Thursday Morning Applesauce: Mets Lose Again, No Limits For Johan

Ignore the title of this post. There was no Mets game last night. The team never took the field. Jose Reyes didn't extend his hit streak with a 1st inning homer. Mike Giancarlo Stanton never homered twice. Chris Young never started pitching (this is actually more or less true). There was no game. There's no recap to link here, and no box score to link here. Let's move along then, shall we?

While there was no game last night, Johan Santana showed up to Citifield anyway to throw a bullpen session as he aims to return from the DL. Terry Collins answered some questions about Johan (seeing as there was no game to talk about), and indicated that there will be no limitations on Johan going into Saturday's start. He may well get extra rest in September now that there is very little to play for, as Terry Collins wants to assure he's healthy next season.

One pitcher who probably won't be healthy when mid-February rolls around is Tim Byrdak. That's now 2 consecutive LOOGY's that the Mets have destroyed, so you would have to think that maybe we'll look to start 2013 with a pair of them in the pen.

Ted Berg believes that Jason Bay will be one of the Mets still with the team when spring training arrives. I have to say, I think Ted has pretty much nailed the scenario here. The odds of that vest ever vesting are, well, not very high to say the least.

Frank Viola's daughter is competing in the 2012 Olympics. Good luck. Also, Frank Viola had a fantastic mustache.

The Mets and Marlins had the night off, but there were a pair of games involving the rest of the division yesterday. The Braves unsurprisingly beat the Phillies 12-6, and Gio Gonzalez went all Dickey on the Astros. The Braves and Nats are looking more and more like solid playoff teams, and the Phillies continue to look like compost.

The surprising A's just keep playing well, winning a wild one last night to take the series from the Angels.

Baltimore has called up their top hitting prospect, Manny Machado Machado was a high schooler taken in the same draft as Matt Harvey, so he's moved very quickly indeed.

Finally for today, fangraphs takes a little look at Yu Darvish and his control. Joining any list in which 25% of the comparable pitchers are Oliver Perez can never be considered a good thing.