2/22/11: Mets Links

Spring Training is oficially upon us and I couldn't be any happier as a Mets fan right now. Here is the latest Mets information on the web!

First off, you can follow my writings and discuss all things Mets with me and other NYM fans on Twitter or Facebook!

Matt Cerrone is down in Port St Lucie taking pictures, videos, and getting a feel for Terry Collins way of running camp. Matt goes into great detail on Metsblog everyday and is doing a great job keeping up with all the happenings of Spring Traing 2011. Click Here to see the latest!

Omar Minaya and the recently traded NBA Forward Danillo Gallinari are friends and Danillo apparently reached out to Minaya when he was traded just yesterday.

The NYM Top Prospects are arriving to spring training, including SP Matt Harvey and SS Wilmer Flores.

R.A. Dickey is working on a slower version of his knuckleball and the new pitch is reported to be as slow as 50 MPH! Last year he the knuckler was around 70-80 MPH, if he can make that 50-80, he will make the hitters job that much harder and he will most likely improve upon his stats of last year.

Mike Pelfrey is trying to re-discover his sinker that produced many ground balls from 2007-2009. He completely abandoned the pitch last year in spring training in favor of a split finger fastball, which caught hitters off early last season.

Willie Harris and Scott Hariston are both Met killers on the defensive side of the ball. Fortunately, they are now part of the Mets and hopefully they still have some magic left in their gloves.

Finally, here is a video from SNY featuring Matt Cerrone as he documents his stalking of Mets manager, Terry Collins. Enjoy!

Image: The New Moneyball Mets

These are the types of players that Sandy, Paul, and J.P. Riccardi love to swipe off of the free agent market. Lets not forget Ronny Paulino, Tim Byrdak, Taylor Tankersly, Taylor Buchholz, and Willie Harris. With the resources that the Moneyballers have had, I am extremely pleased so far with what has been put together to be called the Mets in 2011. I am by no means saying all of these players will have great seasons, but I do not think I am stepping out on a weak limb when I say that the New York Mets will surprise alot of people this year because of the low risk/ high reward signings of this past offseason.

Mets Spring Training Preview 2011

The Following Lists are the players who will be attending Spring Training with the Mets in 2011. The first 25 players listed are my favorites to make the club out of spring training. This team will be able to compete if and when healthy because there is talent on this team, it just has not had the health part on its side since 2006..

(8) Lineup

SS Jose Reyes
CF Angel Pagan
3B David Wright
RF Carlos Beltran
LF Jason Bay
1B Ike Davis
2B Daniel Murphy
 C Josh Thole

(5) Rotation

SP Mike Pelfrey
SP R. A. Dickey
SP Jon Niese
SP Chris Young
SP Chris Capuano

(6) Bench

INF Brad Emaus
C/1B Ronny Paulino
4th OF Scott Harriston
INF Ching-lung Hu
PH/1B Nick Evans

(7) Bullpen

CL Fransisco Rodriguez
SU Bobby Parnell
SU Taylor Buchholz
MR D.J. Carrasco
MR Manny Acosta
LR Taylor Tankersley
LR Pedro Beato

Those are my favorites to win opening day jobs with the Mets. Below, I created a list of all the other players in camp who are trying their hardest to win a job on the NYM Roster.. Here it goes..

Minor League Position Players

C Mike Nickeas
2B Justin Turner
2B/SS Reuben Tejada
2B/SS Jordany Valdespin
INF Luis Hernandez
1B/3B Zach Lutz
OF Fernando Martinez
OF Lucas Duda

Position Player Non-Roster Invites

INF Russ Adams
OF Willie Harris
 C Dusty Ryan
 C Raul Chavez

Minor League Pitchers

RHP Manuel Alvarez
RHP Dillon Gee
RHP Jennry Mejia
LHP Pat Misch
RHP Armando Rodriguez
RHP Josh Stinson

Pitching Non-Roster Invites

RHP Blaine Boyer
LHP Tim Byrdak
LHP Michael O'Conner
RHP Ryota Igarashi
LHP Taylor Tankersly
RHP Boof Bonser

Release Me Already

LHP Oliver Perez


The Mets have alot of interesting pieces in camp this year. From new pitchers, Chris Young and Chris Capuano to the Non-Roster Invites of Willie Harris to Taylor Tankersly, Sandy Alderson has put some pieces in place and in one week, we will begin to see what the 2011 NYM team will look like. Spring time is one of my favorite times of the year, and when the sun starts getting warmer and the days get longer, it only brings optimism of a splendid 2011 basball season for my favorite team, The New York Mets.

Heres to a competitive, fun, and entertaining season in 2011!

Web Spotlight: Comeback Player 2011

Today, I stumbled across a poll at MLB Depth Charts and found it very interesting. The whole idea about the poll was to take a look at who might become the MLB Comeback player of the year in 2011. 4 NYM players were listed and here is what they had to say...

The key with these four players is keeping them healthy, I cannot stress this enough. The Mets will contend in 2011 if these four players play like we know they can. I think Bay, Beltran, and Young all have an equal chance of staying healthy this year, with Capuano rounding out the group with a chance to prove himself this spring training. I know that we cannot count on all of these players being healthy, but Terry Collins is lighting a fire under the players asses and whomever is on the field will play like a real ballplayer should.. That is what it will take to make the Mets a winning team again.

Video: Madoff Screwed the Wilpons

Let me start this by saying, I do not like Steve Phillips and never will, but in this video, he sheds alot of light on the Wilpons situation with the Madoff scam. Simply put, the Wilpons got screwed, but just like Mack at Macks Mets said, I do not care who owns the team, all I care about is how the team performs on the field. Sandy Alderson is the man for the job and I believe The NYM and the Wilpons will put this behind them in the near future after part of the team is sold to an unknown investor.