Centerfield

That rainout continues to haunt deGrom! Hopefully the Cy Young can be some comfort to him after missing out on the Schaefer sweep.

Matz pitched pretty well down the stretch. Seems healthy-ish. I guess what we're seeing is that this guy can be a serviceable back of the rotation starter. Great work BG!

Not even worth watching. No way Oakland wins.

Any thoughts I had of watching are out the window with that Judge HR. The A’s, Twins and Rangers are contractually bound to lay down for the MFYs.

I don't see it happening. And like I mentioned before, I think it will be used as an excuse for why we miss out on the top talent available this year. Other excuses: *We expect Cespedes back mid year *Can't block Peter Alonso. Followed by leaving Peter Alonso in AAA. *With Mejia and Montero returning, we feel like we had some depth... *Todd Frazier. New launch angle. *Lagares also returning. We already have too many outfielders (this one might be kinda true)

41Forever wrote: I was a free agent AND a top player. Centerfield wrote: In fact, other than getting Yoenis Cespedes three times, I can't remember the last player that falls into this category. Mentioned him. Basically, I'm of the mindset that re-signing your own guy multiple times doesn't exactly qualify as improvement. Look, if you win 98 games, there isn't much room to improve. But the Mets needed to improve to get to championship status, and that's tough to do without adding elite players.

Edgy MD wrote: Is Dallas Keuchel a top player? Is Josh Donaldson? It's off the top of my head. Isn't Keuchel still good? I thought he was a top of the rotation guy. Forgot about Donaldson. But hasn't he fallen off?

A few Put on the Jersey Over Your Suit guys that have moved the past few years off the top of my head: 2018 (well they're available anyway) Bryce Harper Manny Machado Patrick Corbin Dallas Keuchel Craig Kimbrel 2017: JD Martinez Giancarlo Stanton Shohei Ohtani Christian Yelich Lorenzo Cain Wade Davis Eric Hosmer Jake Arrieta Yu Darvish Carlos Santana 2016: Chris Sale Edwin Encarnacion Aroldis Chapman Justin Turner Kenley Jansen Mark Melancon Dexter Fowler I'm not saying that the Mets should get (or should have gotten) everyone on this list. But it would be nice to play in this arena.

Let's try something new this winter and get someone good. We haven't done a lot of that recently. In fact, other than getting Yoenis Cespedes three times, I can't remember the last player that falls into this category. Get someone good. Have one of those "put a new jersey on over your suit" press conferences without people snickering in the back.

Ok. I've had a chance to let things settle and I'm still kind of annoyed about the way this was handled. I mean, I get that his body is still hurting badly, and I don't know how much he was able to handle, but he played several rehab games in a row. I don't think there's much question that he could have been active these last few weeks. And I think if there was no such thing as insurance, the Wilpons would have been pushing him to be active as much as possible. I don't know. I think he definitely could have pinch hit in several games. Could have started several more and come out after 5. Get 20-30 AB's. He would have probably gotten a hit, and maybe even run into one and gotten to take a lap around the bases. Maybe I'm being unrealistic. I was hoping he'd hit 11 HR's before they pulled him on Saturday.

The answer is, frankly, that the Mets need to drastically upgrade both. They have a 23rd ranked offense and a 28th ranked bullpen. That being said, I agree that if we have to do one or the other, we address the offense first.

Are big name closers worth it? Right now there are five closers with a multi-year deal worth over $40 million. Aroldis Chapman (5 years, $86 million) Kenley Jansen (5 years, $80 million) Mark Melancon (4 years, $62 million) Wade Davis (3 years, $52 million) Craig Kimbrel (4 years, $42 million) Four of those guys are on teams that made the playoffs this year. The one guy who did not make the playoffs is Mark Melancon, who also hasn't been very good. On a per year basis, there are 7 guys making more than $10 million per year. Those five guys above, plus Brandon Morrow and Cody Allen. 6 of those 7 guys are pitching in the playoffs, again, with Mark Melancon as the only exception. Source: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/contracts/closer/ Now, you certainly don't need an expensive closer. Out of the ten playoff teams, six feature the guys above, while four have relatively cheap solutions. Vizcaino in Atlanta, Cory Knebel in Milwaukee, Rondon/Giles in Houston and Blake Treinen in Oakland are relatively inexpensive (making less than $5 million). But with the exception of maybe Houston, I think it's safe to say that every playoff team has a pretty terrific closer. I don't see that the Mets have that guy in their organization. I guess they could trade for someone. But I think if they are serious about competing next year, they need a lockdown guy, one way or another.

