I'm going to start out with some non-Mets news today, as it seems like the only responsible way to start off this roundup. Larry Jones announced yesterday that he'll be retiring at season's end. The guy has been a thorn in the Mets collective side for is entire career, and has been jeered appropriately for as long as I can remember. With that being said, the guy really does deserve a fairly enormous amount of respect for the career he's put together, and anyone willing to name their kid after our stadium isn't so bad in my book. For what it's worth, David Wright seems to agree.
The Metsies played some baseball yesterday as well. The club hosted the (eventually) AL-bound Astros and squashed them by an 8-2 scoreline. While the Mets record hasn't been all that good this spring, it's hard not to expect good results when that Dickey character is taking the mound. He did well yesterday, I'm really looking forward to having Dickey and a healthy (fingers crossed) Santana at the top of the rotation all season.
The Mets are starting to get some pretty good news on the injury front as well. David Wright has been MIA for most of the spring, but he's starting to look like he's on track for opening day. That can only be a good thing from whichever angle you want to look at it.
Andy McCullough had a talk with 5th starter Dillon Gee about the way he prepares for a game mentally. He then adds some notes about the rest of the starting rotation do the same thing (and some minor leaguers).
We touched on this here yesterday, but pretty much everyone expects the Mets to be a pretty lousy defensive team this year. MLB.com ran an article about the various statistics and how they rate the Mets in the field. I suppose the "glass half full" guy would say there's room for improvement. Then again, a half full glass is going to make a mess when Daniel Murphy accidentally kicks it over.
Dewan was apparently in overdrive yesterday. He did a piece over at FanGraphs again criticizing Derek Jeter for his defense. The world is now nervously holding it's collective breath as we wait for the inevitable rebuttal using the WIN METHOD. Please respond to this.
Pretty please?
Major League Baseball has made an announcement that will probably have a huge impact on Dominican scouting. They are starting a league that will include many young talents from Latin America in an effort to allow for better scouting. This will certainly be a change from the way things have operated there for years, and to me it sounds like the first baby steps toward the inclusion of these players in the draft.
Bobby Valentine got a little irritated by Joe Girardi last night. After Bobby got his pitcher ready for extra innings, Girardi decided to call off the game due to lack of pitching. I can certainly understand both sides of this, but it does seem like a bit of a classless move by the Yankees. Then again, is anyone really surprised?
Finally for today, we'll take a look at an article which seems fitting after Larry announced he's not good enough to play baseball anymore. BtB ran an article speculating on what a 20 year contract for uber-prospect Mike Trout would cost the Angels. Fascinating.