Benjamin Grimm

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) Last one for today. I think John Lannan will end up third in line for the fifth starter position, behind Mejia and Matsuzaka. He'll start the season in Las Vegas, and may never make it to Flushing at all. If he does, I'll say three starts, three relief appearances.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I'm rooting for Juan Lagares to win the starting center field job this spring, but I think Terry has a bias toward's Eric Young's "leadoff skills." So Juan will start the season in Las Vegas, and spend more time there than he deserves. He'll get called up if someone gets hurt, and he'll stay in the lineup if that injury is a lengthy one, or if someone (like Eric or Chris Young) falters.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I think Curtis Granderson will have a nice year for the Mets. .255, 26 homers, 95 rbi. If the Mets don't win 90 games, it won't be his fault.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I'm kind of tempted to skip creating threads for middle relievers. Maybe next year. Gonzalez Germen? Ummm... he'll make the team. 4.50 ERA. Back and forth to Las Vegas for a while. Total of 25 innings for the Mets.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I think Dillon Gee will finally meet his goal of pitching 200 innings (last year he ended at 199). If he avoids getting off to a terrible start like he did in 2013, he'll be a decent, but unspectacular, regular in the Mets rotation. I'll put him down for 13 wins and a 3.90 ERA. He's also a pretty good trade chip who could very well be squeezed out of the Mets plans in the next couple of years. Depending on circumstances, I could very well see him being dealt in July, but I'll predict that he finishes the season with the Mets.

Ceetar wrote: Why does the ball in play make it interesting? Is swinging and missing, or fouling it back, really less interesting than a soft grounder to short? Sure it is. A soft grounder to short can advance a runner, can lead to an infield single, can lead to an error. A swing and a miss leads to a guy shaking his head and walking slowly back to the dugout.

Thanks Michigan, Steve, and Zvon. I've passed your responses on to the person who wrote to me.

My problem with The National was that it was really The Local. I was hoping it would be a kind of daily Sporting News, with dispatches from teams around the country. But the New York edition covered New York sports, the Chicago edition covered Chicago sports. There was little "national" about it other than the brand name.

Black, Vic Colon, Bartolo d'Arnaud, Travis Davis, Ike deGrom, Jacob den Dekker, Matt Duda, Lucas Edgin, Josh Familia, Jeurys Flores, Wilmer Gee, Dillon Germen, Gonzalez Granderson, Curtis Harvey, Matt Lagares, Juan Lannan, John Lutz, Zach Matsuzaka, Daisuke Mejia, Jennry Murphy, Daniel Niese, Jon Nieuwenhuis, Kirk Parnell, Bobby Puello, Cesar Recker, Anthony Rice, Scott Satin, Josh Syndergaard, Noah Tejada, Ruben Torres, Carlos Walters, Jeff Wheeler, Zach Wright, David Young, Chris Young, Eric

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I don't know how he's going to do it, but I think that Wilmer Flores is going to hit his way into a good amount of playing time. It might be at third base, but only if something bad happens with David Wright, so we certainly don't want that. His clearest path is at shortstop, but the big question is if his bat can overcome his defensive shortcomings. (I have no opinion on this, at least not yet.) He could replace Murphy at second, either because of an injury or trade, but my guess is that he'll be the guy to replace Ike Davis at first base in early May. 350 plate appearances, .280, 12 homers.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) Jeurys Familia will make the team out of spring training and will be in that muddle of indistinguishable middle relievers. He'll appear in about 40 or 50 games, typically only pitching to a few batters in each. (I know, I said the exact same thing about Josh Edgin. I'm afraid I no longer pay much attention to middle relievers that I can say anything of substance about them.)

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) Josh Edgin will make the team out of spring training and will be in that muddle of indistinguishable middle relievers. He'll appear in about 40 or 50 games, typically only pitching to a few batters in each.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I'm not nearly as high on Lucas Duda as some others here are. I predicted that Ike Davis would be the Mets first baseman in April, and then lose the job to suckiness, but I don't think Duda will be the guy to replace him. I think Lucas will see about as much playing time as Rusty Staub did in 1985, and then get traded.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I'm not so sure that Matt den Dekker will see much playing time with the Mets in 2014. I'll predict that he'll spend more time with Las Vegas than with the Mets, and that he'll get about 150 plate appearances for New York.

Have we back at the point where a guy can report to spring training bigger and stronger than before without us having to wonder what might be in his urine?

