Benjamin Grimm

Vanis takee, Carlos! I don't know if it's at all likely, but I'm hoping to see you back in Port St. Lucie next February.

Acosta 1 Pridie 1 Wright 1 Turner 1 Beato 1 Murphy 2.5 Beltran 2.5

Pelfrey 4 Wright 2 Murphy 2 Pagan 1 Reyes 1

I don't think he's a lost cause either. But if he goes through arbitration, he may end up getting more money than teams want to pay him. Once he's non-tendered (if such a thing does in fact come to pass) I'm sure there will be a bunch of teams interested in picking him up. Without salary as part of the consideration, he's certainly worth keeping.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I've read a few reports that said that there is zero interest among other teams in trading for Mike Pelfrey. The fear, I assume, is that his arbitration award is going to significantly higher than his value.

It occurred to me a few days ago that it's quite possible that Mike Pelfrey will be non-tendered this offseason.

The following four games will close on Thursday morning, or my earliest opportunity after that: Schaefer POTG 7/22/11 - Mets 7, Marlins 6 Schaefer POTG 7/23/11 - Marlins 8, Mets 5 Schaefer PotG, 7/24/2011 Florida 5, Mets 4 Schaefer POTG 7/25/11 - Mets 4, Reds 2

Bay 0.5 Beltran 0.5 Byrdak 0.5 Dickey 3.5 Isringhausen 0.75 Murphy 1.5 Parnell 0.75 Reyes 0.5 Turner 0.5 Wright 1

Gah! Astroturf was ugly!

I'm looking forward to the $57 tickets when Santana returns!

Voting for the two remaining games from the series against the Cardinals will close on Tuesday morning. After that, Schaefer tallying may get a little sporadic for a while. Tuesday evening I depart for two weeks of vacationing in the West. I'll be bringing a laptop and my magic spreadsheets, but I'm not certain how frequently I'll be signing in. Please keep starting the POTG threads, and I'll close them as opportunity permits. Schaefer PotG, 7/20/2011, Mets 6, Cardinals 5 (10) Schaefer POTG 7/21/11 - Cardinals 6, Mets 2

Good catch! He's warming up prior to the start of the inning.

Acosta 1.5 Beltran 1 Reyes 1 Wright 3

The Binghamton Mets, during the National Anthem Matt Harvey Jordany Valdespin Mr. Met's deranged cousin

Capuano 1 Duda 0.75 Reyes 2.25 Turner 1.5 Wright 1.5

We went to see the B-Mets play in Reading last night against the R-Phils. (The home team won, 3 to 2.) Matt Harvey pitched, and didn't look great. He gave up all three Phillie runs in the bottom of the first, and then settled down (somewhat) and pitched four scoreless innings until exiting after the fifth. He ran into trouble in each inning, and the Phillies hit a lot of line drives. Harvey only walked one or two, but was frequently behind in the count, which may explain a lot of the line drives. Matt den Dekker played center field. Didn't do much at the plate (I was surprised by the low batting average on the scoreboard, somewhere around .230) but made a strong, but inaccurate, throw from the outfield on a play at the plate. The throw was a bullet, which sailed over a leaping catcher's head and slammed into the backstop. (The catcher was Dusty Ryan, who would later be double-switched out of the game in favor of Kai Gronauer. When Gronauer was announced, I thought, "It's Top Talent the Alligator!") Raul Reyes, the Mets right fielder, hit a homer that nobody noticed. (The Herr's potato chip guys where throwing bags of chips in the stands.) I was watching, but the homer went into the right field corner, which was obscured from where we were sitting. I didn't think it was far enough or fair enough, but the umpire gave the home run signal. Jordany Valdespin has officially become my favorite Mets prospect. He played shortstop last night and showed good range and a strong arm. Had two hits, a single and a double, and stole a base. Wore number 7, and had plenty of bling around his neck. I could easily have thought I was watching Jose Reyes, except that when the Phillies later switched to a left-handed pitcher, Valdespin continued batting left-handed. (I guess I thought he was a switch-hitter.) Jordany's double went into the right-centerfield gap, and I was anticipating a triple, and Valdespin was also thinking three, but the ball bounced hard against the wall and the right fielder got to it quickly, so he held up. Valdespin appeared to be fast, but not Jose Reyes fast. The best defensive play of the game was by the Phillies second baseman. With nobody on base, he fielded a ball in the hole and flipped to the shortstop. I thought, "Hah! He tried to get a force on a non-existent runner!" But the shortstop, as if this play had been rehearsed, fired the ball to first in time for the out. Pretty nifty. The Phillies had an abundance of costumed mascots, led by "Screwball" who looks to be Mr. Met's deranged cousin. The city of Reading, Pennsylvania, I learned, is known around the country as "Baseballtown." I have no idea why this would be, and I'm skeptical, but they were very proud of being the preeminent baseball city in the country, with the most classic baseball stadium in America. They were saying it so frequently throughout the evening, that it must be true!

Ike Davis, who hasn't played in over two months, is still second on the team in home runs.

David Wright finally broke that months-long tie with Darryl Strawberry on the runs scored list: 1. Jos� Reyes 703 2. David Wright 664 3. Darryl Strawberry 662 And... Jose Reyes recently became the first Met to score 700 runs!

Beltran 1 Isringhausen 1 Murphy 2 Pelfrey 1 Reyes 1 Turner 1 Wright 3

Here's the exact quote: Ron: Best all-around outfielder to ever play, to ever wear that Mets uniform. Gary: And I think you can say that unequivocally. Okay, Ron did say "all-around" so I guess he was including offense as well as defense. Darryl or Carlos? I wouldn't say it's "unequivocal"; more of a toss-up.

I think Gary was referring to defense.

Carrasco 1 Duda 1 Niese 1 Reyes 1