Frayed Knot

It should be noted that I don't think anyone who's in that position has ever gone through with the threat. - The reason that clause exists is because players signing a multi-year w/a team have a right to expect that there's some sort of committment from that team. Being dealt soon afterward after often moving across the country and setting up shop for the supposed long term is not an easy thing no matter how much money you're making. What players really want of course is blanket no-trade protection - which is possible if they can negotiate it - but this was a compromise reached which gets them half way there. - Problem is, the ones who do get dealt in the midst of a multi-year are in that position because they're most likely underachieving their deal. So they can then demand a trade all they want but most times the club will simply call their bluff until the player recinds the demand when he realizes that his underachievment means that he'll never get a new deal that'll match the back half of his current one. Cecil Fielder was the best example of this. He was dealt to the Yanx w/a year and change left on the deal he signed after reaching the then shocking 50-HR mark. The Yanx basically laughed at him when he demanded a deal and would have been thrilled if he went through with his threat to cancel the last year of the deal and go FA.

Does anyone besides me get the idea that Edgy has apparently rigged up his computer to light up like a department store in December at the moment some Met or former Met's name appears anywhere on the internet? I mean between this thread and the 'EBay' and 'Rico Brogna' ones, I just get this feeling that if the words 'Jesse' and 'Gonder' were to appear in the same paragraph in the Tacoma Times or whatever, bells would start to go off atop his machine directing him to the story. I find it both impressive and slightly frightening.

Rocky needs to fight someone his own age ... like maybe Rambo!

]the problem is that we're in no position to even guess about Jacobs' defensive ability. We only know that until his injury he was a catcher in the Mets' system. Well, we do know that the reports on his defense very weren't good before the injury, and that the injury was to his (reportedly) already below average throwing shoulder, and that he's caught very little since the end of the 2003 season. Now granted all that info shouldn't be treated - from our viewpoint anyway - as the same as undisputable/cast-in-stone/unalterable facts; but at the same time let's not bury our heads in the sand and pretend that Jake's 'D' is some sort of blank slate that we can assume is good enough until proven otherwise. P.S. I have absolutely no memory of Mike Draper

Y'know one thing this means is that any potential Gary Cohen post-season calls are gone. Local TV coverage, unlike their radio counterparts, can't follow the team into post-season when the networks take over. We'll also "lose" him for a handful of the more important reg season games - Met-v-Yanx, etc - that FOX & ESPN will carry.

Willie got hisself a vote Cox: 28 - 4 - 0 LaRussa: 2 - 13 - 3 Garner: 0 - 9 - 11 Robinson: 2 - 4 - 7 Yost: 0 - 0 - 7 Manuel: 0 - 1 - 2 Bochy: 0 - 1 - 1 Randolph: 0 - 0 - 1 Guillen: 17 - 5 - 5 Wedge: 6 - 11 - 8 Torre: 4 - 7 - 2 Macha: 1 - 3 - 7 Scioscia: 0 - 1 - 4 Francona: 0 - 1 - 1 Gibbons: 0 - 0 - 1

Essentially none of the holdovers from the TV side are "under contract" since this is an entrely new venture. Fran has long been rumored to be a favorite of the Dolans (Cablevision's controllers) not neccesarily the Met hierarchy and it's been widely assumed by followers of the situation that he'll not be part of the new channel. Not sure if Keith wants to do this announcing thing full time. Be good IMO if he did but supposedly the team is looking for guys - at least the main guys - to be fulltime or bust.

Red ... Sox Blue ... and Orange Yellow ... Hammer Green ... pills Orange ... and Blue Purple ... Rockies Brown ... cranky pitcher White ... Sox Black ... Sox Gray ... One armed outfielder Tan ... Spring Training Pink ... Mike Piazza (not really) Pastel ...Mike Piazza (really this time) Gold ... Glove Silver ... Slugger Bronze ... Jose Cruz Sr. (he looked and was built like a bronzed statue)

I'd be more cautious about getting Thome than I would about Manny. He's almost as expensive per/year and is nearly 2 years older. He also Ks more, hits for a lower average, runs slower (even if more enthusiastically), doesn't have appreciably more power, and is about on the same place on the defensive spectrum.

Same 5 - 3 -1 point system as ROY Colon: 17 - 11 - 0 = 118 Rivera: 8 - 7 - 7 = 68 Santana: 3 - 8 - 12 = 51 Cliff Lee: 0 - 2 - 2 = 8 Buehrle: 0 - 0 - 5 = 5 Garland: 0 - 0 - 1 = 1 Millwood: 0 - 0 - 1 = 1

... as more anti-Yanqui bias rears it's ugly head. Mariano 2nd Santana 3rd

Edgy DC wrote: The thing is, you can try to let somebody else take the fall for you, but if you're swinging a machete or dishing out petrol, there's bound to be a mountain of physical evidence. Yeah, but the team at CSI: Caracas isn't nearly as efficient as some others so who knows what they'll miss.

