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.

Interesting observation from Mike Steffanos of Mike’s Mets.

Then again, this is a pitching staff that specializes in giving up the long ball, as Johan Santana learned to his dismay as another lead went up in smoke while Scott Schoeneweis was giving up a monster blast in the ninth. Then again, Santana allowed one himself to push his season total to 19 allowed. As a staff, the Mets have allowed 122 on the season despite pitching home games in big Shea. The Phillies staff has allowed two less in their bandbox.

Mike’s correct. Shea’s always been considered pitching friendly, and his application of the number of home runs is more than fair. Thank goodness the one’s allowed yesterday by Santana and Schoeneweis were with bases empty. But man, that one SchoScho gave up to Jody Gerut could count twice. What a freekin bomb!

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.

The NYPOST has this excellent critique of the Mets direction.

I’ve noticed a tendency of folks to talk down Mets prospects. Sure, four players went to Minnesota for Johan Santana. Its a deal I’d make again. The problem as the Post pointed out was that Minaya invested too much faith in older players with injury problems. Couple this with the fact that he traded a young outfielder in Lastings Milledge for another outfielder with a history of concussions. I still believe that the Nationals knew about it.

Meanwhile there was not alot of depth in even mid-level prospects. What we are seeing is the results now. Why? It may be a misplacement of player development focus.

There is a trend in baseball to open baseball academies in Latin American countries. The Mets are no exception, having one in both Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Its true that latin players make up one-third of major league rosters. Half of the current ML roster (13 of 25) is made up of players from Latin American countries or Puerto Rico.

Much of the shift to the player development in Latin America ican is in the change of focus on amatuer scouting. The majority of US players taken in the draft are collegiate players. This is a shift. Latin players signed to play in academies are teenagers. And they are cheaper. It cost more to sign US players.

Of the rookies on the Met roster now, three (Carlos Muniz, Dam Murphy and Eddie Kuntz played divison one college baseball. Nick Evans was signed out of a Phoenix high school while Argenis Reyes began his career in the Cleveland organization.

Among the four players traded for Johan Santana were college players in Phillip Humber (Rice) and Kevin Mulvey (Villanova).

Some observers have said baseball is going after cheaper labor in its investment in latin american baseball academies. Maybe. If the Mets are indeed placing a greater emphasis in both development and investment in latin america than they do the scouting and signing of US college players their talent pool will drop quickly.