Centerfield

I thought about it and I decided I'd be happy if the lead is 7 when we wake up Monday morning. Which is strange because I told myself I'd be happy with a 5 game lead at the end of the Washington series. Being a fan is, in no way rational.

Facing Jose Fernandez tonight. Next year we will hate him, but for tonight... JOSE...JOSE JOSE JOSE! JO-SE! JO-SE!

That's great. YLDB's can see how much they've grown between arrests.

Jim learned his lesson and vowed never to drive after drinking again. Instead, he made domestic violence his new inebriated sport of choice: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/ex-yankee-hero-jim-leyritz-arrested-domestic-battery-ex-wife-article-1.400982

Come on guys. Let's grow up and treat this team with the respect it reserves. I need to know about these New York Yankees. Let's make this a group effort. I'll start. Here is Yankee great Chad Curtis. Fan favorite and hero of the late 90's dynasty. Convicted of six counts of sexual assault on teenage women. Chad has reportedly denied Jim Gray's request for an in-prison interview. Who can forget former All-Star Chuck Knoblauch? Looks like Chuck has been attacking the Ho-Ho's since his retirement, but that's not all he's attacking! Old Chuck was convicted of domestic assault for smashing his wife's head against the wall. He reportedly also threw a humidifier at her. (Do I take the Chuck Knoblauch throwing joke? Or is that too easy?) Chuck spreads his love around. He also assaulted his wife's sister when she tried to intervene. Pure class Chuck.

This picture was taken at Yankee Stadium during Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. I don't know, there is something a little off about these Yankee fans.

I was thinking about this, I think the best thing to do would be to trade Granderson this offseason. His value is likely the highest it will be during his contract. It frees up a corner OF spot that can be used to sign someone to offset the likely loss of Cespedes. Or, alternatively, moving his contract frees up money to resign Cespedes. I love what he has done this year, but I have my doubts that this can be sustained.

All kidding aside, yes. Agreed. A trade that had to be made. And I am saying this even if Cespedes signs elsewhere. Let me also say this early on, if the bidding for Cespedes gets into crazy territory because of what he has done the last few weeks (as opposed to career norms and projections) I am completely fine with management if they don't fall into that trap.

You know what's cool? If the Mets lose in the first round, Cespedes signs somewhere else, and then Fulmer ends up being a perennial ace, we can then blame Jeff Wilpon!

I wrote that everybody should be fired. I never said anything about blowing up anything. I didn't really think there was any distinction between these two statements. No, you never said anything about dumping pitchers. I didn't say you did. My use of "blowing up" was meant to characterize blowing up the organization, as you advocated. Firing everybody. I disagreed with that. If you didn't seriously mean he should be fired, you didn't. I'm not sure when to take you seriously, though. Especially when your statement is preceded by the word "Seriously." I'm not clear then what we're talking about here. Maybe "seriously" only applied to the part of the paragraph that preceded the one-word sentence "Seriously." If so, my misunderstanding. Summary of My Position: End of June: Sandy had done a bad job. Depending on my level of anger, I fluctuated between just criticizing him, to calling for him to be fired. Now: Sandy has since done a great job. He has done everything that I had asked or could ask him to do. It took a lot of luck and good fortune, but we'll take it. I am no longer angry with him. I no longer want him fired.

Tim Rohan on how the beast became a Met. My only objection is the inclusion of the COO as the tough-talking, signer-offer on the big deal. Would love to pretend a giddy dowager still owns the team. This is a fascinating article. We talk about having a plan and setting up your pieces etc., but it's amazing how arbitrary these things are. A few things of note: 1. If the Gomez deal happens, no way we get Cespedes. Gomez has an OPS around .660 for Houston. We likely do not make the playoffs. 2. Thank god the Padres were stubborn about Justin Upton. 3. Holy crap we could have ended up with Jay Fucking Bruce. We were that close to disaster. 4. I have to give credit to Jeff Wilpon if that is true. That brings the list of "Things I like about Jeff Wilpon" to 1. 5. It sounds like Sandy was determined to make a move all along. That is encouraging. 6. I didn't know Fulmer was that good of a prospect. I guess we may have some regrets coming to us later. I still say we make the move.

And it wasn't just that they got no-hit. It was that they were a threat to be no-hit night after night. Many were calling a Kershaw no-hitter before a pitch was ever thrown. I remember how relieved I was when they finally got a hit. Even during the first win streak FK noticed how the Mets would go in order in innings 1-3 seemingly every game. We commented how good they could be if they actually started hitting earlier. Then they just stopped hitting altogether.

When the NHOP reaches zero, I think we should all have pancakes.

Frayed Knot wrote: [fimg=350]http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1019020676887_2002/04/18/19entderek.jpg[/fimg] LOL. Beats a picture of Rey Ordonez any day.

