metirish

It's purely a personnel choice for me, I could care less what Neyer thinks.......and no your eyes didn't fail you.

Means little but Frenchie has spoken to " his guys" about coming to the Mets.....Marquis and DeRosa

Mike Piazza , he had such a special presence about him , certainly in his prime anyway.

Not so fast...this report below has the Red Sox as the team in the lead to get this guy ������i�R�O�j�̈ڐА�Ƃ��ă��b�h�\�b�N�X���}���サ���B���łɃ��R�͑㗝�l�̃A�[���E�e�������ɃI�t�@�[��񎦁B�t�B���[�Y�ɉ����A���b�c���l���ɏ��o���A�����[�O���n��R���c�ɂ�鑈�D��ƂȂ��Ă��邪�A���p���w���蔖�ȃ��R���L�͂ƂȂ����B�܏\���͂��̓��A����g�����X�^�[�g�B�����{�݂ŗ��K���郌�R�E�����㓊��i�Q�X�j����L�����v�̗���Ȃǂ̏��𓾂��B �@���b�h�\�b�N�X���܏\���l���ɓ������B�僊�[�O�֌W�҂��u���b�h�\�b�N�X�͌܏\���ɋ����������ē����Ă���v�Ɣ����B���łɑ㗝�l�e�������ɂQ�N���z�Q�O�O���`�R�O�O���h���i��P���V�W�O�O���`�Q���U�V�O�O���~�j�̃I�t�@�[���񎦂������悤���B �@���R�́A�֓��A���O�i�[�̋~�����r��������ău���[�u�X�ɈڐЁB���_�p�y���{���A�Z�b�g�A�b�p�[�̉����A�o�[�h�̂R�l�͔Ր΂����A�U�A�V��𖄂߂�~������̕⋭���}���������B���R�͂O�V�N�ɂQ�N���z�R�O�O���h���Ō_�񂵁A�������ʑ��݂ƂȂ����������l�̊����������ł���Ƃ����B����A�c��ƂƂ��ɁA���{�l���肪�R�l���邱�Ƃ��A���߂Ă̊‹��ɔ�э��ތ܏\���ւ̃A�s�[���|�C���g�Ƃ�����B translation courtesy of this guy.. http://fonzieforever.blogspot.com/2009/12/ryota-igarashi.html the Red Sox offered Igarashi a two year deal reportedly worth 2 - 3 million dollars. the Mets and Phillies have made offers too but the Red Sox are the front runners right now. He trains at the same place as Dice-K, who has described Red Sox camp to him. The Red Sox have Papelbon, Okajima and Bard who are solid, but they are looking for someone reliable to pitch the 6th and 7th innings. One point of appeal to Igarashi is that with Dice-K and Okajima already on the team, they would be the first American team with three Japanese pitchers. He went with Dice-K to the Athletes Performance Institute in Phoenix today to start training to be in shape for camp. The Mets and Phillies are still possibilities but the Red Sox appear to be in the lead. Igarashi says that American teams change their minds a lot, so you don't know what's going to happen until you sign.

