"The Mets' search for additional starting pitching will take them down to the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where four-time All-Star Ben Sheets is throwing Tuesday in a showcase for potential suitors, according to a baseball executive with knowledge of the Mets' plans.

If he wouldn't quite be The Franchise, at least he'd be a natural for the Mets - his 7-year-old son is named Seaver after, you guessed it, Tom Terrific.

Sheets, 31, missed all of 2009 after having surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow. He started the 2008 All-Star Game for the National League and finished that season 13-9 with a 3.09 ERA and a league-leading three shutouts. Over his eight-year career, all with Milwaukee, Sheets is 86-83 with a 3.72 ERA. But his record from 2007-08 was 25-14.

In 1,428 career innings, Sheets has struck out 1,206 and walked only 313."