The trade deadline is fast approaching and the list of available players is growing shorter. At the same time, the Mets continue to pitch and hit effectively and areas of greatest need are not as considerable as they were as little as a month ago. Then again, winning cures all ills and great play can often mask shortcomings.

Area of need: corner outfield

For instance, Fernando Tatis is hitting .318/.370/.520. Fernando. Tatis. Career .263/.345/.443 hitter. Much worse than that since 2000. He's hitting lefties and righties equally well, and he hasn't completely embarrassed himself in the field. We're only talking 160-some-odd plate appearances, though, and small sample size red flags abound. He's been a great story and a huge lift for the Mets with Moises Alou out for the season and Ryan Church still out as he recovers from the effects of his second concussion this season. Church may be back soon, but neither that nor his long-term status are guaranteed.

Even if Tatis were somehow able to sustain anything resembling his current level of production, Endy Chavez continues to be an offensive sinkhole in right field. Sure, the defense is great and the .272 batting average is decent, but the .316 on-base percentage is 13th among 17 National League right-fielders with at least 250 plate appearances. His .329 slugging percentage is 16th of 17, besting only Washington's Austin Kearns. Endy's .644 OPS is likewise 16th of 17. I don't know which is more astonishing: that Endy is so bad at hitting or that he's managed to accrue 250 plate appearances while being so bad at hitting. That's a poll for another day, I guess. Regardless, Endy's defense is probably good enough to justify carrying his anemic bat as a fourth or fifth outfielder, but as a starting corner outfielder he is pitifully feckless.

Area of need: relief pitching

Billy Wagner's propensity for eating it hard in big games notwithstanding, he's the Mets' best relief pitcher and still one of the best closers in the National League. Aaron Heilman has been a lot better of late and is probably the Mets' number two, which is far preferable to just plain number two, which was Heilman's nom de fan for the first two months of the season.

Duaner Sanchez is a mystery right now. He was effective if unspectacular for the season's first three months, but has been mostly horrible for a couple of weeks now and is suffering a loss in velocity and deterioration of confidence. After missing a year and a half there's no telling what shape his shoulder is in or whether his arm can hold up for an entire season. Maybe it's just a matter of fatigue and he needs a little time off. At all events, he's a definite question mark moving forward.

Pedro Feliciano is still murder on lefties, but unlike the past two seasons, this year he has been downright awful against righties, who have rocked him to the tune of .342/.419/.553. There's nothing wrong with having a lefty specialist in the bullpen, but the Mets already have one guy -- Scott Schoeneweis -- who can't get righties out, and despite his dramatic platoon splits this season I'm pretty sure Jerry Manuel still thinks that Feliciano is a quality guy to throw out there against all comers. Then again, two full years of competence is more meaningful than one half-year of ineptitude, but you still have to assign greater weight to the recent performance, and that's not good news for Feliciano or the Mets.

Joe Smith is the opposite of Feliciano: he dominates righties and has a tough time with the southpaws. Righties have hit just .190/.271/.302 while lefties have gone .293/.408/.415. If only he and Feliciano could play the field I might be inclined to pull Tatis in the late innings and alternate lefty-righty with Smith and Feliciano for an inning or two. It all comes down to how Manuel decides to use them, so let's hope that his inquisitive mind and nerd glasses mean he knows a thing or two about platoon splits.

Area of need: first base?

A month ago this would have been an obvious need, but with Carlos Delgado swinging a mighty big stick I'm not so sure any more. Given how precipitously he declined last year and how quickly he has resurged, you really have to wonder if those nagging injuries were bothering him more than he let on. The elbow in particular caused him a lot of trouble the last year and a half, and if he is finally out from under those problems then maybe it shouldn't be so surprising that he's back to mashing the ball. He's not going to OPS 1.200 the rest of the way as he has during July, but he has finally pushed his OPS over the league average for a first baseman and there's reason for optimism that he might keep it there.

Mark Teixeira and Adam Dunn will cost an arm and a leg to acquire for the remainder of this season and both will be free agents at season's end. They'll both be on the Mets's radar come November, but I think they'll stand pat this summer and hope that Delgado's resurrection is for real.

