batmagadanleadoff

Edgy MD wrote: No matter how this series breaks, deGrom is a champ. So's Alex Cora. /rolls eyes

And the pre-all star game version of the Mets offense.

Just great. So far, we're getting the Cincinnati Reds version of Johnny Cueto.

That 7 train suddenly looks so old. Is that what the 7 train looked like in 2000? Time is flying.

HahnSolo wrote: Lefty Specialist wrote: But so was throwing a dead-red fastball down the middle to the hottest hitter this side of Daniel Murphy, who ALWAYS swings at the first pitch. If Fox Sports knows not to do that, why didn't Harvey? Verducci was all over this, but I don't get the outrage. If the ball was caught, as it should have been, it's the first out. It's not like he hit it 480 feet. I know. If Harvey could get every batter to hit the ball like that shot, he'd pitch a perfect game every start out. That was a routine fly ball out.

Looks like Lunchbucket is on point about the Royals owners, even though Grantland sez the Wilpons are just as bad. Just a different kind of bad. Either way, it's guaranteed that whichever owner gets to lift that WS trophy next week is a scumbag. Good call by DJ on Sluggerrr's Simpsons style crown. too. World Series Rooting Guide: Picking a Team Based on What You Value in Life It takes about eight months to get from the start of spring training to the start of the World Series. That’s a long time; I know a couple of med schools in the Caymans that’ll certify you as a cardiologist in eight months. But at the end of it, because 28 teams and their fans are left out, most baseball fans come to the end of the road without a rooting interest. The good news is that, as always, everything will be just fine as long as everyone out there does exactly what I tell them to. Here’s a list of rooting options, based on what different people might consider important in life. Personal Grooming: Mets Let’s get the easy one out of the way early. I’m usually not a huge fan of white guys who have long hair into their late twenties, particularly when they wear a hat of some kind to work. But Jacob deGrom has such glorious hair that he’s the exception to that rule. Noah Syndergaard’s flow is also pretty good, even if he’s getting way more into the “Thor” aesthetic than is probably healthy. And you could argue that the Mets have both the handsomest player of the 2000s (David Wright) and of the 2010s (Yoenis Cespedes, who has exquisitely sculpted eyebrows).1 “Look good, play good” seems to be the rallying cry for the Mets this year. The Royals have Johnny Cueto’s dreadlocks and a few good, well-groomed beards — particularly Eric Hosmer’s — but they lose points for Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas, who went full Napoli after it stopped being cool. Then there’s Edinson Volquez. As a young man, Volquez wore beautiful Cueto–ish hair, but he flew too close to the sun and apparently burned it all off. Poor guy. Old-Timey Baseball: Royals From an aesthetic point of view, I really don’t like where baseball is going. Strikeouts and home runs are individually exciting, but on the aggregate they make for a lot of standing around. I like baseball better when the ball is put in play a lot: It gets more people involved and rewards athleticism, even if it’s not the mathematically optimal strategy anymore. This is why the Royals are oodles of fun. Their batters had the lowest walk rate in baseball, and the lowest strikeout rate by far. Despite having two unbearably slow starting position players, the Royals are suicidally aggressive on the bases, which leads to exciting moments such as Lorenzo Cain scoring from first on a single to win the pennant, or anytime Jarrod Dyson or Terrance Gore pinch runs. Mascots With Disturbing, Messed-Up Heads: Draw In one corner, Mr. Met, with his creepy Mr. McGibblets eyes and disproportionately large head. In the other corner, Sluggerrr, who’s a lion. In itself, that is fair enough: The lion is the king of the jungle … king … Royals — you get the idea. Except, Sluggerrr’s crown isn’t on his head, it’s in his head, growing out of his cranium like some fucked-up homage to the Three Score and Ten in Hyperion. If mascots are made to be marketed to children, these mascots must have been designed by people who don’t like children very much, or at least love to cause them pain. Social Justice: Royals, Begrudgingly You could go either way with this one. If you want a good summary of the sins of either of the two owners who could lift the Commissioner’s Trophy, read what Jeb Lund wrote for Rolling Stone about the 15 worst owners in sports; Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Royals owner David Glass are on there. I really view this as a choice between two kinds of rottenness. There’s the wide-reaching big-E Evil in Glass, who made his billions running Walmart and is more or less the kind of person you’d expect to put a cartoon smiley face on such an enterprise. On the other hand, you’ve got the Wilpons, who fell for a pyramid scheme and responded by cutting spending back to Tampa Bay–ish levels. They then demonstrated that their flair for administrative and financial incompetence is matched only by their gift for irony by opening a one-of-a-kind Amway storefront at Citi Field. Worse, Jeff Wilpon allegedly had a female team executive fired for having a baby out of wedlock, which is a fascinating sentence to type in the 2000s. The Wilpons are probably not as bad for humanity as Glass is, but their missteps just feel more conscious and personal. Like, you’d want Glass to paint the outside of your house with a roller, but you’d get the Wilpons to do a meticulous still life. If you were fond of whatever color human misery is. The tiebreaker is that it’s hard to look at the amazing month of Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy and not have it feel tainted by his unfortunate preseason comments about Billy Bean’s “lifestyle.” And although this piece is mostly a