As reported by Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, Matt Harvey and Matt den Dekker have been promoted from A-St. Lucie to AA-Binghamton. Clearly both players have proven they are ready to be promoted to the next level in the minor leagues, and I think that's really the key piece to take away from this bit of news. 

Over the past few years, a mishandling of prospects by the Mets front office has lead to some unfortunate results. Jenrry Mejia is the lead example of this. Before last season, after only making a few appearances in AA at the end of 2009, Mejia was wrongly promoted to the major league roster to pitch in the bullpen. Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but I think it's safe to say that most fans and members of the media thought this was a terrible idea. It turns out to essentially have stunted Mejia's growth by 2 years including the Tommy John surgery he underwent a few months ago. The switching between being a starter and a reliever is thought to be the main culprit of his injury problems. The Mets should've left him alone in AA last season to be groomed as a starter. Even when Mejia comes back at age 22 sometime next season, he'll still have a long way to go if the Mets plan to use him as a starting pitcher in the majors. 94.2 innings is the maximum amount he's thrown in a season. He'd have to almost double that to go a full season in the majors.

This is why I'm so glad the Mets have changed the way they handle prospects, even though Harvey is a much more polished pitcher coming into the season. There's nothing wrong with letting pitching prospects hone their skills and gain experience as well as confidence in the minor leagues. St. Lucie proved to be a good test for Harvey. Now that he has shown through a full half of a season that he is capable of dominating the competition at that level on a consistent basis, he's ready to be challenged again at the next level in Binghamton. He's not being rushed like past Mets pitching prospects. 

What makes the Mets treatment of Mejia even less palatable is the state of the major league team at the time in which he was brought to the majors. The Mets were never expected to compete for a World Series last year. If they were, then bringing up a guy like Mejia to give the team that final piece that they needed would've made sense. Since that wasn't the case it of course made things worse. And since the Mets aren't really expected to do much more damage this year than they did last year, it makes even more sense to let Matt Harvey take his time and develop into a frontline starting pitcher who can provide the maximum amount of value over the course of his tenure with the Mets.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Harvey does in AA the rest of this year (and hope to make it up to school in time to see him pitch before Binghamton's season comes to an end.) The Mets are in no rush to get him to the majors, as they shouldn't be. Let the cookies bake in the oven so to speak. It might be hard to wait, but they'll be that much better once they're ready.

Not too long ago Metsblog.com ran their typical poll asking what direction the team was headed in, and Mets fans made the common mistake of buying into recent success to vote highly in favor of "The Right Direction". Unfortunately, this is preeminent to what could possibly make or break us as a fanbase. 

Yesterday was the anniversary of the Mets' "midnight massacre", where Tom Seaver and other notable and idolized Mets players were traded because the team pretty much did not want to pay the players. The Mets' current financial hurdle is much different, however. It's not a question of should they pay the players, but more along the lines a question of can the Mets afford to keep some of these players. Early this season, there was much speculation as to the futures of Carlos Beltran & Jose Reyes. It was pretty well understood that if the Mets were not in contention they would trade Beltran's expiring contract for young promising talent, although at the time we were terrified how his knee would be holding up, how his adjustment to RF would be, two factors that would ultimately determine his trade value. Since then, Beltran has been impressive. He's batting .281/.364/.489 with 9 home runs, 40 RBIs and a league-high 20 doubles. He has just recently stolen 2 bases, showing he still has speed on the base paths. His adjustment to RF has also been pleasing, as he's made 61 starts in RF and committed no errors. His UZR hasn't been too great; according to FanGraphs.com Beltran has a -0.8, with the highest/lowest being LAA's Torii Hunter with a 6.6 and CHC's Kosuke Fukudome with a -8.5. Beltran is pretty much in the middle of the pack at this moment.

Nevertheless, he's been swinging the bat well and could be a high commodity for an AL team looking to add a DH, and the Angels could quite possibly be in the market. Their DH Bobby Abreu has a team-high .404 OBP, but has only 2 Home Runs. The Angels have a great rotation headed by Weaver & Haren, but their lack of power could make them big buyers for a new DH next month. 1B Mark Trumbo leads the team in HRs with just 11. 

