When you glance at this morning’s Mets pitching leaders, you see two names that belong in Matt Harvey and Bobby Parnell. Each of them have been nothing short of phenomenal in their roles of closer and staff ace. But just below them is a name nobody expected much from this season – that is unless you read my preseason feature on Scott Rice – the 31-year old rookie who has become a cult figure here on MMO.

The left-handed reliever has performed at a level unseen by a southpaw since Perpetual Pedro was in his prime during the Omar Minaya legacy.

Rice has been a Godsend in the bullpen both for his effectiveness and reliability, but more than that he’s been the bullpen’s most durable reliever, leading the team with 16 appearances and 14.2 innings pitched. For a Mets bullpen that is ranked 29th in the majors with a 5.09 ERA, Rice along with Parnell have given the team their all and have been the most steadfast performers in an otherwise ill-performing bullpen.

Gone already are Greg Burke, Josh Edgin and Aaron Laffey. Brandon Lyon and Robert Carson may soon be the next to go. Jeurys Familia who I felt earned a job out of Spring Training, is finally here and so far the early results have been encouraging.

But getting back to Rice, Mike Kerwick of The Record had a great profile of him this morning on NJ.com. He goes back to his formative years and gives some more backstory to what has already been one of the better storylines to this Mets season.

“He’s been terrific,” said Mets manager Terry Collins. “Extremely durable. When you talk to him, this is what he’s been waiting for his whole life, this opportunity.”

Kerwick shares a fascinating story about Rice that only furthers my respect for this unique player who toiled in the minors for 14 years before finally making his major league debut this season with the Mets. Most players would have quit and hung up their spikes after eight or nine years, but Rice remained determined and set on making it to the majors against all odds.

Rice bounced around – five major league organizations, 18 minor league teams – before he finally caught on with the Mets last month. He threw his first major league pitch on April 1, almost 14 years after he was drafted.

In the darkest moments of those 14 years, Rice would place calls to his father. Dennis knew a thing or two about watching a baseball dream implode. Rice’s father blew out his shoulder years ago, back when he was a middle infielder for the University of Southern California.

“He’s the main reason why I kept playing,” Rice said. “At times I hated it. But he kept pushing me, telling me, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get out there, you’ve got to keep doing this, you’ve got to keep doing that. You’ve got to make these phone calls to teams.’

Rice was very instrumental in the 7-6 win against the Marlins that put an end to the team’s six-game losing streak, the longest such streak in two seasons.

With the Mets barely holding on to their one-run lead, Collins turned to Rice to get a critical out with the tying run on third in the eighth inning. Rice came in and induced an inning-ending grounder from the pesky leadoff hitter, Juan Pierre. Once again, Rice rose to the occasion without breaking a sweat.

“He’s been very, very good,” Collins said. “He realizes when he keeps the ball down and throws strikes, he gets ground balls. So far we’ve caught them.”

There haven’t been too many great bright spots to the Mets’ season thus far, but Scott Rice is certainly one of them, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Wow, that one hurt. What a punch in the gut…

The Miami Marlins came back in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Mets 2-1 in stunning fashion as the winning run scored on a Brandon Lyon wild pitch. The loss is the sixth straight defeat for the Mets, matching their longest losing streak of the 2012 season and it’s only April 30.

I feel more worse about Jeremy Hefner being denied the win, than for the incredible way we lost this game. The kid pitched his heart out.

For eight scoreless innings, Hefner was pitching the game of his life. He held the Marlins to just three hits and no walks while striking out eight and was three outs away from a complete game shutout. But then it all came crashing down in the ninth.

It all started to unravel after a leadoff single by pinch-hitter Chris Coghlan in the ninth. Coghlan advanced to second on a passed ball by catcher Anthony Recker. Juan Pierre then lays down a perfect bunt, but rather than taking the easy out at first base, Recker fielded the ball, rolled the dice, and fired to third. Safe!

It was a bad call according to the stop-action video, but the ump wasn’t buying David Wright‘s argument that Coghlan’s foot came off the bag. However, lets not pretend that the runner didn’t beat the throw by a mile. For a split second his foot did come off the bag, but unfortunately it was Wright’s own leg that blocked that view from the umpire. Also, the throw by Recker was way too high. A better throw could have made a bigger difference and produced a more favorable outcome for the Mets.

So now instead of a runner at third and one out, you now have the tying run at third and the winning run on first with nobody out.

A call to the bullpen… Enter reliever Brandon Lyon. The next batter, Donovan Solano, quickly greeted Lyon with an RBI single to tie the game. Following an intentional walk to Placido Polanco to load them up, Lyon uncorks a wild pitch to send Pierre scampering home on with the game-winning run. Game over.

Ouch…

Look… The fact of the matter is that the Mets scored only one run and had only four hits. How are you going to win with offensive numbers like that?

The lone Mets run came on a sac fly by Recker to drive home Daniel Murphy who had gotten on with a double and advanced to third. That was all the fireworks the Mets could conjure up against the equally as brilliant Marlins starter Kevin Slowey.

Wow… The New York Mets – Always discovering new and shocking ways to lose a game. For the second straight night, the Mets were three outs away from victory and blew the game to the last place Marlins.

What a terrible loss and one that now has them five games under .500 and already 6.5 games back and just two games away from last place in the NL East.

