New role for Reyes

Manuel plans to give Reyes more responsibility next season. It's an interesting managerial decision that I like. If this type of move doesn't force the guy to get more serious - and along with it the rest of his pals - then nothing will. If we're not trading him, might as well try to push him to the next level. I like it and hope it works out well.

Manuel has also revealed how he plans to give Reyes more responsibility and a greater leadership role this season.

Reyes has been criticized at times for immaturity or lack of focus, but either despite that or because of it, Manuel believes Reyes is ready for a bigger leadership mantle.

"No question," Manuel said. "He has to be. I consider him to be coming into [a leader], yes. No question. I think that's the next level for him, is to add responsibility to him. That to me is maturation.

"You can be 50 years old and have no responsibility so you never mature. But if you have some responsibilities, then the maturation process takes over. And I think the more responsibility he has, obviously the more maturity he has, the better player he becomes."

To that end, Manuel plans to have Reyes handle the entire infield's defensive responsibilities, not just those of the shortstop. That might involve where players are positioned or alerting teammates to defensive calls. In essence, Reyes could essentially become some type of defensive infield captain.

Every once in a while,

when you read the comments over at nypost.com after the articles, you pick up a really solid idea from some average joe out there in cyberspace. To wit:

TRADE LUIS CASTILLO, DELGADO , SCHNEIDER , FOR PUJOLS

Posted by: Ameer in NJ on January 26, 2009 6:49 PM

Thanks Ameer! Great idea.

Sing it Joe, sing it

This tell-all from Torre has some real gems that those of you who need to mock your Yankees colleagues will greatly enjoy.

Signings

A couple of real barnburners:

Alex Cora is already signed, sealed and delivered.

Freddy Garcia is imminent.

Oh. Good. Eeee.

What's wrong with the flyin' mowers we got?

They kill pretty good. What's some of them other deadly flying things?

Are you a fan of Top 10 lists

And a fan of the NFL?

Then you'll love to read this one.

Just when I thought I'd heard of every shred of evidence that the Jets franchise was cursed, #3 really hit me hard. I actually needed to verify it.

Which I did.

Here.

If You Want to Have Any Respect for the Organization, Don't Read this Link

Otherwise...

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090114&content_id=3743789&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym

Some people don't like the Mets CitiField inaugural patch

See here.

Money quote:

They could've held a coloring contest among preschoolers and still ended up with a better design than the one above.

Luckily, if the Mets decide to answer the outcry by taking another stab at the design, they won't have to look far for a few pointers. Here's the patch the Yankees will be wearing for their inaugural season at new Yankee Stadium this year:

Another Brick in the Wall

Well, the #5 spot is filled.

Tim Redding has signed a 1 yr/2.25m deal with the Metties (incentives may raise the value to 2.5).

I feel much better now. He was far and away the best option for the 5 hole and now I'm not as concerned about Lowe. Don't get me wrong--I still want to see Lowe a s a Met but I think the drop off to Perez or Wolf is much lower than some of the other bottom feeders we were looking at to round out the rotation.

After all, Redding managed to win 10 games for one of the biggest s-box teams in recent history...

And as an aside, I'm reading that Omar prefers Ollie to Lowe (big shocker there).

I now have a dog in the Jets' head coaching search

Don't expect Rex Ryan to show up for his interview for the JetsNew York Jets ' head coaching vacancy armed with Power Point presentations, flow charts or any other fancy displays.

His sales pitch is simple.

"I know I'm a great football coach, and I know I'm a leader of men," said Ryan, the Ravens defensive coordinator who will interview with the Jets next week. "I think that's probably my edge over other people."

Heh, heh. I see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I know a certain contributor at this blog that likes to remember the heady days of yore, when Rex's Daddy was throwing punches at his OWN team's offensive coordinator for running the "chuck and duck."

"I'm not blessed with a silver tongue like some of these guys," Ryan said. "What you see is what you get."

Ryan, 46, doesn't need to do much talking. He can just point to what the Ravens' defense has done. It finished second in the NFL (in total defense) this season, and will be on display again on Saturday against Tennessee. No one has rushed for 100 yards against the Ravens in two years.

At the end of the day, everything you need to know about Rex Ryan can be captured in one play: in last week's Ravens win over the Fins, watch Reed's INT TD return. The minute he intercepted the pass, the whole Ravens defense went into "hurt someone" mode. I've never seen a more violent 20 seconds on the football field. I saw no fewer than 3 Dolphins players come within a hair's breath of decapitation on that one play.

Please let someone take this seriously...

Joel Sherman had a few interesting things to say today re: the Metties and BoSox.

He suggests that the Sox want to get a big bat with a good glove and are looking to make a trade. The Sherminator suggests a trade of Beltran for Dice-K and Ellsbury.

Dear God,

PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN!!!

Thank you,

dark commenteer

Other interesting tidbits include Boras and Lowe being pissed that Carlos Silva got more than Lowe is being offered (even though everyone in baseball considers that contract a terrible aberration). Suck it up, Boras--you d-bag!!!

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/st/archives/2009/01/3_up_bosox_hitt.html