Lucas Duda isn’t your typical baseball player. At times, he resembles a lumberjack. Other times, he resembles one of those big teddy bears you win at a carnival. But does he look like the starting first basemen for the Mets?

It was an eventful weekend for the Mets. For one, the ‘underdog’ took 2 out of 3 from the big bad Texas Rangers, as the Mets are now .500. As all Mets fans know, that .500 mark is a call for celebration. Here’s the weekend links and news, including some draft pick updates.
— New York Mets supplement pick, right-hander Michael Fulmer, has seemed to agree to a Mets contract. That according to his twitter. Fulmer is a big, high school arm who’s committed to Arkansas. This is a positive step for the Mets as its never easy to sign high school kids. The details of the contract have not been discussed.

— Jack Leathersich, 6th round pick out of UMass-Lowell, announced on Twitter that he signed to the Mets on Sunday. The lefty said he is heading to St. Lucie for a workout then is slated to debut for the Brooklyn Cyclones.

— Kevin Kernan of the New York Post wrote an excellent profile on Mets first round pick Brandon Nimmo.

— Is Jon Niese’s heartbeat something to worry about? Adam Rubin of ESPN New York thinks so.

— Ken Davidoff of Newsdays writes how the Mets are both courageous and crazy about Francisco Rodriguez.

Tonight’s game against the Tigers marks the beginning of a vital 16-game stretch for the New York Mets. Between now and July 17th, the Mets play 16 games. Why did I pick the 17th? It was mostly arbitrary, but by that date, the Mets will have played:

3 games against the Detroit Tigers
3 games against the New York Yankees
4 games against the Los Angeles Dodgers
3 games against the San Francisco Giants
3 games against the Philadelphia Phillies

All but the Dodgers are currently in first place in their respective divisions. In other words, they are superior ballclubs. How the Mets measure up against them will give us a clear idea on whether they really can make a run at a postseason bid, or if their recent success is merely a mirage. Why is it important to know which way the Mets are going? Because

MetsToday is currently seeking a few good people to contribute to the blog.

The Mets promoted heralded prospect Matt Harvey to Binghamton a few days ago, though his first AA start was inauspicious. Still, he has a bright future ahead of him, and depending on how he transitions to AA, that future could be coming sooner rather than later.

That said, read this quick profile of Harvey — written by Josh Burton — so you can familiarize yourself with Matt Harvey.

The 7th pick in the 2010 MLB draft out of the University of North Carolina, Matt Harvey was

Mets 8 Rangers 5

There’s the the Indy 500, the Fortune 500, the card game “500”, and a movie called 500 Days of Summer. And then there is the New York Mets’ magical mystery tour in pursuit of the .500 mark — perhaps we should call it “the Flushing 500”. For only the third time since the first week of the season, the Mets reached that elusive .500 winning percentage by beating the reigning American League Champion Texas Rangers.

Ironically, the Mets accomplished the Flushing 500 with native Texan Dillon Gee on the mound — who also started the game won by the Mets on June 15th, which was the last time the team reached .500.

This time around, the Mets are guaranteed to remain at .500 through Monday; let’s hope they can get over the hump this week.

Mets 14 Rangers 5

Those who took the Rangers and the 6 1/2 point spread lost their shirts, as the Mets pulled an upset in Arlington.

Here is the lineup the Mets will send to the plate against Rangers righthander Alexi Ogando:

Jose Reyes – SS
Willie Harris – DH
Carlos Beltran – RF
Daniel Murphy – 3B
Angel Pagan – CF
Lucas Duda – 1B
Josh Thole – C
Jason Pridie – LF
Ruben Tejada – 2B

Jonathon Niese will pitch for the Mets but not bat because the Mets are choosing to use a designated pinch hitter as per their option to do so when playing in the home parks of teams that play non-baseball.

As such, we will get to see Willie Harris in the designated pinch-hitter role. This should make for a more exciting game to watch because most pitchers are not very good hitters and everyone knows that more hits = more excitement.

Also, you will notice that Jason Bay is out of the lineup; this is due to a stiff neck. Additionally, Justin Turner is taking the day off because his sore thumb is bothering him.