Cowtipper

Travis d'Arnaud, who played for the Mets from 2013 to 2019, is hitting .215/.279/.380 with 6 home runs and 17 RBI in 52 games for the Angels. J.D. Davis, who played for the Mets from 2019 to 2022, hit .111 in 9 at-bats for the Angels before being released in June. He hit .294/.371/.524 with 10 home runs and 38 RBI in 50 games for their Triple-A club in Salt Lake. He is currently with the Saitama Seibu Lions in Japan, hitting .212/.316/.333 with 1 home run and 3 RBI in 10 games. Alejandro De Aza, who played for the Mets in 2016, is still going at 41. He's with the independent Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, hitting .240/.357/.423 with 10 home runs and 52 RBI in 69 games. Jacob deGrom, who pitched for the Mets from 2014 to 2022, is 10-4 with a 2.80 ERA and 132 ERA+ in 22 starts for the Rangers. In 128 2/3 innings, he has 135 Ks. He was an All-Star. Jake Diekman, who pitched for the Mets in 2024, had a 3.00 ERA in 3 innings for the independent Lincoln Saltdogs in 2025. He retired on May 23. Brandon Drury, who played for the Mets in 2021, began 2025 in the White Sox system, but hit just .179 in 10 games for their Triple-A club in Charlotte to earn his release. He was then signed by the Angels, hitting .150 in 7 games for their ACL team and .250 in 10 games for their Triple-A club in Salt Lake.

Austin Warren is being promoted. Brandon Waddell sent to rehab in Binghamton. Mets released minor leaguers Anthony Baptist and Willy Fanas. The Mets also released Colin Poche, Junior Fernandez and Julian Merryweather, all players with MLB experience. Fernandez had been in their system for less than a month and had a 0.00 ERA.

They Joey Lucchesi'd him (or perhaps Lucchesi was Butto'd) in that despite him clearly having talent, they didn't use him much for a long time, wasting his abilities. He was a fairly well regarded prospect in the Mets system coming up, but nothing too special, but once he got here he was a very reliable piece that I wish they'd used more.

The Mets are not only 0.5 back in the standings, they're only 1 game up in the Wild Card race. Magic number isn't going down very quickly these days and it stands at 52. They need to go 27-23 the rest of the way to be a 90-win team.

They should never have even played. Instead of doing what they did, they should have just moved the whole thing the next day. They saw the weather coming—it had been forecast for at least a week—and though at times it was iffy it seemed certain we were going to at least get some rain. I've been to enough outdoor concerts that if there is a hint of delay-worthy weather, they'll delay it. I'm not going for Part II because I went for the spectacle, not to see the Braves and Reds play, per se. I was amped about the whole thing yesterday. I left as early as I did because I wanted to see some of the pre-game festivities (there were multiple concerts). If I want to see major league baseball, I'll drive to Cincinnati and go to an actual good ballpark. I hope the stands are completely empty today just out of protest. In what other ways can I dig the knife in even more...the "shuttling" was actually two parts. I ended up having to park 1.3 miles away, took a shuttle to a stop "near" the speedway, then the next "shuttle" was people taking you on the backs of golf carts the rest of the way. I just walked. To make it even more insulting, as everyone was all bummed and dejected, they did a weak and tepid little three minute fireworks display to wrap it up. Thanks guys! Concessions ran out and from what I heard they were serving bunless hot dogs and cheeseless nachos. Lines were 1-2 hours. The pre-game "fan zones" were apparently all lines, too. Clearly they read my comment on another website or a lot of people complained, because they sent an email THIS MORNING specifying what "Lot SP" actually was. There's actually SIX or so "Lot SPs," mine was #6, still about a mile away, on a back road. Thanks y'all, would love to have known that yesterday! None of that was previously specified. I ended up spending $44 on parking that would've cost me just $10 had I gone to the campground to begin with. I didn't buy my ticket, it was a gift, but for what I got it cost $230 apparently. $230 bucks for what is the upper deck in some ballparks. At the Reds ballpark, seats pretty close to behind home plate will run you about $100, and that is including the all-you-can-eat hot dog and soda package! (I may not have the numbers exactly right, but I think that's what I spent last time I went to Cincinnati). Because the game actually started at 9:40and folks didn't want to wait, the people on the left and right of me had both left, so the row was basically mine. The saddest thing was the guy right behind me. He was with his two sons and when they called it it's like he couldn't get himself to stand up. Like he was just blankly staring ahead. This clearly meant something to him and it all fell apart. And then on the drive home, because the local municipality totally didn't know there'd be 85,000 people coming into town on a single day, there were active construction zones that shrunk some of the highways down to one lane on either side. What a joke. But this is going to go down in history like Disco Demolition Night and I'm sure we'll be talking about it 50 years from now, so at least I can say I was there and that I technically did see the first regular season major league baseball ever played in TN.

