MET NOTES
Righty starter Rick Reed still can’t catch a baseball or pick up anything heavier than a shoe with his injured left hand. But neither he nor manager Bobby Valentine would definitively rule out Reed for his scheduled start tomorrow afternoon against the Dodgers. Reed’s hand was hurt Wednesday when struck by a Marquis Grissom line drive.
“No, there’s [nothing new],” Reed said. “I don’t know anything. I’m just gonna play catch. Or I should say just gonna play toss. I can’t catch.”
Despite missing his scheduled throwing day Friday and not throwing in the pen yesterday, Reed was convinced he’d miss no more than one start.
“Probably not more than that,” he said. “If I have to miss a start, I miss a start, but I don’t think it’s gonna be worse than that. If I have to miss one, that’ll be it.”
*
Benny Agbayani, who has already gotten three reprieves from being sent down to Triple-A, has been nothing short of an RBI machine so far this season. With his two-RBI, pinch-hit double in the eighth inning of the first game yesterday and his two-run single in the first inning of Game 2, he had nine RBIs in his first 17 at-bats.
Agbayani was supposed to be sent down when the season began, but remained with the club when fifth starter Glendon Rusch was left home from the season-opening trip to Tokyo. Then he got another reprieve when center fielder Darryl Hamilton went on the injured list, and a third when Hamilton wasn’t healthy enough to be activated on his due date, yesterday.
*
When utility infielder Matt Franco stroked a two-out, RBI single in the sixth inning of yesterday’s first game, it broke an 0-for-12 start to the season.
*
Cubs third baseman Shane Andrews pinch-hit for Jeff Huson in the top of the sixth inning of yesterday’s second game, and promptly committed an error in the bottom of the inning. In 20 games this year, he has seven homers and seven errors.
*
When Valentine was informed that Toronto Raptors coach Butch Carter had filed a $5 million defamation suit against Knick forward Marcus Camby for calling him “a liar” and saying “no one likes him and no one wants to play for him,” Valentine was intrigued.
“It’d be cool if he won. It would set a really nice precedent,” Valentine said jokingly. When asked if he’d ever considered suing a former player for comments made about him, he said, “No, but it’s running through [my mind] now.”
Valentine added that one could make a nice living irritating people enough to make inflammatory remarks. When it was pointed out that he’d have to anger enough people to make it profitable, Valentine grinned ruefully and said, “I don’t think I’d have a problem with that.”
*
Cubs second baseman Eric Young was struck on the arm by a John Franco pitch in the eighth inning of yesterday’s first game, but wasn’t awarded first base when home plate ump Paul Schrieber ruled that he made no attempt to avoid the pitch. It was called ball three, and Young ended up grounding out to second.