Francoeur = Grission Applesauce - Mets drop series, Backman is a joke, Mets to trade for pitching, blogging Philly prospect

The Jeff Francoeur grission inspired five game winning streak didn't last too long did it? Despite knocking Dan Haren around a little, the Mets dropped three out of four to the Diamondbacks. Oh well. What can you expect when Tim Redding is your best pitcher? 

Meet the Mets

Mike Silva started a minor firestorm when he suggested that the Mets hire Wally Backman to replace Tony Bernazard. Mets Merized disagrees. As does Toby Hyde. I haven't really seen any positive reaction.

Kevin Kernan actually agrees with Eric Simon: the Met front office failed this year.  Miracles do happen sometimes. It's Mets for Me picks up on the theme.

Metsradamus points out that the Mets are the easy part of other teams' schedules. It's cruel facing the truth sometimes.

All this will change once Billy Wagner returns.

Jason Fry says these Mets bring back memories of the Art Howe days.

Jeff Francoeur swings a lot. Yet, he's still Hot Foot's Man-Crush of the Week.

Apparently the Mets will look in the trade market for pitching help during the offseason. Why would they do that when Joel Pineiro will be a free agent....?

Metsblog does a decent job of keeping us up to date on potential waiver wire acquisitions.

Around the NL East

The Phillies look to be done on the transaction front for now.

I'm late to the party on this one, but McCovey Chronicles is joining the Victorino-hater bandwagon.

Phillies prospect Brian Gump is blogging about his time down in the Gulf Coast League. It's actually pretty good. Here's his take on the Cliff Lee deal (he's happy for other reasons). And his take on the unwritten rules of baseball (don't poop on the bus).

Phillies Nation takes a look at the Joe Blanton era.

The Nationals doubled up the Pirates 8-4.

Federal Baseball endorsed Mike Rizzo for full-time GM.

The Braves continued their week-long slide, falling to the Padres 4-2. Atlanta has lost 5 of their last 7.

Around MLB

Too late to help the Mets at all, Arizona signed Daniel Cabrera.

The Red Sox are good at evaluating their bullpen and for controlling hype.

Beyond the Box Score takes a look at the ridiculous Elias free agent rankings.

There are fewer broken bats this year than last year.