Edgy MD

Played with Ron LeFlore in the Prison League.

Gee and Verrett, also available for September acci�n.

I'm guessing that they'll go with a four man rotation, and probably have a mind to give Matz some September starts but then launch him as bullpen lefty in the post-season. That still leaves one odd guy out. Got to be Bart, even if he is likely to have the least relief versatility. But life often tends to make these decisions for you. Plawecki is post-season eligible as he appeared before September 1, even if he wasn't on the roster on September 1.

I'm encouraged by the .411 career OPS that Yoenis Cespedes has against Happ. Wait... .411?! This thing must be broken.

Frayed Knot wrote: Introducing your second place New York Yanquis Blue Jays went from 8 games out to 0.5 ahead in 15 days/14 games. Wait a minute... that beats losing seven games in 17 days.

Drew Storen has been pissy ever since Jonathan Papebon arrived, and he's pitched correspondingly awful. Doug Fister � eighth in Cy Young voting last season � has taken his 4+ ERA to the bullpen and gave up a three run shot to right in his first relief appearance. Anthony Rendon and Jayson Werth are back from their lengthy stays on the DL, but back in name only. Fans are pissed not only that Papelbon has taken Storen' job, but also that he's taken Fister's number. And hey, hasn't Pap's entire career been one long love affair with the fans? This is the state of the Nationals, all while the front office is insisting they will not panic. Whatever monkey was on the Mets' back going into the Nationals series, it sure switched backs some time during the series, probably some time as Wilmer Flores was rounding the bases. [fimg=350]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/08/03/nyregion/03NYTODAY/03NYTODAY-tmagArticle.jpg[/fimg][fimg=350]https://d13yacurqjgara.cloudfront.net/users/110294/screenshots/2132978/monkey_160_anim_gif.gif[/fimg]

Wilmer has become a commercial.

Let's talk about egg. My team is in first, and I'm still in last! PosterWinsLossesWinning Pct.GBEdgy MD10557.64816.25John Cougar Lunchbucket10260.63013.25Ashie629468.5805.25Zvon9270.5683.25 dinosaur jesus9171.5622.25Mets Guy in Michigan9171.5622.25Ceetar9072.5561.25metsmarathon9072.5561.2586-Dreamer8973.5490.25Current Projection88.7573.25.548—LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr8874.5430.75MFS628874.5430.75d'Kong768874.5430.75Nymr838775.5371.75sharpie8676.5312.75Vic Sage8577.5253.75Benjamin Grimm8478.5194.75themetfairy8478.5194.75G-Fafif8478.5194.75TransMonk8478.5194.75batmagadanleadoff8478.5194.75Gwreck8379.5125.75HahnSolo8379.5125.75Lefty Specialist8280.5066.75bmfc18181.5007.75dgwphotography7884.48110.75

Unintimidated by such theoretical concepts as "reality," the Mets take up pursuit of the Brewers. RK Team G R R/G 1 Arizona Diamondbacks 113 514 4.55 2 Colorado Rockies 113 504 4.46 3 San Francisco Giants 113 488 4.32 4 Pittsburgh Pirates 112 475 4.24 5 Los Angeles Dodgers 114 478 4.19 6 Washington Nationals 113 467 4.13 � Average 113.73 458.53 4.03 7 Chicago Cubs 113 450 3.98 8 St. Louis Cardinals 114 453 3.97 9 San Diego Padres 115 452 3.93 10 Cincinnati Reds 112 440 3.93 11 Milwaukee Brewers 116 450 3.88 12 New York Mets 115 432 3.76 13 Atlanta Braves 114 427 3.75 14 Philadelphia Phillies 115 429 3.73 15 Miami Marlins 114 419 3.68

It struck me last night � though it's been tickling my thoughts in one way or another since the Atlanta deal � that the Mets list of reserves since the Campbell demotion and the Recker return... exists entirely of Anthony Recker. The addition of three new batsmen and the return of others from disability or infirmary has left the team in a situation where all the other hitters can consider themselves part of a starting rotation where all of them are starting more than 50% of the time. Beyond that, it's turned the bench � a liability through much of the season � suddenly into an obvious strength. I watched last night's game knowing how tough the late inning bullpen management would be on Walt Weiss as the Mets had a bench of Granderson, Duda, Johnson, and Conforto � professional hitters all, as JC Lunchbucket pointed out. Had a righty been started, the Mets would perhaps have boasted a bench of Cuddyer, Flores, Lagares, and Uribe � pretty professional-looking also. And Laggy is hitting as consistently as he has all year. It's really giving me CAHNfidence in the middle innings. And a bench with those kinds of threats doesn't even have to perform to be effective. A manager like Weiss can end up tying his own hands with his bullpen moves to avoid a matchup that lets those guys get a poke with a platoon advantage. Or perhaps burn his specialist relievers too early. Let's go, Bench!

