I May Be Wrong, But… Court TV, 2013 FA, Sandy, Captain Kirk

-      I couldn’t help but wonder if the Madoff trail is going be live on Court TV? That would be great for fans like me that don’t live in the NYC metro. I could watch that instead of the frozen screen on SNT that comes up whenever they block out all the Mets games during the season. I’ve mentioned this before but what’s deal with blocking out the games in places like South Carolina? The channel is on my system and I pay a premium to have it. Why can’t they allow me to watch the game? Anyway, could you imagine those wackos on CNNHeadlines talking about the trial? And what about CNNHedlines?  What happened to all the headlines? (fade to picture of Andy Rooney…)

-      The judge’s decision to go to trial has just about guaranteed that the Mets will continue their operational austerity program for at least another year. Overall salary will continue to drop and there will be a fervent effort to rid the team of the existing contracts of Johan Santana, Jason Bay, and David Wright. It’s exciting at this time of the year when Mets fans get to see their first glimpse of players like Brandon Nimmo, but it’s another thing when a year passes and the same fans come to realize this is all they have to look forward to in the future. There’s a name for this. It’s called the Pittsburgh Pirates.

-      Can we give a grade to Sandy Alderson so far? He’s got a year under his belt, brought a couple of good VPs with him, made one great trade, and seems to have conducted a successful draft. You can’t look for trades past the big contract guys because there isn’t anybody left on the team that you can build a big trade around. You also can’t fault the guy that he works for an organization that doesn’t have the bucks to participate in free agency. And lastly, it’s not his fault that the general opinion around baseball is the fact that no one wants to play for the Wilpons. The grade can only be “incomplete” because the team currently falls into the same category.

-      It won’t be long before we see Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the Mets outfield. The team needs to begin to build around a new face of the team and the Captain would be perfect to follow David Wright in that position. He’s easy on the eyes, has the talent to excel, and looks like one of those Captain America types you always fall in love with. More importantly, there is a good chance he replaces the injured Scott Hairston as the 4^th outfielder this season. Keep an eye on this one…