| Team | W | L | Pct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phillies | 59 | 49 | .546 | E |
| Mets | 58 | 50 | .537 | 1.0 |
| Marlins | 57 | 51 | .528 | 2.0 |
| Braves | 50 | 58 | .463 | 9.0 |
| Nationals | 38 | 70 | .352 | 21.0 |
Author: Will Sommer (owner)
According to Joel Sherman of the NY Post the Mets have signed 38 year old RHP Al Reyes who has a 4.37 ERA in 22.2 inning this years with the Rays. Reyes was the closer last year for the Rays so I suspect he'll get his chances to save some games with the Mets. Good signing for the Mets. Hopefully he can improve this bullpen.
Update: Reyes will be sent to the minors for conditioning since he has not pitched since Aug.5
Author: Will Sommer (owner)
Billy Wagner was examined today in New York by team doctors, and he continues to have pain in his elbow. Here is the Mets statement:
Billy Wagner was re-evaluated today at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery. He continues to have swelling and pain in his elbow. He will need additional rest before he can resume throwing.
This is not good news. Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus wrote that this is a big setback for Wagner and that he may require season ending surgery. " It was a big setback for Wagner, and one that could end his season. Instead of forearm stiffness, he has an elbow issue"
Even if Wagner comes back in September, and that's a big if the Mets have to act like he's not coming back. The bullpen is doing a horrendous job as of right now. At this point you have to hope that the Mets have a huge offensive night because I don't think anybody in New York trusts anyone in the Mets bullpen to close games. Should the Mets recall Kunz again? I say why not, as long as Jerry Manuel puts him in games more often, and maybe when the game is on the line & see how he does. But if I were Omar Minaya I would be on the phone right now with the Colorado Rockies, and seeing if Brian Fuentes is available, and can clear waivers. Fuentes would be a huge addition to the bullpen, and can obviously be their closer. He's only blown four saves this year, and has a 3.02 ERA. I'll say it again Fuentes would be a HUGE addition to a struggling Mets bullpen. I know it's an outside shot, but people were saying Favre to New York was a long shot, and looked what happened.
I Will be going away from August 1st through the 16th. After that Mets Fans Forever will be posting full time. Thank you.
Author: Will Sommer (owner)
Accoriding to Jon Heyman of SI Manny Ramirez was traded to the dodgers write before the deadline.
UPDATE: This was a three way deal. Manny is going to the Dodgers. Jason Bay is going to Boston, and the Pirates are getting four prospects.
This is quite a surprise.
l'm going to be on blog talk radio at 4 PM. Come Listen! Click Here for the link
Author: Will Sommer (owner)
It looks like the Mets will be quiet come 4:00. The Mariners are asking to much for Raul Ibanez, and Brain Fuentes, Hudson Street etc. are not available. The best moves are the ones you don't make. That being said the Mets should call up Eddie Kunz. He has done a great job in AA, and with the bull-pen struggling he can replace Muniz, or Joe Smith. Promoting Kunz is a low risk, high reward promotion. If Kunz does great in the majors, then great! the bull-pen is that much better. If Kunz doesn't do well in the majors, then you demote him back to AA, and no harm is done. So why not? Take a risk . See what happens. Nothing bad can come out of this.
Author: Al Castrillon
The Mets will be forced to make some roster decisions in the next week that could impact their bench. Lets take a look. Ryan Church should be back soon to take over the right field duties and assuming he is back to normal should play everyday. This would force the Mets to option Nick Evans back to AA. Next Luis Castillo should be back soon as well and here is where it gets a little dicey. The Mets could simply demote Argenis Reyes (risk losing him) or a much better option would be to drop Robinson Cancel and keep Reyes. The latter is a much better option because carrying 3 catchers is a luxury that the mets can ill afford. The mets are only one of five teams that currently have 3 catchers on their active roster. Out of the five they are the only ones in contention (Reds,Mariners,Braves and Nationals are the others)The next thorny issue that could arise is if the Mets pickup a corner outfielder before the deadline.
