Benjamin Grimm

I agree with seawolf. I also thought it ridiculous to have ESPN televise Clemens' minor league start, but it would have made perfect sense for YES to show it. And it makes sense for SNY to show Pedro's start.

Edgy DC wrote: Carolyn Johnson-Thomas saved my life. 'Splain?

It'll really be annoying if Suppan kills the Mets in the postseason again, this time as a Brewer.

Well, here we are at the beginning of August. The Mets have a 3 game lead over the Phillies and are 3.5 ahead of Atlanta. In the Wild Card race, if it should come to that, the Mets are 2 games ahead of the current leader, the Dodgers. They're 2.5 ahead of the Wild Card runner-ups, the Cubs and Padres. Even the Colorado Rockies are only 4.5 games behind the Mets. The Mets have a lot of competition for those two playoff spots that they're eligible for. By the time this month ends, the situation could be vastly different, for good or for bad. Right now, the Mets have a Magic Number of 54 for the NL East and 55 for the Wild Card. Hopefully on September 1 these numbers will be roughly halved. (Hopefully, they'll still have a Magic Number on September 1.) The Mets have 28 games scheduled for August. Four are in Philadelphia, 3 are at Shea against the Braves, plus one in Atlanta on the last day of the month. Two more games in Milwaukee. Three at Wrigley Field. A six-game homestand where the Mets play three each against the Padres and Dodgers. That means that 19 of the 28 games this month are against teams with a real shot at the playoffs. (The other 9 games are three at Shea against the Marlins, and three games each in Washington and Pittsburgh.) It's do or die time. What happens in August will go a long way towards determining how interesting our October will be.

1-F-ii.

I vote Humber. I've seen enough of Vargas. (Dave Williams isn't an option? Is he still in the organization?)

As I said in the morning-after part of the IGT, I would have let Heilman pitch to Fielder. But Willie brought in Feliciano. After Feliciano hit Fielder, I would have (reluctantly) left him in to pitch to Hall. Feliciano didn't look too good, and if I had a righty I was more confident in, I might have made the switch. In other words, I would have replaced Feliciano with Cordero, but not with Mota. So I disagreed with both of Willie's pitching changes that inning.

I wasn't on the IGT last night, but I'm wondering if I'm the only one who wanted Heilman to pitch to Fielder? He seemed to be rocking along, and I'd rather go with the pitcher who's doing well rather than the unknown quantity in the bullpen. And I suppose he has to stay down in New Orleans for ten days, but if it were up to me, I'd promote Adkins and demote Mota as soon as I could.

I went to bed around 11. That was probably the healthiest choice. I rarely see 2 a.m. anymore. I rarely see 12 a.m. anymore.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for July 29, 2007 (13 votes) New York Mets 5, Washington Nationals 0 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceJohn Maine42.543.27(W) 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO.Ramon Castro28.112.162-2, R, 2B, HR, 2 RBI.Jos� Reyes21.561.662-3, 2 R, 2 2B, SB.David Wright19.771.522-3, 2 RBI, SO, SB.Lastings Milledge8.400.651-2, RBI, BB.Damion Easley6.550.502-3, R.Ruben Gotay3.070.241-1, R, BB.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for July 28, 2007 (10 votes) Washington Nationals 6, New York Mets 5 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceCarlos Delgado32.283.232-4, R, HR, 3 RBI, SO.David Wright20.872.093-4, 2 R, 2B, RBI.Ruben Gotay11.641.162-3, 2 R, BB.Mike Pelfrey10.801.086.0 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO.Guillermo Mota7.270.731.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO.Aaron Heilman2.500.251.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Lastings Milledge0.500.051-4, SO.Paul Lo Duca0.140.011-3.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for July 28, 2007 (12 votes) New York Mets 3, Washington Nationals 1 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceOrlando Hernandez52.504.38(W) 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO.Ruben Gotay18.341.532-4, R, 2B, RBI, SO.Billy Wagner12.761.06(Sv) 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Aaron Heilman10.560.881.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO.Lastings Milledge9.150.761-3, 2B, RBI, SO.Jos� Reyes7.500.632-5, R, 2B.Carlos Delgado5.870.491-3, R, RBI, BB, 2 SO.David Wright1.630.140-1, 3 BB.Shawn Green1.130.091-3, BB, SO.Anderson Hernandez0.550.051-1.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for July 27, 2007 (12 votes) Washington Nationals 6, New York Mets 2 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceCarlos Delgado11.310.942-4.Moises Alou10.150.851-4, R, 2B.Jon Adkins9.960.831.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Damion Easley9.020.751-4, RBI.Shawn Green7.350.611-3, R, 2B.Aaron Heilman6.980.581.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO.Jorge Sosa2.500.21(L) 6.0 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO.

Glavine 3 Heilman 0.5 Sosa 1.5 Wright 1 Reyes 1 Alou 1 Milledge 1.5

Yeah, Cordero's not likely going anywhere. It'll mostly be old and/or overpriced guys.

Yeah, most definitely. Omar probably wasn't wasting time chasing Jeff Conine over the past few hours. He was probably spending his efforts on Gagne and Cordero. He can turn his attention to Conine tomorrow.

Will Startup? I know what song to play when he's warming up on the mound. I hope he's a starting pitcher.

Sorry, m.e.t.b.o.t., we don't do post-season Schaefer voting. (I guess October 2006 was before you were born.)

They don't have to be announced to the press by 4 p.m., just phoned into the commissioner's office. So we may continue to learn of deals over the next hour or two. Maybe.

About 26 minutes to deadline.

Voting for all four games against the Nationals will close on Wednesday: Friday, Washington 6, Mets 2: http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6967 Saturday, Mets 3, Washington 1: http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6970 Saturday, Washington 6, Mets 5: http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6974 Sunday, Mets 5, Washington 0: http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6977 ALL four games are especially light in vote counts. If you haven't voted yet, please do so.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for July 26, 2007 (13 votes) Pittsburgh Pirates 8, New York Mets 4 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceJos� Reyes22.371.722-4, 2 R, HR, RBI, SB.Oliver Perez21.401.65(L) 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO.Lastings Milledge15.321.181-4, R, HR, RBI.Guillermo Mota9.280.712.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO.Ramon Castro8.550.662-4, SO.Damion Easley7.850.602-4, R.David Wright3.650.280-3, RBI.Ruben Gotay1.000.080-2, RBI, SO.

That's not a bad idea. The other three would include Maine and Perez, of course. Pelfrey has been pitching better than Sosa lately. I hope to see him return and take away some of Sosa's starts.

metsmarathon wrote: i guess a pennant chase is not the best time to figure these things out? That's where I'm at. I'd like them to give Gotay a good look in March (and perhaps April and May) but I suspect that the Mets will get somebody over the winter, either Castillo or someone else, who will arrive at St. Lucie as the presumptive second baseman. I think Milledge has a better shot at being the presumptive corner outfielder, given that the Mets will probably look to replace both Alou and Green, but that's for another time and another thread.

Well, my feeling is that if Pedro comes back around September 1, the Mets will still be in the playoff hunt at that time. They may not be 3 games into first place, but I suspect that they'll be no more than 3 games behind a playoff berth. That's the worse (not worst, but worse) case scenario. It's also possible that they'll be 7 or 8 games up, but I think the division will tighten a bit during August.