Meet the Mets

That's right, everybody. Spring Training doesn't officially begin for another week but the pieces about players working in PSL are beginning to roll in. To start off, Daniel Murphy working on his defense at second base with Tim Teufel. Meanwhile, Johan Santana is preparing for his first test of the offseason: he will throw a light bullpen session off a mound on Friday.

Sandy Alderson had a busy Tuesday. In the morning, he tweeted:

"Wife was not happy with the gift card. Should’ve bought her a box of chocolates."

Well played, Sandy. Well played. Then, he got on the horn with Mike Francesa to talk about the state of the team headed into spring training. If you wanted to, you could probably categorize it as "spin" but I prefer to be positive going into spring training, so let's just call this the optimist's view of the team. Yes, that's it.

The Mets announced on Tuesday that to celebrate their 50th anniversary, they will feature team alumni in their bobblehead giveaways. I am personally glad to see the organization pay tribute to Edgardo Alfonzo, who is one of my favorite players on those late-90's/early 2000's teams. The team also officially announced the addition of Josh Lewin to the WFAN radio booth, in place of Wayne Hagin.

Will Bud Selig do what may be best for baseball and finally dispatch the Wilpons from the MLB owner's circle? Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal took a look into our team's situation and speculates on just how long Fred and Saul may have.

ESPN's Mark Simon took a statistical look at what is next for Andres Torres offensively. I know he's 33 and he's had just one full, above average offensive season in 2010 but I do think people are underrating him a bit.

Toby Hyde's Top 41 prospect countdown covered Not-a-SS Wilmer Flores at #17 and C Albert Cordero at #16. Flores dropped like a rock from last season's rankings due to a stagnant 2011 in St. Lucie, while Cordero likely represents the best and most well-rounded catching prospect currently in the organization. Oh--and just in case you were wondering, Matt den Dekker is not Grady Sizemore.

Patrick Flood is revisiting his 2014 Mets Power Rankings from a few weeks ago, giving his own Pre-Spring training rankings with detailed rundowns of each player who could play a role on a contending club.

For more on the prospects down on the farm, Fake Teams took a look at the Top 50 Dynasty League Prospects around the majors and both Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler made the cut. Finally, Rob Patterson at Mets Fever spoke with Adam Foster of Project Prospect about the Mets' young core of near major league ready pitching.

Continue reading this post »

Meet the Mets

The Mets are all packed up and ready for Spring Training. Of course, since they can't afford to hire real movers, they had to put poor Mr. Met to work. They really should be careful. You know what happens when Mr. Met gets stressed out.

In stories recycled from July of last year, Johan Santana has been throwing long toss and may be ready to pitch off a mound soon. It's deja vu all over again. Hope Chris Schwinden is in the best shape of his life!

Mark Simon, ESPN's resident stat head, takes a look at what 2012 might hold for Lucas Duda. If you want more Lucas Duda talk, Eno and I recently discussed him on my podcast. (/cheap plug) And Ted Berg looked at whether or not Duda and Bay should be flip-flopped in the outfield corners. If that doesn't work, Bay can always play bass in Pearl Jam apparently. Andy Martino, master of scoops.

Toby Hyde was very busy yesterday, updating us on the potential Eastern League affiliate shuffle next year, and then profiling Josh Edgin and Matt Den Dekker as his #19 and #18 prospects. That Edgin ranking is very, very ambitious. Toby's seen him more than me, obviously, but I'm going to remain skeptical about 24 year olds at A ball (who aren't named Darin Gorski. GORSKI!) I have Den Dekker in the same general range, though I don't think his ceiling is quite as high as Toby does.

Hey, let's check in with Sandy!

Can't decide on a Valentine's Day gift for my wife: Spa day or iHOP gift card?

Eh, that was okay, but Sandy's set the bar awfully high. I'll just assume the stress of the drive is wearing him down a bit.

Dayn Perry tries to create a Mets meme using the expressionist art of Francisco Goya. Eh, it's no "probably vampires or something." And it's certainly no Ike Davis Dog.

Continue reading this post »

One week until baseball things!

Meet the Mets

If the prospect of a 70 win season hasn't scared you off, (or made you send torrents of hate tweets to @Mets GM) single game tickets and flex packs will be on sale soon. The flex packs start tomorrow, and single game tickets will be available Mrch 5th (or on stubhub during the season at half price). But you shouldn't count on cheap tix being available, because the Mets think they can be competitive. Meaningful games in September August July? Actually, I secretly think the Mets are going to be not so bad this year, maybe even above .500. Then again, it is February, the best time to have such thoughts.