If Castillo and Church come back, the mets bench is going to be Reyes or Cancel, Castro, Easley, Anderson, Chavez and Tatis. This also assumes that the Mets stick with a twelve man pitching staff. Now if the Mets pickup a corner outfielder without trading any of the above, one will have to be demoted or released. Easley, Chavez,Castro and Tatis are probably safe because the offensive numbers they are putting up. That leaves Reyes/Cancel and Anderson to compete for the last spot on the bench. They may decide to keep Anderson over either Reyes or Cancel but Anderson is having an abysmal year. He is hitting .207 in 121 abs with a sub .600 ops. With Castillo on the team the Mets can not afford to have Damion Easley as the only option up the middle. However, Anderson signed a two year deal in may of 2008 for 2.2 million, so the mets would have to swallow some money if they chose to release him. Anderson did come up as middle infielder so he could play second in a pinch but Reyes is a superior fielder. Reyes, in limited duty, has put up some decent numbers, is a switch hitter and can play both middle positions. Unfortunately Omar loves the veterans so expect Anderson to win this battle.
An e-mail arrived in my inbox recently, asking me to visit Mets.com to vote for my top 10 Shea Stadium memories. Many of the events I voted for came long before my birth (The Beatles, the ’69 season) or happened when I was a mere toddler being dropped by my father during the ’86 playoffs (game six and the clincher).
But I know my Mets history, and have witnessed my fair share of it. You’ll note there is only one non-Mets moment on this list: the Beatles first concert. Reason being: it’s one of the major events in the last 50 years of music history. And because Shea was built mainly for the Mets, and they’ve inhabited it since its inception (the only team to do so), I’ve devoted the rest of my space to them. Without further ado, then, I present to you my top 10 Shea Stadium moments.
10- Beatles play first Shea Stadium concert, 1965 – You can’t talk about Shea Stadium’s history without talking about the Beatles first appearance there. The concert was the capper of their whirlwind visit to New York, their first trip stateside. Hardly anyone heard the music over the din of the screaming fans, but still, anyone who was there can say “I was there when history was made.”
9- Mike Piazza homers late to the put the Mets over the Braves in New York’s first sporting event since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 – Why it never occurred to be I might want to go to this game, I still don’t know. But who could have scripted a better night for the city of New York? Incredibly emotional pregame ceremonies led into a brilliant comeback engineered by perhaps the most prominent sports figure in New York at the time. Piazza may have never shone brighter as a New York icon.
8- Mets clinch second World Series title in game 7, 1986 – For most, it was a foregone conclusion after the madness of game 6 that the Mets would win the World Series. But what’s more amazing: that the Mets have been back only once since then and not won a title, or that the Red Sox have won two?
7- Mets clinch the NL East, 2006 – The scorecard I kept at this game, along with the ticket stub, hang in my home today. Why? That year’s team was a team that was destined for the World Series – and possibly more. When the ball settled in Cliff Floyd’s glove for the final out, everyone in Metsville was sure great things were on the way. Of course, the rest is not-so-happy history, but as a fan, this is one of the most exciting events I’ve witnessed in person.
6- Miracle Mets win the World Series, 1969 – I could put the Eastern division clincher on the list over winning the Series, just because it capped an amazing run to the top that no one expected. Still, I’ll put the championship victory on instead, just as a way of summing up that entire summer. You can ask your dad about it.
5- Benny Agbayani wins NLDS game three with walk-off homer, 2000 – For this one, my friend, my dad, and I sat in section 47 of the upper deck, in the second to last row, in the last three seats of the stadium. The Mets tied the Giants in the 8th on an Edgardo Alfonzo double down the line (I can still see it in my mind’s eye today) and we moved, deadlocked at two runs each, all the way to the 13th inning. By then, many people – inexplicably – had left, and we moved down to be “closer” (that’s a relative term) to the action. From my seats, the ball looked like a speck, but to the Hawaiian Agbayani, it must have looked like a pineapple because he parked it in the left field bleachers to win the game and give the Mets a 2-1 edge in the series. Not bad for my first playoff game. And as my buddy Jon still says today, it was just gravy to see Barry Bonds standing at the wall watching the ball go right over his head.
