Red Hot Red

[batmagadanleadoff]

Turner lands on his feet at Dodgers camp

GLENDALE, Ariz. � For a guy who was unceremoniously dumped and then impugned by his former team, Justin Turner is in a pretty good place. Not only did he latch on with his hometown team, the Dodgers, but he looks like a lock to make the 25-man roster.... They�ve seen no signs of a lack of hustle so far, manager Don Mattingly said, adding that he likes the way Turner �goes about his business.�

read it all at http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/dodger-report/post/_/id/8917/justin-turner-lands-on-his-feet-at-dodgers-camp

[metirish]

Looks a lot slimmer in this pic....

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Meanwhile, Rob Carson designated for assignment after 1 inning of spring training work with the Angels. He subsequently inked a ML deal with them and was farmed out.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

And the fact is, Tyrna did get fat and slow last year.

[Edgy MD]

And didn't hit until the last five weeks of the season.

Red vs. Satin will be a rivalry to watch this year though.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: And didn't hit until the last five weeks of the season. Red vs. Satin will be a rivalry to watch this year though.

I was thinking matte, but whatever.

[G-Fafif]

Is that red hot Red or Reds Hot?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Is that red hot Red or Reds Hot?

red hot Red. And more redder hotter than the other day.


Justin Turner takes shot at 'anonymous' Mets quotes
Former Mets infielder unhappy about team's propensity to slam players in media without going on the record.
By Kristie Ackert / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, March 17, 2014, 11:06 PM

JUPITER, Fla. � Former Mets utility infielder Justin Turner had harsh criticism for his ex-team Monday when he told Capital New York that the franchise has a propensity to smear its players through anonymous quotes. He pointed to a recent article about Ruben Tejada that cited an anonymous team source as saying that for all of Tejada�s work at a nutrition and fitness camp, he had not made much improvement. Now with the Dodgers, Turner was also the subject of anonymous criticism after he was nontendered in the offseason. Turner is not the only player who has been critical of the anonymous critics in the organization. After the article that took a shot at Tejada�s fitness, David Wright said it was one of his biggest pet peeves.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/turner-takes-shot-anonymous-mets-article-1.1725017#ixzz2wIFkbbPN

________________

An ex-Met on his old team�s propensity to smear


Former Met Justin Turner.

PHOENIX�On Friday morning, Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Justin Turner, late of the New York Mets, offered up a defense of current Mets shortstop (and frequent media target, thanks to leaks by his own team) Ruben Tejada. "I think the issue is that nobody takes responsibility for what they say," Turner told me as we chatted in front of his spring training locker. "You've seen that with Tejada over the last few weeks. It's all 'a source said that they're not happy with him.' It's like, you know what? If you're gonna come out and gonna attack a guy's character, and his work ethic, be man enough to put your name on it. Don't say, 'This is off the record', and then off the record means they're gonna write it anyway." Turner had an interesting perspective on this, given the circumstances surrounding his departure from the Mets. He played three seasons in New York, and was widely expected to return for a fourth in 2014. He played all four infield positions, and the Mets are not swimming in infield options beyond David Wright and Daniel Murphy. Moreover, his hustle and enthusiasm for the game had earned him the support of manager Terry Collins and others in the front office. So it was puzzling when the Mets not only non-tendered Turner in December, but a "Mets official" leaked to Adam Rubin that the reason the Mets had gotten tired of Turner not running hard. It was the kind of story easily dismissed by anyone who'd watched the Mets play, and SNY's Kevin Burkhardt, for one, took to Twitter to do just that. "Obviously, I got a lot of support from a lot of our writers over there," Turner said. "Kevin just chose to do it a little more publicly, which, it was nice to read. I appreciate that from Kevin, and he pays attention, he does a really good job at what he does. And that's obviously why he's moving up the ladder at a crazy rate right now." According to Turner, the writers who cover the Mets are more concerned with non-baseball matters than the writers in Los Angeles he's encountered since coming to the Dodgers. "So far here, I've only done stories about baseball stuff," Turner said. "In New York, it doesn't matter what it is, everything's a story, and they want to know everything about it. It turns into a big ordeal. Stuff that doesn't even matter." But ultimately, the media is only reporting these stories, which have originated from sources within the Mets, and so often contain negative observations about their own players. Carlos Beltran talked earlier this month about being smeared by the Mets when he played with them. Jose Reyes once had to hold a teary press conference to defend his desire to return to the field after the Mets leaked damaging assertions about his character, and followed it by prematurely returning and further injuring himself. Ike Davis, R.A. Dickey ... the list of Mets who have had to defend themselves against their own team is a long one. Tejada is playing horribly this spring, with four errors already, after a 2013 season in which he hit .202 and struggled in the field. The public floggings don't seem to be helping. From his perch in Los Angeles (where, shortly after we finished speaking, he learned he'd made the Dodgers), Turner said he really couldn't explain why the Mets do it. "I don't have that answer for you," Turner said. "I've been there for three years. All I can do is say if I was running an organization, in charge of it, I would look at all my players as assets, and want to build them up. So even if I didn't want them to be on my team, they would have value. But for some reason, I don't know, that's not the thought process over there. "Like I said, I'm happy where I am now."