series of jokes about deGrom’s hair and Sluggerrr’s terrifying head tumor, I’d like to take a moment to consider an extremely serious topic: What should a fan do when his or her favorite team is populated by people who do or say bad things? The obvious solution is for people who say hurtful and ignorant things, or who commit acts of heinous economic injustice, not to be involved in baseball, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen anytime soon, and it leaves us without an answer that satisfies me completely. One option is to ignore everything that happens off the field. Most Mets fans are Mets fans not because they believe their team to be morally good, but because of geographic factors. A team’s performance or character does not reflect the moral righteousness of its fans, after all, and we’d be better off if more people realized that. But how could you celebrate someone who not only thinks you or someone you care about is somehow inferior, but thinks it strongly enough to say so to a reporter? Yet, it’s kind of self-defeating to reject something from which you derive great enjoyment because some people involved in making it do or say bad things. Life is a series of compromises in which we support or participate in certain institutions in spite of their imperfections, and if we care enough about those institutions, we can demand they change for the better. That’s how I wound up, ironically, taking the same “hate the sin, love the sinner” stance on Murphy that Murphy has on gay people. I don’t feel great about it, nor do I begrudge anyone who disagrees with my view one way or the other. It’s a complicated issue, but I can’t take a hard line when I know that the person who lifts the Commissioner’s Trophy in the next week or so will be a man who makes me feel physically ill. Stuff and Velocity: Mets It seems odd that the Royals could lose this one. Yordano Ventura finished second among qualified starters in fastball velocity each of his two seasons in the big leagues, after all, and Volquez has discovered the ability to periodically throw a baseball on a circuitous arc to the plate at 98 mph. That’s to say nothing of Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis coming out of the bullpen. But if you look at the velocity leaderboard, you’ll get to two Mets — deGrom and Matt Harvey — between Ventura and Volquez. And if you lower the innings threshold, you’ll discover that Syndergaard missed qualifying for the ERA title by 12 innings and throws even harder than Ventura. And then there’s the Warthen Slider. To understand what Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen does to his charges’ arsenals, you have to remember the part in The Muppet Movie where Fozzie parks his Studebaker outside the church where Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem are practicing. While Fozzie and Kermit are asleep, the band does up Fozzie’s car in a ridiculous rainbows-and-bubbles motif to the tune of the best musical number in the whole movie. Leaving your pitcher alone with Warthen is like leaving your car alone with Dr. Teeth: You’ll wake up, and what was once innocuous will have a bodacious paint scheme and a fast-spinning, hard-dropping low-90s breaking ball. Accessories: Mets This is also easy. Wright’s orange undershirt has long been one of my favorite aesthetic choices in baseball, and Cespedes has made his neon, Allen Iverson–style compression sleeve a signature part of his look while not giving a damn whether it matches his uniform.2 Not that that color matches any uniform currently in use in North American professional sports. Uniforms: Royals This is probably the most important thing to consider. The Mets’ home alternate jersey — the bright blue with orange lettering — is my favorite jersey in the game, but they messed it up with the inexplicable decision to pair a solid top with pinstriped pants. The Royals, meanwhile, have a uniform set that is both conservative and eye-popping. The home jerseys seem unnaturally bright on TV, the way a Cardinals-Dodgers game does. The blue accents match well with the colors of the home ballpark, and for both uniforms, the relatively clean design makes it stand out more when Gordon decides to cover himself in pine tar and roll around in the dirt. Everything is heightened by the Royals’ uniforms. Violence: Royals More specifically, Ventura. The Mets can be feisty when they want to be, but cooler heads often prevail. After all, an opponent broke Ruben Tejada’s leg with a dirty slide in the NLDS, and the Mets didn’t even throw at anyone in retaliation. That’s composure under fire. On the other hand, getting Ventura to lose his cool has become a standard part of opponent strategy, because it works. Ventura got into it with the Blue Jays’ first-base coach, of all people, in Game 6 of the ALCS. This rarely escalates to full-blown punching, however, because if you want to fight Ventura, who is small and mouthy, you have to get through Salvador Perez, who is large and strong, first. Salvador Perez’s Health: It Doesn’t Matter, As Long As the Series Ends in Four Games This is what I value. Perez seems like a nice dude, and he’s a fun player to watch, but he takes an unbelievable beating behind the plate. Part of that is due to his size: Anything as large as Perez that is close to the batter’s box will soak up a lot of foul balls. But he’s also caught 2,441 regular-season innings in the past two years (second-place Kurt Suzuki is more than 300 away), and he’s about to go all the way to the end of the playoffs for the second straight season. This postseason, he’s taken a few brutal balls off the mask and been hit by two pitches as a batter, one of which was enough to get Ned Yost to take him out of a must-win playoff game, which would’ve been unthinkable a year ago. Nobody needs a vacation as badly as Perez does. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-playoffs-world-series-rooting-guide-mets-royals/

