Benjamin Grimm

If the Indians are looking for a non-controversial mascot to replace Chief Wahoo, maybe they can coax Milton the Toaster out of retirement.

My feeling isn't as strong as "of course not" but I voted no. Spend that $17 million elsewhere.

They should just hire Tim Tebow to be the playing bench coach, and he'll be the heir apparent to Terry's job as manager. He'd be a player/manager/healer.

He was amazing. One of the brightest stories of 2016 for the Mets. I don't know if he'll be as good in 2017, but I want him to get every chance to do so.

Games between teams from Chicago and Los Angeles will get a lot more viewers than games played between teams from Cleveland and Toronto.

I think I wanted Washington to win, because I prefer Daniel Murphy to Chase Utley, for reasons that I can't quite put my finger on.

This chart shows who awarded 6 points in a game during the 2016 season. The last column indicates the actual number of points that the player ended up getting for that game. So I did it twice, once for Syndergaard in May and once for deGrom in July. [table:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4/9/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]86Dreamer[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Bartolo Colon[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4.08[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4/12/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]86Dreamer[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.27[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4/12/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]A Boy Named Seo[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.27[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4/29/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]OhSheaCanKC[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Yoenis Cespedes[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4.26[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/7/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]G-Fafif[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Bartolo Colon[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4.8[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/7/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Mets Willets Point[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Bartolo Colon[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4.8[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]OhSheaCanKC[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Johnny[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Eric Stratton[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]LWFS[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]TransMonk[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]TMF[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Ashie62[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]G-Fafif[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/11/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Benjamin Grimm[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.99[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/17/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Ashie62[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4.93[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5/25/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]OhSheaCanKC[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Steven Matz[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.36[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/3/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]G-Fafif[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Wilmer Flores[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/3/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Ashie62[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Wilmer Flores[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/17/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Johnny[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Jacob deGrom[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.84[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/17/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Ashie62[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Jacob deGrom[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.84[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/17/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]OhSheaCanKC[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Jacob deGrom[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.84[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/17/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]TransMonk[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Jacob deGrom[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.84[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/17/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]G-Fafif[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Jacob deGrom[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.84[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]7/17/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Benjamin Grimm[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Jacob deGrom[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.84[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]8/21/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]OhSheaCanKC[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.47[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]8/21/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Ashie62[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Noah Syndergaard[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]5.47[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]9/22/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Ashie62[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Asdrubal Cabrera[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]3.53[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][tr:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]9/25/2016[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]OhSheaCanKC[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]Robert Gsellman[/td:fl5w1n6x][td:fl5w1n6x]4.25[/td:fl5w1n6x][/tr:fl5w1n6x][/table:fl5w1n6x]

Yeah, it doesn't really matter. If he wants to win it for the ghost of Maury Amsterdam, that's fine by me.

Wait, hold it... YOU were rooting for the Dodgers?

G-Fafif wrote: Cecchini appears to have gotten his own color scheme. Was there a 1975 card that looked like that? No, there wasn't! Good job noticing that!

G-Fafif wrote: Congratulations Yo, Noah, Jeurys and KelJo. You, too, Grimm. Thank you for breathing new life into an old classic. As they say in Chicago, it was a pleasure voting 162 times. Thanks! The "new life" appears to have been successful. There was a chance that it would cause a decline in participation, but that didn't happen. We seem to have had an increase that was sustained until about the last month of the season, when the Mets started playing well and voters, apparently, stopped paying attention! Either way, I'm satisfied that this will be worthwhile continuing into 2017. I believe I kept up. Its a matter of pride. You missed two games: May 23 and July 28. Next year I am giving 6 points only to the player who did us the most good, as in the PLAYER of the game. I'm not sure what that means. Are you saying that for each and every game you're going to give 6 points to one player and none to anybody else? If that's your plan I'll have to ask you to please not do that. It's not in the spirit of Schaefer and, with so few voters, would abnormally skew the results. I'm afraid I'd have to treat such votes as extreme outliers and discard them, and I really don't want to have to do that.

She's ferocious, and she knows just what it takes to make a pro blush. All the boys think she's a spy. She's got Bette Davis eyes.

I looked it up. (It's amazing what you can do these days.) It's Constance Bennett, a movie star from the 1920s and 30s.

Frayed Knot wrote: I was going to say that all of those folks need names, or titles, or at least nicknames of some sort. I mean some already have names, Casey is Casey and Paul Schefer is easily identifiable and I'm not suggesting that we give Henry VIII or Boticelli's Venus new monikers here. Oh, I should point out that that's not actually Botticelli's Venus. It's her sister, Botticelli's Serena. See the difference?

I remember I had Planet of the Apes cards! I think they were based on the short-lived TV series.