Area of need: bench

Marlon Anderson is terrible, and needs to be jettisoned as quickly as possible. I like to think that if the Mets could find anyone else worth plugging into that prestigious 25th spot on the roster that they would have already done so, but right now the dried up husks of Lenny Harris and Matt Franco both look like better options. The rest of the bench is serviceable, with Damion Easley and Argenis Reyes both providing decent production. Nick Evans and Robinson Cancel are nothing special, but the Mets seem inclined to give Evans a few looks at the big league level, and as far as Cancel is concerned, well, they would otherwise just be throwing away the rest of the post-game buffet.

Area of need: catcher?

This one's a trick, because the Mets don't actually need to acquire a new catcher; they just need to play their best catcher more often. That means more time on the pine for Brian Schneider and more cracks at the starting lineup for Ramon Castro. Here is my entire argument:

Ramon Castro: .290/.365/.538
Brian Schneider: .247/.337/.300

So, as long as Jerry Manuel continues to read this blog I think the Mets will be fine at catcher. Or, at least, have the RSS feed in his Google Reader. Either or.

In summation and in conclusion: improve the corner outfield and bench if doing so would come at minimal cost to the farm system. A solid reliever would be nice, but given the going rate of solid relievers I would be more inclined to go with what we've got or, possibly, promote from within. Perhaps Eddie Camacho, Eude Brito or Eddie Kunz -- all currently with Binghamton -- could be given a shot. They can't be much worse than Carlos Muniz has been. Stay the course at first base and catcher, giving more playing time to Castro at the latter.

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.

Name	# of Posts
BobbyV_Incognito	55
Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright	45
LOUtheMETfan	44
DoctorK16	26
Endys Game	11
Prince	7
pingel	5
Simons	5
itsmetsforme	4
Rod Gaspar Fan Club	3
anonymous	3

Not Pelfrey's best outing, but the Mets are back in a tie for first place, so woot! Pelfrey got off to a great start and looked completely dominant through the first three innings. Basically every out recorded was either a groundball or a strikeout, which is exactly what he needs to happen to be successful. Things fell apart in the fourth, as Pelfrey starting leaving the ball up in the zone and the Reds' hitters jumped all over him. His fastball didn't have the sharp downward bite that it had earlier in the game, and good hitters will hit a 94-MPH fastball if it's not moving anywhere. Pelfrey ultimately allowed three homeruns -- to Dunn, Phillips and Encarnacion -- after allowing just four homeruns all season. His 9-to-8 groundball-to-flyball ratio was not especially good (for a groundball pitcher), and the more more balls are hit in the air the greater the likelihood of them leaving the park, especially in Cincinnati.

It wasn't all bad for Pelfrey, though. He was extremely economical with his pitches, throwing just 89 in seven innings of work. Even though he didn't have his A+ stuff he did an adequate job keeping the Mets in the game, slogging through those seven innings and giving the Mets a shot at winning the thing. Thanks to Robinson Cancel's leadoff double in the tenth and the mildly inaccurate arm of Edwin Encarnacion the Mets managed a split of the four-game series. The Mets may have been thinking sweep when the series started, but they should be happy to walk away with two victories. They trailed late in both of the games they eventually won, so a bad break or two and this would've been a tough-to-swallow four-game sweep.

And now for everyone's favorite segment, a little something we like to call "Why the !@#$ is Marlon Anderson still on the roster?". Anderson somehow (divine intervention?) went 1-for-3 at the plate, but whatever value that might've added was wiped out manyfold by his spectacularly ass-headed defensive maneuver in the fourth inning. Ken Griffey hit a flyball down the left-field line to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning which Marlon loafed after as if the ball were clearly headed into the stands. Much to Marlon's surprise, the ball landed some fifteen feet fair and Marlon had to pretend he actually gave a crap as it bounded into the stands for a ground-rule double. Is this the best we can do? Kinda reminds me of that scene in Wayne's World 2.

