Gwreck

8 is Jason Phillips

Nido was not good. Santos was really not good. Phillips played more first than catcher and wasn’t good. Trevino had an ok season in 1980 but was the primary catcher that year. Ed Hearn helped the Mets win a championship in the sense that it’s best practice to have a backup catcher but he wasn’t good and didn’t play at all in the postseason. There are plenty of memorable backup catchers (like Santos hitting that homer off Papelbon) but few actually good ones.

Exactly. You’re always open to an over-pay deal. Torrens is pretty valuable: ranks 21st in MLB in WAR from catchers over the last 3 years. Good backup catchers are hard to find and should be kept around if possible. Good Mets backup catchers, all-time: -Dyer -Hodges -Sasser -Pratt -Castro -Torrens That’s it. That’s the entire list.

The Mets of course got a free year back from Cano due to his second PED suspension, which seems significantly less likely to occur here. But you are correct that the Mets should plan as if they need a new full-time second baseman for next year.

I don’t think you have that math quite right. The Mets’ liability to Nimmo was $101.25M for 5 years, but they paid $5M of Texas’ share and a $1M bonus to Nimmo for the inconvenience of being traded. Texas’ liability to Semien was $72M for 3 years. So, in the end, Texas took on an additional $24.25M. The Mets saved $23.25M. Of course the Mets lost the trade since Semien has been so bad. The offensive decline was obviously coming although maybe the degree of decline not so clear. Where the Mets lost out bigtime is the defense. In less than a season, Semien went from being the best in his league at his position to just bad. That is not a normal aging curve. Semien had a 98 OPS+ last year but 3.2 WAR. This year he’s at 73 OPS+ (obviously terrible) but now the defense is now suddenly very bad and it’s -0.6 WAR.. Obviously there’s still a lot of baseball to be played but for reference, 3.2 WAR would lead all Mets players this year by a comfortable margin.

Funny enough, a different coaching staff did just that in 2025. I’d like to think the same could also occur for Mauricio.

The coaching staff is a huge problem. Errors, botched rundowns, idiotic challenges…the results are awful for things that coaches should be able to fix.

Ewing used a dumb challenge in the 3rd inning which is why there wasn’t a challenge available.

Stearns didn’t make Soto hurt, Lindor bad, Bichette bad…etc. There’s only so much blame that can be put on him. I also reject the idea that the franchise is a joke and find the leaning-into-that trope is quite tiresome. I watched this game in its entirety. It was super frustrating because the Mets actually have the talent to beat the Dodgers and should have done so last night.

What does this mean? Serious question. The GM/POBO of course “controls” the manager since the GM/POBO hires/fires the manager, but I don’t think that’s what you mean. Not do I think you mean that the GM/POBO “controls” the manager through roster management (since that’s the case for every team). There’s no evidence that Stearns or anyone else in the front office ever chose the lineup or made any in-game decisions for Mendoza. Is that what you mean by “control”?

Not interference under MLB rules. And the batter did vacate the area near the plate and in fact did not “fail to avoid a fielder who is attempting to field a batted ball” (MLB rule 6.01(a)(10)). I do understand that little leagues, high school, etc. do have some different rules about backswing interference.

In 2022, the first week of games had to be moved - some to the end of the season, some dispersed throughout.

Released today. Notable: -4 trips to California, but again all of them occurring before the All-Star break. Two ten-day road trips: MIL-SD-MIN in May; STL-ARZ-LAD in late June/early July. -Nimmo returns Friday, April 23 when Texas visits. -7 games against the Dodgers between July 1-11.

In that post-game interview, Cole didn’t wear a Houston cap. He didn’t go cap-less either. He wore a hat with the logo of the Boras Corp. I kid you not.

Not trying to make it difficult for anyone here! I use dark mode and am posting via mobile. My text editor options are bold/italic/underline, but no color options, so certainly not making any deliberate choices.

There it is. 602 Ks with Houston in just two seasons. Please collect your fabulous prizes at the door. Four Franchises 1. Roger Clemens (BOS, TOR, NYY, HOU) 2. AJ Burnett (FLA, TOR, NYY, PIT) Three Franchises 3. Chris Sale (CHW, BOS, ATL) 4. Nolan Ryan (CAL, HOU, TEX). Nolan missed being in the top group by 7 strikeouts; had 493 with NYM. 5. Gaylord Perry (SFG, CLE, TEX) 6. Bert Blyleven (MIN, PIT, CLE) 7. Zack Greinke (KCR, LAD, ARZ) 8. Dennis Eckersley (CLE, BOS, OAK) 9. Curt Schilling (PHI, ARZ, BOS) 10. Gerritt Cole (PIT, HOU, NYY) Incorrect (2 or fewer) Pedro Martinez (MON, BOS; 464 Ks with NYM). David Cone (NYM, NYY; 344 Ks with KCR) Bartolo Colon (CLE; 422 Ks with LAA and 415 Ks with NYM) Frank Tanana (CAL, DET; 388 Ks with TEX) Randy Johnson (SEA, ARZ; 383 Ks with NYY) Charlie Hough (LAD, TEX; 191 Ks with FLA) Jack Morris (DET) Ferguson Jenkins (CHC, TEX; 247 with BOS) Cy Young (Cleveland Spiders, BOS; 226 with STL) Luis Tiant (CLE, BOS; 188 with NYY) Jim Kaat (MIN; didn’t get more than 300 witheither CHW or PHI) Yu Darvish (TEX, SDP; 371 with CHC)

