nymr83

Lopez was good because he set himself up outside of the "box" catchers are supposed to be in

The Traverse City Beach Bums are about two hours north and have a beautiful stadium, especially for an independent league team. The Lansing Lugnuts are two blocks from my office, also with kind of a nice stadium. The name was met with open ridicule at first, but now people kind of like it. Now, the West Michigan Whitecaps are four miles from my house and used to have a cool logo. Then they followed the lead of the other MiLB clubs and have this: This logo is pretty cool.

agreed 110%... no more origin stories! especially for characters who have had 2 of them in the past 15 years.

Keith Law doesnt like Matz but likes some other Met more than most, this is his Mets top 10 wit their overall rank in parenthesis... 1. Noah Syndergaard, RHP (17) 2. Michael Conforto, LF (41) 3. Kevin Plawecki, C (45) 4. Dominic Smith, 1B (65) 5. Amed Rosario, SS (69) 6. Brandon Nimmo, OF (91) 7. Dilson Herrera, 2B 8. Steven Matz, LHP 9. Rafael Montero, RHP 10. Gavin Cecchini, SS

A few things stand out: -Cuddyer wasn't worth giving up that pick, even if the money wasnt so terrible -Astros pick 2nd for stiffing Brady Aiken? what a fucking joke. I get that they arent going to overhaul the entire draft system, but if they are going to sit here and have slot payments which you are punished for going over and then give compensation picks for unsigned players there needs to be a rule that if you DONT offer a player at least the "slot" payment then you dont get compensation when he doesnt sign. or better yet, you cant draft a guy if you are unwilling to offer him "slot".

Edgy MD wrote: I don't really root for the improvement that comes through offseason dealings. To my thinking, that's just what a team does in accepting that they've failed at something in building the team. When a team has the best minor league record of all 30 teams, I'm not in a rush to force them to admit failure. A lot of the best Mets teams came after doing little transacting in the offseason. A lot of the most improved ones and the best overall ones. And a lot of the crappiest teams have come after an offseason of copious transacting. Transacting ain't winning. It's... shuffling. And not transacting certainly isn't doing nothing. I agree with your general premise that improving from within usually is a better plan than just throwing money around, but do you have any evidence to support the notion that minor league record matters for the major league club's future win totals? i'd be interested in that!

Of course, the Yankees can say that talent, not contract size, determines playing time and let him rot on the bench. Sure his lawyers could sue and claim he was benched only to avoid hitting contract milestones, but then the burden of proof is on him rather than on the Yankees. It wouldnt even be all that unreasonable to say that Headley won the 3B job outright because we expect him to produce better than a guy who turns 40 in July and didnt play all of last year. My guess is Arod gets the 6 million for 6 more homers but never reaches the incentives after that.

wow the Williams shift is more extreme than anything you see these days

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Would that mean expansion? Or relocation? I suppose that right now the teams most likely to relocate are the Rays and the Athletics. I think that if I were in charge of either of those teams there would be at least a few places I'd choose over Montreal. I think he's obligated to dangle destinations out there so teams demanding new stadiums have leverage -- though the number of teams not having new stadiums is pretty small at this point. The Rogers center in Toronto is 25 years old, only the following are older: Fenway Park (1912 and not going anywhere), Wrigley Field (1914, they are re-modelling the bleachers but the team isnt leaving the park), Dodger Stadium (1962), Angel Stadium (1966), Oakland Coliseum (1966), Kaufman Stadium (1973 - a 250 million renovation was done 5 years ago). Oakland seem like the only conceivable team who could demand a stadium from this group. Tampa is the only other team I could see moving.

Centerfield wrote: By the nature of the way the bases are set up, shifts hurt LH hitters more than they hurt RH hitters. This is obviously not a huge issue facing the game, but does it warrant no action? By nature of being born left-handed those left handed bats have a higher chance of making the majors because the percentage of left handed hitters will always be higher than the percentage of lefties in the general population, a result of their increased effectiveness against predominantly right handed pitching, maybe we should have a rule that each righty is entitled to face the same percentage of left handed pitchers that a lefty gets to face of right handers? the whole idea is absurd.

Incredibly stupid. Maybe he just wants them to play homerun derby every night? I am glad we are getting away from the steroid fueled offensive era and into a re b aissance for pitching and defense.

maybe a bunch of spanish guys just look very light skinned here, but are the Mets the whitest team ever or what??

the "Parnell as closer" thing may make sense not just from the cynical point of view of keeping Mejia's salary down... if the Mets end up out of contention this year Parnell's trade value in July/August looks better to some teams if he has those shiny save numbers. leveraging the artificial value of "the closer role" could be smart on the Mets' part.

The only problem with that idea is that you are probably degrading the trade value of any non-prospect age pitcher who you yank from the rotation because clubs dont get recent tape of him pitching every 5th day and coming out of the pen isnt the same.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: And for every Gary Cohen or Bob Costas or Vin Scully out there, there are at least eight or ten idiots who happen to have a job sitting behind a microphone. there are blockheads everywhere, but i think it wouldbe better to expand the types of voters and to cut out the guys who either 1) have not covered baseball in years or 2) wont publicize their ballot

I would add broadcasters for sure, make the rule "10 years as a broadcaster whose primary job is to cover baseball (not sports in general)" or something like that. i'd also want to include living hall of famers to get that side of it in there.

