Mets’ relievers Frank Francisco and Pedro Feliciano threw a simulated game in Port St. Lucie on Tuesday. Francisco continues to recover from off-season elbow surgery, and is currently on the disabled list, retroactive to March 22. The righty threw an inning of work, which consisted of 20 pitches. Mets lefty reliever Feliciano continues to work on his arm strength, and also threw one inning of work in Tuesday’s simulated game. Both Francisco and Feliciano remain serious candidates to [...]

Updated 4:00 PM by Mitch Petanick Domingo Tapia had a very forgettable outing today in Grapefruit League play. Tapia pitched two innings, allowing four runs on four hits, two of which were home runs. Sounds scary when you read the stat line, but remember that Tapia is still a lower level prospect who was pitching against major league hitters that are just about ready for regular season play. And by lower level prospect, I do not mean talent wise, I [...]

Updated by Joe D. 3/26 A team source told Adam Rubin that veteran righthander LaTroy Hawkins has made the Opening Day roster. This comes as no surprise given manager Terry Collins‘ propensity to lean towards players with more experience as long as they are healthy. Hawkins, 40, has not allowed a run over five innings during Grapefruit League action. He is coming off a season where he posted a 3.64 ERA in 48 relief appearances. [...]

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 [...]

Here we are, two weeks from Opening Day and the Mets still have a myriad of questions that can’t be answered by Google. Perhaps they should get a Celebrity Apprentice from Trump to fill in the holes. Jon Niese was superb in yesterday’s loss to the Braves and we know he’ll get the ball that first day against San Diego regardless of the Mets’ refusal to acknowledge anything negative about Johan Santana, who is among their [...]

They wouldn’t be the Mets if things came easily. So, on the day after losing third baseman David Wright indefinitely, they lost his back-up, Justin Turner, to a sprained ankle. Turner was injured in the fourth inning of today’s 4-2 loss to Miami, when after fielding a ground ball, his left leg buckled while making a wild throw and he landed awkwardly on his right ankle. “I think just getting up, going to make a throw, I caught [...]

Yesterday, I pretty much concluded, in a post you can read below, that reliever Greg Burke has just about locked up one of the final spots in the Mets bullpen. In the 9-1 loss to the Tigers on Thursday, Burke was brought in to get a critical out against one of the best hitters in the game, Miguel Cabrera. The side-winder induced Cabrera to pop up to end the fifth inning. Mission accomplished. After a [...]

Normally, when a team has five of its hitters drilled in two games a case can be made for retribution. There’s been no such talk from the Mets about the Detroit Tigers taking liberties with their hitters. Jim Leyland’s pitchers have always been aggressive, so perhaps this is just a case of not having control early in spring training. Nonetheless, it hurts just as much in March as it does in July. It will be [...]

It is too soon to say much definitive about Terry Collins’ 2013 Mets other than it has the makings of a long year. Twice yesterday afternoon, the frustrated Mets’ manager answered seemingly innocuous questions about his roster with a curt, “It is March 8.’’ PARNELL CLOSING IN: One silver thread out of Friday’s 3-2 loss to Detroit was reliever Bobby Parnell, who pitched a 1-2-3 sixth as he’s settling in to the closer job with Frank [...]

The majority of the Mets are off today, except for those who have a “B’’ game in Jupiter later this afternoon. Pitchers Shaun Marcum, Pedro Feliciano and LaTroy Hawkins will each log some innings. The projected fifth starter, Marcum, raised concerns when he didn’t report to camp in shape. Here is a guy trying to hang onto a major league job and got a $4 million guaranteed contract from the Mets. He doesn’t come to camp ready to pitch and [...]

Updated by HoJo on 2/24 Pedro Feliciano will be shut down for at least two weeks from baseball activity while he wears a heart monitor while the team doctors continue to monitor could be a potentially serious heart condition, It’s not exactly clear if Feliciano has a hole in his heart or even if that’s the cause of his irregular heartbeat. The next two weeks will help doctors come to a more exact diagnosis of [...]