TransMonk

This one's turned into a blow-out pretty quickly.

Justin Masterson heading to Cards The Cleveland Indians have agreed to trade veteran right-hander Justin Masterson to the St. Louis Cardinals, team sources confirmed to ESPN Baseball Insider Jim Bowden. In return, Cleveland will acquire minor league outfielder James Ramsey from the Cards. Masterson, a free agent after this season, is 4-6 with a 5.51 ERA this season for Cleveland. Ramsey, 24, was the 23rd overall pick in the 2012 draft out of Florida State. He's a .266 hitter with a .368 on base percentage in 235 minor-league games. Baseball America ranked him as St. Louis' No. 8 prospect going into this season.

Ronnie knows the difference between crocheted and knitted items. Not knowing the difference is a pet peeve that my wife has.

Oppo Poppo, indeed!

A trade for Tulo doesn't sound very "Sandy" to me (or modern-day "Wilpon", for that matter). But it would fit a current need very nicely. I went with #2. I'd be surprised, but not upset.

NL Pitcher of the Month for July?

Ah, Mister Baseball. I caught a bit of him on the radio last night. He likes to pronounce both Ds in d'Arnaud.

It's all about the boil. MLB.TV cut all but a millisecond of my daughter's small screen debut. I was trying to get her to look in the camera, but she wanted to see what was happening down below. Gary points out her rapt attention prior to plugging fireworks night.

We brought the young one to her first Mets game tonight. She got antsy, so we left after the Brewers took the lead in the 5th (it was longer than we were expecting her to hold out). The best part of the night was meeting the Lunchbucket fam vacationing in Wisconsin. We all did a little tailgating prior to the game. Meeting them was a blast and I will gladly tailgate with anyone from the Crane Pool coming to Wisco. My seats were right next to the WPIX camera from high above home plate and I'm pretty sure my baby and I got on TV at the beginning of the second inning. I'm blacked out until 90 minutes after the game, so I'll have to review in the morning. Let's split tomorrow.

Three African-American brothers from Detroit form a punk-rock band in the early 70s. Their recorded album never gets released, but in 2008 gets re-discovered by underground record collectors and punk enthusiasts. This is a pretty moving story about music, family, spirituality and, yes, death. And the music was pretty good considering The Ramones wouldn't come along for another couple of years. [youtube:k3lq4sgn]7sFMDL22bxc[/youtube:k3lq4sgn]

I needed that after last night.

Edgy MD wrote: They're starting Overbay. That's a gift, but we need to unwrap it. Maldonaldo over Lucroy, too.

Well, I was the laughing stock at the bar tonight. HA! HA!

Frayed Knot wrote: 1) teach them to defeat the shifts with some opposite field hitting Yup. Hit into the HUGE holes, professional hitters!

Yeah, the closer we get to the deadline, the more urgently I want him to go. If he's not moved, I may be as much concerned as I would be frustrated. It could mean that there are undisclosed doubts about Harvey's recovery or Syndergaard/Montero's progress. If everyone is healthy, I don't see the reason for a 42 year old, $11M redundancy in 2015.

I think the Reds have the best pitching in the NL Central, but they have to find a way to get all the pieces in their lineup active at the same time in order to make a run.

