By Sammy Makki

NEW YORK– So far in the month of August, the Mets have been a classic .500 ballclub. They haven’t gone on a winning streak or losing streak, but they have been just at or around .500.

Every day this month, the Mets have either been a game over, a game under, or exactly even. Entering today, they’re one under at 64-65.

The last time the Mets spent an entire month at no better than one over and no worse than one under was April 1970. Meaning it’s been over 40 years since the Mets have had a month this average.

It’s the reason why they haven’t been able to keep up in the playoff race after being as far as 11 over before the All-Star break. With last night’s Phillies win, the Mets are now eight games out with 33 to play, quickly fading in 2010.

They will try to at least split the current home stand today, with R.A. Dickey pitching. The last two starts for the knuckler Dickey have ended in crushing fashion.

On August 18 in Houston, he was two outs away from a complete game victory, before allowing a game-tying home run to Geoff Blum. The Mets went on to win, 3-2, in 14 innings.

In his last start on Tuesday, Dickey gave up a go-ahead three-run home run to Gaby Sanchez in the seventh, before the Mets won in walk-off fashion, 6-5.

In total, it wasn’t a great start for Dickey. In seven innings, he allowed five runs on 10 hits. He did strikeout eight without allowing a walk.

He’s stuck on eight wins, but his 2.64 ERA is now seventh in the National League as he’s pitched enough innings for qualification.

Going for the Astros will be Bud Norris. He faced the Mets and beat them in Houston 10 days ago. It was a masterful performance, as he allowed two runs on only two hits.

The Astros have actually won his last six starts, in which he’s gone 4-0. Up until those starts, he was 2-7 with a 6.08 ERA. During this recent stretch, he’s 4-0 with an ERA of 3.03.

The Mets recorded nine hits in last night’s loss, once again failing to supporting Johan Santana.

The Mets have not scored double-digit runs in a game since June 22, when they scored 14 against the Tigers. There is no reason to believe they will get to that plateau for any of the remaining games this season.

They certainly won’t without the bat of Jose Reyes. The shortstop took infield practice before last night’s game, and could return soon.

His replacement, Ruben Tejada, got another hit last night, and now has a two-game hitting streak.

After today’s game, the Mets will embark on a 10-game road trip. It’ll be tough starting with four in Atlanta, so they’ll hope to finish strong today and win the series.

R.A. Dickey vs. Houston (August 18)
ND, 8.1 IP, 2 ER, 9 hits, 1 BB, 6 SO

Bud Norris vs. New York (August 19)
Win, 7 IP, 2 ER, 2 hits, 2 BB, 4 SO

2010 season series (New York vs. Houston)
August 16: New York 3, Houston 1
August 17: Houston 4, New York 3
August 18: New York 3, Houston 2 (14)
August 19: Houston 3, New York 2

August 27: New York 2, Houston 1
August 28: Houston 4, New York 1
Series tied 3-3

By Christopher Chavez

The headline and the story is not satire, but sadly a true story coming out of the Dominican Republic.

According to the Associated Press, the ex-wife of Ambiorix Burgos is claiming that her crazed former husband forced her to eat rat poison. The accusation has led to kidnapping and attempted murder charges on the former Major Leaguer.

Ambiorix Burgos is not a stranger to trouble as in 2008, he was charged with hit-and-run charges in Dominican Republic. The charges were dropped, but he still could not avoid jail time.

A New York City judge ordered him to nine months in prison for assaulting his girlfriend in a hotel near the late Shea Stadium.

Another interesting thing to note about how crazy the pitcher has become is the fact that he was giving death threats to his girlfriend before trying to kill her.

Due to these latest accusations, a judge in the Dominican Republic has ordered that Burgos remain in jail for three months until a case is ready to be presented in court.

Burgos was a New York Met in 2007. That year was also his last stint in the Major Leagues. The two years before that he pitched for the Kansas City Royals. In his career, he has 20 saves and an 8-10 record.

Since the New York Mets released him December of 2008, no Major League team has even been rumored to have had interest in the pitcher. Good to say, he will most likely never pitch in the Major Leagues again after these latest accusations.

By Bronx Baseball Daily

Coming into the season one of the bigger questions was whether or not Robinson Cano was ready to hit out of the no. 5 spot in the Yankees lineup. Afterall, protecting Alex Rodriguez in the batting order is a big deal.

If that question wasn’t answered on opening day when Cano went 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored there probably were no doubters left when he started off with a 10-game hitting streak that saw him crush four home runs. By the end of April he had a line of .400/.436/.765/1.201 with eight homers and 18 RBI’s.

That hot start has turned into a hot season. Cano has maintained a .323 average, a .945 OPS to go along with 36 doubles, 25 home runs, and 87 RBI’s. He hasn’t even trailed off as the season has progressed, putting up a 155 OPS+ the first half and a 158 OPS+ so far in the second half. Even the knock against him last season, that he couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position, has been forgotten thanks to a 147 OPS+ in those situations this year.

