Lefty Specialist

Well, if they HAD been thinking about picking up his option, they won't be now. He also diminished what trade value he had. So, a lose-lose for all concerned.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: and transferred LHP Tommy Milone (knee) to the 60-day disabled list Bad news for those of us who were pining for the return of Tommy Milone. I forgot he was even on the roster. Or on the planet for that matter.

Well, at least they're freeing up my summer.

Ugh. Even if I could stay up, I can't watch this team right now.

Well, if you're craving high draft picks, I have good news for you: Rafael Montero is starting Sunday.

The baseball draft is such a different animal. Football and basketball picks can have an immediate impact. Even the best draftees in baseball are usually at least a year or two away. Mike Piazza was a 62nd round pick as a favor to his father by Tommy Lasorda. An undrafted TJ Rivera will have a better baseball career than a lot of first-rounders, I'd bet. Tanking for a better draft pick probably isn't worth it.

Beep......beep......beep......

Wake me five hours after it's over.

And the Yanks have fallen out of first for the first time in quite a while.

Wilmer won't cry if he's sprung from this team onto a contender. I think he got things out of his system.

It's a lot more likely that this team finishes with 86 losses.

People won't come out to see this team as currently constituted, so that won't hold Sandy or Jeffy back from making trades. If Jay Bruce is on this team on August 1st, that's a major fail. We won't get anybody currently good in return. You'll get minor leaguers, who are always a crap shoot. You can only hope they pick the right ones.

So, Wheeler. Has he hit a wall? 15 runs in 3 2/3 innings is, you know, not sustainable.

I coached Little League for four years. Some kids just aren't ever going to be baseball players, hate the sport and are only playing because their dad made them, or are so uncoordinated it's a wonder they can put one foot ahead of the other. I had a "must swing once" rule. Kids aren't stupid, they can see when the opposing pitcher is all over the place. It'd be easy to just stand there and take the walk, rather than the embarrassment of striking out. But knowing they have to swing once forces them to evaluate the pitches; it's a ball, but is it that bad a ball? Then swing. Of course it meant I had a lot of kids swinging 3-0 at pitches three feet outside, but in those cases they usually walked on ball five anyway.

I'll get the recaps in the morning.

Was at the Pendleton game and the Opening Day Gl@v!ne game, both of which were pretty bad. Was right at the tippy-top of Shea on a day when it was 35 degrees with a 30-mile wind. But July 3, 2010 was a bummer. Mets came in 10 games over .500, playing the Nats in DC. We'd decided to make a weekend of it with friends and see the new Nats ballpark. R.A.Dickey, who'd just been picked up off the scrap heap outpitching a rookie Stephen Strasburg. 2-2 after 7, crisply played. Mets score 3 in the top of the 8th to go up 5-2, but Parnell gives up a run in the bottom of the 8th to make it 5-3. To the bottom of the 9th. K-Rod, the new closer, had been solid if a little scary up to this point, always putting a runner or two on but always escaping. Today, though, he. just. couldn't. get. anybody. out. Nats scored 3 runs, including a walk-off single by the 43,000 year old Ivan Rodriguez. Just disastrous. It was an inflection point for both him and the team. He was never quite the same after that, and the Mets tanked as well. To top things off, we were staying in the Mets hotel, and Henry Blanco was in the next room. His wife had some small dog that yapped the whole night, keeping us awake. One to forget.

Well, we're no longer arguing about WHETHER to back up the truck, but in which direction we want it to back up. The problem is they've tanked a month too early; teams will still be evaluating if they can make a run for the next few weeks. Agreed that Rosario, Cespedes and Conforto are the only untouchables. The problem with Smith is that he tends to have a Prince Fielder body without Prince Fielder numbers. He came into camp really slimmed-down this year but I don't know if he's been successful at staying away from the buffet tables in Vegas. Smith does have the plus of good defense at first on a team with a lot of tuning forks for gloves, but you worry that if he's not slugging in the PCL, he may never do it. Even so, I think signing Duda long-term is a mistake- he's too inconsistent. Trade him if you can, because QO'ing him isn't worth the risk to get the pick. The problem with deadline trades is that you're usually dealing 'knowns' for 'unknowns'. Jay Bruce is a known quantity. You'll probably get back someone in Double-A who may be able to help you in a year or two, at least that's the hope. If Sandy truly Roto-Rooters the roster, it's going to be ugly to watch this team over the next three months (not that the last three months have been peeled grapes and chocolates). Terry's probably going to wish he still had Eric Campbell.

Lose the next two, though, and the beeping grows too loud for Sandy to ignore.

It'd be good for them to be up to ramming speed when the Nats came to town. But if there's one thing this team has shown, it's the ability to fark up just when you think they're turned a corner. They lose 5 of the next 7, it's curtains.

Hard to believe Barry Bonds had over 500 SB's. You tend to think of him late in his career when he was built like a 1958 Buick.

When someone pitches well for most of the season and then suddenly goes in deTank, I worry about deInjury. Hope I'm wrong and he comes out firing on all cylinders.

Eh. Won't be missed.

In the moment I thought it was a bad move, but I think it'll be rarely repeated. Cespedes will be playing more and there won't be many PH appearances. And Conforto will be playing every day. More likely will be Conforto moving to left late in the game and Lagares coming in for defense in CF.

Yeah, it's kind of important to remember that this isn't exactly an offensive juggernaut out there, especially without FFF. Let's see if this continues against the Cubs and Nats.

Yeah , I hope pinch hitting for Conforto doesn't come back to bite them.