Gwreck

Heilman back out for a 2nd inning. With Smith in AAA, Feliciano struggling recently and Mota being subpar all year, I wonder if we really needed a setup man a lot more than a secondbaseman...

At least Moises is taking some pitches against Turnbow.

With the DP, Glavine's final line is 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 2 K, 5 BB.

Interesting how Gary went on about how the Brewers would've been out of the inning had they played the infield in on that single that Wright got. Had the Mets played the IF in when Fielder was up, they would've gotten out of that inning (bottom 4th) without the Brew Crew scoring.

July 31 at Milwaukee Delgado thrown out again at home, on Shawn Green double, this time Bill Hall with Tony Graffanino relay. 2-1 lead, Delgado the 3rd out of the inning. Top of 6th.

Pedro in the bullpen. I see him as either a setup man or perhaps a guy who can go 2-3 innings in a game twice a week.

In fairness to Keith Law, he's usually a lot better (and I submit the rest of the article is too) than that one Madden-esque sentence.

ESPN's Keith Law doesn't think much of the trade: ] Luis Castillo might represent an upgrade over Ruben Gotay, and he might not. Castillo is a one-dimensional player whose game revolves around his speed. He's a classic slap hitter who can't even turn on average fastballs but who hits the ball on the ground and tries to slap harder stuff the other way and beat balls out with his speed. His speed has already started to decline; his range at second base, never great, is now poor, and he hasn't been an effective basestealer since 2004. He's the antithesis of everything the Omar Minaya's Mets do as an offensive club. Their best hitters -- Reyes, Wright, Delgado and Beltran -- all get on base, hit for power, and (except for Delgado) steal bases at high percentages. Whether he's really an upgrade depends on how much of Gotay's offensive outburst this season is real. Gotay's career was nearly derailed by the Royals' ridiculous policy of jumping players two levels or more to the majors before they were ready, a policy that fortunately seems to have ended with the hiring of GM Dayton Moore, but before that showed promise as a young infielder with plate discipline and some doubles power. The Mets are convinced that Gotay's defense isn't good enough to be an everyday second baseman, and he will never be better than average defensively at second, but he's better than Castillo is. Add to that the fact that Gotay has a little more thump in his bat, with a solid line-drive stroke that produces doubles rather than the groundballs Castillo hits, and it's really not clear that the Mets got better here. It's a bit worse if, as rumored, the Mets try to work out a contract extension with Castillo, because once his speed is gone, he'll be close to a replacement-level player. The Mets didn't give much up to acquire Castillo. Drew Butera is a catch-and-throw catcher with plus makeup and good bloodlines -- his father, Sal, played in the big leagues for the Twins and is now a pro scout with Toronto -- but he's not much of an offensive threat. He should play in the big leagues because of his defensive skills, but he's not a starter, even when he wasn't staring up at Joe Mauer on the depth chart. Dustin Martin was a senior sign out of Sam Houston State in 2006 and is an organizational player with a little bit of ability; there's an outside chance he could improve enough to become a 4th/5th outfielder in the majors.

Kinda scratching the head at this one. Not that we gave up anything major, but I guess they're serious about shoring up the D, because I wonder if Castillo is really that much of an offensive upgrade over an Easley/Gotay platoon. New lineup at full strength: (??) Reyes SS Castillo 2B Beltran CF Wright 3B Delgado 1B Alou LF Green RF LoDuca C

Willams did film a bit for the Diamondvision...in Spanish...to encourage the crowd to chant "Vamos Mets." Played it on Friday night. Kevin James (previously mentioned) and Seth Green also have the "Let's Go Mets" bits which have debuted recently on the Diamondvision during games.

The point is that the bench situation is also a product of what Omar gave Willie to work with. I'd like him to just DL Beltran already and let him rest and get healthy. I don't know if this will be the second or third time in the past few years (May '06 and May '07, IIRC, but there may have been another, plus the entire freakin 2005 season) that he's been out for several games with a strained muscle but didn't go on the DL and then slumped afterwards because -- you guessed it -- he wasn't completely healthy. I don't really care that Newhan and Johnson can't really hit, I just want them to stop fucking around with Beltran. It's not like we're missing all that much with him out of the lineup anyway!

Delgado 4 Wright 2 Gotay 1 Pelfrey 1 Mota 1

Box Score

Reyes 1.5 Castro 1.5 Easley 1.5 Milledge 1 Perez 1

Rockin' Doc wrote: Those voters that always award a total of 10 points for every game will have a tough time finding perfomances worthy of such totals for last night's 6-2 defeat against the Nationals. The Mets performance and performance really wreaked in that game. No kidding. I maintain it's games like those that so obviously show the flaw of always awarding 10 points.

Adkins 1 Delgado 1 Heilman .5 Green .5

Nymr83 wrote: Glavine got an AB? way to burn your bench willie. They sent down a position player to make room for Pelfrey. Beltran hurt and unavailable, they could've DLed him but opted not to. LoDuca got hurt during the game. Easley and Anderson were used appropriately. What else would you have done re: the bench?

...but Loretta might not be.

Edgy DC wrote: Where the hell is John Maine? Starting tomorrow so probably not even in the park.

OHernandez 4.5 Gotay 1 Delgado 1 Milledge 1 Heilman 1 Wagner 1 Reyes .5

Homerun excepted, Duque was great. Heilman continues to look very sharp. Both Reyes and Milledge look like they got thrown out by a good catcher -- not poor jumps or anything. Tom Glavine doing the "Jose Reyes Spanish Academy" was priceless. Sparse crowd for a Saturday afternoon game.

I've always wondered that myself. Seems like there could be a total clusterf*ck if that first game went over. Of course, it looks like at least one of the games could well get rained out today, so the concern may well be moot.

Good job (and correct).

Who are the only two active players to have made the all-star team with 5 different clubs? You're disqualified if you went to the Mets game tonight (Friday 7/27), which is where I got the question from.

Horrible. Yes, it was Merengue Night. Sosa hitting in the 5th for himself? With a runner on and nobody out? Terrible. He was 80+ pitches in. The fact that he got a hit doesn't make the strategic decision any less frustrating. Gotay PHing against a lefty was curious as well (granted, the other choices were Castro, Anderson Hernandez and Marlon Anderson). Brian Lawrence is 8-2, 3.87 for the Zephyrs, he pitched yesterday. I'm betting he gets Sosa's spot in the rotation.