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"Fuck Mike Marshall"

28 posts about Kelly Shoppach in less than 24 hours - a record setting number in the category of posts to talent ratio.

The Future ... as Envisioned Almost Nine Months Ago Baseball ProGUESTus Sunset in Flushing December 9, 2011 Believe it or not, most of our writers didn't enter the world sporting an @baseballprospectus.com address; with a few exceptions, they started out somewhere else. In an effort to up your reading pleasure while tipping our caps to some of the most illuminating work being done elsewhere on the internet, we'll be yielding the stage once a week to the best and brightest baseball writers, researchers and thinkers from outside of the BP umbrella. If you'd like to nominate a guest contributor (including yourself), please drop us a line. Jonathan Bernhardt is a freelance writer born in Baltimore who lives and works in New York City. He is an occasional contributor to the Et tu, Mr. Destructo? blog. Jarrett Seidler is a life-long New York Mets fan and IT manager living in New Jersey, where he lives and works. ___ It is December 8th, 2011, Major League Baseball�s annual Winter Meetings are well underway, and New York Met Jonathon Niese is one of the more valuable commodities in baseball. He has been for some time now: a six-foot-four, 25-year-old, left-handed starter who can locate both his fastballs and mix in a major-league change is a highly valued asset in any organization. The real draw with Niese, though, is his out-pitch: a bending 12-6 curve that, given a bit more time, could become dominant. He hasn't overwhelmed the NL East so far, but few pitchers in their early 20s do. Niese's strikeout-to-walk ratio has improved every season; his first year in the majors, just under 44 percent of his pitches that were put in play were groundballs. Last year, 51.5 percent. This is exactly the sort of development a team wants to see, because groundball contact leads to an out almost 80 percent of the time, and by definition, it cannot clear the fences. Meanwhile, the percentage of plate appearances against him that end in a base on balls has dropped by half since he entered the league�from 11.6 percent in 2008 to 6.3 percent in 2011. By his peripherals, he is a fine young pitcher for any team to have in the back of its rotation, and if his development continues, he'll be moving to the front quickly. The Mets could use him up there. Ace Johan Santana missed the entire season with a shoulder injury that still hasn�t fully healed, and there's no way to say how good he'll be when he returns. After breakout knuckleball superstar R.A. Dickey, the Mets� leaders in innings pitched in 2011 were Mike Pelfrey and Chris Capuano. Pelfrey is a headcase who throws a number of pitches, none of which consistently strikes batters out; Capuano has departed for the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency. And as fantastic a story as R.A. Dickey is, a 36-year-old knuckleballer who started being effective only two years ago is almost the definition of unprojectable. The Mets had a bad 2011, and Niese is exactly the kind of commodity an established team in the biggest sports market in the world covets as it tries to bounce back into contention: young and talented, with another season of team control before arbitration. Even as a back-of-the-rotation starter, he is promising and cheap enough to allow the team to focus its short-term payroll on other roster spots. Factoring in his age, projectability, and the scarcity of his skill set, he should be effectively untouchable. On December 8th, the Mets begin shopping Niese. -- It is July 31, 2011, Major League Baseball's non-waiver trade deadline looms, and New York Met Jose Reyes is one of the most valuable commodities in baseball. He has been for some time now: an elite shortstop in full command of all his tools, Reyes can hit for average and power, has great speed and an arm that plays well from the hole, and defends his position well. The biggest complaint anyone has about his game is his durability, followed by throwing errors. When a shortstop's greatest perceived flaws are that he doesn't play enough games and that maybe he rushes a throw or two, he is a rare find. It's impossible to complain about Reyes's bat: he hit .354/.398/.529 (.927) in the first half. He is not only the best-hitting shortstop in baseball, he is one of the best-hitting players period. And Reyes is not only hitting, he's hitting hard: by the time the dust settles on the 2011 season, shortstops in the NL will have slugged .374 with Reyes�and .356 without him. Reyes is not actually this fantastic a hitter; he hasn't seen any noticeable spike in the percentage of line drives or fly balls that he hits as opposed to grounders, but his batting average is over .350 on balls in play. A massive part of his power surge is due to his 16 triples; he hits 12 of these at home in the cavernous confines of Citi Field. This is clearly a career year for his bat, and it comes right as his contract with the Mets is about to expire. Reyes will hit unrestricted free agency at the end of the season unless he is re-signed. In theory, Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson has a choice: he can keep Reyes and try to re-sign him at the end of the season, or he can trade Reyes to a contender for prospects. By the end of July, the Mets are 55-53, well behind the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies (68-39) and the second-place Atlanta Braves (63-36). They are not in a position to make up that ground; their season is, essentially, over. If they are making moves at the deadline, they should be selling, and Reyes is their highest quality piece. Except that Alderson has already made his decision, or had it made for him: the Mets all but announce through Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman and Buster Olney of ESPN that Reyes will not, under any circumstances, be traded. They do this over a week before the deadline, and there is justification for it at the time: Reyes has just come back from a hamstring injury that kept him from participating in the All-Star Game, to which he was selected as a starter. Nevertheless, that isn't the sort of injury that keeps a franchise shortstop off the market if his team thinks he'll simply walk in the offseason. The move is taken as a sign that the Mets are committed to re-signing Reyes, and why wouldn't they? He and third baseman David Wright are pillars of the franchise, and Reyes is a top-five talent at the most difficult position to play�and groom a replacement�in Major League Baseball. And he's just now entering the traditional prime years of his career. Why not lock him down for five or six more seasons? Even if the next two aren't any good, with a New York market team's money and resources and a somewhat weak National League, they should be back in the thick of things by the middle of the decade. But this point of view ignores what's really wrong with the Mets, and Jose Reyes remains on the team through the July 31st deadline. Reyes hits .305/.356/.428 (.784) in the second half, which is much less impressive than his numbers from early in the season� and still 100 points higher than the OPS of the average NL shortstop. He remains on the team through August, when the team is 10-16, and September, when it�s 12-16, and the playoffs, which it misses. He remains on the Mets through October and November, when no progress is made on any sort of new deal in New York. He remains on the Mets up until the moment free agency officially begins on December 1st. As the Mets open talks with multiple teams about Jonathon Niese's future on December 8th, Jose Reyes is being introduced in a conference room in a Dallas hotel. He has just signed a six-year, $106 million deal with the Miami Marlins. The Mets never even made him an offer. -- Why did the Mets let one of their franchise players walk, and why are they now shopping one of their most valuable major-league pieces? Because the Mets are owned by the Wilpon family, and their troubles are legion. There is not space enough here to recount the legal turmoil their ties to Bernie Madoff have put the team through, as well as the failures of their real-estate investments when the housing bubble collapsed. Imagine them as a caricature of everything wrong with the financial sector of the American economy, and you'll have paid them their due. They will not be selling the team; not at all. And so that the Wilpons can recoup all the losses they've recently suffered, the Mets will have to tighten their belts and pretend that $90 million is the highest payroll they can afford to run in a metropolitan area over 11 million strong, broadcasting on their own TV station. Sandy Alderson essentially has to act as if he's running a small-market team under the watchful eye of a big-market media. It's an unenviable task, doubly so since he has to pretend like it's all his idea. His problems begin with the decision not to trade Reyes. Unless Alderson is completely unaware of how compensation worked under the previous collective bargaining agreement, the decision to not deal Reyes at the deadline and then not credibly try to re-sign him falls squarely on ownership; otherwise, one hopes, Alderson would have dealt him and gotten something back. As it is, the Mets will receive the Marlins' second-round pick and nothing more. Part of the low-yield return for Reyes is simply bad luck. Under Alderson's predecessor Omar Minaya, the Mets had generally hewed closely to Major League Baseball's draft pick slot recommendations, often drafting easy slot signees with early picks and rarely buying out signability players in the later rounds. Alderson and Vice President of Player Development Paul DePodesta completely reverse this philosophy, plowing the extra couple million dollars a year into player development to maximize impact talent. In 2011, the Mets award bonuses of at least $250,000 in the 11th and 13th rounds to high-upside prep right-hander Christian Montgomery and athletic shortstop Brad Marquez, give a nearly unprecedented $650,000 bonus to shortstop Phillip Evans in the 15th round, and pay about 125 percent of slot to first-round outfielder Brandon Nimmo and supplemental-round pitcher Michael Fulmer to buy them away from college. Suddenly, the Mets are spending heavily to get their preferred talent in the draft, increasing both the projected value of draft picks obtained for Type-A free agents like Reyes and making rebuilding more feasible in general. And then everything goes wrong. First, the Elias Sports Bureau ranks Reyes only in the middle of the Type-A tier, meaning it's possible that the Mets won't even get the highest possible pick from Reyes's new team if that team signs someone above him on the list. Reyes then signs with the Marlins, a team with a first-round pick already protected from Type-A free agent signings. The Mets will still receive a supplemental first, but the compensatory pick from Miami will be a second-rounder at best�if baseball�s newest big spender signs Prince Fielder as well, that pick drops to a third. Meanwhile, the new CBA implements a strict cap on yearly draft spending. All teams will now have to abide by Major League Baseball's slot regulations�the ones the Mets had just started ignoring this year�at the risk of heavy financial and competitive penalties. This lessens the relative value of the picks the Mets will get back for Reyes, but worse, it eliminates the Mets' ability to buy projectable athletes away from college only a year after they'd started tapping that pool of talent. The new agreement leaves only two avenues essentially uncapped: MLB's traditional free agent market, and the international posting system that brought players such as Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Japanese professional league to America. Any player in either market is at best already developed and worst declining�neither of which is an attractive option to a team in New York's position. The reason the Mets are shopping Niese in this environment is because Alderson realizes that with the restrictions imposed upon him, a Mets rebuild will not be short. For a few years, it will be ugly. R.A. Dickey will likely play out the rest of his career on teams fighting the Washington Nationals for fourth place or, at best, the Atlanta Braves or Miami Marlins for third, assuming he's not dealt somewhere else. The Mets' strategy is to spend like they're a Kansas City, a Pittsburgh, or a Baltimore, though one hopes with a bit more competence; Alderson and company are stalling until the cavalry arrives and hoping pitching prospects Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey, and Jeurys Familia will lead the charge. When running a full-on, tire-fire, small-market rebuild under a CBA designed to prevent them, the ability to acquire elite talent through the trade market is essential. While Jose Reyes was off-limits at the deadline, long-time Met Carlos Beltran was not; Alderson sent him to the San Francisco Giants and got Zack Wheeler in return. Wheeler was taken sixth overall in the 2009 Amateur Draft and was ranked the 52nd-best prospect in baseball by Baseball Prospectus this past offseason; Baseball America had him 55th. This year he struck out over 10 batters per nine and showed improved command at High-A, mixing an excellent fastball with a developing curve, and he has the potential to lead a rotation. When you can get a guy like that for two months of a right fielder with an arthritic knee who contractually couldn�t return draft picks as a free agent, you pull the trigger and walk away. Harvey and Familia have broadly similar profiles to Wheeler: good fastballs, potential out-pitch breaking balls, changes that need lots of work, and tons of strikeouts. Harvey was ranked 75th by BP despite never having thrown a professional pitch before this season. Working off his fastball and an excellent curve, he struck out over 10 batters per nine in a year split between High-A and Double-A. Familia rebounded from major control problems in 2010 to dominate the same levels and may reach the majors the fastest of the three. They're not the only talented