Wow. I cleanup hitter who last year hit .228 with 19 homeruns and 61 RBI’s.  Not to mention a leadoff hitter who gets on base 31% of the time and stole a career high 8 bases last year.  That is just amazing.  David Wright has no protection under this format and  Jacobs is getting more at-bats than Bay.  I would have thought Angel Pagan would be getting the nod over GMJ, but I guess not.  I really hate this lineup it is even worse than I imagined it would be.  Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Dan Murphy please hurry up!

Former New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra has sought bankruptcy protection in Los Angeles, citing more than $31 million in debts. Federal court documents show Dykstra filed for Chapter 11 status on Tuesday. He listed assets of $50,000 or less and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million. Dykstra, whose lifestyle included a lavish house, a jet and a Rolls Royce, says he owes millions of dollars to his 20 largest creditors, many of them banks. His filing follows at least two dozen lawsuits over his business and financial dealings.

Metsblog.com – Buzz: D-Back’s Will Make More Deals

Yesterday, the D-Backs traded reliever Tony Pena to the White Sox for 23–year-old infield prospect Brandon Allen. In a post to his Twitter page, SI.com’s Jon Heyman says the D-Backs love Allen, ‘and can see him as their starting first baseman next year.’ …if the D-Backs like allen for first next season, i wonder what the future holds for 29–year-old 1B-3B Chad Tracy, who has struggled three seasons, complete with all sorts of injuries…

NY Baseball Digest – Please Don’t Stop the Music

I get the inability to put a fixed timetable on the return of Jose Reyes, of Carlos Beltran, of Carlos Delgado. They are individuals looking to recover from injuries. But how are the Mets unable to put a fixed timetable on their own eighth inning sing-a-long contest? Now, more than ever, Mets fans need music to help them through this difficult time. But the status of the eighth inning singalong is murkier than Jose Reyes’ diagnosis. Think music doesn’t matter? My wife is convinced the current postseason drought is directly related to an absence of any updates to Lucas Prada’s Mets version of And She Said…, one of the first songs to ever name drop Cliff Floyd.

Mets Today – Six Million Dollar Man Sequal

For those as old as me, you may remember Steve Austin, astronaut, who after a terrible accident was rebuilt to become the “Bionic Man”. Tonight at 7:10 PM the sequel to that great 1970s TV series arrives. Due to inflation, it is now “The 36-Million-Dollar Man”. But the plot is essentially the same. Except, instead of an astronaut, it’s a baseball pitcher.

The Star Ledger – From the disabled list, New York Mets’ struggles are hard for Carlos Beltran to watch

In the two weeks since he was placed on the disabled list, center fielder Carlos Beltran said he has watched all the Mets’ games. But it hasn’t been very enjoyable. “I go to the basement,” Beltran said, “and I let my wife be upstairs.” The team has floundered without Beltran, shortstop Jose Reyes and first baseman Carlos Delgado — who are all on the disabled list — picking up its fourth straight loss and ninth in 11 games Tuesday night against the Dodgers. The games have gotten more and more difficult for Beltran to watch and, with news Tuesday that his next MRI will be during the All-Star Break and his return is not imminent, the All-Star wonders where the team will be at when he does suit up again.

If you take a look at the Blue Jays roster who are the two highest paid players still on the team next year? Alex Rios and Vernon Wells two outfielders.  Now the Mets find out Fernando Martinez is hurt leaving the outfield with what? Ryan Church, Gary Sheffield, and… a bunch of AAAA players.  Not the most attractive thing when you have to face a lineup like the Phillies stacked with hitters.  So what would be the Mets best option? You guessed it taking on the salary of Alex Rios.  It has already been reported that you can get him for very little so what’s the big deal?  For the 5 years you’d be getting him beyond 2009 you would have to pay him $58.7 million or an annual salary of $11.74 mill.  A little pricey, but nothing the Mets can’t afford. And let’s compare Rios to some of the current Metsies. (Click to make image bigger)

As you can see he is the best option there and what is not shown is that he playes MUCH MUCH MUCH better defense then the rest of the players listed.  Rios’s speed gives him the ability to play either CF or RF and would fit perfectly in Citi Field.  He has a cannon of an arm to go along with his great defensive coverage.  He also has the base stealing ability to go along with the speed/defense approach the Mets should take when building a team for Citi Field.

If the Blue Jays go nuts and ask for Jenrry Mejia, even though they said they don’t want a lot for him, you laugh at them and say no, otherwise you get him as fast as possible because he can play center to fill in for Carlos Beltran why he is hurt and then move him over to right field when Beltran and move Ryan Church to left field giving you the best defensive outfield in the league.  And let’s be realisitic with some of the bad contracts in basebal Rios’s is pretty decent.  He is also young with some more untapped offensive potential that maybe he can put together with a change of scenery.

I am a bit of a Rios fan so I am biased, but he fits the Mets perfectly right now, won’t cost you prospects, and will give you a solid outfielder for 5 more years beyond the trade.  It is a no brainer move you have to make

**Ike Davis Update: Davis found his power stroke in May at St. Lucie, bringing his numbers there up to .288/.376/.486, very nice numbers for the Florida State League. Promoted to Double-A last week, he’s hitting .400/.538/.550 through six games at Binghamton. He’s 8-for-20 with three doubles, five strikeouts, and six walks so far. The fact that he’s maintained the walk rate at the higher level is a good sign. He will likely need some consolidation time at this level and if I were the Mets I wouldn’t consider a promotion to Triple-A until August at the earliest, if he’s hitting well. Nevertheless, he’s exceeded the expectations I had for him in the book and has calmed concerns about his bat.

NY Post – What the Mets Should Do

I think one really dumb thing that is getting repeated over and over again is that the Mets shouldn’t make any moves because they have so much wrong with them that no one move would help. If your house is flooded, you start one room at a time to clean it up, though all the other rooms remain flooded when you are working on that first one. If the Mets truly believe that they are going to get back major pieces from injury starting in about 1-2 weeks with Oliver Perez, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and others, then they[...]

Mets Merized ed Online - Is the Mets Organization Falling Apart?

It seems to me that the Mets are in a lot of trouble.  I’m not talking about the fact that the Mets are now in 3rd place and are now under .500.  I’m talking about the 9 baseball players that are currently on the disabled list or that their salaries equal almost 70 million dollars.  The organization itself seems to be in disarray.  The organization from top to bottom seem to be throwing each other under the bus to preserve themselves.  Last winter we all know that Manny Ramirez was a free agent.  Before it was revealed that Manny used performance enhancing drugs there was a lot of people who wanted Manny to be part of the Mets.  Omar Minaya we all know had been trying to get Manny to become a member of this team since he became the general manager.[...]

Long Island Met Fan – Below .500 Oh Joy

Now we can spend the day saying , oh if we win we are back to .500. Does it matter. I mean we have Argenis Reyes batting lead off. We have Fernando Tatis playing second in a double switch. Brian Stokes giving up a grand slam to the guy who just gave us life the inning before. Then of course David Wright getting another meaning less hit in the 9th inning to drive in a run. Now for the last week everyone is like the Mets need to make a trade. Of course though with every loss the price goes up.

Mets Fan Forever – What More Can I Say?

I am officially running out of things to write about the Mets. What can I add that hasn’t been already mentioned nationwide by people who are now treating our team as a laughing stock. The fact that they are only 3 games out is amazing in itself to me. I just hope that we can hold it together until Delgado, Beltran and Reyes come back but I have my doubts.