For the first time since April 27, the Mets have advanced the cause of their historical redemption. At least, restored it past the high point of this season. On April 20, 1979, in an incident that provided setlist fodder for countless comics, President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a swamp rabbit while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, USA. While a US president being attacked by a small cuddly vegetarian mammal might seem to auger bad things for a nation, the occurrence prefaced good � or at least, not bad � fortuned for the Mets. With their win today, the Mets are now a .500 team dating back to that date. If you are former Mets reliever Sean Green, the Mets have been a .500 team your entire life. Moreover, the Mets advanced their .560 line back over half a season today, pushing the duration of period in which they can claim to be a .560 (playoff?) team back 84 games to August 31, 2014 � nearly a full season. The Mets are at least a 1.000 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .990 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .980 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .970 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .960 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .950 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .940 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .930 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .920 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .910 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .900 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .890 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .880 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .870 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .860 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .850 team over their last 4 games, going back to Monday, August 20, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .840 team over their last 13 games, going back to Friday, July 31, 2015, an improvement of 10 games. The Mets are at least a .830 team over their last 13 games, going back to Friday, July 31, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .820 team over their last 13 games, going back to Friday, July 31, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .810 team over their last 13 games, going back to Friday, July 31, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .800 team over their last 13 games, going back to Friday, July 31, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .790 team over their last 13 games, going back to Friday, July 31, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .780 team over their last 14 games, going back to Thursday, July 30, 2015, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .770 team over their last 18 games, going back to Saturday, July 25, 2015, an improvement of 6 games. The Mets are at least a .760 team over their last 18 games, going back to Saturday, July 25, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .750 team over their last 18 games, going back to Saturday, July 25, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .740 team over their last 18 games, going back to Saturday, July 25, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .730 team over their last 19 games, going back to Friday, July 24, 2015, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .720 team over their last 19 games, going back to Friday, July 24, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .710 team over their last 19 games, going back to Friday, July 24, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .700 team over their last 20 games, going back to Thursday, July 23, 2015, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .690 team over their last 20 games, going back to Thursday, July 23, 2015, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .680 team over their last 22 games, going back to Thursday, July 23, 2015, an improvement of 3 games. The Mets are at least a .670 team over their last 22 games, going back to Tuesday, July 21, 2015, an improvement of 3 games. The Mets are at least a .660 team over their last 33 games, going back to Sunday, July 5, 2015, an improvement of 12 games. The Mets are at least a .650 team over their last 35 games, going back to Friday, July 3, 2015, an improvement of 3 games. The Mets are at least a .640 team over their last 42 games, going back to Thursday, June 25, 2015, an improvement of 8 games. The Mets are at least a .630 team over their last 42 games, going back to Wednesday, June 24, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .620 team over their last 42 games, going back to Wednesday, June 24, 2015, an improvement of 8 games. The Mets are at least a .610 team over their last 44 games, going back to Tuesday, June 23, 2015, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .600 team over their last 45 games, going back to Sunday, June 21, 2015, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .590 team over their last 45 games, going back to Sunday, June 21, 2015, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .580 team over their last 55 games, going back to Thursday, June 11, 2015, an improvement of 11 games. The Mets are at least a .570 team over their last 56 games, going back to Wednesday, June 10, 2015, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .560 team over their last 141 games, going back to Sunday, August 31, 2014, an improvement of 84 games. The Mets are at least a .550 team over their last 150 games, going back to Wednesday, August 20, 2014, an improvement of 1 game. The Mets are at least a .540 team over their last 194 games, going back to Tuesday, July 1, 2014, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .530 team over their last 215 games, going back to Sunday, June 8, 2014, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .520 team over their last 242 games, going back to Sunday, May 11, 2014, an improvement of 10 games. The Mets are at least a .510 team over their last 5,266 games, going back to Wednesday, August 25, 1982, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .500 team over their last 5,808 games, going back to Friday, April 20, 1979, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are at least a .490 team over their last 8,075 games, going back to Thursday, April 15, 1965, an improvement of 4 games. The Mets are at least a .480 team over their last 8,518 games, going back to Saturday, June 2 (1), 1962, an improvement of 2 games. The Mets are .4790328 team over their history of 8,561 games, going back to Wednesday, April 11, 1962, an improvement of .000061. If the Mets go three games over .500 the rest of the season. They will have pushed the Median of Mediocrity back past the dawn of 1979.

Centerfield wrote: Curtis Granderson has raised his OPS by more than 100 points since the start of this thread. Ah, The Boobird's Failsafe.

Watching from a pub in Morris Township, NJ, and rocking out with the locals.

Jos� Uribe, indeed, started his career as Jos� Gonzalez, realized there were too many Jos� Gonzalezes around and was afraid of getting confused with somebody else and accidentally released, briefly changed his name to Uribe Gonzalez, before settling on Jos� Uribe. The steroids era had a buncha guys who spent the first half of their careers as middle infielders, but had productive second halves, even after prematurely aging out of the middle infield, by becoming professional hitters. The Mets had a few. Jos� Offerman. Marlon Anderson (who still played second, but made his living with his bat), Lenny F. Harris. Seemed like Boston had a few, and maybe one or two affiliated scandals (?).

I feel like I had a wonderful date with Cleveland last night, and I should send them flowers to them and call them from work.

Had a great time watching deGrom hang up zeros. Anybubby coming to Balt next week, lemme know.

.500 since the end of the winning streak. The first winning streak.

Beautiful night at the park. Strange rooting for Tyler Clippard to pop up Jose Reyes.

Whoah. What section is the royalty sitting in these days?

I'm in town, thinking of finally breaking the tape on Citi Field. I'm seeing 'em twice next week in Balto, so I'm not sure.

Who's doing the deGrom thing this evening?

Better than Yankee losses, I guess, are Yankee losses that toast their bullpen.

Amazin' that dealing with the Mets was among the final acts for both. Melvin going down also means one fewer GM who came from the ranks of professional players.

Doug Melvin joins Dave Dombrowski in the ex-longtime GM club.