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.

…This is great news.   Although I’ve been mildly impressed with Fernando Martinez (the all can’t be Doc Gooden) he is clearly not ready for the bigs and needs some seasoning in the minors.  Beltran is needed in this lineup right now to come in and create a force in this lineup who can come in and help out David Wright. If this would have been bad news with the way the Mets have been going lately it would have been like sticking a fork in the Mets season as something as something they could not recover from

Trade wise it also makes the Mets look slightly less desperate and could help Omar make a deal for slightly less because this will be like acquiring a big bat right after the All-Star break with Carlos Delgado being a second big bat…

**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.