Benson -- Julio Redux?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Tony is pissed. Death to the mods. (Best handle in that thread: TejadaTheyFall.)

Frobby went sour on Maine. He seceded from Maine, or... whatever. Olehippi says he was rushed.

BigBird has a connection on the inside.

The Sun says that Mazzone hearts Benson.

Sapper says peeps are hypocrites for not jumping after fellow Benson Buncer Lowe.

Initial reaction was mixed, but my initial read is more positive than negative. (The thread is over ten pages.) I like the fear that Julio could turn into Benitez.

[Guest Edgy DC]

]How can anyone be 'sad' to see Julio leave? His fastball gets straighter every year. He gets visibly shaken everytime he gives up a hit. He has no good pitches, just one hard one. I will go help him pack his bags if he needs a hand. FruitLoopKid

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

KC wrote: >>>Rather than 'fess up and admit that maybe my opinion wasn't quite as loony as he'd maintained, he preferred picking fight after tedious fight after never-ending fight with me, and then suddenly (when he found he was getting as good as he was giving) just began treating my posts as non-existent.<<< I don't think this fairly sums up what went down. You really frame it to make edge sound like a real bastardly prick and often it was you were the bastardly prick in the history of this small community. I find this fued to be terribly stressful and unecessary. It maikes me physically ill sometimes when this stuff flairs up. ILL.

I think we've both been pricks from time to time, maybe me more than Edgy. I think the sentences you quoted, though, as are as accurate as memory allows, though I respect those who remember differently.

For those who want to blame St. Edgy's persecution on me, I have to wonder if they also enjoy his tone with Rotblatt in this thread, or other posters from time to time, where he indulges in the same prickly, needlessly difficult baiting and parsing of terms and irrelevant nit-picking and far-fetched analogies and incessant harsh criticism and literalization of anyone else's analogies and other debating devices designed to frustrate St. Edgy's interloquitor rather than to further the discussion.

Sorry to cause you stress. I was trying to answer Elster's question to me. I'll try not to discuss this topic in the future without a direct question before me.

[Guest KC]

Lol, yes our recollection of past events is very different.

I'm not blaming Edgy's persecution on anyone, or even acknowledging
that such a thing exists.

Let's try and move on, for the fifty-sixth time.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

KC wrote: Lol, yes our recollection of past events is very different. I'm not blaming Edgy's persecution on anyone, or even acknowledging that such a thing exists. Let's try and move on, for the fifty-sixth time.

So moved.

I've written the first few pages of my story, which has set a new record for me: the word "fuck" ("fucked," actually) appears five words into the story, the closest to the beginning it has ever made its appearance in my work. "By the time I'd fucked half of my husband's teammates, I was reconsidering my vow. Not my wedding vows--Teddy and I were going to stay married to each other despite anyone's infidelities--but my vow to have sex with each and every one of his teammates, including coaches, managers and the training staff, if Teddy ever slept with another woman."

And so on, for several pages so far. I like her voice, this Anna I've invented (a movie star, rather than a model, and far more articulate than, I think, than Anna is, though just as scatterbrained and loopy.) It's kind of fun, and a little creeepy, trying to think how Anna thinks.

[MFS62]

Is it easier to think how someone else thinks or write like someone else writes? Or is it the same thing?

After writing song parodies on another board, someone asked me if I could write prose/ text in the styles of other writers. As a result, I've written pieces (with baseball themes) in the styles of:
Anne Rice
Star Trek (actually 8 of them)
Mickey Spillaine
Law and Order
Charles Dickens
Ian Flemming

I've posted many of them here.

The most difficult problem before you is probably the fact that you've used "Anna Benson" and "think" in the same sentence.

Later

[Elster88]

]We still don't have enough left handed middle relief so after all this, the pen is still not complete.

Amazing isn't it? You'd think that after trading two starting pitchers almost exclusively for bullpen help (have to say "almost, or I'd get killed for not acknowledging our new stud prospects) we'd be able to fashion a complete bullpen.

[Guest HappyRecap]

Having read a lot of the posts on this topic, I sincerely hope the pen is not the group that will be heading north to NY in April.

Maybe Minaya has some tinkering (really liked DickShot's trade idea from this past Saturday where we landed Zito) to do but outside of Wagner there doesn't seem to be guys who have a long track record for success.

Then again, guys like Bell, Fortunato, Ring, Feliciano, etc...are all still here (I think) and maybe one of these guys will step up and be a season-long contributor.

[Guest abogdan]

]The irrational part, to me, is decrying these trades as bad by thinking that the current crew of starters is necessarily any worse than the prior crew. But maybe that's what rankles so much; the starting rotation seems to be mired in mediocrity, no matter which of seven or eight pitchers land in the five starting spots.

The current crew isn't worse, but at least when you have 7 to 8 "mediocre" starters, you have a better chance that one or two of them well put together above average seasons and be valuable contributors. Or, if one or two of them decline, you have someone to jump in and pitch mediocrely (just made that word up). If Seo or Trachsel sucked, there was Zambrano and Heilman waiting in the wings to step in and replace their crappy innings with mediocre ones. Now, if Zambrano and/or Heilman take a step backwards, there isn't anyone that the Mets can plug in and reasonably expect to be any sort of improvement.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I agree with you and try to oft say that redundancy is a good thing. they played off a lot of redundancy and that leaves me worried that the season is one broken finger or two blisters from breaking.

G-FaFiF summed up the rotation like this: Pedro (toe), Glavine (age), Trachsel (rust), Zambrano (Zambrano) and...Heilman?

This year, for better or worse, the Mets will be looking for the redundancy to come initially from Bannister, Soler, Maine and Iriki (I hear the music now) and maybe others in the second half. I guess we live in fear. I am glad the Mets got a prospect of sorts back.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

]Iriki (I hear the music now)

Iriki, you're so fine
You're so fine you blow my mind
Iriki (clap-stomp, stomp-clap)
Iriki

[Elster88]

]Zambrano (Zambrano)

LOL.

[Guest rpackrat]

I disagree that the rotation is mediocre. In fact, I'll go so far as to predict that the Mets' starters will end up in the top 5 in the league in ERA+. That said, the Seo and Benson (and Cameron) trades were bad trades. Any time you get back less talent than you give up, it's a bad trade. If Omar had a little more patience, he could probably have filled his bullpen needs and gotten more (e.g., prospects or useful role players) as well.

[Frayed Knot]

I think the "impatient" label applies better to the Cameron deal but less so to the others. The Benson trade in particular was months in the making and apprently went back and forth over the inclusion of a prospect.

In the Benson & Seo cases, I think Omar believes:
- that Julio's "power arm" means he's going to be better than his recent record shows
- that the 'odd men out' were those two to remain in the rotation: most likely Heilman and Zambrano; will do at least as good a job and for considerably less money
- that there's sufficient backup even beyond the new back-end guys (Maine, Bannister, Soler, Iriki) so that the rotation won't be in danger
- and that the imported bullpen guys (Julio, Bradford, Sanchez) are better bets and were neccessary over the in-house wannabes: Ring, Bell, Fortunato, etc.

Time will tell how all these bets turn out.