Pedro Applesauce - Mets may be interested in Pedro, are interested in Maya, Braves send Vazquez to Yanks

Do they know he might cost 3/4ths of their payroll?

at least the Nats are trying this year. I wonder how long it takes Raul Mondesi to become Dictator of the World?

I’m sure we could make some room for him at Citi.

Let’s get this straight. The Mets are pretty much silent this offseason, other than signing Igarashi and going after an old knuckleballer. Offers are into Molina (I think will be better than Schneider) and Bay. Nothing else. No deals done, nothing. Knowing that some fans (such as myself) are growing ever more impatient. Marqui actually wanted to play for the Mets. A player actually wanted to be in this mess. I mean, he is not a #1 or #2, but he had a better season last year than most of the Mets’ rotation. At this point, my 10 year old cousin would be an upgrade on the mound (specifically thinking about Perez here).

Not Since Todd Zeile… | Tim Marchman

Not since Mitchell and Gould has there been a match between correspondent and subject like that on display in this priceless meeting between afffable Metsblog dude Matthew Cerrone and affable Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur. I’ll leave out the parts where Francoeur talks on base average because what can you possibly say that his agent hasn’t already tried to explain with hand puppets and pictograms, but this is where my brain started leaking out of my nose:

Matthew Cerrone: Can you give me an example of a player, whether with the Braves or the Mets, that you played with, that fans might not value because we don’t see it, but it was something you saw in that person?

Jeff Francoeur: For instance, one of my closest buddies in baseball, Mark DeRosa, you watch him and what he does in Chicago. I mean, look at what happened in Chicago this year, when guys like DeRosa and Kerry Wood were gone. It wasn’t that much different of a team, it was almost the same guys from before, if anything they thought they upgraded. My point is, you ask guys like Derrek Lee, ask him who’s the heart and soul of that team, and they’ll tell you it was DeRosa and Wood and they let them go.

What happened on the North Side was that the pothead catcher scored 27 runs, the $180 m left fielder reached base 30 per cent of the time, the third baseman missed half of the year, Milton Bradley was Milton Bradley, etc, leading to them scoring 150 fewer runs than they did before and not coincidentally winning 14 fewer games. They could have used DeRosa but that’s because he’s not Mike Fontenot, not because Derrek Lee (of all people) needs him and a pitcher who can only pitch on alternate vernal equinoxes to be around to do his best. It’s one thing for the drunk guy sneaking a smoke in the concourse behind third at Wrigley to think utility infielders have magical powers to keep Aramis Ramirez from injuring himself and Milton Bradley from being Milton Bradley, but Francoeur is (nominally) a major league player and can be expected to have noticed that $16 m worth of the Cubs’ heart and soul bought Cleveland 97 losses. Christ, even Nuke LaLoosh caught on that the bullshit Crash Davis was teaching him to spout was bullshit; Francoeur seems to actually believe this stuff.

Let’s hope Omar goes after Yuniesky Maya, not Yuniesky Betancourt.

I am liking that Josh Johnson is “beyond pissed”. He’s not a FA anytime soon, nor do I think the Marlins will trade him in-division, but whatever. Discord in the clubhouse of any other team works in our favor. That bid for Chapman seems really slim, which is a good thing, relatively speaking. If the bidding stays reasonable, we have a fair chance of signing him.