Benjamin Grimm

My hope was that both Manny and Harper would sign with teams outside of the NL East* and the Bronx. One down, one to go. *Mets excepted, of course.

I'm afraid that ten years from now I'll be conflating him with Robinson Cancel. Cano reported to spring training saying that he feels like he's 25 years old. Clearly, he's delusional. By the way, when he was 25 he was .271/.305/.410 with 14 homers and 72 rbi. I'd prefer it if he said he felt like he was 29.

Fired in June.

I don't know if this is Deesha's first story covering the Mets, but it's the first I've seen. She opens with this colorful paragraph: Not so far down the list of great American pastimes, beyond baseball and barbecues and lottery scratch-offs, is an old-fashioned summer fireworks show. Fireworks are a funny thing — most of the fun is in the anticipation, the expectation. You light the fuse, run for cover and delight in the pop. Then it's over and you've lost 95 games, good for fourth in the East. On the Wilpons: Fred and Jeff Wilpon are known, grudgingly to Mets fans, to approve every personnel move on a case-by-case basis. Their checkbook is closed and their small-market oversight is a stick in the mud. On the Mets' approach to statistical analysis in recent years: The Mets are the dinosaur squinting into the spreadsheet. The full article: https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-sports-mets-spring-training-preview-20190211-story.htmlMets Spring Training: 5 burning questions facing the Amazin's

Mike Puma wrote: After a winter of inactivity in long-term contract discussions, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner has informed team officials he will not negotiate a new deal during the season, an industry source told The Post on Tuesday. DeGrom's camp has set Opening Day as the deadline to complete any potential long-term deal. Full article: https://nypost.com/2019/02/12/jacob-degrom-makes-double-barreled-threat-over-mets-contract-talks/Jacob deGrom makes double-barreled threat over Mets contract talks Mike Puma wrote: DeGrom's CAA agent, Jeff Berry, recently released a memo that outlined recourse for players who seek reform in free agency, following two historically slow markets. Among the ideas suggested by Berry was that pitchers could look to cap their workloads in a season to ensure their value remains at a higher level heading to free agency. And a source indicated deGrom could put such restrictions on himself if a new deal isn't reached with the Mets.

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fdavidseideman%2Ffiles%2F2016%2F02%2Fjack-lemon-resized.jpg> Jack Lemmon (as Felix Ungar) at Shea Stadium with Tommy Davis in 1967.

He's one of the intriguing questions at this point. I think Frazier starts the year at first base, but how long he lasts there will depend on both Frazier's performance and Alonso's. And if Alonso ends up displacing Frazier (and I suspect he will, but maybe not immediately) will that be from the lineup? Or from the roster?

Yeah, technically it's not an "injury". Maybe a better name would be the "Unavailable List".

It seems like the criteria may have a bit of a "nice guy" requirement. Someone willing to play along with the company line. But I do agree that Keith was more the "face of the Mets" from 1984 through 1988 than anyone else.

I feel like Rip Van Winkle. Is 2019 already over?

Maybe sometimes the Mets were faceless. Or maybe sometimes the face was that of the manager. In the short term after Seaver was traded and before Mazzilli emerged, I'd say that Joe Torre was the face of the franchise. (Or Jerry Koosman more than Ed Kranepool.) And in the early years, it was most certainly Casey Stengel.

Cano is going to wear 24, isn't he? I like Alonso as 20. And just give somebody number 8 already. They didn't retire it when Carter went into the Hall of Fame. They didn't retire it when he got sick. And they didn't retire it when he died. Unless they're holding it for the return of Dave Gallagher, they might as well give it to somebody. It may have to wait until they get a prominent player who wore 8 elsewhere.

London is a fantastic city. If I hadn't just been there in 2017 I'd seriously consider going there to see the Mets in 2020. But since I was there recently, I'm just casually considering it.

The protesters (male and female!) painted pictures of Pat Roessler on their chests but it's too cold today and they're wearing coats and shirts over the images. Sorry!

The name change will take some getting used to. Maybe they should just call it the "cooby list".

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/76/72/02/767202aee83ec2f4bf48d51a5dbc5be4.jpg> It's always strange to me to think that he spent more years in Cincinnati than in Baltimore, because all of his years with the Reds were just before my awareness of him. He certainly is one of the giant figures in the game.

They should have the bullpens in an underground cavern beneath the pitcher's mound. Then when a new pitcher comes into the game, the mound will hinge open and the new guy will just have to come up the stairs.

I like that too. If there's a time when Ramos and d'Arnaud are both injured, I'd rather have Mesoraco in the mix than to rely heavily on Tomas Nido.

