batmagadanleadoff

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Plus I'm on a campaign to temper starting-pitching points in general, I'm afraid the win team win/starting pitcher Schaefer indexes too closely. I think you guys way over-score the pitchers, in general. I gave Johan less than 5 points for his no-hitter. What's the max? Six? If so, everyone else gave Johan six pts. for his no-hitter, if I remember. Johan woulda had to strike everybody out, and then run behind home plate to catch his own third strikes to get five points from me. If he wanted six, he woulda had to hit a home run, as well.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: On the other hand, Citi Field is an attractive, comfortable and all-around pleasant place to enjoy a ball game. I like the open concourses that allow one to go to the rest rooms or concessions and not miss the games. I like the seating all around the field. I like that one does not feel a gazillion miles away from the action .... It seems in the last 6-7 years the whole mindset of Met fandom has changed to whiny, entitled, never satisfied, and overall just plain unpleasant..... I agree that CF is roomier, yet more intimate than Shea, more comfortable.... and the food is loads better. But so what? That's the absolute rock bottom least that I expected from the new 21st Century 50 years newer than Shea ballpark. Are we also supposed to heap praise and genuflect to ownership because the toilets flush and because the elevators work properly?

I'd cast as Jackie Robinson. as Branch Rickey as Pee Wee Reese and as Fred Wilpon in the jump to the future where the JR Rotunda is built.

Ceetar wrote: Why shouldn't there be a tribute to Jackie? He's important. more than baseball important. in the entire country to put a tribute to the man. You can squabble over the silly 42 thing instead of a statue, but It's something. So was Raoul Wallenberg. And Albert Einstein. Why not an Abraham Lincoln Rotunda? And a Horace Mann statue? And a Jonas Salk Museum right off the Earl Warren Rotunda?

Excerpt from Paul Goldbberger's somewhat dismissive though polite New Yorker review of Citi Field: As for the retro-classic side of Citi Field, the Mets, having no ancient ballpark of their own to evoke, have appropriated someone else�s. The architects, whose Camden Yards design incorporated features of several historic ballparks, have here wrapped an imitation of the fa�ade of the much mourned Ebbets Field around the southern corner of the new structure, and the old Brooklyn stadium likewise inspired the form of the entry rotunda. The Mets treat the National League�s New York history as if it were abandoned property, which, in a way, it is. But does that mean it is there for the taking? True, the identity of the Mets�whose colors combine the blue of the Dodgers and the orange of the Giants�has thrived on a magpie element, but there�s something a bit dishonest about naming the rotunda for Jackie Robinson, who never wore a Mets uniform. A pastiche of the Dodgers� former field in Brooklyn pasted onto the fa�ade of a different team�s twenty-first-century ballpark in Queens is less a historical tribute than it is an act of make-believe. Historically, ballparks have been urban places, gardens in the middle of the city. The greatest of them�Wrigley, Ebbets, Fenway, Forbes Field, Shibe Park�emerged out of the form and shape of their cities. Fenway has the Green Monster, the thirty-seven-foot wall that compensates for the truncation of left field; at Griffith Stadium, in Washington, D.C., the center-field wall was notched inward because the owners of houses next to the stadium refused to sell. Ballparks weren�t the same because the urban places they belonged to weren�t the same. One football gridiron is identical to another, but a baseball field, once you get beyond the diamond, is not�which is part of the reason that even the ugliest ones are loved so fiercely by the fans and become such repositories of civic feeling. A baseball outfield, technically, has no outer limits, just as a baseball game has no set time to end. The outfield stops where the stadium�s builders decide it will stop. Urban ballparks had fa�ades in front, to fit in with neighboring buildings, but were usually left low and open in the outfield, which had the effect of weaving the park into the neighborhood, so that, from the right place, you might catch an enticing glimpse of the green paradise within. [***] At Citi Field, conversely, the Ebbets Field fa�ade, stuck in the middle of acres of parking (as Shea was), seems more like a theme park than it would if it were in the middle of the city. HOK has tried to make the stadium feel more urban by placing a long brick building, containing the Mets� offices, just beyond right field, along 126th Street, where it faces a favela of auto-body shops in Willets Point. But, since the site is defined mainly by expressways and parking lots, the architects are fighting a losing battle. It�s a pity that the Mets didn�t build on the far West Side of Manhattan, where Colonel Ruppert first thought of putting Yankee Stadium, ninety years ago, and where the Jets recently tried to build a football stadium. A football stadium doesn�t need to be in the middle of a city, but a baseball park, smaller and used much more often, does. A stadium is a stage set as sure as anything on Broadway, and it determines the tone of the dramas within. Citi Field suggests a team that wants to be liked, even to the point of claiming some history that isn�t its own. Yankee Stadium, however, reflects an organization that is in the business of being admired, and is built to serve as a backdrop for the image of the Yankees, at once connected to the city and rising grandly above it. ?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Edgy MD wrote: I love Jackie Robinson and support tributes to him, but if you really cared thoughtfully about his legacy, would you really build a statue of a number? That's such an afterthought. I forgot to mention that. That big blue number 42 is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. I was reminded of that on Monday when I saw people waiting to have their photo taken with the 42. Amen, brother! Tell it.

