There’s a continuity of bums.  Heck – there’s a Hall of Fame legacy of the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers sharing players between the likes of Mike Piazza, Duke Snider, Darryl Strawberry, Eddie Murray, Ricky Henderson, Gary Carter and Orel Hershiser – yes, Hershiser pitched one year for the Mets in 1999.  Or you might remember such recent and current uniform swappers with the likes of Chris Capuano, Rod Barajas, Shawn Greene, Jose Valentin, Paul Lo Duca, Guillermo Mota and Jose Lima.  And while it’s always a little odd to see Hershiser with a Mets hat on or watch former Met Chris Capuano post the best win-loss record for the Dodgers thus far this season at 10-7, a brother is a brother and it’s toward the cause of seeing at least one of ‘Dem Bums franchises into the postseason.  But the “flyin’ Hawaiian”… wait what?  I know, I know – it makes sense and lordy do I know how Shane Victorino can be a key part in carrying a team to victory.  My shock – of course – is that those victories were seemingly always over the Mets as Shane tracked every bloop in center and ran out infield hits to return Philadelphia to the postseason at the expense of New York year after year.  A Met-killer now in Dodger blue is like seeing Chipper Jones don a Mets uniform.  Whew – unthinkable – let’s get away from that.  And Hanley the “unmanly” …it’s not so much that he was a Met-killer as a Marlin but that he’s a locker room disaster bat-chucker.  Shades of Milton Bradley anyone?  Though I know – the upside is there – the upside is always there with Hanley and suddenly the Dodgers have gone from having no bats in the lineup through early July as Ethier and Kemp surfed the DL, to having three stout sluggers in the heart.  And Shane, really, we should welcome him back as he was originally drafted by the Dodgers in the sixth round of the 1999 draft.  He’ll give way to Kemp in center and play left field and will be a solid lead-off hitter for a team who could use some more speed on the base paths.  No question that I’ll root for both these players in Los Angeles, but I have to admit that it will be a version of “at least now he’s doing it for us rather than against us.”

And while the Dodgers sent off a strong young pitcher in Nate Eovaldi to Miami for Ramirez, the Mets got a much needed spirit-jump-start from the recent Strasburgian pitching performances of Harvey.  Just as the Mets were in the depths of a near season-ending 1-11 slump since the All-Star Break and had just seen Johan head for the DL, Matt was called up from Buffalo to make his Major League debut in Arizona in which he struck out 11 batters and allowed only 3 hits and no runs through 5 1/3 innings to give the Mets only their second win in two weeks.  Harvey also stroked a single and double from the plate to round out a stellar first night in the bigs.  Harvey has since lost his second start, but it was hardly due to the fault of his pitching as he threw 7 strikeouts and allowed only 4 hits and 2 runs- partly due to poor defensive play – through 6 innings of work in a duel with the Giants Tim Lincecum.  In the meantime, the Mets have turned around their drought and have won 5 of their last 8 – helping out the Dodgers by taking 3 of 4 from the Giants.  In all the new blue crews will surely mean new faces for the draft.

A WIN-WIN

And what I mean by that is not only a congratulations to our first winning couple of the ‘Dem Bums 2012 season, but first and foremost a congratulations to Ann and Dylan who have just gotten engaged – surely to up their luck with the ‘Dem Bums fantasy game.  Joining them in their celebration is Team Talley’s Chad Billingsley who took the July Pitching Title with a 2.84 ERA and Team Parry’s Daniel Murphy who hit a flaming .360 with 11 doubles on 89 ABs to take July’s Batting Title.  Billingsley picked up his 1,000th career strikeout early on in the month and pitched 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball against the rival Giants last Saturday.

And despite the Mets coming apart at the seams and falling 11 games back of the Nationals in the NL East and 8.5 games back of Pittsburgh and Atlanta in the Wild Card race by winning only 7 of their 25 games in July, Team Parry’s Daniel Murphy quietly hit and hit and hit his way to the top of the monthly average, second to only Team Reid’s Ruben Tejada in hits with 32 and out-swinging Team Roberts’ slugger Matt Kemp who came back from injury to hit .355 in July with 27 hits in 76 ABs.  Early on in the month, Team Talley was looking strong with Adam Kennedy who was hitting .342 on 38 ABs until he went down with a right groin strain and will most likely be part of a 3rd base platoon with the strong play of call-up Luis Cruz.  So a double congratulations to Team Talley and Team Parry – we’ll see you in the August draft room with those itchy ring fingers!  Here’s how it all rounded out:

JULY PITCHING TITLE RESULTS

1) Team Talley – Chad Billingsley (2.84 / 4)
2) Team Parry – Clayton Kershaw (3.51 / 6)
3) Team Roberts – Aaron Harang (4.02 / 5)
4) Team Carlson – Jonathon Niese (4.63 / 5)
5) Team Reid – R.A. Dickety (5.13 / 6)
6) Team Wanzel – Chris Capuano (5.14 / 6)
7) Team Rybakova – Johan Santana (DNQ)

JULY BATTING TITLE RESULTS

1) Team Parry – Daniel Murphy (.360 / 89)
2) Team Roberts – Matt Kemp (.355 / 76)
3) Team Wanzel – James Loney (.318/ 66)
4) Team Reid – Ruben Tejada (.315 / 108)
5) Team Carlson – Juan Rivera (.250 / 80)
6) Team Talley – Ike Davis (.221 / 95)
7) Team Rybakova – (DNQ)