Frayed Knot

dgwphotography wrote: Wasn't there something about him going to Seattle because he had a newborn, and his mother played the grandmother card? Or was that just postulation on our part? Well Seattle was his hometown so there was definitely the thought that any offer other than the Mariners would have to be significantly better in order to work. Now no one ever confirms that kind of stuff publicly but sometimes just the fact that that everyone "knows" it's true makes it true whether it actually is or not. Of course everyone also knew that Mark McGwire was going to sign with a SoCal team so he could see his kid who lived with the former wife ... except that he wound up re-upping with the Cardinals before ever getting to the FA market. I don't remember if a baby was already born and/or under construction during Olerud's FA winter or whether just the speculation of one in the near future made that another factor in the mix.

Oh, man, I think about METSSC a lot but NIQUE had escaped my consciousness. I remember 'saying' to Nique one time: "Did this guy (Zeile) run over your dog or something?" I mean it's fine to dislike certain players but I don't recall her ever giving a specific reason for her outright hate in this case, just that it was total. And then after she'd spend half her day writing in the MoFo of her Zeile hatred, she was enough of a regular caller to 'Mike and the Mad Dog' that they knew her as the Zeile-hating Mets fan.

Centerfield wrote: The "un" nickname was dumb. But LOBin Ventura is one of my favorites to this day. LOBin was certainly a more inventive handle, but it was also hung on him barely 24 hours into his NYM career on account of him leaving a couple of runners on in his very 1st NYM game (or maybe 2nd). Then the haters who were against the signing in the first place (Ambler was lead culprit on this one) acted as if his obvious 'unclutchness' was now not just a proven flaw but also a sign of what he always would be. And of course both players were part of the "too old, too slow, too white" criticism, a mantra which lasted until the Omar introductory press conference when his stated goal of making the team "more athletic" was derided as racist since these were obvious code words for only black and Hispanic players need apply from then on. I tells ya, sometimes ya just can't win!

My recollection of the Zeile replacement of Olerud was that it was at least partly due to Steve Phillips and his 'old school' mentality. Now maybe Olerud was always going to go home to Seattle anyway no matter what the Mets offered and this was just some sort of after-the-fact rationalization, but I remember Phillips making some sort of reference to Oleurd maybe not being as aggressive a hitter as he would have liked. iow, ONLY 291 Ribbies over three seasons despite hitting .315 during that time in the middle of what was usually a pretty good lineup meant that he wasn't making the most of the spot he was put in. But, while it wasn't like Zeile was lousy, he wasn't going to replicate JO's .425 OBA (even though he turned in a respectable .358) an edge which I believe was lost on SP and his very non-SABRE line of thinking. My other recollection, this all coming as it did during the MoFo days of internet NYM history, was that poster Nique **HATED** TZ from day one and with a passion that bordered on irrational. And then there was METSSC nicknaming him 'Un' -- as in his name should have been Unzeile for the lack of zeal he displayed -- but of course his whole persona was often irrational once he got a hold of an idea.

I've yet to see this one and, being a bit out of the demographic for young women coming of age flicks, it'll probably be a while before I do (like probably later in the year via cable or Netflix). But between the praise for this movie from critics being so universal, the actress and first-time director already being media darlings, and the 'me-too' theme hanging over this year's award season at least as much as 'oscarssowhite' was last year (there was already a snide remark at the Golden Globes about all the director nominees being male) I'd be shocked this isn't at least nominated for best picture and if Gerwig isn't for best director. I think it's even possible that she, and maybe even the film itself, would win despite it being her rookie effort.

Aroldis Chapman, Yanquis, just last year.

Wasn't expecting that! So this either means that they're counting on Conforto to play CF (not ideal, but workable) or they don't think he'll be ready for the start of the season but that only delays the decision anyway. Once again though, not a great defensive OF I guess it also means the end of either Lagares or Nimmo as a NYM. Probably Lagares as he's too expensive to keep around as a 4th OF

Palmiero first floated this idea about a month ago. I suspect the real reason behind this is that, if he manages to spend even one day back in the ML, it'll re-set his HOF clock and give himself another 10 year window where he hopes to run into a more forgiving group of voters and a changing view of that era.

OE: Grimm:Now that I think about it I'm not sure by what you mean by "responsive" ... I'm picturing you sitting there answering questions and posting stuff by request or something...... And see, here I was picturing him, as if from a scene in an emergency room on some medical show, giving compressions to his computer's CPU while shouting; "It's unresponsive!!!"

Harvey made $5+ this past year and, just by the nature of service time as a factor in the arbitration process, is probably due at least a small bump from there despite 2017's suckitude, so it's not like suddenly paying him $8 or $9 instead (as the above proposals suggest) is going to bust the budget. The question is to what degree they believe he's got some good pitching left in him.

Lefty Specialist wrote: I like McCutchen, but he's a right fielder at this point, and we've already got one of those. He's also 31 y/o and in the final year of his deal. Y'all need to factor that in before diving in to committing multiple young players in your deals to get him.

I've told this story here before, but the circle of NYM fan friends I ran with in '86 considered anyone who didn't have a day-by-day knowledge of [u:2xxykqzl]1984[/u:2xxykqzl] (the season, not the Orwell book) to be a Johnny-come-lately bandwagon jumper. '85 was obviously the better season, but '84 was out of nowhere and therefore a helluvalottafun.

