Centerfield

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Pirates want prospects, not established major Leaguers, and if Mets take on the $$ they may take less. Gimenez is apparently our top prospect today and we have a 21- y-o SS already. Sounds like trade bait to me. Write up on Gimenez. I still don't know a lot about him. https://elitesportsny.com/2017/12/31/new-york-mets-ss-andres-gimenez-everything-need-know/ Sounds like the scouts don't feel like he has the superstar potential of Rosario.

Yikes. Sorry about the confusion. Since MLB retired 42 throughout baseball in 1997, several Mets have had the distinction of being the last player to wear 42 for a particular club. Mo heads up that list, having been the last to wear 42 for 3 different clubs. The Mets, Red Sox and Angels. Jose Lima was the last to wear 42 for the Astros and Tigers. Dennis Cook was the last Marlin to wear 42, Butch Huskey was the last Mariner, and Pedro Martinez (the left-handed one) was the last Padre to wear 42, having worn it from 1993-1994. The interaction with Pedro (45, RH) was just a dumb joke.

Not a doubt in my mind who was going to get this. The club is Mets who were the last players to wear 42 for any team. Mo wore it last for the Red Sox, Angels and Mets. Any other clubs out there?

I guess this ended up being tougher than expected. I’ll post another hint tomorrow.

And back to topic, if Molina Flexen Winaker gets it done you make that trade today.

Torn on this. I never liked him and think he’s a douchebag, but it would be cool to see a 53 year old major leaguer. I find myself hoping he succeeds despite the fact that it’s Palmeiro

Hey guys! Look who's here! It's Mo! Hey guys, sorry I'm late. No problem Mo. Pull up a chair. In fact, pull up two! Are you body shaming me Dennis? What? No! Of course not. Everyone knows you're twice as qualified to be in this club as us! Actually, I'm three times as qualified. If you're keeping track. Please don't eat me. Hey! I should get two seats too! Go sing the anthem Jose.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Andres Gimenez and Paul Sewald. Edit: that's probably too much. Marcos Molina, Paul Sewald and Matt Winaker I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.

Harper is the most outspoken of the DN writers but as you mention when he was on SNY he completely neglected the payroll part of his article and focused only on the poor farm system. It was clear he was holding back. Kristie Ackert is basically invisible. She won’t touch the topic and has been MIA throughout this. Her articles read like spin directly from Wilpon PR.

In their minds it does. Andy Martino said “the far bigger problem is the lack of prospects in the farm system.” It deflects focus onto something else. It provides another person to blame. And there are compromised journalists happy to promote the idea and a few fans dumb enough to fall for it. Look, it’s not something I can prove but it’s a pretty big coincidence that the SNY and Daily News guys are all focusing on that.

I spent the night convincing myself on McCutchen too. Think of the cover derby headline: MCCLUTCHEN!!! So CPF. What does it take to get him? Nimmo and Gsellman?

I disagree. I think they will do anything to take the heat off. Even throw their own GM under the bus.

Yesterday afternoon on twitter, the SNY guys were like "tune into Baseball Night in New York, we are going to have an in-depth discussion on payroll, McCutchen, etc" So I decided to tune in. I mean, if they explicitly say they are going to discuss payroll, they have to address it right? My takeaway is that they are basically Wilpon spokesmen. We talked about it when SNY was created. Would the on-air personalities maintain their objectivity or would they become propaganda men, like YES. I don't think it's quite at that level, but my feeling is that the SNY guys have free reign to criticize every aspect of the Mets organization, except for the owners. The talking points last night: *It's hard to discuss payroll. There is no set number. Sandy is given a range, but then has the ability to go back and get permission in the event they reach a good deal. So the lack of spending is more a function of the market and there not being a great fit, rather than anything on the part of the Mets. *None of the teams are spending, so why so much focus on the Mets? Anthony McCarron did say some of the criticism was justified by Sandy putting out implications that payroll would drop. But is that just Sandy being weird? Then there was discussion about how quirky he is and how he operates. *The panel, and Andy Martino in particular, stressed the poor quality of the farm system. I think Martino said something along the lines of "the FAR BIGGER problem, is the lack of blue chips in the farm system". I think this is the line of thinking Wilpons have decided to push. Basically, they can't ignore the criticism any longer and so they need to change the discussion. "Pivot" as 41Forever would call it. "Hey, we know we aren't doing dick, but you know why? It's because Sandy drafted poorly. So don't look at us." The talking heads have been instructed to throw Sandy under the bus to take some of the heat off of them. *The Mets are in on McCutchen, monitoring Moustakas, Frazier. Still time to do lots of damage this offseason. My reactions: *Points 1, 2 and 3 are complete bullshit. Any feigned objectivity is gone in my book. They are not allowed to say "Wilpon". No criticism. *Any payroll discussion that doesn't start by asking why the "range" is so stupid low to begin with has no merit. Even the other day, after John Harper's article, during his TV segment, he never uttered that thought, never said Wilpon, and only focused on the Sandy/drafting part of his article. *I agree that Sandy has drafted poorly. I've said it many times. But that is not the "far bigger" reason. I think it definitely is a factor, but drafting well is hard. I know he definitely tried to draft well, but it's not like the NBA. On the other hand, spending money is easy. Having a big market payroll is a conscious decision. No excuse not to spend. *The discussion about Moustakas and Frazier included qualifiers like "they're not really an Alderson type of player". And they're not. But when they miss on them, you can guess this will be the line of reasoning floated to justify this. There was no discussion at all about why the Mets are not in on the top of the market, rather than the flawed guys in the tier below. *The "back after this" showed clips of Carlos Gonzalez, at which point I figured it was time to change the channel.

