There are some titles in baseball that can be dubious. The “saves leader” usually is the man that collects the most (or near the most) save opportunities. It does not necessarily mean he is the best closer in the league. Likewise, the leader in outfield assists is not always the best outfielder because baserunners are more apt to run on the unproven. Steals leader could be grouped into this list.

A steals leader might be considered the best leadoff hitter in the league, when that isn’t necessarily true. Case in point: Willy Taveras of the Colorado Rockies is far and away the MLB steals leader and looks to easily capture the crown unless Jose Reyes or Jacoby Ellsbury turns up the pace down the stretch. Taveras sits at a surprising 51 steals in mid-August, while Reyes and Ellsbury share a distant 2nd of 38 steals each. It’s surprising because Taveras swiped 34 and 33 steals respectively in his first two full seasons in the league, 2005 and 2006 with the Astros. In an shortened 97-game season with the Rockies in 2007, he stole another 33. This season, he’s on pace for about 75.

But Taveras is hardly the ideal leadoff hitter, merely because of his wealth of steals. He’s batting .251 with 1 HR and 22 RBI with an abysmal OBP of .305. And yet Taveras has 352 of his 370 ABs this season in the leadoff slot for the Rockies. Historically, the young Taveras simply doesn’t walk enough. The only year he had an acceptable OBP was 2007 when his OBP of .367 was propped up by a batting average of .320.

Ellsbury, the man Reyes shares 2nd place with, has had a disappointing season, as well. He’s batting .269 with 7 HR and 33 RBIs with an OBP of .331. In 116 at-bats last season, Ellsbury had a .353 average and .394 OBP. Even so, Ellsbury has 342 of his 390 at-bats at the leadoff spot.

Juan Pierre, 4th in MLB with 37 steals, could have a few more if the Dodgers outfield wasn’t so clogged. Pierre is batting .277 with 0 HR and 25 RBI with an OBP of .322. Historically, Pierre is a guy who has a pretty good average (around the .290s) but has a subpar OBP. So, again, he’s not an ideal leadoff hitter, either. A guy like B.J. Upton, tied for fifth with 36 steals, overcomes his bad average (.265) by having a career year in walks (80 so far) to have a good OBP of .381.

Michael Bourn is the most obvious case of high number of steals being a Trojan horse. He sits at seventh in MLB with 33 steals, but he’s batting just .232 with a godawful .286 OBP. Despite this, he’s collected 267 of his 362 at-bats in the leadoff position. It took way too long for the Astros to pull the plug on Bourn as the leadoff hitter, especially considering his batting average was mired below .200 in mid-May. .232 is actually close to his season high. Bourn can best be described as a fringe baseball player, only still in the bigs because of his ability to steal.

Meanwhile, Reyes wowed the league by easily taking the steals crown of 2007 with 78 steals, obliterating the Mets’ team record. He also was caught stealing 21 times, more than his 2006 total of 17 and looks to be more than his 2008 total (so far, 11). Outside of his steals, Reyes’ 2007 looks to be his worst offensive year out of the last three. He had more HRs and RBIs and a higher batting average and slugging percentage in 2006. He looks to have more HRs, more RBIs, a higher batting average, and a higher slugging percentage in 2008. Reyes also has a higher OBP in 2008 than in either 2006 or 2007.

Too often, in baseball, we focus too much on one aspect of the game, whether it be steals for leadoff hitters, home runs for sluggers, or wins for pitchers. We fail to look at the whole package, and that causes the misvaluing of players. Of all the players in the top 10 in baseball in steals, Reyes looks like the best overall player.

According to ESPN, slugger Adam Dunn was traded today from the Reds to the Diamondbacks in exchange for three prospects.

Dunn is known for his home-run power and low batting average, despite his ability to draw walks.  Currently, Dunn and Ryan Howard are tied for the NL lead for HRs with 32 each. 

Dunn is a free agent after this year, and is likely just a rental for the D’backs.   

The Mets take on the Pirates at home today as a makeup for a rain out in April.  Pedro Martinez will take on Zach Duke, with Pedro looking to build on the success of his last start.

Keys to the game:

• Quality 6 from Pedro. With the Mets in the midst of a stretch where they are playing 23 straight games, the bullpen is bound to get fatigued.  Pedro probably has the least endurance of all the Mets starters, but pitched well in his last outing.  To give the bullpen a break especially after yesterday, Pedro has to work at least six innings.
• Get the ball to Aaron. In his last two outings, Aaron Heilman has looked like his old self, allowing no runs in three innings while allowing only one base runner.  He was able to rest yesterday, and the Mets will be in good shape if they can hand him the ball with a lead in the 9th.

The game can be see on SNY and listened to on WFAN.

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

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

Added by Rob Harding

Today’s game is in a rain delay, new start time is 1:40 EST.

Over the course of the next week, the Mets will play five games against the last place Pirates and three games against the last place Nationals.  I expect nothing less than a 6-2 roadtrip against these two teams, with their anemic offenses and awful starting pitching. This is a great chance for the Mets to fatten up. As we saw last year though, the Mets have to come ready to play and can’t play to the level of the competition. Let’s take a look at who the Mets main competition will face over the course of the next week

Phillies- Dodgers, Padres. The Phillies open a big four game set against the Dodgers tonight in LA. Although they don’t face Chad Billingsley, the Dodgers most dominating starter, in my opinion, they do face a quad of pretty good pitchers. Derek Lowe, phenom Clayton Kershaw, Brad Penny, and Hiroki Kuroda will all take the mound against the Phils and can all deliver a gem on any given night. Not an easy task for the Phils.