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/03/8542065/ex-met-his-old-teams-propensity-smear

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Is Tejada really being ripped anonymously? JUst about everything I know about the team's dissatisfaction about him was from Alderson, speaking on the record, about how he took coaching poorly and from Terry, who suggested more than a year ago that he had a poor attitude.

[Edgy MD]

There was a lot of hay made out of a rather ambiguous ("He looks about the same") anonymous quote published shortly after he arrived in camp.

[metirish]

All of this will go away after the team wins 90+ games.

[seawolf17]

Yet again, though -- I don't know why anyone would want to play for this team. It does seem like it happens all the time.

[Ceetar]

seawolf17 wrote: Yet again, though -- I don't know why anyone would want to play for this team. It does seem like it happens all the time.

mostly this happens everywhere, NY just has 16 billion reporters asking anyone who's ever even seen the inside of clubhouse (sources familiar with the clubhouse) or front office for quotes so you get more volume out of nothing. Also because all these places think they're still competing solely with each other they each repost the anonymous quote story so you get it 200 times and it trickles then to radio hosts and then followed up by 'slower' news sources so it seems like people are making a big deal out of something when really they're just spitting into a river.

[Centerfield]

This has to come from the top. Ownership and management have to explain to everyone that they are in NY, and everything will be scrutinized. Anyone making such comments will be disciplined or terminated. That's the only way.

The backstabbing is cowardly, it does no good and paints the organization in a terrible light.

[Ceetar]

Centerfield wrote: This has to come from the top. Ownership and management have to explain to everyone that they are in NY, and everything will be scrutinized. Anyone making such comments will be disciplined or terminated. That's the only way. The backstabbing is cowardly, it does no good and paints the organization in a terrible light.

Hence why it's anonymous. Who are you going to discipline?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The anonymous rip can occasionally be effective but the Mets tend to use it stupidly. The reporters in the meantime lap it up because so little of what they get anymore is exclusive, but I'd like just once for Rubin to go do some reporting from an Upper EastSide bar to see for himself whether Ike Davis really does have a crippling Jameson addiction, instead of just passing along the dirt as he does. And if/when the info doesn't check out, burn that source.

[Guest themetfairy]

Centerfield wrote: This has to come from the top. Ownership and management have to explain to everyone that they are in NY, and everything will be scrutinized. Anyone making such comments will be disciplined or terminated. That's the only way. The backstabbing is cowardly, it does no good and paints the organization in a terrible light.

This!

The problem is that the rips are probably coming from the top....

[Edgy MD]

That would be surprising to me.

[batmagadanleadoff]

So nobody noticed that Megdal got access to a player? It's his new post Madoff-rant schtick: interviewing disgruntled ex-Mets.

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: So nobody noticed that Megdal got access to a player? It's his new post Madoff-rant schtick: interviewing disgruntled ex-Mets.

Oh, i skipped that article. Read Kristie's, who I'm still on the fence about as a writer/beatchick.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Just my impression but Ackert's sloppy and poorly sourced still.