News, Signings, Etc.

Daniel Murphy has a strained right hamstring and will skip winter ball in Puerto Rico (what will Nick Evans do now?). The Mets say they still plan to use him as an outfielder, though much of that will depend on what becomes of Luis Castillo.

Yesterday was the deadline for teams to add players to their 40-man roster, a necessary move in order to protect those players from next month's Rule 5 draft. The Mets did just that with Mike Carp.

In case you missed it yesterday, Chase Utley had hip surgery and is expected to miss four-to-six months.

The White Sox have reportedly signed Cuban defector Dayan Viciedo, a 19-year-old third-baseman, for something like $11 million. South Side Sox has more.

The Cardinals have signed lefty Trever Miller to help fill out their bullpen. Neither the deal nor its terms have been officially announced as Miller still needs to undergo the requisite physical. Miller pitched with the Rays last season.

Webstuffs

At MetsGeek, john continues his excellent 2008 profile series with an analysis of Pedro Feliciano.

At his ESPN.com blog, Jason Gray. Gray sort of prattles on a bit about Kunz's poor numbers in Arizona before deciding that he just needs to improve his command. For his part, Kunz didn't think he was so ruff. Gray also adds this tidbit on Daniel Murphy:

Daniel Murphy looked like he could handle second base well enough, given his offensive ability. Whether that's enough for the Mets remains to be seen. He has limitations, but he didn't embarrass himself.

At Bugs & Cranks, Brad Borton lays out the pros and cons of the Mets possibly signing Francisco Rodriguez. It's mostly a rebuttal of all of the reasons Rodriguez might make sense for the Mets, and some of it is tongue-in-cheek, though I take issue with this one:

PRO: "He has thrived in big situations and media pressure his entire career. New York shouldn't phase him at all."
CON: This is what they said about Billy Wagner.

If we accept that injuries happen and that they aren't necessarily the fault of the player, I have few complaints about Wagner's tenure in New York. He burned out down the stretch in 2006 and 2007, but at all other times he was one of the best closers in the league and certainly the best reliever the Mets have had since Armando Benitez circa 1999-2000 (minus the playoffs, of course).

At Cardboard Gods, Josh Wilker busts out a 1976 Topps Dave Kingman and, as is his style, veers wistfully off-topic to discuss how tall ballplayers -- like Kingman -- had it made while shorter guys -- Like Freddie Patek -- often got short shrift.

Joe Posnanski gives us the internet's 27,483rd column on why batting average, homeruns and RsBI, while nice, are outdated and inadequate tools for evaluating -- i.e., determining the value of -- baseball players, for awards voting or otherwise.