G-Fafif wrote: I really do believe the Wilpons, Katz, Dave Howard, whoever just assumed having Not Shea would be enough to make their fans and customers (particularly their high-end customers) swoon in unison. Or maybe they thought for themselves rather than for the fan-base that simply not having Shea around would've been enough. They're cheesy, tasteless baseball philistines and nary a year goes by that this isn't confirmed. From trucker hats for the old-timers to hideous black uniforms that were the ugliest in all of baseball during their time to a stadium whose focal centerpiece celebrates a Brooklyn Dodger that never played for the Mets.

G-Fafif wrote: mark against this enterprise. Plus with three video boards available, none was showing balls in play when you needed them to. Anyway, Cowgill's ball was a homer, to my surprise. Which was great (I loved watching him leg it out just in case), but it would've been nice to have seen it from my seat as it was happening, even on a screen. Of course it would've been nice to see it on the field. Otherwise, the point of attending is diminshed.

Ceetar wrote: I don't know if there's a 'huge opportunity' missed though. there's a different opportunity. but different is not better. You think that's the best they could've done? Citi Field represented a tipping point for me, where suddenly, all those newfangled retro baseball stadiums looked the same. From my initial televised impressions, CF didn't look much different than Citizen's Bank Park or the Rockies Stadium, whatever its name. Same brick wall behind home plate ... same scoreboard cast in that erector set framing. And that's a shame. Because in the grand scheme, there are so relatively few major stadiums, and so many millions of dollars invested in these ballparks, that there's no reason why they shouldn't all be unique artistic triumphs instead of the mostly repetitive iterations that they are. For this reason, I agree with Grimm in that my favorite new ballparks are the ones in Minny and Miami. Now those are bold, daring and innovative stadiums. Citi Field is, to me, an unimaginative contrivance. What the hell is a Shea Bridge? Is a bridge supposed to evoke memories of Shea? Was Shea mostly associated, or ever associated at all, with a bridge? About a year ago, at one of the presentations held at the Mets 50th anniversary Hofstra Convention, I sat next to an architect for the company that designed most of the new stadiums. We struck up a conversation and eventually, I asked him if he worked on the planning or design for Citi Field. He rolled his eyes at me, as if begging me to never think such thoughts lest his reputation be soiled. He made sure to establish that he had nothing to do with that stadium.

"Have you seen Headley?"

