Many Mets fans have speculated about CitiField’s Opening Day outfield, wondering which two of the three outfield prospects would flank Beltran. The speculation has been that Milledge was the most likely to be traded. Indeed, last year he was as good as gone, along with Heilman, as part of a three-way trade that would have netted Roy Oswalt for the Amazins. Now, with Beltran’s most recent injury, he has been able to showcase his centerfield skills at the Major League level for opposing scouts. Now showing he can do it at the plate (hitting .563/.611/.875 in his last 7 games) and with his good defensive play in center, maybe Lastings’s performance will tempt an opposing team to part with a little more than they would have two weeks ago in any potential trade for him. Should this opportunity to sell high not tempt Omar with the deadline less than a week away, and if Lastings plays a more central role in this year’s playoff run, perhaps we will be witnessing only the first in a series of Mets outfield prospect arrivals.

Now, how valuable is Carlos Beltran to the Mets? He is their Gold Glove centerfielder and occupies the number 3 spot in the lineup. Last year, he tied Todd Hundley’s franchise record for home runs in a season and was a legitimate MVP candidate, finishing fourth in the NL voting. Yet, would any Mets fan rank him above Reyes and Wright as untouchables? How many untouchable players can a team have? Of course, there aren’t many teams who would take Beltran off the Mets’ hands. I cannot imagine the Mets and Yankees making a trade involving a player of Beltran’s magnitude but the Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, and maybe Rangers and the White Sox all have the mentality and payroll to make such a deal and all have centerfielders who are considerably worse than Beltran. The most likely outcome is that the Mets will see Beltran through the end of his deal, if only because he’ll be earning 18 million dollars a year and the Mets wouldn’t be desperate enough in the one-year-from-now scenario to eat as much of Carlos’s salary as would likely be necessary. Yet what if the disappointments mount? What if a year from now we stop making excuses for 2005 and 2007 and view 2006 as the aberration? How would Mets fans respond to the loss of Carlos Beltran? He’s not quite a fan favorite, nor is he the steadiest presence in the lineup. And it is impossible to know how the league will adjust to Lastings, or if Gomez’s raw tools will refine, or if Fernando Martinez is what everyone swears he is, a lefty-swinging star in the making. But what if each fulfills the majority of their expectations? If Milledge’s early signs of power are sustainable, (slugging .511 since being recalled) why couldn’t he be a fixture in right? At this point, the biggest question mark of the three Gomez, who looked as though he was starting to adjust to big league pitching before injuring his hand on a check swing. If Gomez can continue to improve when he comes back next season, he will be a formidable addition to the Mets outfield, which at this point next season could be comprised of Endy, Lastings and Gomez sharing at-bats in the corners while Beltran patrols center.

As it stands now, the Mets injury situation makes any trade of the Lastings Milledge unlikely. With Endy out of commission indefinitely, Alou’s return date pushed back yet again and some rumbling about a trip to the DL for Beltran, Lastings’s place in the Mets lineup is virtually a lock, at least through the beginning of August. Additionally, Lastings is quickly becoming a fan favorite, which seems like it might matter to this current Mets regime.

The purpose is not to denigrate the immensely talented Beltran or his many contributions to these Mets, but mostly to speculate wildly about what might occur if we are seeing the “real” Beltran this year and each of the Mets three highly-regarded outfield prospects pans out. All huge ifs. The realities of the roster at this point in the year seem to discourage the possibility of a trade of either of those three and as long as the Mets hold onto them, it is obvious they’ll get the opportunity to play under Omar, who is no stranger to pushing young players. The question for the future is, would he push them past Gold Golvers and one-time NL MVP candidates?

Rickey henderson is back with the mets, replacing the fired rick down on the bench if not as hitting coach. His stats speak for themselves, yet I would not deny rickey his status as the self-proclaimed “greatest [base-stealer(?)] of all time.” As he has done so many times, rickey returns to an old stomping ground, hopefully to the betterment of the mets.

A look at the teams schedules immediately following the break doesn’t do much to dispel those notions. Of the three teams, all have about the same number of home and away games but only philly faces more teams currently at or over .500 than under.

