Frayed Knot

There are Always holes in the lineup/rotation/pen that need to be replaced. Every season, every team. But the biggest mistake GMs make (both actual GMs and us amateur ones) is in thinking that someone is irreplaceable and therefore needs to be kept at all costs. Stearns et al have a decision to make with Pete at the end of the year and Pete has a say in how that all goes. But if the choice comes down to signing a 30 y/o 1B/DH, whose best statistical season is still his first and the current one arguably his worst, to an expensive and long term deal it then makes sense to consider options that move forward without him. Vientos's emergence and the possibility of moving him across the diamond while replacing him with someone else (Baty?, Acuna?, trade/FA?) provides them with one additional such option that few if any even considered just four months ago.

"The Mets are better with Pete than without" -- Sure. But it's not as simple as merely saying: 'Mets w/Pete in 2025 > Mets w/o Pete in 2025'. It's about how long you have to commit to Pete in order to keep him a NYM in 2025. There is a point -- there's ALWAYS is a point -- at which it's smart to say 'No', either because of dollars or length or both, and walk away. "It's almost impossible to replace that type of power." -- Until you look across the diamond where we find a guy who's five years younger, under team control thru 2029, is probably 1/20th of the price right now, and has 75% as many HRs this season compared to Pete in 60% of the plate appearances. I'm not saying it's a case of either/or but replacing P.A. with M.V. is an option that wasn't even on the radar when I started this thread some 20 months ago, and it's one that's worth considering. "The ball is pretty dead this year." -- I have no idea if that's true but, even if so, it's true across the board. "Steve Cohen is 10 billion dollars richer since he bought the Mets." -- Again, no idea if that's accurate but it's largely irrelevant as far as I'm concerned as to what they do with Pete. I'm not trying to save Uncle Steve money here, I'd just like to see them make the best baseball decision for the team in both short and long term. "If winning is a serious goal, there seems to be zero reason to let Alonso get away." -- Nobody is irreplaceable. The Braves thrive without both Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson. San Diego is near the top without Soto or Blake Snell. The Cards allowed Albert Pujols to walk and went to the playoffs eight times in eleven years (much better than the team who signed him) despite his departure. The Nats won a WS the year after Harper left. anyway, it's a topic to be revisited in the winter of '24-'25

Chris Russo was a minute or two into announcing Billy Beane's death on air before HE realized that he was talking about the wrong Billy Bean. Being first, rather than accurate, is the new media standard.

But not while he was still playing.

I read it too. Thought it was good, but, yeah, maybe not great. The book and the docu had virtually the same title, but there's no credit that I can find showing that the author had any input into the film.

Just finished watching it last night. It ends with Rose claiming he quit gambling six months ago (not clear specifically when he said that). But,as one of the Cincy area writers said, 'If there's a Liar's HoF Rose would have been in years ago', so there's little reason to believe that his claim is anything more than just one last shot (he'll turn 84 next April) at reinstatement and then possible HoF induction (two different things). Mostly he and the whole sordid story come off as just sad. Living out in Vegas because -- well first because it is/was the best access to sports gambling -- but also because it's where he can make the most money from card shows, ball/memorabilia signings, and video birthday recordings, most of them seemingly for men not much younger than him. And while it's hard to tell, you wonder to what extent he needs the money.

I think Spotrac, whoever that is, is way off, unless perhaps those numbers were calculated prior to the 2024 season. I would be very surprised if he got anything close to that. And even if that $32.9 number is in the ballpark of where his Current value is, that doesn't mean it's a smart idea to simply take that and multiply it by eight for Pete to sign on the bottom line. My guess is that the Mets will look to go much shorter term. That starts with the one-year Qualifying Offer and from there discuss three to four years. Boras isn't going to like that but if I'm Stearns/Cohen I'm daring some team to offer Pete five-plus and would be willing to wave bye-bye if one did.

"Accidental Fentanyl Intoxication" is being cited as cause of death.

A bit premature, and still a small sample size, but perhaps a candidate for the 2025 (and beyond) NYM 1st baseman: 2024 June + July stats (not including tonight): Pete Alonso: .242/.320/.445 in 128/147 ABs/PAs Mark Vientos: .270/.320/.513 in 115/125 ABs oe: Age difference = 5 years [25 & 30 this December]. Payroll difference = ?????, but a whole lot!! At the very least it's something to keep an eye on for the remainder of the season.

Only 46 ML ABs, 38 of which came with the Seattle Pilots thus reducing the surviving Pilots by one.

