The Phillies have announced that they have signed free agent outfielder Juan Pierre to a minor league contract and it includes an invitation to Spring Training. Pierre, 34, spent the 2011 season with the White Sox and batted .279 with 27 stolen bases while playing everyday in left field. Yesterday, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN reported that the New York Mets are keeping a close eye on the available left handed hitting free agent outfielders which had included Juan [...]

Michael O’Keefe and Teri Thompson of the Daily News is reporting that the Mets filed a motion on late Thursday to have the case against them tossed for lack of evidence by Picard. After U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed most of the counts in Irving Picard’s $1 billion lawsuit against the owners of the Mets in September, the trustee in the Bernie Madoff liquidation case embarked on an aggressive campaign to dig up dirt. Picard, according to filing [...]

  Jonathan Mayo of MiLB.com lists Zack Wheeler (#28), Matt Harvey (#38), and Jeurys Familia (#90) among his 2012 Top 100 Prospects. Here are videos of all three Mets pitching prospects including comments Paul DePodesta made to Mayo Zack Wheeler Selected sixth overall by the Giants in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, Wheeler features what Mets vice president of scouting and player development Paul DePodesta called the farm system’s best wipeout stuff. ”If a hitter has two [...]

I’m very happy that John Franco has become the latest member of the Mets’ Hall of Fame.  He is more than deserving of the honor, having pitched 14 seasons with the Mets and becoming the franchise’s all-time saves leader.  However, I am surprised by the fact that Franco was inducted this year, when there is another reliever who’s been waiting longer and is equally, if not more deserving of enshrinement into the team’s hallowed Hall.  [...]

With Prince Fielder taking off for the Motor City, he becomes yet another premiere first baseman to leave the National League. Fielder now joins the likes of Albert Pujols and Adrian Gonzalez –to name a few– to leave for the AL in recent years. This leaves only Joey Votto, Lance Berkman and Ryan Howard as proven elite first baseman in the NL. Now 2012 will give this crop of young, talented men patrolling first, a [...]

The largest one-year payroll slashing in Major League Baseball history might not belong to the then-Florida Marlins, whose offseason fire sale six years ago landed Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca with the New York Mets and gutted the team’s payroll from $60 million to $15 million. The distinction, it turns out, soon may belong to the 2012 Mets. After general manager Sandy Alderson revealed the organization lost $70 million last year, the Mets appear poised to have the biggest [...]

I was able to do a Q&A with NY Mets minor league prospect Joe Bonfe the other day. Entering his 4th season with the Mets, the 24-year-old Bonfe looks to shed the label of super-utility guy, and take on the role of starting player for an entire season. Joe did a great job in the interview and his questions are very interesting. Keep reading to find out how Joe continues to improve his game, and [...]

Sadly, Carlos Beltran’s Mets legacy will forever be defined by what he didn’t do: take the bat off his shoulder against Adam Wainwright during Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. However, Beltran meant so much to the Mets organization over the past seven years for his work on and off the field. He was honored at MLB’s annual B.A.T. dinner as the recipient of the Bart Giamatti Award for outstanding community service. Beltran’s organization, the [...]

The Nationals have agreed to sign free agent right-hander Brad Lidge to a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $1 million plus incentives, the team has announced. Lidge, 35, posted a 1.40 ERA last season, but was limited to 25 games due to shoulder problems, and he ended up losing his closer’s job to Ryan Madson. However, he did save 27 games and had a 2.96 ERA for the Phillies in 2010, and in his ten-year career he has [...]

The New York Mets today announced that John Franco, the club’s all-time leader in saves and games pitched, will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame during the Mets Hall of Fame Induction ceremony presented by Citi Sunday, June 3 prior to the 1:10 p.m. game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Franco saved 276 games for the Mets over his 14-year career (1990-2004) with the team, the second-longest in franchise history behind Ed Kranepool’s [...]

This edition of Fair or Foul features Rich Couthino of CBS New York, who says the Mets stack up well in the power department now that the NL has been weakened by the losses of Pujols and Fielder. The National League may experience a power shortage in 2012 as two of the biggest bats the league possessed — Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols have cleaned out their lockers and are headed for the junior circuit. Add in the [...]