Ceetar wrote: Ceetar wrote: Which is why there's a floor on dynamic pricing .... If there's a floor, then it's not true dynamic pricing, is it? I don't understand how the Mets expect to sell their excess by taking a hard line and holding to the face value in a declining, or buyer's, market? Why would I spend $100 for a ticket when I can get the same ticket for $40 on stubhub? Personally, I'm skeptical (as always) about the team's claims that they won't sell below the face value floor: they'll either openly renege due to market forces, or surreptitiously (if they aren't doing this already) sell at market on stubhub through some intermediary (next Mets scandal when they get caught). They won't. it's computer generated and hard-coded. It won't go below what a season ticket holder paid for that section, because they did that in 2009 and season ticket holders complained. Now, they've designated sections where they don't sell season tickets. I don't know how they break it up, since it's possible to get packages in every pricing tier, but that's presumably where they give away the free tickets to and what not. The idea being you'll never sit next to someone who's a season ticket holder and paid more for the seat than you did (of course, that's not true, Stub Hub, etc, but not from the Mets). Given that you can't reduce the price dynamically to _just_ 505 instead of the whole Prom Reserved, the dynamic pricing floor exists. But it's sorta 'brilliant' in a way. Even with a high demand for Opening Day (it was still near capacity even if there were empty seats) for the cheaper sections buying directly from the Mets was a better deal than Stubhub in most cases. Especially with Stubhub messing with the fees and introducing a floor as well, the Mets end up selling a new ticket and letting the ones on stubhub go on used, rather than fans buying the already sold ticket on stubhub. The Mets don't care that there are empty seats and thousands unsold tickets on StubHub. Ceetar wrote: Especially with Stubhub messing with the fees and introducing a floor as well Is there a floor on Stubhub? I didn't know this. You mean that I'm not allowed to sell my own ticket on stubhub for as low as I choose? Ceetar wrote: But it's sorta 'brilliant' in a way I don't get the brilliancy. Maybe yesterday. But if this Mets season unfolds like the last few, it'll make little sense for a desperately cash strapped organization like the Mets to eat unsold tickets because of an artificial floor that they're supposedly self-enforcing rather than sell at market. You're telling me that they'd rather give away, or worse -- hoard $60 tickets because they made a promise not to sell them for $40 or $20? How's that brilliant? Because of an unenforceable promise they made to season ticket holders about an artificial floor? An unenforceable promise that might carry no penalty in the event the team is caught lying about it? Ceetar wrote: The Mets don't care that there are empty seats and thousands unsold tickets on StubHub. I'd really like to believe so, but the adult inside of me is telling me that this is a naive thought. It won't surprise me if it turns out that the team sells on stubhub at market and below face value through wholly or mostly owned subsidiaries. Whaddya gonna do if it turns out that this is what's happening? Boycott the Mets? You're an addict. And so am I. And these baseball teams are corporate versions of chronic bullshitting sociopaths. They're corporate Tony Sopranos, but with the law on their side and a legal license to sell the equivalent of crack cocaine to hopelessly addicted fans.

Ceetar wrote: Which is why there's a floor on dynamic pricing .... If there's a floor, then it's not true dynamic pricing, is it? I don't understand how the Mets expect to sell their excess by taking a hard line and holding to the face value in a declining, or buyer's, market? Why would I spend $100 for a ticket when I can get the same ticket for $40 on stubhub? Personally, I'm skeptical (as always) about the team's claims that they won't sell below the face value floor: they'll either openly renege due to market forces, or surreptitiously (if they aren't doing this already) sell at market on stubhub through some intermediary (next Mets scandal when they get caught).

TCM celebrates opening day with the following lineup (lineup, I said!) beginning tonight at 8:00PM LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Bacon. Ray Milland, Jean Peters, Paul Douglas, Ed Begley, Ted de Corsia, Ray Collins, Jessie Royce Landis, Alan Hale, Jr., Debra Paget. Clever little comedy of chemistry professor (Milland) accidentally discovering a chemical mixture which causes baseballs to avoid all wooden surfaces, namely baseball bats. He takes leave from academia and embarks on meteoric pitching career. A most enjoyable, unpretentious picture. Story by Shirley W. Smith and Valentine Davies; scripted by Davies. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Clarence Brown. Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Donna Corcoran, Spring Byington, Ellen Corby, Lewis Stone, Bruce Bennett, voice of James Whitmore. Cute comedy-fantasy with Douglas ideally cast as the Pittsburgh Pirates' hot-tempered, foul-mouthed manager, whose hard-luck team goes on a winning streak thanks to some heavenly intervention. Amusing cameos from the worlds of baseball and show business. Remade in 1994. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Harmon Jones. Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, Billy Chapin, Lloyd Bridges, Ray Collins, Richard Egan. Homey little film with Dailey as ex-baseball star turned ballpark vendor who uses his son as cover while trying to turn a losing team around. Remade as 1979 TV movie with Gary Coleman. Opening Day (1938) [9 minute short] City treasurer Robert Benchley attends the opening of a new baseball stadium to throw out the first pitch, but the crowd must endure Benchley's horrible, drawn-out monologue before they can finally start the game. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Busby Berkeley. Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold, Jules Munshin, Richard Lane, Tom Dugan. Contrived but colorful turn-of-the-century musical, with Williams taking over Sinatra and Kelly's baseball team. "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg" and Kelly's "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" are musical highlights. Left out the early morning showings: LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Bacon. Joe E. Brown, Evalyn Knapp, Lillian Bond, Guy Kibbee, Virginia Sale. Amusing Brown romp with Joe dividing his time between fire-fighting and baseball. The first in his baseball trilogy, followed by ELMER THE GREAT and ALIBI IKE. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Bacon. William Bendix, Una Merkel, Ray Collins, Gloria Henry, William Frawley, Tom D'Andrea, Richard Taylor (Jeff Richards). Lightweight comedy about baseball lover who becomes the sport's most hated man, the umpire. Ends with spectacular slapstick chase. Screenplay by Frank Tashlin.

