Benjamin Grimm

That's the exact same reason why I voted for Moose Stubing.

I like Dominic Smith's signature, even though it looks like it says "Dan Swift". Note that even though his name is just a squiggle, he took the time to dot both of the I's in "Dominic".

Thank you! And I don't know if this is what you meant, but I do think that this is the first month this year that none of the four cards had been reused from previous months (or years).

No, that's an actual unretouched photo.

SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE MONTH, SEPTEMBER 2017 SEPTEMBER 2017 Player of the Month: JOSE REYES In what may turn out to be his final month with the Mets, Jose Reyes is the Player of the Month. This is his sixth time overall, and the first time during his second tour of duty with the Mets. Pitcher of the Month: ROBERT GSELLMAN For the second September in a row, Robert Gsellman is the Pitcher of the Month. His two September wins are his only Pitcher of the Month awards. Reliever of the Month: CHASEN BRADFORD Chasen Bradford is a first-time winner for the Reliever of the Month. Bench Player of the Month: DOMINIC SMITH This is Dominic Smith's first time winning Schaefer in any category. Updated award winner standings, with this month's winners in bold: PLAYER OF THE MONTH David Wright 14 Johan Santana 6 JOSE REYES 6 Carlos Beltran 5 R. A. Dickey 4 Lucas Duda 4 Jacob deGrom 4 Daniel Murphy 3 Cliff Floyd 2 Tom Glavine 2 Carlos Delgado 2 Ike Davis 2 Matt Harvey 2 Noah Syndergaard 2 Curtis Granderson 2 Michael Conforto 2 Yoenis Cespedes 2 Mike Cameron 1 John Maine 1 Angel Pagan 1 Jeff Francoeur 1 Ruben Tejada 1 John Buck 1 Marlon Byrd 1 Dillon Gee 1 Jonathon Niese 1 Bartolo Colon 1 Juan Lagares 1 Wilmer Flores 1 Neil Walker 1 Jay Bruce 1 PITCHER OF THE MONTH R. A. Dickey 10 Jacob deGrom 10 Johan Santana 9 Pedro Martinez 6 John Maine 5 Bartolo Colon 5 Mike Pelfrey 4 Jonathon Niese 4 Matt Harvey 4 Tom Glavine 3 Dillon Gee 3 Noah Syndergaard 3 Orlando Hernandez 2 ROBERT GSELLMAN 2 Alay Soler 1 Steve Trachsel 1 Oliver Perez 1 Livan Hernandez 1 Tim Redding 1 Chris Capuano 1 Zack Wheeler 1 Rafael Montero 1 RELIEVER OF THE MONTH Jeurys Familia 11 Brian Stokes 5 Addison Reed 5 Billy Wagner 4 Aaron Heilman 4 Bobby Parnell 4 Carlos Torres 4 Francisco Rodriguez 3 Hansel Robles 3 Duaner Sanchez 2 Raul Valdes 2 Pedro Beato 2 Manny Acosta 2 Jon Rauch 2 LaTroy Hawkins 2 Darren Oliver 1 Chad Bradford 1 Guillermo Mota 1 Joe Smith 1 Jorge Sosa 1 Scott Schoeneweis 1 Pedro Feliciano 1 Sean Green 1 Fernando Nieve 1 Hisanori Takahashi 1 Elmer Dessens 1 Jason Isringhausen 1 Frank Francisco 1 Josh Edgin 1 Scott Rice 1 Paul Sewald 1 CHASEN BRADFORD 1 BENCH PLAYER OF THE MONTH Fernando Tatis 3 Daniel Murphy 3 Jordany Valdespin 3 Eric Campbell 3 Kelly Johnson 3 Wilmer Flores 3 Julio Franco 2 Damion Easley 2 Marlon Anderson 2 Endy Chavez 2 Josh Thole 2 Justin Turner 2 Scott Hairston 2 Andrew Brown 2 Lucas Duda 2 Eli Marrero 1 Michael Tucker 1 Ricky Ledee 1 David Newhan 1 Ramon Castro 1 Ruben Gotay 1 Robinson Cancel 1 Gary Sheffield 1 Alex Cora 1 Jeremy Reed 1 Omir Santos 1 Cory Sullivan 1 Chris Carter 1 Mike Hessman 1 Nick Evans 1 Jason Pridie 1 Willie Harris 1 Val Pascucci 1 Mike Baxter 1 Ronny Cedeño 1 Kelly Shoppach 1 Josh Satin 1 Zach Lutz 1 Ike Davis 1 Chris Young 1 Anthony Recker 1 Curtis Granderson 1 Johnny Monell 1 Darrell Ceciliani 1 Michael Cuddyer 1 Yoenis Cespedes 1 Juan Lagares 1 Gavin Cecchini 1 Michael Conforto 1 Brandon Nimmo 1 DOMINIC SMITH 1 Leaders for Bench Players in September: 1 Dominic Smith 3.90 2 Asdrubal Cabrera 1.62 3 Phillip Evans 1.03 4 Tomas Nido 0.50 5 Travis d'Arnaud 0.46 6 Juan Lagares 0.16 7 Norichika Aoki 0.08 7 Matt Reynolds 0.08 7 Jacob deGrom 0.08 Leaders for Relievers in September: 1 Chasen Bradford 4.02 2 Jeurys Familia 3.20 3 Jerry Blevins 2.75 4 Hansel Robles 2.33 5 Josh Smoker 2.07 6 Paul Sewald 1.89 7 Jacob Rhame 1.54 8 Jamie Callahan 1.49 9 Chris Flexen 1.34 10 AJ Ramos 1.23 11 Kevin McGowan 1.01 12 Tommy Milone 0.84 13 Erik Goeddel 0.34 14 Matt Harvey 0.33 We had 5 voters who had a perfect Schaefer voting record in September. Thanks to all who participated! Ashie62 28 Benjamin Grimm 28 TMF 28 G-Fafif 28 OhSheaCanKC 28 FK 25 seawolf17 1

