Frayed Knot

It's not just the number of games lost, it's the pct of salaries eaten up by the DL. 29% of total payroll in the Mets' case (no one else looks all that close) - most of which was obviously a result of the long-term absences of Reyes, Beltran & Delgado.

Also factoring in the Wilpon's (alleged) penchant for intentionally stacking the (self-owned) Brooklyn squad with their best young talent (to the detriment of other minor league affiliates) should supply Wally with a (hoped-for) soft landing.

I think we should explore other types of ownership and project how they might change the culture of the Mets before we go ahead and suggest any coup d'etats. For instance, if GM were to buy the team maybe we could get cash for some of our clunkers. - or if 'Match-dot-com' or one of those other on-line dating sites were the new owners then it might help the guys score ... or at least get to 2nd base. - or maybe the Kohler faucets company, at least that way a bad season would be headed down a much nicer drain.

Imagine if you will a group headed up by Dave Checketts (but sans Rush. . .unless you are talking about Geddy, Alex, and Neil as minority investors) to bail out/deliver us from the Wilpons. Why exclude Rush?

John Sickels on Davis: "His swing was longer than I�d been led to believe. Not all scouts like him, some think he has severe problems with breaking stuff."

From BA: Jenrry Mejia signed with the Mets two and a half years ago in relative anonymity. His $16,500 signing bonus looks like a clearance-aisle price today for the organization�s No. 1 prospect, a power-armed righthander who reached Double-A in June before just turning 20 last month. Pitching for Surprise yesterday after missing his last scheduled start due to illness, Mejia touched 96 mph with his fastball once, otherwise ranging from 90-95 mph and mostly sitting 92-95 (he�s been clocked as high as 98 mph in previous outings here in the AFL and during the minor league season). His fastball is a swing-and-miss offering, not just because of its velocity but because of its outstanding movement. Mejia generates tremendous cutting action on his fastball, and he�ll also put some sink on his heater as well. Between the velocity and movement, Mejia has a pitch he can use as an out pitch or to induce grounders�71 percent of his outs on balls in play were groundouts during the minor league season. �It has a lot of power�it gets on you quick,� said Surprise pitching coach Tom Phelps, the Yankees� Double-A pitching coach at Trenton during the 2009 minor league season. �He has a fastball that will cut, and he also has a fastball that will sink. As long as he keeps it down in the zone, he gets a lot of ground balls and a lot of early outs and quick innings. The big thing for him is controlling it in the zone and not getting behind hitters and walking hitters.� Mejia did a good job limiting free passes during the regular season with high Class A St. Lucie, where he had a 1.97 ERA in 50 1/3 innings and walked 2.9 batters per nine innings. His walk rate increased to 4.7 per nine in 44 1/3 innings upon his promotion to Double-A Binghamton, an increase partly due to better competition but also likely because six of his 10 Double-A starts came in August and September when he was returning from a strained right middle finger. The shakiness with his command has carried over to the AFL. He�s allowed 11 walks in 11 1/3 innings and has an 11.91 ERA through five starts. Mejia did allow five runs yesterday, though one was unearned. Two other runs scored after Mejia left the game with two outs and runners on second and third in the fourth inning, when White Sox outfielder Jordan Danks hit a groundball single off Mets righthander Josh Stinson to bring home the runners. Aside from improved command, scouts want to see more consistency from Mejia�s offspeed pitches. His 78-82 mph curveball showed flashes of tight spin and sharp downward bite at times, but he also threw some slurvy ones as well. Mejia didn�t show much of his high-80s changeup, but it�s a projectable offering, too. �When he just throws it and doesn�t try to overthrow it, he�s got a good curveball,� Phelps said. �It looks like his heater, he�s got good deception and it�s got some quick break to it. Also his better secondary pitch is his changeup. His changeup has a lot of depth, has real good arm speed and looks like his fastball. He�s got the pitches to complement (his fastball), it�s just a matter of him being able to control it in the zone and keeping it down in the zone.�

I just think that this was some kind of give-away item and DiGorno's (and/or the Mets) didn't want to pay what it would take to get a real artist to do it. Instead it was probably along the lines of someone saying; "hey I got a nephew who took a class once and ..."

Good thing they used captions to identify the players because if I had to do so just by the artwork ...

Off the charts maybe? Or maybe someone has to actually see him catch a fly ball first? Holliday = 3.40 Bay = 2.81

