Baseball by Dan Graziano

MLB analysis by The Star-Ledger columnist

Just dropped my Hall of Fame ballot in the mail. Yeah, I know -- two days early. If something happens in the next two days to change my mind, then Alan Trammell has my apologies and I promise I'll hook him up next year.

We can check up to 10 names, as most people know, and this year I checked four. They are, in order of my own perception of their Hall-worthiness:

-Rickey Henderson (A slam dunk for first-ballot induction).

-Bert Blyleven (I just never understood the case against him).

-Tim Raines (A unique and profoundly valuable player who's hurt by a lack of traditional "Hall"-type stats).

-Jack Morris (A true No. 1 starter throughout his career, World Series hero and...well, I know I'm in the minority on Morris so I guess I'll stop there).

The question everybody asks is whether the Mets WILL sign Manny Ramirez, and to this point the answer remains no. We've said and written it a million times -- Omar Minaya likes the guy, thinks he'd be a perfect fit, but ownership doesn't want him on the team. It's why they didn't trade for him in July, when he was practically free, and it's why they say they're not going to sign him now.

But the question that doesn't seem to be asked nearly as often is whether the Mets SHOULD sign Manny Ramirez. The answer to that one is: Of course they should.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty ImagesThe market for Manny Ramirez may have dried up, leaving him with little choice but to sign with the Dodgers.

So the move that makes the most sense now is Manny Ramirez to the Mets. Rudimentary stuff. Baseball 101.

Right?

The Yankees had Manny as a fallback in case they didn't get Mark Teixeira, but they did, so he's not going there. And he's not going to Boston, because ... well, I think it's fair to say he burned some bridges on his way out of there. And the Angels' GM said Tuesday that there's no way they're going to sign him.

So, the Mets. Right? Perfect fit. They need somebody to play left field. He's a monster hitter who'd probably put them over the top in the National League now that they have the bullpen worked out. They have money to spend (or so they say, Bernie Madoff notwithstanding). They need another lavage for the wounds left from another September collapse. Bring a New York guy, who also happens to be a future Hall of Famer, home? Perfect fit.

A person familiar with the deal, who requested anonymity because it is not yet official, said the Yankees' deal with switch-hitting first baseman Mark Teixeira is for a guaranteed $180 million over eight years and includes a no-trade clause, as reported earlier by Jon Heyman of SI.com.

A person close to the negotiations, who declined to be identified because the deal was "still in a sensitive negotiating stage," said the Yankees were nearing agreement with free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira.

The person said the deal was for eight or nine years at an average annual salary of about $22 million per year.

The deal would be a major coup for the Yankees, who were looking for a big bat to put in the middle of their lineup with Alex Rodriguez, mainly because the division rival Boston Red Sox had been considered the favorites to sign Teixeira.

AP PhotoA.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia

Hey, so I was engaging this weekend in an annual off-season rite of mine. I do the AL East preview every year for The Sporting News' baseball preview issue. (Used to be called Street & Smith's, but you know how everybody's consolidating/falling apart these days...)

Anyway, I'm supposed to pick the order of finish for the five teams. Fresh off the Yankees' Sabathia/Burnett press conference from last week, I went ahead and put the Yankees there at the top as I was laying out the page on which I'd be doing the work.

If you really believe the Red Sox are out of the Mark Teixeira bidding, then Scott Boras has a bridge in Newport Beach that he'd like to sell you.

The Red Sox went into this off-season with Teixeira at the very top of their must-have holiday shopping list, and no amount of woe-is-me posturing by Sox owner John Henry changes that reality.

Don't take that the wrong way. There's nothing wrong with Henry posturing, making a public statement that his team won't be able to afford Teixeira at the prices he and Boras are talking about. It's part of the negotiation, and you don't become as wealthy as John Henry is without knowing something about negotiation.

Seth Wenig/Associated PressMets pitcher J.J. Putz, right, speaks to Mets general manager Omar Minaya as they exit the locker room during a press conference at the new Citi Field Stadium.

In case you were wondering, J.J. Putz knows exactly what the back pages will say the first time he blows a late-inning lead for the Mets.

"I've been dealing with that for years," Putz said Thursday at a news conference in the home clubhouse at Citi Field. "I'm used to it and it doesn't bother me anymore."

For the record, he pronounces his last name "pootz." But he's not foolish enough to believe that others won't choose to pronounce it differently if he hits a rough patch in New York.
He was made fun of for his name at road stops throughout the American League for years as he rose to prominence with the Seattle Mariners. He heard it when he was a kid, though it apparently stopped for a while when he hit high school.