batmagadanleadoff

Fred Wilpon wrote: [Reyes] thinks he�s going to get Carl Crawford money.... He�s had everything wrong with him.... He won�t get it. When I read this quote, I thought that Fred meant that no team would pay Reyes that kind of money --- not just the Mets.

"Don't worry, Dad. As soon as Bernie gets out jail and starts a new fund for us to invest with, everything'll turn out OK". "What, Dad? What's with the Herman Munster face?" "How come you never smile?" "What are you talking about?"

Harris 1.3 Martinez 0.7 Bay 0.7 Pridie 0.5 Paulino 0.25

From this week's long New Yorker article on Wilpon and the Mets which I am right now reading -- but paused to post this here quote: Fred Wilpon on Reyes and Wright: In the game against the Astros, Jose Reyes, leading off for the Mets, singled sharply up the middle, then stole second. �He�s a racehorse,� Wilpon said. When Reyes started with the Mets, in 2003, just before his twentieth birthday, he was pegged as a future star. Injuries have limited him to a more pedestrian career, though he�s off to a good start this season. �He thinks he�s going to get Carl Crawford money,� Wilpon said, referring to the Red Sox� signing of the former Tampa Bay player to a seven-year, $142-million contract. �He�s had everything wrong with him,� Wilpon said of Reyes. �He won�t get it.� After the catcher, Josh Thole, struck out, David Wright came to the plate. Wright, the team�s marquee attraction, has started the season dreadfully at the plate. �He�s pressing,� Wilpon said. �A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.� Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/30/110530fa_fact_toobin#ixzz1N9EKqKUR

Bottom of the 7th, bases loaded for the Yanks, nobody out and Jeter coming up -- I'da brought in K-Rod.

Reyes 1.5 Murphy 1.0 Beato 0.7 Beltran 0.6 Turner 0.4

I'm tired of blaming Citifield. Ask Tulowitzki or Mike Stanton if it's hard to hit homers here. In all seriousness, I'm not necessarily blaming Citi Field for Bay's struggles. But I'm not ruling out the stadium either. Who knows? Maybe the stadium dimensions have Bay psyched out. Maybe it's the lingering effects of last season's concussion. Or maybe the Mets had the misfortune of acquiring Bay at the precise point in time when Bay's skills began to noticeably diminish from age, wear and tear. Maybe it's a little of all of the above. I'm not denying that Bay has outright sucked for the Mets. But to insist that CF can't be a factor is, to me, 100% illogical. Defending CF's dimensions on the basis of the occasional 430+ foot HR makes no sense to me. CF has, in some areas, significantly high fences and also, the largest fair ball area in the league. How can this not matter to a hitter? Are you saying that no one ever hits a ball that stays in the park at CF, but would've been a HR in practically every other park? I say that not only is CF a factor, but that the design of its' dimensions represents a gross act of stupidity that goes far beyond aesthetics or a simple preference for one style of baseball over another style. I'll ask Mike Stanton. But you go and ask David Wright.

The Second Spitter wrote: Fences, schmeneces. If they sprung the extra $$$ for Holliday, nobody would [be] talking about fences. Of course not. It's never the fences. After Holliday the Met ended his 2010 season with 12 HR's, the critics simply said that Holliday sucked. Hardly anyone blames the fences for anything. Analyzing Ike Davis' last HR --a Citi Field bomb that traveled about 450 ft.-- Bobby Ojeda reasoned that CF isn't taking HR's away from anybody. As if every fly ball that Ike Davis ever hit that was far enough to clear the Shea fences would've also cleared the CF fences. As if every fly ball Ike Davis hits travels 450 feet, minimum. As if the dimensions at CF are the same as Shea's. And if there are any differences, they don't matter at all. Matt Holliday hit 23 road HR's combined for 2006-07, while totalling 70 HR's playing half his games in Denver over that span (23 road, 47 home). Who the eff is Matt Holliday? He wasn't a better HR hitter than Bay through 2009.

"What if we put the outfield fence on a track like those retractable stadium roofs and move the fences in whenever the visiting team bats? This way, our outfielders won't have to cover so much ground on fly balls. That's another idea."

