Michael Conforto too important for Mets to take these crazy risks

Michael Conforto bats Friday during a spring training game against the Cardinals.JUPITER, Fla. — Before you decide about the wisdom of third-base coach Glenn Sherlock sending Michael Conforto — and his surgically repaired left shoulder — for a bang-bang play at the plate in the top of the fifth inning Saturday, and Conforto diving headlong to try to catch a Marcell Ozuna rocket in the bottom of the inning just a few hours after telling me he was forbidden from doing just that, let me try to explain how inconsequential this Mets-Cardinals game was.

It was the third time these teams were playing in five days, and since they have a three-game series beginning Thursday to open the season they…