I agree the ballot shouldn't be anonymous - we aren't voting for president here. if you arent willing to publish and defend your vote then you shouldn't have one. They need to change the structure of who votes as well: -I'd limit the writers to those whose full time job is covering baseball in some capacity, with a rule that you lose the ballot 5 years after that is no longer your job. They've already shortened the time on the ballot to ten years for players so i dont see an issue with the older players getting shafted by this rule, and there is always the veterans committee. -they need more voters than just writers, but i'm not sure who this should be

enough with the religion and politics, Val's post raises points, the bold below is mine as i see less legit candidates over the next few years which could be a good thing for the 10-12 legit guys still on the ballot. 2020 has no legit candidates, but i guess someone could still retire before next season starts? Beltran? Ichiro? Also, there are NO legit pitchers until 2019, that has to help Schilling/Mussina Worth laying out the upcoming contenders: 2016 Ken Griffey, Jr. - Will hit a percentage somewhere near Seaver. Trevor Hoffman - All-time saves leader at time of retirement, with 601. Jim Edmonds - 8-time Gold Glove winner, 4-time All-Star, 393 HRs Billy Wagner - 422 saves is 2nd among LHPs, career ERA of 2.31, career WHIP of 0.998 Also in this class - Luis Castillo, Mike Hampton, Chan Ho Park, Mike Sweeney, Jason Kendall 2017 Vladimir Guerrero - Find it hard to believe he won't get in on the first ballot, but something tells me that's what happens, because Hall voters are morons. Ivan Rodriguez - In many ways the "other" great catcher of Piazza's era. Probably gets in but not on first ballot. Manny Ramirez - Worthy numbers, but multiple positive PED tests probably keep him out. Jorge Posada - MFY hacks will make a push for him, but destined for the Hall of Very Good Also in this class - Mike Cameron, Pat Burrell, Magglio Ordonez, Edgar Renteria, Jason Varitek 2018 Jim Thome - 612 HRs. Should be first-ballot guy. Chipper Jones - Also probably first-ballot guy. Omar Vizquel - Defensive wizard, won 11 Gold Gloves, but also 2,877 hits, 404 SBs and 1,445 runs scored. Most games played at SS in history at 2,709. Andruw Jones - 10 Gold Gloves, 5-time All-Star. Johnny Damon - 2,769 hits, 408 SBs, 2004 World Series star. Scott Rolen - 8 Gold Gloves, 7-time All-Star. 316 HRs, 1,287 RBI Jamie Moyer - The Pitcher That Never Got Old. 269 wins in 25 seasons. Also in this class - Jason Isringhausen, Livan Hernandez, Chris Carpenter, Carlos Lee, Hideki Matsui, Kerry Wood 2019 Mariano Rivera - Will test just how much love closers have from Hall voters. Can a closer break 90%? Roy Halladay - The workhorse of his generation who should make it in. Andy Pettitte - 256 wins in 18 seasons, most postseason wins. Todd Helton - Great 1B but how much of that was Coors? Also in this class - Lance Berkman, Darren Oliver, Roy Oswalt, Michael Young 2020 Derek Jeter - Boston writers may keep him from Seaver's record. Paul Konerko - 439 HRs, 1,412 RBI Alfonso Soriano - 412 HRs, 289 SBs Also in this class (so far) Kevin Youkilis

I think the ballot clears up a little bit next year... Griffey will get in right away, Hoffman/Wagner will chill on the ballot for awhile, is that it? Jim Edmonds maybe squeeks by 5% to stay on the ballot

Edgy MD wrote: Bacne Man's hanging on by the skin of his teeth. Impressive how Bonds and Clemens seems to be a single decision for a lot of voters. Aren't they though? they both fall into the category of having undeniable credentials and proven steroid use. i dont think anyone else has ever fallen into both categories before (McGwire is closest, but hes been on the ballot longer and failed enough already that his supporters may be allocatig their maximum of 10 votes elsewhere) Piazza got fucked.

Frayed Knot wrote: Going Once ... Going Twice ... give me a few days to maybe get to it

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: He is now a strapping 6'2", 220-pound 15-year-old ... There oughta be a rule against getting that big in only 15 years. I think age 15 is about the time I was tipping the scales at ONE-Twenty! I was probably 6'2" at 15... and about 150 lbs soaking wet

Smoltz also needs to get credit for his playoff work... i dont think we need to overrate October (::cough::Pettite::cough: but it does account for 209 innings of 2.67 ERA that doesnt get included in his totals. Those numbers are significant and probably the difference between him and Mussina. They aren't quite enough to catch him up to Schilling in my mind, but they both belong in.

Edgy MD wrote: If acknowledging your name is a dumb because of sports associations, I'd rather be wrong. The girl's only sin is loving her father. Unless you are someone who uses it for work purposes (like a sportswriter, a publicist, etc) using your real name on twitter is not a great idea. This doesnt take away at all from how wrong anyone attacking her is, but still not smart.

MFS62 wrote: Is there a bug in the voting software? Where players received one vote (e.g.- Delgado) it shows they received 0 % of the vote. Later the % is the percent of all votes cast, not the % of the number of ballots cast so 1/202 (as of this post) is less than .5 and therefore rouded down to 0%