Edgy DC wrote: We're allowed to hit homers too, right? I haven't read the ground rules. No we're not. We're gonna build a team around line drive hitters that tend not to hit HR's. That's the great Rube Goldbergesque recipe for losing on the road that Jeff thought of all by himself.

"Dad, we can fix Jason Bay by moving the fences farther away from home plate. That'll make him try even harder to hit HR's. Whaddya think? Can I have some more money?"

"For an encore after I finished designing my stadium with the cavernous dimensions, I thought I'd follow up by spending $66M on a home run hitter". "Next year, I'm gonna install cup holders and tobacco spitoons with built-in lighting for night games at every base". "I'm smart. I got lots of ideas."

"Do you like the scoreboard? I designed it. All by myself. Daddy says I'm the best scoreboard designer in the whole wide world. Ask him yourself if you don't believe me."

Ceetar wrote: Because Jason Bay has just been scorching the ball but it's getting caught at the track? No. Because the stadium has likely altered his entire approach to hitting, all for the worse. Hitting a baseball is extremely difficult, even at the major league level. Especially at the major league level. The best hitters get in a groove that is based largely on repetition and muscle memory. But CF encourages power hitters to swing differently at home vs. on the road, thus messing with their rhythm. They can't help themselves, believing that without trying to hit the ball farther to make up the longer distance needed to hit a HR, the stadium will convert some of their blasts into outs. It's a recipe for disaster.

BTW, go jump off a bridge, Frenchy. Frenchy was my most hated Met last season. But I'm in total agreement with the narcissistic **********'s negative take on the absurd dimensions of Citi Field, even if Frenchy's assessment was motivated by -- get ready for this shocker-- Frenchy himself losing one or more HR's to the stadium. I also believe that Citi Field is to blame, more than anything else, for Wright and Bay's diminished offensive output. Wealthy teams (yeah, I know, but still) should build stadiums with dimensions as close to neutral as possible. Otherwise, they squander the economic advantage that enables them to amass Home Run hitters easier than their competitors. The Home Run is the singular most valuable play in baseball, and of all of the possible outcomes that can come from just one at bat, nothing correlates more positively with winning than the Home Run. If your dimensions are too deep, you undermine your HR hitters' ability to hit HR's; too short and you squander your HR edge by making it easier for your opponent to hit HR's. You wanna tailor a team to these cavernous dimensions? Why? Why makes thing harder instead of easier? And you still gotta hit HR's on the road. I've always maintained that the Citi Field Dimensions are not only absurd, but dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Today, I found some evidence to support my dumb theory: From Q&A with the New York Times: Q. I am a loyal Mets fan and have seen nice things this season, especially Ike Davis, until he got hurt, and the soon to depart Carlo Beltran and maybe Jose Reyes. My question has to do with Jason Bay. I watched him the years he was in Boston. Despite the Monster, he put up amazing numbers. Will he ever do that? Will he and others, like David Wright, ever get over the Citi Field dimensions? And why won�t the organization move the plate out 10 feet and maybe straighten out the Modell�s zone? When the new part owner comes in, is there more of a chance that the distances will change? Thanks, and David, it�s good to finally see a picture of you posted on the site. � Posted by Howard, Somerset County, N.J. A. David Waldstein: Howard, you are clearly frustrated by Bay�s production, but not nearly as much as the owners, who put up the $66 million to bring him to the Mets. Bay�s power numbers are lame, and as you point out, it�s all about Citi Field. The Green Monster at Fenway Park is 305 feet away and 37� feet high. The Citi Field left field wall is 335 feet away (364 in left center), and still pretty high at 16 feet. This year is a small sample, but the Mets were 47-34 at home last year for a .580 winning percentage, almost .100 points higher than their overall winning percentage. The Mets are traditionally about pitching and defense and Shea was always a pitcher-friendly field, so I can see why they wanted to make it big. My contention is that if the Mets weren�t so awful on the road last year, and they dominated at home with pitching and speed and line drives to the gaps, people would see Citi Field as a big advantage. But middle-of-the-order hitters get paid based on home runs, and at such a big park there is the physical part of it and the mental part, which are obviously related. It�s hard to generate the power to get a ball out at Citi, so players feel they have to muscle it out. That invariably alters their swings and timing. They mostly deny that it changes their swings, but it seems pretty obvious to outsiders, and at least one former player, Jeff Francoeur, called Citi Field a joke after he left. Making changes to the dimensions is not easy. Most of the walls would require major construction. Another sensitive factor is that Jeff Wilpon designed the stadium, which means changes would not be lightly discussed. As for the Modell�s cut-out, it would seem easy to put a fence in front of that, but it has a sentimental attachment for Wilpon. It is an homage to the overhang at the old Tiger Stadium, where his grandfather used to take him when he was a boy. Still, I believe some changes will eventually be made, even though they would be an admission of a big mistake. But just watch, they will blame it on the previous baseball operations department, led by Omar Minaya, saying that it was the former regime that recommended the large dimensions. As for Bay, the studies the Mets used to justify his signing � that Bay is a pull hitter and the home runs he hit at Fenway Park would have been home runs anywhere � are just that, a justification. The Mets were going to spend on a free agent, but they didn�t want to deal with the other pricier option, Matt Holliday, because he had Scott Boras for an agent and would get almost twice as much (seven years for $120 million). So they got Bay, who earned his money based primarily on that Monster that is only 305 feet away. I disagree with Waldstein's last point that Bay was primarily a Green Monster opportunistic HR hitter. Bay hit 20+ road HR's in two of his most recent pre-Met seasons and coming here, he was one of baseball's best HR hitters by any intelligent measure. I also have growing suspicions that Omar is still the loyal soldier, falling on his sword and protecting ownership by taking the bullets for some other dumb things. Like the K-Rod vest, for one.

