Edgy MD

No opt-outs is purty sweet. I wonder if he gets the mylar bunny.

There's more to baseball to getting on base. That's why I do other things besides get on base. To http://thecranepool.net/phpBB32/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30155&p=57499&hilit=Ron+Hodges#p57499compare me to Ron Hodges is a stretchy stretch, and not really respectful to either party, but WOW! There it is. But hey, we bat lefty both swing from the heels when we get one in our wheelhouse. Hi, I'm Brandon Nimmo. I'm the first draft choice of the First Sandy Alderson Era, and somehow, I haven't even hit my first big payday yet. But I'm more than walks, and more than running out walks. I'm more than dimples and smiles and God acknowledgment. I'm a good player. A really good player. With the right handling and coaching and a little luck, I could be a great player. I'm not that off, and you know it's true. I'm sixth in the league in OBP among all active players. Let me list the players ahead of me. 1. Votto 2. Trout 3. Soto 4. Goldschmidt 5. Cabrera That's a lot of all-star games, a lot of silver sluggers, even a lot of MVPs. Soto hasn't won one yet, but he's a baby. Goldy hasn't won one yet, but he's had two seconds and a third place in the voting, and it may put me in disagreement with 30 writers, but he probably deserved Harper's from 2015. The other guys? Get real. We're looking at a page in the Cooperstown phone book, right there ... if anybody actually opened a phone book anymore, and if those guys would actually be listed in it. My point is that you may be overlooking some sh... some stuff. I'm not the centerfielder you want, but too much can sometimes be made of that. I cover the gaps pretty good, and I come in strong, but I don't go back as well as I should. My arm may be average, but don't act like it's for sh... terrible. I'm sorry. I don't want to be profane, but I get so darn grumpy when my weaknesses are magfinified. Why, o Wyoming do you have to do that? I'm the happiest guy in baseball but it still sticks in my craw. So come on. I just turned 28 four days ago, and if I stay healthy and I shave off just one of those utterly shavable weaknesses — use the analytics, go back for balls with more confidence, steal some bases, hit just a few more doubles — I'm an All-Star. I'm an All-Star on paper, and I'm a guy who just looks like one out there on the field. That's doable. But you know more about the future than I do. That's why we have this thread. [YOUTUBE]4bQMwpMtX8c[/YOUTUBE]

Indeed. Category 1. Get a base hit: McNeil 2. Reach base safely by any means: Nimmo 3. Hit a double: McNeil 4. Hit a triple: Almora 5. Hit a home run: Nimmo 6. Score a run: Lindor 7. Get credited with a RBI: Smith 8. Draw a walk: Nimmo 9. Hit a sacrifice fly: Nido 10. Steal a base: Almora 11. Get thrown out at home: Conforto 13. Strike out as a hitter: Lindor 14. Drive in more than 1 run in a single turn at bat: Smith 15. Appear as a pinch hitter: Guillorme 16. Get a "walk-off" RBI: Daviss 17. Get hit by a pitch: McNeil Pitching/Fielding 18. Pitcher to get credit for a win: deGrom 19. credit for a save: Diaz 20. Appearance as a relief pitcher: May 21. Take a loss: Brach 22. Fielder to commit an error: Alonso Extra Credit/Tiebreakers: 23. Predict the date of Rojas' first ejection: 6-Aug 24. Score the first play of the *bottom* of the first inning, first game: FO-7 25. First Met to reach 2 home runs for the season: Smith

I'm in. All loaded on the Ceetar sheet. The Sheetar. The thing. Man, you guys are gonna feel stupid when Jerry Blevins hist the first triple.

Just close up the first row and call the second row the first. I'm generally a Wrigley guy, but hanging a basket over the outfielders is butt. And no, it has nothing to do with lingering bitterness over a 41-year-old opening day homer by Kingman.

Well, I think it isn't so much true that Mike Rizzo won't say who who has tested positive, so much as he is restricted from saying.

"I'm in the midst of failing to extend one of the best players in the game, and a fan favorite outfielder, let's talk about the average asshole I really wanted to give money to" That's sort of it, yeah.

If you thinky about it, the well timed period of excellence of Denver Public Schools is probably the best stroke of luck the Mets have had since the Seaver lottery.

1. The Mets record will be? 108-54 2. Where will The Mets finish in the NL East? Atop 3. Will The Mets make the playoffs (yes/no)? Totally 4. If so, how far will they advance and the number of games in their final round? World champs. They win the series 4 games to 1. The drama will be in the earlier rounds. 5. Who wins the World Series (can be the same answer a Q.4)? The New York Mets of Flushing. 6. How many home runs will Pete Alonso hit? 46

I had assumed such as well. Weird.

So, opening with a night game? How unusual is this?

I would probably skip that step.

LF's position is fair. I think it's the same view from a different perspective. My prediction is 108 wins with a few dramatic bumps on the way to a championship. New Yorkers will have divisive opinions about Rojas, because the team will be so good when they win that it isn't entirely clear why they haven't won 120. And that won't be that unreasonable a perspective. There'll be some pitching depth problems as always, and they will be frustratingly holding the pitchers they have to artificial pitch limits when they are pitching brilliantly, and get burned a few times by going to the pen un-neccessarily. But they will have enough pitching for the post-season. Despite being a late-arriving participant in this juggernaut of a campaign, Noah Syndergaard will seize upon the opportunity for celebrity that it affords, and there will be some bitterness among NL East rivals, and maybe some internal bitterness too after an un-necessary fight breaks out with a division rival. Syndergaard is all "Bring it on!" and McNeil is all "Will you shut the fuck up?" Rumors about Francisco Lindor and Taylor Swift but nothing concrete is uncovered.

