batmagadanleadoff

=MFS62 post_id=181256 time=1734461997 user_id=60] The only tool Bregman has over Pete is power.

Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam ball from Game 1 of the 2024 WS goes for $1.56M! The "M" is for millions. That HR is not even two months old and I already forgot about it. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5995199/2024/12/15/freddie-freeman-dodgers-world-series-ball-auction/https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5995199/2024/12/15/freddie-freeman-dodgers-world-series-ball-auction/ If that ball is worth one a half mil, then the Mookie/Buckner ball that Steve Cohen acquired for less than half a mil years ago should fetch .... what? .... 10 million?

=Centerfield post_id=181118 time=1734229993 user_id=65] Now he seems content to get guys at his price. And this makes sense.

Frayed Knot wrote: =whippoorwill post_id=181099 time=1734185583 user_id=79] Really you didn't think so? They stood at 5 or whatever until they finally got to Jerry Koosman And what's wrong with five? Personally I could have stopped at Seaver. Could go either way on Piazza or Wright. Wouldn't have endorsed Kooz, Straw, Gooden, or Keith. And read Bucket's and Edgy's posts.

Frayed Knot wrote: They were rightfully so stingy with # Retirements for so long. I'm not happy that the Mets are finally retiring so many numbers and I think [CROSSOUT]a few of[/CROSSOUT] NONE OF the ones they've done RECENTLY, OTHER THAN DAVID are the right ones. Are you endorsing FK's re-write of cooby's post? Really? The guy that thinks the Mets should retire Carter's number is complaining about the Mets retiring too many numbers and that nobody among the recent honorees but Wright deserves the honor? If Carter deserves to have his number retired, then Dwight Gooden should have the stadium named after him and Jerry Koosman should have the Borough of Queens named after him.

Typewriter Chewing Gum 2019 Total Mets Set: Code Name: Holy Curt Gowdy! [FIMG=444]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54200713808_8b5a25846a_c.jpg[/FIMG]

The Typewriter Chewing Gum Nick Evans collection: Typewriter Chewing Gum 2009 Total Mets set: Code Name - Vestgial Tails [FIMG=333]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54200883110_22dd07d897_h.jpg[/FIMG] Typewriter Chewing Gum 2010 Total Mets set: Code Name - Rock and Roll [FIMG=333]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54200884745_c1867ca16f_h.jpg[/FIMG]

=metirish post_id=180914 time=1734002908 user_id=72] I wonder how the Suite thing works , probably most of these are yearly corporate leases so it's easy to give him one? Like I hope some rich guy didn't have his suite taken from him

Frayed Knot wrote: I thought having a uniform number as part of your contract was a bit odd, but then I remember that Gary Carter was all gung ho about keeping his #8 during the negotiations for him to approve the trade that he insisted it go in the contract. Frank Cashen said later that when Carter kept talking about keeping #8 he thought he was referring to clause #8 in his existing contract and Cashen wondered what was in that clause that Gary was so hung up on. He was relieved when he realized it was just about the uni number. Supposedly the suite thing was something that the Yanx refused to concede to Soto and it may have wound up being the tipping point in favor of him choosing the Mets. It's looking like Carter had it written into his contract that he could keep #8 till the end of mankind.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Technically you are assigned a number when you're added to the 40. It sounds like they gave Soto 22 in the co tract so the team will buy out Baty if necessary Sounds Iike Baty does have a say. So what if he sez "No"? lol.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: If I'm Baty I hold this motherfucker up for millions. I was thinking about this just now and then a sudden thought: Did Baty even have a say in this? He's not on the 26 man roster so I think he has no rights to the number, I'm kinda certain now. Anybody know for sure?

Ya think so? He's practically on his hands and knees, openly begging the Mets to sign him.

