metirish

another one bites the dust...Another SuspensionA day after Rafael Palmeiro was busted, Mariners pitcher Ryan Franklin will also be suspended 10 days for testing positive for a banned substance, reports Jerry Crasnick.

Good stuff Johnny, I'll take that August Schedule.Beltran is the key, Cameron now that he's where he wants to be has a great final few months.

The above graph is from The Hardball Times..http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/in-good-standings/

So do I , I love Cameron, numbers can fudge the whole thing, no stat can say how Cameron's teammates feel about him still being a Met, Floyd especially, I have no problem with Cam.

Yeah I think you are right in what you say, I think the number of fly balls was 70 , but I also remember folks saying that amounted to a full run, anyway Mike is now playing a hard but OK RF.

Was this the guy that said that the Mets team pitching ERA would go down by a full run because Cameron would catch so many balls playing CF.

Good job smg58, Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik has to be one of the great trades ever that worked out for both teams, the Brewers are finally building a good team and the Brewers fans have to be thrilled to have a decent team to root for.

And he answered back today, the great thing is that Willie called him into the office today and told him he was thinking about sitting him down for the game, Beltran said he was fine and wanted to play...good job by both.

And not his fault..]Phillips was promoted to GM on July 16, 1997, although he joined the Mets long before that. They drafted him in 1981, picking him ahead of Roger Clemens, and he was an infielder in their minor-league system for 6 1/2 years.

Welcome to this board, next time we play the Reds we can use your place as part of the KTE..

the positive on Phillips is..Mike Piazzabuliding the 99 and 2000 team, building great bullpens for those teams, Scott Kazmir, Jose Reyes, Lastings Milledge(he was dumped not long after that)Al Leiter was a great move.Cliff Floydthe bad..Mo Vaughn, Robbie Alomar, Roger Cedano, Burnitz, Glavine, trading for Bordick and giving up Mora, the fighting with Bobby Valentine, the affair with a female employee, he was gone for a while after that.and the sarcastic and funny from Mets fans..The Ballad of Steve Phillips(To the tune of The Ballad of John and Yoko)Starting spring again at Saint LucieCan't repeat the mess of the pastThe voice of the fans Say you must be the manTo win, we gotta have a good castHey, you know it ain't easyJust go and ask Bobby VThe way this is goingWe're gonna crucify SteveFinally made a Met of Tom GlavineNot a problem facing the BravesFreddy gave the okBut you still gotta stayWith some players no one's taking in tradeHey, you know it ain't easyJust go and ask Bobby VThe way this is goingWe're gonna crucify SteveGotta hope third base not a problemLooks like Ty will try to succeedThe newspeople sayDo you think it's okWith this lineup, can you really compete?Hey, you know it ain't easyJust go and ask Bobby VThe way this is goingWe're gonna crucify SteveSaving all your money to go after VladGot a little help from Tampa BayAll of last year's tradesTurned into dead weightAnd Jeromy's still looking for his swingYikes!Needed a good guy, we found Art HoweBack in Oakland he was so fineBut now he's at Shea, Stevie, please stay awayDon't treat him like you did ValentineHey, you know it ain't easyJust go and ask Bobby VThe way this is goingWe're gonna crucify SteveJeffrey boy will look to depose youFreddy's kid is moving up fastThe men in the pressWhile they wish you the bestThey all think that you'll be getting the sackHey, you know it ain't easyJust go and ask Bobby VThe way this is goingWe're gonna crucify SteveThe way this is goingWe're gonna crucify Steveclick the link to hear the song..http://chicoescuela1.tripod.com/Phillips.htm

