According to the Post Standard, the Syracuse Sky Chiefs are willing to make a deal with the Mets if they make Syracuse their new home. According the report, the Chiefs, a publicly owned team, would sell a stake to the Mets organization. Officially, neither the Chiefs or Bisons can make any sort of offer to the Mets till after midnight tonight, though rumors have already circulated that the Mets and Bisons have reached an unofficial agreement.

Its like all the fun of trade rumors, but with full teams. For what its worth, if we end up in Syracuse, hopefully the Wilpons can use their new partial stake to give the team a cooler name. Sky Chiefs? Seriously? Sure, there’s nothing really grand about Syracuse in which to name a team after, but we can only have so many ariel based minor league teams in a row. Maybe the Syracuse Mr Met Jrs?

Ok, we’ve lost two games a row - two of which have been against the Nationals.  In one of those games, we were shutout by Odalis Perez.  ‘Nuff said.   

So it is with much vigor that I can announce that I will be wearing my lucky Mets tube socks tomorrow.  My lucky Mets tube socks have the Mets logo imprinted on them, in addition to having a blue heel and orange sole.  People tend to ask me, “If they are so lucky, why don’t you do the Mets a favor and wear them everyday?”

Well the answer to that is three fold:

1. The more I wear the tube socks the less lucky they become, the longer that they remain dormant luck stores up and they become more effective. 
2. I do not choose when to wear the lucky tube socks, the lucky tube socks choose when to wear me. 
3. General societal rules dictate that I should wash my footwear every once in a while in order to prevent serious odor issues.

The good news it that the tube socks are 2-0 this year, and they haven’t been worn since May 17th against the Yankees when the Mets won 7-4 and won again the next day.  The other time they have donned my size 11 foot was on April 15th against the Braves, which resulted in a five game winning streak. 

But, allow me to clarify something.  I have no control over the tube socks.  The tube socks contain the mystical power and the ability to give the Mets a win.  The tube socks choose when they wear me, not vice-versa.  I am merely the prophet that has been blessed (and cursed?) with the responsibility to bear the weight of such a powerful device.  I am just a tool of the magic - a grunt of the larger picture. 

While I definitely do not believe in any cockamamie magic number jinxes and witchcraft of the sort, the lucky Mets tube socks are the messianic provider of our success, given to us on a faithful day by the committee of baseball gods that includes Dizzy Dean and Willie Mays. 

The Mets offensive woes in DC continue, as the team was able to muster a mere four hits off of Odalis Perez. That’s four more hits than they got off the bullpen, and brings their series total to nine hits. They did manage nine strikeouts for the night. But hey, at least they didn’t strand a lot of runners on base. So there’s that.

On the other side, Pelf was Pelftastic. He took a loss while giving up the game’s sole run on a ground rule double. A nice return after the same team took him for five runs in five innings just six days ago. Joe Smith added an inning of hitless relief.

Not much to say here, the offense clearly didn’t show up against the Nats, again. Everyone’s coming up empty at the plate, and to mix it up, they added injury to insult this time, with Tatis going down for the season. With if things continue, at least won’t be much longer. The team seems frustrated, which probably is only making things worse.

The two teams meet again tomorrow, with US Olympic athlete Knight on the mound.

Fernando Tatis left tonight’s game with what is being called a “separated right shoulder”. Tatis was injured while trying to dive for an Odalis Perez flyball. No timetable on whether or not he is done for the year.

I’d guess Fernando is gone for the year, which is sad, considering how big of a part he’s been for this team.

As Ant mentioned earlier, it appears the Mets are Buffalo bound. Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News is now also reporting that the Mets and Bisons appear ready to join forces. According to Harrington, while the Jays wanted in, the Bisons were concerned over their inability to field a team that could compete. The Mets on the other hand, were reportedly concerned with the management of the Syracuse Chiefs organization. Either way, we won’t get a real answer till next week.

