Mets Need to Be Sellers

I don't think the Mets have a choice about trading at least one of their "names" by the trading deadline. The Hardball Times ranks the Mets system as #24 out of 30 which, in my opinion, is accurate. In contrast, Baseball America ranks the Mets as #20, which I think is high. Because of those low rankings, it's critical for the Mets to improve their farm system. (It's uncertain right now how much of a difference the 2011 draft will make.) Thus, as I stated, the Mets need to trade at least one name.

I'd begin by trading Rodriguez, Beltran, and Pelfrey. Then, if I can get a "steal of a deal," I'd give serious consideration to trading Wright or Reyes, though I'd keep Reyes over Wright even though I'm still suspect of Reyes' performance this season as he's in his contract year.

What the Mets cannot afford to do is to not trade any of the above names.

Josh Edgin Starring at Savannah

Josh Edgin, a left-handed relief pitcher for Savannah, has been one of the Mets best minor league pitchers this season. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 16 appearances, and now has 14 saves. His ERA is 0.96. Opposing batter are hitting .135 against him. This season’s performance isn’t a fluke. Last season, with Kingsport he had a 2.84 ERA.

In 2010 the Met drafted Edgin in the 30th round out of Francis Marion University. In the 2009 draft, Atlanta selected him in the 50th round. Fortunately for the Mets, Edgin didn’t sign with the Braves.

An amazing poem about the human spirit

One of the best poems about the human spirit is Whittier's Barbara Frietchie. It's about a woman's refusal to surrender her belief in the Union during the Civil War as Confederate troops marched through her town. Whittier's lines flow with the steadiness of the marching Confederate troops; further, he doesn't saturate his lines with words that mask the poem's meaning. Instead, he's "upfront and personal," enabling readers to peer over his shoulder as he comments on the action.

Here are the poem's first six stanzas:

UP from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach trees fruited deep,

Fair as the garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,

On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched o'er the mountain-wall;

Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

Two levels of irony

In yesterday's blog post, I shared the poem Roger Heston by Edgar Lee Masters. In it, Masters integrated the literal and imaginative realms in a seamless way. It's an example of double irony. Masters used two levels of irony to subtly indicate to his readers that he wrote the poem with "tongue in cheek."

Irony results when a writer twists the meaning of his words. A poem can contain two levels of irony. For example, at Roger Heston's base level, the speaker unexpectedly gets gored to death by a cow he was observing; At its higher level, the person writing about the speaker's untimely demise is none other than the speaker himself. A bit of afterlife communication.