According to George A King III of the NY Post, the injured wonder Carl Pavano has been placed on waivers. 

Pavano signed with the Yankees following the 2004 season for a 4 year $40 million deal.  His tenure with the Yankees has been characterized by injuries and disappointment.  Over these past four years, Pavano has made a total of 20 starts for the Yankees, and is most recently returning after Tommy John Surgery. 

King suggests that the Mets might be potential suitors of Pavano because of John Maine’s recent injury. 

In 2004, Pavano won 18 games with a 3.00 ERA.

Personally, I think it would be strange to see the two New York Teams pull off a deal. 

That being said, if the Mets just had to eat his contract, I think he’d be worth a gamble.  Pavano is somebody that has seen success pitching in the National League, and frankly it’s not his fault that there were absurdly high expectations and a bunch of injuries that have held him back. 

And it’s funny how things have changed, because when Pavano signed that deal in 2004 it looked like an enormous deal, but given the fact that the Gil Meche’s of this world are signing 5 year deals worth $55 million, Pavano’s deal doesn’t seem too bad.  This year, if Pavano won 18 games with a 3.00 ERA, he’d be in for a lot more than 4 years $40 million, that’s for sure. 

It’s important to keep in mind here that we are very possibly creating speculation out of nothing here.  In the article, King doesn’t say, “The Mets are interested in Pavano” it is only his own personal conjecture that the Mets MIGHT be interested due to John Maine’s injury. 

But given the opportunity and assuming it would just be eating his contract, I would take the risk on Pavano. 

At SI.com, Jon Heyman breaks down the contract situation that the Mets face with Carlos Delgado this offseason. Delgado has a $12 million team option for next year, which essentially has an $8 million value because if the Mets do not pick up his option, there is a $4 million buy out.

Heyman decided:

the great likelihood now is that the Mets pick up that option rather than buy him out for $4 million. Since they have to pay him at least $4 million either way, they’re looking at Delgado right now as an $8-million bargain.

The Mets have long been suspected to be a player for big-time free-agent Mark Teixeira. But while they like Teixeira, they also know Teixeira may get 20 times that $8-million figure.

In the article, Heyman also breaks down other option situations from around the league such as with John Smoltz and Jason Giambi. 

I really don’t like Delgado, but I’m not sure that the options out there are that much better.  I would refuse to pay Teixeira the kind of money he is going to get. 

I was fortunate to head to the Cyclones game tonight, which was loads of fun.  Although Coney Island is a little of of the way, the area is wonderful and the game is fantastic.  Though they tend to play too much music (in-between every pitch, at-bat, half inning) Keyspan Park is filled with a jolly crowd that is happy to see a fun baseball game. 

The Brooklyn Cyclones beat the Oneonta Tigers 3-1 in dramatic fashion.  All three Mets RBI’s came off the bat off Sean Ratliff, who had a solo HR in the 5th and a game breaking two RBI hit in the eighth.  Ratliff was a 4th round pick by the Mets this year in the amateur draft out of Stanford.  He also made two full-out diving catches in the field to the excitement of the crowd.  Though he hasn’t always been a center fielder, he played there this evening and looked more than competent. 

Mets supplemental first round pick Brad Holt this year started the game, allowing one run in five innings.  He struck out five but walked three. 

Here is Ratliff’s game winning hit:

The Mets were never really in this one, and lost to the Astros 8-3 this evening. 

John Maine was not on his game at all, and the Astros beat him every which way.  There were singles, extra base hits, walks and homeruns.  All in all, he allowed eight runs in 5.2 innings of duty, giving up 10 hits, eight runs and two walks. 

The bullpen allowed no runs, even though Duaner Sanchez gave up two hits while finishing the sixth inning, allowing inherited runners to score.  Joe Smith and Brian Stokes combined for a perfect seventh, eighth and ninth. 

Welcome back Ryan Church who in his second game since returning from the DL had an RBI double, while going 2-4.  The other two runs came off the bat off newly found slugger Brian Schneider, who remembered how to hit home runs in the last two weeks.

Oliver Perez takes on Mets killer Randy Wolf at 1:10 pm tomorrow. 

Jorge Sosa, who pitched for the Mets both last year and at the beginning of this year has been suspended for 50 games for using amphetamines, the AP reports.

Sosa had been pitching in AAA Tacoma in the Pacific Coast League as a part of the Seattle Mariners organization. 

Sosa was designated for assignment by the Mets on May 13th after posting a 7.03 ERA in his first 20 appearances this season. 

