Mike & the Mad Dog both think that trading Cameron for Tanyon Sturtze is a perfectly reasonable idea. Sturtze's ERA:
2002 5.18
2003 5.94
2004 5.47
2005 4.97

Tom Glavine needs 164 innings for his option ($8m + $2.5m in incentives) to kick in.

For absolutely no reason, I present some random Dave Mlicki facts:
-He made over $20 million during his career!
-If things had gone differently, he might have been a pretty good reliever. In 1996, his only season out of the 'pen, he had an 83/33 K:BB ratio in 90 innings, with a 3.30 ERA. His most similar player after that year is Tim Worrell.
-His 2 most similar players are Sidney Ponson and Pete Schourek.
-Mlicki has a career postseason ERA of 0.00 in 5 innings, but is 0-1.
-In June '98, he and Greg McMichael were traded to the Dodgers for Nomo. McMichael was traded back to the Mets a month later.
-McMichael was originally acquired by the Mets in a trade for Paul Byrd, who came to the Mets in the same deal (Burnitz to the Tribe) that brought Mlicki.
-McMichael's most similar player through the age of 29 is Dooley Womack, whose real name is Horace Guy Womack.

Jason Phillips: .313/21 rbi
Ramon Castro: .192/2 rbi
Kaz Ishii: ????

I'd like a do-over on that trade.

Well, it comes down to Yanks management deciding that they wanted Unit and Bernie rather than Beltran and Vazquez. I don't see how that makes any sense. 2 guys on last legs, who could maybe go 2 more years at most; or 2 guys who are still in their late-20s and could anchor a team for a good 5 years? Someone want to explain that to me?

Reyes couldn't even bat in the 8th last night without laughing. Apparently Dougie Mient was on the steps trying to get everyone to be quiet, and gave him a big hug after he grounded out. Awww.

I love RCN cable. But I hate Glavine. Think he'll accept a demotion like Trachsel did back then?

I also hate how the NY papers are so pro-Yanks. Even when they lose, they make the back page ahead of the Mets. Dicks.

The Mets are giving every ticketholder from last night a free ticket to one of four games.
Apparently, when the count went to 3-2 on Reyes last night, the fans were chanting "walk, walk, walk". Troo.

Here's an article in which Tom House says he was using steroids in the '70s.
"House estimated that six or seven pitchers on every staff were 'fiddling' with steroids or growth hormone."

Big news of the day seems to be the Yankee moves. Cano in, Bernie out. Womack and Matsui moving.
It seems like a panic move to me.
Cano (or "Canoe" as Mad Dog is calling him) has been tearing it up in AAA, but his career isn't that impressive overall. PECOTA projects him to hit about as poorly as Bernie's been hitting so far. And he's apparently a terrible defensive player.
And as poorly as Bernie's hitting, Womack is hitting just as poorly. Considering their track records, why not bench Womack if you're so desperate to get Cano in the lineup. Womack will probably end up being the worst hitting LF in the majors. Really, the Yankees need to get a CF, which they should've realized over the offseason. But, do they really have anything to trade at this point? Cameron would be a perfect fit, but there's nothing I'd want from the Yanks in return.

And Unit's going to miss a start, which is nice. Wang and Henn in the rotation? It seems like the Yankees chose the wrong year to stop carrying 7 starters.

Anyway, it's nice to see the Yankees in panic mode. They'll probably trade for a CF, get Clemens back in August, and make the playoffs again. But, maybe this is finally the year where things go wrong.

mushnick will be all over the 2 hour, 15 minute rain delay at shea tonite. why not call the game and do a double-header any of the next 3 days the phils are in town? instead they play before an empty house in miserable conditions and piss off the fans that came throo in the rain at 7 and left after an hour.

i'm just mad because the game was supposed to be on espn and i waited around watching the reds and cards but when the mets game finally started espn never switched back or put it on espn 2, even tho espn 2 was showing absoutely nothing.

The Channel 11 news just came on during the Mets' rain delay. The lead story was Selig's new tougher steroid plan (3 strikes, you're out!). For some reason, while the anchor was explaining the story, they showed highlights from today's A's-Mariners game. They then cut to a clip of Canseco walking and wearing an A's jersey, which I guess somehow linked the steroid story to today's A's game.

And congrats to Jose Reyes, who finally got his OBP above his batting average... by getting hit by a pitch. Actually, the replay indicated that the pitch never hit him, but still good. And what do you know, he scored! Now all he needs is a walk. Come on, Jose, all I'm asking for is one walk. Just one! OK, I'm probably going to ask for more after that, but I'll be happy with one for now.

wouldn't a savvy manager see these stats and not start 'tom horrific' agains the braves?

Glavine's had eight reunions with the Braves since departing as a free agent after the 2002 season, and he's 1-7 with a 9.36 ERA.

true.

I don't think it's dumping to trade piazza and glavine. obviously major moves like this happen mid-summer and not now so we'll see how the mets are then. but i do not think the mets are a playoff team. we were a game out last year but we all knew it wasn't happening but instead they make the move for right now.
even if we make a run for the wild card to the end of september, i don't think it's worth it to hold on to glavine and piazza, especially since piazza is a free agent after this season.

not that i want any of their poop prospects, but wouldn't glavine look good in pinstripes? him and the big unit can have contests to see who can makre the more droopy dog face.

I think Chump is right that Floyd should be the one to go if we make a move. Cameron's value is at an all-time low, and Floyd's is on the rise. That being said, I don't know if I'd be in such a rush to make a move. Floyd and Cameron are both questionable health-wise, and Diaz is still somewhat of an unknown. He's putting up huge numbers, but it's only been a month, and this performance is pretty out of line with his minor league performance. I think he'll be a pretty good hitter, but I'm not 100% sold that he's going to be that good this year. I think I'd wait a little while to make a move. Once Cam comes back, work Diaz into the lineup a few days a week, which should help to keep Floyd and Cam healthy. If the Mets are going to win this year, considering Floyd's injury history, I think they need a pretty good 4th outfielder. Plus, this way, we'll get a little more time to see if Diaz is for real before we count on him to be the starter for the rest of the year.
As for Piazza, I think it's a little early to start thinking about making mid-season dumps considering that it's April and the Mets are a half game out.

victor diaz has definitely earned the right to stay up in the biggs, but cameron is coming back soon. rumor has it omar is still trying to unload him, which i think is a mistake. cliff floyd's trade value increases by the day, he should be the one to go as there is no telling when his next injury will be. glavine should go by midseason as well. piazza too, he has thrown out 1 of 21 base-stealers this season.

