The Mets were very busy today.

They signed the previously DFA'd Argenis Reyes to a minor league deal.

Then they signed free agent outfielder Cory Sullivan to a one year $600,000 deal.

Lastly, they avoided arbitration with newly acquired OF Jeremy Reed, OF Angel Pagan and OF Ryan Church by signing them all to one year deals worth $925,000, $575,000 and $2.8 million respectively. Read More...

In case you missed tonight's game, you can find the highlights by clicking here.

That's right. The Braves completely and utterly beat the crap out of the Mets yet again on Wednesday night. Tonight's Pontiac Game Changing Performance goes to Luis Castillo. Castillo's non-play was the beginning of the end for the Mets tonight. Like it mattered.

It's hard being a Mets fan right now. There's two things to be happy about right now.

Ryan Church could be returning to the lineup on Thursday.

Johan Santana is pitching tomorrow. Perhaps we could give him some run support, boys. Just a thought.

Thanks.
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A replay of what happened to Ryan Church can be found here.

Sorry, guys. After today, you have to joke around about something. I'll make serious posts again once the Cup Finals are over. I know. I miss you, too.

11:43 Update: Manager Willie Randolph's comments on Church's injury: "He must have hit his (Escobar) knee."

Thanks, Willie.

Randolph went on to say that Church would be under observation from team doctors in Atlanta. Don't be surprised if Church finds himself on the DL, especially if has suffered another concussion. Just what the Mets need right now; their MVP out of the lineup.

11:53 Update: Church has suffered a concussion and is on his way to the hospital. He did not lose consciousness. This, as most of you know, is the second concussion Church as suffered in 2008. Read More...

This weekend the Mets took both games from our crosstown rivals the New York Yankees, during a rain shortened series in what may be the most important series of the year thus far. I refuse to call a two game series win a sweep, so we'll just say the Mets won this weekend's series, reclaiming bragging rights for the time being.

Of course to the Mets this weekend's series was bigger than the rival Yankees and the subway series, it was a make or break series to see how the team would react to the Billy Wagner Saga. See my thoughts on that here.

Saturday the Yankees jumped on Johan Santana early with a two run homer from Derek Jeter in the first inning. The Mets struggled early against Andy Pettite before finally breaking through in the 4th inning, batting around and scoring 3 runs to take the lead. From that point, Santana was brilliant retiring 10 straight batters at one point. The score stayed 3-2 until the 7th inning when Kyle Farnsworth came in for the Yanks, and gave up home runs to Jose Reyes and David Wright, giving the Mets 3 more insurance runs making it 6-2. Santana gave up solo home runs to Giambi and Abreu, before Willie turned the ball over to Wagner in the 8th inning for a 4 out save. The Mets would tag on one more run in the top of the ninth to make it 7-4, and Wagner once again stepped up, and shut the door on the Yanks in the 9th for the 7-4 victory.

Sunday the Mets went for the Series win, and they didn't disappoint. The Mets manufactured 4 runs off of Yanks ace Chien-Ming Wang in the top of the 4th around a controversial home run hit by Carlos Delgado which was over ruled by the umps (more on that in the next post). Then Oliver Perez gave up a single to Derek Jeter and a 2-run homer to Hideki Matsui, putting the Yanks right back in the game. But Perez settled down after that, allowing just 1 more hit to Jose Molina in the 5th. Perez was dominant, going 7.2 innings, allowing 2 runs on only 3 hits and striking out 4. The Mets went to town on Wang after that, Ryan church hit a monster home run in the 6th inning, and the Mets would bat around again in the 8th inning, off of Wang and Ross Olendorf, putting together a 6 run inning capped off by a 3 run homer by Jose Reyes. Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis sealed the deal, Mets win 11-2.

These were two big wins by the Mets in this series, they definitely showed up and did what they needed to do. The Mets came out and reclaimed some bragging rights for Mets fans, now they just have to go out and continue this good play in Atlanta and Colorado to try and turn this season around.
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The XOXOs are getting contagious. This is a fact that cannot be denied. Apparently the Mets are loving my distribution as well.  The supply is endless so they can keep winning for a while. Tonight was another good show. Good outing by Maine and some nice offensive output from those who are getting paid to do just that. The season is still too early to make a general conclusion, but I'm in a good mood. So the recipient of tonight's XOXOs should take them with a grain of salt.

Mets win 13-0. In other words they creamed the Marlins. Lots of viable candidates for the first ever XOXO's of the Day throughout this game, but we have to narrow it down to one. Drumroll please.....

The New York Mets crushed the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night, winning 13-0. The Mets win their first series of the season, going 2-1 in Florida.

It was over when: The Mets stepped onto the field. Seriously. They took a 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning and never looked back.

Good: Uh...where to start? David Wright had another 3 RBI game and Ryan Church drove in 3 runs as well. Jose Reyes had 2 RBI and Carlos Beltran had an RBI and his first home run of the season taken away by the umps. Even Carlos Delgado had a RBI tonight. Wow. Meanwhile, Oliver Perez was spectacular in six innings, striking out eight without giving up a single run. Nelson Figueroa was impressive in his first appearance as a Met. I could go on but if you're reading this, you can read the box score.

Bad: Luis Castillo didn't drive in any runs tonight. Seriously. That's it. The Mets won 13-0. You name something bad.