Zvon wrote: Love the GREAT WALL OF CARDS. You're like me, more stuck in the 70s than any other decade. Not a bad place to be. Although I kept buying cards out of habit until the early 1990s, the 70s were the only decade in which I was really into them. The years that I'm most nostalgic for are 1971 through 1973, when my age ranged from eight to ten. Zvon wrote: Great job as always Grimm. Thank you!

I'm not sure if that's an ostrich or an emu. We may need to summon an expert on ratites.

I think she's just an unidentified flapper. The girl with the flower (in black and white) is Lillian Gish.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of our wonderful Schaefer spokesmodels who did such a great job throughout the year. They'll all be back in 2017, along with a few new friends. Let's give them a big hand!

Thank you, but it really wasn't such hard work. (If it was hard, I wouldn't do it!) But that reminds me that I meant to say that the new system that was introduced this year made things much easier than they were before. Instead of spending a few minutes per day I'm now spending a few minutes per month. As a result, I'm officially announcing that Schaefer will resume in 2017 for its 13th season!

THE SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE YEAR, 2016 PLAYER OF THE YEAR The Schaefer Mets Player of the Year for 2016 is first-time winner YOENIS CESPEDES. His total of 90.62 points is the lowest winning sum in the CPF's Schaefer history. 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. * 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, for the first time, NOAH SYNDERGAARD. Noah finished a mere 0.81 points behind Yoenis Cespedes in the race for overall Player of the Year. 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. * 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 The Mets Relief Pitcher of the Year is a repeat of last year's winner, JEURYS FAMILIA. Familia, who set a club record with 51 saves, totaled 36.70 points, all out of the bullpen. Runners up were Addison Reed (34.76 points), Hansel Robles (30.22), Jerry Blevins (16.23), and Antonio Bastardo (13.29). 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. BENCH PLAYER OF THE YEAR The Bench Player of the Year is KELLY JOHNSON, who earned 8.29 points in games in which he did not start, ahead of Alejandro De Aza (7.18 points), Wilmer Flores (5.64), and Matt Reynolds (3.70). 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. This year, every player who appeared for the Mets received Scheaefer points. SCHAEFER METS PLAYER OF THE WEEK, 2016 Week ending April 9, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 4.69 points. Week ending April 16, 2016: Yoenis Cespedes, 7.95 points. Week ending April 23, 2016: Curtis Granderson, 7.51 points. Week ending April 30, 2016: Michael Conforto, 10.93 points. Week ending May 7, 2016: Bartolo Colon, 9.27 points. Week ending May 14, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 5.99 points. Week ending May 21, 2016: Yoenis Cespedes, 6.04 points. Week ending May 28, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 5.58 points. Week ending June 4, 2016: Matt Harvey, 5.12 points. Week ending June 11, 2016: Matt Harvey, 7.76 points. Week ending June 18, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 4.14 points. Week ending June 25, 2016: Jacob deGrom, 7.07 points. Week ending July 2, 2016: Bartolo Colon, 7.14 points. Week ending July 9, 2016: Wilmer Flores, 10.80 points. Week ending July 16, 2016: Jose Reyes, 3.65 points. Week ending July 23, 2016: Jacob deGrom, 5.93 points. Week ending July 30, 2016: Steven Matz, 6.17 points. Week ending August 6, 2016: Neil Walker, 8.33 points. Week ending August 13, 2016: Jacob deGrom, 7.78 points. Week ending August 20, 2016: Jose Reyes, 6.58 points. Week ending August 27, 2016: Noah Syndergaard, 9.09 points. Week ending September 3, 2016: Robert Gsellman, 6.23 points. Week ending September 10, 2016: Curtis Granderson 8.17 points. Week ending September 17, 2016: Seth Lugo, 5.98 points. Week ending September 24, 2016: Asdrubal Cabrera, 7.49 points. Week ending October 1, 2016: Robert Gsellman, 7.61 points. Thanks to those who participated! This year, since all votes were stored in database tables, we're able to award our first "perfect participation" awards. There were four forum members who voted in every game, and as a result G-Fafif, TMF, Benjamin Grimm, and OhSheaCanKC will all receive a virtual copy of this lovely button: Wear it with virtual pride! (Also, we'll be sending a virtual box of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat, to Ashie62, to thank him for almost achieving this honor. He voted in 160 of the 162 games!) Honorable mention to Johnny and TransMonk (138 games each), Zvon (95 games) and LWFS (62 games).

I was at that game. It was the second postseason game I ever attended and the first involving the Mets.

I'm not sure what to do about Travis. It would be a shame to trade him now, mainly because his value is pretty low and he may bounce back to be the player that he was in 2015. Ideally, the Mets would bring in a 30-year-old veteran catcher with a solid bat and let Travis be the backup and whatever playing time he gets will provide more information about whether 2016 was a fluke or if it's time to give up on him, as may very well be the case.