Our thanks to BATS, the NEW YORK TIMES baseball blog, for their serendipitous timing with a brief piece on the muted trumpet that now is Rick Peterson. Peterson, the New York Mets’ pitching coach non pareil, could be found in previous seasons pontificating on any subject. Now all media requests to speak to Peterson must go through Mets PR. No other Mets coach has that restriction.

(’Wait… don’t cry! I’ve got four more minutes left!’)

Maybe they’re tired of cutesy sayings and limelight theft from their players, the true marketing potential of the Mets. Or, more likely, the reason for screening Peterson’s media calls involves another event Sunday: Scott Kazmir pitched for the first time since coming off the disabled list. Hint: it wasn’t for the Mets.

Peterson’s infamous boast that he could fix Tampa Bay (then-)Devil Ray pitcher Víctor Zambrano in “10 minutes” helped lead to the horrific trade now remembered as Kazmir-for-Zambrano. Zambrano now kills time with the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

On the other hand, Kazmir’s performance Sunday underwhelmed coming off injury, but he’s still expected to be a star of some luminescence.

Hopefully, Peterson hasn’t taken this as a punishment and accepts he’s being protected from himself so he can take more time to see if Pedro Martínez has any pitches left in his body. We’ll grant him 15 minutes this time, out of the kindness of our hearts. After all, quoting Peterson himself: “One small step for Pedro, one giant step for the Mets.”