Centerfield

Flushing Bay is right there. I'm sure there's tons of red tape, but it would be nice to make us of that area. Make it like a South Street Seaport or something like Fisherman's Wharf in SF. Basically Baltimore showed us all how to do it but no one seems to be able to follow suit.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Wild speculation but CitiField being a completely artificial, manufactured, made for TV place where the fans aren't even trusted to enjoy themselves without prompting from the PA is somehow to blame. Fucking Billy Joel singalongs! Also maybe the twin ugly scoreboards, which aren't even twins, plays a role as Roessler mentioned. Agreed on all the PA prompting. "Everybody clap yo hands..." Omg. Shoot me. I can do without Piano Man too. 8th inning singalongs don't have to be a thing. Remember when they used to play Sweet Caroline? That was embarrassing. Too many ads for my taste. But the scoreboards, I'm ok with. Sure, a bit big, and the ad space could be greatly reduced, but it's not like they block out a great view of the skyline or something. It's a shame that new Citi couldn't have been closer to Manhattan. Like LIC or something. Those cities that put the skyline in the background and put the stadium near fun areas got it right. I think the stadium is beautiful. Just the area around it sucks.

Dom with double yesterday. His OPS in September: 1.178. His OPS in August: 1.333 Small sample size. Sure. But why are the Mets keeping his sample size so small? There is no benefit to giving away Dom's AB's to Jay Bruce and Austin Jackson. Bruce will never be able to rehabilitate his trade value enough that someone will take him off our hands. And Austin Jackson is a journeyman with a .733 career OPS. (who after a hot start, now has a .724 OPS with the Mets) I think the Jay Bruce thing is all about justifying the signing. Ownership is hoping Jay will have a strong finish to the season so they can diminish the need to get actual production this winter. "We saw the real Jay Bruce in September." And they were hoping Austin Jackson would stay hot so they could justify bringing him back next year. "Austin Jackson has shown he can play in NY." That's the only reason I can think of to bury Dom the way they have.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: But what's the BABIP for visiting teams at Citi Field? If that's lower than average as well, then it's not a Mets thing, but a Citi Field thing. The Mets roster has turned over a lot in the ten seasons they've been at Citi Field. It's hard to believe that the problem, whatever it is, is about which uniform the hitter is wearing. It's hard to believe that an "intelligent" writer would leave this key piece of information out of the article.

I'm about to submit my resume for Mets GM. What do you think? I think it's no coincidence that the Mets haven't been the same since they lost Daniel Murphy. And all the recent struggles of the pitching staff coincide with the departure of Bartolo Colon. By re-signing these key pieces of the 2015 World Series team, I think we are in great position to make a return to the post-season. Bartolo's return to the rotation means Jason Vargas becomes our lefty out of the pen. And you know what they say, having more than one lefty in the pen is a waste. Gsellman proved in 2018 that he can close, Lugo can pitch 2 innings every day, and we are expecting big things from Swarzak, now that his oblique is completely healed. As far as the offense, we all saw the real Jay Bruce in the second half (.890 OPS). I know some fans were disappointed we didn't add a superstar bat, but we feel like a healthy David Wright is just like signing a big name free agent. Yoenis Cespedes can be our big bat we add mid-season, and who wasn't encouraged by the strong play by Austin Jackson, who seems to have what it takes to thrive here. I'll take questions. (inaudible) Sure, look, we knew that there would be those that felt the ritual sacrifice of Dominic Smith was unnecessary, but that strange BABIP numbers at Citi were too much to be a coincidence, and we felt like we needed to try some alternative measures. We saw the danger of relying too much on analytics by the old regime. Our approach is more holistic. (inaudible) No, the witch doctor will not be in the dugout, but he will be available at all times in the clubhouse. We were serious about our commitment to health. If we just stay healthy, I think we are right there. Ya know what I'm sayin?

