Scouting Out The New York Mets Competition Moving Forward: PhiladelphiaPhillies

This was the year for the Phillies.

Adding Cliff Lee to a team that had won six straight division titles, made three straight NLCS appearances and won a World Series title in 2008 had to be unstoppable right?

Wrong.

The Phillies rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt was heralded as the greatest rotation ever assembled. They were being compared to the Braves of the 90’s, the Orioles of the early 70’s, even the Mets of the mid 80’s (that was a stretch). To stick to the point, to say they were hyped, would be an understatement.

Mets Get Blown Out In Philly, Lose 10-0

• Dillon Gee really did not have his good stuff tonight. He allowed a season high eight runs and allowed a season high six walks in only 3.2 innings.


• After disappearing for a couple of minutes when it was his turn at bat, Angel Pagan had to leave the game early with what turned out to be the stomach flu.


• Ryota Igarashi pitched again today, and no matter how bad the bullpen has pitched, he makes everyone else look better. After giving up two more runs today, his ERA for the month of August is up to 8.00, and his season ERA is now 5.54.


• As for some bright spots, two of the young Mets, Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada, continue to show why they belong. They combined for the Mets three hits against Cliff Lee, and Tejada in particular, looked very good in the field.

At the end of the day, there is no denying the Phillies are a much better team than the Mets. They beat them at every level, even more fundamentally sound, and a game like this does nothing to change that fact. Tomorrow Jon Niese faces Vance Worley, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM.

Just How Much Could a Carlos Beltran Trade Return?

These next ten days are going to be very stressful for Sandy Alderson. He can blame Carlos Beltran for most, if not all, of that anxiety.

Not only is Beltran the biggest, most talented bat on the trade market, but he has become the Mets' most important player. Without Jose Reyes, Beltran has kept the Mets relevant (they are only 7.5 games back of the Wild Card), and over the last two days he has gotten on base seven out of ten times, with an enormous, game-tying home run to boot in Wednesday's victory.

One thing that will help Mr. Alderson is that with every day Carlos remains a Met, his value goes up because of his production. As the pennant race gets closer every day, each contending team is seeing Beltran as the final piece to the puzzle, and with that, is offering a nice prospect from their organization. With Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco rumored to be making the strongest pursuit, here are some of the high-end prospects the Mets may receive.