Benjamin Grimm

="AG/DC":22g7fl3v]A Blackwhacking is part of my prediction.[/quote:22g7fl3v] Don't managers usually get fired within a day or two of the season ending? I think it's pretty rare for teams to wait much longer than that. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd think that any managers who haven't been canned yet are a good bet to still be around in the spring. AG/DC Oct 09 2008 12:45 PM Checking the news, there's actually been a recent announcement that he would be retained for 2009, but I wanted an outlier in my predictions and unfortunately it's locked in. How 'bout y'all? Benjamin Grimm Oct 09 2008 12:58 PM I tried filling out the chart, but I couldn't come up with any meaningful predictions, other than the guys who are already there. I don't know of any up and coming coaches in the organization, and I don't know who Jerry, if it's his choice, trusts and respects. So instead of a full chart, I'll just toss in a few guesses/preferences: I'd like to see Frank Robinson as the bench coach, Ken Oberkfell at third base, and John Stearns at first. Dan Warthen can remain as the pitching coach. I guess I'll keep HoJo too. The Mets certainly did plenty of hitting this past year. I don't know how much you can blame the coach for the timing of the hits being a bit off. I'd also make room on my coaching staff for Edgardo Alfonzo if I could. Bullpen coach? I have no idea. AG/DC Oct 09 2008 01:06 PM Fun predictions are as useful to me as meaningful ones. metsmarathon Oct 09 2008 01:16 PM the one knock against hojo is that the mets didn't do a terribly good job, i don't think, of hitting situationally. maybe that got better as the season went along, or got worse after he got here, but that'd be the one thing i'd like to see the team do a better job of. AG/DC Oct 09 2008 01:35 PM I don't know that the season featured less situational hitting by the Mets than by other teams. I think if David Wright hit one more situational sacrifice fly, then the season would have no such knock. metirish Oct 09 2008 01:38 PM Manager - Manuel Bench - Oberkfell First Base - Alomar Jr Third Base - John Stearns Hitting Coach - Moises Alou Catching Coach - Kelly Stinnett Pitching - Wharten Bullpen Coach - Bruce Berenyi Bullpen Pitcher - Juan Lopez will be retained. AG/DC Oct 09 2008 01:41 PM First openly gay uniformed personnel ever? John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 09 2008 01:45 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Oct 09 2008 02:04 PM Super Seventies Special Hitting: Lee Mazzilli Pitching: Jon Matlack First Base: Felix Millan Third Base: Del Unser Bench: Rusty Staub sharpie Oct 09 2008 01:53 PM Wouldn't Santana be in a Super '80's special? DocTee Oct 09 2008 06:22 PM Manager - Manuel Bench - Leo Mazzone First Base - Gary Pettis Third Base - Stearns Hitting Coach - HoJo Catching Coach - Alomar, Jr Pitching - Orel Hershisher Bullpen Coach - Jack Morris Bullpen Pitcher - ??? metirish Oct 09 2008 07:55 PM I'm just being a dick DocTee , the Mets though do have Juan Lopez #56 listed as the bullpen pitcher. AG/DC Oct 09 2008 08:03 PM A second vote for Orel! But some other choices there give me the funk. Leo Mazzone as bench coach but not pitching coach? And why bring back Pettis? DocTee Oct 09 2008 08:38 PM I've long advocated Orel as GM...no way Omar adds a potential rival to the staff. Pettis was with Jerry in Chi-Town. I started to write Mazzilli, but didn't want to copy JD, and was too lazy to erase the whole word... figured an Italian-American should get some play this weekend., and -illi became-onne. AG/DC Oct 09 2008 08:43 PM With great respect, I don't think you advocating makes Orel a rival. Jerry's got what --- a four-year contract? His best bet to get another one is based on him hiring the most talent underneath him. DocTee Oct 09 2008 08:46 PM ]With great respect, I don't think you advocating makes Orel a rival. I almost made a comment along those lines before posting but figured what the hell... Very true, and very funny. metirish Oct 15 2008 01:58 PM FWIW Ken Davidoff today says that the Nationals are interested in Randolph as either their bench coach or third base coach. ] Here's a duo of National League East events that could happen -- without dramatically stretching reality -- in the next year: 1. The Nationals get off to a poor start in 2009 and fire manager Manny Acta, replacing him with their third-base coach Willie Randolph. 2. The Mets miss the 2009 playoffs and fire manager Jerry Manuel, replacing him with Acta. Midweek Insider has learned that the Nationals, who fired five coaches upon the conclusion of the 2008 season, are interested in hiring Randolph as either Acta's bench coach or third-base coach. Randolph is due $2.25 million from the Mets in 2009, but friends say he is anxious to get back to work, as he very much wants to manage again. He'll probably wait out the Seattle and Milwaukee situations, to make sure he doesn't miss an opportunity to interview for a managerial opening. Randolph has interviewed with the Brewers twice and enjoys a strong relationship with Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin. If those teams choose other managers, Randolph might very well join the Nationals. And that would be a situation fraught with irony. For during Randolph's three-plus years leading the Mets, it was Acta who served as his greatest threat. Acta coached third base under Randolph in 2005 and 2006, and everyone knew Acta was Omar Minaya's hire, rather than Randolph's. When Acta left the Mets to manage Washington, he maintained such a good relationship with the Mets that team officials have often lined up to hug him prior to Mets-Nationals games (Merged from Nats Coaches (split from Baserunning), 10/15/2008)

