Mets: Irrelevant, F-Mart, Mets Auction, Gotham Baseball

Of course, the Mets have been irrelevant for some time now — being shunned by ESPN’s programming schedule merely makes it official. But when, exactly, did the Mets become irrelevant? When did the snowball of irrelevancy begin rolling down the mountain? Was it when Carlos Beltran‘s knee buckled in October 2006? When Tom Glavine wasn’t devastated a year later? When J.J. Putz blew out his elbow in 2009? When Jose Reyes blew out his hamstring around the same time? Perhaps some time before, or at some point after, those events?  http://www.metstoday.com/7387/11-12-offseason/its-official-mets-are-irrelevant/

His potential may have been a reason to keep him. But this guy has a knee condition similar to the one that ended Mo Vaughn‘s career. And outside of DJ Carrasco, I don’t see a better move the Mets could have made to get down to 40 players on their roster. F-Mart’s stock has fallen to a point where he is no more a prospect than Zach Lutz, Josh Satin or Armando Rodriguez. Maybe there’s a chance he clears waivers, and gets one last spring training chance to make the Mets. The Mets have the right to outright him to the minors if he clears waivers. But, he likely won’t clear. He has minor league options for 2012 and there are enough teams that think he is worth a 40 man roster spot, at least for this one season  http://baseballreflections.com/2012/01/19/how-fernando-martinez-is-a-fit-in-san-diego/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

You can have a portion of the soon-to-be defunct wall that had the "Wheat Thins" ad, the Verizon ad, the Delta ad and the Lincoln ad on it. The Mets are opening the bids around $800-to-$1K for each of these. Consider there is barely any history associated with them -- they are not exactly Fenway's Citgo sign after three years -- it is hard to believe there is a huge market. But when you need cash, you need cash. What might be more appealing are pieces of the 1988 NL East Division wall banner, the 2006 NL East Division wall banner and the 2000 NL champion wall banner. At least they represent winning something, not companies who paid money to advertise on a wall  http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/37569/garage-sale-mets-auctioning-off-pieces-of-citi

http://gothambaseball.com/GB006_WINTER2011.pdf - Gotham Baseball covers the past, present and future of New York baseball, and in this latest issue, which features a pair of aces; New York Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia and New York Mets southpaw Johan Santana. Gary Armida profiles Sabathia’s return in “The Big Man is Back”, while Healey opines that for the Mets, “The Ace is The Whole”.