Frank Viola, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Manny, Cory Vaughn, Michael Morse

File this into the brainless category: Don’t look for Frank Viola to become the pitching coach in St. Lucie where most of the Mets young talent is.

C Jesus Flores signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers


.Sports Hochi reports that Daisuke Matsuzaka is deciding on minor league offers from the Indians, Marlins and Mets.

OF Manny Ramirez wants to continue his baseball career. Has 4 HRs, a .559 slugging percentage and .974 OPS for Aguilas in the playoffs. I’m not saying that I recommend Manny to the Mets… I just wrote this as an excuse to put up this avatar.

Ex-Mets C Drew Butera will play for Italy in the WBC.

Rob Castellano continues his prospect countdown (will Rob ever link back to this site?):

#23 - OF Cory Vaughn - Despite a strong skillset and a major league toolbag there are reasons to pause when discussing the 23-year-old outfielder. Most notably, his .236 career average at High-A. Additionally, his strikeout rate continues to reside well above 20%. Vaughn's other rate stats remain strong: The .219 ISO in 2012 is outstanding, as is the 12% walk rate. All in all, Vaughn seemingly possesses all of the tools needed to project a major league career — from a top tier power/speed mix to a strong eye at the dish — except for perhaps the most important one: his hit tool. Without some major improvement in that area, he just doesn't consistently barrel the ball enough to project as a guy who'll ever hit for much average at the highest levels.

        

    Why doesn’t anyone ever write about Vaughn’s swing? It’s simply horrible and anyone that has seen it, knows it. Worse than that, his hitting coach for the past two seasons, Benny Destafano, hasn’t done anything to correct it. Vaughn has hit both for average and power but will never make it big in the majors unless he stops chopping wood and follows through on his swing.

Well, no one expected the Nats to trade anyone to the Mets that would help them, but did they actually have to come up with a way to get more quality pitching? OF Michael Morse was shipped off to Seattle, who sent catcher John Jaso to Oakland. Then, Oakland sends prospect SP A.J. Cole back to Washington where he was before the Gio Gonzalez trade. Morse will become the 10^th outfielder on the team, though one will probably become the DH (was Jesus Montero) now that Jaso is gone.  There are three righties on the staff: Jason Bay, Franklin Guiterrez, and Casper Wells. Wells would be under team control for four years while Guiterrez becomes a free agent in 2014 ($7.312.5mil in 2013). BTW… they could use a young 3Bman.

           

Javier Vazquez, Josh Edgin, Toronto Trade for Stanton, Michael Morse

Andy McCullough wrote:  

During the winter, the team has been in contact with both Shaun Marcum and Carl Pavano. Their scouts in the Puerto Rico winter league have watched one-time All Star Javier Vazquez, who is making a comeback after sitting out 2012. And there was also some interest in bringing back Chris Young, who posted a 4.15 ERA in 115 innings last season.

I’m targeting into Vazquez here. He would be 35 if he pitches next year and has a 165-160, 4.22, 1.25 lifetime MLB record over 14-years. One of them included 2004 where both the Yankee fans and writers butchered him for his 14-10, 4.91 season after signing a 4-year deal. He also pitched for the Yankees in 2010 (10-10, 5.32). Vazguez chose to sit out 2012 and has been playing in the PRWL… he’s started five games there, going: 1-3, 3.52, 23.0-IP, 30-K, 6-BB… sure it’s just a winter league but it looks like the fastball is still working.

          Bryan Grosnick wrote:

I'd like to think that an improved Josh Edgin could be a lot like former Mets reliever Pedro Feliciano going forward. Feliciano was an effective workhorse in the Mets' bullpen for years, using a left-handed slider especially well to knock out opposing hitters and consistently posting a high strikeout rate despite yearly variances in walks and home runs. The big difference between Feliciano and Edgin, right now at least, is the aforementioned changeup. Feliciano threw a change between 10 and 20 percent of the time as a Met, and it allowed him to match up decently against righties as well as lefties.

Sounds good to me… this gives ‘my pen’ as Frank Francisco in the closer role, Bobby Parnell in the 8^th inning, Robert Carson as the other lefty, and Greg Burke and Jeremy Hefner as my righties. Now, we haven’t even considered Elvin Ramirez, Jeurys Familia, or Jenrry Mejia. This is where we sit right now. Is it good enough? You tell me.

               

            Hi Mack, Look I know for us Met maniacs its real hard to check the puter a few times everyday for the last 3 years and not have a Minaya like blockbuster to excite us but we all know how that worked out. I'm really starting to finally "get" Sandy's plan and have to give some credit to the Wilpons (wow that was hard to type) that the only real $$ invested in the team after the Madoff mess was in the front office. Patience is not the strong suit of fandom but Sandy staying the course when all we hear is "you cant rebuild in N.Y" will hopefully be very rewarding. The Frank Cashen era was a long time ago and if there was something we really needed now is a solid plan and I'm all in. Now to just throw something out there as we wait for pitchers and catchers reporting is a trade question: would you trade the 3 principles in the Blue Jay deal and Flores for Stanton? Thanks, Gary Seagren

                No. Stanton is a great player, but I would still need 24 more to make my squad. The Toronto trade gives me two players in 2012 (Buck, d’Arnaud), and the potential of two all-stars as early as 2015 (d-Arnaud, Syndergaard). I have been committed to dominating this sport through rotational pitching and this is the first time that the Mets have an opportunity to do that since the Seaver days. I’m sticking to my plan, which also seems to be Sandy Alderson’s. 

Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post was told by a source that the Nationals and Adam LaRoche have agreed to a two-year deal.

So… what you’re left with here is Mike Morse, a 30-year old right-handed 1B-RF-LF who hit 18-HR and 62-RBIs for Washington last year and has no place to play. I can’t think of a better fit at this point in the off-season, though he might make Lucas Duda look like a Golden Glover outfielder. The problem is what do you offer Washington? They’re a conference rival with the top young rotation and they only thing you can tempt them with is one or two of your young prospects...  but, he may be a better fit as the DH/OF for the Yankees, making Scott Hairston have to turn his attention to whatever the Mets are offering. This one will be interesting to follow.