Centerfield

I feel like Leaky Pen is one of those "representative of the year" type covers.

seawolf17 wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: He seemed to be implying that if they can't extend Jacob during this offseason, that they may very well trade him before Opening Day. brb getting my pitchfork and torch ready to storm citi field I brought extras. They're in my car.

Is that true? 3.5 sounds much too high. I thought I read something like if the Mets had just scored 3 runs each start, he would have won 48 games or something.

RealityChuck wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Wait, so we're supposed to say, and demand that others do as well, that the Mets did hit for deGrom?!? They didn't, that's a fact. It doesn't mean they didn't hit because it was him. But it was almost comical how, every fifth day, JdG is out there pitching a gem and the other eight guys have a collective total of one hit and one walk thru six innings. And that the pattern repeated itself Every. Freakin'. Time.I suspect that, once they saw they were hitting badly for him, the players started pressing and not playing their game. Does anyone have the run support numbers? I'm sure there was some difference between Jake and the other pitchers, but it's not like the team hit like the Red Sox in the other games. 23rd ranked offense isn't going to provide much run support all the way around.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Meanwhile, I'm not at all surprised that CAN YOU DEAL? is being shut out. Agreed. It's not often that I look at a newspaper and feel compelled to tell it to stop being a dick.

Frayed Knot wrote: Wait, so we're supposed to say, and demand that others do as well, that the Mets did hit for deGrom?!? They didn't, that's a fact. It doesn't mean they didn't hit because it was him. But it was almost comical how, every fifth day, JdG is out there pitching a gem and the other eight guys have a collective total of one hit and one walk thru six innings. And that the pattern repeated itself Every. Freakin'. Time. Exactly. The story of Jacob deGrom 2018 cannot be separated from how badly the rest of the Mets were behind him. The offense, the pen. 1985 is a season the Mets can look back at with pride. 2018 is shameful.

I thought Jake Strikes Back would get more votes. Love it.

Cool. Congratulations Jake!

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The main purpose of the first round is to see the covers in chronological order which allows us to review the season's progress and also determine our first batch of winners. After that, it's a series of do-or-die, one-on-one, mano-a-mano matchups. Any proposals to make this thing more complicated will not be considered. I'm already giving this as much effort as I care to. I'd rather stop doing it entirely than make it a chore. You know my post was a joke right?

It is really nice. Some of them you can get some outdoor space in the back. It's near parks, good food. Plenty of Irish bars. Super close to the subway. Bonus: Very easy ride to Mets-Willets Point!!!

Edgy MD wrote: The subtext on that for me is that Tom Seaver has completely checked out, at least as far as paying attention to baseball, or at least the Mets. Had the same thought.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Nope! I feel like there should be a wild card. But then the wild card shouldn't get the same treatment as a poll winner, as it dilutes the sanctity of the poll. So maybe two wild cards, that square off before moving on against the poll winners. But what if one of the wild cards gets a super high number of votes but it doesn't win because it was matched up against a historically great cover. Doesn't it deserve to advance more than a poll winner that gets like seven votes? I'm not saying you have to change anything, it's that it just seems unfair. Maybe you could put all the covers in one pool and the ten covers that get the highest votes move on to the next round. But if you've already voted, and we know who got the most votes, then don't you already have your champion? Do we need a playoff system at all?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: May interfere with the Buckets' plan to buy a joint in $unnys$ide Are you really going to? Love Sunnyside. Lived there for 5 years.

d'Kong76 wrote: I'm thoroughly enjoying this again this year. 95% of the covers I've never seen so it's a cool trip down season-memory lane. (even if 2018 wasn't the most memorablesque of campaigns) Me too. Last year I didn't think I would enjoy the TCD at all considering what a crap year it was. Turns out it was the highlight of the year. This year I fully expected to enjoy it and I am. But um, these are some crap covers.

I'd like to find that article from the "It's Rainin' Mets" cover that says why Ces may never be healthy. I wonder if that's changed now with the surgeries.

The impression I got, generally, are that the projections are kinda low. They are projecting 100 point drops for guys like Mookie Betts and Christian Yelich, who are young and capable of improvement. The Nimmo projection seemed low to me. The Rosario projection not so much. As "hot" as he was in the second half, his post All-Star OPS was just .685.

