Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
The Kansas City Royalssigned former Met farmhand Francisco Pena to a minor league deal. Originally signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2006 for a $750,000 bonus, Pena was fast-tracked to full-season Savannah at age 17 (where he was the youngest player in the league) and never quite developed into the prospect the Mets had hoped he would become. The son of former catcher Tony Pena hit .236/.286/.348 in 2,276 minor-league plate appearances, the majority of which were spread across four levels. (If you're so inclined, here's Baseball America's write-up on him for their 2008 Prospect Handbook.)
Barry Federovitch thinks it is time for the Mets to make a free-agent splash. Time will tell whether it is a Carlos Beltran atomic cannonball or a Kaz Matsui belly flop.
Mike Puma, however, took the market inefficiency route and dropped the names Jhonny Peralta, Corey Hart, and Phil Hughes as potential Mets targets.
While on the topic of Mr. Hart, the Brewersare interested in both Ike Davis and Lucas Duda to replace what seemed to be a super-massive black hole that played first base for the Brewers last season (.206/.259/.370 in 638 PA). Let's dance, Mr. Melvin.
Around the Majors
Yu Darvish is an absolute mindfreak to hitters, according to Fangraphs.
Buster Posey is staying behind the plate.
Joey Bats may be moving for pitching help in Toronto, and Chase Headleyseems to be on the cusp of being dealt from San Diego.
The embarrassment of organizational middle infield riches in Texas could parlay into patching weaknesses.
At Baseball Prospectus, Mitchel Lichtman analyzed how the number of pitches a pitcher throws correlates to his "times through the order penalty" (TTOP).
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