Benjamin Grimm

Hey! The Mets won a game! Let's take a fresh look at the magic numbers. Mets Magic Number by team: San Francisco Giants 11 Cincinnati Reds 11 Arizona Diamondbacks 11 (possibly 10 based on extended tiebreaker rules) St. Louis Cardinals 8 The Mets hold the tie-breaker advantage over the Giants and Cardinals. The Reds have the advantage over the Mets, and Mets/Diamondbacks is still TBD. The Padres are in the second wild-card spot, and have a five-game lead (and a magic number of 7) over the Mets. If the Mets can manage to sweep the upcoming three-game series against San Diego, things might get interesting. This doesn't seem likely, but stranger things have happened. Or so I'm told. With only twelve games left, a magic number of 11 over three different teams means there's a very good chance that at least one of the three teams will pass the Mets. While the Mets are currently in a playoff spot, their hold is very tenuous.

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There's the bloop.

They really should have tried to get another inning or two from Sproat. I have a feeling that this October will be a lot less fun than last year. Let's hope for a bloop and a blast in the ninth.

I'm sure Buck Showalter would tell him he has nothing to worry about.

Of course not. There are too many Mets fans (in my opinion) who seem to enjoy wallowing in angst. Maybe fans of other teams do this as well. I wouldn't know about that.

Strawberry was the first name I thought of. Hebner left through a trade, not free agency, but it was certainly clear that he didn't want to be here. Lolich retired, sat out for a year, and then signed with the Padres. I don't recall what the free agent rules were at the time; the Mets may have needed to release their claim on him but I'm not sure of that.

In other words, the Mets continue to rearrange the deck chairs.

The starting pitching collapsed. Canning got hurt. Megill got hurt. Senga got hurt. The number of innings caught up to Holmes. Senga returned, but poorly. Manaea and Montas came along and failed. Short outings by starters overworked the bullpen and their performance then suffered as well. It's really no mystery what happened.

They did! But somehow it didn't work out.

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Yes. The end-of-year post will be in the format used in previous seasons. Here's the post from 2024: https://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33825https://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33825

SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE MONTH, AUGUST 2025 http://leaptoad.com/mets/cards/PeteAlonso1978.jpg> http://leaptoad.com/mets/cards/NolanMcLean1971.jpg> http://leaptoad.com/mets/cards/TylerRogers1974.jpg> http://leaptoad.com/mets/cards/BrettBaty1977.jpg> AUGUST 2025 Player of the Month: PETE ALONSO Pitcher of the Month: NOLAN McLEAN Reliever of the Month: TYLER ROGERS Bench Player of the Month: BRETT BATY http://potg.leaptoad.com/mets/potm_results.php?month=08&year=2025>

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https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/james-bethke-obituary?id=58690679

They still do it the old-fashioned way, before the tiebreaker system was implemented. I checked to see if the Mets hold an advantage over the Diamondbacks, and for the moment at least, they don't. The second level of tiebreakers is the teams' record against their division opponents. The Mets are 23-20 (.535) against the Braves, Phillies, Nationals, and Marlins. The Diamondbacks are 22-19 (.537) against the Dodgers, Padres, Giants, and Rockies. Hopefully this won't matter, but if it does, it may end up being very close.

The Mets magic number over the Giants, for that third wild card, is actually 15, because they hold the tiebreaker advantage. The Giants have 71 losses, so the most they can win is 91. The Mets have 76 wins. Any combination of Mets wins and Giants losses that add up to 15 will result in the Mets finishing with the advantage over the Giants. Of course, another team may also sneak in. The Mets magic number over the Reds is also 15. The Reds can win 90, but since they have the tiebreaker over the Mets, the Mets would need 91 wins to finish ahead of them. The Diamondbacks can win a maximum of 89 games. That would give the Mets a magic number of 14 over Arizona for a clean win. The two teams split the season series, so it's hard to say right now who would win a tiebreaker. The Cardinals can also win 89 games. The Mets have the tiebreaker here, so the magic number over St. Louis is 13. Summary: Mets Magic Number by team: San Francisco Giants 15 Cincinnati Reds 15 Arizona Diamondbacks 14 (possibly 13 based on extended tiebreaker rules) St. Louis Cardinals 13

Bethke's major league career ended before his 19th birthday, but he continued to bounce around the Mets farm system for another five years, ending in Memphis (AA) in 1970. His final professional season was 1971, at the age of 24, in the Royals' farm system. Four games at AA Elmira and 17 at Single-A San Jose, where he had a 2.85 ERA in 98 innings.

Felix Mantilla is dead at the present time.

I think it would be hard to be more disappointing than 2007. They fell so far so fast in those last couple of weeks.

Basically, we need the Mets to be the team that gets hot. And it might happen. But it's not looking promising.