Centerfield

I read that payroll ended up around $150 million at season's end. I would guess it would end up around there again or increase slightly. They just had a stellar year in attendance. It would be difficult to justify a payroll cut.

If there is any silver lining to the Cubs winning it all, maybe we can put to bed the idea that money doesn't help you win.

Vic Sage wrote: the fact that the Yanks' run of titles was fueled by their "core four" didn't make them 1 drop more likeable. But i don't have a problem with the Cubs. Their success cements Theo's legacy, which i think is a good thing. He offers a blueprint (which the Mets have arduously ignored) of taking your lumps to build around a core of talented young position players (rather than pitchers, whose health and success are more unpredictable), where player evaluation is strongly driven by analytics, and then adding key pitchers and relievers via FA or via trade when the team is ready to win. Success is hard to achieve, and harder to maintain, but i like Theo's chances, given the youth of their roster and the resources of the organization. The Cubs may well be in the way of the Mets for the next decade, so there'll plenty of time to develop a hate for them. But i'm not there yet. I don't know if I ever made that distinction in terms of position players versus pitchers. I'd have to go back and look at the Boston teams to see how they were put together. But I think unquestionably he has shown us the blueprint of building a core of young, talented, controllable players, then supplementing that core by spending lots of money and acquiring frontline talent via free agency/trade to create a window of excellence, and with a little luck, a World Champion. The Mets' plan, on the other hand, is to build a core of young, talented, controllable players, then spending just enough money to minimize public backlash, to acquire mid-level talent, to create a window of pretty-goodness, and with lots and lots of luck a World Champion. (Oh, and of course, we will sign superstar players just so long as they prefer to play here over anywhere else, and leave guaranteed money on the table to play for the Mets.)

Benjamin Grimm wrote: News reports today indicate that the victim was in fact Familia's wife. Well that's shitty. Hope that she is ok. Emotionally and physically. While I am sitting here worried about who will close, she is nursing her injuries. Fucking hell Jeurys. Why did you have to be an asshole.

Yeah, hard to argue with that. They were the best team wire to wire. Won a thousand games, were clearly better than every team they matched up against in the post-season. Sometimes juggernauts like that don't win it all, but I guess we shouldn't be surprised when they do. Still annoying.

That's terrific could have been a real prize. I hate that they loaded all that other info in the bullet point subheadlines. Just the headline, the "At last..." blurb, and the picture might have won the whole tournament.

Frayed Knot wrote: Maddon in particular seemed to get very picky about which relievers he used. Travis Wood (L) & Pedro Strop (R) appeared in 77 & 54 games during the season and both pitched to sub-3.00 ERAs and low WHiPs - but then both seemed to be left by the side of the road the deeper into post-season they got. Strop pitched all of 2 innings in the WS spread across 3 games and mostly in mop-up duty even though he gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk. Wood totaled 1.2 IP, also in 3 different games, and allowed a single run. But then somehow neither of these guys were to be trusted in Game 6 until the 5-run lead with two innings to go became a 7-run lead with one inning left. And then in game 7 he went first to Lester even if it meant swapping out his starting catcher (although Ross then HR'd so that turned out OK) and then going to the whip with Chapman before eventually being forced into rookie Carl Edwards and his grand total of 40 ML innings to close it out. Not sure if that's over-managing or under-managing ... but it's certainly interesting managing. The most "interesting" move was pulling Hendricks when he was cruising with 2 outs in the fifth. To put in Lester, the guy who can't hold runners, with a runner on. It is a terrible move to pull a terrific starter, who is cruising, has plenty left in the tank, to go to your bullpen which is a starter on short rest, a closer who is worn down, and a bunch of guys you don't trust. And now we're going to have to see his smug face and listen to idiots blab about how smart he is. Annoying.

If ever there was a manager that deserved to lose, it was Joe Maddon. It's been less than 9 hours since the Cubs won and they're already too smug for me.

God I hate the Cubs. Baseball is over. Sucks.

I know we are about evenly divided here, but I can't see how anyone here can root for Ben Fucking Zobrist. Fuck these Cubs man.

Frank Thomas says any team can win this game. Does that include the Mets? We still have Cespedes right?

They can't stand Buck? Ok guys let's throw it to Verducci. Wait what? They hate him too? Ok. Let's send it back to the studio and give it to ARod and Pete Rose. And WTF. How is Pete Rose calling the World Series. We should all be so banned from baseball.

Oh yay. Tom Verducci.

Maddon deserves to lose. What a dickhead move pulling Hendricks.

Rain delay! Lol. I love watching baseball fans during these games. No one is having fun. They look like they are in physical pain. Postseason baseball folks.

seawolf17 wrote: "What do I have to do, CF?" But you're doing such a great job in the 8th. I love you just the way you are.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: jeez. don't get thrown out on the bases down by 6 in the 9th! Is Francona the kind of manager who will verbally skin the guy alive, or will he say nothing and let the player stew in his own juices? Later All the more idiotic in that I'm sure they wouldn't have even bothered holding him on first base so he'd get 2nd base uncontested on the very next pitch. Likely it didn't mean anything but they at least had a chance to get some momentum into Game 7. What a waste. Yup. If there's even any hint you get thrown out, you stay put. It's not like Heyward just suddenly learned to throw.

So, Lugo for closer. What do you guys think? I think it can work. You guys should all get high on Lugo.

Ashie62 wrote: Francisco Rodriguez is the first Met bullpenner to have a domestic issue. In the locker room I believe. He skated. Here's the article. http://www.espn.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5457176 In the article it says Rodriguez fell under domestic violence laws. Which means that you can get nabbed for hitting a guy. I can't believe I am sitting here on Wednesday morning hoping that the person Familia punched on Monday night was male. Being a fan makes you do such crazy things.

What a shitty day yesterday was. Started with a bad joke, ended with what we were hoping was a bad dream. When I saw this thread yesterday I was filled with dread, then a glimmer of hope when it occurred to me that maybe JCL was making a lame joke like the Cespedes thread. Then I kept checking twitter in the hopes that this was, in fact, a false report. But then it became clear that the report that this was a false report was a false report. Shitty. I'm still hoping that when the details emerge, this will have nothing to do with Familia's wife, or any other woman, and that instead it will be that Jeurys punched his douchebag stepbrother who's been living on his couch and making passes at his wife. Sometimes I hate baseball.

I haven't seen any covers from Bartolo's HR, but I'm guessing they go deep in this tournament.

Maybe it's the same guy who dressed like Mejia and juiced! Seriously though, who is Hector Gomez? And it sounds far-fetched that this could be a false rumor. There is a police report and the Mets have acknowledged it.

Sure, but then you need someone to replace Reed.

On the baseball side, there has to be some suspension coming up now right? I wonder if this will affect how Sandy approaches the bullpen.

Zvon wrote: [fimg=400]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwM3GVPWIAAbMDP.jpg[/fimg] Mind boggling. I mean how stupid. Just shaking my head. It doesn't explicitly state that the victim is female. Can we still hold out hope that the victim is some douchebag male cousin?