My Updated Rankings: 1. Petco Park - San Diego 2. PNC Park - Pittsburgh 3. Camden Yards - Baltimore 4. CitiField - NY 5. Fenway Park - Boston 6. Dodger Stadium - Los Angeles 7. AT&T Park - San Francisco 8. Wrigley Field - Chicago 9. Busch Stadium - St. Louis 10. Citizen's Bank Park - Philadelphia 11. Globe Park in Arlington - Texas 12. Yankee Stadium III - NY 13. Angels Stadium - Anaheim 14. Minute Maid Park - Houston 15. Oakland Coliseum - Oakland 16. Marlins Park - Miami Rankings are based on the stadium itself, the city, the surrounding area, the team and fans.

The Mets are not playing Dom Smith because they are starting Jay Bruce and Austin Jackson instead.

I wonder if the spinal stenosis, since it won’t go away, means that Wright can never be “healthy” again. So the Wilpons don’t have to worry about coverage issues. I saw the footage from yesterday, and he looks as good as I’ve seen in years. I was thinking there must be a few insurance guys watching and getting frustrated that they have to pay out.

So what do we know about Jeff McNeil so far? Well first off, he's been exactly what we needed. A guy who hits for average, gets on base and knows how to beat a shift. .321/.385/.463. All of this good for a nice .848 OPS. Seems ok with the glove. Not really sure what the metrics say, but he seems to have decent footspeed out there. Fast enough to get 4 steals. Good splits. No dropoff against lefties, and that kinda seems to be the case throughout his minor league career (though injuries have hampered getting a nice sample size there). The one thing that hasn't transferred so far is his power. Never had any to speak of before this year, but he broke out in Binghamton and LV to hit 19 HR's before his call up. He's hit 2 here, but also seen a bunch of balls die at the track. I don't know. I think the jury is still out on that. He hit .311 for his entire minor league career, so I guess that's a good sign. Last year, the analytics guys projected great things for Nimmo. I wonder what they have to say about McNeil.

Pretty good numbers at AAA, but he was 28 years old. .314/.372/.588. OPS of .959 20 HR's. Why would we just give up on a guy like that? http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=623182#/career/R/hitting/2018/ALL

I think you have the surgery now. It's a lost season. Position players come back earlier, and he can DH. So I'd think he can play next year. It will be 2020 until he can pitch. That's ok.

I guarantee you Cerrone is not kidding about (2). It's tough. I love Murphy. And unlike guys like Bruce/Frazier/Vargas, Murphy actually is a star. I just think we'd be getting him on the decline. He probably has one good year left in him.

Edgy MD wrote: That guy behind the ARCO sign — he was like that for the last four innings. I was hoping his date would eventually check for a pulse. [fimg=700]https://metsrostercentral.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/screen-shot-2018-09-05-at-10-13-35-pm.png[/fimg] That's Mary Hart sitting next to him. Is that he husband? In other news, how amazing is the new Zack Wheeler? 7 innings, 3 runs has become a ho-hum start for him.

Maybe this time he's actually coming around? Kinda frustrating that the kid has been hitting for a month but his OPS is still not within striking distance of .700.

Watching this game wishing I were back out west. Sitting in the heat drinking an Estrella Jalisco.

In the replay it looks like he caught it. If not, that's a neat trick. Almost as neat as the time he got the Mets to give him a 2 year deal and tricked them into thinking it was a bargain.

I think like Minaya before him, it will be a while until we can fully assess the success of the Alderson era. Minaya was pretty widely ridiculed (and perhaps rightly so) by the end of his tenure. But his name was rehabilitated a bit when Harvey, deGrom and Matz arrived, and then Dickey and Beltran were turned into Wheeler and Syndergaard. I think the Alderson Era was pretty disappointing too, but maybe Nimmo, Conforto, McNeil and Alonso will form the core of our next winner. And Thomas Szapucki will recover and win the Cy Young.

