We're Still Laughing

You may have seen it by now, but if you haven't, be prepared to laugh. To laugh heartily. The Yankees and Mets unveiled their 2009 uniform commemorative patches. Only one team got it right and one team got it wrong. Any guesses?

First here is the Yankees' patch. Nicely done. Very nice.















And now, drumroll please. Here is the Mets' patch.

WTF definitely comes to mind, but our favorite is Big League Stew's comparison to the Domino's Pizza logo.

Inaugural season of what? You guys forget to put "Shea Stadium" or do you need to save that money to sign Oliver Perez?

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The Pennant Race - 9/25

Pandemonium in Flushing. Mets fans woke up this morning with a September hangover, unsure if it was 2007 or 2008. The Mets blew a 5-1 lead to the Cubs last night, blew a chance to win it in the ninth inning, and then lost to the Cubs in 10 innings, 9-6.

Dan Murphy tripled off of Bobby Howry to lead off the bottom of the ninth, sending the Shea faithful into a frenzy. But Howry struck out David Wright and after intentionally walking the Carloses, Beltran and Delgado to load the bases, got Ryan Church to ground to second baseman Ronny Cedeno, who forced Murphy at home. Howry then made a better escape than David Blaine could any day, by striking out Ramon Castro to retire the side.

Derek Lee doubled in the go ahead run in the tenth and Aramis Ramirez put the game away with a 2-run home run.

C.C. Sabathia pitched the Brewers into a tie for the wildcard lead with the Mets in Milwaukee's 4-2 win over the Pirates. The big left-hander won his 10th game in 16 Brew Crew starts, and his 16th win overall, by limiting Pittsburgh to one run and four hits in seven innings, while striking out 11. Sabathia was working on three days rest and is expected to duplicate that feat again on Sunday.

The Twins beat the White Sox for the second straight night, this time 3-2, to move within one-half game of the AL Central lead. Nick Blackburn threw a solid five innings and four relievers limited the White Sox to just one hit from the sixth inning on. Gavin Floyd faces Kevin Slowey in tonight's series finale.

The Dodgers magic number to clinch the NL West is down to one. Manny Ramirez hit his 17th home run since "going west coast" and the Dodgers pounded the Padres 12-4. Meanwhile, Adam Wainwright and four relievers limited the Diamondbacks to two runs in the Cardinals 4-2 win over Arizona. A Dodgers win or Diamondbacks loss today will give LA the western crown.

While the Angels are prepping for the playoffs, Francisco Rodriguez is improving his resume. K-Rod added to his record setting season with his 62nd save of the season.

The Rays maintained their three game lead over the Red Sox in the AL East with an 11-6 win over the Orioles. Aki Iwamura drove in three runs and Edwin Jackson, despite allowing six runs in 5.1 innings pitched, won his career high 13th game.

The Red Sox won their second consecutive 5-4 decision over the Indians. Mark Kotsay snapped a 4-4 tie with an RBI double in the eighth inning. Fausto Carmona got yanked after just one inning and an inconceivable 51 pitches thrown.

News and Notes

Twenty year veteran first baseman Mickey Vernon has passed away at the age of 90. The seven time All-Star won two batting titles and spent most of his career playing for the down trodden Washington Senators.

The Seattle Times is reporting that there is much animosity in the clubhouse towards All-Star Ichiro Suzuki. Teammates have nearly come to blows with the outfielder's selfish attitude.

The Diamondbacks' Mark Reynolds became the first player in major league history to strike out 200 times in a season when he k'ed this afternoon against the Cardinals. Reynolds had broken Ryan Howard's year old single season record last night. The record may not hold though since Reynolds has just four more than Howard this year. Oh, and Reynolds has committed 34 errors.

The Rockies' Todd Helton has opted for back surgery next week to correct a disk problem.

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Not Ever Lastings

The Mets finally gave up on highly touted prospects Lastings Milledge, sending him to the Washington Nationals yesterday for catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church. Milledge's name had been mentioned in the past for 'A' list players such as Dontrelle Willis, but on- and off-field transgressions upset GM Omar Minaya and manager Willie Randolph.

The final straw may have occurred during the 2nd to last game of this past season, when the Mets were battling the Phillies for 1st place. Milledge and Jose Reyes went over the top in home run celebration dances and the next day the Mets were clobbered by the Florida Marlins, eliminating from a chance at the playoffs. While it obviously wasn't a cause and effect situation, there was thought that Milledge didn't take things seriously enough.