Timeliness! Venn Diagram to the max! Newly minted HOF inductee Thomas Boswell on the newly minted Met, Juan Soto and the signing itself. Lotsa ugly truths in this piece, especially about the crap shoot nature of playoff baseball and how the best playoff pieces for a baseball team to have are dominant pitchers. Steve Cohen has stupid money, but this Juan Soto deal might be foolish Don't despair over Soto's megadeal: The Mets and their big-spending owner will get what they deserve. When did common sense about the difference between “price” and “value” stop being at the core of our methods of measurement? Sometimes, we reach a moment when we sense that we've become uncentered, when something of value, even impressive value, suddenly has a price so extreme that we suspect we've lost our balance, that our gyroscope is smashed. On Sunday, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen shattered every record for sports spending by signing Juan Soto for $765 million for 15 years, with none of the money deferred. As CNBC pointed out, that is $1 million more than the combined worth of the largest total value contracts ever in the NFL (Patrick Mahomes, $450 million) and the NBA (Jayson Tatum, $314 million). And Soto's deal now dwarfs the present-day value — a calculation that acts as if no money were deferred — of the roughly $460 million that the Dodgers gave to Shohei Ohtani, our modern Babe Ruth. Soto has no blame in this gaudy excess. He is 26, and his career is a nearly flawless diamond. His closest statistical comparisons at his age are some of the best players, especially early-career players, ever: Bryce Harper, Frank Robinson, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout, Eddie Mathews, Miguel Cabrera and Mickey Mantle. But Cohen lost his price-value scale long ago. Make it simple: If the rest of Soto's career matches those of the superstar players mentioned above, then Soto will end up in the Hall of Fame, yet the Mets contract will still be a stink-to-heaven overpay. We'll get to the illustrative numbers later. What's ugliest right now is Cohen's cynical disregard for the most basic appeal of sport — the level playing field. That's for suckers. Ever since Cohen bought the Mets in 2020, he has been a poster boy for this sports era. Ostentation in purchase prices is his trademark. Once, he tried to buy a work by Picasso from Las Vegas casino guy Steve Wynn so he could set the world record price of $139 million for a painting. Before the picture could change hands, Wynn stuck his elbow through the canvas while showing it off to friends. Oops, no deal. Years later, Cohen bought that same painting anyway — for $155 million. Sometimes, ego just has to have its say. The Mets owner also once bought a Jeff Koons sculpture called “Rabbit” for $91.1 million — another record price. I like Koons, too. But I settled for a pair of socks with a copy of his sculpture “Balloon Dog” on them for $9.95. My guardedly cheerful expectation is that everybody in this movie is going to get what they deserve. New York has great baseball fans; now, Mets followers, so often second-class citizens, get to see peak Soto. They may even win their first title since 1986. But modern baseball is a different sport than its may-the-best-team-win 20th-century ancestor. With its wild expanded 12-team playoffs and its insanely silly yet riveting short series, the soundtrack of October baseball should be the Red Queen screaming at Alice: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The whole month can seem like madness, especially to teams built around a core of sluggers, such as Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton with the Yankees last year. Foes can hope to pitch around or frustrate key hitters. One slugger may be irrelevant in a lopsided game or when few runners get on base. Dominant power pitchers, however, cannot be avoided — as the Washington Nationals demonstrated in 2019. They will dominate the 30 or so hitters they face in their starts. And they may even be used in the highest-leverage bullpen situation. Because of this, Cohen is likely to end up looking like a callow rube at this baseball hustle. And more so with time. Why? The Mets signed Soto for 15 years. I assumed that was about five too many. Then I did some digging. It may be more like 10 years too many — especially at $51 million a year. Remember those seven glamorous names mentioned earlier as similar to Soto? Add two more, Andruw Jones and Orlando Cepeda, to give us the nine men most like Soto. If the last 10 years of Soto's contract — starting with his age-31 season — are similar to those of the nine (seven of whom have retired), Soto will keep his dignity. But the Mets won't. As a group, the seven stars who have retired averaged only 137 home runs for the remainder of their careers starting with their age-31 season. That's all. And that ain't good. Robinson and Griffey were the “best.” Both played exactly 10 more seasons through age 40. Robby averaged 115 games, 21 homers and 68 RBI a season, and Junior managed 19 homers and 57 RBI a year. Mantle was typical — only 132 more homers, in six seasons. How happy do you think the entire decade of the 2030s is going to be for Cohen if Soto gets paid $510 million, all of it guaranteed, to hit 137 homers? Want more data points? Look at Trout. The past two years, at ages 31 and 32, he was injured for two-thirds of the Angels' games and hit .252 when he played. Harper was exceptional his first three years as a Phillie, including an MVP season. But the past three years, at ages 29, 30 and 31, he is down to 123 games a year with 23 homers and 75 RBI. Elbow surgery has moved him from right field to first base. The Phils are happy with him, but they paid “just” $330 million, not $765 million. Soto is one of my favorite hitters to watch — ever. I (really, really) hope I get to watch him bat .388 at age 38, like Ted Williams. Or hit 40 homers at 39, like Hank Aaron. But if Albert Pujols could get creaky and only hit .261 from age 31 onward, then old age still has its thumb on the wheel. The good news for baseball is that while super-rich teams such as the Yankees and Dodgers can buy their way into the postseason almost every season, they don't actually get to the World Series, much less win it, terribly often. [The money quote - emphasis added] I was amused by those who moaned this year about “another” Yankees-Dodgers Series. I covered the last one in 1981. Once every 43 years is fine with me. As the Oldest Member, I'm invoking my option to imagine the future just the way I prefer it. Mets fans get plenty of contending teams with Soto but, like the Phillies with Harper, their team doesn't dominate the division. Cohen joins the long list of smart guys who turned out to be Dumb Money in baseball. MLB's salary structure gets stretched out of shape (again), but the game's accidental luck of stumbling into a fall format that promotes a loopy parity will keep the sport in its usual state. What is that? Flawed enough to keep us continually griping about how it should be better. But entertaining, crazy and beautiful enough, as always, to keep us fascinated every year. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/12/10/juan-soto-overpaid-steve-cohen/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/12/10/juan-soto-overpaid-steve-cohen/