Top to bottom this was a boondoggle. Left home at 1:50 PM. Got home at 12:35 AM. Saw 1 1/3 innings of baseball. The star-studded musical lineup of Tim McGraw and Pitbull were on a stage wayyyyyyyyyy far off in the distance, so it was basically background music to anyone in the stands. Parking was not well marked. I pre-bought parking in "Lot SP" which I assumed was the South Parking Lot ... since that's what was on the map on the website ... but it actually referred to "Shuttle Parking," which they didn't specify and I never actually found where the shuttle parking lot was. The drive home was marked by roads being shrunk down to one lane despite there being 85,000 people trying to leave. The rest of the game is set to start at 1:00 PM tomorrow, but if it's going to be anything like I put up with today, I might just call it good enough and forego the rest.

I didn't mention when I actually left home. I left at 1:50 and didn't get to the parking spot until 5:20. It looks like they're going to start it at 9:40 as the tarp is off the field.

And now we're in a rain delay. Well, I might be doing all this again tomorrow.

Traffic is bad when the big races are happening but it still moves. This was stop and go for miles and miles. People park everywhere for the races... locals and businesses open up their lawns and parking lots and there is speedway parking too. I prepaid parking for the game but just ended up parking at a campground anyway, shuttled part of the way to the venue and walked the rest. I've seen Taylor Swift live (don't judge) and this was worse that Taylor Swift chaos.

Y'all I live 1/2 hour away from the Speedway and didn't even get to my parking spot until 5:20. At one point I had to re-center myself due to the chaos so I went to my work, which is just 10 minutes from the place (usually) and just to get from there to my parking spot took probably 1.5 hours. And just to get from my parking to the actual gate took another hour or so. These little tricities cities can't handle all the traffic.

Well, when one takes a step back and earnestly considers the broader picture — not just the obvious elements on the surface but also the more subtle, intangible, often-overlooked aspects that constitute the entirety of a person’s performance or presence or overall vibe, if you will — it becomes apparent, or at least somewhat apparent, depending on one's perspective and internal criteria for evaluation, that while there was certainly something there, something that can’t and shouldn’t be dismissed outright, something that perhaps even had flashes of potential or, at the very least, instances of competence or adequacy (and adequacy, mind you, is far too often undervalued in today’s climate of relentless excellence), one must also contend with the fact — or rather, the impression, which can sometimes feel like a fact, depending on how it's framed and received — that in this particular instance, when placed alongside the other party in question, whose own merits deserve a separate and equally nuanced discussion in their own right, the original subject did not quite evoke the same response, or ignite the same resonance, or occupy the same energetic bandwidth, as it were, and while it would be patently unfair — and frankly a little reductive — to say that he was somehow lacking, or that he failed in any categorical or empirical sense, there remains, floating gently but persistently in the atmosphere, a vague yet undeniable sense that, despite his efforts (and they were, by all indications, earnest and respectable efforts), the other individual simply landed in a way that he did not, not because of any glaring fault or deficiency on his part, but more as a matter of alignment, chemistry, timing, or some ineffable quality that resists easy articulation but is felt nonetheless — a kind of quiet gravity, if you will, drawing attention just a bit more forcefully, and thus, in the grand constellation of performances or impressions or however one wishes to define such things, it’s not that he failed, but rather that someone else, in that same shared space, will succeed just a little more.

By his face alone he looked chromosomally challenged, that's my memory.

He is a what-could-have-been who has yet to be.

My spongy tissue can only expand so much. To David Stearns:

I love it. 12/10. And we still have a couple days left 'til the deadline!

Name doesn't ring a bell. But it sounds Cuban, and Randy Arozarena is a decent Cuban ballplayer who might help. I'd give up former top prospects Mark Vientos and Brett Baty for him.

? I think it's pretty tame. People are in disagreement, but we erudites have reasonably and cogently defended our points well in this intellectual exercise of Socratic dialecticism.

He inspires the short-season hope in me Tyler Clippard did (before Clippard fell apart). It was bringing on late-season relief help that helped catapult the Mets in 2015; I hope it happens here.

I use Pressureze and also a thing called Eustachi.

Are you new to the Internet?

So an injured player doesn't have it, because health is part of 'it.' Every player ever has it if you make excuses for why they're not good.

Whatever it does, it helps clear up the prospect backlog. I was getting worried the Verlander trade was going to be a dud, as Gilbert—the big name in the deal—hasn't wowed in the minors these past two years and he's pushing 25 and out of prospect territory. Tidwell on feel alone gives me Thomas Szapucki vibes—a reasonably high pick who gets mentioned as a prospect, but really doesn't quite have it. So really, all we gave up of any true value right now is Butto, but even he's not been stellar (106 ERA+) this year.

An actually truly good pitching move. This ain't no Huascar Brazoban, this is a David Robertson. He's really good. If he pitches as well as Chad Bradford, I'll give him three thumbs up. Only one I don't like to see go is Butto. The others, adios!

I wish the Padres pitcher integrated a cool spin move into his windup so we could call him Whirling Darvish.

No, what I'm saying is a team doesn't go into a trade to lose on it. They want to get more and spend less. Which translates to, whether in the short term or long term...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................getting the better of the other team.