Frank Deford on NPR wrote: FRANK DEFORD: All right: play ball. Spring training has started, more replay is coming in, Derek Jeter is going out, and it's time to change the size of home plate. Well, what did he say? Yes, time to make home plate smaller. I know, that's heresy, that's sacrilegious. But let's back up and I'll explain. There're simply too many strikeouts in baseball now and that hurts the game, because if the ball isn't in play it's boring. The number of strikeouts goes up every season till the average is now more than 15 per game. Now, there're many reasons to account for this. Batters are taught to work the count, not swing right away. Batters don't choke up when they're down two strikes. They're not embarrassed to go down swinging anymore. The umpires call more strikes. Really, that's been proven. But at the core of the problem, pitchers are faster and better. So many more of them can throw at well over 90 miles an hour. But if human beings can be conditioned to throw harder, especially relievers, only in for an inning or even just one batter, how much quicker is it possible for a human being to swing a bat? A reliever comes in and we say he's a fresh arm. Nobody says a pinch hitter is a fresh bat. He's just a different bat. And the fire-balling reliever strikes him out, so nothing happens and it's boring. All sports tinker with rules and, yes, even with sacred dimensions. Basketball has widened the three-second area. The NFL goalposts used to be on the goal line. As hidebound as baseball can be, it lowered the pitchers' mound by a full third, 15 inches down to 10 in 1969. And the size of home plate was not decreed by God. Back when it was an iron plate - where the name came from - it was, in fact, round. It became rubber and a square, 12 inches to a side. But its present distinctive shape was established in 1900, a full 17 inches across. Now, that's too broad for the pitchers today, especially when so many strikes are on the corners, or even on the black - the small fringe which frames the plate. If you cut, say, an inch and a half off each side of the plate, pitchers would have a 14 inch target instead of 17. And batters would have a more reasonable chance to try and connect. They'd swing more, put more balls in play. It'd be more fun, a better game both to play and to watch. With fewer strikeouts, it would also speed up the game, which takes too long now. Understand, sure, narrowing the plate would help the batter but that's just a by-product. What it would primarily do is make the whole game better. It was a big deal when Mighty Casey struck out in 1888. It's a bore when everybody strikes out in 2014. Make the dinner plate a salad plate and improve the baseball cuisine. This is probably the nuttiest part: With fewer strikeouts, it would also speed up the game, which takes too long now. A smaller home plate would inevitably lead to more walks, which would lengthen the game without adding a whole lot of excitement. I can't see how he figures that outs slow down the game.

I'm only vaguely aware of who Chelsea Handler is, and I think she's being more rude than is necessary (even to Alex Rodriguez!) but this was a bit amusing nonetheless: N.Y. Daily News wrote: Alex Rodriguez may have a big fan in a certain WFAN radio host, but when it comes to talk show host and comedian Chelsea Handler, it�s a different story. Handler, a guest on Wednesday�s Howard Stern show told the King of All Media that A-Rod recently approached her, asking, �Chelsea, why do you have to make fun of me all the time?" to which Handler responded, �Get away from me you're disgusting.� She said she followed that up with �You're gross," to which A-Rod responded, �Why am I gross? We got off on the wrong foot. I read all of your books. I'm a big fan.� Handler then said, �I go, 'I don't know why you're a big fan. I think you're a f---ing a--hole.� When asked by Stern why she feels this way, Handler said, �Just the way he conducts himself.� She also called Rodriguez a �buffoon,� before hammering the point home by saying, �He just sleeps around ... He is a pile of s---.� It's safe to say Mike Francesa and Handler will agree to disagree.

To me it seems like a way for a manager to look smart because he's doing something unorthodox, but I doubt that it has any real impact. Terry wants Wright to have three hitters before him in the lineup. He can achieve that by batting David fourth, but then he'll get fewer plate appearances. (Probably 18 fewer, since the final batter of the game can be any of the nine positions and they're likely to be more or less evenly distributed.) But by doing this, the pitcher's spot will get 18 additional plate appearances. Of course, the pitcher would never be the last batter of the game, so those 18 at bats would be taken by pinch hitters. And it should be said that the count of 18 only applies if Terry bats the pitcher eighth every game of the year. If he does it nine times, then it will only affect one game, and that effect can easily be a negative one. Me, I wouldn't bother. Unless I had a pitcher who could really hit.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) One more for today. I think Jacob deGrom will spend most of the season at Las Vegas, making some spot starts for the Mets and joining the team for good in September.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I wish I could be optimistic about Ike Davis. I think he'll win the job in spring training, but will get off to another horrible start in April. By May 1 he'll be a minor leaguer or a bench player, and by June 1 he'll be a memory.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) Travis d'Arnaud had a bit of seasoning in the big leagues last year, and is still eligible for Rookie of the Year in 2014. It would be fun to have a contender in that category. The Mets haven't had a top rookie since the back-to-back wins of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden in 1983 and 1984. I doubt that it will happen though. The buzz is that Travis needs to break out in a big way this year, but I don't think he will, and that won't necessarily be a disaster. Assuming he stays reasonably healthy, I think he'll hit about 10 homers, .250.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) Bartolo Colon is definitely a candidate to be traded in August if the Mets season falls apart or if there's a critical mass of young pitchers who are ready to displace him and Colon has trade value to a contender. I think he'll make it through the season as a Met. 30 starts, 180 innings, 3.60 ERA.

It was moderately popular last year, so we'll try it again this year. IPP stands for Individual Player Predictions. These will be threads where we share our expectations of how a player will perform in the current year. Feel free to make your predictions as specific or as vague as you like. (You can find a listing of the 2013 IPPs here.) I think Vic Black will emerge as the primary eighth-inning guy, getting save opportunities in the (hopefully) few times that Bobby Parnell is unavailable. 3.40 ERA, 65 games.

I got an e-mail from a UMDB fan who asked if there's a checklist online anywhere that lists every Mets Topps baseball card ever produced. Does anyone know of such a thing?

Does the First Amendment explicitly protect the right to create hideous expressions of misguided sentiments?