Wayne: Where's the First Presbyterian Church on Gordon Street?
Gas Station Attendant: *bumbling silence*
Wayne: Gordon Street!
Gas Station Attendant: Oh, yeah. I ... once knew a girl ... who lived on Gordon Street ... but that was a long time ago ... when I was young.
Wayne: Do we have to put up with this? Can't we get a better actor? I know it's a small part, but we can do better than this.

And then Chuck Heston steps in and nails the bit part, bringing Wayne to tears in the process. I realize Marlon Anderson is the 25th man on the roster, but can't we do better than this? Where's our Chuck Heston?

While we're at it, why isn't Ramon Castro playing three days a week, let alone five days a week? Schneider is 33rd in baseball in EqA among catchers with at least 80 plate appearances at .234. That's cherry-picking a bit, as I lowered the bar enough to get Castro and his 93 plate appearances in there. If we bump it up to 150 PA Schneider is at 26th out of 38. That's bad. Not as bad as I thought, actually, but there are still 25 catchers out there that have been better, which is just under one per team. Given 150 PA I'm certain Castro could do better. I'm pretty sure if Castro flipped around and batted lefty he could do better. Robinson Cancel could probably do better. Hell, Raul Casanova is at .253 in 61 plate appearances.

I'm making a plea here: C'mon, Jerry, give your team a fighting chance. Let's make believe for one day that you're *not* a slave to mindless baseball decision-making they way Willie Randolph was. Shock us. Yea, the Mets have won a bunch of games since you took over and they're tied for first place. These are all good things. But when you consistently make choices that put your team at a disadvantage, it just means that the Mets have to do more to overcome the nigh-untenable position you're putting them in. Plainly, they're winning despite you, not because of you. Marlon Anderson hasn't done anything this year to justify significant pinch-hitting appearances, let alone ever starting in a baseball game. Brian Schneider's erstwhile reputation as a plus defender is not a good enough reason to play him in lieu of a clearly superior catcher. Just put the best team you have out there as often as you can and the rest will work itself out.

Big winners: Duaner Sanchez, +25.3% WPA, Carlos Delgado, +21.2% WPA
Big losers: Endy Chavez, -36.4% WPA, Mike Pelfrey, -18.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Castro goes blastro, +19.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Brandon Phillips homerun, -17.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +17.0%
Total batter WPA: +33.0%

---

Game Thread Roll Call

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

Name	# of Posts
BobbyV_Incognito	41
kingcritical	27
itsmetsforme	19
pingel	13
ZaBlanc	5
DoctorK16	5
Shomov	4
JoshNY	4
ams258	3
sireric	2

Ahh, three games over .500. The Mets haven't been this far to the good since they were 20-17 on 5/13, and it's nice to see them get a couple of solid victories against the dregs of the National League. Of course, if David Wright doesn't get selected as the last guy on the All Star team then the Giants will actually have more representation at Yankee Stadium next week than the Mets, though I guess that says more about the All Star Game than about either of these teams.

This was a nice win for the Mets, but the game was really pretty boring. I found myself far more engrossed in the mildly off-topic game chatter discussion than in what was actually happening at Shea. All of the Mets' five runs were scored in two innings, and the Giants managed only six baserunners all game and none after the fifth inning. After a short rain delay in the middle of the fifth, the Mets' bullpen combined to retire the final twelve Giants. The Cardinals' bullpen wasn't quite so good, and a Ryan Howard homerun (for real this time) later and the Mets are still 1.5 games back in the East. Doesn't matter, really. The Mets can't busy themselves worrying about what the Phillies, Marlins and Braves do; that's for us to dwell on.

I've spent plenty of time railing against the Mets' offense this year, but the has-beens and never-will-bes came through tonight when middle of the order didn't bother showing up. Wright-Beltran-Easley (?) went 0-for-10 with a couple of walks, while Endy, Delgado, Castro and OurAnus Reyes had eight of the Mets' nine hits and drove in four of the five runs. Though Castro's only problem has been not getting enough playing time while Mr. Six-Extra-Base-Hits-All-Year hits like a girl and we're regaled with anecdotes about how he calls a great game and has a wonderful rapport with the pitching staff. Hippo goes boom is all you need to know.