Brandon Nimmo final OPS for August: 1.058. OPS for September: 1.162 Projected OPS for October: A BAZILLION

But it's one thing for the new GM to take Omar's advice into consideration vs the Wilpons maybe going over the GM's head in favor of what Omar wants to do. Yup. What I think most gets the 'Pons into trouble is that they're stuck between wanting to hire a guy they can trust but then never quite letting go of the idea that at times they know better. That's what Steinbrenner used to do in the Bronx but his advancing age and Cashman having enough pull in the org to put his foot down eventually kept (at least most of) the decisions from being ping-pong-ed between the Bronx & Tampa depending on who whispered into George's ear most recently. Not coincidentally (seeing as how he and George were fast friends) I suspect this is much of what goes on in 1600 Penn Ave these days as well. Take the training wheels off and trust that the new guy isn't going to crash his brand new shiny bike by December 26th. And if you're not sure he can manage that then don't hire him. Yup. And give the new guy enough money to fund an adequate payroll. Sadly, I see little chance of any of this happening. Instead they will: *Hire another yes-man. *Muddle the chain of command by surrounding him with Minaya/Ricco/etc. *Meddle *Fund a mid market payroll and talk about how "Spending doesn't equate winning" *Point to the bounceback we've seen from Vargas, Bruce, Frazier and talk about how they will be strong pieces for next year's team. And if we can just stay healthy...

I think I'd be ok with using deGrom as a sub at SS over Reyes.

Watched the three Avengers movies on the plane. They are pretty fun. I feel like with the campiness they don't take themselves too seriously. I find I'm missing tons of the story without having seen any of the other individual hero movies. Like Loki is a bad guy, then he's not. Not sure how Hulk ended up in outerspace. And I know nothing about the Guardians of the Galaxy.

There was some great foreshadowing by the guy we met in Oakland two nights earlier. A story he told my kids: "I've caught four balls in my life. The first one I was 15 years old. I still have it on my shelf. The other three, I gave them all to kids sitting near me." You gave them all away? "Yeah, it's a great feeling to catch a game ball. Even better feeling is giving it to a kid and watching him light up. I like to think those three balls are on their shelf somewhere."

Admin, Sorry, I think I screwed up the re-sizing by editing a typo. Can you do it again?

