Frayed Knot

Keep in mind, Vladdy Jr fans, that he's an FA one year from now so temper your desires, as well as the price you'd agree to pay for him, accordingly.

I saw this about a billion years ago. Don't remember enough to render much of an opinion but my younger self was OK with it at the time IIRC

OTOH, it's tough to see how one or more of the teams labeled as interested are going to get into a bidding war and top the Mets offer, at least not by much. And if the ultimate winning bid does only top it by a bit is Pete going to take it just because it's the highest so as to prove some kind of point? Or because of pressure from Boras/MLBPA to never settle for less than top offer? There's a saying about how the decisions you make strictly for the most money often are the ones that make you less happy. Given Pete's stated position that he wanted to remain in New York, will he ultimately swallow hard and accept the offer from the Mets even though it's four years shorter and less than half as lucrative as the one he rejected in 2023?

The Mets made what they perceived as a last-ditch effort to sign Pete Alonso by offering him a three-year contract in the $68 million to $70 million range and, when that was rejected, began their pivot away from their slugging first baseman, The Post has learned. The Mets did not send out a statement that the Alonso Era was done. But they have come to believe – without some unexpected late reversal — that it is. Joel Sherman -- https://nypost.com/2025/01/16/sports/what-the-mets-were-offering-pete-alonso-before-talks-broke-down/ Not sounding too much like a negotiation ploy.

Mets pushing Pete for an answer -- Joel Sher-Man and Jon Hey-Man While the sides are said to be making progress on at least the structure of a proposed deal that’s expected to be for three years and include at least one opt out, there was no word by Wednesday that the sides have closed the substantial financial hurdle that’s hung over these high-profile talks regarding the star free-agent first baseman. And the Mets have let Alonso’s camp know they need a decision — and soon — on whether the two sides can do a deal as they want to make sure to leave themselves enough time and options to pivot elsewhere prior to spring training It is unknown if the Mets have given Boras/Alonso a specific deadline for an answer one way or the other. The article goes on to list the Giants, Angels, Mariners, Jays, and Red Sox as potential landing spots for Pete if not in Queens. And also talks about Vientos to 1B with some combo of Baty, Acuna, Mauricio taking over at 3rd as a possible in-house solution for a post-Petey world.

This thread turns two years old tomorrow.

Having never seen Chalamet in anything else prior to this (that I know of anyway) I have zero opinion into whether he's a great guy or an ******* off camera. Nor am I all Chalamet'd out the way some of you seem be.

Though not specific as to which substance, "drug overdose" is the listed cause of death. Apparently there was a long history of use. His body was found at his home by his mother.

I saw it shortly after its XMas day debut. And enjoyed it. Did it break any new ground, or did I learn something I didn't already know? No & No. But it was well done acting and singing-wise, and the story it told was relatively accurate. It's an Oscar nomination, at least, for Chalamet. Bio Pics tend to almost invite those and he certainly didn't blow the opportunity. The timeline is from Bobby first showing up in NYC through his 'Going Electric' at the Newport Folk Festival which famously angered many of the folkie purists. The only name-changed-to-protect-the-innocent was the Greenwich Village girlfriend, reportedly at the request of Dylan himself as she wasn't a public person aside from her relationship with him. But the character is Suze Rotolo in everything but name. The daughter of immigrant Italian communists, she knew the Village and woke him up to many of the social issues of the day that were quickly absorbed into his writings. Most of the other actors were unknown to me aside from Edward Norton as Pete Seeger (not tall or thin enough but he had Pete's speaking voice down pat) or barely known to me, Elle Fanning* as Suze Rotolo/Sylvie Russo. Other expected characters such as Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Albert Grossman, Dave Van Ronk and others weave in and out of the story. "Get out there are track some mud on the carpet" -- Johnny Cash * btw, Elle and Dakota Fanning's father: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fannin001ste

1) you can see her mother in Carlene's face 2) the marriage didn't last

So Camp Pete is saying: 'So, you only want to do a shorter deal, eh? OK, fine. It'll cost ya though' Armchair psychiatrist reading of these two proposals floated out there by Mr. Boras over the last few days suggests that they sound like they're designed to keep Pete at his stated first choice, and that's a good thing. Side effect is that the not-so-secret nature of these proposals lets potential other suitors know that these are more reachable numbers and so that brings that brings Pete into range of more teams willing to meet or top them.

With the 'Only for the Mets' implication being that Camp Pete is giving the Mets an exclusive shot at this wonderful short-term arrangement. But if they say 'No' then it begins to be shopped elsewhere and the Mets risk losing him and the loss will look like their fault. -- "They said no, not us" iow, it's just another negotiating ploy complete with a leak to make one side look like the good guys. I still think he'll return. But this sounds like just another step along the path and not necessarily the framework for a final agreement.

No it won't.

Can we get this done before Easter, please? I predicting a signing announcement next Thursday, Jan 16. Why? Because it'll be the two year anniversary of this thread (and don't think that Pete, Scott, David, and Steve haven't been reading and keeping up on it).

Brian Matusz - LHP, an eight year career (2009-16) with Baltimore (plus one game as a Cub) after being their 1st round (4th overall) draft pick in 2008 Dead at age 37. No cause yet announced.

