Edgy MD

Back to the point, Nimmo batted last today in Las Vegas for Wally Backman. He got pissed, and went out and went 3-4 with a walk and his first AAA homer. A 17-hit night for the 51s

Damned thing = over. It was literally a damned thing, too. This was the curse of �lex Torres in action. You mark my words.

O'Flaherty opened the door to something ugly.

On the other hand, tying run is suddenly on deck.

A lot of looks at unhappy-yet-beautiful people in the stands over the last few.

Yeah, let's not get over-excited. If the Mets are plowing into the post-season, their best pitchers are going to pitch.

Dude behind the first base dugout has a beautiful creamy Mets jersey and Marlins metro hat.

Murphy is on base all night right now.

I'm hesitant to go from zero to stupid.

I like Murphy scoring with his mouth open.

Yellich looks good going back, but he didn't do much charging that ball. And his throw was sad.

It's kind of silly that this pat story ("Happy to be here; like what I see!") even generating so much internetage. What do you expect him to say? "I'm enjoying dating your daughter for now, Sir. She's all well and good and we're having a good time. But when I get to college, opportunities are gonna totally open up for me, and I'd be a fool not to check out what those options are. Oh, you're daughter wouldn't be totally out of the picture, but she'd have to show me what she's offering before I leave, and frankly, she'd have to blow me away. OW! OW-OW-OW! What did I say?!!"

Yeah, well, do you prefer Cessa and Fulmer to Flores and Wheeler? Keep in mind, your answer may make me cry.

It would also lock them in — plan-wise, anyhow — with two more years of faking it in centerfield.

I was pretty calm and restrained, until we got Eric O'Flaherty. We're unstoppable now!

I don't imagine I'll be disappointed either way.

I tend to think the culture of the closer brings out the worst in folks' character.

Among the minor league vets gobbled up by the Mets this year, one of the first was Josh Smoker, a former Nationals first rounder with a bad-ass name, who played last year with the independent Frontier League's Rockford Aviators. A veteran of two surgeries, the product of Calhoun HS in Calhoun, GA (and can you get more Braves-country than that?) was spotted as a candidate for revival by an eagle-eyed Mets scout at the Aviators' camp. He started slow, giving up six runs in 6.2 innings with Savannah, but the strikeouts were there, and he got promoted. Since then, it's been lights out. St. Lucie: 1–0 (6 saves) / 1.69 ERA / 6 BB / 26 SO / 21.1 IP Binghamton: 1–0 / 1.64 ERA / 3 BB / 26 SO / 15.0 IP Moreover, he's a left-handed reliever, and we may need one or two of those. He's probably going to be a minor league free agent, and even if they re-sign him, he'll likely be Rule 5 eligible, so they may even add him to the roster in the offseason.

Vic Sage wrote: Plus he was a whining malcontent and a dog. I missed this. More typical is that they failure of the Mets to return to the World Series made him a convenient scapegoat and whipping boy on WFAN. As if it was his fault that Carter and Hernandez aged and Gooden and Strawberry used. Vic Sage wrote: ...would much rather have been huntin' possum in Arkansas just infuriated me. The source of this is usually a single quote in the 1988 playoffs saying that he either goes to the World Series or goes hunting (no mention of possum) and either way he's good, meaning to answer a question about whether he will be affected by pressure. "No," he was trying to say, "I'm not going to succumb to pressure, because I've achieved a focused detachment from my desires." This, of course, got turned into "McReynolds doesn't care" by scapegoating media. The fact that he had been a rip-roaring force in the previous few games of the NLCS, including scoring the winning run in game one — stealing one from the indomitable Orel Hershiser by running through the brick wall that was Mike Scoscia — was quickly forgotten. The McReynolds Myth needs to die.

Legitimate contender? They're in first place, mofo! On August 5th!! The team to beat just got beaten three times straight and our team did the beating. They're beyond having the talent to be a legit contender. They're the team the legit contenders are chasing. They're who everyone else wishes they were. (Is that irrational?)

Wright also heading to PSL after the Miami series. So he can be Montero's rehab buddy. Although Mitsubishi should be moving up to Bingo or Vegas soon enough, I imagine.

Believe me, that tone is SO out there. This nice little run has awakened a lot of sleeping mooks.

And the team has enough faith in their analysis to throw a guy with 3.15 ERA into limbo while giving up perfectly good assets to replace him with a guy with a 5.91 ERA. Go, geeks, go!

Well, my bad. I feel for you, Billy Bean. I totally had to pay to get a guy named O'Flaherty out of my house once, too.

That's cool. I've always thought it would be a good idea to give the manager a series off twice per season, to go down and visit the minor league clubs, develop opinions about guys who might be joining him soon, and talk directly with the minor league coaches as they watch the players work out and play. The team, meanwhile, gets the fresh air of a new voice in the dugout as the bench coach takes over for three days. It also gives the bench coach a brief high profile and adds a little experiential learning to his r�sum� to talk about in his interviews the next winter. The idea that it's out there and known that a main part of the agenda is to dress down Montero makes things seem very leaky. Perhaps intentionally, in this case.