A Boy Named Seo

Me? I didn't think I'd get picked til, like, 50th.

Looks like the Mets are lined up to get a pretty decent college pitcher again, if they wanna go that way.

Wow, that's awesome. He looks like the Reds mascot. PS - solid knowledge, Monky.

We had some killer draft threads here in years passed. Love all the kids with zany names and the homo-erotic scouting reports. MLB.tv/.com locked & loaded! #Team_Jungmann

A little California-centric, but a really good article about ballplayers and their strange, metaphor-filled love affairs with their baseball mitts. BTW- I can't figure out if 'Susan and Delicious' is one glove or two. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0606-glove-love-20110606,0,7061788,full.story

On the surface, Reyes owned Towles during the game, which really annoyed the shit out of me. 2 for 2, 100% for the night (and a perfect 8-8 on the season). Towles has caught just 1 of 7 stealers this year (14%) and just 27% for his career. The risk there is a good risk to take, sez me. Looking at win expectancy, the bunt doesn't put the Mets in a better position to win anyway. Per Fangraphs, the Mets WE went from 17.5% to 30.7% after the Reyes single. That's something anyway. Using Tom Tango's win expectancy matrix to figure out the what-if's, after a successful bunt, the Mets down 1 in the bottom the 9th with a runner on second have a 28.2% chance of winning. Yeah, it seems their likelihood of winning decreases there. If he steals second successfully (again, a pretty good fucking risk to take right there), their WE goes to 43.7%. He gets thrown out and the WE is just 11% and you're fucked anyway. Fast dude. Shitty armed catcher. Let him try to steal. That game really put me off, man.

Who?

bmfc1 wrote: Moving an extra runner into scoring position but giving up an out only improves the win percentage by .5? What a waste of an out, especially since the team is cold. Yes. In that situation anyway. I was a little surprised, too that it was basically a wash.

Mets win expectancy after the Thole/Em?u5 walks was 53.0% After the Hu sac bunt, it was just 53.5%. After the Reyes K, 36.2% After Pagan grounds out, 23.1% B I F L

Any illegitimate radio streams trickling down through the internet?

Another Q: I guess there used to be a spring trade deadline? When did this stop?

That was almost sad. Was there drama swirling before Lee was traded? Why didn't anyone talk to him? And how crazy Stennett's monster 5-year, 2 million dollar deal looks nowadays, huh?

metsmarathon wrote: howard hits ball to pitcher. ball caroms off pitchers glove towards shallow second base. but second baseman is playing deep, and has to scurry in to get to the ball. he picks it up from a near-standstill just after howard makes it to the bag, and fires home just late on polanco. Thanks.

PS - did the font here change, or did I do something on my end?

'Ryan Howard singled to pitcher'. How'd that go down yall?

In the office, and I just yelled & started clapping at the Yahoo play-by-play thing. D0rK here. Go Mets.

One of my favorite bloggers from 2009, on hiatus most of 2010, has returned. Reintroduce yourself to Section 528. I'm not normally a fan of "gee, I haven't blogged in a long time" posts, but this one tells a helluva story about life and baseball. And I have more than enough to count myself as a lucky bastard. Despite the terribly foggy nights I�ve lived through recently, I�ve got a clean bill of health. Moved to a gorgeous new apartment in my still-amazing neighborhood, and have a home office to boot. Work has settled, and indeed I have more and new opportunities to do good things. While we don�t talk often, my ex-wife and I exchange occasional messages and, when I�m in her neck of the woods�she�s still out-of-state�we�ll have a meal. Other aspects of moving on proceed delightfully apace. I don�t know that I could have done all this, or become who I am at present, without the 2010 Mets being as lousy as they were. I mean that. If they�d�ve been better, chances are good that I would�ve missed it, or hitched my wagon too closely to their star. As September turned to October, if the Mets were in the postseason, I�d�ve tacked several more years onto my liver. If the Mets achieved the playoffs only to lose, I�d�ve hit a tailspin. Instead, while baseball is an important part of my life, I now believe I can do without it. Don�t get me wrong. I�d be the poorer for not having it. Baseball is a remarkable part of our society; a great diversion most of the time and great to get lost in whenever it won�t just cause you more harm. There is nothing wrong with getting heated about things in a space where the consequences aren�t thermonuclear war or a theological schism or the separation, for good, of all dogs and all cats. But if I didn�t exactly know where I end and baseball begins, I certainly do now. And I�m grateful for that. I now know what the hell I�m doing. I have to thank the Mets for making sure I missed very little last season. In a way, their mediocrity saved me from myself. I hope your experiences differ greatly: that in 2010, you lived an interesting and satisfying life, and the Mets made you want to tear your hair out or throw something at the TV, or check in on NASCAR and soccer instead. (Maybe not NASCAR.) (Maybe not soccer.) I had to go for awhile. Now I�m back. And oh, buddy, do I wanna have some fun. (The Ollie post has plenty of fiber to it, too.) I enjoyed reading that. Like it when real life can successfully be woven in w/ Mets baseball. Only so many articles/posts I want to read about TC's lineup selection today or whatever (one, if that). Reminded me a bit of that epic Big Al post from the mofo, but this one I kinda felt like the dude needed to get lost in a bottle for a few months & he'd come out of it. Big Al you hoped he'd steer clear of the bottle, but knew he wouldn't, then worried he'd never get back when he did. Someone post that shit already.