I think the mets will be around a .500 club this year. no reason to hang on to these three veterans.

When asked if he was hurt, Ohka conceded "a little bit."
But he wouldn't elaborate.
"I don't want to tell you," he said.

clemens stats so far are str8 up dumb:

YEAR	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	HR	BB	SO	K/9	W	L	Sv	P/GS	WHIP	BAA	ERA
2005	4	4	0	28.0	16	1	1	6	32	10.29	1	0	0	74.5	0.79	.165	0.32

Ishii threw 11 straight balls.
He's no Ravi.

I'm not sure how long this 'trend' can last, but i'm enjoying this rash of complete games. I went to dodger stadium today and watched Jeff "Dream" Weaver twirl a 5-hit complete game. I pay to see the big boys pitch, not chumps like john franco.

On a related note, i'm sure everyone else has been reading the articles hinting at the fact that it's the relievers who have been the real juice-abusers, and now that The H is O, scouts have been noting relievers losing a bit of zip and endurance.

Not John Franco, he just keeps chugging along. And Mike Stanton.

A new era begins!

"KC- Joe McEwing was called up from the minors on Wednesday April 13."

why do i have a funny feeling, as the 0-3 mets head into atlanta, that the piazza/randolphy 'victory cigar' will become a running joke for this team?

the mets, for the past 4 years now, have a disturbing habit of making ordinary pitchers look like the second coming of ferguson jenkins.

Obviously, I didn't see the Mets opener on Monday, but this caught my eye from the Prospectus recap:
"Wagner throws his obscene slider to Reyes. The pitch so befuddles him that with the pitch a foot inside and at his shoetops, Reyes swings and misses at it--and gets hit on the foot with the pitch. "

Not quite as ridiculous as Saro getting hit in the chest while swinging, but still pretty funny.

As of this moment, Jason Giambi has been hit by 3 pitches this year. Every other batter in the majors has combined for 6. He's back, baby!

It's hard to say what exactly needs to be done to make the Mets better, cuz they seem to have done that. Other than a bullpen, the only thing I can say is that they need to cut down on injuries. However, I see no reason why they can't finish ahead of Washington and the Braves at the very least.

all i care about this year is the mets getting to .500, which could still leave them in 4th, but still, I'd be happy with it. The other goal i wanted to see accomplished this year already happened with the waiver of super joe. will he pull a mel mora with the royals? hahahaha.

According to the PECOTA depth charts on Prospectus, the Mets are projected to finish 4th. Here are the win totals for the division:
Phillies 88
Braves 81
Marlins 80
Mets 79

The Mets projection is still based on Trachsel starting, so it'll fall a win or two once the Ishii trade is taken into account.

[Tues. update - somehow, the Mets are now projected for 81 wins, partially because they're projecting more playing time for Piazza now that Phillips is gone, which is somewhat dubious. Braves were bumped up to 82, so we're in 3rd. ZIPS projections have Mets in 2nd with 88 wins, 2 games behind the Phillies. Huzzah!]

I'm watching this absurd Congressional hearing right now. Hall of Famer Senator Jim Bunning took a pot shot at Barry Bonds by stating that Willie Mays and Hank Aaron didn't hit more homeruns in their late 30s than their late 20s. I didn't choose those two players, he did. Unfortunately for him, his statement isn't really accurate for Aaron. Aaron had his career high in homeruns at the age of 37, hitting 47 homers despite only playing 139 games. Aaron missed a lot more time in his late 30s, but if you look at his numbers per at bat, he hit a lot more homers than in his late 20s. Aaron had his best HR rate when he was 39. In fact, his entire late 30s was his best period. His rates during his age 35-39 seasons rank as 5 of his best 6 HR rates. In total, from age 35-39, he hit one HR per 11.8 ABs. From age 25-29, he hit one HR per 15.1 ABs. That's a pretty significant difference, almost 11 HRs over the course of a 600 AB season.

Now I just heard Bunning complain that the ball is "much more souped up" than it was in his day. Why stop at juiced players? Let's have a Congressional hearing about juiced balls.

Wait, now he's complaining that pitchers aren't pitching inside anymore! And that the fences are too short! Sadly, I'm not making this up.

Nice to see that our tax dollars are being spent on a worthy cause.

Morons.

Absolutel Morons.

In a mets.com poll, joe mcewing received 54% of the vote, by far the winner, in a poll asking which backup infielder the mets should keep.
marlon 'the bird' anderson is my choice. why? because his name is not joe mcewing.

It's the sequel to Being John Malkovich.

being jose oquendo?

Best class ever!

ummm, I'm not quite sure what to say about this.

Just put the game on at mlb.com, and there's super joe, striking out as usual on a head-high fastball.

"Joe McEwing, who doesn't figure to make the team as a backup infielder, has drawn some interest from his former club, the Cardinals. Arizona and Anaheim have also inquired about him"

doesn't figure to make the club??? what!!?!?!?! my man super-joe???

Amusing read- The Best Roto Team of All Time

http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/analysis/news?slug=rotowire-hellimeotoeam&prov=rotowire&type=lgns&league=mlb

regarding Chump's post on homegrown players, at least the Mets will have Darryl around this spring training for his memories as a living whatcouldvebeen for all the kids in PStL.

-Learn from me kids, don't make the same mistakes I did. More specifically,
-David, remember to cut the coke first, then inhale.
-Jose, first you ask for sex, then you buy the dope, NEVER do it the other way otherwise they'll charge you for possession too.
-I remember in 86, me and Keith buried a key under the mound. I always knew that mustached bitch dug it up in the offseason.

&c.

The Mets hired Jerry Krause. Huh?

from my maznan Joel Grrrman:
Over four decades is it really possible the best position player that a big-market team like the Mets has been able to develop and keep for an entire career is Ed Kranepool? My kingdom for a Tim Salmon.
Wright has a gap-seeking compact swing that already jeopardizes Bernard Gilkey's team record of 44 doubles. (again imagine position players so bad that Bernard Gilkey owns a team record).

Pat Mahomes? That means we're in for some good lip lickin'

pat mahomes is back with the mets!!!

(played by michael jordan in the todd pratt movie)

i've read that petit could be up to fortify the bullpen by midseason, but he will likely begin the year at AA.

who is this kazmir guy? is he any good? hmm, guess the rays are just savvy drafters.