pitching prospects the Mets have; there's Jenrry Mejia, who already appeared on the big-league club in 2010 as part of Omar Minaya's last, farcical year as general manager, and Michael Fulmer and Darin Gorski have promise as well. But Wheeler, Harvey, and Familia are the most promising and exciting of the bunch, and the Mets are betting the rebuild that the three of them turn into the next Generation K. Generation K, of course, was an abject failure. In 1995, the Mets had three young strikeout artists who caught fire in the minor leagues, skyrocketed through the organization, and looked poised to dominate the majors for years to come. By the end of 1996, that dream was done. Only one of the three men, Jason Isringhausen, pitched in the majors for any substantial length of time, and he quickly moved from the rotation to the bullpen. The other two, Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson, ended up like so many other elite pitching prospects, their careers derailed by arm injuries, their time in the majors bitterly short. Hopefully the current crop fares better, but the odds aren't in their favor. The overhand throwing motion is one of the most unnatural, destructive things an arm can do, and many young people with bright futures ahead of them suffer for it. In 2011, Generation K remains as much a cautionary tale against expectation as it does a wistful descriptor. And that's what the current Mets rebuild is depending on: a crop of very good pitching prospects, any of whom could explode at any time. The hitting side of their system is a hodge-podge of filler and risky players with potential. The 2011 class, led by Brandon Nimmo, was very heavy on high-upside, high-school talents, most of whom made only token appearances in rookie ball after signing. It will be years before the Mets can evaluate whether they have any keepers in that lot. They have toolsy hitters Wilmer Flores and Cesar Puello several levels up in A-ball, but neither has converted his tools into skills yet. The most polished position prospects in the system are center fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis and second baseman Reese Havens, both of whom missed much of 2011 with injuries. Havens cannot stay healthy, averaging only 63 games played in his three professional seasons, and Nieuwenhuis�s ultimate future may lie in a corner instead of center. Both will get their shot; with Angel Pagan gone to San Francisco and Ruben Tejada moving over to shortstop, center field and second base could be open on the major-league team as early as spring training. But these players don�t have the high ceilings of their pitching counterparts. New York doesn�t have any cornerstone prospects who play the field; the next Jose Reyes or Carlos Beltran isn't waiting in Double-A. Those guys the Mets will have to go out and get. For fans, a rebuild is often humbling and occasionally humiliating. There are moments of rage during press conferences, envy as rivals grow stronger, and despair as summer marches on, loss after loss. The losing isn't so bad; it's not competing that hurts. Hope is fleeting and untelevised; it lives only in minor-league box scores. A rebuilding team is a miserable shadow of something meant to be fun. And there could be a moment coming for Mets fans more painful and distressing than any moment that's come before, even more so because it is the sort of move that is absolutely essential to a rebuild's success. The Mets have their eyes on tomorrow, and Sandy Alderson knows that to get there he must bargain away today. Today, the New York Mets are David Wright. -- Wright is a conundrum. He turns 29 in a few weeks and should be in the prime of his career, but after hitting .312/.396/.537 (.933) from age 23 to 25, he's slowed to a more modest .284/.364/.463 (.827) since. Perhaps Wright�s dropoff at the plate is due to his ballpark and a string of fluky injuries, including a severe concussion from a fastball to the head in 2009 and a broken back that he played with for nearly a month in 2011. Or, more forebodingly, perhaps it�s a sign of an early decline. In theory, the Mets control Wright for the next two years at $31 million, making him an attractive commodity in a market where many teams are looking to avoid long-term commitments. But the Mets can only effectively market one of those two years. The final year of Wright's contract is a team option with a twist: if Wright is traded before the option is picked up, Wright can void the option year and become a free agent after the 2012 season. At the time of his extension in 2006, it seemed inconceivable that the Mets would ever trade David Wright; he was the young superstar face of a franchise poised to compete in the National League. Five years later, that minor provision is suddenly a major factor for both Wright and the Mets. The new CBA further complicates things, as it removes free agent compensation for departing players acquired during the previous season. Thus, players like Wright may have more value as full-year rentals even though the market can be most competitive near the trade deadline; it depends how the buyer values compensatory picks. Given that it barely matters when Wright is traded, Alderson now needs to figure out which is the real David Wright: the superstar on track for the Hall of Fame, or the solid third baseman with growing injury concerns. If it's the latter, he should trade Wright immediately, because his value will never again be higher. Even if he thinks Wright will come back strong but not as what he once was, he should still deal him�just not until the trade deadline, or even after the 2012 season. (The Mets are free to exercise Wright's team option and then deal him, after all.) And if Alderson thinks that the real David Wright is that guy who hit the majors at age 23 and set New York City on fire, a legitimate Hall of Fame third baseman, then he might even explore extending Wright long-term as a bridge to those hopefully-contending teams four or five years down the road. Make no mistake: it is sunset in Flushing. The Mets said as much when they didn't offer Reyes a contract. Nevertheless, Wright was not on the table at this year's Winter Meetings; it remains to be seen if the Mets will part with him, and if not, whether that's Alderson's call or ownership's. As Jose Reyes begins moving his life down the coast to Miami and Jonathon Niese waits by the phone for the other shoe to drop, all that's left for Mets fans is the sighing, the cursing, the bitter unfairness, and the waiting. But soon it will be spring, and they'll find themselves checking reports from spring training; hearing names like Wheeler and Harvey and Familia maybe for the first time. A year will pass, then two, and those names will become familiar to their lips. They will worry about these names and their arms, perhaps more than is healthy. In time, they will begin to hope. They will check the minor-league box scores and try not to think of 1996. Then they will wait, and wait some more. And one day the sun will rise again. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15644