Sorting the included players (min 90 innings played in 2009) by position shows: (Scores shown for best/worst 5.0 excellent, 1.0 = poor) RF: Best = Ichiro (4.59), Brett Carroll, Nick Markakis Worst = Matt Stairs, Eric Hinske, Jack Cust (1.81) Church = 3.83; Francoeur = 3.50 CF: Best = Drew Stubbs (4.64), Franklin Gutierrez, Carlos Beltran (4.41) Worst = Willy Tavares, Gary Mathews, Jason Michaels (2.63) - Angel Pagan = 3.49 LF: Best = Nyjer Morgan (4.46), Carl Crawford, Endy Chavez Worst = Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr (LF?), Chris Duncan (1.94) - Jeremy Reed = 3.26; Fernando Martinez = 3.20; Nick Evans = 2.60; Gary Sheffiled = 2.21 SS: Best = Jimmy Rollins (4.60), Alcides Escobar, Troy Tulowitski Worst = Julio Lugo, Ramon Martinez (2.01), Yunieski Betancourt (2.00) - Jose Reyes = 4.17; Alex Cora = 2.97 3B: Best = Adrian Beltre (4.56), Scott Rolen, Brandon Inge Worst = Josh Fields, Cody Ransom, Jake Fox (2.29) - David Wright = 3.59 2B: Best = Brandon Phillips (4.39), Andres Blanco, Aaron Hill Worst: Alberto Callaspo, Edgar Gonzalez, Aaron Miles (1.99) - Anderson Hernandez = 3.37; Luis Castillo = 3.07 1B: Best = Albert Pujols (3.96), Travis Ishikawa, Adrian Gonzalez Worst = Ryan Garko, Kevin Millar, Wilson Betemit (1.44) - Daniel Murphy = 2.81; Fernando Tatis = 2.54; Carlos Delgado = 2.50 C: Best = Joe Mauer (4.29), Yadier Molina, Gerald Laird Worst = Chris Coste, Bryan Pena, John Buck (2.10) - Brian Schneider = 2.90; Ramon Castro = 2.76; Omir Santos = 2.67

That's essentially just a warmed-over rumor from last year. I thought the idea sucked then even with Castillo coming off his lousy year although Pierre had a much better year - or at least a partial year while Manny was in steroids prison - then anyone had a right to expect. Still, if we're going to dump Luis I'd want it to be for a player we could actually use rather than just a warm body so we can say we no longer have Castillo.

Nationals reportedly opt to retain Riggleman over hiring Valentine

BA's report on the 6' 2" - 170 lb Juan Urbina Strengths: Has a loose, quick arm and already sits at 88-89 mph and tops out at 91 with his fastball. He has plenty of projection remaining in his lean, athletic frame and figures to develop at least a consistent low-90s heater. He commands his fastball well and sets it up with a change-up that features good sink. His clean mechanics should minimize his risk of injury. He pitches like the son of a former big league pitcher, as he shows advanced feel for pitching and the ability to throw strikes. Weaknesses: Urbina�s slider lags behind his other two pitches, though it does show some promise. Thanks to his bloodlines, he�s more advanced than most pitchers his age, but he still has a long ways to go and will require a lot of innings to develop. He�ll need all three of his pitches if he�s to remain a starter. The Future: The Mets expect that Urbina likely will begin his pro career in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Whether the Mets will push him as quickly as they�ve moved other recent signees such as Jennry Mejia, Wilmer Flores, Fernando Martinez and Ruben Tejada remains to be seen.

I remember Figgins as being a not particularly good 2Bman - although that was back in the beginning of his career when the Angels were using him as a kind of Jack of all trades guy. They seemed to just try and shoe-horn him in wherever they had an opening which made him somewhat valuable because he could play so many spots but wasn't particularly proficient at any of them. He became a much better glove-man once he settled down at 3B and seems like the type who could adapt to the middle of the diamond given enough reps. I do worry that after years of being sort of under the radar he's now - at age 32 - going to get overpaid for those past performances by someone who tries to sell him as a cornerstone type of guy. His career BA & OBA numbers are almost identical to Castillo's with power that is only somewhat better and still well below average. Runs a decent amount but gets caught a fair amount too - although that type of high-risk running seems to come with the territory on Scioscia-run teams. Walks took a big jump this year for whatever reason. Is ~ 2-1/2 years younger than Luis.

Don't really have a defensive opinion on Wainwright - but am OK with any of the others aside from the usual hate crime of awarding three CFers

Ah, so there's no way to isolate or otherwise have those 'nominated' posts come to the attention of the admins other than to just stumble across them by seeing the enlarged marker?

Question: What Won't Any Mets Get This Year? Swine Flu?

Then there's something that I'm not getting. Are you, as an admin, NOT seeing the results of posts that were "reported" by means of clicking the exclamation point?

Neither is particularly good in the field. I'm not going to claim to see either enough to know which one is less worse - but I don't think the difference is all that great to the point where you're going to make a decision based on that alone. Also, my normal skepticism of defensive stats goes right off the charts when LF in Fenway becomes involved. It's such a freaky place with so little ground to cover yet so many tricky things that can occur that questionable morphs into meaningless where numbers are concerned.

Traditionally not much tangible goes on at these GM meetings as rosters aren't finalized yet and the non-tender date is still in the future. What does usually happen is that the seeds are being sewn for future trades/deals/signings which tend to kick in around the time of the much larger scale winter meetings in December.

Putz & Schneider weren't going to be offered Arb anyway so their rankings hardly matter. Cora is more akin to a Tatis situation - only now that he falls short of Type B status there's no reason to go the arb route. If they want him for the backup SS spot they can just offer a deal and not be bound by any minimums or get stuck with a number they don't like.