Former Mets RHP Ron Darling is finalizing a deal to join Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen in the booth for SNY’s broadcast of Mets games this season, writes Bob Klapisch in the Bergen Record…
…darling and keith were tight during their days on the mets…along with cohen’s brilliance, this could be a fantastic team…
…i like it…

…first off, hat’s off to gotham baseball for popping the cap off this rumor five days ago…way to be ahead of the curve guys…
At the Daily News,
Bill Madden and Anthony McCarron cite multiple baseball sources as
saying the Mets, Red Sox, Orioles and Devil Rays have talked about a
four-way deal sending OF Manny Ramirez and RHP [...]

Dan Graziano of the Newark Star-Ledger is reporting that the Mets and Orioles are still discussing the P Kris Benson for P Jorge Julio trade…
…looks like either baez or julio will be in the mets’ bullpen next year…
Graziano goes on to say that the deal could be expanded, but Benson
would still end up in Baltimore and Julio [...]

Newsday is reporting that Mets P Aaron Heilman has told GM Omar Minaya several times that he would rather be traded than remain in the bullpen…
…please trade seo,benson or trachsel…
…this could explain why the Baez rumors came up yesterday…
Heilman goes on to say the following quote:
“The reason why I went and played winter ball was to prove that [...]

At Sheriff Sully, a Red Sox blog, Jeff cites a variety of sources as saying the reason why Manny Ramirez wants out of Boston is because he was allegedly caught cheating on his wife…
…ouch…
Jeff pieces the rumor together with a variety of quotes from journalists, radio hosts and Sox executives…
…i
normally don’t post this sort of stuff…but [...]

Readers,
According to SiteMeter,
MetsBlog.com logged more than one million page views for the month of
December, with a high of 70,000 unique readers on December 7…
As
expected, readership in the baseball blogosphere has tapered off since
the Winter Meetings ended, and further softened with the holiday season
upon us.  However, I hope for continued success as the New Year
begins, and [...]

Robert z asks…
“I was curious, in all of your talks with MLB insiders about the OF Manny Ramirez-for-SS Miguel Tejada
deal with the Mets possibly being involved, was there ever any
discussion of the Mets just being the middle-man in such a deal as
oppose to them trying to get Ramirez?”…

…from what i can gather, omar has no [...]

Baseball Prospectus takes a look at the Mets, dissecting the deals for Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca at the expense of a crop of young pitchers…
BP notes that the Mets will feature the oldest starting rotation in the National League…
…this
is technically not a problem…the problem is that if a starter gets
hurt, they have very few pitchers [...]

In the New York Post, Joel Sherman writes that the Mets and Devil Rays are finalizing a deal that would add RHP Danys Baez to New York’s bullpen…
According to Sherman, the Rays would receive a package of prospects along with either RHP Jae Seo or RHP Aaron Heilman…
On December 20, I wrote the following…
“In exchange for Baez, the [...]

In Dan Grazinao’s column in the Star-Ledger, two baseball officials confirm that the Mets, Orioles and Red Sox have talked about a three-way deal sending RHP Kris Benson to Baltimore, OF Manny Ramirez to the Mets and SS Miguel Tejada to the Red Sox, with several other players, prospects and cash swapping hands, as well…
…point [...]

The Washington Post writes that the Red Sox, among other teams, have called the Nationals about trading for 2B Alfonso Soriano, who has repeatedly said he will not play in Washington’s outfield next season…
According to the report, the Nats plan to hold on to Soriano, unless they are blown away with a package of pitchers…
…seeing
as [...]

WGN Radio’s David Kaplan reports that the Cubs and A’s have worked on a deal involving LHP Barry Zito…
…think back to the winter meetings…at that time, the red sox and a’s had talked briefly about sending LHP David Wells to oakland…i was told this would happen only if the a’s could move zito…notice that wells, [...]

In the Baltimore Sun, Rick Maese talked with O’s SS Miguel Tejada from  Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic…
Tejada tells Maese, “Next year, I want to be somewhere where they want to win.”…
Maese writes…
“Tejada said he’s even more upset now than when he first floated the idea of a trade three weeks ago, noting that [...]

The Marlins have signed 2B-SS Pokey Reese and free-agent Joe Borowski to separate one-year deals, according to WAXY in Miami…

…information in this notebook comes from a collection of conversations with a very friendly assistant general manager, fellow bloggers, beat writers, team sources, agents and media departments, all associated with both american and national league teams…
…enjoy…
The Orioles are being quite coy with regards to SS Miguel Tejada, which is understandable considering he wants out [...]