Do I really expect a significant increase? Not really. But it will be interesting to see how this storyline plays out. A few things are different from last winter. 1. I think the tide is shifting on the Wilpon conversation. Last winter, only a few national guys (and Marc Carig who had one foot out the door) were willing to take the Wilpons to task. After this year's disaster, others have finally caught on. Other than the guys actively vying for appearances on SNY, I think there are more writers willing to call out the Wilpons for their lack of spending. We'll see how it plays out. 2. David Wright's contract: I think now that the comeback has reached its conclusion, they'd be hard pressed to say that the money is spent and won't be reinvested. I imagine they'll reuse this excuse for Cespedes, but I can't see them justifying pocketing the insurance money on Wright going forward. I wonder if Jeff has shot himself in the foot. Blaming the lack of spending on Sandy may have gotten himself (in his eyes anyway), a short term reprieve. But it will be hard to blame this year's lack of spending on Sandy as well ("He left a note to his successor not to spend more than $150 miillion. Out of respect for Sandy, we felt like we had to oblige. The poor man is battling cancer after all.") Time will tell.

To clarify, I don’t think Machado is even a remote possibility. But if for some reason he wants to sign here and play SS the answer is simple. Rosario moves to 2B, McNeil goes to 3B. Everyone pretends it works until it doesn’t and then you move everyone back where they should be.

.323 batting average bitches!!! Woooooo!!!!! Awww. That's adorable.

lineup: Machado - 3b [fa] Grandal#- C [fa] lololol Bullpen: Kimbrel [fa] A.Ottavino [fa] LOLOLOLOL

i am curious if other teams do give away free stuff to the people coming in for anthem singing. even if none other do, though, it seems like such a simple and obvious way to spread goodwill, and at such a minimal cost, too. I don't know about anthem singing, but both the Mets and Yankees run on-field clinics for kids during the summer. Both are great events, but not surprisingly, the Yankees go the extra mile while the Mets leave a bit to be desired. Keep in mind, this event is usually meant for season ticket holders and other VIP types, so it's in the best interest of the club to keep everyone happy. We had the opportunity to go to the Mets clinic because a friend of mine worked at Citi, and we went to the Yankee one because a buddy is a season ticket holder. Mets Event: *Kids get ushered in. They are greeted by a Mets employee, given instructions. *On field clinic featured Tim Teufel, Dan Warthen, Bob Geren. Parents got to watch from the stands. *Afterwards, kids were ushered into the picnic area behind the bullpen. Kids and parents got a prepared bag lunch. Sandwiches, chips, soda/water. *Someone from CitiBank came by to say thank you. *Event ended, given a swag bag, we had to leave. *Had about 2 hours to kill before gametime, so we wandered around the Flushing Harbor. Not much there, but we found a small restaurant/bar. Had a few drinks while the kids hung out. *Made our way back in to watch batting practice, then the game. Yankee Event. *Kids get ushered in. Greeted by Yankee employee, given instructions. *On field clinic featured Goose Gossage, Mickey Rivers, Randy Velarde. Parents got to watch from the stands. *Afterwards, kids and parents were ushered into some club. Hot buffet lunch with a carving station. Offered beer and wine. *At the end of lunch, kids were brought into the press room. All the kids were given a notebook and pens and fake press passes. *Assistant GM Jean Afterman came out and gave a small speech about how press conferences work. Reporters ask questions, manager and players answer, etc. *Brian Cashman came out, pretended it was an actual press conference, and took questions from the kids. Jean Afterman hung around to moderate/educate, saying that this type of question would/wouldn't be proper, etc. *Guided tour of Monument Park *We were brought to RF, to watch batting practice before the gates opened to the general public. Because it was a private session, each kid got 2-3 souvenir balls. *Given a swag bag. Allowed to roam around the stadium, spend money where ever we saw fit until the game started.

