The Mets have claimed righthander Fernando Nieve off waivers from the Houston Astros. The 26-year-old righthander went 0-1 with an 8.44 ERA in 11 games for Houston last season and was 2-5 with six saves and a 5.72 ERA in 36 games for Triple-A Round Rock. Nieve was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Houston Astros in 1999, and was one of their top ten prospects until undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing [...]

Adam Rubin is reporting that Tim Redding will start the season on the DL. Omar Minaya said Tim Redding will start the season on the disabled list with shoulder fatigue. Redding has a guaranteed contract for $2.25 million, and was headed for the long-relief role. The GM said the 31-year-old righthander is not experiencing pain and does not need an MRI exam, since images were taken before he signed Jan. 12. “He just doesn’t feel [...]

A new daily feature that will keep you fully briefed on the current state of the Mets. One post with all you need to know until tomorrow. Domestic Policy Nick Evans is making it very hard for the Mets to send him back to Buffalo. He is now batting .313 and lead the team with 20 total bases. His right handed bat could be a big asset, but will the Mets ignore all these things [...]

The Mets took care of some business today and signed the following nine players for the 2009 season. Dan Murphy – $401,000 (Will get close to 425 AB this season barring a disaster.) Nick Evans – $403,000 (I wonder why he got more than Murphy?) Robinson Cancel – $408,000 (I think he will get 80-100 at-bats this season) Rocky Cherry – $406,000 (I feel like running to Dairy Queen when I read this guys name.) Sean Green – $471,000 [...]

A few weeks back fans of the New York Mets nearly went into cardiac arrest when it was announced that Johan Santana was experiencing some stiffness in his left elbow which as we all know is his throwing arm.  Santana was scheduled to fly out of Florida and into New York for an MRI to see what exactly was wrong with the elbow but because of bad weather he did not make that flight. There [...]

Pedro Martinez said that he would use the World Baseball Classic as an audition for any interested teams, and today’s outing against the Netherlands was a good start. Martinez replaced Rafael Perez for the 5th inning and proceeded to pitch 3 scoreless innings, face the minimum 9 batters, gave up one hit, and struck out four of the final five hitters faced. Martinez threw 40 pitches, a whopping 32 of them for strikes. He gave [...]

A couple of days ago there was a photo in the paper of a smiling Pedro Martinez having a good time preparing for that annoying WBC with fellow Dominicans, such as, ahem, Moises Alou–didn’t that tell me all I needed to know?. He was wearing a Mets cap, and it took me a minute to realize that he isn’t really a Met anymore. That kind of affected me. I wasn’t sure why at first because, [...]

Pitching Coach Dan Warthen said earlier today to the New York Post that it is unlikely to expect ace Johan Santana to start Opening Day, April 6, against the Cincinnati Reds. The more likely season debut for Santana would be Saturday, April 11 against the Florida Marlins. Santana will throw bullpen sessions on March 7 and 10 and throw batting practice on the 13th. After a side-session on March 15th, he could make his first [...]

We begin this week’s look at the NL East with the team that has had the most tumultuous week, the Washington Nationals. Jim Bowden, GM of the Nationals resigned amid allegations of skimming money from signing bonuses from Dominican player signings. Stan Kasten, team president will take over on an interim basis, while the team looks for a permanent replacement. Kasten has prior GM experience with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks during the 80′s, and has [...]

Have you ever played the Mt. Rushmore game? If you haven’t, it works like this, you pick an field, group, or category etc. and pick the four best in that category. For example, at the time Mt. Rushmore was being completed, for of the most influential presidents were Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt. You can do this for almost any category; Mt. Rushmore of 80′s bands, Mt. Rushmore of the Boston Celtics, Mt. Rushmore of [...]