In case you ain’t heard, the New York Mets are having a wee bit of an ownership crisis of their own.  At MLB Trade Rumors, Howard Megdal offers a primer on what’s going on.

Around the horn …

  • Don Mattingly talked about the outfield situation with Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:

    … We’ll look at the matchups, because Marcus might be better against certain right-handers and Gibbons showed he hits lefties good,” said Mattingly.He said he will insist on better defense throughout the club, particularly Kemp and Ethier. Before Thames was acquired, there was talk of putting Gwynn in center, moving Kemp to right and Ethier to left, all because management was disappointed in the outfield play of Kemp and Ethier last year. Gwynn now figures to be primarily a late-inning defender in left field, unless his offense improves.

    “We want to put our best defense out there,” said Mattingly. “I’ve talked to Matt and Andre. For the most part, I don’t like moving everybody around. If everybody is playing defense the way they’re supposed to play, they’ll stay in their spots. But the defense has got to get better in the outfield. Not just Matt, but Andre also. Better positioning on counts, better jumps, paying better attention to the situations and the tendencies of the runners. We’ve got to get better defensively.”…

  • Albuquerque will host the Triple-A championship in 2011, writes Matt Eddy of Baseball America.
  • Get your first look at the post-Monster Truck, oh-so-sweet Dodger Stadium grass, thanks to Ernest Reyes of Blue Heaven.