smg58

Way to get some wood on the ball.

Seems overly drastic to me.

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I the only one who suspects the Mets are uneasy with Gotay's D? I don't know. I listen to the games more than I watch, so I really haven't seen much noteworthy of Gotay beyond Matsui's infield single a couple of days ago, but I think that was an error of inexperience (or at least something correctable) rather than a reflection on his range. I do think it's interesting that they've played Gotay some at short instead of Easley, who's much more experienced at the position. I can't imagine they'd do that if they had serious misgivings about Gotay's glove.

I think we really need to see more of Gotay. Aside from him currently swinging the bat really well, how I'd approach second base in the offseason depends a lot on him. Is he a useful utility guy on a hot streak, or can he be an everyday player on a good team?

The Mets owe it to themselves to find out if Milledge can be their left fielder before deciding if they should trade him and/or trade for another bat. I just wish they could have more than a two-week sample size this year to go with the month or two of semi-regular playing last year. I do think there's an excellent chance that he could be better right now than anybody available. Keep in mind that Dye would be moving from a very friendly park for right-handed power hitters to a very unfriendly one.

Iubitul wrote: Am I the only one who remembers that we were in the beginning of an ice age 30 years ago? We know more now than we knew in the early seventies. The people who published that particular paper were looking at one facet of human pollution, namely the addition of aerosols (suspended airborne particulates) and the ability of these aerosols to reflect sunlight back into space. They never factored the addition of greenhouse gases into the equation. The most that can be said for the paper is that scientists started to take a closer look at what was going on in the earth's atmosphere because of it, but their analysis was seriously incomplete.

I get the feeling that most Tigers fans are looking at this as addition by subtraction. God knows I would.

Edgy DC wrote: Annual question: Are we grading them productivity relative to expectation (B- for Wright, F for Delgado) or productivity relative to the league (A or A- for Wright, D for Delgado)? A little of both, I guess. I'm not going to make any claim that my method of evaluation is 100% objective.

Grade A Reyes Maine Wagner Grade A- Feliciano Hernandez Wright Grade B+ Perez Gotay Smith Grade - B Beltran Grade - B- Castro Chavez Easley Green Sosa Valentin Grade - C Glavine Gomez Heilman LoDuca Grade C- Delgado Grade - D Franco Newhan Grade D- Mota Pelfrey Schoeneweis Sele Incomplete Alou

The situation with Heath Bell is frustrating. He had absolutely nothing left to prove in the minors, and yet he seemed to refuse to take advantage of the opportunities he had to stick with the Mets. And now he looks like an All-Star. I don't dislike Johnson, but I don't see him as ever being more than a reserve in the Mets' outfield. And I'm not sure clearing out the relief arms at AAA while making multi-year commitments to Mota and Schoenweiss was a good strategy.

Just turned it on. I had a feeling something was up when Gary asked how the Mets could even think about sitting Alou right now.

iramets wrote: What would rank as a horrendous FA deal, objectively speaking? I guess you'd have to compare the value of the person signed to the value of players under similar contracts, and the alternatives to signing that player, but that gets messy in addition to getting subjective. Plus a nominal amount of money means more to a small-market team than it would to the Mets, and more to the Mets than it would to the Yankees, and that's also messy and subjective. Especially if you want to debate whether or not the Wilpons could spend more than they're doing. Years are certainly important as well. Alou can be bought out next year, while Schoenweiss is a three-year commitment. Of course, you'd also have to factor in money NOT spent on free agents to give Minaya a fair assessment; i.e, declining to top the Giants' bid on Barrry Zito needs to be considered as well. Given the market for starting pitchers right now, getting three starters with ERA's hovering around 3 for Kris Benson and Xavier Nady looks brilliant. But Minaya's bullpen decisions have sucked. I'd guess that the decisions concerning the rotation carry more weight from a "win shares" perspective, but I haven't done the math. I'd certainly argue that Perez Maine and El Duque have helped us more than Schoenweiss and Mota (this year) have hurt us.

