Yesterday was the second time that I have been to Jewish Heritage day at Shea (the first time I went with the intention of going, this time it was a bit of a surprise), and I love when the Mets have heritage days at Shea. It adds another dimension to the game, and yes its gimicky, but its also fun. It is also, especially with Jewish Heritage day, never shoved down your throat. The special things that went on yesterday was a group of Paparim dancers, a Jewish singing group (National Anthem and God Bless America), a Yiddish version of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the scoreboard saying everyone names in Hebrew.

I was a big fan of the giveaway yesterday as well. It was a Mets Player/Number T-Shirt, but instead of a player, it said Shea 08 on the back. When I was at Jewish Heritage day back in 2003, the giveaway was a shirt that said Lets Go Mets in hebrew, a shirt I still wear often.

The merchandising at Shea (and Keyspan Park for that matter) has always amazed me. I usually go to Camden Yards since I live less than 20 minutes for the stadium, and the Orioles have a lot less gift shops than the Mets do. The Orioles main gift shop is slightly smaller than the Mets Team Shop, and a few shops along the concourses. So I am always a little shocked when I see the big shop outside, and the pretty sizable shops across all the decks at Shea, and I love it. I love the support the Mets have, even when they lose, its amazing. Anyway, what blew me away this time in the shop was there was a Dan Murphy Jersey already for sale, and their the was a Tatis Jersey for sale as well. I just didn't expect to see them already out.

Yesterday I made the trek from Baltimore to Shea Stadium for probably my last time seeing the Mets this year at home. Even when the Mets lose at Shea, I have a great time (which I'll talk about in a post later on) but I wanted to focus on Manuel for a little bit. It takes me a while to highly criticize a managing move (in other words, the move made has to be really dumb for to get angry at the Manager) and there was one move by Manuel that made me very, very upset.

Up until the 7th inning, Manuel was doing a very good job, like usual, yesterday. He sent out Perez to bat in the bottom of the sixth, which I was happy with, he wasn't doing too bad yesterday. After the first out yesterday, he took Perez out of the seventh. I know his pitch count was up at the time, but he could have lasted the rest of the inning. The feeling in the section when Manuel came out was a general "Whats going on?", and that was before we saw Heilman coming out of the pen.

It was a mistake, but it was one mistake, and hopefully the Mets can put it behind them today as they go for the split with the Astros. On another note, this is the second time this year I have seen Heilman make things much worse for Perez before this year, so I was laughing a little in my head because it felt like it was my bad luck. I was at a game in Washington in April where Heilman came on to relieve, and this was when he was terrible this year, and he gave up a grand slam to the Nationals, he only needed to get one out. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the results of today's game.

The Mets will try to split their series with the Astros today, and hang on to first place. The Mets will send up Mike Pelfrey today to bring the Mets back into the Mets column. Pelfrey this year, who's pitching schedule might be changed soon to give him more rest, is 12-8 this year with a cool 3.86 ERA. In August he is 3-1 with a 3.62 ERA and in his last two games, he is 2-0 over 16 innings with a 1.69 ERA. He is turning on his stuff late in the season and that is what the Mets need right now. His problem today will be the Astros that know how to hit him:
    Berkman 4-7, 2B, 2 HR
    Pence 4-7, 2B
    Ausmus, Rodriguez, Quintero, Wiggington: 2-10
Berkman and Pence can give anyone problems (Pence a perfect example yesterday with a game tying homerun). To win today, like anyday, the Mets will have to hope that the bats come alive.

The Astro's will be sending a resurgent Moehler to the mound today, who is doing very well this year (9-4, 3.87 ERA). Since July 4th, he has not lost (5 wins in 8 games), and has a 3.47 ERA. In August alone, he is 3-0 in four starts with a 2.38 ERA. So the Mets will hope to be the wall today that can break him. In 2007, he lasted only 2.1 innings against the Mets, took the loss and gave up two earned runs. In 2006, he lasted 5 innings against the Mets and allowed three runs (he took the loss then too). Here are some Mets numbers against Moehler:
    Delgado 8-26, 4 2B, 3 HR, 3 BB, 5 RBI
    Beltran 9-16, 4 2B, 5 RBI
    Church 4-12, HR
    Wright 4-11, 2 2B
The Mets have some excellent power numbers against Moehler, especially Delgado. 7 of his 8 hits have been for extra bases, the total bases for his 8 hits are 21! So lets hope the Mets can beat up on Moehler today! Lets Go Mets!