Frayed Knot wrote: Trivia: Who was the last Mets position player to appear on his own SI cover -- not a group shot? I thought you were going to ask when was the last time SI had a baseball cover that wasn't the obligatory 'Preview' issue. I was going to guess early '90s. You mean who was the last Mets position player to make the cover of SI (not a group shot) -- on a regular issue as opposed to a WS Preview?

This was the regular issue for that week for every state but NY.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Geez that Piazza cover is also awful. "New York Special Edition" makes me think there was probably an alternate cover they issued for college football fans that week. Regionalizing covers of course was terrible thing too. I know only too well the era of the weekly print product has long since left us. That was a special cover for, I think, NY only. The regular cover, again, if I remember correctly, was of an NFL quarterback -- I'm thinking a Chief or a Raider. Inside that mag, the contents was the same no matter what the cover. And there were two versions of the "NY" cover. Here's the other: [fimg=484]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMTYx/z/9tcAAOSwv0tVa1Fk/$_57.JPG?set_id=880000500F[/fimg]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Sports Illustrated covers used to be great because they let the photos speak for themselves. Now the shot is only one element in some overall design strategy, and so it's ok to completely mess with it. Not a good cover IMO. I think the last solo Met was uh, Piazza Also a WS preview. Since this cover, there were a few group shots (2006 - Capt. Red Ass) (2007 - Minaya and Mets) and pitchers (Johan, Dickey in civvies and Harvey) but no position players. SI covers blow compared to what they once were. They're cluttered messes nowadays that look like sports versions of Cosmopolitan Magazine. The Murphy cover's not that bad actually -- relatively speaking. I've seen much worse among recent ones.

Hope this doesn't jinx the Great Murphy, but look who's on this week's cover of SI: [fimg=454:28jjy5w4]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5745/21916357344_8c94f628a1_o.jpg[/fimg:28jjy5w4] Trivia: Who was the last Mets position player to appear on his own SI cover -- not a group shot?

[fimg=560:1ascnxe4]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5702/22350521828_58ae8058c2_o.jpg[/fimg:1ascnxe4]

Terry said that Conforto backed off of the ball at the last instant thinking that Cespedes called him off of the play. But no one asked Terry whether or not Cespedes actually did call for the ball. It's driving me nuts that the play was even scored as a hit in the first place and we'll have to hear the phrase "inside the park HR" for that play for the rest of our lives.. That ball's an out over 99% of the time. It's that dumb baseball convention where if the official scorer can't determine which player to charge with an error, then no error is charged at all no matter how obvious it is than an error was committed.

Who the hell was that? Brooks Robinson?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Matt Reynolds out... There's a first -- a post-season Phantom Met.

