batmagadanleadoff

Edgy MD wrote: Big shot dudes that have fewer fWAR than Koo's 63.0: Bob F. Feller: 62.6 Dennis F. Eckersley: 61.8 Dazzy F. Vance: 61.6 Juan F. Marichal: 61.2 Rube F. Waddell: 60.0 Don F. Drysdale: 59.3 Jim F. Palmer: 56.8 Dwight F. Gooden: 56.7 I'm (again) not saying that this stat is the be-all-and-end-all, but outside of Eck (for half his career), these were all-starting pitchers, so any honest way of measuring value above replacement is illuminating. I'm neither for nor against this, but don't kid yourself. Koosman was the giraffe's tits. If he got a quick pass from the BBWAA when his name came up for the Hall, it's largely because he got credited with a lot of losses that really belong to Joe McDonald and M. Donald Grant. He had some injury bad luck, too., He was on a HOF trajectory after his first two seasons but then dealt with some arm issues in 1970 that, I believe, lowered his ceiling forever. But you could fill the Albert Hall with players who fit that description.

I think there are standards. It's just that they vary from owners to owners. (Does that mean then, that they're not really standards?) And in the grand scheme of things, I would think that there are relatively very few players whose number retirements are real headscratchers. Kooz would not be one of those. Saying that Wright should go first is not the same as saying Kooz is undeserving.

Edgy MD wrote: Edgy MD wrote: =stevejrogers post_id=22709 time=1569356655 user_id=57] I guess the floodgates are about to be opened! Not that Koos isn't worthy, but those clamoring for Carter, Hernandez, Strawberry, Gooden, a joint for McGraw & Franco, and of course to officially put 24 on the wall for Willie, etc will have more fuel to their fire. People are clamoring for a joint for Franco? Not me. I can tell you that. Maybe if he gets a joint, he won't mind not getting his number retired. Shouldn't you be working on a BatCard?

=G-Fafif post_id=22723 time=1569359018 user_id=55] It's admittedly a step down in the pantheon from Tom and Mike, but not a huge step down, not when you consider Koosman's role in Mets history, longevity and maybe a realization that waiting much longer would take the wind out of such a gesture.

=Gwreck post_id=22722 time=1569358779 user_id=56] I don't agree with this at all. Number retirement is for MLB Hall of Fame players. I could see — maybe — David Wright having a case due to extraordinarily bad luck combined with playing his entire career as a Met. But that's borderline. Jerry Koosman? First-ballot in the Mets Hall of Fame, sure. Number retirement? No way.

Edgy MD wrote: =stevejrogers post_id=22709 time=1569356655 user_id=57] I guess the floodgates are about to be opened! Not that Koos isn't worthy, but those clamoring for Carter, Hernandez, Strawberry, Gooden, a joint for McGraw & Franco, and of course to officially put 24 on the wall for Willie, etc will have more fuel to their fire. People are clamoring for a joint for Franco?

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Maybe it shoulda but that's not the way they'd done things all these years. One the one hand they say it was a recommendation from the HoF committee and on another Wilpon's like the fans really like this. He made no secret that they're about to unleash a firehose of retired numbers so whatever "honor" Kooz is getting is to be watered down by the likes of Carter which is why high standards beat low ones. Who cares how they've done things? There are no rules for this. Owning a baseball team means you get to retire whatever number you want to retire. If they want to, they can retire Dennis Ribant's number. When I say Kooz deserves to have his number retired, what I'm really saying is that if I owned the Mets, I'd retire Kooz's number. And I really really agree with you about the watering down part. I think that's what's gonna happen in the end.

Fuck youse all. Kooz fucking deserves it 10 times over. Anybody here mentions Gary Carter and his two good Mets seasons and I'll projectile barf on you. Why Kooz over Wright? Because 36 should've been retired decades ago. Part of me thinks this is a joke, though.