The Mets look to extend their winning streak to four games tonight as they take on the Houston Astros. Earlier this season, at a key time when the Mets were surging, the Mets looked at a three game series with the Astros as one they should easily win. This wasn't the case as the Astros went on to sweep the Mets. Today, Santana, who pitched well against the 'stros during that series, will try to take this first game.

Johan Santana has been on a tear recently. In his last six games, he is 3-0 with 2 complete games, 46.1 Innings pitched a 1.75 ERA, and 32 strikeouts for 8 walks (yes thats right, a 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio during that stretch). One of those games was against the Astros where he pitched 6.1 innings, allowed one earned run, walked 2 and struck out 3 on his way to a no decision. Over his career, he hasn't made mincemeat of the Astro's current lineup, but he has done fairly well:
    Erstad 9-37, 2B
    Tejada 10-30, 2B, 2 HR, 5 BB
    Wiggington 5-11, 2 2B
    Ausmus 0-3
    Berkman 0-2
The two players, historically, to watch out for today are Tejada and Wiggington. Personally, I would be more worried about Wiggington who was named the NL player of the week with Santana last week. I am sure that will be mentioned a lot tonight. Santana will need run support, and to do that, the Mets will need to beat up on Roy Oswalt.

Since July 28th, Oswalt has pitched 5 games and has a record of 4-0 over 33 innings pitched with a 3.27 ERA to show for it. His one No Decision was against the Mets where he gave up 4 runs over 6 innings. The Mets over their careers have hit Oswalt pretty well, and should do it again:
    Reyes 7-24, 2 2B
    Beltran 8-17, 2 2B, HR
    Wright 3-17, 2B
    Delgado 5-11, 2 2B, HR
    Easley 3-8, 2 HR
I am not worried about Wright's numbers after last night. He hit Hampton well last night, despite being a career .111 hitter against him going into the game. With Delgado, lets hope his hitting from last night carries on into tonight as he knows how to hit Oswalt. My prediction is that Manuel has Easley playing second base for this game due to his numbers. (I am leaving to go to NJ soon, so I can't update once the lineups are posted).

As HoJo said in the 1986 Mets Rap, Get Metsmerized, "With Power, Pitching, Speed and Style, Results guaranteed to make you smile." Lets go for that tonight! Lets Go Mets!  As a side note, I will not be in town until late Sunday (but I will be at the game on Sunday, so lets hope the Mets can figure out Randy Wolf).

The Mets finished the sweep tonight as they beat the Braves by the score of 5-4. This game saw a lot of good moments for the Mets, the main one being the resurgence of Carlos Delgado. Earlier today I mentioned that his stats were sliding slightly from his resurgence in July, tonight he raised his BA a lot as he went 5-5, a double and 4 singles, knocking in 3 runs including the game winning, walk off, RBI. (Can't forget to mention Wright here as well, who went 3-4 on the night with a HR, two singles, the winning run scored and his 98th RBI on the season as he marches towards 100. Also his 25th homer gives him 4 straight years of at least 25 homers). Delgado being the hero tonight (and in the first game), Pelfrey the hero last night, Santana in the game last Sunday, it shows that the Mets have a lot of different players that can be that hero, that can get those hits late in the game or be the person that pitches out of a jam. Thats what takes a team far in October, when the team is comprised of a bunch of heroes rather than one or two supermen.

Another key piece for tonight was Ayala. He allowed a hit, but that was it in 1.1 innings of work. He seemed a little risky when the Mets picked him up (minimal risk cause the Mets gave up nothing for him), but he seems to be energized being on a winning team, and is showing off that old stuff he had with the Nationals a few years back. Speaking of the Nationals, they finally broke their 12 game losing streak as they squeaked by the Phillies 4-3. So Philly is now 2.5 games back, which is good considering the Mets will be facing Pitchers this weekend that historically give them problems (like Wolf who is 2-0 against the Mets this year with a 0.75 ERA. I will be at that game this weekend, so I am hoping the Mets break that curse).