We needed more Drew Storen. We should send him a Get Well Soon card.

Edgy MD wrote: Vic Sage wrote: CF is, as almost always (and like THIRTEEN used to be), correct. Preach it, my brother from another mother. I don't get it. You (Centerfield) insist that you stand by what you wrote. What you wrote is everybody should be fired. It should all be blown up. That should mean you disown everything going forward if they don't blow up the organization. And here we are. If you embrace where we are, then you must certainly embrace that you weren't really right then. Otherwise, you can never really be wrong. That's no way to be. I wrote that everybody should be fired. I never said anything about blowing up anything. Figuratively or literally. We have great pitchers. There is no point in dumping them. My post was written in frustration seemingly following a loss. The larger point and rationale behind it was the the front office had done a terrible job. After four years of rebuilding, this is an unacceptable lineup to put out on the field. Except for posts written out of frustration, as this one, I have never seriously advocated for Alderson's dismissal. Mainly because I don't know anyone who might be a better candidate. Still, if you are going to take the post literally, even though I hadn't seriously advocated for it, I would have been fine with firing Alderson and his entire staff. They had years to turn this team into a strong contender and failed to do so. They failed to make any aggressive or creative moves to upgrade the lineup and showed no signs of changing course. I see no reason why I have to disown anything good that may have come afterwards. Especially if they turn around takes place after they do exactly what I have been advocating for them to do. Doesn't the turn around, in fact, prove me right? If Sandy is driving a bus aimlessly around town, I can advocate that he should lay out the resources to buy a map. If he refuses to do so I can take the position that he should be fired. If afterwards, he pulls out a map and takes us home, why do I have to disown the result?

Someday we will find that Boston is actively developing young players and encouraging them to sign long-term deals with the MFY's as they enter their 30's.

I'm happy to give credit to Alderson for doing a great job since then, but I stand by my position that the front office deserved criticism. Maybe he had set up all the pieces and was just waiting for the right moment to pounce. Absolutely a fair point. And this is really the best counter to my position. If that were the case, and I don't actually believe that it is the case, it still warranted criticism. First off, I think it is risky. Secondly, Sandy had earned no benefit of the doubt. Sandy's plan to wait and pounce relies upon: 1. The Mets managing to hang around for the first half. 2. Washington struggling, and 3. The deadline moves to be significant and have immediate impact. Basically when trying to make the playoffs, I think it is too risky to do so by fielding a great team for half the season, rather than the full season. Even if the pricetag on the improvements is higher in December than it is in July, it is worthwhile to have them all year long. But it worked out. Fine. I'm ok with how they did it. I'm just thrilled that they did it. More importantly, nothing they had done in the past gave any indication that this administration was willing to go that extra mile. They had no prior history to give them an ounce of credibility. But that has changed now. Next season, if we are in the same situation, I will likely say to myself "This sucks. I hope Sandy can come through again for us like he did last year."

I have yet to get into the game. I am the Vic Black of the forum.

Edgy MD wrote: It wasn't just that day's lineup, and you are aware of that. Well, that's what you wrote. And you are well aware that my post, written out of frustration, was not meant to be taken literally. My position was based upon frustration over the state of the roster, not one particular lineup. Edgy MD wrote: It was the lineup they posted throughout the first four months of the season. No it wasn't. Again, it is silly to pretend not to know what I mean here. I am not saying that the lineup they posted that day was the lineup for the first four months of the season. That is a silly statement, if given a minute of thought, can clearly be determined to not be my point. "It", as written, means "The impetus behind my frustration" was the lineup they posted throughout the first four months of the season. Edgy MD wrote: That team was 52-50 at the trade deadline. That's not so bad, in the scheme of things. "Hi I'm Sandy Alderson. It is a pleasure to be your new GM. I have this great rebuilding plan that will have us finish with a losing record for the next four years. During that time we will say goodbye to fan favorites, build a great pitching staff, but field the worst lineup in the major leagues. That's right, in five years, I hope to be able to say our position is not so bad, in the scheme of things." Edgy MD wrote: It certainly didn't undermine where they are now. I am not talking about where they are now. I was criticizing where they were then. And where they were then is not acceptable. Perhaps I can illustrate this with another scenario. We own a shoe company. Sandy is hired to manage the company. He tells us that for four years, the company will lose money. But in year five, it will take off. Sandy is wonderful at making left shoes. He is one of the best in the field, and others in the industry write what an amazing collection of left shoes Sandy has compiled. Unfortunately Sandy makes terrible right shoes. The worst in the industry. Halfway through year 5, the company is at break-even. Sandy is criticized. It is demanded that he make better right shoes. Shortly afterwards, Sandy improves his production of right shoes. He now makes shoes right shoes as well as he makes left shoes. With a strong collection of both left and right shoes, the company takes off and reaches new heights. Sandy is applauded. In my opinion, both the criticism of Sandy and the applauding of Sandy are justified. Edgy MD wrote: It was supposed to be the culmination of 5 years of rebuilding... It was far closer to a snapshot. Half a season is not a snapshot. Edgy MD wrote: ... and instead it was a laughable offense. That's not all it was. It was also an outstanding pitching staff, with a fantastic farm system just then graduating some of their best. With enough redundancy throughout to add pieces without removing the best players. And obviously, some of the best hitters on the disabled list, and others who weren't performing but either were still worth having faith in or weren't. Which way does a person go? Tough choice to make. You called for blowing everything up. I mentioned the pitching staff. Several times. You chose not to quote it. My point was never that Sandy did absolutely nothing right. It's that he left out a key component needed to field a winning team. Edgy MD wrote: I was absolutely judging the organization over their work over several years. Well, here we are. Yes. Here we are. Because they finally made the moves I had been imploring them to make since last winter. They brought in two professional hitters to replace the non-major league talent they were trotting out there. They brought in the middle of the lineup hitter I had been begging for. They called up Conforto like I asked them to do. Getting d'Arnaud and David back helped. But let's not pretend that keeping status quo would have put us where we are now. Halfway through the season, I demanded right shoes. We finally got them. You cannot call my criticism unjustified by citing to success they have enjoyed by doing exactly what I asked them to do.

