Here's a nice story for your Thanksgiving weekend

As we all work off the turkey and mashed potatoes, we should all try to remember what the holiday is all about.

Fernando Tatis came back to baseball for two reasons: 1. For the fun of the game and 2. To build a church.

Well after a spectacular comeback year, and fresh off a new contract with the New York Mets, Tatis put up the church in San Pedro de Macoris. Kevin Kernan has the story in the New York Post.

This was the Jerusalem First Church, a church Tatis quietly helped build, the church that inspired his amazing comeback.

"I don't have the words to explain it, it's unbelievable," Tatis said of his 2008 season and the new church that opened its doors last spring.

"I think it's a miracle."

Great story.

Tatis will likely split time with Daniel Murphy in left field next season, and hopefully they can put up some fine numbers at the plate. They'll struggle in the field, but combined they might be able to rake at the plate.

Good for Tatis. He really proved me wrong. I was against the signing and against his promotion, but he shined all season.

Mets Rumor Rundown: K-Rod to wait until after winter meetings

Patience is a virtue. Hopefully Mets fans are able to wait it out, if their holiday wish is Francisco Rodriguez.

K-Rod's agent, Paul Kinzer, has announced that his client will wait until after the Dec. 8-11 meetings to sign on the dotted line with whichever team suits him most.

Since K-Rod is waiting, it might be in the Mets best interest to try and sign a setup guy or compile a few arms in the bullpen between now and then. A strong bullpen must be one of the aspects the player (and his agent) look at, besides the $$ signs.

If I was a player, and Team A was offering me $10 million a year and Team B was offering $9 million a year, but Team B had a better bullpen, it's pretty much a no-brainer I'm signing with the latter.

The Mets could also make a move for Brian Fuentes in this time, either to land him as the closer, or make a play to drive down K-Rod's asking price.

Should be interesting to watch play out. At least we know we have another two weeks of K-Rod rumors, at the very least.

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a good one.

Enjoy your tryptophan-enduced sleep. I know I will.

Baby steps

Though this offseason seems to be moving as slow as molasses, thing are guaranteed to pick up soon as the Winter Meetings approach.

The Mets are taking their first steps toward a free agency signing, as they are planning to meet with the agents of Brian Fuentes and Francisco Rodriguez in the coming days. No money or years have been offered yet, but rumors have it that the Mets might be willing to dish out a four-year deal to land the closer they desire.

According to the running poll on the right, Mets fans are favoring Rodriguez by a nose, over Fuentes, Kerry Wood and Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Jenks. Two votes were notched for "Other," likely Huston Street, who the Mets could have had.

I believe the CC Sabathia sweepstakes is the hitch between most teams and the free agents their pursuing. Whatever Sabathia signs for, agents around the league will compare that to the possible offers and use that as a jumping off point.

Keep on waiting, because it doesn't seem like anything is going to happen anytime soon. Eventually, deal will get done, but we'll probably be waiting until December for that to happen.

Somehow, this Citigroup thing is the Mets fault

Only Wallace Matthews could place blame on the Mets for the economic downturn.

In his latest column, Matthews writes:

The Mets should be embarrassed to emblazon their new park with the name of an outfit whose players performed even worse than the team did last year. They should be ashamed of using your money to advertise their (worthless) services. If they had any ethics, they would cancel the deal now and start looking for a sponsor that can actually pay its own bills.

But they don't, and they won't.

Right. Because it's the Mets fault Citigroup is laying off 52,000 and just got a check from the US gov't.

The Mets should just say, "You know what, take your $400 million, I'm sure with this economy, companies will be lining up around the corner!"

You're crazy, Matthews. If a team turned down $400 million right now, they'd be insane. This isn't the Mets fault, and don't try to pin it on them. Citigroup screwed up, and was lucky enough to get our money to save their butts. As I said yesterday, think of it as one giant commercial. They can do whatever they want with their commercials, why should we be able to say what they do with their naming rights.

Downright silly.

Mets could have had Street from Colorado for Heilman and Feliciano

According to Joel Sherman, the Mets contacted the Colorado Rockies after they acquired Huston Street. The Mets offered Aaron Heilman, but the Rockies wanted Pedro Feliciano included as well, and the Mets walked away.