The Mets attempt to sweep, improve to three straight wins and 9 wins out of the last 10 games when they play the Braves tonight in an interesting pitching match up. For the Mets, Pedro will make another start and for the Braves, Hampton will be making a start (finally pitching in New York after all these injury plagued years).

Pedro is doing a lot better now than his season stats let on. His record of 4-3 with and ERA of 4.96 says he's struggling, but you have to look at his more recent stats. In his last three starts, he has gone 1-1 over 19.1 innings with an ERA of 1.86. He's getting stronger and he is locating his pitches. His BB to K ration during that time (8 BB to 10 K, or a ratio of 4:5), is a little high, but I'm sure that will start to go down over time. Last time Pedro pitched against the Braves was in 2006 when he had a 3-1 record over 4 games and 22.1 innings against them. Even though he won a lot, he still allowed 16 runs (a 6.45 ERA). Here are some current Brave stats against him:
    Chipper 9-45, 2B, 3 HR, .200 BA
    Francoeur 3-14, HR
    McCann 2-15, HR
    Kotsay 2-11
    Johnson 0-5
Historically, Pedro has done very well against this line up, Chipper has the best BA against him, and thats at the mendoza line. Hopefully that history, plus his recent surge will help Pedro plow through this lineup tonight.

I am still in disbelief that Hampton is on the mound this year, but anyway, he continues his comeback tonight with a 2-1 record over 5 games and 26 innings pitched. In his last three games, to compare to Pedro's, he is 2-1 in 17 innings pitched with a 5.29 ERA. He has been spectacular, but he has been effective to win and he goes for back to back wins tonight. The Mets however, have hit him well in the past:
    Reyes 7-16, 3 2B, HR
    Tatis 5-12, 2 2B
    Beltran 8-13, 2 2B, HR
    Delgado 5-9, 2 2B, HR
    Wright 1-9
Out of players who have stats against Hampton, Wright is the only one who has struggled. Beltran has been surging of late and Delgado has been declining a bit. If history follows course, they should both have big nights. The Mets seem to see the ball well off of Hampton as their power numbers show it. For example, 4 of 7 hits by Reyes have been for extra bases.
Lets Go Mets! Sweep Atlanta!

If I lived in New York, I would have been watching the Mets game tonight, but I don't so I was watching the national game of the night, which was Tampa vs Angels. The game was very well played (still can't believe that can be said about the Rays) and it was nice to see Floyd playing. When he was with the Mets I always liked him and I often wonder about what his numbers would be if he didn't have knee and other problems throughout his career. ESPN kept on showing him during BP where it looked like he tweaked his shoulder swinging the bat. Anyway, when he swings it almost always look like he is going for the long ball (remember in 2005 when he went yard 34 times? He's got that power.)

The Nationals lost again tonight, extending their losing streak to 12 games, and dropping their elimination number down to 10. On that topic, the Mariners lost tonight as well, combined with an Angles win, their number dropped to 6 and became the second team to have 80 losses.

Baseball Tonight is running a segment about the top 3 players in each franchise.Tonight they did the Mets where Piazza was #3, Strawberry was #2, and Seaver was #1. Strawberry is still the Mets leader in HR, RBI's and R.

A pitcher for Mexico had a big game today as he pitched a perfect game as Mexico rolled to beat Italy 12-0. Since Mexico was leading by over 10 runs, the mercy rule kicked in, so they only played 4 innings. In those four innings, the pitcher who threw the perfect game struck out all 12 batters he saw. Thats amazing, its like a perfect perfect game where the ball doesn't even enter play.

Anything you can do I can do better: The Phillies see Pelfrey's amazing night and raise the Mets Bret Myers and a complete game shut out. This race is heating up and will go right down to the wire. Pelfrey pitched amazing tonight with a three hitter. The Phillies needed to give their bull pen a rest and they got their rest the same way the Mets did. Both teams look to complete sweeps tomorrow.

