Frayed Knot

Centerfield wrote: Isn't he under Mets control? Why cut a guy if you can get something of value back for him? I mean, I get it if you don't want the guy to pitch for the team again, but it's better to get some value rather than release him outright no? Not necessarily suggesting he needs to be immediately cut, particularly as how he'll be spending the next 12 months in a kind of suspended animation: still under NYM control but not being paid and not accumulating service time. No decisions on his future need to be until that time as far as I know which, again, is probably part of why Sandy didn't definitively rule out him being a Met at some point in the future. But it's the trust thing that's got to be burning mgmt now, that there's no way they could ever believe him about anything again. Plus there's that sword hanging over any team's head who gives him the next shot, that one more dirty test and he's banished for life and who wants to have a piece like that in your plans while building a bullpen?

Centerfield wrote: It is much more fun to be pursuing a perfect game than it is to hope like hell one is not thrown against you. And we've seen both sides in the same week, and both times it was broken up by a leadoff single in the 7th.

Edgy MD wrote: 10 walks, 39 strikeouts. With half of those walks coming in one game.

Former Cincy + Washington GM Jim Bowden was on BB2N last night proposing all manner of trades -- keep the 'proposing' part in mind as he was making no claims of inside information of ongoing discussions or even rumors, just trades he'd like to see made. So anyway, he came up with: Gomez + (LHR) Neal Cotts -- in exchange for -- Lagares + Montero + (PSL pitcher) Marcos Molino + Nimmo

Syndergaard's last six starts: Runs allowed: 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0 Innings pitched: 8, 6, 8, 7, 5, 8 That's your basic 1.28 ERA and 0.74 WHIP That's not pitching, it's pillaging.

Promoted to AAA

Rockin' Doc wrote: Time to just cut bait with this idiot. Mejia is apparently too stupid to ever be of value to the Mets. Sandy apparently stopped short of saying the Mejia has thrown his last pitch for the Mets, but he probably has to do that rather than risk some kind of complaint from the players union. But I think we all pretty much know that he's thrown his final pitch for the Mets.

btw, for those who were advocating -- Demanding even -- a pre-season Syndergaard for Ian Desmond deal: 4 swinging K's for Desmond tonight in Miami. 4-1 Marlins heading for the 9th. In other O-o-T-S news: - Yanx are up 15-5 in Texas IN THE TOP OF THE 3rd Chris Capuano couldn't get through the bottom of the 1st for the Yanx [5 runs, 2/3 inning] but was off the hook by the top of the 2nd and the Yanx have put up 15 unanswered. angers are already on their 3rd pitcher, Yanx on their 2nd and the game is approaching 2 hours old still in the top of the 3rd. - 7-2 O's over Braves in the 8th

Or too much confidence in whatever "doctor" is prescribing these things and/or the masking agents for him.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: It's Tyler Clip-Art. Hey, that's what my auto-correct keeps trying to change his name to so we may as well call him that. In that same vein Jacob deGrom is hereby dubbed Jacob Legroom (which, considering his build, fits him kind of nicely too).

So essentially the deal bringing in Clippard, instead of strengthening the bullpen, essentially just brings in back to status quo.

Papelbon has a no-trade clause and he is supposedly invoking it in order to guarantee that he's to be used as the closer. Wonder how manager Matt Williams views a player dictating how and when he's used? ... not to mention what incumbent Drew Storen thinks about it as he's certainly not done anything to lose that job.

I agree with the overall premise that the most active and the most current should make up a better and more informed voting bloc than does including all kinds of one-time baseball writers who long ago either retired or have moved on to covering politics, fashion, or, maybe worst of all, football. In that vein this is an overdue move. But I don't know that fewer voters necessarily means more inductees, or even that more is be definition better, or even that there's a backlog of overlooked candidates just waiting for their wrongs to be righted. You just hope you can get the best group to come up with the best answers -- answers where the 'Nays' are as important as the 'Yays' -- even when those choices don't jibe with your personal ones.

Or S. Cargo [fimg=300:1h5sud73]http://www.snail-world.com/wp-content/uploads/snail-front.jpg[/fimg:1h5sud73]

sharpie wrote: Zobrist to Royals. No word yet on who goes the other way. Don Zimmer clings onto his alphabetically last Met designation. 2 minor league pitchers apparently including former 1st round pick (34th overall 2013) Sean Manaea (LHP). Manaea was in the back half in several of the top 100 prospects lists done over this past winter, not unlike say Brandon Nimmo. He hasn't pitched much this season (just 7 starts) or all that well for that matter so there may be some problem going on. oe: also Aaron Brooks, a 23 y/o reliever currently in high-A ball

Vic Sage wrote: However you slice it, Reyes is guaranteed about $50m from now through 2018, and Tulo is in for $100m from now through 2021 (the difference in their average salaries is $22m v $20m; not enough to make any real difference). Given their similar ages, recent health issues, and road production, i wouldn't take either of those deals, but i don't know that taking a $100m risk on Tulo is a better idea than a $50m risk on Jose. Tulo's deal was slightly front-loaded so he's going to cost the Jays $19.6/year for the next 5 seasons (starting w/'16 and including buy-out money) or $18.17/yr x 6 Reyes's deal comes out to $24/yr over the next two seasons (again factoring in the buyout) or $22 per if you keep him for 2018 So there is a somewhat significant per year difference especially when you factor in that Tulo is the better player and also younger by nearly a year and a half. Now obviously he's also the longer term and larger total outlay commitment so which is preferable might depend on the particular team's situation.

