Scott Stewart, huh?

I admit I thought mlb.com's choice of headlines was a little funny. Mets Beef Up Bullpen, accompanied by a photo of Stewart back in his Montreal heyday, appearing to have a second chin in the works.

That was back in 2003, and given his performance last year (6.58 ERA in 34 games, split between two lucky teams) he may have assumed it was a career and let himself go a little since. I imagine him reporting to camp looking like Bob Wickman's mirror image, but maybe just for my own entertainment. In any case he's not a very good reliever, but he's the kind of guy the Mets are going to have to depend on this year.

Remember the John Franco, Turk Wendell, Dennis Cook bullpen? Around 1998? Yeah, me too. That group was much better.

The two minor league contracts are about what you'd expect. 28 year-old Eric Junge, in 26.1 innings for Triple-A Scranton, posted a 9.91 ERA. You could try to find a Major League Equivalent for that small sample over at BP, or you could just file him under "Awful" and move on.

Jed Hansen has a little more going for him. In 463 at-bats for Triple-A Omaha, he hit 27 home runs with an OPS of 871. Remarkably, he also played at least twenty games at the following positions: OF, 1B, 2B and SS. Joe McEwing soured me a little bit on the virtues of versatility, but I don't think Super Joe slugged 505 anywhere above rookie ball. Hansen's downside? The 33 candles on his next birthday cake. They can't all be prospects, ya know.

Notes

Carlos Delgado handles his bidness, and you have to respect it. The AP reported yesterday that Delgado loves the Florida state tax code so much, he'll effectively be taking it with him should, God forbid, he get traded to a team that plays in some bleeding-heart welfare state. Maybe the Wilpons should start doing some lobbying in Albany.

Flushing Local isn't very optimistic that the Mets are a better team than they were last year. I can't say I agree with her conclusion, but the position-by-position breakdown is pretty on the mark. I would recommend it to anyone who's expecting a division title in 2005.

Toby at Mets Minor League Report is hopping mad about the Minky-Blade deal, which has already been criticized by others including myself. I mention it because my old college buddy is even madder than I am. He's really mad. Maybe the maddest.