Frayed Knot

He had the equivalent of one great season starting with his May 30, 2013 [7.1 IP / 4-Hit / 12-K] gem vs the Yanx. That started a string of nearly 30 starts thru early '14 where his stats were as good just about anyone. Then he missed two months and was never really the same afterward.

Who, among the following 49 players who suited up in 2015, are your top 30? The only difference this year is that, for the first time in nine seasons, we have post-season play to consider. How a player performed during the (all too brief) post-season games can and should be taken into account, although to what extent is up to the individual voter. Position Players by ABs: GRANDERSON — DUDA — MURPHY — FLORES — LAGARES CUDDYER — TEJADA — d’ARNAUD — PLAWECKI — CESPEDES CAMPBELL — CONFORTO — WRIGHT — URIBE — JOHNSON MAYBERRY — NIEUWENHUIS — HERRERA — RECKER — CECILIANI MONELL — MUNO — YOUNG Pitchers by IP: COLON — deGROM — HARVEY — NIESE — SYNDERGAARD FAMILIA — C.TORRES — GILMARTIN — ROBLES — GEE VERRETT — MATZ — A.TORRES — GOEDDEL — CLIPPARD PARNELL — REED — LEATHERSICH — MONTERO — O’FLAHERTY CARLYLE — MEJIA — STAUFFER — BLEVINS — ALVAREZ MORRIS Have at it.

Centerfield wrote: They certainly have room in their budget to get a big name outfielder if they wanted one. And how is it that we know this?

seawolf17 wrote: ... to walk away from $12.5M is bold as hell. Both sides have 'no commented' to questions about a buyout.

I hear Tyler Clippard is available.

Mex17 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Erasing wise-ass comments doesn't mean they didn't happen or weren't seen. But the difference between me and you is that I don't go on the attack initially (while also being the guy who has 35,000+ posts on the site that was set up to be the "more refined" option to another site that I will not mention by name). So stay classy, pencil-sketch. Attack? Please! And I have no idea what post totals or other boards have to do with this. Nor do I know what a "pencil sketch" is. Nor do I think I want to.

Erasing wise-ass comments doesn't mean they didn't happen or weren't seen.

I really wish that fans' first reaction to stuff like this wouldn't be to run around like a bunch of coked-up accountants.

Fuck off!!

Couple of in-division swaps of note yesterday - Nationals got one good season out of Yunel Escobar and decided that that was as far as they wished to push their luck. So they dealt him to Anaheim in an attempt to shore up the bullpen (aka: make way for later trades of Storen and/or Papelbon). Trevor Gott is the main bait with some minor league PTBNL duct-taped to him. - and the Braves have given up on catcher Christian Bethancourt. The defensive specialist who Atlanta hoped would develop into an all-around catcher couldn't hold off the 82 y/o AJ Pierzynski last year so he's been shipped to San Diego for pitcher Casey Kelly and 17 y/o minor league catcher Ricardo Rodriguez. Kelly was a one-time 1st round pick of the Red Sox who was sent west in the Adrian Gonzalez deal amid much grumbling from Red Sox nation ("no, whatever you do don't trade Kelly!!"). Since then he's been injured (missed all of 2013 + '14) and/or ineffective (one most likely causing the other) but is still just 26 y/o so the Braves figure is worth a gamble.

HahnSolo wrote: I saw a blurb that called Swanson, a SS out of Vanderbilt, is the 4th #1 overall pick to be dealt away before ever playing for the team that picked him. Not sure who all the others are and I'm sure none have been dealt so quickly (remember the one-year rule was recently waived). I did come up with Adrian Gonzalez: 2000 #1 by Florida, traded three years later (along with two other players) to the Rangers for Ugeth Urbina. Shawn Abner? Ah yes! Two and a half years after being the #1/1 pick in the '84 draft, Abner was dealt away (on this date 29 years ago!) in the Kevin McReynolds deal and then made his ML debut the following September. I didn't realize he stuck around for portions of six seasons (I would have guessed his career more brief than that) although totaled only 902 PA with the Pads & ChiSox.

In fairness to Niese's parting comments about the defense, he was the victim of some particularly poor timing this past year buy he gloves behind him.

Phils decide that in their current condition they have no use for a flame-throwing closer type dealt away Ken Giles to the Astros in exchange for Four young players/prospects: RHP Vince Velaquez (23 y/o), LHP Brett Oberholtzer (26), OF Derek Fisher (22), RHP Thomas Eshelman (21 - 2015 2nd round pick) Giles took over the back of the pen after the trade of Papelbon to Washington and saved 15 games in 17 chances. My recollection is that the Mets didn't hit him and the (small-ish sample) stats seems to bear that out: NYM bats were 5-for-34 against with 1 2B + 1 HR across 9 games/10.1 innings

Angels took one-time Met Deolis Guerra -- part of the package for Johan Santana -- out of the Pirate org. Guerra made major league debut this year (17 IP) but was hit hard and will get another look in Los Angeles.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Would just like to know what the deal is with Montero. He was The Next Big Thing and just fell off the table. Is he hurt? Mentally unbalanced? Cursed? He was a control guy with a good fastball that came up and walked the ballpark, and never seems to have fully recovered. Just read somewhere that he was about to make a start in winter ball.

