Your Thursday morning dose of Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
Early yesterday afternoon, the Mets took care of the Phillies with ease, as they scored eleven runs and Zack Wheeler had a pretty good outing. With that, the Mets took two of three from Philadelphia in the series and kept their slim hopes of getting into the Wild Card or National League East race alive.
Choose your recap: Amazin Avenue short, long, The Record, Newsday, New York Post, New York Daily News, Star-Ledger, ESPN New York
Jeurys Familia continued his perfect season at the plate in the victory, singling for the second time in as many plate appearances this year. This time, he drove in a run, too. MLB.com caught up with Familia to talk about his success with the bat.
Wheeler is showing maturity on the mound, says Newsday.
Major League Baseball's non-waiver trade deadline is 4:00 PM EDT today. While the Mets and Rockies might not have anything in the works by then for Troy Tulowitzki or Carlos Gonzalez, Ted Berg reminds us that simply looking at the road splits for Colorado players does not mean they'll be terrible on another team.
One of the Mets' more attractive players figures to be Daniel Murphy. Has the second baseman played his last game with the team? For what it's worth, Murphy says he'll be fine either way.
Of course, the Mets might not make any trades today.
No matter what they do before the deadline, Adam Rubin writes that the future is looking bright for the team. Rubin also highlighted Bronx native T.J. Rivera—a Mets infield prospect—in his farm report.
If Sharknado is a thing that interests you, Ted Berg has a breakdown of the Citi Field portions of it.
Around the National League East
The Nationals beat the Marlins, which helps the Mets in the Wild Card standings. Hooray for intradivision games!
The Braves lost to the Dodgers thanks to a walk-off hit by Matt Kemp.
Around Major League Baseball
The Red Sox are having a disappointing season after winning the World Series last year, but they might end up the most active team of this trade deadline. The team sent pitcher Felix Doubront to the Cubs for a player to be named later. They might trade John Lackey to the Marlins, too. And Jon Lester seems like the hottest commodity on the pitching market, with rumors of a trade to the Orioles popping up but cooling down yesterday.
The Cardinals traded 24-year-old outfield prospect James Ramsey to the Indians in exchange for Justin Masterson.
Does a July 31 trade deadline even make sense anymore?
Yesterday at Amazin' Avenue
Perhaps the Mets can contend in 2015 without acquiring a big bat. And it doesn't sound like the Rockies will part with either of their big hitters today.
There's a case for trading Daniel Murphy. Between Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson, the Mets have downplayed this trade deadline. Bartolo Colon might not be dealt, either.
Aside from that terrible game to end his tenure with the Mets, Tom Glavine had a pretty good few seasons with the team.
Zack Wheeler and Lucas Duda were showing signs that they would improve earlier this year, and they have.
Matt Harvey should be throwing from a mound soon.