RA Dickey Signs 2 year extension

Fan favorite RA Dickey has been re-signed for 2 years approximately 8 million dollars.

My Take: If he can make 30 starts each of the next two years, then this contract will be well worth the money. It's a big unknown, but considering the lack of certainty associated with the Mets starting pitching, it's great to have him locked up at a reasonable rate for 2 years.

Anyone have a Couple Dollars?

As everyone obviously already knows, below was the press release that the Mets sent on Friday. This is in a response that the Wilpon's may be sued for as much as 1 BILLION dollars for their involvement with the Madoff scandal. Obviously if that does come to fruition, the Wilpon's may need to have more than a minority owner. But until that time comes, all we can do is wait and see what happens, versus speculating when we don't know the facts in the case.

I know a lot of people are unhappy with the Wilpon's as owners, but they actually have been more than supportive since owning the team solely since 2002. They are not to blame for the poor baseball choices that were made by Omar and company. Yes, they put Omar in charge, but they also gave more than enough resources for him to succeed (140+ million dollar payroll).

So I view this as a smart move for the Wilpon's, and trying to cover their bases if in fact the lawsuit does take shape to the tune of 1 billion dollars. So do the readers of Long Live Shea Stadium want to start up a fund and offer proposal to be minority owners of the Mets?

In other news, 3 weeks from tomorrow is the first full team workout, and I will be there live blogging from Port St. Lucie. I'm wearing my Mets sweatshirt and hat again, and can't wait for baseball to finally be here once again!

January 28, 2011

Dear Mets Fans:

As Sterling Equities announced in December, we are engaged in discussions to settle a lawsuit brought against us and other Sterling partners and members of our families by the Trustee in the Madoff bankruptcy. We are not permitted to comment on these confidential negotiations while they are ongoing.

However, to address the air of uncertainty created by this lawsuit, and to provide additional assurance that the New York Mets will continue to have the necessary resources to fully compete and win, we are looking at a number of potential options including the addition of one or more strategic partners. To explore this, we have retained Steve Greenberg, a Managing Director at Allen & Company, as our advisor.

Regardless of the outcome of this exploration, Sterling will remain the principal ownership group of the Mets and continue to control and manage the team's operations. The Mets have been a major part of our families for more than 30 years and that is not going to change.

As we have said before, we are totally committed to having the Mets again become a World Series winner. You deserve nothing less.

We wanted to share this information with you concurrent with sharing it with all Mets employees and the media. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Fred Wilpon Chairman & CEO Jeff Wilpon COO

Mets on Verge of signing Chris Young

"If healthy" will be said at least twice in every article written about the tall (6'10") right-hander formerly with the Padres.

In the past 3 years, he's thrown less than 200 innings combined. He turns 32 in May.

The good: He throws 1st pitch strikes 60% of the time, and is still able to get above average swing and misses (8%). He has an above average slider. He's an extreme fly-ball pitcher (28% GB % for his career)

The Bad: After numerous injuries, he now throws between 84-86 mph. He's never thrown 180 innings in a season, and only threw 160+ 3 times (last in 2007). His career ERA at home (Petco) = 3.43. Road = 4.16.

Overall: Another low-risk signing. If you make enough of these, one them are bound to work out and you will think they were genius!

On a brighter note, Pitchers and Catchers Report in less than a month. And of course, snow is falling in the tri-state area once again today...

Mets sign a Lefty!

Welcome to Spring Training, Taylor Tankersley.

Too bad his career WHIP is 1.53 because his walk rate per 9 innings is over 5 for his career.

The Mets signed the 27 year old lefty reliever to a minor league deal after he was designated for assignment by the Marlins. He missed all of the 2009 season rehabbing from an elbow injury, and appeared in 27 games for the Marlins (12 innings) in 2010, had an ERA of 7.50, and a walk rate still over 5 (5.25 to be exact). He did pitch better in AAA earlier in the year (27 games, 26 1/3 innings, 2.7 W/9, and 3.42 ERA).

He is a two-pitch pitcher, with an 87 mph fastball, and a plus slider. However, the best part about Tankersley is his mustache. Sad, but true. Check it out here: http://thumbnails.truveo.com/0020/44/7D/447D7FAFB66E50B363D482_Large.jpg

Another low risk, but this one is probably low reward.

Is it Spring Training yet? I will be at the Mets 1st full spring training practice February 21st.

Let's Go Mets

News and Notes January 5th

Couple noteworthy items to report over the past few days; sorry for the delay.

