Former Met Edgardo Alfonzo has been cut by the Texas Rangers, once again putting the brakes on his attempt to return to the pros. Fonzie recieved a minor league contract with a spring invite. 

Fonz has been back and forth between baseball and kind of baseball, including time with MLB team the Anneheim Angels and time with Indy league teams like the Long Island Ducks and Toronto Blue Jays. While with the Mets Fonz won a Silver Slugger, hit a playoff Grand Slam, and was a member of the so called Best Infield Ever. He had a .292 average over eight seasons as a Met, including 120 homeruns and 212 doubles. The Mets allowed him to leave via free agency after the 2002 season.

Rotoworld reports that the Texas Rangers have signed ex Met Edgardo Alfonzo to a Minor league contract.

Fonzie signed with the Mets as a free agent, playing with the team from 95 to 2002, hitting .292 including four seasons where he hit over .300.  Originally a third baseman, he was the secondbasemen on what was the dubbed ‘the Best Infield Ever’ by SI. As of late he has been in the minors, including within the Mets own system and the independent league Ducks.

It’ll be tough for him to make it back to the pros, but best of luck to him.  

The Mets experienced some losses this winter. They lost Chad
Bradford, he of the 1.16 WHIP, and the one home run allowed (one!) in 70
innings of work, to a three-year $10.5 million contract with the O’s. They lost
veterans Cliff Floyd and Steve Trachsel, allowing them to walk away. Although it’s
hard to argue with Mets management on these moves, I’ll miss reading Cliff’s
quotes, and I find it somewhat distressing that Tom Glavine has been a Met
longer than anyone else on the roster. (Pedro Feliciano was with the team in
2002, a year before Glavine arrived, but Feliciano spent 2005 in Japan
before re-joining us last year). Another loss occurred on the coaching staff,
when Manny Acta departed to manage the Washington Nationals. I normally don’t
spend a lot of time worrying about coaching changes, and at first this one was
no different. But then I read this article in the Washington Times. Compare
this quote from Acta: “We will run selectively. I think one of the things that
doomed this club last year is that they were first in caught stealing.” to this
one from Willie Randolph: “[Beltran] could steal 40-to-50 bases easy.”

Now I’m not knocking Willie, here. Carlos Beltran has
historically been one of the most effective base stealers in the game, with a
career stolen base percentage of 87.6%. That’s an astounding number, and if
Beltran can steal bases at that kind of clip it will be an enormous boon to our
offense. That said, Acta has the correct philosophy. The stolen base is only a
good play with an excellent basestealer. For example, assuming typical hitters
behind him and typical pitchers on the mound, a leadoff man on first base in
the home first inning needs about a 71% success rate to justify an attempted
steal of second. Half the teams in the National League had SB percentages lower
than 71% last season. In two years under Randolph,
the Mets have stolen bases at a truly remarkable 79.9% clip, second in the
majors (the Phillies were successful 80.0% of the time).

Part of me worries that Acta has been the one preaching
selective base stealing, and that Acta is the reason the Mets have done so well
in choosing the right times to run. Another, more rational part of me thinks
that Willie understands who should run and when, and that since the only real
base stealers we have are Jose Reyes and Beltran (and, to some extent, David Wright), we
should be fine. I just can’t help being paranoid when so many teams go so wrong
on the basepaths—so wrong that maybe they shouldn’t be attempting stolen bases
at all.

Ramblings:

-I don’t know if we’ll see a lot of doomsday predictions on
Oliver Perez following his 2 IP, 4ER outing today, but any such predictions are
not justified, in my opinion. First, his velocity clearly isn’t there yet, as
it typically is not there for any pitcher this early in the spring. Ollie
topped out in the high eighties today. We all know he has a mid-nineties
fastball when he’s full-strength, and that his fastball is one of his best
weapons. Second, Perez for the most part got hurt in the strike zone today. His
location wasn’t always perfect, but it was far from terrible. He threw more
than twice as many strikes as balls. For his first outing of the spring, I
think that’s a pretty good sign. In short, I wouldn’t read anything at all into
today’s start by Ollie. I still think he’s a big favorite to begin the season
in the rotation.

-It was the first game for everyone today, and that certainly
includes new third-base coach Sandy Alomar, Sr. On Julio Franco’s two-run
single in the eighth, Alomar stood still as a stone while Lastings Milledge approached
third base, even though it was immediately clear that Milledge had to be sent.
Not knowing what else to do, Milledge slowed down, and then decided on his own
to keep chugging along. Only after Milledge had rounded third and taken several
steps towards home did Alomar give a half-hearted “Go” signal. (Milledge ended
up scoring anyway.) The announcers, meanwhile, assigned almost all the blame on
Milledge, accusing him of not picking up the third-base coach. They never
realized there was nothing to pick up. Keith Hernandez finally did say that
hey, there was a new third-base coach out there and maybe that had something to
do with it. Also, it seemed to me that Gary Cohen et al were far too
results-oriented in analyzing Perez’s start. Every hard-hit ball he gave up was
“up in the zone” or a “hanger,” but his strikeout pitch, which clearly looked
like a hanger to me, was “down.” Ron Darling described a pitch that Curtis
Granderson ripped as “middle-middle.” I actually thought Perez got good
location on the inside corner on that pitch and that Granderson, a
good major league hitter, just turned on it. I love Cohen, Darling, and Hernandez in the
booth, but they’re definitely in preseason form right now.

-I found it an odd coincidence that two members of our last
World Series team were just traded for each other in the Atlantic League. Best
of luck to Edgardo Alfonzo and Pat Mahomes (but especially Fonzie) as they try
to work their way back to the bigs.