Yeah, I don't think the division is strong either. Each team has winning talent in their own way, but no team looks decisively stronger than the Mets. And the Mets seem the most reinforced among them. That said, Rojas' 2020 team underpeformed Calloway's 2019 squad with very much the same cast.

There are other ways to close gaps besides tacking on money and years. One can bump up the opt-out date by a year, or one can add the ever-popular vesting option. Incentive bonuses are a possibility also.

As that inset photo on the right indicates, this was a pretty highlight-filled game. One of the top games of the abbreviated season. McNeil's crashing catch, if I'm recalling accurately, was the final out of Peterson getting out of a bases loaded/no-out situation in the first(?) with only one run scoring.

Over parts of three seasons, I showed very little to suggest I was a Major League catcher — at least in anything but the emergency sense. And then came last year. Last year, I put up a .292 / .346 / .583 // .929 line. Holy crap, right?! I'm Tomás Nido. And that's all true. But the further truth is that last year, for me, was only seven games. The foreshortened season was further foreshortened by injury. And even more true is that the bulk of that productivity all took place in one game. The Tomás Nido game. I acknowledge that. It's all true. On the other hand, it happened. Saying something happened in a small sample size is a noble attempt to maintain perspective. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. So the question remains — was there any meaning in that small-but-lovely performance. It's a tough question, but the Mets have given me a roster spot rather than looking to a more experienced veteran in the hopes of finding out. But I don't think there should be any mystery. They should just visit this thread and let you fill them in on what my 2021 is going to look like. Have at it. [YOUTUBE]mSQnFQ0ctOw[/YOUTUBE]

Transactions, 3/30/2021 [td90]Direction[/td90][td90]COMING[/td90][td90]Transaction[/td90][td90]Re-Signed to Minor League Contract, Projected for Syracuse[/td90][th]Position Group[/th][th]=#FF4A00]Relief Pitcher[/th][td90][/td90][td90][fIMG=90]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-photos/image/upload/w_213,q_100/v1/people/488984/headshot/67/current[/fimg][/td90][td90]Name[/td90][td90]Tommy Hunter [fimg=50]http://thecranepool.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/US-flag.png[/fimg][/td90][td90]DoB[/td90][td90]7/3/86[/td90][td90]B/T[/td90][td90]R/R[/td90][td90]High Level[/td90][td90]=#005EFF]MLB (2020)[/td90] Well, that was a short time in the wilderness for the former Phillie. Huntie is a good bet to get the first callup, provided there's roster room, and there is, so it was a pretty dicky move to bail, even if it was only for a day, and kinda dicky to just come back, just as Tom Windle was getting ready to put down a deposit on a place in Syracuse. Not so fast, Tom.

In a world of sluggerinos, somebody's got to be the contact hitter. Well, actually nobody has to be anything, but that's what I'm trying to be. I'm Jeff McNeil. In three seasons, I've batted .329, .318, and .311. Combined, that comes to .319. If you use 900 at-bats as your minimum standard (and I don't know why you would do that, but I'm going to, for my own purposes), I'm the second-leading batting average guy in Mets history. And I'm not just about the contact. I've got a career .501 slugging percentage. Think of all the contact hitters you've known in Mets history. Hernandez. Alfonzo. Magadan. Rusty. Moiphy. None of them slugged .500 over their career. Only Jon Olerud. And he matched me with an exact .501. So what's up? Why is this the first year where I know what I'm going to be doing on opening day? What position I'm playing? Why did it take somebody getting suspended to sort that out? Why am I batting seventh? Am I just one of those guys who seems scrappy from the bleachers, but is really just kind of an asshole up front? I don't know. But the heat is off a little. I mean, I've got a job, now, right? I can relax and do my thing without looking over my shoulder. This can mean wonderful things, or it can make me fat and lazy. You know ... the cookies. But I just watched that 1979 video and I'm one of the few guys on today's Mets who wouldn't look out of place on that team. I'm ... what ... 6'1" 195? I figure that's a little bit more meat than Mazzilli in 1979 and little bit less than Hebner. And yet, I'm playing all-star-level ball in forty years later. When you make your prediction for my 2021, and I think you will, take that into consideration, will ya? I was going to show you my 2020 highlights, but I instead decided to go with 2019, because there are cheering fans and I get to jump into a net. Squirrel this, you know? [YOUTUBE]2LjffMRkx8k[/YOUTUBE]

I don't know how they manage to do it. I guess this is going to be the catch-all Marlins thread.

Jefry Marte, who the Mets dealt for Opening Day hero Colin Cowgill back in 2013, is still at it with the Hanshin Tigers.

I had no idea this was a Thorn-y issue, but it makes sense that it would be.

I don't want to hear the name Realmuto, and if I play the way I know I can, you won't be hearing it that often either. I'm James McCann, and as disturbed as I am by the lack of traction Trevor May's T-OPF thread seems to have gotten, I'm next up. I'm the catcher no one particularly wanted, but no one particularly knew much about, because I've spent my career in the 10-man league. But Sandy knew, because Sandy knows all. Anyhow, I have a sub-.700 OPS but I picked the right time to be a free agent, because last year, I hit like gangbusters. I went over a hundred points higher than my previous best OPS. It was like the short-season version of Todd Hundley 1996. Only I didn't cheat. Why? What have you heard? Coming off a career year makes my coming season no small challenge to predict. Some might think you can't. I'm betting you McCANN. [YOUTUBE]KB8LNPGZJvg[/YOUTUBE]

It's hard for a fan to see it from this point of view, but management tends to hold more cards than the player at this point. But man, that Fernando Tatis deal really futzes up the calculus.

I confess that I have some concern with how comfortably neckware might play in 2021.