Going by this, the Rockies need a left handed pitcher. Why not offer Heilman and Scott Schoeneweis? He's under contract and a lefty that they need. They'll dump Street, and keep Manny Corpas as their closer, and everyone is happy.

If somehow, they can include Luis Castillo in this deal, and get a bag of balls in return, that would be a miracle.

The Rockies are likely still listening to offers on Street, so hopefully Omar Minaya is racking up the phone bill with calls to Denver. If he can land Street and rid the team of Heilman and maybe Schoeneweis or Castillo (or both!) then I, and many other Mets fans, will be very happy. Street might not be the best option for closer, but he's damn well better than anything the team currently has.

If the No. 1 scapegoat for the last two seasons is off the team in the process of bringing in a young closer, then Minaya will have earned his extension in my eyes. At least until the next deal.

Citigroup and their naming rights

So far, this off-season is pretty boring.

The most exciting thing going on in Mets land right now is whether or not Citigroup should retain the naming rights to Citi Field after getting bailed out by the US government. Remember when baseball was an escape from everyday life, where you could focus on nothing but the game and the players and their passion for the game? Yeah, I can barely remember it either.

Citigroup is rumored to be laying off 52,000 employees, but will keep the $400 million deal to brandish their name on the Mets new ballpark, with American taxpayers money. Now, to them, it's just an advertisement. If they went about buying $200 million worth of commercials and billboards, no one would even bat an eye, but because it's naming rights to a stadium, people seem to be in an uproar.

I understand it's "America's money," but if you think about it in terms of commercials, we (American taxpayers) would have no say in how their commercials would look, sound or say. As frustrating and bizarre this might be, Citigroup has the right to do whatever they please with the name, because thanks to the US gov't and us, they now have some money to play with -- it's their money now.

Sorry to be brash, but it's the cold, hard truth.

But, if the naming deal does fall through, I've been a proponent of having it be MetLife Field. It only makes sense.

Mets Rumor Rundown: Rafael Furcal has an offer from the Mets

A few sources are citing an article in El Caribe quoting Rafael Furcal, who says he has an offer from the Mets. He's currently leaning toward a deal with the A's, but just the fact that the Mets made an offer is fairly telling.

And this is only days after Omar Minaya said he's ready to go into 2009 with Luis Castillo as his second baseman.

Furcal has a four-year, $48 million contract offer from the A's. The LA Times writes "Furcal said he has also received a substantial offer from the New York Mets, who want him as a second baseman."

That would free up the Mets to package Aaron Heilman and Luis Castillo to Kansas City for Jose Guillen or David DeJesus. Works for me!

I still think Castillo should start packing his stuff. I don't think he'll make it to spring training with this team. I'd like Furcal, who has also had his fair share of injuries. I hope Minaya doesn't sign an older, injury prone second baseman to another long-term contract.

Mets might miss out on free agent market -- move on to trading

It seems the Mets might have to raise their bids for some of their free agent pitching targets -- namely Derek Lowe -- or will have to turn to trades to fill their needs.

John Harper has a column in today's Daily News highlighting the Mets mistaken gauging of the free agent market. With the Yankees and Red Sox both bidding for Lowe, who wants five-years, $15 million per, and the Mets don't see themselves outbidding.

Whew. Five years for a 35-year-old is silly. He's good, but not that good. But again, this is a Scott Boras client, so the demands will be high but will eventually come down.

Harper also notes the possibility of a trade with the Rays. They're looking to move Edwin Jackson, and sort of fancy Aaron Heilman. Still, that wouldn't be enough to get the trade done, and Ryan Church might have to get involved. Which would mean the Mets would likely sign Raul Ibanez.

I don't like the sound of this. I really think Church could be a main-stay in right field for a while for the Mets, as long as he doesn't run into anyone else. I'd love to ship Heilman elsewhere, especially for a starting pitcher, a young one at that.

I doubt the Mets make a big splash this off-season. I'd rather see them build with great situational and under the radar type players. Build from the ground up.

Playing for Peanuts [ep. #2]

I'll be out most of the day, so please enjoy the second episode of "Playing for Peanuts." To order a DVD of the entire series, please check out the link below.

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