As the Backup Catchers Turn Applesauce: In which everyone dons the tools of ignorance and Darin Gorski gets all your awards

Remember yesterday morning when I complained about the lack of news? Well, don't worry folks, today we have BACKUP CATCHER DRAMA! Yes, it turns out that Ronnie Paulino may have been slow to get off the bench to pinch hit this one time and might not have liked his teammates. Two of my favorite sources pile on, but at least someone knows the real reason Paulino probably won't be tendered. When do the Winter Meetings start again?

But let's get back to our bread and butter. Complaining that the Mets are broke and/or won't spend money on free agents (Hint: They're broke). Ted Berg opines that it's really not all that big a deal yet. Well, I don't know about Ted, but I would have been all over Mark Ellis for 8.75 million can't even type that with a straight face. That seems like an appropriate segue to Grant Brisbee's piece on which GMs it is still safe to make fun of. Yes, the answer is Ned Colletti. 

In case you were wondering, the Marlins are still interested in Jose Reyes. And CJ WIlson or Mark Buerhle, or maybe both. Why not? They did 'roll out the red carpet' for Wilson. And here I thought they would just take him to some sort of crab shack.

Oh, you bet your sweet tuccus this was getting a link. Give Mr. Gorski all of your awards. All of them. Does that mean he gets some sort of tiny gold cup thing on his baseball card now? You know, like this guy.

Greg Prince pens an elegy to the Mets 1962 expansion mates, the Houston Astros, who are set to join the AL West in 2013. The Astros have actually always been kind of a non-rival to me (I was a hair too young for 86), though I do have fond memories of the two ridiculous catches that Carlos Beltran made against them. I wanted to link to the video of each of them, but the MLB video highlights are now impossibly annoying to navigate. What happened to just having all the game highlights searchable by date?

Howard Megdal takes a look at the Mets fan's conundrum, to buy tickets or not to buy tickets? I understand the urge to boycott the Wilpons, but watching baseball live in the stadium is a treat I am not going to deny myself because of lousy ownership. Also, shake shack.

The Astros ownership group appears to be targeting Andrew Friedman to be their new GM. Yeah, you and everybody else, buddy. Wonder how that conversation is going to go. Barren farm system (okay, I do like Cosart, but he's probably better off in the pen), barren MLB roster, moving to a more competitive division/league. It's a better situation then, say, Baltimore, but it's hardly a plum job.

Jeff Sullivan argues that Jose Molina might be the steal off the offseason. So maybe the Rays knew what they were doing when they traded Jaso? For what it is worth, I would have taken Molina as a back-up/platoon partner for Thole in a heartbeat. I can say he is definitely better than Gustavo Molina at least.

The Tigers are 'kicking the tires' on Aramis Ramirez and Mark Buerhle. In an unrelated note, I have gotten really good at spelling 'Buerhle' right on the first attempt. Still working on 'Teixeira.'

The Pirates will maybe be possibly sort of listening to offers on Andrew McCutchen. It's either that or Neal Huntington will have to overpay Clint Barmes play minesweeper all day. 

Jack Moore takes a look at Baseball Reference's ELO rating system and Barry Bonds. Also at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron proposes Edison Volquez as a low cost Gio Gonzalez alternative. Well, if you ignore that their numbers have been going in opposite directions and Volquez has a scary injury history and is older, it's a great idea.

And finally, Shaughnessy be Shaughnessying.