As the title says, the R.A. Dickey deal just keeps looking better and better for Sandy Alderson and the Mets – and that’s with the signature piece to the deal, Travis d’Arnaud, idling on the disabled list for nearly a month. A post by Josh Chapdelaine of Around Citi brought to my attention just how bad things are going for the reigning Cy Young this season. “The knuckleballer racked up his fifth loss of the [...]

Despite the incredible effort by Jeremy Hefner on Tuesday night, the Mets were unable to get just three more outs as a ninth inning meltdown capped off by a Brandon Lyon wild pitch handed the Marlins their second straight walk-off victory against the Amazin’s and their first series win of the season. Surprisingly enough, the Mets have become quite used to the demoralizing oddity known as the walk-off wild pitch. In fact, last night was the [...]

When the Blue Jays forced Sandy Alderson to take John Buck‘s $6 million dollar contract as a condition of making the deal for Travis d’Arnaud, many people including me groaned. I loved the fact that Buck could actually catch (unlike Josh Thole) and would be an asset overall, but six million samoans for Buck was simply too much for me to swallow. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, and Alderson sure lucked out [...]

Patience is a virtue.  That certainly applies to the patience of Mets GM, Sandy Alderson, who once again proved his critics wrong this weekend when he secured a windfall of popular prospects from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for reigning Cy Young Award winner, RA Dickey, and his personal catchers, Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas.  In doing so, Alderson waited out both the starting pitching market and the limits of the fan base’s collective [...]

Anonymous asks… I think that if the Mets sign R.A. Dickey to that extension, they are almost certain to bring back Josh Thole as his personal catcher. True or false? Sean replies… As good of a rapport as Dickey and Thole have developed, their fates are not as linked as one would imagine. Thole is just inexpensive and fits into the Mets plans as a cost-effective backstop who will be arbitration eligible and is expected [...]

The New York Post’s Joel Sherman wrote that the Mets should look to sign catcher Russell Martin if the Yankees decide to let him walk at the end of the season. Sherman said that Martin is already used to playing in New York and that the Mets are “desperate to add power, and Martin’s 21 homers were eighth among catchers in the majors this season.” You can look at Martin’s gritty attitude and intangibles and the [...]

I have never put a lot of stock in the whole personal catcher debate. I guess it could possibly be more of an issue when you are dealing with a knuckleballer, and you have a guy who knows how to catch it. It is a difficult pitch to catch, and since Josh Thole has been relatively successful in handling R.A. Dickey, I guess he has some value in that regard. However, if we do decide to retain him as a [...]

As they close the door on yet another disappointing season, and start looking towards 2013, catcher is definitely one of the areas of concern for the New York Mets. Josh Thole isn’t coming around offensively, so the Mets brought in Shoppach earlier this year to see if he would be a viable option for 2013. The Mets were gauging whether or not Shoppach would fit in with the team philosophy, and hopefully bring a little [...]

R.A. Dickey had a great outing, notching his 18th win of the season, and the Mets offense showed up today in their 6-2 win. R.A. Dickey took the hill today in the rubber game, and was strong through six and two-third innings. Dickey allowed eight hits and two runs, while walking one and striking out five. R.A. gave up three of his eight hits in his final inning of work so the line looks a [...]

Its hard to fathom now, but the Mets had a realistic shot at the playoffs only one month ago.  Since then the team has taken a turn for the worst with a lot of poorly played baseball compounded by additional injuries.  In the process, the current situation has re-highlighted some glaring issues that the team’s successful first half had given us the luxury of forgetting about. First and foremost, the team’s pitching staff desperately needs [...]

The MetsMerizedOnline Player of the Week for this week has shown he has a great impact on this team. This week includes the 3-game series against the Houston Astros and the 3-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Here is our MMO Player of the Week for 4/30/2012 – 5/6/2012: Through the use of the scorecard, let’s take a look at how Andres Torres did this week: G AB H R 2B 3B HR RBI BB K [...]