The Brewers are back to a 2.5 game lead in the NL Central after losing 11 of 13 before the break and allowing the Cardinals, Pirates and Reds to get back into the race. Milwaukee had a great April, due in large part to great starting pitching. Once the calendar turned to May, their offense took over and their NL Central lead got up to as many as 6.5 games near the end of June. The Brewers are a solid roster from top to bottom and are hoping to get back into the playoffs for the first time since 2011. They took 2 of 3 from the Mets in mid-June at Citi Field. Thursday: RHP Dillon Gee (4-2, 2.92) vs. RHP Matt Garza (6-7, 4.04), 8:10 p.m. ET Friday: RHP Zack Wheeler (5-8, 3.78) vs. RHP Yovani Gallardo (5-5, 3.79), 8:10 p.m. ET Saturday: LHP Jonathon Niese (5-5, 3.13) vs. RHP Wily Peralta (11-6, 3.58), 7:10 p.m. ET Sunday: RHP Jacob deGrom (4-5, 3.01) vs. RHP Jimmy Nelson (1-1, 5.06), 2:10 p.m. ET The Mets miss ace Kyle Lohse as part of this four game series. Matt Garza tossed a complete game one-hitter on July 5th, but lasted only a third of an inning during his last start in Washington giving up 5 runs and 2 walks. Gallardo has a 5.40 ERA over three starts in July, but Peralta has had two straight starts of going 7 innings while allowing one run or less. Jimmy Nelson will be making his 5th major league start on Sunday. He has pitched to a 1.46 ERA over 111 innings with 114 Ks at AAA Nashville in 2014 and is the Brewers best pitching prospect. C: Jonathan Lucroy - .312/.382/.500/.882, 11 HR, 47 RBI 1B: Mark Reynolds - .207/.300/.402/.702, 16 HR, 36 RBI 2B: Scooter Gennett - .305/.343/.481/.824, 8 HR, 34 RBI SS: Jean Segura - .235/.269/.325/.594, 4 HR, 23 RBI 3B: Aramis Ramirez - .283/.332/.452/.784, 12 HR, 46 RBI LF: Khris Davis - .249/.297/.467/.763, 16 HR, 51 RBI CF: Carlos Gomez - .304/.369/.505/.874, 14 HR, 51 RBI RF: Ryan Braun - .303/.354/.530/.884, 13 HR, 58 RBI Lucroy, Ramirez and Gomez were All-Stars earlier this season as part of a potent Brewer lineup. Reynolds and Davis hit for power and while Braun�s HR numbers are down the rest of his stat line is impressive. Scooter Gennett is one of the league�s best hitting second basemen, but he did not play Wednesday due to tightness in his right quad. If he is unable to go, Rickie Weeks would take his spot at second. Jean Segura is having a down year after his all-star 2013 performance. Sadly, Segura�s nine-month-old son passed away on July 12th in the Dominican Republic. CI: Lyle Overbay - .235/.316/.344/.660, 4 HR, 28 RBI MI: Rickie Weeks - .259/.324/.392/.716, 3 HR, 17 RBI OF: Logan Schafer - .190/.277/.300/.577, 0 HR, 6 RBI UT: Elian Herrera - .276/.281/.333/.614, 0 HR, 2 RBI C: Martin Maldonado - .254/.351/.388/.739, 2 HR, 8 RBI The Milwaukee bench keeps the starters well rested. Veterans Overbay and Weeks are the main pinch hitting options. Maldonado is an excellent back up to Lucroy and Herrera can literally play anywhere on the diamond. RHP: Francisco Rodriguez - 2.61 ERA, 29 SV, 48.1 IP, 8 HR, 55 K, 0.890 WHIP LHP: Will Smith - 3.09 ERA, 1 SV, 46.2 IP, 4 HR, 61 K, 1.393 WHIP LHP: Zach Duke - 1.10 ERA, 0 SV, 41 IP, 2 HR, 54 K, 0.927 WHIP RHP: Brandon Kintzler - 3.60 ERA, 0 SV, 35 IP, 6 HR, 19 K, 1.457 WHIP LHP: Tom Gorzelanny - 0.00 ERA, 0 SV, 9.2 IP, 0 HR, 12 K, 0.931 WHIP RHP: Jeremy Jeffress - 0.00 ERA, 0 SV, 1 IP, 0 HR, 0 K, 0.000 WHIP The Milwaukee bullpen is able to keep them in nearly every game where a lead is handed to them. Ex-Met K-Rod was selected to the NL All-Star team and has been an excellent closer for the Brewers this season. I'll be visiting Miller Park on Saturday night where my family is planning to meet up with the vacationing Lunchbucket family for some pre-game tailgating. I may also get to the Sunday game if I can convince some of my softball teammates to take the trip with me.

Thanks...as much as I try, I can never keep that straight in my head!

TransMonk wrote: The Mets should get creative using a rotation of more than 5 starters to give work and/or rest to whoever needs it. After reading this again, I guess it should be "whomever needs it", right?

I see no need to shut him down. If anything, I agree that there are plenty of arms for the innings left. The Mets should get creative using a rotation of more than 5 starters to give work and/or rest to whoever needs it.

I agree with JCL.

d'Arnaud shows Ackley he can play D too.

I took 30 and see I'm the only one going that low so far. Where is all of the second half improvement going to come from?

There's nothing wrong with Colon...but nothing great either. I don't think he is the future...so I'd get something for him now if they can.