smg58

Bases loaded, the heart of the order, breaking pitches not coming close -- I give Wahl some credit for getting an out.

McNeil's legend continues to grow.

And they probably lost a chunk of it getting Cespedes to play that one game.

I'm sure the Mets, like every team, have lost more money over the years on insurance policies than they've collected. Otherwise, what's the point in insurance companies selling them? The policies protect you from big salaries going out the window in the short term, but they don't turn a profit for anybody in the long term other than insurance companies.

I've always been overly optimistic, so why stop now?

It wasn't that long ago that teams could win 100 games and not have any postseason. Divisions are perceived as building rivalries, which is perceived as being good for fan interest, so I don't see that changing. The current wildcard format was put in so that winning the division became more meaningful (i.e., the Sox sweeping the Yankees would be a lot less of a big deal in the previous format than it currently is). I didn't think anybody who isn't a Yankee fan thinks the current system is unfair, and of course Yankee fans wouldn't feel that way at all if they were the ones pulling away. At any rate, it would serve the best interests of competitive balance (and, of course, humanity in general) if the Yankees played only one playoff game.

bmfc1 wrote: I wonder if the Tri-GMs were offered anything for Bautista. If they wanted more and declined, his 0 for 20 isn't helping his value for a waiver deal. His OPS was over .800 last week and he's signed to the league minimum. I'd be shocked if they got no bites on that.

bmfc1 wrote: 7th inning begins: Great job by Mickey, Oswalt has a low pitch count, let's see what he can do. 7th inning, two batters later: He pushed him too far, he never pitches into the 7th, should have taken him out. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Given that we have two relievers I have any confidence in, and one gave us four outs yesterday, I'd have left Oswalt in.

Lucas Duda rewarded his fantasy owners today with a home run — and a stolen base, his first since 2014. Was the catcher on Valium or something?

Wouldn't you rather see Reyes out there instead? (God, I hope sarcasm comes through on this one.)

Vargas is skewing those numbers, and Harvey didn't help. Oswalt is an emergency starter whose performance has improved of late, but he's contributed to those numbers as well. The Mets won't go anywhere with a black hole in the fifth spot in the rotation, to be sure, but you can say that about at least 25 other teams in the league. Vargas has two months to show he is capable of righting the ship, but at this point I'm not optimistic.

Right. Basically the Mets have 4 pitchers who could start for a winning team, 3 pitchers who could come out of the pen for a winning team, and 2 position players who could start full-time for a winning team (and that's assuming Conforto will be healthier after an offseason of rest than he is now). That being said, I would still be in on somebody like Patrick Corbin this offseason.

His velocity has been down for a few starts, so the R and R will probably do him some good. I'm all for a stitch in time, especially since it's generally not our approach to things. It's not like our season is hanging in the balance or anything.

1. I really hope the Mets didn't find out about Matz' dead arm the same time the press did. 2. In a lost season, guys with arm fatigue get a start or two off. That way small problems don't become big ones. 3. Rhame, Peterson, and Bashlor do not belong on a major league roster. (Oh hell, Jose Reyes doesn't either.) Drew Smith might, though. 4. Pitchers who don't have much prospect value but are pitching well enough in AAA to warrant a shot in a bad bullpen are not that hard to find. Alderson did not make a point of finding these pitchers at last year's deadline, despite only shopping for relief prospects of marginal value, and the results speak for themselves. Smith at least might salvage that, but he wasn't ready in April. 5. The rest of the Familia package is dubious at best, but Wahl is exactly the kind of guy the Mets should be looking to add. The Mets still need at least two (preferably left-handed) more arms, though. You can pay for them in the offseason, but a) you actually have to do that, and I am assuming for the sake of argument that our resources will be finite.

Nope. Buyers market again, especially for rental players. I think this is the new normal, which would be fine if we became buyers again at some point.

Oh, and the Rays (not the Cardinals, the RAYS) got $500k in slot money.

The Cardinals have officially become sellers and unloaded Tommy Pham on the Rays: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/07/cardinals-trade-tommy-pham-rays.html It's an interesting pickup for the Rays, who weren't expected to be buyers. Pham was awesome last year and again for the first six weeks of this season, but since then his performance has nosedived. If it turns out that he's been dealing with a nagging injury that will take care of itself in the offseason, it's a huge steal for the Rays. The Cards got two players who slot in at 9 and 14 on their prospect list, but they gave up a guy who had a .931 OPS last year and has his three arbitration years remaining. I'd have been in on that.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bautista goes to the Yankees. Despite some housecleaning, the Yankees still have some AAA arms that aren't high-end prospects but could help our bullpen right away. The Red Sox do as well, especially from the left side, and Mesoraco would be an upgrade at catcher. So that's my wish list. Not sure what else can/ought to be done, unless somebody makes an offer for Wheeler that can't be refused.

I don't want to see him traded, either, certainly not for so-so prospects. But contending next year was going to be hard even before the Cespedes injury, so you have to listen to offers.

Edgy MD wrote: smg58 wrote: Given that Brach has not been good at all this year (4.85 WHIP, 1.77 ERA) ... . Please tell me you've got those two figures backwards. It would be an extremely remarkable (and somewhat dubious) accomplishment if I didn't.

The Yankees traded a prospect for $1.5M in bonus money. He's a lefty bullpen arm who boasted a sub-1.00 ERA in AA, but before this season he wasn't even in the top 30. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/07/white-sox-acquire-caleb-frare-from-yankees.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MlbTradeRumors+%28MLB+Trade+Rumors%29

Brad Brach goes from the Orioles to the Braves in exchange for $250k in slot money. Given that Brach has not been good at all this year (4.85 WHIP, 1.77 ERA), I would try to go that route with guys like Bautista and Mesoraco (maybe even Blevins?) who probably wouldn't land us a prospect worth having. I'm not sure I'd have gone that route with Familia though.

Swarzak could have used a month of rehab before returning to the team. Even if the Mets' bullpen weren't a dire mess, that probably would not have happened. As it stands, he's starting to look like the pitcher he was last year. (And again, he was a perfectly sensible pickup; you can blame Alderson plenty for the back of the pen but it was not his fault that Swarzak got hurt).

Kilome was a top 100 prospect going into the season. Things haven't gone so well this year, but the upside is still there. It's not a bad get.

Britton is recovering from an injury and is not better than Familia right now (he’s certainly not a safer bet over the next two months), but he is left handed. Wall and Carrol are similar pitchers at this point, with nothing left to prove at AAA. This means the Orioles got a top-10 (but high risk) prospect plus a potentially serviceable lefty, where the Mets got an underachieving third baseman and slot money. It’s very difficult to place a value on the slot money, but $1M is quite a bit of it and Rogers has limited upside. Tate has a ton of upside, but it has taken him three years for him to stay healthy long enough to graduate AA and he’s not being lights out about it. Toffey doesn’t have the same upside, but he can do better than the underwhelming numbers he’s put up so far this year. The Orioles came out with a better take at first glance due to Tate’s upside, but not overwhelmingly so.