G-Fafif

Love a failure to lose.

Dillon Gee shaving off the stubble of futility as we speak. Shelby Miller will go with the red accents on gray. Let's Go Mets. They're the only Mets we go.

Quintanilla 1.5 Hefner 1.0 Valdespin 0.5

Thanks for the heads-up on all this, C. I "borrowed" your NYG pic for FB (credit given). And now, I fear, I must have several ASG Apple figurines. At least I probably won't be spending it on WS tix.

"I get baseball tickets -- mostly the Mets." --Dr. Arnold Rosen, to Don Draper, late in the 1968 season, Mad Men, "Favors" (S. 6 Ep. 11; aired 6/9/2013)

Yadier Molina still inspiring rhapsodic praise, from the likes of Tom Verducci: St. Louis closer Edward Mujica has two personal stories to tell about the importance of catcher Yadier Molina to the Cardinals. The first one occurred when Mujica joined the Cardinals in Colorado after St. Louis acquired him in a trade from Miami last July 31. Mujica had not pitched against the Rockies since May, and he was not yet with St. Louis when the pitchers held their review of the Colorado hitters at the start of the series in Denver. Mujica approached one of the coaches about how to get information on the Rockies to get up to speed. "Don't worry about it," he was told. "You don't need it. Just follow Yadi." The second story occurred in a National League Division Series game against Washington last year. At a taut moment in the game, Molina visited Mujica on the mound for what seemed a typical session about developing a pitch sequence to the next hitter. Instead, Molina told Mujica, "Whatever you want to throw, just go ahead and throw it. Whatever it is, I'll catch it." "I never heard of anything like that before," Mujica said. "He went back behind the plate. No sign. I threw a changeup. And he caught it." Once a quietly efficient catch-and-throw backstop, a good player whose five-year, $75 million contract extension signed in 2012 raised some eyebrows (he was a career .274 hitter at the time with a .707 OPS), Molina is emerging as one of the most indispensable players in the game -- right there with Buster Posey of the Giants. He is an even stronger Most Valuable Player candidate this year after finishing fourth last year. He is the league's leading hitter (.354) on baseball's undisputed best team (41-22). Since signing that extension he has hit .327 with an .878 OPS. Oh, by the way, his team has allowed the fewest stolen bases in the league and he has caught the highest percentage of his team's innings of any catcher in baseball. What really raises Molina's profile is the expert play of this Cardinals team. St. Louis began this week with the best starting rotation in baseball, the best clutch-hitting offense in baseball, the best run-differential in baseball and, in Mujica, a lockdown closer who turned the one question about the team into a definitive answer. Though the Cardinals have used eight pitchers who never pitched in the big leagues before, the team just keeps rolling on. It has not lost a series since April -- winning 10 and splitting three. Molina, as Mujica's stories suggest, is the backbone of this team. Ben Reiter loves him, too: To Yadier Molina's long list of accomplishments -- five Gold Gloves, four All-Star selections, two World Series championships -- we can add this: He is a fine actor. His specialty is playing dumb. The nuances of being a catcher are among the most difficult to understand, and the statistical impact of the position remains among the most difficult to quantify, of virtually any in sports. Most lesser catchers -- and all of them are lesser catchers compared to the 30-year-old Cardinal -- embrace every opportunity to discuss the intricacies of their position. Molina does not. "I've been told that if you keep the ball down, you're going to have close games," he says. "If you keep the ball up, you're going to allow more home runs. So I like pitchers who keep the ball down." Anything else? "I'm not a pitching coach," he says. "I'm just trying to call a good game." Then he shrugs. The conversation is over. Molina's ruse is betrayed by his pitchers and coaches, who are eager to take us behind the mask, to speak about his unique talent in a way that Molina himself is not. They talk about his physical gifts: his ability to frame and block pitches, his throwing arm (since 2005, he has gunned down 44.4% of would be base stealers, the best rate among catchers facing at least 100 runners). More than that, they talk about his analytical mind, how he can use his knowledge of hitters -- he can, they say, accurately recall precise pitch sequences from years ago -- and his understanding of his own pitchers' arsenals and abilities to produce the best possible outcomes. Aaron Heilman won't be pitching for the Mets in this series.

Last time Cards came to town, they lost three of four, shut out twice and no-hit once. What other franchise could ever say that of Flushing?

Via @MetsProspectHub: Brandon Nimmo last 10 games: .359/.419/.487/.906, 14 for 39, 5 runs, 3 2b, 3b, 7 RBI, 3/13 BB/K

[youtube:1crd80nm]gZutNGdcqH0[/youtube:1crd80nm] Josh after dark.

Maybe Ike can convert his hot seat into a hot hand and get lucky in Vegas. Or it was nice knowing him.

Box. Or "casket," if you like. Niese 3.0 Murphy 1.5 Wright 1.5

Marcum 3.5 Harvey 3.0 Lagares 1.0 Wright 1.0 Murphy 0.5 Lyon 0.5

From way up the list, like fifth by my accounting, I saw someone wearing a LANDRITH 5 50th anniversary jersey today. Sure enough, per MBTN, Hobie was 5 in 1962. Could've been a relative. Could've been an Original diehard. Could've been some random Landrith. Also saw a SHINJO 5 t-shirt come out of the closet. And 20 innings of offensive torpor. Got to see that, too, on Rick Ankiel's last and David Aardsma's first.

[youtube:3uo1m793]tbIEwIwYz-c[/youtube:3uo1m793]

Harvey-Fernandez duel still on. Niese Sunday, Marcum told to take a veritable hike, son.

Edgy MD wrote: "Believe me, there's no more appropriate way to honor you than a ROTUND-a." Ooh, they're gonna retire your number, Alice. They're gonna retire it TO THE MOON!

Game time Saturday: 76, partly cloudy, precipitation chance down to 10%. Plus the sun icon on weather.com in Zip Code 11368, thank you very much.

Plans for a Jackie Heidemann Rotunda were in the works, but then obscured by a Vail.

LJM lookin' to be mentored by Anthony Recker. Or Anthony Weiner.

The 42 has served as a useful meeting place from time to time, but I find something cheesy about it as a tribute, especially in the middle of a vast space that is all-encompassing in its reverence for the subject. Like displaying an elbow macaroni-speckled paper plate in the china cabinet to show your kid how proud you are that he thought of something, too.

Naming the Rotunda for me would sort of result in a homina-homina-homonym.

No relation to Rich Puig, I take it.

From Rubin: Paul DePodesta described Church as having the potential for being a "solid middle-of the rotation starter," who logs innings, with a plus curveball and three-pitch arsenal (fastball that tops out at 93 mph and changeup). "Kid, stick with us, and you can be Shaun Marcum!"

Dom Smith from L.A. 1B/OF, "sweet swinger," et al, our No. 1 pick. HS kid.

Rained out.