Meet the Mets

There are some updates regarding the Wilpon/Madoff court case. Irving Picard filed a motion that asks the judge to force the Wilpons to fork over the $83 million in fictitious profits that they received from Madoff in the last two years. This money would be handed over to Picard before the March 19th jury trial in order to start handing it out to net losers. This comes a day after the Wilpons filed a motion to have the case thrown out of court, saying that Picard could not come up with any dirt on the embattled owners. In other news regarding this case, the Times has a piece talking about the expert witnesses on each side of the case.

Adam Rubin published part two of his story on the Wilpons' finances yesterday. The financial information included isn't really all that groundbreaking, as I think we've known the numbers for awhile now, but he does have some interviews with lawyers and such and he breaks down the court filings really well.

The Mets announced the signing of former top prospect Matt Tuiasosopo (pronounced Too-ee-ah-so-so-po) to a minor league deal on Friday. Looks like he's just an organizational depth signing, as he did not get a major league spring training invite. He'll probably head to Buffalo when the season breaks. Speaking of the Herd, they announced their spring training schedule yesterday.

I know that the denizens of Amazin' Avenue are (thankfully) very pro-Carlos Beltran, so here's a question: if Carlos were to get into the Hall of Fame at some point in the future (and it's looking like he's got a real chance, especially if he has a few more strong seasons and wins a ring, as unfair as that might be), who's hat does he wear when he goes in? Certainly an interesting question, as he played in both KC and New York for seven years. However, his offensive numbers lean in favor of the Mets, so perhaps Carlos being enshrined in blue and orange has a better chance than people think.

Around the Majors

It looks like there's hope for 2012 after all, Mets fans. Bud Selig said that he thinks the much talked about second wild card spot will be implemented this season, not next season as had been talked about before. Hey, you never know, right? Oh, that's right--we're snakebitten, baby!

Former Mets righty John Maine has signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox for 2012. Considering the rumors last year that he may retire, it's nice to see that he's going to give it another shot. I always liked John, even if he was a habitual liar.

The Phillies agreed to terms with Hunter Pence on a one year deal to avoid arbitration. The outfielder gets a hefty $10.4 million with incentives, setting him up nicely for a big (over)payday when he hits free agency after 2013 (Yup, he's still got another expensive year of arbitration). Meanwhile, the Phillies agreed to a minor league deal with light hitting outfielder Juan Pierre, further burying prospect Domonic Brown on the depth chart. I have no idea why they continue to ignore Brown in this way but I'm not going to complain. If the Phillies have decided they want to destroy one of the few young, near major league ready offensive assets they have in their system, I will certainly not stand in their way.

Twins first baseman Justin Morneau has started baseball activities. It's incredible how that concussion a few years ago seemed to completely derail his career, though the other injuries have obviously played a large part.

Finally, the Dodgers cut a bunch of bidders out of the running to buy the team on Friday. While there is no official word, some of the remaining bidders supposedly include hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, who'd been rumored to have interest in the Mets, the group that includes Joe Torre and the group that includes former NBA star Magic Johnson. Again, while not official, word is that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban did not make the cut.

One of the four players acquired by the Mets on December 6, Frank Francisco was originally signed as an amateur free agent way back in 1996 by the Red Sox. Boston traded him to the White Sox in 2002 as part of a deal for Bob Howry, and a year later, he was one of the players-to-be-named-later who went to the Rangers in exchange for Carl Everett. His rookie year in 2004 went pretty well with Texas, as he struck out plenty of opponents and posted a 3.33 ERA. On the downside, he walked 27.8% of the batters he faced, and late in the season, he threw a chair from the field into the stands during a game. Francisco missed the entire 2005 season and a big chunk of the 2006 seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but he was part of the Rangers’ bullpen for all of 2007 through 2010, struggling in his first full year back but pitching very well after that. Between the 2010 and 2011 seasons, Francisco was flipped to the Blue Jays for Mike Napoli, whose perennial under-appreciation has probably come to an end after his outstanding season last year with the Rangers.

In Toronto, Francisco pitched much like he did over his last three seasons with the Rangers. He struck out quite a few opponents, didn’t walk too many, and his 3.55 ERA was more or less supported by his 3.80 FIP and 3.36 xFIP. He’s still throwing a mid-nineties fastball on average, but it’s worth noting that Francisco’s strikeouts have gone down a bit over each of the past few seasons.

Francisco was, of course, signed for two years by the Mets to be the team’s closer, a role which he filled briefly in both Toronto and Texas. The fact that he doesn’t have a long track record of saves doesn’t bother me in the least, and there’s not much reason to believe he’ll struggle in the role over the next couple of seasons. It’s worth noting that Francisco held a 126 ERA+ over the past four years thanks in large part to the hitter-friendly environments in which he pitched. As a 32-year-old relief pitcher, he also figures to be a potential trade chip either this season or next since the Mets picked him up for a reasonable $6 million per year.

