PORT ST. LUCIE – You can’t mention one without mentioning the other. It’s simply the way it is with Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano.
Benson and Zambrano came to the Mets on the same day – July 30, 2004. They locker next to each other at Tradition Field. They play catch together during daily warm-ups.
And they’re the two biggest keys for the Mets’ 2005 staff.
“I think we’re a huge piece of it, and I think it’s going to become more evident once we get into the heart of the season,” Benson said, before nodding to veterans Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine and Steve Trachsel.
“We’re kind of like the final link to the staff that needs to step up and finish it up and perform above expectations for us to get to the level we need to be at.”
The level Benson and Zambrano need to reach is relatively high. Indeed, they are in a unique position – they are the only question marks in a five-man rotation (Trachsel may be the fifth starter, but in his four years as a Met, he’s never won fewer than 11 games and never posted worse than a 4.46 ERA, measures of his reliability) and they come with enormous expectations.
Benson was the top pick in the 1996 draft, and people are still waiting for him to fulfill his promise. Zambrano was acquired for Scott Kazmir, and people are still waiting for him to make his fourth start as a Met.
This year may be the time they deliver.
“This is the time in their career that they’re ready to do this,” pitching coach Rick Peterson said.
Benson, 30, went 12-12 with a 4.31 ERA last year (4-4 with a 4.50 ERA as a Met), but over his last five starts, he allowed two runs or fewer in four of them and posted a magnificent 31-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Benson said Peterson has taught him how to be more fluid, noting, “I didn’t really have a lot of flow to my mechanics.”
“I feel great,” he said. “I have no worries at all that I’m going to be performing to my expectations this year.”
Said Peterson, “The bottom line with Kris Benson is, if Benson pitches at the bottom of the strike zone, Kris Benson is going to be a big winner. And right now, he’s pitching at the bottom of the strike zone. And he did at the end of the year last year for us.”
As for Zambrano, 29, he made only three starts as a Met due to elbow and ankle problems. One of those starts, however, showed a glimpse of Zambrano’s tantalizing talent – he retired the first 14 Astros he faced and allowed two hits and no earned runs in seven innings.
Zambrano insists he is 100 percent now. If he gets hurt again or fails to pitch well, the Kazmir trade will further rank as a disaster.
Said Zambrano, “Hopefully this year I can show the fans the reason I’m here.”