Over the past two days, Nate Silver from Baseball Prospectus has conducted the “Ultimate Fantasy Draft.”

This draft is more of a list, ranking the most valuable players in baseball according to Silver.  The way he drafts these players is mainly focused around the idea as he states it, “which players would you take—and in what order would you take them—if your goal was to win as many championships as possible over the medium-to-long-term?”

Yesterday, Silver released his rankings from 26-50, which included Carlos Beltran at number 45.  Interestingly, which many Mets fans would likely disagree with, Silver wrote, “[He] has been the rare example of a Scott Boras contract that turned out well for the acquiring club.”

Today, Silver’s rankings from 25-1 were published.  Ranking at number 10 is Mets ace Johan Santana, who Silver said any team would love to have. 

Clocking in at number six is Jose Reyes, who according to Silver is “the most exciting player in baseball.”  Silver writes:

Here is some fodder for those looking to make the case for Reyes as being the most exciting player in baseball: he is the only shortstop since World War II to have reached double digits in both triples and home runs in each of three consecutive seasons.

Ahead of Jose Reyes at number two is David Wright, who Silver compares to Hall of Fame 3B George Brett.  He writes:

The analogy isn’t perfect, but both Wright and Brett became big-league regulars at age 21, and Brett hit .305 through his age-25 season, whereas Wright thus far has hit .307. What’s important, however, is what happened in the next couple of years for Brett. At age 26, his numbers exploded; he accumulated 212 hits and probably deserved to win the MVP award, and in the year that followed that, Brett hit .390.

I don’t think anybody would argue that the Mets don’t have a solid core to build around. 

The idea of Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana being on the Mets for years to come does not guarantee them any world series rings or playoff berths, but it gives them a solid base to build around and makes winning that world series ring a whole lot easier. 

At Fox Sports, Dayn Perry broke down the schedules of all the contenders in Major League Baseball.

The Mets opposing winning percentage for the rest of the year is .488 while they play 20 of their 35 remaining games at home.  The Mets have a 39-23 record at home compared to a 32-34 road record. 

The Marlins also play easy teams for the rest of the way out, with a .480 opponents winning percentage for the remainder of the season.  However, they play 20 of their 35 remaining games on the road.  The Marlins have a 30-32 record on the road this season. 

The Phillies opponent winning percentage for the remainder of the season is .496.  They play 20 of their 36 remaining games at home. 

In terms of the NL Wild Card race, of which the Mets would be two games out, the Brewers and Cardinals have relatively difficult schedules.

The Cardinals opponent winning percentage for the rest of the year is .512.  The Cardinals play 18 of their 33 games at home where they are 34-29. 

The Brewers play 19 of their 34 games at home with a .496 opposing winning percentage. 

In other words - Mets have no excuses. 

The combination of an easy schedule and mostly home games seems like a recipe for success.  Hopefully. 

The Mets look to sweep the Braves this evening with Pedro Martinez taking on ex-Mets SP Mike Hampton.

Keys to the game:

• Beat up Hampton.  To put it simply, Hampton has been riddled by injuries and is barely a shell of his old self.  In five starts this year he has a 6.92 ERA, and the Mets should have no trouble putting up runs on the board against him. 
• Keep it up Pedro.  Although he struggled early on in the season and has been out for many times for many reasons, Pedro has been solid lately allowing seven runs in the last 24.1 innings for a 2.59 ERA.  Pedro has to continue to be efficient and take advantage of a Mark Teixeira-less lineup.

For a full lineup, head over to Adam Rubin’s blog Surfing the Mets. 

For in-game chat, banter, discussion and edgy Mets fans, head over to the Hot Foot Bleachers. 

As we move towards September, the team playoff push continues to progress as does the discussion of individual awards. 

In a chat for ESPN this week, Rob Neyer talked with fans and said that as of now he would pick David Wright as his choice for NL MVP. 

Today at Baseball Prospectus, Joe Sheehan disagrees.  He states that Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols should win the award, followed by Hanley Ramirez, Lance Berkman, David Wright and Jose Reyes.  However, he did throw out another Mets player into consideration:

As was the case a year ago, Chipper Jones would have a very strong case to be the MVP if he had just stayed on the field all year long. As it stands, Jones’ missed time is going to cost him an award that, were it based solely on rate stats, would be between him and Pujols. Well, and Daniel Murphy.

Very true and very funny. 

Hat tip to Vines for the quote and link.