Centerfield

I'm guessing (from the cover) that the story had to do with creating a diverse team and not that the guys pictured were the elite players on that team. You have Latinos, a white guy and a brother. I'm disappointed couldn't get an Asian on the team, but it looks like the only Asian Met of 2007 was one start from Chan Ho Park. It was post-Koo, pre Igarashi/Takahashi.

Signs a minor league deal. Will make $3 million if he makes the club. Um. So, why were we not in on that?

Was the baseball battle for NY a serious thing in 1964? From what I can tell, the Yankees finished first, and the Mets finished last. So, uh, not much of a battle. I echo JCL's thoughts on Keith/Clark. I remember seeing that cover on newstands. But for me, I like Omar and company.

I remember that '87 SI cover. It was one of the first times I realized that Mets/Yankees were a rivalry. I grew up upstate, and the Yankees/Mets thing isn't nearly as big as it is here. My dad is a Yankee fan, so I used to watch Yankee games too. I just liked the Mets better. He sat and watched the '86 World Series with me and he rooted for the Mets to beat the Red Sox like any Yankee fan would. That cover was when I first started to realize that Yankees and Mets fans had a competition going, and slowly I learned I'm not supposed to like the Yankees. That being said, the cover sucks. Casey laps the field here.

Is it close enough to Opening Day that we start to be worried that the Nats keep kicking our asses?

As I said, the points cannot be reasonably contested. And your contests are not reasonable. Well the contesting is pretty obvious, and I don't give a crap who writes the headline for you. It's attached to your writing. Take it up with your boss if you're being misconstrued. I have no real issue with the headline either. Just chose to ignore because it's not the writer's words. They might not have been the division favorite even if they invested 600 million. Certainly not if they only sign one. I guess. If you spend it foolishly. Spend it wisely and it's pretty easy to project as the division favorite. Spoiler alert, no one fucking cares about building a juggernaut. The 'stay relevant, stay profitable, be in the mix' is pretty much the mantra of every team. Again, the Cubs and the Yankees are both having the exact same arguments about Harper and Machado. Not saying there's nothing there, and the Wilpons have plenty of problems, but they've been better than most in compensating players the last few years. The Cubs and Yankees are each spending $50 million more than the Mets. To compare their situations with the Mets is not reasonable. And I said no one should be "blamed" if they don't like Harper or Machado specifically. But to pocket the money and not spend it on anyone else. That's the issue. They could've spent more. Sure. They could've said "deal with it" to one of their starters and signed another one and made someone go to the bullpen. (they still can, and they still can a month from now) But none of those names you list there are superstars. some of them are very average, trending down, or outright bad. Do what the top teams are doing? is that the Padres and Phillies? They're nowhere near top teams. Why does someone have to be a superstar for a team to spend money on them? Really, I don't get your argument. You can't sign superstars because one player isn't worth that much investment. But you can't spend money on the other guys because they're not superstars. Why do you bring up the Padres and Phillies? When I say "top teams", I mean literally, the teams at the top of the list. The Red Sox, Cubs, Yankees, Dodgers.

Also, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the Mets project to 7th in payroll. I would have expected we'd be far lower. I do think there are a few mitigating factors. 1. There is insurance money and money offset for Cano that I think takes the actual number a little lower. But maybe other teams have some of this too. 2. I think we moved up not because we opened things up, but because other teams scaled back. But good for us if they're scaling back. 3. We should be near the top because we play in NY, but as far as our division goes, we outspent all of our competitors. So that's something. I'm a little less mad at the Wilpons now. "Hey our owners still suck, but it looks like other owners are becoming more Wilponian, so that means they suck a little less in comparison. Go Mets!"

Just read the article. I don't see how anyone can take issue with the points raised, as most seem pretty obvious and can't reasonably be contested. If anything, maybe the article has a few too many theses. But all are pretty solid. I'll skip the headline under the premise that writers don't typically write their headlines. 1. NL East race should be merciless. So maybe the Mets are a bit unlucky that their "go for it year" coincides with that of Washington, Philadelphia and the Braves. I don't see how one can argue this point. Many years the NL East is a two team race, and in some divisions you can't even find two teams really trying to win. Sucks for the Mets. Oh well. That's life. 2. The Mets improved a lot, but stopped at the point of being competitive, rather than pushing to be the division favorite. Hard to argue with this. All projections put them in the thick of the race. They can easily finish first or fourth. Had they fully committed to winning, they could have raised these projections to the mid 90's. But they did not. And because of that, their chances at falling short are greater. Their chance at success is lower. Obvious, yes. Contestable? Not really. 3. But hey, give them credit for at least trying. Agreed. So many teams aren't even pretending to compete. Atlanta could have blown the entire division out of the water but chose to sit back and do relatively little. So credit to the Mets. 4. When it comes to putting a quality product on the field, the Wilpon family hasn't exactly earned the benefit of the doubt. Again, I don't see how this can be reasonably contested. It's not a one year thing. Sure, the quote is 15 years old, but it's very telling. The Wilpons don't want a 95 win juggernaut. At least not enough to give up profits to get one. They want the team that's in the pennant race in September. That's why the quote is relevant. That's why the history is relevant. 5. They slide in 23 million under the luxury tax and should have spent more. Again, hard to argue with this. They play in NY. They are going for it. Spend the dough. Everyone talks about Harper and Machado. Don't like them? Get Britton instead of Justin Wilson. Get Adam Jones instead of Keon Broxton. Get Andrew Miller, or Adam Ottavino, or that CF'er who's always hurt who's name I already forgot. Get Gio, or Keuchel. In other words, do what the guys at the top are doing, the ones that make the playoffs year after year. Stop doing what the Mets do.

