail off back toward (or maybe below at his age) his career averages. He’s hitting almost 30 points above his career average, slugging almost 200 points higher, and his OPS is almost 200 points higher. I just don’t think it’ll last for much longer.

Sadly, Buck’s performance makes me think of PED’s and I wish it didn’t. I certainly don’t know or suspect Buck has done anything like that. It’s just a product of the world we live in the last 15 years of MLB stories or PED abuse that makes me think about that.

I hope Buck keeps it up but I have my doubts. I still think Travis d’Arnaud will be here in the second half of the season to take over for Buck when he gets tired.

 
photo credit: slgckgc via photopin cc

Jeremy Hefner (Photo credit: paul.hadsall)

Talk about a let down for Mets fans after an exciting night of Matt Harvey starting against the Nationals! Jeremy Hefner starts against the Nats today going up against Gio Gonzalez in the “Tough Act to Follow” game of the series.

The sparse crowd at Citi Field last night was rightfully fired up to see Harvey put on another show and go to 4-0 for the season out-dueling Stephen Strasburg.

Unfortunately for Fox Sports, they get the Saturday afternoon game today with Hefner on the mound sporting his 7.20 ERA. Hefner’s certainly wearing the title of “Most Likely to be Replaced by Zack Wheeler” so far this season.

Hefner’s made two starts and got rocked in one for 5 runs in 3 innings. And he got bombed in one relief appearance for 2 runs in 1 inning. It’s become a waiting game to see how long Hefner can hold onto his roster spot with the Mets before being designated for assignment.

Santana will finish his Mets career pitching in four seasons to a 46-34 record with a 3.18 ERA over 109 games. The injuries were a huge disappointment but we’ll never forget the 2012 no-hitter with the game saving catch by Mike Baxter.

The Wilpons must be kicking themselves now for not insuring Santana’s contract against injury. At least this is the last season of the contract. They’ll be finished with Santana after this season on the disabled list.
photo credit: OlympianX via photopin cc

David Wright (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several media sources are reporting that David Wright may start the 2013 season on the disabled list. He suffered a muscle strain in his ribs while participating in the World Baseball Classic this week.

This is really a team’s worst nightmare about the WBC. The face of your franchise gets hurt in an exhibition away from the team and misses time during the regular season. I’m not a fan of the WBC anyway, but this makes me even less so.

Granted, and injury like this could happen anytime even if Wright was with the Mets. But I have to say that having the WBC games during spring training is the wrong time. Players generally aren’t ready to go all out in the beginning of March. They need more time to get ready and now the Mets are paying the price.

Everyone that bought opening day tickets expecting to see Wright looks like their out of luck this year. What a shame.

World Baseball Classic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had a chance to talk to Kerel Cooper from On The Black this weekend about the Mets 2013 spring training. We touched on Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, predictions for the season, and the World Baseball Classic.

Check out the video below and let me know in the comments what your predictions are for the season.

David Wright (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The U.S. team beat Italy 6-2 on a fifth inning grand slam by the Mets’ David Wright. See the video below.