I thought I was pricing the risk. There is a chance he will suck, at which point 24 over 2 is a tough pill to swallow. There is a probability that he will be somewhere in the range of kinda ok to pretty good. At which point the price is livable, more or less, depending on where he falls. And then there is a chance he bounces back to what he was, in which case the 24 million is a steal. I have nothing at all to base this on except blind faith, but I think he will be good to great, rather than a bust. But I'm not married to the price tag. I could be talked down. How much would you offer if anything?

Centerfield wrote: Edgy MD wrote: [fimg=300]http://www.mainlineautographs.com/images/product_pics/PTDC0049_20111002233.gif[/fimg] That's OK. I thought you'd say that, which is why my head is hung sadly. Hey, I wonder what's in my back pocket. Forget them Armando. Let's go form our own club. Who needs them. Not us. That's for sure. Seriously. Bunch of losers. Hey guys, can I join this club? I'm sorry. You are the wrong Pedro Martinez. I bet that must have felt good. Like you woudn't believe.

Edgy MD wrote: I could use a club! Managing the Tampa Tarpons gets old! It's about time! Ok. The Meeting of Mets who Played for the Diamondbacks in the '99 NLDS is now called to order. First order of business, who has the voodoo doll of Pratt? Jay, before you got here, Reynoso tried to join us. Remember how we had to cut him from the post-season roster in '99? We had to do it again. Looks like he's forming a new club though, hey Armando, what club is that?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Is it... Marlene Dietrich? Huh?

d'Kong76 wrote: [fimg=650]https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/mcewing.jpg?quality=90&strip=all[/fimg] McEwing? Come on man, you can do better than that!

Edgy MD wrote: [fimg=300]http://www.mainlineautographs.com/images/product_pics/PTDC0049_20111002233.gif[/fimg] That's OK. I thought you'd say that, which is why my head is hung sadly. Hey, I wonder what's in my back pocket. Forget them Armando. Let's go form our own club. Who needs them. Not us. That's for sure. Seriously. Bunch of losers.

Sorry Armando. You don't make the cut. Again.

Don't we have the best club? We sure do Kelly, it's the best club ever. We have very specific criteria. That's what makes us so awesome. We do have room for one more member though. We should give him a ring to see what he's been up to. What is our club? And who are we going to call?

I guess it depends if you think he will bounce back. I think he will. Even if it's not to what he was before. I think it's likely he will become either a serviceable starter, or maybe he reinvents himself as a whack-job dominant reliever. I'd gamble 2 years, 24 million on that. The guy is such a mystery. I mean, he could win the Cy Young or he could be cut by July.

John Harper says the Mets might have more to spend than originally reported. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/mike-moustakas-play-mets-article-1.3738534 Fans have every right to be cynical about this, and I have no doubt they will be, but sources with knowledge of the Mets’ plans are telling me the front office will do more to improve the team this winter than is being portrayed publicly. I have to believe this is already at least partly a reaction to the pounding that owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon are taking publicly for their apparent intention to cut payroll. Yay! Nevertheless, one name I heard mentioned on Thursday was Mike Moustakas, the third baseman who hit 38 home runs for the Royals last season, and so far seems to have generated limited interest at best. Um. Yay? Bottom line, for the umpteenth time, is that the Mets shouldn’t have to look for bargains like some small-market team, that they should be committed to spending enough this winter to give them a chance to win big in 2018 — with good health from their starting pitchers. It’s hard to get answers as to why the Mets aren’t willing to operate with the financial might of a New York team. After all, they’ve spent at that level at different times over the years, with varying degrees of success. It would be nice to know who he's asking, but I'm glad he's asking.

Pirates don't seem to be in "win now" mode, so I don't see what Harvey would do for them. More likely Nimmo/Lagares would be going the other way. Maybe Dom Smith. McCutchen had good overall numbers last year, but he was super streaky. Basically just went nutty in June and July but was pretty pedestrian (or even pretty bad) the rest of the year. I'd be on board with this but we shouldn't give up too much for this guy.

Just want to put out there that we are totally available.