Tobi Stoner got lit up on Sunday, but he has been mostly effective in the Dominican Winter League. So, you know, good.

Scouts will tell you that Stoner has “short stuff” and doesn’t project as a Major League starter. He’s been solid but not outstanding in most of his Minor League stops, though his strikeout to walk ratio has predictably trended downward as he’s moved through the Mets’ system.

I’m rooting for Stoner for a variety of reasons. He’s a nice guy, for one. I got to talk to him a bit in Binghamton this year, and he seemed to recognize and appreciate that a lot of Mets fans would buy his jersey for comedic reasons.

Plus I’ve got this thing for homegrown and inexpensive contributors that I keep blabbering on about, and maybe he could be that. I thought a decent comp might be Brian Bannister, but it turns out Bannister’s peripherals were a bit more impressive than Stoner’s across a very similar trek through the Minors.

Regardless, the important thing, I think, is that we always remember to punctuate his name with cliched stoner utterances like “bro,” “man,” “phriend,” and “let’s get pizza.”

Will the joke get old quickly? Yeah, and it’s probably already dead. But just ask Norm MacDonald: If you keep using the same joke long enough after it’s no longer funny, it starts to get funny again.

My Twitter is absolutely blowing up with rumors about the Mets pursuing Johnny Damon this offseason now that he wasn’t offered arbitration by the Yankees.

I’m not sure any of them are substantiated, but I figured this was as good a time as any to link up this post from late October, when I pointed out what a downright Mets-ish move signing Damon would be.

I want to reiterate one thing about Damon that bothers me, though, and it has little to do with the player he is on the field:

Johnny Damon is a massive sellout.

This isn’t a good reason not to sign a baseball player, I realize. It’s an emotional thing, not the type of thing that should dictate front-office decisions. But here’s what I wrote in October:

I really don’t begrudge baseball players for taking the largest contracts offered to them, but leaving the Red Sox for the Yankees while shaving his caveman beard and cutting his hair was just too much. C’mon, guy. At least get yourself a beard clause in the contract. He makes Mark McGrath look like Ian MacKaye.

And here’s Reel Big Fish on the matter.

Alright, so the aforementioned Chris Coste column is posted at SNY.tv. Check it out.

I speculated a lot and made it about Alex Cora, too, because Alex Cora is a giant offseason lightning rod for Mets fans and I could not resist.

There shouldn’t be too much there that shocks TedQuarters faithful, but I’m happy I finished it, even if I’m not thrilled with the outcome. I never meant to let that space die when I started this blog; I had a column about Citi Field bouncing around in my head that I kept putting off, then I got so caught up in blogging that I kind of put the SNY.tv column on the back burner.

The Mets are reportedly close to a one-year deal with Alex Cora worth about $2 million.

I’ve said my piece on Cora, and I’m not out to repeat myself any more than I already do.

Instead, I’ll turn it over to “Hit the Weights Zeile,” a commenter on MetsBlog who put it pretty clearly:

Not worth 2 million. This team just can never figure this out but if you give out 3-4 contracts like this to guys who simply arent good you couldve used that money for useful parts. Cora’s production can be replaced for a fraction of that contract.

As they say on the Internet: This.

It’s nothing against Cora. It’s something against guaranteeing Cora $2 million.

And it’s nothing against making Cora and Elmer Dessens the first two offseason acquisitions. The Mets entered the offseason needing depth in the middle infield and the bullpen.

It’s about allocating resources where they do not need to be allocated. It’s about promising a roster spot — and remember, this front office rarely gives up on sunk costs until long after it should — to a guy who should be competing for one.

And it’s about committing to a guy to fill a need that might be filled more adeptly by a non-tendered free agent before anyone is certain who will be non-tendered.

I’m sick of making this argument, and I have a feeling I’m not going to change anyone’s mind anyway. The bottom line is that Cora won’t prevent the Mets from competing in 2010 or beyond, but he’s not likely to help them either.

I used to work with a really awesome guy who wasn’t very good at his job. People would complain about his various inabilities all the time, and then they’d inevitably punctuate their complaints with, “But hey, great guy.” So here’s that for Alex Cora:

But hey, great guy.

D.J. Short absolutely nails it for NBC Sports: The Mets would be silly to shell out a multi-year deal for Bengie Molina when Kelly Shoppach could be non-tendered by the Indians.

Check it out: Even in Shoppach’s down year in 2009, he posted a 98 OPS+ to Molina’s 86.

Shoppach played nearly a full-time role for the Indians in 2008 when Victor Martinez was struggling with injury, but apparently the Indians are content to make due with Wyatt Toregas and Lou Marson while they await the arrival of Carlos Santana, whose songs all sound the same.

Shoppach’s not the world’s best defender behind the plate, but neither is Molina. And Shoppach is six years younger.

He might not have Molina’s Major League track record, but he’s almost certainly a better bet moving forward.