Holy Space-Time conundrum! We packed Batman into the DeLorean time machine and set the dials for Washington D.C, Summer of '69. Batman's mission was to snap up some pics of all-star and emerging Mets batting stud Cleon Jones at RFK stadium for our Batman69 All-Star cards. (available only in Latin America. All-star cards. Test Market. Contracts. Lawyers.) What we forgot was that this Batman, the Adam West version, is strictly a 1966 guy. So he didn't take with him, one of those modern digital cameras with unlimited memory that every nine year old has today so long as they have a smartphone, which they do, which we figured Batman would have in his vaunted utility belt. No. Instead he took a 1966 vintage Minolta camera with, get this, a spent roll of film and enough leftover film for just one snapshot. He couldn't take a modern camera. Shark repellent and anti-radioactive spray he took with him. But not a freakin' modern camera. So Batman gets there, and he's got one shot to get a good shot of ol' Cleon. But wouldn't youse know it -- Cleon wasn't cooperating. Cleon gave us his back, the ol' cold shoulder. Wouldn't give Batman the time of day. Maybe Cleon's a Superman guy. Who knows? Well, Batman did the best he could. Then he came back and went out looking for one of those Kodak kiosks where they can develop your film in 24 hours. Youse don't know what we'se went through with this card. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48781589858_2c888886d0_c.jpg> And speaking of 1969, we tweaked Tom Terrific again. We gave him the Hollywood look. And the whitest teeth in all of baseball. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48767657401_b5f6164bbd_c.jpg> https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48632435556_ac0cd96abb_c.jpg>

And Alonso's supposed to hit three homers in seven games.

Can't the official scorer award the win to any reliever without adhering to some rigid formula when the starter doesn't complete five innings?

The Mets have been playing good ball for the most part as of late. Eight and four is (two out three) (times four) and I know how everyone feels about two of three. But it ain't easy gaining ground on a team that ain't losing any games. The Brewers are the hottest team in the league going back a week, week and a half.

Frayed Knot wrote: So I've had this pet peeve all season long but I've been keeping my mouth shut about it -- until now! Could youse IGT starters post the time of the start of the game going forward in what little remains of this season? Thanks. Jeez, I thought this was a night time start. Ok, now that we know our plan for not announcing start times has served its purpose, this is the point where we intentionally start posting incorrect times just to screw BatMags up. I did post this on the secret part of the forum where he can't read it, right? You think II didnt already think of that? Youse probably PM each others with the right start time so no one else misses the game.

So I've had this pet peeve all season long but I've been keeping my mouth shut about it -- until now! Could youse IGT starters post the time of the start of the game going forward in what little remains of this season? Thanks. Jeez, I thought this was a night time start.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Dear Typewriter Chewing Gum Co., I would like to see a special subset of Batman cards celebrating the worst blown saves of the year. Signed, Fester Bestertester What kind of a masochist are you? Your friend, Karbunkle

I kinda figured that. He had about 300 PAs in 2003. I was playing it safe. But it makes sense. If Alonso was closing in on the record, there'd be chatter. I probably missed the game, or part of the game where Alonso broke the record.

I don't hear much, or any, really, talk at all about the Mets rookie record for most runs scored in a single season. Pete's got 95. Jose Reyes scored 99 runs in 2005, but was 2005 Reyes's rookie season? Reyes played some in '03 and '04. If 99 ain't the record, then it's Pete's. Otherwise, Pete needs four to tie and five to set.

Keith going on about how Alonso shouldn't have stolen second because it's rubbing salt in the opponent's wounds. Fuck Keith. Has he seen this Mets bullpen? What has he been watching all year long?

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: What era are they supposed to be celebrating tonight? I've been trying to figure that out all game long. Today's Reds unis dont match any of the throwbacks. They look more like military tribute unis.

The Reds will be drawing on their deep history to celebrate their 150th season with these 15 throwbacks: https://www.mlb.com/reds/one-fifty/throwback-uniformshttps://www.mlb.com/reds/one-fifty/throwback-uniforms

Why do you think I matched up Zamora with Lupino?

