nymr83

OlerudOwned wrote: Lots of random Olerud discussion today. we're all still frustrated that he left.

LMAO...how about... Minaya signs white/black/asian/non-hispanic free agent. pedro upset about clubhouse diversity ...before we actually start that discussion again i'll just say that the 3 best FAs last year happened to be hispasnic, omar got 2 of them, and its all coincidence so lets just leave it be.. (unless he goes out and trades david wright for a hispanic 3B in which case the rumors will be provwen true and omar will have a bullseye on him from met fans everywhere)

Edgy DC wrote: This should be obvious, but I'd say no, Olerud is not the best Met ever, he's a good object lesson that you can leave a nice flavor if you arrive in town just as you've put your growing pains behind you, at your peak, and leave before you start do dramatically decline. And, if you're a hitter, it's good to do so during an offensive upsurge throughout the league. he is the best Met ever on a per-year basis in my mind. every other great met hitter had some BAD years here to go with the good.

]Still, he may be able to handle the move, but generally, RFers need a strong arm. Dont let all of those assists last year fool you, the ball comes out of Floyds arm as strong as water from a leaky hose. i stopped reading after that. are you fucking kidding? this guy obviously didn't watch him make a real throw all year. watching him throw the ball back in with nobody on base doesn't count! his arm is just fine.

i'm reluctant to trade milledge, i'd say YES to an offer of Cameron and Petit, i think most here agree with that? what about Cameron, Petit, and Bannister? too much?

the offensive decline for catchers (usually linked to getting more and more frequently injured) does always seem to set in earlier than it does for other players. manny's career line is .314/.409/.599....i'd take .280/.380/.540 which would be a dropoff of .034/.029/.059 from his career and .012/.008/.055 from this past year. he hasn't had an OPS+ under 143 since before the strike, his lowest as a Red Sock was 152 in 2004, even if he declines i have no reason to believe he'll do so at the speed that others seem to be suggesting.

Salamander Q returns to Crane Pool Forum renounces statistics as evil, embraces players who provide "veteran presense" and can't hit.

seawolf17 wrote: ONE (John Olerud .315) ONE (John Olerud .425) ZERO (John Olerud .926) the moral of Seawolf's post? John Olerud is the best met ever.

with all the depth we have theres no reason to slot a guy like Banister in even after a trade... i wouldn't want to trade Seo but if we have to i guess its worth it getting Zito...maybe they would take Bannister and Cameron? if i had to rank our "tradeable" (young, cheap, and at least potentially good) players from best to worst (best being i dont want to lose them, worst being i dont care) i'd go: Milledge, Diaz, Seo, Petit, Heilman, Bannister, Zambrano Diaz, although i ranked him high, can go easily if we get an outfielder back. i'd hate to deal Milledge for any of the names i've heard so far (although you just can't turn down manny i think.) in trading the pitchers i could care less about zambrano and bannister, if you can get something good for them do it. i'd marginally rather deal Petit than Seo because i think Seo is going to be a better option for right now and i have a certain innate distrust of pitching prospects. i'd deal heilman if the trade is right because his value will likely never be higher, but i wouldnt trade him just because of that.

NOT trading for Manny if the opportunity presents itself would be stupid. f* his fielding, f* his contract, f* his "diva" personality...he is one of the best hitters in thegame and that is exactly what the Mets need.

anyone else remember the "rumors" about this game at the time, that Joe Torre had left Carlos Almanzar in the game to face Piazza to "make a point" that he needed another good reliever?

]Benson what makes him a lock? he's no better than Traschel.

SORIA-NO! Mets turn down Texas offer, cite concerns of defense, road stats

while unlikely, he could hae taken them unknowingly or knowingly but only after his testimony.

so the writers didn't look away from the wins column? Clemens had a historically good season. 153, 151, 221, 141 are the ERA+ scores of the top 4, which do YOU think had the best year, this isn't even close. btw, this was the 16th highest ERA+ of all time and i have a strong feeling those 2 votes came from Houston writers.....this man was ROBBED.

even if you wanted to believe that some guys were simply "choke-artists" a single appearence shouldn't be allowed to prove that point. Hoffman doesn't have enough postseason to make a statement one way or the other.

i'd offer their choice of benson/zambrano, i'd assume we'd be taking the salary on so they shouldn't get more than that.

