With their deep roster, multiple lineup combinations and willingness to explore any deal, the Mets are sure to throw changeups at contenders all season

Because they're the Mets, they will not stand pat, even though they are defending National League champions, even though they may be as good as, if not finally better than, their old pals, the Braves, for the first time in a decade.

For the Mets, no status quo is safe. So what they showed Atlanta last week at Turner Field and earlier this week at Shea Stadium very likely won't be exactly what the Braves will see in the rest of their meetings this season.

The Mets are like that. Always on the move.

Bobby Valentine, the manager, is like that. Valentine shuffles his lineup cards more often than a Vegas blackjack dealer. In last week's three games in Atlanta, for example, he started three different right fielders (Darryl Hamilton, Timo Perez and Tsuyoshi Shinjo) and two different leadoff hitters (Perez and Benny Agbayani). Chances are, he'll give the Braves yet another look the next time they play, in late June.

Steve Phillips, the general manager, is like that, too. Phillips has kept the Mets in the middle of almost every significant trade and free-agent discussion that has taken place the past three years. If a major player is available, Phillips is involved.

Come September, then, when the Mets and the Braves meet for another six games over the season's last two weekends, Phillips very likely will give Atlanta a look at a different roster than the one the Braves just saw.

Why?

"Because we can," Phillips says. "You're silly not to. Why not consider everything? As a normal practice, we don't discount anything without giving it full consideration. The financial aspect of a deal doesn't automatically discount it, where it might with some other teams."

Phillips became the Mets' general manager in July 1997. Since then, he has acquired the core of the team: Mike Piazza, Robin Ventura, Todd Zeile, Al Leiter, Kevin Appier, Armando Benitez, Turk Wendell and Glendon Rusch.

In the past 20 months, Phillips has flirted with, but not finished off, trades or free-agent negotiations involving Mike Mussina, David Wells, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Larkin, Ken Griffey Jr., Johnny Damon and Gary Sheffield, among others. Throw Mike Hampton into that mix, too. Phillips acquired him by trade and then lost him to free agency when the Mets didn't offer enough to keep the pitcher playing in a city he doesn't particularly like.

Those are a lot of big names for a team already good enough to have represented the National League in the World Series last October. As the season opened last week, the Mets made certain the Braves were aware of just how good their northern rivals still are. New York took two out of three in Atlanta to win a series in Turner Field for the first time since July 1997.

It might have been a sweep, too, if home-plate umpire Brian O'Nora's call on a close play at the plate in the second game had gone the Mets' way. Robin Ventura tried to score from second on a lined single to center by Mike Piazza. Andruw Jones' throw was perfect, but catcher Javy Lopez might not have made the tag. Ventura was called out, and the Braves won, 3-2, with a run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

"That's a damn good group over there," says Atlanta pitching coach Leo Mazzone. "You always want to have six or seven pitchers that you know you can count on, and I think they have that. We've had it for 10 years, and I think they have it now, too. There are some other staffs that have it, too, like Colorado and San Francisco. You want to wait and see how it plays out, because we're just getting started. But just in your own thought process and what you observe, you've got to like what they have."

The Mets haven't finished a regular season in front of the Braves since the two teams have played in the same division together (seven years), and Turner Field has been a particularly painful chamber of horrors for them. Going into the opening series last week, New York had lost 18 of its last 21 games there,

including three in a classic NLCS showdown in 1999.

It's a long season, and even after the three games at Shea, the unbalanced schedule has New York and Atlanta meeting 13 more times. The worm, in other words, might not stay turned. But for at least some of the Mets, the Turner Field series was a giant step away from that Braves' bugaboo.

"They've pretty much dominated us," says center fielder Jay Payton, who hit .417 (5-for-12) in the opening series. "For us to come in here and take two out of three, it speaks a lot for our team. It's an individual thing, even in here in our clubhouse. For some guys in here, this is good. For some guys, it doesn't mean anything. Just like over there. I'm sure some of those guys are thinking, `Hey, man, these guys might overtake us this year.' And some of them are thinking it's no big deal. It's just the first three games of the season."

Payton appears to be the lone constant in Valentine's otherwise-fluid outfield rotation. While Valentine started the three different right fielders in Atlanta, he also used four different left fielders. By the end of the second game, every Met on the roster had played except long reliever Brian Rose and the starting pitchers whose turns on the mound hadn't come up yet.

That depth, on the bench and in the bullpen, will enable the Mets to show Atlanta a number of different looks later in the year. Valentine says he will have used more than 100 starting lineups by the end of the season. The Metz won't be an easy team to scout, even if that isn't Valentine's intention.

"I don't really care what (the Braves have) seen before," Valentine says. "They're going to know our players. I just care what I've looked at, particularly with the bullpen and the bench. That's how games are won in the National League."

If the Mets have a weakness, it's in the outfield. None of the six outfielders who opened the season on the active roster is a major power threat or a proven nm producer. Nor do any of them appear to be a prototypical leadoff hitter, although Valentine, who is never shy about reshaping the game's conventions to fit his style, is satisfied for now with the round, squat Agbayani in the top spot, at least against lefthanders.

Agbayani, he says, finds a way to get into scoring position often enough to mitigate his lack of base-stealing speed. Agbayani stole only five bases in 119 regular season games last year, although he had 29 steals in Class AAA four years ago.

"People always think the little guys should be leadoff hitters," Valentine says. "But it doesn't have to be that way. People look at Benny and don't see a leadoff hitter. He's not a little guy, so they can't figure that out. They go, `Whoa, wait a minute. That's not right He's not little.'"

Still, when July's trading deadline approaches and the Mets begin to shop around, Phillips will pay particular attention to the available outfielders and leadoff hitters. Minnesota's Matt Lawton, who has yet to sign with the Twins for the long term, would be a good fit in New York if he were to become available, for instance.

You can bet Phillips and the Mets would be somewhere in the middle of that deal.

Hollow dreams

There are a few ghosts rattling around in the Mets' past. The team looks good enough for a return trip to the World Series, but it has come up short in its attempts to land six top-of-the-line players over the past 15 months. Will those missed opportunities haunt the Mets in October? --M.K.

PLAYER

Ken Griffey Jr.
Barry Larkin
Alex Rodriguez
Mike Mussina
David Wells
Gary Sheffield

WHAT THE METS OFFERED

Armando Benitez, Roger Cedeno, Octavio Dotel
Top minor leaguer Alex Escobar
No formal offer made
$1 million less than the Yankees
Young pitchers Glendon Rusch and Grant Roberts
Darryl Hamilton, Dennis Cook

WHAT HAPPENED

Griffey nixed deal, went to the Reds instead.
Larkin vetoed deal to stay with the Reds.
Mets took offense at A-Red benefits package.
Mets finished second.
Mets hesitated and White Sox swooped in.
still are grinning and bearing Sheffield.

Michael Knisley is a senior writer for THE SPORTING NEWS.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group