Mets

[Amazin69]

Mets acquire reliever Huascar Brazoban from the Fish for minor-leaguer Wilfredo Lara!

Mets acquire reliever Tyler Zuber from the Rays for minor-leaguer Paul Gervase!

Mets acquire longtime Oakland Pathetic (and 2022 All-Star) Paul Blackburn for minor-leaguer Kade Morris!

Feel the excitement! (If Blackburn ever reaches the 7th inning, I'll faint from the shock.)

Could be worse, but I think this is mostly puttering around the edges, hopefully not blowing up in our face down the road.

Off to discover if Tyler Zuber is related to the immortal Bill "Goober" Zuber, Yankees and Red Sox pitcher of the 1940s.

Edit: Apparently not. But I did discover that Bill Zuber (along with Milo Candini) is what the Yankees got when they dumped the hugely talented (and hugely self-destructive) Gerry Priddy on Washington after 1942.

If you don't know about Priddy, read up on him. It's a blast. [/cheap joke]

[Westheim]

On the plus side, at least they went out and got arms and not another left-handed leftfielder that plays twice a week and will totally be such a big help.

And Manaea apparently pitched a good one against the Twinkies. Bugger had to save that one all year to a weekday night game where I can't see it.

[Amazin69]

Oh, then you missed Gary telling us that Caleb Thielbar's surname means "Honey Bear" in Middle German.

I only bring this up to ask vas "Schwellenbach" actually means in German, since Google Translate is worthless.

But yeah, Manaea was great. Must have paid attention to that Paul Blackburn deal, I suppose.

[Westheim]

Schwellenbach in itself indeed means nothing. If you are lyrically inclined, you may interpret it is a flooding creek. Bach means creek, and schwellen would be swelling as a verb, and as a noun any number of things, none of which make any sense.

What it REALLY means is that the Mets get shut out, though. I'm sure they saved one of those for the series finale with the Twinks.

[Westheim]

Ah, Severe-No showed up today.

Can't wait to get burned black by Blackburn.

Then Brazobáned. I don't even know what it MEANS, but I look so not forward to it.

[Amazin69]

Now, Severino knew that Megill wasn't certain about moving to the bullpen, so he generously gave Tylor an early chance to adjust to his new role. Always thinking of his teammates, that's our Severed Arm.

Except that Mendoza Line seems to want to wait. Severe No is still out there. Huh.

BTW, Josh Walker was shipped out yesterday (to Pittsburgh for 18-year-old Venezuelan lefty Nicolas Cerreno, who apparently can't throw a strike, but what do you want?) and the news story described him as a "longtime Met". I'm not certain that struggling up the chain since being drafted in 2017 qualifies him as such. I think retaining Peterson and (especially) Vientos is enough 2017 draft class nostalgia for me.

[Amazin69]

Keith said the Twins "must have had a bed-check". In other words, they weren't out partying last night, so they were ready to play today.

I think I'd rather have had the hangover than watched that game. Bleccch.

(Even with the drink-and-phone guy making a nice catch in the 9th.)

**************************

In case you passed out from the pain, Gary mentioned that the Mets' nadir was not Strawberry Sunday (when they were 24-35 before they started playing ball) but 10 days later, because the Phillies got even hotter for a bit.

On June 11th. it was

PHI 46-20 -----
NY 28-37 17.5

Since then, the Phils have gone 19-23, and the Mets 29-14. And a 17.5 game margin has shrunk to 8.

It would be ridiculous if the Mets pulled off the comeback, since the old record was only 15 games back. (1914 "Miracle" Braves out of the cellar and blowing past the Giants.) But chopping more than half of the tree before the end of July is…intriguing, to say the least.

Speaking of the end of July, why was the trade deadline on July 30 this season, rather than the traditional 31st? Curious.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Speaking of the end of July, why was the trade deadline on July 30 this season, rather than the traditional 31st? Curious.

From the glossary (!) on MLB.com:

The 2024 Trade Deadline falls on July 30 at 6 p.m. ET. Prior to the most recent CBA, the Trade Deadline almost always fell on July 31 at 4 p.m. ET.

CBA things. (shrug!)

[Amazin69]

Of all the ex-Mets who might have been mentioned in the Olympic coverage, I did not have Jeff Musselman on my Bingo card.