For whatever it may be worth, this was Jerry's coaching staff with the 2000 White Sox: Coach Position Nardi Contreras Coach Wallace Johnson Coach Von Joshua Coach Art Kusnyer Bullpen Bryan Little Coach Joe Nossek Coach Here's 2001: Nardi Contreras Coach Wallace Johnson Coach Von Joshua Coach Art Kusnyer Bullpen Joe Nossek Coach Gary Pettis First base Gary Ward Hitting And 2002: Nardi Contreras Coach Don Cooper Pitching Wallace Johnson Coach Art Kusnyer Bullpen Joe Nossek Coach Gary Pettis First base Gary Ward Hitting And 2003: Don Cooper Pitching Bruce Kimm Coach Art Kusnyer Bullpen Joe Nossek Coach Rafael Santana Coach Greg Walker Hitting Gary Ward Hitting

Has there been any word on the coaching staff? I'm guessing there will be at least a few changes. I'm most curious about whether Dan Warthen and Howard Johnson will return. Oberkfell too, I guess.

They're not going to want to lose the extra round of playoffs. The other way to go would be to expand to 32 teams and have four four-team divisions in each league. That way only first-place teams would make the playoffs

I think Boras' bad rep comes from the perception (and maybe it's true) that he'll always chase the last penny and disregards his client's wishes. For example, if the Mets were to go to Mike Pelfrey after the 2009 season and offer him a five-year contract that would eat up one or two years of his free-agency, Boras would turn it down. If Pelfrey follows the track of other Boras clients, he won't sign anything that delays free agency and the Mets won't be able to guarantee his long-term Metness until after they've been forced to compete with other teams on the open market. No deals like the ones that Wright and Reyes got. It's frustrating for the fans. If Pelfrey said, "Scott, I want to be a Met for a long time. Let's sign a six-year contract now" the perception (again) is that Boras wouldn't allow it. If in fact he doesn't consider any of the player's non-monetary desires, then it's up to the player to fire or replace or overrule him, like Alex Rodriguez appeared to do last year. I don't really think he should get any more "blame" than the players who go along with his plan. They're the bosses, after all, in the agent-player relationship.

As was said above, you'd have to get rid of the whole farm system concept. If the Scranton-Wilkes Barre team were to ascend to the majors next year on account of their IL Championship in 2008, then the Yankees would lose whatever prospects they had in AAA. I guess you could make the players from the Nationals (who would be dropped) go to Scranton and Washington would become the Yankees' AAA franchise. And then Scranton would have the task of taking the Nationals players and trying to make them a better team, one that will play well enough to retain their place in the National League.

I don't know what to think about Tony Bernazard. He probably gets more scorn from the fan base than anyone else in the front office other than Jeff Wilpon, but few really know what either of those guys do. If he leaves, how much of a loss would it be for the Mets? Or would it be one of those "additions by subtraction?" Maybe I don't pay enough attention to front office responsibilities, but all I know about Tony B. is that he's been interviewed on SNY a few times about the Mets farm system, and he dared to speak Street Spanish to Carlos Delgado during the 2004-05 offseason.