Can't believe Cashman really said this shit. "Anybody who obsessed about it yesterday ... you know the psychotics [on the blogosphere] that obsessed about it all day yesterday. I think we all did them a favor by keeping them off the street. Preventing them from hurting others." That bro is losing it.

Met-Lovin Big Shots, according to Paste Magazine: New York Mets Musician: Ira Kaplan Band: Yo La Tengo Why he loves the Mets and how Yo La Tengo got their name: The story dates back to the 1962 Mets. We�ll let Ira tell the tale in this video. Fan-o-meter: 94/100 Musician: Daniel Balk Band: The Postelles Why he loves the Mets: "Yes, the Mets continue to collapse at the end of every season, just missing out on the playoffs year after year. It�s also true that they continuously overpay for mediocre players, while the owners complain about bankruptcy. But I still love them, like a father loves a son who comes home at the end of every school year with Cs and Ds on his report card. I admit I scream at my television all too often and I�ve also spent too much money at the bar at Citi Field in order to numb myself from the pain of watching the Mets make a 20-year-old no-name pitcher look like Sandy Koufax. Yet I still watch every game, even if I�m on the road and have to pay for a yearly subscription to watch them on my laptop. I can guarantee I was the only person in London watching the Mets as I sat in my hotel room, hoping for a win during our last U.K. tour. Though one night comes to mind as I think about how the Mets have directly affected my music career: As we played one of our first shows in New York City in a tiny Lower East Side bar, I spent our entire 30-minute set watching my Mets on the tiny bar television across from the stage. In between songs I�d clap as the Mets crossed the plate to take the lead. This of course looked like I was clapping for my own band�s achievement of finishing a song. I smile as I remember all the great memories the Mets have brought me and I hope they bring many more." Balk�s least favorite recent transaction by the Mets: Oliver Perez�s $36 million contract. Fan-o-meter: 81/100 The Postelles! Not bad! Sexy chick in the vid, too! qhQ4Hwwjf08

Good stuff. I liked the Reyes question & answer. Don't agree w/ the commenter that 'seasoned beat writer' Delcos caught Sandy 'unaware' with his decidedly non-softbally question. Seems like Sandy gave a solid, no-bullshit answer, and don't think any of us should be surprised that he admits Reyes is great, but he may not be back for a couple of legit reasons. I've sadly been resigned to 2011 being the Reyes Farewell Tour. Hope I'm dead wrong, though. Good job G & Ceets. I didn't see Bucket on there??

Edgy DC wrote: A Boy Named Seo wrote: All of it is awesome. Kinda wonder why Lukas wants to vanilla that song down to an all-purpose MLB thing, though? Paul Lukas wrote: �We Want a Hit� (which is what I�ll be calling it from now on) Eff that. It's called 'New York Mets'. Quit preaching to the choir. Write it in the blog comments. OK, done.

All of it is awesome. Kinda wonder why Lukas wants to vanilla that song down to an all-purpose MLB thing, though? Paul Lukas wrote: �We Want a Hit� (which is what I�ll be calling it from now on) Eff that. It's called 'New York Mets'.

Maybe he can land a gig coaching for the Pirates. #too_soon?

Ocho looks unsure of LWFS. Awesome pic. One of these days would love to hang w/ all u guys.

"My name. Is Scott." Homerun, Hairston. 10-3 Mets. 2 scoreless for Boyer and another for Slam Dunk Byrdak.