Frayed Knot

I have a vague memory of Justin getting thrown out at 2nd on what should have been a double but I could have been drinking heavily at that point and have the facts all screwed up. Other than that I don't have any particular memories of Turner loafing out of the box although maybe he did and I just missed it/them. But if he was given to 'Cano-ing' it down the line I don't have a problem with someone in NYM mgmt saying so. If you're a player and don't want to get criticized for not hustling then here's what you do: Hustle. The interesting thing this season will be to see during Yanx/Mariners games if the MFY announcers notice/mention Cano's constant case of lead feet on grounders ... cuz they sure didn't notice them up until now.

Centerfield wrote: I know I'm in the minority here, but I think there's nothing wrong with paying Davis $3.5 million and hoping he can recover to 2012 form. If Davis were coming from another team, and Sandy signed a guy who, as recently as 2012, hit 30 HR's and plays solid defense, for one year, $3.5 million, I think a lot of folks would say it's a good move. And so for that reason, I'd be perfectly happy to keep as long as we build other pieces around him. I don't mind taking a chance of Ike rebounding -- but, if so, I want to trade Duda (or vice-versa). The two are just too similar [low-BA, decent walk-rate, high-Ks, good though only sometimes-realized LH power, slow-footed, emergency-only OFs] to justify keeping both while other holes go unfulfilled.

MFS62 wrote: On WCBS radio, I heard "Mets (static) Bartolo Colon (static)" Did they sign him? No, but they did static him. Film at eleven.

And Kemp's tattoo is a big downside to be considered.

Some of the players, according to leaked votes from past years, haven't always been as pro-Miller as you'd think. Some (Reggie Jackson) view the HoF as a should-be players only affair. Others won't necessarily go that far, but have stated that they don't think it's their (the players) place to judge non-players and so wind up leaving blank ballots for anyone who didn't wear a jock for a living. The Vets committee was then re-re-done to supposedly root out those type of attitudes, but who knows ...

TransMonk wrote: ...depending on pitchers over 40 to produce similar results again is tough to do. And depending on ones built like Dom Deluise to do it again is even tougher. Really Frayed ... you couldn't come up with an example never than the 1970s? Actually, I could not.

Jon Heyman reports (no word whether ESPN "confirms") that Roy Halladay is to make his retirement announcement today.

Edgy MD wrote: Jimmy Reeves was also a minor league pitcher before severing his sciatic nerve. But seeing as how he's been dead since 1964, I don't see how he'd be a useful member of the Veteran's Committee. Well, seeing as how the Vets committee has long specialized in electing dead guys, who better?

Edgy MD wrote: Jim Reeves (I dunno) Not quite sure how he got into the HoF voting, but "Gentleman" Jim Reeves had a whole string of country and gospel hits over the years. Maybe somebody with Cooperstown connections is a big fan. bpi8Bek6jdM

Centerfield wrote: ... If the reward coming back is some back-end starter, I'd prefer to just let Davis and Duda duke it out in spring training. Which leads to the question ... And then what? Dealing the presumptive loser of that duel towards the end of ST when most rosters are set would likely mean less of a haul than now and I think everyone is pretty much in agreement that keeping both isn't really an option. The alternative, I suppose, would be to send the loser to the minors (is that even possible anymore?) and hope he tears things up but, again, what kind of return are you going to get in May or June that you won't get now? The bottom line is, two mid/late 20s under-performing 1Bmen with (occasional) power but who bring little else to the party simply aren't going to bring back that much.

Wasn't there at least a couple of articles coming out of the NYC press crew around the time Zduriencik moved over to Seattle about how the Mets really missed the boat on not hiring this guy .... or am I just, in the words of Rajah Clemens, mis-remembering?

- He should supply power on a team and at a position where we lacked it pretty severely. - the BA is likely to be low but his above average walk rate partially makes up for that. - can play all OF positions (reportedly quite well) including CF which is a biggie. So instead of now needing Lagares to hit better there's a Plan B if he doesn't. Given all that plus the idea that the downside to this deal is so minimal due to the short-term contract, it's hard to dislike the signing too much. Granderson, by contrast, has both the better upside but also a bigger downside as a result of the approx 2X price and, especially, the 4X length of his deal. I am, therefore, going with the mild version of 'Like'. Optimistic? Yeah maybe. But baseball fans are often in the optimism business.

Bumpity bump-bump, bumpity bump-bump ... look at rankings go We've got five solid ballots so far here from JCL, FK, Seawolf, Vic Sage & LWFS Also Ceetar who has vowed to re-check his choices and get back, and I believe at least G-FaFiF was talking about submitting one but so far hasn't gotten a round tuit. Additional votes, ballot updates, or just plain comments and insults are still being taken from anyone else. Going to keep this open for the remainder of December before 'putting it into the books'.

I'm in the 'Like' column. He certainly fills a need and, while there's always the chance of this cratering, I think the odds are better than even that we get a couple of good years out of him. Also think this was a better idea than Beltran for 75% of the length and the same price, or Choo for a longer/higher cost despite much less of a track record.

I don't see the Orioles wanting Ike. Their Davis is quite fine defensively and is barely older than ours with only one less year of club control (two years rather than three)

Vic Sage wrote: Man, they are an old expensive team. ... and that's before they signed KJohnson, Kuroda and Beltran! Well at least none of their old, expensive players are dealing with hip (Rodriguez), ankle (Jeter), knee (Beltran), wrist (Teixeira) or suspension issues.

