Meet the Mets
Let's get the actual baseball out of the way first, shall we? The Mets salvaged the last game of three in Pittsburgh behind a three-run first off Pirates phenom Gerritt Cole. Dillon Gee, et. al. made the lead hold up, and the Mets head into the break 41-50. Of note, Josh Satin got the start at first even after manager Clint Hurdle scratched lefty Jeff Locke for the hard-throwing right-handed Cole. Satin went 1-3 with a walk, and Terry Collins was non-committal about who his first baseman would be going forward. As big a Josh Satin fan as I am, even I didn't see a playing time controversy between Ike and Satin coming. Oh, and ESPN, could you use a better picture of Josh Satin next time, please? Yeesh. Also, HAIL!
Back in Flushing, All-Star week kicked off with the Futures Game at Citi Field. I was there getting sunburned, embarrassing myself in front of Keith Law, and falling in love with Carlos Correa. Noah Syndergaardhad a pretty good day, as well. I meant to spend some time talking with Brandon Nimmo before the game, but Byron Buxton was taking BP, so...anyway, Howard Megdal had my back. During the Futures Game, the Mets announced that they would be inducting Mike Piazza into the Mets Hall of Fame. Hopefully the BBWAA follows suit this winter.
Okay, now we can talk JV1. In case you haven't heard, Jordany Valdespin allegedly threw a bit of a fit when he was told he would be optioned to Las Vegas. He also may have called Terry Collins a rather dirty word. For his part, Valdespin sort of denied it on Twitter in a statement that was absolutely not ghostwritten by his agent.
Finally, Toby Hyde wonders where JV1 goes from here.
Around the NL East
The Phillies climbed back to .500 going into the break, with an extra-inning win over the White Sox. So it looks like the Phillies will be buyers at the deadline then. Buy all the middle relievers, Ruben. All of them.
The Braveslurched into the break with a 8-4 loss to the Reds, splitting their four-game series with Cincinnati. They also swapped all-stars as Brian McCann replaced the banged up Freddie Freeman.Brian McCann may be one man, but I highly doubt he has five tools.
And in interdivisional action, the Nationals downed the Marlins in extra innings. You can check out recaps from Fish Stripes and Federal Baseball.
Around MLB
Here's all of Sunday's action in one handy dandy scoreboard. Of particular note: If you are into such things, there will be professional hitters hitting lots of dingers on TV tonight.
FanGraphs kicks off their annual trade value series with those that just missed the cut.
And as it turns out, JV1 isn't the only major league player who had a bit of a tiff with a coach over the weekend.