Meet the Mets
A valiant comeback? A bullpen meltdown? That's right, it's Crushing Loss 2: Electric Boogaloo. Terry Collins is fed up and he's not going to take it anymore. He wants bullpen help now, not three weeks from now. I don't get the Josh Stinson love. I mean, he throws hard, but he hasn't been that much better in relief than he was as a starter, which was bad. Now is also probably a bad time to mention that Sandy just sort of trailed off glumly when talking about the bullpen at Saturday's Baseball Prospectus day at Citi.
But now we must turn our attention to the Phillies. Jon Niese will get an extra day of rest, facing Vance Worley on Tuesday, while Dillon Gee gets fed to the lions to face Cliff Lee tonight. In this series, Parnell will be the closer, except when he isn't the closer. Of course, this is all moot until the Mets win a close game. Or any game Adam Rubin has your series preview over at the WWL.
Jose Reyes (and his hamstring) are almost ready for rehab games.
Andy McCullough mentions Darin Gorski. He gets a link. Take note, beat writers and bloggers.
Jason Bay remembers his LLWS days, probably because ESPN writers have a directive to pump up the LLWS, which completely coincidentally is broadcast on ESPN.
Mets Minor League Blog has video of the elusive Zack Wheeler. The best part of this video is it looks like St. Lucie is wearing the ol' racing stripe jerseys. I'm still not ranking Wheeler over Harvey, but he is the real deal, folks. Also, Toby Hyde was in Florida this weekend and has scouting reports on the St. Lucie and GCL squads.
Greg Prince of Fear and Faith probably could have picked a better day to take the family to the ballpark.
Ted Berg has lawsuits on the mind. So does Howard Megdal.
The Nationals beat the Phils in extras. This is a small consolation after the rain delay screwed up my Roy Halladay ottoneu pick six entry.
The Padres celebrated Trevor Hoffman Day in style, walking off against the Marlins. His heir apparent Heath Bell didn't fare as well, blowing a save opportunity in the ninth.
The Braves continue to beat up on the NL West, blanking the Diamondbacks behind Tim Hudson and some timely D. And as if they didn't have enough pitching, they should be getting Tommy Hanson back soon.
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The ChiSox got back to .500 with a win over the division leading Rangers. Ah, the salad days when the Mets were at .500. Of course, Chicago is only five games out now, because the AL Central is terrible. Meanwhile, the Angels swept the O's to move four back of Texas. And they locked up Jered Weaver for the forseeable future.
More sweeping, the Rays swept the Mariners on a walkoff home run by Johnny Damon. The Mariners did score seven runs, so that is like a moral victory.
Excitement in Detroit, as the Tigers preserve their win with the old walk off baserunner kill.
Even from a Yankee, an inside the park home run gets a link.
The Giants picked up a game on the Diamondbacks with an extra inning win over the Astros. Still no Carlos Beltran and it looks like Brian Wilson will be joining him on the DL.