CUTNPASTE: - Weekly Recap, Jose Lima, Jose Reyes, Darrell Ceciliani... and Joaquin Arias

Weekly Recap:


link  - We Don't Like To See It, Either: Another year, another Mets team staggering towards an ignominious finish while exhibiting a special talent for turning minor nicks and cuts into gangrenous wounds. As the team meanders along with a 21-31 second-half record, Carlos Beltran, Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo—three disappointing, immovable players owed $36 million in 2011—skip the annual trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Beltran says it's due to commitments to his own charitable foundation, but Perez refuses to answer questions about the snub, while Castillo admits to squeamishness: "Sometimes when you see people with no legs, no arms, to also be in the hospital like that, I don't like to see that." Fans watching Castillo's declining play at second base and at the plate can certainly relate

Jose Lima:


link  - The autopsy report for Jose Lima suggests that the former major leaguer probably died of heart failure and reveals there was no trace of illegal substances in his system. "Now Jose will be able to rest in peace," Lima's widow, Dorca Astacio, told ESPNdeportes.com on Thursday. "Those of us who loved Jose have not only suffered his death, but also the quick judgments lashed out by many people about the supposed reasons for his death." The report, which was prepared by Dr. Ajay J. Panchal, an examiner of the Los Angeles Department of Coroners, states that Lima's body tested positive for moderate levels of alcohol but that the cause of death is still "undetermined after autopsy and toxicology studies."

Jose Reyes:


link  – (A)s the years accumulate, Reyes may need to sharpen his approach. In their book “Baseball Between The Numbers,” researchers from Baseball Prospectus studied the aging patterns of different types of players. Players with speed and power, they found, retain their skills longest. Players who rely just on speed must develop an extra skill, like a refined sense of the strike zone or an infusion of power, to last. Otherwise, BP’s Nate Silver wrote, “once such a player loses a step or two, he’ll steal bases less effectively, won’t be able to leg out as many base hits, won’t reach as many balls in the field, and will quickly assume a spot on the bench.”

Darrell Ceciliani:


link  - He would collect two hits and two RBI. This just a night after his mad dash around second on an infield single tied the game in the eighth. This season he hit .351, with a .941 OPS, 2 homers, and 35 RBI. It seems every rally has Ceciliani in the middle of it. The Cyclones are truly a team effort, but they wouldn’t be in the championship series if not for their leading hitter. Ceciliani is just 20 years old, and needs to show more than a solid run in the NYPL. In the age of the internet players become starts very quickly. As a Madres, Oregon resident it’s hard not to compare him to Madres most famous resident Jacoby Ellsbury. If that is what the Mets eventually have you can’t complain.

Joaquin Arias


link  - Spiderman doesn’t walk, like at all. But he’s quick (like a spider?), and could someday put together a BABIP-influenced league-average second baseman line with perhaps a little less on-base percentage at his peak. It wouldn’t be impossible for him to do something like .275/.315/.390 with a bunch of steals. He’s had 47 of those suckers over the last two years in Triple-A. But with his approach at the plate, a lot of luck would have to factor into him even putting up anything close to the league average. He’s probably a backup too.