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Sunday was spent at Tradition Field for the Mets-Nationals game. There’s so much more going on than just a game, however, so why don’t we run it down.  Lots of bite-sized observations, so this will be in multiple parts throughout the day. I arrived at the ballpark early, hoping to get my bearings before it…

The former Astros’ third baseman has a blog and some pretty interesting insights about Barry Zito plunking Prince Fielder — Ensberg lists his own rules for hitting a guy — as well as the strike zone.  Here’s Ensberg after noting that Bud Selig is against automating the calling of balls and strikes because he likes…

Bud Selig has his little committee to talk about speed of the game, the postseason schedule and other rules changes.  The USA Today put their own committee together — including guys like Dusty Baker, Torii Hunter, Scott Boras and former umpire Steve Palermo — to talk about many of the same things, and unlike Bud’s…

My plane landed in Miami on Saturday morning and after lunch and some sightseeing with a mystery person I’ll tell you about later, I booked it up I-95 to Port St. Lucie, or as it may be more aptly called, Long Island South. Yes, there are a few Mets fans here. Tradition Field and the…

One more random picture before I actually go and watch a game. There was talk that the Nats would replace Riggleman after last season. I can only assume he won the permanent job in an arm wrestling contest.  Dude looks like he could play right now.

I’m at Mets camp in Port St. Lucie. And for all of the garbage I’ve spewed at that team in the past, everyone has been super duper nice to me so far. Almost makes me want to rethink how I write about them.  Almost. Anyway, I’ll be checking in with real posts and stuff tomorrow,…

Phenom Bryce Harper has been on a parental-imposed media blackout for much of the winter. He emerges a bit today with a profile in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  It’s a good read if for no other reason than it reminds you that Harper is painfully, painfully young to be going through what he’s been going…

bengie molina homers. regardless, what were Mets thinking? this guy can play. – Jon Heyman tweeting after Bengie Molina hit a home run in the second game of spring training. Heyman is seemingly overlooking the fact that Molina is a career .276/.308/.418 hitter — coming off a worse year than that — and is on…

Take some time to look at this new Cliff Lee card from Topps and tell me if you see anything wrong with it:And no, it’s not just the fact that he has never pitched a game for the Mariners. You figured they’d Photoshop that. It’s the poor job they did that irks. I mean, why…

The Yankees look good, but they can be beat this year. Easy? No. Only a precise hit will set up a chain reaction and the shaft is ray-shielded, so you’ll have to use proton torpedoes, but FOX’s Dayn Perry says it can be done: So the Yankees are bound to repeat, right? No, actually they’re…

The fact that Boras — a dude who hardly ever has elite clients sign early — would talk to the Brewers about Prince Fielder two years before free agency was something of a head scratcher when we learned about it yesterday. But then I read Heyman’s column today (don’t think I enjoy it; I have…

This is why you shouldn’t pay much attention to those February “Player X is throwing free and easy” articles: The Diamondbacks acknowledged on Friday morning that Brandon Webb might not be ready to start the season on time and could begin the year on the disabled list. “It’s a long season,” General Manager Josh Byrnes…

Cool pics of some mediocre mid-70s architecture being demolished over at Zell’s Pinstripe Blog. If they keep bashing away they might actually find the old stadium that Mantle, DiMagiio, Gehrig and Ruth played in.

Commenter YankeesfanLen schools another commenter — Andy — who didn’t understand where I was coming from in the Dayton Moore thread this morning: Andy, I’ll introduce you to the program . . . To keep things fair, our AL whipping-boys are the Royals, NL the Metropolitans. We throw in the Pirates, kind of like a…

Random spring training hearsay is always fun. Here’s a good one from Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times: Rays manager Joe Maddon said Yogi Berra told him Evan Longoria “reminds him of Joe DiMaggio a bit.” Allowable because I’m not offering it for its truth — outside of some random film I’ve never seen…

The Reds’ phenom may not face another team until Monday, but he pitched in his first game yesterday. An intrasquad affair. Word is that he looked good.  This stood out the most: Chapman escaped the jam when he fired a 97-mph heater to strike out Ryan Hanigan swinging. Next batter Wilkin Castillo saw a couple…

Bengie Molina gave the Daily News some inside dish on his offseason courtship by the Mets: “Yesterday, I was talking to my cousin, she’s from New York, and she said, ‘Do you think they just did it for the heck of it, just so people don’t say they didn’t (try to make a big signing)?’…

MLB’s Rob Manfred attended a PED seminar yesterday and offered some more words about HGH testing in baseball: Manfred said that the positive test in England “is an important confirmation of the strength and science involved” in the H.G.H. blood test and that baseball was working to apply the test on a widespread basis. An…

One of the things that takes all the fun out of hating the Mets is that just about every Mets blogger I’ve had the pleasure to know is a great guy who does great work.  I mean sure, on the one hand it’s nice that these guys are so good that I am able to…

Found these courtesy of a tweet from the Star-Ledger’s Marc Carig.  Not sure if the right reaction is to lament how provincial Red Sox Nation can be at its worst or to laugh my ass off or l so I think I’ll do both.

Alex Speier has a nice feature today on Mike Cameron remembering his days in the White Sox system with a fellow by the name of Jordan.  File this under stuff I never realized at the time: Cameron could see that Jordan still loved [basketball], loved talking trash to their on-court opponents. That, combined with Major…

Nate McLouth doesn’t miss Pittsburgh: “Things here are a lot more positive and relaxed,” McLouth said. “People aren’t so … uptight. Losing for so long, there’s so many negative things said about the Pirates. It’s tough to read them; you get defensive. The thing is, it’s true and it’s tough to deal with that negativity…

Royals GM Dayton Moore: “I wouldn’t expect the Glass family to employ us if we didn’t feel we could win a championship in Kansas City. When is that going to happen? I don’t know. We’re going to continue to concentrate on getting better each day. And then some day we’re going to wake up and…

Teams wear strange and different caps for spring training than they do during the season.  I suppose it’s obvious why they do this — to sell caps to dorks like me who will actually buy them — but it’s rather startling to hear someone admit it. Here’s ESPN’s uniform dude, Paul Lukas: Uni Watch posed…

I’ll be blogging as usual today, but first thing tomorrow I’m leaving on a jet plane and heading to Florida to check out some Spring Training wonderfulness.  It should be great: I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m working on a new grip for my changeup. The voice of the turtle is heard…