stevejrogers

Steve Cohen delivers! Whoopee! Now go and sign the Polar Bear. Will Brett Baty give up his #22 that Soto's worn throughout his career? TBD Juan Soto, the prodigiously talented and charmingly theatrical slugger, has now become the highest-paid player in the history of baseball, having agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal confirmed. The deal, first reported by the New York Post, includes a $75 million signing bonus. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5932790/2024/12/08/juan-soto-mets-free-agent-deal/https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5932790/2024/12/08/juan-soto-mets-free-agent-deal/ There was a social media journalism satire Tweet saying that Baty refusing to give up 22 caused negotiations to fall apart, and a crappy headline aggregator picked up on it, and it got shared all over socials. It was amusing how many people were like “GOOD!” And took Baty's side over “a primadona who we don't need” due to thinking it was a legit story.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The mothballing of number 8 really doesn't make sense. I can only assume that they agree with you (and me) that Carter's number shouldn't be retired, but don't want to offend the fans by assigning it to anyone else. If it were up to me, I would rip off the band-aid and assign it to someone right away. If the Mets were to acquire someone who wore 8 with his previous team, that would be the ideal cover. (Kind of like they did with 24 and Rickey Henderson and Robinson Cano.) But failing that, I'd assign it to the next Joey Wendle or Zack Short that comes along. Or maybe a potential star like Drew Gilbert. The Mets didn't retire the number when Gary Carter went into the Hall of Fame. They didn't do it when he was terminally ill. They didn't do it when he died. They know it's not appropriate. But I have to assume the number will remain in limbo until someone is bold enough to assign it or the team caves and retires it, whichever comes first. Like I said, I would put it in circulation immediately. And would have done so years ago. It's been 23 years since a Mets player wore 8 (Desi Relaford in 2001) and 22 years since it was worn by a coach (Matt Galante in 2002). When did #17 go into unofficial mothballs? I know Keith had some fun with various “obscure” Mets in his number during those last few years. I want to say roughly the same time as the #8 mothballing.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Defensive teams get a special "Golden Out" where they can designate any inning to complete with 2 outs and not 3. Intentional walks are outlawed Reminds me that the great Rollie Fingers fake out in the World Series on Johnny Bench, while probably was one of the very few times a legit pitch was hurled on the 4th ball, is something that can never happen again.

Soto signed… https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/mario_soto_autograph.jpg>

Edgy MD wrote: I guess that would make him the first guy since Seaver to have his number retired without first being inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. I guess that would make him and Seaver the only guys to have their numbers retired without first being inducted into the team Hall of Fame, since the establishment of the Mets Hall of Fame. That would be missing out on the chance for two big-ticket events instead of one. Willie Mays. Also Tom was inducted into the Met Hall on the same day. So if you want to split hairs with ceremonial unveiling of the bust and the retired number banner on the outfield wall 🤷🏻‍♂️😉

Scuttlebut on socials seems to be suggesting #5 will be officially retired in David Wright's honor on Saturday July 19th before the game vs the Cincinnati Reds.

=metirish post_id=179943 time=1732991000 user_id=72]One person claims that a friend in real estate says she has been showing Soto's older sister houses ,that's the kind of stuff that's going on

My first thought was this was about then rookie Miguel Cabrera's output against us over two decades ago!

5 Mackey Sasser 3 Rickey Henderson 2 Keith Miller 1 Anthony Young

https://x.com/petitephd/status/1858985094041792571 😬

=MFS62 post_id=179260 time=1731946815 user_id=60] I just learned the Astrodome is still vacant. This is too much information about Houston stadia to process. Later

1: Garry Templeton

Todd Hundley #3

5 is Keith Hernandez

=Fman99 post_id=177924 time=1730368478 user_id=86]I came home and went to bed fully expecting a game 6 and return trip to Cali. So a pleasant surprise to wake up and find out they lost lol

Edgy MD wrote: Still, it'd be kind of embarrassing to play all or part of the season as a guest of a division rival. Then again, much of their “fanbase” is made up of transplanted members of those divisional rivals' fanbases

Edgy MD wrote: It looks like the Blue Jays Spring Training complex in nearby Dunedin is currently the leading candidate to be a temporary home for the Rays. Like The Trop, it's on the St. Pete side of the bay, as is the Phillies' Clearwater park. The Yankees train on the Tampa side, plus, they're the Yankees. Still, it'd be kind of embarrassing to play all or part of the season as a guest of a division rival. Why can't they use The Hard Rock Stadium in the greater Miami area?

Ryan Thompson for #2?

Pedro Astacio comes to mind about #5

You can look #4 up! Casey Stengel

3 is Bobby Bo

Frayed Knot wrote: =Gwreck post_id=177525 time=1729910995 user_id=56] This series is uninteresting because there's no juice to the matchup. No underdogs, no surprises, no teams that have engineered a turnaround. This is an uncompelling and uninteresting series regardless of how one feels about the teams. Gotta say, this is the first time I've heard the argument that having the top teams and several of the games top stars in the WS makes it a less interesting matchup. Also didn't know that this one was unique in using the universal DH. Personally I prefer seeing two first place teams playing for the championship over last year's AL's 4th best vs NL's 6th

He was a fun addition to MLB. Can you hear the guns Fernando comes to mind when he got shelled in a game which was rare. Very good pitcher. I remember a Fernando/Fernandez game which was a classic big dark haired guys with similar names who struck out a lot of guys game. I think Sid won but I'm not sure. B-R is showing me two matchups August 15th 1984 3-2 Met win in LA https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN198408150.shtmlhttps://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN198408150.shtml May 29th 1986 5-2 Met win at Shea https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198605290.shtmlhttps://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198605290.shtml

Edgy MD wrote: Tommy Lasorda had no such scruples and even in his rookie year was showing signs over over-work. As noted, he was driven into the ground by 26. The screwball is a brutal pitch on the arm for a reliever. For a starter logging 250+ innings per season, it was crippling. Its why we, nor the A's faced him in the 1988 postseason. Shut down in August. Oddly the guy he essentially replaced as the Dodger Ace, Don Sutton returned for one last ride as a Dodger that year, but was also gone by August. Eerily similar to the 2024 run where the Dodgers beat the Mets in the NLCS without Ace Clayton Kershaw, though there is no Orel Hershiser like stud that had a breakout regular season that continued in the postseason this year.

Jason Turnbow's They Bled Blue is also another good read/listen on that 1981 Dodger season.