MFS62

Great KTE. Thanks for warning us that Sunday's game will be on Sunday Night Baseball, announced by Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. I'd rather listen to the sound coming from a sucking chest wound. Later

I wonder if his parents were from San Pedro De Macoris? If the Mets signed him, Jerry would turn him into a relief pitcher. Later

I agree. What I meant to write about that was in this era of baseball where players frequently move from team to team and can easily find themselves facing guys that were just on the same team with - how often do they really give each other tips to improve their individual games? Probably a lot more often than I would think. That's just human nature I would guess. I'm not sure if plane travel and new media (games, tweeting, etc.) have taken away the time for players to talk about those things. Those long train rides left a lot of time to talk about the game. That reminded me of the two books* Jim Brosnan wrote when he was a major league pitcher (before he went into sportswriting as a career). He talked about how players would try to pick the brains of players joining the club from other teams. A few came to mind (trying to quote exactly, but there may be some paraphrasing to fill in the blanks): "We were in the bullpen talking about how to pitch to Hank Aaron. If you pitched inside, he'd hit a homer. If you pitched him outside, he might hit it back up the middle, and you'd have to throw the pitch and then assume the position of Maiden Surprised. Someone said 'Pena just struck him out on a spitter.' We all agreed 'good pitch'". "He told me, Broz, I knew you'd keep trying to throw me sliders. But I knew you'd eventually hang one, and then BAM!" "But for all the Latin American players, it was agreed that they were all first ball, fastball hitters." On race relations(see the GMJ thread), he wrote that his young son came up to him one day and said, "Dad, when I grow up, I want to be a catcher. And a White Man. Later * The Long Season and Pennant Race

And what is it you think that 26 y/o career minor league corner IFers with back surgery in his history are fetching in exchanges these days? ... y'know, besides other older career minor leaguers with health issues. Well, everyone is worth at least $100 dollars. http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/John_Pregenzer Later

Sorry, folks, but the Libra in me is forcing me to provide some balance to the Sterling discussion. I remember when my Nets played in the ABA, and Sterling was the announcer. He coined a phrase that was later stolen by Marv Albert (after the ABA/ NBA merger) and Marv is now thought of as the originator of the phrase. Sterling was the first announcer to say a three point field goal attempt was shot from "downtown". Even a blind dog hits an occasional fire hydrant. I gott'a give him that one. We now return this thread to his Yankee foolishness and your resultant nausea. Later

I'll get angry for you, Irish. After watching him for years, I used to think that Clete Boyer was the yardstick against which all third baseman were measured defensively. The statistics at the time were limited to fielding percentage. Clete's career Favg was (IIRC) .965. The last two years, Bowman's was .970!!! And the guy at Inside Pitch (the subscription service that covers the Mets minor leaguers) confirms that Bowman is that good, if not better, with the glove. His hitting had improved, and he had shown power potential. I realize that Wright is the third baseman, but thought that at least Bowman could be decent trade material, and I'm disappointed that he had to be given a release rather than bringing something back in return. Later

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: But what's really irritated me about all the performances, and I know its a vague thing, is the seeming lack of concentration; the inability to bear down and finish the job. From what was said about Santos' ability to handle a staff, I had expected that would be corrected with the new experienced major league receivers this year. I'm willing to give them some time to get to feel comfortable one another's styles. Later

Well, if Maine's position in the rotation is in trouble, how about a three way swap? 1) Mejia hasn't been pitching in sugnificant game spots, so why not move Maine into those spots? It will give him a chance to work out his non-stuff problems (e,g,- location) and give the team a chance to monitor his velocity up close and personal. 2) Send down Mejia to AAA or AA and start stretching out his innings so he can start this year. 3) Who replaces Maine in the rotation? Bring up Bobby Parnell. If he doesn't go into the rotation, then he goes to the bullpen with Nieve moving into the rotation. I know Jerry likes to have a bullpen that can protect late inning leads. But if the starters are getting murdered, there aren't too many late inning leads to protect, anyhow. Hey, its worth a shot. Later