Of course, the biggest concern among Mets fans is Jose Reyes, obviously. It was assumed for a while that the Mets would trade him at the deadline for some prospects, although an expiring contract is not very valuable so the influx of prospects would have been mediocre at best. In fact, it would make one consider just getting a compensation draft pick if the value could be higher. Ever since the Wilpons sold off a portion of the team to David Einhorn, the Media has "miraculously" given the impression that the Mets can afford to resign Reyes, that Alderson likes Reyes, and the Mets will not trade him at the deadline. Yet I can't help but wonder if the Mets truly can afford to keep Reyes. Ticket sales still aren't very good, and the team finally climbed back to .500. And yet, with the team battling to stay alive, one can't help but remember that our two biggest hitters are still on the Disabled List — Ike Davis and David Wright. And if they come back healthy in July, and Santana is looking strong in his rehab in July, the Mets might be on to something. The only thing that will worry the Mets fans when those 3 come back, is who to drop out of the lineup/rotation? Each Mets pitcher has stepped up their game, and while some have already lost their patience with the young Jon Niese, I think Capuano would be the weakest link in the rotation. And thus, we'd be left with a rotation of:

1. Johan Santana
2. Mike Pelfrey
3. R.A. Dickey
4. Jon Niese
5. Dillon Gee

But what do you do with the lineup? Right now the absence of Wright and Davis has allowed the likes of Daniel Murphy and Justin "Red Rocket" Turner to step up and dazzle our eyes. I think the next 2 weeks is extremely important for Turner and Murphy, as both might be secretly battling each other to hold on to the 2B job after the All Star Break. Personally, I'd like to see Turner remain in the lineup, In 70 less at bats, he has 6 more RBIs, a slightly worse AVG, but has 10 doubles — Murphy has 10 doubles in 64 games played. Turner has also stolen 5 bases and been caught twice, while Murphy has stolen 4 and been caught twice. I really feel like Turner brings a lot more versatility to the lineup, is a similar type of offensive weapon, while being a much better defensive 2B. You can sit there and talk about how you don't care about defense at 2B, but never forget Castillo's drop against the Yankees last year. 

The team may appear to be headed in the right direction at the moment, but that's only because of recent success. How the next 6 weeks play out will truly determine what direction this Mets team is headed in, because if the Mets retain Jose and try to work out a new contract, I think it'll be pretty obvious that David Einhorn's purchase of part of the Mets will have single-handedly saved Jose Reyes. 

Since June 3rd, although the mets are just 6-3 over that span (not a bad record, but given the stats I'm about to dish out you'd think they would be just a little better), the Mets starting pitching has been stellar. In fact, no Mets starter has gone fewer than 6 innings or given up more than 3 runs in any start over that span. Here are a few things you should know about the Mets starting pitching in their last 9 games.

• They have a 2:1 strike to ball ratio
• They have a 1.52 ERA
• They have a 0.95 WHIP, meaning they're given up less than one baserunner per inning
• They have a 3.28 FIP, which is very good, but it's much higher than the starters' ERA due to the 4 home runs Mets starters have surrendered
• They've thrown less than 14 pitches per inning on average
• They have a 2.93 strikeout to walk ratio

Now if the bullpen could follow suit, we'd REALLY be in business…

To say the Mets have been a circus for the past few years would be something of an understatement. In the past year the Mets have had to deal with their ownership coming under increasing levels of scrutiny for their suspected involvement in the Bernie Madoff scandal. Despite all of that, not to mention the key injuries the roster has withstood over the first third of the season, they're only 4.5 games behind the co-Wild Card leaders Brewers and Braves.

Currently, the Mets record stands at 30-32. That makes them 25-19 since their terrible 5-13 start. That's without Ike Davis and David Wright for almost a month, Johan Santana the entire season thus far, and Jason Bay rocking a batting average down near the Mendoza Line. That's with paying 3 players (Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, Gary Matthews Jr.) a combined $19.5 million this season to not play for them (or in the major leagues for that matter). That's with essentially running the Buffalo Bisons with Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran out there on a daily basis. 

Why bring all of this up? People in the media along with fans continue to insist that the Mets absolutely have to start dismantling their roster for two reasons.

1. They don' t have the money to hold on to these players
2. They aren't that good

I think in general, both of those to a certain extent are nonsense. I'm not saying they'll have the same payroll they do this year in 2012. I don't foresee this being a problem for the Mets. With the expiring contracts, there will be money to keep Wright and Reyes. Honestly, those are the only two players on the roster with large contracts worth keeping long term. It should be a top priority of the front office to keep them. 

And to say that they're not that good is wrong too. Imagine if the Mets avoided all of these huge injuries and bullpen wasn't so inconsistent. Could we not conservatively add 3 more wins to their total if Davis, Wright, and Santana were healthy? That's 3 of their 5 or 6 best players taken off the roster for extended periods of time. 

Now is not the time to trade the core. The Mets are playing good baseball right now. People should expect the Mets to see how things play out for the next month before they re-evaluate and decide whether or not to clean out the roster.

The New York Times reports that Wake Forest's baseball coach Tom Walter has donated his kidney to a freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan. The freshman suffers from a disease that can lead to kidney failure.

"A lot of things had to come together for it to happen," Keith Jordan, Kevin's father said. "Everybody wants a feel-good story wherever they can get it."

Like Kevin's father said, this is a feel good story. If you have time to read the article please do.