4- Robin Ventura wins NLCS game 5 with ‘Grand Slam Single’, 1999 – A 15-inning thriller that had us all believing Bobby Valentine’s mantra of “one game at a time”. Down 3-1 in the series, with the bases loaded and the Mets down 3-2 in the 15th, Ventura, that General of Grand Slams, unloaded on one and put it over the wall and in front of the scoreboard. By the time he was approaching second base, his teammates had mobbed him and he never got around to home. No problem, though: the tying and go-ahead runs scored and that was all that mattered. Ventura was credited with a single, the Mets lived to see a game 6 in Atlanta, and I sleepwalked through school the next day. (By the way, in 2000, the Mets sent ticket plan holders a Lucite block depicting frames from the Grand Slam Single, as well as a ticket encased in the block. Mine still sits in my room, collecting dust and bringing me back to that unbelievable night whenever I glance at it).
3- Todd Pratt homers to clinch the NLDS, 1999 – Did he or didn’t he? Gold Glove center fielder Steve Finley backed up to the wall, leapt for the ball, came down in a heap on the warning track, and…DIDN’T CATCH IT! THE METS WIN! Euphoria ensued at Shea and the Mets moved on to the NLCS. Later that day, my grandfather, who lives about 90 minutes from here, called to say, “We heard you screaming all the way up here.”
2- Mike Piazza caps an incredible 8th inning comeback with a three-run homer, 2000 – With John Rocker’s ignorant comments fresh in the minds of New Yorkers and police stationed in the upper deck over the visitors’ bullpen, the Mets fell into an 8-run hole against the front-running Braves. If it wasn’t fireworks night, I might not have stayed. But it was, and I did. Soon enough, the wheels began to roll for New York – and began to fall off for Atlanta. When John Rocker came in to pitch, I spewed venom at him like a man possessed. Only problem was, it was Terry Mulholland. Anyway, Piazza got to the plate, roped a laser down the left field line, and capped a phenomenal inning and win with a three-run homerun. The image of him pumping his fist on his way around first, with the fans erupting behind him, is one of the great images of the last 10 years of Mets history. I ran up and down the aisle, slapping palms with every one of the 10 family members I was with, and had no voice for the next two days. By a pretty decent margin, it was the greatest game I ever saw in person.
1- Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner, 1986 – It’s only one of the most indelible ground balls in baseball history and perhaps the epitome of falling on your face on one of sport’s greatest stages. The Mets were accepted as done, the champagne was chilling in the Red Sox clubhouse, and some dufus at Shea even flashed a congratulatory message to the Sox on the Shea scoreboard. A string of hits and one E-3 later, the game was over, and baseball history would never be the same. But hey, as long as you weren’t a Boston fan, you could deal with it. “There’s a ground ball…it gets by Buckner! And the Mets win! They win!” What can I write about this game that hasn’t already been written by people much wiser and more talented than me? Nothing. For my money, though, as this is perhaps the greatest moment in Mets history, it stands to reason that it is the number one Shea Stadium moment of all time.
Honorable Mention
Mike Piazza’s final game as a Met, 2004, and his return to Shea, 2005 – Happily, I was there for both games. Piazza ended his time with the Mets graciously, and it brought this sappy blogger to tears. His return gave me goosebumps. I came home from college just for his final game, and on my way over the George Washington Bridge on the final Saturday of his time in a Mets uniform, Piazza homered – and I nearly drove off the bridge from excitement. He was classy through everything, and may someday don a Mets cap in Cooperstown.
Billy Joel plays Shea Stadium, 2008 – My all-time favorite artist rocked the house with two phenomenal, 3 hour, 40 song, multiple guest shows. Of course, I wasn’t there to see Paul McCartney close Shea (just as he opened it back in ’65), but my consolation is that when I bought tickets for the first show, I did so under the pretense that it would be the only one. Bitter much? No, but a little bit.
Endy Chavez makes the most ridiculous catch I ever saw – Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. The enigmatic Oliver Perez is dealing, but something’s gotta give, right? WRONG. Scott Rolen connected on what seemed to be a sure homerun to left field, only Endy Chavez had other plans. He raced back, leapt over the AIG sign (shouldn’t that be moved to Citi Field, just because?) and brought the ball back with a catch that would make Spiderman blush. I watched this game from my living room couch, and when the ball was hit, I fell to the floor on my knees, knowing the Mets season was over. Seconds later, my dad was screaming, “HE CAUGHT IT! HE CAUGHT IT!” I never experienced such a swing in emotions from sports in such a short period of time, and probably never will again. I went from “oh…crap” to “OH, CRAP!” Of course, when Carlos Beltran struck out looking to end the season less than an hour later, I went into my room, threw some stuff, and broke the blinds on my window. And because of that, this catch is not on my top 10. (But my broken blinds are still on the window. You could say they’re motivation to get back to the playoffs…Not that I can do anything about it).