Edgy MD wrote: I was under the impression that you put no stock in the draft. Not really. Just that given that the typical amateur baseball prospect is years away from being major league ready, if at all and if ever, a high pick has a considerably lower success rate than a corresponding high pick in the other major American team sports. There's still skill involved. But a lotta luck, too. Still, the putrid Mets historical drafting following the Cashen/Doubleday era is more than a trend, and given that the same ownership group that was running the franchise for the last 20 years (de facto and then officially) was the one constant, I believe I know where the blame lies.

David Wright, drafted in 2001, was the Mets last pick to be selected to the all-star game as a Met. You have to go back 22 years to find the next most recent Mets homegrown all-star - Bobby Jones (1991), and then, back to the Frank Cashen era (Todd Hundley-1987). Abominable. Simply abominable. The last Met draft pick to make the all-star game (any team) was Scott Kazmir (2002 draft).

TCM celebrates opening day with the following lineup (lineup, I said!) beginning tonight at 8:00PM LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Bacon. Ray Milland, Jean Peters, Paul Douglas, Ed Begley, Ted de Corsia, Ray Collins, Jessie Royce Landis, Alan Hale, Jr., Debra Paget. Clever little comedy of chemistry professor (Milland) accidentally discovering a chemical mixture which causes baseballs to avoid all wooden surfaces, namely baseball bats. He takes leave from academia and embarks on meteoric pitching career. A most enjoyable, unpretentious picture. Story by Shirley W. Smith and Valentine Davies; scripted by Davies. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Clarence Brown. Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Donna Corcoran, Spring Byington, Ellen Corby, Lewis Stone, Bruce Bennett, voice of James Whitmore. Cute comedy-fantasy with Douglas ideally cast as the Pittsburgh Pirates' hot-tempered, foul-mouthed manager, whose hard-luck team goes on a winning streak thanks to some heavenly intervention. Amusing cameos from the worlds of baseball and show business. Remade in 1994. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Harmon Jones. Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, Billy Chapin, Lloyd Bridges, Ray Collins, Richard Egan. Homey little film with Dailey as ex-baseball star turned ballpark vendor who uses his son as cover while trying to turn a losing team around. Remade as 1979 TV movie with Gary Coleman. Opening Day (1938) [9 minute short] City treasurer Robert Benchley attends the opening of a new baseball stadium to throw out the first pitch, but the crowd must endure Benchley's horrible, drawn-out monologue before they can finally start the game. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Busby Berkeley. Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold, Jules Munshin, Richard Lane, Tom Dugan. Contrived but colorful turn-of-the-century musical, with Williams taking over Sinatra and Kelly's baseball team. "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg" and Kelly's "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" are musical highlights.

Manager has announced the lineup that will be taking on Headleyless Padres in Topless Park: Collin Cowgill, cf Daniel Murphy, 2b David Wright, 3b Ike Davis, 1b Marlon Byrd, rf Lucas Duda, lf John Buck, c Ruben Tejada, ss Jonathon Niese, lhp Rusty will throw out the first pitch. Emma Rossum will sing the national anthem. The cast of Hands On A Hardbody will sing "God Bless America". "Heroes and volunteers" who aided in Sandy relief efforts (and I don't mean Brandon Lyon) will be honored. The New York Mets will play baseball again. LET'S! Looks like the Padres might end their own no no-hitter streak today. Marlon Byrd? Oh my! Soon, I might be longing for Whitney and Lorinda. Oh yeah .... did someone say Headley?

Hitting 1. Get a hit: Clendenon 2. Score a run: Harrelson 3. Steal a base: Harrelson 4. Get caught stealing/picked off: Agee 5. Hit a double: Grote 6. Hit a triple: Harrelson 7. Hit a home run: C. Jones 8. hit into a double play: Agee 9. drive in a run: Clendenon 10. draw a walk: Harrelson 11. get hit by a pitch: Shamsky 12. sacrifice bunt: Boswell 13. pinch hit; Marshall 14. Get pinch hit for: Taylor 15. Reach on an error: Aspromonte Pitching/fielding 16. Record a strikeout: Seaver 17. Surrender a walk: Seaver 18. Hit a batter with a pitch: Gentry 19. surrender a home run : Koosman 20. Get credit for a win: Seaver 21. Get a save: Frisella 22. Make a relief appearance: Taylor 23. Commit an error: Aspromonte 24. Record a putout: Grote 25. Turn a DP (name every player involved): Seaver-Boswell-Harrelson 26. Field the first batted ball in fair territory: Seaver 27. Record an assist: Seaver 28. Surrender a run: Seaver 29. Get a "Blown save" : McGraw 30. Get credit for a "hold": Ryan * Bonus/tiebreaker 31. Taste the deliciousness of the first Schaefer of the year: Seaver

