213 Miles From Shea

One of the stranger items MLB.com has been selling is a collection of screen prints that look like old style propaganda posters. They mostly make ones for the Phillies and the Red Sox, but they did make one for the Mets that has David Wright on it. For Wright, the slogan is “Fight the Good Fight”  and then “Support Our Amazin' Mets” (Pictured Below and can be found here). Other posters include sayings like “The Great Crusade” (Phillies World Champions), “Support the North Siders” (Cubs), “Speak Soflty, Carry a Big Stick” (Red Sox) and “The Heart of a Nation” (Red Sox-Varitek).

With the Mets signing Redding this past week to have him “compete” with
Niese for the final rotation spot, and still confident that they will
sign either Lowe or Perez, the question then becomes what happens to
Pedro. Omar still likes Pedro, and was open to his return. Pedro has
made it very public that he wants to return to the Mets. But with the
signing of Redding and the possibility of other signings, there is no
place for Pedro.

A rumor surfaced with ESPN Deportes today,
and since then has been refuted, that the Marlins are interested in
Pedro and have set up a meeting with him. Where does he fit? He really
doesn't fit anywhere right now because he is ageing, and the teams that
typically need ageing pitchers (teams that are ready for the playoffs
but are missing a few pieces) are satisfied the ageing pitching front.

I
hope for Pedro that a team with young pitchers, like an Orioles or even
a Nationals, picks up Pedro so he can teach the young pitchers and keep
pitching. But at the same time, it might just be time for Pedro to hang
up his hat on an amazing carear, maybe coach a little and wait five
years for the hall to call.

Yesterday was a busy day for current Mets, former Mets and future Mets as a lot of them saw action in the Winter Leagues. All the leagues except the Mexican league had games going last night, and for the Mets, they had good news and bad news. The good would stem from great performances by Krod and Feliciano and the bad would stem from a poor performance by Figueroa, who despite his bad start, was not in line for the loss. Here are the stats, and once again, team name first, then player name, followed by sports line:
    Ponce- Feliciano .2 IP, H, Hold (2)
    Arecibo- Casanova 2-4, 3 R, 2B, HR, BB, RBI
    Caracas- Fmart 1-2
    Santurice- Valentine 0-2
    La Guaira- Krod 1.1 IP, H, K, Save (2)
    Licey- Anderson Hernandez 2-5, RBI, 2 K
    Gigantes- Mendez 1-5, BB
    Aguilas- Figueroa 4.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Starting off with the good, Feliciano continues to play well getting another outing done with no earned runs, and a second consecutive outing with a hold. He's a streaky pitcher, so lets hope he can streak this into the major season, then this could be a very good thing. Krod got the 4 out save, a hard accomplishment, and he did it with striking out one and allowing only one hit. I can't wait for him to pitch in Queens. With Figueroa, its expected. He does well, then he does bad, nothing new. Fmart finally got a hit, the first time in several games. Casanova also did something for the first time in several days. He seems to hit in clumps. If Krod gets the pitching award from yesterday, the Casanova would get the hitting award.

Last night was a good night for Mets pitching, and last night also included a Jose Valetine siting, who has really disappeared in my mind (remember when he was our starting second basemen, what a weird time). Anyway, like always, the first word is the team name, followed by the player name and then the stats:
     Ponce- Cancel 0-3
     Ponce- Feliciano 1.1 IP, Hold
     Santarce- Jose Valetine 1-4, RBI, BB
     Gigantes- Mendez 1-3, RBI
     Licey- Jorge Sosa (2-0), W, 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3K, 2.25 ERA in Playoffs
     Licey- Anderson Hernandez 1-4, 3 R
Feliciano continues to impress in the witner with tossing 1.1 perfect innings, under pressure having to keep a hold. Sosa, has been doing well overall in the playoffs, but with the signing Redding and Niese waiting in the wings, his (Sosa) services will be very reduced in thsi upcoming year, which is not a bad thing because he continues to do well and then break down in the middle of the game, causing all sorts of problems.