June 27, 1977 Tom Terrific Arms The Red Arsenal The Mets' big gun Tom Seaver could not make peace with his bosses, so they traded him to Cincinnati, where he got off to a booming start For 10 years and two months as a New York Met he had created dramatic moments that others could savor with him, but this one Tom Seaver decided to reserve for himself. The significance of his first start for the Cincinnati Reds did not elude him. "I was beginning the second part of my career," he would say a couple of hours later. "I wanted to look around and remember what I saw." And so he stood on the mound at Montreal's Olympic Stadium for an extra minute, taking it all in, all the sights and sounds that told him he was now a Red. Only then did he get ready to throw his first pitch. And how he threw. Seaver pitched a complete game, a shutout, a three-hitter, a 6-0 victory. He struck out eight and did not walk a Montreal batter. And at the plate, he had two hits, including a bases-loaded single that drove in two Cincinnati runs. The transaction that enabled Seaver to make the quantum jump from the Mets to the Reds was only one of many that shifted 40 players in the hours before last Wednesday's trading deadline, but as befits Seaver's stature as the premier pitcher in the National League, his trade was by far the most important and controversial. Not only were the defending world champions given a significant boost in their drive to overtake the flagging Western Division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, but the Reds also did it without surrendering a first-rank player. To get the 32-year-old Seaver from the Mets, the Reds gave up Pitcher Pat Zachry, 25, Utility Infielder Doug Flynn, 26, and minor league Outfielders Steve Henderson, 24, and Dan Norman, 22. There was not even any cash involved, no player to be named later. Usually when the big stars of baseball change uniforms they do it in tandem: home-run champion Rocky Colavito of Cleveland for batting champion Harvey Kuenn of Detroit in 1960, for example. However, the seemingly one-sided Seaver deal was not unprecedented, and history suggests there may someday be a measure of solace for enraged Met fans. Four years ago the Cubs traded Ferguson Jenkins, a six-time 20-game winner, to Texas for two young infielders, one of whom, the then-untested Bill Madlock, won the 1975 and 1976 batting titles. The classic trade of this kind�and one that closely parallels the Seaver deal�occurred in 1916. In spring training, Centerfielder Tris Speaker, who had led Boston to the world championship the season before with his seventh consecutive .300-plus batting average, was holding out for $12,000 when he was shipped to Cleveland for cash and two unknowns. Speaker had 11 superior seasons for the Indians and was elected to the Hall of Fame. But luckily for the Red Sox one of the unknowns, a young pitcher named Sam Jones, turned out to be good enough to win more than 200 big league games. Like Speaker 61 years ago, Seaver is in the prime years of a glorious career; also like Speaker, his hassling with management precipitated his removal at a startlingly low return in players. Seaver's dissatisfaction was more than financial, however. In light of last winter's free-agent signings, he considered himself underpaid at $225,000 a year, but he was also disturbed that the Mets had not been diligently seeking the hitting and fielding help they so obviously need. Seaver had personally recommended Gary Matthews, but the Mets, despite attempts by their management to make New York fans believe otherwise, failed to make a competitive offer for the San Francisco outfielder. Matthews went to the Atlanta Braves instead. "The money was always secondary to my loyalty to the Mets," Seaver told SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S Kent Hannon last week. "The people who think I was bitter about not making more money or who think I was trying to force a trade by asking that my contract be renegotiated won't believe me. But for the record, my loyalty to the Mets and my desire to make them competitive always came first. I don't think I've shown myself to be a greedy person." Seaver's disagreement on these points with Met Chairman of the Board M. Donald Grant and General Manager Joe McDonald was so intense that it spilled like hot lava into the New York press. Seaver even charged that constant criticism directed at him by Daily News Sports Editor and Columnist Dick Young was one of the reasons he wanted to leave the team. Nevertheless, Young's support of Grant and McDonald�the Met executives perceive Young as their man in the press�was not much different in degree from the boosting of Seaver that appeared in the other two New York papers. On the day Seaver was traded, Young�whose detractors have claimed his views are colored by the fact that his son-in-law works in the Mets' front office�wrote that the pitcher was "very deceptive" and "very greedy." The next afternoon Maury Allen of the New York Post responded, "It is Young who forced the deal, who urged Grant on, who participated strongly in the unmaking of Tom Seaver as a