Cutnpaste: - Brogna on Reyes, Pete Flynn, Omir Santos, Mediocrity, Sandy Alomar Jr.

Personally, after scouting Reyes and the Mets for many recent years, I would let Jose go and let him hit the market. I have my own personal criteria and value chart that I have put together through the years (mainly shaped from teams that I gave worked with and learned from) and in this particular player’s case, the value is not a fit for me. Too many inconsistencies and unpredictability with this player to sign long term — and probably have to sign for big bucks to go along with multiple years. - http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/10/03/brogna-on-baseball-mets-should-say-goodbye-to-jose-reyes

Pete Flynn — If you're a Mets fan of any age, the sight of Pete Flynn usually meant one thing—rain delay! Flynn, who worked for the Mets from their inception in 1962, retired after the team's last regular season game of 2011. The popular groundskeeper earned his keep. He helped build ticket booths at the Polo Grounds and cut grass and maintaining the infield at every home stadium in team history (Polo Grounds, Shea Stadium and Citi Field). Best wishes, Pete! - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-9174449

Omir Santos, Detroit Tigers -- Some might call it an Omiracle that the light-hitting Santos caught on with another Major League club after failing to stick with the Mets following his 2009 season. But hey, someone needs to back up Alex Avila and that's a role where a replacement-level catcher of Santos's caliber will do little damage to a club's playoff chances. Santos only appeared in 11 games for the Tigers this season and started six, but did see a reasonable amount of action in September while posting a repetitive .286/.286/.286 slash line in the league's final month. But Santos will be easy to root for because he adorned one of the more memorable Mets t-shirts in recent memory. Maybe not memorable for all the right reasons, but it still left a mark that countless others failed to leave in the short stints in Flushing. It's at least more of a mark than what was left by Tigers batting coach Lloyd McClendon, who was drafted by the Mets in 1980 but was traded to the Cincinnati Reds before reaching the Majors. - http://www.amazinavenue.com/2011/9/30/2459916/a-mets-fans-guide-to-recognizing-your-saints-in-the-2011-mlb-playoffs

No, I'm simply not comfortable with a mediocre result, and the 2011 season was decidedly mediocre. I do applaud the manager, Terry Collins, who consistently poked his head above the fray and chaos taking place around him, and maintained his dignity and leadership. Bernard Madoff and an injury a day aside, there were a few bright spots, and most of them occurred because Collins would not tolerate less than full effort or less than full effort players. It was refreshing to watch, for a change, players who had no business filling out a major league uniform, dragging themselves off he deck and pushing opponents to the limit. - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-9948153

Sandy Alomar Jr. - Age: 45 - Current position: Indians bench coach - Background: Alomar was a catcher in the major leagues for 20 seasons with the Padres (1988-89), Indians (1990-2000), White Sox (2001-04, 2006), Rockies (2002), Rangers (2005), Dodgers (2006), and Mets (2007), winning the American League Rookie of the Year award and Gold Glove in 1990 while making the first of six All-Star Game appearances. He has been a major-league coach for five seasons with the Mets (2007-08) and Indians (2009-11). Why he is qualified: Alomar has a great knowledge of the game, as he has been around baseball his entire life. His father Sandy was a major-league second baseman, and his brother Roberto was one of the great second basemen of all-time and was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Alomar has good people skills, is fluent in both English and Spanish, and handles the media extremely well. - http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15228

Cutnpaste: Omir Santos, Josh Satin, R.A. Dickey, Moneyball, Mechanics

9-5-11: - http://www.rotoworld.com/sports/mlb/baseball?r=1  - Tigers recalled C Omir Santos from Triple-A Toledo. Santos will function as the Tigers' emergency backup catcher down the stretch. The 30-year-old from Puerto Rico has managed one hit in eight big league at-bats this year

9-3-11: - http://metsmerizedonline.com/2011/09/prospect-pulse-buffalo-2012-help-on-the-way.html  - Josh Satin - Satin continues to hit at every level he plays and has a .307 BA for his career, his lifetime OBP is .397. This season, split between AA and AAA, his slash line is .322/.411/.493. He is a September call-up for the Mets, and has been added to the 40 man roster, so we should get to see his debut any day now at Citi. Next year he should be in the ST mix as a back-up 1B-2B-3B and PH, but with Evans blocking his path, he will probably spend 2012 as insurance for the big club, as he works on his defense at AAA, while playing 1B, 2B, and 3B.

9-5-11: - http://www.latimes.com/sports/sns-rt-bbo-metsmtze793x3w0gt-20110904,0,794512.story  - RHP R.A. Dickey had gone more than a month without a victory before he finally picked up a win Monday, going seven shutout innings against the Marlins. The wait wasn't so long this time as he followed that up by pitching on three days rest for the first time this season and he got the victory over the Nationals with six innings, allowing three runs.

9-5-11: - http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=14921  - There's one scene that sticks out in my mind, though, if only because it made me realize something about the Moneyball phenomenon as a whole. You'll remember it from the book as the chapter where Billy Beane simultaneously wheedles Ricardo Rincon out of the Indians and leaves Brian Sabean wandering around the Embarcadero wearing a barrel. That moment is the heart of Michael Lewis's book. In the film, it seems almost out of place, as if some poor assistant rushing a latte to Mr. Sorkin had tripped and fallen and gotten his script crossed up with 10 pages from another movie. What to that point had felt a little like, I dunno, The Bad News Bears Learn Microsoft Excel became something else entirely. Pitt works the phones, and Jonah Hill beaches himself in the corner of the screen, and the whole enjoyable hustle unfolds like something out of another movie—Glengarry Glen Ross, maybe. And that's when it occurred to me: Moneyball is, very quietly, a story about a con.

9-5-11: - beyondtheboxscore.  - When scouts begin their evaluation on a pitcher, it’s usually during his warm-ups (once he’s one the mound). They don’t hold their gun or stopwatch, but instead simply watch the mechanics and delivery of the hurler. That’s because for some scouts, mechanics are the initial attribute that scouts evaluate. First and foremost, they look to see if he can repeat his delivery. If he can, that’s obviously a plus. Even though all pitchers are different and some have their own unique style, scouts typically want to see a clean and smooth delivery. Things usually flow from there, as you can’t do much of anything should you be unable to consistently repeat your mechanics. Scouts prefer clean and smooth deliveries for a variety of reasons, one of which is to prevent injury. You want to make sure he isn’t changing his arm speed when throwing his off-speed stuff. That generally occurs in the arms of younger pitchers, but tinkering can fix that. On a similar note, changing his arm slot when throwing off-speed pitches isn't acceptable either. Tinkering can fix that too, but you don’t want to see the pitcher lose bite on his stuff when changing a delivery flaw. However, consistent mechanics are more important by a mile.