G-Fafif

Montero 3.0 Valverde 0.5 Tejada 0.5

Granderson 2.0 EYoung 1.5 Wright 1.5 Murphy 1.5 Matsuzaka 1.5 Tejada 1.0 Lagares 1.0

977. Rafael Montero

Zvon wrote: Zvon wrote: I never thought I'd wish the NL had the DH. Who are you and what have you done with that great National League fan who makes all those fantastic cards? I take offense that the quote is displayed in normal size. I said that very small. Heretical whispers must be amplified so as to shame the whisperer of impure thoughts. No DH, dude. Seriously.

Zvon wrote: I never thought I'd wish the NL had the DH. Who are you and what have you done with that great National League fan who makes all those fantastic cards?

Frayed Knot wrote: Teixeira can't run. Probably gonna hafta be scratched from the Preakness.

Young, Jr.-DH Murphy-4 Wright-5 CYoung-7 Granderson-9 Lagares-8 Duda-3 d'Arnaud-2 Tejada-6 Wheeler-1

Gerald Williams doesn't appear to think much of Mike Stanton, either.

That "Stengal"-Torre card is...unfortunate.

George Vecsey remembering Bill Robinson in MFY clothing: The Yankees envisioned Bill Robinson as that kind of force, trading Clete Boyer, their nimble third baseman, to get Bill to play right field for the 1967 season. Michael Burke, one of the grandest executives in sports, could not curb his enthusiasm, and somehow the title of the black Roger Maris was foisted on Robinson, expectations he could not fulfill. In a sport of failure, Robinson hit .196 and .240 and .171 with the Yankees. I have never seen a player fail with more dignity.

Mex17: Like Jerry Manuel, demi-prophet without honor in his own time.

Get your hopes up about returning to .500, perhaps, but not so much offing the Wilpons, the Post suggests. [N]o matter how badly long-suffering Mets fans would like to see the cash-strapped Wilpon ride off into the sunset, the team�s ownership structure almost guarantees Wilpon staying in control of the team, The Post has learned. Wilpon is the sole Mets managing general partner, and that means even if his family�s share of the team gets reduced to a minority stake, he will continue to run the club, sources close to the situation said. Katz, who serves as the president of the team, quickly denied the report. �There is no truth to the reports of any intention of selling,� he said. �I have no intention of selling my share of the Mets, nor have I ever had any intention of selling my share.� While a sale may not be in his current plans, Katz does not have to worry about Wilpon losing control of the losing team. �Someone who buys Saul�s stake would have no rights,� a source close to the situation said. And even if a majority of new owners wanted to remove Wilpon as general partner, they would find it very difficult to do so, sources added. Many Major League teams have general partners who own minority stakes in their teams. Those GPs cannot be forcibly removed. For example, the Steinbrenner family owns between 25 percent and 50 percent of the Yankees, a well-placed source said, and Hal Steinbrenner is the GP. The Steinbrenner family has the first right to buy any Yankees stake put up for sale. It is unclear if Wilpon � who sources believe does not have the liquidity to buy out Katz � also has the first option to buy out partners. Of course, if Katz sells, it could increase slightly the possibility that Wilpon could lose the team. For example, if a new co-owner was not willing or able to fund any future losses, the team�s overall financial problems could force Wilpon out.

CYoung 1.5 Duda 1.0 Campbell 1.0 EYoung 1.0 Granderson 1.0 d'Arnaud 1.0 Mejia 1.0 Rice 1.0 Torres 0.5 Wright 0.5 Tejada 0.5

Farnsworth in process of unconditionally releasing himself.

G-Fafif wrote: Mets have never lost a Monday night regular-season game to the MFYs, having Mlickied them in 1997 and beaten them again in 2013. Monday nights: 3-0 vs MFYs. Tuesday nights: 1-1, plus a win in the only World Series game that mattered from 2000.

Seems to reduce the minutes left on the premises for Valverde and/or Farnsworth.

If Jeff Wilpon doesn't get to go around being Jeff Wilpon, New York Mets COO, what is Jeff Wilpon to do? Other than being generally well off and allowed to build stuff?

Multiple reports indicate: � Montero to start Wednesday (Mets have confirmed). � Mejia will be in the bullpen (ditto). � deGrom is having his start at Vegas skipped, suggesting a relief role for him with the big club.

Whoever your starter is, the Mets' is Montero.

