I'm here, and it's warm out. Don't hate me.

Omar Minaya, Jerry Manuel and the coaches will be here - Jeff Wilpon, too - and a number of players are expected, although it's not exactly sure whom. At the least today, I should have a substantive post by early in the afternoon.

For now, a few items for thought:

As I waited at LaGuardia last night, my flight delayed, I conducted a study of Jon Garland vs. Ben Sheets, wondering, "How much higher is Sheets' upside? How much more reliable is Sheets?"

Here's an rWAR comparison of the last eight seasons:

2002: Sheets 2.4, Garland 1.2

2003: Sheets 1.8, Garland 1.6

2004: Sheets 6.3, Garland 2.0

2005: Garland 5.0, Sheets 3.2

2006: Garland 3.3, Sheets 2.3

2007: Garland 3.8, Sheets 3.0

2008: Sheets 4.3, Garland 1.0

2009: Garland 1.8, Sheets 0

Sheets has a total of 23.3, an average of 2.91 per season. Garland has a total of 19.7, an average of 2.46 per season. Each player "won" the head-to-head comparison four times in eight years.

And while Sheets obviously sets off alarms because he missed all of last year, it's also interesting to note Garland's dropoff of the past two seasons.

I guess I'd advise the Mets to go for Sheets, in part due to his upside and in part due to Garland's depreciation in 2008 and 2009.

--Curtis Granderson said goodbye to Tigers fans yesterday.

--Trouble already with Dusty Baker and Aroldis Chapman? That didn't take long!

(You know, of course, this is not a real story. But Reds fans might not laugh.)

--Self-promotion alert: For the blog's many, many readers in Baltimore - seriously, I'm not sure if there are any - I'll be on WNST at 7:45 this morning.

Smell ya later.

 

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