Good Bye, Sweet July

What's Uncle Bobby been smokin?

Indeed a month to remember? Well, if a 16-9 record for July isn't particular spotless at least the closing certainly was spectacular.

The hottest Mets in July were undoubtedly Paul LoDuca, who hit .410, Beltran of course, who had 10 homers and 32 RBIs and John Maine, surreptitiously sublime despite a deceiving 1-2 record with his sparkling 1.63 ERA 8 walks and 21 Ks in 27.2 innings of work.

Well done, lads.

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Backroom solutions toTom Glavine's early late season swoon: Baseball Prospectus gives props in its Monday Morning Ten Pack to none other than Phillip Humber, making the scene with a magazine:

RHP Philip Humber, High-A St. Lucie (Mets)

Now, if you're looking for a Florida State League comeback that's real, here you go. Humber has been receiving rave reviews of late, and he looks to be all the way back from Tommy John surgery, showing the same stuff that made him the third overall pick in 2004. On Saturday, the former Rice star struck out seven over five shutout innings, and in his last four starts, he's giving up just one earned run in 23 innings with twice as many strikeouts (22) as hits allowed (11). The Mets have no need to rush Humber; he'll likely finish the year with a handful of starts at Double-A Binghamton, where he was pitching last year when the elbow finally snapped. While mid-2007 as a date for a big league debut seemed far too optimistic a month ago, it sounds about right now.

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Running with the Blogs the theme of which seems to be shoving Marcus Giles' words back down his throat beginning with Metsradamus' Dissin' Sister and then onward to a wonderful parody for Marcus from Yes Joe, It's Toasted sung to the theme song of the Beverly Hillbillies entitled The Ballad of Marcus Giles.

Further down the line, Willie Ball notes, heaping the misery on the Braves with intrepid glee:

"Just how severe was this pummeling?
After the game, manager Bobby Cox was quoted as saying "We'll try to win tomorrow."
The Braves are off today.
Cox was whooped so badly he forgot what day of the week it was."

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