Rotation Rotated, Santos and F-Mart to Buffalo and Manny Acosta

 According to Metsblog.com, as relayed from Marty Noble and Adam Rubin, the Mets have seemed to do a little rotation rotating, specifically involving Mike Pelfrey.  According to Noble, here, it looks like the Mets are planning on throwing Maine in game two of the regular season to be followed by Niese, then Pelfrey and Perez.  This is most likely a response to poor springs from Perez and Pelfrey.

Also in this article Michael Baron notes that both F-Mart and Santos were assigned to Triple-A, as was expected.

On another interesting note, Metsblog also says the Mets have jumped all over a talented arm being released today, when the Braves let Manny Acosta hit the waiver wire.  Acosta was in line to compete for the Braves closer position last season and the year before, until a combination of the emergence of Rafael Soriano, Mike Gonzalez, and his own fairly lackluster performance dropped him down.  With the Braves 'pen pretty much solid it seemed like Acosta, who has tons of talent, threw himself out of the running... 

Even so, I like this signing, because if this guy can live up to his talent level he can be very good for the Mets.  And to be honest, I'd be willing to bet this opening day Mets bullpen will change by the end of the first week at the latest.  I'm just not all that confident in it right now, and I don't think Calero has shown that he's the answer so far this spring.  You can never have enough arms...

Pelfrey Throws Well, F-Mart Homers as Mets Down Sox 4-2

Earlier today, the Mets defeated the Red Sox 4-2 (box score) in Fort Meyers on the strength of a three-run eighth innning homer off of the bat of Fernando Martinez.

Mike Pelfrey threw four solid innings, giving up only one run on 4 hits.  Pelfrey also struck out two.  After Pelfrey, Mejia, Calero and Dessens threw three consecutive perfect innings.  It was a nice day on the hill for the Mets.

At the plate Fernando Martinez was the hero with his three run homer in the eighth that put the Mets up for good.  Also driving in a run was Daniel Murphy, on a sac fly.

The only negative to take from this game was that Ruben Tejada made his third error of the spring.  I like him, and wouldn rather him start at short over Cora, but not if he's going to be making tons of errors.  I like Tejada's upside at the plate over Cora's, but not if it means a decline in defense.

Obviously, this is a wait and see approach on Tejada.  But at the least today was a good day for the pitchers, especially Calero who will need to toss a few more games like this to put his hat in the ring as set-up man for this team...

Mets Look to Add Another Lefty, Trade Santos

In a post to his Daily News Blog, Adam Rubin writes about the Mets bullpen situation and catcher glut. 

According to Rubin, yesterdays signing of Calero is not keeping the Mets from looking into another lefty to match up with Feliciano.  Rubin says the Mets"appear to prefer Joe Beimel over fellow free agent Ron Mahay. Still, the offers are lowball, with Mahay only offered a minor-league deal."  At this point, low-balling is not a bad thing in my mind in that, had these guys been offered better deals they probably would have jumped on them by now.  Regardless, I think a second lefty is a great idea, and would go a long way towards proving my theory, that the team will use Feliciano as their primary set-up man.

In the same article Rubin talks about Santos and Coste as trade possibilities for the Mets later on in camp.  Rubin specifically mentions the Orioles and Rangers as two teams who may have interest, mainly because of the youth both teams currently have behind the plate.  Although I think Santos is probably a better player than Coste, and would bring back a slightly better return, I can see Coste being the one who is dealt.  It's be basically for the same reasons we were told the Mets got him.  Coste could serve as a mentor to Salty/Teagarden in Texas or Weiters in Baltimore.  But Rubin tends to think that Omir would be the one out the door, and also throws out the option that Coste's ability to play other positions could allow the Mets to keep three catchers at Triple-A.  Interesting...

Either way, whichever catcher isn't dealt will probably stick around and help Thole out at Triple-A, while Rubin projects Shawn Riggans to go to Binghamton and get some playing time there.  One way or the other, someone's getting traded or sent down to Binghamton.  I guess how they play this spring will be the deciding factor...  

Reyes' Bloodwork and Bullpen Talk

In an article for the New York Post this morning, Mike Puma details exactly why Jose Reyes was out of the line-up yesterday.  According to Puma, Reyes had some bloodwork done which was associated with the team's spring physical and apparently he wouldn't be cleared to play in a game until this bloodwork was done.  According to Puma, "The medical tests, Reyes said, had nothing to do with his legs."  That's a nice thing to hear, because anytime you're doing a blood test for a leg problem, that sounds like trouble.  Regardless, Reyes should be in today's line-up against the Marlins at 1pm on SNY.

Also in this article Puma recaps the Calero signing, talks about Takahashi finally getting his work visa and former Giants punter Sean Landeta visiting the team.  Apparently Landeta had Francouer pretty mesmerized by his Super Bowl rings. 

Also in his article Puma maintains the Mets interest in Joe Beimel on a major league deal for "an amount significantly lower than the $2 million he earned last season."  Puma also throws out Ron Mahay as a lefty the Mets may be interested in for the bullpen.

As far as the 'pen is concerned, outside of Feliciano, K-Rod and Parnell I'm a little worried.  Although we only saw Sean Green once, he was awful.  Igarashi looked fine, but nothing to write home about, and everyone else is competing.  Which is probably why the Mets signed Calero and are still interested in another lefty.

At this point it seems pretty obvious to me that the Mets best set-up options are Feliciano or Parnell.  Personally, I think Feliciano is a much better option and signing a Mahay or Beimel to be the lefty-specialist would allow for Feliciano to step up.

That's what I would do.  But I also wouldn't be hitting Reyes third, I guess that's the difference between me and Manuel/Omar...

Mets Get Calero on Minor League Deal

According to David Lennon of Newsday (which I annoyed you have to pay for),  the Mets have signed Kiko Calero to a minor league deal.  Last year Calero put up a 1.95 ERA for the Marlins, but was having trouble signing because of a history of arm injuries, and concerns about his current health.

I have no problem with this, because it was on a minor league deal.  This makes me think is that the Mets don't like the way their other bullpen guys are performing so far, or that this could be in some way indicative of where Escobar is in his re-hab.  Kiko provides some nice insurance at a low financial risk.

Once again, I like the risk...