Centerfield

Defender! 1) Francisco Lindor 2) Harrison Bader 3) Tyrone Taylor 4) Jose Iglesias 5) Francisco Alvarez 6) Luis Torrens 7) Jeff McNeil 8) Brandon Nimmo 9) Luis Severino 10) Luisangel Acuna

Is there any plans to develop that harbor area? I feel like that's waterfront property that's not being used.

I can't believe how close they came to blowing it that last week of the season. After all that, imagine if we missed the playoffs.

I would guess there must be more than a few "Amazin' Mess" covers over the years. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/AlcAAMXQRDxRESL6/s-l1200.jpg>

It was Michael Kay, who said he heard from "somebody in baseball". https://nypost.com/2024/11/19/sports/what-scares-michael-kay-in-yankees-pursuit-of-juan-soto/https://nypost.com/2024/11/19/sports/what-scares-michael-kay-in-yankees-pursuit-of-juan-soto/ I think that if that were true, yes, the advantage goes to the Mets. And while that may be true, I have my doubts about this source. Cohen and Stearns have run a very tight ship. How likely is it that they let something like this leak, and if they did, how likely is it that it got to Michael Kay's friend and no one else in baseball.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I don't know. The convenience of being able to walk to the game, with no worry about parking or post-game traffic is great. But there would be more days and nights when I wasn't attending the game, and the noise and traffic would be annoying. It's hard to say if the pros would outweigh the cons. Yeah. This. It would be cool to be closer to the great Korean food in Flushing though.

Per Klapisch the Yankees meeting went well. https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/3134171https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/3134171 Apparently he talked to Steinbrenner about the areas where the Yankees need to improve. I think that's encouraging for the Yankees. You don't do that unless you're serious about going back. Nothing leaked about anything like that for the Mets. I wonder if the Mets would have to push for someone like Burnes or Fried in order to show him their commitment to winning.

Early Dark Horse candidate.

Bader lite is a good description. Bader has a .698 career OPS (.657 in 2024). Siri has a .674 career OPS (.620 in 2024) Siri is two years younger, makes less ($2.5M in 2025). And is only one year removed from his only good year (.761 OPS, 25 HR in 2023). Kinda sounds like Tyrone Taylor insurance, and hopefully just a placeholder until Gilbert/Acuna/Jett are ready for the everyday job in CF. Bats right/throws right, so not really a platoon candidate.

Starling Marte for Jordan Montgomery has been bandied about on the interwebs.

Anyway. Per Heyman, the Yankees met with Soto yesterday. Went well. Blah blah blah. Dodgers are meeting with him today. This wasn't previously on the schedule. If I can do some baseless speculation, I wonder if the Yankee meeting didn't go as well as planned. Meaning the Yankees didn't indicate a willingness to go as high as Boras was expecting. So now he needs the Dodgers to create a bidding war. You can't leverage Cohen without another big spender at the table.

I don't know that I'm all upset. I don't think I'm even partially upset. I am pointing out that: (a) he fails or declines to identify anything about this source. Not even the vague descriptors he uses for his prior two sources. This causes me to draw the worst conclusions possible about the source. Which calls into question whether the statement is worth anything at all. ( he fails to identify which of the three statements (all in, no guarantee, Cohen will make the highest offer) are from his source, and which ones are his own speculation. And this is irritating since this is the only thing in the entire article that is really newsworthy. (so I guess if i'm irritated, I guess I'm at least partially upset)

I'm sorry I came across strong in my last post. I do really love your pod. And it was dumb for me to post before actually listening to it. I expect to listen later tonight. Pete Rose strikes a nerve for me. Actually all rapists do. My feeling is that once you've been found guilty (or admitted it in deposition testimony) from that point on, you're just a rapist. Not a baseball player. Or a real estate developer. Or a singer/entertainer whatever. Just a rapist.

Guys. I hope you'll take this in the manner it's intended. But I just got an alert that National League Town has a new episode. As a new fan of your show, I was looking forward to listening. But the description suggests that you spend some time eulogizing people we've lost, including Pete Rose. I can't support that at all. I really have no idea how a story like this gets buried. I can only imagine that you didn't know when you decided to speak about him. But Pete Rose is a pedophile. He committed statutory rape. He admitted to at least one relationship, and is accused of several others. I urge you to read the articles. https://www.nj.com/phillies/2017/08/phillies_cant_ignore_latest_allegations_against_pe.htmlhttps://www.nj.com/phillies/2017/08/phillies_cant_ignore_latest_allegations_against_pe.html Again, his defense is not that he didn't commit rape, but that he thought the minor was 16 at the time. And when asked about this in 2022, he answered "It was 55 years ago babe." He's a disgusting person and a criminal. There should be no talk of him being in the Hall, there should be no statues, no tributes, no eulogies. He should be in jail, but since the statute of limitations prevents that, I'm glad he's dead. The next best thing.

