batmagadanleadoff

themetfairy wrote: Being please about being done with a bad deal is hardly dancing on the man's grave. Yeah, I know. What the hell was that all about? We can't say that the guy sucked at the end of his career, just like everybody else including Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle sucked at the end of their careers? The guy had a 15 year career, and is retiring at age 35 after having made over 80 million dollars from baseball. That's some fucking grave. I said ... 80 million dollars.

Jeff Wilpon can go fuck himself. [fimg=444:341ruoj8]http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv249/Dreiko/funny24.gif[/fimg:341ruoj8]

Centerfield wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: What? You thought they'd spend more because they said they would? Yes. I thought they would. I thought that once the pitchers arrived and the Mets had a strong young talent base, then they would open things up, surround them with elite talent and go for it. Well then maybe it's your turn to get pummeled some. Who's the head pummeler around here?

Don't knock yourself out kid. Hoping that the Mets'll land a star free agent in his prime is like believing in Santa Claus. It happens once every 15 or 20 years. And that's when they're not in poverty row. And if you bitch about it here, you'll eventually just get pummeled. What? You thought they'd spend more because they said they would?

seawolf17 wrote: seawolf17 wrote: seawolf17 wrote: These are seriously fucking amazing, and I tried to get one when they first went on sale but they sold out immediately. I read that they'll have more later in the winter. So why are people paying hundreds for that cap? They can't wait a little more? Because some people are dumb. Or missed Darren's tweet. Did you try and buy one online? Because I think I read that the only way to have successfully gotten one was to personally go to their physical location. I read that people formed a line hours before the doors opened. They had them online a few weeks ago -- and sold out immediately -- and said they held 150 back for their warehouse sale, selling them two per person that morning. I see. I missed the part about the caps first selling out online. Jeez, these caps are like Led Zeppelin concert tickets from the mid-70's with the selling out and the demand and the scalping.

seawolf17 wrote: seawolf17 wrote: These are seriously fucking amazing, and I tried to get one when they first went on sale but they sold out immediately. I read that they'll have more later in the winter. So why are people paying hundreds for that cap? They can't wait a little more? Because some people are dumb. Or missed Darren's tweet. Did you try and buy one online? Because I think I read that the only way to have successfully gotten one was to personally go to their physical location. I read that people formed a line hours before the doors opened.

seawolf17 wrote: These are seriously fucking amazing, and I tried to get one when they first went on sale but they sold out immediately. I read that they'll have more later in the winter. So why are people paying hundreds for that cap? They can't wait a little more?

Anybody hear about the The 7 Line Mets Home Run Apple Pom Pom Cap? The company made an extremely teeny tiny limited number of those caps, which sold out in minutes. Now they're selling on ebay for hundreds of dollars. One seller (link below) is asking almost $600 for his/hers. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/121834207664?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82

