Gwreck

G-Fafif wrote: An alert MetsBlog reader dug up a May 2005 declaration from Rob Neyer calling Jose Reyes the worst everyday player in the game and doubting he'd ever be much good. Neyer gets asked about it in this afternoon's chat: Hayden (NY, NY): Hey Rob, how about those comments last year that Jose Reyes was one of the worst players in the majors? First off, how could a player leading the league in 2 offensive categories (SB, triples) be considered in that realm, and how does that assesment look now? Rob Neyer: (5:12 PM ET ) The fixation on that particular tossed-off chat comment continues to amuse me (a year later I still get multiple questions about it, every week). Anyway, at the time I said that, Reyes had a .300 OBP and was making outs at a prodigious rate. Today, of course, he looks like one of the best players in the league. I'm not sure what's so hard to understand about this.

="SteveJRogers"]Put it this way. The Yankees are rendered meaningless. It doesn't matter if we get swept this coming weekend. We lose the season series 2-4, eh no big deal. Leave season series bragging rights for when we are in the midst of a shit storm of a year where we are struggling to reach .500. In fact, the series means more for the MFY than it does to us. Period. I've got no serious objection to Steve's point that we root for the Braves to lose when they play the MFYs. No problem. This, however, gives me serious pause. The games against the Yankees are meaningless? It doesn't matter if we get swept? I realize it matters more to those of us living in New York than those elsewhere --- but beating the MFYs always matters. Once we have an advantage in the overall series, maybe. Bragging rights do matter.

Off day today, but then two straight weeks without one. We set up nicely against Boston, with: Tue: Soler vs. Lester and then the marquee matchups: Wed: Beckett vs. Pedro Thu: Schilling vs. Glavine. This puts us at a disadvantage vs. the MFYs, though. Fri: El Duque vs. Mussina Sat: Trachsel vs. Johnson Sun: Soler vs. Wright or Chacon Also worth considering is the doubleheader coming up vs. Florida on July 8th. Preliminary analysis shows Pedro on schedule to pitch one of the games with Glavine on Sunday (and then the All-Star break). Glavine could be moved up to take the start in game 2 (and perhaps be ready to pitch that Tuesday in Pittsburgh) but that would also require El Duque pitching on short rest the next day. Darren Oliver is always a possibility -- or perhaps Mr. Bannister might be back by then? We shall see over the next 2 weeks...

Wow, no love for the bullpen here! Reyes 3.25 Beltran 2 Bradford 2 Heilman 1 Wagner 1 Valetin .75

Oliver 2.5 Reyes 2 Delgado 1 Nady 1

I guess giving Beltran the DH spot is the closest thing he'll get to a day off. He's started every game since returning from the injury on April 29. If not for that, it'd just be stupid to not have Nady the DH otherwise (defensive considerations).

MFS62 wrote: EEE? Best as I can figure, that means "Emergency Enemy Evaluation". Close? Great job on short notice. Thanks. I think it was Emergency Enemy Education...term coined by Dickshot.

Glavine 5 Wright 2.5 LoDuca 1 Milledge 1 Nady .5

Box Score

Put it in the books. Duaner had better be OK!

Holy shit. Duaner throws a ball about 2 feet outside and is hurt.

Milledge having a good game with a second nice catch in the OF. For posterity: Top of the 7th, Milledge walk, Reyes grounds out, Milledge forced at second. LoDuca hits the ball, one hop off the wall and Reyes scores. LoDuca rounds second and the ball arrives at third before LoDuca even gets to the sliding pit. He turns and jogs off the field before he can be tagged out. Laughing, he goes back for the tag.

Wright absolutely crushed that one for the 3-run Still, with that Blue Jays lineup I'd like to have a few more runs for the lead.