With tonight's 6-3 win over the Braves, the Mets pick up their 70th win of the year. Pelfrey went the distance as it took him only 108 pitches to complete the game. This was a big night for Pelfrey. He has really matured a lot this season and there are few aspects from this game that show how much he has grown this year:

    1) In the ninth inning, he started off with three straight balls to Chipper Jones. I guarantee you that old Pelfrey would eventually walk Chipper. This Pelfrey came back strong and got a called strike, a foul ball and then another called strike to get Chipper, best BA in the majors, to strike out. (Two of the three strikeouts that Pelfrey had tonight were from Chipper)
    2) He only needed 108 pitches to complete this game
    3) Pelfrey has been horrible against the Braves this year. He could have easily let the Braves get inside his head. He remembered his recent success on the mound and took it with him today.

This was another great game for Pelfrey and is one that really makes me proud, and I assume it makes most Mets fans proud. He continues to lead the pitching staff in wins. The bullpen gets another night off (still can't believe have had CG so close to each other). In other Mets news, Wright continues to close in on 100 RBI's with his 97th RBI of the year and is also starting to close in on 30 Homers for the season. Murphy also got into double digit RBI's during this game as well.

The Mets made a low-risk, possibly nice, signing today when they picked up Al Reyes. Reyes has had some off the field incidents this year and some injury problems, but has gotten his work in over his career. He has pitched in 384 games, has a 23-16 record, 428.2 innings pitched, 32 saves, and a 3.82 ERA. He was only a closer for one year, and has picked up the other saves along the way. Since 2005, here are his yearly stats:
    2005- 65 G, 62.2 IP, 3 Saves, 2.15 ERA
    2006- DNP
    2007- 61 G, 60.2 IP, 26 Saves, 4.90 ERA
    2008- 26 G, 22.2 IP, 4.37 ERA
In my personal opinion the best way to use him is to use him like everyone else in the bullpen. The closer by committee is somewhat working. If it continues to work till September, I guess we stick with it. If it starts to falter, I suggest we pick the best right handed reliever and the best left handed reliever to platoon the closer spot, and only those two. But thats a post for another time. Here are some other Al Reyes stats:
    In Completed Saves - 35.2 IP, 1.77 ERA
    In Save Situations - 83 IP, 5.20 ERA
    In Non-Save Situations - 340.2 IP, 3.57 ERA
Lets hope he can help our tired bullpen and add some stability in that pen, Lets Go Mets!

The Mets aim for their 8th win in 9 games tonight as they play their second game against the Braves in this series. This is the tough game in the series as the Mets have to battle against Jurrjens, who is one of the Braves best starters right now and has been doing well against the Mets this season. Jurrjens has a 3.15 ERA right now. In his last 4 games however, he has gone 1-3 over 26 innings and posted an ERA of 3.81. In April this year, Jurrjens pulled out 2 great starts vs the Mets where he went 2-0 over 13 innings and had an ERA of 2.77. Here are some Mets hitting stats against Jurrjens:
    Reyes: 2-6, BB
    Beltran 1-5, RBI, BB
    Wright 1-5, 2 RBI, BB
The Mets don't hit him well. The key tonight is to get him to throw a lot of pitches, get Jurrjens out early, Any runs on him will be great. To win tonight, the Mets have to light up that bullpen again. Pelfrey will be hoping to get the Mets to the late innings.

Pelfrey has been amazing since May 31st. Since then, in 15 games, he has a 9-2 record, a 3.19 ERA, walked only 24 and has struck out 60 batters. To compare, before May 31st, in 9 games, he had a record of 2-6, a 5.33 ERA, 24 BB and 23 K. In those 9 games were two bad games against the Braves where he went 0-2, in 9.1 innings, a 10.61 ERA, walked 7 and struck out 3. Here are the Braves numbers against Pelfrey:
    Francoeur 3-10, 2B, 3B
    Johnson 3-9, HR
    McCann 6-11, 4 2B
    Chipper 3-7, 2 HR
    Kotchman, Kotsay, Prado 0-9
The key for Pelf tonight is to get through those tough batters and not allow damage. He is a different pitcher since the last time he faced the Braves. He has momentum, he has confidence and now he has to execute it tonight to lead the Mets to victory, and to give the Mets bullpen a rest. 7 innings tonight from Pelf will amazing.
Lets Go Mets! Take this series!