Here's Howie ... Sports biz report: Mets take the non-contender road in Nashville By Howard Megdal 11:30 a.m. | Dec. 11, 2015 The Mets have done the heavy lifting (relatively for them) of the offseason this week at the MLB winter meetings in Nashville, and we have a far better sense of what they will and won't be in 2016. What they won't be, clearly, is a team that in any way takes advantage of the remarkably rare collection of young, cost-controlled starting pitching to build a team best-equipped to challenge for the World Series, despite promises from owner Fred Wilpon and others in the front office that when more fans showed up, the Mets would resume spending like a real team, rather than a Ponzi scheme operating out of a baseball stadium. The Mets went after Ben Zobrist, a utility infielder/outfielder whose price reached $58 million over four years, the contract he signed with the Cubs. Denied Zobrist, the Mets traded starting pitcher Jon Niese to the Pirates for second baseman Neil Walker, and signed shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to a two-year, $18.5 million contract. The two new infielders will help the cause—the Mets had a pair of shortstops on the roster, Ruben Tejada and Wilmer Flores, and they are currently recovering from a broken leg and a broken ankle, respectively. Walker will replace most of Daniel Murphy's regular season offensive production. But neither move is likely to improve much upon what the Mets received from those positions during the 2015 season defensively, while merely maintaining a status quo that had the Mets last in the National League in runs scored at the end of July. What the Mets aren't doing, it seems, is making the slightest effort to re-sign Yoenis Cespedes, whose offense fundamentally changed the team's fortunes, nor adding any pieces that would allow for a scenario where the hitting isn't reliant on Travis d'Arnaud and David Wright staying healthy all season. The former is a catcher who simply never has, while the latter has a degenerative back condition so serious that the Mets didn't believe he was coming back at all for a significant portion of the 2015 season. A team that plays in New York, with owners who also have a majority stake in SNY, the sports network which shows the Mets, a team that took in anywhere from $45-60 million in extra revenue from the postseason alone—that team isn't making an effort to add Cespedes, or a perfect free agent like Jason Heyward. Heyward is a top-ten MLB talent who will command around $200 million over the next decade, and he is the rare free agent young enough to be signed for mostly prime seasons by whichever team does so. Accordingly, the brightest front offices in baseball, like the Cubs and Cardinals, are after him. In both instances, the Mets' decision to stand pat with relatively little additional talent are in stark contrast to a pair of National League clubs they'll conceivably have to beat to reach another World Series. The Cardinals, with a payroll significantly ahead of the Mets already, won 100 games last year. But they are making every effort to retain Heyward, took on Jedd Gjorko, gave a two-year deal to reliever Jonathan Broxton, and appear to be just getting started. As for the Cubs, they not only won Zobrist at $58 million over the next four years, they also added John Lackey, a starting pitcher, for $34 million over the next two seasons. And to that, they are hoping to bring Heyward at around $200 million into the mix as well. This is what contending teams do. Money spent on talent is a truism in the non-Mets portion of MLB. But it is particularly important when teams are contending—the idea is you are buying wins, and the wins that get you into the playoffs and further along in those playoffs are by far the most important, most valuable ones to purchase. But an ownership group that never tires of diverting revenues from the baseball team and sports network into non-baseball pursuits has made a different calculation, for either reasons of exigency or because baseball isn't putting a stop to it they way it did with Frank McCourt and the Los Angeles Dodgers. So the Mets' pitching is a gift. It's just one that the Mets aren't either inclined or unable to leverage in any real way. http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/12/8585287/sports-biz-report-mets-take-non-contender-road-nashville

