Centerfield

I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,my family and I came down here to (Manila, Philippines) for a short vacation unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us. We've been to the embassy they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in less than few hours from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the Idiot hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills,I'm freaked out at the moment.I need you to lend me some money to sort my self out of this predicament, will pay back once I get this over with. Hope to hear from you soon. Your New York Mets

At CitiField. Last minute free tix. Free WiFi! Caesar's Club is nice. My first time here.

Edgy MD wrote: He's swinging like that guy in the lottery commercial who gets to stay in the lineup because he owns the team. Love it.

Jay Horowitz has been fired. You've been placed in charge. Because of your sterling (no pun intended) record, the Wilpons have given you broad discretion. How do you fix the Mets' image? My first orders of business: 1. City Agency Hats Come back on Sept. 11 I would tell MLB that the only way they are going to get my players not to wear them is to have crews physically come take them off their heads. Threaten us with a forfeit? Fine with us. We'll forfeit this game every year until MLB realizes this is not going to change. 2. Retire Piazza's Number As soon as possible. In fact, if I could go back in time I'd do it as a surprise on Mike Piazza Day. I would not wait until the HoF comes calling. I would send Jeff Wilpon out there with a pre-prepared speech from which he cannot stray AT ALL that goes along the lines of "Fuck the Hall of Fame Mike. You are a Hall of Famer to us. Even if asshead baseball writers can't see it." I would then instruct Jeff Wilpon to tweet a picture of himself urinating on the HoF logo. 3. Twitter As I mentioned in my other thread, put out a clear set of rules on how we expect our players to act on twitter. Tell them that if they violate the rules they will be asked to take down the post. Violations trigger a penalty. Multiple violations will result in twitter being banned for that player. 4. Don't schedule Native American Appreciation night when the Mets play the Braves or Indians. Duh. 5. Media Leaks I imagine it's hard to stop leaks in their entirety. But the reaction could be better. If there is a leak that Justin Turner was lazy, respond to it. "We have heard the rumors circulated about the effort put forth by Justin Turner. We at the organization refute any such rumors. Justin was a valued player with the Mets and the decision to non-tender him was strictly a business decision. We appreciate his time with the organization and wish him the best of luck in his career." And yes. Do this even if you don't mean it. 6. Communicate Better It's pretty clear that the organization is out of touch with a lot of their players. Beltran was upset. Harvey seems upset. You are going to have spoiled, self-important, sensitive athletes. Figure out a way to make them feel appreciated.

I found myself waffling back and forth in this debate, then I realized why. Everyone sucks. Everyone involved here shares some of the blame. Matt Harvey Sucks Sure. He's a 25 year old kid and some of these guys do stupid things. But not every 25 year old does it, and it doesn't excuse Harvey just because he's young. David Wright doesn't conduct himself this way. Even as goofy as Reyes was, he didn't do it either. Neither have Wheeler, Niese, Gee, Duda, or well, everyone else. He can certainly handle himself better. Come on, you put a picture of yourself on Twitter flipping everyone the bird. How would you expect your employer to react? Edgy is right, blowing up the Twitter account is a tantrum (even if it's one that might be beneficial later on). He will be back on before the end of the year "because so many of my fans told me how much they missed me on Twitter." The Mets Suck But we knew this. Twitter has been around for a long time. I would like to see an organization that has a policy and enforces it beforehand rather than being reactionary. An organization can approach Twitter a few ways: 1. ban Twitter for your players 2. ask that all players screen tweets with PR before posting 3. Set a very clear set of rules as to what can and cannot be posted, with a right to ban twitter for those who violate 4. Do nothing. Hope that young, self-important athletes who are used to locker room talk will not post anything dumb. React after something happens. So far, the Mets have subscribed to #4. I'd like to see them try #3. It's astonishing how incompetent the Mets come out looking time and time again. Native American appreciation day. The Harvey-Martino incident. Jeremy Hefner's Chick-Fil-A tweet. The anonymous digs on players. It's pretty clear to me that Jay Horowitz is out of touch and needs to be replaced. A new PR approach could do wonders for improving the organization's image. And a young athlete coming across as douchy is one thing. It's inexcusable for an organization to come across as this idiotic. The Fans Suck Us included. For making this a big deal. For boo-ing Granderson this badly 3 weeks into a season. My god. Keep the boos on the shelf until May. Is that too hard? If some other team offered the same terms as the Mets, I can't imagine why on earth a free agent would want to sign here.

Blue is getting Tommy John surgery? Worst news ever.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Is that chick really ugly? She's no Hillside Honda girl but there's something to her amateur quality and the cheapness that I like (that's not really MFY gear but a cheap costume used by adverrtisiers who can't afford to pay for official gear. You can tell irl she probably works as a receptionist at the dealership, or her uncle is Lee himself, or something. I kinda like her long black hair. To be honest, I can't remember what she looks like. But she was wearing MFY-ish gear, and to me, that is ugly. We're going to have to see her nude to get an objective analysis.

Wow, I was sure we were going to lose after the second Upton HR. Nice win in Atlanta. Turner Field = Our Bitch.

Fuckheads at Lee's Toyota think it's a good idea to advertise on Mets games with ugly chick in MFY gear.

Didn't they used to have a centerfielder that hit 40 HR's? What happened to that guy?

