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Last night's game was rained out, and there is no word yet on when (or if) we'll see it made up. Terry Collins used the time to his advantage, trying to encourage the players to put their recent poor play behind them. Hopefully we'll see the Mets get back on track soon, but even with the recent poor finishes this season has been going about as well as I could have hoped.
Daniel Murphy has been a hot topic lately. Now batting .319, it's pretty clear that Murphy has a good enough bat to contribute to the roster in some fashion. The NY Times takes a look at what the Mets can do to keep him in the lineup. Andrew Fiorentino seems to think he's the current frontrunner for the second base job going forward. Some bloggers seem to be getting a little carried away with the bat of the Irish Hammer though.
Murph isn't the only player on the roster who's been shaky defensively. Josh Thole has struggled, and Ted Berg take a closer look at his work.
Toby Hyde finished his mid season look at his top 41 prospects. The top 5 can be found here, and the article has links to the rest of the list.
Scouting the Sally ranks the prospects that got traded at the deadline. Nice to see who tops that list...
While we're on prospects, Wally Backman seems very impressed with Matt Harvey.
Around the NL East:
The Phillies won again, wrapping up their second consecutive sweep.
The Braves managed not to lose any more ground on Philly, avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Nats. I wasn't surprised at all to hear they went out there and beat Wang.
Hanley Ramirez had an MRI confirm his shoulder is sprained. He'll be day to day while the fish make a decision about the DL.
Around MLB:
In the stupidest story of the day, Arod may be investigated by MLB for playing poker.
Fangraphs does a nice look at the return on overslot signings. Part 1 is here, part 2 can be found here. With August 15th approaching fast, I'm sure we'll hear much more on this topic soon.
Yu Darvish has hired agent Arn Tellem in anticipation of being posted for MLB this offseason. That would make the free agent pitching market a little deeper for teams with money to spend. Hisashi Iwakuma is also preparing for a move to the United States. I'm sure we'll hear more on both of these guys as the offseason approaches.