Your Friday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
For all the trade talk surrounding Daniel Murphy lately, there hasn't been a lot of discussion regarding a potential extension for the second baseman. General manager Sandy Alderson doesn't like handing out long-term deals to aging players, but Murphy, for what it's worth, sounds open to the possibility of one.
If Murphy does get dealt, hopefully it works out just as well as last season's Marlon Byrd trade.
The Mets are still five games under .500 with 67 to play, but Terry Collins sounds fired up for a pennant race.
Jeremy Hefner threw two more innings in the Gulf Coast League yesterday. The right-hander is working his way back from Tommy John surgery and hopes to pitch for the Mets sometime this season.
Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York wrote a lovely column yesterday that sums up the whole Mets fan experience pretty well. Rising Apple points out a quote in the column that could be construed as a dig at Mets fans by our own Jon Niese.
Bleacher Report has five prospects that the Mets could realistically acquire at the trade deadline (yay, it's not a slideshow!)
Around the NL East
Liz Roscher of The Good Phight misses the good ole days.
If that post gets you too emotional, there's also some some cold, hard Philliestrade rumors analysis.
Federal Baseball breaks down what went wrong for Bryce Harper in the first half, besides the fact that he got injured.
Here are the top 10 Nationals Vines from the first half.
Nationals infielder Anthony Rendondoesn't watch baseball because "it's too long and boring."
Around the Majors
Perhaps the sexiest name that could get moved before the July 31 trade deadline is David Price. According to Fox Sports reporter Jon Morosi, the Mariners are talking to the Rays about a trade for Price as well as infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist. Such a deal would cost Seattle oodles of prospects.
The Cubs may be a year or three away from contending, but the acquisition of Jake Arrieta is turning out to be one of Theo Epstein's more savvy moves.
Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington admitted to a local radio station that he didn't do a good enough job to build a productive offense.
Mike Vorkunov of The Star-Ledger writes about the art of pitch framing, something that a pair of New York catchers are quite skilled at.
Over at Sports on Earth, Pat Borzi ranks all of the presents that Derek Jeter has received so far this season. Not surprisingly, the awesome Cleveland LEGO gift is number one.
Meanwhile, Will Leitch tries to determine which potential World Series champion would be the most beloved.
HardballTalk editor Craig Calcaterra has some advice for MLB, Fox, and the future of baseball on television.
New research shows that the "hot hand" phenomenon may be a real thing in baseball.
Yesterday at AA
Jeffrey Paternostro offers up a scouting report for under-the-radar third base prospect Jhoan Urena.
James K submitted an active Mets roster broken down by acquisition method. Let the Sandy vs. Omar war commence.
Steve Sypa schooled us all on Brooklyn Cyclones history.
Joe Sokolowski has all the best Mets quotes from the week that was.
On this date in 1960, the National League voted to expand to 10 teams. The decision made room for the Houston Colt .45s as well as our Mets.