Like me, Ted Berg is intrigued by Mets pitching prospect Akeel Morris. He's my best bet to rocket up prospect lists this season. I think he could be a Top 100 type with a good season at Savannah.

More prospect talk as Toby Hyde embraces controversey by ranking Josh Edgin as the 19th best prospect in the Mets system. In fairness, Toby has raved about Edgin all year, but to me this is way too high for a 25 year old reliever that hasn't even sniffed the Eastern League yet.

Did @MetsGM tweet something? You bet.

Will have to drive carefully on trip; Mets only reimburse for gas at a downhill rate. Will try to coast all the way to FL.

Sandy Alderson is the best thing to happen to the internet since pornography. Bonus points for proper use of semicolon.

Continue reading this post »

Meet the Mets

Andy Martino sat down with left fielder Jason Bay in a restaurant near his home in Washington to talk about his struggles and his expectations for 2012. His performance has certainly been a massive disappointment since signing with the Mets prior to 2010 but as cliche as it is to say, it is heartening to see that he cares and that he's working hard to try to get back to his prior form. I can't say I'm optimistic that will happen but I know I'll be rooting for him to succeed. Also, his quote on ITBSOHL stories was pretty funny.

For those of you interested in putting some more money into the Wilpons' bank account buying tickets for games at Citi Field, Mets single-game tickets go on sale Monday, March 5th at 10:00 AM.

Sandy Alderson (@MetsGM) made a late night appearance on the Twitter, his fourth tweet on his third day on the social media network and he had this to say:

"Inspired by Jose & Joba, got a haircut for charity, but @MLBNetwork wasn't interested. Barber 'donated' clippings to trash can on 84th St"

You're probably wondering whether I will link to every Sandy Alderson tweet and the answer to that is a resounding YES, at least when I'm writing the Applesauce.

Around the Majors

There were some Marlins notes to pass along from Saturday. First, the fish are talking numbers with Cuban center fielder Yoenis Cespedes and one report says that the team is offering Cespedes a 6 year contract worth $40 million. Another report says that the number is under $40 million but with all of the spending by the Marlins this offseason combined with the fact that they desperately need a center fielder (because they probably don't want Emilio Bonifacio out there), I'm just going to assume that he'll land there. The other note is that the Marlins are unretiring #5 for Logan Morrison.

Alex Remington at Big League Stew wonders whether Braves righty Julio Teheran or Rays lefty Matt Moore will win their respective Rookie of the Year awards in 2012. If you're taking bets at this point, I think Moore's a pretty good one, at least this early in the season, since it looks like he will have a guaranteed rotation spot and he was just flat out dominant in the minors and majors last season. Teheran's up there as well talent-wise but assuming everybody's healthy, it looks like he's the Braves' 6th starter right now.

The Associated Press has a preview of the upcoming baseball season, in case you were in hibernation, a coma or outer space for the entire offseason.

The Pirates and Yankees are still working on an A.J. Burnett trade and Buster Olney says that they have the framework of a deal set.

And last but not least, former Mets farmhand Mike Carp is helping to pay tribute to his close friend Greg Halman, who was killed back in November, by making shirts to give out to Mariners' teammates.

Meet the Mets

More Wilpon/Madoff news. Late Thursday, Irving Picard filed papers in Manhattan federal court against the Wilpons. The star witness, Noreen Harrington, says that while she was the CIO of Sterling Equities (the Wilpon/Katz owned company) back in 2003, she explicitly warned Saul Katz of concerns that Madoff's returns may be fiction and that "he was either breaking the law or making up his stock trading entirely."

Sandy Alderson was back on the Twitter machine Friday afternoon and the third Tweet of his life was even funnier than the first two from Thursday. "Sandy Alderson: Twitter Troll" is probably one of the greatest developments of this offseason (though looking back, that's probably not such a good thing). Oh well...keep up the great work, Sandy!

Rumors flew on Friday that the Binghamton Mets are close to being sold to a private development firm, which would move the team to Ottawa after the 2012 season and try to line up with the Toronto Blue Jays once the Mets' Player Development Contract expires at the end of this season. B-Mets President Michael Urda, however, said "not so fast" to those rumors. For an in-depth explanation of the Binghamton/Ottawa team's future, as well as where the Mets AA team may end up playing in 2013 and why moving the AA team to Brooklyn isn't an option in the near future, check out Toby Hyde's excellent look into the rumors.