And Sybil, of course, is Sybil Gooley. She worked at Ferguson's Market, didn't she?

I think the availability of flights out of Vegas probably is an advantage over some other Pacific Coast League cities, and probably some International League cities too, but it's heavily outweighed by a bunch of over factors. Maybe it's more of a mitigation than an advantage. And now, a Top Ten List. The Ten Most Populated Cities in New York State: 1. New York City 8,550,405 2. Buffalo 261,025 3. Rochester 210,855 4. Yonkers 197,399 5. Syracuse 145,151 6. Albany 97,660 7. New Rochelle 77,606 8. Mount Vernon 67,780 9. Schenectady 66,273 10 Utica Oneida 62,110 Rochester and Buffalo already have Triple-A franchises. Yonkers is too close to New York. Albany is 150 miles from New York, compared to 246 for Syracuse. I guess that city might be an option. They're currently a short-season Single-A city, and I'm sure they'd love to make the jump to Triple-A. I think, though, that it's more likely that the Mets will leverage Syracuse into improving or replacing the ballpark there.

It's not just about flights to New York. One advantage that Las Vegas has is that you can probably get a direct flight from there to any big league city where the Mets might be playing. Getting a flight from Syracuse to Cincinnati, or to San Diego, might require making a connection.

Frayed Knot wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Not sure where else they could threaten to move to though. Ideally they'd want to keep it in the north east but you'd need a decent sized city without a team there now. Are there really that many of those they could find bigger/better/closer than Syracuse yet far away enough from NYC, Boston, Philly, Baltimore, DC, etc.? Yeah, I don't know, either. I read that Syracuse is the fifth-largest city in New York State, so it would be hard to find a better market without leaving the state. Newark, New Jersey would be ideal, but the Yankees would never allow it. But are we sure that Brooklyn is off the table? If the Mets were to expand the ballpark at Coney Island, would they be able to trade their New York-Penn League rights for similar rights in the International League? Maybe, but I'm not at all sure of that, especially since the NY-Penn League plays a short-season schedule and the IL plays a full season. That could be a key difference. It might be allowed if, in exchange, the Yankees were allowed to do the same in Staten Island.