Ceetar wrote: The Mets scored 6 less runs than the Nationals in April, and no one else in the division scored more. They scored 97 runs in 23 games or just over 4 runs a game. If the point of your post is that the Mets offense was fine before the trade deadline moves, that might be the most asinine position you have taken since joining the Board. And this includes gems such as "A higher budget does not lead to a competitive advantage" and "It is the burden of other posters to disprove my theories."

He has the highest OWAR on the team, so you can certainly make that case. Most of that is a result of staying healthy all year long, but that too is a valuable trait. And like in the other thread, I am happy to eat crow since he has played lights out in the second half, but this does not mean that the criticism of Granderson was unwarranted. At the time this thread started, he had an OPS of .690. He had posted an OPS of .714 in his first year with the Mets. The year before that, while playing in a little league field, he posted .724. I'm thrilled he turned it around, but that doesn't mean he didn't suck, or that I was wrong to point out that he sucked.

Edgy MD wrote: Come on. Judging an entire organization and their activities over several years and demanding the firing of everyone over the day's lineup is the height of nearsightedness. This too was never going to get it done. Calling for a 12-game losing streak because you believe nobody will see problems that need to be addressed any other way? It's obviously untrue that Alderson hadn't done anything useful. It wasn't just that day's lineup, and you are aware of that. It was the lineup they posted throughout the first four months of the season. That team was 52-50 at the trade deadline. It was supposed to be the culmination of 5 years of rebuilding, and instead it was a laughable offense. I was absolutely judging the organization over their work over several years. They developed great young pitching but brought in no hitters. It was utterly predictable that the offense would be lacking before they played 1 game in 2015, and it was also true that Alderson's big acquisition over the winter was a 36 year old outfielder coming off a major injury. I'm happy to give credit to Alderson for doing a great job since then, but I stand by my position that the front office deserved criticism.

Centerfield wrote: This is really inexcusable. Five years of rebuilding and this is the lineup they put out there? Seriously. Fire everyone. For the record, this is the lineup that spurred this post: 1. Granderson RF 2. Tejada 2B 3. Duda 1B 4. Flores SS 5. Ceciliani LF 6. Lagares CF 7. Monell C 8. Campbell 3B 9. Colon P No matter how much faith the fans had, or how bad the Nationals were, this was not going to get it done. And sure, injuries play a part, but having a lineup where 3 of the 8 are not major leaguers, and another 3 are really part time players, is a failure on the part of a general manager. Then, at the trade deadline, Sandy Alderson went on a tear. He traded for Uribe and Johnson. He called up Conforto. He traded for Yoenis Cespedes. He bolstered the bullpen with Clippard, and O'Flaherty and Reed. And when O'Flaherty sucked, he called up other candidates to replace him. And he did all of that without giving up any coveted prospects. That's what we were hoping for when we hired Sandy Alderson. I absolutely applaud Alderson for what he has done. Gwreck wrote in this thread that Alderson hadn't done anything useful with the resources that he had. Now he has done exactly that. The only ones remaining on my shitlist for now are the owners. And they can get off of that if they raise the budget this winter and start acting like a big market team.

Dear Jon Niese, Please try not to suck today. Your friend, Centerfield