Jeff W. flat-out stated during one of the introductory CF press conferences that one of the reasons for the reduced capacity was that those last 10,000 or so seats are the most expensive to build yet yielded the least amount in return. I would have countered with a follow-up about whether such a strategy wasn't a bit short-sighted considering that they have two announcers who are deep in stories of their youth in the cheap seats and whether this risked either alienating the next generation of Howies and Garys, or maybe just never allowed them to develop in the first place. Not sure if anyone in attendance that day pursued that line of questioning. And, yes, I think that both teams, the Mets coming off their 2008 success and the Yanx coming off their long string of successful years -- almost simultaneously with the two NJ-based football teams with their over-priced (and, in the case of the Jets, at least partially fraudulent) PSL strategies -- saw their new stadia with an extremely optimistic view of the revenues they were likely to generate particularly via the higher percentage of top-end seats which were partially created by a bit of artificial scarcity. And then the recession hit which was complicated in the Mets case by the subsequent Madoff hit and a lot of rosy scenarios changed quickly after that.

Seaver

I hope that's not from a shaving cream ad cuz Joe was the owner of a perpetual five-o'clock shadow. I think it reappeared ten minutes after he shaved.

This one got a ton of critical acclaim when it was first out. I thought it was good but maybe not quite all that - but I'm not the biggest rom-com fan in the world so maybe it's just me. Was nice and gave it 4*, would have gone 3-1/2 if offered that option. But good overall story. Good awkward parts for the parents -- Ray Romano and Holly Hunter -- as opposed to the ridiculously awkward parts that are standard fare in your usual sit-coms/rom-coms.

Two regular season games in March, I see. I have a feeling that Citi Field might be awfully cold on March 29. Let's see if they're brainless enough to schedule that first Saturday game at night. I'm sure they will. TV drives everything. AVG temp increases by about 3 degrees a week through March/April. So making the season start 2 days earlier is worth about a degree. imperceptible. Maybe a miniscule increase in snow possibility too? And in at least half the cities the temperatures are warmer than that anyway. Well at least the March 31st game -- 1st Saturday of the year, 2nd game of the season -- is sked for 1:10 rather than at night. In April it turns out that only one of the four Saturdays is at home (Apr 14 vs Brewers) and that one is dumb-ass-edly slated for a night start The others are one day game (@ Nats - Apr 7, 1:10) and two at night but those at least are in Georgia (4/14 - 7:10) and SoCal (4/28 in Sandy Eggo, 5:40 local time)

Ceetar wrote: ... Minaya has worked in the industry since. he's still connected, still respected by more than just the Mets. He's not being hired to be GM. Sandy could literally take his advice and ignore it, but if he's got something to add, that seems likely, then sure. Unless Fred starts ignoring Sandy's requests because Omar is whispering in his ear against it, at which point S + O becomes less than the sum of their parts and maybe not even as effective as Sandy was just relying the guys already in place. And roughly every rich owner thinks they're smarter than they are. That's been my biggest problem with Fred all along, that he lurches between wanting to hire guys to run things but then thinking that his own input is needed. It becomes like the worst aspects of Steinbrenner only without the bluster or the budget.

There was a story recently on Juan saying that he was the latest to be re-working his swing so as to create more 'lift' (aka: power) with whatever swing guru has helped various other players do the same. Several ways that kind of experiment can go.

A few days ago some column suggests that the Mets are weak in international scouting ... now suddenly they re-hire Minaya with the mention that he's here at least in part to improve int'l scouting. Coincidence? prolly not.

G-Fafif wrote: Dick Enberg, winner of the Ford C. Frick Award in 2015, has died of an apparent heart attack at 82. Called games for the Angels and Padres in addition to his time at NBC ... I like how, after years, decades really, of being the lead voice in national and international events -- Super Bowls, Wimbledon, World Series, all types of basketball -- and after being phased out by the networks as they went for younger, prettier models of him, Enberg closed out his career by going back to local baseball; a big name taking a job which was decidedly not in the big time as a kind of semi-retirement gig simply because he liked it. Be tough to name better ways to spend your final years than by calling 80-some baseball games a year (like Scully in the end, I don't think he traveled much) in sunny San Diego and then spending your winter in ...well, San Diego.

Edgy MD wrote: Dwight Gooden and Matt Harvey have shared one teammate. Name him. Their dealer?

Centerfield wrote: Sandy has done a terrible job with the farm system. I don't see how anyone can really refute this. In this recent ranking, it was ranked 27th out of 30. Sure, but that's just a snapshot in time. Several (hopefully) good players were promoted and no one in the next level has stepped up, at least not dramatically. Now if that next crop never improves then it's going to be a dry couple of years, but we'll have to see how that goes. In short, it's not like a farm system can be managed so as to grow incrementally year by year; good systems lead to promotions which inevitably lead to thinner systems.

The Nationals are essentially just cycling through backup 1B-men while they fret about needing one full-time if/when Ryan Zimmerman falls off. Tyler Moore gives way to Clint Robinson who was followed by Lind who now gives way to Adams. Sort of the same-ish player each time. Only Robinson stuck around for more than a year and he wasn't nearly as good second go-around. With guys like that, if they have a good season they try to cash in elsewhere and if not then you don't really want them back anyway.

Well the Mets aren't investing here, the Wilpons are, or, more accurately, Sterling Equity which makes sense seeing as how they're in the building/real estate business. Not sure how this means that 'we' (not even quite sure who the 'we' is here) are screwed. ... the $1 billion redevelopment of Belmont Park will be privately funded by the Islanders and the Oak View Group, whose investors include Madison Square Garden Co., owned by James Dolan, and Mets owner Sterling Equities, which was founded by Fred Wilpon.