Benjamin Grimm

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I haven't heard any recent speculation at all about Chip Hale or Bob Geren. Perhaps they're no longer being considered? Or maybe they never really were? According to Newsday, "sources" say that Hale and Geren are, in fact, not under consideration. Ausmus doesn't want to manage the Mets. Ventura doesn't want to manage at all. From what we can tell at this point, it looks like there are five, or perhaps six, actual candidates: Long, Cora, McEwing, Callaway, and Acta. Alomar's name hasn't come up recently, but I haven't seen where he's been ruled out. The current buzz seems to indicate that Long may be the front-runner. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

It's gonna be a miserable slog!

If you've been looking for a way to relive the disappointment, the angst, and the sheer misery of the 2017 Mets season, then you're about to receive some great news! In a press conference today at Citi Field, it was announced that the 2017 Tabloid Cover Derby will get underway on Monday, November 6. This will be the third time around for the Tabloid Cover Derby. In both of our two previous iterations, the winning cover came from the Daily News and the featured player was Yoenis Cespedes. Will this combination work magic for the third consecutive year? We're about to begin the onerous task of finding out! The winning cover, as always, will be displayed in the lobby of the CPF's international headquarters, Kran Pool Forum Internationella Huvudkontoret in Stockholm, Sweden. Enthusiasm for this year's Derby is, admittedly, less than it had been in previous years. In 2016, for example, we were able to get Mets legend Rusty Staub and former Miss Sweden, Camilla Hansson, to appear at our kickoff announcement. This year our search for celebrities to attend our announcement ceremony was much more difficult. Even Dwight Bernard canceled on us! We were, however, fortunate enough to get Marty Silver, who worked in the Shea Stadium ticket booth from 1981 through 1983, and Bev Donaldson, who was employed at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm from 1992 through 1995, to appear at our event. Marty and Bev seem to have made a love connection: after the press conference they were spotted enjoying an early bird special at nearby Kane's Diner in Flushing. Because the Mets were featured on significantly fewer covers in 2017, this year's Derby will be downsized. In 2015 and 2016, we had 32 first-round polls. In 2017 there will be five rounds instead of six, and the first round will only have 16 polls. With fewer polls, we'll end up spacing them out a little more. Instead of new polls appearing seven days per week, we'll limit the launching of new polls to weekdays. We'll still vote for as many as three covers in each first-round poll, with the one cover that receives the most votes advancing, for the first time this year, directly to the Sweet Sixteen. Another change: In the past, the covers were divided into four chronological groups. After the first round, winners were seeded within each group and each group sent one representative to the Final Four. Beginning in 2017, all first-round winners will be seeded in one large group, so for the first time, an April cover can go against an October cover, for example, as early as in the second round. In every other way, the Tabloid Cover Derby will be just like it was in the past, except that it won't be any fun. It will be a miserable trip down the darkest corners of Memory Lane. Be sure to join us on November 6!

The fact that a guy named Tommy John would one day need Tommy John surgery is one of the great coincidences in baseball history.

I have no problem with expansion either. Hell, give me eight five-team divisions, where only the first place teams make the playoffs. San Bernadino (California), Las Vegas, and Portland (Oregon) all have a larger metro population than Cleveland. San Antonio is between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Sacramento and San Jose are between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Orlando, Indianapolis, and Norfolk all have more people than Milwaukee. And Columbus, Austin, and Charlotte are very close to Milwaukee's population. And in Canada, Vancouver and Calgary also have large population centers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_areas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_population_centres_in_Canada

Kristie Ackert reports today that the Mets will interview Cora today, but he's "not considered high on the Mets' list of candidates" and is more likely to end up in Boston. On Wednesday, she says, the Mets will interview McEwing, Acta, and Mickey Callaway. I believe they've already interviewed Kevin Long. I haven't heard any recent speculation at all about Chip Hale or Bob Geren. Perhaps they're no longer being considered? Or maybe they never really were?

He freaky like dat.

I'm surprised that I never seem to see any discussion of Tennessee or North Carolina getting big league teams.

And Anthony DiComo, quoting Jon Heyman, says that the Mets are NOT interested in Robin Ventura after all.

Mike Puma reporting in the Post that the Mets will interview Manny Acta this week, and... that Brad Ausmus has declined an interview request from the Mets.

I could tolerate this if it means no DH rule, but I suspect that the opposite would be true.