Dickey 2.8 Turner 2.5 Murphy 2.3 Beltran 0.5 Isringhausen 0.45 Rodriguez 0.45 O'Connor 0.4 Reyes 0.3 Martinez 0.3

DATEMETS GAMES PLAYEDGAMES K-ROD FINISHEDON PACE TO FINISH...*4/1/111 (0-1)004/3/113 (2-1)004/6/115 (3-2)1324/8/117 (3-4)1234/14/1113 (4-9)3374/17/1116 (5-11)4404/24/1122 (9-13)6444/26/1123 (10-13)7494/27/1124 (11-13)8545/1/1128 (12-16)8465/3/1129 (12-17)8455/6/1132 (14-18)10505/7/1133 (15-18)11545/9/1135 (15-20)11505/10/1136 (16-20)12545/12/1137 (17-20)13=#000000]565/13/1138 (18-20)14595/19/1143 (21-22)17645/20/1144 (22-22)1866 Though his fast ball ain't what it used to be, K-Rod is still dominant. His breaking stuff is maddening to the opposition: the same pitch arrives with whiffle-ball-like movement, breaking North-South and East-West simultaneously. That, and a newly discovered two-seam sinker: NEW YORK � Mets starter Mike Pelfrey needles his teammate, Francisco Rodriguez, about the ease of closing games. Rodriguez loathes it, but the saying holds true, considering the effectiveness of Rodriguez�s changeup, curveball, slider and his new two-seam sinker. �He�s got four plus pitches,� Pelfrey said after Rodriguez slammed the door against the Yankees tonight for his fifteenth save in his past 15 attempts. �He�s got to get three outs. It�s not hard.� At Yankee Stadium, Rodriguez made it look easy, continuing his magnificent stretch to open the season. He has not allowed an earned run in his last 19 innings. He provided the capper on an evening of bullpen excellence. After R.A. Dickey left, a trio of relievers collected nine consecutive outs. Mike O�Connor went first, followed by set-up man Jason Isringhausen. Then came Rodriguez, who began throwing the two-seamer during spring training. Because his fastball cuts naturally, he said, he wanted a pitch that could hit the corners. More coverage: �In this game, you�ve got to make adjustments,� Rodriguez said. �People are looking at scouting reports.� He added, �I�ve got hitters that I�ve faced so many times, and I throw a two-seamer, and they�re like �What was that?�� Mets odds of making the playoffs, according to Baseball Prospectus: 28 1/2 to 1. *Remainders are always lopped off and never rounded up to the nearest whole number.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: It's a mirror image. That's right. The letter "N" on Alou's cap is reversed. The diagonal stroke that connects the two vertical strokes on the "N" runs in the wrong direction. The front uni digit #2 (Alou wore 23) is also, necessarily, reversed. This means that Alou, who appears to be batting right-handed on his Mets card, as he should be, actually posed batting left-handed for the Topps shoot. Alou pranked the photographer.