Freddie's and Olsen's deals are still TBD on how they work out long term. - Freddie is, first of all, a markedly better player and for much longer than Alonso. But also was two years older when he signed and so could be approaching the downward slope soon as he gets ready to hit his age 35 season with three years down and three more to go on his contract. - Olson was two years younger than Pete is now at the time of his trade/signing by Atlanta. He had the best full season of his career in year one of the deal [994/164 OPS/OPS+] but then fell to his worst this past year [790/118]. Nine months older than Pete, he's got five guaranteed seasons remaining plus one team option year. - Prince had to retire for medical reasons at age 32 but had already started a downward trend five years (and two teams) into his mega-FA deal with Detroit. Milwaukee (7 seasons) OPS+ = 143; Detroit (2) = 136; Texas (3) = 102. The structural issues with his neck that eventually ended his career certainly could have been a factor in his seasons with the Rangers as in only one of those three seasons did he play a full schedule, so maybe not strictly an age related decline. There were three seasons remaining on his deal when he was released from the team. But, in general, yeah, you don't need to go chasing each of the last contracts even if they start out OK. The Boras method has long been to argue that because Team X gave Player Y 'THIS' deal then the one your team offers to (somewhat similar) player Z needs to be the same. And who can forget his straight-faced Ollie Perez/Sandy Koufax comparisons? But just as writers liked to argue about deals the turned out poorly for the team, 'Hey, nobody held a gun to the owners head and made him offer that', the teams aren't required to repeat their own or someone else's past mistakes unless Boras suddenly starts bringing firearms into the meetings.

For a while there it seemed (just like Cal Sharpie's favorite books this past year) that you needed a one syllable name in order to be part of the 1960's era Pirate pitching staffs: Bob Veale, Steve Blass, Bob Moose, Roy Face, Vern Law, Bob Friend. They also had, for shorter periods, Don Schwall, Tommie Sisk, and Wilbur Wood

All is quiet, post New Year's Day

No, those were definitely not uncommon back in the day. As Irish says, 'different times'. One of the more noted examples was Don Larson's WS perfect game. Larson found out he was that day's starter in the way a lot of pitchers found out: if your mitt, rather than being in your locker, was instead sitting on your stool with a new 'game' ball in the pocket, then it was your game. A talk from your manager wasn't even part of it. Basically the whole idea of players having any sort of say in, or advance notice of, when or how often they'd play was an idea not yet standard practice. When Islander coach Al Arbour agreed to the request from his goalie tandem of Billy Smith and Glenn Resch that they always know in advance who was going to start the next game during the season, it was considered a very novel concession at the time. Koufax, btw, was still about 2-1/2 months from turning 30 in that above clip w/Scully. He'd pitch just one more season before retiring, a season consisting of 41 starts, 323 innings, and 317 Ks!. The 1.73 ERA he threw in '66 was the lowest of his career and he led the league in numbers of batters faced in both '65 & '66 All of which kind of clues you in to why he felt it necessary to hang 'em up at the age of 30.

From page one of this very thread [Feb 3rd, 2023]: "Jim Duquette, on Mets Hot Stove, suggested eight years, $240 million." And there were other similar type suggestions, although keep in mind some of them were based on the idea of signing him to a long term deal a season or two ago before he hit FA-gency and thus was younger and therefore more likely to justify a longer deal. This thread is approaching two years old at this point so the topic of Alonso's contract has been an ongoing one here, and also a bit of a moving target as conditions on the ground shift. Also, not a bad defensive player at all. Now an average-ish glove 1B-man doesn't really add a whole lot his overall value, but nor does he hurt you there. Oh, and welcome to the 'pool. I remember your brother Tony. Used to eat his cereal all the time.

It could very well end up as his final contract, even if it's one of five years or less. 1B/DH guys have to hit to keep a job so it doesn't take too much of a slip to have the phone stop ringing. Lucas Duda had a better OPS season at age 29 than did Pete [838 OPS/130 OPS+ vs 788/123 (less power but a higher OBA)] Lucas then slid the next year but was hitting even better in 2017/age 31 (879 OPS) when the Mets dealt him at mid-season. Over the next two years he'd be granted FA-gency twice and released three times all while amassing < 500 PAs for his post-NYM career. Exactly two years after the trade he played his final ML game. He was 33 Now, not saying this is a predictor of how things will go for Pete but when more one dimensional sluggers falter it sometimes goes quickly. Keeping the possibility of that type of scenario in mind was pretty much the reason for starting this thread just a couple weeks shy of two years ago.

Yeah, I don't think you have to limit it to three years less. I was mainly hoping they didn't get bluffed into five and up. I mean, it sounds odd considering that we're coming off being giddy that they just locked Soto up for the net decade and a half. And while that is a ridiculous length of time, at least he's 26 years old and a unicorn. Don't have to get crazy twice in one winter.

I'm not suggesting it's dollars per year that the Mets won't match but some combo of dollars And yearS combined. So if the Mets offer 4 x $30 he may go elsewhere for 5 x $30, or 6 x $27, or some similar set-up that the Mets will opt not match/top. And it's the $200 mil total (in whatever form) that I can't see happening no matter how much Boras wants to trumpet it.

And, as if on cue, Puma in the Post lists the ... - Giants, where a combo of Wilmer Flores and Lamont Wade Jr platooned last year. Was their (too?) heavy investment in Willy Adames a $ign of thing$ to come? - Rangers, coming off a down post-WS year but still in 'win-now' mode with deGrom, Seager, and Semien as their core. Also need to replace just-traded Nathaniel Lowe - Mariners, who have good pitching but need pop/runs and also had no set 1B-man last year - Cardinals, need to replace Goldschmidt but don't seem keen to spend a lot - Angels, who always seem to spend on 'name' players as a way to get to respectability rather than only doing so once they get there ... as potential landing spots for a hungry polar bear. https://nypost.com/2024/12/24/sports/pete-alonsos-possible-landing-spots-aside-from-mets-as-options-dwindle/

I think it's entirely possible that some team swoops in and offers Pete more $$/yrs than the Mets are willing to match. I don't have a specific team in mind but there may be one or two out there. But it's hard to see how such a team is going to have to go near $200 mil in order to pull it off.