The Red Sox have been extremely active over the last several days. They have signed or are near signing Baldelli, Kotsay, Smoltz. Its interesting how they have taken this list of players that many teams have cast aside as not good, and are actually making a lot of noise with these signings. Smoltz is the most interesting out of the list for several reasons. He hasn't really declined with age, with the exception of his major surgery last season, and he will be able to handle the pressure in Fenway, because he is made out of ice. By doing this though, he really has sent shockwaves in Atlanta. Chipper is not happy, Cox is disappointed, and he has placed a lot of pressure on the Atlanta front office. He also becomes an interesting piece of the Boston puzzle. Originally, Penny was going to take the last rotation spot, but now Smoltz can take it, or he can go in the pen or or he could prompt the Red Sox to trade one of their young starters to get a bigger name during the season. He gives them a lot of options.

Baldelli and Kotsay are really fourth outfielders and backups for Youkillis. However, these guys are good backups. Neither right now has the stuff they used when they start, but on the bench, they look very nice. They literally can be described as icing on the cake for the Sox. These moves make the AL East very interesting. The Rays are still there, and their young players are growing and getting even better (and they have more talent in the minors that hasn't even surfaced yet). There are the Yankees that bought their new lineup and have made their team world class and now the Red Sox are tweaking and they still have the majority of their 2007 World Championship team. The east is going to be a fun division to watch next year.

Former Met, Timo Perez, had a huge game last night as he hit for the cycle while his team, Licey, won 16-2. That was really the big news of the night, a Mets minor leaguer Mendez also had a good night, and the rest of the Mets didn't fare so well. Here are the stat lines with the team name first, followed by the player name, and the stats:
     Licey- Anderson Hernandez 1-5, 2B, R
     Licey- Timo Perez 4-5, 4 R, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI
     Gigantes- Mendez 2-4, R, 2B, RBI
     Lara- Alfonzo 0-5
     Caracas- Fmart 0-3, R
Timo Perez's performance actually landed him on Sports Center today as the number 2 play of the day, behind Tebow and the BCS Championship game. Fmart continued to struggle for a third straight day, but he did get a run, so thats nice. Here's hoping that he can shake this off soon because its hurting his team which has now fallen to 3-3 and is danger of not advancing to the next round of the playoffs. Another surprising string of stats is Hernandez has been struggling the last few games. This is the winter, this is when he is supposed to be the best ball player around.

Several players made it official today that they will be playing for their respective countries, including a current and former Met. Former Met, (or really former Met prospect), Matt Lindstrom, has accepted an invite to play for team USA. He will be joined by Roy Oswalt who recently agreed to comeback and by Curtis Granderson who also agreed today that he will play for team USA. If you are going to root for team USA this year, you have to happy because they are really putting a world class team out there. They have Wright, C. Jones, Granderson, Sizemore, Youkilis, and Pedoria already signed on. They would be even better if a pitcher today didn't turn down an invite. They tried to get Cliff Lee to join the squad today, but he declined the invite.

Another current Met made it official today that he will play for his team again and that would be Pedro Feliciano, who will play again for Puerto Rico. Last time he didn't allow a run in any of his appearences. I actually have a unique peice of his from the classic. A couple of months ago, I purchased for a very reasonable price of $25, Feliciano's Locker Room tag from the Classic. Its very odd that such an interesting piece of memorbilla would be that cheap, especially when compared to the prices of other objects that were beign auctioned off. In other Mets WBC news, Reyes, Santana and Krod still all want to play for their respective countries. I remember reading a piece not too long ago that said that said that the Mets brass is not to fond of the idea of Santana playing in the WBC so he can continue to heal from his offseason procedures.

