Thursday Morning Applesauce: Mariners Sign Ollie, Madoff Trial Set To Start During Spring Training

I suppose it should come as no surprise to anyone that the big news for the Mets today involves their shaky financial situation. The judge in the Bernie Madoff case issued a ruling yesterday which had several fairly major implications, the first being that any appeal on his ruling limiting the damages will have to wait until after the trial. I'm not sure exactly what to make of this news, but my gut reaction says it's a good thing that we'll get this trial moving quickly so that it can be resolved as soon as possible. Regardless of the outcome we're likely to see appeals tie up any resolution for quite a while, so avoiding any potential appeals before the trial is probably a good thing.

Have you ever seen a beat writer make as much news as Adam Rubin does? He became the story yet again yesterday after a bizarre series of late night tweets blasting the Mets medical staff. Only covering the the Mets could this continually happen.

Fan favorite Ollie Perez has re-surfaced on a minor league deal. Perez has agreed to a minor league deal in Seattle with an invite to spring training. Ollie never got out of double-A last year, and I don't see any reason to think that "the next Sandy Koufax" will be any better this season. I'm so glad that three year monstrosity is finally done.

Want to help the Wilpons out? Buy a piece of Citi Field.

We already mentioned the Mariners once today but we'll do it again just for kicks. BtB took a graphical look at their prime window to win yesterday. I wonder what the Mets' window would look like?

We've seen quite a few arbitration cases settled in the last several days, but Tim Lincecum was not among them. FanGraphs took a look at what Timmy is actually worth in arbitration.

Victor Martinez hurt himself getting ready for the spring training and will likely miss the entire season. Luckily for Tigers fans, Miguel Cabrera will likely never fall victim to that sort of offseason workout injury.

Finally, Yu Darvish and the Ranger agreed to a contract yesterday. I look at this as a very positive thing for the Mets, as the Rangers were in pretty dire financial straits just a few years ago.