Injuries May Affect Ticket Sales of Openers By KEN BELSON Published: March 30, 2013 The local forecast on Monday calls for a high near 60 degrees with a mix of sun and clouds. Not bad for fans heading to Yankee Stadium and Citi Field as the Yankees and the Mets open their seasons simultaneously in New York for the first time. But these are not, after all, the best of times for the Yankees or the Mets, something that is reflected in the market for tickets. The Yankees will take the field on Monday without the injured Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. The Mets will be without Johan Santana, who is probably out for the season with a torn shoulder capsule, and without any real expectations of competing for a playoff spot this season. The Yankees said through a spokesman Friday that they were expecting a sellout for Monday�s 1 p.m. opener against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets, through their spokesman, did not go that far, saying, �Ticket sales are tracking with last year�s pace for opening day, and we are optimistic for a sellout.� The Mets generally sell out on opening day, and they are trying to do it again despite the fact that they have not had a winning season since 2008. Ticket representatives have been calling fans in their database, trying to persuade them to come to the game � even if the fans can�t name anyone on the low-wattage San Diego Padres, the Mets� opponent Monday at 1 p.m. The Mets have also sent e-mails offering fans a free ticket to a second game next week if they buy a ticket to opening day. �Opening day may be on April Fools� Day this year, but we�ve got an offer that�s no joke,� the team said in one message. The Mets also took out newspaper ads this week to remind fans that both New York teams are opening at home on Monday, not just the more glamorous Yankees. Meanwhile, the average price of tickets being resold online for both games is dropping. The average ticket price for the Yankees-Red Sox game was $191.23 on Friday, a 21 percent decline from two weeks ago, according to TiqIQ, which tracks the resale market. The average ticket price for the Mets-Padres contest was $139.80, a 14 percent drop since mid-March. It is not unusual for ticket prices to decline as games approach because fans reselling their tickets often overprice them initially. Still, declines of more than 10 percent in the two weeks before a big game are infrequent, Jesse Lawrence, the founder of TiqIQ, said. �I would have to think that lower expectations on the field this year for both teams is definitely pushing opening day prices down lower than usual,� he said. According to FanSnap.com, more than 3,300 tickets were being resold online for the Mets game, including some for as little as $45, which is below face value. On Friday, the team said it would also sell a limited number of standing-room-only tickets to the opener for $45. Despite compiling another losing record last year, the Mets raised single-game ticket prices for nearly every seating category this season. The least expensive single-game ticket for opening day is $63, 75 percent more than a year ago. As for the Yankees, more than 4,000 opening day tickets were being offered for resale, including some as low as $65, according to FanSnap.com. In the off-season, the Yankees opted out of baseball�s deal with StubHub, the country�s largest ticket reseller, and instead chose to work with Ticketmaster. The Yankees have blamed StubHub for driving down prices and making it harder for the team to sell tickets. The Yankees, like the Mets, are also using e-mail. They have sent out messages advertising $5 tickets to midweek games against the low-profile Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/sports/baseball/status-of-yankees-and-mets-may-affect-ticket-sales-of-openers.html

It's early. What's he waiting for?

