Edgy MD

Don't be fooled, Huey Lewis fans. we have a 4:10 start on this one. [fimg=200]http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/54/67/full/m01gfgeorgvbfw15fy04alujm.gif[/fimg]Christian Yelich, lf Donovan Solano, 2b Giancarlo Stanton, rf Casey McGehee, 3b Garrett Jones, 1b Marcell Ozuna, cf Jarrod Saltalamacchia, c Adeiny Hechavarria, ss Tom Koehler, rhpCurtis Granderson, rf Daniel Murphy, 2b David Wright, 3b Lucas Duda, 1b Travis d�Arnaud, c Kirk Nieuwenhuis, lf Juan Lagares, cf Ruben Tejada, ss Daisuke Matsuzaka, rhp

The funniest part of that super-duper-slo-mo is leaving Harvey hanging there like a dope before he ever gets to deGrom.

The Mets plan on paying tribute to Tommy Ramone following the game by presenting a very special post-game concert featuring Huey Lewis and the News. [youtube:60l2ljjv]E-OSaKGCsug[/youtube:60l2ljjv]

Tommy wrote the majestic "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," and this little song, which you Mets would do well to heed. [youtube:24v1xh4i]BbDekaqw3lQ[/youtube:24v1xh4i]

Pretty glorious night. Not only did the Mets win, but every team ahead of them in the division standings lost, knocking a game off their deficit and three off their net deficit. In the Wild Card race, three of six teams ahead of them lost, knocking three games off their 31-game net deficit.

A shot going into the postgame showed an all-business David Wright going down the gamut of his teammates, high-fiving them with his glove hand with intense seriousness. All in super slow-mo. And then, when he got to deGrom, his eyes lit up, his face broke into this free, glowing smile, and as he high-fived with his glove, his bare hand tenderly caressed Jacob's hair. It was just guys doing their stupid homogoofing that guys do, but in super slow mo, it was fantabulous.

Ron Darling hasn't seen Star Wars but he watches monkeys riding dogs on YouTube?

Lunchie deserving some beer for motivating Lagares to turn this game into a great big FU. Not fast, Juan's ass!

Well, when we get one perfectly rounded ballplayer in this lineup, we can stand to start picking these guys off. But he's been as valuable as anybody the team has. And you know he's serious about getting better because he's not dying his hair blonde like Gomez '07 or wearing a little mini mullet fray like Flores '13.

Centerfield WAR in the NL EAST Ozuna, MIA: 3.2 Lagares, NYM: 2.8 Span, WSH: 1.6 Upton, ATL: -0.4 Revere, PHI: -0.5 And on a per-game basis, he's out-paced Ozuna by 34%. It's not even close. It's frustrating that he hasn't hit since being reactivated, but perhaps there was something to the concern that his swing was impeded. I dunno. But I do know that, as we're frustrated when good hitting isn't supporting good starting pitching efforts, he's a big part of why we're getting so many good starting pitching efforts from the likes of Colon and Niese. In a big park like Citi with the likes of Lagares in center, Colon can pitch until he's 50. I guess I'm saying that a lot of his quality is showing up on somebody else's ledger, and if he got dealt, a lot of us might be wondering this time next year why Colon and Niese had gone downhill so fast. OE: Well, we'd blame Colon's decline on age and carbs, but we'd be wrong.

What's the plan? If we're talking about moving him, while we can't even staff left field competitively, we better be confident there's a better option going forward. Because the present matters, baby.

I wouldn't call myself bullish, but he's fifth in the big leagues in defensive WAR, despite playing in far fewer games than the competition RankGuyTeamDef. WARGames1.HeywardATL2.5902.CozartCIN2.3873.DonaldsonOAK2.1894.PeraltaSTL2.1905.LagaresNYM1.7566.GordonKCR1.6887.DysonKCR1.6648.BradleyBOS1.6829.SimmonsATL1.58710.MartinTEX1.588