Atlanta’s schedule makes me think the mets could easily relinquish the division lead at some point during july. The braves come out of the break facing the dregs of the nl central at home, with three each against the pirates and reds before a four-game set with the cardinals for ten games at the ted against sub-.500 competition. The braves’ only three games with a team over .500 for the rest of the month are in arizona during their west coast jaunt which also includes four games in sunny san francisco. Meanwhile, the mets have the four at home against cincinnati before two series with the top two teams in the nl west, three in san diego before another trip to chavez revine where the mets are already 0-3 this year for four games with the dodgers. Our long, national league east nightmare may not yet be over. While the jockeying for position goes on between the mets and braves, the phillies have the cardinals at home for three before their own seven game west coast swing. The month rounds out with the mets and phillies going on the road to face the brewers and cubs, respectively, while the braves have houston at home.

For the short term especially, the braves have an opportunity to make a move for the division lead. With the all-star break giving some of their injured players a chance to recuperate (and minimizing the number of missed starts by smoltz), the specter of andruw jones getting his act together still looming (or at least the reality that he cannot hurt his team any more than he is now), and a schedule which is at least a tad easier than that of their divisional foes, the braves figure to be strong the rest of the year.

The mets can probaly count on the addition of pedro martinez before the year is out, but exactly what his contribution will be obviously remains to be seen. That said, the mets starting pitching has already rewarded optimists this season with performances by johnny maine, ollie perez and jorge sosa which vary in their degree of surprise, but collectively are well above what you could have reasonably expected coming into the season.

Looking ahead, I anticipate the mets and braves to trade the division lead in the short term before the mets pull ahead for good. The only thing about that braves team that scares me more than andruw jones waking up is john schuerholz making a move. This atlanta team is pretty solid as constructed.  You know what to expect, they’ll be professional but not dominant.  The right move for the braves could swing that.  As it stands now, chief nocahoma’s boys are sixth in the nl in runs scored, eighth in era.

As quietly noble as those middle-of-the-road rankings are, if the mets can get some of their injured players back on the field and performing, they’re liable to roll through the league again.  Its been said time and again that omar views pedro as a midseason acquisition already.  Put moises alou in the same category.  The team has gone 22-25 since alou went on the dl and with his return along with pedro and perhaps even duaner sometime in august, the mets figure to pick up where they left off after this lengthly flirtation with mediocrity.  If all three come back and perform roughly as they did before injury, the mets will have acquired a premiere player for the heart of their order, the top of the rotation and the back of their bullpen.  Yikes.  Indeed, the mets mash unit already has some players on the mend. More than likely, milledge makes his return to the mets and shea on thursday. With his return, we are reminded that the others will soon be back as well, and with them comes roster decisions, perhaps concerning jose valentin and his bum knee (and with 87 games played, not yet halfway to the 400 plate appearances that would guarantee next year’s team option) and julio franco and his bum bat speed. But they won’t go, not yet, not with characters like david newhan and sandy alomar, jr occupying roster spots, and certified lemons guillermo mota and scott schoeneweis still making trouble in the bullpen.

And with the 31st approaching, we know that omar is more than willing to sit, having been forced to make last year’s deadline trade only in reaction to duaner’s season-ending late night cab shenanigans. Then there’s the rumored deal from last year that angelos supposedly nixed, a three-way trade that would’ve landed milledge and heilman in baltimore for oswalt with houston getting tejada, its good to know that’s how omar would have used his trading chips.

Well. Future entries ought to have more structure, but I’m just trying to get the ball rolling here.  There are a few ideas broached in here that I’d like to have given a bit more thought and words too, but as it is this feels like a too-long blog entry, so perhaps they’ll be expanded upon in future posts.

At first glance, you might think the star of this youtube video is chris webber.  On the surface, that may be correct, but I think when you watch it, you’ll see why the editor also deserves praise.  The closing titles “still authority dunking, still terrific passer, still nice shooter, still c-webb” are verse so pure, they would make the pope weep.  Or at least contemplate his life glumly.

I wonder what chris webber’s career would have been like if he had played with shaq instead of being traded to golden state to butt heads with nellie, then get traded to washington for tom gugliotta of all people before really finding himself with those late-90s sacramento teams.  Could have been vastly different careers for all three players, penny in golden state playing with mullin and hardaway, shaq and webber playing together in orlando with skiles, nick anderson and dennis scott.

I’ve been slowly working on a preview of the nl east race for the rest of july and I should have it up later today, swear to god.