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Yankees not being douchebags. And if you haven't heard this one yet, that's one goddamn beautiful scoreboard. A scoreboard like it oughtta be. Big and simple.

What I don't get is why the young 'uns like Nieuwenhuis, Duda and Valdespin aren't getting the lion's share of the at-bats going forward? And this Duda demotion -- I've mulled it in my head over and over and over and it still makes no sense to me. Fielding's all the same whether in the Minors or Majors and the guy has little to prove hitting-wise in AAA. I'll give the Mets the benefit of the doubt that they know hundreds and hundreds of things about Duda for every one tiny thing that I know about the guy 'cause that's the only way I can make Duda's demotion jibe. It seems to me though, that the Wilpons are back in meddle mode and that even a rebuild, under this ownership, is about as half-assed as everything else they do. Because now they have to fool the foolable portion of the fan base into thinking they're playoff contenders this year so maybe they can pull in the extra attendance that they apparently still desperately need. So we get to watch Torres and Bay, who won't be part of the future and are barely part of the present, quality-wise.

For Mets, re-signing R.A. Dickey likely to be expensive NEW YORK � The dust has settled, the camera crews have packed up, and R.A. Dickey�s hype-riddled summer is almost over. His time in the national spotlight has faded. He is now merely one of the finest pitchers in the National League, a veritable Cy Young candidate, one who figures to play a prominent role in the Mets� offseason plans. The Mets hold a $5 million option on Dickey for 2013. But his long-term position in the organization appears unsettled as the 2012 season creeps toward its conclusion. A series of hurdles await general manager Sandy Alderson this offseason. For the third time, he will attempt to construct a major-league bullpen. His organization does not employ an outfielder capable of handling an everyday role for 2013, as even he admits �there aren�t a lot of obvious candidates.� Then, there are his two stars, both approaching free agency. Third baseman David Wright will likely command a nine-figure deal after the team picks up his $16 million option for 2013. Dickey burnishes his case with each sterling outing. Even so, Alderson shrugged off the pressure to re-sign the pair this winter. �Nothing with respect to 2013 rides on what we do with those two players,� he said last week. He added, �Their situations will be at the top of our list. But if we have to exercise options, we have to exercise options.� Wright occupies a special place in franchise lore. Alderson has made clear his intention to work out a long-term deal. Dickey represents a more complicated dilemma. Like most players, he would prefer not to negotiate once the 2013 season begins. That would allow him access to the volatile open market. Earlier this season, Dickey and the Mets discussed a short-term extension into at least 2014, according to people with knowledge of the talks. The people requested anonymity to protect the sensitivity of future negotiations. The team elected to wait and observe Dickey during the course of the season. What have they seen? One of the best pitchers in baseball. Dickey leads the National League in wins (15), complete games (4), strikeouts (166) and walks plus hits per inning (1.004). He trails reigning Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw by a third of an inning for the league lead in innings pitched. His 2.72 ERA is fourth best. In three seasons with the Mets, Dickey possesses a 2.97 ERA. If he throws another 54? innings in 2012, a reasonable sum with at least eight starts remaining, he�ll top 600 innings during his three seasons as a Met. He�ll also reach an elite � and expensive � plateau. From 2009 to 2011, only 14 pitchers threw more than 600 innings with at least a 3.50 ERA. The list resembles a Cy Young ballot, populated by players like Matt Cain, Cole Hamels and Justin Verlander. The average salary for those 14 pitchers in 2012 was just less than $15.5 million. The negotiations earlier this year never involved such lofty sums, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. The person requested anonymity to protect the sensitivity of future negotiations. Dickey, of course, is unique. He turns 38 in October. His knuckleball flutters in the face of convention. He still considers himself a crusader against his trick pitch�s reputation. But if Dickey continued at his current pace, one competing National League executive indicated, he would almost certainly receive a three-year offer after 2013. �With his kind of knuckleball, you�ve got to believe [he can last] three or four more years, at least,� said the executive, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely about the situation. �He�s got such great makeup. He�s going to keep himself in great condition. He�s going to keep that edge for quite a while.� Dickey would prefer to remain a Met. He feels comfortable in his surroundings, and with the trust afforded him by the organization. But the temptations of the free agency are well-known. �Look at the pitching market,� the executive said. �The demand far outweighs the supply.� Consider the case of Mark Buehrle. Miami signed him to a four-year, $58 million deal last offseason. Buehrle possesses a much more distinguished track record than Dickey. He also is a 33-year-old who throws an 85-mph fastball and relies on generating weak contact. Alderson understands the terrain. When asked about balancing the needs for 2013 alongside the hassles of signing Dickey and Wright, he cited the quiet months of October, November and January. There will be time for talks. �We�ll keep working at it,� Alderson said. Eating up innings Here are the pitchers from 2009-2011 who threw 600 innings with at least a 3.50 ERA (ranked by lowest ERA). The Mets� R.A. Dickey is on pace for more than 600 innings pitched with a 3.00 ERA from 2010-2012. Pitcher IP ERA Roy Halladay 723? 2.53 Clayton Kershaw 606? 2.54 Felix Hernandez 722 2.73 Tim Lincecum 654? 2.87 Cliff Lee 676? 2.93 Matt Cain 662? 2.97 Chris Carpenter 665 3.02 Jered Weaver 671 3.03 Justin Verlander 715? 3.06 CC Sabathia 705 3.18 Zack Greinke 621 3.33 Cole Hamels 615? 3.35 Jon Lester 603 3.37 Dan Haren 701? 3.41 http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2012/08/for_mets_re-signing_ra_dickey.html

