In his ESPN Chat today, Baseball America's Jim Callis responded to a question regarding Mike Pelfrey…

Ben Maller reports some Mets rumors…

Buster Olney thinks the Mets will aquire Lopez, as he mentions in his ESPN chat today…

He later adds what he think it will cost…

Steve Phillips agreed that Rodrigo is a good fit for the Mets in his ESPN chat.

Rodrigo Lopez threw 5 2/3 shutout innings on Sunday and has improved from 1-7 to 6-10

Discuss in the Metsmerized forums.

Adam Rubin reports on his blog, Surfing The Mets, that Mike Devaney has made the most of his opportunity to step into Mike Pelfrey's spot in Binghamton since being promoted.

With that victory, the Camas, Wash., native – who turns 24 on July
31 – improved to 24-7 record since signing with the Mets as a
23rd-round pick from Concordia University in Portland, Ore., in 2004.

He enjoyed a 32-inning scoreless streak this season at high-A St.
Lucie, was named a Florida State League All-Star, and led his team to
its first-half division title by posting an 8-3 record and a 1.62 ERA
before his promotion. The 6-4 righthander’s biggest win this season
came on the second-to-last day of the first half on June 20, when he
took a no-hitter one out into the eighth inning in a 2-0 win against Brevard County.

Here are some more highlights from Rubin…

• Royce Ring’s
  scoreless-innings streak ended at a Norfolk-record 26 2/3 innings July
  8 against Ottawa. Ring, the Tides’ lone Triple-A All-Star
  representative, pitched a scoreless inning Wednesday at the event.

• Philip Humber’s comeback from Tommy John elbow surgery continues. The third overall pick in the 2004 draft, one slot behind Detroit’s Justin Verlander,
  limited Brevard County to two unearned runs and three hits in six
  innings. Humber has a 3.86 ERA and .208 opponent batting average in
  four starts with St. Lucie

• Alay Soler hasn’t done much since his July 3 demotion to
  Norfolk. The Cuban defector, who complained that right calf discomfort
  affected his last big-league start against the Yankees, had been
  walking around in a boot with the Tides and could be headed to the
  disabled list

• Lastings Milledge has twice been denied first base by plate umpires after getting hit by pitches on his elbow guard since returning to the minors.
• Michael Tucker entered yesterday hitting .333 (19-for-57) in his last 19 games.
• Edgardo Alfonzo joins the Tides tomorrow.

Some highlights from yesterday's minor league action from Toby's Minor League Report…

• In AAA action, Tagg Bozied led an offensive explosion in the nightcap with a pair
  of home runs.

• In AA, Jay Caligiuri tripled to
  lead off the ninth, Ambi Concepcion singled him home to tied the game and then
  Kevin Rios doubled in Concepcion
  for the game winner. Matt Lindstrom (2-2) picked up the win for streaking Binghamton.

• In High A ball, Blake Eager threw one-hit, shut out ball for seven
  innings while Ivan Naccarata slugged three hits, including a home, to lead St.
  Lucie to an easy win Saturday night.

The New York Times reports that John Maine will remain with the Mets as a reliever, and depending on the status of Pedro Martinez, may make a spot start…

Martínez, who
rejoined the team Thursday but was unavailable for comment, was
scheduled to throw on the side Friday or Saturday. But even if he
throws Friday and says his sore hip feels better and that he is
stronger, it is unlikely the Mets would rush him into starting
Wednesday. Either Maine or Steve Trachsel, Friday’s starter, would
replace him.

Mets GM Omar Minaya refused to discuss Dontrelle Willis directly. But those close to Minaya said he would be open to trading Lastings Milledge or Mike Pelfrey, his top two prospects, if Willis were available. - New York Post

The credibility of this rumor seems suspect since a player, who in this case would be Pelfrey, can't be traded until a year after he signs his first pro contract. The earliest the Mets could trade him would be January of 2007.

As anticipated, Mike Pelfrey has gotten the call up to the big time for his first Major League start.  Saturday, Pelfrey will take the hill against the Florida Marlins.  As reported earlier, Pedro Martinez was placed on the 15 day DL, retroactive to June 29th with a Hip issue.  Nice to see the kid getting his shot in the bigs and also glad to see that Pedro will be getting some much needed rest heading into the All-Star break.  The Hotfoot wishes Pelfrey good luck and get well soon to Pedro.

As the Mets gear up to add Mike Pelfrey to the mix this weekend, NY Sports Day provides us with a nice rundown of the pitching prospects in the Mets organization.

Here are some names you should know, as you may one day see them hurling for the Amazins'…

Binghamton:
Willie Collazo
Mike Pelfrey
Eddy Camacho

St Lucie:
Jose Sanchez
Phil Humber
Michael Devaney

Hagerstown:
Jonathan Niese
Deolis Guerra

Brooklyn:
Nelson Portillo

Kingsport:
Nicholas Carr

Get a full detailed synopsis of each prospect on NY Sports Day.

Mike Pelfrey held New
Hampshire to one run on two hits while striking out 11 and walking
three in seven innings in a 6-4 B-Mets win.

Adam Rubin reports that observers of recent performances say Pelfrey still needs to work on his
breaking pitch, which is in-between a slider and curveball. Pelfrey
said he’s trying to improve the plane on the pitch, getting it to act
more like a true curveball. “I feel like I’m getting better every time
I go out there,” Pelfrey said

Toby reports that Philip
Humber worked four innings yesterday, allowing solo HR to the first two batters he faced,
and nothing after that. He struck out
two and didn’t walk a batter while working around 3 Mets errors in his four
IP.

Toby also reports that with the
Tides down 3-2, Lastings Milledge
came to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning.  Playing his first game in Norfolk since his return from NYC, Milledge
cleared the bases, driving home three with a go-ahead double.  He finished 2-4 and was the only Tide hitter
with multiple hits.

Royce Ring picked up the save, his
seventh for his one scoreless inning of relif. 
Ring has thrown 24 scoreless innings over his last 21 outings and the
Tides website points out that the Norfolk scoreless innings record is 24.1 set
by Ober Moreno in 2003.

Be sure to keep a close watch on Toby's blog for all Minor League Mets action, he does a fantastic job of recapping the events on all levels of the Mets minors on a daily basis.

The Daily News is reporting that the Mets are mulling over the possibility of promoting Mike Pelfrey to the Mets bullpen soon…

Keeping Score At Shea brings us the following info on the Mets top rated prospect…

He pitched his second game of the season last night going 6
innings.  He allowed 4 hits (1 triple), 1 unearned run, 0 walks and 7
K's.  So for the season is line is:

     1-0, 2 GS, 11 IP, 6H, 1R, 0ER, 1BB, 13Ks, 0.00 ERA, 0.636 WHIP

…and here's a bonus report from Joel Sherman on MSGnetwork.com on a guy who might give the Wookie in the Nats pen a run for his money in the “dude's big” department, the 6'3″ , 230 lbs Henry Owens….