Friday Applesauce

Arizona Fall League

Peoria Saguaros 3, Surprise Rafters 2

• Josh Thole went 1-for-2 with a sacrifice bunt.
• Jason Vargas pitched three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out four.

Hawaiian Winter Baseball

Waikiki BeachBoys 5, Honolulu Sharks 2

• Ruben Tejada went 1-for-4.
• Jordan Abruzzo went 0-for-4.
• Greg Veloz went 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored.
• Roy Merritt picked up the loss in relief, allowing two runs in a third of an inning.

The Mets resigned Fernando Tatis for a year and a million and change. Nothing wrong with that, really, unless he becomes a starting corner outfielder again.

Per MetsBlog.com, the Mets have exercised their 2009 team option for Carlos Delgado. It was a $12 million option with a $4 million buyout, so it only really costs the Mets $8 million more to hang onto Delgado than to cut him loose. Considering he was the ninth most valuable first baseman in baseball last season despite his awful start, I'd say this was a pretty good decision. The Mets aren't precluded from trading Delgado, who could net a decent return considering his reasonable contract and impressive bounceback in 2008, though I can't imagine dealing him will be a huge priority.

At Fangraphs, Dave Cameron continues his series on free agent bargains with Derek Lowe, Randy Johnson and Dave Ross.

At The Hardball Times, Matt Lentzner provides a mechanical model of pitching, discussing arm rotation, ball release and pitch grips. Neat stuff.

At Beyond the Boxscore, Sky Kalkman continues his series on the best players by position for 2008. This time he tackles third base, where David Wright clocks in at third overall, just a hair behind Alex Rodriguez and almost a win-and-a-half behind Chipper Jones.

The 2008 Fielding Bible awards have been announced, and Carlos Beltran has won the center field title for the second time in three years (he lost out to Andruw Jones in 2007). The awards are voted on by a panel of ten baseball experts, the full results of which can be found in the forthcoming Bill James Handbook 2009.

Maury brown gives us the final numbers for viewership of this past World Series. Despite there being more people and television sets than ever before, the 2008 World Series was the least watched -- in terms of total viewers -- of any Fall Classic in history. So, yea, take that.

The Royals traded for Mike Jacobs, though no one really knows why.

And the day we've all been waiting for: Howard Megdal announces his Jewish MVP award for 2008. The full top ten is included, and I'll just say that it drops off precipitously after #3.