Atlanta gets spanked, then gets outed as foot fetishists

Jon Kruk, on Baseball Tonight, um, tonight, referring to the Mets' first three-game sweep of My "Favorite" Team in Atlanta since 1979, and Met centerfielder Carlos Beltran, in particular:

" . . .The Braves were on a roll. They were hot, and here comes everyone in the media, around baseball, saying, 'Here come the Braves, don't count 'em out.' Well, Carlos Beltran made it a- he took a personal disliking to the fact that the Braves were coming on their heels (???) and he decided to do something about it."

Eww. Reason #37 for me to continue to hate the Braves.

Braves Acquire Wickman; Here (They Think) They Come

Here are some numbers my friend and I were kicking around after we found out the news today that the Braves acquired Cleveland closer Bob Wickman:

Current Met Record: 57-38 (67 games to go)
Say the Mets go .500: 34-33 (ok, 1 game over)
Final Record Then Is: 91-71


The Braves also have 67 games to go.
Their record at the moment is 45-50.
In the last 67, the Braves would have to go 47-20, making their final record 92-70, to catch the Mets in this scenario.

Now I don't think that adding Bob Wickman to their roster makes that a lock to happen. But the trade today makes clear that, after the week the Braves just had, they certainly believe they're in it. I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't bought my World Series tickets yet, if you know what I mean. I'm a lifelong Met fan, and they are kicking ass and I'm having a blast watching them, but I won't count the Braves out until they are 12 games back in September.

Now I'm fairly confident that, barring a colossal meltdown, the Mets are gonna do better than .500 the rest of the way. And even if the Mets do go .500, I know that the Braves going 47-20 is a pretty tall order, but even 85-90 wins, in this year's soft NL, may just get you the Wild Card. And I'm pretty positive that, at this point in the season, the Braves could care less about making it 15 years in a row.