Daily Archives: July 26, 2008
The Game:
The Mets (56-47) continue a three-game series against the Cardinals (57-48) tonight at Shea, starting at 7:10 pm.
The Lineup:
SS Jose Reyes
OF Endy Chavez
3B David Wright
1B Carlos Delgado
OF Carlos Beltran
OF Fernando Tatis
C Robinson Cancel
2B Argenis Reyes
RHP Brandon Knight
The Pitchers:
RHP Brandon Knight makes his first start for the Mets.
RHP Joel Pineiro (3–4, 4.52 ERA) starts for the Cardinals.
The Bleachers:
For a live chat, head over to The Hot Foot Bleachers.
…enjoy, and as always, Let’s Go Mets…
Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reports, citing ‘a source with knowledge 
of the deal,’ the Dodgers have acquired OF Casey Blake from the Indians for C Carlos Santana and RHP Jon Meloan.
Blake is batting .289 with 11 HR and 58 RBI in 95 games this season.
…scratch him off the list of potential outfielders…
…more than any other outfielder on the market, i was hoping the Mets would acquire blake…as i thought he would have been the perfect fit in the clubhouse and on the field…oh well…
…added to by Matthew Cerrone…
…my wife just said to me, while watching ESPN News, so who do you think the Mets should get…i said, ‘Casey Blake,’ to which she instantly said, ‘Uh, guess not, he was just traded to the Dodgers,’ as the news scrolled by on the screen…ouch…
Tagged Mike Nichols |
For the first time since August 25, 2005, Braves RHP Mike Hampton takes the hill in a major league game. We’ll see if he makes it through the warm up.
Marlins RHP Anibal Sanchez threw 101 pitches in his latest rehabilitation start and may face the Mets next week. Suddenly, the Marlins starters are looking stronger.
Phillies starters allowed three runs or less in five of seven starts since the All-Star break, but the team is just 2-5. This, despite the offense averaging over five runs per game over that time frame.
Chico Harlan interviews Randy St. Claire about turning Joel Hanrahan’s season around, writing:
“After that game, Hanrahan and St. Claire devised a little trick. When in his room, even his hotel room, Hanrahan was to pick out an object (say, a cup, or the hand of a clock) and focus on it. While the TV was on, volume up. The goal? Hanrahan needed to tune out distractions. The clock (or the cup – whatever) was like the catcher’s mitt.”
Since he started this concentration exercise, Hanrahan is 5-1 with a 3.27 ERA.
For more real-time information, news, links and stats from around MLB, check out Baseball Musings.
Yesterday, in a post to his blog for the New York Post, citing ‘team officials,’ Joel Sherman wrote that the Mets continue to look heavily at Pirates OF Jason Bay, M’s OF Raul Ibanez and Indians OF Casey Blake.
Today in the Daily News, citing a ‘team insider,’ Rubin also writes that the team has expressed interest in Blake, Ibanez and Bay.
According to Rubin, “The belief is that those teams’ demands, currently exorbitant, will relax as Thursday’s trading deadline approaches.”
…with or without Ryan Church, i believe the Mets should make a trade for an outfielder…at this point, i have no problem with using Jon Niese or Eddie Kunz to help further invest in this current season, which is going far better than most people thought it would just 30 days ago…the Mets neglected their farm system a bit over the previous few seasons, clobbered it further with the Johan Santana trade, and so i just as soon keep depleting it while trusting that the most recent minor-league acquisitions, such as Brad Holt and Reese Havens and Wilmer Flores, are all the start of a new-and-improved farm system instead…
…in other words, as long as it’s not Fernando Martinez, who, at this point, i am not sure is even a requirement for such a deal anyways, i have no problem if minaya wants to trade niese, kunz, Mike Carp, etc, to bring in an upgrade…
…to me, this team needs a stable, reliable corner outfielder, who a) the Mets can run out there every day and know what they’ll get, b) helps to prop up the back-end of the batting order, and c) who will help return order the bench…Damion Easley, Fernando Tatis, Marlon 
Anderson and Endy Chavez are not starting outfielders, they are superb bench players, which is where they best serve the team…
…bay would be nice, obviously, but ibanez or blake or even Adam Dunn would also do the trick…
Yesterday, at SNY.tv Ted Berg explained why the Mets should consider buying low on Dunn.
…the thing is, i’m not sure it’s a matter of buying low…it’s a matter of offering more than what the Reds believe they will draft with the two picks their likely to get in the off-season when dunn leaves as a free agent…
…the knock on dunn seems to be that he’s just not that smart of a baseball player…but, frankly, who cares…the Mets do not need a Gold Glove outfielder…they have endy as a defensive replacement…if he clogs the bases, they’ll adjust…and, dunn, like bay, would bring extra substance to the middle of the lineup in name recognition alone…
…ibanez does this to a less extent, as does blake, who has also played third base, shortstop and first base during his nine-year career…blake actually reminds me a lot of Xavier Nady, and he would help balance out the batting order as well as any one on minaya’s wish list…
…plus, blake is a rough player who already has his playoff beard…
Tagged Raul Ibanez |