metirish wrote: This reminds me of what then Manchester United captain Roy Keane said about the increasingly corporate crowd attending Manchester United home games. Sometimes you wonder, do they understand the game of football? They have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don't realise what's going on out on the pitch. So, I guess the way to get the fans at CitiField cheering would be to remove those prawn sandwiches from the menus there. Thanks. Later LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Apr 27 2010 10:57 AM Re: Creeping Deadbeatism Isn't "Let's Go Mets" really an offense-only chant? Noticed this Saturday that Big Board-er prompted Metizens to dust off "LGM" for big defensive stands (Acosta cleaning up Niese's 2-on/1-out mess, e.g.), and it rankled (to an extent that surprised even me). I was wondering if it bugged anyone else. Gwreck Apr 27 2010 02:36 PM Re: Creeping Deadbeatism Bugs me too.

That proves that nothin' goes better with Mets gear than orange high heeled shoes. Thanks. Later

Caught one of those "top 10 clutch performers" shows on cable last night. Seth Smith was there around # 7. IIRC they said he has an OBS of .850+ from the seventh inning and later over the past two seasons. I hope someone on the Mets took note. I don't care if he has played half of his games in Coors. Todd Helton plays like a Hall of Famer, and I always check the Colorado box score to see how he did. But I never realized he is in such elite company. Thanks. LGM. Later

The first thing I'm going to do when I become Commissioner will be to ban all Nats left fiedlers from baseball. Well, maybe the second thing after eliminating the DH. Later

G-Fafif wrote: There were and are Dodger fans who stayed Dodger fans as well as (I can assure you from personal interaction) Giants fans who stayed Giants fans from 3,000 miles away. I know second-generation San Francisco Giants fans who've lived in the New York area all their lives. Their fathers stuck with the Giants after they headed west and it remained the family business. The local media tried to keep the flame alive. For about two years, Les Keiter would recreate SF day games, complete with tapes of crowd noises), to the NY audience on radio. And Channel 13 (then still a commercial station) showed weekend LA and SF road games from Philly and, IIRC, St. Louis. I watched and listened, rooting for those teams to lose every game. Later

Annie, of course you're welcome here. Any time. Dibble should change his nickname from Nasty Boy to Cretin. Later

Ollie, call your Proctologist. Taveras is a pain in your ass. Later

Captain Kirk launches his first photon torpedo leading off the game today for Bingmanton. Reports I've read said he has pretty good power. If he's leading off, that Bingy team must be loaded. Later

Yeah, yeah, you can never have enough pitching. BUT, all of these current position players in the minors - Davis, Thole, Fernando Martinez, Capt. Kirk, Havens, Carter, et. al. are lefty batters. I say the top need is righty hitting prospects, position optional. Later

I caught the end of the broadcast tonight. Davis' home run went half way up the batters' eye behind the 408' sign in dead center. Oh yeah, and the wind was blowing IN! (seriously) Buffalo batters walked six batters. If they keep this up, they'll be known as the Buffalo Wild Wings. (rim shot) Later

Caught the last inning of Thursday's Buffalo season opener against the MFY's AAA team. Down by a run, up came Thole, Fernando Martinez and Ike Davis (who had three hits earlier in the game). Pop up to left. Strikeout swinging Strikeout looking. Still some work to be done. Thole has shown good on base skills in his career, but he swung at the first pitch. But I'll guess at least one person calls WFAN today to rant about bringing Ike up immediately. Later

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Clem Labine. I wore my 1969 Seaver jersey to a card show, and he said "Hey, you're wearing my jersey!" He was a nice guy. As were all the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sigh. Later

That led me to look at other major league parks that had dimensions conducive to hitting triples. I immediately thought of Forbes Field. A quick look showed that the 1950 Pirates also had 19 players who hit triples (3 of them were pitchers). There may be more, didn't look after I found that. Later