I think I figured most of it out, but not the patch on cap thing. I'll post my theory tomorrow morning, meanwhile giving any other interested poster a crack at this one.

So I'm surfing the Cardboard Gods website and my not so random whims lead me to this piece about the Mets and Jesus Alou. And eventually, I notice that in his 1976 Topps card (pictured alongside Wilker's piece), Jesus is wearing a Mets home jersey without a front uniform number, which might, might be plausible if he were photographed during Spring Training. But he's at Shea. Any explanations? OE: And his cap looks strange too. Is the interlocking Giant style "NY" embroidered on his cap -- as it should be, or "patched" on, like some of the the kinds of caps made for kids and infants back then? Did Jesus get that get-up from the souvenir shop?

Ceetar wrote: I'm tired of the silly 'unfair' argument about playing the Yankees. teams change from April to September anyway. It's not any different than the Mets playing the Astros real early. What if they were to trade for a stud or bring up a prospect that dominates late in the season? is that fair to the Phillies who may have to face him twice? Or just the plain dumb luck of maybe the Mets miss Halladay in the rotation and only face him 3 times, but the Marlins face him 6 times? Over the last 15 seasons, the Yankees won more regular season games, post-season games, World Series and qualified for post-season play more than any other team. Do you think that's a coincidence? A random fluke? Luck? One can make the case that this modern incarnation of the Yankees is the most dominant of all Yankee dynasties. They have more money to spend on payroll than any other team, and in any given season, usually outspend the most frugal team by 10 to 20 times. I can't remember the last time any major sports media outlet made a pre-season prediction that excluded the Yankees from the post-season. In 2007, your NY Mets missed the post-season by one game. How do you know that playing the Yankees instead of any other team six times wasn't the difference maker that season? You don't know because you can't know. The same can be said about any team that misses the playoffs by one or two games. In baseball especially, the best teams don't always have the best W-L record. If you're correct, then it shouldn't matter if the Mets play the Yankees 162 times instead of just six times a season.

Edgy DC wrote: Yankees to Honor George M. Steinbrenner ... I saw the 2011 Yankees yearbook at a magazine store last month. It sells for 25 bucks. I always noticed that a yearbook generally sold for about 20-25% of the price of the cheapest seat in the stadium. Maybe this ratio still holds for YSv2011.

MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo projects Alex Meyer, RHP, Kentucky, as the Mets projected 1st round pick, adding that; "the parallels to [last year's #1 pick] Matt Harvey ... are almost uncanny. That one's worked out so far, so why not go down that path again?" Goldstein's description [he has him ranked 14th overall] sees him as a high risk/reward type: Pros: If you see Meyer on the right day, he looks like the best college pitcher in the country, with a mid-90s fastball that reaches 98 and a plus-plus slider that is nearly impossible to hit because of the tilt on the pitch and the angles created by his 6-foot-9 frame. Cons: If you see Meyer on a bad day, you might not take him in the first two rounds. He's disturbingly inconsistent and has a lot of trouble repeating his complex delivery, leading to wild fluctuations in his control and the quality of his slider. One scout summed him up best by saying, �He's either a number one, a shutdown closer, or doesn't get out of Double-A.� Are you sure that's not Mike Pelfrey's old scouting report? And whatever happened to Pelf's 98 MPH college heater?

Strawberry, Ventura & Maddox are the only three players in the Subway 200/200 club.

Trivia: Who are the only players to appear in at least 200 regular season Major League games for both the Mets and the Yankees?