Prospectus came out with it's top 50 Prospects list. The Braves' Andy Marte is #1, which is bad news for the Mets. NY-related players:
13. Eric Duncan, 3B, New York (AL)
14. Scott Kazmir, LHP, Tampa Bay
15. Yusmeiro Petit, RHP, New York (NL)
19. Lastings Milledge, OF, New York (NL)

Discouraging article in the Times about Reyes:
Mackie Shilstone, a sports-performance expert "said he examined the 21-year-old Reyes for three days last October and determined 'in no uncertain terms' the root of Reyes's problems... Shilstone said he advised Reyes to visit him for two more weeks before playing in the Dominican Winter League and to see him for two weeks after the league ended to make any necessary adjustments to his conditioning regimen.
"'He chose none of the above,' Shilstone said. 'We didn't get to put all the pieces together. So I can't sit here and tell you the deficits are gone. I think the jury's out.'
Shilstone said he gave Reyes a 'partial plan,' about a fourth of an overall regimen that Shilstone feels is necessary to really put Reyes on safe ground. Shilstone surmised that Reyes, following his plan, began feeling better and thus assumed he was healthy."
Reyes said "he does only some of the exercises that Shilstone recommended because there were so many of them."

But don't worry. Omar's on top of things. When asked what Reyes is doing differently these days, he responded "That's a good question. I'm not sure. We monitor it with our trainers."

Let's face it, the Mets bullpen isn't going to be great this year. Looper's an okay closer, DeJean pitched really well in his brief stint last year, and then nobody else is really guaranteed a spot. Koo sounds like he could be a lefty specialist. Strickland could be a righty specialist (.570 OPS against righties last 3 years). Scott Stewart? Moreno? Seo? Ginter? Heath Bell? Blake McGinley? Heredia (ugh)?
It doesn't sound too disastorous, but none of those guys are striking the fear into the hearts of batters, either.
So I glanced at the PECOTA projections, and I was surprised to see a Met reliever with such a good projection.
Jose Parra ranks 25th in projected EqERA (ERA adjusted for ballpark), right behind Mariano Rivera, and right ahead of Curt Schilling.
Granted, it's based on very little data. He pitched 42 innings last year (14 in majors, 27+ in AAA), and only 23 pro innings in the 3 years before that. And he didn't finish the season because of a hip flexor injury.
Still, his #s were good in both AAA and the majors, and the Mets don't have many sure things in the bullpen, so it'll be nice to have him in Port St. Lucie.

Oh, wait, he won't be there because the Mets released him in November. Instead, he'll be pitching in Japan for Orix-Kinetsu.

you know it's spring training when you start reading "victor zambrano" and "unhittable" in the same sentance.

unless mike cameron is being vociferous and active about wanting out, why the hell would the mets try and move him??

Red Sox have it locked up again (from espn.com):

The Red Sox agreed to a minor league contract on Tuesday with first baseman Roberto Petagine, who played in Japan the last six seasons.

Petagine, 33, won three Gold Gloves, two home run titles and one Central League MVP award while playing for the Yakult from 1999 to 2002 and Yomiuri the past two years. The Red Sox invited him to spring training.

In parts of five major league seasons, he hit .225 with 10 homers and 43 RBI in 193 games for Houston, San Diego, the New York Mets and Cincinnati

In Japan, he hit .317 with 223 homers and 594 RBI in 756 games.

Petagine, 33, is a left-handed hitter and an excellent defensive first baseman who will try to take the place of Doug Mientkiewicz, recently traded to the Mets.

Nice little post showing that according to PECOTA, the Mets have the 2nd best lineup in the division. This is a pretty simplistic analysis, so I wouldn't start buying playoff tickets, but worth taking a glance at.

Wow, what timing! According to this column in USA Today:
"Look for Boston to sign Japanese superstar Roberto Petagine. He'll be a left-handed bat in left field and and come off the bench as an ideal successor to the departed Doug Mienkiewicz."

Unfortunately for the Sox, Petagine's coming off of a down year. Here's his avg/obp/slg for the last 3 years in Japan:
2002 .322/.438/.649
2003 .323/.457/.683
2004 .290/.409/.561

Supposedly, his knees are shot, and his defense is crappy. But he certainly has a good shot at still being a really good hitter.
Oh, and apparently, he played 86 games in the outfield in 2003, so I guess he could play some out there. How much worse can he be than Manny in the field?

If this gets done, that's one more reason for me to be a Sox fan.

[2/8 Update: Gammons says he's been signed for $750k. Sounds like a steal to me. Very little money, and if returns to pre-2004 form, he should end up forcing a platoon with Millar. Plus, according to ESPN, he's an "excellent defensive first baseman." I have no Japanese UZR #s, but if that's true, the Mets REALLY should've signed him (at least let him compete with Minky).]

well, the mets offseason moves are paying off in at least one category, they report a 200% increase over last year's preseason ticket sales and expect to have nearly 2 million tickets sold before opening day.

oh, the bullpen continues to shape up, tyler yates is out for the year.

Petagine vs Matsui
(edit from Ryan: Hideki Matsui)

2002 AVG OBA SLG HR RBI
Matsui 334 461 692 50 107
Petagine 322 438 649 41 94

2001 AVG OBA SLG HR RBI
Matsui 333 463 617 36 104
Petagine 322 466 633 39 127

wow.

Worst baseball record ever? Last year the Giants played veteran Kawai Masahiro until he he broke the world record for most sacrifice bunts.

had no idea helton was so good defensively. big mo cost us 27 runs!

Or they could have followed Ryan's advice from a few years ago and gone after Petagine.

Billy, here's the dope defensive stat you requested:
Based on his UZR from 2000-2003 (they aren't published for 2004), Mientkiewicz was the second best defensive 1B (behind Helton), and saved 17 runs per season over an average fielder.
Here are some relevant players:
Mientkiewicz 17
Tino 15
Travis Lee 13
Olerud 1
Delgado -2
Galarraga -12
Mo Vaughn -27

It's well known that I wanted Delgado, but since we didn't get him, it makes sense to get either Mientkiewicz or Lee. If Phillips is hitting well, maybe he can platoon with one of them. I think I'd go with Lee if he's 100% because he won't cost a prospect and will probably be cheaper, but I'm not really sure what his health status is.

Unless Ryan can provide some dope defensive stat, I am appalled by the Mientkiewicz signing. For stats like that, we could have thrown Phillips out there, or the huge dude from the end of last season, or even the kid we just traded (don't care if he's single A! bring 'im up!)

If he ever gets a hit, what are the odds the scoreboard would say "met-kiewicz"? Very good, I say.