I guess we should be grateful for the past 46 years that we had without the DH. I think it makes the game less interesting. I remember Art Rust Jr. (remember him?) saying that fans don't want to see "a chess match" but I happen to like that aspect of the game, trying to think along with the managers. In today's game, the DH makes less sense than ever. Is it that much more fun to see a position player strike out instead of seeing a pitcher strike out? I do agree that the one-batter reliever adds tedium to the game. I kind of like the idea of the three-batter minimum, as it would add a new element of strategy to the game. If Bryce Harper is at bat with two out and runners on, do you bring the lefty in to face him and try to end the inning, knowing that if you don't get him out, your lefty is going to have to face two right-handed hitters in a situation that's gotten even worse? That could be really interesting. But I also like the option of just making pitching changes faster. As Frayed Knot has said, the number of warm-up pitches by relievers entering the game can be reduced or eliminated. The change to the trade deadline is supposed to somehow deter teams from cashing in their chips. By making the buyer-or-seller decision have to come earlier, I guess they're hoping that fewer teams will opt to be sellers. I'm not so sure that that will have much of an effect, but perhaps we'll see. There's also talk of the start-the-inning-with-a-runner-on-second-base rules for extra-inning games in spring training and the All-Star Game. I think this rule is extraordinary stupid, but I don't care much about spring training or All-Star games. The main problem is that if it takes root in those venues then there's the possibility that it could end up polluting regular-season games, which would be a travesty. There's also a proposal about service time, where that trick of bringing up a player in mid-April instead of at Opening Day will be negated if the player ends up having a high-quality rookie season. If, for example, the Mets bring up Alonso on April 15 and he wins the Rookie-of-the-Year (or hits some other targets) he'd get credit for the full year of service time and would be eligible for free agency after 2024. But if they do that and he's just ordinary, he'd have to wait until 2025. It's kind of strange to give preferential treatment to better players, but I can't get too worked up over this suggestion. I don't think it will deter teams from waiting those two weeks or so. I've wanted to expand the 25-man roster for years now. I'd like to see a 27-man roster, preferably without the limit on pitchers, although my interest in the expanded roster is because I'd like to see more position players on the bench. And forget about lowering the mound. If they keep doing this every time pitching is ascendant, in a few decades pitchers will be pitching out of a hole in the ground. http://leaptoad.com/mets/covers/2019/20190207_NSD_02.jpg>http://leaptoad.com/mets/covers/2019/20190207_NYDN_02.jpg>

Remember these guys? Robin Ventura and Mike Piazza. http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4761020/97330397.jpg> https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--ZITXcnYi--/t_Resized%20Artwork/c_fit,g_north_west,h_1054,w_1054/co_ffffff,e_outline:53/co_ffffff,e_outline:inner_fill:53/co_bbbbbb,e_outline:3:1000/c_mpad,g_center,h_1260,w_1260/b_rgb:eeeeee/c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1519402390/production/designs/2389185_0.jpg> I remember reading that Jerry Grote was a professional caliber bowler, but I couldn't find any photographic evidence of that. Also, while we're talking about bowling, I was at the Museum of the City of New York on Saturday, and they happen to be having a Jackie Robinson exhibit in honor of his recent 100th birthday. Among the items on display were some magazines of the time that had Robinson on the cover. One of the magazines (don't recall the name of the mag) included a headline that said "$1,000 REWARD FOR ENDING JIM CROW IN BOWLING". I'm curious to know more about that. Who was issuing the reward, and what was the criteria for collecting it?

Maybe some Mario Van Peebles rubbed off on him. http://leaptoad.com/mets/covers/images/2018/2018_Kickoff.jpg>

Bob Friend was the sixth-oldest living Met at the time of his death, behind Dave Hillman, 91; Frank Thomas and Joe Pignatano, 89; and Roger Craig and Hobie Landrith, 88. Somebody named "Willie Mays" take his place in the sixth slot. Sammy Taylor moves into the Top Ten, Joe Christopher is not in 20th place, Rick Herrscher takes over the 30th position, and debuting in the Top Forty is Bobby Klaus, 81 years and 39 days old as of today. http://leaptoad.com/mets/oldestliving.phpUltimate Mets Database: Oldest Living Mets This is already the fifth Mets-related death I've logged in the UMDB so far in 2019: Jerry Buchek (January 2), Rick Down (January 5), Mel Stottlemyre (January 12), Tom Hausman (January 16), and Bob Friend (February 3)

Mike Puma wrote: Mets have maintained dialogue with Gio Gonzalez's camp. Question is whether Gonzalez is enough of a rotation upgrade to warrant expenditure, but the Mets' starting pitching depth is also extremely thin. As noted previously, Gonzalez has a sub-2 ERA lifetime at Citi Field.

Or each player can be drafted by up to five teams, and the five can all compete with each other. Anyone drafted by only one (or maybe two) teams would be free to negotiate with everyone.

Well, the Yankees aren't currently operating in a world where there's no draft.