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Meet the Mets
True fact: R.A. Dickey is the best. Another true fact: R.A. Dickey threw another complete game shutout last night, his third of the season in the Mets' 3-0 victory over the Marlins. A third true fact: the Earth turns because R.A. Dickey tells it to turn. Okay, I may or may not have made that one up but you probably don't care. The Mets' awesome, bearded, knuckleballing ace hurled another gem on his run towards the 2012 National League Cy Young award and Ike Davis backed him up with all of the Mets' runs on the evening. Two of those runs came courtesy of a monstrous two-run blast that landed in the upper deck in Marlins Park's right field. Beyond that, the story was R.A. Dickey, just as it has been all season and as it should be when the hardware is handed out after this season.
Choose Your Recap: MLB.com, ESPN NY, Daily News, New York Times, Associated Press, Star-Ledger, Bergen Record
Jeremy Hefner heads to the hill on Saturday evening, as the Mets look to take game two from the Marlins. He'll face off against Josh Johnson. Game time is at 7:10 PM and you can catch the action on SNY.
Happy September First, everybody! For your enjoyment, Mike Nickeas has been summoned up from AAA Buffalo, along with 3rd baseman Zach Lutz for today's game. Collin McHugh will join the team and start Monday in St. Louis and others are likely to follow after Buffalo's season finale on Monday.
Terry Colins mentioned something interesting yesterday: the Mets tried to turn Josh Thole into more of a pull hitter as he slumped earlier this year, which only sent him into a much deeper slump, and now they are trying to shorten his swing to get him back to what he was two years ago. Probably a good idea with the way he's "hit" over the last month.
Ted Berg asks whether the Mets should trade R.A. Dickey away this offseason, an idea which may well cause the readership of Amazin' Avenue to go into full out riot mode. BOOOOO HISSSS! In all seriousness, this is a well thought-out piece and his ultimate conclusion will likely make your anger and rage subside.
Around the NL East
The Phillies defeated the Braves 8-5 in 10 innings last night, while the Nationals shut out the Cardinals 10-0 behind a Gio Gonzalez complete game shutout. Jimmy Rollins has apologized to manager Charlie Manuel for not running out a pop-up during Thursday's Mets-Phillies series finale.
Around the Majors
A couple of minor trades went down on Friday, as the Rays grabbed Ben Francisco away from the Astros in exchange for a PTBNL, while the Braves acquired infielder Jeff Baker from the Tigers for a PTBNL.
The Mets head to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals on Monday but they got some bad news, as shortstop Rafael Furcal is lost for the season with an elbow injury that will likely require Tommy John surgery.
The Royals will not call up top prospect Wil Myers from AAA Omaha today and may not call him up at all this season. Myers does not need to be protected from the Rule 5 draft this winter but he's torched both the AA and AAA levels all season and is blocked in RF only by the affable Jeff Francoeur (Mr. Francoeur has been "worth" a ghastly two wins below replacement for Kansas City this season via Fangraphs and -3.4 wins by Baseball Reference's standards).
Former Mets' top prospect Lastings Milledge is one of the leading hitters in Japan's Central League this season. No word on how many times he's slapped hands with fans down the right field line. By the way -- does anybody remember Aarom Baldiris from his Mets' prospect days? I do!
Finally, this is pretty cool: the Houston Astros have named Baseball Prospectus writer and prospect guru Kevin Goldstein their new professional scouting coordinator.