That really was a nutty move, wasn't it? I can imagine how good Castillo's agent must have felt while driving home from that contract signing.

Of the missing guys, the most recent one last pitched for the Pirates in 1949.

It's also pretty hard to get into the Mets top ten, and they're a much younger franchise. Wins are harder to come by now since starters are pitching fewer innings. And players are less likely to stay with a single team long enough to run up big totals. I wonder if guys like John Maine and Mike Pelfrey will have much of a chance of becoming the fourth Mets pitcher to win 100 games. Santana might. He needs to average about 17 wins per year over the next five guaranteed years of his contract. 1. Tom Seaver 198 2. Dwight Gooden 157 3. Jerry Koosman 140 4. Ron Darling 99 5. Sid Fernandez 98 6. Al Leiter 95 7. Jon Matlack 82 8. David Cone 81 9. Bobby Jones 74 10. Steve Trachsel 66 (Tom Glavine almost made this list. He ended up 5 wins short of Steve Trachsel's total.)

By the way, the Mets home dugout is available for a cool $100,000. If you want to be a cheapskate, you can get the visitors' dugout for half that price. You know those replica baseball cards that would be posted above the ticket booth, showing the starting lineup? A bunch of them have been sold, but Carlos Delgado's is still available for $350.

That Delgado talk sure died down, didn't it? I bet Ryan Howard, rightly or wrongly, gets consideration for his strong September.

If the worst teams in each league were to be dropped to Triple A, and the two Triple A champions promoted, then here's what this year's results would be: The Washington Nationals would be demoted to the International League, and replaced with Scranton-Wilkes Barre. The Seattle Mariners would be demoted to the Pacific Coast League, and replaced by Sacramento. That would work out well geographically, with Scranton sliding into the NL East and Sacramento going into the AL West. But if the Nationals had finished better than the Padres (and they very well could have) then you'd have to do some divisional realignment, unless you wanted to let Scranton play in the NL West.

Their Internet domain is centralbank.com. You can derive a list of his possible e-mail addresses. dflynn, doug.flynn, douglas.flynn, doug_flynn, douglas_flynn, wonderful_woody, etc. Send out a bunch of e-mails to those various addresses and you may actually get through to him.

AG/DC wrote: It would be traumatic as hell for my team, but maybe the best thing that ocould happen to baseball is four more teams in the New York area and two more in New England. I pretty much agree with that. I don't like the idea of expansion (I prefer contraction, though I didn't think the Twins should have been targeted) but if the big leagues ever does expand again, places like northern New Jersey and Connecticut ought to be considered.

It might bring back some sad memories. Woody has to be in that great backyard in the sky by now. Doug has probably moved on to a new dog and could be walking around in a "MAGNIFICENT MUFFIN" shirt these days.

Wasn't Doug Flynn wearing the very same jersey you're coveting when he was at Shea for the closing ceremony? Maybe you can find a way to contact Doug Flynn and see if you can pry it away from him somehow. You could even swap him a fresh "Wonderful Woody" t-shirt.

I think the way it mucks up the schedule outweighs whatever good comes from the Mets going to Detroit once every six years.

Oh well. If that's true, then at least the uniforms won't be getting uglier, which was always a possibility.

Wow. I have a feeling that Zane Smith won't be one of the names on that list. I wonder if, once that chart is filled in, I'll even recognize most of the names.

If the black is replaced with a very dark grey, then it's not going to make much of a difference. I do find the black less objectionable on the road uniforms than on the home. If the road gets dark grey instead of black, and the home uniform ditches the black, I'll be quite happy.

Yeah. That looked especially crummy on the home uniforms, where the pinstripes were interrupted by the nameplate.

I even remember the first name I saw on the back of a Mets uniform: CHAPMAN. I think he was the second batter in the first inning, and we saw his name on his back after he singled and rounded first.

I don't think we'll see much of a reaction from the Steinbrenners either way.

When I was 8, my favorite non-Mets were Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. The Pirates also won the first World Series I ever watched, in 1971 vs. Baltimore.