Ryan Church avoids arb

The Mets and Ryan Church agreed to a one-year deal, worth $2.8 million, avoiding arbitration.

This is an $800,000 pay raise from his '08 salary.

This is a strange one for you

The Mets have made a signing. A catcher named "Roberto."

I only know this from reading The Million Dollar Arm Blog, "written" by Rinku and Danesh, the two Indian pitchers that have signed with the Pirates.

Here's what they have to say about their catcher, Roberto, and his wedding:

Dinesh and I going Wedding festival Roberto.

Roberto our catcher training. He sign contract Mets.

He very good catcher. We going his wedding in the boat. we never going boat before, but we liking this thing. Boat very big and having window to see all outside. we seeing sunset and many boats.

We wearing the formal dress. All peoples saying we looking good, but we feeling different. JB Sir giving us Jacket, button shirt, neck rope. He showing us how make knot on neck rope. Dinesh getting it good, but I not getting.

The Wedding festival in America like India little. Man and wife not ride horse or elephant in America. they walking to priest.

After marriage, big party on boat. many foods we liking. Lady bring food to people and I taking all the time. They having shrimp very good. Then many dancing.

We liking the wedding festival and we liking Roberto. We glad we going to this.

Who is this mysterious "Roberto"?

Mets sign Cory Sullivan

The Mets have signed free agent outfielder Cory Sullivan to one-year major league deal.

The contract is worth $600,000 with $300,000 more available through incentives.

I don't get this. As if the Mets needed another outfielder at the major league level. A major league deal just makes no sense to me. Hmm...maybe something is stirring?

Sullivan has played his entire career with the Rockies organization. In 355 games over four seasons, Sullivan is a career .279 batter, with a .330 OBP and .391 SLG. He's hit eight career home runs.

Defensively, though, it's a different story. Sporting a career .992 fielding percentage at all three outfield positions.

Still very odd.

More stockpiling?: Garcia to choose team this week

Freddy Garcia will be able to take the pick of the litter. While the litter only contains three teams (White Sox, Rangers and Mets), it's still a nice position to be in.

According to the Daily Herald, Garcia will make a decision sometime this week. The Mets could be looking to Garcia to compete with Tim Redding for the fifth spot in the rotation, or possibly more.

I don't care where he fits into their plans right now, they should sign him anyway. We know all too well that pitchers are going to get hurt and land of the disabled list. The more pitchers you have waiting in the wings, the better.

Jeremy Reed avoids arb

The Mets and Jeremy Reed agreed on a one-year, $925,000 contract, according to Marty Noble.

This is an increase of $520,000 from his 2008 salary.

Mets add a few to minors

According to Baseball America, the Mets have signed a few players to the minor league team.

Signed: LHP Casey Fossum, LHP Tom Martin, C Salvador Paniagua, 2B Argenis Reyes, OF Jason Cooper

Fossum and Cooper we already heard about.

Lefty Martin has been with seven teams in 11 years. He appeared in 14 games with the Mets back in 2001, registering a miserable 10.06 ERA in 17 innings.

Paniagua and Reyes are both re-signings, as they were both with the club in some capacity in 2008.

Thanks, Susi!

Mets in the World Baseball Classic

There are a ton of Mets participating in the World Baseball Classic. Here's the list:

Major League Players
Jose Reyes -- Dominican Republic
Pedro Feliciano -- Puerto Rico
Carlos Delgado -- Puerto Rico
Carlos Beltran -- Puerto Rico
J.J. Putz -- USA
David Wright -- USA
Brian Schneider -- USA
Francisco Rodriguez -- Venezuela
Johan Santana -- Venezuela

Minor League Players
Stefan Welch -- Australia
Shawn Bowman -- Canada
Angel Antonio Cuan -- Panama
Ruben Tejada -- Panama
Jesus Feliciano -- Puerto Rico

Santana still may bow out, due to either the Mets asking or his knee barking.

Duaner Sanchez avoids arb

Duaner Sanchez will make $1,687,500 in 2009, avoiding an arbitration hearing with the Mets.

This nearly doubles Sanchez's $850,000 salary from 2008.

An extensive look at Jerry Manuel's playing days

Jerry Manuel, the Mets "gangster" manager, already has a pretty large following in New York, even though he's only been at the helm for 93 games. He has a pretty decent track record as a coach, guiding the 2000 White Sox to a 95-67 record en route to the AL Central title. Unfortunately, they got bounced from the playoffs in three games, but Manuel still won Manager of the Year.

In his 93 games with the Mets, Manuel took a team that looked like they were destined for spoilers, led them to the top of the division before they faded and missed the playoffs by one game.

So we've established that Manuel is a pretty decent manager. As a player though, not so much.

Manuel started his playing career in 1972 after being selected in the first round (20th overall) by the Detroit Tigers in the amateur draft. He started his playing days at AA, with Bristol at the tender age of 18. In 67 games, Manuel hit a cool .240/.303/.395.

The next season, Manuel started at A+ ball with the Lakeland Tigers. His .252 batting average was enough to get him promoted all the way up to Toledo, the AAA affiliate. He spent the next two seasons in triple-A before getting called up to the Tigers in September of 1975.

Manuel made his debut in the major leagues on Sept. 18, against the Cleveland Indians. Batting ninth, Manuel went 0-3, striking out twice. It took four games before Manuel registered his first hit, a single, on Sept. 27 against the Montreal Expos. He ended the season going 1-18 for a .056 average. He also struggled in the field, committing two errors.