Plus, he looks just a tiny bit like Todd Pratt.

According to the New York Times, as of midafternoon Friday the Mets Clubhouse Store on 42nd St. hadn’t sold any of the team’s new home jerseys, released just in time for the biggest shopping day of the year.

Not good.

Ad sales in the offseason make up a big part of the Mets’ annual revenue, and so a complete lack of interest among fans — foreboding, presumably, less interest from advertisers — is the type of thing that could prompt the front office to push to make a “splash” this winter.

That could be a good thing, for sure. Some of the potential cannonballs in the offseason pool — Matt Holliday, for example — are great players who could help the Mets in the upcoming season and those to come.

But making a splash for the sake of making a splash, especially for a team shrouded in uncertainty, could turn out terribly.

I’m not saying that fans should buy more jerseys to keep Omar Minaya from doing something silly, nor am I saying one day’s worth of bad merchandise sales will affect the Mets’ offseason outlook. But the team competes for advertising dollars in the market with the reigning world champions, and that creates a lot of pressure to grab headlines and fan attention this offseason.

Sometimes it seems like Mets brass are more concerned with improving the perception of the team than with improving the actual team, and more concerned with winning airtime on talk radio in March than winning games in October.

But offseason headlines, lucrative though they may sometimes be, are short-lived and unsustainable. Even if it means taking a one-year hit in offseason revenue, the Mets need to focus on creating a perpetual winner, something that will eventually earn them a whole lot more than a new look or a rash move.

According to an article in today’s Daily News, a Brooklyn judge tossed out a lawsuit against the city by property owners in Willets Point, the “neighborhood” across from Citi Field.

The suit alleged that the city was purposefully neglecting the area to drive down property costs to make the planned redevelopment there less expensive.

Eminent domain is a sticky issue, and I have far from all of the facts in this case. But to Mets fans, this is pretty clearly a good thing.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit 23 Major League stadiums, and I can attest that the ones with places to go in the immediate vicinity before and after games make for a much, much more pleasant experience. You can get delicious green chili across the street from Coors Field and tasty microbrews around the corner from Safeco.

You can’t even see a bar or restaurant from Citi Field.

I’ll believe that Willets Point will have all the things the city is hoping to put there as soon as I see it. The area doesn’t even have working sewers yet, so I imagine it’s a good ways off. But man, it’d be pretty great to have someplace to go for a meal before the game or a drink afterwards that didn’t involve a trek or a subway ride.

They might. But they almost certainly won’t.

My apologies. The hot-stove season is getting to my head.

Here’s what the Mets’ new uniforms will look like, courtesy of Matt Cerrone:

Color me underwhelmed. If they are going to go old-school, why include the black dropshadow, as Cerrone points out?

Also, and moreover, I’m just not a huge fan of making new things intended to look old.

And why choose to honor one era in the team’s history over another? Would it have been similarly “retro” if the Mets went with their 1986 racing stripes or the ridiculous white hats they briefly busted out in the mid-90s?

For that matter, how about a throwback Mercury Mets jersey to celebrate that one magical day?

I like the pinstripes, though. Pinstripes are still cool.

OK, so first there were rumors of a three-team deal between the Mets, Cubs and Blue Jays that would send Luis Castillo to the Cubs, Milton Bradley to the Blue Jays, and Lyle Overbay to the Mets.

Then someone bothered asking the Blue Jays and it was shot down.

Then came rumors of a very similar deal, except replacing “Blue Jays” with “Rangers” and “Lyle Overbay” with “Kevin Millwood.”

Then someone asked the Rangers. Again, no dice.

Doesn’t seem too hard to read the tea leaves here: Jim Hendry will gladly take on Luis Castillo if it means he can get rid of Milton Bradley and his contract, but the Mets are unwilling to take on Milton Bradley and his contract.

So they’re looking for a sucker.

Overbay is about as good a hitter as Bradley, plus he can defend at least a little, plus he’s owed way less money for fewer years, plus he hasn’t spent large parts of nearly every season on the disabled list, plus he’s not Milton Bradley. Shouldn’t really be too surprising that the Blue Jays shot that one down.

Kevin Millwood is owed $12 million next year — maybe a bit pricey for his caliber pitcher, but nothing prohibitive — plus he’s a decent pitcher who has started at least 29 games in each of the last five seasons, plus he’s coming off a very good year. He’s probably someone the Rangers could replace for less money, but he’s not someone I imagine they’d be eager to give away in return for a lousy contract.

I have absolutely no inside information to back this up, but it sure sounds like the Mets and Cubs are hoping there’s a third team out there that makes far worse moves than the Mets and Cubs.

Good luck with that.

It’s pretty much unreasonable to expect any team taking on Milton Bradley’s contract to send the Mets something that will actually fill much of a need for 2010.

I doubt this rumored framework goes away anytime soon, but I also doubt the teams involved will be able to get it done unless the Mets substantially lower their asking price.