Cano’s bat doesn’t tell the whole story about just how good he’s been in 2010 as his glove work has been equally superb. He’s got soft hands, a quick transition on double plays. His range is good, not great, but his strong arm makes up for that. Combine all of that together and he is second in UZR with a 3.2 only behind Orlando Hudson in the American League.

Unfortunately for Cano, Miguel Cabrera and Josh Hamilton play in the same league and those two players are having absolutely monster seasons.

Cabrera leads the trio in OPS+ with a 186. He has 40 doubles , 33 home runs, and 106 RBI’s. He’s even walked more than he’s struck out, 79 BB vs. 77 SO. He is ahead of Cano in runs, doubles, home runs, RBI, BB, batting average, OBP, slugging, and OPS. The only way Cabrera might not take the MVP is because his team isn’t going to make the playoffs.

That brings us to Hamilton. Hamilton’s season is only slightly less impressive than Cabrera’s and he’s carrying his team to an AL West title. With a league leading .357 batting average, 30 home runs, and a 1.042 OPS he leads Cano in runs, hits, doubles, homers, RBI, stolen bases, average, OBP, slugging, and OPS.

The thing that Cano has going for him that could help him get back in the MVP race is his defense and his position up the middle. Cabrera is a below average defender and plays first base, a non-premium position. Hamilton is average in center and slightly below average in left, where he gets most of his starts. If he was a full-time starter in center field than he might be equal to or even have a slight edge over Cano defensively, but 90 starts in left vs. just 38 in center.

Looking at WAR, wins above replacement which takes into account defensive ability and position, this is a pretty close race. Cabrera leads the three with a 6.3 WAR, Cano is second at 6.2 and Hamilton is pulling up the rear at 5.7. However, when you break down the numbers, I just can’t see Cano beating out either of these two stars who are having huge seasons

By Mets Paradise

The Wilpons have steered the team into the iceberg.

Omar Minaya’s personnel moves have been dreadful.

Jerry Manuel’s in-game decisions make him seem clueless.

The players that haven’t been able to win.
So they are telling us we can only pick one?

The biggest problem for the Mets is that it isn’t one thing. There is no quick fix for the Mets. They need a complete overhaul.

First off, the Wilpon’s are in no position to be running a major league ball team. Their finical and legal problems are holding the team back from completing deals that they need to do. It’s hard to judge whether it’s Minaya’s fault, or the front office. He can’t make a deal without first getting the approval by the owners. So who knows what happens behind closed doors. I don’t think the Wilpon’s will sell the team, but they could hand ownership responsibilities to a different person until they are able to collect themselves.

