CUTNPASTE: - Luis Castillo, Adam Dunn, Angel Pagan, John Ricco... and Jason Bay

Luis Castillo:



link  - Luis Castillo’s gut feeling is the Mets will finally unload him this offseason. The forgotten second baseman told The Post yesterday that he’s spoken to the front office about his situation and doesn’t believe he’ll return for the final year of his contract, which pays him $6 million for 2011. “I feel this offseason they can work out something,” Castillo said. “I need to play.” Castillo has been relegated to bench duty as the team evaluates rookie Ruben Tejada at second base. The veteran Castillo, whom the Mets have been trying to trade for more than a year, is batting only .235 with no homers and 17 RBIs

Adam Dunn:


link  - Over this time period, PECOTA thinks Dunn will amass 3,498 plate appearances and 192 additional homers, giving him 547 for his career. That's well off the pace he needs to reach the top 10, but there are a few things I want to go over here before we call it quits. That PA figure is low because it is assuming Dunn will miss time—it's not that it expects him to miss half a season in 2017, it's just that it's averaging the chance he is on the field with the chance he is not, and it lowers the number. If we want to look at the chances for Dunn's reaching the top 10, we need to give him more PA—consider this 3,498 and 192-homer performance the low end of the spectrum, and if you think that's off the mark or in either direction, realize that, from age 31 through his retirement, Ken Griffey Jr. hit 182 homers—low-end forecast, indeed.

Angel Pagan:


link  - Angel Pagan picked up three more hits, including his 30th double of the season as the Mets down the Pirates 6-2. Pagan raised his slash line to .295/.347/.437 for the season. The Cubs let a decent player get away here. In limited playing time with them, he posted a .255 BA and a .306 OBP. A better hitter since joining the Mets, both those averages rose about 40 points. His power dropped a bit, however, as his slugging percentage is up just 30 points. With his good defense, his WAR is going to come close to five this season.

John Ricco:


link  - Mets people have high regard for assistant GM John Ricco and consider him a future GM, but the team apparently will instead look to someone with more experience for their top front office position. They are is said to be ready to consider ex-Padres GM Kevin Towers, ex-Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes and White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn, among others, to replace Minaya for that role. Byrnes and Hahn, assuming they are interested, are both extremely highly regarded. Byrnes helped bring the D-backs to the NLCS championship series in 2007 while Hahn was part of the 2005 World Series championship team with the White Sox.

Jason Bay:


link  - The contract: 2010, 4 years, $66 million - The injury: Concussion - What went wrong: It would be unfair to call Bay a "disaster" in his first year with the club. But it did not go as planned. His famed power never showed up; he hit just six home runs. The Citi Field crowd began to turn on him after a July slump. And the concussion removed him from the lineup just as the Mets tumbled into late-season irrelevance.