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The New York Mets have acquired outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. in a trade with the Los Angeles Angels, a baseball source confirmed to ESPN.com on Friday.

Matthews will combine with Angel Pagan to hold down center field while Carlos Beltran recovers from offseason knee surgery.

It’s believed the Angels will pay most of the two years and $23 million remaining on Matthews’ contract with the Angels.

SI.com was first to report the completion of the trade.

It’s not immediately known who the Angels will receive in return for Matthews, but a source told ESPN.com that it will be a low-salaried pitcher off the major league roster.

Matthews, 35, is a .258 hitter in 11 big league seasons. His best year came in 2006, when he hit .313 with 19 homers and 79 RBIs for the Texas Rangers.

Click here to read the full article – By Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com

The owners of the New York Mets baseball team made about $48 million in dealings with swindler Bernard Madoff, court documents showed.

The Mets Limited Partnership, which is connected to the Wilpon family, led by Mets owner Fred Wilpon, deposited $522.8 million in two accounts with Madoff and withdrew $570.6 million, according to a Monday filing by court-appointed trustee Irving Picard.

The Mets could not be reached immediately for comment by Reuters.

Earlier this year, Erin Arvedlund, author of “Too Good to Be True,” a book on Madoff, said the Wilpon family would be forced to sell the Mets due to huge losses suffered in the Madoff swindle.

The Mets had said Arvedlund has no knowledge of the team or its finances and repeated previous statements that the team was not for sale.

Click here to read the full article – By of ESPN.com

It was fitting that yesterday’s 5-1 win over Houston, the penultimate game of the Mets’ sorry season suffered through a rain delay: The entire injury-riddled campaign has been like water torture that just wouldn’t end.

Manuel is determined to make sure Wright does just that, admitting the latter developed “phobias” — Manuel’s word, not ours — after getting beaned by a 93 mph Matt Cain fastball on Aug. 15. He’s hit just .242 since, looking uneasy at the plate and admitting he still thinks about the beaning.

So, with Wright showing modest improvement in his last three games — 5-for-12 with three doubles and three RBIs — Manuel didn’t want to risk his star getting drilled by errant Yorman Bazardo (19 BB in 27 1/3 innings pitched).


Click here to read the full article – By BRIAN LEWIS of New YorkPost

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Below are links to memorabilia available for David Wright.

The Mets may finally be getting the hang of this public relations thing. The team announced Thursday that the average season ticket for 2010 would cost 10 percent less than it did this season, with cuts of as much as 20 percent in some locations. According to the team, every season ticket holder will wind up with a lower invoice than they had this year, although per-game ticket prices will remain the same in some instances.

The Mets say that the decision was made in deference to the economy, which is a lot easier than saying that we’re charging you less because of how awful we were this season. The economic realities of 2009 were certainly a consideration, but someone in the Mets realized that they’ve got a pretty ticked off fanbase these days and keeping them in the building was going to take more than the promise that things would better next year when all the players were healthy.

That was true even before the news that Jose Reyes tore his hamstring became public knowledge, but was twice as true when the ticket pricing announcement was actually made. One of the linchpins that the Mets could use as a selling point for a brighter tomorrow is now a gigantic question mark as the offseason gets underway, raising the possibility that the Mets could be looking for help at shortstop in addition to all of the other holes that need filling around the league.


Click here to read the full article – By JOSH ALPER of nbcnewyork.com

New York Mets Sports Memorabilia
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Below are links to memorabilia available for Jose Reyes.

In a season where so much has gone consistently wrong for the Mets, reliever Pedro Feliciano is one of the few things that has gone consistently right.

Feliciano exited Tuesday’s game leading the Majors in appearances with 86 after striking out Adam Dunn — the only batter he faced — in the eighth. He had been tied with Peter Moylan of the Braves in that category and now is tied for the team record with four games to go.

In fact, Feliciano is very familiar with that record — because he set it last year. But Feliciano has been solid again this season. The left-hander has a 6-4 record with a 3.09 ERA heading into Tuesday’s game.

“My arm feels good,” Feliciano said. “The more I pitch, the looser my arm gets. I think the more I pitch, the better I feel.”

Click here to read the full article – By Jeff Seidel of MLB.com

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The Mets are roughly 240 miles south of the Yankees right now, but they might as well be on a different planet. In one clubhouse, they were cleaning champagne and beer off the carpet. In the other, some players looked like they could use a cup of coffee.

The subdued atmosphere was similar to the last time the Mets were here, in late July, which shows just how long it’s been since the Mets have played in meaningful games.

With the Yankees dominating the headlines in New York, the Mets began a three-game series against the last-place Nationals that was meaningless even by the Mets’ 2009 standard of irrelevance.

Manager Jerry Manuel noted the shrinking number of media members still covering the team when reporters walked into his office Monday afternoon. Somehow, the pitching matchup of Nelson Figueroa against Ross Detwiler didn’t draw a big crowd in the press box.


Click here to read the full article – By Brian Costa of NJ.com

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The Mets travel to sunny Florida this weekend looking to dish out some revenge served cold.

The Marlins are the team that knocked the Mets out of playoff contention in New York on the final day of each of the past two regular seasons. With some help from Colorado, the Mets can return the favor.

After Wednesday’s come-from-behind win over the Phillies, Florida stands 4 1/2 games behind the Wild Card-leading Rockies. Colorado closes a four-game series with the Padres on Thursday before hosting the Cardinals for three this weekend. If any combination of Rockies wins and Marlins losses reaches six, Florida will be mathematically eliminated from the postseason.

Click here to read the full article – By Tim Britton of MLB.com

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Through much of its inaugural season, Citi Field has been branded a pitcher’s ballpark.


Especially when compared to the new jewel of the Bronx, Citi Field’s expansive dimensions and high outfield walls seem designed to minimize offense. But that is true only to an extent. Although Citi Field has yielded only 128 home runs — ranking 11th among National League ballparks — a bigger outfield has led to more success for contact hitters.

Click here to read the full article – By Tim Britton of MLB.com

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Mets shortstop Jose Reyes took indoor batting practice before Monday’s game against Atlanta and still holds out hope for a return to the field before the season ends, according to the New York Daily News.

Reyes, who has not played since May 20 and was diagnosed with a complete tear of his right hamstring last month, told the Daily News that he will continue taking batting practice for the remainder of the week, and will have a key running session on the field Friday. Should the running session go well, Reyes told the paper he will attempt to play in one or the two final games next week

Click here to read the full article – By Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com

New York Mets Sports Memorabilia
and other New York Mets Gifts and Collectibles
Below are links to memorabilia available for Jose Reyes.

One of the more inexplicable wrinkles of this bizarre Mets season has doubled as one of the few things gone right. All year long, Luis Castillo has been able to play.

Far more surprising than Castillo’s production — an average well over .300 and an on-base percentage floating around .400 — has been his health. In a season in which seemingly no Met can stay off the disabled list, Castillo — he of training room infamy — ranks third on the team in games played. And the two men in front of him, David Wright and Daniel Murphy, are both more than seven years his junior.

“He came into Spring Training on a mission,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said of the rejuvenated Castillo. “In the offseason, he got himself in great physical shape. I’m sure, mentally, he processed some things.”


Click here to read the full article – By Anthony DiComo of MLB.com

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