Howard Megdal runs costs numbers and fairly criticizes the Mets on the way they’ve handled planning for 2B this season. Says Megdal:

But Adam Kennedy signed last night for $1.25 million. $1.25 million! Or put another way, for $750,000 less than Alex Cora. $1.25 million less than what the Mets will pay Gary Matthews

In the event Castillo opens the season at 2B, Megdal’s point makes even more sense. They’ve spent the off-season either trying to trade him or letting the perception live on that his play and/or him were such a negative. Doing so decreased any value that Castillo might have. This is yet another example of being deaf to their own signals.

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…….the Milwaukee Brewers assistant GM Gord Ash. One I like involves drafting high school players in a format similar to what the NFL does:

“Baseball needs to adopt the NHL rule where if you’re drafting underage players (high schoolers) you retain the rights,” Ash said. “If you’re forced into signing them and overpaying because you’re trying to buy out colleges you could say, `Look, go to college. We’ll keep our eye on you and we’ll sign you later.’ That has to go hand-in-hand with asking colleges to convert back to wood bats even if MLB has to subsidize it to some degree. It’s a much different game with aluminum bats.”

Ashe supports placing international players in the draft as well. I wonder what that would do to baseball’s current establishment of academies in latin countries. Including some sort of mandatory education component has been one of my ideas. Perhaps there could be some way to incorporate the vast number of junior college programs.

h/t: ballbug

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If Mark McGwire can be taken at his word, his initial motivation for taking steroids was to combat a number of painful and career altering injuries. A timeline supports this. He also came clean that he did take steroids during his record-breaking 1998 season.

Sadly this morning, none of this pleases the media.

McGwire’s appearnace last night with Bob Costas on the MLB network revealed a contrite and humbled man. McGwire teared up when talking about the potential of hurting the little people involved if he had publically denied using them. It is here where McGwire departed from the pariahs Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

A man stayed incarcerated for the former while the later waged a smear campaign against his trainer who was caught in a legal web. These two wrote the whole new chapter in throwing someone under the bus. This McGwire clearly will not be doing.

Steroids – like any medication we put in our bodies – are a mystery at first when taken. Folks just don’t know how their bodies are going to respond. We are just now finding out that these things work – and better than we beleived that they would back when the steroid era began at the end of the 1980′s. Still it’s likely that they helped some more than they did others.

Its no secret that McGwire played in pain during a large portion of his career and for him steroids quite simply kept him playing the game he loves so much. Unlike Bonds, McGwire had been a homerun hitter his entire career. It could be that during the record breaking seasons of 1997 and 1998, McGwire was just able to play realtively pain free and at his own best.

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* Lets face it. Bobby Parnell was a real shot in the arm last night wasn’t he? Sixty-one of 86 pitches were strikes. Pretty good stuff and evidence the Mets made the right decision to move Parnell to the rotation for the rest of the season.

* Doesn’t it seem like everytime the Mets have needed Brian Stokes to do something he has?

* Angel Pagan’s lead-off homer shows that he is a difference maker-an impact player. Players who have injuries early in their careers get labled as injury prone becaue they are, well, injury prone. While Pagan’s contribultion has been significant, the Mets cannot see him as en everyday player until he shows he can get through a major league season without getting hurt. To be fair, he’s more than adequately started the process. Still. I hope the Mets do not pencil him in as an everyday player just yet and will go out and get another everyday major league outfielder in the off season.

* If someone else had worn that same salmon colored jacket that Clint Hurdle did on the MLB network the other night, Hurdle would have slammed him. Clint, what were you thinking dude? You looked like a South Beach pet groomer.

* Admit it. You’ve kind of enjoyed seeing the Nats on that little winning streak, right?

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Baseball America listed Savannah Sand Gnats right-hander on its Prospect Hot Sheet:

Signed out of the Dominican in ’07, just a few months after Jenrry Mejia, Familia has emerged as ace of the low Class A Savannah staff. The 19-year-old righty lacks polish, but his low- to mid-90s fastball already rates as plus-plus, according to one scout for an AL club. The reason: Familia has exceptional life on and command of the pitch, a combination that’s rare for such a young pitcher. His changeup his is second-best offering for now, and he’ll need to refine his breaking ball to make it as a starter. On the season, Familia has gone 9-6, 2.90 in 20 starts for the Sand Gnats. Over 118 innings, he has stuck out 97, walked 40 and allowed just 94 hits (three home runs).

Toby Hyde rated Familia as the 27th ranked Mets prospect at the beginning of the season. Says Hyde:

Familia ranks here on the basis of a nice pitcher’s frame and a fastball that boasts average to plus MLB velocity already. Familia, despite inconsistent velocity, consistently threw strikes. In his first start of the year, Familia was throwing 93, 94 mph while that was down to 89-92 in his second appearance. The previous fall, scouts reported that he was consistently in the mid-90s. Familia’s off-speed stuff, a slider at 78 mph and a change at 84 are both about as far away from MLB caliber as one might expect from a 19-year old.

It will be interesting to see if the Mets promote Familia to AA. The firing of Tony Bernazard may have left a decision making vacuum. One theory is to let young players have a season of success that they can build upon. This is a extremely defensible position. If Familia has the goods, he’ll make the AA staff in spring training next year.

