batmagadanleadoff

Better late than never on Mike Cubbage: 3

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: MFYs will employ Beltran to be one of their dozen DHs next year, just watch. So's Carlos can go into Cooperstown with a Yankee cap on his plaque. Natch.

seawolf17 wrote: Who the hell is Norm Sherry? You made him up. Norm also invented a vinegar.

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Hiller no manage. Undo that bow.

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btdt

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27 one-time Mets have gone on to manage a major league baseball club after playing for the franchise. You know the drill. One guess per post. Baseball cards to follow.

That's how much Linz knew: there weren't gonna be any ninth place teams in 1969.

Best of the Mets. The Pete Best, that is: "After the [1968] season, [Phil] Linz was released again, and decided it was time to call it a career. 'Hodges called me in '69,' [Linz] recalled, and said, 'Come to spring training. You'll be our utility guy. We've got Al Weis and you'll be our second utility guy.' I thanked Gil but told him I was tired of sitting on the bench for a ninth place team". from The Amazin' Mets: 1962-1969, Ryczkek, William J.

The New York Times weighs in: On Baseball Where the Mets Can Start Rebuilding Reds center fielder Shin-Soo Choo could become a free agent after this season. By TYLER KEPNER Published: May 20, 2013 The Mets spent much of last winter insisting, in the words of General Manager Sandy Alderson, that they were not punting on the 2013 season. He had to say it, because admitting the obvious would have been demoralizing for fans and players. But actions told the truth. The Mets traded a Cy Young Award winner a year after letting go of a batting champion. They were the last team to sign a major league free agent, and when they did so in January, it was Shaun Marcum, who took his fragile shoulder to the mound Monday and lost, 4-3, to the Cincinnati Reds. The first batter to face the winless Marcum could be a big part of the Mets� future. He was Shin-Soo Choo, the Reds� center fielder, and if the Mets really want to contend sometime soon, they should make a strong attempt to sign him as a free agent after the season. �He�s the big reason why we are where we are right now,� said Brandon Phillips of the Reds, who hold the second-best record in the National League. �Playing against him when he was with the Indians, I always told everybody he�s one of the best all-around players in baseball � underrated. Right now he�s just being himself. It�s a blessing to have him over here.� Choo came to the Reds from Cleveland in a three-way trade for Didi Gregorius, a promising shortstop who landed in Arizona, and outfielder Drew Stubbs, who went to the Indians. Choo was charged with improving the Reds� leadoff spot, which produced a .254 on-base percentage last season. He has succeeded wildly, with a .455 on-base percentage that ranks second in the league to his teammate Joey Votto. The catch for the Reds is that Choo is almost certainly headed for free agency after this winter. With so many stars signing long-term extensions with their own teams � and Robinson Cano expected to do so with the Yankees � Choo will headline a class that is likely to include Jacoby Ellsbury, Tim Lincecum and Chase Utley. �I sit down with players and say, �Look, these are your options,� � Scott Boras, Choo�s agent, said Monday. �I kept telling Choo: �You�re special. You�re not going to be good every year; that�s not how the game works. But the reality is you�re special. Be patient, accumulate your record, and these are your choices.� � Choo had resisted the Indians� attempts to re-sign him, and he said he was not thinking about a long-term deal right now. More than ever, he said, he has learned this season to narrow his focus to the next pitch, and nothing more. �A lot of people ask me: �Do you want to stay in Cincinnati? What do you want?� � Choo said. �That�s too far away. We�re not at the end of the season; we�re not at the end of the first half yet. I know why I�m here. Cincinnati gave up two good players, and they want to win a World Series. That�s what I want, too. I�ve never played in the playoffs. I have a good opportunity to play with a good team.� If winning is a priority, the Mets are never a safe bet. But with their foundation of young pitchers, they have some hope, depending on the Wilpons� willingness to spend. The Mets have $33 million coming off the payroll next season in the expiring contracts of Johan Santana, John Buck, Frank Francisco, Marcum and LaTroy Hawkins. Choo, at least, should tempt them. The Mets� starting center fielder Monday was Rick Ankiel, who was recently waived by the woeful Houston Astros. Choo, who turns 31 in July, seems to have skills that will age well. He has speed, with three 20-steal seasons, but does not rely on his legs. Plate discipline is his best tool, and one that is increasingly valued. Choo�s .386 career on-base percentage ranks ninth on the active list, and all but one player ahead of him has earned a contract in excess of $100 million in his career. (The exception, Lance Berkman, has earned $116 million, for four teams, over the last nine years.) So if the Mets want Choo, who has nine home runs and has hit as many as 22, it will cost them. Boras, who is not known for discounts, is well aware of his client�s talent. �The amazing thing about his career is that he�s been hidden,� Boras said. �Even in an off-year, his on-base percentage is .350. He�s got a career .386 on-base percentage and an O.P.S. that�s .856. Go around the league and find an outfielder who has, essentially, 15-homer power and an .850 O.P.S. Couple that with a .290 average � that�s rare air.� Choo, who was born in Pusan, South Korea, might be a sensation in New York, whose metropolitan area has the second-largest Korean population in the United States, behind Los Angeles. He signed autographs Monday for a crowd of enthusiastic fans behind the visiting dugout during batting practice. �I�m excited to play with a lot of Korean fans coming to the ballpark,� said Choo, who lives in Buckeye, Ariz. �Maybe a little bit of pressure, but good pressure.� Choo has faced worse. After the 2010 season, he and pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu � now of the Los Angeles Dodgers � helped South Korea win the gold medal at the Asian Games. Choo was facing a two-year military obligation had he failed. The field has been Choo�s destiny since he attended a baseball-only high school in South Korea. The game was a job then, and Choo said he did not enjoy it. Now he does, he said, and he encourages his 8-year-old son to have fun. His only rule, Choo said, is to smile. �The culture in Korea is hard to change,� Choo said. �But I tell my kid, �Enjoy it.� � The Reds are enjoying Choo, no matter how limited the engagement. The rest of the teams will soon have a chance for a longer relationship. If the Mets are serious, they will explore it. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/sports/baseball/reds-shin-soo-choo-could-be-good-addition-for-mets.html?_r=0