Well it did exist. But now that the threads have been merged perhaps the 'address' changed and, besides, the merger makes the link meaningless anyway.

Discussion on this topic has been going on for a while. https://phpbb3.ultimatemets.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32061

The soccer/football fields converted into baseball brings up the extreme example of when the Dodgers first played in the extreme oval that was the LA Coliseum while awaiting the eviction of Mexican Americans out of Chavez Ravine in favor of what became Dodger Stadium. Even with a temporary fence built, CF was so long and the lines (particularly in LF) so short that the joke had it that the building had room for 100,000 fans but only two outfielders. [FIMG=500]https://sports.cbsimg.net/images/visual/whatshot/Bxd0StLCEAAIyXu.jpg[/FIMG] There's a make-shift screen in front of the seats in LF -- sort of a mesh monster -- to prevent pop-ups from becoming HRs and fans from becoming decapitated by line drives. Another make-shift fence ran from CF to the RF corner or else a batter could circle the bases twice on a gapper to RCF. Lefty swinging Dodger Wally Moon learned how to slice outside pitches over that screen (19 HRs in 1959 for the 170 lb OF/1B) in what naturally became known as 'Moon-shots'.

Papa Jeff Burroughs still living at just 73, so he could be around for a long while still. I remember Sean as a top prospect right around the time the internet was making it easier to discover and track top prospects. He was going to be the BA & OBA guy who would buck the trend of Power! Power! Power! that was dominating in the late '90s/early 2000's But then his BA & OBA turned out to be nothing special all while he managed to knock just 12 career HRs in about three full seasons' worth of ML ABs scattered across seven different years. Jeez, 43!?!

Add to the list of cautionary tales, one Paul Goldschmidt. - a 981 OPS/177 OPS+ season and an MVP in his age 34 season in 2022 - he then fell to 810/120 in 2023. Still good but a big fall. - and while it's too early to call this season a disaster, it's certainly a disaster so far as we approach the 1/4 point in the season. Now the good thing from the Cardinals standpoint is that if this fall looks like it'll be permanent this is the final year of his contract just as he turns 37 in September. But imagine if this start does foreshadow the type of player he'll be from this point forward and he was signed, as some are advocating for Pete, through age 38 or more?

I conflated the wild hair styles.

Never watched it in full. Saw pieces of it here and there. It is, of course, a total work of fiction although that didn't stop Stone from selling it as "an alternative truth" and demanding that schools show it to every student in the land. Garrison was considered a nut by a good chunk of the assassination conspiracy theorists crowd, but Stone makes him the hero. In the one trial he brought (against the Pesci character) the acquittal came in about 45 minutes and I believe it only took that long because the jury wanted lunch first. Side note: Garrison was eventually defeated out of his New Orleans District Attorney position in 1973 following corruption charges (for which he too was acquitted) by Harry Connick Sr., father of the signer.

So these first five weeks of this season have thrown an interesting wrench into the P.A. free agency tour. Right now he (and McNeal) is/are basically the worst hitter(s) on the team.

This is one which, for some reason or another, I never got around to.

Yup. And I also doubt it's a free as they make it sound.

The other come-on I've noticed from these in-game gambling ads is some version of: 'make one $5 bet and get 150 (or 200) dollars worth of 'free' bets'. I have no idea what they mean by this and, being a non-gambler, I don't really care to know. But would I REALLY get a couple hundred dollars worth of bets using the house's money just for making one tiny bet upon signing up or are there a bunch of read-the-fine-print strings attached? I'm betting on the latter.

Almost certainly, yes. More unseasoned newcomers drawn in by the newly legal status in their area and the newly formed association with their sport which used to shun it. And, 'Hey look, here's a chance to "maximize my profit". The gambling version of "Supersize it!"

Speaking of sports gambling in general ... Now that the leagues went from a no-dating policy with gambling to going to bed with it on the first date (and second and third and ...) it's not surprising that the ads for it -- all over the place during any game -- are not only common but are playing to the lowest common denominator. Their biggest come-on is to invite players to "maximize their profit incentive" which basically means to get in on one of their 'parlay' bets where, in order to to win the bet, you need multiple conditions to all go your way. So where a win under those conditions would 'maximize your profit' the odds of that actually happening go way down, but of course they don't say that. Many parlay bets are essentially sucker bets which suck in the amateurs and are, from what I've read, more common with these new legal platforms than they ever were via those supposedly sleazy old school illegal bookies.

NBA player Jontay Porter banned for life over a gambling scandal.

And he remained married to the former Susan Kekich ever since the infamous 'swap'. The other half of that deal lasted just a short time.