batmagadanleadoff

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I guess I could use one of those too. 🤔 New pic. Hatless, but at least he's wearing a Mets jersey. [FIMG=555]https://res.cloudinary.com/ybmedia/image/upload/c_crop,h_769,w_1369,x_197,y_40/c_fill,f_auto,h_900,q_auto,w_1600/v1/m/4/3/438bb9b1655bc11d69f7e598edd53cd20cca2dbf/mets-designate-outfielder-ender-inciarte.jpg[/FIMG]

Well, if Gwreck's up, I guess we can trade off guesses without two-in-a-rowing it. Venezuelan Carlos Carrasco is captured on a 2022 TCG R&R card, pitching on One-Hit Wonder day, a festive Mets day adopted by Steve Cohen based on my personal recommendation, which the Mets now hold once or thrice a year. On One-Hit Wonder day, a pitcher who had once pitched a complete game one-hitter for the Mets is honored. The outfield walls are decorated with 45RPM sleeves of memorable one-hit wonders and the one hit wonders play all game long. Gary Gentry was the honoree on the day Carrasco pitched. Gentry was flown in and put up at a 4-star NY hotel and was also awarded an olive green Amana refrigerator for participating. [FIMG=500]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52216203267_12fdafcddc_h.jpg[/FIMG]

I'll go for the low hanging fruit. Nohan Johan 2010 Typewriter Total Mets Team set, code named: Rock and Roll [FIMG=500]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52216190632_320ce19282_h.jpg[/FIMG]

Edgy MD wrote: Good for Devo making the set. They're old pros to this. 2010 Typewriter Total Mets Team set, code named: Rock and Roll [FIMG=400]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52217207683_c09f7c6934_h.jpg[/FIMG]

Edgy MD wrote: Please let me know if you want me to restream one of the games he started and get some screen caps. [FIMG=500]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52217881468_852c95494c_h.jpg[/FIMG]

Edgy MD wrote: How about one of him next to his Mets uni? [fimg=600]https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1541865162155737088/pu/img/BabCpdTncBQ6zvlh.jpg[/fimg] Very interesting. [FIMG=333]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2019/07/12/TELEMMGLPICT000203567611_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqiJ6nA5oGE9mElZ-k_B3GwSu9ElrJhddfv8EepLugMG0.jpeg?imwidth=960[/FIMG]

Great. Now I'll never get an image of him in a Mets uni for my R&R Typewriter set.

I don't like it when the Dodgers claim him.

Frayed Knot wrote: The one variable I've introduced here that isn't being discussed is the "hitting a grounder towards an unoccupied 3B vs. bunting towards an unoccupied 3B" question. Am I wrong to think that the former is easier than the latter for most hitters? I would think that directing a bunt is MUCH easier than directing the ball via a swing. Swinging involves contact and timing, bunting just a pre-angled bat and contact. Both halves of that equation seem considerably easier to pull off without a full swing, even a controlled one. Of course. There's no question but that controlling a batted ball by bunting it is much easier than by taking a full swing at the ball. The downside is that the ball won't travel nearly as far. But that's the calculate tradeoff. Often, a team needs baserunners more than men in scoring position. Besides, you can't score without first getting on base. And as Edgy would write, the third strike on a foul ball penalty -- because the bunted ball is so much easier to control. Is the point of this discussion really to figure out why McNeil bunted, or is this just some pretext for I dunno what? Edgy MD wrote: That is why, of course, you can continue batting forever if you can successfully foul off pitches in the strike zone by swinging, but if you bunt a ball foul with two strikes, you have been struck out.

[FIMG=500]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52217881443_dee59b54f0_h.jpg[/FIMG]

=kcmets post_id=99284 time=1657568514 user_id=53] Right, I'm not ignoring previous comments. I agree with you.

So why bunt with two strikes instead of trying to hit a grounder towards 3B? I'm not sure, but I think the answer is "why not." Because probably, McNeil thought he had a better chance of reaching base by bunting than by swinging. Why? Who the hell knows why? You'd have to know how McNeil was weighing the defensive alignment, the particular pitcher, how he was swinging or bunting lately. Maybe the bunt wasn't premeditated, but an improvisation based on the incoming pitch. And many other factors to consider.

So why bunt with two strikes instead of trying to hit a grounder towards 3B? I'm not sure, but I think the answer is "why not." Because probably, McNeil thought he had a better chance of reaching base by bunting than by swinging.

