Billy Wagner = Armando Benitez + Lighter Fluid

[Vic Sage]

i'm a big Joe Nathan fan. Not only a former Seawolf (nee Patriot), he's been lights out since he showed up in the bigs. I always try to pick him for my fantasy teams, and he never disappoints.

[seawolf17]

Wasn't Plummer -- also mentioned in the press conference as a big factor -- that guy who just died?

edit: Looper, by the way, would go just below Tom Gordon on that chart at 83%.

[Guest AG/DC]

Yes, that's the recently deceased Plummer.

The farm was great. The surrounding area was attraction-less. We didn't even bother springing for the Earl Hamner, Jr. Walton's Mountain museum.

[Guest themetfairy]

="KC"]Playing redneck asshole advocate for a second, I think too much is still being said about Wags saying some stuff about Perez. And Perez has been more focused since. I don't read nearly as much buzz as many of the faithful here but was there any inkling that Perez' feelings were hurt? Was he pissed off? Is it possible it had a positive effect?

Even if what Wagner said was valid, the way he went about it was wrong.

Talking to Perez privately would have been good. Even talking to him with the pitching coach and half the staff around would have been ok. But trashing the guy in the media is not how Billy should have treated a teammate. He should have kept it in the family, so to speak.

[Guest Kong76]

Loudly citing it as a reason not to blow, or almost blow, a save weeks after
the fact in IGT's seems a little excessive to me. Our mileages vary.

For as much that's been said about him being a bad teammate, I just don't
see a lot of evidence of it. 24 guys have lots of ways to stifle one player if
it's a problem to them and we see no evidence of that either.

I'm not campaigning for people to start liking him, I did say I was playing
redneck asshole advocate here.

[Guest holychicken]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Memory Lane: Mets sign Wagner

It's clear to anyone who reads that thread that I saw all of this coming.

[Guest *62]

Best thread title I ever saw.

[Elster88]

Did Wagner really blast Ollie? Seems to me is he said some things that anyone with eyes knew. And it's not like it has hurt Ollie's career. If anything, it's improved it. And that's the good thing about Wagner's admitting when he screwed up. He can take and receive the tongue-lashings. A lot of what Wagner does is messed up but I think he's being treated slightly too harshly.

[soupcan]

So to sum up - Billy I think is at least as 'bad' (or good) as 'Mando was.

Interesting because while there are fans that are upset with Wags right now I don't sense a wholesale movement to burn his Alpaca farm down like there seemed to be with Benitez.

I'd really rather think that its not a racist thing and more like a 'Well, I guess that's just what you have to expect from a closer' kind of realization.

Or maybe he has to blow some more Big Games...?

[Guest AG/DC]

I don't think a lot of fans have shown themselves to be very good at having that kind of philosphical perspective.

Nonetheless, I think there was some subtle racism in play with the popular perception of Armando. The "can't hack New York" nonsense was utter garbaage.

[Centerfield]

Armando had some of his best years in New York.

He just couldn't handle the pressure of playing in San Francisco.