Ben Shpigel reports that Omar Minaya is planning a visit to Puerto Rico to scout Carlos Delgado. I understand the thought process — Delgado could be had on the cheap and serve as a nice one-year stopgap for Ike Davis — but I’d rather see Murphy get more at-bats to show what he can or can’t do. Would a healthy Delgado be better than Murphy? Almost certainly, but Murphy could be a much bigger part of the team’s future.

The Brooklyn Cyclones introduced Wally Backman as their manager yesterday, prompting John Harper to speculate about whether Backman could replace Jerry Manuel, and also write this maddening sentence:

He was never afraid to get in the face of a teammate, once even calling out Darryl Strawberry for missing games because of hangovers disguised as sick days, so if anybody is going to tell Carlos Beltran he’d better slide next time, it would likely be Backman.

IAHFSKLJH%^#&%#$&#$&$*!!!. I won’t even start.

ESPN aired 24 hours of college hoops yesterday, and friend of TedQuarters Howard Megdal stayed up for the whole thing. Georgetown beat Temple in one of the ugliest offensive games I’ve ever seen, 46-45.

Let he who has not gotten liquored up and fancied himself a ninja cast the first stone.