Digging a little deeper: Conforto is a solid hitter, with a good history, and is expected to be healthy next year. Nimmo's body of work is now a year plus, so you hope that he can duplicate that (or something close to that) next year. After, that, Cespedes is injured, and will play, at best, the second half. Alonso has never played a day in the big leagues, and will most likely not be here to start the season. McNeil has played 2 months, and our fourth best hitter, Flores, might be non-tendered. Our starting catcher and shortstop both project under .700.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: We need tons of help offensively. The fact that Jacob deGrom only was able to win 10 games reinforces that. If he wins the Cy Young Award six and a half hours from now, that fact will be highlighted for all the world to see. Maybe. But I feel like much of the focus has been: "Wins don't tell the full story of how good deGrom was. This stat is flawed." Rather than: "How fucking bad was the Mets offense that deGrom barely got 10 wins?"

You can find them here: https://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&type=steamer&team=0&lg=all&players=0 A few highlights: *Not surprisingly Trout leads all hitters. JD Martinez comes in at #2, which I wouldn't have guessed. Bryce Harper rounds out the top 3. *Machado at 17. .883 OPS. 33 HR's. Not sure how they can do this if they don't know what his home ballpark will be. *Juan Soto is crazy high at #6. .905 OPS. Is he really that good? I hope not. *No Mets in the top 60 (first 2 pages). Conforto is the highest Met at #64. *After Conforto (.797 OPS), Cespedes, expected to miss a significant part of the season, comes in second at .788. Alonso is the third highest Met at .771. 10 HR's in 187 AB's. *Regression is predicted for McNeil and Nimmo. Both coming in the mid .700's. McNeil projects to 14 HR's, which sounds a little high. We can talk all we want about how the bullpen has to be the top priority, but a chart like this shows you how bleak the situation is offensively. Four Nationals appear on that list before Conforto. Two Braves, two Phillies, only the Marlins are behind us in our division. The Dodgers slot in 5 hitters before Conforto. The Cubs have four, the Rockies have three, and the Brewers have two. In the AL, the Red Sox have 5, and the Yankees and Astros each have four guys that slot in before our first guy. We need tons of help offensively.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Not saying/just saying: WAR-wise (f- and b-type), he was better than both the MFY candidates. Any bonus points for using an Ed Delahanty-model bat? I don't get the f and b type. Still getting to know these advanced stats. From what I can tell on BB Reference, McNeil had a WAR of 2.4. Andujar was 2.2, but Gleybar Torres was 2.9. And looking at the WAR numbers, I don't see how anyone can reasonably argue anyone over Ohtani. Shohei had a WAR of 2.7 as a hitter, and 1.2 as a pitcher.

Frayed Knot wrote: Nothing wrong with stealing signs; if your players/coaches are better at deciphering the other side's signals then more power to ya. But it's when you start rigging out your home park with electronic devices not available to the other side that it crosses the line over to cheating and then, yeah, the commish's office has to step in on this. For the same reasons, if/when they install robo-ump for B/S calls then the set-up and operation of that stuff HAS TO BE kept out of the paws of the home team. Agreed. And if they found you have installed shit and are stealing signs, automatic post-season ban.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: And that's on top of everything he's already earned. I think this is really the key. He was already a good pitcher in Korea, so I imagine he was pretty handsomely paid during that time. MLB Trade Rumors projected him at 3 years, $33 million. The QO of $18 million for 1 year is nice, but you also leave $15 million guaranteed on the table. For a pitcher who is older, and has a history of injuries, that's not a small risk to take. But I think the risk is easier to take if you are already set. If this is my first contract, I think I would take the multi-year deal. If I already have $50 million in the bank, I think I take the QO and bet on myself to stay healthy.

What a whirlwind three weeks that was from mid-April to early May. After the illusion of the 11-1 start, it became apparent really fast that Mickey wasn’t anywhere nearly as smart as advertised, that Harvey wasn’t going to bounce back, and that the team wasn’t very good. Each of those things are demoralizing. All three at once is just vicious. Kristie Ackert is one of those that will never say a bad word about the Wilpons. While some other may dance around the payroll issue or say something in passing, she never even approaches the subject. She has already started her tired act this winter with an article outlining affordable options. It’s odd to see her concede defeat on May 11 last year. I don’t understand this philosophy at all. Each year she proposes affordable avenues for the Mets. Paints them in a great light when signed. But then concedes that the team is not very good. It’s almost like she doesn’t understand that the objective is to win.

Ceetar wrote: It's no contest, emotional Cespedes with the bat (behind the letters) in mid "flip" is everything that's great about baseball these days. NAT SO FAST I can't believe I'm about to type these words but... I agree with Ceetar.

Wait. So strategically, we should only vote for our favorite, then, no?