Bret Saberhagen and Denny McClain are the only two-time Cy Young Award winners to be eliminated from non-veterans's committee HOF induction. Coincidentally, Saberhagen is the first pitcher to have undergone surgery to repair a damaged shoulder capsule. Johan Santana faces an uphill climb to Cooperstown By Jay Jaffe Given that no major league pitcher has undergone two surgeries on the shoulder capsule of his throwing arm, and given that none of the small handful who have undergone even one such surgery have subsequently completed a full season in the majors, there�s a strong possibility that Johan Santana�s latest injury is a career-ending one. Inevitably, that prompts questions about the two-time Cy Young winner�s Hall of Fame case. Even for a great player, with just 117 innings after his age-31 season, he faces a steep uphill climb. Thus far, Santana has thrown only 2,025 2/3 innings over the course of his 12-year major league career (2000-2010, 2012) with the Twins and Mets, with the first three of those years totaling only 238 innings. Only in seven of those seasons did he throw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. That�s an extremely small workload for a Hall of Fame pitcher; only three of the five enshrined relievers (Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers and Rich Gossage) and one starter (Dizzy Dean) threw fewer total innings. Even Addie Joss and Sandy Koufax � two standouts whose careers were extinguished in their primes, the former by death due to meningitis in 1911, the latter by elbow woes in 1966 � had roughly 300 more innings pitched during their brief careers, and reliever Hoyt Wilhelm racked up about 200 more during his lengthy one. Santana packed a lot into those innings, however. Among pitchers with at least 2,000 innings in the high-scoring post-1993 expansion era, his 3.20 ERA and 136 ERA+ both rank fifth on a who�s who list of greats. Here�s a chart ranked by the latter stat to account for park and league scoring context: Player ERA ERA+ IP Pedro Martinez 2.93 154 2819.1 Randy Johnson 3.13 146 3317.1 Greg Maddux 3.08 139 3566.1 Roger Clemens 3.36 137 2885.2 Johan Santana 3.20 136 2025.2 Kevin Brown 3.13 135 2380.2 Roy Halladay 3.31 134 2687.1 John Smoltz 3.26 131 2493.1 Roy Oswalt 3.28 130 2213.0 Curt Schilling 3.51 129 2889.2 More than half of the pitchers on that list are going to wind up with bronze plaques in Cooperstown sometime in the next decade � almost certainly Martinez, Johnson, Maddux and Clemens, likely Smoltz and Schilling, and possibly Halladay, who remains active. Santana isn�t likely to be among that lot, and it�s because of the relative size of his workload, particularly considering that most of those potential enshrinees started pitching before 1993 and thus have even more total innings on their r�sum�s than reflected above. Turning to the advanced metrics to compare Santana�s case against the starting pitchers in the Hall of Fame using Baseball-Reference.com�s version of Wins Above Replacement and my own Jaffe WAR Score (JAWS) system (explained here), we can get a better sense of the impact of his short career. With the caveat that I�ve picked the exact day that B-R is in the process of updating its WAR � slightly lowering its replacement level to align with that of FanGraphs (explanation here) � and that we can thus expect the numbers to shift slightly upwards for nearly everyone, Santana has compiled 49.1 WAR for his career, and 43.1 for his peak (his best seven seasons), for an overall JAWS of 46.1. The average starting pitcher in the Hall has compiled 68.1 WAR for his career, and 47.7 for his peak, for an overall JAWS of 57.9. In other words, Santana is well short measured against all three standards. At this writing, Santana ranks 75th among starters, with a very similar score to the 82nd-ranked Koufax (46.2/43.8/45.0), whose stats lose a bit of their shine when properly adjusted for the parched run environment of mid-1960s Dodger Stadium. But Koufax won three Cy Youngs and an MVP award, and had a much greater postseason impact: a 0.95 ERA in 57 World Series innings for four pennant winners and three world champions in a seven-year span, compared to Santana�s 3.97 ERA in 34 innings, 30 1/3 of which came in AL Division Series, with the balance in the 2002 ALCS. Based on that and a decisive advantage in term of leagues led in key categories (what Bill James calls Black Ink), I�d still rank Koufax well above Santana in an overall analysis of Hall of Fame fitness. Santana�s JAWS is higher than only 15 of the 58 enshrined starters, and even his peak score � a proxy for his short career � is outdone by 36 of them. Relative to the nine other contemporaries listed in the table above, he�s behind all but Oswalt (48.8/36.7/42.8) in career WAR and JAWS, and all but Oswalt and Smoltz (65.9/37.0/51.4) in