MLB.com released their 2012 Top 100 Prospects list on Wednesday -- compiled as always by MLB.com prospect expert Jonathan Mayo -- as part of a one-hour special on MLB Network. (Quick aside, if nothing else you've got to love what the network has done for mainstream prospect exposure.)

For those unfortunate enough to miss it Mayo included three Mets prospects on his list, THE three big Mets pitching prospects as we head into the 2012 season: Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia (in that order).

Specifically, Wheeler came in at no. 28, Harvey slid in ten spots below him at no. 38 and Familia trailed far behind at no. 90. Funny when you consider that in terms of 2011, it was Familia who pretty clearly posted the best line and did so at the highest level.

However, that's not what's in play here, because all of them posted impressive numbers in different ways. These rankings are more or less a referendum on secondary stuff. Now there are certainly other factors to consider -- Harvey features the sturdiest pitcher's build, Wheeler is a year younger on the development curve, Familia ran into some weird arm soreness last season.

But the fact of the matter is, each member of this trio possesses a plus, mid-90's fastball. All three possess good picher's builds. Each has dominated at some level and all three feature at least some semblance of a decent change-up. But what it all comes down to is that second pitch:

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With the first embryonic forms of baseball still weeks away, I am feeling wistful for the Mets promos of yesteryear. Come with me on a video journey through time, won't you?

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While there is some optimism around these parts that the Mets will be relatively fun to watch even if they don't have much in the way of on field success, the franchise does seem poised to land itself in the record books for something this year regardless. The Mets look poised to drop their payroll by the largest amount in the history of the game this offseason. Hopefully this will simply leave the new owner* plenty of flexibility when the Wilpons are told to get out.

*Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, fingers crossed

Speaking of the Wilpons, they filed a motion in court yesterday. Picard is expected to counter. Nothing will come of it and we'll still have a trial in March. Yay. I have to give the Daily News credit, they really picked a hell of a picture of old Freddie.

The Mets are reportedly still looking to add to their payroll but not at a level that would stop them from breaking any records. Today's player of choice appears to be Rick Ankiel. Yay.

Howard Megdal had a piece up the other day about Gary Carter. After John Franco was confirmed to be entering the Mets Hall Of Fame yesterday it seems an appropriate time to link it.

Finally for today, FanGraphs looks at the Tim Lincecum contract and wonders if he's taking too large a risk. Food for thought: Timmah is now scheduled to become a free agent at the same time Johan Santana and Jason Bay come off the books. I'd call it an unlikely signing if Alderson is still in charge, but you just never know what will happen with the Wilpon situation being so cloudy.

Eight years after calling him from the bullpen for the last time, the New York Mets decided Johnny be good enough.

The Mets confirmed on Twitter this morning the club's Hall of Fame will grow by one member this season with the addition of longtime reliever and New York City native John Franco. The southpaw in the Sanitation t-shirt will be enshrined in a ceremony on Sunday, June 3 while the Mets are at Citi Field playing the St. Louis Cardinals.

Franco accrued 276 of his 424 career saves in over 14 seasons as a Met, making him the club's all-time saves leader with a comfortable 116-save lead over the guy in second place and his successor on the closer throne, Armando Benitez. He arrived prior to the 1990 season along with Don Brown in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds that gave the Reds Randy Myers and Kip Gross and gave Mets fans heartburn for the next decade, courtesy of Franco's penchant for making save opportunities a lot more interesting than they ever needed to be. Franco also holds the distinction of being the last Met to be officially named team captain, which bestowed him with the ceremonial "C" on his jersey and a place next to Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter as the only captains in club history.

His induction will be the first since 2010 when the Mets called Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Frank Cashen, and Davey Johnson home. That's an interesting distinction, as Franco becomes the first post-1986 Met to receive this honor. Whether that closes the door on any other 1986 characters is open for debate, but it does imply that we may start putting the likes of the late 1990 teams into their proper historical perspective -- just in time for Mike Piazza's first year of eligibility for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame next year.

But we're not here to talk about the guy who made the number 31 famous-er in Mets lore, but instead the guy who made that number famous in the first place. Like him or hate him, the boy from Brooklyn has always been one of the more charismatic characters in team history as well as one of its best relief pitchers. Hindsight is kind to his contributions on and off the field in his tenure with the Mets, even if isn't always supported by the anecdotal evidence from that one time he loaded the bases with the bottom of the order and let in two runs and... GODDAMNIT, FRANCO! JUST GET THE SAVE ALREADY!

His place in the team's history was never really in doubt. The Mets will just make it official on June 3.

Congratulations, John.