Mets Morning News: Mets Minors Mania!

Meet the Mets Bisons

The Mets had the day off for travel as they head to Cincinatti to enjoy some Skyline Chili and the friendly confines of the Great American Ballpark, but if you found yourself jonesing for some baseball, the Bisons game on SNY was an ideal hit of methadone. Collin McHugh pitched an effective 5 2/3, though he was a bit "wild" as he tried to hit a constantly moving strike zone. Pedro Beato, last seen blowing games for the Mets, came in and the seventh and gave up back to back home, and that was that. Just like watching a real Mets game!

The Mets kick off their series with the red-hot Reds tonight as Chris Young takes the hill opposite Mat Latos. The Mets are also red-hot, riding a one game winning streak! And now that it has been close to 36 hours, I think I can finally chuckle at this a little bit.

Before we say goodbye to the Braves though, Mark Simon has your dose of 'Met'rics from this past weekend's series.

Now, let's see what the SNY.tv crew is up to: Ted Berg delves into the mystery that is the Mets bullpen. We're through the looking glass, people! Toby Hyde takes a look at Jacob DeGrom's debut for St. Lucie. It went well. And Patrick Flood is soliciting your opinions on Jordany Valdespin.

Speaking of JV1, Howard Megdal takes a look at players with comparable walk rates to Valdespin. Yeah, it's not an encouraging list. He also wonders what the Mets might get out of 2013 Johan Santana. Such a Debbie Downer, Howard.

More Mets Minors Mania: Baseball America reviews the best pitching performances in the minors from last weekend, and there are Mets prospects all over the place. Also, Jim Callis answers a question about Matt Harvey and Rick Porcello. Finally, John Sickels takes a look back at the minor league career of Josh Edgin.

Around the NL East

About five minutes after I texted a friend of mine that Ryan Vogelsong was due for a crash, this happened. Vogelsong's ERA went up almost a half point with that lovely performance. The Nats scored all those runs without Ian Desmond of course, who is still rehabbing his oblique injury.

Cole Hamels spun his second straight shutout and ran his scoreless inning streak to 22 as the Phillies blanked the Marlins. With the loss, the Fish fall further into the NL East cellar. Boo hoo.

That noted pitcher of baseballs Eric Stults (not to be confused with noted thespian Eric Stoltz) baffled the Braves' bats in Atlanta. The Braves are slipping in the NL East race, but fortunately Fredi Gonzalez is on it!

At The Hardball Times, Chris Jaffe investigates the odds of Mark Buehrle winning 300 games.

Around MLB

With the Giants getting shellacked, the Dodgers had a chance to move into a tie for the division, and they took care of business in Pittsburgh. Shane Victorino, star of many hilarious GIFs, helped key LA's victory. As always, feel free to share your favorite Shane Victorino GIFs in the comment section.

Ryan Dempster's adjustment to American League baseball is not going so well. He's pitched 17 1/3 innings for the Rangers and given up 24 hits and 16 runs. He keeps this up, and his free agent contract won't be large enough to afford A-Rod's house.

Over at FanGraphs, Matt Klaasen takes a look at what Mike Napoli's free agent contract might look like now. Like Bourn, I think Napoli would be an interesting target if I thought the Mets were going to spend any money this offseason, but I am leery about shelling out dough for older catchers. Meanwhile, over at NotGraphs, a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I-85 really does seem like it has a minor league stadium off every exit.

Finally, the Baseball Analytics Blog looks at the players who swing at the worst pitches the most. Shockingly, JV1 is not on the list. Probably because he doesn't have enough hacks to qualify yet,