Benjamin Grimm

No, it wasn't. See my note in the Marvel Movie Update thread about the twist at the end of the credits.

Beltran 3.5 Alou 2.5 Schoeneweis 1 OHernandez 1 Heilman 1 Humber 0.2 Wright 0.5

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I also like tonite's matchups in terms of regaining some ground. Yes. Things could look a lot more promising tomorrow morning. If the Mets clinch tomorrow (which is actually possible!) they could rest their bullpen for four full days. (In Saturday and Sunday's games they could use non-postseason guys like Williams and Humber and Muniz to eat innings as needed.) Maybe a chance to rest and catch their breaths would give the Mets new life in the NLDS. It's always darkest before the dawn, they say. I wish, though, that I was as optimistic as I sound in this post!

It's a little early yet, but out postmortem on this season will be interesting. Bullpen has to be at the top of Omar's to-do list for the winter. And it will be a challenge.

Mets playoff hopes dropped more than ten points last night. (Not surprising.) Braves are barely hanging in there. Mets division title hopes are the lowest they've been since I started pasting these figures. Arizona's chances are even worse than the Mets'. Phillies took a nice step forward, but their Wild Card hopes still trail those of San Diego. I'm not sure why the Cubs are showing a zero for the Wild Card. They can still end up in a tie with the Padres for the Card, unless there's something I'm missing. Maybe the 1 million simulations just never happened to land on that combination of results. Average wins by position in NL East: 89.7 88.3 85.2 73.1 69.6 NL East W L Pct3 Avg W Avg L Champions Wild Card Playoffs 1D Change 7D Change Mets 87 71 .558 89.5 72.5 77.49982 8.30389 85.80370 -10.21149 -8.68647 Phillies 86 72 .535 88.4 73.6 22.48217 19.25961 41.74178 7.54047 12.35256 Braves 83 75 .540 85.2 76.8 .01802 .01442 .03243 -1.39982 -0.86648 Average wins by position in NL Central: 85.1 83.1 75.8 73.2 71.6 69.9 NL Central W L Pct3 Avg W Avg L Champions Wild Card Playoffs 1D Change 7D Change Cubs 83 75 .512 85.0 77.0 89.84160 .00000 89.84160 3.96490 18.04823 Brewers 81 77 .505 83.1 78.9 10.15840 .00000 10.15840 -3.96762 -18.09963 Average wins by position in NL West: 90.0 89.0 87.9 82.4 71.2 NL West W L Pct3 Avg W Avg L Champions Wild Card Playoffs 1D Change 7D Change Diamondbacks 88 70 .480 89.7 72.3 62.34122 20.67041 83.01163 -9.88851 -6.88860 Padres 87 71 .520 88.9 73.1 22.27397 34.93080 57.20477 8.28283 -23.89401 Rockies 86 72 .545 88.3 73.7 15.38482 16.82087 32.20569 5.67923 29.10004

Elster leads the forum in silent responses. (Mostly, I think, to Valadius and Steve Rogers.) Anyway, back to business. The Mets are a miserable team, no doubt. If they should manage to stumble to the NLDS, they'll be heavy underdogs. (If they can't beat bad teams, how will they beat good teams.) But the NLDS remains a worthy goal anyway, and the Mets hopes are riding today on two future Hall-of-Fame pitchers. If Pedro Martinez can beat the Cardinals, and John Smoltz can beat the Phillies, we'll have a considerably better outlook tomorrow morning. The Mets are alive at least through Saturday's games. Whether they make the playoffs or not, this miserable final month of the season is almost over.

The first two Mets-Nationals games at Shea this week will close on Friday morning. Voting is understandably light. If you haven't voted and intend to, today is the day. Monday: http://cranepoolforum.qwknetllc.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=7468 Tuesday: http://cranepoolforum.qwknetllc.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=7475

Yancy Street Gang wrote: They're playing like a team on the verge of a historic collapse. Not that I'm proud of this, but I think I was the first one here to say the collapse word and it was at the beginning of this thread.

Ugh. Might as well see this through. Just four more games after this one.

SteveJRogers wrote: On the bright side, the number for eliminating the Braves is now one. That would be really nice if our only goal was to keep the Braves out of the playoffs.

