I’d be very surprised if at next week’s press conference the Mets don’t present Jason Bay with the No. 44 jersey most recently surrendered by Tim Redding. And it looks also like 45 will be distributed to Kelvim Escobar, the Ex-Jay and former Angel whom the Mets signed to a make-good deal after missing most of the last two years with injuries.
Bay to me seems like a solid addition in an otherwise underwhelming field of available players but it’s entirely possible that his contract could be a burden over the longer term. He’s no Matt Holliday, but Matt Holliday isn’t that much better, I don’t think. I like the risk on Escobar, who before the arm troubles was a strikeout guy who could start or relieve and who desperately needs a new start.
I’m also okay that these moves have been largely pooh-poohed by the mainstream media who seem to want to punish the Mets for failing to compete behind the moves and roster they advocated last year. I agree with MBTN reader 9th-string catcher who in a below post commented that the theme for 2010 is “no stupid moves” as the Mets rebound from a hugely disappointing 2009 marked not only by a massive rash of injury, but by a smug overestimation of their own ability to compete.
The Mets’ have employed but two pure knuckleballers in their history. The first was righthanded reliever 
Today would have been my Dad’s 80th birthday. Frank Springer was a freelance cartoonist whose work appeared in comic books and strips, magazines including Playboy, Sports Illustrated for Kids and National Lampoon, and newspapers including the long-defunct Suffolk Sun, which employed him to draw sports cartoons in 1969. After retiring from the commerecial art world in the 1990s he took up oil painting and was doing some terrific work, including the above, until he passed away this April. Born in Queens and raised there and in Lynbook, he grew up a Dodgers fan and then, an original Mets fan. He raised five blue-and-orange kids including at least one obsessive one, and had seven grandchildren who are Met fans too.
The Mets will become Blanco’s 8th team in 12 years. His numerical history is just as busy, having worn 54 (Dodgers), 35 (Rockies), 12 (Twins), 20 (Braves), 21 (Twins), 9 and 24 (Cubs) and most recently, 28 with the Padres.Given that Blanco looks to inherit 
Looks doubtful from here that Coste comes out of his Mets experience with fodder for another inspiring true-life bestseller, but with a decent right-handed bat and some experience playing first base, it’s not out of the realm of possiblity he helps some in 2010. At worst he could be the 2010 