On a side note, assuming Dom finishes the year strong with a line of ~.275-35hr-105RBI with around an ~850 OPS. Do we think about signing him to one of these team friendly extensions in the off-season that are in vogue right now? Or does the organization make him show it for a second year?

for the record i was still in rant mode when i said amaro almost traded Dom. Depsite Amaros ineptitude, I don't believe he would have traded Dom for Soriano. However, I do believe that he and the entire organization lucked into an All-Star as they gave no indication of believing he'd be a contributor this year. It appeared organizationally they had intended for Ruf to play left this year (since he had so much experience there) and had every intention of starting Delmon everyday in right once he was healthy (which has come to fruition unfortunately). Dom was likely going to be the odd man out. Luckily Dom put it together and now we at least have a sliver of hope for the future.

by the way, he gets no credit for hanging on to brown. rube single handedly nearly ruined him then nearly traded him for soriano in the off-season. likely the only reason it didnt happen was management killed the deal over money

oh man, it felt good to get that all out. have a good day everyone

This last week has been the single biggest demonstration of Rube's failures as a general manager the last 6 years. Sure you can say they're injured (Howard, Revere, Brown, Halladay, Adams, etc...) but that is where good teams get by with they're organizational depth. For instance, Matt Holiday gets hurt and the Cardinals line-up improves with the addition of Matt Adams everyday while Allen Craig moves to the outfield. In our case, revere gets hurt and we literally have no other center fielder ready to play in our entire organization, then brown gets hurt and laynce nix is playing everyday? Come on. What sums this week up is when in the possibly the two biggest ABs of the last two games the Phillies trot up John McDonald (hitting .100) and Steve Susdorf who immediately kill the rally by grounding into double plays. Thats without even mentioning that 40% of this teams games are being started by John Lannan and Jonathon Pettibone because no other starter in our entire organization can throw strikes constitently (Biddle included). Speaking of not throwing strikes, are the Phillies the only organization in baseball that haven't been able to develop a power arm that can throw strikes out of the bullpen in the last 5 years? Seriously, ask youself who the last consistent back-end guy was that they developed... Still not sure? It was Ryan Madsen. Another thing that should piss you off if you're a Phillies fan is that not only has the system not produced MLB ready talent since Rube took over, but there is literally no excuse for not being able to field a contending team when you have a payroll of 170+ million, minor leagues be damned. You have the money to get pretty much whoever you want, but instead you pinch pennies by non-tending nate schierholtz but then turn around and acquire two DHs to play in vital defensive positions on a team you've gone out of your way to buid on pitching. Bravo Rube! Bravo! It becomes more evident everyday that Rube has no clue what hes doing and he has been running this team like hes playing MLB The Show. Literally, 80% of the BL posters could have had at least the same level of success that Rube has had since taking over as GM. The fact that we are now looking at a rebuild in this market with what Ruben inherited in completely inexcusable. Please fire this guy in the off-season and hire someone that has a clue. Maybe someone from the Rays or A's organizations? Those guys manage to consistently win without any money, lets see what they can do with some financial backing.

interesting franco nugget, he has a total of 3 strikeouts in 18 games at Reading. even crazier when you consider he only has 1 walk.

Or Alex Rios to replace Yak

Reason for optimism when you're feeling crappy today: Maikel Franco had three more hits last night raising his Double-A slash line to .524/.545/.952, which comes out to a 1.498 OPS. Unfortunately, RAJ will trade him at the deadline for an 8th inning guy to replace Adams .

NEPP: Thanks for pointing that out. The FSL historically is a pitching oriented league, not like the PCL. When BA comes out with their midseason ranks, I expect Franco to make a pretty dramatic jump. I'm thinking top 100 somewhere between 75-85.

More on Franco: He's been the BA's hot prospect list a couple times recently. They compared him with Sano ( who's considered the best power hitting prospect in baseball) since they're the same age, play the same position, were in the same league and both are from the DR. There not considered the same level of prospect but its a good development that Franco's even being compared to him. I'm starting to think Franco has a pretty high power upside, already has 15 hrs halfway through his age 20 season but also 23 doubles (also leads the league). Typically as power develops doubles turn into hr's. Lets just hope he keeps it up!

