batmagadanleadoff

Alonso will be one year older next year, so he'll lose some leverage and value on that front. OTOH, the Mets won't be allowed to offer him a qualifying offer and won't get a compensation draft pick if Alonso opts out and signs elsewhere after next season, so Alonso will pick up some leverage on that front.

Well. that's some top five of a lineup the Mets will present this season: Lindor, Nimmo, Vientos, Soto and Alonso. I think that Alonso's 2024 season of diminished production or so-called decline might be a little bit overblown. Yes, his numbers were down, but not by that much. And last season, offense was down all-around, league-wide. So we'll see, I suppose.

Boomer Esiason is reporting that Pete Alonso will sign with the Blue Jays tomorrow. Esiason is certain of this. Esiason was a quarterback.

That's all the Mets get? Just two years? And with a player opt-out after the first season? So if Alonso plays like the player the Mets are paying him to play like, he can renegotiate his contract or shop it around to any other team? He should have to pay the Mets back $10M or $15M if he sucks next year. $30M in the first year and an opt-out? What is this ****?

That, too. Yes!

Also it’s kind of crappy to associate Vincent with that quote in death when it wasn’t something he said. FK told it like it was. There was no bigotry in FKs retelling. Are we supposed to whitewash history because somebody died? Was the leading headline on the day Hitler died supposed to be about that day when Hitler rescued a dying puppy dog? Vincent was a famous figure. People are going to make crude, black humor jokes at his expense. It comes with the territory.

Hothead "Hot" Ptah.

https://uni-watch.com/2025/02/03/mlb-releases-2025-spring-training-caps/https://uni-watch.com/2025/02/03/mlb-releases-2025-spring-training-caps/ Spring Training caps , some ugly ones , the A's is a holdover from 24 ,I like it , and Toronto Here's the Mets cap: It's got a cap within a cap. It shoulda had Mr. Met wearing the new BP cap instead of the old regular blue cap. That'd burn your eyeballs out. [FIMG=444]https://cdn.uni-watch.com/app/uploads/2025/02/NLE-New-York.jpg[/FIMG]

I wasn't planning on watching this particular TOURNAMENT until learning that Eddie Rosario (did you say Eddie Rosario? Really? The Eddie Rosario?) is on the roster. Ay Caramba! Eddie Rosario is in the house. Eddie Rosario. Oy mi dios. Get me my tequila. La cucaracha! La Cucaracha!

I go to a Mets game or three a year when there's not a Covid pandemic going on. I used to go to more games than I do now. I used to have field level full season tickets for many years when they played at Shea. I can afford the prices so I'm very thankful and fortunate for that. And I'm local so I don't have to pay for a hotel and I have the option of taking the train to the game also, to save on gas and parking. But to be honest about it, going to a baseball game is a ripoff. An outrageous ripoff. And anybody who doesn't think so is in total denial. Ten and fifteen dollar hot dogs. Forty dollar t-shirts. Forty bucks for a fancy sandwich, a side and a beverage.

The click-bait sites are gong nuts today with Pete Alonso rumors, including that the Reds are suddenly a serious player for Alonso, that Alonso is close to firing Scott Boras and switching agents, and a totally unreadable and indecipherable piece from our old trusted friend, The Times of India, wherein the Mets are close to offering Alonso a $300M contract.

Putting aside whether or not that's affordable, because YMMV and everybody's financial situation is unique to them, $100.00 to sit in the uppermost level and have one hot dog and a drink ( and not one of the fancier hot dogs, but the most basic one that they have) is not a heckuva lot of bang for your buck. When I was a kid, you could have gotten all of that at Shea for about three or four bucks.

https://www.nj.com/mets/2025/01/ny-host-pete-alonsos-mets-friend-got-into-his-ear-triggered-his-free-agency-freeze.html Later That was just the headline to entice you to read the article. He's not really "blaming" Nimmo for the Alonso impasse. Here's the original piece: https://nypost.com/2025/01/29/sports/evan-roberts-blames-brandon-nimmo-for-mets-pete-alonso-fiasco/ BTW -- it looks like Nimmo (8/$160M) will have gotten a better deal than Alonso when this is all over. Do youse think Nimmo would've gotten that deal with Stearns calling the shots?

Sporting News had a WATP in which the Mets trade Parada and Houck to Detroit for Torkelson. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/new-york-mets/news/mets-3-player-trade-idea-would-bring-tigers-spencer-torkelson-queens/19cae544f21ce350df6bb121https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/new-york-mets/news/mets-3-player-trade-idea-would-bring-tigers-spencer-torkelson-queens/19cae544f21ce350df6bb121 That seems too little for a guy who has been in the majors. I just think someone there is dying to use the headline "Flop Swap". The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated are nothing more than click bait these days. All they mostly do is hype these imaginary, fantastical trade proposals that come from their own imaginations and have no basis in reality. So sad, what's become of magazine print media.