Why so little respect for Cueto? He was, pound for pound, one of the NL's best pitchers in 2011, but doesn't show up on most of that season's leaderboards because he pitched just 156 innings that season. He was Cy Young caliber in 2012 in a tight race that could have reasonably gone Cueto or Kershaw's way instead of R.A. Dickey's. He was even better in 2014. And he was lights out this year in the NL right up until the trade that landed him in KC. Not so hot in KC, but why? Injuries? Diminished stuff? Learning a new league? Flat changeup? Iffy location? Didn't feel like it? Here's Grantland's take, from the Mets-Royals WS preview: excerpt: 2. Johnny Cueto Is a Potential Disaster No one has said conclusively what’s wrong with Cueto. He struggled through elbow problems earlier in the season, to the point that some observers wondered if that injury might scuttle a potential deadline deal. Cueto then appeared to shake off whatever was ailing him, pitching well for the Reds into the summer and triggering a trade to K.C. He’s been erratic and at times downright horrible since then, posting a 4.76 ERA and allowing 101 hits in 81.1 innings during the regular season as a Royal, then pitching poorly in two of his three playoff starts, including an eight-run, two-inning debacle in Game 3 of the ALCS. It’s possible Cueto has just hit a random rough patch, the flip side to the insane runs Murphy and Escobar are on. But there are signs something more is going on. There’s the in-season dip in Cueto’s velocity, even as other pitchers (especially the Mets fireballers) continue to throw smoke. There’s the lack of command and bite on his pitches, resulting in offerings like the flat 85 mph cutter to Kevin Pillar that ended Cueto’s outing in that dreadful Game 3. Then there are Cueto’s results themselves: The booming homers, ringing doubles, and frustrating walks point to something more than a few seeing-eye singles doing him in. The Royals have enough bullpen depth to chew up a lot more than two or three innings at the end of the game. But if the Mets lay an early four- or five-spot on Cueto, any relief effort might turn out to be too late. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-playoffs-royals-mets-world-series-preview-predictions/

Why so little respect for Cueto? He was, pound for pound, one of the NL's best pitchers in 2011, but doesn't show up on most of that season's leaderboards because he pitched just 156 innings that season. He was Cy Young caliber in 2012 in a tight race that could have reasonably gone Cueto or Kershaw's way instead of R.A. Dickey's. He was even better in 2014. And he was lights out this year in the NL right up until the trade that landed him in KC. Not so hot in KC, but why? Injuries? Diminished stuff? Learning a new league?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Strong association with one of America's most fascinating and reviled companies, Wal_Mart Stores. Royals owner David Glass was the second CEO in company history, taking over for founder Sam Walton. He's a big union-buster and symbol of remorseless corporate bullying who supported replacement players in the 1995 strike; opposed any labor deal without a salary cap; revoked press credentials of reporters who asked tough questions of Royals management; slashed KC payroll in half upon his appointment. At Walmart he helped to spearhead the insane expansion of the "supercenter" concept, and made sure stores switched to "case ready" meat packaged at the factory five minutes after butchers in a single store won union representation. Walmart/Glass was influential in the Royals' Class AA team moving from Wichita to NW Arkansas, near company HQ. They play in a stadium named for the Walton family's bank, Arvest. All you hadda do was say this at the beginning instead of with the Shaun Marcum's birthplace. Jeff Wilpon was born in New York. I'm on board. Totally.

I dunno. Raquel Welch was a Kansas City Bomber. That's gotta count for something, no?

Edgy MD wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: I never had any hate for this franchise, probably going back to my teen age years when the baseball enemy of my baseball enemy was my baseball friend. With just a little bit of luck on their side, those Royals might've gone to the WS four out of five years, making disco era baseball more enjoyable by orders of magnitude. This is why you should HATE. They could've nipped the insufferable Steinbrenner machine in the bud, and FAILED! And going back to that era, I'd have to add that the baby blue road uniforms were a sartorial sin. MAYBE the Expos didn't look terrible in them. MAYBE. I'm still thinking about it. Why did so many of the astroturf teams wear baby blue on the road? Hate? I don't know enough to hate. I think I learned more about Kansas City from just this thread than from the rest of my life. In fact, when I was a little kid, I thought that Kansas City was in Kansas.

d'Kong76 wrote: Splittorff seems pretty interloperorff to me. Splittorf gets to barnacle onto Cram. The rule is that on multi-player cards, so long as there's one player who played for both teams, the rest of the players on that card get a free pass. That's Cram's only Royals card -- that's why I used it.

dinosaur jesus wrote: That mascot is the ugliest goddamn thing. It looks like the top of his skull just exploded. Why do you have to morph the lion head and the crown? Just take a lion head and stick a damn crown on it. He also shoots people in the face with hot dogs when they aren't looking. Why is their mascot even a lion in the first place?