Meet the Mets
We are not yet free of the Wilpon ownership controversy, but I will not lead off a new week with links about it. Instead, let's talk about Jose Reyes. The Met shortstop is a free agent after this season and it looks like the Alderson policy is going to be to do nothing at the moment, bypassing any pre-season trade. The signs surrounding Reyes' future are inauspicious right now. Alderson does not recognize the stolen base as important, making Reyes' less desirable than he may be to other GMs. Ted Berg argues that this common theory does not take into account Reyes' significant value apart from the stolen base. No matter what, expect Jose Reyes to garner a lot of attention between now and July 31st.
And yes, there are Wilpon stories to pass along this morning. ESPN, in particular, did a nice job with analysis of the situation. Adam Rubin talked to a corporate lawyer, Charles Tatelbaum, about the legal mess.
Kevin Millwood is still on the market and the Mets, despite all their pitching signings, are still interested.
David Wright's contact statistics makes him look like he was taking hitting advice from Jeff Francouer.
Carlos Delgado thinks he can make a comeback.
Kelvim Escobar thinks he can make a comeback.
Around MLB
There are truly important things happening out in the world of MLB. There is hard hitting research going on to figure out what was the exact game that Ferris Bueller attended during his day off. There are the Marlins holding open try outs for their organization. And there's also a gallery of Tim Lincecum's personal styles.
Oh yeah, and then there are reports that the Cardinals and Albert Pujols are very far apart in their contract negotiations.
Some interesting stuff out there about all the minor league deals being signed this offseason. There are a lot of guys getting $1+ million in their roles as organizational filler/back ups. You could probably also field a pretty competitive team with a lot of these guys.
Speaking of minor league deals, the Yankees have signed Eric Chavez and Ronnie Belliard.
Michael Young and the Texas Rangers are not getting along right now.
The 1986 Mets are a really popular team in terms of Baseball Reference hits.