What else can we do? Everybody’s struggling right now – the bullpen, the offense, the whole damn team. Nothing will be worse than getting swept by an awful Marlins team who don’t even have their best player Giancarlo Stanton.

Somehow they will have to pick themselves up after another gut-wrenching defeat and try to salvage the final game of the series tomorrow afternoon. Dillon Gee (1-4, 5.96 ERA) opposes left-hander Wade LeBlanc (0-4, 6.20) in an early 12:40 PM start.

Let me get this out of the way first, I give full credit to RotoExperts for the dramatic title. It looked way too seductive to me and I felt it would be a cardinal sin to mess with it or alter it in any way.

But lets get to the sirloin… Apparently they’ve been given some hot information from a top Sports Agency and I’m warning you right now that you might want to sit down as you read the rest of this post…

Are you seated? Okay, here goes:

A source close to the SFX Baseball Group, an agency representing some of the biggest stars in the game, told me this morning that the Marlins have recently discussed a trade that would include sending recently signed Juan Pierre (an SFX client) and Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Mets, for super pitching prospect Zack Wheeler, obtained from the Giants in the Carlos Beltran trade, and minor league catcher Travis D’Arnaud, the centerpiece in the R.A. Dickey deal.

But wait, the Marlins are publicly telling people that Stanton will not be traded aren’t they? They sure are, but pay no attention because no Marlins executive is to be believed, most notably Jeffrey Loria, the team’s owner.

Everyone loves a great baseball rumor, especially when it involves one of the best players in the game and two of the best prospects in the minors. But could there be even a tiny slither of truth to a deal of this magnitude? Hey Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal, what’s the good word?

Let’s put aside for a moment the veracity of deal like this one, would you pull the trigger if you were the New York Mets? Forget whether or not there’s any truth to this, lets take the premise of this deal at face value just for argument’s sake; would you trade top prospects Zack Wheeler and catcher Travis D’Arnaud for outfielders Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Pierre?

Play along with me and let’s examine this blockbuster from both sides.

From the Marlins point of view they get two near MLB-ready prospects who are among the highest ranked talents in the game at their positions. Two players that will remain under team control for seven years and at minimum salaries for the first three of those years. For a low-market, cash-strapped team like the Marlins, you can certainly see the allure considering that Stanton will bolt as soon as he gets his Get Out Of Jail Free card. Can the Marlins fetch two better prospects from one team than Wheeler and D’Arnaud? I’d have to say no. So from the Miami angle, I jump at this.

Looking at it from the Mets point of view is a little more complicated. We’ve been waiting almost two years to see some payback for trading Carlos Beltran and let’s face it, Wheeler as become the face of the Sandy Alderson era with all apologies to David Wright. Then there’s 24-year old Travis D’Arnaud who hasn’t even been a Met for two months yet. Surely the attachment to Wheeler is much greater than that of the power-hitting catcher who we’re still just getting to know. It’s quite the quandary. The temptation of adding Stanton – just 22 and one of the best talents in baseball – it almost hard to resist.

Throw in the fact that the Mets have nothing cooking in the outfield both at the major league level and the minor league level – so what’s the problem? Why the hesitation?

Without question the Mets get the best player in the deal, and Stanton instantly puts the Mets back on the map of baseball credibility. He has everything the Mets need, batting right handed with the potential for many years of 40+ home runs seasons. Already, Stanton is at an elite level and he wont reach his peak for another 5-6 years. His first three seasons are tantalizingly amazing to look at:

From a Mets perspective I have to call this a no-brainer. I can deal with Buck until Kevin Plawecki is ready. remember him? He was the catcher of the future until January 12th, maybe the name will ring a bell.

As for losing Wheeler, we still have Noah Syndergaard, Rafael Montero, Domingo Tapia and Michael Fulmer on the way. Throw in the fact that Matt Harvey is already here and oozing with ace-like potential – and lets not forget left-hander Jonathon Niese who looks ready and primed to be a legitimate No. 2 starter for the Mets.

Remember when last season ended, Sandy Alderson told Mike Francesa that his offseason goal was to add a difference-maker? It was right after he said he would revamp the outfield…

Can you think of a better difference-maker than Giancarlo Stanton?

Wouldn’t he look amazing in a Mets uniform?

I do agree with Roto Experts, who say this would probably never happen simply because Sandy Alderson would be too afraid to pull the trigger. His head would likely explode. But imagine the possibilities…

Hey, maybe I can ask him about this when I speak to him on Wednesday? Hmm…

Fire away…

SI’s Jon Heyman is reporting that the Dodgers have traded the speedy outfielder to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for two minor league pitchers.

The Dodgers will reportedly pick up $10 million of the remaining $18.5 million remaining on Pierre’s contract.

Last year, Pierre was great during his time in Los Angeles filling in for superstar slugger, Manny Ramirez. In 380 at-bats last year, Pierre hit .308 with no home runs and 31 RBIs.

There was much speculation going around earlier in the off-season about the Mets swapping second baseman, Luis Castillo, in exchange for Pierre; however it is clear that the trade will no longer happen.

Part of me wishes that the Mets could have found a way to acquire Pierre, because I think it would have killed two birds with one stone, so to speak.

One one hand the Mets would have gotten a solid outfielder for the bench to replace Jeremy Reed, whom they non-tendered and they would have cleared the path for a new second baseman.

To be fair though the team has many greater needs than a fourth outfielder and a new second baseman.