It's Fonebone Friday! We were supposed to be gearing up for the fourth series of Batman cards when we decided, instead, to go down memory lane. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48287082302_8d62894255_z.jpg> Here's Wilmer Font's card. We're very fond of this card. Fond of font. It's #2 on the 1st series checklist, but it's the first Batman card we produced and we love it. It depicts the Batman cards exactly as we envisioned how these cards would look when we first set out on this ambitious undertaking to produce this set. But the set has evolved since its early days and quite frankly, we thought old Font needed an update, to match the Batman cards of recent vintage. So that's what we did. Here's new Font. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48760559092_d3e9fd1c43_c.jpg> And we had so much fun updating old Font that we're gonna be updating and tweaking a whole lot more of these cards. We'll post a few along the way, but not all of them. If youse wanna collect the whole complete set of Batman cards, youse are gonna hafta buy 'em at a store near you. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48741537693_64ebc6b059_c.jpg> https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48437435062_57365fb119_c.jpg> https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48765298012_7bd29f89bb_c.jpg> https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48456574656_9531833091_c.jpg> https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48764778363_539e61498a_c.jpg> https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48585541791_d10be0b857_c.jpg>

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Yeah I'm not comfy at all with stats that combine O&D. Piazza or Alonso could have been much worse than tey are defensively but still have jobs and be a great assets to the club. Plus with all the shifting and so forth they do today it's like the game has already acknowledged that plays made are influenced by preparation and positioning called from the dugout than ever. The best defensive stat remains my own: Eyewitness Defense. Piazza, and all catchers, should be given extra credit for simply being able to catch. It's a brutal position. Wanna know what I always thought was one of the greatest things about Piazza (even though it only lasted for a year and a half -- from when he got here to the end of the 1999 season)? That he could play the catcher position, period. Otherwise, with his lethal bat, he'd play, but in the NL, he'd be a first baseman and the Mets never would've been able to play Piazza and Olerud at the same time. I'll betcha that that doesn't show up in fWAR.

Edgy MD wrote: That's certainly part of the story, though. Due largely, I'm sure, to the unprecedented offensive environment in which his numbers have been produced, FanGraphs for instance, gives him only enough fWAR to (so far) barely scrape into the top 40 Mets non-pitching seasons ever (with 10 games to play). Now, I don't think fWAR is the be-all-and-end-all bottom line to measure value, but it's still a kick in the ballsack. The numbers leave him looking up at Angel Pagan 2010, for (Piss-Missile) Pete's sake! Most fWAR in a Season by a Non-Pitching Met 1) David Wright (2007): 8.4 2) John Olerud (1998): 8.1 3) Carlos Beltran (2006): 7.8 4) Bernard Gilkey (1996): 7.6 5) Robin Ventura (1999): 7.3 6) Carlos Beltran (2008): 7.2 t-7) Howard Johnson (1989): 7.0 t-7) David Wright (2008): 7.0 9) Gary Carter (1985): 6.7 10) David Wright (2012): 6.6 11) Darryl Strawberry (1990): 6.5 t-12) Edgardo Alfonzo (2000): 6.4 t-12) Lance Johnson (1996): 6.4 14) Cleon Jones (1969): 6.3 15) Edgardo Alfonzo (1999): 5.9 t-16) Jose Reyes (2008): 5.8 t-16) Jose Reyes (2011): 5.8 t-16) Mike Piazza (2000): 5.8 t-16) John Olerud (1999): 5.8 t-16) Keith Hernandez (1986): 5.8 t-16) David Wright (2005): 5.8 t-22) Jose Reyes (2006): 5.7 t-22) Keith Hernandez (1984): 5.7 t-24) Edgardo Alfonzo (1997): 5.6 t-24) John Stearns (1978): 5.6 t-24) Jose Reyes (2007): 5.6 27) Darryl Strawberry (1987): 5.5 t-28) Tommie Agee (1969): 5.4 t-28) Dave Magadan (1990): 5.4 t-30) Edgardo Alfonzo (2002): 5.3 t-30) Curtis Granderson (2015): 5.3 t-30) Darryl Strawberry (1988): 5.3 33) Tommie Agee (1970): 5.2 34) Carlos Beltran (2007): 5.1 35) Keith Hernandez (1985): 5.0 36) Angel Pagan (2010): 4.9 =#0000FF]37) Peter Alonso (2019): 4.8 t-38) Todd Hundley (1996): 4.7 t-38) David Wright (2006): 4.7 t-38) Lee Mazzilli (1979): 4.7 You know who's not on that list? Think a while before you scroll down to the bottom of this post for the answer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mike Piazza. The stat must think something awful of Mike's defense.

=G-Fafif post_id=22306 time=1568901912 user_id=55] The 1997 Mariners hit 264, the pre-2019 record until the MFYs of 2018 hit 267.