I doubt it. I think the Mets’ lack of moves means mostly that they don’t have a ton of payroll flexibility (which comes as no surprise at this point) and that they’re waiting to see which players slip through the cracks and can be obtained on the cheap.

Plus — and more importantly — it’s still only December, and they appear pretty much set in their lineup. The role-player type of guys they definitely still need to add usually find homes in the coming months. Last year they signed both Willie Harris and Scott Hairston in late January. They could use a starting pitcher to hedge against injuries and ineffectiveness, but given the going rate I imagine they’ll stand pat for a while and see if there’s one left in the bargain bin in a month or two.

I don’t think there’s any sense in the Mets’ pushing any young players into Major League action before it’s clear they can contribute at the level. Though as fans, we get excited and impatient for prospects when there doesn’t appear to be much hope for contention from the big-league club, it’s important to remember that the Minor Leagues exist for a reason. Players need to learn and grow physically and mentally against lesser competition before they’re ready to face the studs we watch 162 times a year. Plus, teams control their young players for only a limited time, and advancing a promising prospect to the Majors early could cost a club a couple of years of a player’s prime.

Obviously it’s a case by case thing: A guy like Kirk Nieuwenhuis who’s already 24 and has 83 games’ worth of Triple-A experience is a lot more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt if he looks awesome in Spring Training than Matt Harvey or Jeurys Familia. But I’ve seen fans unironically suggest the Mets “just go for” a full-blown youth movement by traiding David Wright and inserting Wilmer Flores at third base, and that’s absurd.

Plus, not for nothing, the Mets already have a bunch of young players in important roles. Right now they’ve got relatively young players slated for catcher, first base, shortstop, right field and two rotation slots.

I was not aware until right now, but apparently Colin Quinn is just straight-up antagonizing people on Twitter, tweeting about how great he is at everything and how stupid football is — stuff like that. Then he retweets all the nasty replies he gets. Pretty solid trolling, and a good way to make use of a well-followed Twitter account.

My issue with it is that I’ve never found Colin Quinn funny in any way. All a matter of taste, of course, and part of it is clearly bias: I loved Norm MacDonald so much that I was bound to hate whoever replaced him as the Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live. But truth is, I liked Kevin Nealon a lot too and I eventually warmed up to MacDonald.

Never happened with Quinn, at least in part because I never once laughed at anything he said. Maybe it’s all some sort of large-scale trolling performance? It seems like other comedians really like Quinn, so maybe behind the scenes he’s hilarious and he’s playing some massive joke on everyone. If he landed a gig on Saturday Night Live as part of that, then that’s pretty awesome.

But I doubt it. This is a longer discussion, but I’ve always found that when looking at abstract art that doesn’t appear particularly skillful, I find it easier to grasp if I learn that the artist was once an adept portraitist who abandoned traditional methods to start painting with his ass or whatever. So if I knew Colin Quinn to be funny in the first place, I’d have no trouble finding this trolling hilarious.

I assume he wants to take a below-market deal to return to the Mets because he’s so grateful for the way he was treated by the fans, the media and the team on the last go ’round. Right? Right?

Just put yourself in our shoes when you get a second. Or in the shoes of Cardinals fans or Cubs fans. When 40,000 people get out of their chairs in Milwaukee next April and give Ryan Braun a standing ovation, don’t just assume that they’re all bleating goats who will chew on whatever tin cans they’re fed. This stuff’s complicated. Being a passionate fan of anything messes with your brain chemistry. That’s what made my brain spam me with feel-good chemicals after Bonds got off with a slap of the wrist. When I think of Bonds, I think about some of the fondest memories baseball has ever given me. Around these parts, that will give him a pass for an awful lot over the rest of his life, even if you can’t understand that.

– Grant Brisbee, McCoveyChronicles.com.

First: The frequency with which I’ve found myself linking to Brisbee’s posts lately suggests to me he’s having a hell of an offseason. Go click through and read this whole thing; it’s awesome.

Second: I’d guess every baseball fan in the country who came of age in the last 15-20 years feels for some now-tainted (or at least suspected) player the way Brisbee does for Bonds. Mine’s Mark McGwire, among others.

Before I get into this, I should note that I put about as much stock in recent rumors that the Mets are “in on Gio Gonzalez” as I do in any offseason trade rumors, which is to say basically none.

I bring it up only because it calls to light a reasonably interesting question about our faith in certain advanced stats, especially when comparing Gonzalez to Jon Niese, also the subject of nebulous recent trade rumors.

Spend some time with Niese’s Fangraphs and baseball-reference pages and Gonzalez’s entries on the same sites.

Both pitchers throw left-handed. Gonzalez is a year older than Niese and has pitched 71 2/3 more innings over the past two seasons. Both are set for free agency after the 2015 season, but Gonzalez has Super 2 status, meaning he is eligible for arbitration a year earlier than Niese (ie this season) and should collect substantially more money over the course of the next four seasons if both stay healthy.

(How much more money is very hard to say, both because it’s so difficult to assume pitchers will stay healthy and because, as you will see below, it’s not necessarily safe to assume both will continue performing the way they have so far. Also because I suck at this. But I’m guessing about $15 million more over the length of the contract? Anyone?)

Gonzalez has far outpaced Niese in terms of results the last two seasons. He posted a cumulative 129 ERA+ to Niese’s 89 and finished in the top 10 in the American League in the stat both years.

But by many rate stats, Niese has been just as good if not better than Gonzalez. Gonzalez strikes out a few more batters, but Niese has a way better strikeout to walk ratio. Niese has yielded a slightly higher ground-ball rate across his career but has fallen victim to (or, depending on whom you ask, been the perpetrator of) a much higher batting average on balls in play. Both pitch their home games in parks known for suppressing home runs, but Gonzalez has allowed fewer home runs per fly ball over the past two seasons.

All that adds up to mean that though Gonzalez has pitched to a much better ERA and ERA+ over the past two seasons, Niese has had a better xFIP both years and boasts a lower career FIP.

I have no doubt where I stand on this one, but I’ve tried to stay neutral in presenting the above facts because I don’t want to sway you. Keep in mind the distinctions in likely salary and recent injury history. Pure hypothetical:

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