I love not having to wait until the morning to see the box score. If you’re under 35, you have no idea what I’m talking about.

I know Met fans were so happy for Aaron Heilman. Six straight outs. He vultred that win a bit yesterday, but justice was served. If Heilman is going to be ok, it could mean alot for that bullpen. I’ve always liked the kid.

Speaking of kid….how about Dan Murphy? Two more hits tonight with one in the first in front of Wright’s homer. I can’t imagine any player that Minaya brought in could have had the impact that Murphy has had. It reminds of Gregg Jefferries’ 1988 August call-up. Damn, that’s now 20 years ago. What an tired old blow hard I’m becoming.

Here’s hoping Murphy’s Mets days are more memorable than Jefferries. What a great thing for the organization it will be if they can develop a young everyday player in Murphy.

Do the Mets try to sign Oliver Perez afterall? I’d say its changed to yes, but its Scott Boras as his agent. However, the Mets have always had a fairly constructive relationship with Boras. It may be because around baseball, the Mets have always been considered as one of the better paying clubs.

Perez is young, healthy, energetic and seems to thrive on the big stage. New York’s baseball teams have a tendency not to let those kind of pitchers get away. Or they bring them back like an Andy Pettitte or Roger Clemens.

It would be nice going into next season knowing that Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana will be four starters that open the gates of the new ball park.

So if the team finishes well, it can comfortably resign Perez and Delgado. Dan Murphy can either play left or he can be farmed out this winter to learn to play second base. Add a power bat for the outfield corner. Maybe even Manny Ramirez if the club decides Murphy can play 2nd. This would leave more valuable time to develop Fernando Martinez.

The emergence of Dan Murphy as a viable everyday player has changed everything for the Mets. In just a few days, one young virtually unknown player from AA made the overall Met outlook for this year and beyond much brighter.

Ron Darling proved prophetic when he indicated prior to David Wright’s 9th inning time at bat that sometimes when a team has a bad day, the great players bail them out. Wright’s 2-run homer off Heath Bell bailed out the Mets on a days it’s bullpen blew Johan Santana’s 6th lead. The one justice in the game came when hard-luck Aaron Heilman got the win.

Nontheless, even with the spark the young players have provided, this remains a flawed team. Bullpen drama, spotty defense at times with players playing out of position and all too frequent poor situational hitting makes this team lose ugly.

Still the occassional magic like David Wright’s homerun today leaves one with feelings of affection……and hope. Somehow order can be restored to the bullpen. Somehow career infielders will play like outfielders. Somehow they’ll start getting bunts down and getting runners in from third.

Somehow.

That poor kid. But we won and Hielman came out to greet his mates after they picked him up. Great job by Mike Pelfrey to get into a jam and get out with a double play in the seventh. Jose Feliciano did great getting two lefties in Giles and Gonzalez before turning it over to Joe Smith. Save poor Heilman’s long ball the pen performed remarkably. Kuntz would have been there in the event Schoenweis faltered. Kuntz needs to see Gonzalez, Giles and/or Gerut tomorrow to see just how heavy that sinker is.

Two big doubles by the LF platoon of Evans and Murphy were very big. The club needed some extra base hits and the two delivered. Good night for the rookies as they contributed late with well struck extra base hits that helped produce runs. It looks like they can hit big league pitching. If the miracle of Fernando Tatis keeps on giving like it did tonight, we can be ok. Its only seven weeks.

If Kunz can get a save opportunity and deliver it could make dreams come true.

Manuel got Pelfrey to get own jam in the seventh signaling that starters will going further. Mex has been calling for this and I agree. You have some starters who can in Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez. The Mets can win this thing but the things that happened tonight need to keep on happening. I believe that they really can

I believe that Omar Minaya will get another player. Maybe Freddie Garcia. Maybe Livan Hernandez. One or both could enable Pedro’s move to the bullpen to shut down an inning and even get the last three. Pedro wants to come back and his effectiveness in this role can help.

Numerous Mets bloggers have weighed in and said that the Mets do not need 3 catchers. Wrong. Having only two is the same as having one. People over reacted when Robinson Cancel took 3rd base Sunday in Houston. Bad decision on his part, but it has nothing to do with the roster. All clubs - not just the Mets carry 12 to 13 pitchers. Way too many. They’ve been trying to protect starters arms in the minors and the Mets have been wrong about the way they use their bullpen. Its no wonder they’ve used up Aaron Heilman to keep starters at 100 pitches. They have to go more as Keith Hernandez said the other night.

UPDATE: In Metsblog, Joe Janish has more.

In Toby Hyde’s informative blog on the Mets minor league teams comes word that Jon Niese had an excellent start on Thursday night (7IP, 6H, 0R, 1BB, 8K). According to Hyde, all six hits were singles. Its already been reported that serveral scouts attend Niese’s starts. They liked what they saw Thursday night and the reports were likely to be in the hands of personel people yesterday when they spoke to Minaya. As they’ve let it out already that Niese is in potential deals, its likely the Mets did not have enough else to get Nady whom the Mets would have loved to get back. Or maybe the Pirates wanted to move both Nady and Marte in the same deal.

But with the acquisition of Casy Blake by the Dodgers, two good fits for the Mets’ needs are out of circulation. But I don’t believe the Mets would have moved Niese for Blake. Maybe for Nady though.

So to put Niese’s value in another perspective, only one other OF reported to be available which matches Niese in value is Jason Bay. Not Raul Ibanez. Not Brian Giles. I don’t believe that Minaya would move Niese for either of the later two, but for Bay, yes.

Still, I believe that Minaya is also still trying to help his bullpen and wouldn’t mind packaging assets in a deal to get both much like the Yankees did in their acquisition of Nady an Marte.shig Perhaps he’s like to get both Ibanez and Arthur Rhodes in a deal. This would make some sense.

And what of the Colorado Rockies? The Mets would love to have Brian Fuentes, and would also welcome discussing an OF, too. If not Matt Holiday, then perhaps Brad Hawpe. But things seem to be cooling from the Rockies on the trade front.

In summary, the Mets need to assess where they are. The Yankees trade could prompt them more than you think. With the team in first, Minaya needs to show that he is trying to help. The club has responded far better than anyone could fathom. Minaya will have to do something to make the team better to sustain the current team psyche for the 2 months that remain.