Off Season Digest # 3: Goodbye Mr. Cameron

So Mike Cameron is gone in an obvious salary dump move. (Xavier who?) While he didn't completely pan out, I really did like Mr. Cameron. I mean, that catch alone made his time here on the team worthwhile.

So just who is this opening up room for on the payrool? Carlos Delgado? Manny? Damn, I love the hot stove.

Off Season Digest # 2: Can You Take Howie With You?

In a move that make me very happy and saddened at the same time, Gary Cohen, who has been on the Mets radio team for 17 years, has been promoted to the team's main TV voice and will do 125 games on the new Mets network, SportsNet New York. I am very happy because if anyone deserves to be the voice you associate with the Mets after Bob Murphy's passing, it is Gary. I am saddened because this breaks up what was easily the best radio team in the baseball broadcasting business, Gary and Howie Rose. I would love it if this new Mets network went against the grain and didn't hire a player to be the analyst and brought Howie back to TV. Imagine those two trading off on TV like they do on radio? It would be baseball heaven.

Alas, that isn't likely to happen. But what this move does mean (and I hope I'm not cursing Mets fans by saying this) but it looks like Fran Healy is FINALLY OUT. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Every single report about the SportsNet NY analyst job has focused on Keith Hernandez or Al Leiter, and either of those I could handle. One would imagine that the okay team of Dave O'Brien and Tom Seaver will stay on the Ch. 11 side of things.

Once again, congratulations Gary, and I look forward to listening to you for many years to come.

UPDATE: It looks like Cohen will be doing all 162 games for the team, which I guess would include Ch. 11 games, according to NYSportsDay.com. Plus other folks chime in, like Faith and Fear and MetsBlog.

Off Season Digest # 1: Where Will You Go Theo?

The off season is only a few days old, and already we've got one major development--the boy wonder, Theo Epstein, bailed out of his job as GM of the Boston Red Sox. What gives? The stories about Larry Luciano feeding the Boston Globe info that made himself look better than Theo seems about par for the course, but there must have been some extraordinary behind-the-scenes crap for Theo to walk away from his dream job. (The Sports Guy has some great insight into this.) Looks like the second 86 year gap is fully underway...

In Mets news, I'll never have to spell Doug Mientkiewicz again. Or worry about Braden Looper. Take a guess at which one I'm going to miss more...