To reiterate Chump's "wow", the 'stros had the balls to say they signed franco because "the postseason showed that we needed relief help". should have just said "we wanted an old, terrible pitcher."

D'oh!
Delgado signs with Marlins.
Paging Travis Lee.


Is he being over paid?
Is he unlikely to still be performing well in the final year of the deal?
Probably yes to both, but the same thing can be said for Pedro and Beltran. I've been saying all along that if the Mets are going to make these moves, they have to go all the way. As things stand now, they're probably the 4th best team in the division.

john franco signed with the astros for 700 g's.

wow.

sports illustrated also has an article this week about omar minaya and how his ethnicity is wooing marquee players to the mets and how, overall, the mets are becoming "latinized."
the article gives scant attention to the real reason pedro and beltran came here, and why delgado would come here if he does, dinero. plain and simple.
furthermore, I would say the mets have long been a 'latin' team, as have many other teams in beisbol. the late 90's mets, alfonzo, ordonez, mo-ti, harmando, cedeno, etc. i mean, i guess we now have our first 'latino' superstar (does kieth count? el sid?), but i think it discredits latinos as a whole to still view them as this cliquey, insular minority rather than a diverse force fast approaching majority status in los grandes ligues.

Good article by SI's Tom Verducci about amphetamines in baseball. My personal take on both steroids and amphetamines is that the issue should be the health of players. If a large percentage of players are using a drug to enhance their performance, it puts pressure on everybody else to do it. And it's unfair to the rest of the players to give them the choice of (1) not perform as well as all the enhanced players or (2) suffer short-term or long-term medical problems. I haven't really been convinced that either steroids or amphetamines are all that dangerous if done in a controlled manner, but I think that should be the issue: how damaging are these drugs.

Anyway, here are some excerpts from the article:

Caminiti: "I would say there are only a couple of guys on a team that don't take greenies before a game. One or two guys. That's called going out there naked. And you hear it all the time from teammates, 'You're not going to play naked, are you?'

Former outfielder Chad Curtis agreed with Caminiti: "You might have one team where eight guys play naked and another team where nobody does, but that sounds about right. Steroids are popular, but quite a lot more guys take [amphetamines] than steroids. I'm talking about illegal stuff. Speed ... ritalin, which is legal only with a doctor's prescription ... sometimes guys don't even know what they're taking. One guy will take some pills out of his locker and tell somebody else, 'Here, take one of these. You'll feel better.' And the other guy will take it and not even know what it is."

"Curtis added that amphetamine use is so prevalent that non-users are sometimes ostracized as slackers."

Is anyone really surprised that Cameron doesn't want to shift to RF now? He probably figured there was no way the Mets were getting Beltran and wanted to look good. Asshole.

Also, why isn't Blyleven in the HOF? Seriously, his stats stack up pretty well against most other players. Almost 300 wins, 3700 K's, a pretty decent career ERA (3.31). I mean, he lost 250 games, but still, I think he should be in.

In an apparent youth movement, the Mets will sign Galarraga (he's 43!) to a minor league deal and invite him to spring training.

while pedro is one of my favorite players in all sports, and while the move to the n.l. away from facing the yankees N times a year, in my opinion, is personally good for him, i kinda wish some other NL team had taken the big gamble on him.
the mets have a lot of holes, they need a first baseman, a right fielder, a left fielder (floyd clearly wanted out by the 2nd half), a catcher either in the near-term but def for the long-term, possibly a 2nd baseman if kaz pulls a knoblauch (and i don't mean having sex with derek jeter), a long reliever, an 8th inning guy, and a frontline starter that can go longer than 6 innings.

the money spent on pedro could be spent on a bunch of medium guys who would fill a lot of the holes.
that being said, pedro is definitely a smart enough pitcher to be able to dominate the likes of most of the n.l. for the next year or two. doo-de-doo.

the nite the pedro news broke, espn ran a top 10 of worst mets moves of all time. the humongous ghost of mo vaughn looms large in more ways than one.

Rule 5 draft day!
Oh Boy!
I don't know how I didn't know this, but add to the list of good players who were taken in the Rule 5 draft: Roberto Clemente. I guess Johan's path to "greatest Rule 5 Draftee Ever" won't be that easy. The Pirates took Clemente from the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the Dodgers' defense, he didn't really become good until his 6th season in the majors, and the Pirates could afford to use him because they stank.
Well, the good news about today was that the Mets didn't lose anybody, which was fortunate because both Blake McGinley and Royce Ring had a chance of being taken.

According to multiple papers, the Mets may get Manny! Floyd and Matsui?

And Olerud!

Wait a minute, according to boston.com, the Mets have reached a deal with Pedro for 4 years and $50-56 million. I guess we're not getting Manny.

apparently, the a's tim hudson is availible. imagine if we had scott kazmir as a chip to get him. but you know what, we really needed to shore up that #5 starter's spot. -phew- glad that's been taken care of. oh wait...

someone far more intelligent than I offers a fitting note of departure for Mike "second-ugliest met to dave weathers" Stanton...


Michael Wolverton, a San Francisco-area computer research scientist who also writes for Baseball Prospectus, an influential statistics think tank, devised a system by which each situation a reliever can enter - bases loaded with one out, man on first with two out, etc. - is converted into the number of runs that typically score. The reliever is then judged by how many runs he allows either above or below average.

Wolverton's statistic, called inherited runs prevented, not only counts the pieces of runs a reliever either saves or allows, but also adjusts for runners he may bequeath to a pitcher who follows him.

The Royals' Nate Field, despite his rather pedestrian 3.77 E.R.A., is the 2004 leader in Inherited Runs Prevented with 8.0 total runs saved. On Tuesday, Field entered a game with none out and the bases loaded, and got three straight outs to save Kansas City 1.92 runs.

Inherited runs prevented also shows just how disastrous the Mets' Mike Stanton has been in 2004. Though Stanton, a veteran left-hander, had a 3.75 E.R.A., he did not save any runs but in fact cost his team 6.3 runs, third worst in the majors.

Quick comments, then back to my finals. I'm not too upset about any of this from a Mets perspective (although it's not what I would have done). The Yanks, on the other hand, are making a lot of dumb moves.

