Ramirez hitting 93. Good. Was getting worried about him early with the "it's 88- guess what pitch that was" arsenal.

Over on the minor league side, Andres Torres is 2for2, and just scored a Reyes run.

Single, steals 2nd, steals 3rd, scores on sac fly.

Well, that Batista start went about as well as I expected. It's going to be pretty sad if he's not cut after this. The guy just isn't any good.

....and Batista is staying. Rubin says Hefner has been demoted, Valdespin activated.

Ugh.

Also, Turner playing 1B in the second game. Who needs Zach Lutz when you have 2 redundant middle infielders on the roster?

Batista is awful. What purpose could he possibly have on this team, unless we want to make it clear to the opponent that we're waving the white flag?

As long as he's on the team Mets get the Senior Discount on all team meals....

As bad as Ike looks, and as much as we get on him, he ain't busting out by sitting. And this team is truly going nowhere if he doesn't bust out big, and soon.

It'd be one thing of you had a semi viable backup to get ABs in the name of improving matchups and winning games early on. But JT does neither. So all it does is ensure another nothing night of offense from your 1b and that Ike will still be in his rut tomorrow. Yay?

The point of sitting Ike is that maybe it clears his head and he comes back a little stronger. Not sitting him defeats the purpose.

It's not like he's going to suddenly be able to hit an 88 MPH fastball a few hours after he couldn't do it, even when he knew it was coming two pitches in a row. Especially off of a left-hander.

It's a doubleheader and Ike looks atrocious at the plate right now; I don't have an issue sitting him. I have an issue with Justin Turner being his replacement.

If we had anything resembling a valid option behind Ike, I agree. He should sit. Notice, despite not being a big Hairston fan, not complaining about his start over Duda. Hairston is on the team to play against tough lefties. Duda, who looks like he's having better ABs, probably doesn't need to see a tough lefty and there is a solid option behind him.

I'm not asking for an all-star backup. Hell, tough AAA start or not, if Nick Evans were here: fine. But my point with JT is that it doesn't accomplish much except putting Ike on the bench. Maybe there is something to be had from that. But I think theres something more to be gained from having a few knocks. And if the backup doesn't improve your lineup/represent some sort of matchup play, the team doesn't benefit either from Ike not playing, even if he's not hitting, as he hasn't been.

Its one of those arguments thats silly since you knew TC was going to play Turner, a righty, against one of the Giants' lefties, regardless of the fact that Turner has shown no platoon split to date. And we know that given the choices, TC would pick Ike, who he's said he wants to get regular rest and is really struggling.

I think my point is that this bench is silly. The fact that Ike IS struggling so much should highlight that even more.

Yep, that's basically what I was getting at too.

I agree the bench is ugly. My point is, if you can clear Ike's head, maybe work in the cage for a day without having to worry about pressing to hit major league pitching, maybe he comes back hitting the ball well. If that means you have one game of lesser production, so be it. But yeah, ideally we would have somebody on the bench who could hit the ball out of the infield.