Sandy Alderson wrote: Then, there are his two stars, both approaching free agency. Third baseman David Wright will likely command a nine-figure deal after the team picks up his $16 million option for 2013. Dickey burnishes his case with each sterling outing. Even so, Alderson shrugged off the pressure to re-sign the pair this winter. �Nothing with respect to 2013 rides on what we do with those two players,� he said last week. He added, �Their situations will be at the top of our list. But if we have to exercise options, we have to exercise options.� http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2012/08/for_mets_re-signing_ra_dickey.html

Shot at World Series more important than money as Wright mulls Mets future By MIKE PUMA David Wright is willing to make at least one prediction about his baseball future: The dollars probably won�t matter as much as the opportunity to win championships. After avoiding the topic of his contract for most of the summer, the Mets third baseman told The Post he is �optimistic� he will remain long-term with the only organization for which he has played, but he also needs to see in what direction the franchise is headed. Wright is enduring a fourth straight August with almost no hope of reaching the playoffs. The Mets are expected to pick up his $16 million option for 2013 once this season concludes, and then have the winter to negotiate a long-term contract with the 29-year-old, who is poised to test free agency if he doesn�t have a deal in place by next March. �The money issue for me, I don�t think that will be the deciding factor,� said Wright, who is batting .325 with 16 homers and 75 RBIs and .416 on-base percentage in the final guaranteed season of his six-year contract worth $55 million. More important, he says, is a chance to win the World Series. �You want to be able to win, and I�ve only experienced a little bit of that here,� Wright said. �In a perfect world, we get this thing turned around and going in the right direction and ultimately I get to experience the bad, the ugly and the good here, which includes winning.� Wright was asked to assess the Mets� chances of reaching that goal. The Mets are 55-60 and third in the NL East as they prepare to open a three-game series tonight in Cincinnati. �We�ve taken a baby step in the right direction and I still think there�s a long way to go before you can say that we�ve kind of turned that corner where I think that we will,� he said. But Wright pointed to prospects Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler as reason to believe the Mets can rebuild their pitching in the same manner as the NL East-leading Nationals. Wright said he has been �frustrated� by the last several seasons. That answer came in response to a question about whether he felt respected by the organization. One of Wright�s friends from outside the organization was later asked what the third baseman meant by the comment. �Very simple: Winners want to win and David desperately needs to win,� the person said. �Everything flows from that desire and need.� Wright said the Mets have respected his request to delay contract talks until after the season. That will leave the Mets with essentially a four-month window of exclusive negotiating rights with Wright. �I told these guys we�re not going to discuss it during the season, either this one or next, so I guess that�s a fair assumption,� Wright said. �If we�re not going to talk about it during this season or next season, then I guess the timing would be during this offseason.� Wright can only guarantee he will be listening closely to what the Mets have to say. �Coming up through the system, I have a tremendous amount of loyalty to this organization,� Wright said. �I can�t tell you what the future holds, but I�m hoping � optimistic � that something will get done.� Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/will_to_win_ndnBMRtF2Lq3FSSjW6rvwO#ixzz23XCMtMaZ

