7/10 15:36: Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports says the New York Mets are looking at Lilly, but right now Lilly’s stuff is not as good as Hisanori Takahashi, the pitcher that Lilly would replace in the rotation.

On a side note, Jake Westbrook of the Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Octavio Dotel could also draw interest from the Mets.

7/9 09:35: Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets, “#Mets now turn strongly to Lilly because #Astros still want too much and will pay too little of Oswalt’s contract”

7/7 15:30: The New York Mets are in need of a front-line starting pitcher and Ken Davidoff of Newsdays sees three pitchers that fall within that category: Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Ted Lilly.

Cliff Lee will cost the Mets a great deal of talent. The Houston Astros want any buyer to take on the remaining money on Oswalt’s contract (the rest of his $15 million this year, $16 million next year and a $2 million buyout on the 2012 team option) in addition to prospects. That leaves Ted Lilly.

Lilly is owned $6 million and Davidoff says the Mets will take that on as long as the prospect that the Cubs want are reasonable.

A darkhorse could be the Astros’ Brett Myers, but Davidoff says the Mets prefer Lilly because he’s a left-hander and he has flyball tendencies.