Michael Conforto, ready for her to let him know. Mets introduce 1st-round pick Conforto NEW YORK -- Michael Conforto�s first trip to New York City included viewing the Freedom Tower, heading to the top of the Empire State Building and taking batting practice with the New York Mets at Citi Field. It also included sampling the local cuisine. And it will soon include playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones. �We�ve been eating a whole lot since we got here,� said Conforto, the Mets� first-round pick out of Oregon State, who officially passed a physical and was introduced Friday at Citi Field. �We�re Italian, and we�ve had some pretty good Italian food. I mean, really good. Usually you can only get that from family back home.� While the 21-year-old Conforto will be assigned to Brooklyn, Sandy Alderson suggested the first-round pick could rise to a higher level by season�s end. He will join the Cyclones on Saturday for their game at Connecticut, but will not immediately jump into games. In fact, Conforto will be in Los Angeles next week for the Golden Spikes Award presentation. The finalists are Conforto as well as LSU right-hander Aaron Nola and Kentucky left-hander/infielder A.J. Reed. The New York-Penn League also was the professional launching point for the three other position players selected in the first round out of college by the organization in the past decade: Kevin Plawecki in 2012 and Ike Davis and Reese Havens in 2008. �Since I�ve been home I�ve been making sure I�ve been staying in shape and doing the things I need to keep my swing feeling good,� Conforto said. �Throughout my life I�ve learned how to do that in those times I�m not actually on the field. I had some teammates from Oregon State that came back home with me and I was able to take some swings and work out and do all those things.� Conforto took batting practice with the Mets on Friday afternoon. A two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year, Conforto hit .345 with seven homers and 56 RBIs in 203 at-bats as an outfielder for Oregon State during his junior season. He produced a .504 on-base percentage. He set a single-season school record with 55 walks. (Ed: This part was difficulty to transcribe because of all the Alderson drool on it.) He has been praised by Mets officials for his combination of power and selectivity at the plate. His father Mike, who accompanied him at Citi Field on Friday, played linebacker at Penn State under Joe Paterno. His mother Tracie Ruiz-Conforto won two gold medals in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles in synchronized swimming, then a silver four years later in Seoul, South Korea. Conforto, who grew up in Seattle, said he revered fellow lefty hitter Ken Griffey Jr. growing up. �His outstanding on-base approach as well as his left-handed swing and the power potential that he brings are sort of the natural fit for our organization and this ballpark, as sort of a gap-to-gap kind of hitter,� Alderson said. How quickly could Conforto reach the majors? Only one player taken in last year�s first round -- right-hander Corey Knebel, the 39th overall pick by the Tigers out of Texas -- has made his MLB debut. From the 2012 draft, five first-rounders have reached MLB, although four are pitchers: Kevin Gausman, fourth overall, LSU, Orioles; Michael Wacha, 19th, Texas A&M, Cardinals; Marcus Stroman, 22nd, Duke, Blue Jays; and Eddie Butler, 46th, Radford, Rockies. The lone college position player from that class to reach the majors: Mariners third overall pick Mike Zunino, a catcher out of Florida. Of the 25 players selected in the first round out of four-year colleges in 2011, nine have appeared in the majors, including six position players: Anthony Rendon, George Springer, C.J. Cron, Kolten Wong, Jackie Bradley and Jace Peterson. Meanwhile, agent Scott Boras and the Mets had agreed to the monetary terms of a deal three weeks ago. Conforto will receive $2,970,800 -- the precise amount recommended by MLB for the 10th overall pick. So why the delay? Boras said it was haggling over things that are not uniform to all contracts, but perhaps should be. A Mets official suggested there was nothing really substantive to it at all. �We�re two of the more stubborn people in the game,� Alderson said, referring to himself and Boras. �Whatever delay occurred had absolutely nothing to do with Michael.�

It's one thing. And there's the bullpen and the bullpen. I don't know if it matters in this case, but a bullpen can have a middling ERA because the back end has coughed up runs in blowouts, while the best two or three are still impenetrable with leads. Obviously, the extent is speculative. Another thing I guess (and yeah, I'm speculating) can help a team outperform Pythagorean projections is a solid defense, which Atlanta has most of the way around the diamond.

It's not just the division that's tight, but the whole league, with basement dwellers like Philly and San Diego getting hot, things just tightened up a little more, with everybody within 13-ish games of each other. Thanks to Philly's run, the Mets success against Atlanta has been as much about staying out of last as it has been about closing ground on the division leaders. Anyjuice, they skidded out after my last update in this thread, and even taking three of four from Atlanta, they still haven't recovered. Within long-range striking distance of Miami, though. Let's have a big weekend. TeamWLPCTGBNGBWashington4941.544��Atlanta5042.5430.00.0Miami4447.4845.511.0YOUR New York Mets 4250.4578.018.5Philadelphia4151.4469.022.5 TeamWLPCTGBNGBAtlanta5042.543��San Francisco5042.543��St. Louis5043.5380.50.5Cincinnati4943.5331.01.5Pittsburgh4844.5222.04.5Miami4447.4845.518.5YOUR New York Mets 4250.4578.031.0Philadelphia4151.4469.037.0San Diego4052.43510.044.0Chicago3952.42910.548.0Colorado3953.42411.052.5Arizona3954.41911.557.5

According to Batting Stance Guy, LeBron James returning to Cleveland officially makes the Marlins the best sports team in Miami.

"Few stopped to ask why, in the middle of a game, Danny Heep would be dressed in only his underwear." --- Page 81, The Gay Guys Won, St. Martin's Press, 2004

Just re-read that Marty Noble interview yesterday. You're finest hour... yet.

I wouldn't portray Foster as Danny Glover.

Well, putting aside whether there's anything to the moral necessity for everyone to charge into battle, Foster has to be there, as he was on deck. He was about three weeks away from his release here.

It's interesting that everybody's looking past Virgil and Straw, as if somebody else is getting at Palmer.

Arms race 2014 rolls out as two teams stockpiling young pitchers match up Henderson Alvarez and Zack Wheeler.

Nobody brings it quite like a New Yorker.

Atlanta has a bullpen that can shorten games. That's got to frustrate Pythagoras at least a little.

Any idea who Bill Robinson is restraining?