Yesterday the Nationals lost their 82nd game of the season. Mathematically, that means the Nationals have no chance at finishing at .500 this season. They are the first team this season to guaranteed a losing season and, by a surprise, they do not have lowest Elimination number in the majors. The Mariners right now hold that honor with a number of 8, the Nationals are sitting pretty with 12. So a combination of 12 National losses or 12 Mets wins, will knock this team out of the playoff race. Here are the elimination numbers for the last place team in each division:
    AL East: Baltimore 21
    AL Central: Kansas City 21
    AL West: Seattle 8
    NL East: Washington 12
    NL Central: Cincinnati 15
    NL West: Padres 21
In case you were wondering, the Mariners have 79 losses on the season, meaning that they are next in line to be guaranteed a losing season. On the topic of losing woes, the Nationals have loss 11 straight games. Today is also the anniversary of the Phillies breaking their 23 game losing streak in 1961, which is the modern day record. Also on thi same day, the Royals stopped their club-record 13 game loss streak. So the Nationals hope that they can strike on history today. As much as I would love to the Nationals loss streak keep going, as any Mets fan would hope, that the Nats break the streak today and knock the Phillies down a bit.

Living in Baltimore, I mostly get Orioles news. When it comes to fans and the Orioles, the news is usually negative. The front office shows no support, or they do bad PR moves (like that time they kicked a group of fans out of a Orioles/Red Sox game for cheering too loudly for the Orioles). Last night the Orioles tried to correct some relation issues with their fans by congratulating the 50 millionth fan that has paid to see an Oriole game.

The winner last night, Kevin Gracie, received 50,000 dollars and season tickets for 5 years. It's a nice story, he's a law student, had $6 in his pocket at game time. He also got a jersey that has number 50 on it and the name says Millionth Fan on it. Its nice to see the Orioles honor their fans for once, especially when the Red Sox are in town again, and it feels more like Fenway than Baltimore.

Tonight showed the Mets team that we all thought existed at the start of the season. Besides the bullpen, the biggest problem I thought the Mets had this season, especially at the start of the season, was the Mets did not take advantage of situations when they had runners on the base paths in the late innings.

Tonight, the Mets lost the lead and going into the bottom of the eighth, they needed to score at least one run to tie the game. After Reyes got out, the Mets got 8 consecutive batters on base and a total of 11 Mets came to the plate during that inning. Those 11 Mets turned into 5 runs, as the Mets took a nice 7-3 win over the Braves. So the Mets get a key come from behind victory and do it in a big way as they show that their bats can be resilient.

The bullpen was not lights out tonight, but they did not allow runs, which is a great step. Ayala got his two batters out. Heilman struggled a bit with a walk and a hit, but got out of the inning. Schoeneweis finished off the game facing 4 batters in the ninth inning. They allowed hits and a walk, but most importantly, they allowed no runs. Just keep it coming.
Tomorrow is the tough game in the series, Lets Go Mets! Lets keep up the winning ways!

The Mets start a series with the Braves tonight as they try to add on to their division lead over the Phillies. The Braves will be sending starter Jo-Jo Reyes to the mound, who hasn't pitched in the majors for a good bit of time. Due to lack of command, he was sent down the minors for 8 starts where he went 1-1 and posted an ERA of 2.31, showing that he is ready to come back up. Before he left, he went 0-5 in 6 games with and ERA of 8.47. He has never pitched a game against the Mets or any current Mets batter (he was a rookie last year for the Braves). All together on the season, he is 3-9 with a 5.33 ERA but do not let those numbers fool you. His struggles have been at home and not on the road. At home, his ERA is above 7, while on the road, it is a cool 3.61. So one key for today's game is to not expect Reyes to be a pushover due to his recent problems.

The Mets will be sending Oliver Perez to the mound who has been doing well as of late. Since July 29th, he has pitched 4 games with a 3-1 record over 25.2 innings pitched, and ERA of 2.81, 9 BB and striking out 24. He has not faced the Braves this year, but last year he faced them 5 times. He went 4-1 over 32.1 innings, had a nice ERA of 3.03, walked only 4, and struck out 32. Here are some Braves hitting stats against Perez:
    Chipper 7-18, 2B, HR, .389 BA, .542 OBP
    Francoer 7-20, 2 2B, 2 HR, .350 BA
    Kelly Johnson 0-7, 6 K
    Prado 0-7
Chipper knows how to hit, and really knows how to hit Perez. Perez on the other hand, knows how to handle Johnson, who out of 7 AB, has struck out 6 times against Perez. If Perez can continue his ways from the past several starts, he really should have no problems with this lineup.