my guess is the Dodgers, they had 4 in a row in 90's (Mondesi, Piazza, Hollandsworth and Nomo i believe) plus Jackie Robinson, and i'm sure there were others.

a huge upgrade over what we have of course, but i have to think the asking price will be hard to stomach: Milledge, Petit, Zambrano, Diaz, and A. Hernandez maybe? i have mixed feelings about him and his home/road splits aren't very pretty either.

its like the Brees/Rivers dilemma, only the younger guy is the better one here...this is an easy choice in my mind. if the phillies can get value for Thome they should take it and run.

i'm going to leave the religion thing alone and just discuss catchers/jacobs... is defense for a catcher important? yes. it is in the top 3 positions of "i want a good defender here." however, i don't thank that "throws out baserunners" = "good defensive catcher." every passed ball you allow (or wild pitch you don't prevent) is as good as a runner that you failed to throw out. this isn't even considering the ability to "call a game" which i think is the most important part of defensive catching ability. so if a guy can't throw runners out, but calls a good game and blocks the ball in the dirt, i'd be happy to hand him the job if he can hit. the question, for me, is whether or not Jacobs can do these well enough to justify playing him there in order to receive the benefit of his bat... and this all comes down to your good friend MATH.. if Jacobs will "cost you" 20 runs defensively compared to your other options (Castro for example) but will cause you to score 30 more runs offensively, then he is a better choice. you can still insert Castro in the late innings of a close game the same way any other poor defender is removed, you can even make Castro Pedro's personal catcher if you somehow feel that Jacobs is hurting you more in his starts (a proposition i don't agree with.) in the end, we don't know enough about his bat OR his glove to know if playing him there is a smart idea. i strongly suspect (based on his past numbers) that he'll hit much better than the average catcher. i also suspect (based on the Mets failure to play him there even though they had a glaring hole) that they don't think he can cut it back there defensively, and that means more than just baserunners running rampant. i am not enamored by any of the FA catchers out there, so i'd be more than willing to go into the spring (assuming we get a good 1Bman) telling Jacobs that the catching job is his to lose, if he looks ok (think Piazza before this year) then he stays there for as long as he is hitting, if he looks terrible (think balls hitting the backscreen without Ankiel on the mound) then its Castro-time.

i think there is at least something to the idea that he has left the game far too early with far too convenient injuries when he isn't pitching well. he'll never be confused with micharl jordan, willis reed, or curt schilling, but i'm not sure there is enough evidence for me lump him in with the likes of marcus "i can't stay on the court" camby and vince coleman.

there are plenty of guys = to Baez out there. as for Huff, looking at his 2005 numbers i'd be inclined to pass on him unless there are no grade A/B+ prospects and no valuable major leagyers in the deal. Milledge, Petit, and Seo should be out of bounds in discussing this guy. if they want Bannister for him, hey, its worth a shot. but all of this is, i hope, a backup plan if we don't sign Konerko or a prelude to another trade.

in sticking with my conservative approach to the players' HOF i'll only vote for one guy here- Ralph Kiner....i have to assume Bob Murphy is already in, right?

1 A.J. Burnett - SP - NYY 2 Kevin Millwood - SP - BAL 3 Jarrod Washburn - SP - ANH 4 Billy Wagner - RP - NYM 5 B.J. Ryan - RP - BOS 6 Trevor Hoffman - RP - SD 7 Bengie Molina - C - ANH 8 Ramon Hernandez - C - SD 9 Brad Ausmus - C - HOU 10 Paul Konerko - 1b - CHW 11 J.T. Snow - 1b - ATL 12 Kevin Millar - 1b - BAL 13 Mark Grudzielanek - 2b - ATL 14 Tony Graffanino - 2b - DET 15 Bill Mueller - 3b - MIL 16 Jose Valentin - 3b - ARZ 17 Joe Randa - 3b - MIN 18 Rafael Furcal - SS - STL 19 Nomar Garciaparra - SS - LAD 20 Alex Gonzalez - SS - FLA 21 Johnny Damon - OF - BOS 22 Hideki Matsui - OF - NYY 23 Brian Giles - OF - NYM 24 Carl Everett - DH - TOR 25 Ruben Sierra - DH - TB 26 Erubiel Durazo - DH - BAL 27 Mike Piazza - DH - ANH 28 Bernie Williams - DET 29 Sammy Sosa - TEX 30 Raphael Palmiero - Retirement.