batmagadanleadoff

Willie just said he'd have Sizemore sac bunt Hamilton over to third. Then Willie could sac bunt Hamilton home with the next batter.

metirish wrote: ="batmagadanleadoff"]Telephone interview with Willie Randolph in -what else- a Yankee cap. Willie says he'd sac bunt Hamilton over to second if he was managing. Are you sure that wasn't Wade Boggs in the yankee cap? Who do you suppose Willie's rooting for here?

Telephone interview with Willie Randolph in -what else- a Yankee cap. Willie says he'd sac bunt Hamilton over to second if he was managing.

1 NL 2 Pujols 3 Sheets 4 Sheets 5 Ramirez 6 Utley 7 Jeter 8 Pujols 9 NL 6-10-2 AL 2-7-1 10 Wright 2-2-2-2 11 Wags 1-0-0-0-1-0

AG/DC wrote: does anybody believe they'd be comparable once you discluded Don Mattingly's wife? I can't remember the last time I discluded anyone from anything. And that's including when I excluded Mattingly's wife from my disclusion list.

I didn't know that Joe Niekro was dead until I read this thread. Or maybe I knew that Joe Niekro was dead, but then I forgot. I forget which.

I like baseball stirrups. Even better when they're striped. I'd like to see orange striped blue Met stirrups next year. (I'm betting on a major Met uni change for next year also). Yo Charlie Samuels: that's horizontal orange striped stirrups I'm talking about. Nothing funny.

="Zvon"]The tail was blasphemy. Never bought one thing that had that on it. But as Casey indicates here it was part of the original design for the uni. Those might be striped sox too. YEEK! They were striped sox. The original Mets uniform design called for blue stirrup socks with orange stripes. The striped stirrups never made it past the prototype stage.

G-Fafif wrote: Berra Era Met All-Star History 1975 Seaver, inserted in sixth to pitch; throws one inning; gives up three-run homer to Carl Yastrzemski; replaced by Jon Matlack Matlack, inserted in seventh to pitch; throws two scoreless innings; allows hits to Claudell Washington and George Hendrick; pinch-hit for by Al Oliver who starts winning rally with double; records win Hey! What are you, slipping or something??!!?? What about Matlack's MVP? What about that? Huh?

The orange dot's the least of my peeves after 11 years of those hideous black things the Mets have been wearing. By the way, does anyone here have some connection to MLB to find out if the Mets will be wearing new unis for their inaugural season in Citi Field? Are they ditching the black? The MLB deadline for submitting next year's uniform changes past a few weeks ago. The league discourages teams from disclosing uniform changes for as long as is reasonably possible on the theory that more fans than not will stop buying uniforms styles that are soon to be discontinued. (Me, I would do the opposite. I'd be more inclined to buy a uni about to be discontinued if I didn't already own the style).

Gwreck wrote: Also, what makes you think Hamels is unavailable to throw an inning? Wouldn't Tuesday be a throw day after pitching on Sunday? Maybe he could. But off the top of my head, I can't recall a pitcher starting on the Sunday before the AS game and then pitching in the AS game two days later.

No one should be surprised to learn that you can buy your own nine incher for $24.99 if you're priced out of the big statues. See, e.g.: These statutue designs are garish enough to remind me of the 1999 Century 21 Turn Ahead the Clock promos.

Cub set up reliever Carlos Marmol replaces teammate Kerry Wood on the AS roster. Marmol is the seventh Cub and fifth reliever to be named to the NL AS squad this year. It seems to me that Johan Santana was the most qualified pitcher to replace Wood, especially since Cole Hamels pitched yesterday and thus, would not be available to play this Tuesday. I'm wondering if there's some bad blood between Clint Hurdle and the Mets. Reyes was also snubbed this year and is a deserving AS. David Wright's initial snubbing may have been the most egregious of all.

Here's the MLB.com link to a map and list of all the statue locations.

No. There is a New York Giants statue, however. I suppose that if the Pilots ever played in NYC (boroughs included), there'd be a Pilot statue. There are also statues for Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium.

