Jerry Crasnick has a great article on Jason Bay’s off-season, along with some quotes from AL scouts with what exactly went wrong with Bay last year.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove10/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=6076399
My Take: I am expecting a big turn-around year for Jason Bay. What exactly does that mean? Looking back at his scouting report for last year, which you can find here, I expected 32 home runs. I’ll expect a slight regression for his body aging …

Fan favorite RA Dickey has been resigned for 2 years approximately 8 million dollars.

My Take: If he can make 30 starts each of the next two years, then this contract will be well worth the money. It’s a big unknown, but considering the lack of certainty associated with the Mets starting pitching, it’s great to have him locked up at a reasonable rate for 2 years.

“If healthy” will be said at least twice in every article written about the tall (6’10″) right-hander formerly with the Padres.
In the past 3 years, he’s thrown less than 200 innings combined. He turns 32 in May.
The good: He throws 1st pitch strikes 60% of the time, and is still able to get above average swing and misses (8%). He has an above average slider. He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher …

Welcome to Spring Training, Taylor Tankersley.
Too bad his career WHIP is 1.53 because his walk rate per 9 innings is over 5 for his career.

The Mets signed the 27 year old lefty reliever to a minor league deal after he was designated for assignment by the Marlins. He missed all of the 2009 season rehabbing from an elbow injury, and appeared in 27 games for the Marlins (12 innings) in …

Couple noteworthy items to report over the past few days; sorry for the delay.

Chris “The Animal” Carter signed a minor league deal with the TB Rays today

My Take: I was a big fan of Chris Carter and hoped he would re-sign with the organization, but no such luck. I know he wasn’t going to be a big integral part of the Mets, but he could’ve been a valuable piece off …

As you guys know, I am a member of the BBA (Baseball Bloggers Alliance), and we vote for all the major awards. The latest vote was for the Hall of Fame. Below is the press release from the BBA, and for full disclosure, I voted for R Alomar and B Larkin. I was tempted to vote for Bagwell because of the connection to Skip (Dan Gooley), but I will vote …

Not sure if you guys are familiar with a company called Scottevest (Http://www.scottevest.com), but I found out about them in the fall when they were advertising in the New York Times. I wound up getting a winter jacket from them for Christmas, and their customer service was outstanding, quick shipping (for only $5), but most importantly a great jacket. It’s comfortable and has enough pockets for every single gadget you …

The Mets today traded with the Dodgers and acquired Chin-Lung Hu in exchange for Michael Antonini.
I don’t know much about Hu, but my immediate reaction was “good glove, but he can’t hit a lick right?” Albeit in a small sample size, his numbers in the majors agree with me .191 batting average.
I guess a part of the vision of the Mets is to acquire as many 2B/middle infielders as possible, …

Roy Halladay
Cliff Lee
Cole Hamels
Roy Oswalt
Joe Blanton (for now)
Not a bad starting rotation. The Phillies realize their time is now to win another title (or two) with their current core group of position players aging/declining (Rollins, Howard, Utley), and they signed Cliff Lee to a 5 year 120 million dollar contract, with an option for the 6th year which should be “easily attainable.”
The Phillies aren’t resting on their laurels, and even …

The Mets didn’t get the opportunity to take Pat Egan as he was taken by the Brewers the pick before the Mets, but the Mets picked up Brad Emaus, 2B/3B from the Blue Jays, someone that J.P. Riccardi drafted when he was in Toronto. Jason Gray of ESPN.com had this to say about Emaus,

Primarily a second baseman but also capable of playing third, the 24-year-old Emaus drew some comparisons to …

The big signing of the day today was BOOF BONSER. The former Twins pitcher got inked to a minor league deal. He has a career ERA over 5, but had a lot of swing and misses last year (9.4%) in limited time in his 25 innings pitched for the Red Sox and the Athletics.
My Take: Another no-risk signing. He may be a long man out of the pen, a 5th …

Reports are that the Mets will sign two players in the near future: C Ronnie Paulino, and RHP D.J. Carrasco.
Paulino is reportedly signing a 1 year, 1.3 million dollar deal, with the thought that he will be the back-up/right-handed platoon catcher with Thole. Paulino has hit over .330 for his career against lefties. It’s not going to transform the Mets from an 82 win team to the playoffs, but he …

The Mets haven’t made any moves thus far, as expected.
The major surprise was the mammoth contract Jayson Werth got from the Nationals. As I told someone yesterday, “I would go anywhere they were will to give that many millions of dollars, even if it was South Africa or Japan.” I’m glad the Mets were on the sidelines and not the one giving out this startling contract.
S Marcum was traded …

Maine wasn’t a big surprise, it was written every where for the past 5 months. S Green wasn’t good last year, so it’s no big loss. I hope the Mets do re-sign C Carter as I think he can be a valuable bench piece/pinch hitter if allowed the opportunity. This was more of a money decision and trying to save $100,000 (his contract would’ve been $200,000 even if he spent …

As we approach December, here are a couple news and notes.

Pedro Feliciano has declined arbitration, and if (more like when) he signs elsewhere, the Mets well get a sandwich pick.

My Take: Awesome. We don’t have to spend 4 million dollars on a situational lefty and we get a draft pick.

Chris Young (formerly of the Padres and is famous for being tall), is ‘close’ to signing with the Mets.

My Take: This …

Below is the e-mail announcing the Mets manager.

Dear Mets Fans:
We are pleased to announce we have hired Terry Collins as our new Manager.
Terry’s a lifelong baseball man who comes with the entire package – leadership, preparation, emotional commitment, and the drive to win. We believe Terry’s knowledge of our players, energy, intelligence, intensity, and direct approach will make an immediate, positive impact both in …

The Mets are 1/3 of the way through the season and today I will review the Mets pitchers, comparing them to my pre-season expectations/predictions, and see who is over or under performing (Stats are up to date as of today). The hyper links are the spring training scouting reports/more in-depth previews.
Starters:
J Santana

Actual: 12 GS, 78 1/3 innings, 4-2, 2.76 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, …

Hat tip for Mets Today for being the first (and only) one to report this thus far. Everyone loves to write and talk about Wally Backman’s DWI charge, but no one has mentioned that “the current favorite” Terry Collins also has one on his record.
As Joe Janish points out in the article, if you are going to dig up people’s pasts, make sure you dig up all the candidates pasts, …

Three newsworthy items from the past week.

Mets have hired J.P. Ricciardi as a special assistant to Sandy Alderson. Ricciardi had a standing offer to join the staff of Theo Epstein and the Red Sox, but he chose to be reunited with Alderson instead.

My Take: I was thrilled with this hiring, but then it’s been brought to my attention all the bad contracts he gave out while the GM of …

Today, for the 1st time in a long time, I proudly wore Mets attire. I wore Mets attire proudly because for the first time in over three months, I am happy that the New York Mets have direction, have leadership, and have something to have faith in.
I got at least 3 high fives or “Let’s Go Mets” greetings at the boardwalk and the outlets today; rejoice Met fans, today may …