Mr. Posnanski comes to the defense of the great Mr. Beltran.

Wow! Where the heck did this come from?

This is a pretty harsh assessment, but a good read from a non Mets-centric point of view.

"PECOTA thinks that Carlos Delgado still has something left in the tank; I'm a bit skeptical, but PECOTA is usually pretty good about sounding the death knell on players who are losing their skills, and it clearly doesn't think that Delgado's there."

Even though you need to be an insider to read the entire blog entry, you can read the opening blurb on Griffey. Apparently he had surgery on his knee, which had prevented him from using his legs effectively. There seems to be a belief that Griffey could have a rebound year if healthy.

In the part of the blog that you can't see, Olney suggests the Mets will only be scraping of the bottom of the barrell, which would net them someone like, you guess it, Griffey.

Now, if the Mets are going to be stubborn and not pony up the cash for someone like Dunn or Manny, I wouldn't mind them bringing in Griffey to play LF, with Tatis spelling him a few days a week to keep him fresh. Then, Murphy could begin the season in AAA, where he could play 2B everyday. This way, when Castillo finds himself on the bench due to injury or ineffectiveness, Murphy can slide into 2B, and we won't be subjected to Alex Cora playing 2B on a daily basis.

Honestly, it doesn't have to be Griffey either. Just bring in someone who will be an upgrade in the corner over a Murphy/Tatis platoon. Just a thought.

He references a Dave Studemund piece in the THT '09 Annual. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but this is the reason why I have been very much against signing aging veterans (i.e. Randy Johnson.)

Pretty interesting article and then discussion on our rotation, or lack thereof.

Another case of addition by subtraction.

Yeah, not too happy to read this.

This should crystallize how huge this trade was for this team. Here is the crux of the article:

* If all games had ended after six innings this season, the Mets would have finished the year 11 games ahead of the Phillies (aka, the team that won the World Series).

* If all games had ended after seven innings, the Mets would have finished six games ahead of the Phillies.

* And if all games had even been just eight innings long instead of nine, the Mets would have finished five games ahead of the Phillies.