Luis Ayala has taken over for Wagner as the Mets closer and saved six games since coming over from Washington. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Behind Ayala is Stokes, who failed dramatically in the historically bad 2007 Tampa Bay bullpen (he allowed 90 hits in 62 innings). Stokes, who was acquired from the Rays for a small undisclosed amount of cash, is drawing excellent early reviews.

"When all is said and done, this may turn out to be one of their better moves,'' one scout said of Stokes. "He always had a big-league arm.'' That scout generally praised the Mets for developing a lot of young talent lately (a lot more than the crosstown, over-praised Yankees, who are aided, as one Mets person said, by a "p.r. machine'').

While recent championship teams often possess classic shut-down closers, such as Mariano Rivera, Jonathan Papelbon and Troy Percival, it isn't a requirement for a title. The Red Sox managed to win the World Series in 2004 with Keith Foulke, the White Sox with Bobby Jenks in '05 and the Cardinals with red-hot converted starter Adam Wainwright in '06 (that one's an all-too-painful personal memory for the Mets, who lost the NLCS to an underdog St. Louis team that year). At least those last three pitchers were all exhibiting dominance during the September stretch drive. Ayala is much more a roll of the dice. Which is why they are quick to say that Stokes is warming up in the bullpen as a possible replacement.

Hank the Yank talks, says nothing

Hank Steinbrenner must like to hear himself talk. The value of him saying Joe Girardi will be back managing next year, as he did this week, is absolutely zilch. Who thought otherwise, anyway? While the Yankees are underachieving, there isn't one person inside or outside of baseball who even thought Girardi's status was an issue. Hank does Girardi no favors by even answering the question.

But while Hank's doing a lot of talking lately, he isn't doing all that much working. The man who is actually running the team is his much younger brother Hal. Hank not only isn't running the team, he doesn't even go to the games. He has been seen at no more than a handful of games all year, five at most. Word is, Hank has instead been spending his time rekindling a relationship with an old flame.

Around the Majors

• A Cubs person said they are much more worried about Carlos Zambrano and his rotator cuff issue than they are about Rich Harden. But the Cubs person quickly added, "(Zambrano's) only been our third best pitcher this year. If we have (Ryan) Dempster and Harden, we should be all right.''

• But now here comes another Cubs concern. One scout who watched Ted Lilly recently said he "had nothing.'' That scout said, "He couldn't break 85 (mph). He was throwing his fastball 82, 83, that's it.''

• Derek Jeter passed Babe Ruth to move into second place on the Yankees' alltime hit list with 2,520. Jeter is one of many Yankees to underperform this season, but that is fairly tied to a hand injury suffered when he was hit by a pitch from Daniel Cabrera early in the season. Knowing Jeter, the individual accomplishment doesn't make him feel any better about the Yankees' awful season.

• John Smoltz told Atlanta magazine that he would consider playing elsewhere after he recovers following shoulder surgery. Smoltz is one of my alltime favorites, and he probably meant it when he said it (and he's probably frustrated by the decline of the team). But when it comes to Smoltz leaving the Braves, I'll believe it when I see it.

• The Jays never seem to give up any runs. They've allowed 29 in their last 10 games, all wins. As Alex Rodriguez said, it's a good thing for other teams that they're out of contention

• No shot A.J. Burnett passes on an opportunity to become a free agent now. The $24 million and two years left on his Jays deal looks like spare change compared to what he can get.

• Carl Crawford won't be back in September, and even October's questionable. The goal for Evan Longoria's return is this weekend, but a wrist can be a tricky thing, so it's not really predictable. Tampa Bay has done as well as could be expected without its two best players. And now it'll be without B.J. Upton for a few days.

• As much as subtracting Delmon Young has helped the Rays' chemistry, so has adding Cliff Floyd.

• Pedro Alvarez's arbitration case against the Pirates will be heard today by Shyam Das. The union's claim on his behalf is that he only agreed after a deadline that was extended by MLB only to the team. The Pittsburgh papers have already decided Alvarez is wrong and the team is right. Columnist Ron Cook wrote that Alvarez "looks like a louse ... and a coward.'' Tough talk.

• Apologies to Tim Lincecum, inadvertently left out of a recent NL/ Cy Young mention here. Padres GM Kevin Towers says he's the best in the league this year, bar none, and he may be right. It's no wonder Towers sees it that way, as the Padres have yet to beat Lincecum. In five starts vs. San Diego he has a 0.79 ERA (and 2-0 record) against them. Overall, he is 16-3 with a 2.54 ERA.

• OK, I'm convinced. Carlos Delgado is NL MVP, right?