[fimg=600]https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/40582718_10217107182455472_3332369828232036352_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=eaf4b2d62074725ce3267a805ce7bcac&oe=5BF95B54[/fimg] Loved every minute of our trip to AT&T park. It was only our fourth time we have been able to watch the Mets play on the road, so already it was a special day. Beautiful day, beautiful stadium, and most importantly, the Mets won! Lots of people said to me going in that this was their favorite ballpark in MLB, so maybe AT&T was a victim of high expectations? I would rank it in the second set, one notch below PetCo, PNC, and yes, our own beloved CitiField. Some thoughts.... *Getting There Our hotel was within walking distance, so we enjoyed walking down to the park with all the other fans. Lots of Mets fans were in attendance over the weekend, and even the Giants fans were cool to us. Looks like there were lots of good bars and restaurants in the area. We went to an afternoon game, so we didn't get a chance to stop in. There didn't look like there was a ton of parking around the area, and all the cab drivers talked about how bad traffic is going to and coming out of the game. *Stadium Amenities Our first stop was the big glove out in LF. Looks kinda goofy on TV, but it's pretty impressive in person. The giant Coke Bottle is a slide, I don't think I ever realized that. My kids enjoyed taking a turn, even the now too cool for school older one. Out beyond CF, they have a food court area, which has some of the better food in the stadium. We were going to check it out, but the lines were super long, and we had wasted a ton of time in line waiting for the slide. There's also a batting cage downstairs in the "Garden area". Unfortunately, we saw it after it had already closed. The view into McCovey Cove is amazing. They have a goofy trolley out in left-center that the kids begrudgingly took a picture on. *Food The sausage & peppers was pretty good (I think Citi is better). The clam chowder bread bowl is definitely worth it (metfairy suggestion!). We tried the garlic fries, which I think were a good change of pace, but if I went to several games a year I think it would get old. We tried King Carvery, which smelled delicious, but when we got our sandwiches they were super dry. I'd skip it and try something else. Drank 805 beer. It was ok too. One note, if you want the helmet ice cream (my daughter collects the helmets), you have to go out to the Garden section in CF and order it there. They are super douchy when you ask other ice cream vendors. "The what? In a helmet? Yeah, we don't do that here. Like we stopped that a long time ago..." Whatever dude. You sell Dipping Dots at a stadium. Get over yourself. The Garden closes early (7th inning) so you have to get there early in the game. *Watching the Game We sat just beyond 3rd base about 30 rows back. Pretty good sightlines. I think I have been spoiled by the seats at Citi. The newer stadiums like Citi and Petco angle their seats toward the mound, so even if you are down the line, you can look straight at the pitcher. The older stadiums remain pretty straight, so you have to look over your shoulder a bit. At AT&T it's not bad, but if you want to be the best in MLB, you have to have that. And for me, the game watching experience was just ok. Most of it is the weather. Even on what everyone agreed is a beautiful day in SF, it was in the low sixties, and definitely cool in the shade. We all wore longsleeves. I don't know, maybe it's just my thing, but I feel like you should be hot watching a baseball game. T-shirt and shorts, baking in the sun, cold beer in your hand. Even worse was the people around me talking about how SF has the best weather. "It's like this all year long." Then you never get summer. And baseball is best when you watch it during summer. It's amazing how much the people around you color your experience at a baseball game. The people sitting around us were annoying. Behind us: "Hey, it's that guy that cried...(tells the whole Flores trade story to the guy next to him)...Hey Wilmer, does that make you feel sad?" Couple sitting next to us looked visibly annoyed every time they had to get up to let us out. There's nothing I can do guys. I have a son and daughter that eat and drink the whole game and that makes them have to pee. And finally there was the jerk in camo who caught the foul ball a few rows in front of us. It was a hard shot and it hit a young girl. The ball ricocheted off her and then the asshole caught it. He never even looked at her, waved the ball around happy, then sat down. Never even checked to see if she was ok. My son and I started yelling "Give her the ball". He ignored us. We kept yelling until others joined in. Finally when the whole area was yelling at him, he feigned surprise, and then reluctantly handed it over. The girl was ok, it hit her in the hip, but she was crying and needed ice. It was a good teaching moment for my son. I said if you ever catch that ball, don't be the jerk who puts it into his pocket making the whole area yell. Check on the girl, and give it to her before anyone says a word. That should be your first instinct. And never wear camo. It was a super fast game, and I was secretly happy it went into extras just so we could stay longer. I don't know who these freaks are that think baseball is too long. For me, two and a half hours isn't enough time to enjoy a baseball game. Give me 3 hours and 15 minutes every time. Game ended on a Nimmo diving catch. We were thrilled.

You know, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It certainly wasn't nice. But I liked it better than Miami. So that's something. We decided to drive to the game from San Francisco. The BART would have been a shorter ride, and it takes you directly to the game, but my kids were wiped out from sightseeing and I figured they could use the nap in the car. Turned out ok. The mid-week crowd was pretty small, and it took less than 40 minutes from downtown SF to the Coliseum. We sat along the third base line, 10th row. Tickets were really cheap on StubHub. Food was your average stadium fare. I tried to check out what the locals were drinking, but everyone had plastic cups. Seems like there was no local beer of choice. Lots of Bud, Coors, Stellas for the fancy ones. It seems like much more of a blue-collar crowd. There was no big, central team store. Just a bunch of smaller stores scattered around the stadium, and the selection was small. We were looking around to see if maybe we could get a Familia shirsey for the kids, but they had nothing available. No Rickey shirseys either, just autographed game-worn jerseys for several hundred dollars. The crowd was great. Even though the A's fell behind early, most of them stayed and cheered. The guys sitting around us were lifers, and come to about 10 games each year. Great conversation. We exchanged Rickey stories and bonded over our hatred of the Yankees. It seems like the temperature in Oakland is typically a bit warmer than it is in SF. So overall it was a nice, pleasant night. I wrote on FaceBook that the Coliseum hosts MLB and serves beer, which makes it one of the top 30 places on Earth. I'll add that it's also an outdoor stadium, and everyone there hates the Yankees. So in my book, it moves up a few notches. The fans there seem not at all bitter about their small payroll, or their crumbling home field. They do seem excited when you talk about the new stadium, but not in a "it's about time" way, but more of a "it'll be great if it happens" type of attitude. Overall, it was a fun time. I'll go back to Oakland any day.