More from Posnanski's 2006 Prospects Review: Oakland A's No. 1 prospect: Daric Barton (No. 28 overall). Best actual prospect: No. 4 Andre Ethier. What BA said: "Hitting comes easy for Barton � his pitch recognition is off the charts." What happened: Barton's pitch recognition WAS off the charts in 2010, when he led the American League with 110 walks. Add in 12 sac hits and five sac flies, he dropped his 686 plate appearances to 556 and managed to hit .273. Since then, he has hit .209 in 113 big league games and has spent much of the time in the minors, where his bat has been silent as well. Final analysis: Miss. * * * Toronto Blue Jays No. 1 prospect: Dustin McGowan (No. 48 overall). Best actual prospect: No. 11 Shaun Marcum. What BA said: "Like many young power pitchers, McGowan struggles to command his fastball � he'll need to refine his fastball command if he's to become the front-of-the-rotation starter the Blue Jays envision." What happened: He did win 12 games and throw 170 or so innings in 2007. But he could not refine his fastball command and he had all sorts of injury problems. Second verse, same as the first. Final analysis: Miss. * * * Arizona Diamondbacks No. 1 prospect: Justin Upton (No. 2 overall). Best actual prospect: Probably Upton, though No. 4 Carlos Gonzalez is in the running. What BA said: "While some scouts have said they would move Upton to center field and envision him becoming the next Ken Griffey, the Diamondbacks have no plans [to move him from short] yet." What happened: Upton is one of those players who is judged against incredibly high expectations -- Baseball America wasn't the only one to compare him to Ken Griffey. One scout told me he had Willie Mays talent. Willie Mays! So, sure, against that backdrop, a .278/.357/.475 career line with a 117 OPS+, a couple of All-Star appearances and annual trade rumors seems drastically disappointing. But, you cannot have a fair conversation about Justin Upton without also mentioning that he just turned 25 in August. He's younger than Pedro Alvarez. He's younger than Cameron Maybin. He's younger than Jay Bruce and Buster Posey and Austin Jackson. His 108 home runs are as many as Cal Ripken had at the same age, more than Reggie Jackson and Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. You know who is not a bad comparison? Gary Sheffield. Huge prospect. Was called up at 19. Had one excellent year when he was 23: Sheffield at 23: .330/.385/.580 with 33 homers, 100 RBIs, 87 runs. Upton at 23: .289/.369/.529 with 31 homers, 21 steals, 88 RBIs, 105 runs. But Sheffield was also wildly inconsistent until he turned 25 (.285/.346/.451 with a 120 OPS+). From 25 to 30, he posted a 156 OPS+, might have been the best offensive player in the league when he was 27 and so on. This is not to say that Upton WILL emerge into that kind of player, only that he could, that there is a precedent. At the end of each of these prospects, I put what I call the "Final analysis." I'm basically calling that prospect a "Hit" or a "Miss" -- again, the title refers to the player himself and not Baseball America's prediction. This is tough to do because (1) Some of these players, like Upton, are still open-ended stories and (2) Not all prospects are created alike. By that I mean, there were much higher expectations for Justin Upton than for, say, Neil Walker. So, don't you have to judge them differently? Is the bar for Neil Walker set in the same place as the bar for Justin Upton? I kind of doubt it. But to get a count at the end, I need to put a final "Hit" or "Miss" on each prospect. Upton has not become the superstar many expected. But he's a good player with the potential still to step up in class, and I don't think you can call that a miss. Final analysis: Hit.

