Archive for February, 2010

Just arrived home in NY after spending a few days covering the Mets in Port St. Lucie for the TV station I work at. I will be posting lengthy reports in the next few days on all that I saw and heard (I have some pix as well). Some good stuff to come. Optimism is abound when you are 0-0.

It looks as if the Mets muddled catching situation has become a bit less muddled. According to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, Rod Barajas has signed a major-league deal with the Mets. The deal is reportedly worth $1 million, with incentives that could put the final total around $1.5 million. Barajas had been mulling offers from the Mets and the Rangers. Both team originally offered the 34-year old backstop minor-league deals, with the Rangers offering more money. Obviously the Mets felt they had to up their offer to a guaranteed deal in order to get Barajas aboard and it appears that [...]

I’ll say this for the Mets players…..They are never without confidence in late February. Following on the heals of  Carlos Beltran’s famous pronouncement in 2008 of “This year, tell Jimmy Rollins we are the team to beat,” , this time it was David Wright who fired the spring training salvo. Two days ago, when Wright held his “State of the Mets” gathering with the press, he offered this bold statement: “We’re expecting to go out there and win the National League East and go deep in the playoffs and win the World Series. That is the expectation I’ve gotten from [...]

According to multiple reports, the first coming from Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com, the Mets are hot and heavy to gain the services of free agent backstop Rod Barajas. If they are able to bring Barajas into the fold, it will be the fourth catcher the team has imported this offseason. At this moment, it does not appear that the Mets are willing to offer Barajas a major league contract. Instead, they want to give him a minor league deal with an invite to spring training and the chance to win the starting job. Barajas, 34, hit 19 home runs in [...]

Pitchers and catchers are due to report to Port St. Lucie in six day sand the Mets have been busy tying up some loose ends and adding a few more uninspiring names to the possible roster mix. Lets take a look at what has transpired in the past few days since my last post: The Mets brought back our old buddy Mike Jacobs, signing him to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. Jacobs if you remember had a rousing start with the Amazins’ in 2005 when he hit 11 HRs in just 100 ABs after beingcalled [...]

It looks like Citi Field will be getting a makeover before the Mets lace em’ up for real in April. As Adam Rubin reports in the Daily News, the height of the fence in CF will but cut down from 16 feet to 8 feet in time for the start of the 2010 season. It is important to note that the overall dimensions of the Mets much-maligned new ballpark will stay the same. Here are some numbers from 2009 regarding the Mets HR ineptitude and the overall HR production in Citi Field that might surprise you (courtesy of Rubin’s article). [...]

Had a chance to read the disturbing piece by Joel Sherman in today’s NY Post yet? Here it is for your viewing displeasure. Now I haven’t brought the name Madoff up for some time in this space, but after reading Sherman’s column, I can’t help but think the Jason Bay signing fooled us into the thinking the Mets financial standing has not been compromised by the Ponzi schemer-in-chief. The evidence is clear. The Mets payroll is likely to drop by around $30 million before all is said and done and the 2010 roster is set in April. Do you think [...]

It is hard not to put a negative slant on everything Mets related these past few months. As afforded to me by my other line of employment, I got a chance to listen to Darryl Strawberry’s comments to reporters during yesterday’s Thurman Munson Dinner in Yonkers. Despite his pulling no punches, the Straw Man created some positive vibes for me….a glimmer of hope that the Mets prospects of recovery are not as dreary as we all think. Not surprisingly, Darryl believes it all starts with the guy at the top of the lineup. “You got Reyes coming back. He’s a [...]

As if we needed any more clues as to how dysfunctional the Mets organizational dealings are, here is a story today from CSNChicago.com detailing J.J. Putz’s stint with the team in 2009. The most damning quote from Putz was this one: “When the trade went down last year, I never really had a physical with the Mets. I had the bone spur (in the right elbow). It was discovered the previous year in Seattle, and it never got checked out by any other doctors until I got to spring training, and the spring training physical is kind of a formality. [...]