"How could they spend three years preparing for Rivera's retirement and still not have a successor in place?" -- I guess theoretically it's David Robertson but while that team tends to say things like they're going to give the job to the up-and-coming guy (sure Brett Gardner is going to be our everyday CF next year) they rarely do. "Is Joba a starter or a reliever this week?" -- Joba's current title is "unemployed"; the Yanx cut him loose at the same time as Phil Hughes

Potential Yanqui DHs either to get their bat into the lineup, or give their octogenarian legs the day off, or because their glove/fielding range has been declared a hazard by OSHA are (in no particular order): Jeter, ARod, Beltran, Soriano, Wells, McCann, Ichiro, Nunez What a lot of folks don't realize is that ARod & Jeter DH'd nearly 40% of the games (63 times combined) back in 2012 so it's not like they were everyday players even before their ankles & hips fell apart and their drug dealers got busted. And, sure, ARod's likely suspension takes one wrench out of the works (it also takes their best remaining bat out of the lineup no matter how much the fans want to pretend otherwise) but that still leaves 8 guys (the above seven plus Gardner) to fill 5 positions (3B, SS, DH, + both corner OF spots) plus give McCann & Teixeira days off in a lineup where probably only Ellsbury plays every day (assuming that he doesn't, y'know, miss an average of 67 games/year like he has over the previous four seasons). So, yeah, I think they'd prefer to DH Beltran as much as possible, but the rest of that roster makes it difficult to do so. Jeter's backup, remember, is now Brendan Ryan who has hit .217/.283/.294 over the last four seasons - and he just got a two-year deal plus player option. All this and we still don't know who's playing 2nd base ... or doing that starting pitching thing (although they've re-re-signed Kuroda) ... or closing (but that's a whole separate issue).

Relax ace. It was a joke based on me not knowing where you were going with the Samardzija comment. But now that we're on the subject: Murphy may very well get traded (for Samardzija? ... hmmmmm) but if he does I don't think it's going to strictly to make room for Eric Young. I suspect the club likes EYJr more as a 4th OFer and/or all-around versatile sub than as a starting 2Bman

I know it's not even Winter Meetings week yet - but the Braves are usually good for a bunch of aggressive and out-of-the-box off-season moves, and yet the biggest thing they've done so far is to announce that they are abandoning their city. Plus, all this comes in a year where it seems they need to make more moves than usual as since October they've: - lost Tim Hudson to the Giants - lost Brian McCann to the Yanx - benched their starting 2Bman for the playoffs because his hitting declined so much that his fielding became his strong suit, and when your name is Dan Uggla that's not a good thing - had last year's big FA signing, BJ Upton, fall into disaster territory in the 1st year of a 5 year deal, essentially making the two highest paid players on their roster (Uggla & Upton) their worst - and the system guys of Freeman, Heyward, Kimbrel, etc. are starting to reach those more expensive arbitration years And while I'm sure they'll have some aces up their sleeves: some 14th round draft pick out of the Atlanta suburbs will come out of nowhere next spring throwing to a sub-2.00 ERA for the first few months of the season; and somewhere in their system is some 19 y/o kid who they signed based on how he looked swinging his machete on a sugarcane field on the side of a Caribbean volcano somewhere who will mysteriously turn into a .300 hitter, but still, it's unlike them to be this eerily quiet while the rest of the transaction sheets are bursting into flames all around them.

Nats sign Nate McLouth to a two-year deal - not actually official yet, pending physical blah, blah Good move for the Nats, I think, as the difference between what they got from their bench last year as compared to 2012 was maybe the biggest reason they failed to win the division most people predicted for them. Kind of strange to see McLouth, 32 / LHB, lock himself into a deal where he's almost certainly not going to start ahead of Werth, Harper, or Span, but I guess he didn't see a starter's job anywhere else. That he's capable of filling in at any or all of the three OF spots means he'll get at least some playing time (hell, Lombardozzi got 300 ABs last year and he can't hit) and more if one of the above gets hurt.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: MFS62 wrote: Beltran to the Yanks (3 years) Good thing the Yanx aren't panicking over the loss of Cano. The funny thing is though, I think Carlos brings their average age down a bit. Funny, but, y'know, even in a vacuum, Beltran's deal may actually be a better one than the Granderson one. It's almost certainly a better deal for the MFYs than the Granderson deal is for the Mets, if only because of what they get from marginal wins. Maybe, but even if you guy that line of thinking it only works if Beltran stays healthy and that's not only a big if coming into the season but it becomes an even bigger if as he turns 38 then 39. Of course they can always play him at DH ... except that they already have 9 DHs on the roster!

MFS62 wrote: Beltran to the Yanks (3 years) Good thing the Yanx aren't panicking over the loss of Cano. The funny thing is though, I think Carlos brings their average age down a bit. Can't possibly see Soriano at 2B except in a rare emergency ... and Scott Feldman to Houston. And now we know what the price is for a decent 3rd/4th-type starter* -- approx 3 x $10 * 51-56 career record; 4.62 ERA; 1.37 WHiP; 31 y/o; double-digit wins twice (2009 & 2013)

sharpie wrote: If Jeff Samardzija can pitch...maybe he can play shortstop. Maybe playing tight end will help him play shortstop.

I'll take non-sequiturs for $400 Alex.