Classic win won't be only Mets highlight this year

The best game of 2010 so far has some similarity to the best game of 2009, which also featured a catcher hitting a game-winning ninth-inning homer (Omir Santos off of Jonathan Papelbon). But tonight's Rod Barajas walk-off was better. Last year's exciting win over the Red Sox was an anomaly - one of the few bright spots in a dismal year. Tonight's win offers hope for more great things this season.

Last year, Omir Santos was a great story - an unknown older rookie off to a good start getting the best of an All-Star closer. But Santos was ultimately not that good a hitter, or, for that matter, a good catcher.

Barajas now has nine homers, including two ninth-inning game winners in a span of three games. Last year, Daniel Murphy led the Mets with 12 homers for the entire year.

The Mets have endured numerous bullpen collapses over the last few years. Rarely did they come back from them as they did tonight. After Francisco Rodriguez gave up the game-tying homer to John Bowker, the Mets made not one, but two spectacular fielding plays in the same inning to keep the game tied. Ike Davis' sensational flip into the dugout and Luis Castillo's diving stop that saved a run were the top two Web Gems on ESPN tonight. The Mets saving a game with defense? Castillo saving a game with defense?

So when the game went into the bottom of the ninth, it wasn't "same old Mets, blowing it again," but a team that was going to keep fighting. Jeff Francoeur nearly beat out an infield hit. Ike Davis worked out a walk. Then Barajas hit his game-winning homer.

Last year, if the Mets made three errors and blew a save, they would have lost. If the starting pitcher took the mound a few days after undergoing an MRI, he would soon be headed to the DL.

In May 2008, Angel Pagan dove into the stands going after a foul ball. He made a great play, but landed on his shoulder. Pagan came back to pinch hit a couple of times, then missed the rest of the season.

Whether it's luck or skill or perhaps Alex Cora helping to catch him, Davis has now flipped over into the dugout twice in his short career and come up unscathed both times.

So many good things happened tonight - Pelfrey pitching well enough to win after his MRI and poor start against the Phillies; Jose Reyes stealing a base after a long drought; Jason Bay snapping his hitless streak. And while the stars were Barajas and Davis, you know it's a special game when a guy hits two homers, including a walk-off, and he has competition for star of the game.

The only thing missing tonight was a pie in the face for Barajas. But this was the first walk-off homer at Citi Field, so maybe the Mets weren't expecting to need a pie. With this team, however, it's time to start keeping some pies on hand.

Rod Barajas and collusion

After his game-winning homer last night, Rod Barajas leads all MLB catchers with seven longballs and is third in RBI with 14. He's also a good defensive catcher who has drawn praise for his work with the Mets pitching staff. Barajas may not be destined for the All-Star team, particularly since he is also hitting .231 with just two walks in 83 plate appearances. But I think everyone can agree that he is at least a solid major-league catcher.

But Barajas had trouble getting a major-league contract this past offseason despite putting up good power numbers for a catcher for Toronto last year (19 homers, 71 RBI). In late February, the Mets and Rangers offered Barajas minor-league deals. The Mets signed Barajas when they upgraded their offer to a major-league deal, the first and only such offer Barajas received.

At the start of the season, the head of the Players' Union said that he was considering filing a collusion grievance because players were getting similar offers from different teams. Barajas ended up getting $1 million guaranteed from the Mets with an additional $1M in incentives. Last year, he made $2.5 million with Toronto.

If every offer Barajas received was a significant pay cut, it could be collusion, and it also could be a market correction in a down economy.

But what's harder to justify is that the only offers Barajas received were for minor-league deals. How could all thirty clubs agree that Rod Barajas was not necessarily a major-league catcher?

Fortunately for the players, some players did get deals that couldn't have had anything do to with collusion. For example, Omar Minaya gave Kelvim Escobar $1.25 million guaranteed to, well, have more surgery. Mike Jacobs got $900,000 if he made the majors with $1.1M in incentives. Alex Cora got $2 million.

So before giving Minaya any credit for landing Barajas at a discount, think about what he did with the money he saved by not signing Bengie Molina.

Is Omar Minaya finally heeding Casey Stengel's advice?

Casey Stengel once said, "You have to have a catcher because if you don't you're likely to have a lot of passed balls." Stengel was attempting to justify the Mets' selection of 31-year-old perennial backup catcher Hobie Landrith as the team's first choice in the expansion draft.

The previous year, Landrith had hit .239 with two homers and 10 RBI in 71 at-bats for the Giants. Only an expansion team could be reduced to attempting to fill a key position with such a player.

Or so we thought. As of now, the 2010 Mets have no starting catcher - only, as one scout says, a bunch of backups. So far this offseason, Omar Minaya has acquired 21st-century versions of Landrith - Henry Blanco, Chris Coste and Shawn Riggans - to battle with Omir Santos, who should be a backup, and Josh Thole, who probably needs more seasoning in the minors.

But now there are reports that the Mets are pursuing free agent Rod Barajas, who actually has been a starting catcher the last two years with Toronto.

Barajas' numbers look eerily familiar:

2009 stats	AB	R	Hits	HR	RBI	SB	.AVG
Rod Barajas	429	43	97	19	71	1	.226
Mike Jacobs	434	46	99	19	61	0	.228

Omir Santos hit .260, but he can't match Barajas' power numbers. More importantly, Barajas is much stronger defensively.

Signing Barajas won't exactly be the equivalent of trading for Gary Carter before the 1985 season, but it would at least give the Mets some credibility behind the plate.