Leiber, Benson, and Wright all signed for about the same money. Wright is coming off a very strong season, but now that he's not with Leo Mazzone anymore, it seems very possible that he'll revert to form and this will be a disaster for the Yanks. Leiber clearly has a better track record than Benson, but I can see the logic in not giving your 3 year deal to a pitcher who will be 35 on opening day. Close call. But really stupid move by the Yanks for not exercising the option on Leiber. Could've had him for $8 mill for one year.
Womack stinks. If he's their everyday player at 2B next year, big mistake. But if they eventually replace him, he could be a useful utility guy/pinchrunner.
And it sounds like the Yanks are going to get Milton for Benson/Wright/Leiber money, which is really dumb because he's a very mediocre pitcher and does horribly against lefties. Leiter for 1 year probably would've been a better move if they were desperate for a lefty.
I'm sorry to see Leiter go, but I can live with it. It does put a lot of pressure on Omar to sign Pedro now, because his other options are dwindling. Matt Clement!

Moises Alou?
Boo!
How 'bout JD Drew?

last winter, every yankee move gave me the scary shivers. the bad scary shivers, because every move seemed so dope. 'dream' weaver for kevin brown? soriano for a-rod? flash gordon?
this winter, umm, "tuff" wright and "mowack "womack?"

why aren't we in play for jon leiber? we know he can pitch well in new york. we know he is a power pitcher (well, compared to our 'finesse' staff) and we are willing to blow big bucks on kris benson.

and way to let go one of the two most popular mets from over the past 6 years. apparently, the mets offered Sen. Al Leiter (R-NJ) a contract, Sen. Al accepted, and then the mets retracted. wow, class all the way.
what makes it worse is that, supposedly, the marlins contract contains a deal to do broadcasting for them after he retires. that's cool, tom seaver is the best in the biz anyway. ("arguably the best pitcher of all time" according to the new bill james abstract).

So how soon before the Mets sign Denny Neagle? I mean, he seems like a good fit, with the injuries and soliciting ho's and all.

Howard Stern uncovered why the Mets paid so much for Benson. Anna Benson told Stern that "I told [Kris], cheat on me all you want. If you get caught, I'm going to s- - -w everybody on your entire team — coaches, trainers, players. I would do everybody on his whole team."

Obviously, Minaya assumed that he'd be included.
And as further evidence, here's another quote from Anna:
""I helped with negotiations . . . I went back and forth a lot with that. He didn't even have anything to do with that. I did that deal . . . I laid out a lot of the terms."

Harmando Boo-Nitez and his giant ass have signed with the SF Giants. possibly $7 mil a year for the worst postseason closer in modern history.
Are the giants serious about winning the world series for the first time since bouncing from ny? or are omar vizquel and boonitez the magic bullets missing from the revolver for a team that needed hits from heads besides barry?

if the mets are willing to spend so much for a player clearly declining/past-his-prime like sosa why not spend it on pedro? i think pitching in the NL, in a park like shea, getting away from pitching agains the yanks so much would benefit him greatly.

my prediction if sosa becomes a met? .240, 30 HRs, 79 rbi. is it that brazy a predicion? peep his 03 numbers.... .253, 35 HRs, 80 rbis, .332 OBP.
why all the energy and time wasted this year on getting sosa yet so little on vlad last winter? when will the mets learn not to go after power guys but high average guys?
the myth of sissiphus lives on....

Bonds' OBP if he had gone hitless for the whole year would still be .391, which is the same as Vlad's, and higher than Beltre's.

That's fucked up. Just rename the award already.

si to guillen (although it might involve giving up piazza)
no, por favor no, to sosa (owed $39.5 total over the next 2 years)

this article made me want to vomit into my bandwagon boston hat...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=schoenfield/041109

the d'backs fired wally backman.

that's what he gets for poo-pooing on even interviewing with the mets.

is it just me, or does shea-hey willie randolph's omnipresent, goofy smile and vacant stare not exactly inspire confidence?

of course, as ryan says, in the end, it doesn't really matter who the manager is, as long as we've got the dope players on the field.

minaya reportedly loves orlando cabrera. hmmm, sign The O.C., put him at short, trade reyes for kazmir? olerud at first?

The Yankees have talked to the Rangers about acquiring Soriano for pitcher Javier Vazquez, a source told the New York Times.

-sure, why not?

Mannyfest Destination
last nite was beautiful. This postseason and what the Red Sox accomplished is the perfect example of why baseball is the best sport.
Standing amidst the wild celebration outside the riviera was a little melancholy, because I thought of how far the mets are from even approaching the cardinals talent level, let alone the red sox, and seeing all these red sox fans come out of the woodwork, whooping it up made me want to experience the thrill of a mets victory here in new york, we were just kids the last time, which makes it all the more maddenning that we are so far from our own celebration.
props to the dominating domincans.

My theory is: all Times sports columnists are blowhards. Murray Chass eats my fucking balls.

more badness from the times...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/sports/baseball/27rhoden.html

More goodness from the Times:
Article on WFAN caller Jerome from Manhattan.

An excerpt: "overhearing his mother talking on the telephone about his Social Security disability payments, he hollered: 'Don't give me the check! Send it to the Yankees! Get more players!'"

Good article from the NYT Week in Review about clutchness that features a nice quote from Orel Hershiser, a pitcher who I'm sure has often been described as clutch:

"Some people will perform better in the clutch, but I think guys are sometimes lucky. I'm not sure if there's enough of a sampling to know if it's about the guy."

Totally unrelated, here are some nifty scouting reports.

John Kruk is an idiot. He said on "Fact or Fiction" that Jason Varitek should catch for Tim Wakefield tomorrow. That would makes all sorts of sense:

1) If it did.
2) If the whole world hadn't seen Varitek have three passed balls last week.
3) If Kruk wasn't a blowhard.

Seriously, I've had it with these ESPN announcers who are paid to yell or make bullshit opinions so jerkoff fools who agree with them feel smart for once.

wow, read this last sentance...
"Instead, the images of the Yankees' lack of heart were everywhere -- from Hideki Matsui leading off the second inning swinging at a borderline 2-0 pitch, despite being down by six runs; to A-Rod being booed by Yankees fans after his final at-bat of the season; to Tom Gordon, who, according to one team source, was so unnerved by October pressure that he was throwing up in the bullpen during Game 6."

Who's Your Papi?
Wow! What the hell happened the last four days? What a blur. It seems like an eternity has passed since Saturday night. The Yanks were one inning away from a sweep, with Mariano on the mound. And now, after lots of Papi, Schilling's unbeliavably courageous performance, Derek Lowe coming off the scrap heap, Bellhorn breaking out of his slump with a huge homerun, and Damon breaking out of an even bigger slump with the grand slam, the Sox have somehow triumphed. And on the other side, we see Rivera blow 2 saves, Torre make very questionable moves, ARod cheat, and Jeter slug .233.
And I have to say, while my rooting didn't quite reach the level of the Mets in the postseason, it was pretty damn close.
Go Sox!

