G-Fafif

They knew we'd be in mourning over the awful starting lineup choices at 3B and P, thus the black patch.

David: historically awesome first half.

metirish wrote: Reggie not welcome in the Bronx according to people familiar with the situation http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/yankees-reggie-jackson-stay-ripped-alex-rodriguez-sports-illustrated-article-article-1.1110762 It happens in the best of families. And theirs.

One of TLR's reasons for starting Cain was he lives in SF area, gets to see him pitch, thinks he's good. So there ya go.

Gwreck wrote: Hey, Tony LaRussa: fuck you. Banner Day winner 2013.

I've been lobbying for the Mets to win a World Series every year. That would explain those 25 consecutive eggs on my face.

CPF note: since the NL won last year, shouldn't this year's IGT be started by the same person? And that was...you!

Word on the Tweet is it won't be R.A. tom-R.A., but rather that Cain in the ass.

At the slightly more than halfway mark... N.L. East WSH -- ATL 4.0 NYM 4.5 N.L. Wild Card CIN -- (1 GA ATL) ATL -- *** NYM 0.5 STL 0.5 SFG 0.5 ARI 4.0 MIA 5.0 MIL 6.0 LAD leads SFG by 0.5, ARI by 4.0 in NL West PIT leads CIN by 1.0, STL by 2.5 in NL Central All in all, 11 of the 16 teams in the National League have a conceivable shot at one of the playoff spots. Philadelphia is not one of them.

All three would, indeed. Good catch on Cedeno, who played in 85 of the 89 pre-break games in 1999.

Approximately 122 1/2 hours until there's real baseball again. But who's counting?

Valdespin 2.0 Wright 1.5 Murphy 1.5 Hairston 1.0

METS ALL-STAR BREAK Batting Average Leaders (Qualifiers) Jose Reyes 2011 .354 (91 NYM G) David Wright 2012 .351 (86 NYM G) Mike Piazza 2000 .348 (86 NYM G) Cleon Jones 1969 .341 (92 NYM G) John Olerud 1998 .326 (83 NYM G) Note: Joel Youngblood (.359 in 1981) and Dave Magadan (.355 in 1990) did not have enough plate appearances to qualify for batting title at All-Star break

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 7/8/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,354 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 64 2012 GAMES REMAINING: 76

There's a touch of Kevin Mitchell circa 1986 to this kid. Just (allegedly) hide the cats down the road.

N.L. East WSH -- NYM 4.5 ATL 5.0 N.L. Wild Card CIN -- (0.5 GA NYM/SFG) NYM/SFG -- *** ATL 0.5 STL 1.0 MIA 4.5 ARI 4.5 MIL 6.5 LAD leads SFG by 0.5 in NL West PIT leads CIN by 1.0 in NL Central[

Jay Jaffe sez RA oughtta get the AS start. On Monday, managers Ron Washington and Tony La Russa will announce their choices of starting pitchers for the All-Star Game. Both skippers have a handful of worthy candidates at their disposal, with no clear-cut favorite in either league. The National League features 16 starting pitchers with at least eight wins (a stat that means a whole lot more to these old-school managers than it should), 11 with ERAs below 3.00 and 26 with at least 8.0 strikeouts per nine. Those are all arbitrary cutoffs, of course, but the sheer number of pitchers who meet each criterion point to the bewildering array of options at La Russa�s disposal. Four NL pitchers satisfy all three criteria: the Mets� R.A. Dickey, the Nationals� Stephen Strasburg, the Giants� Matt Cain and the Dodgers� Chris Capuano. A quick look at the basic stat sheet, with the pitchers sorted alphabetically: Player IP W L ERA HR/9 UBB/9 SO/9 K/BB Cain 120.3 9 3 2.62 0.9 1.7 8.8 5.1 Capuano 106.3 9 3 2.62 0.9 2.9 8.0 2.8 Dickey 120.0 12 1 2.40 0.7 2.0 9.2 4.7 Strasburg 93.0 9 3 2.81 0.6 2.5 11.8 4.7 Though he�s been an excellent, economical addition to the Dodger rotation, Capuano wasn�t even selected for the NL roster, so he�s obviously out. That leaves the other three, all of whom add a bit of narrative juice to their basic stat lines. Here�s a breakdown of the cases for each: � Dickey is having an unprecedented season for a knuckleballer. He leads the league in wins, strikeouts, complete games (three) and shutouts (two) while running third in ERA; a five-run, seven inning effort on Thursday night against the Phillies knocked him out of the top spot. He�s also tied for the league lead in Baseball-Reference�s version of Wins Above Replacement, which attributes all of the responsibility for runs allowed to a pitcher; the Reds� Johnny Cueto, a controversial snub, has 3.5 as well. The 37-year-old Met has traveled a long and winding road to attain this unlikely peak, and he may never scale such heights again. He has a shot at becoming just the second or third knuckleballer ever to start an All-Star Game, depending upon how liberal a definition one uses for the term; Dutch Leonard of the Senators started for the AL in 1943, while Bob Purkey of the Reds did so for the NL in 1961, though the latter didn�t use the knuckler more than half the time. The downside of starting a knuckleball pitcher is the unfamiliarity that starting catcher Buster Posey may have with the fluttering pitch. � Strasburg is arguably the most dominant pitcher in the league, with the top strikeout rate by a wide margin; teammate Gio Gonzalez is second at 10.5, while Dickey is fourth. Furthermore, the 23-year-old is the ace of a team that has the league�s best record. The only real knock against his candidacy is that because he�s on an innings limit after returning from Tommy John surgery late last season, he has pitched roughly 27 fewer innings than either Dickey or Cain. Even so, a look at the advanced Wins Above Replacement Player metric, which unlike B-R�s WAR adjusts for defensive and bullpen support � he needs less of the former, because he strikes out so many hitters, but more of the latter, because he doesn�t pitch as deep into games � shows that even with fewer innings, he�s been the league�s most valuable pitcher at 3.2 WARP. Still, the Nationals might actually prefer he didn�t pitch or at least was limited to a single inning. One can make the case that his shot at starting an All-Star Game should wait until he�s able to shoulder a full workload. � Cain has a perfect game under his belt, and with Tim Lincecum struggling mightily, he has assumed the mantle of staff ace on a San Francisco team that�s in position for a Wild Card spot (the Giants and Mets are tied at 45-38). He has the best strikeout-to-unintentional walk rate of the bunch, but he�s also got the best defensive support, with a .254 batting average on balls in play. He has ranked among the league leaders in that category for years thanks to his ballpark and his penchant for generating popups, at least to the extent that he�s one of the few pitchers who clearly appears to have influence over such balls. Still, without an advantage in any of the traditional categories or the valuation metrics, his case appears to be the thinnest of the trio. Eliminating Cain, the choice comes down to the aged knuckleballer and the young fireballer. Even without considering the fact that he�ll have one fewer day of rest, the latter is on a shorter leash and could be of less help to the NL squad due to his innings limitation. In the end, the nod should go to Dickey. Advantage to giving it to Strasburg: Two fewer inning for his regular-season limit. But that's the only one.