Joe Posnanski picks a random season (2006) and hindsights it to determine how each team's top prospect did. More evidence confirming just how unlikely it is for a major league amateur draftee to succeed -- even a top prospect. excerpt: Prospects 2006 Bill James wrote a piece the other day about the possible difference between pitching and hitting prospects � and it reminded me of this project I've wanted to do for some time. I wanted to go back through Baseball America's excellent prospect handbooks and see how the best prospects turned out. How often do they succeed? How often do they fail? What is the biggest reason for failure? (I'd guess injury). What is the most promising sign for success? How often do "toolsy" players make it? How about "skilled" players? Well, I haven't had time to dive into that the way I would like. But I did try something. I have all the Baseball America Prospect Handbooks going back to 2003 (with 2001 and 2002 on order). I picked a year at random -- I chose 2006 -- and decided to look at BA's top prospects for each team, who in retrospect was the team's best prospect, what BA said about the player and, finally, what happened. One thing I'd like to say here -- this is NOT about how good Baseball America is at predicting success and failure. No, I see BA as sort of the control factor, if that make sense. I'd say they do the best job in the sport of gathering information and viewpoints from scouts and player development people and general managers and so on. I don't look at these top prospects as Baseball America's opinion. I look at it as the best bet we can find in terms of the CONSENSUS opinion in baseball about these players. And so, what I'm trying to do here is determine how often these prospects hit or miss. The "hitting" and "missing" designation is pointed entirely at the player, not at the people who made the predictions. OK, here we go: * * * New York Mets No. 1 prospect: Lastings Milledge (No. 9 overall). Best actual prospect: No. 3 Carlos Gomez, maybe? Pretty slim pickings. What BA said: "With his package of five tools, Milledge has few peers in the minors � the heart of New York's lineup should be in good shape for years to come." What happened: A mix of off-the-field distractions and on-the-field troubles led the Mets to trade him to Washington and Washington to trade him to Pittsburgh. The White Sox signed him. At last check, he was playing in Japan. Final analysis: Miss.

The value of beat-up baseball cards By Doug Williams | ESPN.com As he sits in a noisy coffee shop in San Diego, Anthony Tarantino is shuffling through a stack of baseball cards and selecting a few for show-and-tell. One is a 1962 Topps of Duke Snider wearing the interlocking �LA� of the Dodgers on his blue cap -- but with a blue-ink speech bubble drawn from his mouth and the words �I am a Met� (which he was in 1963). On a 1954 Topps, Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto has a blue-pen mustache scribbled onto his lip and a scratch that�s eliminated most of the �zzuto� in Rizzuto. Tarantino also has a 1940 Goose Goslin with half his head missing, a 1952 Eddie Stanky with his eyes and mouth erased (replaced by cartoonish features) and a 1957 card of journeyman outfielder Lou Skizas that�s ripped into three pieces and still has remnants of the tape that held it together. �And here�s my favorite,� he says, holding out a 1968 Mickey Mantle. The Mick is in his left-handed stance and peering through hand-drawn glasses while sporting a full blue-ink beard and smoking a pipe. �All he�s missing is a smoking jacket,� says Tarantino, laughing. Give him your tired, your poor and your huddled masses of torn, folded, defaced, water-damaged, burned and faded baseball cards, because Tarantino -- a lifelong baseball fan and collector -- has found treasure in everyone else�s trash cards. He�s one of a minority in the hobby who is interested in collecting poor-condition cards that have limited or diminished cash value but are rich in character. Since 2008, he has been posting stories about his finds on his blog, Poor Old Baseball Cards. �When condition doesn�t matter,� reads the message on the front page of the site. �This blog is dedicated to all those baseball cards that have been put through the wringer. It�s not always about that perfect Gem-Mint 10 � Is it?� Cards with 'character' Tarantino isn�t alone in his quest for the worst cards, sometimes called �beaters.� There are other blogs that celebrate the trashed. One, called Things Done to Cards, celebrates �all the different things that can be done to cards, good and bad.� Lyman Hardeman of Austin, Texas, the editor of Old Cardboard magazine, has a few in his collection but doesn�t specialize in them and has met just a few collectors who do. �They make interesting cards,� he says. �There�s not a lot of collectors that collect those, but most collectors have a few in their stack somewhere.� Mark Macrae, a well-known collector and dealer in Castro Valley, Calif., says he�s met many who seek out poor cards, mostly for the nostalgic value. �They have character,� he says. �It�s not exactly what you�d call investment character, but it�s something you can have fun with.� Specialty collections like Tarantino�s, he says, are done for passion rather than investment, similar to the barber he knew in Arizona who collected cards of players with facial hair. Like everyone else, Tarantino, a page designer at the San Diego Union-Tribune, started out collecting new cards and has many thousands. As he got older, he became intrigued by vintage cards because of their history -- but couldn�t afford to spend wads of cash on high-grade items. Now, among his approximately 1,000 prized poor cards, he has ancient ones of Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Johnny Evers and Dan Brouthers that not only didn�t cost several paychecks but have quirks -- like the pinhole right above Cobb�s head that shows it was once someone�s prize on a wall. The Evers, once owned by a man in Mississippi, has water damage from Hurricane Katrina. His 1952 Topps rookie card of Willie Mays has two creases across the face; a 1920 card of Ruth as a Yankees pitcher is missing three corners. To Tarantino, the cards not only tell stories of the players but also of the owners. �Why would somebody draw a mustache on Phil Rizzuto?� he asks. Now every card he seeks must be in poor condition. �I have this quest in my head to get the worst baseball card in the world,� he says. �I�m just looking for the card I can never find.� So far, that label goes to his 1909 T206 card of Red Sox infielder Heinie Wagner, acquired on eBay for 1 cent. It�s brittle, torn, faded and creased. He loves it. �It�s absolutely horrendous,� Tarantino says. http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/21560/the-value-of-beat-up-baseball-cards