Now, the Marlins…

Marlins- Cardinals, Cubs. The Cardinals open a big four game set of their own tonight against the Cards. Again, the Marlins don’t face the Cards ace Chris Carpenter, but face four solid starters. Joel Pineiro, Todd Wellemeyer, Kyle Lohse, and Braden Looper. After which they face the Cubs, the best team in the NL…

Clearly, the Mets have a great opportunity to gain some ground in the standings as they don’t face a team with a winning record again until August 26th, when we head up CBP to face the Phillies…

Chat live today with Newsday baseball columnist Ken Davidoff at 11:00 A.M. ET.

Join the live chat in progress HERE.

The Mets fell in the final game of their series against the Marlins today by a score of 8-2. Josh Johnson got the win for the Marlins, and Mike Pelfrey took the loss for the Mets.

The Marlins dominance over Pelfrey continued, as he surrendered six runs in 4.2 innings. In all three of his starts this year against the Fish, Pelfrey has failed to make it to five innings. Since late May, nearly two and a half months, Pelfrey has three losses. They are all against the Marlins.

As SNY’s Gary Cohen said, the Mets have a bunch of off days in September. They might want to setup a rotation so Pelfrey will miss this team, as they own him.

The Mets two runs came on a Jose Reyes RBI groundout and a David Wright RBI single.

Carlos Muniz allowed two solo homers to Luis Gonzalez and Mike Jacobs in the 6th inning. Jacobs killed his former team this weekend, popping two homers and two doubles.

With the loss, the Mets fell to two games back of the Phillies in the NL East.

The Mets welcome the Pirates into town for a one game makeup tomorrow starting at 1:10 EST. Zach Duke will face Pedro Martinez.

The Mets look to sweep the Marlins out of town today at Shea starting at 1:10 EST. Mike Pelfrey will toe the rubber opposite Josh Johnson. The game can be seen on the CW11, and can be heard on WFAN.

Keys to the Game:

• Pelf, Bounce Back: Two starts ago, Pelfrey had his worst start since late May against these Marlins, giving up five runs in four innings. Pelfrey needs to keep the ball down against this team, and get those groundballs, as we have seen they can certainly hit the longball.
• The Super Subs:Today, Argenis Reyes makes an appearance at 2nd, and Endy Chavez gets his first start since the last roadtrip. With Tatis and Easley struggling at the dish, it makes sense to give these guys a shot and see if they can give a jolt to the lineup.

For a lineup, head to Adam Rubin’s blog for the Daily News.

As always, to chat during the game, head to The Hot Foot Bleachers.

Sure, Billy Wagner has seven blown saves. He can be shaky at times, but can also look down right dominant at times. Many fans want to crucify Wagner when he blows a save, and that’s understandable. But sometimes, we take Wagner for granted. We are pretty lucky to have a closer like Wagner, who even though he has his faults, he gets the job done most of the time. As we saw this year with KRod, even the best can be defeated.

Let’s take a look at some of our other relievers work as closers this year.

July 22nd- Wagner isn’t available due to injury, so Jerry Manuel calls upon Duaner Sanchez to get the save. Sanchez is handed a comfy 5-2 lead, which he promptly blows, and the Mets end up losing the game 8-6.

August 5th- Aaron Heilman enters the game with a 6-2 lead. He allows a leadoff walk, a bloop, and a blast. Many fans (including myself) were calling for his head, but he has shown he can get the job done the last two nights against the Fish, so I’ll give him a pass for now. For the record, I’m still not comfortable with him in a game trying to close it out.

August 7th- Wagner on the DL, Scott Schoeneweis gets the call. Up a run, he allows Jody Gerut to hit a moonshot to tie the game. And once again, I’m wishing we had Mr. Wagner to call upon to get those last few outs. Luckily, Mets win game in the 9th 5-3.

As we see here, closing is a whole other monster, compared to the middle innings. For the most part, the game is on the line, and your under pressure to get the job done for your team. If you don’t your slaughtered by media/fans.

So, when Wags gets back, let’s appreciate him a little more knowing we have one of the best closers in the game.

Coming off a 1-5 roadtrip against the Astros and Marlins, I wondered whether or not this team was going to pick it back up, or whether the magic of the Tatis’s and Easley’s would be wearing off soon, after all they are 34 and 38 respectively. Then came the news of Wagner’s trip to the DL. This bullpen was already in tatters, who would they ever be able to fill the void left by the absence of the All Star closer. I said to myself these next two weeks could make or break their season.

The Padres came to town on Tuesday. This looked like a pretty easy series to win, if not sweep. We missed ace Jake Peavy, the Padres just don’t flat out score any runs. Well, the Padres showed alot more fight than I thought they would. Game one was all about Tatis, and his two homer game. Guess that answered my question whether or not the seasoned vets would respond. The Mets fell in game two, behind Pedro, although Martinez didn’t throw too bad. Game three, Scott Schoeneweis blows the save, David Wright wins it with a walkoff. Nice, a series win heading into a big Marlins series.

The Marlins then came to town, fresh off their own series win over those Phightin Phils. They would be sending Ricky Nolasco, Josh Johnson, and Scott Olsen to the mound. I would have felt pretty confident if I was a Marlins fan. Well, so far, the Mets have showed why they are the better team. Oliver Perez threw a gem, and Brian Stokes kept us in the game. Daniel Murphy showed us why he could have a very bright future in this league, and Carlos Beltran finally came alive, hitting his first homer in 82 ABs

The Mets look for the sweep tomorrow, and it would be a great opportunity to really put the hammer down.

The Mets are 4-1 since that last Astro game and are showing signs of why they should be playing October baseball, and I couldn’t be happier.