Mets Make Move

The New York Mets made a move on Sunday to acquire right handed reliever Luis Ayala from the Washington Nationals in exchange for a player to be named later.

The Mets, who are without closer Billy Wagner, have had their struggles closing out games ever since the all star lefty went on the disabled list. The addition of the veteran Ayala should help solidify the later innings.

Ayala's stats for 2008 thus far are 1-8 with a 5.77 ERA in 62 appearances. Those numbers are misleading however as the 30 year old Ayala has a career ERA of just 3.33. A change of scenery and a change of team attitude towards winning will surely only help his season totals.

Phelps Makes History

Michael Phelps received his eighth and final gold medal of this year's Olympic games, going eight for eight and setting yet another world record, this one in the 4x100 medley relay. This officially puts Phelps past Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one year's Olympic games. American Aaron Peirsol led off with the backstroke for the foursome. Brendan Hansen, considered by many to be the "wildcard" of the bunch (no one was really sure how he was going to do), was the second swimmer for the US with the breaststroke. Phelps swam the third leg with the butterfly, and Jason Lezak once again brought up the rear for Team USA with the freestyle.

Lezak deserves a lot of credit, as he was a solid anchor in both relays that Michael Phelps was involved in. Without Lezak, Phelps would probably have six or seven gold medals right now.

The most amazing thing about this is Michael Phelps' age. He is 23 years old. That means he has many more Olympic games that he can potentially compete in. After all, look at Dara Torres, who at 41 just earned two silver medals in this years games. It will surely be interesting to see what the future holds for this young phenom.