April 8th - Mets 4 Braves 0 - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

After taking two out of three from The Reds, the Mets traveled to the den of horror that is Turner Field, a place the Mets usually do not fare well in. The Braves have gotten off to a good start, despite some serious blows to their starting rotation in spiring training. The Mets sent Bartolo Colon up against Arron Harang.

THE GOOD
BARTOLO COLON: An excellent start where he was borderline dominating, Colon kept the Mets' streak of quality starting pitching going. He threw 7 innings of shutout, no walk/5 strikeout ball and looked good doing it, keeping the Braves lineup off balance the whole night.

TRAVIS D'ARNAUD: FINALLY. d'Arnaud broke his hitless streak to start the season with TWO hits (including a double). He did look better overall at the plate, but I wouldn't say he's turned the corner just yet.

THE BULLPEN: Farnsworth to Valverde. Two innings, no runs. Valverde made it a little too interesting in the end by throwing a potential game ending double play ball into centerfield, but with the basesloaded and only one out, he got the job done and preserved the shutout.

RUBIN TEJADA: Two hits, two runs, two RBI (and even a walk). He played a part in all four runs tonight and looked very good at the plate. I have no real faith this is a trend that will continue though. I still want Stephen Drew. ah well.

THE BAD
THE BATS: Looking at the batting average of some of the regulars (Young Jr: .174, Murphy: .250, Wright: .192, Granderson: .154, Duda: .167, d'Arnaud: .105) it's very evident the Mets are not hitting well. Wright and Murphy will both come around, but some of the other need to step things up.

THE UGLY
Since I already put the Bats in the "Bad" column, I think for one night, there's really no true "ugly". Hey, a shutout win of the Braves IN Turner Field? Hard to find something ugly with that.

GAME FOUR - Mets 4 Reds 3 - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Well, they finally won one. After a opening series sweep by the likely NL East Champs, The Washington Nationals, the Mets managed to win the first of a three game series with the Cincinnati Reds. Let's take a quick look at the good, the bad and the ugly from the Mets first win of 2014.

THE GOOD
Jenrry Mejia: Six fairly solid innings of 4 hit, 1 run, 8 Strikeout ball. The five walks are a bit of a blemish, as like Zach Wheeler is prone to do, Mejia put himself in some trouble, but overall he seemed in command of the Reds' lineup.

Lucas Duda: One day after being handed the first base job (a move I think is a mistake), Duda launches two homeruns and drives in all four runs. We'll see how well his accention to everyday player goes, but I fear we won't be seeing a hell of a lot of days like this.

Kyle Farnsworth: After three games of terrible bullpen, (four if you count John Lannan's poor outing tonight) it was nice to see a solid effort from someone... which leads to...

Jose Valverde: He had to walk someone, because it's written in the contract of every Mets closer that saves must come with some agita, but Valverde closed out the win and is 1 for 1 in save situations and I think is the only member of the bullpen to not give up a run yet this season.

THE BAD
Daniel Murphy's Defense: I love Murph, and I think his bat and grit are intricate to this team, but he's looked bad in the field in the two games he's played. If this team continues to fail to make double-plays, there are going to be a lot of hard luck losses in the future.

Rubin Tejada: Not really hitting and defense not looking that good either. Making no real contributions to this team. I just cannot see him lasting much longer.

John Lannan: Has pitched twice, hasn't gotten through a whole inning either time, and has given up 2 runs in each appearance. He has an ERA of 36.00. Nuff said.

THE UGLY
Travis d'Arnaud's bat: I hate to say it, and I'm not giving up on the kid, but at some point he needs to use his bat for something other than to lean on.