In light of Joba Chamberlain's recent trip to the disabled list, Tim Marchman looks at the curse that seems to have befallen young phenoms over the past twenty years.

Luis Castillo is close to returning. This is good news for Castillo and nobody else.

Ryan Church might not return at all this season. He has been taking batting practice and shagging flies, but the Mets have been tight-lipped about his upcoming medical evaluation and he has yet to be cleared for a return to the field.

Aaron Heilman still wants to start, and with the potential for two holes in the 2009 rotation who's to say he won't?

Jon Niese probably won't start for the Mets on Saturday. It'll probably be Brian Stokes or Claudio Vargas.

At The Hardball Times, Geoff Young looks back at the 1983 Lynchburg Mets, a team that went 96-43 and produced the likes of Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra, Calvin Schiraldi, Ed Hearn and others.

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).

Ryan Church's plans have changed again. He was originally supposed to drive from Miami to Port St. Lucie to begin a rehab assignment with the Class-A Mets, but has been advised by the Mets' medical team to travel with rest of the Mets to Houston so that his situation can be monitored more closely. He just began swinging a bat again on Tuesday, and the Mets are reluctant to accelerate his timetable again. Nothing tangible seems to have triggered the change in plans; everyone just wants to take things more slowly this time around.

As I mentioned in my post earlier, the Mets appear on the verge of doing nothing, which may be the best course of action considering what other teams are asking for their mediocre players, let alone their stars. Buried in the afore-linked article is a note about John Maine, who has a strained rotator cuff and is likely to miss at least his next start in Houston. Pedro Martinez and Billy Wagner, who have each had similar injuries in the past, recommended some time off so that Maine's shoulder can rest.

Ken Griffey Jr. has been traded to the White Sox, pending Griffey's 10-5 approval. Griffey is having a so-so year, posting a 103 OPS+, which is actually kinda crummy for a corner outfielder playing his home games in Great American Ballpark. We'll see how much he as left in the tank.

More to come, I'm sure. Use this space to dump and discuss all of the links/rumors you hear throughout the day.

UPDATE [10:55am]: Peter Gammons reports that the Marlins have acquired Arthur Rhodes in exchange for former Met prospect Gaby Hernandez. Hernandez has a 7.24 ERA with Albquerque of the Pacific Coast League. The Mets had traded Hernandez to the Marlins a couple of years ago in the Paul Lo Duca deal. [MetsBlog]

UPDATE [4:35pm]: Manny Ramirez appears to be headed to the Dodgers in a three-team deal that sends Jason Bay to Boston and a bunch of prospects to Pittsburgh. More as this develops. [SI.com]

UPDATE [4:47pm]: I'm hearing Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss coming from Boston and Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris coming from L.A., all going to Pittsburgh. More coverage at Over The Monster.

Our internet was out at work for a while this morning and I've got tons to do here, but here's a quick hits version of applesauce for today:

John Maine is hurt.

Oliver Perez is suddenly dependable.

Ryan Church is getting close.

Pedro Martinez wants Manny Ramirez (high road, people).

Mike Pelfrey keeps on rollin'.

SB Nation reacts to the Mark Teixeira trade: Beyond the Boxscore thinks it was a bad move for the Angels. Halos Heaven is on the fence. Talking Chop wanted more, but likes Casey Kotchman's upside.

Oh, and Mike Silva at Dugout Central thinks the Mets should sign Carl Everett from the Long Island Ducks, even though Everett doesn't believe that dinosaurs ever existed because they weren't in the Bible.

Jerry Manual throws his support behind Fernando Tatis, and for good reason. The Mets don't have any better options right now, and Tatis continues to defy all logic by hitting incredibly well. Ryan church *may* be back soon, and the Mets *may* trade for Raul Ibanez, but right now Tatis is the best corner outfielder they've got.

JC Bradbury takes Buzz Bissinger to task for writing a lazy article in the New York Times about how baseball players are rich and lots of folks are poor and unhealthy.

Philly.com's Paul Hagen interviews Phillies GM Pat Gillick about the forthcoming non-waiver trade deadline, though half of it is just about Jimmy Rollins' benching last week at Shea.

Over at MetsGeek, Chris McCown dissects a possible trade for Raul Ibanez.

Jorge Posada will have shoulder surgery and is done for the year

Xavier Nady is happy to be back in New York.

Mark Teixeira is officially on the block.

The Indians are in full-on sell-mode, and Beyond The Boxscore breaks down GM Mark Shapiro's recent deals.

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.

I mentioned it yesterday, but Brandon Knight is making his first big league start tonight against the Cardinals in place of Pedro Martinez, who is on the bereavement list after the death of his father. Knight was out of baseball last season before his wife convinced him to take a spot pitching in the Independent League. The Mets signed him to a minor league deal in May and he has been dominant in five starts (eleven appearances overall), striking out 49 and walking just ten in 39.1 innings, notching a 1.60 ERA. Now, Triple-A isn't quite Quadruple-A (read: Tampa Bay pre-2008), which isn't quite the major leagues, but it's a good story and we all love good stories, right?

Ryan Church has begun light conditioning, but could still be a week or two away from returning. Jerry Manuel says Church will need upwards of seven rehab starts once he's ready to go, though Church is taking "the under" on that one. With the trade market thin and pricey, a Church return would be a huge addition to the Mets' offense. Names like Raul Ibanez and Casey Blake are out there and they'd definitely be upgrades over Chavez and Tatis, but would like cost at least a B-level prospect and the Mets don't have too many of those lying around. Larry Brooks at The Post has more on this.

Mark Hale on Mike Pelfrey's awesomeness.

Newsday's Jim Baumbach caught up with Dwight Gooden after an autograph show yesterday and god an update on where Doc is at right now. Something you may not have known: Gooden has six kids between the ages of 3 and 21.