The guy I'm forgetting is Jose Reyes, who picked up a single to raise his average to .301 and added two more walks to his growing total, bumping his OBP up to .362. He's OPS-ing .846, he's a shortstop, and he just turned 25. That should keep you nice and warm at night.

Thursday matinée tomorrow, so get some sleep before the Mets go for the sweep.

Big winners: Ramon Castro, +30.4% WPA, Johan Santana, +26.7% WPA
Big losers: Carlos Beltran, -7.5% WPA, Damion Easley, -7.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Hippo goes blippo, +27.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Chavez flyout with 1st and 2nd in the third, -4.9% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +41.9%
Total batter WPA: +8.1%

---

Game Thread Roll Call

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

Name	# of Posts
JoshNY	36
pingel	29
itsmetsforme	24
Simons	22
kendynamo	20
kingcritical	17
Greenpoint Ian	9
DoctorK16	8
JE	6
sireric	5
Endys Game	5
future	4

This team, man. I'm out, I'm in, I'm out, I'm in. They almost won on Friday night only to blow it late, just as they almost lost last night only to come on strong at the end and win by five runs. The Mets gave John Maine a three-run lead early on and he gave it back when man-beast Ryan Howard went opposite field in the fourth. The Phillies took the lead in the bottom of the seventh just to see the Mets march back with three apiece in the eighth and ninth to put the game away.

Maine and Ryan Church both left the game due to injury, but it doesn't look like either is serious. Maine had a cramp in his left forearm and was removed for precautionary reasons. Church left with dizziness that was later diagnosed as a migraine. I'd normally be pretty concerned, post-concussion syndrome and all, but Church has had migraine problems since high school so this could very well have nothing to do with the concussion(s).

Big winners: Brian Schneider, +33.8% WPA, Marlon Anderson, +15.9% WPA
Big losers: Pedro Feliciano, -16.6% WPA, David Wright, -14.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Schneid Dog's two-run double, +33.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ryan Howard three-run bomb, -26.8% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -1.7%
Total batter WPA: +51.7%

---

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by pingel; his effort in last night's game thread embiggens us all.

Name	# of Posts
pingel	33
Reg Dunlop	32
Endys Game	23
itsmetsforme	22
ZaBlanc	11
JohnPeterson	10
DoctorK16	9
kingcritical	6
sireric	6
future	1
JE	1
Prince	1

I didn't see much of the game, but I heard good things. Tony Armas was poor early, better later on. The Mets' bats showed up. The bullpen was strong, Reyes got caught stealing again. Church is already back in the swing of things; Beltran needs a day off, maybe? Schneider needs a bunch of days off?

We went to free movie night again, and the Mets won, again. We saw Wanted, which was quite a bit better than the commercials made it look (for once). I never read the graphic novels; I've never read any graphic novels except for TMNT, and was shocked -- and delighted, at the time -- to find that my favorite mutated amphibians were far more crass and violent in their graphic novel incarnation. I'm told that the Wanted film adaptation isn't terribly true to the original story, but that was irrelevant to me as I had no basis for comparison. I'm not going to do a whole review thing here, but if you're into the whole action/betrayal/revenge story "arc" then you'll enjoy it.

Big winners: Ramon Castro, +23.2% WPA, David Wright, +18.2% WPA
Big losers: Tony Armas, -5.5% WPA, Jose Reyes, -11.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Ramon Castro two-run double, +20.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ankiel two-run blast, -17.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +39.8%
Total batter WPA: +10.2%

I'm going to try to get all of the June game forms filled out and the swag contest results for the month tabulated today or tonight. I know you guys are champing at the bit.

Everybody else is doing it, so why can't we? Forty-one-ish games into the season and the Mets have had an up-and-down three months to say the least. Things could be a whole lot worse, though, even if the Mets have fallen well short of expectations to this point. That's what these mid-season report cards often come down to: how did Player X perform relative to what could have been reasonably expected of him? So with that as our lead-in, here are my first-half grades.

