John Maine hasn’t exactly wowed anyone this spring, on the contrary he’s left many of us wondering if and when we’ll ever see the pre-surgery John Maine again. Today, Maine took a small step forward as reported by Steve Popper. John Maine just finished off his five inning outing and the first bit of good news is that he made it through five innings. After that 26-pitch first inning I wouldn’t have bet on that. [...]

Everyone knows how hot Nick Evans has been this spring as he leads the Mets in homers and RBI’s, but there is another righthanded bat on this team that is scorching the ball at the plate; Fernando Tatis. I heard a lot of moaning and groaning this off season when the Mets re-signed Tatis and said he would be the lefthanded side of a platoon in leftfield with Daniel Murphy. Truth be told, I had some [...]

As we officially enter the purgatory known as the “dog days of spring training” it’s hard not to become antsy.  We can hear the sizzle of an upcoming season, but long to taste it.  Whoever said patience is a virtue had to be a baseball fan around this time of year.   With opening day less than two weeks away, everyone-fans, players, managers, and sportswriters have grown tired of the monotony of spring training.   [...]

Adam Rubin of the Daily News is reporting that the Mets have released lefthanded reliever Valerio de los Santos. The veteran reliever, who was in major-league camp at the start of the spring, had drawn positive reviews, including for his willingness to help young players, but he got caught up in a numbers game. This probably bodes well for Ron Villone more than anyone else. (He just got tagged for 4 runs as I write [...]

When the Mets drafted David Wright in the supplemental round of the 2001 amateur draft (amazingly, AFTER drafting Aaron Heilman in the first round), they hoped they were investing in a future MVP.  And since coming up to the big leagues in the summer of 2004, Wright has been steady, and in fact has been progressing forward just a bit each season.  As far as voting for the NL MVP Award, Wright has finished 19th, [...]

Joel Sherman of the NY Post believes that the bench is all but finalized except for the very last spot. He surmises, and correctly I might add, that Ramon Castro, Fernando Tatis, Alex Cora and Jeremy Reed have all secured spots on the Opening Day roster. He further believes that the last spot will come down to either Nick Evans or Marlon Anderson. He writes… The Mets owe Anderson $1.15 million this year and he [...]

So here we are just 12 days away from Opening Day and despite my optimism, enthusiasm and excitement, I can’t shake these starting rotation jitters. Until I actually see John Maine pitch like his former self, I must admit I’m beginning to worry about him. And the thing of it is, that the old standby excuse of “it’s only March”, runs out of gas in six days. Aside from Johan Santana, the one other constant [...]

While perusing the comments of a recent article here on Mets Merized Online, an old but familiar name popped out at me…Dave Magadan. Most of us Mets fans vaguely remember him. “Mags” played with the Amazins’ from 1986 until 1993. He was never a great player, but was decent enough to finish 22nd in the MVP voting in 1990, hitting .328 with 6 homers, 72 RBI’s and playing a solid first base. Anyway, his name got [...]

Okay, like 15 minutes ago I posted… Get ready for an announcement soon on who the fifth starter will be. (psst… it’s Livan). Jerry Manuel hinted that a decision is as close as the next turn in the rotation for Livan and Garcia. The only real question is if the Mets can convince Freddy Garcia to accept a minor league assignment so they can keep him as an emergency starter. Umm, the Mets have just [...]