Saturday in the Park

[Edgy MD]

Francisco Álvarez was on a pace to reach his free-agency rights after the 2028 season. If he is not recalled to the Mets by Saturday, tomorrow, the Mets will have successfully pushed back his free agency by a year with his demotion. So says https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6481510/2025/07/08/mets-francisco-alvarez-free-agency/Tim Britton and Will Salmon in The Athletic.



Drama.



[FIMG=500]https://www.northjersey.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2025/05/28/PNJM/83903608007-usatsi-26109020.jpg?crop=8053,4530,x0,y419&width=660&height=371&format=pjpg&auto=webp[/FIMG]

[Lefty Specialist]

Baseball can be a harsh business, Francisco.



He didn't help by basically playing lousy. If he's hitting, this isn't an issue.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, it's hard to feel sorry for him.

[metirish]

“I can't worry about that right now — it's a lot for me to worry about right now,” Alvarez told The Athletic when approached about the free-agency issue Tuesday before a game in Syracuse. “I didn't know that, but I feel like I need to just focus on getting better and that's it.”



That's the spirit

[batmagadanleadoff]

Alvarez was so horrifically bad all season long, that nobody misses him in the least after his well earned demotion to Syracuse. Speaking for myself at least, I don't miss him and hardly even notice his disappearance from the roster.

[Edgy MD]

Well, I miss him, even if his ability was far more symbolic than concrete. For the most part, his defense was far more consistent this year until his last week or two. And Hayden Senger's next RBI will be his first.



In the past, I thought he swung so hard that his arms grew tired over day-to-day play. He would swing like a maniac for a few weeks, and then for six-weeks after that his bat would be really late.



That hasn't been an issue so much this year, when his swings have been far more controlled but no less ineffective. Maybe his gym regimen slows him down. I dunno. His abilities are real, and hopefully he figures out what his game is.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Heyden Senger does bring value to the plate-- his walk-up song is "Hold the Line" by Toto.



Love isn't always on time, yknow

[batmagadanleadoff]

Nobody's saying that Alvarez won't ever live up to his promise. But I take your comments with a big grain of salt because there isn't a single Met in the history of mankind till the end of the world that you're not head over heels in love with. You'd be touting Alvarez even if he was oh for the season having struck out in every single one of his at bats. You'd probably be complimenting him instead, for not swinging at the first called strike or something.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Heyden Senger does bring value to the plate-- his walk-up song is "Hold the Line" by Toto. Love isn't always on time, yknow

Toto? WTF? I thought you were cool.

[Edgy MD]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=197821 time=1752254901 user_id=68]
Nobody's saying that Alvarez won't ever live up to his promise. But I take your comments with a big grain of salt because there isn't a single Met in the history of mankind till the end of the world that you're not head over heels in love with. You'd be touting Alvarez even if he was oh for the season having struck out in every single one of his at bats. You'd probably be complimenting him instead, for not swinging at the first called strike or something.

[Lefty Specialist]

Nobody seems particularly worried about pulling forward Hayden Senger's free agency. Of course by then he could be playing down in Africa.

[metirish]

I asked AI to turn Hold the line into a song about Hayden Senger







"Hold the Line (Hayden Senger Song)"Verse 1

It's not in the way that you swing the bat,

It's not in the calls that you make out back.

It's not in the way you've been grindin' each day,

It's not in the way that you block every play. Pre-Chorus

It's not in the stats or the fame that you chase,

It's the heart that you show in that catcher's space. Chorus

Hold the line, Senger's fightin' all the time, oh, oh, oh!

Hold the line, Mets fans cheerin' all the time, oh, oh, oh! Verse 2

It's not in the lights of the big-league stage,

It's not in the minors where you earn your wage.

It's not in the way that you dream of the call,

It's the hustle you bring, giving it your all. Pre-Chorus

It's not in the roar or the crowd's loud scream,

It's the grit in your soul for the orange and blue team. Chorus

Hold the line, Senger's fightin' all the time, oh, oh, oh!

Hold the line, Mets fans cheerin' all the time, oh, oh, oh! Bridge

From Syracuse fields to the Citi Field dream,

You're crouchin', you're callin', you're leadin' the team.

Through every pitch, every out, every sign,

Hayden Senger's holdin' the line! Verse 3

It's not in the way that the scouts might pass,

It's not in the wait for your shot at last.

It's not in the way that you carry the load,

It's the fire inside on that long, hard road. Pre-Chorus

It's not in the cheers or the name on the shirt,

It's the love for the game in the dust and the dirt. Chorus

Hold the line, Senger's fightin' all the time, oh, oh, oh!