Rotation - C: The starting rotation appeared to be a strength heading into the season, and I guess relative to the offense it *has* been pretty good, but again we're talking about expectations and in that regard the Mets' starters have disappointed as a whole. Mets starters are eighth in the league in ERA and ninth in WHIP, which is fine for a middling team with a small-town payroll, but these are the Ny Effing Mets with more money committed to player salaries than any other team in the National League, so middle of the pack isn't going to cut it. Pedro has been either awful or injured and, while I think he'll pull out of it alright, he's giving the Mets nothing right now. Santana has been fine; unspectacular, but still very good. Oliver Perez, save his most recent outstanding start against the Yankees, has been equal parts terrible and inconsistent. Maine has been pretty good, though not last night.

Rock stars: Mike Pelfrey, I guess

Boxcar hobos: Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez

Bullpen - B-: This grade could be a bit higher because most of the bullpen principals have been quite good. Billy Wagner, with the exception of that execrable stretch of three games at the beginning of June, has been awesome. Scott Schoeneweis's low-three ERA seems unsustainable give his 12-to-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he's been solid despite any smoke and/or mirrors he keeps stashed in his locker. Joe Smith has been inconsistent, but his numbers are pretty good across the board. Feliciano continues to walk a lot of guys, but his ERA and strikeout rates are very strong again. Duaner Sanchez was said to be the key to this relief corps heading into the season, and he's been decent. Like Smith, his numbers are mostly solid, though his ERA is nigh four and his strikeout rate is unspectacular. Aaron Heilman was horrendous in April and May but ungodly in June, so there may be hope for him yet.

Rock stars: Billy Wagner, Pedro Feliciano

Boxcar hobos: Matt Wise, Jorge Sosa

Offense - C-: I'm a little torn on this grade because I'm not sure how much blame to assign to the players and how much should be heaped on the front office and ownership. The offense has not been very good, but a lot of the guys who haven't been very good were known before they even took a swing to not be very good. Marlon Anderson, Endy Chavez, Fernando Tatis: these are not good players. I hate them because they suck, but I don't blame them so much because even their respective mothers could have told us they were terrible. I'll go back to my favorite analogy to these bums: I don't blame a spoon for being unable to to cut my steak; it's a tool ill fit for the job, much like Tatis playing baseball. After a slow start, Jose Reyes has been terrific, and is at or around the top ten players in baseball in VORP. His power is much improved over last season and his walk rate has crept back up to the rate he established last season. Wright has been a little underwhelming, but I still feel like he could break out at any moment. Beltran has been his typical emotionally-subdued but otherwise extremely productive self. Delgado drove in nine runs the other day, so he's good for zippo over the next six weeks now. Church has been mostly terrific and partially injured, but his on-field performance has exceeded any expectations I had of him.

Rock stars: Ryan Church, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran (yes, Carlos Beltran)

Boxcar hobos: Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, Brian Schneider

Manager(s) - C: I don't really know how to evaluate managers, and I don't know if I ever will. Willie Randolph seemed like a nice enough guy, though he had awkward bullpen usage and often relied too heavily on established, ineffective veterans in all facets of play (bullpen, offense, defense). I didn't always care for his lineup construction, and rumors trickled in after his ouster that he had lost his clubhouse. All of this paints a pretty crummy picture of him as a manager, but even considering all of that I still don't know that he cost the Mets any more than a few games over the course of a season relative to a "great" manager, whomever that might be. Jerry Manual took over and has shown a bit more fire and a little less reliance on "his guys".

Front office - D-: Omar Minaya brought in Johan Santana for a truckload of money and a mixed bag of prospects, and despite his best efforts the Lastings Milledge deal has sorta worked out for the Mets so far (though perhaps not in the long run). However, his biggest failing (stop me if you've heard this one before) was his inability to provide reasonable contingency plans for injuries to Moises Alou and continued ineptitude from Carlos Delgado. That the first line of support has been the likes of Tatis, Anderson and Chavez is as big an indictment of Minaya's shortcomings as a GM as anything you could hold against Randolph as a manager. There are some important decisions to be made in the next three weeks about the viability of this team as a legitimate playoff contender, but despite assurances from ownership that his job is safe, Minaya has to feel that this could be a watershed season in his career as Mets GM. The NL East seems weak enough that a small bump could put the Mets over the top, but will Minaya trade away what few chips remain in the farm system for a shot at the postseason? Unfortunately, his short-term outlook and the Mets' long-term success may be diametrically opposed come July 31.

