Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
The month of June has spelled a lot of doom and gloom for the Amazins, but on Sunday the team capped off a successful weekend by cranking out 17 hits and defeating the Marlins 11-5. Jon Niese pitched his way to a quality start, Daniel Murphy drove in three runs, and seven Mets recorded two hits or more in the triumph.
Recap Parade: Amazin' Avenue short, long, MLB.com, ESPN NY, New York Times, Post, Daily News, Star-Ledger
To bring home the second run of the game, the Amazins executed a suicide squeeze to perfection.
ESPN stats enthusiast Mark Simon tells us why the Mets' road trip went so well for David Wright, Zack Wheeler, and Jacob deGrom.
Travis d'Arnaud is hitting .444/.483/.926 in Las Vegas, and the young catcher will reportedly be called up in time for Tuesday's game against Oakland. With the Mets unlikely to carry three catchers, will Anthony Recker or Taylor Teagarden be sent down?
According to Andy Martino, Murphy could make for an interesting trade chip for the Mets, but the team is unlikely to do anything drastic prior to the July 31 non-waiver deadline. The fan-favorite Murphy has already racked up 2.2 fWAR in what appears to be a career year for him so far.
Scouting website Draft to the Show reviewed the Mets' 2014 draft. First-round pick Michael Conforto appears to be a "quality regular who could move quickly through the system," while third-round selection Milton Ramos "might be the best defensive infielder in this class."
Around the NL East
Even though they just lost a series to those stinking Mets, the Marlins appear set to be buyers at the trade deadline.
After five straight wins, the Philliesdropped the final two games of their road trip to St. Louis.
Washington defeated Atlanta 4-1 behind a strong start from Tanner Roark. The Nats are in first place in the division and two games ahead of the Braves in the loss column.
Around the Majors
The struggling Padreshave fired GM Josh Byrnes. Omar Minaya will step back into the GM chair to serve as an interim replacement.
On Saturday night, San Diego reliever Alex Torres became the first pitcher to try out MLB's new protective pitcher cap during a game. It might look funny, but the most important thing is that the headgear was not uncomfortable, and it could protect the next generation of pitchers from line drive comebackers.
The Cardinals have a deep pitching staff, but I'm not sure how well they can handle losing both Michael Wacha and Jaime Garcia to shoulder injuries. It's a good thing Carlos Martinez is already stretched out.
David Ortiz is known as one of the best "clutch" hitters of all time, but of course the numbers show that he is just as good when the game isn't on the line.
How's this for a combo meal? Mike Napoli hit a home run in Boston's 10-inning, 7-6 win over Oakland. He also stole home. As you might imagine, it's been a while since that particular feat has been pulled by a Red Sox player.
For once, it appears that Adam Wainwright could be on our side.
Yesterday at AA
On this date in Mets history, Ron Hunt learned that he would become the team's first ever All-Star Game starter. Also, Felix Hernandez hit a grand slam off of Johan Santana.