Hello? McFly?

"We don’t feel like we have to do a deal for a pitcher..." -Omar Minaya

Sure, that's what he says. And if you're a fan hearing that, you're probably tearing your hair out right now. But believe this: As Omar Minaya looks repeatedly at the picture in his jacket of all the aces posing on his front door fading away because he's increasingly coming to the point where he can't acquire any of them, you can bet that he's running around the Opryland Hotel performing his best guitar solos to try to get these GM's to hand over their aces.

The problem is that it is harder than it seems. Dontrelle Willis has faded from the picture completely as he's gone to Detroit along with Miguel Cabrera for the Tigers entire minor league system. Johan Santana is pretty much out of the picture himself, Dan Haren is being pursued hard by the Diamondbacks for some good prospects, and Erik Bedard is being chased hard by the Dodgers, as they may have offered Matt Kemp and Jonathan Broxton for him. Now Omar's first guitar solo is reportedly in the form of an offer Aaron Heilman, Carlos Gomez, and Phil Humber...which would be a steal if that happened (Steve Phillips reports that, so the grains of salt come free with that information). But do you see the O's going for that instead of Kemp and Broxton?

"Officials of two clubs that have been in contact with the Mets used the same expression -- "in trouble" -- to describe their efforts to deal for a starting pitcher."

Well now that doesn't sound promising. Now we'll find out just how regarded the Mets prospects are with this Gomez offer. I for one will be surprised (albeit pleasantly) if the O's take the Gomez deal instead of the deal for a power hitter like Kemp and a power pitcher like Broxton (although stranger things have happened, like when Peter Angelos decided at the last minute not to trade Miguel Cabrera and cost the Mets Roy Oswalt.)

(Editor's update: Gee what a surprise, the Orioles turned the deal down.)

Get strummin', Omar.

Gutted

Bring on the Braves.

The Mets are hitting .303...not one player, not one spot in the batting order...the whole damn team.

And for once, the Mets aren't discriminatory as to who they wreck. One day it's star pitcher Dontrelle Willis. The next, it's rookie Rick Vanden Hurk. Usually, the rookies give the Mets problems. And Vanden Hurk would have been one of those guys who was the perfect example of someone that professional hitters like the Mets should slaughter, but would wind up shutting the Mets out on a hit or two.

But something tells me that if Walter Johnson, Cy Young, or even Kevin Costner were to come back from the dead and pitched against the Mets...with a high mound and a dead ball no less, that the Mets can create some offense.

Fluff Castro is hitting .357 (which coincidentally is his hat size), and Shawn Green is hitting .341. Moises Alou is hitting .361. Carlos Delgado is...well, he's not hitting his weight quite yet, but his loud two run double got the fun started in the third inning which gave the Mets six runs. These numbers, in addition to David Wright's 26 game hitting streak (with a winter of rest in the middle) are obscene.

Add that to Orlando Hernandez's ten strikeouts in seven innings and you have an 11-3 victory and a two game sweep of the sinking Marlins to go along with a rested bullpen. Just in time for Larry Jones and Co. to come into a rockin' Shea Stadium for a three game series to decide the fate of the world...er, the division lead.

Irony

It's the baseball gods playing with me again.

Of course, we have to get teased with a no-hitter by John Maine, while in middle America, a guy that I once advocated trading for (and was rightly killed for) pitches yet another no-hitter for a franchise not named "New York Mets".

Of course the baseball gods are going to tweak me. It's the only thing they can do lately because the Mets are so damn good!

Forgive the sudden burst of fanboyishness, but how can you expect me not to be giddy about not only beating, but crushing Dontrelle Willis, the same Dontrelle Willis who was 12-1 lifetime in April, and about 324-1 lifetime against the Mets. Since the calendar still says "April", and the uniform still says "New York", those were pretty long odds the Mets were facing. But because of John Maine's gem, the bats finally figuring out D-Train, and the Mets' general damn goodness, those odds have been beaten.

But about that no-hitter being lost, I'm only going to say this:

Wouldn't you think that this, the season where the Mets starting pitching has been raked over the coals by every expert and so-called expert around, would be the perfect season for the Mets to have that elusive first no-hitter?

I'm just sayin'

Your 2007 N.L. East Preview: Florida Marlins

Some of the greatest lies told in history:

1. "The check is in the mail."
2. "I'll respect you in the morning."
3. "I knew the Marlins would be good last year."

No, it's not. No, you aren't. And no...you didn't.

The Marlins were the most surprising story of 2006 after "Fire Sale II: Electric Boogaloo" that previous winter. Who dared to give the Marlins a chance to hang around the .500 mark one season after unloading the likes of Josh Beckett, Luis Castillo, Juan Pierre, and two players who were major Mets contributors in Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca.

But every break that the Marlins could have gotten in terms of the development of young players, they got. Hanley Ramirez was the Rookie of the Year without leading the rookies in his own team in HR's and RBI...that honor went to middle infield partner Dan "Rule Five" Uggla. Josh Willingham went .277/26/74 in his first full season. Mike Jacobs overcame a lousy first two months and an injury riddled last two months to hit .262 with 20 HR's (shows you how good those middle two months were). Anibal Sanchez went 10-3 with a 2.83 ERA and a no-hitter to his credit (that's four no-hitters for the Marlins in their history, none for the Mets...just thought I'd throw that out there). Scott Olsen went 12-10 with a 4.04 ERA and almost killed Miguel Cabrera.

The Marlins' rookies were so good that the one rookie I thought would shine probably had the tamest season of them all.

The Marlins shored up their bullpen today by trading prospect Yusmeiro Petit for Julio Jorge (no, Anna...it's Jorge Julio) , who will be their closer. (It always scares me when former Mets are traded for each other...when another circle of life closes like that, the ramifications for Mets personnel and fans alike can't be good.) Sure, Julio was ineffective in New York, but he's a more seasoned option than Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom (see, more former Mets involved...very scary), who were the leading candidates to close before the trade. It improves the club, but it does so in a small market kind of way, as part of Julio's charm for Florida was his relative inexpensiveness, as they were also looking towards trading for Armando Benitez (that makes five former Mets used in context regarding another team in one paragraph. I think I just opened up a porthole to an evil alternate universe.)

The Marlins' surprise season made them the odds on "trendy pick" to win in 2007 until the Phillies got hot over the last two months of the season. The big "if", however, is what will happen to this team because of the ouster of Joe Girardi in favor of...well, technically Fredi Gonzalez, but to be real: Joe Girardi was let go in favor of "Not Joe Girardi". Girardi's rules and structure (and general "hard assness") kept a young team together through the end in the wild card race. Can Fredi Gonzalez do the same thing? Well, most managers would be silly to try to be his predecessor. It would also be silly to try too hard to be the "polar opposite" of his predecessor, and I wonder if that's what Gonzalez is going to try to do subconsciously to try to please his owner, Jeffrey Loria ("Sure Mr. Loria, go ahead and yell at the umpires for me...after all, it's your team!")

And don't count out Fire Sale III: Through The Olive Trees as long as Dontrelle Willis continues to be followed by rumors. But even after Willis' brush with the law this offseason, don't be surprised if it's Miguel Cabrera and not Dontrelle that finds a bus ticket out of town under his pillow one July evening.

Prediction: Fourth place, 75-87