Gwreck

Maybe I'm projecting. Maybe I'm overreacting. But I am of the opinion that whoever conducted pitcher fielding practice this season is incompetent.

Personally, I thought she was doing a pretty good job selling tickets at prices befitting a perennial contender when they're instead for a team about to have their sixth straight losing season. If she was herself responsible for the prices, then perhaps this was more justified but I don't think she was the one setting them.

[u:3bbza2jh]Marlins[/u:3bbza2jh] Christian Yelich LF Donovan Solano 2B Giancarlo Stanton RF Casey McGehee 3B Garrett Jones 1B Marcell Ozuna CF Jarrod Saltalamacchia C Adeiny Hechavarria SS Henderson Alvarez P [u:3bbza2jh]Mets[/u:3bbza2jh] Lagares CF Granderson RF Wright 3B Duda 1B d'Arnaud C den Dekker LF Herrera 2B Flores SS Wheeler P

It --> Books!

Of course Dillon's leadoff four-pitch walk of the guy hitting .085 results in a run. Nice job by Eveland though, retiring Utley, Howard and Sizemore.

Dillon, you've just been given a three run lead. The Phillies have Freddy freakin Galvis leading off the next inning. You cannot walk him on four pitches.

Recker has only 5 homers this year, but this was the third consecutive homer with two runners on. Four of his five homers also came with the score tied or the Mets behind.

Phillies: Ben Revere CF Jimmy Rollins SS Chase Utley 2B Ryan Howard 1B Grady Sizemore RF Domonic Brown LF Wil Nieves C Cody Asche 3B AJ Burnett P

No Mets content here. The San Diego Padres have decided to name a plaza outside their park for Tony Gwynn. No, wait, that's not accurate. They actually decided to name it for Bud Selig. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/aug/26/padres-selig-petco-plaza-mlb-what-thinking/

I too would like to see him bunt against that shift a bit more. The more worrisome thing for me is that Duda is completely ineffective (just abysmal) against lefties. Fortunately the rest of time he's got all-star numbers.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Not only is he having, by far, the worst season of his career Baseball-reference says David had a WAR of 2.8 in 2010; and 2.5 so far this year. (He also had 2.0 in 2011, but only played 100 games that year).

Dodgers reshuffled their rotation; Kershaw pitched tonight so the Mets will miss him. Tears start now.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Well that changes things. 7-2. WRITE IT DOWN Hmmm. Looking good so far.

Edgy MD wrote: Not seeing the greatness in that lineup. They don't go that deep. Good for them for making some soup with it. I was struck by the lack of superstars (other than Donaldson, really). But they are first in the majors in walks and have the second-fewest strikeouts. There are a lot of "pretty good" players on that team and combined with some really good starting pitchers, it works.

