Over the last week or so, Mike Nichols and Regis Courtemanche, as well as Brandon Eddy, Jordan Zakarin and Ted Berg, each stepped up to keep content flowing on MetsBlog.com, all while I took a much needed vacation.
Mike, Regis, Jordan, Brandon and Ted are an integral part of MetsBlog, and, though I do not say it as often [...]

Dan Graziano at The Star-Ledger is reporting that the Mets have entered the Huston Street talks, envisioning him as a set-up man or a left-right closer tandem with Billy Wagner.
Also, according to Graziano, the Mets were scouting Texas last night, possibly looking at Marlon Byrd and some of their bullpen arms.
Meanwhile, SI.com’s Jon Heyman suggests [...]

The Mets (52-45) lost to the Reds (47-51) by the score of 5 to 2 tonight in Cincinnati, snapping their 10 game winning streak.
With the loss and Phillies win, the Mets are now one game back in the NL East standings.
For a recap, boxscore, stats, etc., go to SNY.tv.

John Maine (8-7) looked in control until [...]

Today at 2pm, SNY Studio Analyst Darryl Strawberry will be chatting on ESPN.com.
Strawberry is helping promote the release of two new DVDs that celebrate the final season at Shea Stadium: The New York Mets Essential Games Of Shea Stadium and Shea Goodbye.

At the Huffington Post, Dave Hollander examines how immeasurable the arrival of Cliff Floyd is to a team.
According to Hollander, wherever Floyd goes, his teams are impacted ‘as if before Floyd got there not only weren’t they winning but his teams appeared to have little idea how to win.’
Hollander breaks down the following examples of [...]

In his latest installment of Rumblings & Grumblings on ESPN.com, Jayson Stark discusses how the Mets clubhouse sorely misses Jose Valentin.
Stark quotes a baseball insider as explaining:
“Not having Jose Valentin might be the biggest difference between this team and the 2006 team … He not only played well. He’s a tough guy. He kept [...]

At MLB.com, Jon Blau writes of Billy Wagner, who moved to sixth all-time with his 368th career save last night, and who puts winning at the top of the priority list for the team and himself.
Blau quotes Wagner as saying:
“To be able to go out there and do my job, to [...]

At Page 2 on ESPN.com, Paul Lukas (a self-proclaimed lifelong Mets fan) writes an interesting piece, to say the least, about why he hopes Mike Piazza will not be enshrined in the Hall of Fame as a New York Met.
…in my opinion, lukas should stick to writing about uniforms because he is [...]

According to an ESPN.com report, MLB is making tentative plans to experiment with instant replay in the Arizona Fall League, according to a baseball official with knowledge of those discussions.
If successful, the experiment is likely to continue next March during the World Baseball Classic and into spring training games.

Buster Olney reports in his blog for ESPN.com that Johan Santana’s velocity is down 3-4 miles per hour from a couple of years ago - according to some talent evaluators.
Olney further explains:
“He is short-arming the ball more than he has in the past — and this is after some red flags appeared [...]

One of the few bright spots in last night’s game was Jose Reyes, who had two hits, two steals, a walk and a run scored.
In this week’s installment of “The Starting Nine” on ESPN.com, Jerry Crasnick pays tribute to MLB’s top base-stealers and ranks Reyes as numero uno.
Crasnick writes:
“Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman and [...]

In a post to Baseball Prospectus, Jay Jaffe looks at the Cooperstown Case for Mike Piazza, who officially announced his retirement from MLB yesterday.
After the news broke that Piazza officially retired yesterday, everyone rightfully praised him for his tremendous career and what he did for the Mets franchise.
What some people may not remember is the [...]

At his ESPN.com blog, Buster Olney writes that Carlos Delgado’s blown home run call by home-plate umpire Bob Davidson was one more example why instant replay should be used.
Olney explains:
“The Mets wound up smoking the Yankees and so the blown call was not pivotal, but so often disputed home run calls can be pivotal. I [...]

According to Bob Klapisch at ESPN.com, both the Mets and Yankees played .500 baseball in the month of April and it was treated like the apocalypse.
Klapish writes:
“Billy Wagner tore into Oliver Perez last week for lasting only 1 2/3 innings against the Pirates. Across town, Hank Steinbrenner was openly questioning whether his Bombers would even [...]

At the ripe age of 49, former Met Julio Franco finally decided to retire on Saturday.
ESPN.com ’s PAGE 2 put together a pretty interesting list of tidbits that were happening in 1981, which was the last time Franco was officially out of MLB.
Some of the items listed:
• Reggie Jackson was the highest paid player in [...]