Colletti Watch: Here Come the Mets! Panic!

It is July. The trade deadline approaches. Which GMs are poised to destroy the near future of their franchise for a quick fix? Quis custodiet ipsos Collettus? The Colletti Watch, that's who.

The General Manager: Pat Gillick has one of the all-time great baseball nicknames: Stand Pat. He's earned the nickname because despite his stellar track record as a GM, he hasn't made a significant deadline deal in the interest of a playoff run since 1993, when he traded for Rickey Henderson to lock up the Blue Jays second straight World Series.

The situation: The Mets surged into the break with nine straight wins, while the Brewers have loaded up with CC Sabathia. The Phillies are in danger of getting left behind on both the NL East and Wild Card fronts and teams that are in danger of falling out of races are teams that are in danger of doing something stupid. Behind Cole Hamels, their starting pitching is incredibly thin. Everyone's interested in A.J. Burnett and there are reports that the Phillies are interested in Joe Blanton and maybe even Erik Bedard (if he's healthy). The problem is that neither of these guys are good enough to solve the Phillies problems and neither one of them is going to come cheaply.

The Doomsday Clock: Six minutes to midnight, but this one's a lot harder to peg. Gillick has a strong history of doing very little at the deadline, but his team has obvious needs and there are players out there to fill those needs with hefty price tags that exceed the help they'll bring. And Billy Beane might be involved.