To make room for newly-acquired slugger Travis Hafner, the Yankees designated outfielder Russ Canzler for assignment. Canzler is no stranger to being DFA’d. After spending last season with the Cleveland Indians, Canzler was claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays in December, reclaimed by the Tribe in January, and finally claimed by the Yankees two weeks after that. Now he is on the loose again and maybe it’s time for the Mets to jump in and [...]

If you haven’t checked out this interview with Mark Teixeira by Dan Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal, you should. After all, how often is it that you see a $200 million dollar ballplayer who is on the decline say something like this… “I have no problem with anybody in New York, any fan, saying you’re overpaid. Because I am,” Teixeira said. “We all are.” “Agents are probably going to hate me for saying it,” he [...]

Welcome to Part Three of my exclusive four part series entitled, How The Miracle Mets Were Built. If haven’t read my first two installments you check them out here: The Spring Of 1968 - The 1968 Offseason.  With no major acquisitions over the winter, the focus in spring training was primarily on the young players. The one exception was Tommie Agee. Coming off a disastrous first season, Agee was surprisingly handed the centerfield job in spring training, with manager [...]

Player Name: Philip Evans Bats: R  Throws: R Height: 5’10″  Weight: 185 lb. Position: Shortstop Age: 20 (turns 21 in September) MMO Top Prospect Ranking: 14  ETA: 2015 Background: Here’s what MMO had to say about Evans in the recent top 25 prospect feature: The 2011 15th round pick who received a significant over-slot $660K bonus has been good, but not what has been expected overall. Evans has exclusively played shortstop though he profiles more as a [...]

Baseball America announced their 2013 Preseason College All-America Team. BA annually polls major league scouting directors to vote on the team and make their selections based on performance, talent and professional potential. In the past, the preseason All-America team has been a predictor both of the first round of the draft. For example, nine of the 15 draft-eligible members of last year’s first team became first-round picks last June, two others were supplemental first-rounders, and all [...]

Adding to my post from this afternoon, they Mets have entertained a reunion with former closer Francisco Rodriguez, a source told Marc Carig of Newsday. K-Rod along with Jose Valverde are among a group of former closers who could bolster the team’s bullpen depth, writes Carig. Speaking generally, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said he will likely add at least one more arm to the bullpen. “I just can’t tell you at this point who that will be,” [...]

The Mets just announced they have signed OF Marlon Byrd to a Minor League contract with an invite to Spring Training. Byrd, 35, was suspended for 50 games in June after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs last season. “I made an inexcusable mistake,” Byrd said in a statement . “Several years ago, I had surgery for a condition that was private and unrelated to baseball. Last winter, I suffered a recurrence of that condition and I was provided [...]

While I´m quite tired of the “Omar vs. Sandy” debate, a recent post about the “strong farm system” Omar Minaya supposedly left behind in late 2010, got me thinking and looking. To summarize, as of today, it doesn´t look as if the farm system left behind was all that good. And one  big reason for the Mets´ recent and even current struggles is directly related to the lack of quality (not quantity of ) higher [...]

When I was a kid, there was nothing like the feeling I got when the local candy store busted out the new edition of Topps Baseball Cards. I couldn’t wait to start tearing open those waxpacks, tossing out the gum and desperately start thumbing through them all hoping to find a Met. Five bucks and ten waxpacks later, I’d be lucky if had 5-6 Mets baseball cards – and that included doubles – I hated [...]