TransMonk

Matt Albers: Met killer. http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/11493214/v764119383

I'll do the draft night duties. We'll need to make sure everyone has paid their dues and such before hand. I believe that has caused issues in the past.

Holy design change, Batman!

Lefty Specialist wrote: If you're really going to groove a pitch, you groove it to Stanton, not Gordon. See, I think the opposite. If you're going to groove one, let the 140 lb. guy get the groove and not the masher. I think Bart gave one cookie out of respect and Gordon nailed it. Stanton was not getting the cookie since the, overall, the Mets still needed the game.

30. Noah Syndergaard 29. Jacob deGrom 28. Bartolo Colon 27. Yoenis Cespedes 26. Addison Reed 25. Asdrubal Cabrera 24. Steven Matz 23. Curtis Granderson 22. Neil Walker 21. Jeurys Familia 20. Seth Lugo 19. Robert Gsellman 18. Kelly Johnson 17. Jerry Blevins 16. Hansel Robles 15. Juan Lagares 14. T.J. Rivera 13. Michael Conforto 12. Jose Reyes 11. Rene Rivera 10. Wilmer Flores 9. Jim Henderson 8. Lucas Duda 7. Brandon Nimmo 6. Matt Reynolds 5. Ty Kelly 4. Fernando Salas 3. Alejandro De Aza 2. Jay Bruce 1. Matt Harvey

On the whole, I enjoyed ROUGE ONE. As others have mentioned, it was definitely darker and grittier than any that SW films have come before, but I thought it was tastefully done and , IMO, now makes the Episode IV story that much more compelling. The first 45 - 60 minutes were a little cumbersome mostly due to the amount of new characters and worlds being introduced. As I mentioned above, I read the pre-R1 novel, so I had at least had some background on the Erso Family, Orson Krennic and Saw Gerrera...and it was still a bit confusing. I can imagine that confusion would be higher for those without any prior knowledge on these characters. I agree with Chuck above that the cameos from characters from other films were not necessary to the story and were really just bones thrown to die-hard fans, so some felt a bit cheap. Highlight for SPOILERS below: I agree with LWFS that the Jedda City war scenes were jarring and real. I feel like they worked, but, man, it did mirror life for some here on earth. Without a doubt, this film put the WAR in STAR WARS. I understand that in a prequel with several new characters that don't appear further down the timeline there is going to be a lot of death, but I wish we could have seen more of Forrest Whitaker's character. I thought all of the actors did a great job with what they were working with. My biggest gripe with the film was the CGI portrayals of previous characters. First, Tarkin: I'm not a CGI fan, but all-in-all, I thought the artists did a good job of re-creating his likeness, but still, I thought these scenes would have been more believable if done one of two ways: 1) Tarkin could have appeared in holograms which would have provided enough distortion to account for the CGI. 2) Bite the bullet and find a really good actor and some make-up. If Bryan Cranston can make me believe he is LBJ, then Disney could have found someone to make me believe I was seeing Peter Cushing. Mon Mothma was believably played by a younger actress without outcry (reprising her role from Episode III, I believe). No matter how good the CGI looks now, it will look worse in 10, 15, 20 years. I do not believe this portrayal will stand the test of time. Lastly, Leia: It is not often that the final two seconds of a movie tarnishes what was a very good film that came before it, but the CGI Leia was too much for me. Again, this scene could have easily been done differently. There was no need to see Leia's face there. Her back is turned when the door opens...the officer could have handed her the file to her with her back still turned. As she takes the disc, she could have said her line, "Hope." and then a quick cut to the credits. EVERYBODY knew it was her. There was no reason to clumsily re-create Carrie Fisher's 19-year-old face digitally. Again, this will not stand the test of time. So, I walked away with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but again, still enjoyed the movie altogether.

Indians to diminish use of Chief Wahoo logo next season Less on the caps, but still on the sleeves.

Luckily, divisions are not won and lost in December.

I wonder with the Nats seemingly out if Sandy can make a play here from a position of strength.

White Sox OF Adam Eaton to the Nats for prospects Lucas Giolito, Dane Dunning and Reynaldo Lopez. One less suitor for McCutchen. Just sayin'.

The Nats clubhouse wasn't big enough to house the attitude of both Papelbon and Sale (along with Bryce's hair, Strasburg's ears and Dusty's toothpick collection). I'm thinking some desperate team will pick pap up before the start of next season.

I rarely read bestselling fiction, but I'm studying up for the new flick. A prequel to the prequel...

Everybody knows...it's all about the fluff.

I'm thinking Carter will likely get a starting job somewhere, no?

I would love some Russell Martin. I think he would be an excellent mentor for Travis. The book Big Data Baseball that I read last year talked about how the Pirates looked at metrics and found that Martin was one of the best pitch framers in the game. They were able to calculate that into runs saved and cited that as the biggest reason they signed him in 2013. But, I can't justify giving $60M to him for ages 34-36.

Worries here. But would Jake need to be the one to announce an injury setback? Long-term deal? Also, 10:45? Why not 11:00?

He was no Kelly Stinnett, but I dig Mets who have last names ending with two Ts.

"Jeff Wilpon is a winner, and, believe me, I know winners. If the Mets don't win it all this year, I'll declare them the World Champs anyway."

Toronto is interested in Bruce. I'd love to talk about Russell Martin, but that dude is making $20M for the next 3 years!

I'm hoping this means they are optimistic about the health of Harvey, Matz, Wheeler, et al.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: It seems weird but Fowler is really just Granderson if he were a switch hitter with a little less power. It would seem slightly redundant to get him without trading Grandy Fowler's a real CF, though, no? Grandy could do it but would be sub-par, IMO. And is Lagares reliable enough to spend bulk time there? I'm thinking Grandy might be dangled with the thought of Cespdes/Folwer/Bruce OF with a Conforto/Lagares bench.

Found it: Meanwhile, the Mets will abide by Cespedes’ wishes and abandon using him in center field. That means the righty-hitting Lagares should share duty in center field with Conforto and/or Granderson, if Granderson is the one not traded. http://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/124888/mets-may-trade-curtis-granderson-not-jay-bruce Do we still have interest in obtaining Fowler for CF?

Yes, I read somewhere that part of the agreement was a spoken promise that Ces will not play CF. I wish Lagares was more of a sure thing in CF. I love his D and he has shown sparks on offense. I worry about his consistency and his health.

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Bravo, Sandy! Agreed. I wasn't expecting a deal without going 5 years.

Vic and I must have been watching this at the same time last night. My reaction was lukewarm. Cavill does a great job with Superman, IMO. I wasn't quite as impressed with Affleck's performance, though. I think part of it is that Cavill is a relative unknown outside of his work as Superman. To me, Cavill IS Superman while Affleck is just another guy (with more than a couple questionable acting performances on his resume) in a long line of well-known actors to play Batman. However, I thought that the writers did a decent job with the character. Eisenberg...ugh.