Benjamin Grimm

Interesting. I wonder how that $43,734,000 (geez that's a lot of money) breaks down? What was Putz's salary? That probably amounts to a decent chunk of it, since he missed most of the season.

I saw that when I was paging through the print edition this morning. I gagged, and then continued turning the pages.

Well, he doesn't have to be the Edgardo Alfonzo of 1999. He just has to be better than Alex Cora, or, more accurately, the best guy the Mets could get to replace Alex Cora. A much simpler task, but it may very well be beyond him. I do hope he gets the chance to find out.

Eleven more days until the day we've been anticipating/dreading/indifferent to.

Well, the Target logo would have been off-limits, just like the Citi logo was.

Hopefully he'll make it through the week without getting fired.

Yeah, he clearly wants to play. He's not looking for a ceremonial retirement. Sure, invite him. Why not? Sometimes players to parlay these things into a return to productivity. (Didn't Fernando Tatis do the same?) If he plays his way onto the team, great, and if not, then the Mets did a favor for a good guy, a loyal alumnus, and a fan favorite. Who knows? Fonzie may turn out to be that three-decade Met that we've all been craving.

I wouldn't pay anything unless it was sterilized first.

I agree with what he said about stability in Venezuela. Just because it has nothing to do with your argument doesn't mean I don't agree with him.

I agree that the Mets shouldn't be concerned with instability in Venezuela. But yes, I would pull them now. I'd feel a sense of responsibility for them, and I wouldn't trust a bunch of 20-year-olds, who are at an age when they may think they're invulnerable, to be an accurate judge of their safety.

I'm with Namor on this one.

Yeah, this is pretty bad inking. It is possible to tell good inking from bad inking. The easiest way is to compare works by the same penciler with different inkers. When I was first reading comics I couldn't understand how Rich Buckler's art could look so good one issue, and so terrible in another issue. Then it clicked: He looked good when inked by Joe Sinnott, and terrible when inked by Chic Stone. A guy like Sinnott didn't just trace over the pencils, he used his own artistic skills to enhance what the pencil artist put on the page. He was so good that a lot of pencilers took shortcuts when Sinnott was inking; they'd just do rough breakdowns knowing that Sinnott would be able to bring the breakdowns to life. (And if Sinnott had to bail on a particular issue for any reason, the job down by the fill-in guy was noticeably inferior. Joe Sinnott had a very high VORP.) And if you look at anything inked by Tom Palmer, especially when he worked with Gene Colon, you can see what a master he was. His inks really lent mood to the artwork. What he did on Tomb of Dracula was incredible. This Mets comic, by the way, is absolutely wretched. It seems like it was written by a ten-year-old for the entertainment of five-year-olds.

BLACKED OUT! DirecTV blocked it! The show is "unavailable in my area." WTF?

I'd bring them all home. (Except those who already live in Latin America.) I know you like to be argumentative, and I know that no place is entirely safe, but wouldn't you rather be in Florida than Venezuela? Wouldn't you be more worried if someone you cared about was in Venezuela than if they were in Arizona or Puerto Rico? I know I would be.

Yeah, when I posted the above, I hadn't read Heyman's actual words, just a blurb (on Google News) referencing his article. It does seem now that this is more Heyman's thought rather than any discussion that's actually taking place.

Apparently Jon Heyman is saying that the Mets might trade Castillo to the Dodgers for Juan Pierre.

I'd rather have someone take Oliver's contract so the money can be reinvested for 2010. But I really doubt Perez is going anywhere. Hopefully his 2010 will be a good one.

Googling around, it looks like the Cubs may really be targeting Castillo. (It's hard to know for sure; it may be that the numerous mentions all stem from the one Phil Rogers article.) I'd give them Castillo for free if they'd also take Oliver Perez.

I imagine the plan would be to fill the void at second by signing Orlando Hudson. (Don't know what the fallback would be, however, if Hudson opts to go elsewhere.) As you say, trading for a part-time left-handed hitting first baseman doesn't seem to make sense, unless the plan is to flip either the new guy or Murphy for someone else.

No, we do see the exclamation point. I just thought that it was kind of distracting. But if it's only distracting the few, and not the many, then I guess it's less bad. But if we use my suggestion, then you don't have to be an admin to administer the bullets of cool. Anyone can search for the "BULLET OF COOL" text.

When this thread was first opened, I did a search on the keyword "bullet" to see whose posts had been "nominated" by others. Only two came up, and both of them were nominations for posts that I had made, so I decided not to do anything with that info. But maybe all we need to do is, when anyone sees anything "cool", quote the comment and put "BULLET OF COOL" under the quote. At the close of the month, the search feature can expose these nominations.

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune (I have no idea how credible he may be; his last name alone may be reason to doubt him) says that Luis Castillo may be a Cub as soon as... today!

I also voted for Lackey.

Just going by recent rumors and discussions, here are some players the Mets may import this offseason. Of those listed below, which is the acquisition you'd most like to see?