Nat's GM Jim Bowden is certainly not afraid of taking on players with questionable or bad reputations. Dmitri Young was released by the Tigers during their run to the World Series in 2006 and won the comeback player of the year award for the Nats in 2007.

If Milledge can still show off all of the tools rather than being a tool, Bowden will have gotten him and given up next to nothing. Schneider is a very good defensive catcher, but hit just .235 this past season. Church is an average hitter, who is most likely best suited as a 4th outfielder.

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Mets Get Their Catcher

Just days after their talks with free agent Yorvit Torrealba fell through, the Mets acquired their new starting catcher Johnny Estrada from the Milwaukee Brewers. In return the Brewers get reliever Guillermo Mota.

Right off the bat, we're wondering what Brewers GM Doug Melvin is thinking. The Brewers are about to sign Jason Kendall, so we understand why Estrada was available. But Guillermo Mota. Have you not been paying attention? Suspended 50 games last year for using an illegal substance, and then stunk the rest of the year. Estrada had an off year, but are you telling me you couldn't get anything better? Anywhere?

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2 in the Pool

Peter Abraham reports that the Mets have now joined the Angels in meeting with Scott Boras and A-Rod. Hard to imagine A-Rod would dare stay in NYC, even with another team. If the Mets were to make the move, it would certainly make sense to move Carlos Delgado, and slide David Wright to 1st. Wright isn't a very good 3rd Baseman- I don't care that he won a gold glove- so it wouldn't make much sense to play him at 2nd.

Source

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The Wild Wild West, and East, and Central

When Bud Selig sprang the Wild Card on the world, he could not have envisioned a final week such as the one taking place in the National League. All 3 division races as well as the Wild Card are coming down to the wire.

NL East

The Mets got off to a fast start, struggled at times, but still manged to hold a healthy lead over the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. Then the Phillies beat the Mets in 8 straight meetings and the Mets stopped pitching in their other games. The bullpen, once a strength, has become the biggest problem.

After the Mets got swept by the Nationals, they had a match up with the Cardinals last night. The Mets dominated the Central Division this year and hoped to get healthy on the ailing cards. Pedro Martinez took the hill for the Mets and gave them his longest outing this season, 7 innings. But the hot Met bats suddenly went cold and Joel Pineiro shut them down for 8 innings in a 3-0 Cards win.

Meanwhile in the city of brotherly love (boy is that an oxymoron), the Phillies got home runs from Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell to beat John Smoltz and the Braves, 6-4. The Mets and Phillies go into the weekend in a flat footed tie for 1st place.

The Mets open a 3 game series with the woeful Marlins tonight. Here are the pitching match ups:

Byung Kim vs. Oliver Perez
Chris Seddon vs. John Maine
Dontrelle Willis vs. Tom Glavine

The Mets have a clear advantage in 2 of the 3 games, so you would think the Mets would win 2 of 3 minimum. But with the current state of their bullpen, they might just be lucky to win 1 of 3.

The Phillies host the pesky Washington Nationals for 3 games. The (g)Nats helped the Phillies out earlier this week with a 3 game sweep of the Mets. Here are the pitching match ups:

Tim Redding vs. Cole Hammels
Matt Chico vs. Adam Eaton
Jason Bergmann vs. Jamie Moyer

The Phillies have a big advantage tonight with their ace going, but the next 2 are toss-ups. Kyle Lohse will replace Adam Eaton earlier if Eaton falters.

We picked the Phillies to win the NL East prior to the season and even in August, we still felt we had made a stupid pick. People like Guillermo Mota are starting to make us look real smart.

NL Central

Milwaukee sprinted out early while the Cubbies were busy fighting each other. When the Brewers started to falter, the Cubs, and the Cardinals started to reel them in. While the Cards faded, as expected, the Cubs kept firing on all cylinders. Now its the Brewers doing the chasing and it doesn't look good. The Cubs lead by 2 games with just 3 to play. The Cubs got swept by the Marlins, but the Brewers couldn't cut their lead.

The Brew Crew's biggest problem. They started a 4 game series with the San Diego Padres last night. The Pads took the opener 9-5. Meanwhile the Cubs go on the road to face a bad Reds ball club, that just got worse with the loss of Adam Dunn to knee surgery.