Ugly: The Florida Marlins. Period. The Mets should beat this team at least 70 percent of the time this season. Anything short of that is a failure. This is a AAA team out there and the Marlins have no business out there with the Mets. You almost feel sorry for Hanley Ramirez. Ok. You don't.

Grade: A+ Read More...

Last week, six Mets filled for salary arbitration, including Oliver Perez, Pedro Feliciano, Jorge Sosa, Ryan Church, Endy Chavez and Aaron Heilman.

According to MLB rules, a player with more than 3 but less than 6 years of major league service, may file for salary arbitration.

In the arbitration process, both the player and the team submits a proposed contract amount, and an independent arbitrator chooses one number or the other based on what they believe is most "fair" given comparable wages among players with similar ability and service time. In most cases, the process never even gets to the arbitrator, as the team and the player will usually compromise on a new contract.

The Mets and RHP Aaron Heilman avoided the arbitration process last Friday when they agreed to a 1 year, 1.2 million dollar contract for 2008.

Similarly, Tuesday, the Mets avoided arbitration with OF Endy Chavez, by agreeing to a two year 3.85 million dollar contract.

Deals for the other four players will probably be coming in the next week or two. The Mets have not had a player go to arbitration since David Cone in 1992.
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A number of sources are reporting that the Mets are close to a deal that would send Phillip Humber, Aaron Heilman, Ryan Church, and possibly Kevin Mulvey to the Orioles for starting pitcher Erik Bedard.

Meanwhile, over at Metsblog Matt Cerrone is reporting that the deal may involve a third team and Orioles' SS Miguel Tejada. This report is unconfirmed as well.

Remember this is just speculation, but a deal does seem close. This would be a fabulous trade for the Mets if they can manage to get the 28 year old Bedard without giving up Mike Pelfrey, Carlos Gomez or Fernando Martinez.

This deal may go down tonight, tomorrow, the next day or maybe not at all. It is kinda hard to imagine the Orioles will do anything with Bedard until after the Twins decide what to do with Johan Santana. But be sure to keep checking back as we will have more information as this story unfolds.

UPDATE: The report that suggested Erik Bedard is on his way to the Mets is "false," according to one executive with the Mets. However, talks are ongoing.

Looks like we may have jumped the gun with this one... thanks to mlb-rumors for clarifying that earlier post.
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It's been approximately 24 hours since the Mets officially traded Lastings Milledge to the Nationals for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. During that time, Mets fans have been hitting the blogosphere voicing their opinions of the trade. It's quite obvious that most Mets fans are not happy with the deal.

Our most recent poll is indicating that about 70% of fans do not like the trade, while only 30% do. Our Facebook poll shows similar results, with 66% percent against the trade, 23% in favor, and 11% indifferent.

From what I can gather from various sources, most fans are more upset that we didn't get a pitcher in return than they are because we traded Milledge. Milledge has attitude problems, everyone knows that, but the fact that we got rid of him and didn't acquire the thing we need the most (a pitcher) in the process, has led to Mets fans questioning if Omar really knows what this team needs.

It was my impression that the Mets were inevitably going to trade Milledge this off season anyway, but I was pretty confident that he would be part of a package deal for a starter, or a straight up deal for a reliever. If neither of those two scenarios worked out, most fans would rather have kept Milledge and hoped for the best.

At the end of the day, the Mets traded a young outfield prospect with little trade value, for an older outfielder with similar numbers, and a third catcher.

But then again, this is Omar Minaya we are talking about, nobody seemed to like the Xavier Nady for Roberto Hernandez deal until "The Jacket" worked his wonders on Oliver Perez. Nor did anyone like the Kris and Anna Benson for Jorge Julio deal, until we met John Maine; so sometimes you never know how these trades are going to work out. We shall wait and see...
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The Mets have officially traded OF Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for OF Ryan Church and C Brian Schneider.

Milledge, who was selected 12th overall in the first round of the 2003 amateur draft by the Mets, was always highly touted as a prospect, but was criticized for having attitude problems. This led to him being involved in more trade rumors over the past few years than any other player in the Mets farm system. After numerous rumors this off season which had him involved in trades for Johan Santana or Dan Haren, the Mets have settled for Church and Schneider.

Ryan Church, who got his first chance to play everyday for the Nationals last season, hit .272 with 15 home runs and 70 RBIs in 2007, and will likely compete with Carlos Gomez and Endy Chavez to be the every day left fielder for the mets in 2008. (That is of course assuming that Gomez or Church aren't traded before then).

In addition, the Mets also get catcher Brian Schneider who has been the Nationals starting catcher since their days in Montreal. In 2007, the 30 year old Schneider hit .235 with 6 homers and 54 RBIs. Schneider is known however for being a very good defensive catcher.

This deal tells me a few things; first, the Mets, and Mets fans, have seriously overestimated Milledge's value, second, the mets look like they will let Johnny Estrada become arbitration eligible in January and let him go, proving the deal for him was done solely to dump Mota. Third, I get the sense that the A's were never really interested in Milledge, and didn't want him in a potential deal for Dan Haren. Fourth, The Mets didn't have confidence in a Milledge Gomez platoon in left field for 2008.

Personally I'm not all that pleased with this deal, for all the hype Milledge has been getting the last few years, leading to the mets selling Milledge jerseys, and Met fans creating Lastings Milledge "facts" sites, all we end up with is a mediocre offensive catcher and an older outfielder who isn't that much better than Milledge to begin with.

Early indications on the reactions of fans are mixed, we will be running a poll on your opinion of this trade later today.
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