Oakland still has the best record in the majors (73-51) but the Angels have caught up to tie them for the AL West lead. The Athletics have lost their last five games in a row; they had a 1-6 road trip to Kansas City and Atlanta. The Mets split two games with them in late June in New York. Since we last saw them, Oakland made their second big trade of the year, sending Yoennis Cespedes to Boston for Jon Lester (who we'll miss this series). Pitching Matchups: Tuesday (10:05 EDT): Scott Kazmir (L) v. Gee The bad news is that Kazmir is having an excellent season, 13-5 with a 2.78 ERA and 1.054 WHIP in 24 starts. 125 strikeouts in 149 innings. The good news is that the Mets had no problem with Kazmir in June, scoring 7 runs and knocking him out after 3 innings. Granderson, Young and D'Arnaud all homered. It was Kazmir's second-shortest start of the season; the only one shorter was when he was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the second inning of a start in May. Wednesday (3:35 EDT): Jeff Samardzija ® v. Wheeler Oakland's first big trade acquisition this season; he'll be making his 9th start; he's got a 3.21 ERA and impressive 0.946 WHIP with Oakland in 56 innings. Similarly good numbers with the Cubs at the start of the year. One weakness is that has been known to give up home runs (allowed 25 last year; 13 so far this year) and the home/road splits are pretty even so it's not just the Wrigley Field factor there. Samardzija hasn't pitched against the Mets since 2012, when he took two losses. You may (and Daniel Murphy certainly does) remember the first of those games, a 17-1 Mets win at Wrigley Field in which Murphy hit two homers of Samardzija, his first two homers of that year (on June 27). Lineup: Oakland has the top offense in the majors and a startling +161 run differential. By comparison, the next closet team, Seattle, has a +99 run differential. C - Derek Norris ® .281/.373/.449 is pretty damn good for a catcher. 1B - Brandon Moss (L) .820 OPS, with 23 homers. Susceptible to the strikeout. 2B - Eric Sogard (L) .567 OPS although he's hitting better in the second half. Excellent defensive player and probably a better shortstop (where he is getting some time) than the injured Jed Lowrie. 3B - Josh Donaldson ® - 25 homers and great defense; leads the majors in WAR. SS - Andy Parrino (S) AAAA player, just called up with Lowrie hurt. LF - Formerly Cespedes; now mix-and-match with Sam Fuld (L), acquired from Minnesota at the trade deadline, and Jonny Gomes ® (acquired in the Cespedes trade). Neither has hit much with Oakland. Moss has played here as well. CF - Coco Crisp (S) He's becoming a liability in the field and age 34 probably shouldn't be playing center anymore; but he still hits, with a .738 OPS. 16 for 20 stealing bases. RF - Josh Reddick (L) hasn't been able to replicate the 32 homer season he had in 2012, but he's also kept his strikeouts way down (151 in 2012 but only 49 this year). .729 OPS is respectable enough (2.0 WAR this year so far). DH - John Jaso (L) Jaso leads the team in games "played" at DH but also is the backup catcher; he's had a full season of at bats as a result. .768 OPS with 9 homers. Alberto Callaspo (S) gets time at DH and has been playing some second base with Sogard moving to short as Jed Lowrie is out. .602 OPS and one of the few weak links in the lineup. Injuries: Regular shortstop Jed Lowrie is on the 15-day DL with with a broken right index finger. Bullpen: The Oakland bullpen is second best in the American League behind only Seattle. Sean Doolittle (L) is closing games, and has only give up 30 hits and 4 walks in 53 innings, striking our 74. (Jim Johnson started the year at closer, lost the job and has since been released and picked up by Detroit). Luke Gregerson ® is familiar to us from his great years with the Padres and leads the bullpen in innings pitched. He's having a good year again, 2.25 ERA and 1.018 WHIP. Fernando Abad (L) and Eric O'Flaherty (L) are tough on righties as well as lefties. Ex-Mets: None. Chip Hale is the third-base coach. Ex-Athletics: Colon Recker Eveland Bob Geren managed the Athletics from 2007 to mid-2011.

Edgy MD wrote: Going .261 / .346 / .304 // .651 since his return, after hitting an unspeakable .156 / .224 / .200 // .424 in his callup earlier in the season. The performance doesn't argue for it, but I'd like to see him get a few turns batting leadoff and playing center before the year is over. Anybody? These sound like fine experiments to me. I'd be fine with some wholesale outfield shuffling. Let Granderson try playing left for a while as well.

The Mets' team OPS is .662. 14th of 15 National League teams. Even if we had Troy Tulowitzki playing a full healthy season that wouldn't be enough to fix the offense.

One note I didn't see here yet: the Wild Cards offer a means of fixing the imbalances in the schedule. This year's example: Seattle plays 19 games each against the Angels and the Athletics, but are in third place. Would they be in first place if they were in the East or Central? Quite possibly.

Edgy MD wrote: Colon's last Mets start, I'm tellin' ya. Heck, he may get scratched before he takes the mound. Did you know something that we didn't? He has been scratched as his mother is very ill. Carlos Torres is starting.

I was surprised to not see Wright pinch-hitting. Is he really hurt? Nice to see Montero finally have a good outing. And Torres striking out Rizzo was impressive. I try to avoid weekend games but it was a nice day at the park regardless .

