Really? Brad Ausmus? Really? Darin Erstad? Really.

Big winners: Carlos Beltran, +29.1% WPA, Luis Ayala, +14.3% WPA
Big losers: Pedro Feliciano, -40.8% WPA, Aaron Heilman, -15.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Beltran two-run dinger, +18.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ausmus godammit, -33.2% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -19.6%
Total batter WPA: -30.4%
GWRBI: Brad Ausmus

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by gogomets; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

A win, a save, and a "W" for Johan Santana. It could've gone a lot worse, but Santana was great outside of the first inning and the bullpen pitched two scoreless frames. Yea. Read that last part again. It's not a typo.

Big winners: Pedro Feliciano, +20.9% WPA, Carlos Beltram +19.2% WPA
Big losers: Dan Murphy, -7.3% WPA, Brian Schneider, -7.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Easley takes a header, +15.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Langerhans homerun, -22.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +42.5%
Total batter WPA: +7.5%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by BobbyV_Incognito; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed for an article to appear in the New York Times about the effort by the NYCEDC to transform Willets Point from chop shops and environmental wasteland to a burgeoning residential and commercial development. The article appeared in today's issue, and includes some quotes by myself and Chris McShane, who runs Develop Willets Point. The article is a good read, and does well to reinforce the immense upside -- both to the city itself as well as its residents -- of making the area around Shea/Citi Field usable, useful, and environmentally sound.

Carlos Beltran looks like he may be going on a hot streak.

Ryan Church has been cleared to play and will head to Port St. Lucie to begin a rehab assignment with the Mets' High-A affiliate. In the same article, Billy Wagner threw a baseball yesterday for the first time since hitting the disabled list. There's no timetable yet for his return, but since he can't come off the DL until 8/18 we're probably looking at a couple of weeks. Also, John Maine threw a 61-pitch simulated game and reported no ill effects.

Luis Castillo could be back this week. Yay?

Maybe the Mets' organizational depth wasn't as bad as everyone thought. Twenty Daniel Murphy at-bats doesn't exactly turn things around, but it's nice to see the kids contribute meaningfully and, perhaps as important, actually get a chance to contribute meaningfully. Were Willie Randolph still running things, you can bet that Murphy would be batting eighth at best, riding the pine at worst.

Nice article about Kelvin Torve, who was called up to the Mets in 1990 and was promptly issued Willie Mays's #24. That lasted about a week, before a flood of calls and e-mails crying sacrilege convinced equipment manager Charlie Samuels to give Torve a new number. Of course, Rickey Henderson was given Mays's number 1999, but Torve will always be a footnote for wearing it in between.

One last note: we're having Geek Day in Pittsburgh next weekend and I have an extra ticket to Saturday's game. If anyone here wants to go, shoot me an e-mail (there's a link at the bottom of the page). If you live in the NYC/NJ area you can even hitch a ride there and back with myself and Alex Nelson. We're leaving Friday morning, so that may be an issue for some. Anyway, I would love to have a die hard AA-er (either kind) along for the fun.

Brian Stokes was far from terrible in his first big league appearance this season, striking out six and allowing four runs in 5.2 innings. He wasn't exactly spectacular, but he kept the Mets in the game long enough for them to rough up the Marlins' bullpen and ultimately walk away with an 8-6 win.

The legend of Dan Murphy continues to grow, as the Met rookie hit a two-run pinch-hit homerun in the seventh inning, adding a GWRBI to his list of early accomplishments.

Carlos Beltran went 3-for-3 with an intentional walk and Carlos Delgado hit another long homerun, as his bat continues to implore the Mets to pick up his 2009 team option.

The bullpen was shaky again, particularly Joe Smith, but Aaron Heilman nailed down his second save in as many games and the Mets moved a game-and-a-half ahead of the Marlins while remaining a game behind the Phillies.

Big winners: Carlos Beltran, +15.7% WPA, Dan Murphy, +14.1% WPA
Big losers: Brian Stokes, -12.3% WPA, Joe Smith, -10.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Amezaga double-play in 8th, +15.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Mike Jacobs bomb, -25.3% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +1.5%
Total batter WPA: +48.5%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by Simons; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

And we're back to the wretched, intolerable Mets games of yestermonth. Sloppy defense, anemic offense, practically nothing to get excited about. The pitching wasn't terrible. Pedro Martinez got off to a rough start but mostly settled down and managed to pitch into the seventh inning. Only a David Wright error allowed the Padres' third run to score, and an Eddie "Rusty" Kunz homerun allowed -- his first since 2005 when he was playing with Oregon State -- put the game woefully out of reach at 4-2.

The Mets' hitters are back in that mode of, uhh, that thing where you don't do a lot of run-scoring. They made another mediocre starter look like the second coming of Steve Nebraska and fell back to three games behind the Phillies. There's still hope: three games is far from insurmountable, they've got plenty of games left against the Phillies and Marlins, blah blah blah. Seriously, who can stand this anymore? They'll suck me back in with an 8-2 win on Thursday, and then back in the crapper with a 3-1 loss on Friday. Eff this ess.

Big winners: David Wright, +20.5% WPA, Dan Murphy, +17.2% WPA
Big losers: Carlos Beltran, -27.3% WPA, Carlos Delgado, -21.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Murphy RBI single, +10.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Giles single/Wright error, -18.9% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -6.3%
Total batter WPA: -43.7%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

The Mets have 99 Problems but a Beltran ain't one, Tim Marchman's counterpoint to yesterday's Mike Lupica-gram.

