Friday Morning Applesauce: Mets Drop Series Finale, Wilpons Future Looking Brighter, David Wright May Return Tonight

Yesterday was in all likelihood the last time we'll ever see Carlos Beltran wearing a Mets home uniform.  Unfortunately the Mets dropped the game to the Cardinals 6-2.  This was a strange game throughout, and fittingly featured Gary, Keith, and Ron doing part of the broadcast from the Pepsi porch.  I think they just wanted a better look at Carlos in case it's his last time manning the outfield at Citi.  Also in right field news, a fan manged to elude security after he rushed onto the field yesterday.  If that were a Philly fan, he'd have posed such an inherent risk that he'd need to be tased.  Luckily for us, Mets fans aren't known for being the worst in America.

The Daily News seems to have caught on to the idea that Carlos Beltran is not only good, but a valuable trade chip as well.  It's funny how the MSM are seeming to come around to him now that his days in Queens are probably in the single digits.  The Times even questions whether we should bring him back next season.

In the other major Mets news of the day, the Plaintiffs in the Wilpons Bernie Madoff lawsuit have dropped the damages claim against them.  This doesn't get the Wilpons out of hot water completely, but the lawsuit is looking good for the worst case scenario just got a whole lot better.  That's probably one of the key reasons that nobody seems to know what's really going on with the minority stake of the team that's up for sale.

Here's a quick look ahead at the upcoming Marlins series.  Luckily for us, it appears we might have David Wright back for this one.  

Here's a quick look at some top players that were acquired as prospects at the trade deadline.  Clearly we all hope the return for Beltran will make a list like that someday.

While Patrick Flood had a quick and dirty look at Mike Pelfrey yesterday, he addresses concerns about his velocity today.

Izzy has stated that he doesn't want to be traded, but he seems to realize it may happen and doesn't seem opposed to returning to the Cardinals.

Around the NL East:

The Phillies have added former Met reliever Aaron Heilman on a minor league deal.

The Nationals filled the void created on the middle reliever market by Hielman's signing by releasing Chad Gaudin.

The Braves won an extra inning affair with the Rockies last night.  Freddie Freeman and Jason Heyward both homered in that one.

The Marlins were swept by the Padres yesterday, the game had a pretty awful looking incident involving Orlando Hudson.  On the more positive front, more details were revealed about the new stadium they will be moving into.

Around MLB:

The Indians Grady Sizemore will be out for the next several weeks.  It creates more of a need for Mr. Beltran there, but it's hard to say if they'll still be buyers after the injury.

Lookout Landing takes a closer look at the evolution of Sabermetrics.  It's an interesting read, regardless of your take on it.

At the amateur level, the use of metal bats has suffered another setback.  I can't imagine it will be too long before all levels of baseball abandon the ping in favor of the crack.

Two new suspects have been arrested in the opening day beating of Bryan Stow.  I imagine there will be repercussions involving Giovanni Ramirez.