Ike hit the first Met HR in Marlins Park, becoming the latest visiting Met to hit a first home run in a new National League park. Congratulations. You hit it out of the park. The Mets pictured in the original post were the first to homer in each Mets opponents' permanent National League Park that did not exist or was not in use in 1962, beginning with Ron Swoboda, the first Met to homer in The Astrodome. Here's the rundown: 8/15/65 � Ron Swoboda, The Astrodome, Astros 4/22/66 � Ron Hunt, Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium, Braves 8/12/66 - Ed Kranepool, Busch-Memorial Stadium, Cardinals 4/29/69 - Ed Kranepool, Jarry Park, Expos 8/26/69 - Donn Clendenon, San Diego Stadium, Padres 8/8/70 - Donn Clendenon, Three Rivers Stadium, Pirates 8/11/70 - Cleon Jones, Riverfront Stadium, Reds 6/28/71 - Tommie Agee, Veterans Stadium, Phillies 6/1/77 - John Stearns, Olympic Stadium, Expos 6/29/93 - Jeromy Burnitz, Joe Robbie Stadium, Marlins 8/21/93 - Ryan Thompson, Mile High Stadium, Rockies 4/26/95 - Rico Brogna, Coors Field, Rockies 7/10/97 - Manny Alexander, Turner Field, Braves 4/12/98 - Butch Huskey , Milwaukee County Stadium, Brewers 8/14/98 - Brian McRae, Bank One Ballpark, Diamondbacks 5/1/00 - Todd Zeile, Pac-Bell Park, Giants 8/7/00 - Robin Ventura, The Ballpark at Union Station, Astros 4/24/01 - Edgardo Alfonzo, Miller Park, Brewers 9/18/01 - Joe McEwing, PNC Park, Pirates 7/4/03 - Jeromy Burnitz, The Great American Ballpark, Reds 5/2/04 - Danny Garcia, Petco Park, Padres 5/31/04 - Jason Phillips, Citizens Bank Park, Phillies 7/6/05 - Mike Cameron, RFK Stadium, Nationals 5/16/06 - Jose Reyes, New Busch Stadium, Cardinals 4/24/08 - Carlos Beltran, Nationals Park, Nationals 5/11/12 - Ike Davis, Marlins Park, Marlins

batmagadanleadoff wrote: 1. The players are pictured in a specific sequence because of something they accomplished on the field, between the white lines. So, this is not a quiz about players initials, or their birthplaces, for example. 2. It's a chronological quiz. Swoboda did whatever he did before Hunt, who in turn did it before Kranepool. Kranepool did it twice -- hence two pictures of Steady Eddie. 3. Whatever it is that these players did, could've only been accomplished once. Thus, for example, nobody else could've done or accomplished whatever it is that Swoboda did to put him in this sequence. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Or something like that. Another hint: Whatever it is that those Mets did to get their cards in the sequence, all happened on the road. None of it happened at Shea Stadium or Citi Field. And Swoboda never played in the Polo Grounds, thus ruling out the Mets first home.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Murphy's not a bad leadoff hitter on this team, with this roster to pick from. But if both Turner and Murphy are in the starting lineup, I'd go Turner, then Murphy. Murphy [crossout]doesn't walk[/crossout] never walks against lefties, but has significantly more power that Turner. On second thought, Murphy's power is also down against lefties so the difference between Turner-Murphy and Murphy-Turner, on paper, is negligible.