Johnny Damon is shaky in center as Yankees fall to Toronto, 2-1  —  TORONTO - The Yankees held a players-only meeting less than an hour before Tuesday night's game in an attempt to reinforce the obvious: Time is running out.  —  The meeting didn't do much to inspire the Yankees' bats …

METS SIGN AL REYES  —  ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO UPGRADE BULLPEN  —  The Mets today tried another avenue to upgrade their bullpen by signing Al Reyes, who was recently waived by the Tampa Bay Rays, to a minor-league contract, The Post has learned.  —  Reyes was released by the Rays on Aug. 9 …

Reds urge patience in letter to fans  —  CINCINNATI (AP)—Dear fans: Please be patient.  —  The Cincinnati Reds explain why they traded stars Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn and ask for patience in a letter sent to fans this week.  —  “By executing these inevitable changes now …

Kotchman leaves Braves to be with ailing mom  —  Diaz won't need surgery on reinjured knee  —  New York — Braves first baseman Casey Kotchman was placed on the major-league bereavement list Wednesday so he could be with his mother, who is hospitalized for an undisclosed medical condition in St. Petersburg, Fla.

PELFREY TO PEN PERFECT IN PINCH  —  THE Mets have an aching need in their bullpen, and Mike Pelfrey is the best man for the Joba.  —  Pelfrey does not have the overpowering stuff of Joba Chamberlain.  But he has the best combination of skills to re-enact for the Mets what Chamberlain …

Prospectus Hit and Run  —  Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency  —  Last week, in my look at the Twins' rotation, I made reference to this year's Park-Adjusted Defensive Efficiency statistics, and noted that the Twins were dead last in the American League in that category.

Projected Elias Rankings  —  The good news is that I have finally, with reasonable certainty, figured out the disabled list adjustment in the Elias Rankings.  The bad news is that it requires going through every player's transactions data and does not lend itself to quick updating.

Surging Twins knock off reeling A's 3-1  —  MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—The Minnesota Twins stuffed equipment bags and suitcases to their brims, preparing for two full weeks on the road and a defining stretch of this so-far successful season.  —  Before they left, they crossed one more item off the list …

Picking the NL MVP  —  Award Week continues at Prospectus Today, as we take a look at the NL MVP race, while silently cursing the lovely and talented Rob Neyer for getting to it a day sooner.  —  As in the AL, no clear favorite has emerged in the public eye, as some of the players who began …

Baseball's Olympic dream teams … In a dream world, the best baseball players on the planet would stop whatever they're doing every four years, pick up their bats and their gloves and their pine tar and make a pilgrimage to the Olympic Games, where national pride and Olympic ideals would combine …