If you're tired of Howie Megdal telling you about the Mets paupery, then read it in the New York Times. Michael Powell mocks Zobrist as a Plan A and writes, essentially, that the Wilpons should sell the team if free agents like Yoenis Cespedes are out of the question and beyond reach. [fimg=444]http://a1.nyt.com/assets/article/20151208-125316/images/foundation/logos/nyt-logo-185x26.svg[/fimg] Good News: Mets Lose Out on Ben Zobrist Sports of The Times By MICHAEL POWELL DEC. 9, 2015 Ben Zobrist, the apple of the Mets’ eye this off-season, decided to spurn the family Wilpon and sign with the Chicago Cubs. Chicago’s proximity to Zobrist’s family home in Nashville was said to play a role. That would have made sense when paddle-wheel riverboats were the preferred means of transport, but less so since Orville Wright and the advent of winged flying devices. (Chicago is 1 hour 20 minutes by plane from Nashville; New York City is 2:20.) More likely, the fact that Cubs Manager Joe Maddon and Zobrist enjoyed many years together with Tampa Bay was the deciding factor. And Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president, has displayed a willingness to spend and spend again. The Wilpons have displayed no willingness to do any such thing. Still, this is a good test for the Mets. Zobrist, who will be 35 in May, was the wrong player at the wrong time for the Mets, who offer a peculiar mix of fuzzy-cheeked youth and the creaky-boned aged. By the spring, this team will have a 37-year-old left fielder, a 35-year-old right fielder and a sore-backed 33-year-old third baseman. It did not need to pay a new second baseman until the cusp of his fifth decade. Instead, the Mets, blessed with an abundance of strong pitching arms, need to pursue a genuine power hitter, like that fellow Yoenis Cespedes, who patrolled the outfield and led the team during its stirring pennant run last season. If not Cespedes for the rest of us — the Mets pretend to have all but lost his telephone number — then two other top free-agent outfielders loom: Justin Upton, 28, and Jason Heyward, 26. To type this is to risk marking yourself as an unserious man as so many fall over themselves to explain that the Mets cannot possibly afford to compete with the likes of Chicago, Boston, the Dodgers, the Angels and, perhaps, even Kansas City. On Wednesday, the Mets traded for a second baseman, picking up Neil Walker from the Pittsburgh Pirates for an expendable starting pitcher, Jon Niese. It was a nice trade and perfectly small-bore Mets. It was a cash wash. Later that night, they continued to reshape their infield, adding Asdrubal Cabrera, a former All-Star who ranks among the poorest defensive shortstops in baseball, on a two-year deal believed to be worth a modest $18 million. Still, however much Sandy Alderson, an astute baseball man, enjoyed Oakland and San Diego, and however much the Wilpons might enjoy visiting Milwaukee, the Mets fit no definition of a midmarket team. Flushing, Queens — for better and worse — is not Cleveland. The Mets’ claim of sackcloth poverty seems worth interrogating. The Wilpons trusted their grifter friend Bernard L. Madoff, and so fell on hard times. And the debt service on their new stadium is pretty high. But as Howard Megdal of Capital New York has noted, somewhere between $45 million and $60 million rained down upon the Wilpons in this autumn’s baseball festivities. Ratings and ad rates are up significantly on SNY, in which the Mets own a majority share. And as my colleague Richard Sandomir has noted, ticket sales are up. Then there’s the fact that Alderson and Mets management insisted for years that if only fans came out in greater numbers, the team would spend more. Typically in American capitalism, you produce a better product, and sales rise. Whatever; it worked. Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, seems intent on responding as Bud Selig did to his old friends the Wilpons: Manfred is playing the avuncular enabler. “I think clubs should and do spend commensurate with the revenues that are available to them,” Manfred said recently. This is silliness. New York City’s veins are clotted with young masters and mistresses of the universe who would love to own the bauble known as a major league franchise. The Wilpons could put the team on the market Monday and count their billion-plus dollars by Friday. As for free agency, the Wilpons would do well to start with what they had: Cespedes. The Mets lack many coaches who can speak Spanish, but in a city nearly half black and Latino, you might expect a black Cuban to present the team with intriguing marketing possibilities. As to his play, Cespedes is not Willie Mays. He is like a hound after a hare to high fastballs. He swings at a few too many curves off the low outside corner. (These are not disabilities unique to him; Fangraphs has documented that Mike Trout has the same weakness for high, hard stuff.) Nor was Cespedes spectacular in the postseason, although he did hit two home runs and knock in seven runs in nine playoff games before the World Series. Like most of the Mets, he had a bad five-game stretch in the Series. His fielding in center field in the postseason bore a resemblance to soccer. That said, he is a natural left fielder, and for his work there with the Detroit Tigers in the first half of 2015, he just won a Gold Glove. His arm is like a javelin in the hands of Achilles: deadly. As Fangraphs wrote, if he stayed put in left field, he would rate “among the best full-time players.” Mets management tells reporters — sotto voce — that were it to give Cespedes his desired long-term contract, he would be 36 at the end of it. This is a curious plaint, as the team offered a four-year contract to an infielder who would have been 38 when the deal ended. The Mets have reached an inflection point. They have a phalanx of terrific young starting pitchers who can toss nasty curves and dial fastballs at close to 100 miles per hour. The actuarial odds are that one of them might tear an elbow tendon, and the economic odds are that one or more might leave for free agency. As the Mets learned in the soporific days of June and July, baseball teams cannot live on pitching alone. Someone has to hit. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud might stay healthy all year, although he has not managed that feat yet. And Michael Conforto, in his second season, might blast more home runs. But after 174 regular-season at-bats in the major leagues, Conforto will confront pitchers who have studied his weaknesses. Let’s say he hits .260 with 24 home runs. That is a nice sophomore year, and no shame there. He might not be ready to carry the team. The Angels are circling Upton. God only knows how many general managers are whispering sweet things into Heyward’s ears. One World Series is no guarantee of another. You wonder if the Wilpons realize they are not running Tampa Bay. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/sports/baseball/yoenis-cespedes-the-key-for-new-york-mets.html