Just occurred to me that with the Nationals being one of the top teams mentioned in conjunction with Kimbrel, we could be seeing this guy six days in a row if the timing of a trade falls just so.

Essentially the Blue Jays are taking on a longer and more costly deal in total but will actually be paying their SS at less per/year from here on. So it's a high contract swapped for a different kind of high contract. What made Reyes's deal so onerous was the back-loading of it. What started out as pretty good morphed into merely somewhat expensive and then finishes as absurdly so and does so just as his speed, fielding, and RH hitting [613 OPS as RHB this season vs 781 as LHB] all start to go downhill.

So what's up with these Padres? After a total make-over job last winter in which they traded about half of their top 30 prospects, they're humming along at a sub-.500 record (47-52) with a RS/RA ratio which suggests they should be 4 games worse than that. 8.0 & 8.5 games behind the Giants & Dodgers, they're probably on the verge of starting to un-do some of their quick-fix moves from last off-season to the point where it's possible that some of the guys who start this series against us won't be around for the finish. We last saw them in early June at their place and lost 2 of 3, winning the opener 7-0 behind deGrom and at the expense of Andrew Cashner, before losing 7-2 on Syndergaard's worst start of his short career [7 runs on 10 hits over 4 innings) then 7-3 as Gee and a bunch of errors again allowed 7 runs in the first 4 frames. Tuesday 7:10: James Shields vs Syndergaard (see above) Wednesday 7:10: Tyson Ross (brother of Nats' Joe) [6-8, 3.45, 1.39] vs Bartolo Thursday [u:2pnh39mk]12:10[/u:2pnh39mk]: Andrew Cashner [4-10, 3.93, 1.31] vs Niese. Cashner throws near 100 at times but still gives >1 hit/inning. He also might be one of their bigger trade baits. C - Derrick Norris - good power threat from behind the plate 1B - Yonder Alonso - one of the multitude of 1Bs taken in the same draft year as Ike (11 picks earlier). Good BA/OBA but almost no power for a 1B (3 HRs and just 14 of 70 hits for XB) 2B - Mostly Jedd Gyorko these days. They hoped for better hitting from him than they've gotten 3B - Yangervis* Solarte - Got off to a hot start w/the Yanx last year (Who needs ARod!!!!) who dealt him to SD for Chase Headley last July. But he basically was an April phenomenon who's been barely mediocre since. SS - A combo of Alexi Amarista (the better fielder) and Clint Barmes (the hitting half of the duo) OF - Justin Upton in LF, a combo of Will Venable & Melvin Upton Jr** in CF, and Matt Kemp everyday in RF. Any or all of them could be gone before the week's out. Kemp's had a hot July after stinking up the first three months of the season. Closer - Craig Kimbrel has been voted most likely to be dealt this week. Started poorly for him this year but seems to be back to his old self lately. Wil Myers (the key to their off-season acquisition spree) & Will Middlebrooks are both on the DL so it's obviously a bad week to be a Will in SD no matter how many L's you choose to use and I don't think Will.I.Am will be singing the anthem anytime soon (can he even sing?). * I heard a piece recently on the popularity of Y first names in Caribbean (and particularly Cuban - though Solarte is Venezuelan) cultures. It seems that one way to express individuality in the often oppressive states was through unique first names and the Y presence is in homage to Russian names they had known from Communist circles (Yegevny, Yuri, etc.) See also Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes, etc. ** Has any other player used the Jr. on his name when Sr. wasn't also a ML ballplayer (or say a coach in Cal Ripken's case)? Melvin Jr is, of course, the artist previously known as B.J. which stood for Bossman Jr. which was in homage to his father's nickname. But he abandoned that this past winter going for Melvin Jr. rather than just Melvin or even M.J.

Tulo's contract, btw, apparently had a clause in it which allowed him to be traded only once during the life of the contract, so this deal triggers a complete no-trade option for him. Not that he couldn't waive it if he chooses, but re-trading him just got tougher.

The Jays, 7.0 games in back of the Yanx in the East and 3.0 out of the WC, you gotta figure are trading for Tulowitski for the long run. That may break down after this year is out but I doubt they got him just to spin him off right away. The Rox OTOH might turn Jose around immediately in an attempt to add to whatever haul of prospects they just got from Toronto. Nimmo, Fulmer, Morris and Lagares to Rockies 4 Reyes, Gonzalez. WHO SAYS NO? No doubt that would make the Mets better for this season & next at a minimum. Not sure they could handle the money though: Gonzo owed $17 + $20 in 2016-17; Reyes owed $22 + $22 + $4 buyout or $22 more for 2018 (stupid back-loaded Miami contract). And even if they could swing it, that's a big outlay for a soon-to-be 30 y/o and a SS who's already 32 ... or if the Mets would want to take on a Coors-monster like Gonzalez: career splits = .326/.384/.599 at home vs .258/.313/.440 on road. Jose's lifetime stats in Coors are surprisingly mediocre.

d'Arnaud hit (1-3) and caught 7 innings at Bingo tonight and should be on track for the Nats series this weekend.

That's the final one. Also hit his 40+ as a Met

Not Rickey -- fits the other three categories but came up as a 20 y/o

dinosaur jesus wrote: The first was Ty Cobb. I remember that from when Rusty became the second. Yeah, Cobb & Rusty were the 2/3 of the question that I knew as well. Oddly the one I could not remember was the most recent (til ARod) member of this quirky club.