Utley's the best player at his position. No question he has to play. You don't really have a choice but to be patient with guys like Delgado, Burrell, Willis, and Chavez. These are guys who almost have to get better in the second half. NYMR's right about saves too. You're probably going to wind up with two points in the SV category whether you keep Cordero or not, so see what you can get for him. Maddux is one of your better pitchers, so don't drop him. Andy Sonnanstine, though... You're 63 IP above where you should be if you want to stay under the 1450 IP limit, and your ERA and WHIP suggest you've got too much quantity and not enough quality. I'd drop three starters for the best available relievers in terms of ERA and WHIP, then trade Cordero for an ace starter. And make sure your lineup is full every day, or at least as full as possible. Take chances with young guys who could break out. I think McGowan has enough upside to hold on to. Jeremy Hermida is available and can probably give you at least as much as Austin Kearns. Also keep your eyes on the injured guys on the waiver wire. I've had some very good luck grabbing guys who were cut because they got hurt (i.e. Rickie Weeks made it very easy to stash Lugo on the bench until he starts hitting, Kenny Rogers was set to return right when I was looking for another starter). Somebody like Lyle Overbay might be worth a grab when he gets close to returning.

Not an easy call. The Mets probably don't want to shrink their pen, but Gotay's earned the right to stick around. How many options does he have left?

If he plays it on a bounce he could probably force Castro out at third. As bad a play as I've seen. But hey, we're taking our wins however we can get them.

Congrats to you both.

Upgrading on Sosa and moving him to the pen would kill two birds with one stone, but I think Minaya's willingness to deal for a starting pitcher will depend a lot Pedro's status as the deadline approaches. You certainly can't take Pedro for granted, which is why you need to be asking around, but I wouldn't expect a trigger on anything well in advance of the deadline unless he takes a turn for the worse. As for whom to deal, I know everybody in the media seems to have packed Milledge's bags for him, but I would hope he gets at least a few weeks full time in left field (a greater need than starting pitching, I think) before a final decision is made on whether the team is better off with or without him.

Beltran's sending mixed signals, which isn't helping. He's hit like shit since the end of April, which also isn't helping. If there's a definite connection between his quad and his slump, then he should have told the manager and trainer before talking to the media about it. And of course he should sit in that case, because he's not helping the team by playing.

I play the guitar, so I have to be partial to Johnny Marr.

I was still 6, and rooted for both local teams equally. In hindsight, I think it's interesting that I continued rooting for the Mets after that despite the large disparity in success they had with the Yankees during that stretch, but gave up entirely on the Yankees when they let Reggie go. I was too young to have good opinions on the trades, I guess. I remember the previous year getting mad when they traded Del Unser and Wayne Garrett -- they were up among my favorite Mets because I had their baseball cards. (What kind of name is Pepe Mangual, anyway?) I knew Seaver and Kingman were the stars, so I didn't understand why the Mets would want to trade them. But Steve Henderson made a good first impression, and life went on.

So if I took #5, would I be the one giving the clinic?

Well he tried out a number of pitchers who've shown some ability in the past, and Sosa was the one who worked out. But I do think that given how inflated the market for starting pitchers has been, his ability to find bargains is remarkable. Three of our starting pitchers came basically for the cost of Kris Benson and Xavier Nady, and Sosa was a cheap free agent. They're all pitching better than any of the pitchers who got big deals or were involved in trades for top prospects (not to mention Willis and Zambrano, who still keep popping up in trade rumors). Some credit is certainly due here. But yeah, I'm not looking forward to three years of Schoenweiss either.

So the A's went 0 for their first 27, with no walks, in a nine-inning game that they lose 1-0, but there's no no-hitter. Has that ever happened before? And if Schilling would have had a perfect game except for Lugo's error, would that have ever happened before?

Last year I started June in 14th and ended June in 3rd, so it's still pretty early.

Ug-lee. Looking at that, given that the Brewers have played quite a bit more games outside their division than the other teams and (unlike the others) are at least close to .500, you have to think they'll start padding their lead soon.