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Bisons fan in desperate need of a program
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The Buffalo Bisons just made the team's 2009 trading card set available to the public.
It remains unknown whether there's a baseball card binder big enough to hold it.
Infamiliarity seems as thought it will be a central theme throughout the rest of this season for the Bisons. The Mets have nine players on the disabled list at the moment, which has forced plenty of call-ups and other shuffling in the Buffalo locker room (30 position players and 23 pitchers have worn the spiffy new Bisons orange-and-blue this season). Infielder Argenis Reyes is the latest to shuffle off from Buffalo, as his .296 BA and 19 runs scored in 45 games proved too needed for the Mets to refuse.
Things are so bad downstate that even nonfactor first baseman Nick Evans (.093 BA in 22 games in AAA, then a demotion to AA Binghamton prior to the call-up) is now in the Big Apple.
Not all of the call-ups have been merely out of necessity, though. Too bad that Western New Yorkers didn't really get a chance to get to know Fernando Nieve. Since getting promoted to the Mets a few weeks ago, he's posted a 3-0 record and a lights-out 1.31 ERA (he was 3-0 with a 370 ERA in four starts with the Bisons this season).
Mets general manager Omar Minaya, never one to shy away from a big deal, has indicated that he'd make a trade if the move would prove beneficial. The only problem from his perspective is that most of the team's prospects are already plying their wares in the majors, and a package deal would devastate the entire system until the DL clears up in the coming weeks and months.
This is always how life has been for a minor league baseball franchise, as the big league club's needs come first. Fans understand that, and this season's instability is not cause anger. it is, however, pretty amazin' how the Mets have been forced to rely on help from the farm to this extent even before the season's midway point.
The Bisons have made a very slow crawl upward since dropping faster than a Dwight Gooden sinker at the start of the season, but at 24-45 (.348 winning percentage) they're still nowhere near escaping last place in their division. The slow start, combined with the big club's injury woes, seem to have secured 2009's status as a lost season in the standings. The Mets have done a decent job acquiring players to maintain interest down on the farm, so let's hope that at least can continue so that there's something - anything - to build on in 2010.
And when you head downtown to a game, a program is an absolute necessity.