I personally though we’d be Syracuse bound, but Buffalo is still a lot better than New Orleans in regards to closeness, and the International League is the better choice (sorry Pacific). While the Big Easy is a lot more fun and interesting to visit, its hard to argue with having the AAA team closer. Hey, when visiting them, we can always cross the border into Niagara Falls, Canada for some casinos and ‘Canadian ballet’. The interesting thing here, is with Buffalo making a move for the Mets, the Blue Jays can end up the real big loser. With both Cuse, Buffalo and Columbus off the table to them, the Jays would be the ones to end up aligned with the Zephyrs. Sure, the Bisons are about as far away from Queens as one can be and still be in New York, but its still an hour flight, and it’ll give Nick Evans a chance to see snow in April.

The Mets and Nats continue their four game set tonight in Washington, with Mike Pelfrey facing off against Odalis Perez. Gametime is slated for 7:05 EST, and the game can be seen on SNY and can be heard on WFAN.

Key to the Game:

• Stop the Bleeding: The Mets are losers of three and four to the Braves and Nats, and the bullpen has been awful. At this point, we need to start swinging the bats, and start giving guys like Al Reyes Ricardo Rincon and Bobby Parnell more chances, as Duaner Sanchez, Heilman, and the rest of the crew have shown they all can’t get it done.

Lineup

• SS Jose Reyes
• RF Ryan Church
• 3B David Wright
• CF Carlos Delgado
• 1B Carlos Beltran
• LF Fernando Tatis
• 2B Argenis Reyes
• C Brian Schneider
• P Mike Pelfrey

Awesome, no Castillo, but why no Castro?

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

Buffalo is expected to hold a press conference next Monday to announce it has become the Mets new Triple-A affiliate, reports the New York Daily News.

The Mets Triple-A affiliate had been the New Orleans Zephyrs for the past two seasons.

This is sad news for me, I really enjoyed catching the Zephyrs on my frequent trips to the Big Easy. I will continue to do so, but it was always sweeter knowing I was checking out some future Mets talent.

The folks who run the Zephyrs are great people and I wish them well with their new endeavors.

Closing out ball games, proving they are not the same team who could not finish last season, the Mets are a team in search of a happy ending.

How it will play out is likely to depend on one of three factors. How far ahead their offense can put them ahead in the final two weeks of games left in this season, how far into the game their starters can carry them, or by some miracle, how successful their bullpen is able to close out ball games. The last wish seems to be the most unlikely and most painful to deal with, therefore the other two must be relied upon in order for the Mets to move beyond the ghosts of 2007.

As a fan, I can tell you that after all we went through last year, I nearly find myself trying to prepare for being let down again, to ease the pain of how it might end. However, there is plenty of baseball left to be played, and while the Mets bullpen has all of us ready to toss our televisions out our window, all we can do is hang on, hope and try to enjoy the ride.

Magic numbers, jinxes, and past failures have no control over what happens over the next two weeks except for the nine players left on the field in the bottom of the ninth to simply take care of business.

There has been way too much chatter regarding the magic number that has been posted on Mets Blog.  Sure, I made a post a few days ago here on Hot Foot making a few pokes at the decision, but that was clearly in a facetious manner, and I did not intend for people to seriously believe that if we lose it is all Matt Cerrone’s fault. 

However, the line has been crossed between casual jesting and borderline insanity.  It is getting to the point where people actually believe that Matt Cerrone has caused the Mets to hit this minor skid, not the obvious flaws in the structure of the team. 

But if you do believe in the magic number jinx, how do you know that you’ve got the right jinx?  

Perhaps, the magic number isn’t the jinx - but it is crazed readers and fans that refuse to accept and embrace the magic number that truly curse the Mets.  Wouldn’t that be ironic if the large clan of witch hunters crying to take down the magic number were truly at fault for the Mets’ struggles.  

Or maybe, just maybe - if you’re afraid of really crazy and outlandish ideas turn away now - it is the Mets inability to produce on a consistent basis that causes them to lose.  Now, wouldn’t the be something.  Maybe because it seems like the average high school team has a more consistent bullpen than the Mets is part of the Mets problem.   Or, it could be because we’re counting on the clearly undependable Pedro Martinez to win games down the stretch. 

But all of that logic and reason is absurd, clearly. I’m sure it’s that magic number jinx theory that’s holding the Mets back.