The Market is whirling right now, so every day I am giving quick updates. Here are the quick notes before opinions and analysis:
      Hoffman Signs with Brewers (Beating out the Dodgers)
      Smoltz signs with Red Sox
      Baldelli close to signing with Red Sox
      Mets made an offer to Redding
Starting off with the Mets. What I have been hearing about referring to Redding, they have offered Redding and are making one to Wolf, both of these for the fifth spot, while Lowe and Perez are going for the final spot (which could be any number 2-4). The only thing I'm upset with is that the Mets have ranked Redding above Wolf, when I feel many Mets fans would rank them the opposite way. That is probably because Wolf would be able to demand more money than Redding.
The Red Sox started to make market noise, not in the way the fans probably wanted, but it would be nice to not have Smoltz in the division anymore. The downside to that is that the Braves will probably be pursuing Lowe harder now, and I really hope the Mets step up the plate to get him. I am a big fan of Baldelli, and I hope he does well in Boston (If he signs there, it still isn't clear at this moment in time).
All of a sudden this week, the market for Hoffman started to heat up. The Brewers were pursuing him, the Dodgers were, and the Dodgers were actually the leaders to about last night because it was thought that Hoffman wanted to stay on the coast. I guess the real loser here is the Padres. They are trying to rebuild, but couldn't trade Peavy and now with Hoffman signing with the Brewers, they real couldn't commit to rebuilding in the right way, which will make this season even tougher.

Mets and former Mets had a lot of action in the Winter Leagues last night, and two came up with big performances. Stoner clinched a spot in the next round of the PR playoffs for Mayaquez last night with his amazing starting pitching and Rincon closed out a game for Lara last night. Without further ado, here are the stat lines (Team name first):
     Mayaguez- Stoner (2-1), W, 6.0 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 3 K, 1.50 ERA (over 5 games)
     Caguas- Casanova 0-4
     Lara- Alfonzo 1-3, R, BB
     Lara- Rincon 1.0 IP, K, Save (2)
     Caracas- Fmart 0-5
     La Guaira- Chavez 1-2, R, 3 BB
     Gigantes- Mendez 1-4, R
How good was Stoner? When we first looked at him last season, it was unclear if he was a prospect, but this winter between Arizona, and now PR, he is really turning it around. I am very curious to see how he does in minors at the start of the season because when the Mets need spot starters, Stoner could be gearing himself up to be that person. Rincon has also started to make himself look more line a bullpen pitcher. Him and Padilla could be dark horses to be sitting in that pen during April of next year.

In the 2008 Baseball Draft, the Mets selected Reese Havens, a shortstop/infielder out of the University of South Carolina. Despite his struggles this past season with Brooklyn, mainly due to injuries, he is receiving praise and hype. Baseball America named him number 8 on the Mets top 2009 Prospect List. He only played in 23 games this season, and in 85 AB he had 13 R, 21 H, 6 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 11 RBI, 3 SB, .247 BA, .340 OBP. His extra base hit to hit ratio here is pretty nice, especially for a shortened first minor league season. Out of his 21 hits, he has 11 extra base hits, including a nice distrubution over doubles, triples, and homers. The Baseball Cube gives him the following scouting report:
     Power 82
     Speed 14
     Contact 57
     Patience 87
(The Scores are Based out of 100)

Before playing professional, he played in 2006 and in 2007 between college and in the Cape Cod League. In 2006 he batted .259, and 2007, he batted .274. Then he went to the
Cape Cod league where he batted .315 over the 2007 summer and he really
turned it up in 2008 batting .360. So there is a positive progression.
He also has had a huge increase of walks going 30 in 06, 21 in 07 and
58 in 08. The Power numbers have jumped as well going 4 homeruns, to 5,
and this past season he knocked in 18. His RBI's have increased over
time as well, but not as dramatically, 40, 43 and then last year 57. He
played for the University of South Carolina.

When he was in high
school, he was a highly touted prospect hitting .530 with 48 RBI's his
senior year. In 2005 he was drafted by the Rockies in the 29th round
(867 overall). MLB.com says that this was mostly due to his “strong
commitment” to South Carolina, which he fulfilled. He was going to play in the Hawaiian Winter League, but due to his injuries during the season, the Mets brass thought it would be better if he continued rehabing and staying on their program. The real test of abilities of Havens will be when he plays a full minor league season without injuries.