Hold the line, Mets fans cheerin' all the time, oh, oh, oh! Outro

Hold the line, yeah, Senger's fightin' all the time, oh, oh, oh!

Hold the line, Mets fans cheerin' all the time, oh, oh, oh!

(Hold the line!) Keep on grindin', Hayden, shine!

(Hold the line!) Love for the Mets, it's all the time!

Edited July 11, 2025 by Guest

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Heyden Senger does bring value to the plate-- his walk-up song is "Hold the Line" by Toto. Love isn't always on time, yknow Toto? WTF? I thought you were cool.

I like "Hold the Line" .... It's got that plinky piano, the heavy-metal guitar chords a cool beat. Bobby Kimbal's vocals dial up the cheese factor.

[Edgy MD]

And the day passes without much fanfare. And with it goes a minor windfall for the Álvarez family.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Heyden Senger does bring value to the plate-- his walk-up song is "Hold the Line" by Toto. Love isn't always on time, yknow Toto? WTF? I thought you were cool. I like "Hold the Line" .... It's got that plinky piano, the heavy-metal guitar chords a cool beat. Bobby Kimbal's vocals dial up the cheese factor.

I'd like Toto if they were to appear at the Live Aid 2025 Festival and told Joni Ernst that if she's such a fucking leader, she should lead by example and kill herself first being that we're all gonna die. Then I'd like Toto a lot. Then scumbag Joni Ernst could explain to all the suckers and rubes that voted for her that she doesn't want to kill herself because she believes that she still has 10, 20, maybe 30 good years of life left that she'd prefer to live out and that there ain't no Heaven and if you believe in Heaven, you're another sucker to be had. And then all the people that are gonna lose their Medicaid could respond that they too have 20 or 30 years of life left that they'd like to live out and enjoy if only they could get the medicine that's reasonably available to them and that they're eligible to receive today because they're eligible Medicaid beneficiaries and not Medicaid scammers. Too bad that if they voted for Ernst in the first place, they're probably too fucking stupid to put those thoughts and ideas together in the first place. People needing Medicaid who vote for the scumbag Republicans. Imagine that. Cruelty and psychopathy masquerading as political ideology.

[TheNextMetsManager]

I wonder how Mets catchers are hitting since his demotion. Certainly worse than his .709 June OPS right?



oh my god my eyes, it burns it burns the goggles do nothing!



4 walks? That's an average weekend for Juan Soto.



2 XBHs? That's a bad weekend for Juan Soto. Alvarez had more than that in the same amount of time previous to the move.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Edgy MD wrote: And the day passes without much fanfare. And with it goes a minor windfall for the Álvarez family.

I'd be surprised if the year of control was a motivating factor for the Mets, but Alvarez certainly brought it on himself. I read somewhere that back in Syracuse he was changing his swing a bit and was having success. Maybe a little over-coaching up in New York?



Also noticing that some of the young prospect pitchers -- McLean and Sproat -- are performing to their season best while throwing to Alvarez.



I like some Toto. "I'll Supply the Love" and "Stanger in Town" are good songs.

[Edgy MD]

No, I doubt the year of control/freedom from free agency was particularly considered.



But yeah, as NextMetManager points out, it is not like they cannot use him.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I read Steve Luthaker's bio. It wasn't all that good but funny stuff about they abused Bobby Kimbal, like Davey Johnson used McDowell

[Edgy MD]

I got the idea that somebody in LA heard what Boston did — creating a fake arena rock band that became an overnight success — and thought "Fuck that, we are Hollywood — we do fake better than we ANYBODY, and we have the most talented, dorky nobodies in the world."



So they got a bunch of guys who already played together in the studio every week on Randy Newman and Boz Scaggs records, each one of them un-cooler than the next, and said "You guys are arena rockers now — you need to play something big, dumb, and crunchy and figure out which one of you can sing like Brad Delp."

[ashie62]

Boston went straight from demos to a contract for several records with Epic. They didn't have to do any club gigging to get signed or reach #1 on the charts. Tom Scholz was early in at MIT with progressive analog sound advances right into the Midi digitalization era



There was another band that also went from demos to contract to almost instant success, Chrissy Hynde and the Pretenders



I've never thought of any band as fake, even the Monkees and the Bay City Rollers. Their albeit young fans accepted them as they were. All bands have soul

[Frayed Knot]

I love the totally unforeseen change of direction that this thread took.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I really liked "Rosanna." The follow up to the debut really sucked and the third album was pretty crappy, too. Four really saved their butts.



I think they were great musicians but not necessarily great songwriters.

[Edgy MD]

If there had been no Toto, we probably never get Patrick Swayze, and then where would we be? Ghost ends up starring Jim Belushi or Nic Cage and who wants to live in that world?



I sure don't.