The idiot tyrant failson fucked up the Tidewater/Norfolk situation after decades of no drama there because nobody, but nobody, could get along with him. In the end, the Katz kids decided that they'd rather sell the Mets than have to work with the jackass.

=metirish post_id=180698 time=1733860366 user_id=72] That's wild , never knew this existed

Ken Rosenthal, for The Athletic, reports that the Mets are the most aggressive suitors for Garret Crochet.

This is gonna be some lineup if Alvarez takes the next step forward that many believe he's destined to take.

A home run every three games.... ... Soto's bat works everywhere, especially in Queens. In 35 career games at Citi Field (146 plate appearances), Soto has a 1.175 OPS with 12 home runs, including two of the five longest home runs in the stadium's history (466 feet, 463 feet). And power isn't even his calling card. Soto's .421 on-base percentage over his seven-year career leads all active players. “He's as good a hitter and as good at knowing what to do with certain pitches,” a longtime National League scout said, “as I've seen since Barry Bonds.” https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5969413/2024/12/08/juan-soto-mets-contract-steve-cohen/https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5969413/2024/12/08/juan-soto-mets-contract-steve-cohen/

Steve Cohen delivers! Whoopee! Now go and sign the Polar Bear. Will Brett Baty give up his #22 that Soto's worn throughout his career? TBD Juan Soto, the prodigiously talented and charmingly theatrical slugger, has now become the highest-paid player in the history of baseball, having agreed to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal confirmed. The deal, first reported by the New York Post, includes a $75 million signing bonus. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5932790/2024/12/08/juan-soto-mets-free-agent-deal/https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5932790/2024/12/08/juan-soto-mets-free-agent-deal/

Lefty Specialist wrote: Can't believe the Blue Jays are hanging around at these levels. Why? They're one of baseball 's very wealthiest organizations. The Jays' owner is almost as wealthy as Steve Cohen.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of that. The manager doesn't need to be in the loop on these negotiations, but that doesn't mean he isn't. It really depends on what internal relationship he has with Stearns and Cohen. Exactly.

