Truth and Aaron

In the vast swath that covers the entire history of major league baseball, newest Met Aaron Sele holds the distinction of having the most wins for any pitcher with an ERA equal or higher to his. Sele has a 4.59 ERA yet has somehow amassed 145 career victories. If you wanted to call him the Worst Good Pitcher in baseball history, I wouldn't have a problem with that.

But we won't yet put him on "The Tidrow List", not until we see his body of work anyway. You never know. He might end up starting in Game 7 of the 2007 World Series, although his current postseason mark of 0-6 would make us a little nervous come October (offset slightly by a 19-9 record in interleague competition). One memo I'd write to Willie Randolph is to not let Sele (or Guillermo Mota for that matter) face Scott Spiezio because Spiezio is 18-for-36 against him. Basically, he's a poor man's Steve Trachsel. In four of Sele's eight wins as a starter last season, his team proffered up 10 or more runs of support.

It's fair to say that a guy like this has had a lot of cheap wins in his career, but only one has come via walk-off. Sele was the victor in that crazy Dodgers-Padres game last September 18: the one where the Dodgers hit four home runs in a row to tie it in the 9th inning (two coming off Sele's new teammate, Jon Adkins), then won it in extra innings on Nomar Garciaparra's game-ending home run.

Sele was the victor despite allowing Josh Bard's RBI single in the 10th, a forgiveable offense because it made the triumph all the more impressive for the home team.

One other neat tidbit on Sele. When he was a collegiate pitcher at Washington State, among those who gave him advice in how to work on the mound was one of our favs, John Olerud. Let's hope that Olerud can give him some advice on how to succeed in the Big Apple.

True Metle know...Two former Washington State pitchers have earned a walk-off win for the Mets. They are Danny Frisella and Doug Sisk.