As we recover from the flashbacks of last year’s bullpen this morning, the Mets are preparing for a morning game in Cincinnati. You can read my game preview here. Who knows what to expect from Oliver Perez today? The funny thing about Perez is that he’ll probably be the first pitcher in Mets history to throw a no-hitter. And then in his next start he won’t get out of the first inning against the Pirates.
Onto today’s top stories:
Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball has a great post about the blackout rules that MLB has for their Extra Innings package and MLB.TV. Make sure you read it if you’re planning to buy one of those. Here in Connecticut I get blacked out from seeing the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox.
Ken Belson at The New York Times writes a nice piece on how the Mets have increased their ticket prices over last season despite the bad economy. He goes into good detail about the tiered packages that the Mets use. Not surprisingly, he writes about how the Mets keep making a higher percentage of the games in the most expensive tiers.
Jim Baumcach at Newsday writes a good column about how Citi Field seems to be embrace the Dodgers and Giants history without giving a complete picture of Mets history. Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry aren’t reprensented in the new stadium.
Marty Noble at MLB.com writes that Billy Wagner plans to be in Port St. Lucie next week to throw off the mound. He’s recovering from surgery to repair a ligament and muscle in his left arm. Wagner says he plans to be back with the Mets by this August. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. I don’t think that the Mets want him back this season. But the thought of having three legitimate closers in the Mets bullpen at the end of this season is exciting for us fans.
Tino Evangelou at Mets Geek has a good post comparing Oliver Perez to Derek Lowe. We’ll be making this comparison for the foreseeable future and Perez won’t stack up very well most likely.
Marty Noble at MLB.com writes that Jerry Manuel may use Gary Sheffield in the outfield against the Marlins on Sunday. Everyone is waiting to see Sheff right now. I’d like to see him worked into a pinch-hitting appearance within the next couple of days.
The Mets are auctioning off some of their higher end price tier seats for opening day. Its not a good sign when you have to resort to this type of gimmick to sell opening day seats in a new stadium. We’ll have to keep an eye on ticket sales as the season progresses.
Bernie Madoff’s Mets tickets are for sale on eBay. This isn’t a joke.
Flickr photo courtesy of slgckgc
I think at the end of the year we’ll look back at this game as one of the ugliest losses of the season. Oliver Perez was pitching pretty well until he completely lost it in the bottom of the fifth culminating when he walked light-hitting Khalil Greene with the bases loaded. Casey Fossum came in and threw gas on the fire by walking Joe Thurston with the bases loaded. Ugly!
New York Mets (6-6 Road: 3-3) at St. Louis Cardinals (8-5 Home: 5-2) 8:15 pm
San Diego Padres (6-2 Road: 1-0) at New York Mets (3-4 Home: 0-1) 7:10 pm
The Mets couldn’t finish off the sweep against the Cincinnati Reds today. They lost the final game of the series in Cincinnati 8-6. Once again, 
The Mets Report 