While visiting Mets camp today, MLBPA Union Chief  Michael Weiner addressed the 2012 vesting option the Mets have on K-Rod’s contract. K-Rod’s option vests at $17.5 million for 2012 if he finishes 55 games this season. Otherwise, he receives a $3.5 million buyout and becomes a free agent. “We monitor every situation for compliance with the Basic Agreement,” Weiner said. “But I have every expectation that the Mets are going to honor both the Basic Agreement and [...]

  Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger, says right-hander Mike Pelfrey is trying to rediscover his sinker (two-seam fastball) which he abandoned last season. He still produced a groundball 47.8 percent of the time. Pelfrey said that he thought the split-finger fastball Dan Warthen taught him in 2009 caught people off guard early last year and helped account for his quick start. Warthen also advised him to throw more high four-seam fastballs inside to hitters and trust his 92-mph heat. Warthen [...]

So here I am reading up on Monday’s happenings at Mets Camp, when I come across some comments David Wright made about todays first full team workout and about Terry Collins specifically. Immediately, a sense of deja vu came over me… I know I’ve read this comment before and I knew it wasn’t that long ago either. Two things were very clear to me; I knew that it wasn’t Wright who said it, and I also knew that the original comment wasn’t about [...]

   Giving us shades of Bob Ross, J.S. Mill along with a bit of Tom Candiotti thrown in there, R.A. Dickey is almost a contradictory baseball player.  He is humble, shy and down-to-earth but is well-spoken and doesn’t mince words in his interviews; he processes his game cerebrally but is not a head case on the mound; he is a Mets pitcher who is getting paid his worth…well, what we can say about that except [...]

Happy Presidents Day! Lets get started… Terry Collins told reporters that he does not plan to use Carlos Beltran during the first week of Grapefruit League play, which starts Saturday. He did however mention that he was impressed with how Beltran looked hitting from the right side of the plate this morning. Jason Bay was impressed after taking batting practice against Oliver Perez. “He was good,” Bay said. “He was around the plate. And that’s his biggest [...]

Much was expected of Jason Bay when the Mets decided that he would be the one to fill the power void of the 2009 season and give their core player David Wright some much needed protection in the lineup. Even critics of his $66 million dollar deal at the time, did not expect Bay’s power numbers to flat-line as they did last season, his first with the New York Mets. Most of the concern with Bay’s contract [...]

During the offseason, Sandy Alderson said that if Luis Castillo, and Oliver Perez didn’t earn a spot on the roster, that both of them would be cut. Unfortunately Mets fans, Sandy Alderson is apparently changing his stance on him.  As Terry Collins talked to reporters on Friday, Collins revealed that both him and Sandy Alderson promised Oliver Perez that he will get a chance to win a spot in the rotation or be in the bullpen if he does not win a job as as a starting pitcher. [...]

The United States Postal Service has recognized our National Pastime on many occasions over the past 72 years. In 1939, the USPS issued the very first baseball stamp to commemorate the first 100 years of the game, and since then they have continued to produce commemorative baseball stamps through 2010. As a child growing up, I collected stamps for a few years – something I picked up from my uncle who was, and still is, a huge philatelic enthusiast. I always [...]

While researching RHP Kent Tsujimoto, who the Mets signed to a minor league deal today, I came across some interesting facts to pass along. According to NPB Tracker, Tsujimoto made history a few years ago, when at age 15, he became the youngest player ever drafted in NPB history. Last season, while playing for the independent Golden Baseball League, Tsujimoto’s fastball consistently hit 94 mph on the radar gun, and he had an incredible strikeout rate of 12.6 K’s per [...]