Frayed Knot

I didn't know Kirstie Alley was covering the Mets these days. Maybe the team could give her some of Mo Vaughn's old sweats. "[Cerrone] wants actions, not words" --- but he'll over-react to words anyway.

Pedroia's not a FA. He just signed an 8-year extension at the beginning of the season that doesn't even begin until 2014

JW: �We�ve got a couple more meetings. And there might be hopefully something cooking later. Right now, it�s quiet. Sandy (Alderson) has been in meetings all morning. He�s got a couple more meetings this afternoon. So we�ll see where we are.� So THIS was the quote that got half the world twatting about some major deal being imminent? Might, Hopefully be something later ... we'll see where we are

PLAYER1st2nd3rdTOTAL KERSHAW2910207WAINWRIGHT115486FERNANDEZ09362KIMBREL04139HARVEY01839LEE00632ZIMMERMANN00621GREINKE00218BUMGARNER0003LIRIANO0003 PLAYER1st2nd3rdTOTALSCHERZER2811203DARVISH019393IWAKUMA061273SANCHEZ11346SALE10544COLON02325UEHARA01210HERNANDEZ0016MOORE0004HOLLAND0002MOORE0004SHIELDS0002 First back-to-back years of NO Yanx receiving votes since the early 1990s

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Surely they're full-grown Men by now. Not quite. Hell, the Beach Boys aren't either and they've been around a lot longer.

Not the band or Limbaugh, but rather a Ron Howard directed story about the rivalry played out across five continents during the 1976 Formula-1 racing season between hard-living English playboy James Hunt and the brusque, calculating Austrian (and defending champ) Niki Lauda.

AL: Francona - CLE (16 1st place votes) Farrell - BOS (12) Melvin - OAK (2) Girardi - NYY Maddon - TBR Leyland - DET Showalter - BAL Washington - TEX Yost - KCR Only four managers hogged all the votes in the NL: Hurdle - Mattingly - Gonzalez - Matheny

NL MOY = Hurdle, followed by Mattingly, then Fredi Gonzalez

Atlanta mayor says that Turner Stadium will be demolished after the Braves leave. I assume the same thing will be true for the only slightly older Georgia Dome as that gets replaced. In the meantime the Braves AAA affiliate, which the parent club owns and they moved to the suburbs NE of Atlanta a few years back, has fallen short of attendance projections since the move in part because of ... traffic problems.

Pre-fame Jeff Buckley agrees to travel across the country in order to participate in a 1991 tribute concert (held in a Brooklyn church) for the post-life Tim Buckley despite, or maybe because of, his mixed feelings towards the father he barely knew and oddness of hanging around with a bunch of Tim contemporaries and/or idolators. This is a drama as opposed to one of the slew of documentaries that seem to be common around under-appreciated due-to-early-death singers: Phil Ochs, Harry Neilsson, Townes Van Zandt, etc. Throw into the mix the cute young thing with the "major crush" on Tim who's working as a gofer for the show-promoters and hijinx are bound to ensue.

This thread will be kept open for another few weeks at least so you can take your time and get things right ... not that there's any true "right" answer but you should be in a position where you can justify your choices. Like, for instance, I would think it would take a lot of mental gymnastics to explain Baxter ten slots ahead of Young - but maybe you do.

GEE whiz, the guy who pitched the most innings on the team can even crack the top 30?!?!? You're also Lagares-less, Hefner-less, and Shortstop-less. Some of those may be intentional, but I don't suspect all of them are.

Last night was the deadline for players accepting the "qualifying offer" (see above) from their teams and, although nothing is official yet, for the second year out of two, apparently none of the players have chosen to do so. So all on the above list are free to negotiate with any team but it will cost the signing team a 1st, or in some cases 2nd, round draft pick.

MFS62 wrote: I have a weird feeling that among the NL-ers, Gattis will have the longest career. Really?!? Even in a part-timer/PH/DH kind of way I wouldn't bet on that. Remember first of all that he's already 27 y/o, is barely a catcher and even less of an outfielder. The one thing that he has going for him is that nearly half his hits went for XBs but he also strikes out a lot, doesn't walk much [sub-.300 OBA], and was even demoted for a time during the season as pitchers adjusted to his first-pitch attacking bombs-away strategy. Even as a 1B-man/emergency catcher, which is probably where his future lies, that set of skills makes for a tough case as an everyday player.