-Can someone explain to me how getting a major league
prospect to run around the bases qualifies as a practical joke? “Hey, this guy
is really good at this thing, so wouldn’t it be so funny if we get him to do
that thing he’s really good at? Then we’ll all have a hearty laugh!” When I
heard that Randolph
had played a practical joke on Carlos Gomez, I was thinking shaving cream, or some bubble gum, or at least a fat frog had to be involved somehow. I guess I’ll just never
understand jock culture.

Here is a rundown of yesterday's minor league action, courtesy of the always amazing Toby's Mets Minor League Report….

• Yusaku Iriki won and threw six shutout frames. 
  He struck out four.
• Edgardo
  Alfonzo launched a HR, his third for Norfolk,
  and two doubles while driving home three.  
• Rashad Eldridge, had one of
  his better nights in Norfolk
  going 3-5 with a HR and 4 RBI.  
• Lastings Milledge had a
  couple of hits at the top of the order.
• Rueben Gotay (.235/.286/.375 in 37 G) added
  a 2-5 evening with two RBI.
• Brian Bannister throws Wednesday.

With Jose Valentin nursing a sore hamstring, the Mets could turn to folk hero Edgardo Alfonzo, who has regained his stroke as of late since being given a shot to revive his career in the Mets minor league Norfolk affiliate.

Inside Pitch reports on Alfonzo's progress.

Yahoo Sports reports on Valentin's injury

Edgardo Alfonzo has now hit safely in 13 of his last 14 starts, singled in
the second inning and homered to lead off the fourth.

The 32-year-old
raised his average to .276 in 25 games with Norfolk, and he is now
hitting .360 (18-for-50) over his last 14 starts.

Here's a rundown of this weekends minor league action courtesy of the fantastic Toby's Mets Minor League Report…

Norfolk Tides (AAA)

Saturday

Edgardo Alfonzo drilled a homerun and
drove home three in a 2-4 night in support of MacLane.  The only other Tide with two hit was Tagg Bozied who was 2-3 with a solo HR
and two runs scored. 

Catcher Yunir Garcia started his first game for
Norfolk, after
one pinch hitting appearance, and was 1-3.

Sunday

Sandy Martinez slugged
a walk-off homer in the ninth inning to lead the Tides to a win at Harbor Park, he also
drove in a run with a fourth-inning double.

Heath Bell
(3-2) picked up the win in relief of Jose
Lima who was pitching a shutout until surrendering four runs in the sixth
inning.

Binghamton Mets (AA)

Saturday

Jorge Padilla doubled twice in a 2-4
performance with two runs scored. 

Chase Lambin launched a solo HR as
well.

Sunday

St Lucie Mets (A+)

Saturday

Caleb Stewart won this game with a
three run HR in the bottom of the ninth for St. Lucie. Stewart
also doubled and scored twice in a 2-5 night. 
Carp, in addition to starting the ninth inning rally doubled and drove
home a run. 

Sal Aguilar turned in a nice start,
allowing two runs in seven innings.  He struck
out two and walked two.

Carlos Muniz blew the save in the ninth
by giving up a run, but Stewart’s blast made him a winner.

Sunday

Jose Coronado’s
three-run, eighth-inning single proved to be the margin, as St. Lucie battled
back from a big deficit and shaky starting pitching to beat Vero Beach at historic Holman Stadium.  (Ed: If you had trouble with the concept of a
three-run single, you weren’t alone. 
Coronado himself scored the third run on the play on a throwing error on
Vero’s catcher.  This, my friends, is
minor league baseball.)

Carlos Muniz
pitched the final out of the game to pick up his 27th save of the season.

Hagerstown Suns (A-)

Saturday

Deolis Guerra (5-7) allowed just one run in his five innings on two hits.  He walked three and struck out three,
lowering his ERA to 2.35.

Centerfielder
Sean Henry, who was converted from
SS this year, and promoted this week from Kingsport,
was 2-3 with two doubles.

Sunday

Jeramy Simmons (1-2) was sharp through seven innings, allowing
just two runs and four hits, but ran out of gas in the eighth, allowing a pair
of singles and then a double, which scored a run, to start off the inning.

Ryan Meyers couldn’t put out the fire,
giving up a single and two more runs before finally quelling the uprising.

Kevin Tomasiewicz slammed the door and
picked up his 15th save.

Here's a few highlights of last nights minor league action courtesy of Toby's Mets Minor League Report…

AAA

• Edgardo Alfonzo had a pair of hits, including a double and an RBI.
• Chris Basak had three hits and
  an RBI.

AA

• Chase Lambin, who was demoted in place of Edgardo Alfonzo, doubled and homered to drive in a pair
  of runs.
• Carlos Gomez had three hits
• Ambio Concepcion had four hits 
• Henry
  Owens collected the save.

A+

• Mike Carp
  continued his hot hitting with two hits, including a double.
• Corey Coles had three hits to raise his
  average to .337.

The Great Metstradamus reveals his Hall Of Hate for 2006. I have to admit, i'm quite pleased with the results, but Steve Phillips shouldn't have ranked so highly. There are people far more deserving of our hate.

Jessica laughs at E-Rod over at Chicks Dig The Pitchers Duel.

Faith and Fear In Flushing makes a list.

Bob Sikes has some thoughts on the Mets dealing for pitching on Getting Paid To Watch.

Lonestar Mets talks Fonzie.

Mike's Mets revisits September 2004.

The Metropolitans profiles Carlos Gomez.

Transplanted Mets Fan writes and ode to Clifford.

Mets Geek starts a series that we hope continues, Minor League Boxscores, and provides a preview of the Reds pitchers the Mets will see this week.

Mets Daily has some great Mets news and notes.