The Cleveland Indians added to 40-man roster: RHP Anthony Reyes… the Colorado Rockies signed RHP Tim Redding… the New York Mets outrighted Arturo Lopez to AAA and removed him from the 40-man… the San Francisco Giants signed RHP Byung-Hyun Kim and RHP Guillermo Mota.- link
Signed: 2B Rylan Sandoval (NDFA—Long Beach State)
Drafted twice out of Chabot (Calif.) JC, in '06 and '07 (including once by the Mets), Sandoval finally turned pro as a nondrafted free agent. He batted .245 in two years with the Dirtbags and had most recently been scouted in the Arizona Winter League, an instructional outfit run by the independent Golden Baseball League. - link
So apparently Jerry Manuel is having a major bromance with Jenrry Mejia. Apparently he’s gone on record that he wouldn’t object to having Mejia make the club this Spring perhaps as a setup man. Yeah well not so much. They were more like fantasies as he admitted in a press conference.
According to John Harper of the New York Daily News, our man Jerry is certainly channeling his inner Jennifer Aniston with this love affair. The title of Harper’s article is “Jerry Manuel must stop teasing New York Mets fans with prospect of Jenrry Mejia”. Manuel has gone on record touting Mejia’s “explosive” stuff. Even so far as to compare his cutter with the greatest of all closers, Mariano Rivera. Ok calm down Jerry. I’m sure the kid’s got a live arm and maybe his cutter IS that good but is it really Mariano Rivera good? I’ll hold my judgment on that one for now - link
Born 10/27/1986 (23 years old) - LHP, NYM - A wiry left-hander with a deadly curve, Jon Niese is a dark-horse pitching prospect who has a shot at the Mets rotation in 2009. A graduate of the same high school as Chad Billingsley, Niese looked strong in AA last year, but was shellacked when he dipped his toes into the majors. Still, he has the maturity and guile to recover quickly. Niese features a nice fastball and a heavy sinker, but he needs another year, really, to refine his other pitches. If the Mets can be patient enough to let him develop a bit more, he might be a front-of-rotation starter, though they may be tempted to plug him into the bullpen or back-end immediately instead. - link
The early money is on Rod Barajas to be the number 1 and Henry Blanco to back him up, with Blanco maybe getting the nod against lefty starters because of his superior split OPS. Nelson Figueroa and Fernando Nieve are the favorites for those last two pitcher spots – although they could just sign Figueroa for the minor leagues as they have done the last two years.
Backup corner infield is probably the most interesting battle in camp, so we’ll spend a whole post or ten talking about Mike Jacobs and Fernando Tatis who are battling for that spot. If the 25th man is not a pitcher, the loser of that battle will jump into the fray with Chris Carter, Fernando Martinez, speedster Jason Pridie, and good old Nick Evans. This isn’t a bad group of players to watch and discuss in the coming weeks.
If the 25th man is a pitcher, you’re looking at someone out of the group that’s in camp: lefties Ken Takahashi and Jay Marshall and righties Pat Misch, Tobi Stoner, Eddie Kunz make up that group. We’ll keep an eye on this group, because some of the younger guys used to have promise, but it’s not a very scintillating collection of arms. Given all the injuries the Mets’ position players had last year, the bet is that someone like Carter or Tatis takes that final spot. And it’s starting to look like Winter League MVP F-Mart will play every day in AAA to start 2010, isn’t it? Once Beltran returns, three reserve outfielders is a bit much. - link
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