Jeff Francoeur

Yesterday at Busch Stadium will be a day that will go down in baseball history. It was truly remarkable that a game in this era of baseball goes a full 18 innings without a run crossing home. 

However, the story of last night's game was not dictated by the hitting, pitching, running, or fielding; it was the managing. And you better believe that there were a lot of questionable moves.

Whenever a game goes that long, there will be a lot of strategical moves that need to be made. Everything from substitutions to sacrifice bunts, to who is going to pitch.

Who would have thought that the New York Mets pitching staff would be the strongest part of the team, while the hitting staff would be the weakest?

Saturday, April 17 against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Mets hitting staff was shut down until the top of the 19th inning when Jose Reyes scored a run on a sacrifice fly against a position player converted to pitcher during the game. All regular relievers were already used up in the Cardinals bullpen, and the only pitchers available were starters.

Originally posted on Midwestropolitan .

Early in Saturday's game, which I believe lasted about 48 hours, Jerry Manuel was interviewed by Tim McCarver and Kenny Albert.  Manuel stated that the Mets have been competitive in most of their games and if they continue to do so, things should even out.

I actually agree with Jerry somewhat.  They haven't seemed over-matched in any series so far.  Two of their seven losses have gone into extra innings.

If you're a Mets fan right now, you might be just a little nervous. If you look at the current situation, you see a shaky 3-7 team that isn't hitting, pitching, or winning like the way you thought they might. You see a team that is on the brink of spiraling into another season that could be as bad or worse than what you saw last year. 

Well, don't panic just yet. There will be better days to come. 

The 2010 season is just about to enter its third full week, and we've seen plenty of surprises already.

Several players have unexpectedly emerged as seemingly-reliable fantasy options, while other normally productive players are off to slow starts. 

Here's a rundown of who's hot and who's not as we begin the second half of April.

Risers

Sometimes with Fantasy Baseball there is always the obvious pick. You see you need a pitcher, take CC Sabathia. You see you need an outfielder, take Matt Holliday. A third baseman, Alex Rodriguez. But what about when you get past those first ten rounds and all of the big names are off the board? I am going to show you five guys that you should be looking at late in the draft.

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If there is one member of the 2010 rookie class that seems destined for stardom, it's Atlanta Braves rookie right fielder, Jason Heyward. In fact, stardom may be setting the bar too low for the ultra-talented 20-year-old Georgian.

Heyward will be given every opportunity to become the every day starter for the Braves this spring. The team made their intentions known when they traded former hometown hero, Jeff Francoeur in July, and let Garret Anderson depart in free agency this winter.

As a Braves blogger for the past few seasons, I have seen my fair share of Jeff Francoeur ups and downs.

I have also seen him make claim after claim that he will do certain things in a given season. Jeff Francoeur's batting average makes his prediction record look like Ted Williams' production against Mendoza's: Terrible.

Here is what the Met's right fielder had to say about the 2010 season to Kevin Kernan of the New York Post.

The Mets started the year off with Ryan Church as their starting right fielder in his second year with the team. 

Though an average batter, Church has a great glove in right field.

Ryan Church routinely made spectacular plays but just couldn't do much with the stick. 

He also wasn't on manager Jerry Manuel's good side. Jerry Manuel won't admit it, but he disliked Church, which is putting it nicely.

Jerry would usually ignore Church in the dugout and, most likely, also in the clubhouse.