Gotham Baseball's Rumor Mill reports that the Mets made an offer for reliever Chad Bradford but balked when it came to three years.

P Gil Meche spent the night at a Maple Leafs game accompanied by Blue Jays GM J.P. Riccardi.

The Red Sox and OF J.D. Drew are expected to sign a 4-year deal worth $15-16 million a season with a vesting option for a fifth year.

Sources told the Chicago Sun Times that the Cubs did not offer P Jason Schmidt a 3-year contract worth $44 million. It is still believed the club has interest in Schmidt though.

Now a bunch of nuggets from Mr. Baseball, Ken Rosenthal:

The Orioles are ridiculiously dumb for spending so much money on Ps Jamie Walker, Chad Bradford, Scott Willamson and Danys Baez.

OF Manny Ramirez would be a great fit for the Dodgers because he has experience with manager Grady Little.

The Red Sox plan on making a run at Devil Rays OF Rocco Baldelli.

The Braves are unlikely to sign P Tom Glavine if they cannot trade P Tim Hudson.

C Rod Barajas did not sign with the Blue Jays because his wife didn’t want to move to Canada.

The Cubs, Mets, Royals and several NL West clubs have shown interest in P Miguel Batista.

The Diamondbacks, Padres, Giants, Rangers and Indians are showing interest in P Mark Mulder, who isn’t expected to return before the all-star break.

The Baltimore Sun writes that the Orioles and Chad Bradford are in the process of finalizing a 3 year deal.

Rex Gary, Bradford's agent, acknowledged Monday afternoon that he has had ongoing discussions with the Orioles, though more than 10 teams have expressed interest in his client and he had no timetable for making a decision.

“The Orioles have been certainly in touch,” Gary said. “We'll see where it goes. All along, if the right situation comes in front of Chad and he wants to do the deal, we'll do it.”

 To me a 3-year deal for Bradford not that great of a contract. 3-years are one too many years for Bradord, but i guess when theres a market like this, most of the free agents are going to get one more year. I would've like the Mets to re-sign him because it would give the Mets flexibility of trading Heilman for a starting pitcher or putting him in the starting rotation but if Bradford doesn't return, i doubt either of the two will happen.

Newsday reports that Omar Minaya said on a conference call yesterday that he already has begun talks with the agents for Orlando Hernandez and Chad Bradford and is awaiting a call back from Willie Randolph to find out who will represent him in negotiations.

Paul LoDuca on his WFAN spot, when asked about Delgado's
struggles, said that his hand is bothering him but won't say
anything about it.

In a Journal News report yesterday, they chronicled Delgado's bumps and bruises.

Regarding the stuff in the papers about him, Paul said

On the gambling allegations. He said its strictly on horses. Sometimes its guilt by association when it comes to this stuff. He said there are no loansharks looking for him, he chuckled and then continued saying there are no people looking for him off the field.

When asked if someone is out to get him, he said you never know. Its too hard to comment, to wonder what if.

On his focus and excellent play despite all the attention in the papers. He gave credit to Rick Down, the Mets hitting coach. He worked with him in LA. everyday working in the cage. He's trying to stay in on the ball, go the other way with it. He said he's lucky to be in this lineup. He's getting good pitches to hit.

On the past two games, we just got beat up the past two days, hopefully we can come back tonight.

On Pedro's start he said it was just one of those innings. He went out to talk to Pedro. When he threw that first fastball 88 mph he knew something wasnt right. We booted a couple of balls. We needed to be mentally stronger. He said its a tough ballpark. If you walk guys its gonna turn into 6-7 innings. Hopefully (Pedro's injury) is nothing serious. He thought during the game, we have a 15-14 game lead, we dont need him right now. I wanted him to get off that mound.

On last nights game, it was one of those nights, El Duque struggled with his breaking ball, it hung in. He said they're running into a hot team right now hitting wise. He said the Mets are gonna have our work cut out for us the next couple of days. He said they really didnt play good in Washington and they need to pick it up. “We're in a lull right now.”

On Milledge he said he's gonna be fine. He said this park is weird, you dont know if its shallow or deep. Beningo made a remark saying it wouldnt hurt to have Milledge catch a ball and Lo Duca said

Paul said Lastings has been a little bit tentative, he has a reputation to be a good fielder. He's the youngest playing in the National League.

On the Phillies, he we want to win at least one of these game.

Asked if  any chemistry letdown has resulted losing Nady…

On the bullpen…

On Ramon Castro…