Chad ochoseis

Tommie Agee

Bernard Gilkey?

Now this looks like fun...wish I'd noticed it before the first 49 spots were guessed. Mazzilli?

1/29 is a no go for me - my hiking club has a board meeting that day. Darryl's Sports Bar in Douglaston. Or, as we Jerseyites like to call it, "the butt end of nowhere." But I'm good for a road trip any weekend in March - see you then at Strawberry's.

17 HOFers. Completely spaced on #2, was surprised that #13 got as many votes as he did, and am glad that I didn't bother trying to type #15. EdgyDC wrote: Seven of 26 for me: http://www.sporcle.com/games/mlbwinsleaders_a2z.php Eleven, though a couple were cheap. One I got because I was thinking of a more recent pitcher with the same last name. For another, I just started typing in common names that begin with that letter, and somehow guessed correctly. Never actually heard of the guy.

I lived in Chicago for ten years, and I really enjoyed his broadcasts. He was Chicago's Keith Hernandez. Knew the game well, was fun to listen to, and you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth next. I had no problem with him being a homer. I don't need my sportscasters to be objective, just fair. Yes, he was a fine player too. But if the idea is to get a 3B from that era into the Hall of Fame, my first thought - without looking at the numbers - is that Joe Torre would be a better choice. And I'd much rather see Torre go in as a player picked by the Veterans Committee than as a manager picked by the BBWAA (yeah, I know...not gonna happen). RIP.

It gets even sillier, because if you really want to know who's "valuable", you'd also want to look at the team's actual replacement player. Jose Valentin was hugely valuable to the 2006 Mets, because he did a better than competent job when the alternatives were KazMat and Woodward. Yeah, I say to forget about the word "valuable" and just give the award to the best player.

Ceetar wrote: Used to work in fairfield (Totowa as of a month ago). Practically walking distance from me. I work in The Town Formerly Known as West Paterson.

Yeah, the ARC tunnel was probably more important and would have provided more benefit to more NJ residents. But the 7 train plan provides more benefit to me, and I'm self-centered and narrow-minded. Also, given that our crook of a governor did kill ARC dead, I do think this is the next best thing. And it does have the advantage quoted in the article of better connectivity to the MTA than NJ Transit provides. It really is a pain to get anywhere on the east side if you live in Jersey. PATH's OK. But it runs infrequently nights and weekends. Of course, that problem could be solved relatively cheaply by running more trains on nights and weekends. But the connectivity to the subway system is pretty bad with PATH, too. Either way, I agree with metfairy that this is yet another NJ public transit pipe dream, and I'll file it with my many other NJ public transportation pipe dreams (ferry to Brooklyn, anyone?). But, hey, I can still hope.

I think I'm the only CPFer who lives anywhere near Secaucus, New Jersey, so everyone else is probably thinking, "Who gives a rat's bum?". But, personally, I will flip, flop, and fly out of sheer happiness if this ever comes to fruition. And I might even start showing up to Two Boots nights at Grand Central. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/nyc_considers_extending_no_7_s.html

Takahashi - great job doing everything asked of him Rodriguez - I hope the closest he ever gets to Flushing again is Rikers Island. That being said, a 2.20 ERA is a 2.20 ERA. Feliciano - 2010 is becoming a vague memory, but I'm thinking he didn't suck against righties, either. Dessens - I kind of sort of remember him. And a 2.30 ERA is a 2.30 ERA. Parnell - Zoom! Honorable mention to Nieve. His numbers stunk overall, but that was because Jerry's flowchart didn't include "rest Nieve". He did a great job until he didn't do a great job.

I was relieved to see this season end, too.

EdgyDC wrote: Nyjer Morgan really needs to go to Fundies Camp. I missed the game, but one of the weird things about this season is how dumb Nyjer Morgan has become. A good friend of mine lives in the DC area and I used to describe Angel Pagan to him as Nyjer Morgan, except without a brain. The roles seem to have been reversed this season. Lousy season for the Mets. Good season reading the CPF and occasionally hanging out with real live CPFers.

