Joe had to dash off to save a basket of puppies from a burning building, but I'm going to do my best to fill in for him today.
Meet the Mets
Let's forget about last night's game and talk about some other things.
All right, one thing about last night. Metstradamus calls Ron Darling the Paula Abdul of the SNY teevee crew and explains that if even Darling doesn't know what Jerry Manuel is talking about then we have a serious problem.
The plan is for Carlos Beltran to stay in center for the remainder of the season despite a wonky knee that doubtless renders his range inferior to that of Angel Pagan.
Jose Reyes's four-year, $23.25 million deal expires after this season, and while the Mets hold an $11 million option for 2011 they may look to negotiate a longer-term extension instead.
From Pat Andriola at Fangraphs, why not understanding marginal utility is a circular problem for the Mets.
Francisco Rodriguez may be vastly overpaid for the value he brings, but Chris McShane looks at his trends and still sees a perfectly capable closer through the duration of his contract.
It's Mets For Me breaks down the Mets' recent defensive transgressions and tries to figure out what to make of the rest of the season.
Ed Ryan at Mets Fever offers up a non-Wally-Backman candidate for the Mets forthcoming managerial vacancy: Mets farm director Terry Collins.
Mr. Met gives blood. Why doesn't your team's mascot?
Around MLB
Alex Rodriguez finally hit his 600th career home run yesterday. We probably wouldn't obsess over these arbitrary milestones if we hadn't evolved ten fingers.
With Ryan Howard on the shelf, the Phillies went out and acquired Mike Sweeney from Seattle to fill the sizable void at first base.
Do you like strikeouts? Well, Sun Life Stadium might be the ballpark for you.
After a long and tiring auction process, Nolan Ryan beat out Mark Cuban for the right to spend nearly $400 million on the Texas Rangers.
Matt Hagen at The Hardball Times looks at the top players under 25.
Bill James will lend his spreadsheet-loving voice to an upcoming episode of The Simpsons.
Roberto Alomar has been ordered to avoid his wife after threatening her multiple times and at least once with a knife.
How an irredeemably bad baserunning decision by Torii Hunter cost the Angels.