Slowly, Dickey Approaches Rare Feat By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN Published: August 13, 2012 With 47 games to go in a Mets season that has come undone, R. A. Dickey has probably become the primary reason to keep following the team.* With a 15-3 record, he has a decent chance to win 20 games, and he is a legitimate candidate for the National League Cy Young award. He also, remarkably enough, has a chance to lead the National League in strikeouts, something more commonly associated with someone who throws overpowering fastballs rather than much slower knucklers. With 166 strikeouts through 24 games, Dickey was tied for the National League lead through Sunday and is on pace to finish with 234. The pitcher he was tied with, Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals, is expected to have his innings limited as the season moves into its final month, making Dickey�s path to the strikeout crown even simpler. (The major league leader, Justin Verlander of Detroit, has 174 strikeouts.) Of course, Strasburg is a more typical strikeout pitcher than Dickey is. His fastball, according to FanGraphs, averages 95.8 miles per hour, a far cry from Dickey�s knuckleball, which dances in at 77.1. But Dickey has held tough, striking out 10 or more batters in a game six times this season, including 10 in a complete-game victory over the Miami Marlins last Thursday. And should Dickey outlast Strasburg and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he would join Phil Niekro as the only knuckleball pitchers to lead a league in strikeouts. Niekro had seasons with more wins and a lower earned run average, but in 1977, he was at his best in fanning hitters, totaling 262 for the Atlanta Braves and easily outdistancing J. R. Richard, the flame-throwing Houston Astros right-hander, for the league title. As for Dickey, the striking (no pun intended) thing about his strikeout total is the efficiency that he has shown in acquiring it. He may be on pace for 28 fewer strikeouts than Niekro had in 1977, but he has averaged 9.2 per 9 innings pitched, a far superior ratio to Niekro�s 7.1. Dickey has also averaged 4.61 strikeouts for every walk, compared with Niekro�s 1.6 ratio. Niekro had a number of great seasons, but his best, when accounting for his performance relative to his competition, were probably 1969 and 1974. In 1969 he went 23-13 with a 2.56 earned run average, finishing second in the Cy Young voting and ninth in the balloting for most valuable player. In 1974, he went 20-13 with a 2.38 E.R.A., finishing third in the Cy Young voting. Dickey, should he maintain his current numbers, would have a season to rival Niekro�s two best. He is on pace for a record of 21-4 with a 2.72 E.R.A., and perhaps most impressively given the volatile nature of a knuckleball, he was leading the league in WHIP (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched), with a figure of 1.004. Dickey will have stiff competition in the Cy Young voting from Strasburg, Kershaw, Johnny Cueto of Cincinnati and Jordan Zimmermann of the Nationals, but the fact that a knuckleballer is even in the conversation is a testament to the amazing season he has put together. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/sports/baseball/r-a-dickey-is-one-reason-to-keep-following-mets.html *The writer could've quoted me verbatim for this sentence.

Unless the Mets pulled another R.A. Dickey, I didn't expect for there to be significant improvement from outside acquisitions. They weren't trading prospects and were financially broke. Any real improvement would've come from Duda hitting where he left off -like an All Star. Duda didn't. Or from Bay, showing signs of his pre-Mets days. That didn't pan out either. It's hard to imagine Bay worse than his previous Mets seasons, but Bay managed to lower the impossibly low bar he'd already established. Dickey's Cy Young caliber season is more than offset by Johan's deterioration, Pelf's season ending injury and the rest of the starting staff's inconsistency and mediocrity. Ike Davis is Dave Kingman this season, albeit with a better glove but without the league leading HR totals. We're gonna have to suffer a few bad seasons as part of the rebuild. There's no way around it. And no guarantee that the Mets'll be competitive in a few years, either.

I'd cut Sandy a lot of slack on the bullpen he put together. I mean the Wilpons gave him what -- three dollars and eighty two cents and a half off coupon on 20 cans of cat food to assemble essentially an entire pen?

Dickey Nearing Gooden and Seaver Territory By MICHAEL SALFINO With another masterful performance on Thursday night against the Marlins, R.A. Dickey (15-3) joined an elite fraternity of great Mets starters. He recorded his sixth double-digit strikeout game of the season, a feat no other Met has done in 20 years. Dickey becomes just the fifth Mets pitcher to reach double-digit strikeouts six different starts in a season. Three others combined to do it 10 times�Tom Seaver (1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973), Dwight Gooden (1984, 1985 and 1990) and David Cone (1988, 1990 and 1992). Sid Fernandez also reached that milestone in 1988. Mets Hall of Famer Jerry Koosman never did it. Neither did Nolan Ryan. More-recent strikeout aces Johan Santana and Pedro Martinez also fell short. Few would have wagered this achievement from Dickey, a 37-year-old knuckleballer, before the season. Before this year, Dickey registered that many whiffs just once in his career�in a 2011 Memorial Day loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. His strikeout rate per nine innings entering 2012 was a pedestrian 5.5 per nine innings. This year, though, it has spiked to 9.2 per nine innings�eighth best in baseball. Even more impressively, he's striking out 26% of batters faced�fourth most in the majors. Dickey has seven more weeks to add to his already impressive total, plus some promised extra starts from manager Terry Collins. But he'll have to nearly run the table to catch all-time team leader Dwight Gooden in the category, who achieved the feat 15 times as a 19-year-old rookie. Strikeout Mavens Mets pitchers with the most 10-strikeout games: Pitcher Year 10-K Games Dwight Gooden 1984 15 Tom Seaver 1971 13 Tom Seaver 1970 12 Dwight Gooden 1985 11 David Cone 1990 9 David Cone 1991 8 David Cone 1988 7 R.A. Dickey 2012 6 Dwight Gooden 1990 6 Sid Fernandez 1988 6 Tom Seaver 1973 6 Tom Seaver 1972 6 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443537404577581301879755624.html

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Now firmly mired in the worst slump of his season, Wright is expected to pass Eddie on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at home against the Phillies -- the latest D-Day all season, since I've been measuring. With two more hits tonight, D-Day is now one day closer than yesterday. The D is for David. Monday, September 17, 2012 at home against the Phillies.

Here's another category Dickey leads the league in: http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching/_/league/nl/sort/avgGameScore/type/expanded-2 Average Game Score

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think Medgal's first article there is a reach, any two crappy teams might have similarities, his almost seem chosen just to provocatively fit the comparison he wants to make. It wasn't convincing to me anyway. He also overstates Zachry as "huge", sloppily compares McGraw to Beltran etc etc. I agree. Megdal's been sounding like a bad broken record to me ever since the Picard suit settled: He contrives to diss the Mets.

Josh Thole's 2012 batting line was lifted straight from the resume of the prime of Bud Harrelson. Except Thole's a lot slower. And probably wouldn't of stood up to Pete Rose.

