When the Mets traded reliever Brian Stokes in exchange for outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., the move was met with much skepticism. The original idea was to back up Angel Pagan who would take over in centerfield during Carlos Beltran’s absence, but Omar Minaya said right from the start that Matthews would be in the mix for opening day centerfielder, and a day laster Jerry Manuel added that he’d use Matthews in the leadoff spot. This [...]

This is the time during Spring Training that all Major League teams start to cut down their rosters, sending some players down to their Minor League affiliates, while others are sent on their way right out of the organization. The funny thing about this process is that there are very few surprises as to who stays and who goes. Sometimes a young player with just a little minor league experience makes such an outstanding impression that [...]

The last 2 weeks I wrote about how the pitchers and the players who patrol the infield must step up for the Mets to have success in 2010.  This week concludes with how the outfielders must step up. Angel Pagan: For the first 2 months of the 2010 season it looks like Angel Pagan will be the everyday Center Fielder for the Mets due to Carlos Beltran’s surgery.  Pagan had a good year last year, [...]

To begin, catcher Rod Barajas passed his physical today and will report to Mets camp tomorrow morning. According to Jon Heyman, he is guaranteed $500K, and then gets $400K for making the Opening Day roster. He can earn another $1MM with easily attainable incentives. * * * * * * * * * * Jason Bay arrived to camp today and spoke to reporters. Kevin Kernan of the NY Post relays that Bay said he is a “lead [...]

This post was updated from an original post today. Brian Costa of the Star-Ledger writes that Carlos Beltran arrived to camp this afternoon and that he walked with no noticeable limp when he entered the clubhouse and went into the trainer’s room, where Omar Minaya joined him a few minutes later. Adam Rubin added that Beltran was on a stationary bike with no pain the day after the surgery and had no pain. Who knows… Maybe [...]

According to Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News, Angel Pagan and the Mets avoided arbitration and have agreed to a one year contract that will pay the center fielder $1.45 million. Pagan had originally requested $1.8 million whereas the team filed for $1.275 million. Therefore, they are paying him a little bit under the arbitrary midpoint. Last season, Angel had a fine season despite suffering an injury that sidelined him for a couple [...]

The Mets 3-Day Mini Camp got underway yesterday and not surprisingly it was chock full of several interesting storylines, player updates and revealing quotes. Rather than flood the blog with a dozen or so individual posts, I hope you don’t mind an extensive recap instead for each of the three days beginning with this mornings recap of Day One. Lets get started… Johan Santana – All eyes will be on Johan Santana today as he throws [...]

The Mets tied some loose ends yesterday by agreeing to one-year deals with arbitration eligibles Jeff Francoeur, Pedro Feliciano and Sean Green. Francoeur will get $5 million dollars which is far less than some of the outrageous figures being tossed around this off season by his antagonists. Frenchy had a solid debut with the Mets despite playing the final six weeks with torn ligaments in his thumb. The just turned 26-year old, has already amassed 251 extra-base hits and [...]

Like all loyal and lifetime New York Mets Fans 2009 will certainly go down in Mets history as the most injury plagued season in their entire 48 seasons of National League play. Everybody knows that every member of “The Core” players were down for various amounts of time during the season and if the core played together for ten games all season long that would probably be an exaggeration. Dirt was thrown at everybody from [...]