I was still sperm.

It's very difficult to discuss things with you. When we started I thought we had opposing views. But by the end of your post, it seems like you're backing my position. Did I win the debate?

Ceetar wrote: Ceetar wrote: I think the biggest thing now is there is basically no Minaya money on the books besides some arb guys. I think they owe a little to Bay but that's based on a buyout clause that Alderson negotiated. So he got to this point, with lots of planning and preparation. Yes, revenue is likely way down from the 2010 numbers he was likely shown when he signed and part of that may be an inability to spend to keep fans coming, but he presided over that. This is silly. If they had hired me as GM, there would be no Minaya money on the books. This is not a feat by any stretch of the imagination. No, it's not a feat. my point is simply that the roster construction is his. the Mets/Madoff connection didn't really leak until after. At least, the extent of their losses and that they were going to be involved in the lawsuit. Perhaps they disclosed that to Sandy before hand. Perhaps not. Yes. It wasn't until after. Two days after. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=asOFdfj1w3CU&refer=home

Ceetar wrote: I think the biggest thing now is there is basically no Minaya money on the books besides some arb guys. I think they owe a little to Bay but that's based on a buyout clause that Alderson negotiated. So he got to this point, with lots of planning and preparation. Yes, revenue is likely way down from the 2010 numbers he was likely shown when he signed and part of that may be an inability to spend to keep fans coming, but he presided over that. This is silly. If they had hired me as GM, there would be no Minaya money on the books. This is not a feat by any stretch of the imagination.

The Madoff story broke in December 2008. Alderson was hired after the 2010 season. Everyone here knew the name Bernie Madoff.

Asshole judgmental doctor comes in and tells patient he is going to die.

To be clear here, my criticism is not that Sandy didn't re-sign Jose when he was a free-agent and getting crazy offers from the Marlins (2011). My criticism is that he did not even make an attempt to sign Jose to an extension the year before, when Reyes expressed an interest in negotiations, and when he was coming off of a down year (2010). There was a chance even a four year extension would have gotten it done then. Now, many have speculated that Sandy Alderson didn't have the authority to engage in those negotiations. And that may be true, but we have no way of knowing that. And I don't think any reporter can make that assumption, so this criticism of Alderson is warranted and fair. He is, after all, the GM. And in the absence of other proof, this responsibility lies with him. Personally, I believe his hands were probably tied as well. But if that's the case, I'm disappointed that he was not able to sit down with the Wilpons and say "Look guys, I know you're strapped, but let me give him a modest bump now, and we can avoid having to bid like crazy next year. If we lose him, not only will we lose an iconic player, but we'll have a giant gaping hole at SS for the foreseeable future." And for what it's worth, I am not saying he should be fired. He has made some great moves (Beltran trade, Dickey trade, even not underselling on Ike) and I can't think of a better person to be guiding this team right now, but the man is not above criticism. Sure, he has limited resources, but he has still had four straight losing seasons. Oakland still has a lower payroll and won 96 games last year. And Greg is right about the longest honeymoon ever. When he was hired, did anyone here think "Awesome! We're only going to suck for another five years, then after that we'll be right back in it!"

Derek Jeter. Master of diving after the play.

There is no way to prove this, but I believe that playing all of your home games in that cavernous ballpark has a cumulative detrimental effect on hitters. I think it affects the Mets players far more than it affects road teams, who come in, play a series, then go back to regular sized parks. For example: Granderson hit a few balls to the warning track this past homestand. If he were on the Reds, he'd move on, and those fly balls would be distant memories. Instead, when he comes back home, they are in the back of his mind. He loses a few more HR's to Citi's dimensions during the next homestand, leading him to (either consciously or not) start tinkering with his swing. His mechanics go to shit and he turns into Jason Bay.

I'm sure that most of the FIRE SANDY crowd are being reactionary, and we do have to assume that his hands have been tied economically throughout his tenure, but there are certainly fair criticisms of Sandy: 1. Missed an opportunity to sign Reyes to an extension after his down year, one year prior to free agency. Not to say he would have reached a deal, but definitely missed a window to negotiate. 2. No draftees have made any impact. In fact, except for Dominic Smith, who is still years away, none are even on the radar. 3. Re-stocking the system with pitching has largely been from trading away Minaya commodities (Wheeler from Beltran, Syndegaard and d'Arnaud for Dickey). Kudos to Sandy for making solid trades, but the level of difficulty here is not earth-shattering. The system is still missing impact position players. Still, I'd rather have Sandy at the helm than anyone else I know, but that doesn't mean the man should be bulletproof for all of these losing seasons.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: A Boy Named Seo wrote: Isn't that a name from way back? Yup © In that case, Welcome Backman.

Would it make sense to send Syndergaard and Wheeler in to get their TJ surgeries now? I'm ready to punt on 2014 if that means we'll be healthy next year.

Murph out tonight on paternity leave. Assuming mother and baby are fine, this seems unnecessary no? I mean. Play with the kid during the day, then get your ass to the ballpark. Or am I just being old-fashioned, close-minded, crotchety old man?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Saves sellout in event of rainout How does that work? Does it make a difference if the makeup is today or Thursday?

Didn't take long to get the first cock-punch loss of the year. Fuck you Mets.