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 [...]

Major League Baseball and Natural Balance Pet Foods hosted the 23rd annual “Going to Bat for B.A.T.” Fundraising Dinner on Jan. 24 at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square. The Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) raises money to assist members of the baseball family who have fallen on hard times with financial grants, healthcare programs and rehabilitative counseling. This year’s dinner celebrated the 50th anniversary of our beloved New York Mets. Notable Mets alumni were on [...]

Mets Vice President of Amateur Scouting & Player Development, Paul DePodesta, was a guest this evening on MLB Network’s Clubhouse Confidential with host Brian Kenny. Among the topics discussed were his thoughts on the book and movie Moneyball, how he broke into the baseball business, his philosophy on advanced metrics and what him and the rest of the Mets front office hope to accomplish this season as well as the longterm plan. Your browser does [...]

With Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder now in staking their claims in the American League, NBC Sports’ Matthew Poulliot lists Ike Davis as the second best first baseman in the National League in today’s Hardball Talk column. He projects their 2012 OPS and ranks the Top 5 as follows: Reds: Joey Votto – .990 Mets: Ike Davis – .864 Cardinals: Lance Berkman: .860 Phillies: Ryan Howard – .850 Braves: Freddie Freeman – .823 Who are we to argue!? Bill James projects Davis to hit .288 with 25 [...]

The Eagle has landed. The last of the “big” Mohicans, Prince Fielder, has finally agreed to a mega-deal and now has a new home in Motor City… Rah, rah, or better yet, vroom, vroom… So now that the dust has settled, here is an interesting question first posed by Mets historian and ESPN New York statistician Mark Simon who asked via Twitter: Lets look at all three deals up close and personal: Jose Reyes - The [...]