Minaya gets the brunt of the ridicule because he is the one who assembled this team. Like any GM, he has made some bad moves. Difference is in New York they are under the microscope more and usually for a lot more money than other teams, i.e. Oliver Perez. I’m actually not even that mad at Minaya. He did make some good moves in the offseason. R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi, Rod Barajas, and he still deserves credit for trading for Johan Santana and Angel Pagan back in 2008. Though he is not the teams biggest problem, I think it’s just time to move in a different direction and let him go at the end of the year.
The Mets have a ton of talent on this team, but they can’t take what is on paper to on the field. To me, that shows that the problem is with the coaching staff. I’m not one for blaming managers for the teams problems, but in this case I will. There has to be something that Manuel is doing wrong. Of course none of us know because we are not there in the Mets clubhouse playing with them, but you get the feeling something isn’t right. Manuel, as well as Howard Johnson, need to be gone in 2011. The only coach I would keep is Dan Warthen because the Mets pitching has been outstanding this year.
Now onto the guys who actually make it happen on the field. It’s been painful to watch the Mets offense go up to the plate and back to the dugout like clockwork. We’ve been watching games that are routinely 1-0 in the seventh inning, with no sign of life in the batting order. You can do whatever you want with the front office and coaching staff, but when it comes down to it the players need to perform, and they aren’t doing that. It may just be time for a complete overhaul of this team, keeping only the cornerstones of the franchise.
So what to do in 2011? Well first off if the ownership wants to show anything to the fans of this team, they need to fire Minaya, Manuel, and all other coaches not named Dan Warthen. The replacement manager comes down to the three people; Joe Torre, Bobby Valentine, and Wally Backman. I’m a big fan of Backman, but the other two have much more experience than him, which would be important for this team. However, Torre will always be a Yankee to me, and I feel like Bobby V had his time here and they shouldn’t go back to him. So I would go with Backman as the Mets manager in 2011.
Next comes down to the players. Big contracts like Carlos Beltran, Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, and Francisco Rodriguez will try to be moved in the offseason. Beltran will have the most value, but like Perez and Castillo, if they were to move him they would have to eat a large portion of his salary.
He’s due to make $18.5M next season and though it looks like he is starting to get back into his old form, many teams would not want to take that risk. They would probably have to eat $10M or even $15M of the last year on his contract to get back anything good in return.
Perez is interesting because on sure someone out there would be interested in a young left hander. But the problem is that he is really bad. If the Mets could eat $11M of the $12M remaining on the final year of his contract, like the Angels did with Gary Matthews Jr., then they would probably be able to find a suitor for him.
I think Castillo is a lost cause and not a lot of teams will want him. I say just eat the $6M remaining on his contract and release him.
The Mets will try to void Rodriguez’s contract, but that doesn’t look like it will happen. If they fight it hard enough I do think they’ll be able to get something though. It looks like the won’t have to pay the remaining $3M they owe him this season, but I find it unlikely they will be able to get out of the $11.5M they owe him in 2011 and the $3.5M buyout in 2012.
The Mets do have a lot of money coming off the book after the 2011 season. In just those four players (assuming they buyout Rodriguez’s contract), they would have $44.5M in freed payroll. That leaves the Mets in a good position to go after Grady Sizemore, Mark Buehrle, and Jonathan Broxton. But now we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The 2012 season is far away.
After the disappointments of the last four seasons, it’s time to change the face of this team. Players that I would part with would be Beltran, Perez, Castillo, John Maine,and Jeff Francoeur. I also wouldn’t resign Pedro Feliciano, Rod Barajas, Henry Blanco, and Fernando Tatis. I don’t know if the list would stop there, but there are only a few players I wouldn’t move. That list would be David Wright, Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, Ike Davis, Angel Pagan, Mike Pelfrey and Jon Niese.
The team in 2011 would be much younger, with more of an eye on the future. As far as free agents I would go hard after Cliff Lee and Orlando Hudson, but that would be it.
So in a my world this would be the line-up and rotation for the 2011 season:
Jose Reyes (SS) – Angel Pagan (CF) – David Wright (3B) – Ike Davis (1B) – Jason Bay (LF) – Orlando Hudson (2B) – Fernando Martinez (RF) – Josh Thole (C)
Johan Santana (LHP) – Cliff Lee (LHP) – Mike Pelfrey (RHP) – Jon Niese (LHP) – R.A. Dickey (RHP)
But what am I talking about 2011 for, the Mets still have a shot in 2010… right?

By Brandon Moor

How far out of reach was Tampa Bay from overtaking the New York Yankees? Last night, the wait crossed the finish line as the Rays stole first place from the Yankees, who owned the top spot for the better part of the season.

In a come from behind win against Cliff Lee and the AL Central leading Texas Rangers, the Tampa Bay Rays on the strength of a 6-4 win, although tied in the win-loss department with the Yankees, asserted themselves atop the American League East division.

Do the Rays have the vigor and staying power to maintain the race to the divisional crown? It’s not a difficult question to answer. This is a team who has been victim of two no-hitters in the same season. The offense couldn’t even shoot themselves in the foot, because of trying too hard to relive last year’s offensive production and the year before in manufacturing runs.

Defense calls to the Rays’ strong suit catapulting the current AL East leaders among the best in all of baseball at the present time. Defense is what’s going to win the AL East for the Rays…if they’re going to win the AL East. Lack of manufacturing runs could easily run them out of the playoff race since Boston has one last gasp, but highly doubtful.

The New York Yankees’ starting pitching is the single let down point allowing Tampa Bay to linger around as a pain in the Bronx Bombers back side. Eventually inconsistencies in the starting rotation, primarily spiraling around Javier Vasquez, left vast opportunity for the blood hungry AL East sharks open season all season long.

Whatever you do, don’t slam the book on the Boston Red Sox just yet. Only five and half games out going into tonight’s battle at home with the Anaheim Angels, Boston is has anxiously awaited the return of their heart and soul and team rally monkey, Dustin Pedroia. He’s back. Twelve of the next 18 games for the Red Sox are at home including a three game series hosting the “New Kings of the AL East Castle” Tampa Bay.

There’s only one sensible method to measure if the Rays’ lead will hold. Night by night. The American League East is the MLB’s “House of Horrors”. Nothing is safe. Promises and secrets hold the same value as a public IOU. Yet buried in the unguarded and poorly secure AL East, shock value still exists among everywhere including the fan base.

Isn’t that why they play the game? It ain’t over till it’s over baby!

Once again, the AL East persists with flowing entertainment. The Rays and Yankees will more than likely flip-flop as the season winds down. One way or the other, the AL Wild Card will come from the AL East which is why neither of the top two should rest on the grit and grind, the Red Sox will show down the stretch.

Have fun at the top, whoever you are.