Well, I guess it's a good thing they didn't sign Bubba, since he left the Rays for "personal reasons".

reyes cannot play more than one game without tweaking his hamstring and being unable to run properly. every season on every level he has suffered leg injuries, and this same injury has bothered him going back to last season. if by pessimistic you mean realistic, then yes. over under on games reyes plays this year? 70.

I agree with Bryan (cheer). And I'm hungover (boo).

It is not "wildly optimistic" to think Reyes will be on the Mets in 2006. He's young and has hamstring problems, okay, but he's young enough that they can afford to wait. I would say it's wildly pessimistic to think that he won't be on the Mets in 2006.

i think, at this point, it's wildly optimistic that reyes will be on the mets in 2006. after yesterday's "minor setback" it's obvious that reyes' very career is threatened by his hammies. every time he runs, which is a lot, the odds will be good that he will tweak his hammies. which makes it all the more curious that the mets still refuse to send him to a hamstring specialist.

the post reports that david wright could be up as early as this season, they quoted unnamed internal mets sources who pointed out that edgardo alfonzo also made the jump from double-aa bing to the majors.

also, there's been a 'minor setback' with floyd too. get him off the team. met fans shouldn't be further tortured by the tantalizing prospect of having his big bat in the lineup when in reality it hasn't and will not be in the lineup in anywhere near a regular basis in the future.

who would i rather have at 2nd right now, danny garcia or alfonso soriano.

who would've thought that our 2004 offense would be based on spencer and garcia. especially garcia, jeez if he weren't in the lineup we'd be worse than the spos.

it also seems doubtful that phillips will be on this team or in the major leagues in 2006. odds are better that he will be singing for a U2 cover band called 'october sky' or 'achtung one' or something. with ty wiggs on drums. i imagine he's a big fan of the drums.

You're right, I forgot about Wright. I also forgot that the Mets farm system isn't a wasteland anymore.

No need for a 3B.
David Wright is our best offensive prospect.
He was named #5 prospect in baseball by Baseball Prospectus.
So far this year in Binghamton (in 80+ plate appearances), his line is 380/494/662.
He'll almost definitely be our starting 3B in 2006, and if he keeps up anywhere close to what he's doing now, he'll be a factor next year.
Looking ahead to 2006, I assume we'll have:
2B Reyes
SS Matsui
3B Wright
LF Floyd
CF Cameron
C Phillips (Huber?)

that leaves RF and 1B, where we should be able to find some pretty big bats to go along with our otherwise reasonable lineup.

What about a 3B? I think any one of them would be an upgrade over Wigginton, who's clearly a bench player. I think I'd pick Lowell, he seems to be the best defensively and is the most reliable.

F an Ice Williams, why didn't the Mets pick up Double J?!?!

--Giants signed LHP Jason Jacome to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Fresno. Jacome, 33, last played in the majors in 1998. He spent last season in the Atlantic League.

There's a Rob Neyer column on ESPN talking about next year's free agent hitters. Since it's just about time to give up on this season, I guess we can start discussing who the Mets should get next year. Only names that jump out at me are Magglio Ordonez (who Ravi took instead of Bonds in our fantasy draft) and if he repeats his performance from last year, Richard Hidalgo. Delgado would be tempting, but he's a little old and we'd have to get rid of Piazza. RF seems like the clear place to get a big hitter for next year, so Magglio it is.

After bonds' IBB in the 4th tonight, he now has 500 IBBs for his career! That's about ONE SEASON of ABs taken away due to intentional walks. Hank Aaron is in 2nd place with 293 IBBs.

Good article about the work Rick Peterson does to prepare the pitchers for each game.

according to page six, pedro martinez was partying it up at the 40/40 club the night before shutting down the shtanks. troo.

There's another crazy idea for deciding who gets home field: how about the team with the best record? In the event they have the same record, the team with the fewest-ex Yankees will receive it, unless one of the teams is the Red Sox, who will win it automatically.

that's a damn fine interesting and original idea. it would give teams a real incentive to get better (to make it a real incentive, the 2 at-large spots would have to be doled out only amongst the top 4 divisions. ) but why punish good teams and make it really tuff on them by lumping them in with teams that also really really good. and because of off-season braziness, a team can improve/change significiantly over the off-season so i'm not sure that last year's w-l record is indicitive of who should be in premier divisions the next season.

this system may also go too far in the other spectrum of rivalries, in the current system, you can pretty much only establish a rivalry with teams in your division, and that is too limiting. but in this system, rivalries would change every year because there would be no continuity.
but it's a great idea.

The Mets signed Gerald "Ice" Williams!

Yes, perhaps he's the answer in the OF. After all, he's only 37.