MFS62 wrote: MFS62 wrote: Incidentally, I saw an interview with Sandy earlier this week on Yahoo sports(it may have been a reprint of an earlier one). Someone asked Sandy if he knew how much, if any, the Mets have received from the insurance coverage of David's contract. He said he didn't know. It's probably none of Sandy's business. When should I stop rolling my eyes? Really? He is the GENERAL MANAGER. He is the one with the budget. He should know how much he has to spend. It IS his business, by the definition of his position. Later I ... umm ... agree with you. I'm rolling my eyes at Sandy's quote, not at you. So again, when should I stop rolling my eyes?

MFS62 wrote: Incidentally, I saw an interview with Sandy earlier this week on Yahoo sports(it may have been a reprint of an earlier one). Someone asked Sandy if he knew how much, if any, the Mets have received from the insurance coverage of David's contract. He said he didn't know. It's probably none of Sandy's business. When should I stop rolling my eyes?

[fimg=304:373ijhx2]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5733/23017927223_91366190aa_o.jpg[/fimg:373ijhx2]

G-Fafif wrote: Jim McAndrew. Winner. Winner. It's a special day here at Mets quiz central because we hardly ever get to post Jim McAndrew baseball cards, and he's got some neat ones. Here's an interesting card from 1971, Topps' first year to include action shots. It's Jimmy Mac overwhelmed by the crowd background, which dominates the shot. If it weren't for the third base railing, Mcandrew might've blended into the background so thoroughly that you'd be wondering where the hell Mcandrew was. The card also depicts some antiquated and inefficient baseball stadium designs. Shea Stadium's field level seats were angled towards towards the outfield instead of the infield and, ideally, the pitcher's mound. You can see the fans compensating for poor stadium design by craning their necks rightward to get a proper look at the action. [fimg=363]http://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/1971/Topps/428/Jim-McAndrew.jpg?id=0a8f14fd-91ee-486f-a3ad-b3a823c2e46b&size=original[/fimg]

Name the only player who was on the Mets post-season WS roster in both 1969 and in 1973 yet never got into a single WS game?

d'Kong76 wrote: Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: I think a reasonable person could argue that getting to the World Series means that the owners are not as inept as you claim. Or does this mean that there are 28 other owners who are more inept, and just one who is more skilled? I think a reasonable person could argue the Mets were lucky and got to the WS in spite of their owners. Jesus Christ, I'm starting to agree with this fucker.

Ceetar wrote: d'Kong76 wrote: Not hating or bashing. I'm not going to beat this drum all winter. But I'm also not going to sit idly by with blinders on and think the Mets are a well run organization and amply financed. Anyone who does is a sheep. Bahhhhh. They're as well run as any. Better than some. Yeah. In fact, the Mets are so well run that recently, they hadda borrow $25M from the league to meet basic operating expenses. Which would be like you having to beg your worst enemy for a $100 loan to prevent the electric company from turning out your lights.

Ashie62 wrote: The Mets made the world series, They dont have to do much this offseason. Goodbye Zobrist and Castro. Of course not. If I ran the Mets I'd do nothing until about the All Star break and then I'd pick up an old Jack Aker and see what Ike Hampton and Brock Pemberton could do.

Frayed Knot wrote: I saw a blurb that called Swanson, a SS out of Vanderbilt, is the 4th #1 overall pick to be dealt away before ever playing for the team that picked him. Not sure who all the others are and I'm sure none have been dealt so quickly (remember the one-year rule was recently waived). I did come up with Adrian Gonzalez: 2000 #1 by Florida, traded three years later (along with two other players) to the Rangers for Ugeth Urbina Swanson, who sounds like a cast member of 'Dowton Abbey', had just 100 PAs last year in Rookie ball so he's a ways off yet even with [crossout]Atlanta's[/crossout] [Cobb County's by the time he gets there] history of promoting players aggressively through their minor league system. Tim Belcher (drafted by Twins) Josh Hamilton (drafted by Devil Rays)

