Charlie Nobles of the New York Times does a fantastic job painting the picture of RHP Pedro Martinez’s simulated game earlier this afternoon.
With Omar Minaya in attendance, Martinez threw 67 pitches over five and a third innings of work. 50 of the 67 pitches were strikes, including 24 of his last 28 pitches.Minaya, as quoted [...]

The Mets (61-47) defeated the Brewers (58-51) by the score of 12 to 4 this afternoon.
For a full recap and box score, check out Yahoo! Sports.
…it’s nice to breathe easy in the ninth inning, isn’t it…a few things……the Mets got healthy today with 18 hits…in fact, every starter except Luis Castillo had a hit…big day [...]

The Game:
The first-place Mets (60-47) look for the victory in the rubber game vs. the Brewers (58-50) this afternoon at Miller Park, starting at 2:05 pm EDT.
The Lineup:
Jose Reyes leads off, followed in order by Luis Castillo, David Wright, Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou, Damion Easley, Ramon Castro, Lastings Milledge and starting pitcher Brian Lawrence.The Pitchers:
RHP [...]

RHP Pedro Martinez pitched to mixture of Gulf Coast League Mets and St. Lucie Mets this afternoon in a simulated game.
He threw 67 pitches over five and a third innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits while striking out three.
He did hit a batter, but 50 of his 67 pitches were thrown for [...]

C Mike DiFelice was designated for assignment in order to make room for this afternoon’s starter RHP Brian Lawrence.
Lawrence will wear #54 today.
By the way, C Paul Lo Duca will likely only be used in an emergency situation. His status for the Cubs series is still up in the air.
..in other words, it’s all yours, [...]

Michael Salfino on SNY.tv pits Mets and Yankee players head to head on very specific characteristics such as who has the best curveball in New York, who has the best slider, who is best at hitting fastballs, who hits the curve the best, and more.
…this is actually pretty interesting stuff…i’d love to see who the [...]

Howard Megdal, in The New York Observer, takes a closer look at the influence Rickey Henderson has had on players like Lastings Milledge. Megdal quotes Milledge
“We’ve really connected, he’s helped me with my approach at the plate, my approach in
general.”

Milledge has hit .286 through July 26, with three home runs and a .492 slugging
percentage. Megdal [...]

A reader requests:
“Can you or someone post an explanation as to the proceedings to trades after the deadline.”

..it’s complicated…However, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com penned an informative piece entitled Waivers 101 that is sure to help you out.
By the way, be sure to check out Stark’s new book, The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated [...]

In the Star-Telegram, Gil Lebreton quotes a scout from an American League team saying that the Eric Gagne, and particularly the Mark Teixiera deal, favored the Rangers.
“Atlanta got mugged”

Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers, describes how they offered an eight-year, $140-million contract to the first baseman before dealing him to Atlanta. Teixeira’s agent, Scott [...]

According to The
Hollywood Reporter, ESPN will premiere a two-hour documentary in the spring
about former Mets manager Bobby Valentine’s transformation into a “hero”
of Japanese baseball appropriately titled “Bobby V. in
Japan“.
MetsBlog recently posted an update on Valentine, which you
can view here. 
In it, I mention a video of Bobby V. dancing which I could not find until now [...]

Steve Popper in The Record quotes Ramon Castro on getting Oliver Perez to settle down during games
Popper describes the tendency Perez has for getting overexcited at times, and goes from being a shutdown pitcher to someone who self destructs and loses his head at times.
…i don’t want him to settle down too much, cause i [...]

Tonight, the Mets Single-A affiliate Savannah Sand Gnats are hosting “Lindsay
Lohan Drunk Driving Awareness Night.”

The Sand Gnats will encourage the fans in attendance to learn from the
redheaded actress’ mistakes and plan for safe transportation home from the
game.
Hook Towing will have a wrecked car from a drunk driving accident
on display on the plaza in front of the [...]

On Mets Geek, Alex Nelson has put together an extensive month in review of the Mets in July.
Among the statistics Alex shares with us, he points out that the Mets have improved their batting average with runners in scoring postion from .236  in June to .283 in July. The Mets are just four games off their [...]

On today’s edition of The MetsBlog Podcast, I talked with Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com for roughly 15 minutes about Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline, the value of Mets prospects, what the team does now going forward, and the job being done by Willie Randolph.
Yesterday, Anthony and I talked with Tim Marchman from the New York Sun in a [...]

On Monday night, Guillermo Mota allowed a hit for a blown save.  Last night, he tossed two scoreless, hitless innings with two strike outs.
Willie Randolph, on why he used Mota, while talking to reporters after last night’s win…
“Every once in a while you’ll make a bad pitch, and you’ve got to get back on that horse and [...]