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For four teams, the next two days begin the quest for a World Series championship. For the rest of them, rumors abound about what they can do to get there next year. It's called the hot stove season, and frankly this stove has been malfunctioning for years ... bringing forth many deals that have little if any chance of happening, while occasionally getting something right. Yankee blog Was Watching brings our attention to the first of many such rumors, and it's a big one:

Frank Russo, on New York Baseball Digest Radio's Yankee Special, mentioned that his connections have shared that the Mets are accepting inquiries for Carlos Beltran. And, further, according to Russo, his sources have also shared that there's a rumor of a possible deal between the Mets and Yankees which would breakdown as follows:

Carlos Beltran from the Mets to the Yankees in exchange for Robinson Cano (with the Yankees taking on most of Cano's contract), either Jose Veras or Brian Bruney, Ian Kennedy, and another prospect from the Yankees system.

For crying out loud we're not even in November and already rumors like this are flying? The hot stove has to learn to pace itself.

Ambiorix Burgos, the Mets reliever accused in a hit-and-run that killed two women in his native Dominican Republic, turned himself in on Wednesday. He better get used to the idea of wearing stripes -- whether he's eventually found guilty or not, a judge has confined him to jail for three months while awaiting trial.

Oddly enough, Burgos has deluded himself into thinking this ordeal won't derail his big league career, which was already interrupted by missing all of the 2008 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. From the AP:

"I am going to come out of this fine because my conscience is clear, and I'm not worried this will affect my career because I haven't done anything," he said in the jailhouse interview.

Burgos apparently doesn't believe he'll be confined the entire three months. For one, he's already banking on being back in New York by Oct. 23 when he's scheduled to be in a courtroom to defend himself against charges that he punched, slapped and bit his girlfriend last month. We'll have to wait and see.

It has been assumed that Jerry Manuel is going to lose the interim from his "interim manager" title, and become the full time manager some point soon after taking over for Willie Randolph and pushing the Mets back into the race before ultimately folding again on the last day. But the negotiations between Manuel and the Mets haven't been automatic, and coincidentally, former friend Bobby Valentine has expressed interest in returning to the Mets.

Valentine, now manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan, told 1050's Andrew Marchand in an e-mail, "I am working for a team that needs me and wants me as their man. I love it here, but I am an American and love great challenges. I was in a Met uniform in the '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000, and would love to be there in the next decade."

There's something strange about this. First, Manuel is seemingly playing hardball with the Mets in negotiations, and all of a sudden Valentine's name just happens to come up publicly ... after his name wasn't even mentioned during the Shea Stadium ceremony during their final game. Seems a little too convenient for me.

Meanwhile, any day now Gary Carter is expected to unveil a Power Point presentation to Omar Minaya as to why he really should be Mets manager*.

*Not really, but would you be surprised?

UPDATE: Of course, as soon as I write this, WFAN in New York has just reported (via Jon Heyman) that Manuel has indeed signed on with the Mets for two years and an option. If the floating of Valentine's name was indeed part of the conspiracy, it worked.

Out of the rubble of another disastrous ending for the Mets was an MVP-type performance down the stretch for Carlos Delgado. Delgado has been very streaky over the last two seasons having alternating bad months and good months in '07. In '08, Delgado started with a bad month which somehow lasted 11 weeks (that's an odd calendar). Many were calling for his head, and there were whispers of Carlos possibly being released.

But since a game against the Yankees on June 25th when Delgado drove in nine runs, he's been unreal, batting .308 with an OPS of 1.018 in his final 84 games to help the Mets back into the pennant race. For his efforts, the Mets rewarded Delgado by picking up his option for one year at $12 million.

There will certainly be questions as to whether Delgado can have another season like he did last year, or whether he'll start out '09 as he started out '08. And of course there will be questions as to what exactly will motivate Delgado through the course of the season. But I look at it this way: With Ike Davis moving through the minor leagues and being the Mets' heir apparent to Delgado at first, the Mets are better served to have a stop gap for a season or two at first rather than throw a lot of money and years at a guy like Mark Teixeira. That's money and years that would be better served being thrown at other people (Bullpen? Bullpen. BULLPEN!!!) And if you're going to have a short term solution there anyway, there aren't a lot of options better than Delgado.

The last time we heard from Mets reliever Ambiorix Burgos he was being charged with punching, biting and slapping his girlfriend. Sadly, less than a month later, he's allegedly graduated from domestic violence and moved on to manslaughter.

Burgos is accused of killing two women in a hit-and-run accident near his hometown in the Dominican Republic earlier this week. Witnesses told police that he was driving the SUV involved in the accident, which took place Tuesday night. He eventually turned himself in for questioning. On Wednesday, the Mets released the following statement:

"We are extremely disturbed by the reports regarding the player's potential involvement in the hit and run accident that unfortunately killed two women in the Dominican Republic," the Mets said Wednesday in a statement. "We take this matter very seriously and have begun an internal investigation to ascertain the facts. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the families of the victims."