batmagadanleadoff wrote: What Vic said. Of course. Because when I write that shit, it has no effect because I'm the Boy Who Cried Megdal. And another thing. I don't agree with this prescient sort of credit the Mets are getting for getting Cespedes after the Gomez fiasco. Because nobody could have anticipated what Yoenis would do. He basically hit about a season's worth of HR's in less than a month, going on a hitting RAMPAGE for the ages. It was a freak thing more than anything else and it's scope was (is?) historical --- it's one of the most incredible three or four week hitting runs in baseball history. And it's important to know this because that's what the Mets have to replace -- a freak once in a lifetime hitting run. Yoenis's streak won't happen again but its production is baked into the Mets 2015 success -- that's probably why they won the division. So yeah, 35 year old Zobrist won't get the Mets there. I don't know how they're gonna make that up but we're gonna have to hope for a big step up from at least Conforto and probably d'Arnaud. Meanwhile, Granderson'll be 35 and who knows what the hell the Mets have in Wright, who despite providing some huge emotional moments last season, was the most superfluous "regular" on the team. And he just killed the Mets in the WS. OE--- And another thing, it's just mid-boggling how quick people are willing to ignore just how inept these owners are because the Mets went to the WS.

What Vic said. Of course. Because when I write that shit, it has no effect because I'm the Boy Who Cried Megdal. And another thing. I don't agree with this prescient sort of credit the Mets are getting for getting Cespedes after the Gomez fiasco. Because nobody could have anticipated what Yoenis would do. He basically hit about a season's worth of HR's in less than a month, going on a hitting RAMPAGE for the ages. It was a freak thing more than anything else and it's scope was (is?) historical --- it's one of the most incredible three or four week hitting runs in baseball history. And it's important to know this because that's what the Mets have to replace -- a freak once in a lifetime hitting run that's not repeatable. Yoenis's streak won't happen again but its production is baked into the Mets 2015 success -- that's probably why they won the division. So yeah, 35 year old Zobrist won't get the Mets there. I don't know how they're gonna make that up but we're gonna have to hope for a big step up from at least Conforto and probably d'Arnaud. Meanwhile, Granderson'll be 35 and who knows what the hell the Mets have in Wright, who despite providing some huge emotional moments last season, was the most superfluous "regular" on the team. And he just killed the Mets in the WS.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Would you try to make a deal for George Springer to be our new CF? What would you give up? I'll start with Wheeler, Lagares, Nimmo, and our Daniel Murphy QO draft pick I wouldn't make that trade in a million years. If I was the Astros. Springer for a guy in the middle of TJ surgery rehab, an outfielder who hits like a middle infielder and a minor leaguer whose ceiling is dropping season by season?

Edgy MD wrote: I don't think so. It depends on which timeline you buy. One popular timeline, and the one I tend to ascribe to, is that Clemens started using following his exile from Boston, at which point he became the best pitcher on the planet with two straight Cy Young Awards and 162 wins in his post-Boston career. If he's the pitcher Boston thought he was at that point, he has (generously) 50 wins left in that arm. He's a Hall of Famer, perhaps, but a borderline one. A similar popular timeline has Bonds beginning his juice diet following the 1998 season. He's got an incredible streak going of seven straight four-digit OPS seasons, but he's grown bitter with the attention received by the home run record chase between juicemongers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. He's already a clearcut Hall of Famer. And he's still at a lofty perch to amass some further great seasons during his decline. Bonds has a much stronger case by this measure. Or one can just ignore the whole steroid thing altogether and just look at the stats. That's another option.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Bonds is the second or third best player of all-time, people. Search your feelings. You KNOW it to be true. (Killed me to leave off Henderson, though.) I like your list. I got Bonds on my preliminary list too, but I'm struggling with objectivity. My problem is that I hate Clemens but I'm struggling to objectively justify keeping Clemens off a ballot that's got Bonds. I think it's tough to make a case for Bonds while omitting Clemens.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: If only the Mets had ever made a Plan B deal after Plan A fell apart. To tell you the truth, their Plan A was no great shakes either.