Like seriously? So I guess that whole breathe through his eyelids thing isn't working.

Drew Smith that is. "Flying back to NY to get his sore elbow looked at" is never a good thing. TJ for Mr. Smith.

I never realized that the pitch could be called a strike if you intentionally get in the way. So I guess under the letter of the law, the ump, if he felt it was an intentional move to get in the way of the ball, could call it a strike. But if you're going to call that a strike on that pitch, you have to have the move be blatantly intentional. At least in my opinion. The little ass shimmy...I don't know if that's blatant enough to call him out. Isn't there a middle ground where you can call it a ball but not award him the base? The "he didn't make an attempt to get out of the way" call? I think that was called on Nimmo last year.

He kinda looks like Ruby too. But he hit one today that's harder than Tejada ever hit one.

Agreed with both of JCL's posts in this thread. Boy did that salt and pepper thing die fast.

I was surprised to see that Gomez is still only 33 years old. And a young 33 having just turned in December. I feel like he was a good player for many years, but looking back only really had 2 great season (2013 and 2014). Was chugging along ok in 2015 (.751 OPS) until he was traded, then he hit a wall and was terrible with Houston over parts of 2 seasons. He did have a bit of a resurgence in Texas and had an .827 OPS over 550 ABs. But then played in TB last year and went back to being terrible. Looks not a day older than the day we traded him. I wonder if he can still play CF.

Lowrie getting better. From Matt Ehalt: Infielder Jed Lowrie (left knee) hopes he can begin baseball activities soon while Todd Frazier (left oblique) took ground balls for the first time Thursday since being sidelined. “Making good progress," Lowrie said. "Hopefully with a little bit of testing and making sure things are progressing well, I can begin baseball activities soon.” Lowrie has been participating in lower-half exercises that he described as low impact. He did not want to speculate on whether he'll be ready for opening day. “I'm looking at what I can do today because I think the focus has to be on getting this right so there's not a recurrence," Lowrie said. https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/mlb/mets/2019/03/07/carlos-gomez-excited-back-ny-mets-where-his-career-started/3086855002/https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/mlb/mets/2019/03/07/carlos-gomez-excited-back-ny-mets-where-his-career-started/3086855002/

I always wanted to get this one for my wall. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/57/be/2d/57be2d8fc4432776b2e367bd753a934d.jpg> And to a lesser extent, this one, but I didn't like the picture as much. https://i2.wp.com/www.banishedtothepen.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Gooden_1.jpg> It's hard to imagine now that a kid could want a magazine cover to hang on his wall but wasn't able to get a physical copy of it.

It's so funny. I was just thinking about Mets covers this past weekend. When I was a kid, I loved this SI cover of Darryl Strawberry. https://www.sicovers.com/content/images/thumbs/0002793_darryl-strawberry-of-the-mets_415.jpeg> It hung on my wall for years until he later signed with LA. Then I took it down. I was home recently and noted that I never got around to replacing him. You can see the bare spot where it used to hang. https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/services/mediarender/THISLIFE/000056792747/media/124490933740/large/1551981635/enhance> I was 15 years old when he left the Mets, and at that age, still old enough to care who was on my wall. I guess by the time the Mets got someone worthy of replacing him, I had stopped caring. It's funny to go home and look at my childhood wall. It's like this weird time capsule/tribute to the 80's. I thought about taking it down once when I was in my late 20s. Now I just kinda want to keep it there forever. Check out the fake rookie card I made for Gooden. It's not Zvon. But I'm still proud of it.

Psyched for this.

It's Familia, not Diaz, that finishes off the World Series. Ramos and Familia embrace for a wonderful moment before the rest of the guys mob them.

Did you guys hear that new Dom is a result of him addressing his sleep apnea? He's been wearing his CPAP mask and it's helped him see the ball better and lose weight. I've been bad about wearing my mask. Maybe that's why I can't hit major league pitching.

=seawolf17 post_id=3814 time=1551796991 user_id=91] I voted Jose too, but I would put money on him winding up in a Ducks uniform before the season is out.

=nymr83 post_id=3756 time=1551716191 user_id=54] If Smith is looking good thats great - you could platoon then as a lefty and righty. i'm not saying you keep a talent at Alonso's level down until June to prevent a yer of arbitration, but a week or so for service time? i think you do that to pretty much anyone

Couldn't agree more. Absolutely love it.

Mets nearing a deal to bring back Carlos Gomez on a minor league deal. Efforts to locate Kevin Mulvey still pending. Whenever I read about this guy, it takes me a minute to figure out if it's the guy we traded away or the guy that plays for Colorado.

The list so far: 1973: George Stone. 12-3. 2.80 ERA 1977: Lenny Randle. .787 OPS. 33 SB. 4.2 WAR!!! 1987: Terry Leach. 11-1. 3.22 ERA. 1999: Pat Mahomes. 8-0. 3.68 ERA. 2006: Jose Valentin. 18 HRs, .820 OPS. 2011: RA Dickey. 11-9. 2.84 ERA 2012: Scott Hairston. 20 HRs. .803 OPS. 2013: Marlon Byrd. 848 OPS. 2014: Jacob deGrom. Rookie of the F'n Year. 2016: Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo (co-DHMs) 2018: Jeff McNeil This is a fun list. Obviously not every year will have a DHM, but it's great to see how many we've had. I think it's one of the great things about baseball is that you have guys come out of nowhere. That being said, it's also a little disappointing how many of these are one-year wonders. DeGrom and Lugo are bucking the trend. Hopefully McNeil can too.