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Backman Lands D'Backs Gig

Wally Backman was officially hired by the Diamondbacks today to be their new manager.

In other news, this article indicates the Mets will probably bring back Al Leiter at something like $4 million, plus his $2 million buyout and additional incentives. Whoopie. This stat we knew, but it's nice to see it written out:

his pitch count - 168.3 per nine innings, the highest of any pitcher to log enough innings to qualify for the ERA title

Great. $6+ million for that. Would any Mets fan shed a single tear if Leiter walked away? I know I wouldn't. The article also has some good news:

Cuban defector Alay Soler, who impressed Tuesday in his Dominican Winter League debut, allowing one hit and striking out 10 in five innings for Leones del Escogido, including fanning the first six batters he faced.

I don't know how competitive that league is, but 10 Ks in 5 innings is good in my book. This article in the Post indicates that if the Phillies jump to hire Jim Leyland, the Mets may try to nudge in and sign Jim Tracy away from the Dodgers. Tracy's Dodgers are +13 over the past four years in Actual Record-to-Pythagorean Record, meaning they won 13 more games than their runs scored/runs allowed would have predicted (+4, +3, +2, +4 over the past four season).

Willie Randolph probably still remains the favorite, though the fact that the Mets may be waiting on these other options probably means they're not completely sold on Randolph. Odds are that if Rudy Jaramillo doesn't get hired as manager the Mets will make a serious bid to bring him on as a hitting coach.