Met." Whoever was responsible for Seaver's departure, Met fans were furious. Even before the negotiations were completed, they flooded the Shea Stadium switchboard with complaints. The night after the trade, they welcomed the team home from a road trip with signs reading BURY GRANT�BRING BACK OUR TOM and with leaflets suggesting a boycott of home games until Seaver returned on Aug. 19 with Cincinnati. "On that occasion," the flyer read, "we urge all true Met fans to attend that game to show Tom our appreciation for the many magnificent performances he has given us." There were so many of those during Seaver's decade with the Mets that he came to be called The Franchise. In 1967 he was Rookie of the Year; in 1969, '73 and '75 he won Cy Young Awards. His 200 or more strikeouts in nine consecutive seasons is a major league record, as is his 2.48 career earned run average among pitchers who have worked at least 2,000 innings. But the best measure of Seaver's stature was his record of 189 victories and 110 defeats. He won 63% of his games as a Met, and he led a team that had been perennial last-place finishers to two pennants and a world championship. The club's percentage when someone else was pitching during those 10-plus years was only 47%. At the time of the trade, Seaver was 7-3 and the Mets were 26-34, a last-place team going nowhere. The players New York received from Cincinnati are not likely to improve the club much. Zachry was 3-7 on his arrival, and Flynn was batting .250. Henderson has taken over in left field for the Mets because he has exceptional promise. He may be the Sam Jones of this deal. Norman was immediately dispatched to the Mets' farm club at Tidewater. However these young players turn out, they are not the men the Mets really wanted. McDonald told the Met television audience, "This may not have been the best deal we could've made, but we were restricted in whom we could talk to." The restrictions were the result of Seaver's status as a "10-and-5" man�10 years in the majors and five straight with the same club. This gave him the right to veto a trade, and he had told the Mets he would only accept one of the National League powerhouses: Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. "We were hoping to get a front line player like Ken Griffey or George Foster from the Reds or Ron Cey or Steve Garvey from the Dodgers," McDonald says. "But nobody would agree to anything like that. Everyone knew that Tom was unhappy and that we were limited in whom we could talk to, so we were in a difficult bargaining position." The disagreement that led to the trade began during Seaver's lengthy and often stormy contract negotiations in the spring of 1976. Seaver wanted to be the highest-paid pitcher in baseball (which he deserved to be) and to pursue an active role in the Major League Players Association (which was his right). This distressed Grant, a conservative, paternalistic man who is used to having things very much his own way. The Payson family, which owns the team, has given Grant broad authority to run it, and Grant has always acted in a strong, thoroughly obstinate manner. He is tightfisted with the Mets' money. In an interview with SI's Melissa Ludtke, Grant recalled telling Seaver at the time, "I know that a lot of people who are capitalists have to belong to unions, but I don't believe it is possible to be a capitalist and a leader of the union." Capitalist-union leader Seaver eventually signed a three-year contract full of complex incentive and penalty clauses. The disagreement seemed settled until the start of spring training this year when Seaver ill-advisedly reopened the debate, charging unfair treatment the previous spring. He failed to mention that the Mets had not exercised their contractual right to cut his 1977 salary 20% because of his failure to meet certain minimum performance standards. (Seaver's '76 record was a mediocre 14-11, but in his losses his teammates provided him with a measly total of 15 runs.) The Mets also refused to put Seaver's salary in line with the higher levels created by free agentry. Baltimore, for instance, had done this for Jim Palmer, who is the American League's Seaver. Accordingly, Seaver's income from baseball had dropped below that of at least 25 other players. The day he was traded the Mets' board of directors was still considering his request for a three-year extension of his contract at a higher salary and a $250,000 bonus in 1979, but the question became moot when he called to say, once and for all, "I want out." Seaver's decision was spurred by a Young column which implied that Seaver was demanding more dough in order to placate his wife Nancy, who was supposedly upset because the Angels' Nolan Ryan, a close friend, was making more than Seaver. But it is doubtful the Mets would have acceded to Seaver's request. Rules, after all, are rules. As for Seaver's demands for better support on the field, they certainly had merit, but as a player he was in no position to dictate club policy, no matter what his stature or how inadvisable that policy seemed to be. Late last Wednesday afternoon, as the trade