Bloomberg’s player-evaluations a match for the Mets? [Quote]

Bloomberg L.P. will be entering the player-evaluation market for baseball on Monday.  And guess who’s interested…

For Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the Mets, the value in the software will be in evaluating free agents.

“If you take X player on another team who’s around a great cast of players,” he said, “we want to look at him in our ballpark with different players around him to see how he will fit in.”

This makes me happy.

Can they have the software shipped to Indianapolis for the start of the winter meetings tomorrow?  I’ll personally install whatever needs to be installed onto Omar Minaya’s computer.

(H/T Jeremy Schilling)

How to follow and interact with The ‘Ropolitans

With the winter meetings about to kick off tomorrow, signaling one of the busiest times of the year for baseball, I thought it would be a good time for a friendly reminder about all the way to follow and interact with The ‘Ropolitans.

(Side note: Rumors-for-the-sake-of-rumors anger me.  If I post a rumor, I’ll try my best to analyze it as a hypothetical for the team.)

Site: Obviously, there is the old-fashioned way of simply clicking into your browser, typing in theropolitans.com and hitting enter.

Comments: Every post has it’s own dedicated comment section.  If you click “Join the discussion!” you will be taken to the comments.  You can log in with your IntenseDebate account, Twitter name or just your name and e-mail.

Chat: There is always a chat box in the sidebar to talk Mets, no matter what topic you’d like to discuss.

RSS: Add the blog to your favorite RSS reader (mine is Google Reader) to have the feed of The ‘Ropolitans aggregated for any new content.

Twitter: If you use Twitter, follow me here.  Not only does every post go onto my Twitter, but I also post a lot of other stuff that doesn’t make it onto the blog.  It’s a great way to converse with me and other Mets fans.  I also post Twitter polls, that I feature on the blog, so you can contribute to those.  Be warned: I post a lot on Twitter.

YouTube: I have a YouTube account where I mostly post the audio from The ‘Ropolitans Radio.  I also have videos from when I attend games and The State of the Mets videos.

Tumblr: If you tumbl (I guess that’s the verb?), you can follow The ‘Ropolitans Tumblr right here.

E-mail: If you have any tips, questions or suggestions, never hesitate to e-mail me.  TheRopolitans@gmail.com

I hope you use whatever you feel most comfortable with and continue to visit and interact with this site.  Thank you to all my readers.  This site wouldn’t be anything without you.

UPDATED: ‘They’re only interested in signing low-budget Latin players’ [Quote]

Update – 3:30 p.m.: It seems the Daily News has edited this Madden column. It now reads…

They won't spend the money for Holliday, Bay or Lackey and apparently, they're only interested in signing low-budget players, having shown little or no interest in Byrd, Figgins, DeRosa, Wolf or even Staten Island's Jason Marquis, while waiting for their markets to come to them.

Very, very interesting.

Original post: From Bill Madden in today’s Daily News…

Mets? Did somebody say the Mets? They won't spend the money for Holliday, Bay or Lackey and apparently, they're only interested in signing low-budget Latin players, having shown little or no interest in Byrd, Figgins, DeRosa, Wolf or even Staten Island's Jason Marquis, while waiting for their markets to come to them. At the same time, the Phillie sand Braves wasted no time in addressing their needs. Sad.

Emphasis mine.

I know columnists are paid to be controversial, but this is a bit much.

Also, did Madden miss the Chris Coste signing?

Mets have interest in Willingham? [Twitter]

Here’s Ladson’s article on the Mets interest in Josh Willingham.

But here’s a pull from a Ladson article from two days ago…

LF Josh Willingham: The Braves are one team that has shown interest, but it seems doubtful the Nationals will trade him. He provided the power Washington needed last year and he was an excellent clubhouse presence.

(Ed. note: Over the course of the Winter Meetings, and likely for the rest of time on this site that Twitter is a relevant means of communication (hint: a while), you’ll see more posts like these.)

‘69 Mets contribute to Habitat for Humanity [Video]

Here’s a neat little video with the 1969 Mets as they contributed to Habitat for Humanity this summer.

Enjoy on your crappy Saturday.

Omar’s plan for catchers [Image]

I just Tweeted this…

Remembering Marco Scutaro as a Met [Photo]

Here is, for all to see, a Marco Scutaro signed Mets jersey.

Sorry for the blurriness, but this was snapped inside the Mets clubhouse store back when they still played in Shea Stadium.

I figured it was appropriate since Scutaro just signed a nice little contract with the Boston Red Sox.

Santana behind Blanco signing

According to Ben Shpigel of The New York Times, Johan Santana was very active in recruiting catcher Henry Blanco to the Mets.

Blanco and Santana played on the same Minnesota Twins team in 2004. 

That season, Blanco played in 114 games for the Twins.  Blanco caught 24 of Santana’s starts.  Check out the stats in those starts here.

For the Mets, whatever Santana asks for, you give him.  And as quickly as possible.

Mets sign Henry Blanco to one-year deal [Updated]

The Mets have signed catcher Henry Blanco to a one-year, $1.5 million deal, according to Francisco Blavia of ESPN Deportes (via MetsBlog).

Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post confirms the report.

Blanco, the second catcher the Mets signed this off-season, will likely serve as the backup on the major league squad.  Chris Coste, the other catcher signed, will probably land in Triple-A.

What happens to Omir Santos now?

Sherman: Mets to tender contract to Maine

John Maine, according to Joel Sherman, will have a contract tendered to him by the New York Mets.

Maine, who pitched in only 15 games last season for the Mets, avoided arbitration last season with a one-year, $2.6 million contract.  He has struggled with shoulder injuries the past few years, pitching in 40 games in 2008 and 2009 combined. 

I like Maine and think he’s a quality pitcher, but am worried about his durability.  If this is another year where we can only count on half a season from him, is it worth the deal, no matter the price?

After ‘09, I hope it’s become apparent to the Mets organization that they need to both plan for injuries and bring in players who have had a track record of staying healthy and staying on the field.

For Maine, though, I think it’s worth the risk.  He likely won’t make more than $3 million due to his injuries and if they can keep a guy with this talent for only $1 million more than Alex Cora, I’m for it.