Last time I started an IGT, I think the Mets were in first place... LET'S

Well, Howard Megdal certainly wouldn't complain if Jeff offered him the job. I don't know if I see the point of firing Omar this year, unless it's to show the world that the Mets are cleaning house, kicking ass, and taking names. Without thinking too much about it, my sense is that Omar has demonstrated that he has the "small-market" type skills that made him well-respected in Montreal. Last year, the conventional wisdom was that the Mets' farm system was shot to hell. The shot to hell farm system gave us Niese, Thole, and Davis this year, with prospects still in the pipeline. He's made plenty of obscure low cost pickups (Pagan, Dickey, both Takahashis, Figueroa, Barajas, Blanco, etc., etc.) that have turned into stars, semi-stars, or useful role-players at the very least. What he hasn't done is spend money wisely. But the Mets won't be spending money in the off-season this year - there isn't the payroll capacity or the player availability. So unless the thought is to get a GM working this year so that he can get comfy and then make moves for the 2012 season, I'm fine with leaving Omar in for 2011.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Is it possible they're "Donkeys" because they've got big asses? If that were the case, there would be something like 700 MLB players going by the name of "Donkey". Travis Hafner's nickname is "Pronk", which is a contraction of "project" and "donkey". MFS62 wrote: ElRoy was the best reliever of his time. Threw the fork ball Whatever happened to the fork ball, anyway? I haven't heard the term in decades.

The player who annoys me the most in this whole non-story is Big Pelf. Who the hell gave him the authority to tell the team that the trip was mandatory?

I'm amazed that this thread has any posts at all.

I want to see if Beltran can play right field. Even if his days as a competent CF aren't over, his days of being a better CF than Angel Pagan most likely are.

It's a really difficult call. Too difficult for me to want to call people who root against their favorite teams "losers" in that situation. If a non-contender trades a quality veteran for solid prospects, they're effectively sacrificing some short-term low-value wins for potentially higher value long-term wins, and that's considered a good thing. If a non-contender loses a late season game and improves its chances of a higher draft pick, they're effectively sacrificing a short term low-value win for potentially higher value long-term wins, but that's considered a bad thing. I know the two aren't quite the same. I'm just saying that the difference isn't huge. I root against a system that rewards losing. A lottery would be an improvement. A system that gives the top pick to the team with the most wins per dollar of salary would be even better, but would create all sorts of spending disincentives that would never fly.

With fewer than 30 games to play, the Orioles and Pirates are more than 30 games behind in both their wild card and division races, and are now mathematically out of the running for post-season play.

Despite all the criticism, he was much better than the guy we gave up for him. He drew the second Met walk of the 2010 season. I remember this because I'd picked him for the first walk of the season in the "guess the firsts" thread. He was the best position player on the team in April. Better OF defense than I expected, based strictly on the eyeball method of measuring quality. He didn't hit badly during the stretches where he remembered that it's OK to take a pitch. He seemed to go into cycles where he'd have a few bad games and then start swinging at any pitch that shared a zip code with home plate, thereby having more bad games, thereby swinging at more bad pitches, thereby digging himself deeper into a rut. Still fairly young. Still may prove to be a fine player. Not worth the $4M minimum gamble it would take in 2011 to find out. Have a great career, Frenchy. Gwreck wrote: 1. How many Mets led their team in games played at a position in a particular season, having been acquired at the trading deadline or later? Hidalgo?

I'd always thought "second division" simply meant "sub-.500", regardless of where the team placed. I haven't heard the term used in years. It has a charmingly old-time ring to it, like referring to the Tigers as "the Detroits".

I've got to think that there's something in his contract that would prevent him from actually doing this. But I might watch the US Open if R.A. were running after tennis balls and throwing knucklers back to the ref.