KTE - Toronto Blue Jays On WFAN this afternoon, J.P. Ricciardi (Toronto GM) remarked that he felt the Tigers were indeed for real and that he expects the AL Wild Card to come out of the AL Central. Listening to the interview, I doubt he was being exactly 100% candid with Francesca -- but his projection may well come true -- The Blue Jays are in a three-team race for the AL East crown. They currently sit at 40-32, 1 game behind the MFYs and 3 behind Boston. The Blue Jays may seem to be the perennial third place team in the AL East, but they are substantially better than in recent years past. Recently, the Jays have been running hot and cold. They return to Toronto after finishing a sweep of the Braves at Turner Field on Thursday, but were swept over the weekend by the Marlins in Miami, but before that took 3 of 4 from the Orioles at home. The Blue Jays have been substantially better at home, 23-14, than on the road. (Strangely, the Mets have a slightly better road record than home record). The Blue Jays can HIT. They are in the top 5 of the American league in all the important offensive categories -- 4th in Runs, 2nd in HR, 1st in Batting Average, and 1st in OPS. The lineup: C - Bengie Molina ® Signed in the off-season as a free agent. Definetly brings the defense, and 5-17-.298 isn't too bad either, for a catcher. Hits the lefties much better than the righties. 1B - Lyle Overbay (L) No longer needed by the Brewers with the emergence of Prince Fielder, Overbay moved to the Jays in the off season and has settled in quite nicely. 9-38-.290. 2B - Aaron Hill ® Homegrown Blue Jay, hits for average but no power, good glove. 1st full season in the majors. SS - Russ Adams (L) Another homegrown Blue Jay. .248 batting average, but a good glove. 2nd full season in the majors. Note that these are their usual positions, not sure why they flipped for Friday's game, now that we're back in the AL park. Glaus had been playing shortstop with Hillenbrand at third during the games in the NL parks with no DH. Edit: Adams had been the SS but was sent down to the minors to become the 2nd baseman becuase he didn't have the arm to be a shortstop. Thanks Gary on SNY's Friday broadcast for the info. 3B - Troy Glaus ® The big power bat: 21-53-.255. Lots of walks, lots of strikeouts. LF - Reed Johnson ® / Frank Catalanotto (L) It's not a strict platoon from what I can tell but they seem to split the playing time pretty evently. Johnson is on a tear when he plays, 4-16-.379 with a .995 OPS. Catalnotto has very similar numbers, 5-31-.325, with a .936 OPS. CF - Vernon Wells ® is the true star of the team, with 18-58.320. He also has 9 steals, to lead the team, but this being a Ricciardi (aka Beane's former assistant) they don't run much. Wells is probably one of the most overlooked stars in the AL, and this season is looking like his best since 2003 and possibly his best ever. RF - Alex Rios ® has surprised many after two "ok" but unspectacular seasons by breaking out this year with 15-50-.319. He too is fast but doesn't steal all that much. DH - Shea Hillenbrand ® is also having a good year -- 11-35-.318. The pitching matchups: Casey Janssen ® vs. Glavine on Friday. Roy "Doc" Halladay ® vs. El Duque on Saturday. Josh Towers ® vs. Trachsel on Sunday. Mets Geek's report on the Blue Jays Pitchers Bullpen: BJ Ryan (L) has sick numbers as the closer. 20-for-21 in save opportunities, 37 innings with 17 hits, 8 walks, and 43 strikeouts. Currently earning his money (and then some) on a contract signed this off season that many thought was too large and too long. Justin Speier is having a good season as the primary setup guy. 2.51 ERA in 34 appearances, 30 Ks in 28.2 Innings. Jason Frasor also strikes out a lot (25 in 28 innings) but has given up a lot of runs, including 5 HRs. 5.79 ERA. Scott Schoenweis ® has seen better days, like when he was winning the series with the Angles. 6.08 ERA is the highest for the Blue Jays 'pen. Brian Tallet (L) gives up a lot of hits and a lot of walks. Some longballs too. 16 H, 13 BB in 17.2 Innings. 5.60 ERA. Ty Taubenheim ® is a rookie and has made some starts while Burnett was out. Back to the bullpen for now. Nothing special yet (1-4, 4.56 ERA). Scott Downs (L) is also a potential long man and has made some starts too. 5.13 ERA. Ex-Blue Jays: This is the first trip back to Toronto as a player for Carlos Delgado, Chris Woodward and Steve Trachsel. Ex-Mets: The only ex-Met is Pete Walker, who has been on the DL for about 2 weeks. AJ Burnett was once a Met prospect, before being traded to Florida for Al Leiter. Justin Speier was Met property for 10 days in 2001 before being lost on waivers. Fonzie signed a minor league deal with the Jays earlier this year and played some in the majors but was released on June 12. Edit: Added bullpen info; formatting.

I've got an EEE cooking...

Gimme 10-15 minutes...

New York Mets Reyes SS LoDuca C Beltran CF Delgado 1B Wright 3B Valentin 2B Franco DH Nady RF Milledge LF Glavine P =blue]Toronto Blue Jays Reed Johnson LF Alex Rios RF Vernon Wells CF Troy Glaus 3B Shea Hillenbrand DH Bengie Molina C Lyle Overbay 1B Aaron Hill SS Russ Adams 2B Casey Janssen P

I think that because Billy Wagner (and Mets closers in general) have to live in the shadow of Mariano Rivera they can tend to get a short leash.

Wright 5 Martinez 2.75 Bradford 1 Beltran .5 Reyes .5 Nady .25

Fun day to be at the ballpark. Lots of groups/organizations basically taking over the entire mezzanine, plus the $5 upper deck tickets so the place was pretty full. Reyes advancing to third on the Woodward groundout was great, he basically didn't stop running while at 2nd base. Didn't have the benefit of the replay but Pedro looked really disappointed that he didn't get that hit. Heath Bell waited for all of the infielders before the dugout rail, giving them all props, especially Reyes. He was pumped after the DP. Curtain call for Wright after the 2nd homer was nice.

="Mr. Zero"]but I was just kind of surprised, as he always seemed to me one of the top hitters in the game over the last ten years. No kidding. Leafing through the Mets media guide during the game, saw that only Manny and Slappy have more RBIs then Delgado for the period 1998-2005. Delgado is often a second-half hitter, which I think is the primary explanation after the roster crunches mentioned above.

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Your family might have an interesting October. No kidding. It's already come up once or twice...

Reyes 3 Valentin 2 Bell 1 Heilman 1 Oliver 1

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Cycles are meaningless. It's nice that he got ten total bases, but that they were distributed among four different types of hits is a statistical quirk and nothing more. Bingo. It's cool, I guess but nothing else than an outstanding day at the plate. This game sucked, bad. Lots of missed opportunities, as mentioned above. Not much else to add except that I'm going tomorrow afternoon and Pedro had better salvage us the series split.

Cycle is well within reach... last one was Valent?