End Of Season Applesauce: Mets win meaningless game, Braves and Red Sox lose mildly important ones

One hundred and sixty two games are now in the books. The Mets finished their season on a positive note, beating the Reds 3-0 at home. Also of note yesterday was Jose Reyes winning the NL batting title. While he's taken some flack for being lifted after one at bat yesterday, I really don't have any issue with that. I just hope that the Mets make a serious bid to retain Jose next year and beyond, as he's been my favorite player on the team for the last several years.

As usual, there are several positives to be taken from finishing below .500. The Mets will again be drafting in a good position. A look at the reverse standings shows that the club will be drafting 12th next June. While it seems unlikely that the Mets will be targeting any Type A free agents this offseason, should they decide to do so they will not be forfeiting a 1st round draft pick to do so. The final records look to have worked out on the Reyes front as well, as every team that seems like a likely destination for Jose (beyond the Mets) seems to have finished in the top half of the standings.

Speaking of Jose's impending free agency, Met legend Darryl Strawberry hopes that Reyes decides to stay put. Did I ever mention that Strawberry seems to have gotten much wiser as he aged? Several other Mets are also heading to free agency, the most notable of which is probably Chris Capuano. For what it's worth, Capuano seems to have really enjoyed his time with the Mets.

Brandon Nimmo was in NY the last several days to get a look at Citi Field. Hopefully the next time he visits the walls will have been adjusted somewhat to make the park play a little more neutral. Maybe they'll even be blue as well...

Some more details have been leaked about what the Mets were asking for the Yankees to relocate to Newark. Frankly I just don't think it's unreasonable at all, and if the Yankees refused to agree to what the Mets were asking I'm glad they told Cashman where to stick it. It's just not worth the potential foothold the Yankees would gain in Newark to pay about 1/2 of Daniel Murphy's salary.

Patrick Flood had a little deeper look at the Mets performances at home and on the road this season. I'm not sure that I'd look to deeply into their home/road splits at all. The Mets were pretty mediocre on the whole, and Citi Field could use renovations regardless of the teams performance there. Hopefully both will improve next season.

Around MLB:

I'm sure there will be plenty of looks at the four series about to begin in tomorrow's Applesauce, but for today we're just seeing tons of reaction to the dramatic finish to the campaign last night. In the happiest story of the day for Mets fans (or at least this one), the Atlanta Braves have completed their 2007 Mets-esque collapse and missed the postseason. The 4-3 extra inning loss to the Phillies was probably even more gut wrenching than the Mets finale in 2007. I'm truly glad that I didn't have a vested interest in that team as the season wound down. Take it from us Braves fans, you're not going to hear about much else this offseason.

Joining the Braves on the misery train will be the Boston Red Sox. Probably the most media hyped team in baseball this spring, the Sox were even worse than the Braves down the stretch en route to missing the playoffs. While Jonathon Papelbon fell apart in Baltimore, the Rays made an epic comeback against the Yankees to clinch their spot. FanGraphs had a very interesting note about the comeback. Beyond the Boxscore also took a look at the probabilities of the two collapses happening. 

BtB also took a look at the upcoming third baseman market. While I'd guess that's one area we're set at, it's still always useful to know what's out there.

Finally, the always excellent Joe Posnanski takes a look at several ways to approach MVP voting. It's definitely worth your time to read this one.