Overall - C-: The Mets are still just three (or so) games out in the NL East, but clearly they have failed to meet expectations in almost every area of their play. There's still a half-season to turn things around, but it'll get late early (Yogi!) if they keep losing every other game.

Agree or disagree, leave your grades in the comments. Or, go one step further and make some prognostications about the next 41 81 (or 40 80, now) games.

Great win for the Mets last night, not that I saw any of it. Tuesday is 'Free Movie Night' at Clearview Cinemas if you happen to be raped in the wallet subscribe to all three of Cablevision's services (TV, internet, phone), so we try to find our way to the movie theater as often as we can to take advantage of the offer. Despite the lure of free entertainment, we didn't really see too many movies this year, mostly because Kim is a science teacher and regularly brings home the requisite mountain of homework/tests/labs to grade. But with summer blockbusters squarely within shouting distance (the new Indiana Jones flick comes out next week) and her enthusiasm for the job waning a bit, we're going to try to make it to the theater far more often in the coming weeks.

Having not seen the Mets game save the post-game highlights, and feeling a bit disingenuous about recapping a game I didn't watch, I'm going to write about the movie instead. We have three Clearview Cinemas within a twenty minute drive of our house, so there's usually a pretty good selection to choose from. None of the individual theaters has more than four or five movies showing at a time, but you can still count on most of the popular movies playing at at least one of them. There are a couple of movies out right now that we wanted to see and have heard good things about: the first is Forgetting Sarah Marshall featuring Jason Segel and produced by Hollywood comedy machine Judd Apatow (who, incidentally, produced two of my favorite but tragically short-lived series of the past decade in Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, both of which cast a certain Mr. Segel in starring and recurring roles, respectively).

The second movie under consideration was Iron man, which has drawn rave reviews despite two initial impediments to success:

1. The seemingly questionable casting of Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role
2. The fact that almost every other comic book movie in recent memory has sucked (Hulk, Dare Devil, Fantastic Four)

Kim kinda wanted to see the comedy, but the action flick was playing in a theater closer to home, so we went with Iron Man. I might have also considered Baby mama because I enjoy Tina Fey's writing and self-deprecating style (30 Rock is a gem) and because Amy Poehler may very well be the funniest woman on the planet (her husband Will Arnett is no slouch himself).

In Iron Man, Downey as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (and eventually Iron Man) manages to turn a potential casting distaster into a stroke of genius. The supporting cast was equally strong, with Jeff Bridges (aka The Dude, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing) as Stark's business partner (and eventually foil) Obediah Stane and Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's assistant Pepper Potts.

Jon Favreau directed the film and actually had a small role as Stark's man-servant, though whenever I see Favreau I can't help but think of him as man-beast Gutter in PCU.

The movie itself was very strong, with good dialogue, great action sequences and believable CGI. Much of the film's two hours is spent on Stark's fabrication and testing of two different Iron Man suits: one as a necessity to escape captor from a cave in Afghanistan (!), and the other upon returning to the states and devoting his energy to helping mankind instead of destroying it. This is all fine, as the mechanization of Stark is integral to the character's story and the scenes flow well and move along with very little drag.

Unfortunately, spending so much time on the process leaves little room for plot. It's a comic book, so I guess there's an endemic lack of ingenuity here, but we wind up with the standard friend-turned-foe story with the requisite revelations of deceit and malfeasance. Good guy becomes bad guy, bad guy betrays good guy, bad guy and good guy square off in predictable denouement, good guy wins! All this isn't to say that the story fails or isn't enjoyable; it works, it's just nothing new.

