Bay physical today

[Frayed Knot]

Breaths are being held all over NYC ... or maybe not, what do I know



From Mike Puma* of the NY Post

Jason Bay could officially become a Met today.
The free-agent outfielder is expected to be in Manhattan today for a full physical, the last step before his deal can become official.
There is some concern on the Mets' part about Bay's knees and shoulders, which will be a point of emphasis during today's examination. The Mets have refused to acknowledge the deal with Bay partly because they fear a public relations fiasco should he fail the physical.

If Bay passes his physical, it's likely he'll be introduced to the media tomorrow at Citi Field. It will leave GM Omar Minaya to address holes at catcher and within the starting rotation.
Minaya is still trying to strike a deal with free-agent catcher Bengie Molina and has turned attention in recent days to a starting pitching pool that includes Ben Sheets, Joel Pineiro and Jon Garland.




* I think he's the guy who replaced Ken Adidas ... rumor has it that they wanted to get the converse side of the story

[Guest Edgy DC]

If I was going to be swinging hirsute seventies bachelor, you know Mike Puma would be my handle.

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Grimm with the music reference.

[Benjamin Grimm]

There must be a blue moon.

[MFS62]

Good goin', Ben.
I could look at that hyphenated honey all day.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

The guy on the right (in the white t-shirt) seems to agree with you.

[MFS62]

BTW - I heard on one of the NY sports radio stations (don't remember which) that Bay passed his physical and there's a press conference to announce the signing tomorrow morning.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

SNY is reporting that the press conference introducing Bay will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow, and will be televised live.

[Guest attgig]

mets docs to Bay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFuZ6LPDYQc

Bay follows.

mets docs to Omar: he's good to go!

[ashie62]

If Bay has all his fingers and toes he is signed

[Benjamin Grimm]

Uniform number 44.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Mets have a retired hockey player speaking at the press conference.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He's two times Bobby Orr.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Jason Bay is an honorary New York Ranger.

I guess you have to do stuff like this when you sign a Canadian.

[bmfc1]

Not just any "retired hockey player", that's Rod Gilbert!

When Jason, Omar, and Jeff Wilpon were posing, the guy giving directions told them to look "right field" "dead center" "first base."

Edited January 5, 2010 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

Never heard of him.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He's the hockey-playing spawn of Rod Roddy and Johnny Gilbert. Come on down!

[Guest themetfairy]

He doesn't seem to be pining for Beirut. I'll take that as a good sign.

[bmfc1]

http://nyrangerslegends.blogspot.com/2006/07/rod-gilbert.html

He's in the Hockey HOF.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Clearly I know nothing about hockey.

[Benjamin Grimm]

What's the deal on Jeff Wilpon's hair?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm going to write a book about Jeff Wilpon's hair.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Tough dude. Played through life-threatening two back fusion surgeries, and kicked general ass to the tune of 400-plus goals and a buttload of assists. (Jhil-bear, not Weel-ponn.)

Quick-- someone get those lazy Latin malingerers in the room so that his froggy-Canuck toughness rubs off on them!

[smg58]

The basics of the deal (according to AP) are apparently these:

This year: $8.5M signing bonus, plus $6.5M salary
the next three years: $16M
2014: $17M or $3M buyout

The signing bonus is prorated for the purposes of evaluating the luxury tax threshold, but Bay is getting $15M from the Mets this year. So the reports of a heavily backloaded contract were greatly exaggerated. The option vests with 600 PA in 2013 or 500 PA in both 2012 and 2013.

[MFS62]

Quick-- someone get those lazy Latin malingerers in the room so that his froggy-Canuck toughness rubs off on them![/quote:3r2snv8c]
Speaking of frogs (and I don't think we had a college bowl thread this year) the horned frogs of TCU croaked last night. We now return this thread back to Jeff Wilpon's hair and other more baseball related things.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Did anyone else see the kid vomit in his helmet on the sidelines last night?

Oh, and apparently (thanks, AA) Newsday's Jim Baumbach is Tweeting pictures of CitiField renovations, pre- and post-conference, namely stairwell paint jobs and bullpen re-making (presumably to give both teams a view?).

(No sign of a HOF as yet.)

[Frayed Knot]

Looks like the Mets apparently decided that 'Canada' is the theme of today's signing so they invited the most famous local Canadian they could find as guest celeb. It was probably came down to either Gilbert or Paul Schaefer and old Rod at least has a sports connection while Paul doesn't and probably isn't awake early enough to boot.
That Gilbert is a French Canadian from the eastern part of the country and Bay an anglophone from British Columbia probably never occurred to them. Besides, they all look alike anyway.

[Frayed Knot]

The signing bonus is prorated for the purposes of evaluating the luxury tax threshold, but Bay is getting $15M from the Mets this year. So the reports of a heavily backloaded contract were greatly exaggerated. The option vests with 600 PA in 2013 or 500 PA in both 2012 and 2013.

I don't think the bonus has anything to do with the luxury tax. IIRC the lux tax is calculated on a straight per/year average and was set that way specifically so clubs can't cook the books to weasel out of it. There may be some income tax considerations (Bay's or the club's) in why they did things that way.

That option is certainly reachable. Basically it requires that he stays healthy although not necessarily healthy and productive.
Be nice if they could avoid a Magglio Ordonez situation in 2014, but I'm not going to start worrying about that now.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Yeah, you beat me to the AAV punch, FK.

Looks like the Mets apparently decided that 'Canada' is the theme of today's signing so they invited the most famous local Canadian they could find as guest celeb.[/quote:2of4h41a]

And yet, no "Shack Poutine." For shame.

Also, Lorne Michaels and aboot half of the funny people on the eastern seaboard are thinking very naughty things about you under their excessively-polite exteriors.