Edgy MD wrote: Yeah, but who will break that five-way tie for third?! So now it's a six-way tie!

It's Maja. I don't do "maga".

Oh, and here's where I thank all of our wonderful Schaefer spokesmodels who did such a great job throughout the year. We had 36 who carried over from last year, plus 18 new ones added for 2017. Currently, there are no plans to expand the list for 2018, but we'll see what happens. CLASS OF 2016[/bigpurple] CLASS OF 2017[/bigpurple]

Oops, somehow I scanned past Beato's 25.93 points in 2011. Sewald's 22.41 is still the lowest, but not by as considerable a margin as I first thought. Hisanori Takahashi in 2010? If I had a thousand guesses, I wouldn't have come up with that.

Sewald did win with, by a considerable margin, the lowest total ever for a leading reliever. PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2006 - Billy Wagner, 40.39 points; 2007 - Aaron Heilman, 34.86; 2008 - Aaron Heilman, 34.50; 2009 - Francisco Rodriguez, 38.58; 2010 - Hisanori Takahashi 28.69; 2011 - Pedro Beato, 25.93; 2012 - Bobby Parnell, 29.01; 2013 - LaTroy Hawkins, 32.30; 2014 - Carlos Torres, 35.75; 2015 - Jeurys Familia, 35.85; 2016 - Jeurys Familia, 36.70. But how about the fact that Jacob deGrom was the only pitcher who finished in the Top Eleven? If Jacob deGrom didn't exist, the winner would have been Robert Gsellman, with nearly 55 fewer points than deGrom had!

I would have put Flores and Rosario on there and bumped Harvey and Wright. (Sorry David!)

I think Conforto will play in 2018. In September, when he had his surgery, the doctors estimated that he could resume baseball activities in six months, which would be March. Of course, there's always the possibility of setbacks, but I don't think it's unreasonable to at least hope that he'll be playing in the big leagues before the end of May. Expecting him to miss the entire season seems a bit extreme at this point.

I don't think Harvey is a lock.

I was disappointed in the first movie. (I didn't see it until I was around 50 years old.) So I'm not really interested in this one, at least not to pay money to see it in the theaters. But I may watch it eventually when it comes to television.

I'm not at all surprised that batmagadanleadoff is piddling on the Schaefer results. He's done it before and I'm sure he'll do it again. It's like how I fully expect Ceetar to turn his nose up at the Tabloid Cover Derby, flaunting how it's beneath his superior intellect. As the Geico commercials say, "It's what they do." And I agree with Frayed Knot. It's a point I've made several times in the past. Schaefer isn't scientific. It's not meant to be scientific. So there's little point in berating it for not being scientific. MFS62 wrote: Thanks, Ben. I don't participate because my work schedule doesn't me allow to see many games, and if I voted sporadically I feel it would skew your numbers. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the effort you put into this. Thank you! But please, feel free to vote sporadically. It wouldn't skew the results at all, because all awarded points are averaged on a per game basis. So even if one game has five voters and another game has twenty, there still won't be more than ten points awarded for that game. The more input the better! And you don't have to have watched all nine innings to vote on a game. I've voted on many a game that I didn't see at all. If you can read a game account and interpret a box score, you have enough information to cast a Schaefer vote. It's a little discouraging that so few people participate, but I don't really let it bother me anymore because the whole thing is so automated that it takes very little effort, other than creating the baseball cards each month, and that's more of a fun thing than a chore. 41Forever wrote: The cards continue to be simply amazing. Those classic designs are things of beauty. And I notice that you try to match the photos with the style of that particular issue. And the 1972 design, like bacon, makes everything better. Thanks for noticing! I definitely do make a point to match the photo with the year of the cards. It's largely an instinctual thing, but there are a few hard-and-fast rules, such as no action shots on 1970 or 1972 cards (except for the 1972 IN ACTION cards) and any action shots on 1971 cards have to be from a distance and show the player's full body. I also try each year to have a fairly even distribution of the different years from the 1970s among the cards that end up on the season-ending display. I make sure that each year gets represented at least twice. I too have a fondness for the 1972 cards; they're just so wonderfully weird.

