Bradenton 5, St. Lucie 4 Willy Garcia drilled a bases loaded walk-off single to right off of reliever T.J. Chism as the host Bradenton Marauders defeated the Mets 5-4 on Friday. Jenrry Mejia allowed two runs and five hits over three innings with three walks and six strikeouts in his first start on a major league rehab assignment with St. Lucie. Mejia had originally been scheduled to make an earlier rehab start, and he did – [...]

Last month, I had the chance to conduct an email interview with John Sickels of the well-known minor league blog, Minor League Ball. Sickels worked for ESPN many years ago, where he had his own column about minor league baseball. Here is some of what we talked about: Q: Were the Mets too conservative with the Gavin Cecchini selection? A: I thought Cecchini was a slight overdraft but I didn’t really think that about Nimmo. By slight, [...]

Updated at 4:30 PM Okay, well nobody actually said that, but I thought it made for a great title… However, in case you were wondering about it, perish the thought… Terry Collins just said that Zack Wheeler will not be considered as a replacement for Shaun Marcum in the rotation and will not pitch for the Mets at all in April. “His ultimate promotion will have nothing to do with other injuries and they don’t think [...]

The Mets have until Tuesday to make a decision on whether to add Pedro Feliciano, LaTroy Hawkins and Tim Byrdak to the 25 man roster. According to the rules of the new collective bargaining agreement, the Mets must inform each player by Tuesday if they intend to carry them on the major league roster. The alternatives are that either will be assigned to the minors and receive $100,000 or they will be released. It will be [...]

Mack emailed me last night and told me the “Group 2″ starters were announced and he posted them on his site tonight. Here they are: Rafael Montero Domingo Tapia Jacob deGrom Tyler Pill Chase Huchingson Alex Panteliodis Logan Verrett He correctly points out, that is normally the group of pitchers that usually begin the season at Double-A Binghamton. As you know, I’ve posted my own projected minor league rotations and have updated them a few [...]

Jeremy Hefner, the likely replacement for Johan Santana in the rotation, gave up two homers this afternoon but rebounded to strike out the last six hitters he faced in the Mets’ 5-2 victory over Atlanta. Hefner had a solid line of two runs on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in five innings. Even so, Hefner wasn’t pleased, telling reporters he was concerned because he left the ball up in the strike zone. Hefner said [...]

Do not read into Zack Wheeler’s demotion that the Mets think Jenrry Mejia will replace Johan Santana on the roster and in the rotation. When I asked Terry Collins of his preparation plans for life without Santana to start the season, the name Jeremy Hefner was only one to pop out. And, without hesitation. Collin McHugh, who was also demoted to the minor league camp, made spot starts last year and could be in position again if something were to develop with Hefner.Mejia’s development [...]

Updated by John Delcos at 10:00 AM Players hit in the cages this morning as it rained here. The weather here has been awful; rainy and chilly. Nothing sun drenched about PSL these days. Those hitting include Daniel Murphy, who took an injection for a strained intercostal muscle on his right side. Also on the injury front, Jenrry Mejia was examined in New York yesterday for a thyroid issue and Zack Wheeler threw on flat ground and will do so [...]

With Jenrry Mejia in New York for an exam, several other Mets pitchers took the mound today in a B game against Miami. We expect to get a full report on Mejia at some point tomorrow and I’ll post as soon as I hear something from John. For now, Sandy Alderson called it an “undisclosed medical issue.” Shaun Marcum, who didn’t endeared himself to manager Terry Collins when he arrived to camp out of shape, and asked out of his [...]

It wasn’t too long ago that when the subject of top Mets pitching prospects came up, the first two names that jumped to mind were righthanders Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia. As a matter of fact, going into the 2011 season, both were still ranked as the two best pitching prospects in the Mets system. Anthony DiComo wrote a little about that this morning on Mets.com and it reminded me of how quickly and easily [...]

I’ve booked my hotel for Port St. Lucie and beginning on March 5th, I will be reporting live from Mets Spring Training exclusively for MMO. I’ve been busy this entire week coordinating many things with the New York Mets and Joe D. and we have some nice things in store for you. We’ve already lined up some exclusive player interviews and plan on bringing you some new video analysis, a daily report, live blogging and tweets, [...]