Ultimately, Iron Man is a very entertaining and well-cast movie that works most of the time and only really struggles in the same way that most comic book plots struggle: because they are all essentially the same feet wearing slightly different shoes. Accepting this caveat, I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone looking for a solid flick without too many intellectual entanglements.

Now, for the Mets.

(what's this?)

Mr. Met: Ryan Church, +35.2%
Mr. Regret: Jose Reyes, -16.9%
(Non-)Clutchiest Plate Appearance: Church fliner that Kearns mis-played into a two-run double, +27.0%
(Non-)Clutchiest Pitch: Zimmerman two-run homer off Maine, -19.7%
WPA by Offense: +23.4%
WPA by Pitchers: +26.6%
WPA by Opponent: +0.0%

• Fernando Tatis! A hit! A run! No comprende!
• John Maine threw a lot of pitches in six innings, but he struck out five batters while only walking one, allowed just two hits and lowered his season ERA to 2.81. His FIP is 4.01, but he has consistently outperformed his FIP by a half-run or more and is one of those pitchers that I refer to as DIPS Darlings. Certain pitchers are able to maintain BABIPs considerably below the league average of .300, and Maine has been one of them throughout his young career. His fastball is a little sneaky and maybe that helps keep his hits allowed to a minimum.
• Brian Schneider with a double? This after hitting a homerun a few days ago? The last thing I expected out of this week was two non-singles from Schneider, who has done a fine job getting on base this season despite zilch in the power department. Nice to see his slugging percentage finally surge above his batting average.

Beating the Phillies is certainly fun, even when it takes seven pitchers to do so.

The arms

Oliver Perez threw 5.2 scoreless innings and struck out seven: Good. He also walked five, including Pedro Feliz on four pitches: Bad. I'm not going to harp on it just yet because the results have been good, but Ollie has walked 12 batters in 21.2 innings this season and sports a gaudy 1.48 WHIP. I'm no baseball expert, but allowing a a baserunner-and-a-half every inning isn't a great recipe for success.

Pedro Feliciano was bad, allowing a single to Greg Dobbs and a walk to Eric Bruntlett (!) to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the eighth. Feliciano left without having retired a batter, and was relieved by Aaron Heilman. Heilman induced a flyball out to left that Angel Pagan bungled into an RBI single. The Bulldog shook off the lousy defense behind him and came back to strike out Geoff Jenkins and Jayson Werth, co-authors of the forthcoming book, How Not to Get the Run in from Third: Ridiculous Spellings of Common First Names and Other Astute Observations.

The sticks

The Mets' 4-5-6 hitters went 0-for-12 with no runs batted in, but their 1-2-3 hitters went 6-for-12 with all four runs batted in. Despite apparently rediscovering his allergy to walks, Jose Reyes continues to swing the bat well since his talk with Carlos Beltran a few days ago. Interestingly, Beltran has been in a funk ever since, so maybe Reyes needs to impart some of his own advice. On the field, Reyes picked up a double and a two-run homer in four trips to the plate, scoring two runs and igniting the offense as only he can.

Luis Castillo reached base twice in four plate-apps. Oliver Perez reached base twice in two plate-apps. Just some food for thought. Meanwhile, Brian Schneider continues to reach base at a solid rate, despite each of his 16 hits this season going for singles and nothing more. A .383 OBP from your catcher is a nice luxury, but the zero extra-base hits still leave his OPS below the .700 mark. Even Paul Lo Duca hit the occasional two-bagger.

Anything else?

Anyone suggesting that Pat Burrell be the answer at first next year should Mark Teixeira sign elsewhere should consider this: He hit .220/.370/.424 away from CBP last season and .295/.430/586 within the friendly confines. He *did* hit very nice .254/.383/.517 on the road in 2006, so maybe last year was an aberration. Burrell has patience and power, and a lead glove to boot. The Phillies have no choice but to play him in left, but the Mets are likely to have a vacancy next year at first. Delgado almost certainly won't be back, and the Mets may balk at a $20+ million price tag for Teixeira. A shorter, cheaper deal to someone like Burrell could make a lot of sense for the Mets, especially with Teix going for 7/$150 or more.