IGT>5/24<Braves @ Mets-Hefner's Gotta Be Due! Ike,We Need U!

[Zvon]

Time to wake up.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

[Guest vtmet]

Time for Terry to be creative to shake things up...

We are 0-for-Hefner this season...Ike is hitting/fielding like a pitcher...

Hefner's splits:
vs RH batters: .183 BAA; .257 OBP; .313 Slugging Percentage; .570 OPS;
vs LH batters: .353 BAA; .439 OBP; .691 Slugging %; 1.130 OPS;

Ike bats 9th & pitches vs every LH'd batter...Hefner bats 8th and plays first vs every LH'd batter...

[Lefty Specialist]

Can it just rain until Wheeler's ready?

[Guest vtmet]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Can it just rain until Wheeler's ready?

but even then, you would need the other teams with potential rookies not to get rained out so that they become the "super 2's" so that the ownership group don't have to pay Wheeler one single extra penny...and even then, you would figure that Wheeler's gonna use up close to 1/2 of his allotted 2013 innings in the minors...

[Edgy MD]

I'm really totally down on roster decisions being pinned to Super Two status.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah.

I'm also down on fans caring about this stuff.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I care about delaying free agency. I don't care about delaying arbitration.

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Yeah. I'm also down on fans caring about this stuff.

What I'm getting at.

Delaying for what? For a more affordable future? It's so damn deafeatest and limited in scope. If 2013 is fruitful, we will find a way to pay for the roster in 2018. If 2013 isn't fruitful, it won't matter how much money we save in 2018. It won't be enough.

It's hard enough choosing between the needs of the team in the short term versus the needs of the player (and his ability to help the team) in the long term, when deciding whether to promote him. Adding this nebulous date that controls what he'll be paid years down the road --- IF he doesn't flame out or succumb to injury --- is folly. It over-complicates the decision, bringing in enough factors to paralyze you.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Okay, and conversely, willfully ignoring the Super Two/team-control thing is no-impulse-control, WFAN-dum-dum thinking at ITS worst (or can be, anyway), just as limited in scope. As for the down-the-road-never-coming thing, well... I mean, hell, a lot of things can happen-- why plan at all, if you're a GM? Empty your gun, Sandy-- WE'RE NOT GETTING YOUNGER, HARVERD!

I'm not saying I disagree with you entirely, or that you're not entitled to rant. I just think there's a bunch of ways to look at it.

[Edgy MD]

I just think, any day with a good player available to win games for you is a blessed day borrowed from eternity, and it may never be available to you again.

Youth, athleticism, beauty. It's all so fleeting.

I believe in the future and what it promises, but...

[Ceetar]

first off, not denying it's not the reason, but that Wheeler is staying down for solely super-2 reasons feels a little "they're so broke" conspiratorial.

He also just missed a start prior to the last one with an issue serious enough to require going to get checked out. At this point another 2-3 starts isn't really making or breaking anything for the Mets season. No Mets pitcher is standing out as a beacon of "omg can't let this guy start anymore" Hefner has made some good ones. He could certainly compete for 2-3 more starts just fine.

I personally couldn't care less about super-2, even early free agency. It's the Mets job to worry about that stuff and how to keep players around. I'd consider us lucky to get to the point where 4-5 years down the road we're fretting about that like he's going to be the most coveted free agent. But at this point, when it's just a couple of weeks in what's so far a very poor season, hell..save the couple of bucks.

[Lefty Specialist]

Wheeler coming up tomorrow or in two months isn't going to change the trajectory of this season. Having an extra year before he hits free agency is much more valuable than a couple of weeks in 2013.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

[Nods furiously, and with just as much fandom as all y'all]

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Wheeler coming up tomorrow or in two months isn't going to change the trajectory of this season. Having an extra year before he hits free agency is much more valuable than a couple of weeks in 2013.

that's done with. All that's up in the air is whether we have to pay him in 2015 or 2016 arb money. unless it's bought out.

[Edgy MD]

I agree that there are perfectly basebally reasons not to call up Wheeler. But I disagree that calling up Wheeler tomorrow vs. two months from now doesn't change the the trajectory of the season or have meaning. If he's ready, he's ready. If he can help, he can help.

Though I'm certainly not suggesting that either of those notions is true.

He'll be up soon enough, and I'm not lamenting the lack of a ballplayer I feel entitled to. I am, instead, lamenting the diminution of naturally evolving progressive competitive baseball. Pitches and swings should be deciding the course of the game and the season, not bureaucratic loopholes. Who ever gave a curtain call to a bureaucratic loophole?

[Ceetar]

Daniel Murphy � 2B
Rick Ankiel � CF
David Wright � 3B
Lucas Duda � LF
Marlon Byrd � RF
John Buck � C
Ike Davis � 1B
Ruben Tejada � SS
Jeremy Hefner � RHP

[Ceetar]

Simmons, A, SS
Heyward, J, RF
Upton, J, LF
Freeman, F, 1B
McCann, B, C
Uggla, D, 2B
Francisco, J, 3B
Upton, B, CF
Medlen, K, P

[Edgy MD]

It's Atlanta's famed SHUFMUFUM lineup.

They could probably get an anagram out of that if they worked at it.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: It's Atlanta's famed SHUFMUFUM lineup. They could probably get an anagram out of that if they worked at it.

There's a reason to keep Ike. need his vowel in the lineup to be able to make real words. And Zach Lutz? that'd be a mess.

[Zvon]

One of our better starts to a game....

[Frayed Knot]

By this point in the last two games we were already down 3-0 in each case - so, so far, we're off to our best start in a while.

[Zvon]

Its cold, clammy, windy, rainy, and grey down here in SJ. What are the odds we get this game in? (I missed if there was any intro on SNY-I just get a rain delay screen on MLB.TV)

[Zvon]

Started right after I hit send above. LETS GO U METS!

[Zvon]

Holy shit! I really hat FFreeman. He just LAUNCHED one out of Citi.
2-0

[Guest Swan Swan H]

A gift run when J. Upton and Simmons circle around a popup by Duda, who didn't really get it done with a runner on 3rd and one out.

[Zvon]

Murphy:HBP
Anky: K
Capt: wicked grasscutter up the middle! single-1st & 3rd
Duda gets lucky and his bloop single drives in Muffy.

[Zvon]

Swan Swan H wrote: A gift run when J. Upton and Simmons circle around a popup by Duda, who didn't really get it done with a runner on 3rd and one out.

I beg to differ. RBI single is an RBI single. Anything more would have been nice but getting that guy in from third was his job there. And he did it w/o making an out.

[Zvon]

Ha, thats why Ronnie called him a switch-swinger instead of switch-hitter Garr.

[Edgy MD]

The low curve against Ike with two strikes was as predictable as the sun going down. The strange part is that they put it as high as his ankles, when it's a safe and sure move to bounce it off the plate.

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