On the Mets offense side, Reyes and Beltran have both been doing really well the last ten days. Reyes, in 48 AB, has 7 runs, 15 hits (.313 BA), a HR and 3 stolen bases. Likewise, Beltran in 37 AB, has had 7 runs, 12 hits (.324 BA, incredible considering he is hitting in the .270's on the season right now), with 2 homers. They have to keep their offense going strong today to back up Perez and take down this Braves team. Lets Go Mets!

Every once in a while I like to highlight the Baltimore Sun's "Today in History" segment in their sports section. The segment includes a lot of interesting things that happened today during Baseball's history. I am not going to quote all of them, so if you want to see the complete list, and you have a Baltimore Sun, the segment can be found on page 14Z.
    "1909: The Philadelphia Phillies were rained out for the 10th consecutive day, a major league record"
    That is a record in this day and age, will never, ever be broken. (Assuming we are talking about normal rain here).
    1931: Ty Cobb got his 3000th hit
    "1951: Eddie Gaedel, a 65-pound little person who was 3 feet 7, made his first and only plate appearance as a pinch-hitter for Frank Saucier of the St. Louis Browns. Gaedel, wearing No. 1/8, was walked on four pitches."
    "1957: New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham announced that the team's board of directors had voted, 9-1, in favor of moving to San Francisco"
    "2007: Johan Santana finished with a franchise record 17 strikeouts in eight innings to help Minnesota edge Texas 1-0"

There are some other interesting ones listed. All in all, this segment proves the deep history and legacy of baseball and shows why its history is the best one to follow.

Tomorrow I will do a formal preview for the first game of the series but there are a few notes and things to look out for in during the next four games:
    1) Oliver Perez looks to become the fourth member of the pitching staff to go into double digit wins tomorrow. (Santana 11 wins,        Maine 10 wins, Pelfrey 11 wins).
    2) MLB.com in their probable pitcher reports point out that he has a real test against the Braves because he has won 9 of his last 13 starts (the Mets have won a total of 11 of those 13) but his ERA against the Braves this year has been above 10. This is not the same Braves team as before. They should be easier now, so it will be interesting to see how Pelfrey responds
    3) Wright is sitting at 95 RBI's, its unlikely that he will break 100 this series, but it is possible
    4) How the Rookies play. Murphy is hitting .429, A Reyes is hitting .275, Evans is hitting .260. Evans struggled when he first came up, and now he is doing better (looking nice with those two doubles today). Reyes is hitting solidly. Murphy continues to look like amazing. Lets see if they can keep this up.
Those are the main things I am looking for during this series, and as the game previews start to roll out, you'll hear more of the specifics for certain players.

At the start of the 2008 season, there were many reasons why we needed Santana. We needed an ace on the staff, someone to go out there and expect to win. We needed a workhorse on the staff. Someone who could give the bullpen the day off, the relieve their work so they close out other pitchers' games.

For part of the season, Santana's ERA was above 3.00, a surprise to some, but he was still getting the job done. He would pitch a lot, most of the time. What should have been short nights for the bullpen (just the 8th or 9th inning) often became long nights after Santana set them up. The bullpen has blown 6 potential wins for Santana (he could have 17 wins), but Santana, out Ace, looked beyond frustration and focused on his job of pitching.

Santana over the years has been proclaimed as a second half pitcher, and he really has been turning it on since then. Lets rewind the clock before the All Star game. Since July 9th, Santana has pitched in 9 games with a record of 4-0. He has had 2 complete games (including a complete game shutout yesterday), has pitched 63.1 innings and has an ERA of 2.27. (His season ERA right now is 2.75 and he has pitched 177 innings so far this season).

This month he has really turned on his stuff. In four games, he is 2-0 pitching 29.1 innings pitched. His ERA this month? A stunning 1.84. He is mowing them down this month. This is the pitcher the Mets need now. They have a 2 game lead in the division and this is the key the Mets did not have last year, someone reliable to lead them into the post season. Lets Go Mets!