Frayed Knot wrote: Food P.S. I doubt he knows what the offer is because there's no reason why his dad should know what the offer is. No reason? Really? He has meaningful access to everybody at the top of the Mets organization. Why wouldn't he know?

Edgy MD wrote: And they can say whatever they want after the fact to rationalize the number retirement. It was said before for several decades. True. But what was said before doesn't necessarily have to have been the actual reason for retiring Mays's number. Even if they say so. Only Cohen truly knows. This is what's going on with this absurd batshit crazy push to have Carter's number retired. Most of the momentum probably stems from nothing more than an emotional attachment to Carter. Fans loved him. He was extremely popular. Many of these fans were little boys in elementary school when Carter was a Met and so they hero worshipped him the same way little boys worship Batman or Superman. But they can't admit that Carter's number should be retired just because they "liked him a lot". So they fabricate this case for Carter, this justification to retire his number that isn't really there and can't hold up to even minimal scrutiny. They say stupid crap like that he's a Hall of Famer. And then you tell them "So what?" What do his Expos stats have to do with this? He wouldn't have gotten into Cooperstown on his Mets stint alone. And Eddie Murray and Warren Spahn and Rickey Henderson are also Hall of Famers. And on and on with more bullshit.

Edgy MD wrote: It seems highly unlikely that the Mets would have retired 24 for Mays if he hadn't played for them, as the gesture was widely reported as a sort of a reciprocal one offered by Joan Payson as part of her sell for convincing Mays to agree to the trade that brought him to the Mets. Who knows? It could've been anything or any reason. And they can say whatever they want after the fact to rationalize the number retirement. It could've been nothing more than that it made Cohen feel good and that Cohen felt like basking in the moment for a day. The number retirement could have been as much about Cohen as it was about Mays, not that Cohen is dumb enough to ever admit that if that's what it was. There are no "rules" for this and one of the perks of owning a baseball team is that you get to retire whatever number you feel like retiring. It doesn't matter if some other team has a policy for retiring numbers that's so stringent, that it's almost impossible to meet.

I kind of always agreed with this. In fact, once the Dodgers and Giants left for California, they were both against the NL expanding to NY and the creation of the Mets franchise. When I read the post a few above this one about being the keepers of NL history, it came off as bullshit and word-salad to justify the retirement of Mays' and Jackie's #'s. It came off as reverse-engineered logic to justify the ends. (Of course, Jackie's # was retired globally and wasn't simply and solely a Mets decision). But where does it come from that the Mets are the keepers of NY NL history? It came out of somebody's ass -- that's where. You can say anything to justify anything. The President needs to run the country without being second-guessed. So let's let him commit crimes if that's what it takes to run the country. Whatever. If you wanna retire May's # to honor Payson's old promise, that's fine. Own up to it. But for the Mets to retire his # because the Giants used to play in NY? WTF? Didn't the Giants already retire Mays's number? Here's something to think about: Would the Mets have retired #24 for Willie Mays had Mays never played for the Mets? Had Mays remained a Giant for his entire playing career? And would it have been appropriate for the Mets to retire Mays's #24 even if he'd never played for the Mets? Because whether or not Mays played for the Mets, he still played in NY for a NL team. So what exactly does it mean to be "the keepers of NL history"? The answer is no. Mays' number never would have been retired and it never would have even been proposed. That was my point. That the Mets retired #24 because they're the 'keepers of NY NL history" doesn't hold up. If it did, the Mets would've retired #24 even if Mays never played for the Mets. And if Mays, then why not Mel Ott and Carl Hubbell's numbers by that logic?