As the 1976 season began, Manuel was back at Evansville, the new triple-A affiliate, for only 11 games before rejoining the Tigers. In his first start on April 20, Manuel, batting ninth, went 1-3 with a double and a walk. His average was .250 for the season, after going 0-1 in a pinch hitting opportunity four days prior.

The next day, Manuel picked up a single, going 1-4, and driving in two runs in a win over Oakland. His average stayed at .250 for another day, but it was only downhill from there.

From April 23 through the end of May, Manuel had 23 plate appearances. He went 3-18, with two walks and four strikeouts. His batting average sunk as low as .143 over that span.

From June 1 through the rest of the season, Manuel served mainly as a 8th or 9th inning replacement. He only stepped into the batters box 17 more times, registering only one hit. He ended 1976 with splits of .140/.213/.163. As a fielder though, Manuel also struggled, making eight errors in 47 games played at second base.

When the 1977 season began, Manuel was back at triple-A. The '78 and '79 season saw him stick in Evansville, never batting above .272 for the season. On March 15, 1980, Manuel was traded to the Montreal Expos for Duffy Dyer. (Dyer played in seven season with the New York Mets, and was a member of the 1969 World Championship team. He even had an at-bat in the World Series, pinch hitting in the sixth inning of game one. He did not get on base.)

Again in 1980, Manuel started the season at the top of the minors. Now with the Denver Bears, he played a full season at triple-A before making his first appearance with the Expos on Sept. 13. He did not make it to the plate though, serving as a late inning defensive replacement. He had six at-bats in 1980, failing to get a hit in all six attempts.

In 1981, Manuel started the season with the Expos. Again serving as a late game sub, Manuel didn't get his first start of the season until April 25 against the New York Mets. He went 0-2 with two walks in the first game. He started the final two of the series, and ended up going 4-10 with two doubles, a home run (the first of his MLB career), three runs scored and four RBI's. His batting average ballooned up to .333, the highest of his major league career.

From what I can gather, Manuel suffered an injury and missed most of the season. From May 1 until Sept. 2, there is no game data for him at any level of play. An injury is the most likely cause. Manuel finished out the season, with four games against the Mets. Between two series, Manuel went 3-11 with a double, two runs scored and two RBI's.

The '81 Expos went 60-48 in 1981, good enough for second in the East Division. They made the playoffs and were set to play the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS. Manuel was the Expos starting second baseman for the series.

In five games, in which the Expos bested the Phillies 3-2, Manuel had 16 plate appearances. He went 1-14, walking twice. In the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Manuel was replaced as starting second baseman, and appeared in only the fifth game, as a pinch runner in the ninth inning. Manuel pinch ran for Gary Carter, who walked with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning with his team down by one. Manuel was moved over to second as Larry Parish walked behind him, but made it no further as Bob Welch entered for the Dodgers and got Jerry White to ground out to end the threat and the Expos' season.

Manuel started the '82 season back at triple-A with the Expos organization. On May 22, 1982, Manuel was traded to the San Diego Padres for Kim Seaman. (Seaman was drafted by the Mets in 1976. He also made his debut against the Mets, throwing two shutout innings on Sept. 28, 1979 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.)

Manuel was brought right up to the Padres, playing in his first game on May 24 with his new club. It was a short run, as he went 1-5 with a triple (the only of his career), walk and RBI in only two games.

On June 8, 1982, Manuel was traded back to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later. (That player was eventually Mike Griffin.) He played the remainder of the season with the Wichita Aeros, the new triple-A affiliate of the Expos.

On Feb. 7, 1983, Manuel became a member of the Chicago Cubs organization, as he was traded for Butch Benton. (Another tie to the Mets, as Benton was the sixth overall pick in the 1975 draft by the Mets. He appeared in only 14 games, picking up only three hits, before he was traded to the Cubs in 1981 as part of a conditional deal.)

1983 saw Manuel play with the Iowa Cubs, hitting .265 in 85 games.

In 1984, at the age of 30, Manuel played with the Denver Zephyrs, the Chicago White Sox affiliate. This was hit best statistical season as a batter, as he finished .293/.358/.388 after 109 games and 335 at-bats. At this point of his career, his glove had started to slip, and he made 18 errors between second base and shortstop.

There are no statistics for 1985, and this article in The Baltimore Sun claims he ended his playing career in 1984. But, according to the website The Baseball Cube, Manuel played 22 games with the Indianapolis Indians, the newest triple-A affiliate of the Montreal Expos. In 41 at-bats, he hit .390, with two doubles, a triple and nine RBI's.

His major league career spanned five different seasons and three teams. After 127 at-bats through 96 games, Manuel finished with a .150 batting average. His career splits are .150/.214/.283. He has a career .951 fielding percentage. He hit three home runs, drove in 13 runs and swiped one base.

He had a long, tough road shuttling back and forth between the majors. He tasted "the show" and accomplished more than many other players who play the game. Though his numbers may not show it, Manuel learned the game through all his struggles, which no doubt has helped him work his way up through the ranks of coaching, currently landing him with the New York Mets organization.

I must say I am very confident in Manuel and his style of managing and can't wait to see what he can do with a full season at the helm.

Thanks to Baseball-Reference, The Baseball Cube and this site (for the photo).

Mets sign Fossum

You know what's funny: This article, with the new uniforms that I linked to previously, contained this information. I must have either been too lazy or just missed it.

Or they updated a three day old story, which is weird.

Anyway...

The Mets have signed Casey Fossum to a minor league deal.

Wogan also announced the Mets have signed veteran pitcher Casey Fossum to a minor-league deal. He was 3-1 with a 5.66 ERA last year in 31 games for the Detroit Tigers and has big-league time with Boston, Arizona and Tampa Bay.

Stockpiling has begun.