You may have noticed that the Red Sox beat the Yankees. That was cool.

thanks fox!
after a tiring weekend, i fell asleep on the couch at midnite, thus missing the end of game 4! and i'm sure i'm not the only person on the east coast who fell asleep long before the game ended.

but hey, at least viewers in oregon, washington, idaho, california, nevada and arizona got to enjoy the game in its entiriety and still enjoy a full night's rest, because, well, those are the people who want to see the game the most.

You know what really aggravases me?

The Mets- the METS!- swept the Yankees this year. Remember that? Yeah. The METS!

Stupid Sox, not winning a game.

The one thing about the Ortiz at-bat in Tuesday's game is that he was 5-10 off Rivera and didn't have good numbers against Flash, even if Rivera is Rivera. That didn't seem to bother Mariano Wednesday night, though, when he blew two cutters past him (but nearly gave up a homer on the other).

First off, dumb move by Francona not brining in Foulke in the 8th instead of Timlin. That was a critical inning against the best part of the Yankees lineup. Put your best guy in.
Dumb move by Torre as well, not bringing in Rivera to face Papi. Rivera's been much tougher on lefties than righties over the last 3 years (502 OPS vs. 629). Lefties against Gordon: 619. Of course, if the ball had gone into Matsui's glove instead of bouncing off it... Boy, there was a lot of shitty play in LF last night.
As for the issue about whether Myers should have come in to face Matsui in the 8th, not as ridiculous a non-move as I would have thought. Lefties over the last 3 years have a 716 OPS against Timlin and a 684 OPS against Myers, so not a very big diff diff. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that Foulke should've been on the mound in the first place (lefties with a 572 OPS against).

Now that I've thought some more about it, although the Cards are the clear favorite, I guess I wouldn't be totally shocked if the Astros pulled the upset. Backe and Munro haven't been that bad.

And finally, there are some ridiculously good players batting second for their teams right now. ARod, Walker, Beltran, Bellhorn. Which one of these doesn't belong? (hint: he's the one who did one hell of a Carl Everett impression last night).

Well, I’ll be damned. Game 2 of the Braves-Astros series is being played as I write this. I’m not watching it, but I just checked the game on the internet, and the Astros are winning 2-0 on 2 solo shots. One by Jeff Bagwell and one by Raul Chavez.
Raul Chavez!
Raul Chavez had 162 at-bats this season and hit no homeruns. Only 2 players had more at-bats without a dinger: Jamey Carroll (who actually had a decent year) and Brent Mayne. Nobody else was particularly close to 162 ABs. 523 people hit a homerun in the majors this year. Raul Chavez was not one of them. He is now one of 22 people to hit one during the playoffs. Even forgetting about homeruns, Chavez was one of the worst hitters in baseball this year. The only players with a worse OPS and at least 100 at-bats were Doug Glanville, Andy Green (who?) and Damian Rolls. So, I’d say its pretty damn surprising that he’s even starting a game in the postseason, let alone hitting a homer. Even more surprising is that he hit it off Mike Hampton, who was pretty stingy this year, allowing only 15 homers.
The only thing that comforts me somewhat about this is that Chavez does have 2 homers earlier in his career, as well as 32 career AAA homeruns in 2,538 at-bats, which is a lot of AAA at-bats. So, in the end, I guess I’m happy for the guy. He’s been toiling in the minors since 1990. He’s had a few cups of coffee in the majors, but this is the first year he’s had significant playing time. He probably won’t have much more of a career, but he can always say he hit a homerun in a playoff game, and a fairly important one at that. Pretty cool for Raul Chavez.

Amazingly, Chavez isn’t the first person to hit a homer this postseason after not hitting one during the regular season. Tom Wilson hit a solo shot in his only at-bat during game 1 of the Dodgers-Cards game. Wilson didn’t hit any homers this year, but he only had 12 ABs (including 4 with the Mets!). He did hit 12 taters in 195 minor league at-bats, so this wasn’t all that shocking. There have been some other pretty surprising catcher homeruns this postseason, too. Both Mike Matheny and Brad Ausmus have gone yard. What the hell is going on?

Prophetic words Aram, that Moose would beat Johan "guaranteed". Last week's sweep wasn't particularly telling cuz they pulled Santana after like 4 or 5 innings to keep him fresh for the playoffs.

Cards (over Astros) over Sawx (over Yanks) (sorry Bryan)

I agree that Clemens will end up winning too. Sentimental pick by the writers.

Ravi's picks were quite eloquent. I agree with everything Ryan wrote except I'm taking the Astros.

the only thing i would disagree with is the nl cy young, where i would go with (as much as i hate to say it....) roger clemens. also, as much as i hate to say it, the yanks will beat the twins in three, maaaybe four. i think last week's sweep was particularly telling. moosina beats johan game 1, guaranteed.

(to the tune of "who needs the quik-e mart?")
whooo needs vladimiiir?
not wilpon, not wiiilpon.

Quick picks (without a ton of thought):

MVPs - Bonds and Vlad
Cy Youngs - Johan and Unit
First Round Playoff Winners:
Braves (tough call)
Cards
Red Sox
Twins

Go Twins!

I'm not excited about this Minaya thing at all. First off, this doesn't change the fact that the Wilpons will continue to run the ship and make stupid moves just to look good on the back page of the papers. Nothing's going to be solved until the Mets hire a real GM and let him run the ship.
The best thing I've heard about Minaya is that he's good as far as scouting Latin America. Sounds great if we were hiring him to be the "head of Latin American Scouting" or something, not to be the GM.
From everything I've read, it sounds like the Duquette didn't have much to do with the July 30 disaster, that he was in fact against making the moves. If that's the case, I think he's done a decent job, certainly not one bad enough for him to be fired after a year. Matsui hasn't lived up to expectations and they really should've picked up a 5th starter before the season, but Cameron and Hidalgo were good moves. And at least he didn't take on any absurdly bad contracts.