Mike Puma wrote: The 50-year-old Long has interviewed with the Mets for their managerial opening, according to an industry source, and will now wait to find out if he becomes a finalist for the job. The expectation is general manager Sandy Alderson will continue his first round of interviews through this week. Others in the mix to succeed Terry Collins have included Brad Ausmus, Alex Cora, Robin Ventura, Mickey Calloway, Joe McEwing, Sandy Alomar Jr., Bob Geren and Chip Hale, but it’s unclear which of them besides Long already has received an interview. According to an industry source, McEwing, the White Sox’s bench coach, will interview with the Mets within the next few days. Cora, the Astros’ bench coach, also will interview this week, according to a source. I find that I'm rooting for Alex Cora to get the job. But I'd still be happy with Chip Hale. Who's Mickey Calloway?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I lost the Schaefer track during my vacation and subsequent work punishment for having taken it. Plus, the voting reminded me of how little fun it was to watch the Mets this year. I wanna thank the folks in Sweden for all their hard work. Hopefully next year will be a lot less sucky and more people will participate. I've been thinking of opening the voting to the masses, via the UMDB Facebook page, but I figure it would go one of two ways: Nobody will take the bait, which is fine, or too many people will and I'll have a headache to deal with. I think the current voting form makes it hard to screw up, but you can never underestimate the nutty things people might do.

Frayed Knot wrote: So we have a player of the year: deGrom, and, in case that player isn't a pitcher, there's a pitcher of the year: in this case also deGrom. But in those years where the player & pitcher are the same there isn't a non-pitcher player of the year. That (position) Player of the Year this year, if there were such a person, would be Conforto. This is the third time that a pitcher has been Player of the Year. In 2008, the leading position player, finishing second to Johan Santana, was David Wright. In 2015, the first time that Jacob deGrom won, Matt Harvey finished in second place, and Curtis Granderson, in third, was the leading position player. Frayed Knot wrote: Wait, that tote is imaginary?!? Yes, but somehow, you can use it to carry actual stuff.

