Taxi Driver

Well, it happened again. Another valuable Mets pitcher has been brutally injured by a cab driver. Only this time it wasn't Tommy Glavine popping out two teeth in the backseat of Travis Bickle's cab on the 1/2 mile ride from LaGuardia to Shea. No, this time it was Duaner Sanchez's cab getting blindsided by Tony Montana in Miami while Duaner was out for a late-night trip to Mickey D's. End result, separated shoulder, season seriously in jeopardy. Oy.

(1) All things considered, I think Omar did just fine for himself under extreme time and pressure constraints. Nady for Roberto does seem like a mismatch on paper, since X was our starting right fielder and provided lots of pop for a bottom-of-the-order guy. But anyone who's watched the Mets this year will tell you that they can afford to lose a little offense - and the one thing every playoff team absolutely, positively, MUST have is a respectable set-up man. We know Bert can pitch in NYC, as he was one of the sole bright spots in the pen last year (I recall I was calling for Willie to flip him with Looper last year). Whether he and Heilman will share the 8th inning role is a bit unclear, but that's the good thing about having a huge divisional lead - Willie has two months to play around with different combinations to find the one that works. And hey, if Duaner doesn't need surgery and can come back in September - shit, we've got the deepest bullpen of all TIME now. But I'm not counting on that.

(2) Apparently the Oswalt deal fell apart not because Omar switched his attention to getting a set-up man, but because Angelos got cold feet on Tejada. Serious bummer, but you can't blame Omar.

(3) Finally, if you do nothing else today, you MUST click on this link. Then click on "July 31st - Chris talked to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman." The fun stuff comes at approximately 3:15. I had the pleasure of hearing this live yesterday. I've been listening to the FAN for 18 years, and I've never heard anything quite like it. Enjoy.