Burgos missed the entire 2008 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He was originally thought to be on track to make at least a handful of appearances late in September, but his arrest early in the month likely scuttled those plans.

Professional teams of all sports are notourious for letting talent trump legal transgressions, so if Burgos somehow avoids jailtime (it seems unlikely at this point, but you never know), I have a hard time believing the Mets won't give him another chance, especially given the state of their bullpen. Here's to the Mets proving me wrong.

Though the Mets became the first team in major league history to fail to make the playoffs despite holding a 3 1/2-game lead in the standings in September, they appear to have no problem with the people running the team.

Less than a week after GM Omar Minaya moved toward a four-year contract extension, sources in New York are indicating that interim manager Jerry Manuel will have that tag lifted and return to the Mets dugout next year.

From the New York Post:

A formal announcement is expected by GM Omar Minaya no later than Tuesday. "Jerry did a very good job in a tough situation, overcoming injuries to [John] Maine and Billy [Wagner]," Minaya said after today's 4-2 loss to the Marlins ended the Mets' season. "I just talked to Jerry and told him I will sit down with ownership tomorrow and give my recommendation. But I was very pleased with the job he did." Owner Fred Wilpon also strongly endorsed Manuel while talking with reporters during today's game.

Minaya might not have deserved his extension, especially when you look through the prism of back-to-back September swoons, but it's hard to say the same for Manuel. He guided the Mets to a 55-38 record down the stretch after taking over for Willie Randolph in mid-June. Considering the hand he was dealt -- a very, very bad bullpen -- Manuel performed admirably as skipper

Indeed, had Billy Wagner not gotten injured, this would probably all be a moot point, and New York might be celebrating an NL East title. Here's to a few more years of Manuel describing Johan Santana as "gangsta" and threatening to "cut" Jose Reyes.

Now that baseball season is almost over, it's time to completely forget about baseball and focus on awards season! My original idea for tonight's Dugout was the AL Cy Young Award 2008 Chatroom, but that ended up being Cliff Lee bouncing a rubber ball against a wall for 35 panels, so here is that Dugout's hotly-contested National League equivalent. On second thought, they should just give that to Cliff Lee too.

Tonight's Dugout, with all the speculation and obsessive statistical analysis you come to the Internet for, is after the jump.

With the Brewers and Cubs playing on WGN and the Mets and Marlins on TBS, the NL wild-card race played itself out in dramatic fashion for a national audience this afternoon. In a ten-minute span that gave every baseball fan in the country sore thumbs, three home runs decided the the final playoff spot in the National League this year. With both games tied entering the eighth innings, the Mets bullpen surrendured home runs to Wes Helms and Dan Uggla to fall behind 4-2. Immediately after that, Ryan Braun launched a two-run home run to the same spot he hit his walk-off grand slam earlier this week. Both scores held up, and the Brewers are going to the playoffs for the first time in 25 years.

The Brewers were carried today by CC Sabathia, who pitched on three days rest for his third straight start. Somehow, he's gotten stronger in each start and today he threw a complete game four-hitter, holding the Cubs to one run and giving the Braun and the Brewers' offense the chance they needed. He looked so strong today that manager Dale Sveum let him hit for himself leading off the bottom of the eighth inning of a 1-1 game with the season on the line.

The Mets, meanwhile, watched their season crumble at the hands of the Marlins for the second straight season. Scott Schoeneweis and Luis Ayala served up the two key home runs today after Carlos Beltran had tied the game at two with a two-run homer in the sixth. The Mets put runners on in both the eighth and ninth, but couldn't find the game tying hit, clinching their second straight September collapse. That Omar Minaya extension looks brilliiant today, doesn't it?

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Little did these furry creatures know back when this friendly picture was taken that they would be fighting to the death just two and a half short months later on the last day of the season ... albeit in different cities. But with the White Sox and Twins both refusing to the chokeslam down on their respective weekend opponents (the Indians and the Royals), this divisional fight to the death is looking like what you would expect a fight between furry mascots to look like: sloppy, clumsy, and downright hilarious.

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- One Final Gamble: For the better part of two months, the Brewers have been rolling the dice. They went out and got reigning AL Cy Young winner CC Sabathia in July. Once they got Sabathia and once it became clear the bullpen couldn't be trusted in tight spots, they rode Sabathia and Ben Sheets hard -- pushing them past the 110-pitch and even 120-pitch mark with regularity.

And then with the team scuffling through September, they made a move that was just as dramatic as the Sabathia trade -- they fired manager Ned Yost, an almost unprecedented move for a contender. Some of the gambles have worked and some of them haven't.

The effect of four 120-plus pitch starts probably took their toll on the fragile Sheets. But on the flip side, the Brewers would probably be out of contention if the Sabathia deal wasn't made.

Milwaukee will roll the dice one last time Sunday, hoping that one last roll will result in a spot in the postseason after 25 long years. Fittingly, they'll have their biggest gamble -- Sabathia -- on the mound for that last roll. And he'll be starting on short rest for the second consecutive turn. Things might not go the Brewers' way in their last stand of 2008, but at least they'll be in familiar territory with their season on the line.