PLAYERTEAM1st2nd3rdPOINTSJose FernandezMarlins2640142Yasiel PuigDodgers425095Shelby MillerCardinals01912Hyun-Jin RyuDodgers001010Julio TeheranBraves0077Jedd GyorkkoPadres0022Nolan ArenadoRockies0011Evan GattisBraves0011 PLAYERTEAM1st2nd3rdPOINTSWil MyersRays2351131Jose IglesiasBos/Detroit517480Chris ArcherRays151535Dan StrailyA�s12415J.B. ShuckAngels0114Cody AllenIndians0022Martin PerezRockies0022David LoughRoyals0011

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Are we at a point where we are so discouraged that we will rip on them no matter what they do? No, I think folks here are at a point where they're discouraged when the team is prevented from doing something that was both spontaneous and unique to them and yet jumps on board when a generic 'tribute' is arranged as part of a league-wide promotion because it can sell more licensed gear.

And since no one guessed 900+, he'll need to average a minimum of 137/yr over the next four seasons for the group who selected 800-899 to be correct. Between 112 and 137/yr for the next group (700-799) or between 87 and 112/yr for the group choosing 600-699 (the most common answer). And the one person who picked 400-499 needs Jose to average between 37 & 61 games/year over the next four. I still like the 700-799 pick

Edgy MD wrote: TransMonk wrote: Average Monday home attendance was 27,187 in 2013 - 65% of capacity...plenty of seats to spare. Also, it's another jersey option and jerseys don't sell cheap. Unless they sell at a CitiField store, giving the Mets a chunk of the markup, doesn't all MLB-licensed merchandise revenue get otherwise shared? To a point, yes. Each team has some sort of area in which they can own outlets and keep the profits - it's why NYM stores sell other teams stuff as well, so they can make money off of their stuff as well as any other team gear. Such outlets would obviously include stores within CitiField but others in the NYC area as well. But outside of those little exclusivity zones and for sales via licensed retailers (Modell's et al) the revenues generated from merchandising is split 30 ways.

It's hard to know how slimy the Braves are being about all this without knowing what demands/promises/payments were being made back when it was decided that they would take over the reconfigured Olympic stadium but, whatever the case, it sounds like it's their decision to make now that the lease is running out. As mentioned a couple times in this thread, this idea goes back to the future (or is it forward to the past?) of the suburban relocation era of the '70s (Landover, Md; Foxboro, MA; Auburn Hills, MI, etc.) -- and while that certainly goes against the recent trend and therefore sounds like the wrong decision in most cases, maybe it's not the wrong one for this particular team and area. One would hope this would serve as a warning signal to cities lining up to give money to sports teams already owned by billionaires ... but we know it probably won't. I hope for Cobb County's sake that they're covering their ass on this one.

Ceetar wrote: ...recommendations? Buying a newspaper?

It's one thing for a military town like San Diego to do their deal once a week. This, on the other hand, has the smell of doing it for political correctness/pr reasons (Watch Us Care!!) There are enough ways to honor vets without (literally) wearing it on your sleeves. And I'm sure that replicas of the jerseys will be available for sale in the lobby on your way out.

seawolf17 wrote: He never played again after taking a foul ball off the top of his catcher helmet during a Mets game in August. "2013 Mets: We might not have won many games, but we sure did beat the hell out of the opposition." Mauer, Hudson, Heyward, ...

PLAYERORIGINAL CONTRACTAGE 2014YEARS Rem.AVG $ / YRJOE MAUER8 Years / $18431523 MAUER -- Injuries and position questions cloud the future. And now comes word that Mauer will transition to full-time 1st baseman starting next season - which basically makes him Todd Helton with a lot less power and a tougher home park. He never played again after taking a foul ball off the top of his catcher helmet during a Mets game in August.

MFS62 wrote: I'm not sure. The Georgia Dome is also the home field for Georgia Tech. (It may also be school property). If they build a new stadium for the NFL team, the Dome could still remain. It's not like the city needs TWO DOMES for approximately 15 or so football games. I don't think the NFL is too fond of a college steam sharing their facilities on a regular basis. Then they can pay for the fucking thing themselves if the horror of sharing the place is too big a burden for them, which, of course, they're not. I hope for the sake of Cobb County that the Braves are footing the bill for their new place. They already own the AAA team and (I believe) the stadium in Gwinnett County to the north east of the city. The suburbs making up Gwinnett & Cobb (NW of the city) counties have become a hotbed of HS baseball over the last two decades or so (hell, it's been where the Braves have taken half their draft choices) so I suspect they think it'll get them more and better fans than those of blacker and more football-centric Atlanta itself. Either way it represents a reversal of moving towards city centers that's been going on since about the '70s.

In the meantime, the city of Atlanta is replacing their football stadium - as if a twenty y/o domed stadium is somehow now obsolete and a drag for the team. In that case the NFL probably told them they needed a new crib or no more Super Bowls. In the case of the Braves, this sounds like a move to the whiter suburbs. So does the city now demolish both of those "old" edifices?