I've actually been tracking Clearwater pretty closely this season as they're the best team in the organization. Definately fair to be excited about Dugan and Franco. Dugan ranks and the top of the league Average, OBP and OPS. Franco ranks in the top 5 in HR (2nd), RBI and Runs, while leading the league in XBH and Total Bases . Both guys are certainly worth being excited about and I'm really curious to see what they do at Reading

cole melts down every time something bad happens this year... i sweat to god him and kendrick switched bodies in the off-season

cesar fitting right in

that ryan braun owns a gold glove is evidence that the award is a total farce

at this point i think we're all in agreement that RAJ has inherited a ferrari and promptly put the pedal to the floor and drove off a cliff... of all his moves, it's each of the bookend pence deals that annoy me the most. first they overpaid for pence, when it would have made more sense to pursue bullpen help like mike adams and a lesser bat like Ryan Ludwick to platoon with ibanez then as if that wasn't enough he practically gave pence away last year in a salary dump... you can argue all you want about the value of joseph as a catching prospect making him more valuable but the bottom line is only a year earlier the Mets got Zach Wheeler (the Giants top prospect at the time) for Carlos Beltran. At the time beltran was coming off multiple injury-riddled seasons, was older than pence and in the last year of his deal. If RAJ couldn't find something similar for pence a year later, the solution was simple. Don't trade him and either A) bring him back for 2013 or B) Trade him in the off-season. In summary, looking at the packages that RAJ has received when trading veterans for prospects there is no way I trust him for any kind of rebuild... hence, I will keep hoping against hope they get back into it and contend so that maybe a new GM can rebuild in the off-season.

Philli: hahaha... maybe even some sort of drinking game. It'd be awesome until everyone died from alcohol poisoning

also despite his control issues... id still rather see aumont in any situation over horst/durbin

i guess thats kind of a 1-2-3 inning...

game on inches... sigh

i cant stop thinking about how much i hate the durbin/horst duo

seriously the FO needs to make an example out of someone that this $hit is unacceptable. horst, durbin or both should be shipped out of here following the game today... how long are you going to continue to allow guys to actively hurt your team before trying something else?

i can't help but laugh as t-mac keeps on trying to explain why delmon young likes right field better basically because hes not comfortable going back on the ball. only driving home the point that he a terrible outfielder

i can't help but laugh as t-mac keeps on trying to explain why delmon young likes right field better basically because hes not comfortable going back on the ball. only driving home the point that he a terrible outfielder

man you can always count on the mets to heal everything that ails you. big sweep!

Just reading through todays game thread... There are times that I'm amazed by the amount bitching and nitpicking. To chime in on Hamels: to say he was crummy today is stupid. he clearly didnt have his best stuff and although he walked 6, he didnt allow a hit after the first inning and only gave up one run. Despite having some command issues, there were some other factors involved as well. The zone got tight in the 4th on him and there was at least 1 AB where he clearly had tejeda struck out, but instead it turns into a 3 ball count and a walk. There were other situations where he clearly appeared to pitch around guys with RISP to get to a weaker hitter after he fell behind (frankly theres times when Lee and Halladay would do that more). All in all todays performance is why he's a stud, when everyone thinks he's not good, he allows 1 run over 6 innings and he 8 ks when he clearly wasnt at his best. As far as Howard, to say that because he only hit a ball 405 feet off the top of the fence instead hitting a homerun, is a sign of power loss is dumb. Citi field plays as large as any field in the league. Friday night he hits a ball out to center, yesterday he hits two balls to left that are out just about anywhere in the league and today he hits a 405foot double to center. Rather than bitching about power loss, maybe take notice that hes driving the ball to center and left right now which is when hes at his best. Here's hoping he carries that swing for as long as possible, because if thats the case, he's about to hit alot of hrs. Also why is anyone ever surprised when his power numbers start slow? He does this every April..