Meet the Mets
As we get closer to the start of spring training, players still on the market start to become more desperate, which means: bargain hunting! On Friday, the Mets were connected to lefty Jeff Francis. On Saturday, it was rumored that the team was making a run at outfielder Cody Ross. Ross isn't a traditional fit for the bench, as he's basically another right handed swinging lefty masher in the Scott Hairston mold. However, he's put up a respectable .727 OPS against righties for his career (for reference, Willie Harris has a .688 OPS vs. righties for his career and inexplicably, his job last year was "1st pinch hitter off the bench") and he can probably fake it in center field a bit better than Hairston.
It looks as if Justin Turner won't be heading to Colorado anytime soon, as the Red Sox did end up sending infielder Marco Scutaro to the Rockies in exchange for pitcher Clayton Mortensen.
Over at the New York Times, they have an interview with Tom Seaver in which he talks about the wine business, his vineyard, his take on the future of the Mets and a few other topics.
Finally, the Associated Press took a look at the upcoming Madoff jury trial, which is scheduled to begin on March 19th.
Around the Majors
Ryan Braun accepted his MVP award and made a speech at the BBWAA dinner last night in New York. While Braun hinted at the situation surrounding his award-winning season, he didn't go into detail.
The Yankees and Mariners are hoping their trade will be made official on Monday, as Jesus Montero took a physical in Seattle yesterday.
With Yonder Alonso presumably locked in at first base for the foreseeable future, Paul Swydan at Fangraphs wonders if/when the Padres will free gigantic slugger Kyle Blanks.
Over at Baseball Nation, Al Yellon calls the Marlins "The Worst Thing Ever" and basically denounces their existence by calling them the most reprehensible franchise in baseball. The comment section, if you dare to read it, is mostly filled with vitriol towards what was written (I didn't realize there were that many people who could actually support the Marlins!) and while the whole thing is sort of petty, I think as Mets fans who happen to hate that despicable franchise, we can attest that just about every word written there is true. I mean, come on:
How is that not the worst thing ever?