deadline neared, Seaver worked out with the Mets before their evening game in Atlanta, but he knew he was on his way out, because earlier in the day he had signed a release that gave the Mets clearance to wrap up a deal with Cincy. Seaver said emotional farewells to his three oldest friends on the team, Pitcher Jerry Koosman, Shortstop Bud Harrelson and Catcher Jerry Grote, and while the Mets were beating the Braves, he took a flight to New York, where Nancy met him at the airport. They drove to the Warwick Hotel in Manhattan rather than return to their home in Greenwich, Conn. Seaver learned of the trade and its details while watching the 11 o'clock news. After 10 years, his career as a Met was over. In Atlanta, meanwhile, a letter containing Seaver's parting words to his old teammates was read aloud on the bus after the game by Manager Joe Torre. "I'll be rooting for you guys always," he wrote. The next night in New York Torre said trading Seaver was for the best. "I didn't want to trade Tom," he said, "but an unhappy Tom Seaver could hurt us, and Tom was very unhappy. He's a superstar with a lot of clout, and it could be disruptive." It was difficult for those who knew Seaver well to view him with such detachment. "I roomed with him for eight years," Harrelson said. "I'm very sad. I've cried several times. He was my best friend." Harrelson even asked Equipment Manager Herb Norman if he could take Seaver's locker, but Norman told him that it would be assigned to Zachry. As for Seaver's No. 41, Norman promised that he would never assign it to another player. "As far as I'm concerned, it's retired," he said. Grote, who had caught most of Seaver's important victories, including what Seaver calls "my imperfect game" (8? innings before he let a man on) said, "Everybody knew it would happen, but even then it floored the hell out of us. It was like knowing that an elderly person is going to die, but when it finally happens, you're still surprised." Seaver did not depart in vain, at least not in Koosman's opinion. "Mr. Grant runs the club, and Tom couldn't deal with him on an equal level," Koosman said. "It's like he made himself a sacrificial lamb. He was speaking for himself, sure, but also for the team. We'd both stay awake in our rooms and think about everything that was wrong with the club and the things we thought that could be done to help it." If a change had to be made, Seaver was glad it sent him to the Reds. For one thing, Cincinnati is the only team in the league against which he does not have a winning lifetime record. "Career-wise, this is probably the best thing that ever happened to me," Seaver said, relishing the thought of all the speed, power and Gold Gloves in the Cincy lineup. "I won't change my pitching style though, just because I'm with another team. I consider pitching an art form. I love to do it. It makes me feel creative. I'll be the same pitcher, but I am looking forward to watching this team when I'm in the dugout." Seaver said he did not mind that he would be playing for the same salary that he made in New York. The Reds also have a policy against renegotiating, but General Manager Bob Howsam did agree to knock out the penalty clauses in Seaver's contract. "Playing for the Reds, the money's going to be there one way or another," Seaver said, visions of playoff and World Series shares dancing in his head. When Seaver, a Met travel bag in hand, reached the Reds' dressing room Friday, the first player he saw was Pitcher Fred Norman. "I'm here to raise the pitchers' batting averages on this team," Seaver said prophetically. A moment later he ran into broadcaster Joe Nuxhall, who was giving up the No. 41 he wore while pitching batting practice. "They were considering giving you 41 A," Nuxhall said with a laugh. When Seaver reached his cubicle, he began putting on his scarlet and gray double-knit road uniform. The pants, size 34, were too small, but Seaver is not likely to be too big for his britches on this club. His three Cy Youngs are outnumbered by the five Most Valuable Player trophies held collectively by Johnny Bench, Pete Rose and Joe Morgan. The Reds, who had streaked from 13? games out of first to 6? games out in the preceding two weeks, felt they would catch the Dodgers without Seaver, but they were very glad to have him. As Rose was telling interviewers in another part of the dressing room, "Sometimes you get a big name on the way down. But Seaver's not slipping. It'll be exciting playing third on Saturday." It was. Seaver's only problem was a bout with butterflies in the first inning. Although he retired all three Expos, Morgan said to him on the way to the dugout, "Hey, slow down. It looks like you're rushing it a little bit. Looks like you're nervous." Seaver turned to him and said, "You're darn right I'm nervous." The rest of the game went splendidly, and afterward Seaver said. "That's a beautiful team I'm playing with. It's a real treat." "How was the uniform?" someone asked him. "It fits," he said, aware of just what he was saying. "It fits perfectly." Interesting to read the comments form Torre and some of the team.