="soupcan"] These two are in lower Manhattan near my office. Got 'em this morning... If you're on lower Broadway, there's a Brooklyn Dodger statue in front of the Topps Baseball Card building (One Broadway? OE -- One Whitehall Street). I saw the Florida Marlin statue in front of Modell's on Broadway the other day, before I knew what this statue stuf was all about. I wondered why a sporting goods store in Manhattan would highlight the Marlins.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The personnel are virtually identical. I don't think, despite his comments, that the bullpen has become more rigidly role-structured. The pitchers seem to have more or less pitched themselves deeper into games. Yeah. I didn't mention the relievers in my post because I also don't see this "more defined role" for the bullpen that Manuel speaks about. Doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, but that it's not obvious to me, from my fan with no team access perspective. Of course there is a synergy between the starters and bullpen; better starting pitching makes it easier to manage the bullpen. As you note, this is surely happening to the Mets right now.

I'm liking Manuel a lot so far. For starters, two starters have really come around since Manuel took over. We've all been watching and reading about Pelfrey's development, especially since yesterday's team shutout over the Rockies. Perez has been even better than Pelfrey over the last two weeks, and is the Mets best pitcher over that time frame. I don't know how much credit Manuel and Warthen deserve for this, if any. Perhaps this is flukey or something that was destined to happen whether or not Randolph was fired. Still, the emergence of Pelfrey and Perez did happen on Manuel and Warthen's watch. As far as what I can directly attribute to Manuel, I can't recall a first inning sacrifice bunt since Randolph's firing. While I don't mind a first inning sac bunt once in a while, especially to throw the opposition off guard, I detested Randolph's virtually automatic non-discretionary sac bunting of the #2 hitter as soon as Reyes lead off a game by getting on base. I'm also happy to see Castro getting more playing time. This came a year too late for the Mets, however. Castro's bat is too potent to be kept on the bench as much as it was under Willie. I also like Manuel's comment about disregarding player salaries when determining who will play. Of course, salary is a sunk cost that has no bearing on future performance. I'd like to see a stronger hitter in the #2 hole, but I'm willing to give Manuel some slack here, recognizing the Mets current injury situation and the players Manuel has to work with. Given the composition of these Mets, Ryan Church would make a terrific #2 hitter, and, if I remember correctly, did bat second in one of the two games he started for Manuel before revisiting the DL. So far, Manuel's been terrific. Met managers, going back to Davey Johnson (an arbitrary cutoff point) have been boom or bust. I loved Johnson and Valentine and considered every other one to be severely flawed in one way or another, if not borderline incompetent. It's unusual for the Mets to land good managerial talent. I wouldn't mind if Manuel stays. The Mets could do a lot worse. I was thinking of starting this same topic here, coincidentally.

Here's the Mets pitching line for this six-game homestand: 6-0. Four shutouts. ERA 0.67 H/9 3.33 BB/9 3.83 K/9 8.0 HR allowed - 1 in 54 innings. That 3.33 hits allowed figure would lead the majors in team ERA by a good margin. Awesome.

Retrosheet has a section dedicated to in-season exhibition games. The link's at the bottom of this post. Wait for the page to load and then scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page; the chronologically ordered list of games begins in the pre-Civil War era. http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/LeConteW/InSeasonExhibitionGames.htm

Joe Morgan believes that this week's All Star Game will be the most exciting in the last 20 years. Why? Because it will be played in Yankee Stadium. So why'dja stop at 20 years, Joe?

themetfairy wrote: There was a woman at the Trenton Thunder game tonight wearing a Munson shirt. I'm sure it was in memory of Murcer. I saw someone wearing a Bobby Murcer shirt this morning. I wonder if he was honoring Thurman Munson? Bob: Rye Crumb!

From the ESPN recap: ]"...the one-hitter made the Mets the first team in modern baseball history to allow three hits or less in five consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau."

Jose Reyes since getting yanked off first base in Manuel's first game as skipper (NL rank encompassing same time period for all batters in parentheses) BAVG .333 (11) OBP .394 (13) SLG. .495 (25) Runs 18 (2) Triples 5 (1) Walks 10 (15-Tied with many) SB/CS 7/3 RC27 7.41 (16 -Min. 75 plate appearances) RC 19.2 (8) (Not including today's game)

Per Howie Rose: Pedro - right shoulder tightness. Removed for precautionary reasons. Pedro wanted to remain in game.