Off Day Applesauce: Gee Out, Harvey Says He's Ready

There was no baseball going on yesterday, so this applesauce may be a little bit shorter than usual due to a general lack of news to report. The big news of the day involved Dillon Gee and the blood clot he was dealing with. Gee is scheduled for surgery on Friday that will leave him out for 6-8 weeks, so if the Mets fall out of the race there is a good chance we've seen the last of him for this season. That would be a real shame, as Gee was in the midst of a very solid season in which he had produced 1.6 fWAR and a 3.50 xFIP. We'll all be wishing him a very speedy recovery.

The Gee news would seemingly open the door for Matt Harvey to make his Mets debut. Harvey says he's ready, but that call up won't be happening quite yet as Josh Edgin will be taking Gee's place on the roster for the time being. I'd have to imagine the Mets will be doing something soon, as Miguel Batista is clearly not the answer should the Mets think they have a real shot at the wild card. Harvey backed up his "readiness" by being named one of the stars of the AAA all-star game.

Toby Hyde has been reviewing his top 41 Mets prospects for us over at his site. Yesterday we presented our top 50 list for you to browse, today Toby did #31-35. As always, Toby's work is worth checking out.

In other Mets minor league news, the B-Mets seem to feel fairly confident that they'll be extending their agreement with the Mets. There was also another mention of the Yankees Triple-a travel woes, due in large part to the Mets. Call me spiteful, but after Cashman pulled that stunt where he delayed the Mets completing the Wagner trade, I really don't feel too much sympathy.

Around Baseball

There wasn't much going on elsewhere, as there were no games being played. FanGraphs took a look at some of the NL storylines though, and it's shaping u to be a fun second half.

John Sickels took a look back at Larry Jones as a prospect. He summed him up well with his final line:

Not bad for a guy who started off as an error-prone shortstop who couldn't hit rookie ball pitching.

In other Braves news, Ben Sheets will be starting for them this weekend. That wasn't a typo, they are really starting Ben Sheets. Does anybody remember when the Braves had too much pitching?

Another team that might run into a pitching shortage soon is the Nats. This may be their own choice, however. Can you imagine the reaction if they slump after they shut Strasburg down? This could be fun.

The Marlins are more worried about pitching at the back end of their bullpen this morning. They've demoted fantastic-use-of-money Heath Bell, so now they'll be back to their usual closer by committee. Here's a look at this season's version. If they are interested in adding to that committee, Brian Fuentes is now a free agent.

Finally for today, MLB.com updates us on the six first round picks that remain unsigned as the deadline to do so approaches. It will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out.