C-O-L-L-A-Z-O

Is anybody else disappointed that Willie Collazo turned out to be Puerto Rican? Not because I think the Mets are too Hispanic or anything; that would be retarded. I just was hoping that there was another random Italian dude from New York who'd been called up for Paulie to be friends with. That would've been pretty exceptional.

New Willie gave up 3 runs in a pair of innings during last night's shelling by Atlanta, five fewer than ageless Orlando conceded in only an inning more. It was a late night at work for Cheddar Ben, and I got home just as Frenchy was doubling home two Braves to make the score 12-4. The roommates started giving me a hard time from the couch, warning me that I didn't want to walk into the room, I should stay away from the T.V., etc. Very clever stuff.

And my retort was fairly simple. We knew, after all, who would be in first place at the end of the night. It wasn't going to be Atlanta.

With Philly losing to the New Rox, the Metsies remained six games up in the NL East going into the action of Sept. 12. That's enough of a cushion to ensure that the day-to-day results of the next few weeks matter less than setting up the roster and the rotation for the postseason. Which is good, because about a zillion things need working out before the playoffs can start.

Off the top of my head, the list looks like this.

1) Figuring out who starts

This is going to suck. You've got five rather qualified candidates for four slots, and no obvious candidates to go to the bullpen. How each of these guys starts over the next two weeks will obviously go a long way toward determining who slots in where during the opening round. It's an obvious point, I know, but I'm not sure how Old Willie will juggle the ongoing de facto competition for the non-Glavine starting roles and the team's desire to take it easy on the guys and keep their arms fresh for the stretch run.

That makes, to my mind, the first couple of innings of each game far more important than their latter stages. If the Maine Event has a bad couple of early frames, does he get the same chance to come back with a quality outing he would have earlier in the year? Does Willie hold that against him when it comes decision-makin' time? I would think so. Same thing with Ollie and El Duque, and the principle surely holds for Pedro, who won't be kept in for long at all if he starts struggling.

So, I guess the lesson here is to not get out of work late. Fuck.

2) The outfield rotation

Who comes in for defensive purposes, and where, and when, and who plays against righties, and how does Carlos Delgado's injury factor into who makes the postseason roster? (Nice sentence there.) As much as I'd like to see me some Carlos Gomez in October, the fact remains that Shawn Green is a hedge against Delgado getting hurt, and has to be kept around.

Then there's the need to get Endy some ABs to fix him up and spry. You'd like to see Beltran get a rest, the better to ensure his availability. Blastings, you keep sending to the plate.

In any case, we'll get to see some interesting looks and lineups over the next couple of games as this all gets sorted out.

3) Straightening out the pen

Billy the Kid and Heilman seemed to have returned from their late-summer jaunt to the Cape of Good Lord, which I hear is the Fire Island for redneck relief pitchers. Wagner looked just fine sealing up a one-run lead against the heart of the Atlanta lineup Monday night, Beltran's sensational, SportsCenter Top Play game-ending catch notwithstanding, and Heilman was even better. Sosa and Feliciano are locks, which leaves either two or three slots available from the ranks of Mota/Smith/Schoenweis/Sele/Pelfrey/Humber. Sorry, New Willie.

Again, we'll let them get some work in before we start drawing any conclusions. Any plan that has Schoenweis set up against a tree and shot would be just fine with me, but again, I'll defer to the men in charge on that.

What I want to see while I wait is some hardcore September callup relief action. When you're six games up with under 20 to play ... it's Collazo Time!

P.S. Note to Mets staff -- that doesn't mean you're allowed to treat the guy like crap. Get the name right.