Great guess but Darvish only had 371 Ks with CHC.

One answer to go: an active player.

Four Franchises 1. Roger Clemens (BOS, TOR, NYY, HOU) 2. AJ Burnett (FLA, TOR, NYY, PIT) Three Franchises 3. Chris Sale (CHW, BOS, ATL) 4. Nolan Ryan (CAL, HOU, TEX). Nolan missed being in the top group by 7 strikeouts; had 493 with NYM. 5. Gaylord Perry (SFG, CLE, TEX) 6. Bert Blyleven (MIN, PIT, CLE) 7. Zack Greinke (KCR, LAD, ARZ) 8. Dennis Eckersley (CLE, BOS, OAK) 9. Curt Schilling (PHI, ARZ, BOS) 10. Incorrect (2 or fewer) Pedro Martinez (MON, BOS; 464 Ks with NYM). David Cone (NYM, NYY; 344 Ks with KCR) Bartolo Colon (CLE; 422 Ks with LAA and 415 Ks with NYM) Frank Tanana (CAL, DET; 388 Ks with TEX) Randy Johnson (SEA, ARZ; 383 Ks with NYY) Charlie Hough (LAD, TEX; 191 Ks with FLA) Jack Morris (DET) Ferguson Jenkins (CHC, TEX; 247 with BOS) Cy Young (Cleveland Spiders, BOS; 226 with STL) Luis Tiant (CLE, BOS; 188 with NYY) Jim Kaat (MIN; didn’t get more than 300 with either CHW or PHI)

It’s a good guess. He had >1000 with both the Cleveland Spiders and the Red Sox. Only 226 in his 2 seasons in St. Louis, though.

Four Franchises 1. Roger Clemens (BOS, TOR, NYY, HOU) 2. Three Franchises 3. Chris Sale (CHW, BOS, ATL) 4. Nolan Ryan (CAL, HOU, TEX). Nolan missed being in the top group by 7 strikeouts; had 493 with NYM. 5. Gaylord Perry (SFG, CLE, TEX) 6. Bert Blyleven (MIN, PIT, CLE) 7. Zack Greinke (KCR, LAD, ARZ) 8. Dennis Eckersley (CLE, BOS, OAK) 9. 10. Incorrect (2 or fewer) Pedro Martinez (MON, BOS; 464 Ks with NYM). David Cone (NYM, NYY; 344 Ks with KCR) Bartolo Colon (CLE; 422 Ks with LAA and 415 Ks with NYM) Frank Tanana (CAL, DET; 388 Ks with TEX) Randy Johnson (SEA, ARZ; 383 Ks with NYY) Charlie Hough (LAD, TEX; 191 Ks with FLA) Jack Morris (DET) Ferguson Jenkins (CHC, TEX; 247 with BOS) *** Eckersley is a great pull. I had forgotten completely about his 3 seasons in Cleveland to start his career.

Only DET for Jack. I had forgotten before looking at his page that the 1991 season was the only one he spent in Minnesota.

Randy Johnson is the only player to have 2000 strikeouts with 2 different franchises (SEA and ARZ). But he only had 383 with NYY. Charlie Hough has >500 with LAD and TEX but only 191 with FLA.

Four Franchises 1. Roger Clemens (BOS, TOR, NYY, HOU) 2. Three Franchises 3. Chris Sale (CHW, BOS, ATL) 4. Nolan Ryan (CAL, HOU, TEX). Nolan missed being in the top group by 7 strikeouts; had 493 with NYM. 5. Gaylord Perry (SFG, CLE, TEX) 6. Bert Blyleven (MIN, PIT, CLE) 7. Zack Greinke (KCR, LAD, ARZ) 8. 9. 10. Incorrect (2 or fewer) Pedro Martinez (MON, BOS; 464 Ks with NYM). David Cone (NYM, NYY; 344 Ks with KCR) Bartolo Colon (CLE; 422 Ks with LAA and 415 Ks with NYM) Frank Tanana (CAL, DET; 388 Ks with TEX)

Tanana has CAL and DET but only 388 Ks in TEX. (And only 104 in his sole Mets season).