According to Tricitiessports.com, Kingsport Mets general manager Roman Stout was awarded the 2008 Sterling Minor League Executive of the Year Award at the Baseball Winter Meetings earlier this month in Las Vegas.
Stout has had great success in Kingsport, raising attendance steadily during his time as GM of the Mets Class-A Rookie affiliate. The K-Mets finished [...]

Recently a lot has been made of the Yankees enormous spending this off-season, dishing out millions upon millions of dollars to A.J. Burnett, C.C. Sabathia, and most recently their $180 million dollar investment in first basemen Mark Teixeira. The prominent question has been: Is this good for baseball?
The responses you’ll garner on that is wide-spread, [...]

At the very fine Dembrooklynbums.com, Patrick Hickey Jr. has a cute article about presents he would give to former Cyclones.
Ike Davis- Teach this guy to change his approach at the plate.
Wilmer Flores- Give him some time in Brooklyn to develop before calling him up to higher levels.
Roy Merritt- Help him develop another off-speed pitch [...]

The administrator at Inside Pitch.com has done some more digging on the Nathan Vineyard retirement/quitting story.  Here was his post from the message board:
A scout told me — and this confirms what another scout told me originally — that following his April surgery on his shoulder, Vineyard was completely MIA for his rehab and refused [...]

During the winter meetings earlier this month, New York Times writer Michael S. Schmidt attended the minor league job fair and trade show and wrote a piece about the effects the poor economy has had on the operations of Minor League Baseball.
Schmidt writes of the changes underway to decrease costs, ranging from job cuts to [...]

The Dominican Winter League regular season wrapped up this week.
Leader Board
Fernando Tatis finished 8th in the league with a .338 batting average and third with 15 doubles.
Fernando Martinez was second in the league with five triples, one behind former Mets farmhand Anderson Hernandez who hit .365/.406/.531 and led the league with 20 doubles.
Context
The following table [...]

MetsBlog.com’s Matthew Cerrone reports on his website that he received an e-mail from ESPN’s Keith Law denying the recent rumor that LHP Nathan Vineyard is retiring.
Law stated in the e-mail, “I wouldn’t be shocked if Vineyard did eventually retire, it’s just that I confirmed that he hasn’t done so.”
Vineyard was selected by the Mets in [...]

At his surfing the Mets Blog, Adam Rubin did a nice feature on SS Wilmer Flores.  Here are a few of my favorite nuggets.
On Flores’s amateur exploits:
As a 14-year-old at the Agua Linda Academy in Valencia, Venezuela, Flores already stood out against players preparing to sign contracts as international free agents, belting 90 mph [...]

Right-hander Dillon Gee continued his successful winter league season with Leones de Ponce on Saturday, tossing seven shutout innings and allowing just five hits against Carolina. After being promoted and allowing just four runs in 27 innings to end last season with Binghamton, Gee is 4-0 with a 2.31 ERA, 42 strikeouts, and 12 walks [...]

I’m pleased to introduce a new writer to Mets Minor League Blog: Christopher Guy.  Mets fans, and minor league aficionados in particular, might remember Chris’s work on the minor leagues at the old Mets Inside Pitch website and his own site FlushingsFuture.com thereafter.
I’d like to use this moment as an open-casting call as well.  I’d [...]