"at whatever cost" is a phrase that'll get you into trouble almost every time. Which is what's at the heart of any potential Manny story. No one wants to say no to that kind of bat. It's just when it comes to taking the whole package: the defense, the money still owed, the options beyond that, the baserunning, discipline and concentration lapses that make Manny so infuriating to his current employer, then there is a cost at which you say no and walk away. And that goes for Manny, Wagner, Dunn or whoever.

I'd fear the alternatives.

]Anybody could do what they do and most do Few could and few do. Look, I'll knock those two as much as anyone when I think they deserve it, but sports radio host seems to be heading toward one of those jobs that many amatuers think they can do as well as the pros. M&MD have not only survived but thrived in NYC and in the biggest daytime time slot for over 15 years now. With over 100 radio stations avialable in this market (not to mention the introduction of satellite) the easiest thing to do is turn off a radio show and few have a talent to make people NOT turn off theirs. That's not an accident or quirk of fate. So feel free to turn yours off if they're not your cuppa, but they are in fact commanding many people's attention and are frankly 'Masterpiece Theatre' compared to most of their competitors and imitators.

Lastings Milledge; hard working boy http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/2005afl/051107notebook.html

Tim O'Neal Perez will have a choice of the Irish or Dominican teams.

Edgy DC wrote: Of 18 guys, only three foreign born. Cano - DR Chacin - Venz Iguchi - Japan Taverez - DR

AL: 28 votes total - 5 pts 1st place, 3 pts 2nd place, 1 pt 3rd place Street: 15 - 6 - 4 = 97 pts total Cano: 4 - 10 - 7 = 57 Gomes (TB): 2 - 8 - 5 = 39 Iguchi: 5 - 1 - 2 = 30 Chacin (Tor): 2 - 0 - 4 = 14 Swisher (Oak): 0 - 2 - 0 Blanton (Oak): 0 - 1 - 3 Crain (Min): 0 - 0 - 2 Kazmir: 0 - 0 - 1 NL: 30 votes total Howard: 19 - 3 - 5 = 109 Tavarez (Hou): 7 - 11 - 10 = 78 Francoeur: 2 - 14 - 8 = 60 Atkins (Col): 1 - 2 - 6 = 17 Duke (Pit): 3 - 0 - 1 = 16 Francis (Col): 0 - 1 - 0 Weeks (Mil): 0 - 1 - 0 Barmes (Col): 0 - 0 - 1 Vargas (Fla): 0 - 0 - 1 5 different guys receiving 1st place votes is pretty unusual I'd bet, especially in both leagues in the same year. AL seems to have had a bunch of good choices though no great one. NL had a bunch of real good half-year guys: Barmes in the 1st half, Francoeur, Howard & Duke in the 2nd.

Not sure that Beltran's deal was all that creative aside from a bit of deferred money. That's fine for the team accountants, but they're still locked in for 7 years and the entire amount no matter how he plays. My worry with these things - and especially with pitchers - is the length more than the money. Aside from the way one contract affects another I don't particularly care what they pay these guys. Having said that I'm not all that sure that the 4/$40 numbers being so casually thrown around is set in stone as much as it is a top-end hope from the Wagner camp. Something else I read suggested that maybe he's playing the Mets off against the Phils in order to get what he really wants; and that's to get his 3rd year guaranteed. 3 years is a lot saner than 4 ... something I'm sure I was saying right around this time last year while discussing Pedro.

I just read Joel Sherman in Sunday's NYPost who says that little of the interest in Nomar is as a SS, but mostly at either 3B or LF ... iow, not many believe he can play SS well enough anymore.

Piazza pulled enough strings to get Wylde a gig playing the 'Star Spangled Banner' at Shea during a game I was at about 5-6 years ago.Even by national-anthem-via-metal-guitar standards it was pretty awful.

="Mex17"]There is general speculation that this is where Garciaparra is going to end up (to the outfield from shortstop) in order to keep him healthy. Really? From where? And why would the OF keep him healthier? ]Who here would entertain the thought of singing Garciaparra to be the other corner outfielder along with Floyd? Not me ]Nomar would certainly fill the need of the big righthanded bat that, IMO, the Mets need to acquire this winter. "Would certainly fill" assumes a return to '02/'03 numbers which is pretty big speculation at this point. As a general rule I don't like switching guys position as they head for their mid-30s, and particularly don't advocate putting those types into spots which require more offense after their offense has started to head south.

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I dunno. If the Mets are entertaining platooning Jacobs with a veteran, PT, RH-hitting 1Bman (a la Galaragga)... Jeez: Could they do worse than Frank Thomas? There's a lot worse than Thomas. But he's got the same problem as Piazza: what either would be worth to us as a scary-ass PHer, twice a week 1B/C, and 9 game a year DH isn't near what it would be worth to some AL team who could do that and make either one a 99 game a year DH. And big Frank might be as bad a 1st baseman Piazza was.

Frank Thomas - who was mentioned in some thread somewhere as being a 1st base possibility - is officially a FA as the ChiSox declined his option by paying his buyout. Problem is that he hasn't played more than a handful of games at 1B since 1997 and he wasn't particularly good at it even then. He also turns 38 just after the season starts. So it would have to be a pretty cheap alternative before I'd consider him an option and it's unlikely that someone in the DH league won't offer him a better deal.