This thread sure died down in the past month or so. Still, it's R.A. by a wide margin, according to ESPN's Cy Young Predictor. OE - The gap between Dickey and runner-up Cueto is larger than the gap between any other two consecutively ranked top 10 Cy Predictor pitchers.

Howie Megdal, formidable challenger to Tim Marchman's throne as gloomiest writer on all things Mets, is also concerned about the future. Here's two: For the Mets, it's like the late '70s all over again If you're old enough to remember the Mets of the late 1970s, the 2012 Mets might be ringing a bell for you. Back then, as now, a group of popular players had just left: Tom Seaver, Tug McGraw; Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran. The fans were frustrated, then and now, at an ownership group that wouldn't or couldn't spend enough money to keep the team from deteriorating. And the Mets' spin, then and now, was that it was all part of a long-term plan. The 2012 Mets are playing at a 77-win pace, whereas their 1977 counterparts finished 64-98. But their rosters aren't dissimilar, statistically: Both teams had five everyday players worth at least one win above replacement player. (Briefly on this stat, commonly referred to by stats-geeks as WAR: It represents a player's value, measured in wins, over the best available player a team could replace him with.) The 1977 fivesome was Lenny Randle (4.0), John Stearns (3.2), Steve Henderson (2.5), John Milner (1.6) and Lee Mazzilli (1.0). The 2012 fivesome is David Wright (5.6), Daniel Murphy (1.8), Ruben Tejada (1.8), Scott Hairston (1.5) and Josh Thole (1.1). In 1977, all five of those players were 28 or younger. Randle played third base, Milner first base, Stearns catcher, and Henderson and Mazzilli were outfielders. In 2012, four of the five are 29 or younger; Hairston, an outfielder, is a veteran of 32. Wright plays third base, Murphy second base, Tejada shortstop, Thole catcher. Among pitchers, the 2012 Mets have three with at least one WAR: R.A. Dickey (3.4), Jonathon Niese (1.4), and Johan Santana (1.1). They are unlikely to have any other pitcher reach that threshold; the next two highest on their list, Mike Pelfrey and Dillon Gee, are both out for the season. The 1977 Mets had three as well (four, really, but by this point in 1977, they'd traded Tom Seaver): Nino Espinosa (3.1), Jerry Koosman (2.7) and Skip Lockwood (1.5). Jon Matlack was just under that threshold at 0.9, while young, talented Pat Zachary and Craig Swan (0.7 and 0.5, respectively), stood ready to play the parts of Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler. If that appears to sell Harvey and Wheeler short, consider that Zachary had been a huge prospect and was the center of the Seaver trade, while Swan went on to win an E.R.A. title. The median outcome for the two prospects can't be much different than what the Mets ultimately got from Zachary and Swan. Median outcome isn't the same thing as predestined outcome, of course: Harvey and Wheeler could turn into the new Seaver and Koosman. But it is unclear that anything other than hope for the future separates the 2012 team from the 1977 team, which, for those who may not remember, went on to become a 66-96 1978 team and a 63-99 1979 team, before the Mets were sold to a new owner. http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/sports/2012/08/6400179/mets-its-late-70s-all-over-again ______________________ How long before the Mets find themselves in a Reyes situation with R.A. Dickey? The Mets have finally started treating R.A. Dickey like a meaningful part of their future again. And on Thursday, Dickey returned the favor. Just hours after Terry Collins announced that the Mets were scrapping an ill-advised plan to start Dickey on short rest repeatedly, Dickey went out and shut down the Marlins, 6-1. His complete-game victory was the first home win for the Mets in just over a month. His success illustrates a challenge for the Mets: Dickey is an undeniably valuable commodity, but his long-term role, for a team unlikely to contend in 2013, has everything to do with what they can afford and when they can afford it. Perhaps the smartest move Sandy Alderson has made (with the trade of Carlos Beltran for prospect Zack Wheeler a close second) was the signing of R.A. Dickey to a massively discounted contract after his breakout 2010 season. Dickey earned $2.75 million in 2011, $4.25 million this year, and the team holds a $5 million option on him for 2013, a no-brainer to pick up. For that money, he's been 16th in the major leagues in ERA+ among full-time starters since the start of the 2011 season. He's gotten more attention for 2012, but he's been a plus starter for three seasons now. Where the difficulty comes in is evaluating exactly how aggressively the Mets want to or can push to keep Dickey around. Arguably, the major leverage they have would be in signing him to an extension this coming winter. Dickey would earn far more than $5 million in 2013 on the free agent market; a long-term extension that includes a significant bump up in 2013 could be enough to convince Dickey to stay with the Mets. But 2013 looms as a season without much room for the Mets to bump up anyone's salaries. The payroll is at $91.6 million in 2012, down from $143 million in 2011. As it stands now, if the Mets simply pick up Dickey's option, along with David Wright's, they'll have more than $73.6 million committed to six players: Dickey, Wright, Jason Bay, Johan Santana, Jonathon Niese and Frank Francisco. If you consider the $5.5 million it will cost the Mets to buy out Santana's 2014 option and the $3 million to do the same with Bay 2013 costs, that elevates the already-committed 2013 money to just over $82 million for six players. So if the Mets simply filled out the roster with entirely league-minimum players, payroll would remain the same in 2013 as it was in 2012. And there's no reason to think that number is going up to any significant degree. Bay and Santana come off the books in 2014, but if the Mets wait until the winter of 2013 to try and sign Wright and Dickey, they'll be going up against every other team that could use a star third baseman and frontline pitcher. The reasons to act now are significant; the reasons to wait are self-inflicted. So it isn't any wonder that even though Dickey has been open to negotiating an extension, it hasn't happened. Instead, we are treated to another "talks to begin in the near future" column that simply recycles the team line on Jose Reyes and David Wright. But the Mets run a real risk that if Dickey is simply allowed to play through his 2013 option, he'll hit the open market as a reliable, top-shelf starting pitcher. His market value will be diminished somewhat be his age (he'll have just completed his age-38 season) but even that is mitigated by his role as a knuckeball pitcher. His comps are people like Phil Niekro, who threw 12 200-inning seasons from age 35 on, and others who pitched well into their 40s, like Charlie Hough and Tim Wakefield. The Mets know what kind of valuable pitcher they have in R.A. Dickey, just as they know what they have in David Wright, and had in Jose Reyes. But the plan appears to simply hope financial circumstances change before they are forced to give him up. http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/sports/2012/08/6409332/how-long-mets-find-themselves-reyes-situation-ra-dickey