I'll work on the schedules in a little bit, but here's an idea because I'm STILL really against the All-Star Game deciding what league gets home field, as I think the alternating year thing was fine. Really, what does home field advantage in the world series really mean? Last licks, DH. wacky ballpark dimensions and I guess the fans, (although I don't know if the fans in baseball factor into homefield advantage)? Anyway, back to the matter at hand, fuck this "now it's important" bullshit, I want to see John Kruk bat lefty against Randy Johnson, I want to see Barry Bonds pick Torii hunter over his shoulder aqfter getting robbed, I want to see Roger Clemens go crazy on the mound (oh wait...), I want to see any and all the players play andhave fun. So that game was a tie, WHY change everything?

My idea? How about whichever League wins more games during the season in Inter-league play, that team receives home field. And if somehow all those games end up even for al and nl, THEN use the All-Star Game for it.

Or they could just get rid of the DH, fire Bud Selig and hire me as the Commissioner of MLB.

Also, the union is probably extremely pro the unbalanced schedule...cuts down travel time. What really needs to happen is a realignment of teams/divisions. Can be done as radically as possible, imagine a tier system based on geography, like the new AL east, consisting of Yankees, RedSox, Braves, Marlins, and the Phillies. For the first year selection would be based on average w-l record since, let's say, 2000. The best teams would be in this top division and make for exciting games based on geography. The last place team in this new AL East would then be relegated the following season (or maybe do promotions/demotions every other year) in the the New NL East where only the winner gets to the playoffs...Mets, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Baltimore which would promote it's top team into the AL East the following year. Enough people say that once you get into the playoffs it's all a crapshoot, so you can't really say that it wouldn't be fair to lump all the good teams together, I think it would be beneficial, and force them to compete, with relegation mainly as a psychologial tool to encourage it. Furthermo', the schedules would still be balanced enough that each team would play one another throughout the year, and relegation would bring new rivalries in also. While we're at it, let's get rid of the leagues altogether! I'm sure it would never happen mainly because of how much money DHs make.

in the current system:
AL EAST
Yankees, Red Sox, Baltimore, Toronto, Tampa Bay
AL CENTRAL
Chicago, Minnesota, KC, Detroit, Cleveland
AL WEST
Texas, Anaheim, Oakland, Seattle
NL EAST
Mets, Atlanta, Phillies, Montreal, Marlins
NL CENTRAL
Cubs, Cardinals, Astros, Brewers, Pirates
NL WEST
Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies

NEW Hotness:
Division Troo EAST-Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, Marlins, Baltimore
Division Boo EAST-Mets, Phillies, Tampa, Montreal, Toronto

Division Troo CENTRAL- Cubs, Astros, White Sox, Minnesota, Cardinals
Division Boo CENTRAL-Pirates, Brewers, Tigers, Indians, Royals

Division Troo WEST- Oakland, Seattle, Anaheim, Giants, D-Backs
Division Boo WEST-Dodgers, Padres, Rockies, Rangers

The playoffs would be seeded by w-l record since there would be balanced schedules, it wouldn't matter where the seeds come from so say two teams in Boo Division East have great records, they would make the playoffs (the al and nl would be gone in this insane system remember) and maybe something like this (I'm going to give it an East coast bias, but obviously any teams would work):
1.Yankees 2. Oakland 3. Astros 4. Marlins 5. Mets 6. Red Sox 7. Pirates 8. Dodgers...so pretty much you'd get the winners of each division seeded by record and then two at-large spots based on record. This is crazy, I love it, here's playoff tree like this--

First Round--
1. Yankees vs. 8. Dodgers
4. Marlins vs. 5. Mets
3. Astros vs. 6. Red Sox
2. Oakland vs 7. Pirates

Interesting Matchups no?
Yanks vs. the Bums
Mets Marlins games--always fun
Roger Clemens trying to kill the red sox's dreams
Can oakland get into the second round past the upstart-feel-good pirates?

Second Round--
1. Yankees vs. 7. Pirates
5. Mets vs. 6. Red Sox

HEY! Pirates Yankees! Spirit of Mazeroski! Upstart-feel-good Pirates! Yankee aura vs. Pittsburgh grit!
In the other series, you have a rematch of the one of the best world Series? SURE YOU DO BECAUSE THIS SYSTEM ROCKS!

NEW FORMAT WORLD SERIES:
1. Yankees vs. 6. Red Sox

Need I say any more?

ty wiggs has got so much grit, so much hustle, so much HEH-AHT....that he has an ulcer. unbelievable. the post had a good line, they said the mets are bringing up infielder danny garcia to take wiggy's place. garcia is hitting .220 at norfolk so he should feel right at home with the mets. sad, but trooo.

Armando Benitez is on pace for 86 saves.

Fuck Dave Hanson.