Edgy MD

I keep thinking the title of this sounds like the first line to a rap from around 1986. 　　Let's talk about a Nolan not named Ryan! 　　The Colorado Rockies be divestifyin'! 　　He fields like Brooks and hits like Matthews! 　　So the Cards went and got 'im even though they didn't have to! 　　Though he says he loves Jesus and rejects the Devil! 　　There are some who think he sucks at sea level! 　　We can start another thread about Charlie O'Brien 　　Or we can talk about a Nolan NOT NAMED RYAN!!

Not to make too much out of Website names, but doesn't "RobinHood.com" suggest getting over on the rich is part of the point?

He made some really sweet picks at first in his day. Creative plays, too. It was, like peak-Jerry. Put the guy in left, watch him fail, and then refuse to put him in the infield, with the logic that a guy who screwed up in left could never handle a grounder, overlooking that he had been an infielder his whole life up until that point. And even when first became open, he played everybody else there first, before finally setlling on Muff and watching look more comfortable there than anywhere else, as he led the team in homers with, like, a dozen. https://cdn1.lockerdome.com/uploads/d6102720e20d84d0eede554a14df0e38089c2a1d161de789eb41f94689726a48_large> [YOUTUBE]SGGxDGVOgfc[/YOUTUBE]

Ex-Coloradoans, to my thinking, have done alright when landing in St. Louis.

What a great interview. Terrific how he totally copped to being maddening and to being Muffy.

“And so there was something to that that just allowed us to go out and express ourselves with our baseball.”

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Matz was always chasing really one encouraging beer with a shot of rotgut whiskey. Top drafted local kid in 2009! ---> needs Tommy John and doesn't debut professionally for 3 years ---> Wait pays off with stunning 2015 debut! ---> Injured weeks later ---> Healthy to start 2016 season and #9 ranked prospect in the game! ---> Coughs up 7 ERs in 1.2 innings to the goddamned Marlins in '16 debut ---> Rookie of the Month in May 2016 (4-0, 1.31)! ---> 2-7 till August injury ends season leaving team without starting pitching depth and a disappointing Wild Card 1-and-done ---> Finally returns in June 2017 and dominates Braves in debut! ---> 2-7, 6.08 by August when another injury shut him down for the year ---> Answers the bell for 2018!--->Makes 30 starts!--->Wins only 5 of them ---> Ready to go again in 2019! ---> Team wins 7 of his first 10 starts! --->Loses 7 of his next 10 --> Shuts out Pittsburgh in a complete game, 99-pitch 5-hitter July 27! ---> Same club knocks him out of the box in the 4th inning of his next start --->Not traded when Stroman acquired! ---> stumbles to the finish line losing key September starts --->career high 32 starts! ---> 11-10, 4.21 2020 Mets are so pitching-rich they might not even need Matz!! --->But they do because everyone's hurt or has COVID ---> Masterful N/D debut shuts down Braves on day 2! ---> Next 4 starts all among the worst in his career --> Bullpen debut a success vs. Yankees!! --->Rocked in return to rotation---> 0-5, 9.68 on year! ---> Generates 3 prospects in trade! ---> Prospects implicated in plot to bomb Michelin plant!

That's 175. Killer. Hundley (112) and Huskey (60) 1996 give us 172. In the neighborhood but just one house short. Anybody else?

This begs the question (it really doesn't) of who the Mets' top similarly initialed RBI pair was. My first guess off the top of my head is M&M 1978, with Mazzilli (61) and Montanez (96) for a total of 157. Any others guesses? Brogna and Bonilla? Hundley and Huskey?

Relief can be that way. You do well, you get overused, you do poorly, your work thins out ... wash, rinse, repeat. Except in the small sample sizes of relievers' seasons, those effects get amplified.

MLB.com headline for slow news day: New Mets owner dismisses Portnoy's complaint

MLB.com headline for a slow day: Matz departure stirs memories of Blossom for long-time Mets fans

Departs town ranked 23rd on the team all-time in strikeouts (interestingly surrounded on the list by other lefties: Al Jackson, Tom Glavine, Jesse Orosco, and Ollie Perez). Thirty-sixth in innings pitched, between Bartolo Colón and Frank Viola.

I got that impression that Matz beat himself too. He was like young Ron Darling in that way. When things were bad, his face and his body language went straight downhill. The fifth starter on the depth chart is Joey Lucchesi. Seth Lugo, also, has not been formally returned to the bullpen.

If Ty Kelly wanted to stay at my house, I'd give him the bed and I'd take the floor.

Sheesh, how did I swing and miss on that?

Yeah, it's certainly not unexpected. I just thought it was worthy of note that there's virtually no chance that the hat will ever appear on a HoF plaque. Maury Wills was a 1969 Expo, and he spent 15 years on the BBWAA ballot, getting some solid (20–40%) support. As for the 1969 Padres, I guess the best candidates are Joe Niekro and Cito Gaston.

Also, Ryan Ludwick and Cody Ross kind of feel like they were Mets at some point, perhaps on the Trot Nixon Plan.

I could be wrong, but I think Yogi was the only Mets manager who saw actual combat.

Only five non-pitchers since 1900 have played 1,000 games batting right-handed and throwing left-handed: Rickey Henderson, Ryan Ludwick, Cody Ross, Cleon Jones, and Hal Chase. If you lower the standard to 500 games, the club still only grows to six, Mark Carreon being the additional member. While that's an interesting bunch of guys, if the group is going to be name after anybody, it's certainly got to be Rickey: The Henderson Horde or The Henderson Herd, though it's hard to call a group a herd when they are small enough to commute to work in a single car.

It strikes me that there's nobody in the HoF who played for Seattle Pilots. It strikes me that it's really hard to make a HoF argument for anybody who played for Seattle Pilots. Tommy Davis, Skip Lockwood ... Jim Bouton might have one of the strongest cases, and it's not that strong. I could cobble together a tortuous case for Lou Pinella. He was traded near the end of Spring Training, but at least he wore the hat.

#YomiuriGiants #MiamiAmigos

Talk about uncomfortable in his own skin. He couldn't even enjoy a Schaefer Award along with some time traveling back to old Shea.

One of those rare weirdos who throws lefty and bats righty. Not a guy who ever seemed particularly happy or comfortable in his skin. I hope he and Canada get along great.

It's not salary space to my perspective, so much as roster space. Louper was already knocking Gsellman off the roster, where he'd join the already-screwed Brad Brach hoping somebody gets hurt so he doesn't have to hit the waiver wire. Gselly had already dropped to sixth on the starting pitcher depth chart, and was looking at seventh if and when Syndergaard came back. You need the sixth and seventh guys, but the Mets didn't have room to store extra starters in the pen, and Matz didn't have options, so now he goes for guys who who can hopefully fill out that depth chart without crowding the roster. I hates to see trades, but I'm happy at least see them deploy a dispersal trade to help offset all the consolidation deals.