While you're at Toby's site, take a look at his continuing Mets' Top 41 prospects list, which featured a couple of very promising prospects--at #21, SS Philip Evans, the Mets' 2011 15th round overslot draft pick and at #20, SP Akeel Morris from the Virgin Islands (and 2010 10th round pick).

For more prospect love, Howard Megdal shares some of John Sickels' opinions on Mets' prospects from his annual "Baseball Prospect Book". Seedlings to Stars took a look at the best player in the Mets' system by position (with a few honorable mentions added at the end). And finally, Kirk Nieuwenhuis spoke with Anthony DiComo by phone and says that he's 100% for camp and is ready to prove himself to the big league club.

Continue reading this post »

Just ten days to go.

Sandy Alderson has joined Twitter. Naturally his first tweet was a joke about the Mets dire financial situation. I'm sure some people are a bit sensitive about it, but I'm certainly glad to see the Mets GM having a laugh.

Speaking of poor Mets ownership, the Wilpons appear to be trying to ask the Supreme Court to make a ruling that has already been made by the lower courts. Howard Megdal has a fascinating piece up about a key figure in this lawsuit, someone who I'm sure we'll be hearing more on in the coming months.

Scott Moviel and Dock Doyle have each been suspended 50 games for substance abuse. In both cases it was the player's second offense involving recreational drugs.

FanGraphs took a look at sabermetric use by MLB front offices. This stuff caught my eye.

And finally for today, Yoenis Cespedes seems to be content with limiting his free agent tour of America (and Canada) to one team. I think it's a safe bet that he'll be joining those uber-rich fishies in the near future.

Baseball is getting close. With the days until pitchers and catchers report to St. Lucie approaching single digits we're going to start hearing all sorts of puff pieces and ITBSOHL news. In today's papers we were treated to updates on Big Pelf and Josh Thole. Pelfrey seems to realize that the key to his success will be his sinker, you know, sinking. Josh Thole must realize that will lead to more balls in the dirt, because he's focusing on improving his defense. 90 wins, here we come.

On to ownership news. Michael Bloomberg is not interested in purchasing the Mets. Fine by me, I'm still holding out hope that when Buddy boy is gone and the Wilpons are forced out that the new commish will finally allow Mark Cuban into the club.

The Times pointed out today that Sandy Alderson hasn't had a whole lot of money to work with. We've noticed.

Speaking of large contracts (or the Mets lack of giving them out recently), FanGraphs took a look at the ten worst transactions this offseason. It certainly makes me smile to see that both the Nationals and the Phillies made the list once and the Minnows made it twice. Go NL East!

Rich Harden will not fall into the bad transaction category this season, as he will not pitch in 2012. I think it's safe to assume that every AAOP for next year will now include Harden on a minor league deal.

Finally for today, Jose Reyes auctioned his hair off for 10,000 dollars. The Wilpons are probably a bit upset that they didn't see that potential revenue stream first, but I bet they've now got an intern digging around in the Citi Field catacombs for the David Wright super helmet.

Meet the Mets

On Tuesday, the Mets assigned numbers to players who were previously numberless. This group includes big league free agent signings, minor league non-roster signings with spring training invites, minor leaguers added to the 40 man roster and minor league prospects invited to spring training as non-roster players.

There's still plenty of reaction to Monday's news of Howard Megdal's credentials being revoked by the Mets. One of the best pieces I've read on the topic of the organization's decision is from the great Metstradamus.

Longtime Met star Rusty Staub is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame...the Canadian Hall of Fame, that is. What's that all aboot, you ask? Staub, raised in Louisiana, played for the Expos from 1969-71 and then again in 1979.

It looks as if new announcer Josh Lewin will be taking over for Wayne Hagin behind the WFAN mic alongside Howie Rose, so you might as well learn a little more about him. Here's a firsthand account of Mr. Lewin's abilities from roving Mets blogger Paul Festa.

Toby Hyde keeps rolling through his Top 41 prospect list. Clocking in at #27 is LHP Robert Carson, while at #26 is RHP Collin McHugh.

In a guest post to Baseball Prospectus, NBC Hardball Talk's Aaron Gleeman revisits the Johan Santana trade and predictably, the trade looks like a bomb for both sides. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20 but just imagine if the Twins had taken the Red Sox package back then. Wow.

A couple of interesting notes to pass along from Joel Sherman: first, he heard that the team has stopped pursuing lefty hitting outfielders for the bench. Then he announced that the organization is planning a prospects vs. veterans exhibition to be played in early March in Port St. Lucie.

Continue reading this post »