Nieve Saturday?, Line Up Tonight...

A couple things here...

First, according to Metsblog, here, Jerry is considering Fernando Nieve for the opening in the rotation on Saturday against the Brewers.  This must be the only way Jerry thinks he can get Nieve the work he needs...wait, I'm sorry he's appeared in 26 of 46 so far...Jerry must smoking something. 

Here's my issue with this, clearly, they don't want to make a roster move...but...wouldn't this be an IDEAL time to send down Mejia to get stretched out and bring up someone else to start Saturday?  I just don't see how Nieve is going to be ready to throw 80 pitches, if he does end up starting, or how he'll be effective for that long.  Seriously, that makes very little sense to me.  Although, it is interesting to note that in this same post to Metsblog Jerry is quoted as making it pretty clear that he's the one fighting for Mejia to stay up.  I know he's good, but I still don't get it.  Let him be a starter the 'pen isn't scary anymore, they can survive without him.

Also, there is something to be said about letting Valdes get the start, especially if it's a spot start and he gets a chance to rope doubles like he did last night.  Plus, in my opinion he's been better than Nieve recently...

Next on the agenda is tonight's Mets line up for a game at 7:10 where Takahashi takes the hill against Joe Blanton, as they go for four wins in a row.  Here is the line up courtesy of the Mets twitter account:

Reyes-SS
Cashstealo-2B
Bay-LF
Davis-1B
Wright-3B
Pagan-CF
Barajas-C
Francoeur-RF
Takahashi- P

Perhaps more interesting is the Philly line up, which seems to have less teeth tonight...courtesy of Kevin Burkhardt on twitter:

Victorino CF
Polanco 3B
Utley 2B
Howard 1B
Werth RF
Francisco LF
Valdez SS
Schneider C
Blanton P

I'm not saying they aren't trying to win tonight, but they certainly don't look as dangerous with Ibanez, Ruiz and Rollins out of the line up in the same night.  All I'm saying is the Mets are really getting a chance to take the series tonight and better take advantage of it.