Frayed Knot wrote: Just as the "Walk him every time" crowd is/was wrong when they promote that strategy against the rival menace or even against Bonds in his prime (I remember various number crunching articles on that topic at the time) if the defense is giving you something approaching a 1.000 OBA by leaving half the field deserted then the lack of outs being committed would more than make up for the lack of XBHs Yeah. I agree. I also think this is being over-analyzed. Why did McNeil bunt? Easy. Because he thought he could pull it off successfully. Wanna get into the minutia of why McNeil thought he could bunt for a hit? You'd have to get into his head. Only he knows and there could be an infinite number of reasons why. Why did Django Reinhardt play that particular lick when he did? How many jellybeans are in Meryl Streep's jellybean jar?

Edgy MD wrote: I realize temporal parallels aren't really a thing with the Rock 'n' Roll set, but it's kind of weird seeing the B-52's Cosmic Thing-era lineup posing with the Bouncing off the Satellites-era Mets. Strange that I probably wouldn't have the same reaction seeing players in a card with musicians photos from decades before, but it's weirder seeing players with musicians photographed four or five years later. Cool card, though. I know what you mean. When I made that card, I was aware of the issue, but didn't make much of it. Ordinarily, when I'm making a current card, like a 2022 card in 2022, I'm not concerned about putting a future rock and roll image in the card because it's impossible to do that. The future hasn't yet arrived. The future's in the future and when the future finally gets here, it won't be the future anymore: it'll be the present. But the time-space continuum could get screwed up when I make a mid-1980's Mets card in 2022. So you put the bug in my head after I read your post. So much so, that I couldn't get it out of my head and so I ended up compelled to fix things. I swapped out Jesse Orosco for Sid Fernandez. So now, with Big Sid in there instead of Orosco, that card can pass for an image of the 1989 Mets and the 1989 Mets can rightfully hang with the Cosmic Thing B52s without potentially causing a time traveling universe altering caastrophe. Doc would be proud of me. And I mean Doc Brown. Emmet Brown. Not Doc Gooden. [FIMG=666]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52207467964_ae5bf84af0_h.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=500]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52207693855_77f019f9df_h.jpg[/FIMG]

Typewriter Chewing Gum commemorates the retirement of Keith Hernandez's Mets unifom number with a special subset to its 2022 total team Mets set (code named Rock and Roll Part 2). [FIMG=600]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52207693855_77f019f9df_h.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=600]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52203971759_e55a70d4c4_h.jpg[/FIMG]

My take on the first cartoon was not so much that the other Mets weren't worthy of inclusion, but that Gallo was wishing that all of the other Mets could be more like Thomas.

Lefty Specialist wrote: It's the mentality of, "My arm's a bit sore, but I can still pitch" among players. They don't want to admit anything that might keep them out of the lineup. And that was very much top of mind for Bassitt. Screw everybody, I'm not missing my turn in the rotation. Could be. But if I was. a betting man, I'd put my money on "He's probably a Republican and that explains why he said what he said. " it's gob-smacking mind-boggling just how ignorant they are on certain matters, which Bassitt clearly demonstrates. Two and a half years into a virus that once shut down the world, killed millions and continues to kill, and he's still so clueless about it-- despite working in an industry where Covid protocols are everywhere.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: It's about time we had someone who knows what they are talking about join us. And some super-cool Andy Warhol avatar, too - art from when Warhol was pioneering, practically inventing pop art. Not the Warhol crap from the 70s when Warhol was simply rinsing and repeating what he'd already done 10-15 years earlier just for the money. Seaver in a fucking Reds uniform. Oh my.

Love that avatar. I don't think he ever changed it.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Had I fielded this question I'd try to prove how smart I was and guess Angel Berroa but yes, Beltran is the one I could tell you with absolute certainty that Berroa was the 2003 AL ROY. But if you gave me 5 guesses as to what year he played for the Mets…and the window couldn't be that large…I think it's at best 50% chance I get it right. 2009. I can tell you off the top of my head because of the 2009 TCG card. [FIMG=333]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52196820359_ab91d04f34_h.jpg[/FIMG]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I assume it would be back to like it was through 1968? Two leagues, both first-place teams meet in the World Series? Me too. But I wanted to hear it from the guy who first advanced the idea. I was going all Bud Abbott there, setting him up to elaborate. I kinda like pre-1969, pre-divisional play. I could tolerate two divisions in each league. But MLB lost me in 1994 with the introduction of the wild card. And it's only gotten much worse since, as far as I think.

Edgy MD wrote: I'd have only recently come to fully acknowledge that the reforms I'd institute in baseball if I could — no playoffs, no divisions, no affiliation, relegation and promotion, no draft, no territorial exclusivity — would quickly and overwhelmingly lead to charges that I hate baseball. Please to tell me more about your plans for no playoffs baseball. I might be an interested customer.

Frayed Knot wrote: And then there were none. Helms was my other miss. I would never have gotten either Williamson or India.

Youse are missing Tommy Helms.