Is it truly a National story without National magazine cover action? In this media age, would you settle for network news? Person of the Week: Mets� R.A. Dickey Finds Success With Knuckleball The New York Mets� R.A. Dickey is defying the odds with a rarely used pitch. With a 10-game winning streak under his belt, Dickey � the only knuckleballer in Major League Baseball right now � is experiencing a dream season. �I�m just trying to be in the moment with it as much as possible,� said Dickey, who will play in his first All-Star Game next week. Just last month, he threw two consecutive one-hitters, but it has been a long journey for the husband and father. In his new book, �Whenever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball,� Dickey revealed that he was abused repeatedly as a young boy. He kept the abuse a secret, even from his wife, Anne, whom he met in the seventh grade. She was by his side when he signed a Major League Baseball contract for nearly $1 million. And she was there when the results of an MRI showed that he was missing a ligament in his arm. The contract was later rescinded. When the Texas Rangers reduced the bonus to $75,000, Dickey took it, determined to prove he was worth every cent and more. In Dickey�s career � in which he has pitched for the Mets, the Rangers, the Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins � the family moved more than 30 times. In between major league teams, Dickey threw in the minors. In 2005, Dickey started throwing the knuckleball. That pitch, which he has perfected, has made him the most-talked-about pitcher in the league these days. Knuckleballs hardly spin. They rotate only up to 1.5 times before they reach home plate and that makes their motion unpredictable. Dickey shared a bit of his technique, though, with ABC News. �I take my fingernails and dig them in right behind the horseshoe, really trying to stabilize the baseball with [the fingers and] the thumb,� he said. �I release the ball at the opportune moment and it comes without spin.� Dickey, who will be featured in a film documentary called �Knuckleball,� due out in September, said that even as a young boy he had a big imagination. �I always had hope,� he said.

METS CAREER CITI FIELD HR LEADERS Through Games of 7/7/2012 1. DAVID WRIGHT 28 2. IKE DAVIS 16 3. Angel Pagan 15 4. Carlos Beltran 14 T5. LUCAS DUDA 13 T5. Jose Reyes 13 T7. SCOTT HAIRSTON 9 T7. DANIEL MURPHY 9 T7. JASON BAY 9 T7. Jeff Francoeur 9

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 7/7/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,353 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 65

Hot box. Gee 4.0 Davis 1.5 Valdespin 1.5 Tejada 1.5 Parnell 1.0 Thole 0.5

N.L. East WSH -- NYM 4.5 ATL 5.0 N.L. Wild Card SFG -- (0.5 GA CIN) CIN -- *** NYM 0.5 ATL 1.0 STL 1.5 MIA 4.0 ARI 5.0 MIL 6.0 LAD leads SFG by 0.5 in NL West PIT leads CIN by 1.0 in NL Central

Davis 1.5 Wright 1.0 Valdespin 1.0 Turner 1.0 Ramirez 1.0 Duda 1.0 Tejada 1.0

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 7/6/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,352 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 66

Swan Swan H wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Reed Johnson must be removed from the premises at once. Feel free to have him relocated to the home clubhouse and fitted for some cream colored pinstripes in time for tomorrow's game. Purchase his contract RIGHT NOW if just to keep him out of this game. Send him back to the Cubs if they still want him Sunday night.