Even if signing autographs is too much trouble, come in, take a picture, hand out stickers. Something. Talk about mailing it in.

I mentioned here a few times that my son's theater group was asked to sing the National Anthem before the game yesterday. This is, of course, super cool, and nothing is meant to take away from the opportunity given to my son and his friends. But I couldn't help coming away from the event feeling incredibly disappointed about how the Mets handled things. ShortCenter was super excited to go. I think his excitement built even more when they were told to report an hour and a half before gametime. The kids were told they would have to leave their families and go into CitiField to prepare. My son brought a brand new baseball, a sharpie, and a few old ticket stubs just in case the group got to meet someone special. Singing the anthem itself was great. They were introduced, they sang on the field, and got a kick out of being on the Jumbotron. How often do you get to sing in front of 30,000 people? After they sang they were escorted off the field. Eventually, by the bottom of the second, he made his way to our seats. I was disappointed to learn that the group was ushered into a room to rehearse. When the time came to sing, they were led to the field. When they finished, they were brought back to the rehearsal room, then eventually allowed to go to their seats. No one from the Mets came to greet them. No player/former star/TV personality, came by to say a word. They weren't given a hat, a t-shirt, a program, a sticker. Not even vouchers for food. When we told people that ShortCenter was going to sing, we heard some cynical remarks. "Great way for the Mets to sell tickets to 20 families that otherwise wouldn't be there." We wanted to think otherwise, but it's pretty hard to argue that this wasn't the case. We paid face value for our group tickets. They were decent seats (Section 107) but not great. We could have bought them on StubHub that morning for a fraction of the price. Just annoying. Here was an opportunity for the Mets to make the smallest of gestures. One autograph session from Steven Matz, or Seth Lugo could have made a few kids Mets fans for life. A simple give away means 20 kids from West End Secondary would be wearing Mets gear to school today. But nothing. Hard to imagine that this franchise will find a way to put together a winning team when they manage to screw up something as easy as this.

Edgy MD wrote: Harper signs with Philadelphia. I'm calling it. Not a bad prediction. The Braves have also shown an ability to spend, and they have a vacancy in RF with Markakis leaving. And the Dodgers and MFY's (I think) got under the cap this year, so with the re-set they can probably spend a ton. If the MFY's lose Wednesday, the might just sign every free agent this winter.

Let's see what Alderson inherited: Pitchers: Jacob deGrom Matt Harvey Steven Matz CY Winner RA Dickey (who he turned into Noah and Travis) Jeurys Familia Jennry Mejia (I know, but he used to be good) Bobby Parnell (also used to be good) He also inherited a productive and healthy Carlos Beltran that he turned into Zack Wheeler. Position Players: Daniel Murphy Lucas Duda David Wright Jose Reyes Justin Turner Wilmer Flores Juan Lagares We should all inherit such shitty teams.

I don’t think they will do either. I think they will make the same type of moves they made last year and we will end up hoping to snag a wild card if everything breaks the right way.

All kidding aside, Jeff Wilpon made it clear that all final recommendations from the new GM would go through Jeff. If anyone has wondered why the Mets still don’t have a GM despite knowing we’ve needed one since June, this is why. We all just saw the GM on Sunday.

“We would loved to have shopped at the top of the market this year. Unfortunately with our GM situation haveing been unresolved at the start of the offseason we just didn’t have enough time to lay the groundwork for such large investments. That being said we feel very confident about the moves we made. We feel very lucky to return great veterans like Bartolo Colon and Jose Bautista. We think 2019 is going to be a great year.”

We were there! Short Center and his school sang the anthem before the game. Saw metfairy briefly and met Greg in person for the first time. Not a bad way to end the season.