The Angels have reportedly (supposedly?) (allegedly?) offered Alonso more money, more years and at a higher AAV than the Mets --- 4/$100M https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/mlb/news/angels-shock-the-baseball-world-with-100m-offer-to-pete-alonso-is-this-the-move-that-changes-everything/articleshow/117520201.cms

So what? That doesn't justify excluding Aaron and Robinson from the HOF ballot.

This answer might lie in Attachment 49 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Why Steve Cohen’s ‘brutally honest’ comments on Alonso negotiations were so unusual, plus more MLB notes https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6090542/2025/01/27/mets-alonso-astros-bregman-dodgers-pirates-skenes/

Still not sure why Cohen is referring to these negotiations as "asymetrical". What does Cohen consider to be "asymetrical" about these negotiations? Unless Cohen specifically explains as much, I don't think it's that clear. Cohen has all the right in the world to reject Boras's demands, or to criticize Boras's demands and to not like them, but that does not make them asymetrical. Who has more leverage in these negotiations? Who has more clout, more bargaining power? Do the Mets need Alonso more than Alonso needs the Mets? How many other teams have stepped up to even match the Mets offer, let alone top it?

I wasn't sure what Cohen mean by "asymetrical" . I thought Cohen meant that Alonso's demand to other teams (like the Blue Jays, I guess) was different, less expensive than the demand made to the Mets. But now it seems that the gripe is that Alonso's demand differs from the demand(s) of other player(s). I don't see what's wrong with that and if that's the case, I don't side with Cohen and the Mets. Each player is unique and presents his own unique sui generis case.

Not really. If there are 11 Hank Aarons on the ballot, eleven candidates who clearly belong in the HOF, then it's understandable that one of those eleven might not get inducted, given that each voter may only vote for 10 candidates. Here's the 1982 HOF vote tallies: https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_1982.shtml Nine voters omitted Aaron from their ballots. 45 voters couldn't bring themselves to vote for Frank Robinson. I wonder why.

Lefty Specialist wrote: That's an ugly jersey. Hard to read, for one thing. And I thought that dumb script had been banished forever. On the one hand, I sort of agree with you. On the other hand, I'm so over this stuff, so worn down and beaten down by the bomardment of uniform variations that are now a regular, constant part of the game, that I'm afraid to say this, but I barely give a shit any more. Used to be that I would go apeshit over stuff like this, but not anymore. I think that it's the City Connect unis that finally did this to me, that were the last nail in my uniform coffin, so to speak. Those City Connects are all hideous. Comically hideous. Tasteless. Garish. And stupid. And yet people love the Mets City Connects because --- get this ---- because they're (supposedly) not as ugly as some of the worst City Connect unis. That' the logic and justification for those hideousities. I give up. At this point, I don't think I'd give a shit if the Mets wore their Mercury Mets tops for an entire season.

Right? This is why I think all of the info that's come out these last few weeks is straight from the Boras camp. If anything came from the Mets, they would have leaked the Boras demands that are outrageous (or at least, what they view as outrageous) and then all public sentiment would have swung back to the Mets. Here's what I think happened. The Mets don't leak. I think the Mets are being extremely courteous to Boras rather than that the Mets are supposedly discrete. Maybe they're thinking long term, being that Boras represents so many top players and the Mets intend to compete for future top-tier free agents. This is not the most logical answer. Boras isn't going to reject a Mets offer that tops all others just because of a past slight or disagreement. Besides, he's ethically obligated to pass along all offers to his client(s). But I cant figure out what the downside is to disclosing Boras's demand here. Maybe so as not to further embarrass Alonso, who's already had to swallow an enormous amount of humble pie this off-season. No team think he's as good or as valuable as he thought he was. And with Soto coming on board, it definitely won't be Alonso's team anymore, assuming that Lindor hadn't already taken over that role.

I suspect an Astro. I don't see how this is even an issue. I don't see how the HOF even lets Wagner have a a say in the matter. Nine years with the Astros. Two with the Phillies. A little more than three with the Mets. What am I missing?

Just finished reading that piece. Here's the link: https://nypost.com/2025/01/25/sports/brutally-honest-steve-cohen-prepared-for-mets-life-without-pete-alonso/ If Boras's demand is so outrageous (and I tend to believe the Mets more so than Boras), I don't get why the Mets haven't disclosed the details of the Boras/Alonso demand. I totally get Cohen's resistance if Boras's demand truly is asymetrical; that is, if it's higher than what Boras would demand from the other teams. Cohen has to take a stand and demonstrate that he's not gonna pay free agents whatever the hell they ask for just because he's baseball's wealthiest owner and can afford it. It's a matter of self-preservation and besides that, there are still luxury tax penalties to contend with even if Cohen can afford to pay Alonso 100 times what he's asking for.

I think Pete's in a tough bind. His best opportunity to get a better offer, I think, was at the beginning of the off-season, when there were more than a half a dozen teams looking for a solution at first base. With so many teams in the hunt for a first baseman, the thinking would've been that to get Alonso, a better offer would've had to have been extended to win out over all of the competition for Alonso. That market and that dynamic doesn't exist anymore. Pete's current market has been reduced to the Mets and a few other teams that either don't have a smooth opening within which to fit Alonso or don't have the money that Boras is presumably asking for.