At MetsGeek, Dan Scotto has an idea of how to fix the Mets' bullpen. It's two-pronged: get better pitchers and play better defense.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sits down with Pirates GM Neal Huntington to discuss the internal machinations involved in negotiating last Thursday's three-team deal that netted the Bucs four prospects in exchange for Jason Bay.

At what he calls the four-letter, Keith Law looks at six players who could be on the move during the waiver trading period between now and August 31.

In a story broken by SBN's Martin Gandy, Tim Hudson will have season-ending Tommy John surgery.

At The Hardball Times, Bill Baer plots the remainder of the Phillies' season, looking at the rest of this year as well as the offseason leading into 2009.

Schlitz is back!.

In lieu of my customary recap I decided to switch things up last night, so I did a bunch of drinking instead. If you missed the game you can read the postmortem at Newsday, The Journal News, The Bergen Record, etc.

Dan Murphy and Nick Evans will platoon in left field for the time being, with Fernando Tatis shifting over to right, at least until Ryan Church returns. The plan once Church returns is unclear, but I'm excited to see what the kids can do. Enough Endy Chavez and Marlon Anderson (who is on the disabled list now); find out if either of Murphy or Evans is ready to help this team this year or next. A hundred at-bats doesn't tell you much, but I'd still rather see either of them than Chavez or Anderson at this point.

Val Pascucci hit three more homeruns yesterday, and now has 24 for the year to go along with his .980 OPS.

Mike Lupica thinks that Carlos Beltran is the biggest offensive disappointment in New York baseball. I didn't actually read the article because I already took my morning dump, but if any of you brave souls bother to can you please enlighten me as to how Beltran's 117 OPS+ is more disappointing than Derek Jeter's 98? Those are 2008 figures, mind you. Beltran has been solid but unspectacular at the plate this season, and has still managed to post an OPS 17% better than the league at the third-most important defensive position (after catcher and shortstop).

Nice win for the Mets, even if it wasn't a terribly exciting game for anyone. Scott Olsen was sweating buckets early on to the point that I was actually uncomfortable watching it (thanks for nothing, SNYHD!). He was mercifully pulled before the ground crew had to be called out to add that super-absorbent sand to the pitching mound that they usually reserve for after rain delays.

Oliver Perez was solid but unspectacular, though it's hard to complain when your starter goes six innings and allows just a run. Aaron Heilman pitched the seventh and the eighth, and after shaking off some rust/Joe West's ridiculous strike zone, was mostly dominant in a couple of innings of work.

Carlos Delgado went deep -- yes, again -- and I'm sure is hoping that July never flips to August considering how hot he's been this month. Carlos Beltran had the biggest hit of the game, driving in the go-ahead run in the sixth. If he weren't so darned un-clutch he would've done it in the ninth inning, but I guess the Tron-haters will have to take what they can get.

Unfortunately, the Nationals are utterly pathetic (except against the Mets), and managed just a run against Brett Myers and the Phillies, so the Mets remain a half-game in front. If it's any consolation, the Braves lost and drop to 8.5 games back.

Big winners: Oliver Perez, +27.7% WPA, Aaron Heilman, +16.5% WPA
Big losers: Damion Easley, -13/0% WPA, Ramon Castro, -6.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Beltran RBI single in sixth, +16.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Willingham RBI double in first, -10.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +48.6%
Total batter WPA: +0.4%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by BobbyV_Incognito; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

Newsday talks to Carlos Beltran about his ridiculous catch yesterday.

Pedro Martinez could be back and ready to go as soon as Friday, though Jerry Manuel expects him to throw a bullpen or side session to get him back ready for a return.

Ramirez no, Ibanez yes? If the Mariners lower their asking price the Mets could make a play for Raul Ibanez. He could be a good fit here, as he's a New York native and knows Beltran well. He was also a Type A free agent last season, so the Mets could do well to trade a couple of so-so prospects, hang on to Ibanez through the end of the season, then let him walk away and collect the draft picks.

Everyone's happy about Johan Santana's complete game except Filip Bondy, who says that Santana and the Mets felt pressure to go the distance following last week's disaster against the Phillies.

Interesting article in The Times about how ExxonMobil is using the Nationals' new ballpark's green color and its proximity to Congress to give the impression that they are more environmentally-conscious than they really are. More coverage at Federal Baseball.

At MetsGeek today, Alex Nelson previews the Marlins' pitchers.

Johan Santana finally gets the complete game he should have had a week ago, and drops his ERA to 2.93, good for sixth in the NL. He thoroughly dominated the Cardinals, a solo homerun by Albert Pujols the only real blemish. I'm told that Duaner Sanchez wasn't even allowed out of the clubhouse until the game was over just to be on the safe side.

The same Mets' offense that was stymied by Kyle Lohse a few weeks ago battered him relentlessly through five-plus innings, cranking out seven runs on eleven hits including three homeruns. The Mets tallied 17 hits overall including seven for extra-bases. Santana went 2-for-2 with a run batted in, everyone in the lineup had at least one hit and either scored or drove in a run.

Carlos Beltran made an in-friggin-credible catch at the wall, but let's see him come up big when it's *not* a blowout, eh? Ramon Castro continues to support my theory that Brian Schneider has incriminating photos of Jerry Manuel or Omar Minaya or perhaps both at the same time. What does this guy have to do to get into more than one game a week?

Big winners: Johan Santana, +33.0% WPA, Endy Chavez, +9.4 % WPA
Big losers: Carlos Delgado, -8.8% WPA, Damion Easley, -4.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Beltran RBI-single in 3rd, +9.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Delgado double-play in 1st, -8.5% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +33.0%
Total batter WPA: +17.0%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by BobbyV_Incognito; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.