Edgy MD

And Brandon Lyon makes him pay.

That's a short workday for Rice. Can't burn through your pitchers like that, TerryCo.

Plus there's the problem we generally have for closerinos. Wins provide for so many points to go around that we don't have much left over for the guy who pitched the ninth, and are often, I imagine, reluctant to scale down. Closers' big scores come in those extra-inning games where they might pitch the ninth and tenth. They walk off with no part in the decision, but find a lot of sudsy Schaefer at their locker afterwards.

Who said Friday afternoon was a slow news time?

The bad news is that Justin Turner's batting fifth. The good news is that Andrew "Kaboom!" Brown is in the lineup.

Is it any surprise that Jeff would start actually popping up in history? That's the way these things work. (1) It's fun and games. (2) It gets bigger than you could have imagined. (3) It's out of control. (4) It defies all you know about time and space. (5) It's the most terrifying thing ever. I know what I'm talking about. I've seen The Twilight Zone. It's the most unsurprising thing ever.

G-Fafif wrote: I'm on the bill with the guy who wrote the book revealing Lenny Dykstra is not the All-American Boy. Idol-smasher!

And in what will forever be known as the "How now, Brown Cow?" transaction, the Mets demote Colin Cowgill and add themselves some Brown.

Congratulations all. I sometimes wonder about the perspective in those Shea background shots. Sometimes I look at that Buck picture (Buckshot?) and he looks like he could be standing on the mezzanine level. Other times, he looks like a terrifying giant standing somewhere between first and second. Great work as always.

Jayce is also one handsome-assed ballplayer. My word.

You may not know who is first place in the South Atlantic League, but you might guess if I give you a hint. It rhymes with "banana"! Yessireebobandcarolandtedandalice, the Savannah Sand Gnats moved into sole possession of the Sally League Southern Division last night (and their record tops any team's in the Northern Division also) with a 5-3 victory over the Kannapolis Intimidators (named for Dale Earnhardt), elevating them to a lofty 17-9. Gabriel Ynoa walks away with the win, continuing his gruesome excellence from last year in Brooklyn. Ynoa (3-2, with a 3.49 ERA in 28.1 innings, walking 6 and striking out 27) is joined by members of the back half of Brooklyn's devastating 2012 rotation. While the best starters jumped to St. Lucie, he and Rainy Lara (3-1, 1.88 in 24 innings, with three walks and 24 strikeouts) and Luis Cessa (2-1, 2.70, 23.1, 2/22) are continuing their act with similarly crippling results in Savannah. What's more, they're joined by Matthew Bowman, who has been moved from relief in 2012 into a starting role, with Harvelous results (4-0, 2.64, 30.2, 4/26) and a finally healthy Steven Matz (1-0, 1.96, 18.1, 6/21). While Bret Mitchell has three saves, six different guys have collected at least one, which is how it should be! Forget the campaign for Wally Backman. Make Savannah's Luis Rojas the new Mets manager, and tell him to bring pitching coach Frank Viola along with him. The offense is led by... well, who needs offense? But the following three players are under investigation, having shown traces of awesome in their urine samples on a nightly basis. Player�POS�G�AB�R�H�2B�3B�HR�RBI�TB�BB�SO�SB�CS�AVG�OBP�SLG�OPS�E�Kevin PlaweckiC259615391604226771300.406.464.6981.1620Jayce Boyd1B26100193810022554161102.380.466.5401.0062Brandon NimmoCF239022291311139122421.322.421.433.8540 I don't know about youse, but I don't remember Plawecki cracking the top ten on any list o' top Met prospects. Helluva good month, kid. Ynoa, Lara, Cessa, Bowman, Matz, Plawecki, Boyd, Nimmo.

Andre Previn and Elton John published a lot of great music together under that trademark.

Wow. You ask 10 fans if he's HoF material, I'd guess you'd get two shrugs, five nos, and three who's.

Well, while I agree that Byrd likely won't always be the better outfielder, (a) we don't currently have Nieuwenhuis, ( center isn't the only issue, as Byrd has looked better in right, too, and © if you really think it's too close to call, then reason usually suggests you send down the guy with options.

Actually, while I don't disagree to the general point, I think Byrd has looked better on D than Cow.

National League Pitcher of the Month: Douchey Matt Harvey. First Mets winner since Dickey in June 2012. Not a long drought compared to, say the near seven-year run from June 2000-April 2007. Fourteen Mets pitchers have won the award previously, a total of 20 times. [list:3j87ptsc][*:3j87ptsc]Seaver (June 1975)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Koosman (July 1976)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Seaver (August 1977)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Zachry (July 1980)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Orosco (August 1983)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Darling (June 1984)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Gooden (September 1984)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Gooden (September 1985)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Gooden (April 1986)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Fernandez (April 1987)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Cone (May 1988)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Gooden (September 1990)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Saberhagen (July 1994 --- and then baseball broke)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]B. J. Jones (May 1997)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Leiter (June 1999)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Leiter (June 2000)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Maine (April 2007)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Santana (September 2008)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Santana (April 2009)[/*:m:3j87ptsc] [*:3j87ptsc]Dickey (June 2012)[/*:m:3j87ptsc][/list:u:3j87ptsc]

TransMonk wrote: This guy's gonna be a beast. Truer words are rarely spoken. It's a good time to look above and review Adam Rubin's jive-assed Twitter tirade.

Yeah, them's some fine clarificatin'. The cureent Mets are so damn home-grown that there are probably a lot of teams they don't overlap with. But usually there's a coach or a minor league catching coordinator for the Mets that used to chop tomahawks, but I've got nothing.

Well, since d'Arnaud is at AAA this year...

"Let's go, Mets!"

Did Tom Paciorek ever not look old? Did Roy McMillan ever not look like a coach? Did Gary Kolb ever not look like a sadistic terrorist from a Soviet bloc nation?

I don't get what we're talking about? Will appointing Wally Backman bring about the next Jose Reyes --- a player whose presence Terry Collins is somehow keeping away? I mean, if we're talking about Valdespin, then by all means, let's talk. We have a thread about him and everything.

vtmet wrote: but there needs to be a balance there...a slow guy that gets on base often doesn't help; I'll disagree. I feel certain that batmagadanleadoff would also disagree. I'll even disagree with the notion that a fast guy that doesn't reach base very often doesn't help, depending on how not-very-often we're talking about. I'm sure the goal isn't to proceed with Ruben Tejada reaching at a .333 clip. I'm not sure what you're proposing Backman or anybody would or should do with the leadoff spot. Valdespin is an option, but that's certainly not clear.

I don't think Terry Collins is unaware that table setters --- and aggressive baserunners when you can get 'em --- are a positive asset for a team.

Yabbut, from the sound of it, neither was Terry. It's a volatile field. They've all left some bad relationships in their backgrounds. As far as Martin, well, let's just hope that Backman is about 100% less flammable.