The New York Post has confirmed that the Mets cleared up their bullpen picture tonight by releasing Ron Villone, reassigning Nelson Figueroa and optioning Carlos Muniz. Barring a late move, Villone’s release means the Mets have decided to go with Pedro Feliciano as their lone left-handed reliever at the start of the season. With Brian Stokes and promising prospect Bobby Parnell appearing to be locks, today’s moves also mean Fernando Nieve, Darren O’Day and Elmer Dessens [...]

Field of Dreams   Field of Dreams took on The Natural in the final round of the tournament, and much like Roy Hobbs did in the movie, it knocked the stuffing out of the ball. The final vote tally was 504 – 425. Either movie could have won and I’m sure few would have been disappointed. However, the timeless appeal and the spirit of family that is embraced by Field of Dreams clearly sets it [...]

A new daily feature that will bring the best of the Mets blogosphere right to your desktop. It’s the perfect compliment to your morning brew. Omar Minaya reiterated his stance on players going to the WBC, even in the face of comments made by pitching coach Dan Warthen who believes the WBC ruined Oliver Perez’s preparedness for the season. Read about it here. Neil Best has a great article that exposes SNY for being slow [...]

Ben Shpigel of the NY Times reveals the mounting concern over the Mets’ $36 million dollar man, Oliver Perez. Pitching coach Dan Warthen had some scathing remarks after seeing Oliver Perez fail to make it out of the fourth inning yesterday in a 10-6 loss to the Tigers. The pitching coach Dan Warthen called him “out of shape” on Wednesday after Perez failed to get through the fourth inning of the Mets’ 10-6 loss to [...]

It’s getting close to deciding the winner of our March Baseball Movie Madness Tournament.   By the looks of the voting so far, Field of Dreams has a tiny lead over The Natural. To help all of you decide between the two, enjoy these two clips that feature the signature moments in each classic movie.     The Natural – 348 Votes     Field of Dreams – 372 votes   Enjoy these clips and [...]

John Maine hasn’t exactly wowed anyone this spring, on the contrary he’s left many of us wondering if and when we’ll ever see the pre-surgery John Maine again. Today, Maine took a small step forward as reported by Steve Popper. John Maine just finished off his five inning outing and the first bit of good news is that he made it through five innings. After that 26-pitch first inning I wouldn’t have bet on that. [...]

Everyone knows how hot Nick Evans has been this spring as he leads the Mets in homers and RBI’s, but there is another righthanded bat on this team that is scorching the ball at the plate; Fernando Tatis. I heard a lot of moaning and groaning this off season when the Mets re-signed Tatis and said he would be the lefthanded side of a platoon in leftfield with Daniel Murphy. Truth be told, I had some [...]

As we officially enter the purgatory known as the “dog days of spring training” it’s hard not to become antsy.  We can hear the sizzle of an upcoming season, but long to taste it.  Whoever said patience is a virtue had to be a baseball fan around this time of year.   With opening day less than two weeks away, everyone-fans, players, managers, and sportswriters have grown tired of the monotony of spring training.   [...]

Adam Rubin of the Daily News is reporting that the Mets have released lefthanded reliever Valerio de los Santos. The veteran reliever, who was in major-league camp at the start of the spring, had drawn positive reviews, including for his willingness to help young players, but he got caught up in a numbers game. This probably bodes well for Ron Villone more than anyone else. (He just got tagged for 4 runs as I write [...]

When the Mets drafted David Wright in the supplemental round of the 2001 amateur draft (amazingly, AFTER drafting Aaron Heilman in the first round), they hoped they were investing in a future MVP.  And since coming up to the big leagues in the summer of 2004, Wright has been steady, and in fact has been progressing forward just a bit each season.  As far as voting for the NL MVP Award, Wright has finished 19th, [...]