Steve Popper at The Record takes a look at the Mets' Double-A team in Binghamton, where the Mets have started to stockpile a decent set of players. An interesting tidbit in the middle of the article: "GM Omar Minaya said Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro told him that he had the pieces to get C.C. Sabathia."

In case you missed it last night, the Yankees acquired Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte from the Pirates for four "prospects": Jose Tabata, George Kontos, Russ Ross Ohlendorf and Phil Coke. More coverage at Bucs Dugout and Pinstripe Alley.

As with any link dump, I encourage you to add your own links in the comments.

One lousy single from Brad Hawpe is all that separated the Mets from the franchise's first no-hitter. I don't really care so much that the Mets have never had one. I'll take the Mets' two World Series over however many no-nos the Astros have had since 1962. Don't get me wrong: it'd be nice to get one, and it'll be really exciting and I'll scream like a schoolgirl, but I don't really lament the fact that there's never been one. The Mets have had a zillion one-hitters, and with just a tiny bit of luck they'd probably have three or four no-hitters by now. But they don't, and they didn't get one on Saturday either.

Tangibly speaking, what they got was just as good: a win, pushing their current streak to eight straight victories and moving them to within a half-game of the Phillies for first place in the NL East. I don't want to say that this seemed unfathomable a week ago, because a week ago the we were in the middle of watching the series with the Phillies and imagining how great it would be to win the last three games and wind up 2.5 games out. But that's just what happened, and then five more wins after that. The Phillies are sputtering a bit and the Cardinals aren't playing so hot, so the Mets are actually just 1.5 games back of the Wild Card. All of this is heady talk when we're only 94 games into the season, but if it was fathomable a week ago it was certainly unfathomable a couple of weeks ago.

Whatever happens tomorrow, the Mets can finish the scheduled first half of the season no worse than a game and a half out of first, and could conceivably head into the All-Star break in first place (!). It's easy to get wrapped up in all of the winning, but you're never really as good as you look when you're on a hot streak and never quite as bad as when you're on a cold streak. The Mets are awesome right now: the starting pitching has been great, the bullpen has been great, the situational hitting has been great, the role players have been great. Is Fernando Tatis going to hit like this all year? Has Mike Pelfrey figured it all out? Is Aaron Heilman back to normal?

Hey, when everybody's playing great there isn't a lot to complain about. The gripers stay away and we're all happy. I'm not going to say the Mets are doing it all with smoke and mirrors, because they are legitimately playing terrific baseball. They've won some squeakers and maybe had some good luck along the way, but great hitting, pitching and unembarrassing fielding is a rock solid formula for moving up in the standings. Moises Alou is probably done for the year, but we really weren't counting on him to contribute much anyway. Ryan Church may be back sooner rather than later, as his recent dizzy spells have been attributed to migraines and not post-concussion issues. Hell, Orlando Hernandez and Angel Pagan are both making rehab starts with St. Lucie. Neither would have a tremendous impact on this team, but both could be useful parts down the stretch.

It could all fall apart tomorrow, but right now it's a lot of fun to watch the Mets play ball, and I guess that's all I really wanted to be able to say. Go out there and win tomorrow and we end the half on a high note.

Big winners: Pedro Martinez, +21.8% WPA, Carlos Muniz, +13.8% WPA
Big losers: Nick Evans, -6.7% WPA, Argenis Reyes, -4.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Iannetta double-play in 4th, +10.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Evans strikeout with bases loaded in 4th, -6.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +48.7%
Total batter WPA: +1.3%

Game Thread Roll Call

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

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.

More of the same here as the Mets follow up an excruciating loss with a laugher, roughing up Mitchell Boggs for eleven runs and ten hits in six innings. Boggs was in take-one-for-the-team mode, as the Mets scored nine of their runs in the first three innings. Carlos Beltran had the night off, and it was good to see this team score some runs when one of their big bats is out of the lineup. I guess it helps when the planets align and Endy Chavez, Marlon Anderson and Damion Easley get two hits apiece. One of them, fine, I'll buy it. Two of them, sure, crazy things happen all the time. But all three? The odds of that happening are vanishingly small, and unless you're that girl that got struck by lightning AND won the lottery, the likelihood of it happening again are equally slim. Having Ryan Church's bat ine the lineup and what I can only guess is a wardrobe entirely furnished by Abercrombie and Fitch back in the locker room adds quite a bit of depth to the offense (Church's intramural beer pong team is thrilled to have him back as well, I'm told). No longer can teams pitch around the first four batters and bank on fifteen straight outs to follow.

What's more, Mike Pelfrey is very rapidly transforming into a stud. The pitch he struck out Pujols on in the first inning was downright filthy, and he got plenty of groundballs and popups en route to allowing just one run over seven innings. His fastball is definitely a plus pitch right now, and with each start his secondary pitches seem to be getting a little bit better. They're still nothing special; maybe not even an average pitch among them, but his heater is so good right now that even marginal progress with his off-speed pitches will lead to dramatic results when he's out there. He's not there yet, but I could see him following along the Brandon Webb career path. I'm not going to delude myself into thinking he'll be as good as Webb, but there are enough similarities to project Pelfrey as a possible poor man's version of Webb in a couple of years. Pelfrey just turned 24 and is in his third partial season -- first full season -- with the Mets. He's had plenty of ups and downs since turning pro, especially at the big league level, but he's making real strides towards becoming a pitcher, not the proverbial thrower.

Big winners: Damion Easley, +11.4% WPA, Mike Pelfrey, +11.3% WPA
Big losers: Ramon Castro, -1.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Damion Easley RBI single in first, +8.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Castro lineout in first, -2.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +11.4%
Total batter WPA: +38.6%

Game Thread Roll Call

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