The Mets' Fancoeur

A bit ago it seemed unthinkable for Mr. Wright to jump past Jose Reyes on the MVP charts. However, with Reyes cooling off a bit and Wright driving the offense at times of late and playing a solid hot corner, he has moved past Reyes however so slightly and may very well be the top candidate for MVP if he keeps it up.

Since April when he hit .244/.370/.311, he has hit .320 and slugged .563 while hitting 22 doubles, 19 homers, 61 RBIs, and stealing 22 bases. He is slugging close to 1.000 after the break and doing all of that in something the voters love. A push for the playoffs. Right or wrong, wins get looked at for the Cy Young Award and team wins play a role in the MVP race unless someone is so much more overwhelming, which Miguel Cabrera is pretty damn close to being.

As BP stated, he is getting more ink for his weight than his play, but just as an aside check out his comps through age 23:

1. Hank Aaron (959) *
2. Orlando Cepeda (933) *
3. Frank Robinson (925) *
4. Joe Medwick (920) *
5. Mickey Mantle (914) *
6. Ken Griffey (907)
7. Andruw Jones (907)
8. Hal Trosky (905)
9. Vladimir Guerrero (900)
10. Al Kaline (900) *

Scary how good he could be for a long time. If Wright and Cabrera both keep their current production up, it would probably be Wright that edges out Cabrera but whether he will edge out the rest of the field is another question. One thing that I'm pretty sure of is that Wright is probably going to finish in the top five at his current pace. In his rookie season, he finished in the top twenty. In his second season, he finished in the top ten. This season, he should almost certainly finish in the top five. He is a safe as bet as any to win an MVP award in the next five or so years.

* * *

The Mets are just emitting feel good vibes all around of late and that good feeling just keeps rolling with Tommy getting his 300th victory. I know I have lost some faith in his abilities this year, but as Rob Neyer pointed out, 2004 was strikingly similar and he was able to reinvent himself and turn things around. However, it is hard to not see him struggling a bit more this season than he did back in '04. Unless Atlanta offers him a sweetheart deal, I can see him retiring.

Ha!

Rick SD: Do you think there is often too much weight and kudos given to individual stat data accomplishments in what is supposed to be a team sport?

SportsNation Joe Morgan: (11:48 AM ET ) Finally somebody that understands the game. You're right. Statistics are overrated. What you do to help your team win is what it's all about. These stats like OPS, it doesn't tell you what you do for the team. To my opinion, to help the team, you drive in runs or score runs. That helps the team. That's how you should be judged.

The Yankees want the 500th homerun baseball for a signed jersey. But hey, they are also willing to give 'a lot of things at their fingertips' and they 'think Clemens would give some stuff'. That roughly leaves the gap in value approximately $99,000 to $399,000. Sounds like a good trade to me! God forbid some poor guy gets to make some bank on a lucky catch. A-Rod can get in line like everyone else and being that he makes $25,000,000 a year, I think he can afford it.

Note to Johan...maybe Terry Ryan knows how to run a team better than you do.

One was play a day game after a night game, which Casilla can do because he's young and doesn't have the chronic leg and hip problems Castillo does.

The other: Castillo was Sir Slap-a-Lot. Casilla can drive the ball some.

Big Barry Lamar Bonds tied the all-time homerun record and though many feel strongly about it, I am extremely ambivalent. I do think it is a shame that he is not getting as much due as he deserves for being one of the greatest hitters and all around baseball players in the history of the game. However, that was to be expected as he is not an endearing character and he is not free of questions. Also, that Bud Selig with his hands in his pants gag was utterly ridiculous.

Pedro makes his first start on Wednesday.

Not so encouraging words about the Mets top two pitching prospects.

Fran (Flushing): What is your take on Pelfrey/Humber as it pertains to their prospect status? Any other prospect tandem fall as far this year?

Bryan Smith: No, I don't think they have suffered some huge fall this season. Pelfrey wasn't Major League ready and his profile was reading a bit high, but he'll be OK. I think I said it in a previous chat, but his fastball command and movement is going to allow for a lot of good starts, even with fringe secondary stuff. Humber is also probably a back-end guy, but I think Rick Peterson is going to really help get the most out of him. There are pairs that have suffered more this season, I promise.

...and...

Seth (Cambridge, MA): I'm not sure he's really expected to be a leadoff man in the longterm, but how does Carlos Gomez's top-of-the-order potential rate? I know he's blocked by Reyes, but I'm curious, for s's and g's.

Bryan Smith: If I was evaluating Gomez as a leadoff guy, I would worry both about his walks and his strikeouts. The walks are the biggest problem, as he falls into the Doug Glanville Rule 5 trap from my series. His strikeouts are acceptable, but I think the Mets might be best off trading Gomez and keeping Lastings Milledge for the outfield. Gomez comps too well to the bad column.

Well, that is certainly interesting. The Mets have a glut, but unless something really good gets put on the table, what's the point? The Mets would be looking for young pitching and that just does not get traded anymore.

This will make your head spin.

Ugly game by the Mets and that is all I'm going to say about that.

I went to the Muse concert on Monday at MSG with the Cold War Kids opening up. The Cold War Kids were decent enough, but Muse was simply a grand display of awesomeness. It was quite the show and it really reinforced my belief that Matthew Bellamy is flat out one of the best musicans out there. Sheer genious was spewing from that guy throughout the entire show.