Minaya? Why should we be impressed with him?
Here are some of his major trades with the Expos:
-Traded Guillermo Mota and Wilkin Ruan to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Received Matt Herges and Jorge Nunez.
-Traded Jason Bay to the New York Mets. Received Lou Collier.
-Traded Scott Strickland, Matt Watson, and Phil Seibel to the New York Mets. Received a PTBNL, Bruce Chen, Dicky Gonzalez, and Luis Figueroa.
-Traded RHP Jim Brower and a player to be named for RHP Livan Hernandez, catcher Edwards Guzman and cash.
-Traded RHP Javier Vazquez for the Yankees' 1B Nick Johnson, OF Juan Rivera and LHP Randy Choate

Also, he rented Cliff Floyd and Bartolo Colon, trading them away soon after - here's the sum of those trades:
- Traded Lee Stevens, Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore for Orlando Hernandez, RHP Rocky Biddle, and Jeff Liefer.
-Traded a PTBNL, Graeme Lloyd, Mike Mordecai, Carl Pavano, and Justin Wayne for Sun-Woo Kim and Seung Song.

Okay, obviously the Livan Hernandez pickup was outstanding, although he didn't start getting good until some other team's pitching coach gave him advice in the middle of the season and he changed his delivery, so there's some luck at play.
I liked the Vazquez deal at the time, although Nick Johnson has been hurt a lot.

On the negative side, he has traded Guillermo Mota, Jason Bay, Carl Pavano, and Grady Sizemore.

omar minaya as new head of baseball operations, and will be above jim duquette in the mets hierarchy. should we be excited? or is this another sign of too many cooks in the kitchen? mmmm, fourth place stew! needs a sprinkling of some more valent though.

Cliff Floyd: .260/18/63/.814 OPS/11 steals, the 113 games played this year are the most he's played the last three- makes $6.5 million

Brad Wilkerson: .256/31/62/.870 OPS/13 steals, played 153/146/151 games the last three years- makes $315,000

The Mets will go places with this Floyd kid, I can feel it...

At first I was a little concerned with the Art Howe fiasco. I was concerned that the Mets would be set adrift, without direction. but thankfully, the mets braintrust has made me feel more at ease with the future with talks that the new manager could possibly be Jim Fergosi. JIM FERGOSI!!!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!!??!??!??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JIM FERGOSI!?!?!?!??!?!??!

Why was Dierker dumped again? That's a very interesting choice, but do you think he could handle NYC?

One more name for Mets manager: Davey Johnson.

Boy, that Kazmir trade looks worse every day.
6 scoreless innings and 9 Ks against one of the best offenses in baseball. Pretty damned good for a 20 year old. The future looks pretty bright, and even if you're concerned about his ability to stay healthy long-term, his trade value is a lot higher now.

Howe is as good as gone, so I guess we can start discussing who the next manager should be.
Piniella? Bobby V? Showalter? Backman?
One name I haven't heard mentioned, but would consider is Larry Dierker. From what I've read about and by him, he seems to be really bright and progressive. And the Astros won 4 divisions in his 5 seasons. They haven't won since he left.
And one name that has been mentioned a lot that I have no interest in is Larry Bowa. He's been a disaster in Philly.

Oakland and Minnesota are now tied in the standings, so it's unclear which one the AL East winner ends up playing. For you Yankee and Red Sox fans: who would you rather face at this point? As much as I like the A's, I think I'm more scared of the Twins right now.
In his last 19 starts, Johan Santana has only given up 3 earned runs once. Once in 19 games! Over those games, he has a 1.41 ERA and has averaged over 7 1/3 innings per start. He has 179 Ks (almost 9.5 per game!) and 26 BBs over that span.

Do you want to face Johan Santana twice in a five game series? No, you don't.
And Brad Radke is having a great season, too. 3.43 ERA. 134 Ks and only 19 BBs.

I've always been a big Clement fan (lots of K's), and if I were them, I'd go after Pavano too. But knowing the Mets, they'll end up re-signing Benson, and sign Wells.

The Mets made a huge mistake when they traded for Kris Benson, but there's no reason for them to make another huge mistake by re-signing him to a multi-year contract. And, no, I don't accept justifying the trade as a valid reason to sign a mediocre pitcher to a pricey long-term deal.
The talk is that the Mets have offered a deal around $6 million per year for 3 years. And Benson wants a lot more. Everyone's acting like Benson is some sort of elite pitcher.
He's not. His ERA this year is 4.68. The NL average ERA is approximately 4.33 (based on my rough calculation). So, his ERA is about 93% as good as the league average.
How about the rest of his career? Here is Benson's ERA+ (ERA compared to league average, adjusted for ballpark, 100=average) along with my rough 2004 calculation:
1999 112
2000 119
2001 Didn't play
2002 92
2003 85
2004 93

That's a pretty clear pattern. During his first 2 years, he was an above average pitcher. After missing a whole season, he has consistently been a below average pitcher.

Next year, the Mets will probably have a rotation of Glavine, Leiter (team option), Trachsel, Zambrano, and someone else. Benson would be an adequate number 5 starter, but he's not worth the money being talked about, particularly because there are better pitchers on the market.

Here are some free agent pitchers and some of their 2004 stats, ranked by ERA (there are probably better ways to rank them, but ERA is a simple, well known stat). I'm leaving out Pedro because he will command far more money.

........ERA, K/9, BB/9, HR/9
Pavano 3.09, 5.5, 2.2, 0.6
O.Perez 3.16, 5.8, 2.0, 1.1
Wright 3.19, 7.5, 3.6, 0.5
Clement 3.44, 9.5, 3.6, 1.1
Radke 3.59, 6.1, 0.9, 1.0
Wells 3.61, 4.0, 1.0, 0.9
Ru.Ortiz 3.67, 6.5, 4.8, 0.7
Morris 4.40, 5.8, 2.4, 1.5
Wilson 4.63, 5.7, 3.2, 1.4
Benson 4.68, 5.5, 3.0, 0.7
Millwood 4.86, 7.8, 3.2, 0.9
Lowe 5.15, 5.2, 3.3, 0.7

Other than Boomer, all those pitchers are in the 27-31 age range. Benson is 29. So, age isn't a huge issue here. There are obviously a lot of free agent pitchers having much better years than Benson.

For some longer term perspective, in 2003, the only pitcher on that list that Benson had a better ERA than was Wright (who obviously hasn't had a very good career until this year). Career ERA? Benson beats just Wright and Wilson.

Getting into stats that a bunch of you will ignore, here's the above list ranked by VORP over the last 2 years (which is how many runs saved versus a replacement level pitcher):

Radke 82
Pavano 80
Wells 80
Ru.Ortiz 72
Clement 67
Perez 63
Morris 53
millwood 47
Wright 39
Wilson 24
Lowe 18
Benson 10

By the way, Esteban Loaiza would top that list by a narrow margin, although after his recent struggles, I understand the concerns about him. Still...