About nine weeks ago I posted that due to work I would be restrained to a few posts a week over the course of this summer. I am now back (I've been working in a camp up in the mountains) and I will resume posting a few times a day from here forward. Tomorrow I hope to resume Game Previews.

It's been quite a summer and now as August starts to wind down, as teams will start to cross the 80 game win mark, we will get into the real rush of the baseball season. I hate to talk about the collapse but its soon to be a year from its occurrence and is probably in the minds of baseball fans everywhere due to the close division races in nearly every division. Real, meaningful games are about to start, rosters are going to expand, and news will be flying every which way.

Fasten your seat belts, the 2008 season is going through its final loops.

Back on March 3rd, I introduced Daniel Murphy into the Prospect section on this blog. Back then, I did not know a lot about him and he was not getting a lot of attention at all. I remeber in late February looking at Mets' Spring Training Box Scores and I saw Murphy's name there. Not knowing who he was, I looked him up on thebaseballcube.com and saw his amazing College Batting Averages which can be found on the March 3rd entry. He was pretty average to below average in his first couple seasons in the minors, and he never wowed anyone at Spring Training, so I thought maybe something could happen to him this year but most likely not.

Then he, Evans, and Carp, started the season strong at AA. For the first several weeks they all were batting above .400. Murphy started to get attention and now everyone was looking. In his 95 games in Binghamton this year, he put up amazing numbers. He batted .308 with 26 doubles, 13 homeruns, 67 RBI's and 14 stolen bases. He showed this year he could be an all around player.

Since coming up to the Majors, he has been hitting the ball well again. In his first five games and 15 AB, he already has 7 hits including a double and a triple. He has an OBP of .556 and has 3 RBI's. I know this won't continue but his hitting should start to give a struggling Mets team some energy. They just turned around a bad set of games with the Marlins and Houston to a winning series with the Padres and that is what they have to do they need to win. Dan Murphy could be that interesting, under the radar piece to the Mets future plans that the team needs to create new energy at the ball park. Lets see what this 23 year old can do.

I was in for a huge shock yesterday. The downside of my current job is that except for Thursdays and Fridays, I have little to no connection to the outside world, which is interesting feeling. Anyway. I came home yesterday to find out that Manny was traded, Griffy was traded, Texieria was traded, and Pudge was traded. I had no idea about any of these trades until 6:00 yesterday. Now that shock of Hall of Famers and All-Stars have been traded has passed, here are my opinions on how they will impact the teams these players have joined:

Red Sox:
They traded away Manny and got Bay. I like Jason Bay a lot, I do not think he is an equal replacement for Manny. I am happy that Bay is with the Red Sox because he is an excellent player got robbed of the attention that he deserves because he was with the Pirates. He will jump to Saint status with the rest of the Red Sox because it is Boston. About Manny, he is critical to the RISP part of that lineup. Without him, the Sox will struggle a bit. This trade does not help their playoff chances, it can only hurt them. (Unless the clubhouse problems were that bad that moral will change without Manny).

Dodgers:
Getting Manny will help. Jones was supposed to be the big bat to help out LA but we all know how that story has gone. Manny will help that lineup although his RBI production will dip due to LA's lineup compared to Boston's. That division is tight, borderlines mediocrity, and any help can change the outlook for this team. Blake will also help them in their run to the division title.

Angels:
They are a lock for the division now and are starting to look like the AL Pennant winners on paper. Texieria makes their lineup that much better, and it already is great. This offseason will be interesting for LA because they might not be able to pay K-Rods demands, and they won't be able to pay Texerias demands.

Yankees:
The Red Sox didn't help their chances, the Yankees did. It cost them a piece for their bullpen but their offense was helped by adding Nady and their catcher woes have been solved by Pudge. The Pudge deal overshadows the Nady deal that I feel will really help out the Yanks. The Rays didn't do anything. I hope the Rays can hold on to their lead.

White Sox:
The Sox have been playing very well this year. This deal could be the missing piece, it could overall hurt the Sox if it disrupts their clubhouse. Overall, he helps, but not that much.