Head over to Adam Rubin’s blog for the Daily News for a great Q&A with Mets pitching prospect Stephen Clyne.

A third round pick in the 2007 draft, Clyne is slated to be the closer this season for the St. Lucie Mets.  Last season he went 1-1 with a 2.05 ERA and 8 saves for the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Great stuff as always from Rubin.  Interesting to read about a guy who isn’t on everyones radar just yet.  Best of luck to you Stephen.  

This is actually an old quote from Adam Rubin that I ran across today while reading his chat with The Happy Recap a few months back, but I liked it so much I wanted to pass it along.

6) What is the number one misperception the average fan has about how this team is run?

That the front office has as better handle on what’s going on in the minor-league system than the average blogger.

Read the whole interview on The Happy Recap.

I had a chance to catch up with Adam Rubin tonight. It will be a special half hour edition of Gotham Baseball Live at 9pm. For all the information about how to listen live or download the replay click here.

Over at his Daily News blog, Adam Rubin reports the results of the strength and conditioning tests the Mets players took part in which included a 300 yard dash, vertical leap, among other tests.

Rubin writes the overall winner was Angel Pagan. David Wright finished first out of the infielders, Robinson Cancel won the Catchers group and John Maine came in first out of all the pitchers.

New York Daily News Mets beat reporter Adam Rubin spoke with SNY’s Matt Yallof on the floor of the Winter Meetings just moments ago.

Adam said Johan Santana is down to Yankees and Red Sox and its not realistic to think the Mets are in it for Santana. Asked if Omar needs to pull off something signifigant, he does not think Mets fans will be content if he simply brings back Livan Hernandez or Carlos Silva, in light of what the Yankees have done this offseason.

Regarding Erik Bedard, he spoke with a Baltimore Sun reporter and he repeated that the deal that included Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber and Aaron Heilman was rejected. He said its possible that swapping Carlos Gomez with Fernando Martinez might make the deal more attractive, along with including Mike Pelfrey over Philip Humber.

Jim Duquette, in studio with Kevin Burkhardt and Ed Coleman, said that the Dodgers would likely trump any offer the Mets could make for Bedard. He went on to say given his contract, Bedard could be seen as an even more attractive option than Johan Santana.

Adam also said that some of the Mets prospects may have been ‘exposed’ because they didn’t make a huge impact when they had their chance to shine at the major league level.

Adam Rubin over at the Daily News reports that reliever Duaner Sanchez has resumed throwing for the first time spring. Sanchez was injured in a car accident while a passenger in a taxi over a year ago and has not played since.

The article looks at some of the events that followed, questioning whether they would have occurred, asking if Sanchez would have given up the game tying triple that Mota did to the Cards and if a healthy Sanchez would have helped the struggling bullpen this season. From his talks with Duaner:

“Myself, when they were struggling, I was struggling, because I would have liked to be in there.”

Rubin cites ex Met pitcher and current rehab trainer Randy Neimann on Duaner’s progress, who reports that his delivery is almost back to the pre-crash days. Head over to the Daily News and check it all out.

A healthy Duaner will be a great addition to the pen, especially since it won’t cost the Mets a prospect or a player, saving that sort of chip for a starter, or for the future. Plus we get that bonus mention of Juan Padilla. While it is an interesting theoretical, no accident, no acquiring Mota, would the last two seasons have given us better results, the flip side is Ollie. Would the trigger on Nady for Perez have been pulled, because while Mota clearly didn’t bring us any joy one cannot say the same for Perez. Chances are even if that deal had not been done, something similar would have, or one of the prospects (Pelf) would have been rushed (or in Pelfs case, rushed more) to fill that starting position.

Adam Rubin reports in todays Daily News that the Mets have begin looking into making a move in the offseason to replace Paul Lo Duca, who's contract is up after the season.  A key candidate appears to be Ronny Paulino of the Pirates.  Lo Duca has frequently expressed a desire to stay with the Mets, but the team has said since the preseason that any such offer most likely wouldn't come till after the season.

Ramon Castro is also looking at the end of his contract, and there are no true catching prospects on the team's AAA team. The primary big name in the catching free agency will be Posada. Posada was drafted by the Yankees, and has played for them since his major league debut in 95.

Lo Duca has always seemed to be one of the more popular players on the team, as well as the most vocal. Various guys on the Mets beat, Delcos, Rubin, etc all seem to indicate he's one of the leaders in the clubhouse.  I think its highly unlikely the Yankees part ways with Posada, who's probably the best of what will be out there as far as free agent catchers go, and Paulino so far is not hitting like he did last season. Considerng second base and corner outfield issues will need to be addressed, not to mention starting pitching since there's a good chance Glavine hangs it up, perhaps a one year extension to Paulie isn't such a bad idea. 

Adam Rubin of the Daily News reports Mike Pelfrey will get antoher shot, the club is most likely going to use him for the upcoming double header against the Phils. He's 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA down with the Zephyrs.

Pelf is probably hoping the Mets have remembered how to play baseball by then. They're probably already putting him on a short leash when he comes up for that series, so he'll need his A game. Assuming of course, Pelf has learned how to pitch his A game yet.

Adam Rubin at the Daily News is reporting Pedro will indeed throw from the mound tommorow.  This will be the first time this has happened since last season.

This has been your Pedro Martinez injury update of the week.