Anyway, to sum up my thoughts, I would need to think more carefully about this to come up with a first choice and I need to see how the market plays out to see what it will take to sign any of these pitchers. My gut says to go with Radke, Clement, or Pavano.
Those guys would actually have a chance to improve our beloved Mets.

great article from sunday's post by mike vaccaro....
ON the one hand, the plight of a Mets fan isn't so terribly unusual, or unique. Jets fans know what it's like to root for the "second team" in town. So do Nets fans, and Devils fans, and Islanders fans. So do White Sox fans, and Angels fans, and Clippers fans, and fans of the Tattaglia Family, and Jersey music fans who favor Bon Jovi over Springsteen, and fans of "heads" (which, according to mathematicians, wins only 49.2 percent of the time against its long and bitter rival, "tails").

Life as The Other Guy ain't easy. It's how you become The Other Guy in the first place, right?
Well, here's a Mets fan named Ken McConnell who would beg to differ with that. Listen to him:
"I've been a Mets fan since '63," McConnell, a Long Island native now living in Hollywood, Fla., writes. "I became a Mets fan because my father was a Dodgers fan, because my older brothers took me to Shea and the Polo Grounds when I was a kid. From the start, we knew we weren't the Yankees. That was fine. We didn't have the history with the Mets, but we had that link to the Dodgers and the Giants.

"We always knew it was a fair fight, because the Yankees won all those pennants in front of quiet, polite people from Jersey and Westchester. New York City was a National League town. It was always a National League town. And we figured it always would be. The Mets proved it for a lot of years. Only now, New York isn't a National League town. You're a fool if you believe that. And you're a bigger fool if you believe it'll ever be that way again."

It's what people always forget when they talk about this Yankee dominance that is alleged to extend all the way back to Babe Ruth. It just isn't so. It wasn't so when the Yankees had to share the town's affections with the Giants in the '20s and '30s, it wasn't so when they had to share the city's soul with the Dodgers in the '40s and '50s, and it wasn't so when they had to share New York's baseball buck with the Mets in the '60s, '70s and '80s.

In Shea Stadium's first 29 years of existence, 1964 to 1992, the Mets outdrew the Yankees 20 times. And if you remove from the equation the years 1976 through 1981, when the Yankees were winning pennants in a newly renovated Yankee Stadium while the Mets were barely fielding a semi-pro team in the dying days of the M. Donald Grant administration and beyond, that number is 20 out of 23.

"It burns me when we get treated like stepchildren," McConnell writes. "Like it's always been the way it is now. It hasn't. The Mets were equals. They were always equals."
McConnell is one voice, an angry one, and there are thousands of others. As another Mets season winds its way into complete nonsense, they feel increasingly disenfranchised. It takes a little bit of the joy out of the game when your single biggest rooting interest is that the team fires the witless manager sooner, rather than later, the better to begin thinking, again, about a new form of tomorrow.

Yankees fans increasingly believe that Mets fans are growing extinct. And while it's true that it sometimes seems an impossible task to identify a Mets fan under the age of 30, they're out there, too. And they are furious. No second team in this market stirs the smoldering embers of frustration the way the Mets do. Jets fans are conditioned to expect the worst. Same with Nets fans. Devils fans and Islanders fans have almost relished the championships they've won in obscurity while the Rangers toiled haplessly in the limelight.

Mets fans?

They get to sit, and seethe, and they get to watch Paris Wilpon and his daddy, Fifth Avenue Fred, go on vacation and let all their underlings absorb the heat while another season careens into the abyss. Mets fans are so much more honorable than the men who own the team, it isn't funny. For years, they've been dared to abandon the ship. And they never do. In their heart of hearts, they think this could still be a National League town again.

If the Mets ever rise above playing like they belong in the International League, that is.
"A long time ago, I made a choice," another Mets fan named John Bliss wrote me a few weeks ago. "I picked the Mets. For better or worse, I have to live with that choice. For better or worse, I'm glad I made the choice I did."

For better or worse, Mets fans find themselves rooting for The Other Guy now, wondering if that isn't a permanent designation. Another season up in flames. Another year deeper in the Wilpon Family Reign of Error. Another year removed from equal footing in America's most passionate baseball town.

Wondering if they'll ever be able to recover.

Worried that they already know the answer to that question.

the post's marc hale reports that the mets probably won't call up victor diaz because they "have no room in the outfield" that right, let's see what this gerald williams kid has first. meanwhile, take a gander at this list of chumps who could be joining the Flushing Tides shortly....

Craig Brazell, First base22 HRs, 65 RBIs, .266 BA through 118 games at AAA NorfolkA sweet left-handed swing is Brazell's trademark, a seemingly effortless turn that has accounted for nearly 100 minor league homers. He had a cup of coffee with the Mets last month.

Matt Ginter, Pitcher1-3, 4.61 ERA in 14 games [13 starts] for the MetsGinter spent much of the first half with New York and has been up and down from Norfolk over the last six weeks, filling in when a spot starter was needed.

Heath Bell, Pitcher3-1, 16 saves, 3.23 ERA at NorfolkBell made his Major League debut last week against San Diego, throwing an impressive two scoreless innings. He has been a solid closer during an unstable year for the Tides.

Tyler Yates, Pitcher1-4, 7.07 ERA in 10 games [seven starts] for the MetsYates was sent back to Norfolk to begin working again as a relief pitcher. He won the fourth starter's spot out of Spring Training but pitched poorly. He's 6-2 with four saves and a 3.18 ERA for Norfolk.

Pat Strange, Pitcher9-9, 5.18 ERA at NorfolkA starter with staying power, Strange has won 63 games in the New York system since 1998. He has 11 Major League games under his belt with a 6.35 ERA.

Esix Snead, Outfielder.264 BA, 40 SB at NorfolkThe speed merchant has the ability to change a game with his legs, but has spent his entire career figuring out how to get on base. Scored a run in his only appearance with the Mets this year.

Aaron Heilman, Pitcher7-9, 4.14 at Norfolk, 0-1, 9.82 [one start] for the MetsHeilman has pitched better in the second half of the season with the Tides but was unimpressive in his lone start with the Mets last week.

Wayne Lydon, Outfielder.272 BA, 65 SB at AA BinghamtonIs on the verge of breaking Snead's club mark for thefts. The B-Mets are in the Eastern League playoffs, so he may not arrive until the middle of the month, if at all.