I think I've got the answer, doctor. I think you do. Transactions Before 1961 Season: Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as an amateur free agent. February 17, 1964: Traded by the St. Louis Cardinals with Jim Beauchamp to the Houston Colt .45's for Carl Warwick. June 15, 1965: Traded by the Houston Astros with Hal Woodeshick to the St. Louis Cardinals for Mike Cuellar and Ron Taylor. October 18, 1971: Traded by the St. Louis Cardinals with Jim Beauchamp, Chip Coulter and Harry Parker to the New York Mets for Jim Bibby, Rich Folkers, Charlie Hudson and Art Shamsky. September 13, 1972: Selected off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers from the New York Mets. March 29, 1973: Released by the Milwaukee Brewers. April 11, 1973: Signed as a Free Agent with the Montreal Expos. November 2, 1976: Released by the Montreal Expos.

Vic Sage wrote: yeah, that didn't help. i still have no idea what youse guys are talking about. maybe its time for my medication. You could talk about Mazzilli's throwing arm if the quiz doesn't interest you.

OK. Here's a big hint to make this question a lot easier. That former Met whose uniform number I was assigned, and whom I was once traded for in an earlier trade not involving the Mets, has the same last name that I do.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: (brain explodes) Carlos Baerga? Oh that can't be. The last Met to wear #8 before Baerga was Steve Swisher. But Baerga was never traded for Swisher. Nice Mazzilli piece, though. Boy did he have about the crappiest throwing arm I ever did see attached to a Mets outfielder. I can still remember some of his his throws arriving on so many bounces, that by the time the relay infielder was ready to pick up the ball, Maz's throw had lost so much momentum that the ball was actually rolling in. Rolling. Not bouncing. Not as bad as Chris Carter's arm, though. What the fuck was that all about? Carter's lobs came in like a wounded badminton shuttlecock.

Who am I? I was dealt to the Mets in a multi-player trade. I was formerly in the same organization with one of the players that was traded to the Mets with me -- this was a few organizations before we were traded to the Mets. That organization was the first major league franchise both me and my aforementioned trade-mate ever belonged to. Prior to the trade that landed me with the Mets, my first organization also traded the two of us together, in a transaction that did not involve the Mets. When I arrived at the Mets, I was assigned the uniform number of a former Met whose last Met season was the season before I arrived. Ironically, before playing for the Mets, I was once traded for that player whose Met uniform number I inherited, in a transaction that also did not involve the Mets. So who am I? Who was my trade-mate? And who is the former Met whose uniform number I was assigned? (If you think you know the answer, fact check it for accuracy. I might not be around to marshall this quiz).

Let 'em eat steak.

The Crazy Review: Pat LaFrieda's Filet Mignon Steak Sandwich If you have not yet heard, Pat LaFrieda steak sandwich is now at Citi Field. Last night Mets fans had the opportunity to try this carnivorous delight. There was nothing short about the debut of the Pat LaFrieda Original Filet Mignon Steak Sandwich and that included the line to get this $15 sandwich. "The original LaFrieda family recipe features hand-cut Black Angus seared filet mignon topped with Monterey Jack cheese and sweet caramelized onions, served with a secret au jus on a custom-made and toasted French baguette," according to a press release. The Citi Field stand is LaFrieda's only retail location and for now. At first glance I was tempted to shy away from this line that could soon compete with Shake Shack or Blue Smoke. It took me an easy 15-20 minutes to approach the front of the line where there were two grills and two cashiers. At the flat top grill they would prepare 3 hand-cut Black Angus seared filet mignon (per sandwich) on one side with sweet caramelized onions on the other. For each sandwich they would break away 2 mounds of the caramelized onions and place Monterey Jack cheese on each mound to let the cheese melt into the onions. They carefully placed the three rare steaks on the toasted French baguette then added the next layer of onions and Monterey Jack cheese topping it with secret au jus sauce. After paying my $15, I headed off to a high top table near the Big Apple Brew with a good view of the outfield screen so I could watch the game. I knew after my first bite that this sandwich had made it to the top of the list of my favorite sandwiches at CitiField over Blue Smoke Pulled Pork sandwich and Keith's Grill Mex burger. The combination of the Monterey Jack, caramelized onions and au jus sauce over the well prepared filet mignon was to die for and even with all that the baguette was not soggy but rather crispy. I give this a definite thumbs up and a must have while at Citi Field for the Mets game. http://www.thecrazymetsfan.com/