And was caught 13 times. That is almost 25% of the time.

That said, this was a case of the Mets potentially buying “early”, i.e. before they have to “buy”. They probably served as a nice fallback for Boras, had he not received comparable offers elsewhere, then being worth the wait on a decision on the 1st round pick.
But this certainly was the safer choice. And the Indians – having already signed Nick Swisher -will only lose their “competitive balance” extra 2nd ound pick (along with their regular 2nd round pick) and still have their protected 1st rounder and their regular 3rd rounder to work with.

As for the Mets, they are still probably two fulltime outfielders short of having a solid to good major league outfield. One intriguing idea could be going after Brantley or Stubbs with CLE, one of which seems relegated to bench duty for now but would probably be an upgrade over Nieuwenhuis in CF, allowing Captain Kirk to shift to RF and Baxter to the bench where he belongs.

Another option could be a “salary clearance” trade for CLE next winter, sending both Swisher & Bourn to the Mets if CLE doesn´t contend in 2013 and finally starts a true rebuilding.

Again, Sandy was explicit about not wanting to lose that protected draft pick. Understood and not questioning that. What has to be questioned is why never submitting a petition ASAP instead of waiting. What were the reasons? Why is it they never did? Where they prepared to sign Bourn and then wait for a ruling on the decision after that? Did they believe Bourn would sign an agreement with them contingent on a future ruling?

And there is the question of what would the Mets then do if the ruling went in their favor? How would it look for them not to seriously pursue any type of big money free agent after working hard to get the decision in their favor? Would that put them in the corner to make good on their promises?

It’s because of so many questions and so little action that one has a valid point to suspect what we read about the last few weeks – including the dealings with Boras – as simply being another charade.

Bourn though despite the strikeouts batting 1st he posed a .346/OBP that was better than the MLB .324/OBP posted last year and the .323/OBP the Mets posted last year in the same category. He also brought speed. He stole 41 bases when batting 1st. The Mets as a team stole 14 when batting 1st.

He lacked power though as well which is somewhat weird then to see him strikeout so much.

Bourn really did have his pluses and minuses Probably more so than any free agent I’ve see sign this off season.

We could use a little divine intervention right about now.