So, Shea, there’s only one thing left to say: “Thanks for the Metsmories”..
Author: Will Sommer (owner)
According to John Perrotto of Baseball Prospectus Manny Ramirez will be heading to the Marlins.
"Multiple baseball sources say that the Red Sox are on the verge of sending disgruntled left fielder Manny Ramirez to the Marlins in a trade for a package of three players"
I was never a believer in the Marlins until the series against the Mets. Now I am. It makes matters worse when it looks like the Marlins are getting a future Hall of Famer. If this report is true the Marlins are a force to be reckoned with in the NL East, and the national league.
Author: Will Hernandez
The New York Mets (58-50) lost to the Florida Marlins (57-51) 7-5 Wednesday night at Dolphins Stadium. The win gave the Marlins the series while the loss, combined with a Philadelphia victory, put the Mets 1/2 game behind first place in the National League East.
Mike Pelfrey (9-7) appeared to be heading to his eight straight victory after cruising through the first three innings, but he fell apart in the fourth inning and allowed five runs on six hits. It happened so suddenly for Pelfrey. Jeremy Hermida led off the inning with a triple and came home to score on a single by Jorge Cantu to tie the game 1-1. Josh Willingham followed with a single, but then Pelfrey retired the next two hitters in Dan Uggla and Mike Jacobs. But then the Marlins followed with three straight extra-base hits and scored four more runs. Cody Ross hit a two-run triple, followed by a John Baker double. Baker then scored on pitcher Josh Johnson’s double to leftfield.
Pelfrey obviously wasn’t going to keep
this streak up, but it ended with a big thud. The righthander just didn’t
have it Wednesday night. Hopefully, it’s just a blip in the road.
Never underestimate the importance of preventing your opponent from scoring insurance runs. Joe Smith found that out in the eighth inning when he allowed a two-run homer to Uggla to give the Fish a 7-4 lead. And what did the Mets do in the next inning. Only score a run to pull within 7-5. Ramon Castro had a two-out, pinch hit RBI single after Marlon Anderson and Brian Schneider kept the inning alive with back-to-back singles. But Jose Reyes flied out to left to end the game.
The Mets had their chances to tack on runs in the first inning after Jose and Argenis got on base to lead off the game. They scored only one run on David Wright’s double play. It was a chance to jump on a pitcher who only had two appearances this year.
Carlos Beltran
has to be the most frustrating Met for fans right now. He continues
to look for the walk in the wrong situation. He was 0-for-3 Wednesday
night with two strikeouts and a walk. He looks lost at the plate and
hitting Fernando Tatis behind him is not working. Very frustrating.
Well folks, this is the way it’s going to be for the rest of the season. Unless one of these three teams makes a major trade that will shake things up, I don’t think there is one team who will run away with the division. The Mets better hope the Cubs have the division wrapped up by the last week of September because that series will be absolutely huge. And after seeing what Chicago is doing to Milwaukee, the Cubs are by far the best team in the National League. The race for the Mets is definitely on.
Added By Will Sommer
Mr. Joe Smith continues to struggle giving up a two run home run to Dan Uggla. Joe's ERA is now 3.95. If I was Joe I would be very worried about very worried about being demoted. Last year's draft pick Eddie Kunz has a 2.93 ERA in AA. Will Kunz get the call-up? I hope so.
The Mets showed some fight in the ninth getting the winning runs on base, with two outs but couldn't get them home. The Mets would not show this kind of fight late in the game in April, May, or June.
Marlon Anderson had his best game this year going 3-4, but in the ninth it looked like his hamstring was hurting him. He could barely run around the bases. Either that or he's like Manny Ramirez and wants to be traded. I would not be surprised if he ends up on the DL again.
The Mets have an off day tomorrow. On Friday Pedro comes back again to face off in Houston against the Astros.