Yeah, his description of the source, and his lack of clarity on the highest offer statement is the issue. It's lazy at best. At worst, it's intentionally vague to cover how weak his source is. Earlier he wrote: And there's one other perk Steinbrenner and his braintrust will emphasize as well. “It's the idea of pairing up with (Aaron) Judge, and going to the playoffs practically every year,” is how one source, familiar with the Yankees' strategy, put it. So there. He's a little clearer. The source is familiar with the Yankees strategy. It might be someone within the organization. But the news, if you can call it that, is that someone close to the Yankees knows they will stress the relationship with Aaron Judge. Then: As another MLB executive said, “I expect there to be a decision fairly quickly” based on Boras' failed strategies last year. The source here is another MLB executive. This person presumably doesn't have any knowledge of the Yankees thinking. But is speculating. And then the real nugget of info. He's believed to be “all in” on Soto, according to one source. But that's no guarantee the Yankees will be the highest bidder. To the contrary, Steinbrenner has a realistic expectation that Mets' owner Steve Cohen will offer Soto the biggest contract — both in dollars and length of commitment. Again. No description of the source. Is this the same source as the Judge quote above? Probably not. He'd say something like "that same source". Does this source also have knowledge of the Yankees' thinking? If so, why not say so. And is the source responsible for the first "all in" statement, or the no guarantee part as well? And what about the realistic expectation that Cohen will outbid the Yankees. Is that from that same source? It's so infuriating.

From Bob Klapisch. https://www.nj.com/yankees/2024/11/how-yankees-plan-to-woo-juan-soto-decision-could-come-quickly-klapisch.htmlhttps://www.nj.com/yankees/2024/11/how-yankees-plan-to-woo-juan-soto-decision-could-come-quickly-klapisch.html He's believed to be “all in” on Soto, according to one source. But that's no guarantee the Yankees will be the highest bidder. To the contrary, Steinbrenner has a realistic expectation that Mets' owner Steve Cohen will offer Soto the biggest contract — both in dollars and length of commitment. I wish we had a better description of this source. The suggestion seems to be that the source has some knowledge of Steinbrenner's mindset.

This article mentions his spin rates being down. https://www.si.com/mlb/walker-buehler-messy-tommy-john-surgery-recoverieshttps://www.si.com/mlb/walker-buehler-messy-tommy-john-surgery-recoveries

He seems like he would be a good candidate for a bounce back year. The problem is (a) his stuff wasn't great this year. I heard his velocity was down, and that his spin rate is a far cry from his heyday, and ( there are lots of teams who think he will bounceback. So he might be getting multi-year offers. The Dodgers didn't extend a qualifying offer.

Yeah. I think that kinda the point of this thread. Look at the idiots we've had as GM of this team. It's a wonder we ever won. Earlier this year David Stearns was asked if he was looking to fill the GM role. His answer was something like "not really. I'm good with the leadership we have in place." I don't blame him.

I still don't know what Strauss is or why they were on the helmets during the post-season. Whoever they were trying to reach, I wasn't it.

Mets met with Soto yesterday. Per Jon Heyman. Was productive blah blah blah. Yankees fly in on Monday.

I'm sure I was over the moon at the time but I can't even remember the Lindor Padres game. That's how good he was this year.

MLB Trade Rumos predicts this contract at 6 years, $156M ($26M/year). None of the writers predicted he'd sign with the Mets. He'll be 31 at the start of the 2025 season. Like I mentioned before, he's skinny and has had forearm issues. I can see the Burnes market going to a level where Stearns is not comfortable. Snell is a year older, and doesn't pitch deep into games. So if I had to guess, I would say Fried is the guy we're most likely to get of the top 3.

=smg58 post_id=179093 time=1731625897 user_id=62] He's yet to present any evidence that he can handle a full season of work, and his 5.12 ERA and .823 OPS against after the ASB should not instill any confidence. Somebody is going to severely overpay for this guy, and I really hope that somebody isn't us.

Ranking. 1) Nimmo 2) Marte 3) Lindor 4) Taylor 5) Bader 6) McNeil 7) Iglesias 8) Alonso 9) Winker 10) Eddy Alvarez