Ended his Mets career with a smaller nose than the one he started with. But also gave us six straight years of (just shy of) 30 starts per. Never a great pitcher but more good than bad. Quite possibly ends his NYM career as a Top-30 Met acc to the CPF rankings ... which reminds me.

Yeah, this is odd. I would have thought ONE middle IF but not two and if they were going to go get a SS I assumed it would be a glove-first type. Not sure what it says about the future of Wilmer and his injury, or about Tejada who they just (in effect) re-upped by offering a contract, or about the likes of Herrera/Reynolds/Cecchini.

Luis Cessa, the other prospect we sent to the Tiggers along with the more heralded Michael Fulmer in the Cespedes deal, has been sent along to the Yanx (along with another prospect) for LHR Justin Wilson

Edgy MD wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: ...but we will have to fill the job again next year. I tend to think the solution will present itself internally before the year is even up. Ideally, yes. Actually my ideal solution involves finding a true SS and moving Wilmer over the 2nd but there's plenty of water to go under the bridge before we have to make that decision.

TransMonk wrote: Adam Rubin wrote: The Mets appear to have pivoted to Walker after striking out in their attempt to land Ben Zobrist. I vastly prefer one year of Walker to four years of an aging Zobrist. I don't see any way that this trade would not trump signing Zobrist as the better move for the Mets both in the short term and the long. Well short-term maybe not in that it cost us Niese (even if that's not as big a hit as it would have been 2-3 years ago) and that Zobrist may be the better player right now. Long-term is more iffy in that there won't be the big commitment to an aging player (who may or may not be earning his keep by then) but we will have to fill the job again next year. The upside scenario is one where this gives us the time to nurture a home-grown replacement and/or the financial flexibility to make moves in the for '17-'19 without the Zobrist contract in the way. But, like you, I banking on scenario #3 as the best option right now and officially give this deal my stamp of approval. Kind of an emotional trade in the sense that it's a straight-up one-for-one deal involving two guys who were drafted and 10 (Niese) and 11 (Walker) years ago and have never known another org. Walker, as I mentioned at the top of this thread, was also a hometown boy who was extremely popular in Pittsburgh after being just an 11th round draft pick. Niese always had that birthday connection to the club (b. 10/27/86 - something which out-of-town announcers often found fascinating) and was a good egg during his time here giving the club more than one normally has the right to expect from a 7th round choice. And, as noted, it also spells the end of Murphy's time here.

TransMonk wrote: ... I think too many fans believe that the primary goal for sports team owners is winning a championship. Like any other business, they are in it to make money. The biggest problem with the Mets, prior to this recent year, is that they haven't been doing much of either.

Kristie Ackert @Ackert_NYDN #Mets source called to clarify. "definitely in the works, not close to being done".....I Apologize for any confusion. 3:04 PM - 9 Dec 2015 From my point earlier, why is a Mets source calling in to clarify anything while negotiations are going on? Negotiate first, talk about it after the fact.

I got a restraining order once for PAWing some TITTS, but that was a long time ago and I no longer have to register my whereabouts with local law enforcement.

I don't even remember where I saw this particular 'stat' or how exactly it was phrased. It may have been on an ESPN screen-bottom crawl so it was just a passing thing but I thought it specified being traded away by the drafting team. I had noticed both Belcher and Hamilton and each would work if it was simply 'never played for' the team that drafted them - but there are more than four if that's the only standard. But if it was 'traded by', like this Swanson kid just was, then, as Edgy notes, Hamilton doesn't really fit as he was Rule 5'd away (and then traded). Nor does Belcher who was the #1 overall by the Twins in June '83 but didn't sign. He was then picked 1st by the Yanx in six months later in the 'Secondary Phase' of the draft before being plucked from their roster a few weeks later as a FA compensation pick. So not only is that January draft a bygone thing but it wasn't the same as being a 1/1 pick in the regular phase even when it did exist. Nor is being taken as FA-comp (another procedure which no longer exists) the same as being traded. btw, Swanson is not just another Georgia kid for the Braves (they seem to get those guys one way or the other) but he's specifically from [u:3kniknaw]Kennesaw[/u:3kniknaw], Georgia in [u:3kniknaw]Cobb[/u:3kniknaw] County where their new stadium will be. Sounds like he's been destined to be a baseball player all along.

Not sure he's a CF either although he's a pretty good RF if you don't mind a little BryceHarper-ian recklessness out there. IOW, runs into walls a lot. Big power and maybe not all of it tapped yet. Good walk rate but that comes with a YUGE K rate (33% !!). Not going to win you any batting titles but oozing with athleticism. Five years of team control with one more pre-arb. No idea what it'd take to snag him but I don't see why Houston would settle for less than one of the starters. Still trying to figure out a way to claim him as a relative.