THE SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE YEAR, 2017 PLAYER OF THE YEAR The Schaefer Mets Player of the Year for 2017 is JACOB deGROM, with 92.11 points. With his second win (he previously was Player of the Year in 2015) Jacob becomes the first Met other than David Wright to win the award multiple times. (Wright has been Player of the Year six times... so far!) What had been a tight race for the title between deGrom, Michael Conforto, and Jay Bruce became an easy win for deGrom when Bruce was traded away and Conforto's season ended early due to his shoulder injury. PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2005 - David Wright, 140.17 points*; 2006 - David Wright, 121.16; 2007 - David Wright, 124.77; 2008 - Johan Santana, 121.37; 2009 - David Wright, 91.72; 2010 - David Wright, 117.56; 2011 - José Reyes, 104.96; 2012 - David Wright, 113.06; 2013 - Daniel Murphy, 107.30; 2014 - Lucas Duda, 95.62; 2015 - Jacob deGrom, 97.08; 2016 - Yoenis Cespedes, 90.62. * Totals were higher in 2005 because of a rule specifying that ten points were to be awarded for each game. PITCHER OF THE YEAR The Schaefer Mets Pitcher of the Year is, also for the second time, JACOB deGROM. And it wasn't at all close. DeGrom's 92.11 points left him way ahead of runner-up Robert Gsellman, who had 37.38 points, and Rafael Montero, who had 35.21. PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2005 - Pedro Martinez, 120.68 points*; 2006 - Tom Glavine, 80.26; 2007 - Tom Glavine, 75.97; 2008 - Johan Santana, 121.37; 2009 - Johan Santana, 84.61; 2010 - Johan Santana, 90.42; 2011 - R.A. Dickey, 69.40; 2012 - R.A. Dickey, 110.12; 2013 - Matt Harvey, 86.68; 2014 - Bartolo Colon, 74.77; 2015 - Jacob deGrom, 97.08; 2016 - Noah Syndergaard, 89.81. * Totals were higher in 2005 because of a rule specifying that ten points were to be awarded for each game. RELIEF PITCHER OF THE YEAR Addison Reed led the race for the Mets Relief Pitcher of the Year Award until the game of September 15, long after he was traded. Ultimately, the race for the prize came down to a closely fought battle between Jerry Blevins and our winner, PAUL SEWALD. Paul ended up with 22.41 points to Jerry's 22.35. Reed ended up in third place, with 20.70 points, followed by Hansel Robles with 19.66. Raise your hand if, back in April, you had Paul Sewald pegged as the Schaefer Mets Relief Pitcher of the Year. PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2006 - Billy Wagner, 40.39 points; 2007 - Aaron Heilman, 34.86; 2008 - Aaron Heilman, 34.50; 2009 - Francisco Rodriguez, 38.58; 2010 - Hisanori Takahashi 28.69; 2011 - Pedro Beato, 25.93; 2012 - Bobby Parnell, 29.01; 2013 - LaTroy Hawkins, 32.30; 2014 - Carlos Torres, 35.75; 2015 - Jeurys Familia, 35.85; 2016 - Jeurys Familia, 36.70. BENCH PLAYER OF THE YEAR The Bench Player of the Year is WILMER FLORES, who earned 4.89 points in games in which he did not start, ahead of Dominic Smith (4.78 points), Asdrubal Cabrera (4.43), and Curtis Granderson (3.25). PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2006 - Julio Franco, 7.16 points; 2007 - Marlon Anderson, 10.39; 2008 - Damion Easley, 5.06; 2009 - Fernando Tatis, 8.37; 2010 - Chris Carter, 9.28; 2011 - Scott Hairston, 8.77; 2012 - Jordany Valdespin, 13.84; 2013 - Jordany Valdespin, 8.70; 2014 - Eric Campbell, 5.89; 2015 - Michael Cuddyer, 3.49; 2016 - Kelly Johnson, 8.29. SCHAEFER METS PLAYER OF THE WEEK, 2017 Week ending April 8, 2017: Jacob deGrom, 3.89 points. Week ending April 15, 2017: Noah Syndergaard, 7.47 points. Week ending April 22, 2017: Matt Harvey, 6.30 points. Week ending April 29, 2017: Michael Conforto, 6.47 points. Week ending May 6, 2017: Jay Bruce, 8.94 points. Week ending May 13, 2017: Neil Walker, 7.55 points. Week ending May 20, 2017: Michael Conforto, 8.84 points. Week ending May 27, 2017: Lucas Duda, 7.63 points. Week ending June 3, 2017: Robert Gsellman, 6.87 points. Week ending June 10, 2017: Jay Bruce, 7.11 points. Week ending June 17, 2017: Seth Lugo, 6.59 points. Week ending June 24, 2017: Jacob deGrom, 10.50 points. Week ending July 1, 2017: Curtis Granderson, 5.45 points. Week ending July 8, 2017: Steven Matz, 4.79 points. Week ending July 15, 2017: Seth Lugo, 4.05 points. Week ending July 22, 2017: Michael Conforto, 7.24 points. Week ending July 29, 2017: Jacob deGrom, 7.42 points. Week ending August 5, 2017: Curtis Granderson, 4.41 points. Week ending August 12, 2017: Yoenis Cespedes, 5.64 points. Week ending August 19, 2017: Curtis Granderson, 7.27 points. Week ending August 26, 2017: Yoenis Cespedes, 6.75 points. Week ending September 2, 2017: Asdrubal Cabrera, 6.37 points. Week ending September 9, 2017: Brandon Nimmo, 8.22 points. Week ending September 16, 2017: Jacob deGrom, 6.97 points. Week ending September 23, 2017: Travis d'Arnaud, 5.55 points. Week ending September 30, 2017: Asdrubal Cabrera, 4.90 points. Thanks to those who participated! This year's Perfect Participation prize is a lovely, albeit imaginary, tote bag! Forum members who voted in every game were G-Fafif, TMF, Benjamin Grimm, and OhSheaCanKC. Ashie62 voted in each of the first 161 games, and in the 162nd game somebody, perhaps Ashie himself, or perhaps a Russian imposter, voted under the name "ash". This anomaly, needless to say, caused quite a bit of consternation back in Stockholm. Should Ashie62 get the imaginary tote bag? Numerous meetings were held, and it came down to a heated argument between Germund in the Promotions Department and Börje in Finance, but eventually Germund prevailed and Ashie62 will be getting the imaginary tote bag. OhSheaCanKC 162 Benjamin Grimm 162 TMF 162 G-Fafif 162 Ashie62 161 FK 147 Lunch 94 LWFS 40 TransMonk 35 Vic Sage 26 Zvon 13 Centerfield 3 ash 1 Don Johnson 1 GetYourBrooms 1 seawolf17 1 Duan 1 WeSuck 1 sharpie 1 Farmer Ted 1 Mets-Willets Point 1 ConfortoTime! 1