Picture from tonight's game

Loyal reader is at the game... Enjoy!

Draft Signees

As I mentioned yesterday, I believed the Mets would get their 1st and 3rd round picks signed, and they did. They also were very aggressive and signed their 15th round pitck to an overslot deal, in essence getting a top 100 player (dropped due to strong college commit and money demands) in the 15th round. Yes they paid the money of a supplemental draft pick (between rounds 1 and 2), but that's what big market teams do.

Here was a great chart from Metsminorleagueblog.com, showing the change in the draft spending of the Mets over the past 10 years. Great job Toby.

Today is a good day to be a Mets fan, and thank you Sandy for doing exactly what you said you would do when you signed on this off-season.

State of the Mets 8/15/11

It's been close to 2 weeks since we last looked at how the Mets were doing, and on 8/2 they were 1 game under .500 and 8 1/2 games behind the Braves for a Wild Card.

It's now officially the dog days of August, as the Mets have lost 5 games in a row, including getting swept out of Arizona, and are 4 games under .500, 20 1/2 games out of 1st place, and 11 1/2 games behind the Braves for the Wild Card. They are only 2 games ahead of last place (Florida Marlins).

• Johan Santana has not resumed throwing since his 'shoulder fatigue' diagnosis 2 weeks ago, and I would put his chances of throwing in the majors this season at 10%.
• Ike Davis will rest for two more weeks and then decide if he should undergo microfracture surgery, which would allow him to be ready for Spring Training in 2012, so he is obviously done for this season.

Today is the deadline for signing drafted players, and the Mets still haven't signed their 1st and 3rd round picks, but this isn't a surprise. Anyone who gets an overslot deal often waits until the last day, and Nimmo has been asking for 2.5+ million since before he was drafted. No harm in waiting until the last day and I'm not concerned unless they fail to sign him and then that's a huge issue.

Are there any other pressing issues you guys think with the Mets? I don't want to turn to the off-season plan just yet (do they tender a contract to Pelfrey/Pagan, and what should the offer be to Reyes).

Fans at the game

Here is a picture from a braves fan at tonight's game.

Lets go Mets!

State of the Mets 8/2/11

At this time last week, the Mets were 1 game under .500, and 8 1/2 games behind the Braves for the Wild Card. Now the Mets are 1 game over .500, and 7 1/2 games behind the Braves. To get to 90 wins, they would need to go 35-18, or play .660 ball the remainder of the year. The Phillies have the best record in baseball this year, and they are playing .640 ball.

In other news, Sandy Alderson decided not to trade anyone else besides K-Rod and Beltran because he felt it was important to let this team try to win. No one but Sandy and the front office knows what the market was for guys like Byrdak or Isringhausen or S Hairston, but if there was any decent package out there for any of those guys, he did the Mets a disservice by not trading them. Again, I'm not saying there was a fair trade out there, I don't know that. But the difference between winning 76 games and 84 games is nothing to me; I'd rather win 76 games, get a guy who may help the team in the future for a spare part, and get a better draft pick next year.

The rest of the season will focus on individual performances, on if Ike Davis will be able to avoid surgery on his ankle, and how Johan Santana comes back and performs/for how many starts.

What else are you guys concerned/focused on the rest of the season?