But apparently his daughter Maddie makes a big splash in Water Polo; she was the Olympic MVP in Tokyo, and has scored 8 goals in 4 games here. Huh.

How's her slider? Just wondering.



Jeff, Maddie and Karen Musselman, as noted on the name tags.

[Westheim]

(wobbles through the night purposelessly)

Oh, the Mets play in La-La-Land now.

Fun Fact: I have a little Excel table that tallies all the games I watched this year, and the only team I have never seen win in 2024 are the once-more-Troutless Angels.

I'm sure the Mets got me covered.

[Westheim]

Petition to change Paul Blackburn's nickname to "Rover".

Sign here.

[Amazin69]

All I know is that after Spencer Schwellenbach (German) and Paul Blackburn (Scottish), I'm just glad the Mets won't have to face Jake Westbrook and Doug Creek any time soon.

Of course, since those two are retired, I guess it's all water under the bridge, but still.

(I have to get back to that 1979 game I was playing, see how Mickey Rivers is doing.)

Perfectly nice game last night, even at 0338 first pitch CET. Nimmo may be coming out of his slump and Pete hit an impressive and relevant blast. Blackburn was yanked after only 82 pitches (Ron died a bit in the booth), but Butto and Maton finished it off.

And the Phillies got bombed in Seattle, so 17.5 GB is now only 7…

[Westheim]

In case you wondered, the immortal Travis Blankenhorn is alive and well and just whacked a 2-out, 2-run double in the first inning against the Brewery Boys.

Travis Blankenhorn!

[Amazin69]

And now you're cursing Huascar Brazoban's name before you've learnt how to spell it.

(You know, Carlos, you can pull a pitcher after he's thrown 25 pitches to the first 4 batters in the inning. It's a 3-batter rule, not a 3-out rule.)

Lawdy, that Angels fan screaming themself hoarse by the microphone is ANnoying…

Also, if somebody could teach Vientos how to play 3B, that would be useful. Just saying.

[Westheim]

Fun Fact: There are about 30 Hans Krauses (Kraus|es as well as Krause|s) on the German Wikipedia, none of them a Winter (or Summer) Olympian.

The most well known Hans Kraus today is probably the folksy actor, whose real name isn't even Hans Kraus.

And yes, that's how the name is actually written in German

What else? I'm warming up to Steve as fill-in play-by-play, and I think the Mets could do a whole lot worse than promoting him to that position full time when GKR inevitably retire at some point in the coming years. Not that I want to think about that too much right now.

[Amazin69]

Soooo…back-to-back one-run losses (1st time this season) to the Halos, and we're now 3-5 in the past 8. Gone from owning the only semi-legit WC, to chasing the Snakes for the pathetic "honor" of coming…6th.

In ex-Mets news yesterday, Paul Sewald beat Colin Holderman, and Chris Flexen showed what's wrong with the White Sox. (Or, conversely, the Sox showed what's wrong with Flexen, that he is reduced to pitching for them.)

[Westheim]

Fell into bed, dead-butt tired, at 9 yesterday, and now of course woke up in the middle of the night.

But hey, the Mets are in the second inning at "The Home of Crazy Pants Baseball"! The Rockies absolutely should adopt that as their new moniker.

[Westheim]

Turns out the Rockies played baseball, the weather was crazy, and the Mets were just pants.

[Amazin69]

Nothing the slightest bit crazy about that game. Severe No looked like $13 mn worth of ****, and the offense was comatose. 6 losses in 10.

They keep this up, they'll be back below .500 before they know it.

"Crazypants"? Nope. But the Mets played as if the Rockies pantsed them, so there's that.

[Amazin69]

Two wins give us the series with the Rocks and make a 4-3 road trip, which is better if not actually good. Hoping that Seattle proves manageable, and then we can build momentum at home.

And we've moved past the Braves again, albeit still 8 games behind the Phils. But only one rung left to climb has to be a good thing.

Gary tells us that the Mets' staff has allowed the fewest hits in the NL. Really? These guys?? Wow.

Seaver, Koosman, Gentry, Ryan.
Doc, Ronnie, El Sid, Bobby O.
The Fireball Five.
Quintana, Blackburn, Peterson, Severe No, Manaea.…really? Huh.