Meet the Mets
The Reds had quite a hangover after clinching a playoff spot Monday night, dropping another one to the Metropolitans in a brisk, getaway-day tilt. I'm never one to poo-poo a Mets win, but these are starting to get...problematic.
The best part of yesterday's game was Juan Centeno making himself the answer to a #StumpGary question in 2022. Jeff Sullivan was all over that play at FanGraphs, just like someone boldly predicted on twitter:
Guessing there will be a 2000 word post from Sullivan tomorrow about that sequence.
— Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro) September 25, 2013
Adam Rubin asked some scouts if they would go with Lucas Duda or Ike Davis at first base in 2014. Results were mixed and in general not too enthusiastic. Also at the ESPN blog, Mark Simon found some interesting 'Met'rics from the Reds series.
And Greg Prince is warming to Vic Black, who may get some closing opportunities with Bobby Parnell's status in question.
Yesterday at AA
I wrote about Darrell Ceciliani, kicking off the list of best position player prospects I saw this year.
And we posted the newest edition of Amazin' Avenue Audio, previewing the 2014 Mets-less playoffs.
Around the NL East
The Braves got shut out last night by the Brewers, but that is of course not the big story coming out of the game. Gomez ended up apologizing, as he should, but I can honestly say that after all of the pimptastic home run trots I have seen, I have never seen a catcher block home plate like McCann did. Jaw all you want, hit him in the ribs next time up, but you seriously look like a fool doing that. I'm sure he'll be policing Ortiz's home runs like that when he's catching for the Yanks in 2014.
The Phillies/Marlins game last night was a veritable clinic of adjudication from the men in blue, a veritable clinic. I bet you didn't guess that CB Bucknor was involved. Oh yeah, the Fish won 3-2. Also at Fish Stripes, Michael Jong reflects on a 100-loss season. But hey, at least Greg Dobbs will be back.
And the Cardinals keep on rolling, sweeping their season series with the Nationals.
Around MLB
Here's all of Wednesday's action in one handy dandy scoreboard. Of particular note: The Yankees were officially eliminated from playoff contention yesterday.
I have really been enjoying David Laurila's series of interviews with Bob Tewksbury. In this edition, Tewksbury talks about pitching to a young Barry Bonds.
And Beyond the Box Score celebrates Billy Beane. Just a thought: Maybe someone should write a book about him, that could be interesting.