If the Mets and Braves both win tomorrow, things will be looking sunnier again, at least temporarily. Distance yourself. Really. It helps. Resign yourself to the probability that they won't be playing in October. Then if things work out, it will be a pleasant surprise.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for September 23, 2007 (10 votes) New York Mets 7, Florida Marlins 6 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceCarlos Delgado19.641.962-5, R, HR, 3 RBI, SO.David Wright13.201.322-5, R, RBI, BB, SB.Paul Lo Duca11.701.171-4, R, HR, 2 RBI.Moises Alou9.560.962-6, R, RBI.Joe Smith7.740.77(W) 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO.Aaron Sele7.510.750.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Guillermo Mota6.580.661.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.John Maine6.530.655.0 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO.Carlos Beltran5.300.531-3, R.Scott Schoeneweis4.220.42(Sv) 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Jorge Sosa4.120.410.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Marlon Anderson2.300.231-1, R.Jos� Reyes0.800.080-5, R, BB.Endy Chavez0.500.051-2.Luis Castillo0.300.031-5, BB.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for September 22, 2007 (9 votes) New York Mets 7, Florida Marlins 2 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceOliver Perez49.255.47(W) 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 SO.Ramon Castro26.452.942-4, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, BB.David Wright9.401.043-5, 2 R, RBI, SO, 2 SB.Carlos Beltran1.900.211-3, R, 2 BB, 2 SO.Luis Castillo1.500.171-3, RBI, BB, SO.Carlos Delgado0.750.080-4, RBI, BB, SO.Jos� Reyes0.500.061-5, R, 2B.Shawn Green0.250.031-3, R, BB, SO.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for September 21, 2007 (11 votes) New York Mets 9, Florida Marlins 6 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceScott Schoeneweis18.701.70(Sv) 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO.Pedro Martinez17.501.59(W) 5.0 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO.Guillermo Mota13.751.252.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO.Paul Lo Duca11.851.084-5, R, 2B.Carlos Beltran10.550.961-3, R, 2 RBI.Jos� Reyes10.000.912-4, R, 2 RBI, 2 BB.Carlos Delgado8.000.731-5, R, HR, RBI.Luis Castillo7.450.681-5, 2 R, RBI.Moises Alou6.700.611-4, RBI, BB.Endy Chavez3.500.322-2.

If the Nationals play the Phillies this tough (which of course they won't) we'll be okay. I don't want to spew any venom here, but in 37 years as a Mets fan, I don't think I've ever seen them with a worse pitching staff than they've had this month.

He spoke to him for 10 minutes (where have I heard that time measurement before?) and quickly judged that Rick Peterson is quick to judge.

I wouldn't be telling them to steal more bases. Some of the problems of the last two weeks have been caused by steal attempts in foolish situations.

Yeah, he sucked last night? Does that mean he'll suck again next time around? Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn't. Our only reasonable option is to put him out there again and see what happens. We didn't give up on Al Leiter when he couldn't get anyone out (literally!) in 1999 NLCS Game 6. Really, what can you do. Even pitchers as good as Glavine (or better) have bad games. And sometimes they come at bad times. It's not a sign of a character flaw, it's a sign that he's human.

I was wondering how you raise the stature of an award? How do you make people care? Does MLB hold a bigger or better press conference for the Cy Young award than they do for the Hank Aaron? Or does MLB treat them both the same, but the press ignores one and gets excited over the other?

I've noticed, when editing and proofreading UMDB memories, that a lot of people use the three dots in lieu of a period. "I went to Shea last night...A guy was there who looked like Tim Teufel...It wasn't him but it looked like him...LOL!" Sometimes I can tell at a glance that the post will require a lot of editing. It takes me a much longer time to get around to those.

Well, no, of course not. I have no confidence in Maine or Pelfrey either. Hernandez has been hurt. Martinez has been throwing too many pitches. I'm not confident in any of these guys, but I'm least uneasy with Perez and Martinez. This is why our NLDS outlook is so dicey. They've all been more bad than good lately.

It's strange how both NL series play all five games (barring rainouts) on the same days. Another difference from previous years is that usually the postseason opens on Tuesday. We're seeing the effects of their new scheduling methodology here. Next week, we can figure on only Wednesday's and Thursday's work days being disrupted. I can watch a 5 p.m. start on TiVo delay easily enough. (I'd drive home with my radio off or with a CD playing.) If they play earlier, I'll take a personal day. What happens when games run long and overlap? Would the later game start on TNT, like we've seen in the past with ESPN and ESPN2? The 3 and a half hours between games won't always be sufficient, especially when you're talking about playoff games.

If the Mets have home field, Game 5 would be at Shea. (The Division Series goes 2-2-1.)

This really shouldn't be hard. All they have to do is win three of five from the Nationals, Cardinals and Marlins. That would at least clinch a tie and would require the Phillies to win all five of their remaining games, which probably won't happen. They REALLY should be able to go 3-2 against these opponents. It's a sign of how awful the Mets have been that this does seem like a daunting task.

You're right! (Again.) The Mets could open in Arizona if the Cubs surge past them and the Mets finish as the third-best division winner. (And the Padres or Rockies take the wild card.) They could also open on the West Coast if they win the Wild Card and the Diamondbacks or Padres (or Phillies) end up with the best record in the league. Mets-Cubs in the NLDS would probably get us some good starting times, if nothing else. Unfortunately, the only team I'd feel somewhat comfortable playing in October is the Marlins, and I don't see that as a plausible scenario.