If Bill Madden’s column in today’s Daily News is to be believed, get ready for a heavy dose of Jason Marquis and Marlon Byrd at Cit Field next season. I know, it will be difficult to wipe that smile off your face. Who needs John Lackey or Jason Bay anyway.

I am a few days late on this one, but I wanted to throw out a little analysis on the injection of one Wally Backman back into the Mets organization. As you know, Backman was hired to be the next manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets low Single-A squad in the NY-Penn League. I don’t say this often, but bravo to the Wilpons for allowing this to happen and Jerry Manuel…watch your back brother.
Backman, who was hired by the Diamondbacks back in 2004 to be their manager but was subsequently fired 4 days later for not divulging details of [...]

With my Yankees detox about complete after 3 1/2 weeks covering that wretched bunch, it is time to get back to business on this blog as hot stove baseball is upon us! You know what that means Mets fans? It means that the Mets actually have a chance to win something this year….Then again, it also means they have a chance to screw up some more and lose the increasingly waning faith of their fragile fan base. I’m going to play the role of optimist here and give a little sampling of what I think the Amazins’ can get accomplished [...]