Centerfield

Frayed Knot wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Anyway, has anyone noticed that Madison Bumgarner has a girl's first name? The town where Bumgarner is from near Hickory, North Carolina was/is known colloquially to the locals as 'Bumtown' for the large number of Bumgarners who, for whatever reason, started settling there a century or more ago and where many of their descendants continue to live, including various ones who aren't necessarily related - or at least aren't all that closely related. So as a result of that and his unisex first name -- and this is a story he tells about himself so it at least has the ring of truth to it -- he admitted to once dating a girl in high school whose name was ... Madison Bumgarner. Fuck Bumgarner (maybe he actually did), but whatever. Fuck all Bumgarners. To borrow a phrase from Frayed Knot from last October, let them deal with the six and a half foot Viking we will throw at them tonight. Both pitchers are amazing, but our line up is better. We are home. And it is our density!

A little disappointed by this. If it wasn't going to be the Mets, it would have been nice to see the Orioles win it all. It's a fantastic baseball town, and they've had their share of heartbreaks. They deserve one. But you know, it totally is going to be the Mets, so it's all a moot point.

Seems only fair.

I think if you are going RH, then Reynolds is the best bet to get into one. I probably go Duda though. Sucks that we are facing a lefty.

Holy crap. Still more than 48 hours left to go until game time. I know the rest probably does us good, but man, let's play this fucking game.

There were lots to predicted the Wild Card. Lots of others who predicted WS Champions, who when we are all sipping champagne, will argue that this particular prediction meant more than regular season record.

Yup. Claw or scratch to keep it tied until we get to that bullpen. Then score 20.

Gwreck wrote: Centerfield wrote: I'm not sure I agree with this. Wednesday should be all hands on deck. I think the Mets should carry the best pitchers on the team, whether they are "starters" or "relievers". You can't totally sacrifice everything. If they win, they have games to play on Friday and Saturday. You have to hold back starting pitchers for those games, no? In my book, you do everything to get there first, then sort it out. You have Colon for game 1 either way. Game 2, you sort it out if you have to. Hell, it might even rain. I'm just saying if it goes extras tonight, or if it's like the last Bumgarner game where both starters struggle, it would be a shame to have one of our best pitchers unavailable.

Gwreck wrote: Cheapest non-standing room ticket is $183 for Division Series Game 1 in Chicago. It's the World Series tickets for the Cubs that will be running in the several thousands on the secondary market. I think it would be wrong to make the Cubs pay several grand for World Series tickets. After knocking them out 2 years in a row, the Mets should at least comp them a few seats. It's the sporting thing to do.

And you know what the crazy thing is? If they can get by Bumgarner and then the Cubs (tall orders, I get it), then the LCS and WS are wide open. They are capable of beating both Washington and the Dodgers, and not one AL team scares me. WE CAN FUCKING DO THIS.

Chad Ochoseis wrote: Bumgarner's ERA since August 1: 4.03. We got this. He's way, way overrated. Pedestrian pitcher in the second half. All that post-season resume crap is just small sample size. He's a good pitcher, but it's a shit lineup. We jump on him for 3 in the first, and slowly pull away from there. The only drama that the night will feature is whether Terry should pull Syndergaard early with the Mets leading by 8. Chicago is going to piss their pants on Wednesday, because they know what's coming for them.

I love how we all flip flop back and forth between ("We can do this!") to ("Fuck man, let's play the kids.") in the beginning of this thread. In the end, both schools of thought were correct.

Great work. In fact, it's hard to be any more right than you were then.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Wednesday should be all hands on deck. I think the Mets should carry the best pitchers on the team, whether they are "starters" or "relievers". Lugo has experience pitching out of the pen right? In fact, I think they had given up on him as a starter while in Vegas. I think I'd feel just as good about Lugo coming in to get an out in the late innings as I would anyone not named Reed or Familia. I haven't paid enough attention to this thread to see who I would leave out, but I think I'd be inclined to go to Lugo to pitch the seventh than even Salas.

You know, it's funny. With the Wild Card, you end up rooting for different teams to win or lose throughout the season. For instance, when Miami was starting to creep back in, I found myself rooting for Washington. This was the first time I rooted for a team to lose, then win, in the same game. For 7 innings, I rooted for Pittsburgh to win, so the Mets could clinch. Then the minute our game went final, I found myself rooting for St. Louis, so they could end up in a tie with the Giants. So yay Bastardo! Today is not meaningless Sunday. Today we root for the Cards and Dodgers.

Join us guys and tune in on MLB network. Our last Vin.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: It surprised me the other day to realize the Mets have three 30-HR hitters in their lineup right now, plus Doodoo. Just imagine if we had Walker and d'Arnaud didn't suck.

Edgy MD wrote: I don't think Wright's opening the season healthy next year, but yeah, I think Reyes is ticketed for second when Wright comes back. That's part of why I spoke about the roster rather than the lineup. "Steve Napolitano" is name I've heard Howie Rose say 1,000 times (in my imagination, anyhow). In what context? Damned if I know. Assistant to the assistant trainer? I would prefer if Reyes were the backup to Wright/Cabrera/whoever our second baseman is rather than relying on him to duplicate his production this year. And also relying on Wright/Cabrera/whoever our second baseman is to stay healthy. I doubt it will go that way, but this is what I'd want. I'd love to see them bring back Walker, but my hunch is that he's gone.

That lineup can mash.

Frayed Knot wrote: Nymr83 wrote: bad job by the reds - its a game winning run if it stands, why is the manager waiting for anyone to tell him to challenge? just challenge! Because I think managers have become too dependent on their 'eye in the sky' to tell them which calls deserve challenging. In fact I suspect it's probably team policy in most cases that the managers aren't even the ones to be making the call as evidenced by a call the Mets failed to challenge a few weeks back. Sandy wound up blowing his stack over that one, not at Terry but rather at the breakdown somewhere in the communication chain that never informed Terry that he should. I wasn't even aware until last night that there was this '10/30' rule actually written into the book -- 10 seconds for the bench to notify the umps that they're thinking of challenging and then 30 seconds (30 more, or 20 on top of the original 10??) to actually request that they go to the headphones -- but apparently that doesn't even apply on 'game-ending' plays when the rule says that the bench needs to appeal immediately. [Reds' mgr] Price's argument is that if four umps couldn't tell from their stations that the ball hit beyond the fence how are their bench supposed to know from nearly 400 feet away while in their subterranean dugout without getting help from upstairs and that the crowd noise made it impossible to know that their spies were trying to call them. By the time he did get word the umps were already halfway down the tunnel and telling him that his 10 seconds had expired. We've touched on this before. If it's a game ending play, just fucking challenge. How hard is that? Sometimes I feel like I could walk in and manage better than half these morons.

Giants take the lead. This is karma for starting that post season roster thread.

That is a terrific idea. Push back the capable starting pitcher and burn the bullpen in the first game of the series. Well played Philly.

OMG WILL YOU GUYS STOP.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Plus, the Phils will probably be pitching a 'bullpen game' on Friday. Why do you say that? I thought they had that guy Asher lined up to pitch. He was pretty good in the early on against the Mets last week. I think it would be ideal if the Cards lost the next two games, allowing the Mets to clinch, then won the last two, while the Giants lose all four. Let's leave Madison Bumgarner at home. And I realize this is bad karma, and that I'm inviting Carlos Martinez to throw a 2 hit shutout, but I've thought about it, and I want no part of MadBum.

Rickey Henderson.