Friday Morning Applesauce: Mets plan Acostalypse Now sequel, Reyes returns from the Dominican, Sandy possibly targeting college arm

A day after the Mets imploded in the 7th, they were on the opposite end of a head scratching inning to seal a series split with the Pirates.  He seemed much happier with his post game remarks yesterday.

Ken Rosenthal has an "exclusive" story explaining that the Mets should keep both Wright and Reyes.  It's a sad day when such an obvious no-brainer type statement is such a breath of fresh airfor Mets fans to read.

For as bad as the Mets have been in the PR department for the last few decades, David Wright just has a habit of saying all the right things.  I really hope the day he joins another franchise never comes, luckily it sounds like he's on the same page.  Also on the traid the core front, the post points out a much overlooked detail in Wright's contractthat may make him more valuable to the Mets than any other team in baseball.  Is it possible that Omar actually did something right with an option this time?

Mike O'connor was sent back to Buffalo yesterday, being replaced on the roster by the enigmatic Manny Acosta.  Jose Reyes also returned from his bereavement leave.

Francisco Rodriguez seems to be on the good side of the MSM now due to his willingness to pitch through pain.  I can think of 14.5 million reasons why he's probably willing to trot out for the 9th every chance he gets, and general toughness isn't one of them.  It seems like he's handing us a reason to protect against the vest, although the plan may be to simply make his arm fall off.

New York magazine questions the timing of discussion of retiring Gary Carter's number, and links some very good arguments both for and against the move. 

Around MLB:

After seeing Cole Hamels in a pretty dumb looking shirt yesterday, we get a look at a ridiculous Cliff Lee tee this morning.

The Mets and Dodgers may only be the tip of the iceberg of MLB teams in financial trouble.  

JJ Putz was honored by MLB for a great month.  If only we had done a physical...

More mock drafts, including Baseball America and Jonathon Mayo.  Keith Law says that the Mets seem to be leaning towards a college arm in his chat.  There doesn't seem to be any consensus in the MSM of any sort of player the Mets are looking at, which is a very welcome trade indeed.

Dice-K is officially set for Tommy John.  Teams may now question the intelligence of his enormous posting fee, which could lead to a very interesting bidding process if Yu Darvish is posted this year.