One of the better writers from the Times Bill Rhoden has his say..]Under the Pressure of a Deadline, the Mets Wisely Demonstrate PatienceThe Mets are on a learning curve: Willie Randolph is a first-year manager, and Minaya is in his first season as the team's general manager, though he spent two eye-opening seasons as the general manager of the existential road show known as the Montreal Expos. The lesson he learned in Montreal was that building takes time. "It took me at least a year, a year and a half or more just to understand that you have to let things come to you," he said. "You can't force things to happen."Yesterday was a good day for the Mets on the field - they defeated Houston and avoided a sweep. Yesterday was also a happy day for an important part of the Mets' family in Binghamton, N.Y., where outfielder Lastings Milledge, a top prospect, survived the trading deadline. He was hitting .348 for Class AA Binghamton through Saturday after hitting .302 in 232 at-bats for Class A St. Lucie. Milledge's name was mentioned prominently as part of a trade that would have brought Manny Ramirez to the Mets.Milledge's mother and father and one of his two older brothers made the trip from Palmetto, Fla., to Binghamton, where they sweated out the deadline together. His mother, Linda, said she was relieved that her youngest son was still in the Mets' organization. "We're happy," she said by telephone. "The family's happy." Milledge's father, Tony, a retired Florida state trooper and a former minor leaguer, said he didn't think his son would go to Tampa Bay because the Devil Rays had plenty of outfielders, and he didn't think he would go to Boston because he didn't think the Red Sox could justify getting rid of a player of Ramirez's stature.Then Lastings Milledge took the phone. I had never spoken with him. He was another anonymous prospect being tossed around as trade bait. He exuded an aura of confidence, the same sort of confidence you find in the Mets' other emerging players: Jos� Reyes, David Wright and, to a lesser extent, Carlos Beltran. "I feel the same as I felt before," Milledge said about still being a Met. In his mind, the fact that he had not been traded had less to do with Tampa Bay's glut of outfielders and Ramirez's bat than with the talent he brought to the organization. "I didn't think I'd be traded," he said, "because the Mets know what I can do."He also knew that the Mets made a blunder at this time last year when Jim Duquette, the general manger at the time, bowed to trading-deadline pressure, dealing Scott Kazmir, a talented left-handed pitching prospect, to the Devil Rays. "Last year they made a mistake," Milledge said. "They didn't want to trade another young player."More than the bravado about his ability, Milledge's upfront response to a question about an incident that occurred three years ago was a better indication of his maturity and perspective. He was expelled from Northside Christian School in St. Petersburg, Fla., as a junior after he admitted having had sexual relations with his 15-year-old girlfriend. He completed a juvenile arbitration program, which included community service. Projected as a top-five pick in 2003, he fell to No. 12, where the Mets selected him. But after the draft, the Mets stopped negotiations to investigate allegations that he had had sexual relations with girls as young as 12 and 13. The allegations were never substantiated."You go through certain situations; you live through them and learn from them," Milledge said yesterday. "Actually, in a way I'm sort of glad that happened, because I think I'm better person because of it."The problem facing Minaya is whether Mets fans will stay off his case. Will they give him space to build? Milledge, for all his maturity, is 20 years old and needs at least another full year of seasoning. His oldest brother, Greg, who had a brief career in baseball, predicted that his baby brother would be ready for the majors by 2007. "He needs 500 more at-bats," he said from Palmetto. "I'd say 500 to 700. He's ready now, defensively, but he still has to adjust to hitting with wood. He needs time."He'll have to adapt to New York City," Greg Milledge said, adding that a large part of his own failure in baseball was because of issues involving alcohol. "He needs more time. I think of what happened to Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. Growing up too fast can lead to a lot of bad things."A day before the trading deadline, critics predicted that Minaya would take heat for not pulling the trigger on a blockbuster trade. He shouldn't take any heat. The organization properly played the role of a good hitter who laid off a tantalizing pitch that ultimately was out of the strike zone.The Mets are Manny-less, and better for it.

Fair enough, it tells me Omar has a clue, although he did everything to get Manny he at least didn't do anthing stupid as regards Baez, I think today was a good day for the Mets.

Are the Mets a big draw or was this all about Beltran, this four game series drew 172,835, the most ever for the Astros.

Bret, a question,with you being a big Red Sox fan would you have been upset if the Manny deal went down?

The 'FANS new guy is pretty good, Evan Roberts I think his name is, big Mets fan , seemed to like the fact that Omar didn't trade the future today.

Schuerholz probably has made the best deal of the day, Mazzone no doubt will have Fransworth as the closer before long, I think Colon pitched against the Mets earlier in the season.

Validius gets the pint of Guinness, Nymr gets a glass of the same.]The Stadium the ship flies over during the baseball games is Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens NY. The player that gets hit on the head with the fly ball is then NY Mets outfielder Bernard Gilkey.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119654/trivia

The OldMole dropping names, very cool, I so want to see this movie, have to admit I knew nothing aobut the thing till i read about it last month, one question,if this was the ultimate insider joke will the movie ruin it?..well I suppose the answer is yes.

Glavine - 6Reyes - 3Woodie - 1Wright - 1

In the useless info department Steve Phillips will be doing the Sunday Night Baseball game, Joe Morgan is in Cooperstown.A nice one,two ,three inning for the Mets.

Nasty pitch from Dan.

BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox acquired outfielder Jose Cruz Jr. from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night in exchange for minor league infielder Kenny Perez and minor league right-hander Kyle Bono.

Name the former Mets player who appeared, in uniform, in the 1997 film "Men In Black."?Bonus points, what was the scene in which he appeared?