Big-balled Saul Katz has had it with the Mets, reports the Times. Wilpon�s Partner Has Expressed Interest in Selling His Share of Mets By Michael S. Schmidt Saul B. Katz, who owns a majority share of the Mets in a partnership with his brother-in-law and business partner, Fred Wilpon, has expressed a desire to sell his portion of the team because he has grown tired of spending millions to prop it up, according to several people in baseball briefed on the matter. But Katz has been hesitant to sell because it could result in Wilpon�s no longer maintaining majority control, according to the people familiar with Katz�s situation. This has created a situation in which Katz has been locked into subsidizing part of the team�s losses in an effort to protect Wilpon, who considers the team a family heirloom and wants his son Jeff to control it for years to come. Keeping Score: Subway Series Offers Hope for Hitless Mets PitchersMAY 11, 2014 The people in baseball who described the situation spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by Katz to speak publicly about his finances and feared possible retribution from the baseball commissioner�s office, which discourages officials from discussing internal matters. The Mets declined to make Katz available for an interview. David Newman, a spokesman for the Mets, said Monday that there was �no truth� to the notion that Katz wants to sell his portion of the team. Katz, Newman said, is �definitely not selling.� Katz and Wilpon are business partners through Sterling Equities, their umbrella company, and they are believed to own roughly two-thirds of the Mets. If Katz were to sell his share of the team to someone other than Wilpon, it would create questions as to whether Wilpon, who currently serves as the team�s chairman of the board and chief executive, could maintain his role as the club�s ultimate decision maker. Katz has long overseen the Mets� finances, dating to the days when he used Bernard L. Madoff�s hedge fund, which was later exposed as a Ponzi scheme, to fund the team�s operating expenses. People who know Katz, 75, and Wilpon, 77, have said that Katz has less interest in baseball than Wilpon, who grew up playing the sport � he was Sandy Koufax�s high school teammate � and serves on Commissioner Bud Selig�s executive council. Katz, meanwhile, has long been involved with philanthropic efforts in the field of medicine � a wing of North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., is named after him � and he also directs Sterling�s real estate operations. But he has remained in the background when it comes to the day-to-day fortunes of the club, which has not had a winning season since 2008. It is unclear whether Katz has attempted to search for potential buyers. Several bankers involved with deals involving sports organizations said they had not been asked to help appraise Katz�s stake in the team, the first step toward brokering a sale. Finding a buyer willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for a share in the team but not have a major voice in running it is likely to be difficult. In 2011, the Mets tried to sell a $200 million stake in the team, but their deal with David Einhorn, the hedge fund titan, fell apart in part because he wanted a greater hand in the team�s decision-making than is normally given to minority stakeholders as well as a pathway to eventual majority control. As a result, the Mets were forced to sell many smaller stakes, including several to their cable television partners. Wilpon and Katz also sold three shares to themselves. There are no public profit-and-loss statements or other documents that definitively show the complete state of the club�s finances or how its ownership is structured. But reports linked to the bonds issued to finance Citi Field provide a partial snapshot of the team�s financial performance. Those documents show that revenue from the stadium�s 10,635 most expensive seats has fallen 58 percent, to $41.8 million from $99.3 million in 2009. In that period, concession sales have decreased 29 percent and parking revenue has dropped 20 percent. The team reportedly lost $70 million in 2011. Meanwhile, attendance at Citi Field has fallen by 32.5 percent since the stadium opened in 2009. Katz�s apparent desire to sell suggests that the Mets� losses have tested his patience. Their financial woes, which started around the time that Madoff�s fraud was exposed, in 2008, have had an impact on the team and its owners and limited how much has been spent in recent years on the club�s payroll. That, in turn, has frustrated many Mets fans, who reason that if more money were being spent on free agents the club, in turn, would be more competitive than it has been. Wilpon and his son Jeff have maintained that the team�s finances have improved more recently, but several people in baseball briefed on that issue said the situation remained troublesome. And the payroll essentially remains where it was in 2013, somewhere from $85 million to $90 million, leaving it in the lower third in the major leagues despite the fact that the Mets are a big-market team. With attendance figures that have declined markedly in recent seasons (there has been a slight uptick in 2014) and with significant debt payments still due on Citi Field, the Mets are likely to lose money again this season, the people said. That makes it unlikely that the payroll will jump substantially any time soon. The team�s poor performance financially has also agitated other major league owners, who are dismayed that a club playing in as large a market as the Mets do is unable to generate more revenue. It was in 1980 when Wilpon first bought a stake in the Mets, a simple 1 percent share. He and Katz became half owners of the team in 1986, with Nelson Doubleday, then bought out Doubleday�s share in 2002. Details about Katz�s close relationship with Madoff were revealed as part of a lawsuit filed against them in 2011 by the court-appointed trustee recouping money from Madoff�s victims. The trustee, Irving H. Picard, said that Katz routinely used money from Madoff�s fund to finance businesses and deepen his and Wilpon�s personal wealth. The owners won their legal battle with Picard when he ultimately abandoned hundreds of millions of dollars in claims against them. But Katz and Wilpon had to agree to let Picard use the $178 million they lost in some of their Madoff accounts to pay back the trustee for the $162 million in fictitious profits that they received in other accounts.

Why the fuck wasn't Lannan called up for this series and why isn't he batting leadoff?

Mets have never lost a Monday night regular-season game to the MFYs, having Mlickied them in 1997 and beaten them again in 2013.

Edgy MD wrote: I'm kinda hoping Yankee fans raining crosstown boos down upon #3 gets him going. He deserves it. Babe Ruth's hitting like he's been dead since 1948.

Tejada 1.5 CYoung 1.0 EYoung 1.0 Murphy 1.0 Niese 1.0 Lagares 1.0 Matsuzaka 1.0 Familia 1.0 Abreu 1.0 Wheeler 0.5

And they say there's no juice left in the Subway Series.