A few weeks ago I was granted the opportunity to ask former Mets outfielder and ESPN analyst Brian McRae a few questions regarding his time in New York and what he is currently up to now. As many will recall McRae spend parts of three seasons in Flushing during which time he hit roughly .250, which is lower than his career average of .261. During his time with the Mets, McRae played under Bobby Valentine [...]

Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog points to a report out from Beisbol Invernal, which states that Alex Cora left a winter ball game with a back injury. No additional information on the severity of the injury is available at this time. This certainly isn’t good news for Omar Minaya, as he has faced criticism as of late for signing the veteran utility man to such a lucrative deal. Last season with the Mets, Cora played in [...]

It has been widely reported that the Mets are interested in former Rockies pitcher Jason Marquis. The Mets still have John Lackey as their primary target, but Marquis intrigues them somewhat. Marquis is definitely worth consideration and could prove to be a solid lower priced option for the Mets. Last season, he won 15 games for the Rockies , and he is only four wins away from reaching 100 in his career. The Mets are not the only [...]

“You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat” “Losing after great striving is the story of Man” Roger Kahn (The Boys of Summer) Roger Kahn, working for the New York Herald Tribune, was the beat writer for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s.  He covered them during the Dodgers glory days of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider and Gil Hodges.  He witnessed and wrote about [...]

With the seventh pick in the 2009 Rule 5 draft, the Mets selected pitcher, Carlos Monasterios, from the Philadelphia Phillies. Monasterios, 23, has certainly made his way around the tri-state area over the past couple of years. In 2006, he was sent to Phillies by the Yankees in the trade that brought Bobby Abreu to New York. Last season, Monasterios spent a majority of the season in Class A+ affiliate, the Clearwater Thrashers. In his [...]

Last week, the Mets made their first dabble into the free agent pool when they signed veteran backstop, Henry Blanco, to a one year deal worth roughly $1.45 million. However, as Newsday’s Ken Davidoff reports (Hat tip to MLB Trade Rumors for link), there were some red flags that popped up during Blanco’s physical, in regards to the condition of his shoulder, which made the team leery of guaranteeing him as much money as they [...]

I think the Mets should change their whole way of thinking.  The Wilpons should give the edict to Omar Minaya that he is restricted to only signing and acquiring players on one year contracts.  There is too much uncertainty with Omar’s ability to make good decisions.   Let’s play the 2010 season under this scenario and see what happens.  Then afterward everything and everyone; players and general manager should be evaluated.  We don’t want Minaya to [...]

As we all sit back and wait for Omar Minaya to make that blockbuster trade or signing, only to see him sign more mediocre players, reality is starting to set in.  If this hot stove pattern continues — and I’m sorry, Minaya has given us no reason to believe otherwise – the Mets in 2010 could easily be a fourth place team, and maybe even fifth. First of all, the Phillies are not exactly going [...]

Yesterday the winter meetings officially began in Indianapolis and as usual some trades were apparently made and then it turned out that there was no trade. In some cases the two teams involved in the trade had not even spoken to each other.  This is the joys of covering the winter meetings.  In the case of the Mets a Philadelphia paper reported that the Mets traded Luis Castillo as part of 3 team trade that had [...]