You may recall that the prior series against the Cubs was the low point of the first half of the season, a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field that came right after a dismantling of the Phillies. Here's hoping - especially after these last three disasters against the Nationals - that the Cubs aren't also the low point of the second half. Losing three games to a first place team like the Nationals is annoying. Losing games to the last place (52-68) Cubs is worse. Pitching Matchups: Friday: Travis Wood (L) v. Wheeler Wood walked five and hit a batter in five innings of work against the Mets in June this year. They scored a couple of runs but lost the game in what was one of DeGrom's few poor starts this year. He leads the Cubs in innings pitched but with a 4.86 ERA and 1.525 WHIP, that's not exactly the best thing. The walks aren't unusual for Travis; he's given up 61 in 139 innings this year. Saturday: Dan Straily ® v. Niese Straily (fourth in AL Rookie of the Year balloting last year) was acquired from Oakland in the Jeff Samardzja trade. He had seven starts in the majors for Oakland but has been in Des Moines since being acquired by the Cubs and pitched well there. Sunday: Jake Arrieta ® v. Montero Arrieta pitched against the Mets in June and was pulled in the middle of the fifth inning due to a high pitch count and - but the Mets couldn't cash any runs in and lost the game 2-1. Overall, Arrieta's had a very good season, with a 2.77 and 1.051 WHIP in 18 starts. Monday: Kyle Hendricks ® v. Colon (12:10 EDT start) Hendricks was the prospect acquired when the Cubs traded Ryan Dempster to the Rangers at the 2012 trade deadline. He's 24 and made his debut earlier this year. This is his seventh start and he has impressed so far: 4-1, 1.73 ERA and 1.008 WHIP in 41 2/3 innings. 26 strikeouts and only 9 walks. Henricks is a change of pace pitcher with a slow curve and the changeup is his big out pitch. Cubs Lineup: C - Wellington Castillo ® Not hitting much (.675 OPS). Solid defensive catcher. 1B - Anthony Rizzo (L) Made the all-star team this year. 27 homers, .884 OPS. Nice equal splits against lefties (.939 OPS) and righties (.863 OPS). Future cornerstone-of-the-franchise type of player at age 24 in his third season with the Cubs. 2B - Javier Baez ® Was ranked the #5 prospect in baseball before this season. Baez was the Cubs' first-round pick in 2011 is 21 and made his major league debut on August 5. He had 23 homers at AAA and already has 4 homers in the majors. Baez's natural position is shortstop but he is blocked there (for now, at least) by Castro. 3B - Luis Valbuena (L) Journeyman infielder, putting up a .736 OPS this year which would be a career high. You may recall that we saw Mike Olt at third for the Cubs back in June. Olt was a first-round pick of the Rangers in 2010 and was acquired when the Cubs traded Matt Garza. Olt got 200 plate appearances in the majors but only hit .139. 12 of his 26 Cub hits were homers. He's got a 1.009 OPS in AAA. SS - Starlin Castro ® Starlin was also an all-star, his third selection, at age 25. This is his fifth full season in the majors already. He's improved over a miserable 2014 and has a .764 OPS this year. His defense is not great and (particularly) if Baez plays well for the remainer of the season, expect to hear talk of trading Castro (who is signed through 2020 on a reasonable contract). LF - Chris Coghlan (L) You may remember him and his 2009 rookie of the year season with the Marlins. He hasn't played a full season in the majors since, but he has put up a respectable .848 OPS in 235 ABs since getting called back up. CF - Arismendy Alcantara (S) 22 years old and made his major league debut a month ago. Plenty of speed and a good defender. Was hitting plenty in AAA but hasn't done much in his 140 major league PAs. RF - Justin Ruggiano ® A fourth or fifth outfielder on most teams. Hits a little but without power. Playing over fourth/fifth outfielder Nate Schierhotlz ®, who was hitting less (.541 OPS). Bullpen: Closer Hector Rondon ® was a Rule 5 draft pick from the Indians two years ago. He's got 16 saves but only a 3.30 ERA and 1.252 WHIP. Justin Grimm ® also came from Texas for Matt Garza. He's leading the Cub relievers in innings pitched (52.2) but not very effectively (-0.1 WAR). Wesley Wright (L) is a situational lefty (45 games but only 35 2/3 innings pitched). Setup man Brian Schlitter ® is on the DL, as is Felix Doubrount (L) who was acquired from the Red Sox before the trading deadline. Ex-Mets: None Ex-Cubs: Recker

Well, he is under contract for 2015 already. I can't see the Mets eating that contract. He certainly hasn't earned any extensions past 2015 however.

Thanks for the link. The sad takeway: police out of control again

Edgy MD wrote: If you have to shut a player down in the present to protect his future, by all means. If you have to shut him down to weaken your team and improve your draft position, I wouldn't like to sign on with that. Except shutting down Mejia to have necessary hernia surgery accomplishes both goals. It's not a binary situation. I would guess that shutting him down is more about protecting his health than weakening the team (after all, he's only the closer) but if it has the additional benefit of weakening the team with respect to next year's draft position, so be it. The team has spent plenty of years now stockpiling talent. Victory is the scarcer and more precious commodity. It's August 11 and the Mets are still 6 games under .500. They're not going to make the playoffs in 2014. If they finish with one of the ten worst records this year, they won't lose their first round draft pick when they sign free agent pitchers Max Scherzer or Jon Lester to boost next year's rotation.

Tanking is deliberately losing. Of course they're not going to throw the games. Changing the composition of your team so that you lose more games this season is fine if it sets up you for future success. When the Mets traded Carlos Beltran in 2011, it undoubtedly caused them to win fewer games that season. Yet I think everyone can see that as a trade that benefited the team in the long run, even if it caused them to lose more in 2011. Putting Mejia on the DL and getting him his surgery might not help the Mets win in 2014 but a healthy team is more important in 2015. There is of course now also an added benefit to having a crappy record. The Mets aren't going to finish with one of the ten best records (the playoff teams). They probably aren't going to be in the 11-15 range either (contenders). Right now, they look to be in the range of 16-20, and that's the worst place to be.