Francesa: Perez and Castillo won’t be on Opening Day roster

And @Swirlywand sends along this quote, too: “I can't make any promises, but my sources say those two will not be back.”

Sometimes, Francesa’s “sources” are spot on. Other times, they’re way off. So take this with a grain of salt.

Is this just a safe-bet guess, or what? What do you think?

I’ll revisit this at the beginning of April, don’t worry.

Best news of the off-season

According to Adam Rubin, the Mets are set to sign Willie Harris to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training.

Win-Win: Adds a decent player – and likely 4th outfielder. Also subtracts him from making any more game-saving, spectacular, fantastic, helmet-breaking plays.

I’ve been campaigning for this for years.

Off-Season Game Chat

I figured it’s about time to get the gang back together for an off-season game chat. Come and join us as a first timer, or as a regular, come on in to rejoin the fun.

[Chat removed. Thanks for talking!]

Mets sign Taylor Tankersley

Taylor Tankersley signed a minor-league deal with the Mets on Tuesday, with an invite to spring training.

Tankersley, a lefty, missed all of 2009 due to a stress fracture in his left elbow. His ‘10 season, a mere 12 innings, was less than stellar. He allowed 12 hits, four of them for home runs. And for those that like to see ERA: 7.50.

If used as a lefty-specialist, Tankersley could be pretty good, if you take a look at his splits on Baseball-Reference. Essentially the new Pedro Feliciano, if he’s healthy.

Also, he has great facial hair.

All in all, I’m happy with this signing.

What do you think of the Mets inking Tankersley?

Where I explain my absences from posting

Wondering why I haven’t been posting as much as usual lately, here’s why…

I work at Main Street Connect, a startup company based out of Norwalk, Conn. We provide quality community (hyperlocal, if you’re a fan of that term) news websites. We’re young - just over a year-old in terms of the company, but some sites have only been around for a few months - and we’re already making a strong foothold for ourselves in our ten towns in Connecticut.

But we’re expanding. Right now, we’re preparing to move into new counties, new states, new regions. It’s exciting stuff for me, for the rest of the communications team, for the company.

If you want to know more about us, visit our corporate website here. (And if you’re a Wikipedia wonk, please take a moment to update our Wiki page - some of the stuff is a bit outdated (Like that we used to be in a franchising-model).)

You may have heard of our main competitor, Patch. An AOL-owned company, they’ve been setting up sites around the nation. They have us beat in terms of number of sites, but we think out editorial product, business model and connection to the community is supreme.

Take a look at the people on our management team - including a 30-year Newsweek contributor, former managing editor of Forbes.com, former senior VP at SmartReply, and many, many other brilliant and talented people. Oh, and stop by our Board of Directors page while you’re at it. You might recognize a name or two.

In short, stay tuned. I’m writing this so that you smart people out there might put us on your radar, because we’ll be making some big moves in the next few months.

If you need to reach me at any time, email my personal account here or my work account here. I’d love to hear from you for suggestions, advice or encouragement. If you think we can work together, let me know. Think you have a brilliant addition to our model, shoot me an email.

Oh, and follow me on Twitter here.

Come along for the ride. It should be fun. (I’ve always wanted to write that, and mean it)

/end shameless plug.

Back to your regularly scheduled Mets programming.

Is MSM unhappy with Sandy Alderson?

Does anyone else read a bit of distaste in this tweet? Like Rubin (and likely the rest of mainstream media) is a but upset with Sandy Alderson’s transparency through email (and even social media and webcasts)?

The Mets online push to connect isn’t perfect, but it’s giving the team the ability to leapfrog normal media, and speak without a filter to with fans – and that is probably not sitting very well with MSM.

It’s both the best and worst of social media. The team can speak directly to fans without being checked by MSM’s research, fact-checking and eventually, opinions and columns.

What do you think about the Mets
social media push and how they circumvent MSM?

Mets ink Capuano, Bucholz; DFA Igarashi

SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt is reporting that the Mets have inked Chris Capuano and Taylor (not Tyler) Bucholz to one-year deals, respectively.

They’ve also designated Ryota Igarashi for assignment.

Capuano is about all that’s left in this free agent market, and will be serviceable at best. He’s another arm to bridge the gap until 2012. Bucholz tossed all of 12 innings last year for Colorado and Toronto.

I’ll miss Iggy, if only because my fantasy baseball team name of Ryota’s Toyotas.

Thoughts?

Mets fans don’t seem pleased with Dan Warthen

I think Mets.com hit a sore subject.

Click here for full size fun.

#FireSandyAlderson

Look at this Twitter search: #FireSandyAlderson

There are people out there, claiming to be Mets fans, who are already calling for Sandy Alderson’s firing. I’m sorry, what?

Oct. 29, 2010 was two months ago. Two. Months. That’s how long Alderson has been at the helm of the Mets.

Since then, the Mets added J.P. Ricciardi and Paul DePodesta to the front office. They hired Terry Collins to manage the team. They cut dead weight by not offering arbitration to certain players – I’m looking at you, John Maine. They added cheap players in Ronny Paulino and D.J. Carrasco.

The team doesn’t have much money to spend to begin with. If you have half a brain, 2011 is a lost year. Yet, there are “fans” out there who want to #FireSandyAlderon.

Riddle me confused. Why? How? On what grounds?

What things would you have wanted to do differently? What other moves were there to make? Are they upset the Mets didn’t sign Cliff Lee? No one expected that anyway.

Greg Pomes and MetsFanMurph, I’m calling you out. Give me your list of things Alderson has done wrong, the things you would have done differently. I want to know your reasoning, as ridiculous as it might be. Did you want Lee? Did you want to trade the farm for another team’s star player?

Please, let me and other fans know why you want to #FireSandyAlderson.

We’re waiting.

Happy Birthday, Ray Knight

Happy 58th birthday, Ray.