his peak. All that said, it�s fair to suggest that Santana was on a Hall of Fame trajectory, at least before the first of the two capsule tears. His WAR through his age-31 season ranks 38th all-time, outdone by only 24 Hall of Fame hurlers. While certainly interesting, that merely qualifies him for the Hall of What Might Have Been, and even then, he�s a few wins below another two-time Cy Young winner whose career was wracked by injuries, Bret Saberhagen. Coincidentally, Saberhagen is believed to be the first major league pitcher to undergo surgery to repair his capsule back in 1996. Among multiple Cy Young winners, Saberhagen and Denny McLain are the only ones who have come and gone from the BBWAA ballot without gaining entry, while Clemens, Johnson, Maddux, Martinez and Tom Glavine have yet to receive their final verdicts from the voters (Clemens reached the ballot this past year; Maddux and Glavine will do so this year). Halladay and Tim Lincecum are still active. Of those latter two, Halladay (62.3/48.6/55.5) has a peak score that�s above the standard for starting pitchers, though he�s still short on the other two fronts, and with only 199 career wins, he�s likely to be seen as short of qualified by the old-school voters � to say nothing of Santana�s 137 wins. As a basis of comparison, Saberhagen�s overall line (56.0/41.4/48.7) outdoes Santana on career and JAWS if not peak, and while his 4.67 ERA in 54 postseason innings is nothing special, his 0.50 ERA in 18 innings in the 1985 World Series, which earned him MVP honors while helping the Royals to a world championship, is. If he�s not in � he fell off the ballot after receiving just 1.3 percent of the vote in 2007 � it�s tougher to make a case for Santana. What if Santana had won a third Cy Young? Along with winning the trophy in both 2004 (20-6, 2.61 ERA, 265 strikeouts, 8.6 WAR) and 2006 (19-6, 2.77 ERA, 245 strikeouts, 7.5 WAR) � years in which he led the league in both ERA and K�s � he recorded a season that was nearly as strong in 2005 (16-7, 2.87 ERA, 238 strikeouts, 7.2 WAR). In terms of everything besides won-loss record, he outdid winner Bartolo Colon (21-8, 3.48 ERA, 157 strikeouts, 4.0 WAR), and he was far more valuable than runner-up Mariano Rivera (43 saves, 1.38 ERA, 4.0 WAR) as well. By the time the dust settles, none of the eight three-time Cy Young winners (Clemens, Johnson, Steve Carlton, Maddux, Koufax, Martinez, Jim Palmer and Tom Seaver) is likely to land outside the Hall; had voting justice been done in 2005, Santana would have stood out as the exception there, though if one wants to nitpick each of those winners� cases on a pure WAR basis, the picture might change significantly. If Santana can�t make it back from this shoulder injury, he�ll likely remain outside Cooperstown, but there�s no shame in that. He has had a great career, and he�ll be remembered as one of the dominant pitchers of a high-scoring era. His battle back from his 2010 shoulder injury, which reached its apex with his no-hitter last June, was memorable and inspiring; watching it myself, I found it impossible not to get choked up, or to enjoy the revelry in a bar full of Mets fans handing out free shots in his honor. It has been suggested that the 134 pitches Santana threw that night were what did his fragile left shoulder in for good. While one can make a superficial case given the 8.27 ERA he put up in the 10 starts that followed, that ugly statistic ignores the fact that after he was rocked in his first two follow-ups (10 runs, 10 innings against the Yankees and Rays), he ran off a three-start stretch in which he allowed just two runs in 20 innings against the Orioles, Cubs and Dodgers � exceeding 100 pitches each time. The last of those was an eight-inning, three-hit effort on June 30, his third-best outing of the season behind the no-hitter and the four-hit shutout of the Padres that immediately preceded it. While those 134 pitches may have contributed to the overall mileage on his shoulder, the suggestion that he pitched through a torn capsule for the remainder of his season, but that it wasn�t discovered for another nine months even while he received treatment for an ankle sprain (which sent him to the DL in late July) and lower back inflammation, seems very unlikely. On the other hand, the �impromptu and angry bullpen� session Santana threw earlier this month � said to be 15-20 pitches � in response to general manager Sandy Alderson�s assertion that he wasn�t in pitching shape resulted in persistent pain that limited him to long toss thereafter and culminated in the MRI and examinations that confirmed the re-injury of his shoulder. We�ll never know for sure, but it seems far more likely that session was the final straw for his fragile shoulder. http://mlb.si.com/2013/03/29/johan-santana-hall-of-fame-prospects/