• Chris "The Animal" Carter signed a minor league deal with the TB Rays today
• My Take: I was a big fan of Chris Carter and hoped he would re-sign with the organization, but no such luck. I know he wasn't going to be a big integral part of the Mets, but he could've been a valuable piece off the bench.
• Byleven and R Alomar were elected to the Hall of Fame
• My Take: Congrats for both of these guys, as they narrowly missed last year. I don't understand why Larkin didn't make the Hall since he is very similar to Alomar. Check out this post if you don't believe me. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/if-alomar-why-not-larkin/
• Mets signed two pitchers coming off injuries. RHP Taylor Buchholz and LHP C Capuano.
• My Take on Buchholz: He has had some success in the bullpen, and he throws a fastball, curveball and change-up. His fastball velocity was 92 mph before surgery, and only 89 mph last year. For $600,000 it's not a huge risk, but coupling that with the release of Igarashi, who was slated to make 1.5 million, this bullpen slot is costing the Mets 2 million dollars. Way too much in my opinion for a team that is a .500 team.
• My Take on Capuano: He has an 87 mph fastball, a below-average slider, and a decent change-up. He has a 4.35 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. His contract is a base of 1.5 million, and incentive-laden that could increase the salary to 4.5 million. Some whispers were quoting his numbers vs Utley and Howard and their poor BAA. That was on a sample size less than 20 at bats = MEANINGLESS. 
• Overall, not terrible signings, but nothing that is going to change anything major in the overall scheme of things. They are both one-year contracts so it's low risk, but I am disappointed to designate Igarashi. He was highly touted last year, and although he was disappointing, there is no reason to eat his contract.

I don't think I missed anything, but if I did, send it in and I will post my opinion.

Let's Go Mets, and hope for no snow this weekend!

Hall of Faming Voting

As you guys know, I am a member of the BBA (Baseball Bloggers Alliance), and we vote for all the major awards. The latest vote was for the Hall of Fame. Below is the press release from the BBA, and for full disclosure, I voted for R Alomar and B Larkin. I was tempted to vote for Bagwell because of the connection to Skip (Dan Gooley), but I will vote for him next year most likely. Who would you vote or?

BBA RECOMMENDS ALOMAR, BLYLEVEN FOR HALL OF FAME

Second baseman Roberto Alomar and starting pitcher Bert Blyleven were named today as the recommended 2011 Hall of Fame class by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

Alomar, who is on the ballot for his second year, and Blyleven, looking at his fourteenth time, both finished just shy of the BBA's recommendation in 2010 at just a fraction under the 75% threshold.  As was the case last year, both Alomar and Blyleven received the same amount of votes from the BBA membership in 2010, but this time it was enough to push them into the recommended status.

Both players received 117 votes out of the 154 ballots cast, resulting in a 75.97% approval rate.  Again echoing the vote taken at the end of 2009, shortstop Barry Larkin was the third man in the balloting, missing selection by being named on just 70.78% of the ballots.

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance's vote has no impact on the official vote taken by the Baseball Writers of America and the members of the Hall of Fame.  However, the BBA has been often a predictor of awards granted by the writers, matching their selection in fourteen of the sixteen major awards in the last two postseasons combined.

The final voting results are as follows:

Roberto Alomar, 75.97%

Bert Blyleven, 75.97%

Barry Larkin, 70.78%

Jeff Bagwell, 62.34%

Edgar Martinez, 59.09%

Tim Raines, 54.55%

Mark McGwire, 44.16%

Lee Smith, 38.96%

Alan Trammell, 35.71%

Don Mattingly, 33.12%

Larry Walker, 31.17%

Fred McGriff, 27.27%

Jack Morris, 25.97%

Rafael Palmerio, 20.78%

Dale Murphy, 16.23%

Dave Parker, 12.34%

Harold Baines, 10.39%

Kevin Brown, 9.09%

John Franco, 7.14%

Tino Martinez, 5.19%

John Olerud, 5.19%

Al Leiter, 4.55%

Bret Boone, 3.90%

Juan Gonzalez, 3.90%

Marquis Grissom, 2.60%

Benito Santiago, 1.30%

Bobby Higginson, 0.65%

Charles Johnson, 0.65%

Kirk Rueter, 0.65%

Carlos Baerga, 0.00%

Raul Mondesi, 0.00%

BJ Surhoff, 0.00%

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was established in the fall of 2009 for the purpose of fostering collaboration and communication among bloggers from across baseball.  The BBA has quickly grown to its current membership of 256 blogs, including some of the most prominent blogs on the internet, spanning all major league teams and various other general aspects of the game.

More information about the BBA can be found at their website, www.baseballbloggersalliance.com, or by contacting the founder and administrator of the organization, Daniel Shoptaw, at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.