Benjamin Grimm

I was hoping that the two new pitching gurus that the Mets hired (the manager and the pitching coach) would find a way to fix Hansel. I guess it may yet happen, but hopes are certainly dimming.

Ceetar wrote: Leaning heavily towards "no one cares enough to leak it" That's very possible. I myself don't even care about yearbook covers anymore, except for the purpose of this silly little project.

Alexa says intermittent clouds, with a high of 59.

I did a search too. I found the 2018 Tigers yearbook cover, but not the Mets. You'd think it would be available to order from their website by now.

G-Fafif wrote: I always found the tendency of Met publications trying to gin up excitement on behalf of a new manager a little propagandistic. I mean more so than featuring a player or a picture of the stadium. "Hey, everybody, let's form a cult around the man we put in charge. Let us all regard his authority." I've noticed that the Mets have used the yearbook covers to highlight some, but not all, of their new managers. Bud Harrelson, like Joe Torre in 1977, was a mid-year replacement who was featured on a revised edition. Gil Hodges, George Bamberger, and Jeff Torborg also got the look-at-our-new-manager cover. So did Art Howe, but in the most restrained way imaginable. Willie Randolph appeared on the cover of his first yearbook. Davey Johnson did not. Nor did Joe Frazier or Terry Collins. We'll soon find out how it will go for Mickey Callaway. As I said in the introduction thread for this competition, I predict that the 2018 cover will feature Mickey with Syndergaard and deGrom.

As I've looked over the full batch of covers, I noticed more that are bad than are good. In other words, expect more crappy matchups!

The Harrelson cover jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but now trails 5-4. I voted for 1990. It's not particularly good, but at least it has a human being on the cover. And I kind of like those little colored pencil scribbles that were added to the photos. One of the scribbles (to the right of Bud's cap) makes it look like his head is vibrating. And I also like that they decided to enhance his elbow (but no other visible part of his anatomy) with a few penciled lines.

First-round polls will be presented in random (but not arbitrary) order. We start with a face-off between perennial chronological rivals, the 1989 revised edition and the 1990 revised edition. This is the first of 32 first-round polls. Voting for each poll will remain open for seven days. You may change your vote if you wish. New polls will be posted daily, including on weekends. Which cover will ultimately prevail? Will Maja get involved in this competition? Only time, and your votes, will tell! 1989 Revised Edition 1990 Revised Edition

Conforto, meanwhile, has reason to hope that his return will come sooner rather than later.

Mighty Mouse?

So he likely won't pitch again until late in 2019 at the earliest. If he remains a Met, he'll be on the 60-day DL during the course of the 2018 and 2019 seasons, but if I understand correctly, he'd take up a 40-man roster spot during the off-season?

I hope you didn't bet too much money down on him winning that Schaefer award!

(Stockholm, Sweden) Voting for the 2018 Schaefer Mets Player of the Year Award will begin on Friday, March 30, the Crane Pool Forum has announced. This will be the fourteenth season that Crane Pool Forum members will be participating in Schaefer voting. The Schaefer Mets Player of the Year Award was established in the 1970's, and Schaefer points were awarded by Mets broadcasters Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner, and Bob Murphy. The award was re-established by the Crane Pool Forum in 2005. Third baseman David Wright has been the winner in in six of the thirteen years of the revived prize. The other winners were Johan Santana in 2008, Jose Reyes in 2011, Daniel Murphy in 2013, Lucas Duda in 2014, Jacob deGrom in 2015 and 2017, and Yoenis Cespedes in 2016. The new voting format that was introduced for the 2016 season will continue. Instead of voting in dedicated Schaefer threads in the forum, voters will go to http://potg.ultimatemets.com and fill in an online Schaefer ballot. Voting for each game will open automatically as soon as the box score has been pasted into the Ultimate Mets Database. This will usually be the morning after each game has been played, but may in some circumstances be considerably later than that, according to CPF spokesmodel Benjamin Grimm. Voting will stay open for about ten days, after which the votes will be tallied and the results will be posted in the IGT thread. In addition, says Grimm, each month a Schaefer Mets Player, Pitcher, Relief Pitcher, and Bench Player of the Month will be named. NEW FOR THIS YEAR: 1. Voting for each game will close a little more quickly than it has in the past. In the last two years, there would be two tallies per month, approximately every two weeks. Now they'll be done ten days apart. Watch this thread for notices of impending vote closures. 2. I will no longer be accepting requests to edit anyone's votes after they've been cast. (Example: "I forgot to give Rosario credit for his double. Please give him a half point and reduce Wheeler's points to 2.1.") Instead, if you need to make a change, let me know which game is at issue. I'll remove all of your votes and you can then revote the game in its entirety. Unfortuntely, we seem to have lost one of our most enthusastic voters (themetfairy) so participation will be reduced accordingly unless she decides to make a stunning return. But since Schaefer has become (mostly) a well-oiled self-running machine, the diminished participation will not get in the way of another year of Schaefer voting. LAS VEGAS ODDS Las Vegas bookmakers are taking bets on the winner of the Schaefer Mets Player of the Year Award. Their currently posted odds are: Syndergaard 2-1 deGrom 2-1 Cespedes 3-1 Bruce 5-1 Conforto 6-1 Frazier 8-1 Cabrera 10-1 Rosario 10-1 Nimmo 15-1 Harvey 15-1 Vargas 15-1 Reyes 16-1 Flores 18-1 Gonzalez 20-1 Matz 25-1 Wheeler 25-1 Smith 25-1 Lagares 30-1 Gsellman 30-1 Lugo 30-1 Field 100-1

Since this is going to take a couple of months to get through, I figured we might as well get started sooner rather than later. (There's also pressure from the home office to get this underway before the Daily News steals this idea as well.) The competition between the 1962 and 2018 covers will, of course, have to wait for 2018 to become available, but all remaining matchups will be presented, starting Friday, in random order. As with the Tabloid Cover Derby, each voting thread will remain open for seven days. Because we have a full slate (as opposed to the downsized 2017 TCD) new threads will be started on weekends as well as on weekdays. If all goes according to schedule, this should keep us busy until around the All-Star break. Here's the initial look at our brackets. The people in Stockholm apologize for the tiny cover images, but promise that they'll get bigger in subsequent rounds as more space opens up.

Okay, so if they give up on Gonzalez, what would the plan be for first base? Lind? Alonso? Or a platoon between Flores and Bruce? I think I'd go with Flores and Bruce.

If nothing else, the Mets are good at disassembling their players.

I'm no doctor, but that seems like a pretty large bone to simply remove. Does someone who's given up this bone notice that it's missing? It's a good thing it's not on his pitching hand. I wonder if they would have taken a different approach if it was?

Vargas having the surgery tomorrow. They're going to remove the fractured bone. Newsday wrote: Mets lefthander Jason Vargas will have surgery Tuesday to remove a fractured bone from his right hand, the team announced Sunday night. Removal of the small bone is the usual treatment for the injury. Vargas will begin throwing again about five days later, though it’s not clear how much of the regular season he might miss. The Mets don’t need a fifth starter until April 4, 15 days after Vargas’ operation.

More starts than Steven Matz.

Our voters eliminated YA GOTTA BE LEAVING in the first round.

Edgy MD wrote: I've tweeted to back page editors for all three NYC tabloids to promote the Derby. I think betting will be heavy. Hmmm....

Vargas' salary wouldn't pay for even one Arrieta. Arrieta is making $25 million this year from the Phillies.

It doesn't seem that Hansel is part of the solution.

I'm skeptical, but if Wilmer can be a competent outfielder, it would be a great thing for this team.