Here are the pitching match ups for the 2 series:

Cubs vs. Reds

Carlos Zambrano vs. Bronson Arroyo
Rich Hill vs. Aaron Harang
Ted Lilly vs. Homer Bailey

Padres vs. Brewers

Greg Maddux vs. Chris Capuano
Chris Young vs. David Bush
Brett Tomko vs. Jeff Suppan

Conclusion- the Cubs should have no problem wrapping up the division title. Nice year Brewers.

NL West and Wild Card

We've already talked about the Padres series up above, so we'll focus on the division leading Arizona Diamondbacks. We never saw this coming. We know its a weak division, but the DBacks and their ugly new uni's? They have a 1 game lead over the Pads, thanks in part to an amazing 24-9 mark against the NL East.

Arizona goes on the road for a 3 game series with the hot Colorado Rockies. The Rockies looked like they were dead in the water, but they suddenly find themselves tied with the Mets and Phillies, 1 game behind the Padres for the Wild Card lead.

Here are the series pitching probables:

Brandon Webb vs. Jeff Francis
Edgar Gonzalez vs. Mark Redman
Doug Davis vs. Ubaldo Jiminez

What a great pitching match for tonight's opener. After that you have to give the edge to the Dbacks- decidedly on Saturday, and just barely on Sunday.

The DBacks should take 2 of 3, and since the Pads should do the same this weekend, we see the DBacks hanging on for the division and the Pads taking the Wild Card. Which means either the Phils or Mets, and the Rockies are SOL.

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All Aboard

Subway Series Part Deux

Things have changed quite a bit since the Mets spanked the Yankees 2 of 3 back in May. The Bronx Bombers have won 9 straight, while their crosstown rivals have dropped 9 of 10. The Yankees were in the midst of a pathetic slide that would lead to them being 14.5 games behind Boston in mid May. Meanwhile the Mets were kicking the NL's ass.

After salvaging the final game of the series, the Yankees left Shea 19-23. The 1st place Mets were flying high at 28-15. Oh how the worm has turned since then. First the Yankees would drop 8 of 13 before this current streak got them two 2 games above .500 for the first time since A-Rod's walk 0ff against Cleveland on April 19. They then lost 7 straight.

The Mets went 5-2 after meeting the Yanks at Shea, and were sitting atop the NL East at 33-17. Then injury and poor performance caught up with them. They've gone 3-11 since May 29, and are now 36-28. Just 3 games better than the Yankees.

Pitching Probables for the weekend

Friday - Oliver Perez vs. Roger Clemens. How odd will this look with no Mike Piazza?

Saturday - Tom Glavine vs. Tyler Clippard. 296 career wins vs. 3. If Clippard doesn't perform well he could be headed back to Scranton.

Sunday - El Duque vs. Chien-Ming Wang. It's hard to watch El Duque pitching for another team, let alone the Mets. And against the Yankees to boot. But my boy The Wanger is the pride and joy of Taiwan (Great article in today's Star-Ledger on Wang's hero status back home.).

Injuries

The last time these two teams met, Darrell Rasner was lost in the 1st inning with a busted finger. Since then the Yankees have lost Jason Giambi and Doug Mientkiewicz (joining Carl Pavano, Jeff Karstens, Phil Hughes for lengthy periods with serious injuries.

A week before the 1st installment of the subway series, the Mets lost Moises Alou to a strained quad. He's still not back. Arguably, an even bigger blow was the loss of spark plug Endy Chavez to a strained Hamstring. Chavez is the type of player that ignites a team with his hustle and defensive presence. Shawn Green also missed extensive time with a broken foot.

Hot Streak and Slumps

The Yankees, as a whole, stunk in April, with only A-Rod hitting. Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada had the only active bats in May. But things have changed drastically in June. A-Rod has gotten his stroke back, tearing up pitchers at an alarming rate.

Hideki Matsui has the best batting average of any player (min. 200 at-bats) in interleague playing, and he just destroyed the Dbacks. And Bobby Abreu who couldn't hit little league pitching for the first two months of the season, has a 14 game hitting streak (.440 average) and is wearing out pitchers again with his patient approach.

Carlos Delgado has been having an awful season for the Mets. It was covered up by the fact that the team was winning. While his 10 HR and 39 RBI are decent, his .224 batting average is far from it. This is a guy who is a .280 career hitter. Delgado appeared to wake up in June, hitting .273-6-20, but his troubles have returned in June.

Carlos Beltran may hear boo birds again soon. He's hit just .211 since April 30, with only 3 HRs.

The Yankees need to now take 2 of 3 as the Mets did back in May.

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