The Judge, Nelson Figueroa

I can't help but like guys that played D-III college baseball. Then, add in that this guy has played all over the world and I've got a full on man crush. Figueroa has gone from Brooklyn, to Brandeis University in the 'Nerdy Nine' conference, to MLB, to the Mexican League, to the Chinese Professional Baseball League, to Taiwan Series MVP, to the Metropolitans. During this time he's rehabbed a rotator cuff injury, designed 9/11 t-shirts, and can make a cell phone out of a beer can and some pine tar.

On the hill, Figueroa throws from a 3/4 arm slot. He doesn't have overpowering velocity, clocking in the upper-80s with his fastball. His command is good though, and his low arm angle gives his fastball decent movement. His secondary pitch is his curve, which gets good bite despite its slow velocity. Nelson also mixes in a slider, but it's a pretty weak pitch. He'll backdoor it to lefthanded hitters, which seems to fool them somehow. Figueroa has shown a changeup in the past, but I don't think he threw one Friday night.

Brewers series notes....

*Carlos Beltran is a good outfielder. He has a good reputation but I've always been skeptical. He ran down a couple balls this weekend that I didn't think he could get.

*David Wright doesn't look like a gold glove defender right now. He still has the same problem he's always had, he can't throw accurately. He can 'pick it' with anyone, but once his feet are set, I have no idea where the throw will end up. Delgado has become pretty good at coming off the bag to 'catch and tag' runners coming down line, and save Wright's ass.

*On Saturday, Ben Sheets just simply out pitched Johan Santana. Sheets throws one of the best curveballs in baseball, and the Mets just struggled against him.

*I like this Carlos Muniz guy. He doesn't have completely dominant velocity, but batters look like they have a hard time hitting him. And, he whipped out a great balk move to pick off a Brewer on Saturday.

*A lot has been made of Prince Fielder's vegetarian diet. If the guy doesn't want to eat meat, great, but I just hope he has some kind of clue about how to get the proper protein he needs in other ways. I also hope he knows that he can get meat from farms that don't torture their animals, if that's his reason for going veggie.

*Sometimes you're the hydrant, sometimes you're Gabe Kapler. The newest Met Killer came to town launching home runs off Johan Santana and Oliver Perez. Yikes. This guy was retired last year, and couldn't hit in his prime, whenever that was. I'll put the blame on the Mets' lefties though. Both pitches he homered on were supposed to be outside fastballs, but missed locations put them on the inner half.

*I'm done with Delgado. He can't be taking up the fifth spot in the batting order anymore. The only guy he's been able to get the bat around on was Jamie Moyer. He should be occupying the eight hole. Seriously. I wonder what that lineup would look like....

Reyes SS
Castillo 2B
Wright 3B
Church RF
Beltran CF
Pagan LF
Schneider C
Delgado 1B
Darling P

As you can see, I'm a fan of Ryan Church.