I don't imagine too many of you will find this encouraging. Here is the relevant quote: "You get so many statistical people together, they put so many stats on paper, and they say, well, if you do this and you score this many runs, you do that many times, you'll be in the playoffs,"

"That's not really how it works, and that's what we have to get away from. And that's going to have to be a different mind-set of the team in going forward. We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people. We have to win because we have baseball players that know and can understand the game."

Most of the fans who deserve a beating leave before the 7th inning.

New York Mets reliever Ambiorix Burgos was driving an SUV when it slammed into two women who later died of their injuries, according to police in the Dominican Republic.

Police still were searching for Burgos.

Police Col. Eulogio Taveras said Josefina Minaya Martinez, 38, and Angely Fana, 29, were struck Tuesday by a new Hummer registered to Burgos, 24.

The women died at a hospital in Nagua, a town 112 miles north of the capital, Santo Domingo.

"The investigation indicates that Burgos was the driver of the (vehicle) that hit the women," Taveras said, adding several witnesses identified Burgos as the driver.

-------------------------------

Uhh, that isn't good.

This only cites unnamed people "familiar with the Mets' thinking" so take it for what it's worth. Copying and pasting the interesting part...

---------------------------

• Pedro Martinez is unlikely to return

• No steps will be taken toward finding a more suitable -- read productive and reliable -- second baseman until the club has a sense it can deal expensive quasi-incumbent Luis Castillo. Also, Damion Easley, despite the production he provided at second base, is not likely to return.

• Despite his strong showing this season and the plan to have him play second base in the Arizona Fall League, Daniel Murphy is most likely to be a platoon left fielder.

• The club is quite aware the contract demands of Scott Boras client Oliver Perez are likely to be exorbitant. The Mets are interested in re-signing the potential free agent, but they already are asking, "At what price?"

• The Mets still need at least one more starting pitcher -- and two if Perez bolts. And one will have to be a 200-innings guy.

---------------------------

One year in and the Luis Castillo contract is already an albatross. Great.

Yesterday evening, Joe Posnanski took note of the fact that only four times in history has a player put up a season line including 25 HR, 40 2B, 25 SB, 110 R and 110 RBI.

Two of them were in the pre-humidor Coors Field days, Larry Walker in 1997 and Ellis Burks (I forgot that he stole bases) in 1996. (Of course, Coors Field played an absurd 30% above average for hitters in 1996, though only 13% above average for hitters in 1997.) Walker might've done the same in 1996 as well, I suppose, but he played only 83 games that year, due to injury if I recall correctly. Dante Bichette, in fact, was one double shy of doing the same in Coors in 1996.

The third was Barry Bonds in 1998, a phenomenal season by anyone's standards though before the power explosion that was to come. Like Joe, I find it a bit surprising that this was the only season Bonds had 40 doubles. (He was two doubles shy of another such season his first year in San Francisco, with 46 HR, 129 R, 123 RBI and 29 SB; I wonder how much the steroid cloud over 2001-04 will overshadow how phenomenal Barry was before then, including in his back-to-back MVP seasons of 1992 and 1993, featuring almost-identical OPS+ of 205 and 204.)

The fourth, as you might have guessed, was our own Hebrew Hammer, Carlos Beltran. Now, I'm not a big believer in uncommon combinations of counting statistics being all that important in the scheme of things. (Jimmy Rollins' 20-20-20-20 performance last year was a pretty stupid rationale to give him the MVP, if you ask me.) Still, it's a pretty nice achievement for Voltron.

"Two weeks ago, there was talk of a significant off-season shake-up if the Mets couldn’t reverse their slide. Now it’s time to peruse the menu: Would Minaya be bold enough to actually trade one of his previously untouchable stars — Wright or Beltran or Jose Reyes?

Crazy thought, sure, but entirely necessary given the pattern of disappointment since 2005".

Emphasis is mine; unbridled alarmism belongs to Bob Klapisch. I have a lot of respect for Klapisch, but this is a lazy, sloppy article. I don't think anyone expected the Mets to be especially competitive in 2005, considering they were coming off a 71-91 season.

As for 2007-2008, say what you will about Reyes and Wright, they clearly are not this team's problems.

die fishies.

Good story from Slate's Josh Levin.

"All in all, Ayala and his comrades-in-noodle-arms have blown 29 save opportunities in 2008, the most of any playoff contender. Now that's bleeping brutal."

Frackers! If they could have closed out a mere 25% of those games, the Mets would have run away with the division.

A little good news