That's got to be a mistake because that's what most expect Bay to go for.....would you want the Mets to go 5 years/$100 million for Holliday if that got it done?....or the 5 years/$80 million for Bay?

Bobby V in a landslide ......no surprise

Benitez had 138 saves for the Mets in the noughties....Wagner 101 it's tight

Harper digs hard and finds a new angle What's wrong with Omar Minaya and the New York Mets? Maybe they miss Tony Bernazard When Omar Minaya was earning a reputation as a big-game hunter in his early years as Mets GM, nobody was more dogged in pursuit of free agents. At the Carlos Beltran press conference, in fact, Jeff Wilpon giddily noted that either Minaya or former assistant GM Tony Bernazard had been relentless, calling agent Scott Boras every day for 31 straight days. And so a strange and ironic thought occurred to me Tuesday as Minaya was asking increasingly impatient fans for patience as the big-name free agents have begun signing with other teams: The Mets miss Tony Bernazard. Please don't misunderstand this; Bernazard deserved to get fired last summer for his various displays of temper and outrageous conduct, and I'm not advocating that he be re-hired. It's just that the Mets seem all too willing to let the market come to them this offseason, when their situation practically demanded that they shoot themselves out of a cannon and go after the few difference-makers available in this weak free-agent class. As I wrote in Tuesday's editions, they probably had no realistic shot at John Lackey once the Red Sox got involved, but their only chance was to make a big offer at the very first opportunity, the way the Yankees did last year with CC Sabathia. Instead, Minaya admitted Tuesday to taking a rather casual approach, saying, "We talked to Lackey's agent last Friday, and we were going to talk again sometime this week." What happened to calling 31 straight days? Basically the Mets seem to need a push, and Bernazard, with his intensity and in-your-face style, wasn't afraid to push both Wilpon and Minaya to act decisively. Consider what he said at that Beltran press conference in January of 2005, when asked about hounding Boras for a month: "When I go after something, I go after something." We know now that Bernazard was a pit bull in all the wrong ways as well, from intimidating co-workers to challenging minor-leaguers to fight him, but the Mets need that pit-bull mentality right now. Minaya finds himself chasing players from a position of weakness similar to the one he faced upon taking over as GM five years ago. Only the sense of urgency doesn't seem to be the same. Maybe his hands are tied financially, but he has let Lackey and Chone Figgins sign elsewhere without any kind of fight. And while the Mets have put the word out that Jason Bay is a better fit at Citi Field than Matt Holliday, there is a feeling among baseball people that they simply weren't willing to meet Holliday's price, as dictated by Boras. In any case, it seems likely now that Holliday is heading back toward the Cardinals, which would leave Bay as the only big-ticket free agent left on the market. At the very least the Mets need to move quickly to lock him up. Because if they somehow miss out on Bay, especially now that the Red Sox appear to be out of the mix, the offseason would suddenly loom as the same type of disaster as the season itself. To this Minaya stood in front of reporters at the Mets' holiday party yesterday and insisted that the offseason is going according to plan. "We have a plan," he said. "We've targeted players and if we get our guys we're going to have a very good team. (To the fans) I would say be patient. In the past we've delivered, and I believe we're going to deliver again this year." The problem is their plan seemed to be built around the thinking that patience would yield bargains in a soft market, and they were caught off-guard when teams spent more aggressively than anticipated. Minaya can still salvage the offseason if he lands Bay, Bengie Molina, and either Jason Marquis or Joel Pineiro. If he wants kudos from Mets fans, however, he's going to have to do something creative like finding a cash-strapped trading partner as the Yankees did in landing Curtis Granderson from the Tigers. Indeed, Edwin Jackson, who went to the Diamondbacks in that three-way deal, would have been ideal for the Mets. So is it simply that they don't have the prospects to pull off such a move? Or is Minaya not quite the big-game hunter he was when he had a pit bull at his side?

2006 for me.....coupled with 05 it was a fun time to be a Mets fan...the future seemed bright ...dare I say the Mets were media darlings and all things seemed possible.

Nice summery there Edgy, I'd forgotten most of that....Duquette's young daughter at the time went through a rare kidney disease , lucky to have survived IIRC.

sucks that we have had more bad/crushing/abysmal seasons than good in the noughties.

Overhyped? , sure it is but 2007 there came a point when you could see it all unfold.......I could have easily voted for that year but 2006 does hurt.....although it was a great season the ending was CRUSHING.

2006 , nothing more crushing than that curve.

Is it really called Tommy John surgery in Japan?

Mike fecking Vaccaro.....I salute you. How did his editors let that one fly?

With this great team taking shape we hardly even need a GM but we should vote on one anyway......

We are nearly finished and all will be revealed Friday afternoon, but we need a manager to get this All-Star squad into shape. Please consider all these fine men.....

Hey they should sign Wang now...

take that John fucking Harper....

Benitez

Hampton , Leiter, Martinez & Santana

Wendell & Feliciano

This should be interesting. One vote.....who is the Mets Closer of the noughties?

Who's the best to bridge those rocky late innings to the closer? Vote for two please