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I usually opt for the turkey hero (with red peppers and marinated mushrooms) at Mama's of Corona from the Food Court that's above the rotunda. Consistently reliable. I used to get Mamas' Subs at Shea but haven't tried 'em since the move to the new stadium. I'm still working my way through the new choices. Blue Smoke's Fried Bologna sandwich is my current Citi Field fave.

If sitting's not your thing, you can buy Mets opening day SRO's for $45 a [crossout]seat[/crossout] stand. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130329&content_id=43488346&vkey=pr_nym&c_id=nym Mets Press Release 3/29/2013 12:12 P.M. ET Mets release standing room only tickets for Opening Day at Citi Field Standing room only tickets cost $45 and are on sale now at Mets.com, (718) 507-TIXX and Citi Field Ticket Windows Mets to open 2013 season this Monday, April 1 at 1:10 p.m. fans are encouraged to take mass transit FLUSHING, N.Y., � The New York Mets today announced the club released a limited supply of standing room only tickets for Opening Day at Citi Field. Standing room only tickets cost $45 and are on sale now at Mets.com, (718) 507-TIXX and the Citi Field Ticket Windows. The Mets open the 2013 season this Monday, April 1 against the San Diego Padres at 1:10 p.m. The Mets encourage fans to take mass transit to the game. Parking is limited as Cirque du Soleil�s TOTEM is currently in production in the Citi Field parking lots, although there will be no performance on Opening Day to accommodate as many fans as possible. Citi Field is served by the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road. For fans traveling from the northern suburbs, Metro North trains and the Port Authority Bus Terminal connect with the 7 train. For more information, visit mta.info and click on �Take the Train to the Game.� But why stand when you can still sit? Mets' streak of sellouts on Opening Day is in jeopardy The Mets' streak of 14 straight Opening Day sellouts is in jeopardy of ending on Monday when they start the season against the San Diego Padres. The Mets, however, say they are only a few thousand tickets shy of a sellout and remain optimistic they will pack the house. On the team's website Thursday, tickets were still available throughout most of Citi Field for Monday's game. Still, the team says it is closer to a sellout this year than at the same time last year. The Mets reached a 42,080-ticket sellout last season in part because they benefited from "a tremendous walk-up," according to David Newman, the Mets' senior vice president of marketing and communications. The last time the Mets did not sell out their first home game was 1998, when they drew an announced crowd of 48,142, about 5,000 less than Shea Stadium's capacity. In 1997, they drew only 21,981 to their opener. Meanwhile, in the Bronx, the Yankees say their streak of 17 straight Opening Day sellouts will reach 18 when they open against the Boston Red Sox at the same time as the Mets' home opener. However, sales for the second and third games of the season -- against the Red Sox Wednesday and Thursday night -- are "slightly off" pace from last season at this time, Yankees director of media relations Jason Zillo said. But he said last year the Yankees' second and third games fell on the weekend when ticket sales in April are typically higher. The last time the Yankees did not sell out their first home game of the season was 1995, which marked the return of baseball after the players strike of 1994 canceled the World Series. The Mets are coming off a season in which they drew a total of 2,242,803 fans to Citi Field, their lowest total in a decade. They have been trying to boost ticket sales for Opening Day -- and beyond -- with a flurry of special offers, including one in which fans receive a free ticket to another game during the first homestand with the purchase of each Opening Day ticket. It is similar to deals they offered last year, too. "We've had some special online offers leading up to Opening Day similar to what we did last year," Newman said. "We found that people responded to it in terms of the offers." The least expensive ticket for Opening Day on the Mets' website, as of Thursday, was $50 for an upper deck seat. But that could change as Opening Day gets closer because of the Mets' dynamic pricing system, which is designed to alter the price of tickets in real-time to fall more in line with the current demand. http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-streak-of-sellouts-on-opening-day-is-in-jeopardy-1.4932128

If sitting's not your thing, you can buy Mets opening day SRO's for $45 a [crossout]seat[/crossout] stand. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130329&content_id=43488346&vkey=pr_nym&c_id=nym Mets Press Release 3/29/2013 12:12 P.M. ET Mets release standing room only tickets for Opening Day at Citi Field Standing room only tickets cost $45 and are on sale now at Mets.com, (718) 507-TIXX and Citi Field Ticket Windows Mets to open 2013 season this Monday, April 1 at 1:10 p.m. fans are encouraged to take mass transit FLUSHING, N.Y., � The New York Mets today announced the club released a limited supply of standing room only tickets for Opening Day at Citi Field. Standing room only tickets cost $45 and are on sale now at Mets.com, (718) 507-TIXX and the Citi Field Ticket Windows. The Mets open the 2013 season this Monday, April 1 against the San Diego Padres at 1:10 p.m. The Mets encourage fans to take mass transit to the game. Parking is limited as Cirque du Soleil�s TOTEM is currently in production in the Citi Field parking lots, although there will be no performance on Opening Day to accommodate as many fans as possible. Citi Field is served by the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road. For fans traveling from the northern suburbs, Metro North trains and the Port Authority Bus Terminal connect with the 7 train. For more information, visit mta.info and click on �Take the Train to the Game.