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I had thought and asked Toby Hyde, who produces the excellent Mets Minor League Blog I asked whether or not it would be fair to say the Mets had little power through its organization. Here are Toby’s comments to my inquiry:

AAA: 1B/LF Nick Evans: near MLB average pop, but doesn’t do anything else all that well
AA: 1B Ike Davis – The Mets drafted him 18th overall because they liked his power and he’s leading the organization in HR after a homerless professional debut in 2008. Almost all of his power is pullside. One of the Mets best prospects.
Lucas Duda – a big guy with plus raw power, he can get into one in BP, but hadn’t shown much ability to drive a ball in games until he hit four bombs in July. Has he turned a corner? Neither Duda nor Davis has learned to hit lefties yet.
A+: 1B Stefan Welch still has a projectable frame. 3B Zach Lutz and SS Reese Havens have fringy average MLB power
A: Sean Ratliff has MLB pop right now, but other enormous holes in his swing. SS Wilmer Flores hasn’t shown much power this year, but the Mets hope that as he grows into his body, he’ll start driving the ball, so his power is projection at this point.
When in the minors, I remember going to certain other camps – like the Reds – and noticed they always had big players. Here is why Toby’s use of the term , “projectable frame” is somewhat telling in terms of talent assessments. Perhaps the Mets need to look at drafted more players with these “projectable frames”.

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I was very impressed with Mayo yesterday while watching his commentary on the MLB Network.

The Mets have one RHP Jennry Mejia. I believe that Mejia is injured now having not pitched since June 23. Toby Hyde reports that its a problem with a finger on the pitching hand.

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4:25: Jason Stark said Halladay was not dealt. Neither was Heath Bell.
The Mets did nothing. Some of the teams the Mets will compete against improved at the deadline like the Rockies, Giants, Braves and Marlins. If the Mets do not improve in the standings over the next week to 10 days I’d expect them to start moving veterans through the waiver wire like Livan Hernandez, Jeremy Reed, Brian Schneider, Oliver Perez, and Fernando Tatis. Maybe you could include in that list Carlos Delgado and Brian Stokes. Maybe not Delgado as he could be a Type B free agent and the Mets could get a much needed extra pick in June.

4:04: Jayson Stark says that Halladay may be going to the Angels in a package that includes Joe Saunders.

4:00 Fox Sports reports the Marlins acquired Nick Johnson from the Nats.

3:56: LaRoche went for Casey Kotchman. Why Boston wants Kotchman is beyond me. I can see the Braves wanting LaRoche’s power over Kotchman.

3:41: MLBTV reports that Scott Rolen has been traded to the Reds. Their commentators are somewhat puzzled as well. They think its because Walt Jockety knows him well from his days with the Cardinals.

3:32: Victor Martinez is now with the Boston Red Sox. Jon Heyman confimrs on MLBTV. Buchholz and Bard are not in the deal

3:30: Rockies get Joe Beimel from Nats H/T MLBTradeRumors

3:27: Yankees get 3B Jerry Hairston from Reds….so the Reds are trying to move players. According to ESPN

3:24: LaRoche to Braves. H/T Metsblog

319: Marlins end attempts to acquire Nick Johnson and Heath Bell.

310: Tim Kirkjian says he’s somewhat surprised that the Yankees haven’t been active and they both say that its surprising that someone just didn’t go get Roy Halladay. For some clubs it would make the World Series a sure thing.

305: Why haven’t we heard anything about the Reds in awhile? They talked about getting Scott Rolen, but that never made any sense. I thought they’d be sellers….Bronson Arroyo for instance.

304: Maybe its LaRoche to the Braves instead.

3oo: One hour to go. Im watching MLB TV and they report that Ken Rosenthal says that the Padres and Dodgers are talking about Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell going to the Dodgers in a package including James Loney.

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From Tim Dierkes’ MLB Trade Rumors

UPDATE: Jayson Stark thinks a 3rd team could be involved to get rid of Adam LaRoche

UPDATE: Fox says that neither Clay Buchholz or Daniel Bard is in the deal. Martinez has a relatively low salary, so Cleveland really doesn’t need to move him. Why the Indians would do it without getting a pitching stud back is beyond me.

UPDATE: A report has the Mets getting Adam LaRoche as part of the Martinez deal. This makes no sense. I would just as soon let Daniel Murphy play everyday at 1st and letting him develop until Delgado gets back. There’d better be more as this will be a major ho-hum for fans.

UPDATE: Clearly I have a “dope” moment when I inferred the deal is done in my headline…it’s obviously not

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10:10: Santos struck out…but still….STILL you felt and SAW the Mets were the better team that just lost. Gotta beat the lefty Davis tomorrow.

!0:07: Murphy grounded out for the second out. Still…..still….Cory Sulliavan singles….

!0:06: Great AB by the consumate big leaguer Tatis. Ten pitches.

10:05: great time at bat for Tatis

9:55:Man does Bobby Parnell look great. No wonder the Mets won’t put him in a trade. Sometimes the best ones are those you don’t make. And I admire the way that Sean Green has bounced back.

9:52: I agree with Gary and Ronnie that JP Ricciardi would be crazy to trade Doc Halladay to a division foe

9:48: Frenchy struck it well, but no. Its nice to have the opportunity in a close game. Remember folks, it was John Ricco and not Tony Bernazardd who did the leg work on Francouer.

9:47: David Wright just singled to bring up Francuoeur. No better scenario.

9:41: MLB hitters Nick Evans and Mike Lamb are on the Buffalo roster, so the Rockies will be able to go through the bottom of the Mets lineup.

9:37 EST …sorry…but I hate the current configuration of NL rosters. The Mets now have no bench to engage in a close game.

8:29: Cancel popped up to end the inning. But you can tell two important things from the Mets dugout. They both WANT and THINK they can get this game.

8:25: Omir Santos continues to impress with his 2-out double. Oh, Jerry burns Jeremy Reed to put in Robby Cancel.

8:18: Great lead-off HR by Tatis. You can see how dialed in his teammates were. 4-2 in the 7th. Good spot for a comeback.

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