(Willie at Shea earlier today, thrilled he won’t be doing any sandwich ads with that slob Piniella)

Your Mets starting rotation for the NLCS :

Wednesday, Game One : Tom Glavine
Thursday, Game Two : John Maine
Saturday, Game Three : Steve Trachsel
Sunday, Game Four : Oliver Perez

In the event the Mets are down 3-0 or 2-1 on Sunday, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Dave Williams get the nod. I also wouldn’t be shocked to learn Sidney Ponson’s been barred, chain-wide, from Bennigan’s.

There’s still no definitive word on Cliff Floyd’s status ; footage of Fred Sanford Floyd running during workouts this afternoon wasn’t encouraging. Footage of Da Edge going O for 4 against Wevie Stonder I won’t be very encouraging, either, so here’s hopping Clifford takes advantage of everything modern medicine has to offer (hint, hint).

I’m always happy to hear from Todd Zeile, regardless of the circumstances, but can Ben Shpigel please remember that many of us are dying for an update on Todd’s film career?

Viva Los Birdos describes the Mets’ collection of Ramon Castro, Chris Woodward, Ricky Ledee, Julio Franco and Michael Tucker as “a pretty useless bench.” I don’t suppose the possibility of Anderson Hernandez or Mike DeFelice being activiated will strike fear in his heart. Even worse, he’s practically chomping at the bit looking at the Mets’ thin rotation.

Regardless of what solution the ol’ Metropolitians come up with, the Cards are not going to win this series without absolutely slaughtering the back end of the Mets’ staff. The Cardinals’ pitching staff is not going to blank the Mets the way that they did the Padres. The guys in red are going to have to put some runs up on the board. Doing that against Glavine might be too much to ask (and I’m going to consider any win that the Cards get against Glavine to be a bonus), but if they can’t put up gads of runs on Steve Trachsel, then they don’t deserve to win the series anyway.