Benjamin Grimm

Neil Walker, in perhaps his last month as an active Mets player, won his first Player of the Month Award in August. Bartolo Colon is the Pitcher of the Month for the fifth time, matching a total attained by John Maine. R.A. Dickey was a ten-time winner. Johan Santana won nine times, and Pedro Martinez and Jacob deGrom have won six times each. Jeurys Familia, the pitcher who made us all forget Brian Stokes, has won his eleventh Reliever of the Month award, putting him far ahead of anyone else. He earned 5.95 points in August as a reliever, putting him ahead of Addison Reed, with 4.05 points and Hansel Robles, who finished a close third with 4.03. Kelly Johnson is the Bench Player of the Month for the second time this season, and the third time overall. Nobody has ever won this title four times. Johnson joins other three-time winners Fernando Tatis, Daniel Murphy, Jordany Valdespin, and Eric Campbell. Johnson earned 3.60 points in August games in which he wasn't in the starting lineup. The runner up for bench points awarded in August was Curtis Granderson, with 1.74 points.

SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE MONTH, AUGUST 2016 AUGUST 2016 Player of the Month: NEIL WALKER Pitcher of the Month: BARTOLO COLON Reliever of the Month: JEURYS FAMILIA Bench Player of the Month: KELLY JOHNSON Updated award winner standings, with this month's winners in bold: PLAYER OF THE MONTH David Wright 14 Johan Santana 6 Carlos Beltran 5 Jose Reyes 5 R. A. Dickey 4 Lucas Duda 4 Daniel Murphy 3 Cliff Floyd 2 Tom Glavine 2 Carlos Delgado 2 Ike Davis 2 Matt Harvey 2 Noah Syndergaard 2 Jacob deGrom 2 Mike Cameron 1 John Maine 1 Angel Pagan 1 Jeff Francoeur 1 Ruben Tejada 1 John Buck 1 Marlon Byrd 1 Dillon Gee 1 Jonathon Niese 1 Bartolo Colon 1 Juan Lagares 1 Curtis Granderson 1 Yoenis Cespedes 1 Michael Conforto 1 Wilmer Flores 1 NEIL WALKER 1 PITCHER OF THE MONTH R. A. Dickey 10 Johan Santana 9 Pedro Martinez 6 Jacob deGrom 6 John Maine 5 BARTOLO COLON 5 Mike Pelfrey 4 Jonathon Niese 4 Matt Harvey 4 Tom Glavine 3 Dillon Gee 3 Noah Syndergaard 3 Orlando Hernandez 2 Alay Soler 1 Steve Trachsel 1 Oliver Perez 1 Livan Hernandez 1 Tim Redding 1 Chris Capuano 1 Zack Wheeler 1 RELIEVER OF THE MONTH JEURYS FAMILIA 11 Brian Stokes 5 Billy Wagner 4 Aaron Heilman 4 Bobby Parnell 4 Carlos Torres 4 Francisco Rodriguez 3 Duaner Sanchez 2 Raul Valdes 2 Pedro Beato 2 Manny Acosta 2 Jon Rauch 2 Addison Reed 2 LaTroy Hawkins 2 Darren Oliver 1 Chad Bradford 1 Guillermo Mota 1 Joe Smith 1 Jorge Sosa 1 Scott Schoeneweis 1 Pedro Feliciano 1 Sean Green 1 Fernando Nieve 1 Hisanori Takahashi 1 Elmer Dessens 1 Jason Isringhausen 1 Frank Francisco 1 Josh Edgin 1 Scott Rice 1 Hansel Robles 1 BENCH PLAYER OF THE MONTH Fernando Tatis 3 Daniel Murphy 3 Jordany Valdespin 3 Eric Campbell 3 KELLY JOHNSON 3 Julio Franco 2 Damion Easley 2 Marlon Anderson 2 Endy Chavez 2 Josh Thole 2 Justin Turner 2 Scott Hairston 2 Andrew Brown 2 Eli Marrero 1 Michael Tucker 1 Ricky Ledee 1 David Newhan 1 Ramon Castro 1 Ruben Gotay 1 Robinson Cancel 1 Gary Sheffield 1 Alex Cora 1 Jeremy Reed 1 Omir Santos 1 Cory Sullivan 1 Chris Carter 1 Mike Hessman 1 Nick Evans 1 Jason Pridie 1 Willie Harris 1 Val Pascucci 1 Mike Baxter 1 Ronny Cedeño 1 Kelly Shoppach 1 Josh Satin 1 Zach Lutz 1 Ike Davis 1 Lucas Duda 1 Chris Young 1 Anthony Recker 1 Curtis Granderson 1 Johnny Monell 1 Darrell Ceciliani 1 Michael Cuddyer 1 Yoenis Cespedes 1 Juan Lagares 1 Wilmer Flores 1

SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK, 2016 Week ending April 9, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 4.69 points. Week ending April 16, 2016: Yoenis Cespedes, 7.95 points. Week ending April 23, 2016: Curtis Granderson, 7.51 points. Week ending April 30, 2016: Michael Conforto, 10.93 points. Week ending May 7, 2016: Bartolo Colon, 9.27 points. Week ending May 14, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 5.99 points. Week ending May 21, 2016: Yoenis Cespedes, 6.04 points. Week ending May 28, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 5.58 points. Week ending June 4, 2016: Matt Harvey, 5.12 points. Week ending June 11, 2016: Matt Harvey, 7.76 points. Week ending June 18, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 4.14 points. Week ending June 25, 2016: Jacob deGrom, 7.07 points. Week ending July 2, 2016: Bartolo Colon, 7.14 points. Week ending July 9, 2016: Wilmer Flores, 10.80 points. Week ending July 16, 2016: Jose Reyes, 3.65 points. Week ending July 23, 2016: Jacob deGrom, 5.93 points. Week ending July 30, 2016: Steven Matz, 6.17 points. Week ending August 6, 2016: Neil Walker, 8.33 points. Week ending August 13, 2016: Jacob deGrom, 7.78 points. Week ending August 20, 2016: Jose Reyes, 6.58 points. Week ending August 27, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 9.09 points.

I don't know who to root for today either, but I hope today's winner goes on to sweep the series.

Cast your vote!

If the Cardinals beat the Giants tomorrow both teams and the Mets will be in a three-way tie.

The only two Mets managers who struck me as being especially smart (not that the others were dumb) were Davey Johnson and Bobby Valentine. Of course, I can't really tell how smart these guys who I never met actually are, but that's the impression I got.

Cardinals still trail the Cubs, 4-0 in the bottom of the 8th. Padres jump to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first in San Francisco. I'm a Padres fan for the remainder of today!

And that's the main argument against firing Terry; the next guy would probably be no better. I'd like to take my chances with the distracting maverick, however.